Every morning Blake wakes up nice and early. On average around 6:30. Sometimes as late at 7:30 or as early as 4:30. Every morning is Ground Hog day. He comes in my room and says, "Can I have my milky and z-bar now?" and every morning I say the same thing, "go downstairs and watch some tv, and I'll be down soon." (unless its 4:00 am then I tell him to go back to bed). He always comes back in once or twice, and around 7:30 I get up and get him a cup of milk and a z-bar (unless Jason is home, then sometimes he will get those for him before work). Blake then asks me, "Mommy, do you want to cuddle?" I don't have much time in the morning, but I try to cuddle with him for a few minutes (probably not as long as I should) while we watch Paw Patrol, or Teen Titans, or another exciting cartoon. He usually nuzzles his little head into my side and says, "Mommy, I sure love you!" The rest of the morning is spent getting ready for the day. Boys get to eat breakfast and watch tv until 8:00 and then I turn it off (and there are usually complaints), and then the older boys get ready for school. I usually have to tell Wesley step by step what to do, and often he will sit in his room and get distracted while I'm getting ready (thinking he is getting ready too). I'll find him in his undies 10 min before we have to be at school, and there is always rushing at the end. As I'm getting ready, Blake likes to "make my hair pretty" and will brush it for me. He then tells me, "I love your hair!!" It is so sweet! :-) Chase does a good job of getting ready himself. After we are all dressed and ready, the boys are not capable of sitting and being quiet until its time to leave for school. There is always loud giggling, play yelling, running, pushing, scaring each other, crying, and so on. Every...single...day. It drives me crazy. We then leave for school around 8:40 ish. If it is tuesday or thursday I baby sit a little girl named Addie who is Blake's age. Her mom drops her off around 9:00. Blake and Addie play so well together, I really don't have to do much on those days. I like to get out and will often take them to the park, museum, aquarium, or farm. On days that we stay home though, Blake and Addie usually entertain themselves and I can do some cleaning or waste time on facebook. If it is Wednesday, Blake has one hour of speech school in the morning, so after I drop the older boys off, we drive to Blake's school (about 15 min away), and we wait in the parking lot until it starts at 9:30. Blake likes to sit on my lap and press all the buttons in the car. After his teacher walks out of the classroom, I walk him up to her and then I have an hour until I need to pick him up. This is the only hour of the week I have to myself. I usually try to go grocery shopping during that hour, or go on a hike, or even read a book. This is the first time in over eight years that I have had kid-free time to myself. Its only an hour, but its already giving me a bitter-sweet glimpse of what life will look like in a couple years. After his school we head home, and pick Chase up at 11:40. However, for most of the year Chase was part of an after school reading program M-Th, and so he got out at 12:20. On friday he gets out at 11:00 am, and every other friday I volunteer in his classroom (I LOVE it!). Since Chase gets out in the middle of the day, we have been limited to what we can do, and where we can go. After Chase comes home, we eat lunch, and the boys usually have some screen time after they clean their room or the basement. Chase and I used to have Mommy/ Chase time but Blake doesn't take naps anymore. If he does, he stays up until 10:00pm. If he doesn't, he often falls asleep around 5pm before dinner. Its a tough phase he is in. Anyways, after Chase takes a little break, sometimes we play outside, or run an errand, and so on. Again, we only have a few hours until Wesley gets out of school, so we can't do too much. Chase is really good about willingly doing his homework. He also loves to play by himself in his room or basement with his trains or legos. Wesley gets out at 3:30. We carpool with the neighboor, so I only pick him up every other day. If it is Monday, we hurry home, eat a snack, and I get Wesley dressed in his scout uniform so we can make it to ward scouts at 4pm. His leader brings him home, and he has a few hours to relax and eat dinner, and then we leave for his non-denominational scout troop which starts at 7:00. On Fridays Wesley has piano lessons after school (He walks there himself - his teacher lives across the street from his school), so I pick him up at 2:30. I feel like my life right now mainly consists of driving kids around, picking them up (on time), and cleaning the house. Our house gets dirty like nothing I have ever seen before. I try to be pretty consistent about making the boys clean up after themselves, but no matter how clean I get the house, ten minutes later it is guaranteed to look like a tornado ran through it. I love being outside, so often I try to ignore the crazy and I'll take the boys on a hike or on a little adventure. Those are much more fun than cleaning all day. If I'm inside too long, I can get a bit depressed, and the fresh air makes me happy - even if its just a walk around the block. After school the boys love playing outside. We don't have a fenced in yard, and most of the neighborhood kids come by to play. I love that my boys have so many friends to play with, but my house and yard are covered with kids...everyday. There is hardly ever quiet, or a moment for me to be alone with my kids. I've gotten used to it for the most part, but somedays I spend too much time on facebook as a way to escape the chaos just for a few minutes. I need to be better about that though. I feel comfortable letting the older boys play outside without me, but Blake wants to play out there too which is harder for me because I have to be able to watch him (even if from a window while I do the dishes or something). There have been some nights that I have been out there for hours with Blake and all our neighborhood friends, only to realize that it was 8:00 pm and we didn't eat dinner. I miss having a fenced in yard, but I do love that we live next to so much nature so it makes up for it. My boys love to play in the woods behind our neighbors house with their friends. After they play, Wesley has to do his homework. I feel like he's in school all day so I let him play for a few hours before homework time. He doesn't have much, but Wesley will fight with all his energy to try to get our of doing it. He also has to practice piano. I try to keep it simple, and just make him practice each song that his teacher assigned him for the week. Some nights they take showers or baths, other nights they don't. Wesley and Chase like to take their own shower by themselves, but I still need to give Blake his bath. Sometimes I will have Chase and Blake take a bath together if Chase will agree to it. After bath time we read books. Wesley is old enough to read his own book, so I'll have him go in his room and read to himself while I read a few books to Chase and Blake. They enjoy picking out their own books, and then we cuddle on my bed to read them. All my boys have their own room, so I go around and put each boy to bed individually and they each have their own routine. Chase always asks me to tell him a story (about when I was little, or when he was little). Sometimes he likes when I sing him the apples and oranges song, but he is not a big fan of good night songs. Wesley, on the other hand, loves when I sing him the "Goodnight song" which I have been doing almost every night since he was tiny. I rub his head as I sing to him, and after I always ask him if there is anything he wants to talk to me about. Sometimes he asks me a question, or tells me about sometimes he has been thinking about. Its the calmest time of the day for him, and its nice to spend a few minutes talking with him. Blake is my silly one. My other boys go to bed so well, but Blake can be a bit challenging. He usually seems to get really hyper at bedtime, while my other two calm down very fast once they get in bed. Blake asks me to sing him random songs. He will pick a topic, and I try to make up a silly song about it. For example he will say, "sing me a song about...... grasshoppers." When I'm done singing my 30 sec song he will giggle and smile and say, "sing me a song about....lights" or "monsters" and so on. He likes to hold my hand and not let me go, so I'm forced to lay down in his bed and pretend to sleep. He then yells, "Wake up!!!" and Giggles and giggles. I tell him good night, put his blanket on, give him kisses, and turn off his lights. Sometimes he goes to bed, other times he gets up and turns his light back on and will play in his room for an hour or more, coming in and out of his room, and will keep asking me to put him back to bed.
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