A family of 5, Super Mom, USMC Dad, & three boys ages 5, 7, & 9. This is glimpse into the daily life of raising 3 American boys while living in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Growing Up..

A week or so ago I received the parts to convert the crib to a full size bed. After a few days of the ginormous box being used as a balance beam, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and make the switch.  After Arcadian's nap on Saturday I took apart the crib and put it in Justice's room as a full size bed. He no longer sleeps on mattresses on the floor. The boys have been mistaking it for a trampoline but at least they like it.

Arcadian is now in a 'big boy' bed. The tried and true race car bed is taking its last laps in the Pelton household. Although it is sad to know my babies are no longer babies, I am thrilled by the idea of moving onwards. I look forward to my boys growing up. Yes, babies and toddler's are cute and cuddly but they are so much work. For the last 6 years I have been changing diapers and listening to crying, and whining because of a child that is disabled by the physical and cognitive limitations imposed on them due to nothing else but their age. I am tired of a child that throws themselves on the floor because you accidentally gave them chocolate milk in the morning instead of orange juice and they don't understand that it was a simple accident. I'm tired of kids that do not understand basic action and consequences. I'm tired of chasing after children that do not understand why I am chasing after them. I'm tired of being kicked every time I change a diaper. I'm tired of changing diapers. I'm tired of cleaning up food off the table, chairs, floors, face, clothes, hair, hands, and ears after EVERY meal. I'm tired of baby gates and child proofing. I'm tired of having to restrict activities of the two older boys because the youngest is to little to play. I'm just tired. With that said, there are things that I will miss about babies, such as their completely innocent smiles, their giggly laughs, and the excitement they experience as they learn new things. All those things will continue as they grow but it evolves into something a bit different.

When Brosnan was about 13 months old, I found out I was pregnant with Arcadian...and I cried. I was happy with having my two boys and I was then excited to move on in life. I had just started my Master's program and I was living back in Washington and looking forward to spending time with friends, family & enjoying life. Well I was able to do all of that but not how I had hoped it would be. My life with my three boys is hectic and taking them anywhere was never relaxing. Going over to a friends house always meant that I would be constantly running behind them making sure they were not getting into everything. Sitting down and just visiting was next to impossible. It was exhausting to leave the house. Don't get me wrong. I love all my boys and enjoy them immensely. I'm just looking forward to life getting easier. Arcadian is living up to the 'terrible two' stereotype. Justice has his moments, but he can be reasoned with and understands. Poor Brosnan is stuck in the middle. Justice understands why we can't do certain things at certain times, Brosnan kind of gets it but doesn't agree with it. The older two like to color. Arcadian likes to color as an appetizer and finishes off with eating the crayons and chewing the tips of markers. The older two are often not finished coloring by the time Arcadian is but when Arcadian is done it has to stop. If not he is climbing on the table, throwing markers/crayons, eating them or grabbing one and running around the house. Anyways, my point is, things like having a crib free house means more to me then just not having a crib in the house. It is the beginning of what I am hoping is a more enjoyable time in our lives. Both the kids and myself are slowly gaining a bit of Independence that has restricted us because of the demands of small children. I think by this time next year there will be so much stress relieved from nothing other than the developmental progression of age.


I was going to go to bed early tonight and it is 12:30am....so much for that.

Good Night-
JP

Sunday, September 19, 2010

1 Month Down, 3 to go

Today marks four weeks of Justice being gone, which means we only have 3 more months left!  The first month has gone by pretty quick so hopefully the rest will to. If all goes as planned then we will be seeing Justice for a few days in October then my mother is coming for a visit the beginning of November so at least we have things to look forward to.

Brosnan has been in a better mood the last couple of days so that has been nice. He's had his moments, well they've all had their moments but they are kids so I guess that's normal.


First Toothless Smile :-)

Justice Loses a Tooth
As you can see, Justice lost his first tooth yesterday. It had been wiggling for a week or two. I did not know that he had been wiggling it at all. I figured he was going to be one of those kids where the tooth is hanging on by a thread and still refuses to give it that final yank. I was SO wrong. Him and Brosnan were watching a movie in Justice's bedroom and Justice comes out with a bloody mouth and a tooth in his hand! I was shocked and surprised!  The tooth fairy came last night and gave him some money and a note that told him to tell his mom to take him to the store so he can buy something cool. We went to the store today and he picked out some lego's.

House Cleaning
Oh, Yesterday I finally got tired of the HUGE mess that the boys bedrooms were constantly in and I decided it was time to do some cleaning and emptying. I had been noticing that the boys would actually play with their toys the most after the rooms were cleaned and organized. Then by the end of the day when they had messed it all up, they really wouldn't go back in until it was clean again. 



This is Justice's room as I was cleaning. Please be aware that I had already taken out a bunch of stuff and picked a lot of stuff up before deciding I should take pictures.



This is his room after I was done. He got to choose 2 things to keep and the rest got sent to the garage. He choose his guys and monster trucks. The books and computer of course stayed. He had absolutely no problems with what I did and actually did a good job helping me.

Brosnan's Room Before

Brosnan's room After














Yes, I even did Arcadian's room!
Arcadian's room after
A little over 24 hours later and the rooms are still pretty clean. I have picked them up a little but it only takes me a few minutes compared to what it used to. They have all spent more time in their rooms playing and I am hoping that continues.  They have been told that if they ever want to play with anything else all they have to do is make a trade. Give me something they have now and I'll give them what they want.

Speaking of Houses

For all those curious how our house selling is going...our  WA house has been on the market for almost three months. Showings have been nearly non-existent so we have dropped the price to a ridiculous amount in hopes to at least get people looking at it so we can get a short-sale approved and be done with it (anyone want to buy a house??). Who wants to bother with the short-sale process for a house that is 30 years old when they can buy a brand new one for the same price?!? The houses provide me with daily headaches and debt. I never would have thought that buying a house for our family to live in would have ended up as a financial nightmare. A house that appraised for a decent amount over what we paid for it has dropped in value nearly $70,000 in 3 years. Something is incredibly wrong with that picture. The same thing with the VA house. It is literally worth less then half of what we paid for it. Of course we paid the highest price, about a month later is when the housing bubble burst and it was a down hill slide from there. Renting a house out for a couple hundred dollars less then your monthly mortgage is not ideal.  What ever happens I am ready to just deal with it and move on. No more house buying for us for awhile. I am enjoying renting for now.

Tomorrow.... Tomorrow is a busy day. We are supposed to go to a "meet & greet" for the Mom's Club in the morning, then in the evening the Officer's wives are having a get together. They are picking me up here at the house (and bringing a babysitter) so I have to make sure the house is clean. Fun! Actually I am looking forward to some adult conversation without kids!

JP

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Stressful at times

Most days are good, but some wear me down real fast. The last couple of days Brosnan has been testing my patience and threatening my sanity. I can't quite figure out what the problem is. The kid has attitude, whines, and lies.

Me: "Did you clean up the mess?" 
Brosnan (with a HUGE grin, wide eyes, and excessive head nodding):  "Yes! I did"
Me: Are you sure?
Brosnan: Yes, it's clean. Just don't go look at it though.

Another example:
Brosnan is lying on the living room floor on one of the couch cushions he pulled off. I asked him to get up and put everything back, he tells me he can't because his head is so heavy and he is so tired.

The things he says is extremely funny, yet he is SO persistent. Eventually he will be crying and waiting for me to breakdown. When he realizes that I am ignoring him he will either wander around the house looking for more attention or go start making messes.

I've spent a lot of energy ignoring his behavior. I almost feel bad when 10 minutes has gone by and he is still lying on the floor insisting that I pick him up..."You just do it. I can't do it Mom, I'm just so tired"  I'm hoping that my persistence will pay off and he will realize that his crazy behavior will not get the response that he wants.

The hardest part is that he does it for EVERYTHING. In most cases I can hold my ground, but there are other times when it is so much easier to give in and do it for him, such as getting dressed or putting shoes on when it is time to leave. I have realized that he is fully capable of getting dressed AND putting his shoes on by himself, although 9 times out of 10 everything is on backwards, when I mention this to him he states, "I know, that's how I like it"  It takes me a minute to get him dressed, waiting for him can take hours. With that said, he gets excited every time he does it for himself and on the rare occasions when he did not stall or put up a fight, I get a little break by only having Arcadian to get ready.  

I am hoping that with my perseverance and patience Brosnan will get the idea and start to do things on his own without crying about it.

The other two boys are doing good. Justice is enjoying kindergarten and Arcadian is acting like a 2 year old.  We are all missing daddy but so far we are managing well with him gone. It's almost been a month which means only 3 more to go!!!

JP

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Day 1 down...a lot more to go.

    Our short time with daddy being home has come to an end. We took Justice to the airport this morning so he can once again venture off in the military world. After a day of flying he has arrived safely on the east coast in Rhode Island. We miss him already but after the 8 months he was just gone for, 4 months should go quickly.
     The boys and I faired well for our first day alone in Yuma, AZ. After we got back from the airport Justice and Brosnan played for about an hour in Justice's room. Arcadian was wandering around doing Arcadian things so I was able to get the kitchen cleaned. Once the good, quiet boys became antsy boys, they decided to play some video games. Actually, Brosnan and Justice spent quite a bit of good time playing together. They drew some pictures which I found a bit hilarious. Justice was drawing pictures of people and some scribble things that he said were bad guys that got killed and their guts. Hmmm, maybe there is some truth to the whole video games are bad for kids!?!  I mentioned that maybe he should try drawing some nice pictures. He came back to me with a rainbow and apologized for the guts he was drawing earlier. Such a cutie. Brosnan's pictures continued to be good guys and bad guys.
    After drawing they played with play dough. That came to an end after about 20 minutes when Justice was no longer interested and Brosnan started to eat it. Strange child.
    When Arcadian woke up from his nap I loaded the boys up for our first adventure out in the world, a nice trip to Target. My friend Mr. Coffee stopped working when we moved here and I know I will not be able to make it through four months of single parenting without a little pick me up. So I purchased a new Mr. Coffee espresso machine and am waiting for tomorrow morning to arrive so I can have a nice iced white mocha. mmmm.
    Oh, besides daddy leaving, we had a bit of a sad day.  Yesterday Justice caught a lizard. I was mowing the lawn and noticed something running in the grass it was a little lizard and Justice caught him. He was SO excited. He wanted to call grandma and let her know. We called and left a message. He called Grammie...and left a message...  He called his sister Anna...and left a message. Apparently people are busy on Saturday afternoons!  He did finally get to talk to both grandma's and tell him about his lizard that he caught. Unfortunately, the lizard was a little stiff this afternoon when we checked on him. Justice was a little bummed. He's afraid he won't be able to catch another one. I think one of the main reasons why he caught the one he did, and the reason why it is no longer with us, is because it got stunned by the lawnmower. BUT, we will try and catch another. We see them often but they are super fast so it might be a difficult task.
    Our day ended with baths and stories. Justice's reading is amazing. He read a pretty long book to Brosnan and I. Then Brosnan tried to read one. The conversation when like this...
   Brosnan: Mommy, what's this word?
   Mommy:  I
   Brosnan: I.  Mommy, what's this word?
   Mommy: want
   Brosnan: want. What's this word?
   Mommy: to
I'm sure you can get the picture on how the rest of the story went, but at least he was pointing at the words and trying! It is now almost 9:30 and all the kids are in their bed, I'd like to say sleeping but that is questionable since I keep hearing noises coming from Brosnan's bedroom.  There is nothing exciting on the agenda tomorrow besides Kindergarten and coffee drinking!

Enough for now. I want to enjoy the quietness before going to bed myself.

JP

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Settling in Yuma, AZ

Just a quick update to let everyone know that a few weeks ago we made it to Yuma, AZ. Found a nice house to rent, with a pool. And now we are enjoying the last two weeks before Justice has to leave again for 4 months. The last two weeks have been spent unpacking, organizing, shopping, and of course swimming in the pool.

Justice X started kindergarten on Monday. So far he "loves" it. Hopefully he will continue to have a love for school :-)

Our Internet just got hooked up yesterday so I am a little behind and out of the loop. It is my hopes that in the next few weeks I can once again begin updating on a more regular basis.

I also plan on giving more details regarding what has happen over the last 4 weeks of traveling and hotel life with 3 kids!

If I get real ambitious, I might even find some pictures to update with!!

Later-
JP

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It's Almost Over!!!

I am not going to make any excuses for not updating recently. Those that know me know that I've been pretty busy.

I'd like to say that things are calming down but that is a complete understatement. Thankfully last Friday was the last day of the quarter, according to my scores I think I will be receiving B's in both classes. It was definitely not my best quarter but I am okay with that. I am now out of school until October.

So, what is going on in the Pelton household?!?  A few weeks ago we received orders to Yuma, Arizona. Best part, we have to be there by July 31st, which gave us about 6 weeks notice. We are in the process of selling both our VA and WA house.  Our WA house officially goes on the market on Thursday so I have been frantically cleaning and making it presentable to perspective buyers. In two days we will board a jet plane to Philadelphia, PA. Thankfully my mother is going to be accompanying the boys and I on our trip cross country. We will be visiting my brother, his wife, and my niece and nephew. Justice will be driving up from VA on Friday to spend the weekend with us. YAY!  Then, on Monday or Tuesday the kids and I will be driving down to Quantico, VA for Justice's graduation festivities. The 30th is family day and the 1st is graduation. Justice's mother and stepfather, and sister will be joining us in Virginia to enjoy the fun!   THEN, on the 3rd of July we get to come home, AS A FAMILY. The five of us will once again be together. It has been over 8 months since he left. We have seen him 3 times, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and memorial day. We are all anxious for his return. 

After we get back we will start preparing for our departure. I think the movers are coming to pack us up on July 13-15 and shortly thereafter we will climb into our car and officially start our next journey. The joys of the military.  BUT, I'll focus on all of that later. Right now my focus is on getting ready for this trip. SO much to do so little time. 

Until next time-
JP

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Thursdays...

Thursdays are not fun days. Thursdays are usually the days that my weekly homework is due so I am usually pretty stressed since I procrastinate. Well, today was not much of an exception. I did however finish one of my classes homework yesterday so I only had one class to finish. Anyways, stressed about homework, and continuing to deal with our townhouse in Virginia. Trying to purchase a dishwasher, get it delivered, and installed when I am living 3,000 miles away from the store is not as easy as I thought it was going to be...long story, lots of coordinating, not to mention they want me to sign something can't email it and I don't have a fax....blah, blah, blah.... THANK GOODNESS we are finally getting everything together so that we can sell the stupid place, which of course is another reason for my stress today. Bottom line I spent most of the morning/afternoon dealing with stuff with the house, the afternoon went just as crappy. Thursday is Karate's at 4:45. I needed to sign Justice up for next month's session so we left at 3:30 so I would have plenty of time. The boys (mostly Brosnan) was horrible in the lobby, then, they didn't have the updated list for the authorization for the colored belt class. After realizing that he was already in the class they decided that they would let him sign up for it again next month. THEN of course they inform me that I need to re-register with the Child & Youth Services before I can sign Justice up for Karate. We still had about 40 minutes before his Karate started so I said sure, I had time. The lady then gathers a stack of paperwork for me to fill out. Stupid & Ridiculous! The EXACT same papers that they already have from last year. I thought I would just have to tell them, yes all of the info is the same and they'd reregister.... There was NO way I was going to stay there with the kids and fill out the pages of paperwork (oh, did I mention I did not bring in Arcadian's stroller because I assumed I'd only be in there for 5 minutes???). So I got nothing accomplished, have to go back next week.

The fun continued after we got to Karate. I made the mistake of letting Arcadian walk (instead of being in the stroller) so he was pushing it successfully into anything and everything in his path. He literally shrieked and screamed when I tried to guide him in a certain direction. I've never heard those sounds come out of him before. THEN, Brosnan, Arcadian and I were sitting at a table playing with some Lego's when Brosnan decided he wanted to go to another area. I said that was fine but he had to put the lego's back. He got upset and threw them on the floor in the middle of the hall. We had a bit of a power struggle, I told him we were not going unless he put them away, he said no, so I made him stand against the wall until he was ready to pick it up. He continued to say no... He finally picked them up, I got excited thinking I won.... wrong... He picked them up then threw them back on the ground spreading the mess out even further. Arcadian started crying, Brosnan was yelling at me telling me he wasn't putting them back. I finally picked them up and headed towards the door. Brosnan reluctantly followed but was screaming telling me we can't leave without Justice... We got outside, he continued to be upset because he wanted to go play in the other room... About 15 minutes later I finally got him calmed down and we went back inside. Life was okay...  After karate was over and got everyone locked in the carseats I realized Brosnan didn't have his robot... unbuckle everyone go back inside....THANK GOODNESS it was found quickly...back to the car, buckle everyone back in and we headed home.  After that things were okay. The older boys watched "Spy Kids 2" while Arcadian and I watched an episode of Blues Clues before bed time.

After about 30 minutes of Justice & Brosnan in and out of bed they finally fell asleep and I was able to finish my homework.  Fridays are days that I usually leave free to do anything or nothing at all. No homework is due, no where to go... generally a laid back day. Tomorrow that is what I plan on doing, nothing but spending time with the boys. At least until they go to sleep, then I have to work on one of my two papers that are due on Sunday.

Did I mention Justice got in trouble at karate today. Him and two of his friends had to stay after class and do pushups for messing around during class. Is this what my life is going to be like for the next 16 years?

JP

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

One of those days....

Wow- Today has been a long day. I feel like I've spent way to much time being angry at the kids...especially Brosnan. He has just been in everything today. Every room, every drawer, every thing he is not supposed to be doing he has done today. Not sure what his problem is, he is usually pretty good.

Today there was a point when I thought the boys were being good. They were in Brosnan's bedroom playing with the big lego's. I checked on them and they were being so good and nice with each other. They wanted me to close the door (not uncommon because of their younger brother), so I closed the door and went back to work at the kitchen table. I heard them making more noise then they should be, sounded like maybe they were throwing blocks and dumping toys out. I said to myself, I'll just let this slide... they are not fighting and I am actually getting a little work done. Big Mistake.... I checked on them a little while later and in the corner of the bedroom is EVERYTHING....  Toys dumped out, everything off the shelves, books...everything. They were even starting to take stuff from other rooms to add to their pile... So, I told them to clean it, Brosnan ran off to another room and Justice whined that he didn't know where everything went. He did try though, but did not get to far before he gave up. It was crazy, and yes, in the end I was the one that cleaned it up.

Then, poor Arcadian. He skinned his toe up and keeps re-skinning it. He sneaks outside every chance he can get and I can't seem to keep his shoes/sandles on him. He came back inside the house after playing in our brief sun break, and his poor big toe was bleeding. I went to the bathroom to get a band-aid and he started running away from me. The older boys think bandaids are the best thing possible and want one for any type of pain, Arcadian thinks they are evil. He ran away crying when he saw what I had. He did manage to let me put his sandles back on though. So he went outside and played for a while then came back in whining...not uncommon... I picked him up and saw that his little toe was hanging out the side of his sandle, which was why he was whinning and wanting me to pick him up. Thank goodness I noticed it because it looked like the circulation was getting cut off :-(  Him and his toe are thankfully okay.

Justice...he was pretty good today. During the room debacle he dressed up in the Dr's play outfit and came out to examine me. It was pretty cute.

Today has just been one of those weird, off days. I think part of it has to do with knowing that we are so close to Justice coming home. 9 more days... I am sure these 9 days are going to take forever, and the 3 days he's home are going to go buy too quick.

JP

Monday, May 17, 2010

            Whoops, it's been a while since I've updated. The weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days. It has rained a little bit here and there but it has been relatively warm and the boys have spent the majority of the time playing outside.  Arcadian can open doors now... I'm glad that his motor skills are developing but that means I need to figure out what to do with some of the doors. I can't really child lock the bathroom because the older two need it so they can use the toilet. Although, they pee outside most of the time right now, hmmm. We are actually having some small issues regarding peeing outside. I do not really mind that they do it but Brosnan (and Justice) will pee right on the patio, literally right outside the door. Yuck!  Brosnan also does not quite understand discretion and when it is and is not okay to pee outside. We were at my friends house last week and he pulled down his pants and started peeing in her back yard right where everyone was playing, something to work on I guess. Since I am female, I do not think I will ever fully understand their desire to pee outside.

        My dad came over yesterday to fix my lawnmower. He was nice enough to stay and help me get my yard in shape. We mowed and weed whacked and now the yard is all nice and clean. I suppose I need to do it more often now to keep it looking nice. It was kind of funny because when Dad was out in the backyard mowing, there was a knock on my door and some guys wondering when I was going to cut my lawn. Not sure if they were neighbors that were disgusted by the unkept yard or if they were looking to make a few bucks. Thanks again Dad for coming over and helping! Yardwork is not one of my favorite things to do.

         In 11 days Justice gets to come home for a visit! We are pretty excited about that. It's been 5 months since we have seen him. To bad it will only be for a couple of days. Hopefully by the end of the month we will have a better idea about when we will all be together again! Right now we are waiting patiently.

       I just started my 6th week of the quarter. That means that I am halfway done with this quarter and almost done with my coursework! Today I spent a good portion of the day doing some homework, trying to get it done early since I have 2 papers due this weekend that I would like to start before Sunday night! I worked hard and finished my weekly work for one class today (3 days early)! Tomorrow (after speech therapy, karate, and the park) I plan on finishing the other class so the rest of the week I can focus on the papers.

       Enough for now, it is late, and I am tired. I was up until 3am this morning finishing up my paper. I actually finished it around 1:30 but I think I OD'd a little on caffeine trying to stay awake that I couldn't sleep even after I was done.  Alright... time to go check my bed and see if I have any visitors. A 3 year old has a tendency to sneak in there on occasion.

JP


       

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The Sun is HERE!!

Nice weather has finally arrived...for a few days at least! After soccer this morning the boys went directly outside and stayed there most of the day. We were inside briefly after lunch. Justice and I took a nap on the couch while Brosnan played on the computer and Arcadian slept. Trying to get the kids ready and out of the house by 9am is to early and  I dread it every Saturday morning. It makes me tired for the rest of the day.


I mowed part of the lawn today. Something is up with the lawnmower and it was making strange noises so I decided to stop mowing until I figure out what is wrong with it. I got the boys Big Wheels out for the first time in a LONG time. We have 3. A small 4 wheeler (ages 1.5 -3), a two seater Jeep, and a bigger 4 wheeler. Brosnan likes them, but he would rather play in the dirt. He was digging for worms today. Justice loves the big 4 wheeler. Arcadian was interested in the smaller 4 wheeler at first but once he discovered how to make the Jeep work he spent quite a bit of time in it. It was pretty cute because he would open up the door, get inside, close the door, then start going. He'd stop, open the door get out, close the door. Brosnan got in it one time and he didn't close his door so Arcadian bent over Brosnan to close the door for him.  It is so nice to watch the boys all playing outside. They all have their own interests but every once in a while for brief periods of time they converge and begin interacting with each other. Yesterday they were playing...and this is a quote from Justice..."Brosnan and I run and Arcadian chases and tries to touch us"  That was the name of the game.  I watched them play this and they were all enjoying it. Arcadian never was able to catch up with them but he had a smile on his face the whole time so we will just leave the unfairness as it is for now.


Tonight against my desires I had to give the boys a bath. All three of them were literally covered from head to toe in dirt. The bathtub was filled with dirt after Arcadian's bath so I got smart and rinsed the other two off before I actually filled the tub up with water.


Tomorrow is mother's day. The boys and I will be going up to visit with my mother. I got a delivery from my hubby today. It is a miniature/bonsai tree/bush/flower thing of some sort. I'd be more specific but I can't remember exactly what it is. I'll take a picture and post it someday. Right now there are no flowers on it but hopefully it won't take to long for it to bloom.  Thanks Justice (and my boys), you are a very thoughtful husband.


Off to finish some homework, or give up and go to sleep.... I've been pretty tired today for some reason.


JP

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Another day...

Today was speech therapy for Brosnan and my weekly trip to Fred Meyer for the staples (fruits, veggies, dairy etc). Nothing to exciting.  Brosnan is doing good at therapy. Today was better than last week. He is more into it some weeks than others. After I got back the boys and I ate lunch. When Arcadian went down for a nap Justice and Brosnan wanted to play with marbles so they went into Justice's bedroom. The first 15 minutes they were fighting, Justice wanted all the marbles and he was not wanting to share with Brosnan. Once they figured out how to share they were good. I tried to get some work done while they were quiet, about 30 minutes later Justice comes out very excited and tells me that he has something very cool to show me. I went and looked and he had marbles stacked onto the lego's. It was pretty crazy! I had to take pictures of course.

This afternoon was Justice's first day of Karate in his new, colored belts only class. I think he was a little intimidated at first. The building was packed. They just opened a new building for the Child and Youth Services (CYS) on Ft. Lewis and now the Karate, Dance, and gymnastics are all held in the same building and classes are going on at the same time (in different rooms). We used to go on Mon & Wed and it wasn't nearly as crowded. So tons of people there and Justice was not really interested in standing in line waiting with the other kids. Once class started and he headed off to the Karate area he was fine. He didn't really say anything about the class afterwards. He said he had fun and got to do some new moves.

After we got home from Karate I spent a good deal of time trying to coordinate our girls night out tomorrow. There are 5 of us going and we are spread out between Tacoma, Orting and Enumclaw so we wanted to make sure it was easy for everyone. In light of Cinco De Mayo tomorrow we will be going out for Mexican food. I am looking forward to hanging out with pretty much all of my best friends from school. 

Enjoy the pictures :-)
JP


Justice was playing with his Daddy's marbles today and made this wonderful Lego/Marble thing.
 
                                      




Here are a few shots of Arcadian's skinned up nose. Poor kid.... He had just gotten out of the bath so it looks a little shinier then normal.
 
And a few misc shots of the boys watching Spy Kids after Karate. Brosnan was posing for the camera.

Monday, May 3, 2010

It was a windy Monday!

I can not believe how windy it was outside today. It was crazy! Today we spent most of the day indoors. The boys ventured out into the wind on occasion but they did not last very long. They were pretty good today. I actually got some work accomplished. The power went out for about 30 minutes. The boys were not to happy about that.  Arcadian was in bed and the older two were watching a movie. The power went out I heard yells coming from the family room saying the TV turned off all by itself. I tried to explain to them what it means when the power is out. The told me that it was okay, they'd just watch tv in another room, or play video games. They were not to pleased when I repeatedly told them, "nope, that doesn't work either." I finally convinced them that their two choices were to either go play in their rooms or play the Nintendo DS's. I figured everyone was calm enough for me to go take a shower and as soon as I got into the bathroom the power came back on.  The boys were very happy!

After Arcadian woke up from his nap I loaded the boys up and headed over to G-Pa's (my dad) house for dinner. Dinner was delicious, Thanks Dad! Nummy steak, salad, asparagus, and tater tots! The boys were crazy, they get outside of the confines of our house and go nuts. Arcadian and Brosnan escaped out the back door when I went to the bathroom. When I got out G-Pa was carrying poor little Arcadian with a bloody skinned up nose. Poor guy looks horrible. Didn't seem to phase him much. Justice finds it a little repulsive though and refuses to look at him. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow. It was good times though, I am still looking forward to a year or two from now when my kids don't go crazy so much. Right now they just feed into each other's craziness. Oh well....It can only get better.

Enough for now, I was up late working on homework and work and now I'm beat. Tomorrow is speech therapy and Justice's first Karate session in his new colored belts only class.

JP

Friday, April 30, 2010

Clean house

Today I spent almost all day cleaning the house. It's amazing how much more relaxing it is this evening knowing that cleaning is not something that I have to do! The boys were pretty cooperative today. They spent their time either outside, chasing each other, playing video games, watching tv, or "helping" me clean. Not a whole lot going on this weekend. Soccer tomorrow, some homework, and some work. Not sure what the weather is supposed to be like but hopefully it will be nice enough to mow the lawn because its getting pretty long. Have I ever mentioned I don't like mowing the lawn? It makes my nose run :-(  But I do like how the yard looks after it is all freshly cut, and I enjoy being outside with the kids. Arcadian and Brosnan LOVE being outside. Justice is a little more picky. The weather needs to be right and everything needs to be on his terms. Ahhh, to be an opinionated kid.

Enough for tonight, the clock is ticking...

JP

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Misc Pictures from the last couple months

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of months. If you get this emailed to you and don't see the pics go to http://www.peltonfamily.blogspot.com/ ENJOY!!


Arcadian at the Ocean
Grandma Jeannie and the boys
Grammie Margo and the boys
Grammie Margo and Arcadian
Justice with his Karate instructors after getting his yellow belt!
Brosnan, Arcadian, Justice and the Easter Bunny
Arcadian likes to wear his brother's bicycle helmet.
Doesn't Brosnan look good in mascara?

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Justice's Dreams 1 & 2

The other day Justice told me he had a dream. I asked what it was about and he told me that Arcadian and I left and him and Brosnan stayed home by themselves because they did not want to go with me. He said that they were playing video games and then a lot of mice and rats came so they left. He told me that they got in the car and Justice drove off, but then he banged into another car and the police men came.

Today he told me he had another dream. He dreamt that there was a tree with candy on it and candy was falling from the sky. He told me that he wished that dream was real.

I love him being able to recall his dreams and tell me about them. It is great to see a young imagination at work.

On a different subject. I am feeling much better today. Hopefully I will continue to feel better :-) Tomorrow we have an IKEA playdate planned with a friend from Highschool. I am looking forward to it!

Later
JP

Monday, April 26, 2010

We made it through the weekend!

3 birthday parties over two days is to many. We made it through all three of them though. One saturday night and two on sunday. The boys had fun at all of the parties. I envied the parents that were able sit and relax while their kids played. I on the other hand was constantly running back and forth checking on the older boys and following Arcadian around making sure he wasn't climbing on something or running off into the woods, or playing in bathrooms etc. etc. I am thinking that functions like this will be much better in a year or two. Right now, they are just stressful. However I was proud of myself for actually making it to all three of the parties and still mustered up enough energy to give them all a bath when we got home.

To top off a wonderful day, Brosnan felt that sleeping was overrated. They went into their bedrooms for bed around 8:30. Brosnan stayed up and was playing with toys in his room. Around 10:30 he was finally quiet and I assumed that he fell asleep. However, when one kid becomes quiet another decides they need to wake up. I heard Arcadian starting to fuss through the monitor. I went to go check on him, as I turned the corner to walk down the hall I saw a child (Brosnan) run from the bathroom to his bedroom. As he went into his bedroom he rubbed his hand on the door and it left a black mark. Hmmm, wonder what that was. I told him to come out of his bedroom and when he did I couldn't help but laugh. My baby boy turned into a raccoon! Both his eyes were covered in black.... as we walked into the bathroom to get him cleaned up I saw my mascara on the counter. Brosnan was trying to look pretty like his mama! I did take a picture and I will upload it....eventually.... After getting him cleaned up I put him back in bed and he went to sleep. It was pretty hilarious. It is extremely hard to show anger towards a childs behavior when you are laughing at them.

So, that was yesterday...today... nothing new and exciting. Not sure what is going on with me but I am still fighting exhaustion. I feel like maybe I am about to come down with something and my body is trying really hard to fight it off. I will be making a call to the Dr's in a couple of days if I am not doing better. As soon as I sit down I just want to close my eyes and go to sleep but of course with three boys running around that is not possible. Not to mention the lack of motivation to get homework, work, or housework done. Letting any of those slide for a few days just makes things worse when I try to get caught up.

Today our only excitement was karate. The boys were pretty good there. They recently changed the location of karate to a new building. The old place was much better for us. They had a little play room that Brosnan and Arcadian and I hung out in. It was nice because I could close the doors and the boys could play without much effort on my part. The new place has a play room but it is open and Arcadian thinks it is fun to play cat and mouse. So he runs off down the hall waiting for me to catch him..... Not relaxing at all... I let him run off once or twice then ended up putting him back in his stroller.

Well that is all for now. I am going to go to bed and get a little extra sleep. Tomorrow is Speech therapy so we have to leave fairly early. Luckily the sitter is coming over to watch the other two boys. So it is kind of a break for me to only have to manage one kid. Brosnan likes the one on one time too!

Night
JP

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Busy, Busy, Busy

        It is late on a Saturday night, I have homework that needs to get done and I am already stressing over the events planned for tomorrow. So this will be short but I wanted to make sure that I continued my streak of posting!
       A short list without details of today's event included 9:30am soccer, a semi-relaxing afternoon, a 3pm phone call from my younger brother informing me of his step-kids birthday party that was at 6pm tonight, a 3 year old that found the one and only mud puddle in the back yard at the party, a 5 year old that had some hurt feelings because he is still a little to young to run off with the other kids, and a rescue of a 1 year old  from an exercise machine. I'll give more details tomorrow. Everyone is safe asleep in bed right now though.
       Tomorrow we are supposed to go to a birthday party at noon and another one at 4pm. I am not sure if I will have the energy to run after the kids all day. Keeping track of them at other people's houses with lots of people around is no fun and not very enjoyable for me, I hope the kids have fun. We will see if I make it to both the parties!

Later-
JP

Friday, April 23, 2010

Exhaustion is setting in...

What does exhaustion mean exactly? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, exhaustion is to a) consume entirely: use up b) to tire extremely or completely c) to deprive of a valuable quality

          All three of those definitions fit me right now.  All my energy and motivation is completely consumed up, I am extremely tired, and I am deprived of a valuable quality...the desire to do anything that needs to get done.  There could be a couple of reasons for this exhaustion. 1) It's just one of those days, 2) I'm getting sick with something (keeping my fingers crossed that this is not what is going on) 3) 6 months of taking care of the boys is catching up with me 4) late nights up studying is not working out for me anymore 5) a combination of all of the above.  My best best guess is a combination of everything (minus the getting sick part). This happens every once in a while. It's like my system just begins to crash. I'll be better in a day or two.

          Nothing really to complain about today. The boys were pretty good. I have been promising to get Justice new shoes for the last two weeks so I took the boys to Target this morning after my mom left. I have only been able to find one of his new soccer shoes. I think the cute little almost 2 year old might have thrown the other away and he's been wearing broken sandals. Poor kid..  They were good for the most part, they started to get a little crazy when we were leaving and I ended up carrying a crying Brosnan out to the car while pushing Justice and Arcadian in the cart. Justice kept playing with stuff I had told him not to, which is why he got placed in the cart, Brosnan started running away from me which is why I ended up carrying him. Arcadian was pretty good.

          After Target we came home, ate lunch, I put Arcadian in bed then I crashed on the couch. The other two boys were laying on the couch too and I hoped they would fall asleep but no such luck. The ended up playing video games. Oh.. I have decided that I am going to try and video tape Arcadian watching Blues Clues sometime. He is crazy cute when he shakes his little but every time they start singing. And he mimics Steve (the host of the show). It's pretty funny. Justice today spent time writing in his "magic Ink Thomas the Train book" that Grandma Jeannie brought back for them. I'm pretty sure he finished his entire book and started on ArcadiansBrosnan has just been his typical cuteness all day long. Have I told everyone that he is potty trained now? He still has accidents every once in awhile but I think that is because he just gets lazy.  Last night he told me that he had to go pee but wanted to go outside and pee. I let him.. I don't mind peeing in the yard (heck the cats do it) but I try to encourage it in an area out of our way. Well yesterday I watched him as he walked outside, pulled down his pants and started peeing into a bucket. Working on his aim I guess. He then took the bucket and started to put it on one of his other toys.  Today when we were playing outside I noticed the bucket was over the fence in the neighbors yard !?!  whoops, they'll throw it back over the fence when they go to mow their lawn, hope it doesn't sprinkle on them. Actually, when he was trying to aim for the bucket he missed pretty bad because the concrete around the bucket was pretty wet. The point behind this story is that it is very comical to watch children when they do not know that they are being watched.

          8:00pm time to get the older boys in bed! We are off to soccer early in the morning. It starts at 9:30, WAY to early to get up and get 3 kids dressed, fed, and out the door....

Later!
JP

Thursday, April 22, 2010

It has been a long day and it is not over yet

Last week was my first week of classes for the quarter. I have homework due on Thursdays and Sundays. I procrastinated as usual which led me to scrambling on Thursday night. I quickly realized these two classes (child/adolescent counseling & Career counseling) are more demanding then classes in the past and in order to do the work I might actually have to study. So this week on Tuesday I decided to start reading and taking notes. Two days later I finished the 100 pages for 1 class, but have done nothing on the other. Today it is 6:45pm a little over 3 hours away from the time my weekly work is due and I just finished the homework for one class. Still I have done nothing for the other. Next week I suppose I will have to start reading on Saturday :-( 

The boys have been good today. They played outside a lot. I love having a fenced in back yard. They go out, run around and I am pretty confident that they can not get out. Arcadian has been super cute today delivering bagels to his older brothers. He likes to help.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I have been experimenting with bed times. In the past the boys have been put in their rooms around 7:30 then they would be in and out of bed for the next 2 hours. The past couple of nights I have let them stay up until 8:30 then put them to bed. They are MUCH more tired and have actually fallen asleep pretty quickly. Arcadian still goes to sleep at 7 and the boys can watch some tv or do something quietly before bedtime. It's been working out so far, we will see how it goes though. They are tired before 8:30, but putting them in bed earlier (especially now that it is still light out at 7) didn't seem to be working. 

Tonight will be a late night for all of us. We will be leaving the house around 9pm to go pick up my mother from the airport. She is returning from an East Coast trip to visit my brother Jesse's family.

Until tomorrow....
JP

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Wednesday April 21, 2010

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out. ~Anton Chekhov

Nothing to exciting today. The boys were good. Arcadian was a little clingy but that isn't anything new. He ALWAYS wants to be with me. If I am sitting at the table he climbs onto me (or the table). If I walk into the bathroom, he will immediately climb through the cat door into the laundry room knowing that I will very quickly come to his rescue. The moment I sit down (which isn't very often) he climbs up right next to me. If I am standing in a room he doesn't want to be in he will grab my hand and drag me to his room of choice. He's cute, but sometimes I wish he would sit and play by himself for a few minutes. Arcadian is the reason why it is nearly impossible to get anything done during the day. I can't load the dishwasher because he tries to climb in it, or remove the dirty dishes, I can't do laundry because if he comes into the laundry room he puts the cat food into the cat water. Folding clothes is unheard of with any of the boys, unless my intention is to see how many times I can fold the exact same thing. My saving grace is that Arcadian still takes naps. I usually am guaranteed two hours to either clean, workout, work, or do homework. None of those are options that I really want to do, but I do. No rest for me. The older boys do quiet time, which means a movie in the family room, out of my sight.

Even with the obstacles that my children present me with on a daily basis I feel I have made it work as best as I can. Yes, they have days that they play to many video games, and watch to much tv, but they also have days where they don't play games at all and spend the day playing with Lego's or chasing each other around the house. Life became a lot less stressful when I admitted to myself that I will not be able to get everything done during the day that I would like to. When the boys go to bed at night, there is a scramble to accomplish the tasks that I have neglected so that I can say to myself, "I spent quality time with the boys today and I enjoyed it." Life for me didn't use to be that way. I spent way to much time frustrated with them because I was trying to accomplish tasks that didn't put them as a priority. I have come to realize that I can get things done a lot faster if I wait until they are in bed!

Speaking of bed, the older two are still up and need to go to sleep. I am experimenting with bedtimes....

JP

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

What a difference some sleep makes :-)

















Today went much better than yesterday. I owe it to a decent night sleep. hmmm... I took all the boys to Brosnan's speech therapy this morning. Justice has been asking to go (they play games there) so I decided I would take them all. It went well.

Afterwards I took them to Wright Park in Tacoma. We walked around for a little while and looked at the birds, squirrels, ducks, and fish. Arcadian was in heaven seeing all the wildlife. I'm pretty sure he was more excited at the park then he was at the zoo. After our walk we went to the playground and I let them all play. Arcadian got to swing and had the biggest grin on his face. If I can figure out how to get my photos off my phone and onto my computer I'll upload them. Justice spent a bunch of time spinning on toy. It made me woozy just watching him. Brosnan wandered around from one thing to the next. We had a good time.

The rest of the day was spent at home. I have been trying to do some reading for school. Last week was not so much fun trying to do homework when I had not done the reading. In previous courses I have been able to get away with that but that doesn't seem like it is going to work as well this quarter.

Until tomorrow...

JP

Monday, April 19, 2010

Not such a fun day.

We have good days and we have bad days, today was a bad day. I stayed up late last night (till about 1:30am) doing some homework and watching 'Army Wives.' I thought no big deal, the kids usually sleep until at least 8. I should be fine. I think the problems began when I went into bed and noticed one very cute little boy (Brosnan) fast asleep in my bed. Oh well, I'll just leave him. I lay down, get comfy cozy and hear footsteps walking down the hall. Here comes another one. The clock is ticking and I didn't feel like fighting with him to go back to sleep in his bed. You would think that there would be plenty of room with two kids in a king size bed. Wrong. Brosnan sleeps basically sideways, and Justice sleeps as close to me as possible, which means I am literally hanging off the side of the bed. Not the most comfortable, but I'll manage. Off to sleep we go. Four hours later at 6am Arcadian wakes up crying. Crap, there is no way he will go back to sleep. I check on him and he is soaking wet with pee. Yuck... I swear he saves all his pee up during the day so he can wet everything in sight during the night.

I get him all clean and dry, grab a pillow and a blanket and head for the family room. I turned on some Blues Clues and kept my fingers crossed that Arcadian would lay down next to me and relax. I couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of lying next to me he jumps on me, hits me in the face with his cup, sits on my head, pokes my eyes, you name it he did it. Not very sleep inducive. About an hour and a half later his brothers start waking up. I guess this means I am up for the day on a little over 4 hours of sleep.

I have had a headache nearly all day, I'm tired and cranky. Luckily Arcadian did go down for a nap from 10am -12:30 so that gave me a little bit of time to relax and take a shower. I had some errands to run so after Arcadian woke up I loaded the boys up and headed to Ft. Lewis to sign Justice up for next months Karate. They were absolute animals inside the place. Running, jumping, laying on the floor you name it they were doing it. I had more places I wanted to go but from their behavior there I knew today was not the day. They have been pretty good for the most part today but with my headache and lack of sleep I knew that I would not have enough energy to get done what I wanted to with them.

It is time to get them ready for bed, I am thinking about maybe taking a bath, reading some child and adolescent text books, then going to sleep early. Why? so I can try to accomplish tomorrow what I did not get done today. The story of my life.

On a better note...After 3 days of constant clothes washing all the clothes are clean. Unfortunately my bedroom is covered in clean clothes. I suppose I should fold them.

The Adventures continue tomorrow with Speech therapy and shoe shopping for Justice.

JP

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Poor Arcadian...

Today was a pretty good day. We woke up to a beautiful spring day. The older boys were playing video games while I fixed breakfast. After breakfast I decided the only way to get them to enjoy the weather was to force them outside and take them to the park. Justice has been asking to have a picnic for sometime now so I decided to day was the day. I packed lunches, bagels, fruit, crackers, and juice. We loaded up the car with Justice's new Ironman bike and off we went. Upon arrival at Wapato Park I recognized a friends car in the parking lot. Yay! Friends!

I pushed Arcadian and Brosnan in the stroller (when Brosnan wasn't running) while Justice rode his bike. We crossed paths with our friends and continued our journey to the playground. I let the kids play, I even let Arcadian out of the stroller so I chased him around while keeping an eye on the other two. After a near collision between Arcadian and some kids on the swing I decided it was time to get our lunches so we can have our picnic.

Justice picked out a beautiful picnic spot between some tree's in a nice semi-shaded area. The boys sat and ate their lunch. They were perfect! They actually sat and ate. Very relaxing. I decided we would get a little more exercise in so we headed for another loop around the lake. I started to feel bad for Arcadian sitting in the stroller so after we got to an area that had a barrier between the path and the lake I let him out. He was doing good and listening, until he found a puddle on the side of the path. He was to far ahead of me to stop him so in he went running, splashing, and giggling. Oh well, wet shoes, not a big deal. After he went through the puddle and realized I was chasing him, he ran faster. Shortly there after he spotted the goldmine of puddles. It was more like a swamp on the side of the path. Mud, grass, algae, a big pile of mess. I saw him head for it and I ran faster to stop him but it was to late. He was trudging through it. Then I saw what was going to happen next. He lost his footing. Can he recover? At this point I'm thinking two things, "Please don't fall" and "I really do not want to go in that." This puddle was probably 5 inches deep. Of course, he fell, face first. Thankfully he was able to pick himself back up and I was able to avoid the filthy swamp water. He was covered from head to toe in mud and green disgusting swamp goo. Those that were walking by were trying not to laugh. Now I remember why Arcadian stays in the stroller.

I stripped him down to his underwear, and listened to him scream as I put him back in his stroller. We continued on our way back to the car and headed home for a cleansing bath.

All in all it was a good day. Looking forward to many more adventures over the next years!

JP

Saturday, April 17, 2010

A Quiet Saturday Afternoon.

Nothing new or exciting today. I think we are all recovering from a busy week. We woke up early and went to Justice's soccer, made a quick trip to Fred Meyer then came home. The two older boys have been relaxing on the couch watching movies while Arcadian sleeps.

As for me, I have been trying to catch up on LOADS of laundry. I have folded about 5 loads (from previous weeks) already and I have about another 3 or 4 to wash. This evening will be filled with dinner, bathtime, and some homework accompanied by a tasty strawberry rum drink! The temperature is warm outside but it has been sprinkling off and on. Of course as I type that it starts to pour outside.
Yay! (said in a sarcastic tone) Arcadian is waking up. I suppose I should go and let him out of his bed before he starts to get angry.

JP

Friday, April 16, 2010

A fun day at the zoo!

I decided against taking the kids to the fair. I'm pretty sure that I made the right decision. The fair can get so crowded and with 3 kids to one adult the numbers just were not with me. So, we went to the zoo instead. The boys wanted to play on the toys so we went to the play area. It was swarming with kids, and older kids probably 10-12 year olds?!? I let them play then after about 10 minutes I realized it wasn't working. There were so many kids playing on the jungle gym that Justice couldn't even get on it, Brosnan was just wandering around aimlessly, and Arcadian was just running....everywhere... The kids that were there were on a field trip so I decided it was time to put Arcadian back in the stroller and go look at some animals and come back to the play area after the older kids were hopefully gone. Arcadian was not agreeing with me, getting in the stroller was the last thing on his mind. I did a quick scan to make sure I saw Justice and Brosnan. Justice was attempting to climb the toys, Brosnan was standing less than 10 feet away from me, so I returned to forcing Arcadian back into the stroller. He was arching his back and making it very difficult to buckle him in. After a minute or two he was in the stroller, time to grab the other boys and start walking. Justice....check... Brosnan....hmmm, where did he go? He was just here... not good..

I tried to weave my way through all the children searching for his blue and gray striped shirt. Shouldn't be to hard to find him, all the other kids were wearing khaki pants and navy or white shirt. No such luck... no Brosnan. After a couple of minutes of continual searching in the play area I come to terms with the fact that Brosnan is not there. Crap, now what do I do. No employee's in sight. I found a nice looking person and told him I lost one of my kids, he offered to stay with Justice while I tried to find someone to help. I figured that way if Brosnan was still in the area, or returns, Justice would still be there and able to recognize Brosnan. So by now my heart is pounding and all the terrible things were going through my mind, he's lost, in with the polar bears or something, or he has found a new family. I walk up to the next area, where the Meerkats are and do a quick scan, nothing. So I went to an employee who had a little concession booth and told him I lost a child. He radioed for help. I told the guy I was going to go continue to look, walked back down toward the area with the Meerkat's and THANK GOD, I saw him. He was playing quietly in a sand box covering himself up with sand. Not a care in the world. No concern that his mother was no where to be seen. I went back and told the guy I found him and went back to claim Justice. Brosnan was upset that I took him away from the sandbox, but I think he could tell that I was pretty concerned about him runnning off. The whole ordeal was probably only 15 minutes long but felt like eternity.
The rest of the day went off without a hitch. Luckily the rest of the zoo was not crowded at all so it was pretty easy to keep an eye on all three. After all was said and done it was a good day. The boys behaved and listened fairly well and I felt quite accomplished after venturing to such an uncontrolled public place with them by myself! I will however be giving an extra big hug to all three of them tonight as I realize the situation could have ended up a lot worse.

JP

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Okay, one more post for the day. Checking to see if I can update through my phone!

April 15, 2010 Another Sunny *Tax* Day

Today has been a pretty relax day. Currently the boys are all outside playing in the sunshine. The boys are taking turns pushing each other on bikes. I just finished cleaning off our table outside so I think I might bring my laptop out there and try and get some homework done.

I am looking forward to the kids being able to play in the sunshine, but I am NOT looking forward to the extra bumps and bruises that the hard concrete and balls and bats will bring.

Today is my father-in-law Walter Hawkes Birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HIM! Justice (daddy) said he is spending the day doing something out in the woods that involved live fire (people shooting guns at him). Hopefully no one sneezes while shooting. Although the situation is controlled, it is still a bit scary knowing that he is running around with people shooting real bullets in his direction.

The Spring Fair at the Puyallup Fair grounds is going on this weekend. I have been contemplating whether or not to take the kids in the morning. The thought of bringing all three of them gives me a bit of worry and anxiety. They have a tendency to run... So, we will see how well they are behaving in the morning. My other option is to take them to IKEA. I just realized this morning that now that Brosnan is potty trained both him and Justice can go into the play area. That would mean an hour of semi-peace while Arcadian and I looked around. Hmmmm, I guess we will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings! If all else fails, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous again tomorrow so I will at least take them to the park.

I am really going to try and keep up a little with this whole blog thing. We shall see how that goes though. Maybe someday I'll even get creative and add pictures!

Until next time,
JP

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Is it Finally Spring?




I can not believe it is almost the middle of April. It has been almost 6 months since Justice left for Virginia and the boys and I have been managing well. However, I am looking forward to having him back in a few months.

A quick update on everyone... Justice is 5 and will be starting kindergarten in the fall. He is a very smart boy, he enjoys looking at books, playing with Lego's, and of course video games.

Brosnan is 3 and enjoys pretty much the same things as Justice. His favorite game to play on the PlayStation is Lego Batman. He LOVES that game. He has been going to speech therapy for the last 3 months. I'm not sure how much of an improvment it is making. I know that I need to work with him more at home in order for it to be effective. He can talk and has a pretty good vocabulary for his age, he just needs some help with his pronunciation. OH!! and Brosnan is finally day time potty trained. 2 down 1 to go!!

Arcadian, my baby, is just a few months shy of his 2nd birthday. He is at that stage where he is on the go constantly and curious about everything. His innocence and willingness to do anything puts a smile on my face all the time. He loves yogurt and fruit and music and dancing.

I do not know how I would make it through this separation from my hubby if my kids were not here. They drive me crazy on most days but when I look at them I remember why we are where we are.

As for myself, I have 3 classes of coursework left in my master's program then 3 quarters of internship. This time next year I should have my M.S. in Mental Health Counseling. I will finally be able to start my career!! Unfortunately most of what I make will be going towards student loans :-(

As I sit on the couch looking out the front window I see blue skies and tree's blooming and growing leaves. Does this mean that Spring is finally here? I am very ready to get outside on a regular basis in the SUNSHINE! I heard a rumor that it will be in the 60's towards the end of the week. BRING IT ON!

JP