Been ….a while….

Sooooo its been an age, an eon, a while, a LONG DAMN TIME…since I have posted. I blame 4 boys, full-time job, house and anxiety….and video games…shhhhhhh (DAMN YOU SKYRIM!…AND FABLE II,III…AND WITCHER III….omg stop). But I’m getting back into it! SO lets see what has happened the last couple of years.

THE BOYS

Charlie is now entering 2nd grade. This is kid is awesome at school. He loves gaining teacher approval, is good at listening and learning, can use some help with writing but just rocks at the school stuff. He LOVES Minecraft, Roblox and Pokemon cards. I’m trying to get him into a sport but he tells me he is not an athlete. So we shall see. He is my key helper. Helps with his brothers. Helps with housework. He also likes to be a pain in #2’s (Ethan’s) butt and taunts him, but also they are besties. He is convinced he is smarter than me ( and not even a damn teenager) because he is in school and I am not. Brat. But yeah, love em. Very laid back. Very eager to please.

Ethan. oh Ethan. This kid is a charmer. He charms me, his gramma, his Uncle Jay, random strangers and waitresses. He just walks up to people sits next to them and starts talking to them. He starts kindergarten this year….it will be…interesting. He gives ZERO F*CK$ about what other people think, so is not going to be interested in making his teacher happy. If he is engaged and interested, he will do great. If not….he will do what ever the heck he wants. So … I’m worried. We shall see. Maybe the charm will help him out. He loves what his big brother loves. Minecraft, Roblox, Pokemon. He also loves to taunt and torture HIS little brothers. The Charm and the Adorbs go a long way, but working on getting his focus more in gear.

Miles …. my pretty wonderful sweetheart. This lil guys is shy, loves cuddles and loves his alone time. He is my lil introvert with a curly mop of hair. He smiles and just makes you calm. Miles loves books, loves Team Ummie Zoomie (Or however you spell it), and LOVES as in LOOOOVES cars. He sleeps with a lil matchbox limo my mom got him. He is crazy smart, knows his letters and how to shape them. Knows his colors, shapes, numbers. BUT has a bit of a speech delay. Some of his sentences come out “mama, blahbmamahdbablababa” and then some come out “mama, look car!” or “JackJack, my turn with the tablet” (YES WE TABLET! my house my rules) but I definitely think he is behind but with some more focused time, I think he will get some strong progression. He will be starting preschool with his brother this fall.

Jack, Miles’ fraternal twin, like Ethan…is a charmer. He has DIMPLES! DIMPLES!!!!! They are so honkin cute. He is a little bossy pants. ” Mama, Finish your food!”; “Daddy, No, we watch SuperWhy!” ; “Charlie, Get down from the counter!”. But he is also crazy into cuddles. This kid will cuddle up w. me on the couch anytime. And my goodness is this kid smart. He can figure out mechanics, letters out of straws, puzzles. Also has a bit of a speech delay but not as pronounced as Miles. He has a Sourpatch Kids relationship with his twin. On one side, he bites his brother, takes stuff from him and then on the other side if Miles cries, he is first to bring Miles his blankie. He always asks for two snacks or treats so he can bring one to Miles. If someone is being mean or even telling Miles ‘No” he gets all bossy pants and tells that person off.

They are adorable lil twinsies!

So we have my husband and me with the kids but we also have our au pair. We had Michel from Germany for 2 years and he just left so now we have Renato from Brazil.

Michel has become a huge part of our life, we are so sad to seem him go and I am making sure that he comes and visits later this year. He’s like a little brother to me now! And the boys adore him. He is back in Germany and starting school. We had many great adventures including him coming out of the closet while he was in America. It was great to witness his getting to know himself! Talked with him through that journey and different guys he dated, different heartbreaks. And we got to binge watch Lost and Game oF Thrones together…not to mention all the super geeky movies I made the poor guy watch.

Now we have Renato, also in the pic, to the left. Renato is from Brazil and the kids have taken to him wonderfully. I am looking forward to the family having great experiences with him as well as we get to know him and I get to regale him with all my 80 geeky movies all over again!

So that is what we have been up to. Last I posted we had just taken on Michel and we had recently moved to a larger house to accommodate the crowd. The boys share rooms in pairs, have a guest room, master, 2 offices and the au pair room. Au pair gets their own bathroom, mini fridge and the room is opposite the other rooms so some privacy as well.  The best part of the move is all the places to hike! Ill do a post on some of our hiking adventures soon. We are further into the country and I LOVE IT. Farms, farm fresh eggs and veggies, wildlife, trees…ohh trees!, wildflowers, exploring….oh so awesome.

More to come shortly…I PROMISE!

The Sleep Evolution of the 5 Year Old Boy

Since starting school and Tae Kwon Do Charlie has been sleeping randomly and everywhere….

First Day of School…..AKA What to do When Your Lil Guy is Shy

I will preface this with, I should have planned better and got there good and early. Instead we got there right when the kids were lined up and walking in. Ugh.

Anyway, So today was Charlie’s first day of Kindergarten! Last night we packed his backpack full of his supplies, picked out his outfit and got all excited about Kindergarten! This morning when he woke up, he was so ready! Wanted to get dressed immediately. Ethan wanted to go to, so dressed him up and got him his mini back pack and the 3 of us walked to school.

It took a bit longer than I thought, even though its like, right around the corner, but my boys are slow walkers! We got there right at 8:15 when the kids are going in.

Charlie WOULD NOT GO IN. He went a corner of the building saying “Mom, I don’t want to go in. Its scary in there”

I tried coaxing him, telling him how brave he is, what a big kid, how fun kindergarten is going to be….nope! Wouldnt work. Some of the facility that was lined up outside tried to help out and talk to him, but he would have nothing to do w them! The social worker came and helped and he liked her right off the bat, but still wouldn’t go in. We showed him his classroom from the outside. I brought his backpack inside and put it in his cubby. NOPE!

So the social worker suggested that we go for a walk outside to the park.

We went there, he played for a little bit while she chatted with him. Charlie warmed up to her and she convinced him to come to her office where she has a trampoline and toys and a cool bouncy chair for him to play on. This is where we parted. I gave him a kiss and hug good by and he went with the social worker to hang out.

She just called me and let me know she got him in the classroom! And he seemed to be loving it now!

Oh my shy guy! I am so sorry I didn’t think to get you there nice and early so you would have more time to warm up to it! I should have known better, I am the same way and I have seen him do this before. Ugh Mommy Fail!

I can’t wait to hear about his day when class is out though! I know he is going to love it.

SO, what I have learned for going to school with a shy introvert such as myself:

1) Get there early, like 30 minutes early, to allow for a warm up period

2) Maybe call the social worker ahead of time so that they have a heads up

3) Make sure lil dude gets to meet his teacher before hand and maybe try to hook up w. one of the other students in class so he can have a buddy.

4) Don’t make him feel bad for being shy, its totally ok and there is nothing wrong with it. I was very big on encouragement and letting him know his feelings were totally acceptable and that its important to communicate them.

Mom Always Get Use Her PTO Days For Others……AKA I miss ME days

Ok this is a bit of a rant post.

I swear…almost ALL my PTO days are used either when the nanny takes a sick day, the kids have dr appts, or something needs to be done.

I used to take one day off a quarter for a ” ME day”. I would sleep in, go shopping, go out for a nice lunch, maybe find a park and read a book. ALL BY MY GLORIOUS SELF. It was awesome. That rarely happens now. With 4 kids, you have one of them getting sick or the nanny getting sick, every other month…at least.  I have unlimited PTO cuz the company I work for is awesome but I still have a goals that need to be met. And for some reason there is a frakin’ 80/20 rule when it comes to mom or dad staying home from work.

This morning he didn’t even frakin’ PAUSE. He just left for work while I furiously tried to find a back up. Back up couldn’t come in, so here I am, home with the 4 kids when I should be at work. I LOVE my kids, but I also love my job. Also, my clients need me to test, troubleshoot, work on getting projects completed by the goal date.

Its not that he NEVER stays home. If there is enough advanced notice, like the nanny wants to take a couple of vacation days or we have to close on our house or something, then he is perfectly willing to take a day off and no problem staying home w. the kids if needs be. But these last minute days….its srsly 80/20. MAYBE 70/30…but you get what I mean.

Why does Mom’s job and career ALWAYS come second? And when the heck am I gonna get a ME day again? Ok gotta go. Kids are wrecking havoc in my absence and I think one of them has duct tape.

Twins Experimental Eating and Our Pups

So my lil twin monkeys have taken to dumping there food over the edge when they are done eating. Or when they aren’t done eating…which will cause a big ole fit fest. So after every meal there is a big ole mop up of noodles, sweet potatoes, corn dogs or whatever else they are eating.

Ma where did it go?

The SMART thing to do is give them just a little bit at a time. And if I wasn’t doing a million other things, like making sure the other two boys are eating, cleaning whatever I possibly can and trying to eat whatever awesome (srsly awesome, like garlic shrimp or steak or kabobs..nomnomnom) food the husband has made for us while juggling everything else… I would do the smart thing. But yeah…for now….its raining food, and the Lyla-pup is reaping the benefits….its shows….

This is our girl, Lyla. She is an Alaskan Klee Kai, which is like a mini Husky. She has several aliases. Lyla Puff, Snufflepuff, Lady Puff, Snufflepuffalous, Stay Puff.

Here are some great pics of her and her brother, Bleu, over the years. Bleu has remained svelte. But he lives at my brothers place . Does not have 4 kids feeding him tons of food 🙂

JEEP POWERWHEELS!……AKA Cruisin’ for Chicks

I got…I mean I got the kids….a Jeep Power Wheels this weekend at a garage sale for 40$! And they even hooked lights up to the battery and stuff. IM SO JEALOUS. I wanted one of these like the whole time I was growing up.  Maybe this will motivate me to lose 20 pounds….I wanna ride that sucker!

So Charlie had Driving 101 this weekend. It was HILARIOUS! Teaching him how to use reverse to turn around, cutting the wheel, all that fun stuff. Joke w. the neighbor about how tomorrow would be parallel parking day…

We went for a walk/drive? down the sidewalk and saw the 11 year old neighbor girl that Charlie plays with sometimes…and I KID YOU NOT….he stops his car, leans on the backrail w. his elbow and says” Hey whattya doing? Wanna go for a ride in my new jeep?”

He is already using the Jeep to cruise for chicks!

Date Night!….AKA One on One Time w. My Charlie

I went on a date…..with my 5 year old! It was awesome. He loved the one on one time with me and get this…when I asked him where he wanted to go..he yelled SUSHI! Love this kid! So we found a sushi place and got some good food! He wouldn’t touch the spicy ones…but thats ok THEY WERE ALL MINE! (Kinda fun not having to arm/chopstick wrestle The Husband over the good bits!)

It was hilarious watching him w. the chopsticks (the ones w. the training wheels) He got pretty good! Although sometimes he still used his hands

He had so much fun balancing!

It was a great time. He felt so grown up and even recommended food to our neighboring diners! Told them the asparagus tempura was delicious!  While we ate we reviewed dining manners and just had fun. He loved it! Next I will have to take Ethan on a date…..that may be a little more….crazy!

Going for a Walk….AKA OMG A HOT DOG TRAIN!

It was a beautiful day out so we took the horde for a walk on the Fox River Trail. The kids got to run around and expend a bit of energy, we got to know a bit more about our new area and we went to an awesome hot dog place! This is probably my favorite part of moving to a new town. There is so much to discover and check out! ADVENTURE! yay!

Love that they had this..so did the Lyla pup

Some construction on the trail..the boys were in deep study of this for like 20 minutes

A bridge! I dont know what it is about bridges but the kids think they are the COOLEST THINGS EVER  

Aw a lil library on the trail! Charlie wanted to take all the kids books. Had to explain to him how this system works. So next time we will be bringing a couple  books in and doing a trade!

Dundee Depot Dogs…Charlie LOVES that its an old train car!

Jack decided that He and Miles have a Whats Mine is Mine and Whats Yours is Mine type of relationship….and Miles seems to be ok with it….well this time..YOINK! I will now call him the French Fry Bandit

Mom Takes a Bath…..AKA Well At Least My Skin is Soft

My new house as a bathtub in the master bath, with jets and stuff. I have never been a bath person, but everyone raves about them so I was like “Self, lets give this a whirl.”  Went to Target, got some bath ball thingys, a face mask, foot masks, sea salt scrubs, a magazine and made myself a big ole jug of lemon water.

Now that I had all the ingredients assembled, time to get ready. Waiting for the kids to go to bed, told The Husband that for the next half hour I was not to be disturbed. Filled her up with hot water and a couple of bath balls. Found some baby oil and threw that in there for good measure, climbed in and put on the sheet mask and footie mask thingys.

Here is what I have learned from my

1. here is no good way to take a selfie w. a sheet mask on. You look like a frakin serial killer.

2. I need to get something put on the floor of my tub. All I did was slip and slide around in there…and maybe one of those bathtub pillows.

3. When I relax…I read…but I was too paranoid to read in there, was convinced I would drop my book, magazine or phone (yeah I tried all 3)

4. Even with a Do Not Disturb order in place….everyone will still need you for something from ‘Where are my keys’  to ‘Mom, Ethan said its not my turn with the LeapPad!’

5. Yeah I might not be a bath person.

But hey, my skin is crazy soft and Charlie kept telling me how good I smell afterword! Oh and I def loved the sea salt scrub, but then again I love back scratches too so…

Hillbilly Pool….AKA What to do when its 90 and You Dont Wanna Find the Baby Pool

We were at Gramma’s house and it was HOOOOOTTTT. All the kids were grumpy. We didn’t feel like hunting down the baby pool….but knew right where an under the bed storage bin was…. PROBLEM SOLVED!

The older boys had a head dunking contest

Jack thought it looked like a good idea

Ethan totally won

WINNING! Beat the heat, the boys had fun, and all w. a good ole plastic bin.

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