Show and Tell

Wednesday was Annabelle's "Show and Tell Day", FINALLY.  Andrew's teacher has each kid bring show and tell every month, and Annabelle has been WAITING. ALL. YEAR. for her turn!  She wanted to take Benjamin as her "most prized posession".  Here is how it went down:

Annabelle:  I chose to bring my baby for show and tell.  His name is Benjamin and I had to get special permission from Mrs. Andersen because he is ALIVE (surely her teacher meant to ask permission if you wanted to bring in a pet, but she is right, Benjamin is alive).

Me: Do you want to tell them anything about Benjamin?  What he likes or doesn't like?

Annabelle: Well, he drools a lot, he likes to chew on things, he has an afro, and one time when my mom was changing him he peed on her.

Insert hysterical laughter from the entire class.  If you know any 5 year olds you know why this was so funny.  Apon seeing how she was the LIVING. END. because of the pee comment, she had to insert another zinger.

Annabelle: And at night, he sleeps with his booty in the air.

More hysterical laughter.  Again, all 5 year olds think the mention of the "behind" is hysterical.

Me: Anything else Annabelle? 

Annabelle:  Yes, let's show the class how he can walk

I put Benjamin on the floor and he refuses to walk, but crawls right up to some little boy we DO NOT KNOW and kisses him right on the mouth.

Of course more laughter!

Benjamin, and by extension Annabelle, was famous by lunch time.  The whole playground had heard about the "stand-up comedian and her side kick in room 17".  Andrew asked if he could bring Benjamin for show and tell next time.  Stay tuned...

Early Risers

Andrew is my early riser.  Period.  He usually goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes around 5:30 or 6.  We have tried pushing back his bedtime, and he only gets up at the same time, but SUPER CRABBY!!!!!!  So we are working on ways to manage his early tendencies:)  This week however, he went to bed every night at 7:30, a few nights he was asleep by 7:15 and he was sleeping until 7:30, twice until 8 am.  I hated waking him up to go to school!  I was hoping we were entering a new phase, the "Mommy gets to sleep past six" phase.  Wishful thinking.  This morning at 7 am all was quiet when I got up, but all of the lights in the house were on.  A sure sign Andrew has been up for a while.  But his door was closed and the lights in his room were off.  A sure sign he is in the front yard riding his bike...  So I opened his door and flipped on the light and found this.

Here are my boys!  Andrew got Benjamin out of his crib (a stern talking to came later) and brought him into bed to help him go back to sleep.  This is the reason all the lights were off.  Do you see the smile on that kid's face??!!  Seriously in love with this idea!!

Brotherly love!!  And wrestling, isn't that the same!!!???

You may be wondering why Benjamin isn't wearing pants.  I was wondering the same thing!!  When I asked Andrew where Benjamin's pants were he said, "they are in my dirty clothes momma, they had pee pee on them."  I am hoping he wasn't so wet because of the juice box in the background....

I always think God has at least one more child in store for us...  I often hope it's a girl, I love the hair bows and the tutu's, and I secretly love the sassy:)  But today, I cried as I realized His perfect plan for our lives included brothers and best friends who are both early risers.

Okay, so blogging isn't my forte these days...

But I am going to change that!  I will have to back up just a little to get in all the amazing things that have happened since September...  Ew, I know, last blog was September!!!!  Here are a few pics to catch you up:)

I made my own baby food.... Turned out great, but I made so much (remember it is my first time with only one baby), that  Benjamin was on to bigger and better things by the time he finished this batch and I didn't need to make any more.

Sorry about the orientation!!!!  An entire college football season came and went, and our Irish didn't do too bad!  Looking forward to next year!!!  Go Irish!!!

Benjamin has graduated to doing chores, his favorite is "helping" with the dishes, but here he is doing laundry.

We have forward motion!!!!!

Andrew and Annabelle were in a "Nursery Rhyme Parade" at school.  They were adorable as Jack and Jill!

Halloween!!!!!!!  Spidey and Jasmine say hello!

And so does "Snuggle Puppy"

Biggest day of 2011, Benjamin Jer becomes a Sanborn!  Read more about this here

We lost teeth, OH SO MANY TEETH!!!!!  Annabelle has lost 2.  Andrew has lost 5, well, knocked out 3 and lost 2 if you want to get technical!

We are exclusively on solid food now (in addition to formula, no more baby food), and DO NOT GET BETWEEN BENJAMIN AND HIS FOOD!!!!  As you can tell by the face he is making in this picture!

More pictures to come!

Happy Grandparents Day

I know, I am a little late!  Every year our elementary school does a tribute to Grandparents put on by the kindergarten classes.  It was seriously THE. CUTEST. THING. EVER.  I bawled my eyes out the entire time.  This was just a few days before the 3rd anniversary of my daddy's "homegoing".  So not having him there to see this was so sad.  I cried the entire time.  I know you're not surprised.  But seriously, a little girl a few rows in front of me asked her mom what was wrong with me.  The mom shrugged her shoulders like I was from outer space!  Really lady?  130 kindergarteners pouring their hearts out in song and dance to honor their grandparents??!!  IT WAS TOUCHING!!!!!!!  We brought Mimi, Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma Elsie and Gigi to school to see the kids in their first elementary school production and it was so fun!  We are so blessed to have such amazing grandparents and great grandparents pouring into our children's lives. We love you!

Here is the video...  Andrew is in the top left, Annabelle is toward the front in the middle (its hard to see them in a sea of 130 small people).  So make sure and turn off the music player at the bottom of the blog and turn up your sound!

A big shout out to 

Mrs. Romero, our music teacher

Mrs Andersen, Annabelle's teacher

Mrs.Willman, Andrew's teacher

"So Lucky" part two...

Yesterday a woman at the store said something really sweet and kind of profound.  I of course cried, and am crying now just writing...  I was at the store with Bill's Grandma Elsie and Benjamin while the big kids were at school.  Of course no less than a dozen strangers stopped to oogle Benjamin "He's so cute" and he was EATING IT UP!!!!  He was smiling at them flashing his dimples like nobody's business!!!  It was hilarious.  One woman said, "You sure are lucky".  I almost burst into tears immediately.  She has no idea!  We are "lucky" three times!!!  It really made me take a moment and thank the Lord for how "lucky" we are.  We have 3 beautiful children (I can say that with confidence as they are all adopted and none look like me:)).  They are a hand full to say the least.  They are exhausting, they don't always get along.  They demand limitless time and energy.  They are messy, even when trying to help clean up.  They often have attitudes and sometimes even talk back (gasp).  They are strong willed and sometimes bossy (where do they get it).  They throw fits in Target or at home when asked to do something they don't want to do.  They always need something else when we have nothing to give.  But they are ours.  God has given them to us and we cannot imagine our lives without them.  We are so "lucky"!

First Day of Kindergarten

Well here it is!!  The first day of kindergarten (sniff sniff)!  Well, to those of you who know me it goes more like:  The first day of kindergarten (sob sob)!  The kids had a lot of fun, after a rocky start, the pictures can tell the story! We are so proud of our "babies" and cannot believe the time has flown by so quickly!  Enjoy!

This is how you make lunches!

Ready to go!

Last year we had the same pic of the "double school supplies".  This is for all my teacher friends out there so they can rest assured I am not a slacker mom (as far as school supplies are concerned).  BTW- Target has killer deals on Crayola!

Nice mug shots right?

Here they are ready for the first day!  They both had PE on the first day, so they have on what I refer to as "Sporty Spice" clothes.  Annabelle was a little upset she couldn't wear anything fancy...  Rest assured she did on day 2!

 Again with the mug shots...

They were laughing at the black blur at the bottom of the pic, our dog Tank

Daddy praying with them before school

Grandpa was part of our posse on the way to school

Benjamin is soooooo over this!!!

More or our fan club...  Mimi
Not pictured Bill, Molly and Aunt Frankie

The three amigos at school

Now is when the morning starts to go arye...  They both got really nervous which means Annabelle got really quiet and looked super snotty and Andrew got really loud and obnoxious.

Both kids had these color sheets on their desks

This was the first thing on Andrew's desk, and cue tears....  That's right, I didn't even open it and I started crying!  The inside (I read 3 hours later and still cried) was about how the teacher knows we love our kiddos and she will love them too, and take good care of them while they are in school.  And cue more tears...

This is right before we attempted to leave and Andrew screamed- "I am not staying here by myself!"  Cue UGLY CRYING!

This is Bill swooping in to the rescue.  After Andrew screamed and started crying,  I had to vacate the classroom because of the ugly crying and then I had to take Annabelle to her classroom.  So Bill stayed with Andrew until he felt comfortable (so her said, he may have been lying to make me feel better.  Either way, thanks Babe)

This Annabelle refusing to smile and or color because she was so nervous.  This is my outgoing social butterfly who had been introducing herself to people since she was 11 months old, NEVER unsure in ANY social situation.  And cue the ugly crying again!!!  BTW- she told me I was never allowed to do her hair like this again because it was too "baby" WHAT THE HECK???!!




A big shout out to my "Tissues and Tea" Support Group:
Mom
Aunt Frankie
Nana (Gigi)
Aunt Shari
Aunt Brenda
Lydia
Erin
I wouldn't have made it through this day without you!
Only 179 more to go.....

Who's keeping score?

Dear Target Shoppers,
Please excuse the screaming.  Yes, I manhandled my 5 year old (looks like 8 year old) into the cart.  Sorry.  I did this because he was yelling at me.  Sorry.  Yeah, you probably heard that part but didn't see it as I was trying to hide in a "time out" corner. Then, when you thought the ruckus was over, he slapped me and I put him back in time out which of course inspired more screaming.  Sorry.  When the screaming calmed down and I asked him to leave with us, more screaming.  Sorry.  I took it upon myself to go ahead and check out with only the items in my cart, to rid you of the screaming faster.  As we tried to exit Target, the screaming only intensified.  Sorry. Said 5 year old (no really, he's only 5) saw we were passing the snack spot and was not going to be getting any popcorn because of his behavior.  Sorry.  No- I'm not sorry.  I have 3 kids under 5 and sometimes regardless of your dirty looks and head shakes, I have to discipline my child(ren) in a public place.  This time (and lots of other times I guess) it was Target.  AND I WAS NOT GOING TO HAND OVER A REWARD TO A MANIAC JUST SO YOU WOULD STOP STARING AT ME!!!  And by the way Target Shoppers, there is a good chance this will happen again. Taking into consideration that I have 3 kids (and we frequent that particular Target).  Sorry. 
In case you were wondering:
Andrew-0
Mom- 1