West Virginia Halloween....

Here are a few pictures from our Halloween party at my grandmother's house in West Virginia yesterday!

The boys had a blast... my aunts had put together an awesome spooky scavenger hunt and the decorations and food were amazing.  Ben spent hours playing football with his cousins and Tom. Simon explored every square inch of the yard and house. Jonathan flitted from place to place doing all sorts of things.

There was a giant bonfire, although we had to leave for bedtime not long after that got underway. Such is life with a three-year-old who has just given up his nap. The boys love adventures and staying in hotels, so they loved every minute!  It was a surprisingly smooth bedtime. Surprising because all three boys were in the same room with each other and somehow it all worked out okay.

Ben on the swings....

Jonathan and Simon checking out the decorations....

Jonathan on the swings!

Jonathan popping the fog bubbles

Checking out Grandmom's glow-in-the-dark shoelaces

Simon on the swings!

Simon being scary....

Creeper Simon and cousin Isabella....

Having some hot cider together....

Mom-Fail #1,456.....

Yesterday we headed over to the pool for morning swim practice for Ben and I had planned on staying until naptime, which we just about did, despite Jonathan being an 8 out of 10 on the high-maintenance scale for the first hour.

You see, I made a rookie mistake that almost ruined everything. I had taken them to hit Rite Aid's pool toy clearance aisle before we went. We've been having a water gun shortage issue and Jonathan and Simon are CONSTANTLY fighting. It's really not fair to either of them, and at this point in the season, it was going to cost me like $2 to remedy the situation.

In fact, they were all so cheap, I let all three kids pick a new one. Here's where I made the fatal error. I did not insist they all buy the same one.

All you moms are saying, "Oohhhhhhhh...." right now, aren't you? You all know exactly how this played out.

So Ben and Jonathan chose identical guns with the tank and the pump. Simon chose these little $.50 ones so he could have one in each hand. Everyone was thrilled with their choices. That is, until we got to the pool.

"I want to have two guns in my hands like Simon!" whined Jonathan.

I pointed to the gun he had chosen. "This one shoots REALLY far though! Watch!"

He was unimpressed. "I want a turn with THOSE!" he said as he pointed to Simon's.

Meanwhile, Simon was happily floating around, half obscured under the water pretending to be some kind of aquatic ninja assassin.

"Well you chose this one. You can play with this one until maybe Simon is ready to trade for awhile."

At some point, Simon must have resurfaced.

"I am NOT trading!"

I didn't even get to respond before Jonathan threw himself onto the hot cement, wailing at the top of his lungs and probably baking his face.

"Well, just maybe in a little while you could let him try them for like five minutes? And you can try his?"

"NO!"

Jonathan continued his dramatic sidewalk performance.

Sigh.

Simon went over to the kiddie pool, I guess in attempt to make us all forget he and his two water guns were there.  Jonathan got up and followed him, wailing the whole way.

It figures that this was a day the mom with the nine kids who always smiles and never sweats was there. It should be noted that I've never once seen her children be ugly to each other. Ever.

Sigh again.

I followed Jonathan and attempted some intervention.

"Okay, Simon... you know what? If you can help me out here, I'll give you some extra time with Minecraft later. It would be a SUPER help to mommy if you'd just give him a turn for a couple minutes. I'll set a timer."

"NO. I just got them!"

(I know... I get it... this was SO unfair... )

"Well buddy, here's the deal... if he keeps carrying on like this, we're going to have to leave and that's no fun for any of us. So just FIVE minutes. PLEASE?"

"Okay FINE." He finally agreed and tossed the water guns at Jonathan.

"Do you want his while you wait?"  I asked.

"NO. I want mine back. I want MY water guns back. NOW!" he replied, nastily... on a loop....  for the next five minutes while he stalked Jonathan, who screeched every time his brother got near him.

I could feel A-maz-o-mom burning holes in the back of my head with her eyes, judging all of my choices. (though she probably really wasn't. She's not like that plus, well,  I mean, she has nine kids of her own to keep track of... at a POOL.)

Finally the five minutes were up. Usually Jonathan is great with this strategy. Not so much this time.
I tried the, "Okay, one more squirt!" strategy. That didn't work either. Eventually, I just had to take the water guns out of his hands and I'm sure you can imagine how that went.

Then I had to walk past A-maz-o-mom with my kicking, screaming toddler.  Enjoyed that. NOT. Mom humiliation level -- 11.

Ultimately, things improved after I found a binky at the bottom of the pool bag and plopped Jonathan on a chair with that and a towel blanket. He needed a reboot. After that, he was fine.

Simon had wandered back to the big pool and was playing something called "Zombie Water Guns" with Ben and a bunch of other kids. I noticed he had shared one of his two water guns with an older boy and was thinking, "Oh, how nice of him!"  Then I heard the other kid say, "I'm going in the deep end!" (Simon hasn't passed the deep end test yet) I put my head in my hands, anticipating the impending freakout.

Simon came barreling out of the pool.  Annnnnnnd, cue the freakout....

"Mommyyyyyyyyyyy!! I let that boy have one of my guns so we could all play and now he took it in the deep end!!!"

Sigh... again.... I sigh a LOT these days.

Needless to say, when we went back to the pool later after Jonathan's nap, we stopped at Rite Aid and bought about a dozen of the $.50 guns to just pass out to everyone.

And everyone played happily ever after.  Until the most annoying toddler on the planet started taking Jonathan's toys while his mom ignored him. Buuuuuut that's another post for another day.

The End.

Complicated!

Ben has this sudden interest in having a social life and seeing friends all the time outside of school.
I'm excited about this because it's kind of a first. And he has made this friend who seems to like Ben as much as Ben likes him... which is a rare find, honestly.

I really want and NEED to encourage this because Ben needs this a LOT... like really, really REALLY needs this.

There are multiple issues in play here though, the biggest of which is, what the heck do I do with Simon? When I so much as mentioned to Ben that maybe we could bring his friend home from school with us tomorrow, Simon immediately burst into tears. "What about me? What will I do? I won't have anyone to play with."

I asked Ben if he would mind if Simon played with them if this playdate happened and he was okay with it. (though I wouldn't make him do this every time, of course) Simon wasn't into it though and just cried and cried.

Sigh. Simon actually has really clicked with one little boy in his class lately, but he doesn't have the kind of mom who is just going to let me bring her kid home from school with me. It will have to be a mom/kids playdate and that doesn't really work for a Friday evening.

Argh.

So complicated. I feel like Ben is having to sacrifice because I don't know what to do with Simon. It stinks. I should be able to say, "Yes! We'll bring your buddy home for a few hours! Absolutely!" But it's just not that simple. I SO wish it were that simple, for Ben's sake.

Multiple kids... especially close in age ones who are the same gender and each others' main playmate... it makes things complicated. Really really does.  What do you do?

Five Going on Nine...

I know this is probably a second-child/younger sibling thing... but it's driving me crazy, probably mostly because I was NOT a younger sibling.  Simon wants to do absolutely everything Ben does. Everything. He copies Ben constantly. I honestly don't know how it doesn't drive Ben more nuts than it does.

The imitation thing doesn't drive me quite as crazy as when he keeps trying to do things that aren't geared toward someone his age and subsequently gets frustrated and takes it out on us.

I have to bite my tongue a lot in those situations because sometimes I get SO impatient and annoyed that he wants to jump ahead to what Ben is doing instead of just mastering being FIVE and doing five-year-old things.

As in, "OMG. STOP TRYING TO WRITE IN CURSIVE AND JUST FOCUS ON LEARNING TO PRINT THE RIGHT WAY!!!!!" (because his printing is painful and a huge struggle right now)

And, "For the love of pete, STOP trying to play Minecraft... how about focusing on learning to , oh I don't know... READ?!" (because that is slow going these days too)

It's also hard to watch him continually try to insert himself into Ben's conversations with friends. He doesn't really understand what they're talking about usually and he ends up sounding silly. In these cases, I feel bad for him because Ben and his friends always look at him as if to say "Oh Simon... you just have NO clue..." and Ben gives his friends the, "That's just my dumb little brother." look.

I guess there's nothing I can do to change this whole dynamic, but geez it's tough.

You really start to see firsthand how birth-order baggage happens...

I Sense it in the Force....

...there is another round of Star Wars obsession brewing in our house. It has been a LONG time. Have I mentioned Star Wars is not my favorite? LOL.

But, on the bright side, the big boys have been playing SO well together lately with this as their theme. It started after Ben lost all of his electronics (again) for sneaking and playing Minecraft well into the night after being told to turn it off.

He gives us ZERO motivation to give it back either because he's a different, happier, more agreeable kid when he's off the video stuff.  I swear, video games are the root of all evil.  And yet, my kids own every portable device ever in addition to their Wii. You'd think I would learn. I keep thinking if we put more limits on it... and that works for awhile and then I get lazy.

Sigh.

Simon is just so happy someone wants to finally play Star Wars with him and it has been really sweet seeing them running around the house playing together. :o)

Another round of Star Wars 24/7 for goodness knows how long? Bring it.

Bros

Jonathan has such a special relationship with both of his older brothers. It has been so incredibly sweet to watch it evolve...

Ben is the one he goes to for hugs and help. Simon is his playmate. Not that Jonathan and Ben don't play together or that Simon and Jonathan don't share hugs... but each one is the go-to brother for his respective activity, for sure.

I definitely need more photos of him with Simon. (harder to get since they are usually moving... and FAST....) but here are two cute ones of him with Ben from yesterday.

In this one, Ben had sat down to watch a show and Jonathan wandered into the room with his sippy cup and literally just BACKED up into Ben's lap and plopped down. Ben, completely unfazed, just put his arm around him.

In this one, we were getting ready to leave for basketball. Ben is the only actual basketball player in the house, but the other two have commandeered Ben's old jerseys and wear them to all the games. Too funny. Anyway, so it was shoe time and Tom was doing something else, so I heard Ben say, "Here buddy, I'll help you with your shoes." and Jonathan sat right down and stuck his feet out.  :)  (also, the cat photobombed...) ;)

I love brothers!!! :)

Mascot

Ben went outside early yesterday to play basketball and he had his uniform for the game later on.
We heard Jonathan upstairs saying, "Want basketball shirt tooooooooo!" and Ben gave him his shirt from last year. Then he ran around in the driveway for a half hour yelling, "I'm playing basketball!!! Like Ben!!!"

HILARIOUS.

He wore that shirt all day and then to Ben's basketball game at 4.

He did NOT want to sit on the sidelines with me and just kept saying he wanted daddy and Ben. I finally told him that whenever he heard the buzzer, he could run over and visit. So at the end of every quarter, as soon as the buzzer sounded, he took off across the court like a shot and jumped right into the team huddle or sat on the bench until Ben would take him by the hand and walk him back over to the sidelines so the game could start again.

It was adorable. Seriously, crazy adorable. That is, until the third quarter, when he didn't return on his own and I had to run across the court like an idiot and go get him. Did not enjoy that. But otherwise... adorable.

Differences...

Just another fun conversation that clearly illustrates the differences between my two oldest children....

This one took place in the car. We were chatting about school starting and what we were looking forward to.

Ben: "Ugh. Nothing. It's all boring. School is boring. I don't like school!" (He's like a surly teenager sometimes, I swear....)

Simon was quietly thoughtful for a moment. I could tell he was conflicted, deciding whether to go along with his older brother, whom he idolizes, or say how he really felt. I was proud of him when he piped up, "Well, *I* like school. School is FUN!"

Then, the good stuff happened... Ben was actually peer pressured by Simon.

"Well, I do like gym, and recess, and library, and music, and computers...and sometimes art... "

HA!

Tire Pics....

Our annual Ocean City Ripley's Tire Pics. I can never get back to the house fast enough to put the collages together! So neat to see how they've grown in a year! :)

Marshmallow Shooters/Guns/Blasters/Blowers... Whatever Term you Find Least Offensive...

I've been eyeing up these marshmallow guns on Pinterest for months now. Yesterday, we finally set out to make them. The supplies are dirt cheap and the directions are easy. Leave it to me to screw them up though. I bought the wrong size fittings and had to hold the first attemps together with duct tape.

This morning, back to Home Depot we went to get the right size fittings and wow... yeah... these things are way easier to assemble that way. LOL.

Here's what I discovered though. While the marshmallow shooters were mildly entertaining for the boys, what they REALLY liked was playing with the pipes and fittings. They are still upstairs playing with the extras!

I seriously want to go back and just get all different size pipes and elbows and T's and whatnot and just throw them in a box. I'm fairly sure it will keep them busy for days, maybe even years.

But... that is a project for another day.

For now, we are proud of our marshmallow weapons. ;)  (this is a photo of the first attempt... I haven't taken one of the pretty one yet.) ;)

Funny Conversation....

From Simon's room last night....

The conversation that just went down in Simon's room that still has me laughing. 

Me: Simon, daddy is leaving really early for work tomorrow so he won't be here to see you open your birthday presents when you wake up. Do you want to open them tonight?

Simon: Oh! Yes!

Me: Okay... but when you wake up, you won't have any presents to open.

Simon: Okay then. I will only open ONE.

Me: Are you sure? Because you can open all of them.

Simon: No. I will pick just ONE.

Me: Seriously?

Tom: Well, he is clearly not YOUR child.

Me: I know! Sheesh. Simon, who ARE you?

Simon: I'm SIMON!

Ben (from the bathroom): She meant that metaphorically, Simon.

Brothers are the Best...

Here I Am!

So yeah... buried under Christmas stuff and family stuff and oh yeah... PINTEREST. Curse you people who lead me to this evil place. Now I have a list of ideas I'll never have time to execute. However, I practically have a whole category of meals I can make using a muffin tin, so there's that.

I'll work backwards here. Yesterday was a pleasantly quiet day. Tom watched football with his dad and they entertained the kids all afternoon so I got to the grocery store and the Hallmark store, put together Jonathan's Cozy Coupe and make some sugar cookies ALL by myself. So nice. All was well... until Jonathan woke up from his second nap with one bright pink cheek and I thought, foolishly, "Oh, he must have just slept on something." Then his other cheek joined the party. Add in a little uncharactic fussiness and a total meltdown when presented with dinner... when I picked him up from the highchair, he was burning up. Sure enough,, 102.8. I gave him a bath and some Tylenol and then he wolfed down a ton of food and Tom and I passed him back and forth on the couch for awhile while he lounged on us. When he started to doze off around 6:45, we just put him to bed. I dosed him all night long with Motrin and Tylenol, taking his temp each time. It spiked as high as 101, but mostly stayed in check with the medicine, so he got some much needed good sleep.

This morning, he was back to 101, but then, by an hour after he got up, it was down to 99.4 on its own and he was mostly himself. I dosed him with some Motrin before his nap and all seems well, although he does have a gross crusty nose... so, hopefully just a cold.

Saturday, we wanted to do something Christmasy with the boys. It was a tossup between the train garden and our local "Santa Arrives by Firetruck!" event. We opted for the close, less crowded option. We didn't tell the boys why we were standing around in the shopping center... just kept them guessing until the big moment.

Here's Jonathan enjoying the view from Tom's shoulders. He's so bundled up, he actually looks like Simon as a baby for a change. ;)


Ben was cold and complainy... but humored us with a brother moment.


We saw a bunch of school friends from both boys' schools... so that passed the time for a few minutes and the boys were excited to see people they knew.

Then came the firetruck. My children were underwhelmed to say the least. Didn't help that we kinda really couldn't see Santa from where we were standing.


Eh. Oh well.

Ben immediately asked, "Can we go have lunch now?"

So lunch it was.

We abandoned the Santa scene and grabbed a table at the bagel place before the idea of lunch hit the rest of the crowd.






We finished up and in came the rest of the people who had stood in line for Santa FIRST. HA! Off we went to snag a Santa pic with practically zero line.

Free cookies! WAHOO!


The big guy and the big boys. Santa actually "oooooof"ed when he hauled Simon up on to his lap. LOL!


Jonathan wanted nothing to do with Santa, mostly because there were shiny sparkly garlands lining the path to Santa that seemed more interesting to him.

The boys both forgot what they wanted for Christmas. D'oh. I was hoping to get some confirmation that I've secured their #1 wishes. Oh well... guess we'll find out on Christmas morning!

We skipped the glitter tattoo line and the face-painting line and back home we went to sit by the fire and watch Elf. :) YAY!

Friday we had a Christmas party at a friend's house which was SO fun. The kiddos went in their jammies and just had a blast together. :)

That afternoon, I made my annual batch of these heavenly yummy things...



During this time, Jonathan systematically trashedd the first floor.


And just generally got into stuff...


Simon built Star Wars ships out of Legos.


And asked me to take his picture.






Ben had a good week at school and only had to recopy a handful of things. He's learning cursive and is developing the most interesting handwriting... it's kind of cute watching it evolve. ;) I'll have to scan something in later so you can see.

So, there... I think we're all caught up. Right? Oh who am I kidding. I am too far behind to REALLY catch up. So let's just start from where we are, shall we? :)

Ben has been at this since he walked in the door from school... we're going on 25 minutes now... Jonathan is having a blast. Ben keeps stopping to see if he wants to get off, but no... he wants to go go go!

Ben's Evil Plan...

1. Get tin foil

2. Get Tepig (a Pokemon figure Ben has)

3. Place Tepig in tin foil

4. Ball the tin foil

5. Challenge my brother

6. Make him scream

7. Throw it at him

Found this note on Ben's bed this morning. By the time I got downstairs, he was already hunting around the kitchen for "tin foil" and the plan was underway.

It actually did result in Simon freaking out.... because HE didn't have a Tepig to wrap in a foil ball.

Next plan? Take over the universe with Saran Wrap.

Happy Mother's Day 2011!

Homeschool....

I discovered two nights ago that Ben has been reading a book about sharks to Simon after we put them to bed at night. He also has been having him come up with questions based on the reading -- jotting down things Simon knows, what Simon wants to know and what he has learned from the reading and jotting them down in a blank book he has. (this is what they do in Ben's first grade class)

It's the cutest thing ever. I plan on scanning in some of the notebook pages later because seriously, SO adorable. Some of Simon's questions are really good ones too!!!

Last night, Ben asked me if I had a red pen. I gave him one and he used it to go back and check off the questions they had answered and "grade" Simon's paper. LOL!!!

Big Brothers...

My blog friend, Katie, had a wonderful post a few days ago about the special bond her eldest daughter (who is Ben's age) and her youngest daughter (who is Jonathan's age) have. It SO closely described the dynamics at my house that I truly could have written the post myself. You'll have to take my word for it though because her blog is passworded. LOL.

Some comments from other parents of three kids on there described a similar household dynamic and it has me wondering if it's a three-kid-family thing?

At any rate, it sure holds true at our house.

Ben? ADORES Jonathan. Loves him to pieces. He helps take care of him, watches out for him, talks to him the way we do, comforts him when he cries, plays with him, holds him, wants to feed him... the list goes on. I let him "pick him up" and hold him (with close supervision) yesterday and he was just so pleased with himself. He calls him "Moo moo" and "Bubby" which have become our pet names for J around here lately. He's the first person Ben talks to in the morning... plowing right past the rest of us to get right in his face and talk to him. If Jonathan is already taking his morning nap, Ben immediately wants to know where he is and when he's getting up. :)

Katie mentioned how she's been teaching Emily some simple baby care things and ways to keep the baby safe and I do the same with Ben. It's such a huge help to have an extra set of eyes and ears and someone to watch out that he doesn't put Lego heads in his mouth, that sort of thing... even just for a minute or two so I can run a load laundry to the basement or get breakfast going in the morning. Ben probably has NO idea what a huge help he is, even though I tell him constantly and I am 100% sincere about that!!

Simon is also a fantastic big brother, but in more of a traditional brother sort of way and less "little daddy" the way Ben is, which is to be expected given the three-year-gap instead of the 6-1/2-year-gap. He is VERY careful around Jonathan, which given how active and physical he tends to be, I find very impressive. He knows (and remembers) not to run or jump around the baby when he's on the floor. He's gentle with him and uses kind, soft words. I don't worry about leaving them in the room together if I have to walk into an adjacent room for a moment... I'm confident at this point that Simon isn't going to try to pick Jonathan up or hurt him or roll him over or anything like that. Truthfully, most of the time, Simon pretty much ignores him... LOL. But, just when it seems he's totally indifferent to the baby, I do catch him doing very kind, big brothery things, like putting the teethers in the refrigerator, or giving him his binkies and his ducky lovey. It will be most interesting to see this relationship evolve. Will they eventually be happy playmates? Time will tell, I suppose.

Right now, the fights are between Ben and Simon. They are just getting on each others' last nerve lately. Simon is a typical little brother and bugs Ben to no end when he's trying to do big kid things. And lately, Ben has been kind of mean and big brotherish to Simon, discounting the things he wants to do as silly or just not wanting to play what he wants to play. He sometimes even just gets angry at Simon for TALKING. I can't wait for spring because I think winter and being cooped up the house all the time has a ton to do with it.

So yeah... to get back to the original point of my post... Jonathan is a lucky little third-born. He couldn't ask for two better big brothers! :) I'm so glad we got three-of-a-kind. It's so fun to watch their relationship unfold!

So Sweet....

Everytime I open the refrigerator, I find at least one of Jonathan's teethers on the lowest shelf just inside the door. Took me a few days to figure out which child was putting them there. Turns out, Simon gathers them up and puts them there throughout the day "so Jonathan always has cold ones to chew on."

(cry)

Oh Brother...

Ben asked me to take this picture of him with Jonathan. :o)


This one I got by accident, but I love it. :)


Then Simon wandered into the room and hopped in the chair too. Normally, I can't *pay* either of the older two to sit still and have their picture taken. Too funny. Even with their willingness, I STILL couldn't get a decent shot of all three... mostly due to the fact that Jonathan is a little overly preoccupied with his hands and his socks lately. LOL!