She went to school...

So last Wednesday was Chloe's first day of school. She was soooooo excited. She woke up extra early, and had lots of time to spare before I brought her to school.



Here she is soooo excited...



And you can tell her nerves are starting to kick in here. We're pulling up to the school.

So we pull up, and I'm supposed to just drop her off. Her teacher was waiting outside. Well, we pull up, and Chloe says "Mom ~ look at all of those kids ~ I am not going in there." And I proceed to say "It'll be fine honey ~ you're going to have so much fun." (as I hold back the tears) "Do you want mommy to bring you to your line?" Chloe says "Yes." We get to her line, and she absolutely refuses to go in it. She was petrified. Something I absolutely didn't expect from her. So my mommy brain kicks into high gear, and I say "Chloe - if you get in that line I will buy you a new backpack!" (I didn't buy her a new one, because we have two others, and I just couldn't justify it ~ in this case, I didn't care.) She immediately got into line, and walked inside the school ~ no looking back. And I immediately start bawling. Now, thank God that I was outside, and I had my sunglasses on, cause not many people could see the streams of tears down my face. It was REALLY hard for me. I went grocery shopping with the boys, and I wore my glasses most of the time, because my face was so red from crying. (Am I pathetic or what?) Anyway ~ it wasn't too long, and I went to pick her up. The first thing out of her mouth was "Mom ~ can we go get my new backpack?" I couldn't believe it - nothing about school, just the backpack. I suppose that's a girl though ~ always wanting to go shopping.

And here she is with her new backpack!

I call sleep-in!!!

O.K., so on the weekends my husband an I have to "call sleep-in" in order to sleep in. Now ~ it's very fair ~ usually, one of us gets Saturday and one of us gets Sunday. On this particualar Saturday, I called sleep-in. It didn't last too long. I think I may have slept until 8:13. Either case, the kids were screaming their heads of, Owen was on the floor crying, and this is what I woke up to...Sorry honey, I just had to do it...

My baby is going to school...

This may be a totally stupid post, but I'm hoping others have gone through this too.

It's hard to believe that in just a little over a week, Chloe will be going to school. Now, it's only Pre-K, but it's school just the same. :)

I can't help but feel a little sad about her going. Heck - I cried when I sent her to Vacation Bible School this year. I know, I'm a nut. I know that she'll do great, and stuff, but I just feel like I won't be there for her when she needs me. What happens if somebody is really mean to her? Who's going to be there to make her feel better? What happens if she falls and gets hurt? Who's going to be there to kiss her owie? What happens if she goes poop? Who's gonna wipe her butt? (Yes, I still wipe her butt when she poops) :) I know that her teacher is very capable of helping her with all of these things, but I can't help but feel like I'm losing a bit of her. Do I really sound like a controlling over-protective mother? Cause I'm really not.

Sometimes I think that maybe it's a first-baby thing, but then I think of Brett going to school, and I could cry all over again.

I suppose I need to learn to let go. And maybe by letting go a bit, it will be easier with Brett, and then maybe even easier with Owen. I was sooo looking forward to the 9 hours each week with just the boys, but this is way harder than I thought.

I'm sure I'll get over it, it just may take a while.

Update on Owen

Well, he's out of our room. That's a really big step for me, so I'm proud of that one! He's still not sleeping through the night though. He's only waking up about one time a night on average, so I'm really not going to complain anymore.

Brett's back in his room. The day after his bed came out of his room, I moved it back, because nap time was just too hectic for me.

I'll probably let Owen cry it out again in the next couple of weeks, but for right now, I'm content getting up with my "little" baby, and that's O.K.

JD ~ I'm really going to try the fan thing. I need some kind of white noise, I think that will help him stay asleep longer. Thanks!

So, why can't I do it?!?

Owen doesn't sleep through the night yet. I know, he's 9 months old, he should probably be doing that by now, but he just doesn't. He wakes up usually 1 time a night, and then again at like 5:30. Most times I enjoy it, because he's still my little baby, but I will say ~ it's taking it's toll on me. I haven't slept through the night myself in over a year. Ughh!! Since the day we brought him home, he's been in my room, so this transistion is hard for me.

Last night, Ryan decided to move Brett's bed into Chloe's very pink room, so that we could let Owen cry it out in their room, without waking Brett up in the middle of the night. I don't know why this is such a big deal for me ~ probably because of the fact that I know that this is my last baby, and I just don't care if he still needs me in the middle of the night.

So, he woke up about 12ish, and I let him cry it out for about 40 minutes. I couldn't handle it. I knew that if I were to nurse him it would take approximately 4.6 minutes to get him back to sleep, and then we could all go back to sleep. So I got up, and fed him. It took a little while for him to calm down, but he went right back to sleep, and didn't wake up again until 5:30. What's the big deal? I know it's not teaching him anything, but isn't it just easier to nurse him, and then go right back to sleep? I can't tell you how awful it is for me to hear him screaming his head off, and I'm not supposed to go and get him. It kills me. I could just cry myself.

Don't get me wrong ~ I want him to sleep through the night ~ Heck, I want to sleep through the night, but why can't I do it?!?!?

So, I'm left with a baby who still doesn't sleep through the night, a husband who's frustrated with the fact that I can't let him cry it out, and a boy who sleeps in a very pink room.

Poor little Owen...Stinky little Brett!!

O.K. - so this post will have no pictures, the mental image is bad enough.

I'm starting to potty train Brett. When I'm home, he goes quite often ~ it's a different story when I'm out and about. Anyway ~ he likes to have his diaper off at home, so needless to say, he has been running around naked all morning, going potty like a big boy! Yeah! I was in the kitchen, and Chloe yells, "MOM ~ THERE'S POOP EVERYWHERE!!" Oh man, I think. I go into the family room, only to find that there is little "pebble" poop all over the floor ~ and in Owen's mouth! [Insert gag here] I stop cleaning up the poop, and immediately start to clean out Owen's mouth.[Insert another gag here] I took some wipes, and starting wiping out the inside of his mouth [Insert yet another gag here] it just kept coming out. Finally, I go to the sink, and just start to flush it out with water. [Insert the last gag here] I got it all out, and started to nurse Owen, so that he would have a better taste in his mouth. He wasn't too interested, because it wasn't his normal feeding time, so I just held him a bit. Chloe was talking to him, and got real close to his face to play with him, and said "EEEWWWWWWW!!!! His mouth smells like poop!" It really did, so I cleaned him all up, and feed him some Bananas. All is well now. Just another day in the life of me.

Take Three...

The following pictures are all compliments of Faith! Thanks Faith!


This is the coolest picture - ever! Faith actually laid on the ground and had all of us gather around her to take this pic! If you could have seen the people around us. We had so much fun!

Chicago - Part 2

It wouldn't let me post anymore pics in the last post, so I'll start another. Jen - this is killing you isn't it? :)


Here's Chloe, my mom and my sister Leanne.



Here's my niece Lauren with Chloe. Lauren was so awesome all day. Chloe couldn't get enough of her. I wish you lived here Lauren. You would be at my house everyday! :) Chloe still talks about you! Love ya!


The kids were pooped by the end of the day, but they wouldn'tfall asleep on the train ride home ~ it was too exciting for them!


I laugh every time I see this picture. Faith was holding Owen on the train ride home, and this man came on with a very active 3 year old boy, and this little 6 month old girl. Her name was TeeTee. I'm not even sure if that's how you spell it. Anyway, my mom says "here Faith, give me Owen, and you hold that little baby." So Faith asks the man if she could hold his baby, and he said sure. To make a long story short, TeeTee fell asleep in Faith's arms, and the father couldn't be more grateful! In the word's of Austin "Faith - The Baby Whisperer!" :)

Chicago...Our kind of town!

CAUTION: JEN - More Pics of my kids - you might not want to look. :) Hey - my life is my kids. I pretty much do nothing unless it involves my kids. I need to get out more, I know.

O.K. - So a couple of weekends ago, we went to Chicago with my sister Leanne, her family, and some of her husbands family. We had such a ball. We took the train - it was the first time for Chloe and Brett, so you can imagine all of the songs, and questions along the way. Nevertheless, it was loads of fun.




"All aboard the choo-choo train, all aboard the choo-choo train, all aboard, all aboard ~ choo-choo!" For any of you who watch the Disney Channel, Brett sang the song for Choo-Choo Soul, almost the whole way there. (Actually, so did I ~ It's a catchy tune.) :)




Chloe's never seen the Sears Tower before ~ wait a minute ~ I take that back. She was about 5 weeks old when Melanie and I went there. She slept the whole time, so technically, she's never seen it. Anyway - this was alot of fun for her to see such a big building.



My neices are so cute! Here they are modeling with the models in front of a Marshall Field's window. Love you guys!