Rome wasn't conquered in a day...

Well friends, Jack finally pooped in the pot: two days in a row even! Like dutiful parents, John and I ordered the formerly banned pizza to celebrate the event. I was in rehearsal, but I hear it was a great celebration. I got home just in time to put the boys to bed. I'll let you guess what Jack did in his pants moments before it was time to climb in bed. Anyway, there has been no poopin' in the pot since last Monday. I must say two poops are better than none and I’ll take what I can get. Besides, Rome wasn't conquered in a day, was it?

Little Jackie Paper has been sick this weekend. I could barely keep his fever down yesterday and was on the verge of taking him to the Dr. this morning, but his temp is down. Not gone, but down enough that I'm not worried sick. Here he is hanging with Gammy yesterday morning. He looked at me and said "Jackson's sad."

Jack and Devlyn are still having troubles with sharing. I have heard Jack say to her “You don’t be sassy to me.”

Wy is saying please (pea)and thank you (dit do). He can name numerous body parts. He is working on 1, 2, 3, letters and colors. Whenever we talk about something being blue, he names all the blue engines. During mass he lists off all the engines he can think of. I'm trying to get him to work on his quiet voice. He doens't care. He loves to say hello and goodbye. Any chance he gets, he grabs a phone and starts chattering away sprinkling his conversation with "HEH-WO" and "BYE-BYE". He had a little developmental breakthrough this morning: John was heading out the door and Wy called after him "BYE-BYE, Da-ee!" He hasn't been stringing words together other than repeating the same word over and over. OK - he has been saying "Come on!" for a few weeks - but he hears that phrase day and night. Wy was in time out when I woke up Saturday morning. He was negotiating with Gammy about getting out of it. There he was sitting on the step looking up at her and saying "Come on...Come on..." to which she would reply, "No, you are in time out." This played out on a loop till he gave up, sat there and cried.

OH - I was home with the three little ones during the inauguration. I got everyone situated with snacks, turned on a movie for them and turned on the news for me. Wy insisted on sitting in my lap and he watched the whole thing with me. At one point, Jack & Devlyn came running upstairs making all kinds of noise and Wy turned to them, put his finger to his lips and said "SSSHHH!" How wonderful that he knew something important was going on!

By the way, I don't want to jinx us, but Wy is finally, blessedly sleeping though the night! Yeah Amy & John!

The girls miss their mama, but they are settling in here and at school. We already have a few major events to add to our date books; Abbie is going to receive her first communion, Jess is going to be confirmed and she will graduate 8th grade in May. Speaking of schedules, Jess has already been to a sleepover and both Abbie cat & Connie have invitations to birthday parties in the next two weeks. I am thrilled and nervous about their budding social lives. The nerves are completely selfish. I already feel like a mad scientist running this way and that - I am terrified of adding their social schedules into the mix.

Poor Devlyn has had a time of it this week. One early evening while I was at work, she jumped off a coffee table, rolled over the sofa and landed face first on an open frame wood arm chair. She gouged open the corner of her eye and totally looks like someone backhanded her. Mom was worried we were going to have to take her to the hospital (and how could she do that as she was the only adult home and couldn't fit all the kids in the car...) Well, mama got the bleeding to stop just as John got home and they decided it wouldn't need stitches, though it was a chunky cut. The next morning I was home with the 3 little kids. Devlyn came downstairs with something odd in her hair. After a few minutes of searching I discovered the source of the problem in the bathroom. Earlier in the day I started mixing some color to do my hair and I was distracted by one child or other. Before I had the opportunity to get back upstairs, Devlyn found the bottle and squirted some of the color in her hair and on the floor. We quickly rinsed her hair and cleaned up the floor and I did my hair before any other harm could be done. It wasn't till about an hour later that I discovered I missed a spot of dye on her eyebrow. Now one of her eyebrows is a titch lighter than the other one.

With the exception of the boys, the kids are eating about everything we put in front of them. I was sure there would be flat out refusals of this or that, but they have been willing to try just about everything including the veggie lasagna I put together last week. I also have a yummy potato soup that everyone likes...except Jack. Here are the little ones having ice cream after lunch one day. We had the potato soup and I had to bribe Jack with ice cream in order to get him to eat any soup. Lick for lick, bite for bite we went - soup, ice cream, soup, ice cream. I'll take what I can get, yo. (I know it looks like Dev & Wy don't have ice cream - but they devoured theirs while Jack and I did the potato soup tango.)

That's all I can come up with for the week. I hope to get back to our regular schedule this week - we'll see what happens. Till next time - love and many blessings from Owenland Park!

You has to hold hands

My cousin Monica got married the other weekend. After dinner Jack had had it with his tie and was trying to pull it undone. Poor kid couldn't figure out that it velcroed together at the back of his neck.

Wy has decided he doesn't like time out. At first he will sit there with his head down. Then he will slyly look up at me and smile like I really don't mean for him to be in time out. Then he bounces or finds other ways to entertain himself. I have to stand right beside him and smack my hands together and say "You don't get to have fun in time out, young man." Then he knows I mean business and he cries.

Time out has become a regular event in Owenland Park. Something is always going down that seems to require someone sitting on the naughty step. Some of the Naughty Step's most frequent visitors of late are Jack & Devlyn. These two are having quite a hard time sharing and cooperating 24/7. They have decided that fisticuffs is the way to settle nearly any disagreement. For days I had been hearing from any number of children about who hit whom etc. etc. I don't think it is fair to punish an individual when I was not a whiteness to the event. Well, I finally witnessed what was about to become a full on scuffle. I called a halt to the proceedings and told both kids they were in time out. They each headed for separate naughty steps, but I had other plans. I said 'No, no, no. You get to sit together in time out and hold hands." This was very confusing to them. They sat there (I stood there the entire time to ensure no fighting) holding hands not quite sure what to do. All went well and they have had to spend a few more time outs holding hands. The most recent trip to the naughty step was for screaming like crazy people and jumping on the furniture. I sent them to time out. Jack looked at Devlyn as soon as they sat down and said "You has to hold hands."

One of my jobs as a stage manager is to keep the actors informed of what time it is, or how close we are to curtain. I have to let them know when it is half hour, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes and places. Well, I had Jack, Devlynn and Wy with me at the grocery the other day and one of the kids asked how long we would be and I said "Oh, we'll be done in about 5 minutes." To which Jack replied "5 minutes everybody, 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 5 minutes..."

My rehearsals have all been in the afternoon and evenings, so the first half of the day I spend with the 3 little ones. Surprisingly it has been rather easy to get all of them down for nap/quiet time each day. Wy doesn't fuss and always takes a nap, Devlyn may have to be talked to a few times, but she gives a solid 2 1/2 hour nap each day and Jack may not sleep, but he will quietly chill out in bed for up to 2 hours. I had all the kids down one afternoon and was folding some laundry. Over the baby monitor I hear Jack quietly singing "I like ta move it, move it. I like ta move it, move it. I like ta move it, move it. Ya like ta...MOVE IT!" from Madagascar.

John and I went out to eat the other night leaving my folks with all 6 kids. Devon had called and was spending some time talking to each of the girls before they went to bed. Mom says that after a while Jack noticed everyone was getting some phone time and he started in on how his turn was next. Dev talked to each of the girls and was ready to get off the phone but Jack had a fit so she talked to him. Mom said he paced back and forth from the kitchen to the living room (something my mom does) and told Devon all about the work we are doing in the kitchen. (We are getting ready to install and replace cabinets on the north and west walls.) Anyway, Devon told Ma that after talking to all the girls she was just about a mess and was ready to have a good cry, but Jack was so cute on the phone she couldn't help laughing. Good job, Jack!

As I mentioned, we are in the midst of a partial kitchen renovation. Everyone is helping out with scraping wall paper. John says he couldn't get to the camera quick enough, but he caught Wy standing on the top of a step stool scraping the wall with a putty knife as high as he could reach. What a great helper!!!

Finally, I must say that the most peaceful part of my day is actually driving the girls to school. I know that sounds impossible, but it is the honest truth. I think it has to do with the fact that I listen to NPR. The girls can be chattering away a mile a minute, but as soon as the NPR starts up they glaze over and check out. I feel guilty saying it, but it is WONDERFUL!

OK, friends, God bless and keep you. More to come next week! Love, from Owenland Park!!!

The Owenland Park Expansion

My youngest sister Devon, is having a pretty rough time right now. In order to help her out, we have taken in her 4 daughters until the end of the school year. This is what Owenland Park looks like these days with Jessa (13), Abbie (8), Connie (5), Jack (3 1/2), Devlynn (3) and Wyatt (19 months). Wyatt refused to sit on the steps. The second step from the bottom is "The Naughty Step", where kids sit in time out. Ma thinks that is Wy wouldn't sit there - because he is usually in trouble when he has to sit there.

The 3 older girls came down from St. Joe on Sunday. Monday was a whirling dervish of a day with getting them registered for school, picking up uniforms, the things one needs to accommodate 4 young ladies, extra groceries etc. Tuesday was their first day of school and my first day of getting 3 more people up and out of the house by 7:15. I knew Tuesday went too well to be true. Don't get me wrong, there have been no serious morning issues this week, but where Tuesday morning went so smoothly, the rest of the mornings have been like herding cats.

Devlynn joined us at the homestead on Tuesday evening. I was very nervous about bedtime with a three year old whose mommy isn't here. She has surprised me. Yes, they have all been sad but there haven't been any histrionics - at least none that I have heard about. (I am currently in rehearsals for Our Town and so I have not been home until all (or almost all) 6 kids are asleep.

Ma picked up a bunk bed Tuesday afternoon and Daddy stayed home Wednesday so he could pull the guest bed out and put in a twin for Jessa and the bunk bed for the other girls. As soon as Jack & Devlynn saw Dad with Jess' box springs they were all over him: "What'r you doin?" and "What's that?" Dad explained what he was doing and those two kids immediately offered to help! Dad pulled while Jack & Devlynn MUSCLED that bed up 3 flights of stairs! You didn't think I helped did you? I admit it, I didn't help. I ran for the camera! I knew you would want to see these kids shouldering their share of the work as it were!

I spent Thursday morning sorting through all kinds of things. The bigger kids were at school so I had Jack, Devlynn & Wyatt. We were all in the girls' room and I was trying to put things away and organize. Every time I turned around Wy was half way up the bunk bed ladder. Twice I put him in time out for getting up on that thing. I needed to mop their floor so I took Wy to the bathroom thinking he would be distracted by brushing his teeth. In the time it took me to grab the mop and mop bucket Wy climbed the steps and the ladder and was sitting in the top bunk all by himself happy as he could be.

After I finished cleaning up their room, I sat down on the bottom bunk and saw a cigarette butt under Jessa's bed. I haven't even had a chance to talk to the other adults about this let alone Jess. She has also started up a facebook account under a slightly false name. Now we have to figure out rules for and parental controls on the computer.

Abbie has refused to wear her uniform jumper all week. Currently she has one pair of pants that fit (but need to be seriously hemmed), a pair that has to be exchanged and a jumper. With the staunch refusal of wearing a jumper, that leaves us with her wearing the same pair of pants every day. I talked to her this morning and told her we will get more pants, but at the moment she simply cannot wear the same pair of pants every day - even if we wash them. Her response was less than enthusiastic so I asked her if she was ever going to wear her jumper. She gave me an adamant "NO." I told her that even grown ups have things they don't like and do NOT want to do, but that we have to do them anyway. Then I told her I would strike a bargain with her. If she wore the jumper, I would fix her a fancy breakfast. She wasn't quite sold so I started listing off options I thought I could handle. I offered up French Toast. She said she had never had it but it sounded good. She got into her jumper, she helped me fix the toast and has asked if we can have it again!

From what the folks and John have told me it is Connie who is having the most trouble at bed time. She needs a little bit more tender care until she falls asleep. Monday was my day off so I was home to help get everyone off to dreamland. Abbie said she would imagine her whole family floating on a soft cloud "even Great." Connie said she couldn't sleep on a cloud. She was going to imagine she was in Kansas and she was riding her bike and she was going to ride her bike to sleep while I drew circles on her back...

Devlynn and Jack have made great friends. They share, they argue, they play together and apart. They remind each other to share. OK, they really snap at each other "YOU HAS TO SHARE!" or "IS MY TURN NOW!!!" But at least they are getting the picture! You can see here they are sharing 2 necklaces. They both wanted the purple and I told them they would have to take turns. Together they decided they could both wear both necklaces at the same time and they were happy till something else was fun. As I was wrangling kids out to the car this morning she hopped over to me in her little footy pajamas and held up "I love you" fingers and gave me a big hug. It was really sweet.

Jack has really handled all of this change & chaos pretty well. There was one morning this week though when he just curled up in a ball and laid on the floor softly whispering "Jax is so sad. Jax is sooo sad..." I cuddled him up for a while but he retained his ball like position. It is not so easy to cuddle a kid who is curled up like a rolly polly - but I did my best. We wound up having chocolate milk and watching Finding Nemo in order to pull him out of the doldrums. Once the bunk bed was put in, he and Devlynn have found a new hobby: climbing into/out of the top bunk, pretending to sleep, insisting they are monkeys and trying to swing on any bunk bed bar before mommy/aunt Amy barks "YOU GET DOWN FROM THERE!" They are upstairs right now chattering on about something. And he has recently taken to answering questions with "Wehhhhhl" and then something random.

Wy's vocabulary has continued to explode. All morning long he has been saying something to me and I finally figured out "HEHWO" is hello. I am really that brain dead at the moment! I'm not sure if all this commotion has had an effect on Super Wy. He hasn't acted any differently. He plays with the other kids when he wants and he simply ignores them when he isn't interested - which is pretty much Wy in a nutshell. I am walking a fine line of making sure my kids get some special mom time - but making sure everyone has some special time or something sweet done for/said to them every day. I can't imagine how hard it is for the girls to make this adjustment, but they have really been good about everything. I think once we get over the hump/initial shock of transition we will get into a routine. Not that I think this is going to be easy, I just think we are going to find our own rhythms and our own sense of normalcy.

Ok friends, we might be a bit longer than usual for a while, and maybe a bit short on just the boys - but the girls are a part of Owenland Park so you'll get to hear about everybody!

Until next week - love and many blessings to each of you. Amy.

What a week...

Well folks, I had the week off from rehearsals and shows, but it was still jam packed with hauling the boys from party to party. The day after Seussical closed we went to the Coterie Christmas party where the boys had a wonderful time. Our Technical Director, Scott, is also a musician and he let the boys help him play Jingle Bells on the guitar. Jack used a guitar pic to strum the strings. He did a great job of keeping time. I'm not sure what time he was keeping but he was very rhythmic. Anyway, Jack strummed, Scott played chords on the frets and sang, and Wyatt just banged away on the neck of the guitar. Good times, yo!



We always open presents according to White Elephant rules at the Coterie Christmas party and Jack found this pretty exciting - at first...He was so excited about everyone taking turns and opening presents. He helped some folks open their gifts and he was dying for his turn to come up. About midway through, my boss Jeff decided to 'steal' a present from someone else instead of selecting an unopened present. Jack was just beside himself over the 'theft'. He told Jeff the "No, you give it back!" He was quite adamant that Jeff understand "is not yours". He just couldn't wrap his brain around the fact that it was ok for this to happen. Fortunately I had the foresight to bring specific presents for the boys and I used that moment to hand out Jack's gift. He was immediately distracted. Yeah me! Jeff got his in the end though - the gift he stole was stolen and in the he wound up with these lovely comedy and drama gloves, kerchief and tea towel!

We rang in the New Year at our Church. I know it doesn't sound terribly exciting, but was a good time. There was babysitting down the hall while the adults had dancing etc. in the reception room. I was somewhat surprised to see that there was no sleeping involved for the children. I don’t know why I was surprised considering there were about 40 kids (ranging from 9 months to 13 years old.) Anyway, the boys had a grand time playing, watching movies, making friends and eating entirely way too much popcorn, chips and fruit juice packs. Shortly before midnight we scooped up the boys so they could party it up with Mom & Dad! It was pretty fun to celebrate with the little guys.

.On Thursday we went St. Joe to celebrate the Abels Family Christmas at my sister’s house. I wish I had thought to bring a few presents for the boys. OK, I wish I had thought to bring a few Thomas presents for Wyatt because he FREAKED OUT when Noah opened his Thomas gifts. Noah was just having a good time playing with stuff but Wyatt insisted that all Thomas gifts were his and his alone. Here he is STEALING Noah’s little Thomas wheel thing and screaming "THOM-MINE!"

OK - now for the random stuff:
My mom has a photo montage as the desktop background on her laptop. The boys love to identify all the people in the pictures, particularly Wyatt. Earlier in the week Wy pointed to a picture of Gran and said "Great". Actually he said "Grey" but it was clear he knew who she was. Mom teared up and started hugging Wy telling him how sweet and smart he is. He had no time for that business, he just shoved her off so he could point out more people.

Wy's vocabulary has EXPLODED in the last week. He still doesn't get the end most words in there, but if you are talking to/with him he isn't terribly hard to understand. One phrase that is perfectly clear though is "Come on!" He throws this out at me when it is time to leave. He hollers it from the backseat as soon as I put the car in park. He grabs my hand and utters it as he drags me to the table for dinner. And I swear he says it to me ANY time I complain about ANYTHING. The really weird thing is that he says it as if I need to get a grip...He has also started saying "NO" and "Uh-uh" as a response to nearly every question you ask him. He runs around chanting "Thoma, Thomo, Thomu, Thomi..." which makes me want to sing the "We like to eat, we like to eat, we like to eat eeples and beneenees"

And he is OBSESSED with brushing his teeth. OK - he really just wants to suck the toothpaste off of the brush, but at least we are getting into the practice of 'brushing.' Anyway, before I have even gotten around to having the fellas brush, Wy comes at me "Tee! Tee! Tee!" At bedtime he demands to brush his "Tee! Tee! Tee!" And almost any other time he notices the bathroom sink...

I like to listen to NPR while driving but Jack has had enough: "No talking, Mommy. Jax wants car songs." We have some cds with kid songs, tv show themes etc. He recently started singing along with "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO?"

OK, dear friends - you all know I could go on and on. I do though have things I must get done. So, have a safe and blessed week. This next weekend I will catch you all up on some pretty big changes around here. Wish me luck! Love, from Owenland Park.