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Back to school, finally!

January 24, 2012 4 Comments
DSC_0777

What I’ve Heard in my Home Since December 16th:

  • Justin Bieber songs, on repeat.
  • The Mario theme.
  • “Mooooooooom, I’m hungry! I don’t WANT an apple or a banana or a string cheese!”
  • Mallory’s heeled boots, as she runs through the house constantly.
  • “You are such a brat! I’m never playing with you again!”
  • Selena Gomez songs, on repeat.
  • The Angry Birds theme.
  • The “beep-beep-beep” of the back door, every time it opens or closes. Which is constantly.
  • “How many more days until our birthday?”
  • Evil giggling, indicating sneakiness.
  • “You never play what I want to play! It’s not fair that we always play what YOU want to play!”
  • “Mooooooom, when can I have a turn on the computer?”
  • “I’m telling!”
  • Pablo’s ever present, “Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah! Hi-yo, hi-yo, hi-yo!”
  • Constant yelling. Nobody ever TALKS here, they just yell.
  • “Coming up next, on Disney Channel…” ::insert annoying clip of annoying show::
  • Three little girls, singing The Lazy Song over and over and over and over and over.
  • “Mind your own business!”
  • “She hit me back!
  • “When do we go back to school; I’m so bored! There’s nothing to do here!”

    • What I’m Hearing in My Home, Right Now:

  • The ticking of two different clocks, in separate rooms.
  • The hum of the refrigerator.
  • Cali snoring.
  • The passing bell at the high school down the street.

Bliss. I sort of want to go turn the stereo on, and listen to music THAT I ENJOY, but I think I need to bask in the silence for awhile longer.

Filed Under: I'm Just Sayin', The Monkeys Tagged With: ,

Staying in the Lines 4/366

January 4, 2012 Leave a Comment

My Lexi-bug. She’s not as much of a perfectionist as her twin sister Nikki, but she does take her time with her work, and it shows – she colors beautifully and has the best handwriting out of all five of my children. If only I could get her to apply that same time and effort when it comes to cleaning her room! Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.

Staying in the Lines

Today was a gorgeous day in Denver, and tomorrow is supposed to be even better. Thankfully, we didn’t spend the whole day inside, coloring. The girls had a whole elaborate thing going on in the backyard, complete with bandana masks and umbrellas. I don’t interfere, I just make snacks and yell at them when they climb too high. It’s nice that we’re having some fabulous weather while the kids are tracked off. Usually, we sit here cooped up, driving one another insane, because it’s cold as balls outside.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping to try out an awesome looking new park I drove past the other day. I’m not even sure if it’s open yet, but I sure hope it is. We haven’t gotten out too much, aside from our all-day affair at Chuck E. Cheese’s the other day. I’m sure the kids will be thrilled to run around in the sunshine!

Filed Under: 366, The Monkeys Tagged With: , ,

Four Hours at Chuck E. Cheese’s. 2/366

January 3, 2012 5 Comments

You guys. I am not even making this up. I made sure to check in on Facebook when we got there and when we left, so ya know I ain’t lyin’ to ya. WE SPENT FOUR HOURS AT CHUCK E. CHEESE’S. And do you know, in that entire time, the real live Chuck E. only came out ONCE? What about all those signs saying he makes an appearance every hour on the :30? Bullshit. It’s all lies. We were there so long, an employee actually did a double take as we were leaving, and said, “You guys are STILL HERE? Wow, you’ve got stamina.”

Chuck E. Cheese's

Paul dispensed tokens to each child four at a time, so they couldn’t do too much damage too quickly, or lose their entire fortune in the sky tubes. The kids ran around, insane, like you do at Chuck E. Cheese, only reappearing at our table when they needed more tokens. Paul and I had a lovely time, eating salad and hot wings, and planning out our whole year. Over many hours, we discussed what home improvements we want to do this winter, whether or not Extreme Couponing pays off (hint: he’s obsessed), and the logistics of driving to California in July with all seven of us in one vehicle. We made plans. We had deep conversations. We’re used to blocking out the sounds of screaming children, after all, so it was almost like we were having a little date! While we were there, Mallory schooled Paul on proper cup stacking techniques. Did you know they do cup stacking in gym class nowadays? True story.

Anyway, Mallory showed Paul how to do it, and he did pretty well.

But you might find this video more entertaining – Paul and me trying to figure out the zoom on my iPhone. We sound like those old grandparents trying to use their webcam!

Filed Under: 366, Family, Life in Colorado Tagged With: ,

Cough, cough, cough

December 13, 2011 7 Comments
Tree!

My kids have coughed all day long. I’m so sick of having sick children! Booooo! They’ve already missed school on Friday, Monday, and now today. And tomorrow’s not looking great, I’ve gotta say. They’re all still whiny and tired and coughing their heads off. But…but…but…this was my last week! The kids have their class parties for Christmas on Friday afternoon, and then they’re home with me until ::gulp:: January 24th. I was going to use these last few days without children to wrap presents, get a pedicure, and try to stock up my inner stores of solitude and peacefulness. I’m going to need something to get me through this long winter break! So, yeah. I’m supposed to be at that autism insurance seminar I posted about, but I’m home with four sick children (and I’m sick myself, as well.) Mister Pauly is going instead, so I’m sure he’ll take lots of notes and let me know what I need to read up on. And little Pablo is missing Zoo Lights with his Cub Scout group, which kind of sucks for him. Stupid long-lasting colds!

In other news, our elementary school has officially announced that they are changing to a traditional calendar after this school year instead of the 4-track year round calendar we currently follow. I could not be more pleased. I’m sure I’ll miss the awesome fall track-off that occurs in late September/early October, but that’s pretty much it. I don’t like having a five week summer vacation. I don’t like my kids heading to school at the end of July when the other kids are at the pool. And I sure as hell don’t like having my children cooped up in the house for five weeks in the dead of winter, when it’s freezing outside and everyone is always sick! My dear friend Arin’s children go to a school which is on a modified traditional schedule, and to me, that sounds like the best of both worlds. They have two weeks off in the fall, at Christmas, and in the spring, and a *slightly* shorter summer vacation. Doesn’t that sound nice? I’ll be interested to see what our breaks look like next year. For now, I’m like, YEAH! This will be our LAST January track-off. With that in mind, it’s not really killing me as much as usual knowing that my kids are blowing through their last week of school by being NOT at school.

While they’ve been home, we made an awesome Christmas present for their daddy! Paul’s working out of a field office near his latest construction project, which is right near Sports Authority Field at Mile High (which will always be Mile High Stadium, as far as this Denver native is concerned.) He moved into his office in the fall, but has nothing on the walls. The kids and I made him an awesome painting that I hope he will like. He hits up my blog about once a year, so I doubt my posting this will ruin the surprise. It came out pretty cute, huh? I painted the (admittedly jacked-up looking) tree and sky, and the kids added the leaves with their fingerprints.

Filed Under: Teh Crazy, The Monkeys Tagged With: , , ,

The Graduates.

June 19, 2011 4 Comments
Kindergarten Graduation

My littlest babies, Nikki and Lexi, are not even babies anymore. They are BIG GIRLS, big FIRST GRADERS. Kindergarten just flew by, and on Thursday, they graduated. Look how they’ve grown from the first day of Kindergarten:

First Day of Kindergarten!

Apparently learning to read, do math, and make friends causes children to grow like crazy. My big girls on graduation day:

DSC03440e

Bring on summer!

Filed Under: Family, The Monkeys Tagged With: ,

Feeling helpless.

April 14, 2011 7 Comments

Ohhhhhhhh my gosh, I am exhausted. Today was SUCH a hard day with my boy. It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a trying day, and I really can’t remember the last time I saw Pablo struggle so hard against the environment around him. All day long, he’s been on edge. One of the things that keeps setting him off is these damned Legos! He’s trying to build a (kickass, amazing) Lego house and he’s having trouble with it. This is always a challenge, but it seems WAY worse today.

By dinnertime he was so full of rage, we barely got through our meal. And the hours between dinner and bedtime pretty much sucked a fat one for the whole family. Pablo sobbed and wailed and screamed and yelled at people. He calmed down briefly when I held him closely under a blanket on the couch, cupping my hands over his ears. I actually broke out the melatonin toward bedtime, hoping to calm his mind down a little bit. He did end up falling asleep pretty quickly, and I’m praying he sleeps well tonight.

He might be getting sick, or he might be just ready to go back to school after being off track for the past three weeks. I suspect he’s going through some brain growth stage at the moment. These “growth spurts” are hell for all of us, especially Pablo – but they always come before some huge breakthrough. We’ve seen it time and time again. I sure hope that’s what this is. I hate seeing my precious boy struggle so much to just get through a normal, typical day.

Filed Under: Autism, Family Tagged With: , ,

TRACK ON, Baby!

January 25, 2011 1 Comment

I do adore those delightful little children of mine, but COME THE F— ON, MAN. Five weeks at home? In the winter? With Christmas thrown in there? And endless illnesses? Come on, man. That’s just messed up. Or is it me? Am I messed up? Time and time again, I keep running into mommy friends of mine who are all, “Awww, we’re bummed that it’s time to go back to school. We’ve been having SO MUCH FUN!” Really? ‘Cause I have not been having so much fun. Is it the logistics of having five children? Do I need to start setting up more playdates? At other people’s houses? I have been suffering, and so have my children. They’ve been at each other’s throats. They’ve been up my crack 24/7, telling me how bored they are. We have NOT BEEN HAVING FUN.

I mean, it hasn’t been ALL bad. We’ve had several park outings. We’ve watched a thousand movies. The girls had their birthday. I met up with lots of said mommy friends at Casa Bonita last week and we had a BLAST. Sopapillas for the win! But we’ve also had lots and lots of trying moments, and I was SO pleased that school started back up today, you should have seen me. I was practically dancing around the kitchen this morning, packing lunches. And even the KIDS were happy! Pablo got a group hug from about five little girls in his class. (Yeah, he’s a playa.) He walked into school with a huge grin on his face, showing off his new coat and lunchbox to everyone. And the little girls skipped up the sidewalk when I dropped them off, barely glancing back. WE ARE ALL HAPPY TO BE BACK AT SCHOOL. Don’t judge.

Anyway. My 365 picture today is from the lunch I had out today with my husband, and NO children. Look at all that sushi, man. It was ridonk.

I was a happy chick today.

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