Jamie's 4th Birthday

It's now been four years since this crazy, happy, big-hearted boy came into our lives. He's not always easy to deal with, probably because he's so much like me, but he's a joy to us. He loves to laugh and have fun. He's so smart, it shocks me sometimes. He has most of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas memorized, along with Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? as I just discovered at naptime today. (That book has a different word for each animal sound, such as "bellowing" walrus, "fluting" flamingo, etc, and he remembers just about all of them.) He loves Legos, and pretty much any kind of art project. His favorite color is black (second is blue), favorite animal is an elephant, and he wants to fly a helicopter when he gets big. He also wants to get big so he can "climb a ladder like Daddy." ...

I'm not sure what Luke just pressed on the keyboard to make everything a little bigger, and to disable the click wheel on the mouse...little stinker.

I am VERY happy to report that Jamie is no longer considered underweight!!! He had his 4-year checkup yesterday, and he is 30.8 pounds and in the 8th percentile for weight. I know that's still low, but it's an improvement, and we've worked hard to achieve it. He attended feeding therapy for a few months, and incorporating the techniques she taught us has helped.

A few of the funny things Jamie says:

"Breh-fixt" Breakfast
"Back and forth for the July" Fourth of July
"I got-forgot"
"Mackenroni and cheese"
"Mine's"
"Only helicopters live on hos-i-pitals. Not airplanes." A small hospital near us has a helipad and an emergency helicopter on top.
Last night he wouldn't accept something I was telling him, and I said, "Whatever you say, Jamie," with a sigh. A couple minutes later, he was trying to tell me it was still his birthday, and I said "no, your birthday was a few days ago." He disagreed, I said it again, and he sighed and said, "Whatever you say, Mommy."
The other day he asked one of his baffling questions, something like, "Daddy, why is there a keyboard and the stuff that doesn't go on it all the day for us?" Jason said something generic, like, "We keep the keyboard clean so it doesn't give us germs." To which Jamie replied, "Salsa?"

He's definitely in the "Why?" stage. I'm not a fan. I've tried telling him he's out of Whys, and guess what his reply is?

Now, on to the birthday pictures.

Monday, his actual birthday. Do you like the shirt? I made
it for him and gave it to him to wear for the day.

Birthday lunch at CostCo. We're high-rollers.
(The look on Luke's face is to die for, no?)

It actually turned out to be a "two bites of pizza and  a lot of frozen yogurt" lunch for Jamie, if you can call that a lunch.

He was already devouring when we remembered candles :)

Today's party--was supposed to be at the park, but it rained, and  most of the guests couldn't make it--but the ones who did were awesome! (Is little Chelsea a cutie or what?)

Blue lips!

Luke, of course, had a good time watching all the big kids.

More Legos! We'll soon be drowning in them!

Best I could get, trying to get them all to look at the camera at the same time :)
L-R:Tosh, his sister Chelsea, Jamie, and Quinn.

I didn't take a pic of the cake--this is the Lego "4" I made to stick into it as decoration. Much cooler than store-bought numbers, right?

Put them all together, and you might have one perfect picture :)

Long time no post

I knew I'd been slacking, but dang. November 1? That's the holiday season for you. UBER busy.

Last couple months:

-Thanksgiving
-Met sis-in-law's fiancee
-Taught Joy School--and survived!
-Luke learned to pull himself up, and thereby get into more mischief than ever
-Went to California for Christmas, Utah for New Year's, for sis-in-law's wedding
-JAMIE FINALLY LEARNED TO POOP IN THE POTTY!!!!!! Miracles do happen!!!
-Jason started his VERY LAST semester of grad school!

Yes, I have a lot of catching up to do...makes me more stressed just thinking about it, as I'm sitting in the middle of a very messy apartment. We super-cleaned over the weekend, and I was keeping up very well yesterday, but made the mistake of actually taking some time to sew last night and everything went haywire.  :(  It's pretty discouraging to feel that if I take time to do something I actually enjoy, I pay for it in fatigue and stress and lack of organization the next day.  (I didn't do the dishes before I went to bed, among other things. That started today off wrong.) I also did a Zumba class yesterday, and I think it wore me out pretty good...I just have not had energy or motivation today. I did work out, at least, but the housecleaning did NOT happen.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day...though I'm dreading it a bit because Joy School was cancelled, so I'll be trying to entertain Jamie at home all morning. Love my boy, but also LOVE when he's gone at pre-/Joy schools, Luke takes a nap, and I get that much more quiet, productive time.

*Lifting one hand* Clean house? Time to exercise and make healthy food?
*Lowering first hand, lifting other* Quality time with children? Time to self?
Is there really any way to truly balance these, along with all the other stuff? If so, I certainly haven't found it.

And my kids aren't even in real school, doing extracurricular activities yet.

Yeah, feeling a bit discouraged today. I think hormones play a part.

Better get to bed. That will help.

Thanks for listening. (Sorry this was not at all an interesting post.)