And a post for Gavin

...who had to learn the lesson about pee-peeing before you get in bed tonight.

Every single dang night I take him to the bathroom, he pees, we put him in a diaper for overnight, get him into his jammies, read stories, and then tuck him into bed.

And then 10 seconds after I turn out the lights and shut the door, he starts crying because he "has to go pee-PEEEEEE!"

So then I give in, and get him out of bed, and we take his jammies off, and his diaper, and he gets 6 more minutes of bedtime-free day before he has to go to bed again.

Tonight, though, I made him do one last potty stop after story and before lights out.  I told him lots of times that this was his last potty stop of the day, and that he would not be getting out of bed to go pee-pee.  He agreed.

And then I kissed him goodnight, turned off the light, and closed the door.

Ten seconds later he started yelling that he needed to go pee-PEEEEEEE!!!

Nope.  Sorry dude.

I did the Super Nanny thing, and let him be irate for a few minutes, then went in and firmly told him that he already went pee-pee, and we were done with that for the night.  Then I told him there was no crying at bedtime.

Every time I say that, I think of Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own.

Anyway.  He went to sleep.  And that is that.

Chasey Chasey Smartie Facey

So, the other day, Ms. Santana sends a note home that says Chase can receptively ID all the letters of the alphabet.  Seriously?

I mean, not that we haven't tried.  He just hates that stuff.  He has zero attention span for any of that "learning nonsense".

But yesterday, he got really into that V-tech bike game, you know, the one that you pedal and you pick up certain letters of the alphabet on a course on the TV?  Yeah, not only did he pedal the bike, but he called out the letters correctly as he rode.

I'm not even joking here, people.

And since then, when we read stories at night, Bryan and I have been asking the kids to point to random letters on the pages.  He gets them right, a LOT.  The best one is when he identifies the letter R, because he sounds like a pirate.  "What's that, Chasey?"  "Arrrrrrrrrr!"

Have I mentioned how much I love his preschool teachers?  Like LOVE them, love them.

Ian, Just Because

Kelsey sent me this photo she took of Ian last month.

He totally melts my heart.

End of the Year Insurance Spending Spree

I'd love for it all to be about eggnog and Christmas lights right now...but reality is kind of slapping us in the face this year, and we're all about the end of year "get everything taken care of because you've met your deductible" spending.

I've had to leave work early so many afternoons to get glasses, exams, therapy consults, IEP meetings, and pre-operative visits (not to mention the pink-eye fake out that Chase pulled on me last week) done that my principal asked me today how many more times I was planning on leaving at 1:30.  Um, no more- I hope.  I'm not sure what else we can fit in.  It's not that I'm trying to miss work, I'm just trying to miss as little of it as possible while still getting everything taken care of before it costs me a million dollars in January.

Chase and Zeke are getting more than LeapFrog learning toys this year.  They are also going to be getting their very own sets of ear tubes!!  This should cut down on the ear infections (2 since we've been home, I think...?) and luckily for us, they've been able to keep their adenoids from getting too inflamed, and they aren't causing problems, so they will NOT be getting surgery for adenoids along with the tubes.

Zeke will also be getting some exploratory surgery down there.  Seems there is an undescended part (No!  I can't type it out on my blog!) and we're going to go ahead and get that found and pulled down where it is supposed to be so that he doesn't end up with a hernia situation.

Do you think if we put shiny bows and jingle bells all over that they will forgive us for these Christmas gifts?

Bye-EEEE. I'n goin' to work...!

Guy told me that he was going to work this evening.  This is apparently his uniform:

Not long after, Zeke also decided to go to work, as well:

Obviously, they work in different departments.

Christmas Concert and the Great Glasses Caper

Did anyone else notice that it was December already?  Holy hell.

You can tell the holidays are coming by the school performances.  The first grade had their big performance tonight, and Ian was super excited because he "gets to stand on the top risers on the stage."  Also noteworthy: "If you are bad, you will get tapped on the shoulder and you will have to sit behind the curtain for the WHOLE show."

We heard a lovely rendition of Jingle Bells, as well as several fun songs with all sorts of hand gestures that nearly knocked children off of the said risers.  Love it.

Zeke loved it so much that he fell dead asleep on Bryan's lap...BUT whenever he heard clapping, he totally "sleep-clapped" with everyone else.  Hilarious.

Gavin found a little round-faced blonde girlfriend who followed him around in the aisles.

Chase played games on my phone, but stopped to clap with gusto after every song.

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Info on the Great Glasses Caper:  Zeke loves his new glasses, and takes really good care of them.  Except that he left them in Mary Poppins' car yesterday.  I thought they were lost at school, but they are actually just misplaced.  No worries.

However, Mr. Chase is another story.  We finally got his glasses back from Walmart after replacing the frames and one of the lenses...and today in his backpack I find a pair of glasses...just frames.  No lenses.  The little stinker figured out how to pop the lenses out of the frames, and DID so at school...and then HID the lenses.  Seriously.  I can't make this stuff up, people.

On the plus side, Chase's OT skills are improving.

Running List

Maybe I'll just make all my blog entries into running lists.  Who has time to write out a complete thought anymore??

1- I still have to post about Thanksgiving.  Short story- a lovely time.  Scott and Rachel came up from Florida, my Aunt Deb and Uncle Tom came out of their cabin in Concord to join us, and my mom and dad were here (as they always should be).  We went in potluck style, and ended up with quite the spread, and zero guilt about making one person do everything.  That is the bonus of having so many awesome cooks in the family.

Rachel, of course, got a stomach bug on Thanksgiving morning.  Because we always make her sick every time she visits.

**Included in our Thanksgiving festivities was a Skype call to Zeke's birth parents.  We had to do the charade thing, which is a hundred times harder via the Internet than it is in person...but when we finally figured out how to use the chat option and translate it though Google, it worked out pretty well.  It was nice to see them, and I think Zeke was happy to see them, too.  It was a little tough because he had to be woken up from nap to come to the computer, so I don't think that he was his normal high energy level that we know, but it was good all the same.  He got to show them his school projects and his favorite toys, and of course, his brothers.  Fun stuff.

2- Bryan and I and Ian completed our first 5K together yesterday!  So, we ran maybe a 1/2 mile...and we were pushing Larry, Moe, and Curly in the strollers (which, btw, our double jogger is not doing so well.  Now we have to decide if we are committing to this running-thing or not...because I don't want to spend money on a double jogger that will sit in my garage for months...years...gah.)

We completed the "run" in 51 minutes (Bryan, Chase and Zeke) and just under 54 minutes (Laurie, Ian, and Gavin).  Ian complained for about 15 minutes of the whole run, and then only sporadically for the other 35 minutes.  BUT he was super stoked at the end when we ran across the finish line.

Best story about the run: Gavin rode the whole time, taking a nap for the last half of it. When we finished, I got him out of the stroller, and he immediately peed his pants.  Oops  :/  I totally hadn't taken him to the bathroom from the time that we left the house (6:15am) until after we stopped (9:15am).  #1 mom!

3- Speaking of running...I'm going to start coaching Girls on the Run at school in January.  Let's just say we'll all be learning together... :)

4- Christmas is up at the house!  Tree is up, lights are up, wreath on the door, nativity lovingly set up by Ian, and our Elf on the Shelf has been up to No Good for several days now.

10 more days until Christmas break!  Woo-hoooo!

5- We made an offer on a house in Waxhaw.  They accepted it, and now it's waiting for the bank approval and all sorts of other legal things because it is a short sale.  Now I'm in this limbo phase, where I don't want to do anything further to the house (like put up a 4th hook for Zeke's backpack and towel) but I'm not ready to pack anything, because it will be a while until we are ready to move...oh, and because of my latest addiction to Pinterest, I have about a billion ideas of things that I'd like to do.  So, you know, that's fun.

6- Bryan and I had a date night last night.  First time since we've been home.  We found some amazing new babysitters from church, and now when Gray and Garret come to sit, the kids are so happy to see them that they don't even notice that we leave.

We did dinner...and some shopping.  And we sat on some furniture that was on display because we were so tired, but we didn't want to come home because we were afraid the boys wouldn't be in bed yet- lol!  Wild.  It was nice to connect, though.  Also nice to be out at a restaurant that served drinks with ice in them.

That's all.  It's time for me to get to bed too late now :)