Silly Bridget

Bridget is a spunky little girl and usually just the happiest child I have ever seen. Lately, however, she has been having a rough time. The girl can throw a fit like nothing I've ever seen! And she manages to work at least two (often more) into every day recently. She has a sudden dislike for anything that doesn't go her way, and that can include anything from not being able to eat a banana that we haven't paid for yet to hearing that it is time to leave the library.

When something doesn't meet her approval these days, Bridget throws herself on the ground (if possible, if someone is holding her or she is in a shopping cart she tries her best to plummet herself to the ground), lies on her back and kicks her feet straight up in the air. All while SCREAMING and crying at the top of her lungs. If there is anyone or anything close enough she'll hit it repeatedly. And there is NO consoling her. I'm sure she would settle right down if I were to just go along with whatever it is she is wanting, but I refuse to give in to her terrorist tactics.

Yikes! My boys didn't prepare me for this. They threw fits every now and again, but this daily routine is quite new to me. It occurred to me yesterday that perhaps part of this is due to sleepiness, so I am on a new mission to better protect her nap time in the afternoons.

This morning Henry came into my bedroom at 6 a.m. I was still in bed and he came up beside me and said, "Mommy, can I tell you a funny story?" He proceeded to tell me that when he got up he noticed Bridget's door was open so he went in to see what she was doing, and he found her room completely empty! So he was coming down to tell me that and on his way, he found Bridget sound asleep beside a little table at the top of the stairs.
We keep a monitor of her room on (since we sleep downstairs) and Sam told me he heard her grunting a bit around 3 this morning, but she quieted down so he went back to sleep. Apparently she was just finding a more comforatable place to sleep. :)

George Bush Gave Birth!!!

Henry's little cat had kittens today! We knew she was pregnant but didn't know exactly how far along she was. And yes, Henry's cat is named George Bush. We got our cats during the election season and after a lesson on US politics, Henry realized that he just had to name his cat after our (then) president.

When Sam came home tonight his first question upon walking in the door was, "Have you found 'em yet?"

Which led to my ever-so-eloquent reply, "Huh?"

Sam: "The kittens! Have you found where she dropped them yet?"

Me: "George Bush had her kittens? How do you know?"

Sam told me to go look at her as it was pretty obvious. She had been HUGE and now she isn't. :)

Anyway, it cracked me up. When Sam pulled into the driveway, the cat was getting a bite to eat and drinking some water. She didn't immediately go back to her babies, so Sam and I searched for them. It took us a while to find her hiding place!

George Bush had her kittens in a box of old rags in the shop. The cats have a door to go in and out of there and that is where we feed them, so we had guessed she would birth there. But they were so little tiny and quiet that we both looked in the shop and concluded they must be somewhere else. Sam eventually went to look there again after we had exhausted every other place we could think of and found them.
There are six teeny, tiny, sweet little kittens now living with us! :) There are two white, two black and two calicos.

It finally happened, part II

Another milestone that I had hoped not to deal with quite yet happened this past week while we were camping.

One night after putting Bridget to bed (in her portable crib--in the camper) we were sitting around the campfire. It was probably half an hour after she had "gone to sleep" when Sam jabbed me with his elbow and said, "Hey, Lou. Look!"

Bridget was making her way over to the campfire to see what was happening. And with that one simple gesture she showed me that she had figured out how to climb out of her crib.

I foolishly hoped that it was a fluke, due to the tight spot in which I had crammed the Graco. Not so. Two nights ago, a while after putting all the kids to bed, Sam and I heard a THUD from upstairs. I went running up to check on it and Bridget met me at her door. She had removed everything from her crib and then followed it out. She was pretty pleased with herself, let me tell you!

And then this morning at 6 am she repeated it again.

Guess it's time to move up to the big-girl bed!

It finally happened . . .

and it was enough to pull me out of my non-blogging stupor.

I dropped Henry off at school this morning. Took him into the gym where the kindergarteners line up by class. Kneeled down to give him a hug and a kiss (after waiting for his friends to quit hugging and greeting him) and when I leaned in to kiss him.....he turned his head away! Then he smiled at me with a guilty little grin that told me he knew exactly what he had just done and felt a little bad about it. I could NOT believe it. Henry is always the one asking for hugs and kisses regardless of who is around, but today he was getting hugs from his best friend Blake and I think he was a little embarrassed to kiss his mommy! I suppose I wasn't quite ready for that yet.

A few weeks ago, the entire kindergarten put on a musical show entitled "United We Stand" and it was so cute! There are something like 270 (?) kids in kindergarten here and they did an amazing job. They sang a few songs all together and then they were in groups of 3-4 classes for a few songs each. You could really see how hard they all worked to practice and prepare for the show.

Here's Henry with his wonderful teacher Mrs. Forsyth right after the show: And in other family news, we continue to become more and more Western....

We stopped at a garage sale a few weeks ago and the super-sweet lady running it fell in love with Henry. He was telling her how he's a cowboy and when he grows up he's going to be a REAL cowboy and live in the desert and everything. She went and dug through her son's old clothes and came up with a western style shirt with pearl-snap buttons, which she gave him. It's about three sizes too big, but Henry couldn't have been more excited about it. At another garage sale that same day, I found a cute little straw cowboy hat with a tie-strap under the chin. I thought Bridget would love it, but as it turns out Henry claimed it (see picture above) and gave Bridget his 'old' cowboy hat:

As you can see, she was thrilled about it. :)

And Jonah dresses as a cowboy about half the time. He isn't quite as committed to it as Henry, but for some reason the whole look just comes together a little more naturally for Jonah.

We had plans to take the kids to a really fun rodeo tonight, but it is supposed to rain all evening and I don't think I'm up for a rodeo in the rain. Maybe next weekend the weather will cooperate and it will work out. I guess we'll see!

Catching Up

I haven't blogged in so long, and it's not for lack of something to write about! We've been busy enjoying the lovely spring weather around here and I just haven't had quite as much time at the computer. I'm going to try and catch up a bit and maybe get back in the swing of things soon.

Without furter ado: the last few weeks in pictures....

We celebrated Sam's dad's birthday here at our house. Sam was out of town for the actual day, so we had a belated dinner/cake the following week.

Dave requested "wedding cake" which also happens to be my sweet husband's favorite. Here he is pouting because he is fasting desserts and couldn't even try the delicious cake!

And speaking of my crazy husband, here he is a few days after wiping poison ivy from his hand to his eye. Not a good idea when you're severely allergic! He couldn't open his eye for three days and had to see the doctor for a steroid shot.

Bridget has found my make-up and also learned how to open doors. It used to be enough to keep the door to my bathroom closed, but now she has overcome that silly obstacle! I told her she needs to wait a few more years before I'm letting her borrow my lipstick again. :)
Henry has taken to leaving sweet notes around the house for everyone in the family. That boy is such a sweetheart!
Jonah's best friend (and birthday buddy!) moved far, far away. He misses Hailie so much!

Our church had a family picnic day a few weeks back. The theme was "Western" and it firmly cemented my oldest son's desire to be a real cowboy. Here the boys are ropin' a cow while Bridget looks on.

Henry hangin' on the fence with his friend Westin. You know, like cowboys do.

Jonah getting his groove on to the square dancing music.
Just had to show off the littlest cowgirl's boots. :)

We also had a really fun trip to Colorado over Spring Break. I put pictures of that up on Facebook, and if I ever feel caught up on here I might post some here too.

We're going camping this weekend to celebrate Sam's birthday (woo hoo!) and also Easter. Tune in next week to see pictures from Oklahoma! :)