Random

So, I've been avoiding the blog for a while now because I've been to scatterbrained to think of any one thing to write about.  So here's a little hodgepodge stuff:-)

Sickness.  After recovering from May's round of doctor visits for Jude's broken arm and Penn's stitches, we hit June thinking we were home free.  Wrong.  Jude got sick with strep and Penn followed suit (although he didn't have strep).  Almost exactly one week later, Anna came down with her first illness (which required four doctor visits, a few days of an oral antibiotic, and and one antibiotic injection).  We deduced that she had something viral (probably croup) in addition to something bacterial (which caused her fever to shoot up to 104.5...SCARY).  It was a rough two weeks for me and I thought I would scream if I had to to go to the pediatrician/urgent care office one more time.  I'm singing praises that they are all well now!

Anna is officially five months old now!  She's a little over 15 pounds and absolutely perfect.  I've never had a baby in the 50th percentile for weight and height (Penn and Jude were always "above the 95th percentile" in height and in the 25th percentile for weight).  I really think she might be the easiest baby on the planet!  She tells me when she's hungry (usually by rubbing her face against my chest and pulling at my shirt) and then I nurse.  When she fusses, that my sign that she's wet or dirty and I change her.  I put her to bed awake each night around 8:30 and she normally only wakes up once (at about 4:30 or so).  Then I bring her to my bed and "dream feed" until morning.  We don't even really do a daytime schedule with her because she's just so easy-going.  I'm positive she gets it from me;-)  I'm sure her "easy days" are just helping me to rest up for what's ahead, but I'll take it!

Penn and Jude have been having "disobedience" problems some lately and we've been trying some different discipline methods.  I get so frustrated (especially when Pack is at work or out of town) and I feel like I'm a completely ineffective parent.  Then it hit me suddenly when we were out somewhere.  I might get frustrated when they don't do every single thing that I ask of them, but when push comes to shove, my boys do the right thing for others.  I've seen then being a good friend (even SHARING!!!), listening to other adults, and doing some of the things that I have to nag them about at home.  Even if they aren't perfect (and Anna won't be for long...I have to keep reminding myself), they are learning and it warms my heart when someone tells me that my kids are doing well at something.  I'm going to start making it a point to tell parents (and their kids) when I see their kids doing something right.  That might be just the thing that parent needs to hear to get them through the rest of the day.

And coming up?  Swimming lessons start for Penn and Jude.  We are planning a week-long trip to SC in mid-July.  And Pack turns the big 3-0 in August (and he won't let me throw him a party...BOOOOO!!!).  It's gonna be a fun summer!

A photo lesson on insurance

 May 2012:

Jude: buckle fracture, x-ray, above the elbow splint with sling, waterproof cast

Penn: first filling, fire ant bite reaction, antibiotic and antihistamine, head injury, two stitches

We've met our deductible.

My first baby...

 ...is soooo not a baby anymore.  He's a five-year-old-boy!  I remember when we held Penn on the night of his birth-day and I asked Pack, "What do you think he's going to be like when he's four (I don't know why that age stuck out to me, but I guess I figured that would be the end of baby-hood)?"  "Four" seemed like an eternity from back then, but it came and went faster than I thought it could and that tiny little baby that I held for the first time is now this amazing and unique, FIVE-year-old human being!

One year ago!

The memory he has amazes me!  I can't remember what I wore yesterday but he can tell me what movie we watched when we stayed in a hotel two years ago!  He remembers things sometimes that actually gives me goosebumps because I've long since forgotten them.  Geez...I hope I don't mess him up too bad because I know our little Penn is like an elephant who never forgets!

 

And he's smart too!  I love watching Penn learn new things.  It's amazing to me how he learns.  He just needs to see you do it once and he's got it!  If only he had gotten that from me...  This year, he's learned how to read (a little), write, and tie his shoes, but he's most proud of mastering the Roku Remote.  Pack is always impressed with his early engineering and inventing skills, but we're still waiting on him to perfect his invention that would "keep Mommy from making any new foods anymore."  Nice try.

Penn's first (copied) sentence.  Not bad:)

A cardboard/bubble wrap stable (with LOTS of tape)

Baby Jude idolizes his big brother and does everything that Penn does.  When they have to be separated, Penn always tries to console Jude and make him feel better.  I'm so worried about Jude when Penn starts school...he's going to miss Penn so much!  Luckily, Penn is (almost) always a good example for his little bro.  I couldn't ask for a better "first kid".  His compassionate heart and love for his brother melts my heart. 

Per the usual, Jude is staring at Penn to see what he's doing:)

When Anna came into the family in January, Penn got to stretch his big brother skills a step further.  Now, he not only has to protect Jude, but to protect Anna FROM Jude!  And he takes his job very seriously.  Penn is absolutely smitten with his baby sister and I have a feeling he's going to make life very difficult for anyone who dares to bother his little sister for the rest of her life.

She's safe in his arms:)

Ever since he could talk, Penn would tell anyone that Jac was his best friend.  Jac is also his cousin and they are six months apart.  They couldn't be more different but they love each other dearly and completely exhaust anyone who has to watch them together (if you add Jude and the other cousins into the mix, you can hang up ANY semblance of order).  One day, these two could rule the world...

And they both have an equally good sense of fashion...obviously!

Mostly, Penn spends his time trying to be just like his Daddy.  Truthfully, he's practically his Daddy's twin anyway.  He loves to play with Ninja Turtles and He-Man Toys that belonged to Pack when he was little and he wants to dress the way that Pack dresses now.  Add some steel-toe boots and some inches, and this is his daddy to the T.

Definitely the name-sake:)

For his fifth birthday, we made a last minute trip to SC and had a little Batman party for him at my mom's.  It was a super-tiny party, but he told me it was the exact party he wanted (sweet boy)!  When we got back to VA, we gave him a new bike that actually accommodated for his super-long legs:)  and we let him decide how he wanted to spend "his day."  He picked pankcakes with sprinkles for breakfast, the Children's Museum, Chick-fil-a for lunch, and Red Robin for supper followed by birthday shopping and a yogurt bar.  He also bought sharing presents for him and Jude with his own money.  My stress level was low and my mama heart was happy!

Batman...this kid loves a good costume:)

Birthday Bike

Penn, you are creative, thoughtful, snuggly, inquisitive (Why? Why? Why?), responsible, sneaky and probably (one of) the most fun kids in the world.  I can't help but wonder what you're going to be like in five more years!!!  I am so proud of you and hope you'll always remember that you are loved no matter what and prayed for constantly!  Happy fifth birthday, my sweet little man:)

Mommy Brag!

I swear...having kids makes your life go by in double time.  I mean there are some stages that seem to be exhausting and they last forever (like the last month of pregnancy and that stage where babies aren't quite walking yet, but refuse to be held/strapped down), but at this rate, my babies will be off to college tomorrow!

First Anna...12 days WEEKS old!  I took her in for her check-up today and she was perfect (no surprise to me:)).  I made sure that she flashed her gorgeous baby blues to everyone at the doctor's office and she threw in a few adorable coos and grins for good measure.  She's our little bundle of baby fever and we've been getting a lot of this lately:

Holding her head up like she was born to do it:)  (and cute hiney)

She's so vogue;)

And our little wild card, Jude...  You know, he's three now and in some ways it's more difficult than two, but it's also mostly awesome.  He's had his first "teeth cleaning" last week and got a great report (I'm still surprised he's got all of his teeth...the little dare devil).  I also took him on a mommy date for breakfast last week to "celebrate" his three-year check-up (which came with shots).  He was such a good boy and we had a wonderful morning out together.  I love this little firecracker and can't get enough of his sweetness!

Here's to three years of living life to the fullest!  (this is how he does "three" now, btw)

Jude was a rock star at the dentist!

And then Penn...sigh...I'm oozing with pride today especially because guess what...PENN TIED HIS OWN SHOES!!!  If you don't have kids, this is kind of like your dog learning to put it's own leash on.  We've been working on this skill for a few weeks now and after some tears (mostly mine), he did it all by himself today.  Someone please put him in a room alone with the world's problems and he'll solve them by nap time.  Next week I predict he won't even need me:(  I'm just a warm body for his cold feet these days (just kidding...big boy LOVES his mama!).  And guess what else...in a few months, I'm going to have to give him up to strangers for five days a week when he starts kindergarten!  He's growing so fast, my heart may just break...

Kindergarten is what's up!

Ties shoes...no biggie (except it is!)

Please tell me they don't always grow this fast!  I need to be able to fit them all in my arms for the rest of my life!

Last Year's Resolution...Year in Review!

I was feeling pretty ambitious last January.  I guess being in a new place gave me a bit of motivation to make some changes to my lifestyle and create some new habits.  I think I did okay considering all the outcomes of this past year, so I'm going to summarize what worked and what didn't for me last year.

1.  Start quilting.  Well, I didn't start quilting, but I did make a baby blanket.  You see, I didn't realize that measuring (my mortal enemy) was so important to quilting and as it turns out...I'm lazy.  I'm still planning on working on this, but I'm happy that I still ended the year with at least one blanket sewing project.

2.  Start a vegetable garden.  This is another one that I cheated on...kind of.  A friend gave me some patio tomatoes that I planted in pots and we were actually able to harvest a few that the squirrels and dogs didn't get to first.  I'm glad I started small.  It was a good trial run and maybe this year, we can actually build a garden of sorts.

3.  Read a Proverbs a day.  I did this off and on throughout the year.  I learned something new every time I read the same thing over and especially loved a study I didn't on the Proverbs 31 Woman by Nancy Leigh Demoss.  Although I faltered quite a bit on this resolution, I feel like I reaped the most benefits from this one alone!

4.  Eat out no more than once a week.  We did better on this last year than we thought we would.  Especially during my whole "first trimester funk" where I couldn't cook, go in a grocery store, or open my fridge.  We definitely ate out more than once a week a lot of times, but we kept pretty close to this goal.

5.  Get rid of most of my clothes.  Weeelllll....if you count putting all of my clothes in the attic and replacing them with a closet full of maternity clothes, then I did this perfectly!  I did manage to get rid of a lot though and now pretty much only have dresses and coats/sweaters in the closet and the rest of my clothes in three drawers.  Not bad considering that maternity clothes just take up more space than regular ones!

6.  Join and become active in a small group at our new church.  We totally did this and it was awesome.  Our group decided to split up toward the end of the year though and we are now getting ready to join another one, so long as this baby doesn't decide to come on the day GroupLink is scheduled.  Either way, I can't wait to get back into a small group asap!

7.  Lose 10 pounds.  Or gain 20...hmmmm.  Blame this one on the baby too.

8.  Renovate our kitchen by the end of the year.  We didn't do this at all.  Remember how I said the hubs would veto some of these?  Well this was one.  We did, however, get new windows all over the house (which made a huge difference), and for under $2000 we were able to redecorate our bedroom (including upgrading to a king sized bed), create a nursery, and buy a new-to-us sectional sofa bed for our living room (aka guest room)!  Gotta love Craigslist!

9.  Teach the boys how to serve others.  I guess this is one where I definitely feel through.  We did SOME things, but definitely not something organized once a month like I had hoped.  I'm keeping this one on the forefront this year and hopefully will do better.  I do have to say that despite my slackness, my boys have the kindest, sweetest little hearts I could hope for them to have and for that, I am so thankful and proud!

10.  When I think something nice (specifially about my husband), I want to make it a habit to say it, share it, or write it down for him to see.  I guess Pack could tell you how I improved on this one.  I will say that he's still the most awesome, fun, and loving husband in the WHOLE WORLD and I still find it hard to believe that he somehow wanted to end up with me.  I'm such a lucky girl and when I see his traits in our boys, I couldn't be more proud!

11.  Make less waste.  Okay, this one, I feel good about.  I think the only disposable product that we're still really attached to is toilet paper (and we're not giving that one up any time soon).  I only bought throw-away plates, cups, and napkins for birthday celebrations this year and we don't even think about paper towels anymore.  There were also a few other throw-away products that I switched over to this year and not one of my choices as created more work for me.  Awesome!

Bonus:  Pack's new year's resolution last year was to not buy any sliced bread from the store for our home (which of course, was one more resolution for me).  I got a bread machine last Christmas and I guess he wanted to make sure we got good at using it.  I'm proud to say that for the entire year of 2011, we did not buy one loaf of regular sliced bread for sandwiches and such.  We did however, occasionally buy things like  hotdog buns and tortillas since I don't know how to make those (and didn't feel like trying to learn), but overall...SUCCESS!

THREE!

In one year, our little Jude has gone from this:

to THIS:

And BOY what a ride it's been!

We have had so much fun seeing Baby Jude blossom this year.  He has really grown into his BIG personality so well and we have loved getting to know him as a little boy.  Here are a few of his big moments from the past year...

We've always known Jude liked to live big.  I always joke that Jude is a magnet for disaster/injuries.  And he's definitely had quite a few injuries that left us wondering if we needed to make a trip to our local ER (thankfully, we haven't...yet.).  Fortunately, our little daredevil seems to be very resilient:)

"One little monkey jumping on the bed..."

Jude has also become quite the little talker this year.  His vocabulary and verbal expressions have really exploded!  It hasn't always been smooth sailing though.  We've had a few rough patches of stuttering here and there (that were definitely harder for us than him).  Although these times were frustrating and a bit scary for us as parents because it's so hard to see your kids struggle with anything, I am glad to say they ended up teaching us quite a bit.  We learned that Jude can sometimes feel like he's having to fight for attention.  We also noticed that we interrupted him quite a bit to finish his sentences and we let Penn do most of the talking for a long time.  Now we know the importance of taking turns, speaking more slowly and quietly, and paying closer attention to our children during life transitions (this seems to be when the stuttering relapses).  He may continue to struggle with this from time to time, but I have every idea that it won't stop this little boy from doing what he wants to do;)

Stubbornness and perseverance go hand in hand:)

Jude is still our "Mr. Independent."  He's been dressing himself as long as Penn has and doesn't let us do whole lot for him.  There have been many times where I've had to let him go to the park with his shoes on the wrong feet, pants on backwards, or shirt inside-out because he will not let me help him get dressed.  Forget the fact that he probably doesn't match anyway.  Luckily, with those beautiful hazel eyes, no one looks at the crazy outfit underneath anyway:)

Those eyes are going to melt some girl's heart one day (besides his Mama's)!

Penn has always been idolized by his baby brother.  Except now that Jude is a little boy, he's literally doing everything that Penn does.  If Penn scratches his leg, Jude gets an itch too.  If Penn gets in trouble, Jude seems to be found getting into the same mischief.  If Penn cries, Jude's heart is usually broken too.  Although they fight sometimes now that both of them are older, there's no mistaking their love either.  No one can cure one of Jude's bad moods like his big brother can!

Sweet love.

Lots of mischief has been gotten into this year by "innocent" little Jude.  Messes seem to follow him around and sadly, nothing is out of his reach anymore.  Whenever he gets into trouble, his first instinct is usually blurting out, "I'm sowwwy, Mommy."  He has visited "time out" quiet a few times this year to say the least.  And of course, he never feels that it's justified.  There is a reason we call him "Moody Judee."

 We've had a lot of incidents this year--------->

<------------Usually they are followed by this.








One of my favorite changes from the past year is seeing my little Jude go from being "the baby" to a BIG BROTHER!  I swear, he grew a whole year in just one day!  Little Anna came into our lives at the beginning of 2012, and we have gotten to see a side of Jude that we always knew was there.  Jude wants to touch, kiss, hug, hold Anna constantly.  And he always reminds me what a "big helper" he is.  Baby sister, Anna, will never want for anything (except space) if her big brothers have any say in it.  I hope he always remembers how much he adores her.

He just can't get close enough.

So, now he's three.  Two flew by (and it Wore. Me. Out.), so we kept his birthday pretty low-key.  We called it "Jude's Day" and he got to pick what we did all day long.  That meant pancakes with sprinkles for breakfast, a trip to Inflation Nation (where we had lunch), Angry Bird cupcakes, a nap on the couch, and Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  Basically not too much work for mom (yay!). 

Birthday Pancakes (with a a candle, of course!)

Presents!

Inflation Nation!

A family nap!

 Jude is busy, messy, sensitive, creative, funny, and so loving.  I never have to negotiate for a hug and kiss.  His prayers are the sweetest.  He loves to sing (especially lullabies for his baby sister) and he is a dancing fool.  Jude always helps with laundry and dishes and has the best manners.  He also loves to tell stories and jokes.  There are so many wonderful things about my boy and I'm smitten for the boy he has become!

We are crazy about you, Baby Jude and we hope that you'll always remember how boundlessly you were loved.

I never said I make it look easy!

If you've ever seen me with all of my kids in public, then you probably already know this.  The Mom of the Packard household is off her rocker sometimes.  Like the other day when I decide that we NEEDED to go to Sam's Club at 11:00 am and get toilet paper and groceries.  I envisioned it this way:

Anna is changed and fed before we leave the house.  She'll fall asleep in her car seat on the way.  When we get there, I'll quietly and gently place her in the Moby Wrap that I'm OBVIOUSLY  a pro at using since I've worn it twice before.  Penn and Jude will sit quietly in the buggy and I'll give them my phone to watch Netflix while we shop.  I'll leisurely stroll the store getting everything we need and browsing for more while my well-behaved children make all the other parents jealous.  We'll check out and I'll look like super-mom to everyone who sees me when I tell them my kids' ages.  We'll have lunch at the snack bar as a reward and head home for outside playtime followed by naps.

The outing actually more like this:

Anna was changed and fed before we left the house (according to plan).  She fell asleep in her car seat on the way.  When we got to Sam's, I put on the Moby Wrap and clumsily tried to stuff her in there.  I obviously needed to practice using it some more before trying it in public.  I woke her up while readjusting her.  I grabbed a buggy and realized that Penn and Jude couldn't get inside because I couldn't lift them up while Anna was hanging on the front of my body.  Her little head was bobbing around because I couldn't figure out how to wear the wrap to support her neck.  I pushed the cart with one hand and held her head with the other while yelling for Penn and Jude to stay with me and not run ahead.  As soon as we stepped inside, Anna started screaming.  We walked to the back of the store and I tried to rearrange her.  That didn't work.  Penn and Jude REALLY wanted to ride in the buggy so I had to push the cart next to a shelf, let them climb the shelf (I know, super-safe, right?), and get into the buggy.  While they are sitting, I tried to nurse Anna in the back of the store to calm her down.  It works, but she starts right back up as soon as I stop feeding her, but I don't know the "wrap" that is good for nursing.  I knew I should have brought my old, faithful Snugglie.  We threw toilet paper in the buggy and then grabbed all the fruit I could squeeze between Penn and Jude in the buggy before we checked out.  It was about this time that I started noticing all the stares that silently said, "Poor girl..."  Not exactly the adoration I was hoping for.  The man in front of me generously offered to unload my buggy and the cashier rang us up in record time.  We couldn't stay for lunch (thanks to Anna) which really upset Penn and Jude since they were actually really good in the store.  Then we were finally out the door after our receipt check and one last comment from the checker at the door, "You sure do have your hands full."  Thanks, Lady (eye-roll).  I spent the next 15 minutes sitting in the car feeding Anna (again) and deciding that when we get home, I was letting the boys eat hotdogs and watch a solid hour of TV before naps so I could breathe.

Mother of the Year, right?

Kimberly "IshouldhavepracticedtheMobymore" Packard

The fact is, even though I definitely don't make parenthood look easy (it's not), I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I'm realizing that these days are numbered and soon my wild kids that are practically attached to me will one day be teenagers that may decide they have better things to do than tag along with mom.  So for now, I'll take the crazy with the sweet AND I'll probably try sticking closer to home for a while...lesson learned.