First day of school

Max's big siblings walked him in on his first day of school this fall.  I had been joking with Ella that I would make her hold hands with her brothers every day when they all go to the same school together next year and she has acted horrified by the idea. But at least this year, she grabbed their hands and waltzed them in with zero prompting from me.

Max has a plan

We are on an epic road trip and towards the end of a long stretch of driving, Max said the following to me:

"OK, mom, here's the plan.  If you give me one more toy, I will be happy.  If you don't, I will be bad.  And it's NOT funny!"

Reading boy

Saturday afternoon. House is pretty quiet. I go looking for Max and find him on his bed.  He looks up and says "Hi, Mom.  I'm just reading the books".

Big boy bed

For the first time in over 9 years, we don't have a crib in our house.  Max hadn't tried to escape from the crib but he was getting so tall that we worried he might topple out head first over the side rails when we stood up.  He was SO excited to set up his big bed this weekend and he has taken to it like a duck to water.  Of course that means he filled it with stuffed animals and books but at least he is staying put all night long.  When he discovered tonight that I could climb in to lay down and give him a hug, his smile and giggle were just too much.  Such a sweet big boy in his big boy bed. 

Third kid

Continuing to be the quintessential third kid, Max plopped himself down on the wet pool deck and put his little chin in his hands to resignedly watch the big kids in their final swim meet of the season.

Merit badges for moms

Josh is out of town and the big kids have morning swim practice. So today I got all 3 kids up and dressed by 6:30 am including swim bags packed (suits, towels, flippers, caps, goggles oh my), camp bags packed (including the key and often forgotten underwear needed once they change out of swim suits), breakfast to eat at swim team prepared (grilled cheeses even kept warm in foil),  camp lunches prepared, and entertainment for the 2 hours Max has to sit at the pool during practice.  Once we're there, it is 70 degrees and raining but still they practice.  Some days the mom-ing seems merit badge worthy.

Kanatagram

Ella is at overnight camp for the first time and she has been gone all of 3 hours.  The boys already miss her so Dash is taking advantage of modern technology to send her a Kanatagram which is basically an email they print and pass out to the campers each day.  His typing is painfully slow and he is offended that the computer keeps telling him things are misspelled but seeing his sweet note to her starting with "Hi,Ella,It'sMeDash!" warms my heart.