Ya’ll. This boy! It’s like he’s good at everything I want to be good at. He leaves me with my mouth hanging wide open all the time. That little Daniel amazes me at every turn.

I want to be just like him!

Today I picked him up at school, and his teacher told me she thought he was getting sick.

I waved it off. He’s still getting over this cold they had.

“Mom,” he said, while he waited on the playground for his brothers to get out of school, “I need to go to the bathroom.” I sent him back into school to go to the bathroom.

20 minutes later, I was all, “Geesh, Daniel. You were in there forever.”

What a clueless mom I am.

Daniel handled it all like a champ. He came in, changed his clothes, and packed his suitcase all by himself because he’s going to Nana and Granddaddy’s house this weekend.

I forgot all about his teacher’s warning. I thoroughly didn’t have a clue.

Meanwhile, his fever was getting higher, and he was suffering from some sort of stomach virus.

Finally, he came into my room, laid on my bed, and said, “Mommy. My stomach hurts so bad. I don’t feel good. I might throw up.”

Boy, nothing gets your attention like that sentence does!

I felt him. He was on fire. I took his temp. Yep. Fever. I gave him Tylenol and a smidge of food and drink. I let him lie in bed and watch Home.

I look at his gigantic blue puppy dog eyes and adorable carrot top, and I just think, “Wow. Daniel. I want to be like you.”

I can’t tell you how often I stumble upon Daniel in a room, washing the mirrors or sweeping the floor. Not even kidding. This boy is better than me.

Yes, he is.

He’s a server. He loves to help people. He accomplishes all of his tasks to the best of his ability, and if he is ever lazy, I promise you he must be sleepy or sick.

So yes, I want to be just like him. He’s bold too. There’s a girl in his class that he likes. Does he torture her by pulling her hair and calling her names? Oh but no. Instead, he told her he wants to marry her and always sits by her. Thankfully, she is still his friend! Ha!

I love all my children the same. Adore them. They fill my heart with so much love and pride, and I see so much of myself in them. Every bit of shyness. That’s me. Every bit of laziness. Also me. Every bit of hiding in their room to read. So extremely me. Temper? Me.

But this? This sweet, loving, serving, hard-working little leprechaun? Maybe someday. Maybe someday that will be me too.

I love you, Daniel. Feel better soon.

The post Why I want to be just like my kindergartener when I grow up appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

He keeps us smilin’.

There are 7 kids in my living room right now, watching Zootopia. And JD’s asleep upstairs, so only 3 of those kids are mine. (But man, did JD NEED a nap. He was crying over every little thing. Note to adults: when you’re crying over everything, and the sky is falling, go take a nap!)

They are watching Zootopia. It sounds hilarious.

It’s officially summer. Listen to the snack I gave them: a plate full of corn on the cob, buttered and salted. Those are some happy kids going to town on corn and watching Zootopia.

I’m feeling successful. We still haven’t decided where to live next, but hey! I washed my hair this morning. Sounds like success to me.

Daniel has developed a photography interest lately. He borrowed our camera and took some pictures…

Life according to a 5-year-old

I promise I had been cooking, not drinking. It’s hard not to blink at that flash.

JD, doing what he does best, taking off his shoes.

Do you see my sidekick?

Someone asked me, after my last post, “Don’t  you have to check on JD, not just Daniel?”

The answer is no. Rarely. JD is literally always 1 inch away from me. It seems like always. Occasionally, he does play in the sandbox.

Yes, sometimes I sit down and answer messages and try to read. It’s not successful, and sometimes people get aggravated with me for not answering my phone or messages in a timely manner. I have one go-to excuse…4 children. Seriously.

I didn’t get much reading done here. I ended up staying up until 2 or 3 am one night to finally finish this book. It was worth it.

Everyone says I raise my eyebrows too much. “Mom, please don’t do the eyebrows.”

Even Alan says, “I’ll tell you, but just, please promise me you won’t do the eyebrows.”

Maybe this one was taken by Caleb. I didn’t think Dan was this much taller than J.D.

Daniel is so excited about this move and about going to kindergarten. Every once in a while, though, he confesses, “I just don’t want my fwiends to move away and nevwer see my fwiends.”

Auck! It makes me so sad for him. I’ve grown hard to all the moving and leaving. In fact, I get so caught up in the details of the move that I totally forget to say good-bye to people. I forget to be sensitive to other people’s feelings too. I don’t mean to be cold or anything. I simply go through the motions of the move, never stopping to think about when will be the last time I see our friends.

But the boys are young. They feel these things. They don’t have Facebook to use to keep in touch either. It’s important to remember and be sensitive.

Thankfully, Daniel is super-duper excited about kindergarten and the prospect of having a great, big backyard at our new house. Sometimes he sees me looking at houses online, and he always asks two questions:

1. Is it close to my kindergarten?
2. Does it have a big backyard for my dog?

No, he doesn’t actually have a dog, but they all have great plans to get one at their new house. They’ve even named him. Steve.

I have made it known, repeatedly, that this dog, IF we get one, will not be mine. I don’t like dogs (I know. I’m a horrible person), but mostly I don’t plan on cleaning up its poop. I’ve been changing diapers for 10 years. A line must be drawn somewhere.

I know what you’re all thinking. You think we will get a dog, and I will end up taking care of it. I desperately hope you’re wrong.

Only 13 more days until John David and I fly South!!!  Eeeeeeeee!!!!! So excited!!

The post Life, According to Daniel, age 5 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Each one is different, short, and equally cute, so you gotta watch all three!

Sing it with us now! aye-yie-yie-yie-yie-yie-yie-we-love-Jesus. 🙂 Happy trails!

The post The Adorable Singing Daniel appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

You couldn’t find a more scenic route!

I thought it was so exciting to participate in such a huge event! People come from all around the world to run in the Big Sur Marathon. But did you know? There’s also a half marathon, a 5K, and a 3K, that are all a part of it.

Silly me. I volunteered to go at Daniel’s pace, so rest assured, there was no running for me.

Truly a pleasure to run with you, Dan.

So why am I still so gosh darn proud of the Dan Man? Well, most of the 4-year-olds there were riding in strollers for a while, walking a bit, riding in strollers, walking a bit, and so on. Not Dan. I only brought the single jogger, and the two-year-old lays a solid claim to that. Therefore, Dan ran and walked, and occasionally sat down in the middle of the road and said, “I can’t go on!” through the whole thing.

But he did! He did go on. He even beat one other 4-year-old. That’s right. It took us 45 minutes. Ha!

The big boys beat us by, I don’t know, a lot. See how well they warmed up:

We even brought along one of their friends, which drove the fun factor even higher.

See the Big Sur International Marathon signs behind us?

warming up

Oh, and there you have it, the new hair cut. Whoops! Didn’t really mean to chop off quite that much, but it is only hair, right?

Now, onto the next race….

The post Daniel’s First Race: The Big Sur Marathon Kids’ 3K appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Alan, Caleb, and JD were in the kitchen eating cookies. I don’t know what JD said, but Caleb looked up at Alan and said, “Doesn’t JD make your heart smile?”

We all definitely smiled.

Caleb has also recently taken up saying, “ain’t.” He uses it correctly (if there is such a thing), but it took me by surprise. We don’t say ‘ain’t,’ nor does anyone that he knows in California.

My suspicions lie with Granddaddy, but that’s okay. Caleb has that whole classic-8-year-old-boy act down pat, so it kind of fits.

Joshua and JD are both sick right now, but JD is especially so. I have a little bit of it myself, so the three of us sat in the living room together tonight, eating cough drops, watching Cars, and constantly wiping JD’s little nose.

All day, that poor baby came to me saying, “Nose running,” in the most pitiful voice I have ever heard, asking me to wipe it for him.

You’d think after an hour or two of this, I would have thrown in the towel on the home schooling and focused on that sweet baby. But no, no. I lack that amount of sense. I kept trying to force school. I am here to tell you that you cannot teach ANYTHING to anyone with a sick baby following you around and crying.

Caleb and Daniel are not sick, but they certainly felt entitled to their share of cough drops.

“If you want one, go ahead, but I’m warning you that they taste terrible.”

“I want some!”

“I want some!”

I washed my hands of the situation and moved onto the kitchen to finish cooking spaghetti.

Then I heard Caleb, “Hey, Mom! You were wrong! These cough drops are DELICIOUS!”

Wow.

But what quote post is complete without a little Daniel sass?

Alan was herding the cats upstairs for bedtime. He directed them all to clean up the living room, which only has to be done about 5 times per day. He gave them each a task, and he told Dan, “You’re in charge of cleaning up the floor.”

Daniel only focused on part of that sentence. “I’M in charge!!!???”

Alan hesitated, “Yes. Do a good job.”

“Oh boy! I’m in charge. All right, boys, clean up this floor! Get to work!”

A few minutes later, I heard Joshua say, “Daniel’s trying to act like he’s the president of us or something.”

Daniel was so happy, “Yes! I’m the President!”

Joshua said, “Well, that doesn’t mean you have to act so bossy.”

Alan gave them all a pep talk, especially Daniel. “Daniel, if you’re the leader, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to work. You clean up too.”

“Okay! See! I’m cleaning up! Now come on, boys, clean up! Wait, Joshua! Right there! I’m the President!”

It’s still going on. Wait, no, it has now morphed into a game of tag, and they are arguing over who is ‘It.’

Don’t let this adorableness overload fool you. Parenting these angelic looking children will bring you to your KNEES, I’m telling you. I cry often.

But I love them. Plus, I’m out of here in just 5 minutes. Thursday night is ladies’ Bible study night at my friend Hillary’s house. Whoot! Good luck, Alan. If all else fails, just open the Bible and start reading it out loud and praying for help. That’s what I do.

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I have got to order this mini-chef his own apron!

Today Daniel turned four. I asked him what kind of cake he’d like for his birthday. In the very early years of parenting, I always bought the boys grocery store cakes with characters on them. There were a couple of years I even tried to make super pretty cakes–Caleb had a really impressive train cake two years in a row.

But decorating cakes is a giant weakness for me. I’m just not good at it, so I resorted to buying grocery store cakes again and just sticking some toys on top of it.

This past year the boys became disillusioned with the grocery store cakes and started asking me to make their cakes. I make cakes all the time, but they are very simple and undecorated. I make the little round cakes. That’s what we like.

So I was expecting Daniel to ask for that too. Wrong.

“Me make my cake myself!”

“Oh! OKay, sure, Daniel.”

Alan took him to the store to pick the ingredients. St. Patrick’s Day stuff lurked everywhere, so Daniel gleefully chose GREEN cake, white icing. Pretty fun, huh?

He really likes to pour all the ingredients into the bowl and stir, so I let him do all of that. He normally helps crack eggs, but this recipe called for egg whites only, so I had to just let him watch that part.

He seemed very happy with it, so we were too. It actually turned out to be quite delicious!

The birthday boy was so happy tonight that it took him forever to go to sleep. Do you know what Daniel said to me tonight, as I tucked him into bed for the second time?

“Mom, what’s your name?”

“April.”

“Like on the Ninja Turtles. You’re April. You know the Ninja Turtles,” he giggled, “Donnie. Ralph! You know Ralph, Mom! What’s he say, Mom? All the Ninja Turtles…”

He was so sleepy he was practically delirious, so I only understood every other word or so, but he was quite happy and excited to discover that his mother is none other than the famous April O’Neil.  I just smiled and told him good-night, as he went on and on and on about April and the turtles.

He had a great day. We all did. This morning I woke up to the sorts of sounds that send mothers straight into euphoria:

Caleb asked me, while I was still in bed, “Mom, would you like some coffee?”

“I would.”

Then I heard him asking Alan, down the hall, “Dad, can you show me how to make coffee? Mom wants some.”

I heard Joshua shout out, “I started a load of blacks!” (Laundry. I’ve told him they’re called darks and lights, but for some reason he says blacks. It’s sort of like when I tell him to say his times tables. Instead of saying “4 times 8”, he says “4 ‘x’ 8”. Try explaining it. I’ve given up.)

“Did you use laundry detergent?” Alan shouted back.

“What? Oops! Oh yeah!” he said as he ran back down. Hey, that’s okay. The boy is doing laundry.

It was not so hard to get out of bed this morning, thanks to these wonderful sounds.

Here are a few photos from our day:

Who wouldn’t love a giant stuffed sea otter?

Watching Caleb read to JD makes me so happy I just can’t even begin to express it!

more because I’m obsessed

This is as good as it gets here. Dan was very happy.

Alan found these number gummies to decorate Dan’s cake. Daniel is obsessed with writing numbers and letters everywhere right now, so he was delighted.

I have got to remember to take a picture of all of his little writings. He does really well with the letters we’ve worked on. A lot of the others look sort of like Hebrew or Arabic. It’s so adorable.

I love it when he has this look!

Success.

I’d better go. Donatello needs me to help him fight the Krang.

Yep. That’s me all right. 😉

The post Daniel thinks that I am April O’Neil. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

A little while back, I got an email from Viktoria Altman, President of Brainy Kit. She asked if I’d be interested in receiving a complimentary kit of Montessori materials and lesson plans.

YES! Would I ever!!  I’ve only had two blogger offers that I was this excited about: Brainy Kit and Jamberry Nails. (Look for a Jamberry post soon.)

Now I know you’re wondering what in the world I’m talking about. Well, Montessori is a hands on method of preschool that I have always been intrigued by.

What the Brainy Kit does is bring those Montessori materials into the home. It makes this method more attainable for the average family, for those who may not be able to afford to send their child to a Montessori School.

I received Brainy Kit #1: the Polar Kit. We are LOVING it.

Each item in the kit has provided DAYS of fun, not just one lesson of fun.

Here’s what came in the kit:

1. A book of seven detailed lesson plans: Each lesson plan has tons of activity suggestions.

2. A Bag of miniature animal replicas, Eskimos, and an igloo

3. pretend snow

4. Amazing Arctic Animals book

5. a huge sheet of stickers

6. a glue stick

7. a pre-cut-out walrus craft

8. laminated animal cards

9. laminated Polar Animal learning chart

10. colorful Penguin puzzle

11. jigsaw puzzle

Daniel, JD, and Caleb have all enjoyed this penguin puzzle. I left it out on the coffee table after preschool time, and it saw lots of play time for days, and then JD hid all the pieces…..and well, I still haven’t found them all.

I would have never thought to stop and teach Daniel about the Poles. Poor third kid….but it was in the lesson plan, so I got out the globe and did some explaining. 🙂

Another idea behind the Brainy Kit is that it will help children transition from the home environment to the school environment.

Everything in the kit is so useful! This is a book we will keep in our library and reference for years. It’s a great read-aloud.

This was by far the most popular item in the kit: tiny animals and fake snow. JD joined Daniel for this one. He just couldn’t resist. The great thing about this activity is that it needs very little help from Mom. They played with this for an hour the first day, an hour the second day, and believe it or not, it took them 3 or 4 days before they finally destroyed all of the snow.

I was able to teach the big boys their grammar lessons while the littles played with this. As you can imagine, I was thrilled!!

It had a walrus, a killer whale,  a beluga whale, Eskimos, an igloo, a wolf, and a polar bear. JD carried that walrus around ALLLLLLL day.

Later on, I whipped out the old Polar Bear documentary, and all four boys watched it, while JD clutched his toy walrus.

The lesson suggested adding a little water or ice to the scene. The boys LOVED dragging ice cubes around in their snow. It made the fake snow a little fluffier too, just like the way real snow changes when it’s wet.

After a while, Daniel asked me, “Me have some juice, Mommy?”

I don’t remember what I said, but Daniel added, “Me thirsty from eating that snow.”

haaaaahahahaha  Well, of course, he ate it, really!

That was all just from last week. I haven’t even gotten to the walrus craft, the stickers, or the jigsaw puzzle yet!

I am giving this brainy kit a billion thumbs up. Huge hit here!

Anyone with a 2-6 year old child should definitely sign up for these kits!

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