Life After Logan: On the Move

Things are sooooo hectic around here. I am very thankful to have my big kids back in school so I can spend some one on one time with my little man, and get back to the gym without 3 little people whining and crying about it non-stop. But, like everything else, with the peace comes craziness once everyone is back home.

Having 2 children in elementary school is no joke. The amount of homework they give these youngsters these days is a little crazy. My daughter is doing wonderfully which is a good thing because the transition to kindergarten for my son has been a little more difficult.

Landon is a hands on type of person, but unfortunately those activities don't include a pencil and paper, let alone crayons and a glue stick. To get that boy to sit down, and practice his handwriting lately is as painful for me as it is for him. I am very thankful that I got my degree in teaching, and spent 7 years teaching unmotivated sophomores, because I find myself naturally resorting to some of my old tricks to get his work done. Throw in at least 45 minutes of 2nd grade homework/reading and I am exhausted before the clock strikes 4.

All activities resume next week and I am looking at my calendar and hoping that Layton gets past this "i hate riding in my car seat and will scream until you take me out" phase because we will be spending a lot of time in the car for the next 9 months. I am hoping that once we are able to turn him to forward facing that things will get better which means it will be a long 3 months. Landon starts baseball, Taylor's gymnastic season, which is 4 days of practice and which really never ends, begins this Saturday with her first qualifying meet (she will be competing Level 5 which makes me so nervous), and throw in a soccer practice and 2 nights of Catechism, and you can see that I officially need about 3 more days in the week. I wanted a big family and now I get to learn how to be in 3 different places at once. I keep wondering what is going to happen in 7 years when I have a 14 year old, 12 year old, 10 year old, and a 7 year old...Lord have Mercy!!!

Layton is doing wonderfully. He has done so much in the last 2 weeks that I keep shaking my head wondering where my infant went. He decided last week that he was going to learn to crawl all over my house, and has a keen sense of finding the dogs water bowl wherever I try and hide it. He also easily mastered going from laying down to sitting which makes nap times interesting, and I think a few times he has fallen asleep half sitting up and half laying down based on how I find him in the crib. This weekend he taught himself how to pull up to standing. I originally accused my daughter of standing him up, and then in typical fashion he proved me wrong in about 3 seconds when I put him down, and he pulled himself right back up...oops, sorry Tay!!! He is constantly pulling up on the couch and I see cruising in his immediate future, and it scares me. I am not ready for my little baby to become a little boy. I have caught him doing a bear crawl a couple of times which has resulted in a face plant into the tile and a nice bruise on the cheek or forehead. Despite going through this 3 times already it amazes me how you forget about this stage. Honestly, it is my least favorite stage because no matter how well we clean the floor he always finds something to put in his mouth, but at the same time I am in awe as he keeps acquiring these new skills. I can literally see his little brain working trying to coordinate different limbs to get him from one place to another. He is starting to pick up speed now and diaper changes have become a nightmare. As soon as I take his diaper off he rolls over before I can grab him and takes off crawling away from me. His brothers and sister think it is the funniest thing they have ever seen, but the novelty of it has definitely worn off and I just want the boy to sit still.

Ha Ha...catch me if you can

He is growing like a weed, and I have noticed that he is starting to thin out a little bit. I am thinking it is due to his recent hyperactivity. Ever since he finally cut that last top tooth ( makes 6) he has been eating like a horse. He is loving his solid food right now, but it has to be cold. It is always something, but I love every second of it.

I just look at him, and it amazes me how all of our children can look so much alike, but be so different at the same time. Already I can see bits and pieces of my other children, and it always takes me to the place of what would Logan look like. I always thought Logan looked identical to Landon at birth, Layton looked more like Luke, and Layton looked nothing like Logan (sounds like one of those word problems you would get in math class). But, as Layton gets bigger it is amazing to everyone how much he looks like Landon. So, I always wonder, would Logan look like Lukey? (sigh!)