Teeth!

Mr S is now 7 months old and much to my dismay has sprouted a tooth. G-man didn't get a single tooth until he was over a year. Kiwi got her first at about 9 months. Now I have a 7 month old with a tooth. Will the next one get teeth at 5 months? Its really throwing a wrench in the whole nursing thing and I'm totally not ready to be done! He's growing up way too fast!
I was hoping he wouldn't start crawling until after Christmas, but it looks like he may start sooner than thought. He's been getting on his hands and knees a lot lately. He's also fairly mobile for a baby who doesn't crawl. He can do a 360 on his bum and his reach gives him a few feet of reach. So I have to be careful about what I leave around him. His favorite thing to find and eat is paper. He throws a major fit if you take away paper he has found. He's already managed to eat a bit. Forget rice cereal, bring on the newsprint.
I'll probably have to give in soon and cut his hair. It sticks straight up and I think its going to start looking more ludicrous than cute. If he were a girl it would make a great piggy tail. Its so fun how different each of my kids has been. What an adventure having a baby is, even the third time around.

Ballerini Kiwi

Kiwi is our resident Ballerini . We did a professional ballet company last year and it was fun, but quite expensive. This year we simply did parks and rec and she had the best time. Her teacher was a riot. He was loud, obnoxious, and had all those little girls giggling from start to finish. Kiwi's favorite antic of Mr Roger we when he would pretend to "toot" when he leaned over for his side stretches. She had her class on Mondays and by Friday she was starting ask when it was time to go back. I'm so glad Mr Rogertook the time and expended the energy to help these girls have a great time.

Poor G

G-man love school more than any kid I know. He goes to all day Kindergarten and would probably stay longer if they would let him. It doesn't matter that most every thing is a review for him (he has learned some history and sign language). I would have thought he would be bored by now. I have to document this so I can show him when he gets older and doesn't want to go anymore.
When told he will be missing school next Wednesday so we can get an early start on Thanksgiving, he was crushed. He bravely held back the tears and asked if we could wait to leave until after centers. He has art that day. That is his least favorite center. When I said we could not wait, he burst into tears and said "but I love school. I don't ever want to miss school!" I asked if there was anything we could do at Grandma's that would make up for it. He assured me through his tears that he likes school more than anything.
I could probably convince him with the promise of a brownie sundae or something. That just seems wrong. I'm not about to resort to bribery to convince my kid NOT to go to school.

Wii Night

Since getting a Wii, we have made Fridays into Wii Night. I must admit, I look forward to it, as I get a chance to hang out with G-man and Kiwi. Mr S really hasn't figured out how to work the controls, but he sure does squish the buttons well. We just have to get him to stop drooling all over them, and he will be good to go.

We still just have the one game that came with the system, the Wii Sports. Kiwi likes to do the boxing, since the others are a little too hard for her, and she doesn't have the patience to learn to play better just yet. G-man loves the tennis, even though he gets really frustrated with trying to return the ball.

The best part is that everyone in our family has a character; we just need to add Gold the goldfish to complete the family set. Everyone loves to be Mr S, since he is so very cute. Nothing better than to play Mr S and beat up Kiwi. Great family fun.

Sick Day

I haven't had time lately to post, with school and all. But today, I was able to justify taking sick time from work, what with Luann, Kiwi and Mr S all sick with a cough. It was nice to be able to just play with the kids and do things around the house. Yes, I still did a few things for work, and worked on my group project, but mostly helped out around the house.

I got my exercise in today by walking with Kiwi and Mr. S to pick G-man up from school, letting Luann get a much-needed nap in. It is about 1.5 miles round trip, so a good amount of walking. The best part is that my arms got a great work-out, as I was the only one walking. Luann has done this a few times, with Kiwi, Mr. S and G-man all in the stroller, and this time I got to push them all. Luann and I did the calculations, and it seems I was pushing nearly 100 pound of dead weight, once you add in the snacks and water. The stroller just really wasn't designed for that kind of task, and I don't know how many more it can survive.

Mommy's Cool

For almost three years I've been going to the gym. I joined with my friend Jana and fell in love with the Les Mills fitness programs they offered. One of my favorite classes is body combat. It combines various martial arts moves into a choreographed workout set to music. I've gotten pretty good at the moves over the last three years. When Gregory decided he wanted to be a ninja at Halloween, I had a lot of fun showing him some kicks. He thought it was pretty cool that his mommy could do that. I'm awesome.

Mr S Joins the Fun

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins. Probably the best part was sitting Mr S up on the table and letting him play in the pumpkin "guts." While the kids cut, he felt and tasted. Every time he had a taste he would cringe but then a minute later would put the stuff in his mouth again. There are some drawbacks to being the third. However, he gets to experience a lot more than Gregory did as a baby, both good and bad.

To Cathy

Chad has a really awesome Aunt named Cathy. Cathy likes to give gifts. We have gotten some cool gifts from Cathy: Light up pepper grinder, corn on the cob handles, flip flop socks (they covered the feet but not the toes), a giant gingerbread coloring house, an alligator pasta server....The list goes on and on. Some stuff was more useful than others, but it was always fun to get stuff from Cathy. A few years ago she had to stop her gift giving ways due to health problems. But, I wanted her to know that her legacy lives on.
Meet Cathy. This is Kiwi's comfort item. It was given to Kiwi by Aunt Cathy for her 1st birthday (I think). At the time the doll was bigger than she was. We decided to name her after GAC (Great Aunt Cathy) to show our appreciation for the gift. I think Kiwi loves this doll more than mommy sometimes. Cathy has been hugged many times and absorbed many tears. She is a great stand in at those times when Kiwi or mommy are just too dang mad to comfort each other.
Aunt Cathy, you are often on my mind thanks to this doll. I hope you and Mike are doing well.