Kind Of

This past week we were kind of a lot of things. Kind of sleepy. Kind of snotty. Kind of big but still kind of little. Kind of best friends and yet kind of enemies. Kind of sick and kind of health. Kind of behind and now kind of back on track. Let me explain.

These two. Did you notice they are holding hands in the picture? Best friends. Heck Auggie even asked Emery to be his Valentine this year. And this is how they are most of the time. One of my favorite sounds is the faint laughter that comes from their room when they are just playing and enjoying. I love hearing one say to the other "Lets go play!" Mom confession--sometimes I know they are doing something that they are not suppose to be doing and I pretend to not know because they are happy and busy with each other and out of my hair. I will deal with the mess later.

They feed off of each others imagination. Em is the mastermind/the mom/the teacher and Auggie follows suit being the kid/the animal of choice that day/the student that refuses to take a nap..... and I just love it.

But in an instant it all changes. Auggie doesn't listen or Em pushes Aug's buttons (always on purpose). Auggie yells that Em is not his best friend anymore and Doug and I make them give half-hearted hugs to each eachother. They can flip-flop with the snap of a finger. It can get exhausting. But they always come out best friends in the end. Doug and I are pretty passionate about them being nice to each other. That is the one thing they do not get away with. We know brothers and sisters fight (and I am sure it is only going to get worse) but we hope to instill in them a respect and love for eachother that never really wavers. Lately I have been daydreaming about Auggie and Bennett playing together (I wonder what that mess is going to look like) or poor Em being annoyed by two younger brothers for the rest of her life (speaking from experience haha). I hope one day they can look back in this blog and be reminded of how much they love each other....really my prayer is that they never need that reminder. 

Like I said before, Emery is always the teacher or the mom (and really the mastermind of them doing anything they are not suppose to do--that was totally me when I was little.) Lately they play Kindergarten. They set up books all around Bennett's room like a library, they hang up their backpacks and hats....and the rest of the time is spent with Miss Emery trying to convince Student Auggie to take a nap. HA! I think she thinks that is what Kindergarten is all about. Next year she will find out! She looks so old in this picture. Slow down girlie.

Auggie is always her kid (that doesn't listen) or the student (that doesn't listen)--so much like real life ha! He is also her elephant or puppy or fellow super hero. Most of the time he is Farmer Auggie, with his boots on the wrong feet or a baseball player, always hitting imaginary home-runs. 

I realized lately that he is always watching. Always questioning. 

So smart and yet so ornery at the same time. He has gotten so big to me all of a sudden but still wants me to hold him. Kind of little and kind of big.

And how handsome does he look here?

This past week the kids' school had an open house. We left Bennett home with Nana so we could concentrate on the big kids. It was weird to just have two!

Em checked out the Kindergarten rooms and met the sweetest teachers. The only big difference she noticed was that there are less toys in her room. She learned that they will work on reading (yay reading!) and I think she is excited about that. I just sent in her Kindergarten registration and I didn't even tear up. (I will save that for next fall.)

All week we had talked up going to see his school to Auggie. By that evening he was pumped! So pumped that he demanded to bring his back pack. He really thought he was going to school. I gave in. Then as we were walking out the door he realized he needed a few other things.

"I need my Pop-Part!!!" (Because I put one in Em's backpack on school days. He noticed.)

I talked him out of that one.

"I need my pencilsssss!!!" (Because Emery told him he had a place for his pencils "to live" in his new bag and he knows she has pencils.)

So I scrounged around for a pencil, stuck it in his bag, and hoped he would forget about the back pack by the time we got to school.

HA.

He was NOT going to leave it in the car. So the little boy wore it the whole open house. He even showed it to a teacher, telling her it was his Illini backpack because his Daddy loves Illini....even though they keep "woozing."

He only wanted to play with the farm toys (imagine that) and we only had to remind him that he couldn't run one time. It was very apparent that he is going to need to work on listening....but we already knew that! I wish I could be a fly on the wall next year. 

Auggie and I have been kind of sick.  Nothing too bad--just bad colds. My prayer has been no flu and it looks like we might be in the clear. But on top of kind of being sick we (Doug, Bennett and I) have been kind of very sleepy. Last Monday my only-wake-once-at-night baby decided to not sleep. We thought maybe it was a fluke. Until he did the same thing the next night and the next. Maybe he is sick? No fever, barely a runny nose. Thats not it. Maybe it is an ear ache (that was always Auggie)? He acts fine and normal the rest of the time. So that can't be it either. After googling "why isn't my three month old sleeping" like all the mothers out there, I stumbled upon sleep regression. Bingo! That has to be it. Doug and I decided that B would benefit from an earlier bedtime and we would go from there. 

(Really we just crossed our fingers that we had found the magic potion that would restore sleep in our home.)

Earlier bed time has helped. Kind of.

But who could be mad at that sweet smile....

P.s. All you Mommas out there whose kids don't sleep. You are wonder women. 

And there will probably be a special little place in heaven for you. 

By Friday night Auggie, B and I had had it. Due to cold/lack of sleep I had accomplished nothing during the week. No laundry, no kid baths. We were smelly and barely clothed (I think one more day and Em would have had to borrow a pair of socks.) So the boys and I stayed in and started the catch up process. I used to say I didn't mind doing what I call "baby laundry" and really I still don't. I might gripe about needing to catch up on laundry but I also know that I am blessed to have growing piles (three now instead of two.) I know someday I will hate doing all their laundry, it will be a chore and I will have forgotten little socks and burp cloth stacks. Maybe I will read this and be reminded of how sweet those little piles once were and that I am lucky to have them. 

Emery and Doug, the healthy of our bunch, went to Newton to the basketball game. It was our nephew's senior night. I tried to talk Em into wearing her Bulldog shirt but she wasn't having any of that. Luckily she had an Eagles shirt too. And she rocked a side pony. I wish I could still rock a side pony and a big bow.

These girls always have the biggest smiles when they  are together. 

Saturday we didn't do too much. Laundry, made cookies, prepped for Valentines Day. Emery is taking powdered donuts this year. The girl loves a donut so this is so fitting! I also signed up to bring the treat bags for her class for their party and today was her snack day. Big week for the girl!

Saturday night Doug and I took advantage of Nana being off work and went out on the town. He is my Valentine this year! Last year he asked Emery so that left me with Auggie. This year Aug asked Em and that left me with no-one. Doug finally asked me Friday.

(Okay--I know this all makes me sound crazy. And I know for a fact that it drives Doug crazy. But isn't that my job hehe.) We ate at Gabby-yum and shared a bottle of wine at the winery-yum.

Nights like this are rare and always needed. 

I wouldn't mind if Doug was my forever Valentine!

Sunday Doug had a different date. Emery Kayt! This was their second year of going to the Daddy-Daughter dance. Em wore the same dress last year. When I looked back at the picture the dress was too big and practically to her ankles...this year it hit her at her knees. She has changed so much.

Wanna know what hasn't changed? The bond between these two. It has always been special. She really is Daddy's little girl.

Every picture I saw from their day was proof that Em loved it. I think she ate lots of cookies and drank lots of red punch and danced the day away. 

While they were gone, Auggie napped, Bennett played and I tried to do homework.

Remember earlier when I said that there was no way that it was ears that was making B wake up at night. Well I was wrong. Right after Em and Doug left I picked up my baby boy and noticed something was in his right ear. That something turned out to be a whole lot of gross green snot looking stuff. What the heck!?! I googled it (what would I do without google) and immediately I am reading about bad ear infections and ruptured eardrums.

And that is exactly what my poor Baby Bennett has. The poor kid was sick. So sick that his ear drum is now ruptured. I don't kind of feel bad.....I feel really really bad. I told him he should have told me that he was sick. And he just smiled his sweet smile at me. But we have medicine now and the doctor said all should heal and we will check on it again in about a week.

I need everyone to just be healthy and happy this week. I hope you and yours are too!