Merry Making

It snowed here last week. We got about four inches of the beautiful, fluffy stuff. There's nothing like snow to make the holidays feel festive. We've been listening to Christmas music and watching the classic versions of "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer".
Because of this, Franklin now knows the title songs and sings them around the clock. He switches up the words a bit. I got him on tape singing while playing in the snow. He kept this version of Rudolph clean. Usually he throws in a "stinky bum" or "diaper head" lyric.
Beatrice absolutely loved the snow! She would've played outside for hours and hours had I let her and had she not kept falling down. With the combination of deep snow and bulky clothes, it was hard for her to maneuver.

All About Solomon

Solomon is about four and a half months old now and hasn't really had any blogs dedicated just to him in a while.
We took him to his four month check up and he's starting to fall off the charts just as my other kids did. He was around the 50th percentile for height and weight at his two month visit, but now he's around 15th percentile. He only weighs 14 lbs, but he sure is chubby enough to fool one into thinking he weighs more.
His little personality is a strong one. He can cry and scream with the best of them and do it for quite some time. Lately I've let him cry it out a lot. I know he's fine because he's been fed, and changed, and burped, and loved. But that's not good enough, so he throws a fit. He wants to be rocked to sleep like he used to be when he was a new born. With two other munchkins, I don't really get the luxury of rocking Solomon like I used to. It breaks my heart to hear his manly cry!
He's also strong physically. He has always been able to keep his legs straight and bear some weight on them when held upright. Lately he has been getting up on all fours readying himself to crawl.
I put him in his bouncer the other day and he took right to it. He bounced and bounced away. The other two thought it looked so much fun that they each wanted a turn.
Solomon is a special little part of our family. We all love him so much. Beatrice and Franklin are incredible big siblings to him. They help him cheer up when he is crying. They bring me wet wipes when he spits up and they want to be with Solomon around the clock. I hope that never changes.

Twick or Tweet!

This Halloween has been so much fun! We went to our church's Halloween activity Friday night and got quite a bit of candy and got to run around with dozens of kids in their costumes. Then we got to get dressed up all over again to go Trick-or-Treating Saturday night.
A few days ago I was in my bed wondering just what to dress Beatrice as for Halloween. It wasn't keeping me up, but it was on my mind. Just as I drifted off to sleep I had a vision, not a religious one or anything like that, just a mental image of how cute Beatrice would look as Wonder Woman. With it only being three days before Halloween I thought there was no way I'd have time to order one or go in search of one. Plus I didn't think I could find one to fit the budget.

I decided I would check the local Kmart, "Just to see what they had." I found princesses, and fairies, and cuddly animals, AND hidden underneath all the wings and feathers, I found WONDER WOMAN!! I was sooooo ecstatic. It wasn't Beatrice's size, but it was the smallest they had and I knew I could make it work. And it was a decent price. Yay!

I must say that Beatrice made an adorable Wonder Woman. Franklin made and awesome skeleton. His costume came with a mask, but it's so hard to breathe and see through those silly things, so I painted his face. Franklin asked me not to paint his face for the party or trick-or-treating because it made his face crack. Poor kid, I guess he was so uncomfortable at his preschool Halloween party from the face makeup. So I let him wear his mask.

Solomon donned the Elvis costume that Franklin and Beatrice both wore when they were babies. He looked so cute! We didn't get any pictures though. I'll have to dress him up and take one just for memory's sake.
Here's Franklin back in October 2006 and Beatrice in 2009.Franklin was propped up against the couch. He couldn't really stand. And Beatrice is with another Elvis (Mike Outzts) that showed up to party.

We got plenty of candy this year, and surprisingly, the kids don't really seem to be interested in it. They loved going around and asking for it, but they aren't begging to eat it and I'm not pushing them to either. I'm sure that will all change in the years ahead.
I remember taking a pillowcase trick-or-treating and running around like a mad man trying to get to as many houses before the assigned time to be home. When we got home, we'd spread our candy out on the floor so my parents could inspect it to make sure it all looked safe and to get a piece or two for themselves.
This year, we went trick-or-treating with our best friends, Micheal and Barbara Fox. We went to a handful of houses with Beatrice, Solomon, Franklin, daddy, and the Foxes. Then the two little ones and the grownups headed back home. Franklin and I wanted to stay out a little bit longer. I'm so glad we did. I got to live vicariously through my four year old. We ran from house to house as quickly as we could. It was later in the evening and I think we were some of the last ones out trick-or-treating so a lot of houses gave us handfuls of candy when we showed up. Franklin filled his entire bucket by going to about 25 houses. It was incredible. I really loved spending some one-on-one time with my son, just running around being a kid again. I feel so blessed and fortunate to live in a country with such silly traditions and in a place that is safe enough to participate in such traditions. It's great to be a kid!

A Little Update

It's been a few weeks since our last post. I've been a bit busy with three children, plus I've taken on an extra kid during the week. His name is Jaidyn Torres. He's three months younger than Franklin and, for the most part, they get a long great. But it isn't easy to blog or do much when you've got kids to feed, clean up after, play peacekeeper for, and so on and so forth.

Not too long ago I put Beatrice in the tubby because she was a mess. The little girl is a great eater, but she needs to work on her table manners a bit. She's always eating with her hands and dripping food all down her front. She spills her drinks constantly and many times it seems as if there is more food in her hair than in her tummy.

This particular morning was extremely messy. I think Beatrice was trying to style her hair with maple syrup. I put her in the tubby and sat down at the computer, which is literally six feet away. I could see and hear her. She was having a great time and I was getting a minute of down time.

When I went to go wash her hair, I found her sitting in the bathtub with her favorite blanket. She has loved this blanket forever and ever. I guess so much so that she had to bring it into the tubby. How did I not notice her dragging it into the tub with her? It makes me wonder what else goes on while I'm at the computer. Something crazy could be happening while I type this...better go check...All is well.

Franklin had his Halloween party yesterday. He used the same skeleton costume from last year. When I bought it, it was way too big for him, but it was the smallest size the store had and Franklin wanted it so badly. It didn't cost much, so I bought it and definitely have gotten my money's worth. A year later, he still thinks it's "sooo awesome!" Yay! If we play our cards right, he can wear it again next year. Is that wrong to make a kid wear the same costume three years in a row? Will he later resent me for doing so? He wasn't too happy about the makeup job until he got to preschool and all the other boys said it was so cool. Thank you four-year-old boys for making my son feel scary and awesome!

Franklin loves preschool. He seems to be learning quite a bit and looks forward to going every other day. I hope he always has that enthusiasm for school. I'm sure most kids would if they got to color and have snack time every day. Who doesn't love a good snack?

We got to go on a field trip to a pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Pictured are the three stooges. Franklin, Jaidyn Torres, and JD McDonald. The three usually play pretty well together, but sometimes Jaidyn has to wiggle his way into Franklin and JD's circle. They've been best friends for two years now and it's been a little hard for them to let the new kid in, but all in all, boys will be boys and they don't have any problems with another boy joining in as long as his toys are awesome and he doesn't like girl colors.

The other day this cat showed up at our back porch. I thought it was Solomon crying, but every time I checked on Solomon, he was fast asleep. Finally I opened the back door to see what the sound was and in runs Mystery Cat. We call her that because she is a mystery. She was skin and bones and soooo hungry when she invited herself in.
I fed her and let her settle in a bit then did some investigating. She's been declawed and more than likely been fixed. She didn't appear sick at all, just really, really hungry. We don't know who she belongs to. For now we call her Mystery Cat and hope someone comes forth and adopts her.

Beatrice is two!!

Busy Beatrice turned two this past week. We had a great few days celebrating her birthday. She got some bedding for her big girl bed and a zhu-zhu pet that she calls Zhuzie. We let her eat as many oreos and cheetos as she wanted on her birthday and did a dozen other things to spoil her.
The day after, she woke up from her nap, and the first thing she said was, "I want cheetos mommy."
Our little princess is funny, smart, busy and makes our life such a joy.

I'm so sad that the video got cut off before I could get a kiss from her. She's so loving and can be so the opposite of loving too. She is a girl through and through. She throws her temper tantrums where she's spewing venomous words through tears and snot and know one knows what she wants and she doesn't know what she wants but she still continues to cry and scream and kick and hit. I think it's adorable! My mom says it's adorable when they're little, but not so much when they're teenagers...I have a feeling Beatrice is always going to be adorable.

Firty One Goals!

This is Franklin's third season playing soccer. He's now one of the "older" kids on the team and it shows. The first season his team was pretty even when it came to ball skills. Basically, none of the kids had any, but they were really good at chasing bugs and wrestling.
His second season all the kids were, once again, pretty evenly skilled. Some could dribble the ball, but would quickly lose it when another teammate or an opposing teammate would snatch it away. It was fun except for one teammate, the coach's kid. He was a bit older and waaaay more advanced. Every time he got the ball, he'd score. If he didn't have the ball, he'd get it and score. Yes, that's fun for him and for his parents and all those in the family, but for the others, it's no fun at all.
We lived through six games with the "coach's kid." Franklin only scored one goal because after five games of being bored out of my mind watching one kid dominate, I asked the coach if she could tell her kid to pass the ball every once in a while. Well it worked and Franklin got his one goal under his belt.
This season is so different. I'm not sure if it's because Franklin went to soccer camp this past summer or if it's because he's now one of the older kids on the team. I'm afraid though that our son has turned into the "coach's kid."
I've talked to him about passing and letting others have a turn, but somehow he keeps getting that ball and scoring. My husband kept telling me to lay off the kid and let him score as many as he wants, but I don't think that's fair to the other kids and those who came to watch them play. Plus, my husband and I have very different feelings about sports. I love a close game where the competition is even with a lot of back and forth. My husband likes to see big, blow outs. He loves it when a team wins by five touchdowns or 30 baskets or whatever the sport it. I don't think it's a sport when the score is so lopsided.
Anyhow, Oh how I love to see Franklin score a goal. He gets so excited and skips back to center field while pumping both arms up and down high above his head. Whenever he's asked how many goals he scored, he says, "Firty one!" Last year in preschool they learned to count to 31 and that has been his favorite number ever since.
I got a quick video of him scoring one of his "firty one" goals and would've like to have gotten more but my silly memory card was full.

Smiling Solomon

Our little baby is almost three months old now! He's growing and growing. At his two month check up he was 12lbs 4 oz which put him at 58% on the growth charts. We'll take it because once my kids start moving, they usually drop around the 20th percentile or less.
The other night Frank and I went on a date. An actual date! We left the kids with babysitters and spent five hours with each other. It was such a nice, needed night out.
While we were gone, our best friends took care of Solomon. They captured this cute little video footage of Solomon smiling and laughing. It was on an iphone...technology these days is AMAZING!