Pass the bon-bons please

I'm not sure if I've blogged this before (and I don't really care to look through 700 posts to find out), but a friend of mine's father is known around here for saying, "The magic number of kids (referring to easiness level) is one less than what you have."

Tonight is Pack meeting.  Danny is the Cubmaster and Pookie, being a cubscout, went with him.  And Hammy, being the mini-Pookie-in-training/Daddy-cling-on, went along too.

Can I just say, life is so easy with just four and a half kids?  Especially with my two, um... "spirited" ones being away for a few hours, life is so smooth and easy. 

I've vacuumed out the van (realizing that we eat way too many French fries and Cheerios), washed carseats and their cloth covers, rearranged seating in the van, washed laundry, and caught up on blogs in my reader. 

Now I sit, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for comments.  Or I guess I could pack the clothes for the trip . . .

Family Vacation Prep

Next week we are going on a super fun family vacation!  We will be traveling 800 miles to our first ever family reunion for my side of the family.  That's my parents, my siblings, and our kids. 

But before we go to the family reunion, we are taking the kids to Sea World. 

Some necessities for going on vacation with 6 and a half kids under 8 1/2?  Zoloft.  And lots of it.  Just kidding!

I started my list:

Water.


Playpens.


diapers.

Music, not just this kind.


Games.

Magna Doodles.

Audio Books to listen to.

Pre-rationed snacks in ziploc bags.

I referred to this awesome post, about driving with kids, from Kristen at We are THAT Family.  I've referred to her post multiple times during my preparation.

Yesterday, after we went bowling for Bun's birthday, we went to the library to look for books on CD and tape for Danny and me to listen to on the trip to help us stay awake.  Then we decided that it might be fun for the kids to listen to books also.

I asked a library employee where I could locate the children's audio books.  I was directed to a section labeled "Playaways." 

He said, "You can check the battery right here to make sure it's working and just plug it in to any headset."

I was like, "Oh, okay."  Hmm... I'll just ask Danny what these new-fangled contraptions are and what kind of music player they go in.  He's pretty up-to-date on that sort of thing.

The library employee continued to explain how handy these "Playaways" are for travel on planes and car trips, etc. 

So, I finally just said, "What do these plug into again?"

He said, "Any earphones or headset should plug right into it.  You just press 'play' to play or pause, this button forwards to the next track, you can speed up the book to play it fast..." he continued.

Then I forgot to use my library voice.

"Danny!  Check this out!  All you have to do is plug in headphones and listen!  Isn't that amazing?!  We should checkout a bunch!"

We checked out ten books on playaways and this one of gross and silly songs.  They sell these new-fangled thingamajigs on Amazon and probably other places too.  But check your library-- that's the frugal thing to do!

 The employee told me that these things are often sent with troops going overseas.  They are also great for when you're jogging and that they're virtually indestructible so you can hand them over to your kids to use.

That's good.  Because I bought four new kid-head-size headphones for the trip.  I expect peaceful driving. 

Twins and Time-outs

The corner by our front door is for time-outs. Everyone knows you're not allowed to play with anything in time-out. You're not supposed to talk either. The only thing you're allowed is to read your scriptures. Recently, the twins have decided it's great fun to climb on and play with the time-out detainee.

 

Pookie and the time-out buddies

Squdge is asleep on left while Tater (on right) eats Squdge's food even though he too is falling asleep.  This is a common sight in our home.  The food is always better on the other tray.

What's better than a scooter and a Lego Star Wars hat?

The candy bar poster!

An easy birthday present for children from 5-95 is a candy bar poster.  For just a few dollars, a sharpie, and a hot glue gun you can create memories for your birthday boy that he'll never forget.  And who doesn't love candy?

Tomorrow is Bun's fifth birthday.  It was originally going to be a big friend birthday, but I kinda got pregnant and sidetracked.  And he doesn't remember, so shhh.  We're going bowling.  And yes, we don't normally have big friend birthdays at five.  We have them at 4, 8, 12, and 16.  But I was hospitalized with twins on his fourth birthday.  Poor kid.

In case this picture doesn't get bigger when you click on it, here's what the poster says:

Dear Bun,

Just be-TWIX you and me, I hope you have GOBS of fun on your birthday!  I just know you'll SKOR big with WATCHAMACALIT?  oh yeah, BOWLING!  The REISEN I wanted to tell you to ignore the NERDS, is because you are worth more than 100 GRAND!  Just some friendly advice from a couple of LIFESAVERS. 

Love Always,         

Mommy and Baby Ruth 

Cheap, easy, and memorable works for me!

Do you REALLY want to know?

Yesterday morning I awoke to a soaking wet Hammy sweetly saying, "Mommy, I potty my bwankie."

This morning I was sleeping on the couch with a twin that decided he was hungry at 5:55 a.m.  I fell back asleep after changing both babies, giving one a bottle, and putting on the show, Baby Neptune.  Then Hammy calls me out from my slumber, "MOMMY!!!!! Get da POOP off of meee!!"

So, how is the training going you ask? 

grrr.

He has nighttime accidents 6 out of 7 days a week.

He potties in the toilet consistently.

He poops in his pants consistently.

The good news is we've only used 252 diapers in the past three weeks.

If you feel a sneeze coming,

and you're 21 weeks pregnant with your seventh child, make sure you're not sitting cross-legged on the floor. If you forget to quickly hop up and take a defensive-stance, well, don't forget the next time. And if by chance, the next one sneaks up on you, well, be grateful you have a denim skirt that soaked up any incidental leakage.

My eyes have been itching since Saturday evening.  I woke up sneezing and sneezing.  I've been congested all week with these itchy eyes and constant sneezing. 

 

I love our new home.  But the trees here (a whole mile away from our moldy old home) are driving my allergies bonkers. 

Reading to kids

Once upon a time, when I was expecting my third child (so before the birth of this blog), I used to read to my son and daughter one hour every day. Minimum.

Gabbers was just a year and a half at the time with a very short attention span. Mostly she was interested in eating the books. It was difficult to get through a book with her before she’d pull it out of my hands.

Reading time usually ended up being with just my three year old Pookie on my lap, or rather the side of my lap, and reading book after book after book, while Gabbers had usually hopped down at that point and was crawling around seeking and destroying and eating books.

Our home is filled with books. Before Pookie was born, I joined a book club to get him all the classic Dr. Seuss books.  One of the books we got from the hospital in our goodie bag when he was born was called, Read to Me by Jackie Leavitt (Governor Mike Leavitt's wife).  I got the message.  Reading to my child is important.  I still have that book memorized.  It has long since fallen apart from having read it several times per week through the first three kids.

Before Pookie had a single toy, he had a dozen books.

I started reading to him at less than a few weeks old. I was frustrated when he’d fall asleep while I read to him. I read him board books and Dr. Seuss books every day. And the last book of each reading session was a chapter of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web.

Did you know that children younger than fourth grade have an amazing ability to memorize?

Take advantage of it.

I found that when I read to my oldest and spent just a little time every day helping him memorize things like his planets, U.S. presidents, 50 states and capitals, scriptures, pledge of allegiance, etc, he had less tantrums and oodles of confidence.

I am particularly excited today because our school supplies just arrived. I’m jumping into full-time homeschooling again. Well, as soon as I figure out where to put all these new books. I can’t wait for the look on Pookie’s face when he comes in from the playground and sees what arrived.

*I am an Amazon Associate and receive a 4% referral reward for any purchases made through these direct links.
This post is linked to WFMW at We are THAT family.

Magic has its limits too, you know.

Pookie, with a fleece throw blanket draped over his shoulders, declared to Danny and me (as we were sitting on the living room floor changing diapers),

"I am a magical wizard!"

Danny said, "Oh good.  Why don't you use your magic powers to clean up this room?"

"I can't do that.  But I can disappear!"

And he did.

To read more Kiddie Kwips, you can always click the tab underneath the header that says Kiddie Kwips.  To read them now, just click this link.

The results are in . . .