Land of McGovernville

Tonight has been trying to say the least.  Brian is gone for the night at a work meeting, so once again I am alone caring for our 4 youngins.  They have all been great despite the lack of naps from two specific babies that I love dearly.  Long after they hit the sack for the night (or at least the first leg of their night) it was time to put the big kids to bed. 
They changed into their new jammies that Nana sent and brushed their teeth.  Then it started, the 2 year old struggles.  Kenniston decideds now is the time she wants to go poop.  Being the good *cough* patient *cough* Mommy that I am, even though I know she doesn’t have to go (she is a regular pooper and only goes once every 2-3 days usually around 2pm, today was that day), I let her sit on the toilet.  And she sat. And sat some more while playing around.  She asked for her potty book, she asked for her duck, you get the point.  I finally said enough was enough and calmly reminded her it was time to go to bed.  I put her diaper back on and we headed to bed.  She threw a HUGE fit.  She kept protesting “I WAAAANNNAAA GO POOOOOOTTTY, I NNEEEEEED TO POOOOOOOP.”  Once she semi-calmed down I asked her point blank if she really had to poop and she said yes.  Once again, the ever so patient mommy side of me came out and let her sit again.  This time I had to walk away (and come to the computer to blog about said incident).  2 minutes pass and I return to the bathroom.  Before I could even get 10 feet away Kenniston is standing on her stool with her hands out saying “Mommy where is my book and my stickers?”  She then followed with “I want my duck, where is my duck?”  I knew she was playing around.  No potty.  No poop.  We were done. 
Back to the room I put on her diaper and clothes, read a book, sang and prayed.  As I am leaving the room she jumps up and says “Mommy I only want you to close the door a little bit, not all the way.”  I was confused until she came up and put her hand in the doorway so I couldn’t close it all the way.  Just like her brother, she didn’t want her door closed all the way.  Once again, sucker mommy side came out and I let her, partially because I thought she was scared. 
Fast forward 5 minutes and I am now into the second paragraph of this blog post.  Out of the corner of my eye I see a curly head of hair bouncing abve our couch.  I ask Kenniston what she wants.  Once again with her hands out she pronounces “Mommy I need some apple juice.” My reply “Kenniston you know we don’t get apple juice after dinner.”  She comes back with “but Mommy I need milk.”  I remind her we don’t get ANYTHING before bed.  I then proceed to tell her that if she choses to get out of her bed again and come out of her room then I would close her door all the way.  I get her stettled back into bed.
Fastf forward again, this time, 2 minutes.  I get back on the computer again to finish this blog post and I hear Vincent’s voice, followed with, you guessed it, Kenniston.  Are you kidding me????  I go back there and find her in the big kid room.  She tells me “Mommy I don’t need to go to bed I need to talk to Vincent….Vincent, Vincent, come on.”  Oh my goodness.  So needless to say, I scooped her up and put her back into bed.  I told her I would shut her door all the way because she chose to get out of bed and leave her room.  She starts her melt down, however it didn’t even last until I sat down for the 2nd 3rd 4th, oh heck I don’t even know any more time. 

Man I hope Brian gets home soon.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I finally had some free time and what did I do?  Sleep, nah, clean, nope (house is mostly clean, yeay!), art project, no…I looked at pictures, hundreds of them!  I love love love to take them and critique them (my own that is).  I can sit here for hours on end looking at picture after picture.  I am sure all of you already know this, but I guess today I realized just how *ahem* addicted to it I am when I sat here and  skimmed through for what I thought was a few minutes and later realized it was an hour.  Gasp!  I gotta run and hang out with the B man before he head to a work function.

The other day while Keniston was sleeping I read a book with Vincent.  All of a sudden I heard a scream, an ear splitting no-mother-wants-to-hear kind of scream coming from Kenniston’s room.  I ran to the room and opened the door.  I found her standing by the door in tears.  As any mother would do, I began to look for blood or any other signs of injury.  I found nothing.  As I held on tight to Kennsiton and begin my attempts at calming her I asked her to tell me what happened finally this is what I got:
“I was pretended to be in a chrysilis under there (pointing to under the twins crib) and come out as a butterfly, but when I did I pretended there was a fire and it scared me.”

Woah!  All of that from my 2 year old!  She has some imagination.  After I reminded her that she could pretend the fire went away and she, afterall, should be napping I put her back into her bed.  After naptime she and her big brother decided the chrysilis game should continue.  Both of them had a great time going under the crib and coming out a butterfly.  I guess one of my bug lessons actually made it through!

Here are some pics, please don’t mind the pile of outgrown baby toys!

Kenniston is so in love with her baby brother and sister.  It seems like somedays she really clings to Ruby more.  I know that she really wants to love on her siblings, so I will usually let her hold one of the babies while sitting down.  Today while holding Ruby she had such a huge smile on her face.  She played with her head, her face, her hands while Ruby just went with it.  At one point Ruby was laughing.  This whole exchange was really hard to photograph.  While I wanted to snap away, I had to watch carefully so that Kenniston didn’t just decide to put her down with out my help (in the end she did warn me thankfully!).  I love how close Kenniston desires to be to her sister!

10. Nature Hikes, usually in our back yard, but I also love taking them to State/National Parks.

9.Laundry, ok so the kids don’t always get into this one, but they do love to help me carry it to the laundry room and seeing them help to be a part of this family warms my heart.

8  Pick out clothes with them (to wear that day or the next).  It may sound silly, but I love to see what they pick out.  They have such a fashion sense already.  Vincent is into red right now and Kenniston loves anything pink or princess like (especially Cinderella).  Jack and Ruby have an amazing wardrobe as well, and let’s face it, picking out baby clothes is fun anyway.

7.  Curl up to a movie for popcorn and smoothie night.

6. Art projects.  Any kind, the messier the better.

5. Play instruments.  We are a musical family in every way.

4. Go to the beach, doesn’t matter which one (though I LOVE Texas beaches), I just love to let them play in the sand and throw rock.

3. Read them Bible stories.  Brian reads them a Bible story from one of their Bible story books, however several times through out the day Vincent will come to me and ask me to read a specific story.  I love that he is into it, but I also love learning a new story as well.

2.  Photographing them, as if though that wasn’t obvious.

1. Dancing!!!  At some point on Monday (but usually everyday) I will pop in a CD or plug in our MP3 player and we will cut the rug.  Usually Vincent makes up some crazy dance while creating his own words to the music.  Kenniston likes to be held while dancing, though she loves to twirl and play along.  I love it and secretly I tear up occasionally in total love for these kids.

All today I have been telling people that Ruby is like the Romba vacuum cleaner, you know the one that rolls around the house from wall to wall vacuuming all along the way.   Anyway, Ruby likes to roll everywhere.  If she rolls into a pillow, couch or other obstical she will roll the other way.  I have also been telling people that Jack is quite the opposite, he can and has rolled over, but just likes to hang out in one spot.  So I was on the phone talking to my Mamaw telling her this and what does Jack start doing?  Rolling around non-stop.  It was like he heard me talking about him and he decided to prove me wrong. 

Yesterday we went to a really cool Military Appreciation Fun Day, but I will have to elaborate about it later, we are late for our small group (Bible study).

Here is a picture in case you are wondering….

And the number for poison control is: 1-800-222-1222

So um yeah, we went for a little nature walk in our backyard. Along with the abundant blackberry bushes in our backyard, we have what we thought might be blueberries. I plucked a bunch of these blueberries and put them in the bowl of nature goodies and took them inside with the kiddos. While doing our nature art project I told the kids I would look online to see if the blueberries were ok to eat, however we shouldn’t do so until I checked. Well, as I helped Vincent glue something down he started to yell “Mommy, Kenniston is eating the blueberries!!!!” Before I could stop her she had swalled 2! I was standing right beside her, I felt like such a morron! I started searching right away on Google and could not find the plant so I called poison control. The lady (Rhonda) was VERY helpful and found the plant right away. It is an Oregon Grape and they are just fine to eat. Phew! What a day.