Crazy Bed Head!

I put Jack to bed with slightly damp hair, and woke up to some seriously crazy bed head. This kid has hair that just won't quit. I tried to comb it back down, and then I used water on it. Nothing. It's staying like this until his next bath, which given how last week went, may be awhile. I think two month olds are allowed to rock the faux-hawk look for at least a few days.

Moving Rooms and a Whole Lot of Chaos

As if the beginning of the school  year wasn't stressful enough, we decided to switch up the bedroom situation this week, and it led to an immeasurable amount of chaos. A little back story, we put Luke in Max's room a few weeks back, and they did so well that we decided to move them to the basement, put Jack in their old room (eventually), and give me back my studio upstairs. Yeah sure. No biggie. Turns out that moving around all that little boy stuff is kinda messy. It's been a long, long weekend, exacerbated by the fact that fluid build-up left me deaf in one ear. Good times.

Oh yeah, and we had family portraits taken on Friday. Because I hadn't already over-scheduled us enough already.

The good news is that the two bigger boys are taking to their new room wonderfully. Jack is still in our room for the time being, but we're getting closer to letting him have his own space as well. I don't know why I thought they'd freak out being the in the basement. I mean there are kids in the world living in yurts and dirt huts. What makes me think my little princes can't handle a finished basement with an egress window? As with most things, if I choose not to make a big deal out of it, they won't even bat an eye. This was certainly a good example of that.

I'm willing this week to go a little smoother. All the furniture is in the right room, I'm settling into my teaching schedule, and come heck or high water I will be more organized this week. No more cereal for breakfast, and Max is actually going to have to practice, In other words, I'm going to do my best to be a good mom this week. We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, here is some serious Jack cuteness from this Sunday afternoon. If absolutely nothing else, we have cute kids!

Forgotten Gem of a Lukey Picture

Sometimes I do the silliest things. Like when Luke decided to act super cute and go to school himself and I take a picture and forget about it. Oops. Well, I'm sharing it now! Luke decided that when Max went to school, he was going as well, age be darned. He put on Max's shoes, filled a backpack full of books, and started heading towards the door. At least he knew what was supposed to go in the backpack. Love this little man!

My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, but birthdays are never quite as fun when you're an adult. We went to Walmart in the morning then updated the 72-hour kits in the afternoon. Thrilling stuff. I also taught 3 hours worth of lessons then managed to cram in dinner, cake, and presents. I love teaching violin and piano, but it makes for very busy evenings. It's also getting harder and harder with the kids getting older, but I'm certainly not ready to give it up.

Darreck was pretty cute this year. He was determined to get everything right, probably to the point of driving my mother absolutely nuts with his planning. We went through about four plans for dinner and changed the location of cake and presents an equal number of times. I finally convinced him to do pizza at our house then just stay for presents and mom's delicious red velvet cupcakes. It was just the low-key evening I needed, and besides, I love Papa Murphy's pizza.

Darreck was also determined to spoil me rotten and get me presents I would love. I made him a long list, as I always do, with the instructions to pick one or two things. Instead he surprised me with a camera tripod, remote shutter clicker, makeup brushes, a CD of the Supremes, a glass infuser water bottle, and a fitness tracker. Wow! Man did well. Mom and dad got me a papasan chair, which is another funny story. I have always, ALWAYS wanted a papasan chair so I begged and pleaded for one this year. Nothing quite like childhood wish fulfillment at the ripe old age of 27!

I feel very loved and blessed this year. It's been a rough year, and I've had more than my share of down days. I'm determined to make this year amazing no matter what. I sense that good things are coming.

Jack is Two Months

Today is Jack's two month birthday, and we "celebrated" by taking him to the doctor for shots. Poor kid! It really has been a down week around here, with me sick at the beginning and now Darreck sick at the end of the week. Ugh. It's too early to start feeling sick. Luckily for us, the boys have stayed pretty healthy so far, although I have my doubts about how long Max is going to last.

Like I mentioned, Jack went to the doctor today for his well child check where he weighed in at 14.8 pounds and measured 23 inches. He's such a little chunk! Jack is bigger than Max was at this stage, which is certainly saying something. He's also starting to smile and babble at us, and he's still waking up at least two times each night. He does a great job with his afternoon nap, but the rest of his sleeping schedule is pretty erratic. In spite of being our easiest baby to get to sleep, he has the worst sleep habits so far, but experience has taught me that eventually he will sleep. I just have to outlast him.

Jack is also starting to gradually get happier. He's somewhere in between Max and Luke in terms of fussiness, but I certainly wouldn't classify him as a difficult baby. I can't say much for his personality yet, and the things most people notice about him are his hair and his cheeks. We make good looking kiddos!

First Day of Kindergarten

Max started school today! Actually, we kind of started yesterday with a kindergarten orientation that lasted most of the morning, but today was the real thing. The night before we laid out his clothes, packed his lunch, and he received a father's blessing from Darreck. I was worried about him not sleeping well or being apprehensive, but everything went perfect. I'm so proud of our brave little guy! This morning, after our pretty normal breakfast of cereal, the entire family walked him to school. I have to hand it to Morningside Elementary- they really go all out! The theme this year is "Explore and Soar" and many of the teachers dressed in astronaut costumes. Orbit, the Voyagers mascot, even made an appearance. It was very exciting for the kids.

I wish I had more to say about the first day of school, but Max was a little vague on the exact details. I know that he liked his cold lunch and thought hot lunch looked gross. I also know that his favorite part of the day was computer lab. He said he ran around a lot in gym and tripped over some balls, and that his teacher read them a book using the overhead projector. That's about all I got, and even that information took some serious prodding. It's a little unnerving not knowing what he did all day, but I trust that he had a good time and was well protected. 

His teacher this year is Jeanine Forder, and he has two friends- Ben and Oliver- in his class. I think it helped him a lot to have some familiar faces on the first day. The report I got from his teacher was that he was chatty, no surprise there, but she's sure he'll figure out socially acceptable times to share his enthusiasm. She also said that he's obviously very bright, but once again that's not a big surprise. Most importantly, he's excited to go back tomorrow. That's really all that counts at this point. 

Back to School Haircuts

Pretty sure I've said this before, but giving Max and Luke haircuts is the worst. The absolute worst. They both flip out and cry and try to squirm away. I've tried everything I can think of to impress upon them that, if they would just hold still, the process would go much quicker. Today Darreck finally took over on Luke's haircut and managed to nick him in the ear. Of course, Luke was before Max, so after seeing the two drops of blood, Max started screaming bloody murder that there was NO WAY he was getting his hair cut. Oy vey. They both have short hair. No one died. Tomorrow is a new day.

We also took some Jack pictures today. Check out those crazy-chubby cheeks! Part of me is happy he's growing up big and strong, and part of me is sad that he no longer resembles the precious newborn we brought home from the hospital. The kid is seriously built like a tank, and it's not just the cheeks. His shoulders are abnormally wide for a baby. Like I said, he's a tank. Darreck also joked that he needed a haircut as much as the bigger boys. We've started calling him Kramer (like from Seinfeld), partly because of his wild hair and partly because he usually has this wide-eyed, crazed look. He finds the world a very surprising place, apparently (check out the last picture).