Already?

The two oldest kids have been up for 30 minutes. It's been fun listening to their excited whispers. At one point I heard Little Man say "Let's wake the rest of the family up." Sweet Pea said L
"We can't; I promised I wouldn't this year."

"Well I didn't!" was his reply.

They just came and asked if they could use my Bible so they could read the Christmas story to each other. Of course I said yes.

Still here

I hope each of you had a great Thanksgiving. We loaded up the van and headed for St. Louis to visit some of my family. The trip went surprisingly well, considering we're talking nine-plus hours in the van each way. The kids had fun playing with their cousins, and we all enjoyed catching up with people. We also took the kids to the Magic House, the St. Louis children's museum. If you ever get the chance to go, do it - but plan on it taking all day (but it's worth it).

It's always interesting reconnecting with family. For me, it ties you back in and separates you all at the same time. Still, I'm glad we went.

So, Thankgiving is over, but I'm still not back at work. I caught a bug somewhere along the way and have been laid up ever since. But the Christmas tree is up and Lil Bit is loving it, just like she did the lights we saw on our trip. It's cool seeing things new again through her eyes.

Sigh

Ever had one of THOSE weeks? I'm in the middle of one. In addition to a bunch of crazy stuff going on (as well as the normal crazy stuff going on), I was in a particularly bad mood over the weekend. It hit me why Sunday morning; it's my mom's birthday. For some reason, that hit me harder than usual this year. Circumstances around our lives lately only seemed to heighten the feelings.

In addition, Lil Bit had her very first school performance today, and all indications were I was going to have to miss it - actually, both mom and I were going to have to miss it. Just added on to the feelings.

Fortunately, we worked it out where we could both go. Granted, we got there late; we only saw the last couple of songs in the program (par for the course this week), but we were there. She was in the front row with her construction paper turkey hat on, a special shirt each child was wearing and a drum made out of an oatmeal box. She performed better than my other kids did at that age (in other words, she didn't just stand there), but she did seem to be just going through the motions. Then, all of a sudden, she spotted me in the crowd; the grin grew quickly and just about split her face, and her attitude changed dramatically. Soon after that, she spotted mom, and she got even more animated.

It was a pain working around our schedules to get there, but that grin and that inner glow when she saw us made it all worthwhile.

---

I know several of you are facing issues in your lives lately. I've hit your blogs as often as I could and have seen that, even if I haven't been able to post. Know that I haven't forgotten you and I am praying for you (and Susan; congratulations!).

What did he say?

The other day Lil Bit and I saw a preview for "March of the Penguins." One part showed a penguin squawking, and Lil Bit said "Daddy, what's he saying?" I said "He's saying 'Hi Lil Bit, it's time for you to go to sleep.'"

She thought for a moment and said "I thought he said 'Squawk squawk.'"

Big bash

Little Man had his first ever Upward basketball practice, and he started with a bang. They were warming up and he got hit in the face with the ball. He spit out a tooth and then the blood started flowing. He missed the start of practice while I worked to stop the bleeding. It eventually stopped and headed out to practice. What a start.

Now to go find out how Sweet Pea's first cheerleading practice went. Hopefully she came through intact.

HB

Just a late happy hallobirthdayween to my Little Man! And thanks to the bloggers who let us celebrate with them tonight.

Now to go reset the clocks.

Costumes

Lil Bit debated the Halloween costume issue last night.

"I gonna be Cinderella - no, I gonna be a blutterfy (that's how she says it).

"Momma, are you gonna be a bat?"

Where'd it go?

It was a lot easier to get Little Man out of bed yesterday than usual; checking to see if the Tooth Fairy showed up does that I guess. After checking out his gold dollar coin, he got a pensive look on his face. When I asked him what was up, he said "I wonder where the Tooth Fairy went to college." No idea where that came from.

Lil Bit is still on her music kick. She her own, very unique, version of the Hannah Montana theme song almost constantly. This can involve wiggling, kicking and outright dancing. Sometimes it will morph into her singing "Shake your booty, yeah, yeah," complete with dancing (although sometimes she shakes her head more than her booty). Still, she keeps pretty good time for a 3-year-old.

My day

Mom had to work late (again), so I was flying solo. Little Man doesn't have homework on Wednesdays and Sweetpea finished hers before I picked them up. When I got there, I was greeted by a grinning, snaggle-toothed boy who lost a front one.

We went to a local playground to let them burn off some energy, then headed home to eat. Lil bit is catching on to potty training, and worked on her singing in the process ("Say 'whoa' daddy. No, like this; 'whooooaaa.'").

Some clothes washed, e-mailing a friend and night-night prayers and we call it a day. If I can get them to stay in bed.

HB

Today is my sweet wife's birthday and I want to go on record that Sweetpea, Little Man, Lil Bit and I are lucky to have her.

Ring!

I just got a new phone - once I figure out how to use it, my posts should be more frequent.

Lively

Dang it, the weekend's almost over. I'm not ready to head back to the salt mines ...

Sweet Pea had a sleepover Friday night, and it went well. Little Man and me went to the local high school football game, giving them some time to themselves to get settled. She's had several sleepovers before, but this one seemed different. They seemed to really click, nobody tried to dominate the other one, and they had a blast. We then had friends over Saturday night to watch the Southern Miss game - didn't turn out like we wanted, but we had fun. We then went out to lunch after church with some friends (including Lil Bit's "boyfriend"). He rode with us, so we got to listen (and laugh at) their old married routine - fighting and getting along, then repeating the process.

Speaking of Lil Bit, she cracked us up the other night. I had had one of THOSE days at work, and was pretty wound up. As you know, it's hard to talk seriously when you're being interrupted by "Momma, Daddy" so we went and locked ourselves in the bedroom. Before we did, Lil Bit said "No huggin' or kissin' OK?" We laughed, then went on in so I could vent. A little while later, we hear this voice coming from under the door; "Are y'all done yet?" That helped my mood a lot.

Is this thing on?

You know, not having access to a decent computer (and time to use it) can be tough when you're trying to maintain a blog. Hopefully that will change soon.

Quick update (I'll try to do a real blog soon); my new job is ... interesting. The kids are doing fine (growing like weeds). Both Sweet Pea and Little Man are doing well in school, and Lil Bit is still cracking us up. I'll try to get some stories on here soon.

Have a good one!

Onward and Upward

Monday night snuck up on us; it was tryout night for Upward. We've never done Upward before, but we felt Little Man needed to try something other than baseball (he's doing basketball) and Sweet Pea, for the first time in her life, showed interest in doing something (she's doing cheerleading).

Mom called in a panic and told me what was up, so I hurried up there to join in (fortunately, all of this happens at their after-school care location). When I got there, Little Man was bouncing off the walls; he was incredibly excited. He couldn't stop grinning throughout the process. What got me though was Sweet Pea. She has spent her life being totally uninvolved (and in fact tried to back out right before tryouts - her mom nixed that), so this is her first time to do anything like this. I looked over while she was trying on uniforms; her eyes were dancing. That alone made this process worth it to me.

Arrgh!

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday. I'm in a training class (so no office life for me!) for a few days.

Just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow (Saturday) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day; do your part to spread the spread the skull and crossbones love, maties!

Noticing things

I took Little Man to the local high school football game Friday night. It was then I realized how much he's starting to grow up.

He had purchased some spirit tattoos and had them on his face. As we were walking up to the stadium, the visiting team's cheerleaders walked by. I pointed out who they were; his eyes got wide and his hands shot to his face. "You don't think they saw my stickers, do you?" After all, he'd hate to lose his shot at them because he roots for the other team ...

Later in the game the home team made a big play. When everybody roared, he looked at me and said "What happened? I was watching the cheerleaders."

This and that

What a day.

While Mom worked late, I got the kids, and then bravely (stupidly?) headed to the grocery store. It went about as well as could be expected, which had my fuse rather short by the time we got home.

At that time, I had to check progress reports on the older two kids. My first thought was "Why can't they talk in English instead of telling me the grade in rote base something." I then read Little Man's report from his teacher, who said "What can I say? He's an outstanding student and a very sweet and well-mannered boy." OK, that helped my mood some.

Dinner was ready about the time Mom walked in; good timing. I snuck in on Sweet Pea a little later, seeing her literally lick her plate. Right after that, Lil Bit was scarfing down her food. Guess daddy's dinner was OK.

We ended with Lil Bit bouncing off the walls in some sort of free-form patter.

"I'm a silly monkey face - BLEH!"

"I'm gonna mess you up!"

"Abba Gabba Hey is coming on (OK, there may have been a bit of a Ramones influence in there as I helped her learn the name of the show)!"

"Boom shakalaka BOOM!"

They ain't heavy ...

I've really been impressed with Little Man lately. He seems to be showing a new level of responsibility and concerns for others' feelings, and that especially reaches to his sisters. Of course, his big sister continues to blow him off completely, but he's still doing what he can (and there are times when I can tell she notices).

It's really taken off with Lil Bit. She loves having the attention of her big brother and he likes having someone appreciate his efforts, so they really feed off each other (sometimes to their parents' breaking point). He'll sit with her and play or watch TV (her shows) and try to include her in what he does, when he can. Is he perfect? Nope. Case in point; his mom told him to keep an eye on his sister while she did something - next thing you know he's wandered off and she's climbing the ladder to the attic. Still, for someone his age, he takes care of her remarkably well. And there's no doubt that she loves it.

Happy long weekend!

Hope y'all are having fun doing ... well, hopefully, not much of anything.

We got back from Southern Miss' beatdown of Alcorn State very late last night. We had good food at our tailgate, a good mixture of old and new friends, and the kids had fun too. Little Man LOVES to go down; he puts on his football uniform and he and his friends play ball for hours. Lil Bit got to run around, laugh and play with one of her buddies. Sweet Pea is not interested in all of this, but had to go anyway, and ended up having a lot of fun too (although she won't admit it). They all passed out in the van on the way home (not too long after we left too), which made for a quiet trip back.

Now if we could only get them to take a nap today ...

Drive-by posting

Things have been hectic and I haven't had time to get on here, but thought I'd do an update. My MIL had her MRI done, but because of some confusion between the two doctors involved, we still don't have results. We're trying to get some stuff worked out with Sweet Pea as well; we'll see where that goes. Plus both of the older kids are starting to get the bug to get involved with things, so we're trying to juggle all of that as well and see what we can pull off and what we can manage.

Lil Bit had some issues at the new daycare, primarily with someone she called the "scary boy." I think he's been pulled out though, so hopefully things will get better. She's been in a better mood the last couple of days when we dropped her off, so hopefully that's a good sign.

So, who's ready for a long weekend?

Prayer request

My mother-in-law just went to the doctor; they found two masses around her stomach. She is going for an MRI today (Thursday). Any prayers would be appreciated.

Still growing up

And they keep getting bigger; Lil Bit turns three today. I'm guessing it will be a Dora day for her.

Growing up

Gee, I hope I get to hit this thing more than once a week. Maybe when I get a new phone ... and maybe then I'll get to visit other blogs as well!

I've really noticed lately how the kids are growing up. Sweet Pea has now turned double digits (her party is coming up). Her mom came out of the bathroom the other day with a "I'm not ready for this" look on her face - the two of them had agreed that it was time for Sweet Pea to start shaving her legs. Just one more step to leaving.

Heck, even Lil Bit's getting more and more independent (and stubborn).

Mom got pushed over the edge though by Little Man the other night. He wanted her to come in and read to him, and he had picked the book Guess How Much I Love You for her to read. Needless to say, Mom's reading ability got worse and worse as the book went along. Near the end, she was so choked up she couldn't continue, so Little Man took the book from her and read - without an ounce of understanding of the irony - the words to her that said he would hold her one day when she could no longer hold him.

Sigh.

One down ...

Well, my first week is done.

You know, there's always an adjustment when you move to a new job, and this one is no different in that aspect. However, it's also a major change in both work and environment, so things are even more interesting, in terms of the learning curve. Each day has seemed ... well, without so much unknown facing me.

The kids have also finished their first week of school. Lil Bit is a bit clingy when we drop her off in the morning at her new class, but she's also got one of her best buddies in there, and, from what we've heard, things are going fine and they're hanging out frequently. The older two seem to be fine with their new teachers, class and everything else. Hope it stays that way.

Ch-ch-changes

There's a lot going on in my life right now. School started today for Sweet Pea and Little Man, and I start my new job tomorrow. In addition, tomorrow is Sweet Pea's birthday. We've been hopping lately.

It's made me take the time to pay more attention to them, considering how fast they're growing up. For instance, there's nothing like a snuggle from a little one, like when Lil Bit crawled in bed with me the other night. Or the way Little Man's eyes light up when he gets a good surprise. Or the way Sweet Pea throws her head back when she loses herself in a laugh.

These are things I want to remember as things around me continually change.

Enough!

The belts on our dryer are near the end of their life span, and their death rattle is shaking the windows. Last night we were drying some clothes and Lil Bit stood up and said "No more!" She went into the laundry room, pulled up a box and turned off the dryer.

First post!

I guess I'll keep this thing going for now ...

Speaking of change, yesterday was Lil Bit's first day in her new daycare. She had really bonded with her friends and teachers, so I was concerned about how she'd do with such a move.

I shouldn't have worried.

When we picked her up, her teachers had an incredulous look on their faces. They said that it was like she had been there her entire life. Ironically, another girl started that day and was in her class, and apparently Lil Bit hit it off with her. When Mom dropped them off this morning, they repeated what was said earlier; it was like she had always been there. In fact, Mom said that, when they got there, Lil Bit ran down the hall and said "Look Mom, it's my room!"

I hope next week goes that well for me.