Moments

I have had a week full of:

Hitting, biting, kicking, screaming, crying, fighting and whining. 

It has been long. At some moments very long. 

Then there are these moments. 

These precious moments of:

Friendship, love, laughter, imagination and joy. 

And it is all worth it. 

Well, mostly worth it. Until the next screaming fit. LOL!

Come quickly Friday!!! 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

One perk to moving to a bigger city is Major League Baseball! I love baseball!!! I grew up going to baseball games and want my children to have the same opportunity. I love that they are much more affordable than other sporting events and they are just so clean and family friendly. 

So now that we have some major things behind us (Max's surgery) it was time to go to our first baseball game as a family. (Dan and Pierce actually went together a few weeks ago and had a special dad/son date. Pierce really loved it. Pics of that another time). 

When we arrived at the stadium it started to drizzle. No big deal we thought. Surely in an hour or so it will clear up and we can watch some of the game. So we buy tickets, get a few snacks and head to our seats. 

For some reason my camera was being blurry at first. Sorry!

Oh, and I forgot to mention when we arrived we found it out it was Star Wars night. What are the odds?!?! We all got R2D2 beanies!

The kids with their hats on!

Well the rain was still coming down and the kids were getting antsy so we decided to walk around the ball park. We got another snack of cotten candy headed back up to our seats and you will never believe what we saw:

I am not sure who was more excited the kids or Dan. Lol!!!

By this time it was after 8:30 and it was still raining pretty hard. The game wasn't going to start until 45 minutes after they pulled the tarp so best case scenario the game would start in an hour. The kids were starting to get tired and we were all getting a little wet so we called it a night. 

That was probably the best baseball game I have never seen. Lol! We had a blast!!!

Spoken Gems

Saffryn: "mom, will you turn on some music?"

Me: "sure! What do you want to listen to?"

Saffryn: "The Beatles! Will you turn on the song that I like?"

Me: "Which one is that?"

Saffryn: "You know. The one. The one that sings about she. About the girl."

Oh, so pretty much every song that The Beatles ever wrote. Thanks for narrowing that down for me. Lol!!! 

-For the record it was "I've Just Seen a Face." The girl has impeccable taste!

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At the dinner table Colt started asking for dessert. After being told he needed to eat his sloppy joe first he reached out and picked it up then said in a grunty voice: "heaby." Then he set the sandwich back down. Meaning sorry this sandwich is to heavy to eat. I think I will take the brownie. Hahah

Oh these silly kids!!!

Puff Paint

I am so spoiled!!! Yet again a friend has given me a fun activity to do with the kids. Here is the site:

http://dabblesandbabbles.com/3-ingredient-diy-foam-paint/

It seemed like an easy activity to try so we got right on that!

The ingredients are equal parts glue and shaving cream, and food color. 

I put it in a plastic bag and let the kids mix it. 

We cut out some cardboard from an old diaper box. And by we...I mean me. Lol!

Saffryn mixing hers. 

For some reason my kids thought that was such a fun thing. They kept asking to mix more. I think they thought that was the "project". Lol. When I had tried to do that kind of thing before they were not thrilled but that morning they were gung-ho! 

The kids with their colors!

And that is the point when Colt decided he was done and went to play with his cars. 

The other two however were just getting started!

We cut the corner of the bag and turned it into a piping bag and the kids went to town. 

A side note I was doing most of this one handed. Max isn't feeling very good so he wanted to be held.  

He kept getting tangled in my necklace. Haha! Silly boy. 

After a bit Colt decided to try it. 

He of course had to explore it with his hands. The other kids then had to as well. 

The kids painted until the bags were completely empty!!! It was a really fun activity!

Critique:

This was a great activity!!! We were all blown away by this. From start to finish it was great. As the paint dried it puffed up so high! In some spots it was almost an inch high!

When it was completely dry it was so cool to the touch. Even Dan thought it was kind of amazing. We all took turns touching the finished product! Lol!!!

It wasn't as easy to clean up as the last paint we did because of the glue. It didn't  stain anything but it was just a bit sticky. 

We will for sure and I mean FOR SURE be doing this one again! It was so neat! 

Saffryn told me we don't ever need to buy paint again. I think I agree. We have some great options for homemade ones!

Thank you for sharing these ideas friends!!!

4 months

Once again this is a bit late. I remember to take the pictures on the actual day but somehow forget to blog about it. So here it is...Max is 4 months old!

STATS:

He weighs a little over 16 lbs. He wears 3-6 month clothing and size 2 diapers. He has blue eyes (I am guessing they will stay blue) and still has strawberry blonde hair!

MILESTONES:

He can roll from his back to his tummy super easily! He is getting more alert and aware all the time! He can sit in the bumbo now and enjoys watching us. He laughs and smiles. He has found his thumb and enjoys sucking on it while playing. He doesn't really use it to soothe or at bedtime. Well at least not yet. 

PERSONALITY:

He is still super sweet. He really loves to be held and really doesn't fuss much if he is held or getting attention. He still gets overwhelmed by the three big kids and prefers it to be quiet. He is still exclusively breastfed and loves his momma. He sleeps pretty well waking up once a night. 

UPDATE:

After another sonogram a few months ago it showed that Max's left kidney is worse than it was in utero. We were referred to a specialist after we moved. We saw him and he decided the next step was to have a renal scan done to see how his kidneys were functioning. After that scan was done (which was done at the hospital. He had to be sedated for it. It was a sad day) we had a follow up appointment with the specialist to go through the results. It turns out he has a blockage called a UPJ. He recommended a surgery fix. After seeing the results Dan and I agree. We have the surgery scheduled for August 14th. We would sure love any prayers for him and for us. It would be a lie if I said I wasn't feeling pretty overwhelmed and stressed about it. 

Here is a good article describing his condition and the surgery to fix it. 

www.urologyhealth.org/urology/index.cfm?article=43

Oh how I love my sweet boy!

Homemade Paint Project

So somebody (maybe my mom) posted this to my Facebook wall:

I have no idea where it came from but I do not want to take credit for this idea. So good job to whoever did this :)

Anyway, since we do not have any paint thanks to our move I thought it would be a good time to do this! I only had enough salt for one batch so I just split it evenly between 3 squeeze bottles. 

I decided to do primary colors so my kids could mix colors. They always ask me about colors and while I do not mind telling them what makes what, I know they will learn in a whole new way if they are able to mix the colors themselves. 

I had saved some egg cartons for this activity. 

They were all so engaged and asked for the bottles so kindly and were so willing to share. It was such a great chance to practice kindness!

Saffryn was really diligent in mixing the different colors. When she was done it looked like this:

Me: "You sure made a lot of grey!"

Saffryn super excited: "of course I did!!!"

Uh okay?!? Lol!

Pierce was cracking me up with his experience:

So instead of mixing the colors he decided to just keep adding colors. It ended up making some cool swirls! Then he decided to paint the top of the carton. I offered him some paper and he painted on that for a bit!

I was so pleased that Colt wanted to join in on the experience!

He was in the Pierce camp of not mixing it too much and just adding. He wasn't interested in painting on paper. I made the deliberate choice to let him paint on the table and explore it with his hands. He is such a curious and exploratory boy and I didn't want to put a lot of restrictions on this activity for him. I think that helped him stay engaged for much longer! He finished before everyone else and was interested in helping me clean up. 

Thanks sweet boy!

Saffryn decided she was ready to paint! She made some strawberries and cherries!

Max and Crash were relaxing in the floor next to us!

Now for my opinion on the paint (this post wasn't long enough...). 

It was super easy to make  and the kids can help which just extends the activity. It is even easier to clean up. By far the easiest paint I have ever had to clean up. It didn't stain at all. I liked that I knew what was in it so when enviably Colt tries it (and he did) there is nothing harmful in it. It is also super cheap and just used ingredients I usually have at the house. 

The texture was a bit grainy from the salt though. I'm not sure if there is a way to make it creamier. My kids didn't complain about it at all. They are excited to make it again!