Troubles of a Pre-tween.....

My oldest is almost 8 and he's in a whole "I'm much too cool to be part of this nerdy family" mood lately. He talks back, doesn't listen, and can't go more than 1o minutes without picking a fight with either me, my husband, or one of his siblings. Some days I want to ring his neck, but then within 5 minutes he's a complete angel, helping out around the house, or having a conversation with me that makes me realize he's growing up. Some days it's hard to handle him and his mood swings, but I know I'll get through it. I just don't know if I'm prepared to handle the dreaded pre-tweens that lead to tweens and eventually......BUM BUM BUM....THE TEENAGER! AHHHH!!!! If this is an indication of what's to come you better believe that I'm scared.

I am pretty cheap when it comes to spending money on things, but I don't mind when we spend money on memories and fun family days. I would rather spend money to take my kids to a movie or the zoo for the day then use that to buy me any clothes or all the fancy purses women just love. Not that I don't love them I just don't see the point. Things are just that, things. You can't take them with you, and they can't make you happy at the end of the day. The highlights of my day come from the smiles on my kids faces, the laughter we all have together, and just the thought that this could be something my kids will remember and tell their kids about some day. My greatest memories from when I was a kid had nothing to do with the toys I had or the coolest new electronic, they were about camping trips and fishing at the creek. They were car rides to my grandma's house where we climbed trees and had an Easter egg hunt every year. I remember going camping every summer and my dad skipping with us from the car to the grocery store just to make us laugh. Those are the memories I want our kids to have. Yes we still spoil our kids and they have more toys and video games then they'll ever need, but I know that every time we go to a movie, the park and play tag, or we go camping and cook smores over a fire these are the things that they are going to remember.

Summer Vacation To Do List:

1. Have a movie day in the living room and stay in pj's and eat snacks all day. (As much fun for them as it is for me!)
2. Go camping at least once!
3. Run through the sprinkler with my kids (after all one of the greatest things about having a kid is that you get to act like a kid and have an excuse!!).
4. Teach my kids to ride their bikes without training wheels!
5. Go to see some of the free movies at the movie theater (no one will care if the kids aren't really quiet).
6. Go eat ice cream at the ice cream shop even if it is a million times cheaper to just buy ice cream and eat it at home.
7. BBQ, BBQ, BBQ........lots of outdoor cooking!!!
8. Play tag with my kids at the park (even if they are faster than me now).
9. Feed the ducks at the park.
10. Dance like crazy through the house with my kids because after all, they are only little once.

Church with little ones....

We are a church going family. I love going to church....but every time we walk in the doors and get settled and ready all I can think in my head is "how long before someone has a meltdown?" We have a great church where the older two go to sunday school, they have a nursery for the little ones, it's so kid friendly that even if your kids were goofing around no one would look at you funny. But I have a huge problem where I expect too much from my kids. I expect them to be on their best behavior and sometimes when I do that I forget one little thing....."they are kids!" Today the two older kids went to Sunday school, and since Tys is afraid of strangers and Bella's so little we kept them with us in the church. Today they surprized me big time.....the two little ones fell asleep in there. My husband and I were able to listen to the whole sermon. I don't think we've been able to do that since before the kids were born. One thing I have learned though is to always be prepared. I always have snacks in the diaper bag, ones that aren't noisey so they won't disturb anyone. I usually have a book or small toy, and we always sit towards the back so if one of the kids do act up we can take them out for a minute or two. It's not hard to take kids out and have them behave, you just have to do it enough so they realize what you expect from them, and you also....like me....need to drop your expectations from being so high the kids will never reach them. They are kids.....and if you make it through a couple hours without anyone hitting, screaming, or fighting then it's been a good day.

School Clothes Shopping....

When I was growing up, the day we reserved for shopping for school stuff was always one of the funnest days of the summer. I used to be so excited about it and always had tons of fun. We would always go to McDonalds (which at the time was gourmet dinning to me!) and spend the whole day trying on clothes and picking out all our favorites. I mean come on...who wouldn't love clothes shopping. How about the parents that have to see the bill! Wow I never realized how fast it all ads up. And we shopped a lot of sales. I can only see the bill getting higher every year as the kids get older and each want more expensive, name brand, clothes. My 6 year old already only likes Air Jordan, Sketchers, and Echo. We bought 3 pairs of new shoes for the 3 boys yesterday, like 10 pairs of pants, 2 sweater jackets, 5 shirts, and a new dress for little Bella. I thought we did pretty good. We made it a fun day for them, we took them to the food court in the mall and let them get whatever they wanted (Big surprize it was McDonalds). I think back to school shopping will be something they'll always remember too. The good thing this year though is the 2 younger boys we can still talk into getting the cheaper shoes by saying how cool they are! Our oldest already thinks we're nuts and he has his own style. We're obviously not the "cool" parents we think we are. Well, as long as no one has a major growth spurt this year we should be set with shopping. Here's hoping!

Terrible Two's

I've been giving the terrible two's a lot of thought lately. It seems with each kid they have gotten worse. You would think that with each kid I would get the hang of it better and it would seem simpler. Well that's not the case. I think with my 3rd though I've finally figured out the reason behind the "terrible two's." I think 90% of his fits that he throws are not because he is being a stubborn brat, but because he has something he wants to tell us, but he isn't able to speak them to us yet to where we understand him. I've been trying harder to listen to him, and help him explain what he wants. But I can tell when I'm in a hurry and stressed out I don't try as hard and that seems to be his "bad" days. I'm sure we'd get frustrated too if we wanted something and couldn't tell people what it was and no one understood us. Maybe by the time Bella starts going through her terrible twos I'll finally have the hang of this and be able to pass through that phase in a breeze.

Eating habits of a 2 year old.....

I'm not sure why it is that some days Tys eats 2 helpings at each meal, and other days he doesn't seem to have more than 2 bites full all day long. Getting a toddler to eat food is like trying to tell a bird not to fly.....all but impossible. And getting him to sit through a whole meal at the table with us, forget about it. I have learned a couple things through through these two years with him.
1. He likes food that can be dipped in something....and yes he will dip everything from french fries to strawberries in ketchup.
2. If you tell him not to eat something, it will surely be the first thing that he eats (works even with veggies).
3. Ketchup counts as a vegetable!
4. Even if he learned on Yo Gabba Gabba to "try it....you'll like it" he doesn't believe it for a second and any new foods will be left on the plate or fed to the dog.
5. Anything declared healthy by mom is automatically yucky!
I'm sure this will continue to be an adventure feeding him, but maybe I'll just luck out and it's a phase that he'll eventually outgrow and eat good like his brothers. Hopefully not as good since they are literally eating us out of house and home here. 3 teenage boys in the house......wow that's going to be a lot of completely different food issues huh?