How about a little smoke to wake you up

This morning Meg and I were just relaxing in bed. I was trying to get her to stop kicking me in the stomach so I could get those last 30 minutes of rest before my 7am alarm went off. The boys were of course awake because they think 6am is an awesome party time. I would have stayed in bed but the smell of smoke filled my nostrils and this quickly brought me to my feet. Meg and I rushed down the stairs to be greeted with a thick layer of smoke, and three boys who all started talking at once. I first thought it was our toaster because it is broken and I should get a new one, but I keep not doing it. For instance, when we make toaster strudels it will either pop them out after 5 seconds or 5 minutes. I had gathered from all the talking that Thomas had tried to make his own breakfast, so I figured he put toaster strudels in there and just waited but they never came out. However, while I was opening the windows and the doors to air things out Jack kept mentioning oatmeal. How in the world could oatmeal make a smell and layer of smoke that was making everyone cough and poor Meg's eyes become all red and watery? I told Jack to go get was burnt and show me. He carries in a bowl with blackened oatmeal. Hmm. Jack said that he never knew Thomas had started making the oatmeal, it was only when it started to smell like smoke that he went into the kitchen and saw the microwave still had 5 minutes and 45 seconds left. He grabbed a towel and took the bowl out. This is what it looked like.

I was also told that Tigran ended up peeing under the table. I could never feel any wet spots but they all three promised that they saw him do it. So I just grabbed carpet cleaner and cleaned anyway. It was a very eventful morning.

Jack has been taking a lot of AR quizzes this year, and after so many points they get certificates. He brought home his Rising Reader certificate yesterday, but I guess he wasn't very impressed. Plus, he waited a whole week to bring home.

We went to the store yesterday and my eye was caught by the wine section. Not because I was craving wine, but because of this suggested pairing.

In case you were wondering what to get with your Pizza Hut. Now you know.

Tomfoolery and Solemnity

Tonight the boys came up to my bed and just hung out. They don't normally do this. I am not the hang out parent. I'm just not very good at it. I am the we gotta get this s!*t done parent or the we can have fun as long as we do it in the next 10 minutes in this very specific way. I try to relax and go with it, but it is so hard for me. I usually just bow out and watch. Tonight though they climbed in bed and chatted and chatted and made fun of each other. It was Luke who surprised me the most. Being the middle boy, the peacemaker, and the soft spoken one his jabs on Jack were funny and unexpected. He is so deadpan that at first you wonder if it is a joke, but then he gets this smile or gleam in his eye. Christmas came up as a topic of conversation and the boys were trying to decide what they wanted. I suggested to Jack that maybe he could get new sheets/comforter for his bed since his current ones are of a character he doesn't care about at all. He wasn't interested and said he didn't care what his sheets were. This is when Luke said, " So princess and doll baby sheets." It isn't super mean but the timing and delivery were pretty funny.  He has been doing this a lot lately. I guess pre-school has brought out his inner sass.

I took Jack to Taekwondo tonight, and about half way through the man in charge sat next to me and asked how I was doing because I looked tired. It wasn't an insult, and he was able to say it in a way that expressed concern, which must be a special talent that most people do not have. I began to explain why I was tired and said well I was pregnant, and here I sort of paused and expected him to be surprised or unaware or shocked even, but no he said- well yeah. I guess since people haven't really said anything to me about my being pregnant I figured they didn't know or couldn't tell. I guess this assumption was wrong. My new assumption is that people feel sorry for me and don't want to bring it up or they are embarrassed for me that I could be pregnant while still having a baby I carry around everywhere. After that the conversation went well, I just had to suck it up and remind myself that after a truck load of pregnancies people would obviously be able to tell, after all I am in my second trimester.


I let Pete cut my hair. I figure I should write it down just for posterity. In an effort to save money we bought better hair clippers and a pair of hair cutting scissors. Pete is way better at this job than me so he does it. Bless his heart too because our children are crazy and can't sit still. He has cut all 3 boy's hair a few times now. He has even cut his own hair a couple times, and it actually looks really good. The other day I mentioned getting my hair trimmed, it had been 5 months so um it was past time. He said he wanted to try it. We both agreed outright that if it went poorly I would just get it fixed. So he went to work. I said well you know just an inch is fine, but as he began to work he became very focused on cutting the back and it was no longer a trim it was a hair cut. It was quite short and varying lengths or layers I guess you could say. Still it didn't look too bad and then it was time to move to the sides and front. It was here that I think the real trouble occurred. It ended up not looking so hot. Still you have to give him credit for trying even though there was the possibility that his wife would go crazy when she saw the end result. However, seeing how much he laid it all out there I never got mad, but I did make that appointment to get my hair fixed. It is short and I have had it this short before, it is more that around my ears there are chunks missing that she couldn't fully fix or that the back does have so many short 'layers' that will take a few months to even out, and she had to raise my neck line an inch or so. Honestly, it doesn't look too bad. I think the reaction people have when I tell them that I let him cut my hair is hilarious so it was totally worth it.

On Sunday and Monday I experienced very painful cramping and pain. Monday was by far the worst, and at various points during the day I couldn't stand up straight. I had a doctor's appt. already scheduled for Tuesday, but the pain was so bad I called anyway to see what they had to say.  I was told to stay in bed, rest, and drink water till I felt like vomiting. Luckily, Pete was able to be around for most of the afternoon and evening.  When he wasn't there the boys got to enjoy a lot tv.  Meg was nice enough to sleep for most of the time. Pete was very helpful and told me to stop acting like I could and had to do everything by myself. He has helped put the boys to bed a few nights this week, and the hardest part is letting go because I do things at a certain time in a certain order, and with Pete it is sort of  whenever we get around to it and bedtimes be damned. However, at the end of it the kids are in bed and I was able to just chill in bed and relax. At my appt. my cramping was less but still there so the doctor put me on progesterone shots once a week. I had also had a slight fever earlier in the week and some pain near my cerclage, so he also put me on antibiotics.  I am feeling better, but not great. The cramping is still there but to a much lesser degree. I also learned that I can no longer wear Meg. When we go to the store or anywhere really I wear Meg because it is so much easier than anything else.  However, I took Meg and Thomas to the grocery and wearing her caused my cramps to increase and the pain was so bad that I was almost in tears. 

Pete has been working hard on redoing his NSF application. It is due on Wednesday so he has been spending a lot of late nights revamping it. He is keeping all the same letter writers so that is one less thing that he has to worry about. This will mark the beginning of applying to post docs. Just as last year he won't find anything out until January. 

With so much going on all around just keep us in your thoughts. 

Saturday Happenings and other Weigel fun

We've been enjoying our weekends lately. We went to Stuckey Farm to pick apples. It was so fun. The boys love apple picking. We rode on the tractor to check out what apples they had available and then off we went. Our favorites were the Honey Crisps. Then we got an apple slushy to split ( so good!), apple cider doughnuts, and plain old delicious apple cider. It was a great treat. Jack has had an apple for school snack everyday since then. I thought that he would be getting sick of them by now, but he told me he loves them.

Pete read to Jack's class, and as always he was a huge hit. Every time Pete reads all the kids love it, flock to him after, and talk about it even after he has left. The day after he read he picked up Jack, but was late, so he had to pick Jack up from inside the building. Jack's teacher was waiting with him and approached Pete as he walked in the building, he thought he was going to get in 'trouble' for being late, but instead she said, " You were the star yesterday. The kids have never been so excited for a reader or talked about one so much after."

Our Saturday adventure this weekend was to a Purdue football game. The boys were really excited to see Uncle Jon cheer. During halftime they threw little footballs into the family section and Jack got one. We left during the 3rd quarter because they were tired and had a bit too much caffeine- still they were super good.

We have discovered Thomas has a skill that his brother's do not have. For his birthday he got some Duplos, and they came with a book on how to make certain designs. He sat down all by himself one afternoon, looked at the book, and began building. A few minutes later he held up his finished product and it was exact. He never asked for help and then he did it again with a larger and more complicated design. He can now do them from memory.

His first design

Then Pete was putting together Jack's loft bed, and Thomas was his main helper. I was later told that Thomas is already a better assistant than me. He intuitively knew what needed to be done and did it. Now Jack and Meg share a room. It went well last night.

Lastly I have had an ultrasound -16 weeks- it appears that the newest Weigel will be a boy.

Life just keeps on moving along taking us with it

Life just keeps on happening. I suppose that is the way it goes. Once we got Jack settled into school it was time to send Luke to pre-school.

Totally excited! Smiles and thumbs up all the way!

hanging his name up( for attendance)

He has only been a few days, but he really likes it. He isn't as vocal about telling me what he likes, dislikes, does, or who he plays with as Jack is/was, I guess no tears is a good sign. When I asked what was the best part he answered- all the parts Mom-- in a totally exasperated voice. He hasn't really jumped on board with my questions: best part of the day? worst part of the day? who did you play with on the playground? Craziest thing that happened? What would you redo?  Nope, not a fountain of information.

We also went to visit Granny and Pappy over Labor Day. The boys had a grand time,  and Thomas was able to celebrate ( a few days early) his birthday.

There were water balloons, slip-n-slides, and shaving cream fights. Along with lawn mower rides, trail hikes, dart guns, pool time, and just chilling with Joe, Matt, Granny, and Pappy. The boys even ate sandwiches on the porch as a thunderstorm rolled in. I would say it was a big success!

Once home we celebrated Thomas' birthday on the actual day. It was sort of a downer after celebrating all Labor Day weekend at Granny's. I was pretty tired, the weather was rainy, and so we just stayed inside. At least he had celebrated in a big way a few days before. After I picked Jack up from school we ran our errands for Thomas' birthday celebration. We picked up the pizza and we went to Wal-Mart to pick up Thomas' Batman cake. I was holding the cake walking away from the bakery section when all of a sudden I began to slide, then my legs flew out from underneath me, and I landed on my butt. The whole time I was thinking- Don't drop the cake!! Don't land on the cake! Don't let the cake fly out of the box! Once I landed I just sat there for a second, and Jack was just staring at me like I did it on purpose. It took me a second or two to get up and after I got up an employee was like, oh are you ok? Did you fall? I just said-I think there is water there-and walked away. Jack still couldn't understand why I fell, and when a man stopped me at the register to make sure I was ok, because he had seen it, Jack wondered why people were talking about it. I had to explain that it isn't all the time you see a 3 month pregnant lady holding a birthday cake just bite it in the middle of Wal-Mart for no apparent reason.

here is the cake I managed to save

glad I did-he was so pumped

Yes, there was a theme. All his presents were Batman. 

Now that Thomas is 3 he has to use the potty. We have been working up to this for a month or two. It started by constantly telling him that when he turned 3 he would be a big boy. Then this led to saying that big boys use the potty and not diapers. Then every time I would change his diaper I would ask what was going to happen when he turned 3? He always answered- pee-pee and poopy in the potty! After brainwashing him like that for awhile once he turned 3 he was ready to go. He has been an underwear boy ever since. He hasn't had any accidents, but he hasn't pooped in the potty so I am a little concerned. At night he wears a diaper so a couple nights he has waited until then to go otherwise he hasn't gone. He likes to do his business and jump off right away. I keep trying to get him to sit there a little longer just to see. He did however, manage to pee on the wall. So that is awesome. 

I had an ultrasound to see about getting my cerclage, but it turns out that I have to wait. My placenta is right on top of my cervix. In three weeks I get another ultrasound to see if it has moved. I was told that it appears as though the placenta attached to the lower part of my uterus. I guess we will see what the next ultrasound says.

Meg is still a crawling and pulling up machine. She goes through numerous jars of baby food mixed with rice cereal a day, plus I still nurse her. She growls when she wants more food. We started giving her graham crackers and introduced her to a sippy cup. She likes the idea of a sippy cup, but she hasn't figured out how to pick it up and bring it to her mouth. I do it for her or I have seen her, more than once, bend over and manage to lift her head with the cup hanging from her mouth (no hands involved). She has had a few nights of sleeping 6 hours. Thank goodness. It does make it a bit harder when they are followed by waking up every 3 hours again. Still, at least we are getting there.

never too many graham crackers

caught her in the middle of her no hands move

Success!! The graham crackers and juice all at once! Now what?

What have we been up to? So much stuff and nothing.

It has been awhile-- I have been totally slack in this area. Ok so what has happened?  Jack started 2nd grade!!   He has started reading chapter books by himself. He has always been a good reader, but has had a block against reading on his own. Finally, he did it. He read Esio Trot by Roald Dahl on his own and aced his AR quiz. Now he is reading Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Luke is taking an art class. It meets once a week for a month. They did printmaking-- small piece of foam that they drew on with a pencil to create a picture, then they painted over it, pressed it onto construction paper, and repeated. 

Luke and Thomas were tasked with cleaning the windows, but they used all the window cleaner so Pete made some with vinegar, rubbing alcohol and flour.  To make it look cool for the boys he added food coloring. The boys loved it and it worked well as window cleaner. We left them downstairs with it and went upstairs to get dressed. A few minutes later they bounded upstairs happy as could be because they had not only cleaned the windows, but they cleaned EVERYTHING!!!  Dismissing this slightly I said-- oh yeah, good job. Then when I left my room and walked into the hall I saw what they meant by EVERYTHING. They were so proud of themselves, and we did give it to them so we couldn't be mad.  They said-- Look we made the house like Frozen.  Yes they did. Food coloring may not have been the best idea.  

Luke starts pre-school next week. He had an open house this week and we loaded the whole family-minus Jack- into the car and off we went.  There were so many kids and parents. When you have Catholic families all going to preschool together there are a ton of little kids/siblings everywhere! Luke is pretty shy so it was a bit overwhelming. He kept his arms wrapped around my legs for a while then kept it close to the family after that, doing puzzles on the floor next to Thomas.  There will only be 15 kids in his class so that seems much more manageable.

The boys decided to collect mushrooms the other night and pile them up on our porch. These mushrooms looked a lot like penises. So the boys got a real kick out of talking about how they were collecting penises. They are still talking about it and every mushroom has become a penis to them.

One cute thing was when Jack found some mushrooms and yelled- Jackpot!! Then a few minutes later Thomas found some mushrooms and yelled- Thomaspot!!

I have been totally exhausted lately. I mean the whole fuzzy head, can't believe you didn't crash the car while driving, don't remember much of anything exhausted. I started writing this on Monday and it is Thursday. I don't even remember what I was initially going to write about, but at least our week has been busy so I have had stuff to add to it. I start to get tired around 2:30pm but there is no rest for mom because we have to pick up Jack at 3 then get his homework done, eat dinner, make Jack's lunch, and then start the bedtime process. Luckily, by 8:30 everyone is in bed and they stay there. I have been falling asleep around 9:30 or 10. Meg makes staying asleep difficult because she is the lightest sleeper in the world, and still likes to nurse multiple times at night. If she hears the floors creak she wakes up screaming, if a light turns on in the hall she cries, or if she just wants to nurse she cries, and I either let her cry which lasts about 25 minutes or I nurse her and then stick her back in her bed. This happens 3 or 4 times a night. I am starting to let her cry it out one of two of these times but that doesn't mean I am sleeping through it. We are debating moving her out of our room, but are having a problems figuring out where to put her. Right now Luke and Jack have bunk beds in one room and Thomas has the crib, with the side rail off, in his own room. Putting her with Thomas was our first thought- Meg has a pack and play that is her bed, and it can stay her bed, but Thomas is loud and likes to throw stuff at her when she is sleeping. Not the best roommate.  We thought of moving Luke into the crib bed and Thomas into bottom bunk but Luke thinks he is being punished. Right now we can't get a twin bed otherwise the best solution would be Jack with Meg because that boy sleeps through anything. Oh well. I am sure we will think of something- mostly because I just want to sleep.

I am ending the first trimester with this unexpected baby. The boys keep changing their mind on if they want a boy or girl baby. At first they said girl baby so Meg wouldn't have to just wrestle and play cars all the time. However, lately they have been saying boy baby. Luke-- who predicted this pregnancy-has been saying to me, strangers, and anyone--One more baby and then no more. We need to tell the doctor.  I agree and I did. That doctor knows we are done after this.

Jack continues wander around his classroom and etc., so his teacher plus the guidance counselor have come up with an idea of getting a large carpet square and putting it under his chair so that he can wander around within the perimeters of the square. He will even be allowed to stand up as he does his work so long as he stays on the carpet square. They even asked him what his favorite color is so that he can have a carpet square in his favorite color. I am glad that the school is so willing to help work with Jack. We hope to have a meeting with his teacher next week to see how things are going. To help at home with homework we have developed a homework chart, but we wanted to also incorporate his at school behavior chart so we think we have done it. His homework chart lists all his usual homework assignments and we have stickers that say things like: great job, good job, or try again. Attitude, actual completion of assignment, and effort put into assignment gets hime points: great job sticker is 2 pts, a good job sticker is 1pt, and try again is 0 pts. Each assignment gets it's own sticker. The behavior chart from school gets worked in because on Friday we will look to see how many greens he has received from the teacher and those will equal iPad minutes. 5 greens is 10 minutes, 4 greens is 5 minutes, 3 greens is 2 minutes, and fewer than that is currently zero minutes.  It all comes together because if he receives 5 greens then for every point on his homework chart he gets 10 minutes. He has the possibility to really rack up some weekend iPad time. He isn't allowed to play iPad during the week and the weekend is based solely his behavior/how well he completes his homework. Hopefully it works or at least helps.

Finally, Meg is starting to hang out by the stairs just trying to will herself to climb up them. With help she can get up a few, but I haven't seen her do it by herself yet. She is also starting to pull up and then let go. She is falling down every time, but I know it will be soon when she lets go and is just standing. She just wants to move and be independent.

You want news? I've got your news.

I have a new title for our life. What?  Don't you have a title for your life? It is like your personal theme song. Here is my life in one new title. Whatever Doesn't Kill You, Just Makes You Crazy. I think I will have it painted on wood in a beautiful and fancy manner and hang it in my house. It will be like those uplifting quotes that people put up in their houses, only true.

Now I know it will be a few weeks before I post this. I will add to it here and there. So bear with the randomness.

I bought a Ergobaby carrier from Zulily a few months ago. It was a great deal, but still more money than I usually spend for that sort of thing. I felt a bit guilty since Meg was our last baby. We have a Baby Bjorn so there was no need to get all above our station with this fancy organic baby carrier. Well as luck would have it I am pregnant again, and so I shall not feel guilt any longer. I will get to use it with two babies. In fact, the $88 I spent is well worth it now. I mean I should have actually planned to get pregnant one more time just to have an excuse to use it for longer. Never-mind the fact we will have to get a bigger car, and a bigger place to live. Now I definitely get $88 worth from my Ergobaby.

You know how you are nursing a baby who isn't eating solids yet and not yet sleeping through the night, and this means you are nursing every 3 hours?  Maybe a 5 hour stretch at night once or twice. Then you start wanting to eat Doritos for a late night snack, but here's the thing, you don't eat late night snacks and you only eat Doritos when your hormones are all up and down. So you eat the Doritos and think nothing of it. Then the next afternoon you just can't help yourself, you walk to the pantry and grab the Doritos while your children are napping and you just eat and eat and eat. Again, not really your normal style.  There must be a reason for this debauchery, and it has to be your period. You wait for it. The next night you go to the Snickers Bar hiding place to discover that your children have snuck into your hiding place and have eaten all your candy!!!!!! They must die, but first you should probably cry because you really wanted that candy. You know there are old chocolate chips in the shelves and you grab a handful but they are gross, but you don't care you need something sweet!!!!!! Still you are waiting for a sign, a reason for all this madness. Then one afternoon you think-- NO, surely not. It isn't possible. You pee on a stick and find out it is possible. You remember you told some friends that as long as your husband planning on getting a vasectomy was a reliable method of birth control then you were all set. Haha- turns out the joke's on you or in this case-- me.

I ended my pregnancy with Meg weighing in at a glorious 163. My goal was to get to 115. I worked my ass off. I worked out hard and often and I got back into my size 2 pants and I got to 118 lbs. I had lines on my stomach that were the beginnings of -well if not a six pack than a 4 pack. My thighs got smaller and I felt good in my body. Turns out that was the problem.

Today I made a pie. It is a blueberry and peach pie. While making this pie smell overwhelmed me. What is it with pregnancy and smell? I couldn't figure out which ingredient or combination of ingredients it was, but I did not like it and no longer wanted to be making that pie. I forged on and with minimal gagging made the pie.  I ate a slice, and it tasted quite good, but now writing about it I can smell the the crumb topping and want to gag again. So I guess I know it was something in the topping.

I have gained weight. Amazing I know-pregnant and gaining weight. Only I don't even know how far along I am and last time, even though my stomach pooched out immediately, I didn't actually gain weight for a few weeks. I figured since  I was nursing a baby and growing a baby that I wouldn't put on actual pounds right away. Wrong.

Every time I breastfeed Meg I feel nauseous. I didn't know this was a thing. Apparently it is. I was nursing Luke while pregnant with Thomas but not every few hours like I am now. Note to Meg:  See how much I love you-I am willing to feel sick just so I can still breastfeed.

I started having cramps. Of course I was worried. But they were just cramps and nothing else. I mentioned them to Pete, took Tylenol, and kept going on with my day. This lasted a few days and yesterday the pain was UNBEARABLE!!!!!!! I thought this is definitely level 9 pain on the smiley face chart. I got shaky, dizzy, felt like I was going to throw up, couldn't pick up Meg, and just wanted to crawl in a corner and rock myself back and forth. I called the OB nurse because I didn't know what was going on. I haven't had an appointment yet, I don't know my due date, and there is just pain. Since it was just cramping-- JUST CRAMPING!!!!!---and I am nursing my teething baby every couple hours I was told I need to up my water intake. Water??  Really? Not drinking enough water is causing me to want to die??? I had already started drinking more because I craved it, but even more?  I would basically have to have a huge gallon jug of water that I drank out of and refilled numerous times all day to drink as much water as they were suggesting. So I got a heating pad, got a lot of water in numerous containers, carried them all upstairs, propped myself up in bed, watched House of Cards, and drank water constantly for 3 hours. You know what? It started working. The amount of water I consumed was not human. Today I have kept it up. Not to quite the same degree, but still far more than I thought humans really needed consume, and I haven't had cramps. Go figure. Water. A crap ton of water.

Hot flashes while in the first trimester? I am thinking being pregnant so soon after having Meg and while still nursing all the time has made me a hormonal mess. I go from one extreme to the other in minutes. I will be freezing cold shivering and then stifling hot and sweating. It is crazy. Also, kind of gross.

First things first-- I had an ultrasound and now know exactly how close in age the babies will be. Are you ready for it?  They will be 13-13.5 months apart!!!!!  I was 6 weeks 5 days at the ultrasound and there was a heartbeat. Awesome. Still a year. I mean -come on!! We are definitely going to be looking into permanent forms of birth control. We are clearly too irresponsible/lazy to handle anything less.

Oh and the due date is March 11. In case people were wondering.

In the past during my first trimester I have relied heavily on scrambled eggs. Not this time.  I made beans, rice, and scrambled eggs wrapped in tortillas for dinner tonight. The pickiest eater in our house, Jack, was actually eating, but Luke, our biggest eater of everything, kept telling me it was disgusting.  I took two big bites and said, " No it isn't. It is good.  Oh no, I am gonna throw up!" Yeah, that didn't go far in convincing him that it was good.

I was going to wait and post this closer to the 10-13 week mark instead of the 8 week mark, but my body isn't shy about sharing the news with the general population. I try to wear baggy clothes and I have Meg strapped to me most of the time, but really one big clue is that I haven't been to aerobics in a couple weeks.  :(  I keep meaning to go even just to have social interaction, but I have been too tired. Of course, letting Meg go about 6 days with an ear infection before picking up on it didn't really help much on the sleep front. I was also going to wait because it is comforting to have that first appointment out of the way but I did have the ultrasound and it looked great. Plus, I have this family thing in a week or so and like I said, you can tell. Maybe they wouldn't know because I could claim I hadn't lost all the baby weight from Meg, but I have been pretty vocal about losing it so....  I just wanted to tell people on my terms and not have them stare at me and wonder.

Free stuff rocks, until sometimes it doesn't

When summer comes to our apartment complex many people move out, and this year our whole strip of townhouses was vacated, minus us of course. We got a free weber charcoal grill out of it, some alcohol bottles that were never opened came our way, and then we saw a mattress propped next to the dumpster so we decided to go for it. Our mattress is 10+ years, covered in baby urine, it dips in certain spots, there are coffee stains, and well, it is old. This mattress was white and the people who left it had only lived here for one year so it was new. Score!  Not wanting to rush into anything we propped it up in our entryway to see if it stunk or if there was stuff growing on it. After a week we thought-ok nice. So then we moved it to the middle of the living room to see if it was comfortable. The boys decided to test out the jump ability of it by using it as a trampoline, wrestling ring, and floor mat for dives off the couch. After all three boys played on it all morning it was time for naps. When Luke woke up he was complaining about his belly hurting, not a stomach ache but the skin hurting. Hmm...  I had him take off his clothes and there was a massive head to toe rash with welts. I checked out the other boys and nothing. Luke's skin is by far the most sensitive, he gets cold sores, rashes, welts, and hives quite often. Thinking over what we had eaten and played with the only new or different thing was the mattress! So while it was a lovely thought that we might get a newish mattress for free, it was not meant to be. Pete and Jack took it back to the dumpster.

Meg has decided that this week will be her week to accomplish quite a lot in life. She has the very tips of her first two teeth poking through the gum, she has learned to scoot, has started to eat rice cereal, and she can get herself into a sitting position.  Side note, the pink ball behind her-free because we found it on campus and there were no other kids around so we took it.

Thomas and Luke were sent outside to play today. They were not happy about it. Can't we just watch tv? Fine, I will just sit in bed. I want to eat. I forced them out. I gave them bowls with water, I gave them hulk fists, I gave them nerf dart guns, and I gave them little wooden catapults. After much pouting Luke and Thomas went for the wooden catapults. They are a little difficult to use and Luke quit almost immediately.  Thomas stuck with it. With just a little guidance from me, he figured it out and was pumped every time he launched one of the tiny bean bags. Of course, I heard him mutter, stupid toy, every time he didn't get it. He is so funny.

Luke decided he was going to use the hula hoop, another free thing we got when people moved away. He had fun getting it to go around once, and wasn't too bothered when that was the only time it didn't fall straight to the ground.

While at granny's we took the training wheels off of Jack's bike. This didn't go over too well, but I told him they weren't going back on. So today we will try again. Hopefully soon I can say he has it mastered. He and Luke both do Tae Kwon Do, and at this point Jack is the one who really loves it. He got his sparring gear recently and is now able to actually participate in the second half of class. He gets to spare with everyone- which means even 1st and 2nd degree black belts who are over twice his size. He can't always get the kicks or the hits in, but one thing everyone has said about him is that he is unshakable and persistent. The smallest boy in the class with the lowest belt rank and he is unyielding in his position and will often back his opponent into the corner.

Oh, and while at G and P's, Jack was given the task of using the punk to light fireworks. He loved it! I was nervous, but he did a good job. The boys also went blueberry picking. Luke learned that he loves frozen blueberries and refuses to eat them any other way.

I am trying to get Meg interested in the mother/daughter selfie, but she isn't very interested. She likes to be solo in her pictures.