A cruise

I am so excited to take Manny on his secret (not anymore) birthday trip. I am taking him on a cruise to the Bahamas for 3 nights. I can't wait to go; I also couldn't wait to tell him!! I am not good at keeping things like this a surprise....I was hoping I could wait right up until the last minute and tell him a couple nights before to pack his bags, but my excitement got the best of me. I have everything all planned. Mom will watch the kids, I called Manny's boss and go the ok to miss 2 days of work...we are all set!!!!!

Only 23 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Out of the mouths of babes

So I am finding three to be a tough age, a lot harder than the terrible two's. I've decided this is worse because now Manny has a vocabulary. He comes out with phrases that crack us up and others that are sooo fresh. Like when I am punishing him and tell him "Go to your room for a timeout!" He responds, "Okay mommy".....YEAH RIGHT!! He says, "NO, YOU go to your room!!!" This morning he asked me to make him a PB&J and followed with "Do you hear me?" No response from me.... "Am I clear?" Yeah, ok I need to watch what I say to him all the time, he sounds like me at times. Last week I heard him walking up the steps saying "I'm sick of this" and I asked what he was "sick" of? He told me he was tired of no one answering him so he had to come upstairs. Now I know where that one came from....the 8 yo sister who is tired of him messing up everything in her room. The list goes on, but those are the few that come to mind today.

It takes a lot of patience to tolerate and handle the attitude, comments and behavior. Being the "bigger" person is trying at times. It would/could be so easy to stoop to his level and tell him he's stupid when he tells me I'm stupid (every time he doesn't get his own way). Gotta love big sis and 101 Dalmatians for that one!!

Does it ever get better? I know...different things at different ages.

an add to the previous post

We are in trouble if this is what he thinks driving is all about....he had his weed whacker in the back.

Busy Weekend

Grandma and Pop came to the house today to help Manny get the TV hung on the wall. I of course had my own plans for Pop and caught him to hang up the hooks I got for the kids. Aren't these adorable?!?!?! Okay guys....no more "stuff" on the floor...you too Julian!!







Here is the TV they put on the wall in the playroom...and my handy hubby put together the table later on today. It looks beautiful babe, now you can put the X-Box and Play stations in there!!

Manny with his friends from daycare (Sean, Manny, and Ben)

Taina

We had a great weekend...Friday Manny (big) and I found a corner hutch at an antique store for the dining room. The guy is going to paint it white and we'll pick it up next Friday. I can't wait to be able to put all of my china away somewhere, besides the boxes. Saturday I took the kids to a birthday party for a little girl at the boys' daycare. Manny had a blast riding around on the truck and playing with all the "machines" in the sandbox. Taina was in the pool most of the time, except for the little bit spent on the trampoline. Julian hung out in his stroller or with Miss Michelle ( we love when she's around).

We have teeth

Julian's two bottom teeth came in last week and he looks so cute with little white spots(that's all they look like right now). No pictures because he sticks his tongue out each time I pull down his lip.

We went to the gastroenterologist for Julian and didn't get too much info. The doctor said it's pretty common and he didn't see anything of concern. He doesn't want an upper GI done yet, but may in the future. His feelings are that Julian will out grow it anytime after 8 months up to one year. He has me putting more rice cereal in each bottle and giving him an over the counter antacid and the combo has made a big difference already!! He also gave me a prescription, but I'm not going to fill it for as long as this other stuff works!!

Manny on the other hand had a hearing test (moderate hearing loss they say) and a check up with the ENT. We go back the end of August and if his tubes haven't fallen out (they aren't working anymore) he will have to have surgery to remove them, then put new ones in.

I swear it never ends!!!

The mess in my classroom

I have changed positions in school. So long, farewell, it's time to say good bye 6th grade!!!!!!! I will be a Reading/Math Lab Teacher for 1, 2, 3. I am sooo excited for this change and ready for the challenge. Our (me and the other person new to that lab) first challenge though is getting the room ready. Below is ONE cabinet we have to clean out and organize. I attemped to tackle it the other day and didn't get too far. This is the before....

This is everything from the top 2 shelves only.... (only the front table)

Side shot of the "mess". The boxes stacked on the left (10 high) are all pencils...there are like 15 boxes of paper clamps, 13 boxes of big paper clips and only 8 or so of the little ones. I don't think we'll have to order supplies before we retire (I have like 23 years or so left) We inherited the room from two awesome teachers who retired.....OMG there is soo much. There are games from 1976...time to clean out. If they are as old as I am...they are too old to use in teaching!! I'll post updated photos as I get work done.

Julian jumping

Julian loves to jump in the jumparoo....here he is in action!!

Misc things updated

I am SOO proud of Manny. He went poopy on the potty, of course a little bribery never hurt anyone!! As usual, he asked for a pull up (that means he has business to take care of). I am tired of cleaning his butt from the diaper, it's enough to do the baby's. I told him he could have a candy if he went on the potty (we've tried this before and I was told he needed to be in there alone...and then he quickly came out and exclaimed "I went poopy in the potty!" I told him I needed to wipe his butt and then he could have the candy. Surprise, surprise, a clean butt. Nice try bud!!) So tonight I sat on the edge of the tub and saw the evidence. As soon as he sat down he told me to turn the fan on because it was gonna smell (typical man). I hope this continues...of course I'd better get some more candy!!

I spent another nice day with Manny today. We went to Chuck E. Cheese with a girlfriend and her kids and the boys were so good. They had a great time!!

Monday Manny and I went to the movies...$24 and 30 minutes later we left. We went to see Wall E and he kept telling me he was scared. I thought what we saw was cute. We'll try again when it comes out on DVD.

Tomorrow is my favorite day of the week......NO KIDS!! The boys go to daycare and Taina is at summer rec....I will go into my classroom and continue to work on the "mess" You NEED to see pics of this to believe it!! (I'll get those on here too!)

He can entertain himself for a short time...

His eyes are looking like they might just be my color (YEAH!!!!!!!!) I heart his eyelashes and wish mine were THAT long!!

Julian is changing everyday and I can't believe how much more he is doing. He laughs like crazy at everything, always has a beautiful smile, jumps so high and hard in his jumparoo (I have to get video of it) and is so lovable. When I brought him to daycare for his weekly visit (Mommy's favorite day of the week=no kids!) they thought he changed and got bigger in the week since seeing him last. The reflux is still a problem, now we are waiting to see a pediatric gastroenterologist (or something like that) in OCTOBER!! I can't believe I have to wait to get any hope of an answer until then; he'll be almost 8 months old then!! Julian is very self structured and sticks to his routine. He no longer likes to have me hold him tight to go to sleep. He has to be in his crib, on his side, with his blanket and binky and he falls asleep listening to the aquarium and the fan. He now goes to bed around 7, sleeps 6 hours, up to eat and back to sleep until 5:30 ish. I can handle that!!! The big one on the other hand still "needs" me for everything and wants me to still lay with him to fall asleep (I am thankful Julian is different, but it makes me sad because he's my baby (last one)) I can't walk out the same room as Manny for more that 60 seconds and he is panicking running around the house looking for me. I couldn't imagine how much worse it would be if I didn't work and he didn't go to daycare. I love my boys though!!!! XOXOXOXOXO

Fourth of July

We went to a 4th of July/Graduation party for my cousin yesterday. Manny had a great time...playing, kicking the ball, throwing a brick and rocks in the pool, oh yeah the plastic lawn mower too.....and what did all the kids watching him do while he was doing it....encourage him!!! Then they were quick to tell on him!! It's nice when 10-15 year olds get the 3 year old to do something, laugh at him, then run to tell his mommy what he did, and of course laugh when he got a pankin on the butt!!

Working around the house

Wednesday Manny decided to take the day and he went and bought a push lawn mower (for the exercise). The kids and I were outside with him while he worked. I started cleaning out the garage (one of my summer jobs) and found great toys for Julian to play with in the next few months. In the meantime Manny decided that he wanted to play with one in particular. Manny's lawn mower is still at Grandma and Pop's house so he used a Leap Frog walk behind toy to mow the lawn with Daddy. Julian enjoyed being outside and watching everything. Taina was in paradise because I found toys of hers that were only going to be packed away in storage for 2-3 months (or so we thought) and 22 months later she finally has them..

Wordless Wednesday

Ok so I have one word to say....GORGEOUS!!!

Everything goes in the mouth

Julian is teething like crazy...everything goes in the mouth: toys, blanket, mommy's cell phone, hands, etc. PLEASE teeth, hurry and come in!!