Lake Pictures

We spent the afternoon out on my dad's boat. I have forgotten my camera everytime we have gone out this summer. But, the last time we were there, my dad has his camera. I loaded some pictures today. Enjoy and pretend they were taken today.

Not liking this...

Macie has started crying when we put her down at night. She has been taking a long time to go to sleep at night for a little while. But, she has always just played in her crib and would adventually go to sleep. The last few nights she is crying more than playing. I hate it! We had been going in and checking on her, but I really think we need to let her cry. Shouldn't we be past the crying it out stage at 19 months?

Carson had a much better day today. I think he cried more before 9AM yesterday than he did all day today.

Cry Baby

Today was a hard day for Carson. He started crying about 5 minutes after he woke up and probably cried 20 times today. I don't know what the real issue was behind the crying, but at the moment there was never really a good reason to cry. He cried because he got syrup on his shirt, he cried because I came to get him at the gym just as they went outside, he cried because his friend did not want to sit beside him at lunch (then was very mean to his other friend who came to sit beside him to make him feel better), he cried because he spilled his apple juice, he cried because someone shot off a stomp rocket that was his. I think you are getting the picture.

Carson has always been prone to crying. But, today was really bad for him. This afternoon, we were outside playing with some friends. After he cried because he spilled his apple juice, one of them looked at him and said "Carson, you are a cry baby. Every day when I see you, you cry. So, to me that makes you a cry baby." You can imagine how well that went for him. (His mom was inside at the moment so she missed the entire scene) Being the great mom that I am, I pointed out that Carson's friend was right. He was crying without a good reason. A few minutes later his other friend was saying the same thing. I tried to get Carson to just tell them how it made him feel rather than crying. I told him they were calling him that because he was crying a lot. Even though I could see where they were coming from, it still made me sad to see him being called names.

So, how do you get a 4 year old to stop crying all the time without teaching him to bottle up his emotions? Last year at VBS, I had a conversation with a mom whose son was about 9. Her son is a crier too, and she was not encouraging in my hopes he will outgrow it. I very much remember her saying "once a crier always a crier." I know the family enough to know they would have worked on getting him over it. It really makes me feel like we are doing something wrong as parents.

At dinner he made a comment about how he would need to go live in a new house when his mommy and daddy died. Where did that come from and was that part of his problem today? I tried to talk to him about it tonight. I asked him why he thought he was crying so much today. I tried to get him to talk about how he felt when these thing happened to him. We talked about better ways to deal with the situations where he cried today. We prayed and asked God to help him deal with his emotions. (And asked for forgiveness for being mean to his sweet friend at lunch) He did not mention the mommy and daddy dying again so I did not bring it up. I really just don't know what to do for him.

I have thought about why this is important. Part of it is I just want to protect him. But, I also want him to fit in socially. But, is that all really important? Should I spend more time focusing on his spiritual development and not worry about the crying? Sometimes, parenting is just hard. It can be overwhelming to think about how much I could be messing my poor kids up as adults. Maybe we just all need to find a good counselor and lock in a good rate!

Pool Party and Meet and Greet

This is my new favorite picture. I took it last week at the Macdonalds. They had an ice cream/pool party. Every now and then my point and shoot gets photos I love. I even like the little piece of straw on his top lip.
Carson and Carter.Macie on the go, as usual.

This morning was meet and greet for the kids school. Can you believe I did not take a single picture? I guess I will have to take plenty when school starts Monday. Macie fell asleep in the car and got a quick cat nap. When she woke up and realized where we were, she was very excited. We first went to Carson's class. He has about 6 kids from his class last year. But, he was still a little shy. He played off by himself and did not talk to many people. I am sure he will warm up quickly. Especially when he realized Matthew is in his class again. Carter is going to our school this year as well. They will get to see each other on the playground, at chapel, and at music.

While we were in Carson's class, Macie was her usual crazy self. She wandered out onto the playground and tried to find trouble. (The class has a sliding glass door that leads out to the playground. I could see her the entire time, and she was inside a fence. So, don't worry she was safe.) She even somehow managed to talk a lady into swinging her. When we went into her classroom, she was going full speed. She checked out all the toys, talked to her teachers, and explored every inch of the room. Her class has 8 children and of them are girls. One of the moms was saying her daughter is very busy. I think Macie and Addison will be able to challenge her!

Have a great weekend. I am looking forward to Jeff being around an extra day. He traveled 2 days this week and was gone all last Saturday.

Courage

On Sunday, our neighbor Miles was trying to ride his bike with out training wheels. Carson decided he wanted to try also. So, Jeff took off the training wheels with Carson and Miles there to help.
Then, they took off around the cul-de-sac and back to the house. Jeff was holding on the entire time. Then, we fell. But, Carson got up and right back on his bike. We tried again yesterday, but he has decided to put the training wheels back on for awhile. I must admit, Mom is happy about this decision.
Here is courage of another kind. Macie came downstairs after a nap and wanted to paint like Carson!
This is just a cute picture!

Tomorrow is meet and greet!

You know its going to be a long day...

...when you think I have wasted half the day. Then, you look at the clock and it is 8:41.

Macie's Friends

Macie is at a point where she wants lots of "friends" in bed with her. I just put her down with the following:
1. 2 green frog Lovies
2. 1 green, pink, and white striped blanket (I put her pink one on the floor before I left)
3. 4 books
4. 1 teddy bear (the one I gave my grandmother the Christmas after my grandfather died-Macie has this grandmother's middle name)
5. Her chocolate lab webkin "Muddy"
6. 2 baby dolls (I put one of the floor before I left)
7. Stuffed Mickey Mouse (He is actually Carson's)
8. Stuffed Minnie Mouse
9. Freddie Froggy her little webkin
10. A rabbit rattle chew toy thing
11. Atleast 3 pacifiers

I think this might be a complete list. She also wanted her doggy xylophone, but I would not let her have it. One day soon I am going to have to get a picture of her with all her stuff. The funny thing is she sleeps on one side of the crib and puts most of her stuff on the other side. She does keep her frog lovie and pacifier close by.

I think it is crazy, but it keeps her quiet until she falls asleep.

Pirate Fun

I have no idea what happened to the next paragraph. I can not get the underline off!

Summer is quickly coming to a close. My kids will be in school in 11 days (but whose counting). We are still trying to pack some fun into our lazy days. This week we went with some neighborhood pals to a pirate play place. I was not at all excited about going. It is about 30 minutes from our house and I figured I would have to chase Macie the entire time. But, Carson woke up asking to go to the playground. So, I gave in and went along. I was pleasantly surprised by the place. It has several jumpies (I don't think that's a real word), and a big wooden play thing. Under the play thing is a huge sand box. The way it is organized, I could stay in one place and know where the kids were at all times. And, Macie loved the sand so I could sit and watch a good bit of the time. Carson LOVED it and has asked to go back again.

Carson and his buddy Eli.

I love these of Carson and Cole. They have always had a love/hate relationship. But, right now, they are really enjoying each other. They had a blast together. Some of the pictures are not great, but you can really see the joy on their little boy faces.

And just to show you that Mommy can have fun too.

Holding Hands

Macie does not know what to do with herself if someone is not in the carseat beside her. She is always trying to get Carson to hold her hand as we ride around town. Last week Connor was in the car with us several times. Macie kept trying to get Connor to hold her hand. He is very sweet and would always accomadate her. I caught this picture at a moment when she had pulled her hand away from his. I love the looks on their faces. The photos is not great since I took it while driving. I just held it up and clicked without looking.

Good Boy Books

Carson got this book from my sister for Christmas 2006 (I think maybe 2005 or 2007, but does it really matter?) It is an awesome book for little boys. If you have a boy or need to buy a preschool boy present, I would highly recommend it. Carson likes it so much that when I found this book ...I bought it for him as well. Then a couple weeks ago, we found this

at our local library. He was very excited tonight when we discovered I left it at home when I returned the other books on Friday.

They are all great. Carson loves them. He has all of them memorized. I also just found out when searching for the pictures there is also one called I'm Bad! We don't have it yet, but I am sure he would love it too.

Let me know if you end up getting or reading any of them.

Gymnastic, Art, and Dora Ball

Macie showing off her hanging ability with Addie giving some advice.

A sneek peek at Carson's art from camp last week. I will take better pictures to share some time in the near future.

Macie dressed for Carson's t-ball game. She had to take her Dora bat, ball and glove. She also had to have a hat like her brother.

About her age

I was going to post share some pictures of Carson's art from Abrakadoodle art camp this past week. But, I found these pictures on my old digital camera. (Carson was pretending to take pictures so I thought I would let him play with the old one) These are from the fall and Christmas before Carson turned 2. He was about Macie's age in these pictures. They are so sweet.

I LOVE this one!

I thought this showed how early he started carrying Thomas with him everywhere.

Cole, Carson and Carter

Christmas eve

Playing with his brand new Thomas track on Christmas morning.

The last picture was taken while I was without a camera this past December. Jeff and I managed to break it at Disney World. I forgot how little hair Macie had at that time.

I will post new pictures soon, but I could not resist sharing my little guy and his buddies.

Sleep Over

Last week, Mitzi had to work all day Thursday at a consignment sale. Cole was in Alabama with his grandpa, but Connor needed a home for the day. We were happy to have him with us. Since his big brother was having a special week, I thought he should have a special night too. So, he spent the night with us on Wednesday night. We had a lot of fun together. Macie thought it was really cool when Connor was here when she went to bed and woke up. Here are a few photos from our activities.

Wednesday night..reading before bed.

Ready to go to sleep

Going for donuts in their PJs. This was the reward for going to sleep.

Painting with their feet. Carson has wanted to do this for 2 years and I finally let him.

Taking an afternoon rest.

Splashing in puddles after a big rain

Macie wandering away from us. She was headed to our neighbors garage to find a toy she wanted. She thinks all the houses are free for her to explore.

I am sure this is the first of many little boys to spend the night with us. Connor's brother Cole has stayed here before, but he had to sleep in the guest room. This is the first non relative to sleep in Carson's room with him. He loves having his buddies over.

On a side note, these late night Olympics are going to kill me!

T-ball

Carson's first t-ball practice was on Saturday. We found a little instructional league he is playing in this fall. There will be 5 Saturday mornings. The last 2 will be real live games, but before that he is just learning the skills. Here are some pictures.

Both teams lines up listening to the coach

Carson and Cole waiting to bat

Carson up to bat-he is right handed but he bats left handedShowing David Lubell where he goes after 1st base

Standing on 2nd Base

Running to 3rd-his batting helmet was way too big!
The girls "watching" the game
Macie walking onto the fieldLook who showed up to watch us play (SueSue and Randy) They happen to play at the church where I went to preschool. Mom was the director WAY back then.
I love this picture of the team at the end of the morning. I just stuck my hand over the huddle and got all of our boys. Cole is at the bottom with the Braves hat, Carson is to the right followed by Eli, then a kid I don't know, and Carter beside him in grey.