Baby Moe is becoming not such a baby anymore. He's starting to walk and wean. It's really sad. I can tell he's getting smarter and understanding what's going on, too. He's really growing up :(
Did you know that at age 9 months children surpass the family dog in intelligence? He's a few months past that, so he's really smart now. He'll be 16 and smarter than me before I know it. That will be awful!
I love him. Oh, oh, oh I love him. He makes life worth living. He's the reason I get out of bed in the morning (literally - he's usually the first awake). But usually I beg Ben to get up with him and usually he groggily agrees and they sit and watch Sports Center together. It's cute and manly.
He's sweet. He's cuddly. He's wonderful. And he doesn't scream anymore. Life is grand. (Life is especially grand b/c he's sleeping right now. I'll have to reread this post and channel this emotion when he's fussy and making messes in the morning).
Monday we went to the pool with Cricchio. Sadie loves to play with Andrew on the slides and kiddie area. Ben asks me how I manage with all three. Well, Sadie is pretty independent and always wears a life vest, I hold McKay in my arms, and Jax doesn't like to get in the pool so he just sits on the side and puts his feet in. Sometimes Jax wanders or runs and I need to chase him down, but he's pretty cooperate and cautious. I'm way too preoccupied to take pictures when I'm there by myself with all three so no pictures of that.
Tuesday we went to the library in the morning and then in the afternoon we went with the whole family to the Glazer Children's Museum in Tampa. Lots of fun! It was packed, though. It was $2 Target Tuesday so there was a line a mile long to get in. Sarah arrived an hour before us and waited in line and bought tickets for us. She's great like that :) Ben only had a half day that day so he was there too. Yeah!
My mom has a new phone and is always snapping pictures of us now.
We played for a while in a field outside after the museum visit. I think my kids liked this more than anything.
Wednesday was the 4th of July. We had a pancake breakfast in the morning at church. Sadie ate three pancakes and that was after I had already fed her at home. She has a hollow leg lately. In the evening we went with friends to Coachman Park in Clearwater for the Fireworks. The past few years we've just watched the fireworks in our car because the loud sound scared the kids. But I really wanted to go and see them in person this year. I'm so happy we did. They were spectacular! The Florida Orchestra was there performing and the fireworks were synced to the music. The kids had their ears covered the whole time but were so captivated and impressed by the display. McKay kept pointing and smiling - he was totally mesmerized! Jax was so tired he fell asleep in Ben's arms during the finale. We asked him on the drive home, "Jax were the fireworks scary or fun?" He thought for a moment and said, "Nice fireworks!"
From left to right: me, Gena, Nina, and KT.
The fireworks display is over the intercoastal waterway.
Nina and I had on pretty much the same outfit so we took a picture.
"The end!!!".....And we look over and Jax is asleep.
Thursday was my day to check things off my To-Do List. I was able to get a few things done but I think I accomplished 10% of what I had planned to do. The kids were content enough and a little independent. They were happy to have a kick back day after having three pretty busy ones.
A craft we made last week.
Sadie really gets into this craft type of stuff. The head to the lion is missing,
Jax confessed he broke it but won't tell me where it is.
Friday Joseph, Joseph, James, Sarah, Ethan, Charlie, and my mom came over for a playdate. Julie was in France and Spain this past week with her family touring her brother's mission areas - he was just released. Joseph was on daddy duty and asked if he could bring the kids up for some swimming and trampoline jumping. We had a great time. Again, I didn't take my camera to the pool but here a few of the ones I did take at the house.
Saturday Ben played with the kids in the morning so I could prepare my Sunday School lesson. I'm teaching the 16 and 17 year olds now. Then we went to the pool and switched off watching the kids so each of us could have a turn to exercise. After that we took brief but wonderful naps and in the late afternoon I left the nest to photograph a wedding with Sarah.
Ben and Sadie's creations.
Sunday (today) poor little Jax woke up not feeling well. He's thrown up twice and had a fever all day. He's sad, sweet, and lifeless. We've just held him all day. We'll probably end up holding him all night, too. I guess that means I should head to bed...
Alicia is gone tonight on a photo-shoot with Sarah, and the thought that keeps coming to mind is "I'm so glad when Mommy comes home." I don't think I'm the only one with that sentiment, as each one of our children said at some point tonight, "When is Mommy coming home?" or "I want Mommy!" Even McKay said it in his own little way. He crawled to the door and kept doing his "I want Mommy" grunt. I could only reply, "I hear you buddy."
Well I've been meaning to post about my time together with Jax and Sadie while Alicia and McKay were in Utah, so what better time than tonight? Over a month later - sorry.
May 29, 2012 - We had been staying at the homestead for our 'stay-cation' when we put Alicia and McKay on a 6:30 am flight to Utah. If my memory serves me correctly, Jax and McKay did not sleep well while we were away from our own beds, so getting up by 5 am was a bit challenging physically as much as it was emotionally. Thanks to Gramma Meyers for sleeping at the homestead that night so we could leave Jax and Sadie asleep while we went to the airport. When I got back, all was still quiet on the western front. In fact, it wasn't until right before I left for work that Jax and Sadie woke up. That was the day Max and Mary returned from Hawaii, so they were there when I came back from work in the evening. When I walked in the door, Mary greeted me with her usual happy, "Hi Ben!" I guess that had alerted Jax that his dad was home. He came running around the corner yelling, "Ben, you're back!"
May 30, 2012 - I worked one more day. I had to finish up some work for a June 1 deadline. Mary somehow managed watching our two lovable hoodlums all day by herself. She's got the magic touch, especially with nap time. It's usually quite a process to put Sadie or Jax down for a nap. We can rarely get Sadie to relax enough to sleep during the day, and Jax just likes for us to lay in his bed with him. Somehow Mary can get them both asleep within minutes of laying them down. Amazing! I asked her how she did it. She said Jax went out immediately, and Sadie read an operating manual for while (no pictures - only words) and flipped through almost all the pages before drifting off to never-never land.
We had a wonderful dinner (they're always wonderful at the homestead) before heading home. I think the kiddos were glad to be in their own beds again.
May 31, 2012 - Unpacked clothes from our stay-cation, did a few loads of laundry, went to the grocery store, and went swimming at the pool. Here's a few thoughts about the day from Jax.
I know this is long, but it get's good around the 1:30 mark and then again around the 2:40 mark.
June 1, 2012 - This is how most of our day was spent:
I picked up more than a few good dance moves this day. We learn so much from our kids.
We also went to Target, PetsMart, the Library and Lowe's this day, and we watched the "Fox and the Hound." I think they liked it.
June 2, 2012 - I put up chair-rail and window casing in our master bedroom about a year ago and haven't gotten around to doing the putty and paint. I tried to take the opportunity to paint the molding but struggled to keep the kids entertained. They wanted to paint too. Not a bad idea. I knew I would be in trouble if I let them get paint on their nice clothes, so I rummaged through the rag-bag to see what I could find. Mostly just onesies, tops, and socks. Not much I could do with the socks, so Sadie ended up with one of her old shirts for the top and a onesie for the bottom. Jax ended up with one of his old shirts for the top and one of Sadie's old shirts for the bottom. I didn't tell him it said "Princess" on it. They seemed to like their painting outfits, except for the fact that Jax's pants, er I mean shirt, kept falling down.
He kept telling me, "Pants, fall down!"
It was nothing a safety pin couldn't fix.
See. All better. He loved his outfit, trust me.
I found some green hand-paints and let the kids loose. They painted some blocks that Michael made for us. They also worked on some chairs they had painted in the past. I think they turned out pretty good. What do you think?
Once we were all green, I wasn't quite sure how to clean up without getting paint all over the house. The hose wasn't too far away, so I thought I'd give it a try. Jax didn't seem to like it when I sprayed him with cold water, so he stole the hose and started watering the garden.
Sadie wanted in on the action.
They still had green paint all over, so I needed another approach. When I was growing up, we used to love putting the sprinkler under the trampoline. It was just the solution I was looking for. All the green paint quickly washed away, and the kids were entertained for a very long time. They absolutely loved it.
They were so tuckered out they let me go to work on our bedroom molding. I filled all the cracks and crevices with caulk and started the painting. Turns out I didn't have the right paint, so that still remains an unfinished item on the ol' to-do list. Hopefully it doesn't take me another year to approach it.
This is what the bedroom looked like just a couple hours before Alicia and McKay returned. I should have taken an "after" picture, but I was too busy trying to clean up and get everything in order for Alicia. It was a lot of work cleaning up three days of messes, but I think it looked pretty good in the end.
Sadie, Jax, and I had a lot of fun together while Alicia and McKay were away. It was good to be able to spend a lot of time with just the three of us, but boy have I gained a greater appreciation for the life Alicia lives. Three is a lot different than two, and two sure kept me going. Plus, life just isn't complete without Alicia's laugh and McKay's smile. Sadie and Jax are happy when Mommy comes home, because it means they no longer have to wear funny outfits.
I like it short because it's cute, less tangly, and looks fuller and healthier. But she still has her baby cheeks and I feel like the short hair makes her face look really, really wide.
I like it long because it's easy to pull back into a pony tail or pig tails. I don't really know how to do girls hair dos in other ways, though. Also, Sadie hates to have hair ties in her hair - she says it hurts and often times will pull them out.
My goodness did we have a fun weekend. My parents had this extra hotel room that they bought for some rewards points. They needed to book two rooms but only needed one so offered the second to us. We were going to visit the Orlando Temple but they were closed for cleaning. So instead we decided to use some Typhoon Lagoon tickets they gave us as part of our Christmas present from two years ago. So, pretty much my parents are entirely to thank for our spectacular weekend. Thanks Ma and Pa!!!
On Friday night we went to Downtown Disney and ate at the T-Rex Restaurant. The venue was incredible. There were life size dinosaurs, a woolly mammoth, gigantic octopus, and much more. I really loved it!! The kids, on the other hand, did not. Well, Jax liked it and Sadie liked it at first. But every fifteen minutes there is a meteor shower where the animals come alive and roar and move. That's the part they didn't like. It really scared them, especially Sadie. She calmed down but kept her ears covered the whole hour we were in there.
That's the woolly mammoth and part of the octopus in the background.
The ceiling changed colors. Hence every picture is a little different.
Afterwards we went to the Disney Store. Always fun. My mom bought a super cute Cinderella Figurine kit for Sadie and bought Jax a Pluto stuffed animal. They are so generous. The kids were so delighted.
Sadie's Cinderella present from Mimi
While we were in the Disney Store Sadie started doing her antsy dance and said she needed to use the potty. So we quickly found one and as we were in the stall I said to her, "Does that feel so much better?" and she replied, "Yes! Thanks Mom, I couldn't have done it without you!!"
So, after that we visited the Ghiaradelli's shop for some rich and creamy Ice Cream Sundaes. They were so good! They had an outdoors dance show going on and Jax kept us entertained with his dance moves.
That night was a hard one. McKay refused to sleep in that hotel room. He cried and nursed and cried and rocked and cried and fussed for two hours. He finally gave up around 11. Then he woke up at 6:30 to nurse and never went back to sleep. Ben was kind enough to take him for a walk so we could sleep a little longer. Mike and Sarah were also there because they did this reward point deal, too. We visited with them for a while in the morning and then headed our separate ways. I think they did Lego Land, my parents did a scenic park, and we went to the All-Star Movies Hotel. I found the hotel online. It has gigantic replicas of Disney characters. Jax is pretty obsessed with giants and giant sized objects right now so I knew he would love it. And he did!
Do you see the boys at the bottom?
After that we headed to Typhoon Lagoon. It's a Disney water park. We were a little nervous to take three small, non-swimming children into a crowded water park but they did wonderful. Jax and Sadie held our hands perfectly and followed directions the first time asked - so all went well. We had planned to stay for just a few hours thinking that they would melt down. Well, I think we ended up staying for 7+ hours and even then it was hard to go.
Our kids are usually a little cautious but they were great about trying new things. They did stuff that Ben and I never thought they'd try. And they had the time of their lives! Here are everyone's favorites from the park:
Ben's favorite thing was definitely the lazy river.....
I mostly liked watching the kids, but the one adult attraction I wanted to do was snorkeling on the 'Shark Reef'. It was fun although the water was a chilly 72 degrees and I shivered the whole time........
Doesn't the water look spooky?
Sadie's favorite things were the wave pool and slides....
Jax's favorite things were the hoses and raft flume ride......
McKay enjoyed.........I don't know what he enjoyed. He was good and happy all day, though. Here are a few pics of him....
He's starting to do this now and he even stood up from a sitting position tonight and balanced for a while.
He's also figured out how to point. I LOVE when kids learn to point. He feels so proud when he does it.
After we changed and left the park we went back to Downtown Disney for a sub from Earl of Sandwich. It was right across the street from the park so we why not? Sadie found some birds that she enjoyed feeding.
We lucked out when we were leaving because the firework display at Magic Kingdom had just started. So, the kids enjoyed watching the display out the car window. Happy were they :)
