Monday, September 12, 2011

Preparing for Baby Walker

We have lived here for 5 years now. I have had 3 soon to be 4 babies live in this nursery. And I never totally finished decorating it. Sad, I know. No one ever looks at my nursery anyway, they only do that with the first baby. So there are bare spots on the walls, and the pictures aren't current... Oh well. But we just did the deep clean to get it ready for baby Walker. I'm still not quite ready to move G. out, but at least it's clean now. I have a checklist of things to do to get ready for the baby, and so now this is checked off...... except I still need to move the clothes around a re-organize the closet.

I got rid of my wooden glider and we bought this old leather rocker/recliner from someone off KSL. I was so sick of my head bobbing at night while I nurse the baby, so now I can lean back and sleep while the baby eats. Comfort has trumped looks. That WASN'T the case when I had Isaac!

I was sitting in my new rocker yesterday and Dave walked in. He grabbed the bag of ABC blocks and formed the name "Walker." It was like crowning the prince. It made me smile. I *think* that these blocks belonged to Walker's great great grandma Low. It would be the wife of William Walker Low's grandson Alfred. So fitting with his name to have some family history in the nursery.

So while I will never finish my nursery, here it is (difficult to capture with my zoom lens on, but whatever)




School

Oh school just saves me! I love my children so much more when I get more one on one time with them. And I am so much more sane when we have bedtimes and schedules. Summer is rough for me, although it was a really fun summer!

Isaac started school first, and it's been wonderful for him. He loves to go every day, can't wait for the next day. I told him he was old enough that he needed to shower in the morning every day. Make sure that he's nice and clean for school, without drool in the corners of his mouth or eye boogers! He wakes up, showers, gets dressed, eats his breakfast, and checks what is for lunch all by himself. I am awake, but he just does it all himself, and does it so fast that I can't seem to keep up. He is so independent, responsible, and sweet. He knows what time to leave, and gives himself plenty of time so we don't worry about missing the bus. I just don't know what more I could ask for.

It would seem that Isaac is the perfect child, but somehow, his presence stirs up drama. I think that's one thing about summer that is hard on me, a lot more fighting when he's around. But when he has school, he is so cheerful and everyone here gets along much better. *Sigh of relief*

Henry started school second, he is doing joy school. He is as happy as can be, and although he is so very clueless, he is with kids younger than him and will appear more intelligent! Haha. I think he'll learn alot, and next year I plan to send him to Sports Academy where I have high expectations of him becoming Kindergarten ready. He is so cute, I am happy to send him to school and not worry about him much.

Dawson started his 3rd year at Sports Academy, not what I had originally planned to do with him, but it all worked out this way. He is in a class with a couple of other July babies who didn't go to Kindergarten this year either. So I think the class will be fairly advanced and just perfect for him. He started out the year with a little stress, just like other years, but seems to be okay now. His backpack was torn, so I gave him a Lightning McQueen backpack and he was sure everyone was going to make fun of him. What? Dawson doesn't like to wake up, he got two wake ups this morning, and he begged me to go back upstairs and he would be right up. I told him I wasn't leaving until he was out of bed. He's a lot slower and tougher to get ready for school, but hopefully next year he will get on Isaac's schedule as they walk to the bus together.

With boy number five coming, we have officially created our own basketball team. How cool is that? Although I probably never would have chosen to have 5 boys in a row when we started this family, it has proven to be the most amazing thing for us! These boys are all best friends. They really don't have much need for any friends outside the home. They rarely ask if they can go play with anyone, and they are so bonded together. I daresay it's a bond that just wouldn't have happened with a mixed gender family. Not saying it's better than what anyone else has, but it has to be different, right? It's quite a unique thing to me, again, I wouldn't have chosen this, given the opportunity to choose, yet it's become a great blessing for our family and I would never give it up now! People keep asking if I'm going to try for a girl, and I can honestly say that at this point, I hope for 6 boys. A girl would be so out of place in this family!

It's so cute, these boys are very close in age, yet far enough apart that they do have some different interests right now. G. Jesse isn't quite as adept in Lego building as Isaac (although pretty darn good for a 2 year old), and Isaac and Daws are less likely to be found with Toy Story characters than the younger two. But I so frequently find them all playing together, even if it's with different stuff. I'll see all 4 boys playing in the same room, or same little area on the carpet, just wanting to be together even while they do totally different things.

We teach these boys that no one is more important than your brother. Friends will come and go, but your brother will always be there for you, your BEST FRIEND! Dave latched on to the basketball team thing, and bought them all matching Nikes for school this year. We've found that our Nikes have held up better than any other shoes we've gotten the boys, so hopefully this was worth the money. It wasn't cheap! Dave wants them to feel the "team spirit" to do anything he can to continue the bond that these boys have right now. It's cute.




Walking to joy school


Dawson's cheesy first day smile- doesn't reflect how he was actually feeling


Isaac didn't get a picture. He just moved so fast that morning, I wasn't ready for him to just leave like that. Oh well.

Top of Utah Half Marathon

I would love to be a runner. I have asthma, and it is very difficult to run. My husband on the other hand, has no interest in being a runner. Yet he has a natural talent for running. So I had mentioned to him in the past that he could probably run a half marathon without training. I never thought he would actually do it.

He signed up for the Top of Utah Half Marathon in the spring, figuring he would start training a few months before the race. He never did. He ran a couple of times, maybe a total of 8 miles before the race.....

The morning of the race, I begged him not to go. I was sure he was going to die. He was excited, and not about to pull out for me. So I dropped him off at the race with the promise that he would call me hourly.

1:45 into the race and he hadn't called me yet. I was starting to plan how our family would survive on our life insurance money and social security. Trying to calculate if I would need to get a job when Walker was in 1st grade...... I hopped in my car, left Isaac to babysit, and went to find him. I drove up the highway until I got to Hollow Road, and I parked, and started walking up Hollow Road. It wasn't too long before I saw him (He was wearing a white shirt, white shorts, and black socks, not too hard to spot!) I was so happy to see him, and he was running with a friend. He ran the whole race with this friend. I ran with him for about 1/10th of a mile (which made me very sore later) and then I walked back to my car. I went home and got the kids, and we barely made it to see him pass by the bottom of our hill. We rushed to the finish line, and again only stood there about 20 seconds when he ran by. It was so wonderful to see him still alive at the end of the race, and he ran the whole thing. His time was 2:30 and a few seconds. Not too bad for not training.

I was very proud of him, and of course, even more in love with him that he could do so well. I told him he'd have to run it again next year with me..... and it will surely be much easier, because I can't run it that fast!

Running past the bottom of our hill


Crossing the finish line


He did it!