The funny ones!

Here are just of few funny ones of Zion.  I don't feel like have have done as many blogs about him as I should have.  Oh well.

I tried to put him face down in hopes that he would be able to lift his face high enough to clear the grass, but he wasn't even close.  It was funny to see him try to figure out his first experience in grass.

Just a funny face that is much funnier in person.

And we are not complete without a video.

I LOVE THREE

I have always loved the age three.  And the more children I have the more I love it.  I will always regret not appreciating Cariña as much as did with the other ones, but I am guessing she is not the first eldest that gets an overly strict mother that loosens up with the more kids she has. I guess that is why the youngest always seems to get spoiled. :) 

Things I love about three in no particular order.  I love they they are still so young but they can communicate.  They say the funnest things. They say things like noco instead of moco.

Things like biting toenails seems quite logical, but sticking your finger in your ear and having it taste like earwax is quite a discovery.

They have such dear, sweet friendships that flourish most when they are not around the friend. :)

They still have so many baby features. 

They refuse to take naps but the crash wherever and in the most uncomfortable positions possible..

They have conversations that goes as follows,

Xenia: "I love hellokilly."

mom: "You love hellokilly?"

X: "Not hellokilly, HellokiLLy."

M:  "HellokiLLY?"

X: "No, hellokiLLY!"

M: "HellokiTTy?"

X: Yes, hellokilly."  and then walks away.

They always give the sweetest hugs.  

They are so willing to try new things and yet are still so small.

I still can't believe she went on this ride.

They work so hard to keep up with their siblings.

I can't believe she is not three anymore.  How sad!

Bah Humbug and a not so happy New Year

Well this Christmas came and went and brought with it some very eventful times.  Before the thanksgiving week, I was quite excited about the holiday seasons.  I knew it was going to be somewhat difficult as my health was not 100%,  I had a "condition".

Well then came Monday of Thanksgiving week.  Sam had a job interview to transfer to another state.  It was a dream of ours (mine!) to move back to the northwest.  (My allergies/asthma are completely out of control in texas.)  Well by 5pm that night he got the job and the new starting date was the 16th of Jan.  It became a whirl wind from there.  I started packing immediately, knowing my situation. Things were going to be stressful but I was determined to stay on top of things.

On the morning of 9th of December my "condition" came to fruition 3 weeks early. (C-Section)

But these three weeks were critical to my packing and Christmas preparations.  Well we didn't have a choice and my three working weeks became doctor visits, dealing with jaundice, weight gain, and nursing.

Our already sparse Christmas became even more stressful and our Christmas tree was wrapping paper on the wall. Someone else had to help with the presents. Sam didn't even get one.  I couldn't even get off the couch.   All toys from Santa became travel toys. But in the end it was a great Christmas.

Our New Years was even worse.  We were suppose to be out on the 1st so the kids slept on a mattress that we were selling and Sam and I "slept" on the couch.  The kids were to bed by 9pm and I think Sam and I crashed around 10.  There were no festivities other than a delicious dinner by Sam's mom.  But we just had to pack and clean.  On the first we didn't move out but luckily our landlord said it was okay.  We packed and packed and went crazy until the 3rd in which we started our trip to the northwest at 4:30pm.

What a holiday season.  It was stressful, I didn't have the holiday cheer, I cried through most of it.  But my children were amazing and dealt with the stress like true champions and it was because of them that my Christmas season ended up being great!  (I still could have done without the stress though!) 

School Lunch

Life has been so crazy these past two weeks.  When I say crazy I mean crazy!  So crazy in fact that I am not even trying to make lunches for the kids.

That may not sound so weird unless you know that up till this past week The kids have only eaten school lunch once this year.  Cariña has only eaten school lunch at most 10 times in her 2 1/2 years at school.  I hate school lunch!!

Anyway, the children have found that the one good thing about this week is that they get to eat school lunch.  I even think Helaman went to bed faster so he would wake up tomorrow and eat chicken nuggets for lunch!

I can't decide how I feel, annoyed and disappointed that they are eating horrible food, or happy just so I can see the joy on their faces every time I ask about their lunch and don't make any judgement comments.  

Here we come, chicken nuggets.

Oh funny kids!

HALLOWEENER

I am sure anyone who half way knows me knows that I absolutely detest Halloween.  I have never in my life liked Halloween.  The only thing that I like about Halloween now is how much my kids love it and how cute they look in their costumes, and how cute it is when they are thinking of what to be for Halloween.

Cariña the cat.  She made the costume up by herself.  She even wanted to put on the make-up herself.  That is the nice thing about the kids getting older, you have to do less.  The downside is that you can't bribe  them to do what you want anymore.  Oh well.

Helaman was a handyman or Fix-It Felix.  He was cute and all the old men loved Helaman and wanted to fill up his tool box (candy bag)

Xenia was a queen.  She wanted to be a cat like her sister Cariña  But we had the dress and she was the perfect size for it so I talked her into being a queen.  I wanted her to be a victorian lady, but that was not good enough, so a queen it was.  I also had to bribe her with wearing lots of mommy's make-up.

I can't believe how bad of a photographer I am.  this was my group shot.

The kids got cans of soda and the ward Halloween party.  I was really annoyed.  But it was their first cans of soda in their life.  I think they only drank a quarter of the can before I talked them into throwing the rest away.  My poor deprived kids! (It was actually pretty easy.  They must have had their fill.)

Anyway this Halloween was pretty lame if you ask me.  Not just the regular stuff that I hate, but the selection of candy that I had to choose from, when stealing candy from my children's bag, was really low and boring.  There were no Butterfingers to steal.  No Heath bars to steal.  Hardly any reeses peanutbutter cups.  Most people had their lights out.  And to top it all off, there were beyond several moms trick-or-treating.  I guess the good thing I have learned to handle better, from the moms trick-or-treating, is the high schoolers.  I can take high schoolers much easier than the moms! :)  I think the most annoying was a mom that came with two buckets and and said "these are for my babies in the car".   I wanted to say if your babies want this candy then they better get out of the car and hold the buckets themselves.  But  I will refrain my that soap box. :)

Well I hope you guys had a happy and safe Halloween!

A conversation

Setting:  The hallway in the house.  I was walking through giving the kids hugs.

Helaman:  (While giving me a hug) Mom are we going anywhere?

Mom: No, why do you ask?

Helaman:  Because you look decent!

Cariña:  No she doesn't look decent because she is making donuts!

(Thank you children for making me feel beautiful!)

HOME SCHOOL FAILURE! (Directed to the teacher, me) updated, please read again

I dream of homeschooling my children, but don't for several reasons.  Although, I do keep my children home through kindergarten.  

My methodology is the no school schooling.  It is where there is no formal education, but you have all the tools, books, etc at home so when they are ready to learn they do.  

Cariña was my first guinea pig.  I was a complete success.  (Obviously she was, but I do say I when I need to feel good about myself! You know motherhood, you have to get your validation when you can! Sometimes even make it up.) When Cariña decided to write, slightly later than others, she was able to write the entire alphabet by herself and her letters were about a quarter of an inch in size.  She had three reading lessons then took off reading and within her 1st grade  year was reading Anne of Green Gables and understood it.

She got the concept of of times when she was five.  She could easily count to a hundred,  add and subtract with no problems.  School was a breeze for her! So when she went into first grade at the top of her class, I felt pretty good about what I accomplished! :)

Then came Helaman.  I figured that it would be a little different, I mean he is a boy, she is a girl.  But I didn't push. I wanted my son to do what he did best, and that was to explore, discover, and destroy! 

Let me tell you he was my little sidekick and I have been depressed ever since he left.  He was cooking with me.  I would look for him and find that he was outside and had raked up seven bags of leaves, and put them in the front yard to be taken away!  He was my shopper.  He had all the store clerks charmed by his hard work bagging and pushing the cart around.  He could also run our small vending machine company if we let him.  He was a man of work and solving problems.  

Well about half way through his kindergarten year I realized that he was NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED IN READING OR WRITING!  I thought that at this point he was going to need a little encouragement, and we were going to need to add reading and writing lessons into the day.  We did.

The results were horrible.  He was not interested and it was a constant battle.  I turned into a monster mother, while he turned into a monster student. Therefore, to spare my son emotional damage I decided to back off and reading lessons became sporadic at best.  I figured that in first grade he would be a little behind in his reading and writing skills but would catch up quickly.  The other subjects I wasn't worried about.  

Now he is in school and it feels like I am a complete failure!  Yesterday his teacher came to me and said, "He doesn't know how to count past 15.  You really NEED to work with him!"  I always felt his counting was fine, and was shocked to discover that he couldn't count that high.  Did I miss something?  Do we not have anything over 15 items in our house?  Am I completely unobservant that I didn't even notice!?  Where am I?  What kind of mother am I, to let my son slip so far behind.

So on our walk home from school I quizzed him and he couldn't make it past 15.  I was in despair about it.  (Ask my mother, I called her up in a panic!)  So I brought him home, gave him a very a high protein and fat snack to stabilize his very low blood sugar.  Then set him down with me to complete his math worksheet that he COULD NOT DO at school.  It turned out that it wasn't as bad as I imagined and he did okay, not perfect, but okay.  Then when we were just counting I decided to change the counting medium. The beads, blocks, and paperclips, that the teacher sent home, did not interest him at all and he would not try.  Then I gave him a stack of dollar bills and do you know what, that kid counted to thirty-six without skipping a beat!

Then this morning I gave him a huge stack of bills and said separate  them into 10s while counting.  This kid who couldn't get past 15 counted to 86!   :) He knew how many 10s there were, and how many ones.  He did need help with the first sound of the next group of tens after Forty, but once he got that first sound he took off and continued counting! (At this point he knows, but just needs the repetition.) Then he grouped the piles into groups of twenty and put paperclips on. 

The first thing I discovered was that this kid is obviously driven by money! :) The second thing I learned was this kid is completely capable and knows the answers but isn't trying.  So now what do I do?  I can't send him to school with fifty dollars  to count, if I don't want to be broke.  

So do I regret keeping him home for schooling?  No.  I really feel he thrived at home and was in his element.  His higher level of thinking was developed and is really strong.  He really is a problem solver.  He is full of facts of all sorts and is successful in so many things. Had I sent him to full day kindergarten, I believe,  he would have missed some key development factor that really helped him develop his higher level thinking skills, especially since he is the epitome of a boy learner. 

So how did I fail Helaman?  I failed to prepare him for a system that I knew he would enter.   Now he is in a situation where he obviously doesn't thrive, he is feeling completely incompetent, insecure, and is shutting off his brain.

I am tempted to pull him out and homeschool him again, but he is going to need to learn the system eventually and I like my kids in public school.  There are excellent teachers who teach great things and sacrifice so much.  In the schools, my kids learn to deal with all types of personalities and are good examples in the school here.  The teachers have commented on how wonderful, kind, and considerate my children are. But now I am not sure what to do and would love any advice.
  

First day of school!