Who let the dogs out?

Most everyone knows the song/rap, "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Over the weekend the boys were watching TV and that song was on a commercial for something. The next thing I know, I hear Darren say, "Who let the dogs out? Arf. Arf. Arf." His Arf's were high-pitched, so he sounded like a puppy and not the deep voice that says, "Who? Who? Who?" It was too funny!

First day of school experiences

When Bruce picked Nathan up at daycare after his first day of kindergarten, he was so excited. Bruce called me on my cell phone on my way home from work and I could hear Nathan in the background just bursting with stories that he wanted to tell me. When I get home from work he has all kind of stories to tell me. I asked what he did that day that was fun and I think they all involved recess, lunch and snack time! Although I think it would have been hard to top riding the school bus.

When his grandma's from either side called to ask how school went, he didn't have too much to say because he was watching TV and couldn't be bothered to talk.

Aftermath: When it was time to get up and start getting ready for school this morning, I was trying to encourage him to speed it up a little bit by asking if he was excited to go to school today. "No, I don't want to go to school today." What? It is only his second day of school! Loramie does all day, every other day kindergarten so today was his SECOND day. He goes every Wednesday and Friday. Then every other Monday so that means next week he will go three days next week.

Not a football fan

Bruce has been talking about going to the season opener high school football game for a few weeks now. We are playing Minster and it is one of our biggest school rivals (Russia being the other big school rival). Bruce was so excited when Loramie finally got football about six-eight years ago, and dreams of the day our boys will play football. Maybe because Bruce grew up with football and I didn't, I would prefer that our boys not play football.

Anyway, I think Bruce envisions taking the boys to football games and having this great bonding experience. The other night I asked Nathan if he wanted to go to the football game with Dad this Friday. (Darren is too little to go) Nathan said that he did not. When I asked why, here is how he explained it. "Football is boring. You have to sit there and watch it and you can't run around." Well put Nathan.

Blankie baby?

Bruce's aunt has given all of our kids blankets with their name & a character embroidered on them when they were babies. Justin is a yellow fleece like blanket with a satin sash sewn around the edges. It isn't very big; only about as tall as him and maybe three foot wide. He will grab that blanket and snuggle up with it every time we put him to bed - regardless of the temperature.

I fold the blanket and then hang it over the edge of the crib when he is not in the crib and lately he has been grabbing it and walking around the house with it. Then I will find it in all the wrong places. Luckily if the blanket is not in the crib, he does not seem to notice.

Can you say embarrasement?

I just remembered a funny story from last nights open house. While we were standing in line to talk with Nathan's teacher, we reminded him that he knew her from both the county and state fair. As our turn arrives, she kneels down to talk to him on a face-to-face basis. She then asks him if he has any questions. Nathan said yes.

"My Dad says that you like to drink beer." Instantly Bruce is red-faced and is adamantly denying he said anything. Apparently Nathan is remembering when they were at the state fair with us last year and we all had a few cocktails around the pool. Oops.

There was a set of parents in front of us and behind that that my sister Susan graduated with and they were both laughing. Bruce knows both of them because the one used to cut his hair and the other used to bar tend once in a while at Al's so they thought our embarrasment was funny.

First morning of school

This morning was Nathan's first morning of school. I know that he was super excited and was really looking forward to riding the school bus. (The school provides a few courtesy stops around town for the town & daycare kids)

Nathan must have heard me in the basement this morning starting a load of laundry so he comes down about half way and tells me that it is time to start getting ready for school. This is at 6:30 in the morning! I tell him that he should go back to bed and rest for while as it isn't time to start getting ready yet. He asks if he can go watch cartoons so I tell him that it is okay. I finish getting ready and about 7:00, I go into the living room and tell him that it is time to finally start getting ready. Nathan is getting himself dressed while I am getting his brothers dressed. I did not rush the boys this morning as I was planning on sticking around daycare until I seen him get on the bus. I take two pictures of him outside to memorialize the start of school. We get to daycare a little later than normal and Nathan and his brothers eat breakfast. I am talking to the two daycare teachers about life in general, and all of a sudden we see the bus pull up. I rush out the door chasing Nathan so that I can get a picture of him getting on the school bus. He was so anxious to get on the bus that he forgot to look back at me so that I could get a picture. Luckily the bus driver (who is my parents friend) told Nathan to turn around so that I could get a picture.

I think that Nathan wasn't scared about starting school because he knew the teacher from the county and state fair. He also knows the bus driver because of my parents and the bus driver was also at the State Fair with us last year. He even recognizes the room aide because their daughter played basketball with my sister Stacey and Nathan would see her at basketball games. She also walks around town a lot and always says hello.

I know that I have been using the word bittersweet a lot, but that is the only to describe what I am feeling lately. I remember when I sent all my kids to daycare for the first time after maternity leave and I went back to work. Everyone asked me if it was hard for me, and did I cry? I replied that I had no problems and no emotional moments. That never bothered me. Even with Justin, knowing that he was my last one, it never phased me for a moment bringing him to daycare for the first time. Seeing my first born get on the school bus this morning? I had a hard time swallowing because of the lump in my throat.

Family pictures

This past Saturday we had out family picture taken for the church directory. Overall it went pretty well. After our family picture the lady started changing the sitting arrangement so that she could take pictures of the kids. Once we realized what she was doing, we told her that we do not want any pictures of the boys taken. She kept trying to pressure us and we finally told her that we weren't planning on buying any, so why waste her time? She said not to tell the people that reviewed the pictures with us that she gave in so easy as she could get in trouble. We told her that we would tell them that we refused and that it wasn't her fault in any way. The boys were antsy and just wanted to run, so it didn't take us long to review the pictures either. We will be getting our complimentary 8"x10" in the mail in a few weeks.

Future in the army

Yesterday morning Nathan was playing in his room and he had pulled the blinds up so that he could see what was going on outside. He was pretending to be a cowboy so he had his cowboy hat on, his gun belt, a toy pistol in the holster and a toy rifle in his hands. I happened to be in his room when a couple of army semi's went past the house. He said he was going to go outside and put his rifle over his shoulder (like the veterans carry them in parades) to show them that he was in the army too. I told them that the appropriate thing to do would be to salute them and I showed him how that was done. Then the conversation went like this:

Nathan: I am going to be in the army when I grow up.
Me: Oh yeah?
Nathan: Yeah. I am going to shoot a cannon.
Me: Oh yeah? Shoot a cannon huh? (Trying not to chuckle because how often do they shoot a cannon now days?)
Nathan: And fight bad men.
Me: Well, you fight with your brothers now, so why do you need to join the army to fight?
Nathan: That is practice for when I work for the army.

I hope that this is just a passing child-hood fancy. I greatly appreciate everything the past, present and future military personnel do and sacrafice, but that doesn't mean I want my son to join the army. I guess that makes me a hypocrite, but it just scares me to think of him in the military.

Mini-me

I have posted before that I think Justin is a mini-me of Nathan. Well, this past weekend Bruce and I were invited to a pool party and since it was going to be a very long day for a sitter, we asked my Mom to watch the boys overnight. At some point they must have been looking at photo albums and Nathan kept looking at pictures of him and saying that it was Justin!

Sweet gesture?

As I am getting ready for work this morning, Darren comes into my room about 6:20 am. I asked him if he had to go to the bathroom and he said no and laid down on the floor. He didn't say anything else, so I continued getting ready. Then about 6:40 Nathan comes into my bedroom and he did use the bathroom. When he stayed in the bathroom with me, I asked him what he was doing up already. He claimed that he wasn't tired anymore and that Justin is awake also. With that statement he runs out of my room and goes back into his bedroom. A minute later Nathan is back in the bathroom with me and I hear Justin crying. I told Nathan that Justin is crying because he is lonely. It was also mean to go into his bedroom and then go back out when Justin was stuck in the crib. So Nathan told me that he was going to go keep Justin company.

When I walked into the boys bedroom with Darren to help them get dressed for the morning, Nathan was laying in the crib with Justin and Justin had his head on Nathan's chest. I was touched that Nathan was keeping Justin company, but a little dismayed to see that he meant it literally!

Electric birds

On our Mom & Nathan day, as we were sitting at the exit ramp waiting for the light to change, Nathan seen a bunch of birds sitting on several electric lines. He looks at me and asked, "Are birds electric?" I guess seeing the birds rest on the electric lines draws a logical conclusion that they are resting there to re-charge their batteries. Too funny.

Blood test results

Awhile back I had posted that Justin had to go in for more blood work so that they can check his iron level. The morning of the Nathan & Mom day, I took Justin to the lab at the hospital to have his blood drawn. They did a really good job and got him on the first stick. I took Justin back to daycare and then pick Nathan up so that we can spend the rest of the day together.

As I am on interstate coming back from Piqua, my cell phone rings. It was the doctors office with the lab results already. They said that his iron was 10.9 and it should be at least 11. Since it was so close, they suggested that he not take an iron supplement at this time and just eat more iron-rich food. Then we will re-test around his 15-month check-up. I agreed that was a good plan on action. The only problem is that Justin is not a meat eater, so no iron there. He does love to eat bread by itself, so I may buy some iron rich bread and hope that does the trick.

Full of poop

Justin was full of poop yesterday...literally. The boys, including Justin, went to the farm yesterday to spend the day instead of going to daycare. Since Justin requires a little more supervision, sometimes Mom prefers if I send him to daycare so she can do things outside - like mow the grass. I told Mom when I dropped the boys off yesterday that you need to make sure you keep a careful eye on Justin as he gets into everything. At some point when Mom was doing dishes yesterday, my Dad walked back into the toyroom before going back outside and told Mom that all three boys were playing farm together.

Fast forward a little bit and Justin comes walking into the kitchen. Mom looks at him and seen that he had dirt all over him, so she asked him what he got into. (Of course she isn't expecting an answer) Upon getting closer, she discovers that he stinks. After an inspection, she discovers that he has poop all over him! Gross! She looked at his diaper first thinking that maybe he over-filled it, but that wasn't the problem. Apparently one of the other boys went to the bathroom, took care of business and either forgot to flush or didn't hold the handle down long enough and it didn't flush all the way. Regardless, Mom said that he had it all over him, his clothes, the toilet, the shower and the bathroom in general. When telling me that story later, she remarked that she caught him playing in the toilet once (a gross habit of his) and tried to keep the bathroom doors shut since that time. I wanted to say, "I told you so" but I figured that she learned her lesson about making sure you keep a close eye on him.

Full-time walker

I have been waiting to post this to make sure that I wasn't going to jinx myself, but Justin has been walking all the time now for about two weeks. He is so funny to watch because he is so bow-legged. I know all kids are because of their diapers, but he seems worse than my other two did. Then he grins at you with his bow-legs and buck teeth and I just think that he is the cutest thing ever. He even "runs" to catch up with his brothers.

Between his haircut and the walking, he definitely looks like a little man!

First haricut

Justin had his first haircut Monday night. There isn't much hair there, but just shaping it up made him look so much older. I also thought that the haircut made him look more like Darren too. Not sure if it is because his hair is as light as Darren's, or if it is because it is not nearly as think as Nathan's, but there is something there that reminds me of Darren.

Nathan & Mom day

I had a few vacation days that I used last week and on one of those days, I had a Nathan & Mom day. Nathan went with me and the other two boys had to go to daycare. We started the day off by going to the Health Department so he could get the necessary shots he needed to go to kindergarten. Then we went to the Piqua Mall to pick out a few school clothes and additional pair of shoes. As we were walking thru the mall, there was a booth that takes pictures and Nathan asked if we could have our pictures taken. Since it was a bonding day, I said yes even though I really didn't want to have my picture taken. We do that and then get back on interstate to head to Sidney. I ask Nathan where he wants to eat, and I brace myself to hear McDonald's. He surprises me and chooses "Taco Bells." We have a nice lunch and then head to Wal-Mart for his school supplies. I was a bittersweet moment to help him pick out school supplies. After we do that, we head to the grocery side so that we can get some beverages and snacks to take with us when we go to Columbus for the weekend.

When we get home, he rushes outside looking for Leslie since she is home for the summer, and therefore ending our Mom & Nathan day. She wasn't home so he came back and helped me put groceries away. Later that evening when Bruce got home, Bruce was upset because Nathan wouldn't hardly even talk to him. Then he wouldn't give Bruce a hug so Bruce decided that there would be no more Nathan & Mom days.

Some more tests

When Justin has his one year check-up, the nurse pricked his toe to draw blood to test his lead level and iron level. I got a call from the nurse on Friday saying that his lead level came back fine, but his iron level was a little low. The level was 8.9 and normal is between 11 & 15. They asked me if he has been eating, if he was a little pale or if I have noticed any changes. I said that he seemed normal to me, but he did have that cold while we were there. They want me to take Justin to the hospital, to the lab, to draw more blood to do more test. If his iron is low again, they will put him on an iron supplement for three months and then test again. At least that is my understanding. Hopefully there is nothing seriously wrong.