Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Playing Catch-Up

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks and I keep telling myself that I need to blog...to record all these happy, crazy memories, but where to find the time?  Guess I need to also remind myself that it's more important to create the memories than record them. :)

After a wonderfully long Labor Day weekend filled with horrible decisions made on a kids' Redbox movie, a wonderful road trip to Winfield for some fun at the "castle park", some amazing BBQ courtesy of my lovely husband and lots of beautiful, adorable, sweet and funny moments to fill the spaces between, we launched into our first full week of September.  September is the month that my big boys have been waiting for ALL summer...1st days of school!!!  X-man lamented toward the end of last school year, "but, WHY do we have to have a summer break?"  Gokey has peed his pants with excitement all summer long...no, really, he has peed his pants over and over.  Maybe not in excitement and more in a form of regression since baby brother has arrived, but that's a whole different story.  I had no doubts that X-man would fall right back into the routine.  I know that he will always excel in school...he loves it...he was made for it and we have been blessed with the world's best preschool teachers who are patient enough to answer his unending questions.  I was anxious about how Gokey would do, though.  He is our sensitive soul...maybe even a little bit of a momma's boy.  He spent all year last year longing to go to school with his big brother, but I worried that when the time came that those big, sloppy tears would pool up in his big brown eyes and we would both be a mess.

My, how he's grown...
Gokey will be attending Animal Tales Preschool at the zoo Tuesdays and Thursdays and X-man will go Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This is a logistical nightmare for me since I have to be there EVERY day to drop one of them off and pick them up.  This includes parking, unpacking the double stroller to get the two little ones in, unbuckling the three tikes who can't do so themselves, carting them in, signing in whoever it is that day, handing out hugs and kisses and rolling back out to the van to buckle everyone back up again, pack the stroller back up and do it all over again 2 1/2 hours later in order to sign out that day's lucky preschooler. Despite my anxiety, Tuesday came and with it, Gokey's first day.  He popped out of bed that morning, clutching his backpack, still in his pajamas.  He wore that thing all morning long.  Once time to pack up and go, keeping in mind that I arrived late with X-man on his first day last year, we headed out front extra early to get some pictures and the kid was glowing.  We arrived at the zoo with plenty of time, piled the dinky ones into the stroller, took a few more pics on the way in and arrived at our preschool destination.  I was helping the little man find his hook to hang his backpack on when one of the teachers and I started chatting.  Next thing I knew, I turned around to give Gokey his hugs and kisses and he was nowhere to be found.  I spotted him across the room near the reading nook.  I yelled to him, "hey! Don't I get hugs???" He immediately broke with a giant, mischievous grin only he can sport and trotted back across the room, throwing his arms around me.  He then took off again without hesitation and we moved on.  No tears from either of us...success! :)

This is how we get in and out 2 times a day !



















Wednesday brought X-man's first day.  He was happy that he was going, especially after being left behind the day before, but it was a much more contained excitement.  He's the big man, afterall...no need for big displays of emotion when you are ALMOST 5 years old!  He took it all in stride, dutifully handed out his hugs upon arrival and then dove right in with his classmates, whom he was very glad to see again.  So we are into the school year full swing!




Mr. Big and Mr. Cool (try to ignore Mr. Cool's backward pants :)




The weekend before last we SOMEHOW managed to dupe Papa, Gigi and Nana to take the 3 older kids for the WHOLE weekend, so J and I could have some down time.  Don't know how down time-ish it was because we ended up splurging for tickets to our first K-State football game in 10 years...we haven't been since we graduated forever ago because initially we moved states away and since we moved back 5 years ago, we have been constantly having babies, leaving little time for road trips and football games.  We were so pumped!  Our challenge leading up to the big weekend was to get little D to take a bottle so that Grams (J's oh-so-fabulous momma) could cuddle the little guy while we were at the game since they live about 30 minutes from Manhappiness.  This proved to be more of a challenge than we expected.  Many wasted ounces of precious pumped milk and 5 different nipples later we were very frustrated and Declan was very unimpressed.  J mentioned to his mom less than a week before the planned trip that we may just have to take the little guy to his first football game as he was not cooperating with the bottle.  She then suggested we put a little peppermint on the nipple.  Noooo...surely it couldn't be so simple.  Since we didn't have peppermint available (and willing to try just about anything at this point), I mixed up a little sugar water, dipped the nipple and skeptically watched J offer the bottle to our picky eater and the little stinker latched on and sucked down 3 ounces like he had been doing it for years!  Who knew???  So...we had a blast watching our Wildcats beat the tar out of the Miami Hurricanes and Grams and Grandfather got some good quality time with the youngest (of 22...soon to be 23) grandchild! :)

And more on the baby front...he's growing like a weed!  Had our 6 week check up with midwife, Deidre, and he tipped the scales at 11 lbs 14 oz and is 22 inches long.  Despite my daily pleadings to slow down, he continues to grow and change.  He is resembling a chunky infant now and leaving that fleeting newborn stage behind.  So sad to see it go, but it's traded for these beautiful smiles that make his momma's days bright.  I think this one is going to be trouble...he has a smirk unlike any of the other kids and he raises his little eyebrow flirtatiously as he does it.  The girls will be swooning one day (this one already is). :)
Lady Killer... 
 Happy times and cooler weather...we are eating it up!