5AM Blogging

Because all the cool kids get up to blog and work out at 4:30 on a Saturday morning, right?
It's worth it for the peace and quiet.

Actually- I left the most wonderful noise upstairs.  We had Baseball Night last night, where we stream a MLB game and project it up on the wall in our room. All the kids get sleeping bags and camp out on the floor.
I passed out before most everyone (thanks for picking up the slack, Jim!) and awoke the most beautiful noise.  The sound of My People, all sleeping peacefully in one room. 
Nate added a couple snorts and somebody farted for good measure.
It. Was. Awesome. 
And overwhelming to think of all we have been blessed with. 
:)

We're in the midst of Spring.
The weather doesn't know it yet.  35 degrees?  In April?  Really?
We're busy with baseball for Nate, soccer for Sam, dance for Caroline and other various activities.
It keeps us moving, but not crazy.
Don't get me wrong - when it rains I dance a jig because we get to all just BE for a night - but so far, so good.

Sam likes soccer.  He doesn't have the "killer instinct" that some of his teammates have.  He tends to be in his own world during the games and he can get very frustrated at trying to keep up with the other kids. He came home from practice this week and said, "You know?  I had a good practice.  I didn't want to cry once!"  There are some kids that take the term "excess energy" to a whole new level that he plays with - so him not being frustrated by that is a victory.   Sam is a very methodical, purposeful person.  He would much rather wait for the ball to come to him.  Why run to the other end of the field when the ball will come down to where I am soon enough?  That's how this boy thinks.  His skills are improving and he has fun.  It's good to see him smile when he plays.  :)
That's what he's there for.
Sam will being going to Caroline's school next year.  He was approved for the transfer because Caroline is already there and the district tries to keep siblings together when possible.  He will be in a regular classroom.  We think he will benefit from a smaller school with smaller classes and a school that is a more accurate representation of the diversity in this world.
 It's one of those things where you just hope you're making the right decision...we'll have to see.
He says he's nervous, but "I'll just make new friends."  I just love this boy.
The fear of changing schools would paralyze some kids.  He rolls with it and looks on the bright side.

Oh - and soccer pictures are SO much harder to take than baseball pics!  OY VEY! Just stand still so I can take your picture!!! 

TBall continues to be the culmination of Nate's being.
He loves it.  He is simply joyful when on the field. 
Every morning he asks, "Is this a TBall day, Mama?" And if it is, he springs out of bed.
If it isn't, I have to drag him out.
No small task with him in a bunk bed now, I assure you.
He is one of the younger kids on the team, but on the bigger side of the size spectrum.
He LOVES to field and always tries to finagle his way into playing first base.
Without fail, he is *that* kid who slides into home.  Every.  Single.  Time.
It's fun to watch.  

Caroline's dance recital is coming up.  She has her costumes all ready to go.  We need to get some new tights and some make-up and she should be good.
We don't have any pictures of her dancing because sitting in the studio trying to take pictures and keep the three boys out of trouble and not disturbing all the classes is a level of hell that Dante didn't talk about. 
She is getting to be such a big girl.  It's amazing to watch.
She fills her head with all information that she can get her hands on.  Any atlas, book, Bible, instruction book or dictionary is fair game.  She has the New Testament almost memorized.  She is devouring the "Dork Diaries" books (Mama says "meh" with these, but she enjoys them) and has started some Shakespeare.  A little different than many 3rd grader's reading lists...but we'll go with it.
We are very grateful for the Magnet Program that she is in.  It's a diverse crew.  The kids are just amazingly bright.
The Youngers and I went in to have lunch with CJ and her class last week and listening to conversations was jaw dropping.  They were talking about Harry Potter, 4 dimensional shapes, different colleges they might want to go to, Picasso, Legos, different traditions they all have with their families and what mystery meat is really inside the nuggets that the school serves.  There was talk of Taylor Swift, sports and hand clapping games intermixed, too. 
No gossip. No badmouthing.  No complaining.
Just kids happy to be exactly where they were.
Wow.

And with all this, she still loves to play SuperHeroes with her brothers.

Benjamin is such a little stinker.
But in the best possible way. 
With all my years of schooling, there is not better adjective to describe him. 
He has given up his binky (!!) and is slowly giving up his naps.  He is also an avid reader  - anything he can get in his hands, he will start to "read" out loud.  It can be pretty amusing, at times. 
He gives the Olders a run for their money.  He is right in the pack when they play.  He knows almost as much about planes as they do.
We were talking to the neighbor the other day and Ben showed her his plane.  "It's a P-38 JL Lightning!  It's from World War II."  Her father used to work for the Martin Company in Baltimore and she asked it it was a Martin plane.  Benjamin replied, "No - it's Lockheed." 
Hearing those words come out of a two year old's mouth, we almost fell over laughing. 
Benjamin loves Tball.  "I pway TBawl wif my team today.  I go get my JeterGlove and you pway ball wif me?"  is the phrase most frequently heard here. 
He begs to wear Nate's extra uniform and when he can't wear that, wears a Derek Jeter jersey at least 4 sizes too big. 

 We were able to stream the Marathon on Monday.
So cool to watch.
It was mind blowing that the elite women were shoulder to shoulder after 26.2 miles. 
We were cheering for our girl Shalane, but it wasn't meant to be.
Maybe next year. 

 And now...just like that...it's 7AM.
Urchins are stirring. 
Let the day begin!!!












 

Blogging.

Well?
Spring sports, prepping for the Tolleson Draft, 4 crazy kids, Easter, a  new sewing machine to make projects with, a  computer keyboard with a sticky spacebar and life are all happening now.
Good for stories.
Bad for time to sit and write it down. 

5:30 in the morning on a Saturday is realistically the only time blogging will happen. 
Part of me thinks if I didn't get up at 5:30 in the morning, I may have more energy available after, say, 7:30. 
But then there is the Urchin Variable.  If I have free time and they are awake, it invariably gets spent with them. 
Heck, even if they're not awake, it still gets spent with them.  Benjamin has given up his binky over the past few weeks.  We had to move him into our room initially to get him to sleep because it took him a good hour to wind down without it.  That's better now, but he has made clear his preference is to be with us.  Usually about 4:30 he sneaks in and because I'm so much less likely than Jim to march him back to his room, Benjamin comes to my side of the bed.  To further his chances this morning, the Little Bugger brought the peace offering of his favorite stuffed animal.  He handed it to me and told me it was mine to snuggle with and proceeded to climb over me and assume his preferred sleeping posture. 
Crosswise.  Feet at Jim's back.  His head on my pillow. 
Hmmm...maybe that's why I get up so early these days.  

We're trying to figure out how to spend more one-on-one time with the kids.  It's so easy to slip into a herd mentality - especially between the hours of 4-7 when sometimes the main objective is to simply survive until bedtime.  Caroline and I have started passing a journal back and forth.  It is interesting and has sparked a few good discussions.  We need to be more consistent about it.  We need something like that with the boys, especially Sam. 
We put together a Rosary notebook for us to use as a family.  As soon as our printer can spit out more than a page at a sitting, I'll print out the  Stations of the Cross and the Stations of Light to put in there, too.  The kids really enjoy sitting and doing that.  Especially Nate.  He and Benjamin will randomly come up to me with the notebook and request to do a decade.  Something I never thought I would see out of a two or four year old.

Last night we had friends over for dinner.  Seven kids, three adults, three hours, an episode of "Walking with Dinosaurs" and a big mess later...we had a blast. 
Our friends are awesome. 

TBall has started.  Over the past 4 weeks, because of weather and holidays, I think we've had all of 2 practices.  Nate melts down every time there isn't practice or a game when he thinks there should be.  This happens pretty much daily. 
Soon, child. 
Soon it will be warmer than 50 degrees and the fields will not resemble a swamp on Degobah. 
Soon.
The good news is, after almost a week of Nate wearing his TBall uniform, he is wearing other clothes. 
He was so stinking cute in them. 

The kids and I went to Rochester for Easter.  The drive up was fine.  I only had to pull over once to threaten to turn the car around.  We made it to the Dunkin Donuts in Williamsport without incident.  Benjamin found a very cute elderly couple driving from Geneseo to Valley Forge, pulled a chair and joined them for a donut.  Thankfully, they were gracious about ti. 
Jim attended the Tolleson Draft and flew in Sunday. 
The Easter Bunny was super generous and gave each child a new book.
About airplanes, of course.

Of course, the Bunny didn't think about giving the biggest book to the littlest child. "Mama, dis book ees beary heaby.  It hard to read."  
Poor kid. 
The older boys are good about switching. 
For the six hour trip home, they pretty much did nothing but look at their books.  Caroline's book is about the WASPs and she thinks it is awesome.  Which it is.  :)

After 5 days in Rochester, I think it may take a while for Nina & Pops to recover and re-acclimate themselves to quiet.
Nate got upset with me yesterday and declared he would much rather live in Rochester than here.  So I ld him to call his grandfather to tell him that. 
Music to Pops' ears. 

Well...it's almost 7 and people are starting to stir.  Of course, we can't drag them out of bed at 7 on a weekday. 
Here's to a wonderful weekend.  :)