Hunter's 5th Birthday

5 years ago at 12:41 a.m. on June 14th, Hunter came into this world!  It's hard to believe our 9 pound, 2 ounce bundle of joy is already 5 years old!

Hunter is now 3 feet 7.25 inches and weighs 46.5 pounds.  He just graduated from his harness car seat to a booster with a big seat belt.  He is still our BIG drama king.  We are still working on his inability to control his emotions.  He is still very sweet and thoughtful.  He always wants to make presents for people.  He loves to bring me flowers.  He loves to play with Jacob.  They are best friends and I'm so grateful they still enjoy playing together!

 

Hunter asks for these cheese balls every time we go to Walmart.  This kid LOVES snack food!

We had a family celebration before his party guests arrived and Trevor left for work.

Adam was very interested in helping Hunter open his presents, now that he knows what to do with them. 

Jacob was having a hard morning.  He got in trouble for blurting out what Hunter's present was before Hunter opened it.  It is very hard for him when it's someone else's turn to have the spotlight.

I love that Hunter's birthday is on Flag Day.  I tell him it's his birthday flag and it will be there every birthday for him!

We celebrated Hunter's birthday party at the movies.  We saw Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.  The kids were SO good!  They sat in their chairs and ate the plethora of candy and popcorn that was provided to them.  I didn't hear a peep out of a single kid, all 13 of them!  It was possibly the easiest party I have ever thrown for my kids. 

Here is the crazy group!  We all came back to our house for cake & ice cream afterward.  I was surprised the kids could even think about cake & ice cream after all that candy!  I'm sure we sent home a few tummy aches!

Another Lost Tooth, Another Forgetful Tooth Fairy

Jacob lost his other front tooth yesterday. It was already loose when he accidentally go kicked in the mouth while horsing around with cousins in the pool. When I saw him he had blood running down his face. It still wasn't loose enough to come out, but he worked on it and within a few hours he had removed it. He woke me up at 6:15 this morning to tell me the Tooth Fairy didn't come. Whoops! Either she is super forgetful or was just really busy last night!

Mom Abuse

It was a hard day for me as a mom. Actually the first half was wonderful. The kids played great together. Then the drama began. I made lunch for the boys..grilled cheese sandwiches. Hunter looked at it and declared he would not eat it. I told him I wasn't letting him eat anything else until he ate that sandwich. You have to understand something about Hunter...he is very picky and very stubborn when it comes to food. It is getting very old. After I told him he wouldn't eat anything else until the sandwich was gone, I realized that after he lets it sit out all day, it will be hard and gross and way more challenging to get him to eat. I decided to ground him to the table (seems like I'm always imposing some kind of grounding) until he ate his sandwich. He sat for about 30 minutes before the screaming and tears ensued. He asked me if he would be able to sleep in his bed when it was bedtime. I told him nonchalantly that if his sandwich was still there, he would have to lay on the chair to sleep. He screamed and cried. After the tears faded, he asked if he would get to go to his birthday party next Thursday. I told him he would miss it if his sandwich hadn't been eaten. More screaming and tears. Then he started saying really mean things about me like, "I don't like moms! They're mean! I don't want a mom! I only want a dad!!" I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry! I finally got sick of his screaming and told him he would be getting a spanking next time he screamed. After 4 spankings he was finally quiet. All of a sudden I saw him on the stairs (we were cleaning the basement). I told him he needed to be on his chair. He told me he was done with his sandwich. "You ate it all?" I asked him. He told me yes. I was skeptical, but went up to investigate. I was trying so hard not to smile when I came upstairs. Had I actually won after an hour of this nonsense? I inspected his plate (and the trash just in case) and found it was true. He ate it! "Did you like it?" I asked him. "Yes," he told me. "Next time I want it cut in little pieces like they did at Sam's Club." It always amazes me how Hunter can be screaming like a maniac one minute and then totally calm the next. Jacob also got mad at me tonight. He was talking back to me so I slapped him. "You are SO mean!" he told me. "I would rather be at SCHOOL!!" Sometimes it's really hard to be a mom!

More Pinetop Adventures

We ventured up to Pinetop over the holiday weekend.  I was a little disappointed to find out that we were missing probably the last cool days here at home before the scorching, 4-5 month long heatwave.  Thankfully, we had wonderful weather up north.  It was a treat to wear pants and jackets all weekend long!  Fortunately, I threw some in at the last minute.  I wasn't expecting it to be so chilly!

The kids were ALL sick during the weekend with coughs, colds and fevers.  Adam needed his nose wiped about every 2 minutes.  We didn't know if we would make it the entire weekend.  Trevor had to make a nighttime run to Walmart for some various medications so we could control their fevers, coughs and stuffy noses during the night so we could all get some sleep.  Adam was VERY restless during the night.  We had one good night where he actually slept the whole night thanks to some medicine and probably exhaustion.  It was very much needed for all of us.  The other 2 nights were not so great.  Trevor and I had some company tossing and turning in bed with us.  It was a fun trip and the boys LOVED being up there with their cousins, but we were very grateful to get home to our regular beds!! 

Library Books

My kids love to go to the library and pick out books. Hunter has been asking me to go lately, so when a friend invited us yesterday, we jumped at the opportunity. Every time we go, I struggle with getting Hunter to check out any fictional story books. He is just not interested, no matter how many I try to entice him with. He always gravitates toward the non-fiction books. Here is the a list of the books he chose:

The Fish Classes
Deserts
The Good, The Bad, The Slimy: The Secret Life of Microbes
Gone Forever: Stegosaurus
Classifying Fish
Woodpeckers, Toucans, and Their Kins
Komodo Dragons
From the Arctic to Antarctica
Curious George Colors Eggs (He only got this one because I pushed him to)

A few of the books he brought me that I didn't allow him to bring home with us us were, a book about Small Pox and a book about Evolution. It is SO hard to read stories to him! I can barely keep my eyes open. Much like when I was required to read these sort of books for school. My opinion how interesting they are has not changed over the years. He has also recently asked me to read the dictionary to him and Jacob's school yearbook. I'm not sure why he has such an interest in boring books but I hope that either his taste changes or he learns how to read to himself...soon!!!

Peas

Adam has figured out a new manipulation tactic. It's his new word.."Peas!" For example, when I am reading stories to him and announce that I am done he says, "Peas!" And it gets him another story..every time. Right now I am laying with him while he watches a movie at his request. He brought me a movie and when I said no, he said the magical word, "peas." So here we are. One day I will learn to say no to his "peas" and it won't be nearly as cute when he starts saying it correctly. But until then, he has me wrapped around his little finger.

Desperate Times...

Is it completely unheard of to ground your child from cereal? Maybe. That's just the sort of unheard of punishment you'll find here at our house when I am at my wit's end with one of my children. Specifically when Hunter is having a meltdown because I won't allow him to have cereal for lunch when he just had a bowl not even 2 hours ago for breakfast, that is the first threat that happened to spill out of my mouth. "If you mention cereal one more time..." What was his response? "CCEERRREEAAALLL!!!!!"
Did I regret it as soon as it was said? Of course. They eat cereal and only cereal every morning for breakfast. I knew that Hunter wouldn't suddenly become logical and avoid further mention of the subject. Self-control has never been one of Hunter's strengths (note he is still having meltdowns at age 5 in 3 weeks.) So the punishment had been dealt. This meant I had to figure out something else to feed my picky eater for the duration of the sentence..2 days. This morning when he asked for cereal, I reminded him of his restriction. He immediately crumpled into a heap of sobbing mess on the floor. I sent him to his bed. Trevor instinctively knew there would be trouble this morning when Hunter emerged from his room before 6 a.m. After some screaming, yelling and crying about cereal he finally calmed down. I went in to give him his breakfast options. He started to crack when I mentioned the first few but when I got to Pop-tart, he happily selected that and hopped off his bed. Was it the best breakfast choice? Definitely not. But what's a harried mom to do? She does whatever she can to survive all the challenges the kids throw at her multiple times daily. At least that's how this mom handles things! Someday my kids will do the same irrational things to their kids. And then I will giggle in a sinister way and know that justice has been served! Just kidding!