Arts and Crafts Save the Day

Up until about a month ago, the only way for the boys and I to have a really good day was to go outside and play. They needed (or more accurately, the oldest one needed) to run around, jump off of high things, pedal his bike, run as fast as he could, and yell at the top of his lungs in order to stay in a good mood the rest of the day. Of course going outside to play didn't guarantee a good mood, but it made it more likely. It was always, always worth a try.

It would be an easy thing to do every day if I wasn't so lazy.

Sometimes I want to stay in my pajamas. I get bored with the thought of going across the street to throw rocks down the big grates - again. I don't want to walk all the way to the park. Sometimes I haven't showered and so I don't even want to walk around the block. Sometimes it is raining and I don't feel like doing all the laundry that comes after jumping in puddles. Sometimes I just want to stay inside. Sometimes I think they will be fine if we spend the morning inside.

I always get burned.

The worst part is that not only do I end up having to deal with the meltdowns, but I also feel guilty that they are so grouchy and miserable because I know I had a good chance to prevent it and I didn't. So then we eat lunch grumpy and I truck Jett off to school grumpy and he doesn't want to stand in line and he yells at his friends and I stand there feeling guilty and embarrassed. And also resentful that we can't just have a nice relaxing morning at home. Don't most kids have nice relaxing mornings at home? How does that happen?

And then my kids started doing this.



They started doing arts and crafts all morning.



All morning long. Then again after school. Then again after dinner.



I hope this arts and crafts phase lasts all winter.

It's their little secret

The best thing about the bunk beds so far is that I keep catching the boys being friends.

Me Help You!

Why are they so helpful when they are really too young to do anything? Here is Kai trying to help by insisting on holding the hammer while Charlie nails a hook into the wall.



Kai also wants to get his own glass of water from the fridge - but he overflows it until it spills all over the floor. He wants to brush his own teeth - but never gets the back ones. He wants to buckle his own car seat, but he isn't quite strong enough. He wants to put the DVDs in and out of the DVD player, but he scratches them. He wants to feed me all of his peas instead of eating them himself. I guess that one I can understand.

Happy...

...rough-housing.

Happy footballing.

Happy gingerbread-house-making.

Happy taking the gingerbread-house-making very seriously.

Happy handprint-turkey-making.

Happy snoozing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Genius...

...just took a test to see if he could get in to any of the gifted or classical schools in Chicago. Will this ability help his chances?



The tests took Jett about 30 minutes, and since I had to stay in the waiting room, I don't know what was involved, but at least he walked out happy. I do know that the test examiner asked him to say the alphabet, because Jett told me that he told him all 5 ABCs. All five? Oh yes - the Sesame Street one, the slow one, the fast one, the loud one, the quiet one, and the Signing Time one. I think Jett sang the ABCs to that guy five times in a row - and did it in sign language too. My funny little periodically-overachiever.

Bunks

Kai's last night in his crib. He likes to hold one of our hands as he falls asleep, the sweetie. He also likes to have his blanket covering his legs as he falls asleep and this has gotten much easier now that he's graduated from baby blanket to big kid blanket. He also asks us to rub his back as he falls asleep, but then he gets mad when we actually do. We haven't figured out how to solve that one yet, except to just hold his hand. But enough of the crib....

...the bunk beds are up! For some reason I feel compelled to explain that they aren't typical bunk beds. It's really the reversible bed from IKEA, in the high position, with a mattress on the floor for Kai. We went with the reversible bed instead of a bunk bed for a few reason. First, it's awfully cute, especially with that canopy it comes with. Second, it's not as high as a regular bunk bed. The top bunk is below my shoulders, meaning I can stand next to the bed and I'm still taller than Jett. This is important because I like to assert my authority in every possible way. Thirdly, this small bed fits in their small room.

Charlie and Jett built the bed on Monday night. They built it from 7:00 until 10:00 at night, which was awesome, because Kai and I were having a great time running around them in circles, throwing the screws they dared leave on the ground, and picking up the wooden pieces and swinging them like a baseball bat. It was especially fun because Charlie had to build the beds in their bedroom, so none of us could go to bed even if we wanted to. It was fantastic.

Jett helped a lot. That kid can work an alan wrench. Have I mentioned on here before that once I gave Jett an alan wrench and let him take apart his kid-sized table and chairs? He can take them apart and put them back together again and all I have to do is hold the pieces steady. Anyway, what I want to remember about building the bunk beds is how proud Jett was to help. At one point everything was done except screwing in the wood slats that his mattress rests on. Charlie, the boys and I slid them all in to place and Charlie started screwing them in. That is when Jett realized that he could get his little chair, put it in the middle of the framed bed, stand on the chair, and reach the wooden slats - and maybe screw some in - himself. The look on his face when he stepped up on to that chair and stood higher than the slats - the look on his face was just super cute. His little lips curved up like a comma on one side, squinched together on the other side, trying not to smile. He was a proud little kid trying to play it cool and it came off completely charming. Three inconsequential seconds I hope I never forget.



So the beds got made and at 10:30 pm, 2 1/2 hours past his bedtime, Kai climbed in to the bottom bunk like he had been sleeping there all his life. Jett climbed up the ladder and under the canopy and laid down, and after about 27 books, backrubs, and made-up-stories, both of them fell asleep.

Two hours later they woke up, and they didn't sleep again for two days.

Yesterday I took stock of the situation. First I took off the flat sheets, since Jett had been waking me up multiple times a night to come and fix his sheets. They've never slept with flat sheets before, because they don't make flat sheets for crib/toddler bed mattresses. Secondly I took off that super cute canopy. Whenever I was in his room and attending to Kai, Jett would whisper/scream down from the top bunk, "Are you still here, Mom? When are you leaving the room, Mom? Are you going to rub my back again before you leave? Are you still here?" It finally dawned on me that if the canopy wasn't blocking his view he could see what was going on and maybe he could relax. Finally, I took the boys to Target and let them pick out their own comforters. This went against the design I had in mind, but I am a sucker for happy boys who sleep all night. Now we've got Spider Man on the top bunk and Buzz Lightyear on the bottom bunk and it really doesn't look that bad. It looks like two kids sleep there. And now they do.



Currently their little room is stuffed with the bunk bed and the crib. It's a bit packed. Once I get the room arranged to my liking I'll take a picture of the finished project.

Charlie was hogging the computer all night so this was all I could come up with

I would have posted pictures of the bunk-beds tonight, but Charlie has been hogging the computer trying to find us all new doctors. Blue Cross and Blue Shield has decided not to deal with any of our doctors anymore, so we have to find new ones. We just chose these doctors about 6 months ago and paid $60 or something to get copies of the kids' medical records transferred (by me) from our old doctors to these new ones. It's a big pain, like these things are. I am not ashamed to say that our insurance was better when we were being funded by the state. We kept our original doctors (who we still miss), we didn't need referrals, and we didn't have any co-pays. Also it was free. For me, not for you. Although we did have to go through this, and we did have to keep ourselves from melting in to the floor every time the pharmacist yelled out, "MEDICAID!"

But that was long ago. Tonight we selected our new doctors. We'll now be driving north to Lincolnwood or some other northern land to see a new pediatrician, and down to Bridgeport to visit our pediatric dentist (who is awesome, but more about that later). At least Charlie and I found an office close to home. The best thing about this is that Charlie's job ends in January, so we might get to do this all again in just two short months. That will be fun.

So that is that. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of those nifty bunk beds and the cute kids who sleep in them. Although I do like it when Tio Chris resorts to texting me reminders to post pictures of the boys. But I think he's just feeling nostalgic for bunk beds and brothers and I KNOW he just wants to know when Jett is going to start jumping from the top bunk. Well Chris, it has already happened. Stop cheering!

(At least we've selected his doctor).

More to come!

On Sunday....

We bought the boys bunk beds! (More details to come). And I did this.

Halloween....

was fun! Was it really so many weeks ago?

Our first party was at Jett's preschool, where there were two Spidermans (including Jett) and two Buzz Lightyears (including Kai). Kai tagged along with me (and I tagged along with Jett) to preschool for the party. Kai loved it, and I tried to not create more work for all of the parents who were actually helping. Funny that I thought I would be able to help with the party. I should have known that I would spend my whole time trying to keep Kai from running with scissors.

Our second party was at our friends' house, where there were again two Spidermans and two Buzz Lightyears. Here is the web that kept trapping all of the Superheroes. Also, my parents were in town and they dressed up for the party (as a pirate and as an m&m). Aren't they good sports? Also, a funny bit of trivia, I also later discovered that the monk I had talked to at the party was actually the drummer from Wilco.

Finally, on Halloween night we headed up to Evanston to trick-or-treat with the cousins. It was a little chilly, so I suited Kai up in the cozy bear costume. The cousins got a lot of loot. In fact, halfway through the night Kai decided he'd rather do it the easy way - stay on the stroller and start noshing. It was a delicious night.

One tip I hope I remember next year: dress the boys in a costume that is less exciting, less heroic, less likely to inspire leaping and fighting. Jett didn't just put on a costume, he put on a persona. Invisible webs flew all over our condo. Spidey lept from tall buildings as high as the back of our couch. He dared Buzz Lightyear to cross his path, and then made it impossible for Buzz not to. To be blunt, Spidey and Buzz were out of control. Next year they are going as butterflies.

The Newborn Bermuda Triangle. (Or) I am allowed to be sentimental once in a while.

Some good friends of mine had a baby this morning, and they live miles and miles away. In fact, as of 9:04 this morning, their distance from me increased by about 10,000 miles. Because when someone you love has a baby, you just want to be there. I want to hug my friends, hold the baby, and then cook a bunch of dinners and put them in their freezer.

If you've had a baby, you want to be there because you know what it feels like. You're in that hospital room and nurses are walking by outside the door, traffic is moving on the street below, someone is calling your cell phone for the 2nd time, and it doesn't matter. Without trying you've become a master of meditation. All the unessentials float right on past without interrupting your state of mind. They disappear. All of your attention is in your arms, or in the crib next to you, or with the most important person in the world who is sitting next to you, holding a part of you.

You sit in the bed and hold the baby while he sleeps. He sleeps and sleeps and sleeps and you miss his eyes because you've only seen them twice since he was born 4 hours ago. Then he stirs and maybe he cries and you hold him this way or that way and it comforts him and you're amazed. A little while later he cries again and you hold him this way or that and he quiets again and you are still amazed. He cries a third time and again you hold him this way or that but he keeps crying and keeps crying and this time it takes you 10 full minutes to comfort him. The heavy burden of parenthood drapes itself around your shoulders. You feel unqualified.

Your baby cried for 10 minutes, but then he stopped. He stopped crying and looked at you and you looked back while the world waited. He is quiet now, and gazing at you. You introduce yourself and tell your baby your first name. You still feel more like his guide than his mother. You bring him to your cheek and you feel cautiously, hesitantly, powerful.

Your baby is still gazing at you. His expression is so serious that he looks like he is putting a curse upon your house. It freaks you out a little because it really looks like he is sending you a message with his eyes. You laugh out loud to break the spell and the nurse brings your lunch and your cell phone rings again and you turn on the TV and you remember that other people's days are half over by now.

You've been awake for 22 hours and for the first time in a long time it doesn't matter what time it is. You have no where to go except two steps over to the crib. You have nothing to do but sit in bed and hold the baby. You sleep when you're tired and turn the lights on when you're awake and the only reason you look at the clock is to check to see how long ago the baby ate. You didn't expect the hospital to be so comfortable but you think you might stay for as long as you possibly can. You think that this is the easiest it is ever going to be and you are right.

The baby is sleeping so you do too. When you wake up two hours later you panic, not knowing what you've missed. But there is your husband, holding the baby. He looks at you and laughs out loud. The baby is putting a curse on me, he says. The new day begins.

It's Fall

and we've been doing Fall things.

lining up dominoes in the shape of a ghost - he did this himself!

oh yes, Kai has a costume too.

Sweet Daze

I caught Kai watching Sesame Street the other day. This is the expression he wears every time Elmo's World comes on. I think he's in love with that little red monster.

Shopping and a Question

Do you remember a few months ago when I did that giveaway to CSN stores? (CSN stores is a collection of online stores that sell a wide variety of products, like dining sets, pet supplies, and shoes.) They've contacted me again and asked if I'd like to review an item for them. I thought about it for a while and decided that, yes, I would like to review an item for them. This was heavily influenced by the fact that they are sending me a $40 gift certificate to put towards the purchase of any item I choose to review. I'm still deciding, but I've narrowed my choices down to two things: dishes or sheets. Exciting, right?

These are the dishes we registered for when we got married. We have an odd collection of them - something like 6 bowls, 4 mugs, 6 small plates, and 4 big plates. It would be nice to add an item or two to our collection. I was pretty surprised to see that CSN stores carries them., because they've been hard to find.

I could also go with some blue bed sheets. We have a blue comforter and blue and green curtains and...red bed sheets left over from a very poor decorating decision. It looks kind of ridiculous, but we're on a budget over here, and new sheets haven't been a priority. But if you are offering me free sheets, they might rise to the top of the list.

This got me thinking of other things we need to buy - like a bed for Kai. At 2 1/2 I think he's starting to mentally outgrow his crib. Yesterday he tried to take a nap in Jett's bed, for example. It must be frustrating for him - every morning Jett wakes up, gets dressed, and comes in to our room. A few minutes later Kai starts calling to us to get him out of his crib. When they have trouble falling asleep at night, Jett gets up and comes and talks to us. Kai is left to call to us from his crib. Kai does so many more things than Jett did at his age - Kai tags along at preschool and he plays with the four and five-year-olds on the playground, but once he's in that crib, he's back to babyhood. (Which, by the way, is fine with me. I like to have at least one of them contained at all times). In addition to this, Jett wants bunk beds. I personally am not ready for bunk beds, because I'm afraid of Jett falling down the ladder when he wakes up in the middle of the night. But I've been doing some research and I've found something called loft beds. I'm sure they're not new, maybe you all have known about them your whole life. But I just figured out what they were, which is essentially a bed on stilts - that is not as high as a bunk bed. The loft beds don't come with a lower bunk, but couldn't I put a mattress for Kai on the ground underneath the loft bed? Then Jett wouldn't be so high off the ground but it would still be fun for him, and we'd save floor space, like you do with bunk beds. Or is there a reason someone shouldn't sleep underneath a loft bed? Do you know? Seriously. If you know anything about this, please leave me a comment. I need your help.

Now, finally, after you've slogged your way through this most exciting post, here is a picture for your viewing pleasure. The boys can be very snuggly at bedtime.

Pledging Allegiance

First off, I feel compelled to say that if I had a flag of Chile we'd be waving that tonight. Just amazing.

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Last week at preschool Jett had the honor of holding the flag while the class performed their daily ritual of saying the Pledge of Allegiance. He was so excited about this responsibility that Kai and I stayed to watch. Here is our proud little patriot.

Trucks

One of my boys' favorite activities is playing in the car, which is a shame, because I hardly ever let them do it. I used to let Jett do it all of the time, but I'm a million times busier these days and am not content to sit on the sidewalk while the kids bang around in there, leaving footprints all over the seats and handprints all over the windows. So when our friends in the 'burbs invited us to join them at their neighborhood "Touch a Truck" event, we hurried right over.

Cue the lights, cue the music, the heavens just opened up, right over a mall parking lot.

The mall parking lot was full of more trucks than I have ever seen at one time in my entire life. Fire trucks, dump trucks, tow trucks, ambulances, snow plows, garbage trucks, trucks I don't even know the name of, and even a helicopter. Doors were flung open and the kids were all over the trucks, climbing in and out, sitting in the seats, flipping the switches, honking the horns, honking the horns, honking the horns.....

The horns were a problem. It was so noisy that Jett kept his hands over his ears, and would not take them off even to climb in or out of a truck. Those trucks are so big. BIG, people. I had no idea how big they were. A street cleaning truck doesn't look that huge from my third-story window. Climbing into every truck required climbing up at least two steps, and those steps felt taller than my shoulder.

Anyway, we clearly needed a solution for Jett, which was to stick a wad of tissue into each of his hears. Finally he was "hands-free" ad we could get down to the business of climbing. He started to relax. He started to get in to it. So much so that he stood quiet and still in a crowd of people under the blazing sun for 10 minutes - without even asking for a snack - waiting for the firemen to start their demonstration of how they rescue someone from an overturned car.

(Did I mention that Jett wants to be a fireman when he grows up? But not just a regular fireman. He wants to be a fat fireman. Go figure).

But as much fun as Jett had at this event, I think Kai really got the most out of it. He just looked so fantastically satisfied at it all. He spent 10 minutes in one truck without any other kids asking to come in, and he was completely content. At the end of the day he and Jett were both flithy- from the pavement and the sweat and the dirt on those huge tires that they had to keep running their hands over. Their little legs were indented with grids from the steps they climbed up and down - a foot on the first step, a shin on the other, careful, careful. They were in heaven....in heaven in trucks at the mall.

Our personal playground

The other day the boys and I took some balls to the school yard across the street and spent an hour running after them. The balls were all at least as big as my fist, and some were bigger. Nevertheless, Kai thought one had slipped through the grates, and he spent an unreasonable amount of time peering down into the darkness, trying to find it.



We've been playing in the school yard since Jett could walk, and I've written about it a few times (here, here, and here, for example). I don't think I've mentioned the various safety hazards we have to watch out for, like an enticing but probably bug-and-litter ridden sand pit and raised rectangles of grass surrounded by brick walls that would be perfect to fall from. There is also a big wooden deck, serving no obvious purpose, that is full of jagged holes and rotting boards. The deck would be perfect to play on if it was safe, because it is right next to the giant grates that the boys like to throw rocks through, but we've always had to keep them off of it until now....



...because now it is all gone! Excellent! Getting rid of that wooden platform gives me one less thing to say "No" too. Thank you, CPS.

On a side note, the other day Charlie, the boys, and I were reading a book about animals that live in your backyard. I mentioned that we don't have a backyard, and Jett piped up, "No, but we have a school!" Right on, kiddo. Right on.

Appendix:1 Wardrobe Challenge: 0

I spent Saturday in the ER, got my appendix taken out on Sunday, and I've been in leisure clothes ever since. I pulled the boys out of the challenge because I'm relying on Charlie and my mother-in-law and my mom to dress them, and making them remember that they can only wear 15 items, and to plan accordingly, is more of a burden than I care to put on a care taker. I suppose I'm technically still in the 15:30 challenge because loungewear doesn't count against your 15 items, but my belly is so swollen from surgery, I don't know when I'll be back to wearing regular clothes. Actually, now that I think about it, I've been wearing the same 3 items since Sunday, so I guess I'm conducting my own, tougher wardrobe challenge - except of course, I haven't left the house.

Currently Kai is crying in his crib while my mother-in-law and I try to nap and Jett is at school and my feet are freezing and I try not to sound too cranky on the blog, but there it is. Blegh.

Kai wants me and I can't pick him up and he doesn't know why and I'll be better soon but in the mean time it's plain depressing.

15:30 Challenge, Day 3

Here is a picture of the boys at the park with their cousin, Ellie. It's hard to see the details of what they are wearing. Jett is wearing a t-shirt that he painted himself, and Kai is wearing a t-shirt from Threadless. The picture of me is totally blah, and I took it at the end of the day, so you get no picture of my tired* face, but a lovely view of our bathroom sink. Like I said, the hardest thing about this challenge is posting a picture of myself everyday.

Why am I so tired. you ask? Well, the long story is.....prior to the Hall Family Vacation Jett was sleeping on the floor of our room every night. We got in to that habit because it was just so easy to get him to bed if we let him sleep in our room. He fell asleep within minutes of laying down in our room every night, with all of the lights on, even if we were folding laundry, or working on the computer, or cleaning the closet. He just fell asleep, it was so easy.

But part of us really wanted him to sleep in his own bed.

At one point Charlie started talking to Jett about one day having bunk beds. Jett started telling Aunt Heather about the bunk beds he would have one day, and she mentioned that he had to sleep in his own bed first, if he wanted to get bunk beds. And that was all it took. After vacation he started sleeping in his own bed. (Just another example of the influence my sister Heather wields around).

The only problem is that every night between 3 and 4 a.m., he wakes up and comes in to our room and asks he to rub his back. So I follow him back to his room and rub his back for a minute and he falls back asleep. Kind of like a newborn. Sometimes it takes me half an hour or an hour to fall back asleep myself. Then he's back at my side between 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning, whining, "I want to plaaaaaayyyy with you. I want to plaaaaaayyyyy with you." Mornings are difficult because if I'm really tired I turn on the TV and then we have to battle over that later. And if I agree to play with him I'm more sleepy than attentive and kind of crabby, so he gets crabby. I'm not sure how to get him out of the back-rubbing habit, because I don't want to upset him in the middle of the night. He's always kind of out of sorts, plus he shares a room with Kai, and I don't want to wake Kai up.

And that's the story of why I'm so tired and therefore unwilling to put my face on the internet tonight.

I will write about more interesting things soon, promise.

Good night!

15:30 Challenge, Day 2

So far the hardest thing about this challenge is taking a picture of myself that is good enough that I'm willing to post it online. Jett took my picture today.

Our outfits today were very basic, because I thought we'd be playing in the rain. Thankfully after we went to the dry cleaners and Trader Joe's, and after the air-conditioner repairman was finished repairing the a/c, the rain stopped. We spent the late afternoon playing in the space between the puddles and the sun.

It was an especially good couple of hours of playing outside. The boys were both in great moods. We played across the street in the school yard for two hours with two balls, two hula hoops, and their bikes. Plus there was a dad with his baby and, separately, two high school girls hanging out at the school. We all must have thought we were living in the south, because we chatted and talked the whole time while the boys played around us. Every now and then even Chicago feels like a small town.

15:30 Challenge, Day 1

It's the end of the first day and Jett has Nutella all over his t-shirt. I don't think that kid is going to make it on 15 items of clothes for the month. I wore shorts all day, but changed into a dress for a work meeting in the evening. Three items of clothes worn on just the first day. However, the good news is that I picked a dress to wear to the wedding this weekend, which leaves me one more item of clothing for a total of 15 items. I chose a black ruffled tank with sequins.

Here are the outfits for the day. I think they may be the most out of focus, unflattering pictures I've ever posted on the blog. In fact, I'm not even posting the picture of me because it is so bad. (I wore a blue button down short sleeve shirt and khaki shorts most of the day, and my brown dress in the evening). Good thing the kids are so cute no matter what kind of picture I take. By the way, Jett's t-shirt made the cut because he painted it himself and he loves it. Plus if he had to go a month without wearing one of his painted t-shirts, we'd lose the challenge on the first day. Wait until you see his other painted t-shirt that made the cut.

15:30

The wardrobe challenge. It's all over the place these days. The first time I heard about it, the challenge was to wear only 6 items of clothing for an entire month. It counted pajamas and work out wear, everything. Pretty extreme. Last week my sister forwarded me an easier challenge that a different blogger gave to her readers: wear only 15 wardrobe items over the course of 30 days. It's a little more relaxed, but not entirely easy. Less puritan, more realistic. So...I'm taking the challenge, and so are Jett and Kai. I'm doing it myself because it's something fun to do long-distance with my sister. I'm making Jett and Kai do it to keep it interesting. Here are the rules:

1. Select 15 items from your closet: These can include shirts, trousers, jeans, cardigans, dresses, etc — in short, clothing. Make your final selections by August 30th.

2. Use unlimited accessories: Remix your outfits relying on all of your jewelry, shoes, scarves, outerwear (blazers/suit jackets do not equal outerwear!), and belts.

3. Captain Obvious: your pajamas and lounge-at-home clothing do not count, undergarments do not count, gym clothes do not count.

4. Make the COMMIT LIST: Document your list on your blog, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, loose-leaf paper, etc. Feel free to snap photographs of the items, list them — get creative! This is your commit list, and you can’t stray from it. Stain on shirt? DEAL WITH IT. Cat ripped your pants? Get a SEWING KIT.

5. Keep a diary: Document your outfits each day, whether it be via an “outfit of the day” photo or a log of what you’ve worn and how you’ve mixed it up.

6. Ask for help!: Call your friends, pen a blog. Don’t be afraid to ask friends for help on creative ideas on keeping your wardrobe fresh!

15 wardrobe items only for 30 days! Can you do it? Yes you can!

I just spent the last 30 minutes picking out my 15 items. I don't really like my wardrobe right now (a symptom of living on Main Street and having no natural fashion sense), so I spent the entire time trying to decide which items of clothing I hated the least. It was kind of depressing, and I'm less excited about this challenge than I was before. On the other hand, I've pretty much cleaned out my closet for the season, so that's something.

To keep it interesting, I am committing Jett and Kai to the challenge. They each get 15 items to wear over the month of September. This will be much harder on me than keeping to my own 15 items, since they are so messy and sweaty and I generally change their clothes at least once a day already. Add to that Jett's new habit of chewing on his shirt until it is sopping wet, and his preference for picking out his own clothes, and you've got yourself a challenge.

Wondering what I picked out? Here are the pictures.

Amy: 2 khaki shorts, 2 jeans, 5 shirts, 1 dress, 1 cardigan, 2 lightweight sweaters = 13 items. I'll add one or two more items once I figure out what I'm wearing to a wedding this coming weekend.

Kai: 2 long sleeve shirts, 6 t-shirts, 2 jeans, 4 shorts, 1 sweatshirt

Jett: 5 shirts for school, 2 shirts for play, 3 shorts for school, 2 shorts for play, 2 jeans, 1 long sleeve shirt. I don't know if he'll make it through September without a sweatshirt, but I can't picture giving any other items up to make room for one.

I'll post a picture of our outfits every day, although now that I write it, blogging about it seems a bit vain....who cares what I wear? What? Oh, yes, that's right, I write a BLOG. About MYSELF.

Ahem.

I also have a handful of stories to share too, so consider this a kick-off to a month of daily blogging. Here we go!

Boo-boos: A discussion

Although I'm sure no one finds this as charming as me, I wish I could upload the entire 4 minute video here. You'd see the beginning of their sweet conversation. You're probably thanking me that I only uploaded the 50 seconds that my phone edited for you.

Here are the boys, examining their vacation wounds.

Gymnastics

This summer Jett took gymnastics at one of the local parks. He seemed to love it, but since the parents couldn't come in to the class with the kids, I never really knew what went on. Wednesday was the last day, and all of the parents were invited in to watch. Now I know why he is so sweaty at the end of each class! I hope to sign both Jett and Kai up in the fall.

On the balance beam.

Which one is the gymnastics student?

Washing Hands

A picture tutorial.