Monday

Today was a MONDAY!

It was the boys first day back to school after a long weekend so they were not thrilled with getting up. However, it is SPIRIT week at school and they got to wear a hat today... so they were all in.

Today we also had to turn in our "Family (ahem *Mommy* ahem)Project. We were given a cutout of a paperdoll and it was our job to decorate them according to what the child is going to be for Halloween. The kids at school are supposed to guess who is who. Callan is going to be a "Special Forces Secret Agent Guy"(complete with gas mask). Literally, his costume is head to toe black except for the orange gun and flashlight. He enjoyed making it with me.





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Tonight was the first night in a long time that Silas did not cry at dinner. It is miserable really. If it is not bologna and cheese, or chicken and french fries... he freaks. He won't even really eat pizza. I have gotten used to the drama and either ignore it and tell him that this is his dinner, there will be nothing else for the rest of the night, and let him choose not to eat. Or, in most cases force him to eat a few bites. Tonight he sat down, whined for a minute and then resigned to the fact that his method has not worked well for him and tried to eat. In fact, he came running to tell me (it does take him quite a bit longer) that he decided to eat ALL the meat. That is a big step forward. He did gag a bit on the green beans and mac-n-cheese but took his bites like a big boy. I made a big deal out of it and asked if I could take a picture of the muscles that were growing before my very eyes from eating all that good food.

Chatty in Pictures

Here is our trip in pics:

Things you need to know:
*My smaller lens is still broken on my camera so it was hard taking pics inside places (because when I got far enough away there was a crowd between me and my subject).
*Eliza chose to finely tune this new 2 year old attitude she is working on, much to the horror of her family. Cute is only so cute when a loud wail is coming from the mouth.

















* I know his Nommie will say that Callan did not make it in enough pictures. This was Callan's "ULTIMATE FUN ZONE" I did not catch him much, and when I did... it was of him taking off. I did have a few more but thought I would spare you the backs of the head or on to the next thing shots... and the sour face of Eliza, was so I'd remember the look of "Don't even take my picture in front of the fish".

A few lessons

We have had a great time so far. Eliza struggled last night going to bed because at home she is still in her crib, but we learned back in June that the Pack-n-play was a NO-GO. So we brought an air mattress for her. We let Baylor lay with her and it was more than either of them could take. They giggled until we could take it no more and then I ended up on the air mattress with Eliza. That girl rolls like a tumbleweed in her sleep. Once she ended up in the corner trying to get somewhere and got stuck and once she just got up and walked to the bathoom- IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. So we are changing things up for tonight so that Momma gets a bed.

To get to the aquarium we got to ride a shuttle. The kids thought that was the greatest thing ever. It was pretty fun. There are a lot of strange birds on the city shuttle. The kids loved the aquarium. There are 2 separate buildings. One river, one ocean. We enjoyed the river one more. It took us forever to go through and I think it was 4 stories of ramps winding down with different exhibits. Baylor really liked the Butterfly room. Butterflies were flying everywhere and would land on you. he just studied butterflies at school so he could tell us a lot about them.

We also got to go the the I-Max theater and watch a documentary on Dolphins and Whales in 3D. Callan sat there the entire time trying to touch the whales swimming toward him. Eliza, Silas, Mommy and Daddy... caught a few zzzz's.

We also discovered that there is an indoor pool. But we were so last minute in our plans, we did not even think about a pool and did not bring suits. Luckily we have been so busy... they have not noticed.

Tonight, we rode the Shuttle back downtown to eat at Sticky Fingers. (our neighbor Steph recommended it) It was HORRIBLE... just kidding, Steph. It was really good. I thought they brought Baylor an empty plate, he ate it so fast. The ride home was again adventurous with the local riders. Eliza draws a lot of attention and I got a lot of "She yo baby?" One woman was proud to tell us that she did not know it was so cold because she just got out of jail... still with her jail bracelet and her laundry bag of her belongings. FUN TIMES.

It really has been fun, Callan has been so excited that he is barely containable and that has been a struggle... but it has definately been worth the fun. I will share pics later ( they do not take well inside the aquarium).

Spontaneous

We wanted to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING... so Mrs. Gotta-plan-out-the-details, and Mr. Does-it-come-with-instruction-manual threw caution to the wind and decided to hop in the car and go to Chattanooga. We leave in just a few hours and are thrilled. The boys are going nuts!

We are going to hit up The TN Aquarium, The Children's Museum, The I-Max and if there is time we might just check out stuff like the Choo-choo and Lookout Mountain.

Wassup with that?

OH YES HE DID! OH YES, my Concrete got up all on his own this morning (his first day of Fall Break) at 6:30 AM and quietly went into the Keeping Room to watch a little TV. He has not gotten up on his own at 6:30 since he was 3. When I asked him why he got up so early when we battle it out every day... he giggled. TWISTED I TELL YOU, He is twisted and sent to this Earth to keep me on my toes (but then again, aren't they all).

Thank you all for the advice on getting Concrete up. When I read your suggestions, it occured to me I have tried more than I even thought. I sing "RISE AND SHINE" loudly on occasion and yes, I have even tried the gentle sweet route with turning on the radio and lights, scratching the back, and speaking sweetly. That only invited more trouble getting up because then he begged for an hour long back scratch, and laid in the floor wiggling that he just could not get dressed because he felt like bugs were all over his back. (Drama I tell you... all from the same child that when he was 2 and we put him in his own big boy bed tried to convince me that SNAKES ARE ALL OVER ME AND EATING ME just to get me to come back in after I had spent over an hour laying in there with him reading, singing, rubbing and inviting dreamland. It was way back then that I learned with him that the sweet and gentle approach with him only fed into his manipulation).

We are doing much better though. We did use an alarm clock, and it is a great idea. But the trouble with the alarm clock -or having numerous kids- is that everything is a logistical configuration. On some days I let Eliza sleep in. In fact, somtimes I can let her sleep all the way through the morning routine and come in to get her up after the kids are on the bus (at 8AM). That way she gets some extra zzz's and I can hurry the boys along a little easier. The alarm clock, however, wakes her up too. So we are still working on it, and probably continue to until my Nicky B (Nicolas Baylor) is off in the world on his own... where I will beg for one more morning of removing concrete.

Scarecrow Day

I must admit, he is way too cute to scare much of anything away.

Wordless Wednesday