Bedtime conversation with a 7 year old, 4 1/2 year old, and a 3 1/2 year old,

Bedtime routine. You've all been there.

Putting four kids to bed, so close in age, can be quite a task some nights. The boys are really great about it for the most part. They get their pjs on, brush their teeth, and visit the bathroom by themselves. Many nights unfortunately, I would find myself thinking about all the laundry, dishes, and picking up that is waiting for me outside that bedroom, and to top it off...the correcting, planning, and entering grades into gradebook. I was sort of just going through the motions .....

However, I made a resolution to focus more on the boys at night. The other stuff can wait (though I end up staying up late and getting stressed about it) because I will regret not sharing the moments that you will read below with the boys. Plus, there is nothing better than having the boys WANT me to snuggle with them, and nothing worse than telling them I CAN'T because I have stuff to do. What stuff could be more important than snuggling and having a moment with them? Though it sometimes is a half an hour plus process.....it is SO worth the time.

When it's both Matt and I we have a pretty good tag team going on. The older three will go into Jacob and Nolan's room and they get to pick out a book....Matt reads to them (which the boys LOVE ....and he's so good at it) while I get to rock a little with Lucas and put him down. Then I get Connor out of the boys' room and take him down. We try to make time to read together, just him and I, an "older" book. Right now we are reading, "The Mysterious Benedict Society"....then Matt comes down and we switch. I go up and snuggle with the other two.

When it's just me, I start in the bedroom reading (or Connor reads a book so I can also snuggle with Lucas while he has his bottle) . Then I put Lucas down, tuck the younger two in quick, and Connor gets himself into his bed. I tell the younger two I will be right back up. Then I go tuck Connor in and snuggle...and then come back up to snuggle with the other two - it's the cutest thing...they have a system down with who I snuggle with first, and it alternates every other night. They are also so concerned about me being sure that I snuggle with the other one...they don't want me to forget.

It is quite the process.....but it works for us, everyone wins, and I feel good about the time spent.

Don't get me wrong....it doesn't go this perfectly every night....but we're trying.

If I didn't do ALL of the above......this is what I would miss out on...

(This was all in one night....honestly.....)

With the 7 year old...

"Why do people carry and do the things they do with guns?" ....as he's teary eyed. He had questions and concerns about the Tucson shooting that he happened to see on the news at daycare while waiting for the bus. At what point do we shelter our kids too much and/or expose them to too much? Connor and I had a really good conversation about it....how he felt, what he was afraid of, how our world is and can be, good and bad....?

With the almost 1 year old...

He is a cuddler. He just puts him head on my shoulder, likes to hold my hand or hair.....sometimes sings himself to sleep.

With the 4 1/2 year old....

He is more into the silent snuggling. His main question right away as I get into bed with him is "Mommy, when are you going to come back and check on us? Is it going to be pretty soon or a long time? How many minutes? Is that long or short?" (kid, I just got into bed with you....) Normally we try to talk about something he did that day....I either just listen if he is talkative or pry a few things out of him. He just likes to wrap his arms around me and just snuggle. He's particular about which side Matt and I lay on, which is funny.

With my 3 1/2 year old on the other hand....oh my 3 1/2 year old.....

(Every other line is him saying something and then my response...)

"Mommy, when are you going to make our room racecars?"

"I told you I would for your birthdays, Jacob’s going to turn 5 and you’re going to turn 4."

Silence….."I wish I could be like 10."

"10? Are you sure?…that would mean you would skip 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9…that would make me very sad because you would grow way too fast. You are already growing up way to fast."

Silence again…..and a very sad face…."I want to stay 3 for always…."

"Don’t be sad, I don't want you to be sad."

"What’s a parent? "

"Well, a parent is a mom or a dad. Like, me and daddy are your parents. Do you know who my parents are?"

"Yep, grandma and grandpa." Big smile on his face and so proud.

"Very good….(and so on with a few more questions….)"

"Who are Grandpa and Grandma’s parents?"

"Well, Great Grandpa Skala is Grandpa’s parent or dad, but their other parents got old and they died and went to heaven." (how do you explain all of that to a 3 year old?)

Another sad face….."I wish nobody ever died."

"Me too. But it's a good thing we don’t usually die until we get really really old or sick."

"I’m really old."

"What? You are?"

"Yeah, and I’m really strong. Stronger than all the superheroes."

"Oh kid, I love you!

"I love you too lady."

(I can't even count how many different topics we covered here..)

Now that was a night of snuggles that the dishes, laundry, and schoolwork could definitely wait for.

You didn't say....

I'll tuck Nolan in at night and we say our prayers together. I snuggle with him a little bit, and almost always end with kissing him, saying "Good night, I love you!", and then I'll say "now close your eyes and go night night".

It's the cutest thing, if I forget to say the "Close your eyes and go night night", he's out of his room not even a couple minutes after I leave to tell me, "No tell me close your eyes and go night night". Like, "silly mom, you know I can't go to sleep unless you tell me that!".
It's so cute.

It's scary...............

Lately Jacob is going through this "scared at night" stage. As I think back, it started after we had that bad storm and were under tornado warning/watch. Ever since then at night time he gets freaked out and scared. He says things like, "Monsters get me, There's a bad storm, It's scary, ....". He gets upset as soon as we say it's bedtime. He needs someone to snuggle with him for a while and he holds on tight, he wakes up in the middle of the night many times screaming, and sometimes he'll even sprint, and I mean sprint into our bedroom because he's scared something is going to get him on his way. I hope he grows out of it. I'm not sure what to do about it. The other night we were saying our prayers and he happened to glance under Connor's loft and said he saw some eyes. I had to turn on the lights to show him. I know kids get scared at night (actually Connor didn't go through this phase), but Jacob's is a little extreme. I guess we'll just have to go with it, try to help him, and hope it comes to an end soon. Any suggestions?

I'm so cool in these Sketchers

I had to share this because of my last entry on the boys sleeping in our bed. Friday night we had the Creeker Celebration (end of the year celebration) at school and I was in the dunk tank. Connor got the biggest kick out of it and actually got to push the target to dunk me. Jacob on the other hand was not a big fan of his mom sitting on that platform falling into the water. He would not stop crying and reaching for me. It was too cute. Nolan just hung out in the stroller taking everything in. After the Creeker Celebration Connor and I went to the Huskies Varsity baseball game for a little while. When we got home, Connor took a quick bath and we did our nightly routine. I was cleaning up the kitchen and out comes Connor with this shy little look on his face and he says "Mommy, you know how you told me that I can sleep in your guys' bed sometimes on special nights. Well, can tonight be a special night because you were in the dunk tank?" (and he gets all shy and covers his face).

What am I supposed to say to that?

"Sure you can." He gets all giddy and jumps up next to Matt on the couch to watch some ESPN for a quick while. When we got into bed, I turned on the cartoons for a little while for him while I read some of my book.

"Mommy, I'm going to go get my bear and my rhino!"

"How about just one of them, Connor, ok?" He comes back a few seconds later and stands at the foot of our bed.

"Mommy, I can't decide which one to sleep with...(again in this shy, trying to be innocent voice) you know, rhinos live in water and bears swim in the water, and this is a special night because you were in the dunk tank water - it's a tough decision." Did he seriously just say all of that to me. I didn't even want to argue with that...so I said to him -

"Get in bed....with both rhino and bear!"

Again, he gives another hearty giggle that I will never get tired of hearing!


Saturday morning we went to go buy some new shoes for Connor. His toes are bursting out of the ones he has. Man, was that an experience. I can normally stay pretty calm through screaming boys, boys that aren't listening to me, crying boys, etc....however Jacob decided to be crazy man and run all around the store. Luckily we were at Famous Footwear because I had coupon to use up, so it wasn't that big of a place. My patience was wearing very thin though. We're looking at the boys shoes and Connor says "Aw, dude- look at these Sketchers Mommy!"

"What? What do you know about Sketchers?"

"I can read the word and some kids at school and Ethan at Mary's have them."

"Oh, really?"

"They even have blue ones, my favorite color. Can I get these?"

We tried them on, they fit great, and my coupon helped get them at a good price. I realized though that I totally gave into the pressure of my kid. Those of you that know me, know that I shop at Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Target...and I love garage sale deals. We don't own too many name brand things at our house. To hear Connor talk like that about a brand of shoes, was unbelievable. He was so excited to show his Sketchers to everyone. It wasn't "See my new shoes", it was "See my new Sketchers!". He even said to me "I'm so cool and fast in these new Sketchers." Got me thinking about the whole peer impression thing and how I already have to be on my toes and start working on that... more than we do already I guess.

One more quick Connor story from the weekend. He turns 5 on September 9th, eight days short of the Kindergarten age, so he will go to preschool again next year, four days a week. Connor told me that Ms. Jane has been telling them that there were only 9 days (or something like that) until everyone else but three of them are going to be in Kindergarten. He told me that Hilary, Thomas, and him are the only ones not going to Kindergarten next year, everyone else was old enough. We got to talking and it came out finally that he thought Ms. Jane meant that next year it was going to only be the three of them in his class! HA! Too funny. We talked about how the three of them will be in a class with a bunch of NEW students their age. He thought that was much cooler. He was a little concerned about being in a class with only two other friends.

Our washing machine has been on the outs for two weeks now. Twice I've had to bring our clothes (2 big baskets full each time) to my mom and dad's to wash. I can't believe how much laundry we already have from a week. It will be nuts in a couple of years. We're having a guy come and look at our washer tomorrow. Thank goodness! It's amazing how you take for granted all of those luxuries...I cannot imagine being without a washing machine for too long! Sad isn't it?!
Papa John and Yaya came to visit today. We had a great day playing outside and grilling out. Thanks for the great new books!

Jacob is getting so funny with saying things are "mine". He uses it a little too much! ;) Everything is "mine"!!! Yet, he is the best sharer when it comes to Nolan and Connor.

Sorry I babbled so much, have a great week everyone!

Full bed and big snuggles

I decided to blog this because it has come up three different times in the last couple of days - At lunch the other day we were talking about letting our kids sleep with us in bed, then I received an email from a friend, and then this morning Connor was so cute about it.

I recieved one of those emails that you fill out answering questions about yourself, your favorites, etc.... and then you send it out to people and one of the questions was "What is your first thought in the morning?" (I don't always participate in these emails, but this one was a little different), and my answer was "I love these snuggles in the morning".

Many of you probably go right to thinking I meant snuggles from Matt, right?! Well, those are very very nice, and we don't do enough of them of course, however I'm talking about snuggles from Matt AND the boys in the morning. Our rule is that everyone sleeps in our own bed during the night, however in the morning our bed is open. Even with the rule, of course we still have those times where Connor or Jacob will wake up in the middle of the night and come into our room and try to get into our bed, but..... we try to always carry them back into their own bed with a few moans and groans from them. Don't get me wrong, there are those times where we give in, for sure, but we try to stick to it.

This morning I feel a tap on my shoulder and hear a quiet "Mommy, is it late enough in the morning to come and snuggle in bed with you guys?".

I groggily turn around and peek at the alarm clock - 5:30am. "It sure is! Crawl on in buddy!", I say back to him.

With this huge smile and giggle he crawls into bed between Matt and I, holding on tightly to his rhino, Samuel. I love the way he burrows on in between us with this happy giggle and sigh. A few minutes later we're all snoring away.

I'm not sure how much time has passed by when I hear this "uhhhh, uhhhhh". I look down and there is Jacob trying to get into our bed saying his version of "up". I pull him up into bed with us also and again we fall asleep for a few more minutes. The alarm goes off and our morning begins......

It's so hard to get up! Matt and I get up and start getting ready while many times the boys are still sleeping, but when they wake up they stay in our bed and we turn on the cartoons for them. Nolan has been sleeping in lately until we go and wake him up. It's perfect for us right now - we get ready, the boys watch cartoons - we laugh and sing, we help them get ready, and wake up Nolan to get ready right before we're ready to leave.

I love my full bed in the morning! ;)

Manners

We're on our way home from daycare on Friday and a good song comes on so I turn it up. Connor yells "Mommy I like this song!" "I do too!", I said back to him as I start to sing to it. Connor says, "Mommy, I like this song, can you stop singing please?". What??? At least he remembered to say please I guess.

The boys with grandpa and grandma sporting their new t-shirts from the San Diego zoo. Grandpa and grandma just got back and are nice and tan. Very jealous.

I feel bad that the only pictures lately are of Jacob, but the pictures add so much to his stories. This one is of him eating lunch and dipping his apple in ketchup! He would dip it, look at us and show it to us, and let out this giggle. He is our dipping king -most of the time he dips whatever it is he has and just licks the sauce off without taking a bite.

Saturday night we were doing our nightly routine. Usually Nolan goes to bed first and we just put him in his crib. He's good about going to sleep. Then we go into Connor and Jacob's room and read a book or make up a story, tuck them in, and say our prayers, give kisses, etc..... Connor fell asleep almost instantly which never happens and I waved good night to Jacob like usual and he waved back and out I went. Matt was at a fantasy draft, so it was just me and a quiet house. I was excited to finish the book I was reading - I know what an eventful and exciting life I live! I snuggled up with a blanket on the couch and started to read. I got through a couple of pages and I saw Jacob standing right in front of me. I have no idea how long he was there. I tell him it's time to go night night and he shakes his head and says his infamous No! with a huge smile. I was really into my book (I don't get to read much) and it was a Saturday night so I figured I would just go with him on this one and not fight him and see what he does. I went right back to reading and watched him from the corner of my eye adding "Jacob it's time for night night" in there once in awhile. He just played with his trains, cars, sat on his chair (that you see in the picture), came and stood and stared at me....and the whole time didn't say a word to me - just talked to himself. I was trying not to laugh. He climbed on the couch and just lounged with his hands behind his head and smiled at me like he knew I thought it was cute. I just kept on reading (or at least pretended to). He got down from the couch and actually went back into his room and climbed into his bed. I went to check on him and shouldn't have because he saw me and came right back out. He followed me so I went back to my book and he went to his chair. A couple of minutes later I look down and there he is fast asleep on his chair. I couldn't resist taking the picture.

Today we went to my Grandpa Skala's 85th birthday party. How amazing to live 85 years! We cannot believe the things he is still up and doing. He has 11 children, around 33 grandchildren, and 24 great grandchildren with one on the way). Don't quote me on those exact numbers - it's late and I'm just estimating. It's still incredible!

We celebrated my Grandpa Ebeling's 80th birthday in February (he has six children, 17 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren with four on the way). The memories these two men must have.