The All in One Post

This summer has been a whirlwind of activity and not much blogging. I have around 3 or 4 in my head but they never make it here. 

Running:

Running has been so so nice. My last treadmill run was on July 3. Every single run since then has been outside. Either someone has been home to watch the kids or I've only had LightRunner so we do a stroller run. Once a week I take them all to the high school track and they have a picnic snack while I do speedwork. I paid a kid to watch them and make sure they don't choke but I'm not sure I even really need to. I have done no official cross training, no routines, but I have done a lot of swimming and biking in the driveway and those stroller runs are not easy. I think they definitely count as strength training too! The only downside is that I don't run with my friends anymore and I definitely miss that… but getting up at 4:30 when I can just do a stroller run later is just too hard… 

Camp:

Camp has been so so nice. The kids love it. They see their friends, they've gone on great field trips, they have time away from me and each other. Sometimes the rest of the day can be a bit grouchy but not often. Usually they play with each other pretty well since they haven't been bugging each other all day long. I thought I would be so productive while they were at camp… but it hasn't turned out that way. I did go through the papers on the floor of my office, but for the most part I have been running, reading and enjoying the silence during nap time. I don't regret one single thing. I've seen friends, played one-on-one with LightRunner, and gotten a taste of what next school year will bring. 

Kids: 

LightRunner is now 2 and while he is embracing it wholeheartedly, he is still my happy funny little guy. He wants to be independent but he can't be and that frustrates him. Luckily he is more willing to let his older siblings help him than me. SkyWalker buckles him the car, puts on his shoes, gets him out of the crib when he's home, and today he got him dressed. When I let them watch TV LightRunner sits on SkyWalker's lap and snuggles up. Joy. SkyWalker has been so helpful and I will be sad when he goes back to school. He's gotten so old and mature, but he has recently discovered his love of trains and cars again and has no problem getting down and playing with LightRunner. He is a natural big brother. The Princess is still a bit crazy and we butt heads quite a bit but when she's good, she's really good. She takes care of Chewie and LightRunner. LightRunner loves her and is constantly calling for her and looking for her. Chewie is doing great at camp and I have no worries about her going to kindergarten. She's going to get on that bus with a huge smile on her face ready to conquer the world. 

I'm not quite sure how August will go. The idea of the treadmill makes me cry… but so does the idea of getting up in the wee hours of the morning. But I want to do lots of fun things with them before summer is over so I'm going to have to figure something out. 

June: lasts, kids, & stats

June is always such a crazy busy month. Field trips, field day, flag day, last parties, early dismissals, birthdays. This one was no exception. Chewie turned 5 in the beginning of the month and we celebrated by getting her ears pierced and having lunch at Dave & Busters and swimming in our new pool and Mommy not running. Oh well. The girls will be having a joint birthday pool party next week to continue the fun. We also went to another 30th birthday party just to make me feel even older. 

Chewie graduated from preschool and had her last gymnastics class (I don't do it once they're in school). I'm not planning on putting LightRunner in gymnastics, partly to save some money next year, but also because if I'm going to put him in anything it will be basketball. He truly loves it and I think he could do really well. I don't think there are any programs for 2 year olds though. Chewie also had her last speech session and that was actually a bit sadder than her preschool graduation. She doesn't need any services over the summer and when she is in kindergarten she will have what SkyWalker did--speech correction once a week. The speech teacher there thinks she probably won't need it for long but after a summer of nothing and with kindergarten so demanding these days, I wanted to make sure someone was keeping an eye on her at school. She is doing SO much better and I would hate for her to lose her progress because they have kindergarteners doing advanced calculus now. 

LightRunner will be two in 18 days and is less and less baby-like and more big-boy like every day. It is bittersweet. I eagerly look forward to not changing diapers (10 years is a long time) but he is my last. He plays with cars all the time and says "weeerrrr" and we could probably get rid of all the baby toys we have. He repeats nearly everything we say and calls me "Mama" and sometimes makes me want to have another one. But I don't want to jump the shark. I'd rather end on a high note. He is definitely embracing two and likes to make things difficult sometimes but knows when to use his dimples. I had to stop giving him big boy cups--not because he couldn't drink out of them but because he is a thrower. He intentionally throws his cups of milk across the room and I couldn't stand it anymore. So we're back to sippy cups until he can control himself. 

SkyWalker is at basketball camp and will soon be taller than me. He survived 4th grade and pulled it together at the end. His grades in each subject in his last report card went up (except social studies which stayed at 98). He got above 90 in everything and really worked much harder than in the middle of the year. I hope this means 5th grade won't be so tumultuous. 

The Princess had an awesome report card and once again got S+ in Art. She's a hard worker in everything and likes to teach Chewie things. She's slightly less batshit crazy, although yesterday she told me sometimes she gets angry for no reason and then she just has to stretch it out. Oookay. I need to get her running longer distances. 

They are all going to camp for the next 4 weeks. It was hard for me to fill out the paperwork and actually do it this year, but I am telling myself that it's not babysitting, it's an opportunity for them to all have fun without each other and without me and to do new things. It'll be good for Chewie to make friends with kids going to kindergarten. It'll be good for me to have some time to get boring stuff done (filling/trashing all the paperwork on my office floor!) and to do some stroller runs and have some one on one time with LightRunner. I can't send them everyday because I am odd, but I'm planning on sending them 3 times a week. I wish I could be one of those moms that just says "See ya" and ships her kids off here and there, but I'm not. Even if they drive me crazy, I'll take that crazy over anything else in the world. 

I've probably gone over my break time and I still have 3 book reviews to write. 

Stats:

Miles: 43.8

Runs: 9

Races: 0

Cross training days: 6 (not including swimming!)

Not my best mileage month, but not my worst. Last June was 28.4 miles!! I've got my half-marathon training plan on the fridge so I should start seeing that mileage go back up. 

Another summer of fun

A perfect summer beach day with our family.
I love how many kids there are!

I feel like I wrote this yesterday. Lamenting the loss of another summer and the return to school. And yet here we are again. I'm happy to say that so far we have NOT repeated the fighting and yelling and pushing each other away! Possibly because we've done our fair share of bickering this summer but also because I planned things a bit better. We had our Long Island trip in the beginning of August followed by fun at home and then our first real vacation as a family. We went back to the mountain that Vader and I got engaged on and spent a few days doing fun family things. They weren't perfectly behaved every single minute (well, the Princess wasn't) but they did really good and it was a lot of fun and I hope we get to do it again. Since we got home we've had nonstop fun. Our last trip to the local small amusement park, playdates with good friends, and this weekend we'll have a BBQ with some newly discovered local second cousins. This summer we've caught fireflies, gone fishing, done a lot of swimming in various places, gone to museums and playgrounds. We've had lots of family time with LightRunner's first birthday party and our trip to LI. We've truly packed it in. We had wanted to do a drive-in movie but that just wasn't in the cards this year. We also wanted to do a local hike but I discovered that they've closed it... but it's okay since we managed to do a hike while on vacation. We've managed to do all this between speech for Chewie and PT visits for me. It really was a great summer.

Will we resort to the moody yelling this weekend? Maybe. But I'm going to really try to prevent it. We've been having major battles over food--what else is new--but I'm trying to institute change slowly so we're not at war every night.

In just a week they will be back at school and we will go back to the demands of homework and projects and school lunches. Chewie will start her second year of preschool the week after. LightRunner and I will fill our time with food shopping, running, story time, and whatever else I can manage. But this week we are still enjoying summer. I'm trying to get as much laundry and crap done today so we can have one more Friday Fun Day tomorrow. Instead of lamenting the fact that it's over, I want to celebrate all the fun we had and start planning next summer.

July stats and where has the summer gone?

It is August 1st. August. 1st.

I'm not sure how that happened. Which is pretty usual for the summer. We look forward to it all year long and then it gets here and it just goes SO quickly. I decided the other day that if NYS ever extends the school year into summer I will either home school or move. Probably move.

We've been both busy and not busy. Lots of library programs, playdates with new friends and old friends. We've also spent quite a bit of time in our little rinky dink pool. Now that the heat wave is over and nights are getting chilly, the pool is back to being cold and is not quite as much fun. During the heat wave that everyone complained about the pool was actually quite lovely. Lovely in water temperature sense, it was still rinky dink in every other sense. There's a hole I can't find in the ring at the top. The pool itself has just been stretched out from years of use so it's not actually 3 feet. But they have fun. I've decided--with my MIL--that we will get an above ground pool installed for next summer. Vader can either have input as to where it goes or he can not.

The first week of July the kids went to gymnastics camp. I spent $300 for the three of them to have 9 hours of fun. Every summer I think about camp but I don't want them to be away from me and they don't want to be. Gymnastics camp was just half a day for 3 days. It was good, but expensive. I looked into the town camp that I never want to do because it's pretty much a school day (9-2) and for the three of them for a month it'll cost $250. Next summer Chewie will be able to go since she'll be entering kindergarten (gasp). The cost maxes out at $250 for a family. So I think I will sign them up for that and just send them a couple of days a week. It will solve the problem of them wanting constant entertainment and not understanding that I still have to go food shopping and do laundry and dishes and things like that. I'll still have LightRunner but hopefully he'll be okay. Wouldn't it be funny though if he goes from being the best baby ever to the worst 2 year old?

We just celebrated his first birthday and it truly is bittersweet. He is just a joy. Happy and easy going and truly delightful. He is crawling up the stairs and standing on his own for brief snippets. He can cruise along furniture but hasn't attempted to walk and I am fine with that. He is 19 pounds 6 ounces and 28.5 inches long. He misses the jedi record by two ounces... the Princess was 19, 8 at a year. The other two were 16 pounds. He loves eating meat and vegetables. We started cow's milk and he has been just fine with it, which was a relief after all his gassiness and crankiness from dairy early on. I nurse him morning and night but it is clearly just for me. I feed him in the morning, and 15 minutes later give him a sippy cup of milk and he smiles and claps for it and drinks it all down. The bedtime feed is really just him humoring me. For 4-5 minutes. I wanted to make it until the end of the summer but I don't even know if we'll make it the end of the week! He is independent--he likes to feed himself and Mama doesn't quite fit into that.

I started my half marathon training and I have been pretty vigilant about sticking to my plan this time. No extra miles. I've strained the ligaments in my right foot and sometimes my left foot gets sore from compensating. After I do the Clove Run in a couple of weeks I might have to take some more time off. I don't want to, but I want to be able to do the half in October and if resting for a couple of weeks will make that better than I should probably do it.

I've also signed up for a Ragnar in May. 24 crazy women from my local town are sleeping in vans and running a total of 180 miles over a weekend. It is insane. I am pretty sure that this will be a once in a lifetime thing. I am looking forward to getting to know the local ladies better and to do something so insane, but I think I like the idea of a destination half a lot more. Run 13.1 miles, stay in a nice hotel.

Stats:

June

• Mileage: 28.4
• Runs: 6
• Races: 1

July

• Mileage: 56.1
• Runs: 12

I'm not even bothering to list cross training since it was nonexistent. Well, I've done a lot of bike riding, swimming, pushing strollers and shopping carts, furniture moving up and down stairs, and non-traditional exercise. I'm pretty sure July is my highest mileage month in quite a while. And I even took a whole week off to go to the foot doctor and deal with my foot and its tender ligaments. 

I'm starting August off with a nice easy evening run with a friend and a 5K race this Saturday. It's an evening race with glow sticks and laser shows and all sorts of fun. I'm not even thinking about goals. I just want to run and not pee my pants during the race, pee blood after the race, or want to chop my feet off. There, those are my goals. 

Welcome to funky town

I have not run since the Freihofer's race. I planned on taking the week off to catch up on all the things I have been neglecting the last couple of months. Instead, I had birthday parties (one we hosted for Chewie and a couple for the Princess to attend), multiple school visits, field day, doctor visits, dentist, etc. I shlepped poor Light Runner around so much. I planned on just taking last week off but I had also planned on getting stuff done! So, here I am this week trying to scramble to get it all done. I've managed to clean a couple of toilets, repeatedly straighten up the kitchen, finally have clean underwear to wear, straighten up the deck, clean off my craft table, and there's so much more I still want to do. I feel slightly better that I'm getting some of this stuff done, but I am in a serious non-running, non-exercising funk. It's my own choice,  but I know that with a 16 week half marathon training plan coming up, I need to get my affairs in order.

Part of those affairs was seeing a stone specialist about these damn kidney stones. Long story short, I have NO plan for these stones other than to "wait and see." No blasting. No magic pills. I can drink citrus to try to prevent them and to try to help with the blood in my urine when I run, but other than that there's nothing that I can do. On the one hand I am glad I don't need parathyroid surgery. On the other hand I don't want to be in the middle of running the half in October and start passing kidney stones!

Another loose end that has been finally wrapped up--Chewie and her speech. I received a letter a couple of weeks ago that she qualifies for twice a week services, no meeting necessary. Ooookay. We had our review meeting yesterday and she will not only get twice a week services in the fall, she'll also get it in the summer. Easy peasy.

School is winding down and I can't wait for it to be over. We've come up with a list of fun things we want to do and I plan on actually doing them this summer. Instead of waiting for friends to invite us to things we're going to make our own fun. We're also going to be doing a lot of running. In addition to my 16 week training plan on the fridge, there's also an 8 week plan for the kids! It's a 5K plan, but the biggest ones will be running a 1 mile race in August. The Princess wants to run a 5K next spring, so I figure we'll train this summer. If SkyWalker can last a mile without complaining he can do a 5K sometime too. I'm looking into getting a jogging stroller for LightRunner, but I'm not quite sure what I'll do with Chewie. She can run, but I'm not sure she can run that much. I don't want to get a double jogging stroller though because I hope to run a lot when she is in preschool three days a week next year and I just have LightRunner. I'm thinking of seeing how I can do with the stroller I have now that lets her stand in the back. We aren't going to be running fast or far, so I might be able to get away with that and just get a real jogging stroller for the fall.

I can hear LightRunner crying in his crib so my brief naptime break is over. But one more thing--if you actually visit this blog instead of just read it in a reader, you'll see a brand new image over to the right. I am now a #RunChat Runbassador!  Those of you on twitter who also run should definitely check out the #RunChat tag, it's super helpful. On Sunday nights there's sponsored chats, but the rest of the time it's just runners exchanging info. I think they're still accepting Runbassadors, so click on the image in my sidebar and fill out the form.

It's that Kate & Allie episode all over again

You know what I'm talking about. It happens every year the week before school starts.

Remember Kate & Allie?

Photo by CBS/Getty Images

Kate & Allie's daughters were getting ready to go off to college and Kate & Allie were getting ready to not live together anymore because that goofy guy was moving in. They were so sad at the idea of all this change and not seeing each other every day that they got angry and fought with each other. They didn't know why they were fighting until the end of the episode, of course, but it was to prepare themselves, to make it easier to separate. It's easier to leave someone when you're fighting and not happy.

We do this the week before school starts. Every year since we've had to worry about school starting. It's  so predictable and yet unavoidable for us. We truly like being home together. We love the summer. So when school comes knocking we're sad, even though it's needed, and we fight and yell and argue and I start to think I can't wait for school to start, even though I know what I really mean is, I wish school was starting yet.

This summer is no exception. It went by SO FAST. The first half I was moody and uncomfortable and afraid of premature labor and then afraid of no labor. And then Lightrunner came and Vader was home for 3 glorious weeks. We did so much as a family, so many things we hadn't done before, visited places and had fun. We've been trying to do as many playdates as possible with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. Trying to fill every moment. Nana came for a visit. Cousins came up for a visit. It was the perfect summer. But there's still so much we didn't get to do! We didn't get to go to LI, so we didn't get to go to the beach. There were other friends we didn't get to see as much.

And now. It's over. Tomorrow I bring Chewie to preschool. Vader will stay home with the others since he needs to go with the Princess on the bus later in the day for her bus safety day. SkyWalker starts 3rd grade on Wednesday. The Princess starts kindergarten on Thursday. Lightrunner and I will be alone for 5 hours a week... I am looking forward to that time and am truly grateful I have him to share it with... but I will miss my big kids. Even as I get annoyed every time SkyWalker has to come and try to snuggle with Lightrunner--as I'm breastfeeding him. I get annoyed with the bickering and the messes and a million things. Yet, I will miss them. The silence will be nice, but there will be a void.

Today we go to the local state park where I will take the big kids (SkyWalker and the Princess) running with me while Chewie and Lightrunner stay with Vader on the playground. Then we all play and have snacks and have one last day of summer fun before we are consumed with school schedules and responsibilities. And wait to do it all over again next year.

Transitions

Last week I was not ready for school to begin. I was not ready for the end of summer, of our summer fun, of the routine we had established. I'm still not ready for the end of summer. I know lots of people are doing cartwheels because today was in the low 70s and a "fall day" but I think I should have taken an extra Vitamin D. I don't embrace the fall like others do. I tolerate it because it's not winter, but summer has always been my favorite. I need to feel the sun, to see it, to soak it in. This is the first summer that I actually have a tan, not because I was laying on the beach and tanning myself, but because we were out and about. Sure, I used sunscreen and I don't want to get skin cancer but I am proud of my tan. It is proof that I was outside more than I was inside. That I did what I set out to do. I am happy that I had a good summer and I'm still not ready for summer to end.

But. I think I am ready for school to begin. Vader left on Friday for a wedding in California. I couldn't believe what rotten timing it was--he's not getting back until wicked late Monday night. School starts wicked early Tuesday morning. But maybe, just maybe, it has worked out the way it needed to be. Because after all of this time without Vader, all of this time with just us, I think I am ready for SkyWalker to go back to school and he may be ready to go back too. We've had lots of fun moments--I took them all to a local county fair yesterday--but there have been a lot of arguments and fighting and raised voices. I think we're ready for a break from each other and we really weren't ready for it last week. It's somewhat hard for me to think let alone say. I was that mom who when sick would keep her son home from daycare, instead of leaving him at daycare so I could rest. I couldn't bear the thought of him being somewhere else if I wasn't at work. It wasn't until I was on work bedrest with the Princess that I ever left him in daycare when I was at home. So it's hard for me to say--even though lots of others have said it--that it's time for him to go. Now, I know I'm only sending him to first grade, not to the Hunger Games, but still.

The Princess has been less of a problem. I think her recent tantrums are actually a product of the stress between SkyWalker and me, and knowing that she's going to be starting preschool on Tuesday. She talks about it and knows that I am dropping her off and leaving and she smiles and proudly says "There's my preschool" when we drive by. But when we went to the playdate there on Wednesday she was quiet and shy and withdrawn. It was frustrating when SkyWalker did it because I hadn't experienced it yet. It's just sad when I see it in the Princess because I know what's she's capable of. I see her play with her brother, I see her lively and vivacious and animated. And when he's not with her she is just not herself. I'm glad that she draws strength from him, but it makes me so sad too that she doesn't get that strength from herself. I know that the first couple of months of preschool will be hard. I know right now that she will cry when I leave and that I will have to just keep leaving. But I hope that since I am starting her at 3, that she will open up quicker than her brother did when I started him at 4. He was fine going to kindergarten and he's a completely different kid now. I know it will all be worth it in the end.

The only one who hasn't been giving me trouble is the one I call trouble maker. Chewie had been cranky and frustrated. She screamed at me whenever she wanted anything. The last time we were at the library I opened up a parenting book on babies and talking and flipped to the 15 month old page. I almost took it home but then decided that I didn't need to read a book telling me that my baby was already failing because she wasn't doing ANYTHING she was supposed to be doing. And then just in the last week--the hardest week with the older 2--she has found her groove. She's walking a lot. She's laughing a lot. She's babbling and making sounds. She's not saying recognizable words or trying to repeat anything, but she's making sounds that sound like words. She said Mama and Dada and Nana a while ago, but she would never repeat anything and she wouldn't really use them appropriately. She seems so much happier this week and is much more talkative and much less screaming. Although she does shriek with glee which is almost as bad. I think she will benefit from having some one on one time with Mama.

I have not run outside since the last race. I've run on the treadmill, but it's just not the same. I should actually be running today, but my ankle is a bit sore and I'm just not in the mood for another treadmill run. I ran 5.5 miles last week and the treadmill told me it was 4 something. I know that the Nike+ is not the most accurate and that it will measure somewhat differently on the treadmill than on the road. But that's a big difference. And I FEEL the difference too. I was running at 5.0 which should have been a 12 minute pace. Slow. And it did not feel slow. I'm going to Fleet Feet on Friday to have my running analyzed so I can get a recommendation for the right sneaker. I'm looking forward to running on the treadmill there and comparing it with my Nike+. I want to see how it feels too, to see if my suspicions are confirmed or not. I am secretly terrified that it will feel exactly the same and that my treadmill is accurate and my Nike+ is not and that I haven't been running as much and I'm just a big fraud. I try to always do my long runs outside where I know that it's accurate, but that requires a present husband. If the treadmill at Fleet Feet feels differently I'm going to have to call the treadmill company and see what's going on. I finally found the manual and the lube, so maybe I just have to do some maintenance on it. Or maybe the craft paint the children spilled on it has screwed it up somehow.

It feels somewhat odd blogging like this here at blogger. I've been with blogger since Jan of 2004, but never personally. I always liked the ease with which I could check out the neighborhood on vox. It's not quite the same when you're reading it through google reader. But, I have to say, I'm liking that the feedjit widget is working. I've always had that on my book blog, but it never worked in vox. Now I can see where all you people are coming from. So who the hell is reading me from Kings Park?? And all of you people keep coming back but I only have one follower??! (Thanks Gina!)

The dogs are doing their nightly "Why isn't Daddy home yet?" barking. 26 more hours.

Go ahead and roll your eyes

I know that people probably roll their eyes when they hear me talk about daily schedules and what I do with my kids. I could make things easier. I could have the TV on all day. I could let them do whatever they want. I could send them all away and let someone else take care of them. But that's not how we do things. We like to be together. We like to do things together. There's just a small part of the day when I need a break and they get crazy. It's only been 2 days but this daily schedule is working GREAT. I think SkyWalker really responds to a structured day. He's said many times that he misses school. Yesterday we did our morning fun at a new local indoor play area since the weather was so muggy and there was a threat of thunderstorms. We came home for lunch and then went upstairs and read together and did some gymnastics and then I had all 3 of them napping or having quiet time for 2 hours. No problems. After nap time we did our A is for Apples stuff and SkyWalker showed the Princess how to write a letter A and she did it. Mondays are always so difficult, but yesterday was just great from start to finish. He asked that we add 30 minutes to the schedule--for cuddling and kissing. For serious. Today was less great--they got a little crazy in their rooms while I was making dinner, but nothing horrible. They had their nap/quiet time long enough for me to run and shower. I don't even really care if the Princess sleeps, as long as she doesn't wake up Chewie. The important thing is giving me a break so I can run. 

Speaking of. 

A couple of Sundays ago I went to the local high school track to calibrate my Nike+. I ran my fastest mile (9:18). I ran another mile to make sure it worked and it did. I was curious to see how my treadmill would compare to my calibrated Nike+. I expect them to be a little off because they measure differently, but I was shocked at how off they were. The treadmill said I did 3/4 mile LESS than the Nike+. That is a HUGE difference. Let's say that it's not really that far off... even if it's 1/2 mile that's still a pretty big difference. I've often felt that my treadmill was harder than it should be. I know when I was in college I walked at a much faster speed than I can now, but I figured I was just old now. When I ran on my SIL's treadmill there was a definite difference in speed. I don't know if the kids putting paint on the treadmill can affect it or if it needs a tune up... I don't really care all that much. It works. I just don't pay attention to the distance now. And I don't kill myself trying to run at a higher speed. Since I've discovered this it's given me extra motivation. When I went out this past Sunday I ran the whole way on my road--a first for me--and finished in just less than my race time. When I ran today on the treadmill I ran for 30 minutes straight because I wasn't trying to maintain an inflated higher speed. I had been looking at my running friends and their facebook statuses and wondering why I wasn't able to do as much or keep up... and now I know! When I thought I was running at a 6 speed (10 minutes per mile) it was really much faster. I can't keep that up! Not yet anyway. I'm pretty excited that I've been doing more than I thought I was and I'm eager to keep running. I'm trying to figure out how I can add another day of running to the week and still write my articles and take care of my children. And do laundry. OH and this past week? All the running I did? I had my girlie monthly visitor. And it was bad. The only relief I had was while running. I can't stand at the sink to do dishes without being in pain, but I can run. Funny, no?

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Summer of Fun

Tomorrow is the last day of school. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but then again I'm not quite sure how we got to the first day of school. Whoooosh. I'm both excited and frightened. It will be nice to not have to make lunch the night before or to schedule everything around bus drop off time. But the last 2 days have been half days and they've been... challenging. The Princess has absolutely refused to nap with SkyWalker home. But she's also refused to stay in her room for quiet time. I let them have quiet time together yesterday and that was mistake. But they didn't wake up Chewie and I really needed her to sleep so I could run. Today I insisted they be in their own rooms... and they caused more problems. I shut their gates but they can both climb over them so it really didn't matter. I watched the Princess walk over to Chewie's crib and wake her up. She had a spray bottle from the bathroom in her hand. I don't know if she sprayed her or not. I wound up taking all of them to Wal-Mart and then Home Depot to look for a bird feeder just so we were out of the house and I wasn't tempted to throw them out the window. 

The half days have caused definite problems. We haven't been able to go anywhere in the morning because the bus has come early. I am hoping that after tomorrow, the last half day, that we can get on track. The Princess has been fighting her naps anyway, but with SkyWalker home it's just ridiculous. And if he's not listening, she won't even pretend to listen to me. And the two of them together is just well, maddening. 

I printed up a daily schedule and laminated it and put it on the fridge. I'm putting it here so I can remember it for next year when I freak out about summer again:

8 am: Breakfast

8:30/9: dressed

10-12: active play time--parks, playgrounds, beach, pool, etc

12: lunch

1:30-3:30: nap/quiet time. Mommy runs/showers, writes articles

3:30-5:30: quiet play time--arts & crafts, reading books. Mommy makes dinner

6: dinner

7:30/8: bedtime

I have something planned every single morning of next week. I am hoping to tire them out! Most of the time we will be eating lunch at whatever park or beach we are at and then just going home for naps. I'm planning on doing the preschool lesson plans that I did with the Princess during their quiet play time and also having them practice their writing and reading then too. The after nap time is the hardest time in our house (especially if nap time has been stressful!). They seem to just get crazy. I'd like to harness them a bit and have them slow down and focus on something. Especially since I won't be able to send them outside by themselves once the pool is up. Even though we have a huge front yard and driveway I refuse to let them play out front by themselves. You never know when UPS will come. So I can't throw them out of the house when they get too wild but I still have to make dinner. 

Last summer was pretty tough because Chewie was a newborn and she wasn't exactly happy. I had to feed her a lot and she screamed a lot and the other two took advantage a lot. This summer I am down to 2 feedings a day (that are quickly going away. She squirms out of my arms more often than not. Sigh.), she's happy and can stay awake and doesn't get overtired. She's getting into everything and discovered the dogs' water dish today which is oh so much fun. She's more work in that I can't just put her down and assume she's safe. But she's happier and more independent. She sleeps all night long. When I'm tired it's my own fault, not hers. So I think that I can be strong this summer and demand obedience. 

We started the good behavior jars again (they kind of fell by the wayside during the school year). Hopefully by having a plan from the get-go we can avoid any major yelling and screaming. I probably should not have tried to implement the schedule during the half days without having those running around active play time hours in the morning. I don't think I will tomorrow. Friday starts our Summer of Fun with our first visit to the town park. I will keep control this summer! Even if I have to run them ragged to do it!

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