Fordster

A Taste...

of life...

with brothers. 

Oh dear. 

Confession Time

-I like tropical storms.  The overcast days are a nice reprieve from the oppressive summer sun and it reminds me of growing up in Michigan.  I'm sad to see TS Debby go but glad that our backyard will be drying out.

-This morning I considered calling Jed, who is across town at work, to ask him to turn down the A/C using his iphone, just so I wouldn't have to climb the stairs to the thermostat.

-Oh yeah, I'm married to a technology geek who bought a thermostat he can control with his iphone.

-I tried to refill my coffee at the fridge water dispenser.

-Lately I've been found napping on the couch, while my kids are watching cartoons and Isla is chilling in her swing, about an hour after I get up in the morning.  It's kind of pathetic that by 8:30/9:00 I'm so exhausted that I have to catch at least one He-Man's worth of shut eye but thats life with a newborn. Especially when said newborn went from getting up only once at night (since birth) to at least 3 times in recent days.

-I took all five kids to Old Navy to buy myself some much needed summer clothes. Not only that but I forgot the sling. Isla's car seat took up the entire cart therefore Ford had to "walk" through the store.  Well, I can tell you that there is not a cute enough outfit in existence and certainly nothing at Old Navy that is worth what I went through... let just leave it at that.  And yes I am questioning my sanity after this one.

-I've allowed all three big boys to abandon their beds for the summer.  Currently they have their pillows and blankets lined up on the floor in one bedroom, camp out style, right next to one of their beds which of course none of them want to sleep on.  Why do they choose the floor over comfy mattresses?  I have no idea but hey, what are summers for, if not to pretend camp!

I know there are plenty more confession worthy things I've done lately but this is all I could come up with right now.  It's late and I should go to bed.

Good night.

First Smile

Caught on camera that is.  

Isla started smiling at about 5 weeks old.  She would only give brief crooked smiles at first, like the one below.

I've never had a baby do this, it makes me giggle.  

 At 6 weeks old she started giving the big open mouth smile.  I of course haven't been able to catch that but I got this adorable, goofy, big grin.  

Oh and today she rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time!  

Now if she'd just start sleeping through the night... a mom can dream right?!  

Snap Shots of Summer

With plenty of appointments and lots of other errands to run Isla is getting plenty of use out of her car seat.  This look of disgust pretty much sums up her feelings about it.  

Knowing how much work it is for me to get Isla and Ford ready when we need to leave the house, the older boys took it upon themselves to help Ford put his sandals on.  Thank you Evan and Seth!  

Speaking of shoes... I bought these for Evan less than 6 months ago. Thank goodness its flip flop season!  

We have discovered that our community playground floods whenever it rains.  Summer is our rainy season so I guess we wont be going to the park very often. 

Which is really too bad because Ford was just beginning to master his rock climbing skills! 

Oh well I guess he'll have to find other ways to entertain himself, like dressing up as daddy! 

The big boys are all about experimenting in the kitchen.  

I've been baking too!  Delicious whole wheat strawberry bread with chocolate chips! Yum!

We love summer! 

Smitten

The other night while watching a movie Isla woke up from one of her many naps to be fed.  Once she was done, as usual, each one of the older boys hopped up, on the couch, asking to hold her.  Kane was first, followed by Seth and finally Evan. 

Ford likes to coo and kiss his sister but tends to decline holding her.  However this night after I took Isla back from Evan he didn't even wait for Evan to get up, he plopped onto Evan's lap and stared at me expectantly.  

He's kind of turning into a ham these days so I thought he was waiting for me to laugh at him for sitting on Evan.  While I smiled at him like an idiot, he gave me an impatient look and then started jabbing his chubby little finger at his sister.  "Oh you want to hold her?!" I said.  He gave me a giant smile and nodded his head.  

 Is there anything cuter?  I suppose Isla could not be crying but that's kind of pushing it.

  

 Someone's smitten!  

  This morning he begged to hold her again.  I don't know whats gotten into him!  

Father's Day Events

We started off Father's day with a big blueberry pancake breakfast and gifts.  Jed and the boys played lots of Wii.  After a long nap we set up the paper slide for the boys and grilled out!  For dessert the boys ate the giant cookie they decorated for Jed while we had cheese cake we picked up the day before from the Cheese Cake Factory!  Yum!  

  

Thank you Jed for being such an amazing Father to our children!  We're all so very blessed!  

Happy Father's Day!

1. What is daddy's name?

E. Jed Nicholas 

S. Jed

K. Dad.

2. What does dad do at work?

E. He makes money.

S. Works hard to get money.

K. He works bery hard.

3. What does dad do at home?

E. Works on his computer.

S. Works on his computer

K. He makes dinner with mommy.

4. What are dad’s favorite sports?

E. Soccer and Football and Racing

S. Football and Soccer

K. Sports in the snow.

5. What does daddy like to watch on TV?

E. Race cars and Golf and Football

S. Sports, race cars.

K.Grown up shows.

5. What does daddy do after you go to bed?

E. He watches TV

S. Eats ice cream on a stick.

K. Watches a grown up show.

6. What does daddy like to eat?

E. Jello and Chicken

S. Donuts, ice cream on a stick, and watermelon

K. Pizza, spaghetti, sandwiches, carrots and that's it.

7. Does daddy like to clean the house?

E. Nope

S. Yes

K. Yes inside and outside!

8. How old is daddy?

E. 33 years old

S. 23 years old

K. 3 like me!

9. How much do you think daddy weighs? How tall?

E. I don't know maybe 90lbs and 6 feet tall.

S. 70lbs and 6 feet tall.

K. 45lbs and I don't know, smaller than me.

10.What color is dad's hair and eyes?

E. Black and Brown

S. Black and brown

K.Black and Black

11. What do you and daddy do together? 

E. Play sports and Wii.

S. Play legos and play outside mostly.

K. We like to eat pizza. 

12. Where's daddy's favorite place to go?

E. Restaurants

S. Dunkin Donuts and Donuts to Go probably.

K. Chick fil a and stores. 

13. How are you and daddy the same?

E. We both have black hair and brown eyes.  We both like sports and Wii and going to restaurants.

S. We both like legos, we like to get up early in the morning, we both like spaghetti

K. He's a boy like me!

14.How are you and daddy different?

E. He takes more naps than me. He goes to work and I go to school. He's old and I'm young and he has more money than me.  

S. Our hair is different and dad doesn't like to go to the pool but I do.

K. My toes are different. 

15. What is daddy really good at? 

E. Playing Mario and Mario Cart. Sports and building legos. 

S. Soccer.  And probably football but I dont know because we've never played football.

K. Cleaning the house and sleeping.

16. How does daddy make you laugh? 

E. By tickling me.  

S. By tickling me. 

K. By letting me play with toys at the store. 

17. Who does Dad love?

E. Our whole family.

S. Me! 

K. Mom!

Awkward Conversations with Strangers

Aldi Cashier: "So what does your husband do?"

Me: (Not anticipating this question, my mind goes blank.) "Um.... uh. He's a data analyst." 

 

Cashier: "Oh ok. So with all these kids you must be a stay at home mom."

Me: "Yes, I am."

Cashier:  "Right, cause your paycheck would just go to daycare and then some!"

Me: "Definitely."

Cashier: "So you home school. How is that?"

Me: "Uh actually I dont..." 

Cashier: "Oh I assumed with all these kids that you did." 

Me: "Nope."  

Cashier: "Ok, well have a good day."

Me: "You too."

Since Isla was born I've had three people ask me if I home school, a couple of people recommend that I should and this conversation.  I guess having a 5th kid crossed some line that put our family in the "of course you home school" category.  

 During this same shopping trip I met an older woman who stopped me,to look at the kids and then told me that on top of her 4 biological children (all grown and out of the house now), she fostered 178 newborns and 59 "big kids".  Now that's a lot of children!

Cute Outfit, Uhhh, Baby, You Have There

I am a total dork for Isla's girly clothes! I love each and every outfit and therefore I'm attempting to take pictures of her in all of them.

 Yup, DORK!  After 7+ years of blue, I think I've earned the right to be a dork about it though.  Maybe not.  Whatever.  Moving on.. 

I've noticed that her newborn onsies are getting a little snug which sent me into a minor panic because I still needed to get a good picture of her in the strawberry outfit so guess what we did last night...  

You know how some people have newborns that sleep just about anytime and anywhere (think Ann Geddes babies) well, I've never had a newborn like that.  

In fact one of the most frequent comments I get about my babies is, "Look how alert he/she is!"   

"Alert" newborns don't always make the most photogenic faces though and their jerky hand movements mess up the best of pictures.  Exhibit A: Karate Baby.  

 "Hi yaaaa!"  

Sweetheart you're supposed to be channeling Giselle not Jackie Chan.

 

And here you have the classic cross eyed pose, her tongue sticking out is an added bonus!  

 All this culminates in what I refer to as "the scream" (I like to keep my references obvious).  

Thank goodness for cute, helpful, big brothers, who save the day by helping mommy document their sister's wardrobe and her silly faces too. 

Literal

Kane: "Momma, can I have breakfast?" 

Me: "Yes, there's a poptart in the kitchen with your name on it." 

Kane: (runs off to the kitchen and about 30 seconds pass) *whimper, sniff, sniff, whimper*

Me: (walk into the kitchen to see whats wrong) "Kane why aren't you eating your breakfast?"

Kane: (pulling out the most pathetic pouty voice) "Momma, there's no name on this poptart." *sob*

Me: "Sweetheart I was just kidding about the name on your poptart, its an expression.  You can still eat it."

Kane: "Are you sure it's mine?" *whimper sniff*

Me: "Yes."

Kane: "Well can you get a pen from daddy's desk and write my name on it so everybody knows that its mine, puh-leeeease?" *sniff, sniff*

Me: "Uh... no."

Kane: "Why?!" *whine*

Me: "Because we don't eat pen ink and it would be gross. Just eat your poptart sweetie."

Kane: "Oh." (cheerfully takes a huge bite of poptart)

In other news, Isla literally turned 1 month old yesterday! 

And she literally wore her first ever dress! I would have put her in one much sooner but she's just finally growing into it!  

"Paper Slide"

First of all thank you to anonymous for taking a  guess! Car wash was a great guess but not quite right!  

Instead we made our own slip and slide or "paper slide" as Kane calls it.  

See we've bought a lot of outdoor water toys over the years and have found that they aren't very durable.  With little boys, durable is imperative!  

So when I was out buying yet another plastic toddler pool this year an older man stopped me and gave me the best advice, "Make sure you put the pool on a tarp so it doesn't pop as easily!"  Why didn't I think of that?! 

Then it dawned on me, why even buy another pool?!  I put it back and went in search of a tarp but couldn't find one, instead I found plastic sheeting in the paint section.  

Here's hoping for sliding fun all summer long!