Less Words Wednesday

Miles had a field trip to an Ag Day somewhere today. I should know where, but alas I do not. He always loves the bus ride on field trips b/c he doesn't ride the bus to and from school. Maddox and Zach are baseball teammates.

He said he thought it was fun, but everyone else thought it was boring. I don't think that's true b/c I heard other parents say that their kids really enjoyed the trip too.

Miles with Ms. Chelsea and his friends. She is such a great teacher and I think it's b/c she likes kids. Sadly, there are a lot of teachers that don't like kids :(

When I asked him if he had fun, his reply was, "Yes, I got to walk a dog." Poor kid wants a dog so badly.

As he was just going to bed, he said that he learned a lot today. Wherever it was, Ag Day was a success!

I'm Tired Again & Just Like Big Brother

Well, we had one good night of sleep two nights ago and then last night Carson insisted on getting in bed with us. He wanted no part of the cot. I tried to encourage him to go to sleep on the cot instead of our bed, but he sat on the floor and cried. He said, "I want you bed." It didn't take me long to tell him to climb on up. He knows.

Some time after that, Miles came into our room and said he'd had a bad dream. So, I told him to go to sleep on the cot. At that point I was glad that Carson was in bed with us so the cot was free. I still think it's a bad decision to set up a cot in our room, but I just can't fight it right now. Life has me too tired. By the way, this is the cot that we have. It is so nice for company. I think it is so much easier than a blow up mattress. It's really comfortable and it's the size of a twin so it works for kids and adults. The only negative is that it's kind of bulky to store. I wish it fit under our bed, but we have to store it in our master closet.

I have another recommendation. I bought Miles one of these sticker by number books. It was supposed to be for Christmas, but I gave it to him early b/c he was entertaining himself so nicely in his bedroom and I thought he would enjoy it. He loved them and ended up doing four pages tonight. I read about them on this blog. Blog recommendations are the best, in my opinion. I think they would be a cute gift for a boy or girl, ages 6-10.

Meanwhile, Carson is really into Paw Patrol. We are all so thankful that he's taking a break from Moana. His love for Moana runs deeper than Frozen or Tangled and I didn't think that was possible.

When Miles has his shirt off, Carson insists on the same. Carson acts pretty tough and not as sensitive towards Miles as Miles is towards him, but then it's obvious he wants to be just like him.

That's all for me tonight. Darrin is on his way home from recruiting in Arkansas. It's time to get Miles to sleep (Carson is already there) and then it's TV time and bed for me!

4th Grade, Daycare, & He Did It

Miles is LOVING 4th grade. He seems to have a really good connection with his math & science teacher, Ms. Chelsea. He has 27 kids in his class this year which is a lot more than he's ever had. It's kind of nice b/c it gives him more friends. Sometimes when there was only 7-8 other boys in the class, he may not have much in common with any of them. I don't know how a teacher can keep up with 27 kids, but his teacher seems to do a great job at it.

She comes up with fun and creative ways to learn too. The other day she chose 4 students to go help 2nd graders sign onto a test in the computer lab. He was chosen and it made his week. I'm so thankful that she 'sees' him.

The best thing about her is that she has so many rewards to encourage positive behavior rather than focusing on punishments for negative behavior. I should probably take a page from her playbook on that. Most of her rewards are non food related such as writing with a pen for a day, wearing a hat, being the teacher's helper for a day, bringing a stuffed animal to class, etc. It doesn't take much with kids. The homework club is a positive reward for turning in your homework every day of the month. That reward is a Coke and candy bar. 

The first week of school Miles brought home 4-5 papers that talked negatively about Carson. At first it was kind of funny, but then it was a little alarming. He talked about how we went to the beach for baseball and we "had to take my brother. He was really bad in the car."

This one says, "My brother is mean. My dad is tall. My mom is short." That one is a keeper.

"I have a mean 3 year old brother." These are just three examples, but there are more. I finally had a talk with Miles b/c I wanted to make sure he wasn't really bitter towards Carson or truly struggling with how difficult Carson can be. He seems surprised and almost upset that I thought that he didn't 'like' Carson. His first words were, "I love him." The genuineness in his voice was sweet and convincing. I told him that we have to speak nicely of our family b/c we would never want anyone to think that we don't love each other. I heard him instantly making a change and saying nice things to Carson. I'm sure we all need that reminder from time to time.

Carson is enjoying school, but has had some rough patches. I think his ears have really been bothering him which translated to bad behavior. For a while, I was getting bad notes everyday. He even had to go to the office for calling his friends "booty heads". I think some of the notes are silly, but it's still been a rough couple of weeks. The school bus came for a visit today. He really liked that. He said, "I have good day mom."

He had a superhero day a couple weeks ago. He doesn't have any superhero shirts, but I managed to find this one stored away in Miles' room. 

Miles wore this shirt for Halloween when he was Carson's age. It yielded the cutest Halloween pictures to date.

As a follow up to last night's post....I thought I'd report that Carson came to our room in the middle of the night, got on the cot without waking us up, and went to sleep until morning!

This might be one of the worst habits we've ever fostered, but I simply cannot fight him like we fought Miles for years and years. He goes to bed easily every night which is huge. If he could continue this and we could get solid sleep, we are going to call that successful. Darrin and I went to bed before 10pm, which is much earlier than usual, and slept until after 5am. I felt so good all day and still do! That is one reason I'm awake and blogging instead of passed out on the couch.

We'll see what he does tonight. If he continues this, I might be able to blog more!

Weekend Wrap Up

13 quick pictures from our weekend. I had to take Carson to the doctor about his ears for the fourth time in a month. His left ear is still infected, but the doctor opted for drops instead of a fourth round of oral antibiotics. We see his ENT this week and I'm afraid we are heading for a second set of tubes. Once again, he was perfect at the doctor and said, "I had fun momma" on the way out.

We watched Darrin's game online on Friday night. His team went 2-1 for the weekend which was a great start to the season.

I'm pretty sure all second children play naked if that's what they want to do in that moment.

Carson is all about putting on his oils at night. He likes to put them on Miles too.

Miles eats carrots like other people eat chips. Of course, he likes chips too, but he loves carrots.

On Friday night, Carson woke up around 11pm and had thrown up all over his bed and carpet. The stomach virus has been going around so I was afraid it was going to cancel Miles' birthday sleepover which was scheduled for Saturday night. After I got his room cleaned up, I got him settled on the cot next to my bed. He wanted to be right next to me. For all the times he said "Daddy do it" over the last couple of years, he's all about me right now. When Darrin says "I love you" to Carson, Carson replies with "I love momma". I don't hate it. Back to the cot....there was no way he was getting in my bed just in case he got sick again. I already had at least 4 loads of laundry from his room. Good news, he did not have the stomach virus. Bad news, I'm pretty sure I fed him rotten grapes before bed and that's why he got sick. I vaguely saw them as I was handing him to them and thought they didn't look good, but I think they might have been worse than I thought :( 

Darrin and I decided to leave the cot up indefinitely in our room since Carson has been getting in bed with us every night. Not an ideal situation, but I just don't care to fight that battle right now. So now, I have a cot and a train table in my room. This is 40 with two kids, right?

We went on with Miles' sleepover on Saturday night. We had five boys including Miles. They rode bikes, ate, and played video games. They all got along well and Miles had fun. I think it was a successful party.

We have celebrated '10' for a month now.

Carson wanted to be right in the middle and Miles is always okay with that. I keep waiting for Miles to get tired of him, but he never does. He needs a break from him every now and then, but he loves him so much. While his friends were singing happy birthday to him, he leaned over and kissed Carson on the cheek twice.

I made the cake b/c a month of celebrating and feeding five boys adds up.

Color tabs in the bathtub are life right now. They make bath time easy every night.

For the record, he's played with the train table in my room one time so far.

I don't really feel like I had a weekend b/c there was no rest, but there was a lot of quality time with the boys and some with Darrin, so I'll take it. Busy week ahead and more volleyball. Go UU!

Carson's First Trip to the Dentist

Carson had his first trip to the dentist. As I've mentioned on here before, our dentist is the best. Even before we moved here, we drove an hour for Miles to be able to go here. Miles was telling Carson how fun it was on the drive there and he was so excited for Carson to see the outside.

Ironically, Carson played with the train table in the waiting room. I say ironic b/c he has one at home and never plays with it. I'd like to sell it and free up space in my house, but I think that's a little premature.

Miles loves playing the video games while he waits. This is only a small section of the waiting room. They have tons of video games, Lego walls, and two train tables.

When it was Carson's turn, they asked him what movie he wanted to watch (on the TVs in the ceiling). We asked if they had Moana and he jumped right up to watch it. He watches it every single day at home.

The hygienist was amazed at how cooperative he was. I'm telling you, doctors and dentists are his thing. She asked if I thought he would like strawberry flavored toothpaste or mint. I said mint b/c he uses mint toothpaste at home. She was bragging to other hygienist about how good he was and said, "he even has mint toothpaste" :)

He got a balloon glove when he was finished and then checked up on Miles. He's actually giving him a kiss here.

Miles was very proud of him. Apparently the dentist can be fun.

They said his teeth looked great and his spacing looked good too. Miles is still cavity free. They always brag about his teeth. He does a really good job taking care of them. He flosses every day and brushes twice a day, once for two minutes and the other is usually a rushed job. We bought him a Quip electric toothbrush and that has really helped. We used to make him set the timer on Alexa for 2 minutes, but the Quip toothbrush times it for you. It buzzes every 30 seconds to tell you to move to the next quadrant of your mouth. I highly recommend for kids.

It was a successful trip to the dentist!

Weekend Wrap Up

I have a bunch of random thoughts about our weekend and a few pics from last week since I haven't blogged much lately. The volleyball team was hosted by some friends/supporters at their family farm on Saturday night. They had a litter of two week old puppies. Carson loved them and was really good with them. And no, he doesn't need one and we aren't getting one. I can't take care of anything else around here. They were very cute though.

Miles was all about the shrimp that they prepared. It was a huge shrimp boil and Miles was very happy about that.

They had cows, dogs, and one goat, named Betty.

Hanging with the puppies in his boots that he insisted on wearing.

He loved every minute of the farm. We always thought Miles was a country boy, but I think Carson might be more so.

Carson hasn't been feeling great lately. He's been fighting an ear infection for two weeks. He's been very cranky and unhappy. I think he might finally be getting better.

When either of my kids randomly fall asleep anywhere you know someone is sick. They typically don't sleep anywhere other than their beds.

We had to get creative at times to diffuse his unhappiness. 

For all the ways, he can be challenging, medicine and doctors are his thing. He actually pushes the medicine in himself.

We even had to take this medicine back to the pharmacy and pay for some grape flavoring b/c it tasted so terrible. I can tell it's still bad, but he's managing.

My mom brought my childhood doll several weeks ago and now "Jennifer" is his favorite. He takes her everywhere and sleeps with her every night. It's a little creepy to see on the monitor.

Miles had a new friend over to play today. His dad is actually the new pastor at our church and he is in Miles' class at school. They had the best time today.

We had several packages of water balloons that you connect to the water hose and they fill up. That is the first time we have used them and they are legit! Miles would connect the hose and Carson would turn the water off and on. They made quite a team.

Miles bought a target to shoot his bow and arrows at. He is really enjoying this gift from my mom. 

Carson got a train table for Christmas last year. We put it in the sun room and put the table in our bedroom. He rarely plays with the trains, so we decided this weekend to put the train table in our bedroom and move the table back to the sun room. The table is so functional. We use it to play games, the boys can draw, build Legos, or eat snacks. Today, Carson played with Lincoln Logs and watched Moana happily while Darrin and I cooked for the week. I think this is going to be a good move. I don't like having a train table in my bedroom, but it's plenty big enough for it and maybe he'll play while I'm getting ready or doing stuff in my room.

We had to go in Walmart yesterday for a few things that I left off the online order. As we were walking back up to the front of the store, Carson darted from us. He ran into the self check out and out the other side. I followed him and Miles ran around a different way. Miles was fast enough to spot him running into the arcade. By the time I got to him, he was sitting in a Bob the Builder bulldozer ride asking for a quarter. Ummmm no, you will not be getting a quarter since you jetted on us. We let him go in the arcade one time the last time we were in Walmart. I have no idea how he knew his way back there. I'm beginning to think this kid is pretty dang smart. At minimum, I think he will have a high level of street smarts.

Miles made Carson's day by riding in the cart with him at Lowes. Poor Miles was crammed in, but Carson was having the time of his life.

This is 100% Miles. We have started daily chores around here b/c he's old enough and I need help during volleyball season. I keep thinking it will get better after he realizes that the chores aren't going away. I'm not so sure though.

We have enjoying our long weekend at home. It is our last weekend without volleyball games until late November. I got a few things done around here and I think we are ready to kick off the season. Ready or not, here we go! Go UU!