First Sleepover and First Haircut

It has been a busy weekend for the Moon Family so far! Sophia experienced an important right of passage last night. She went to her first sleepover! I was a bit nervous to let her stay the night since I didn't know the birthday girl's family, but in the end I wanted her to have all the fun that little girls have at sleepovers. Her jealous younger sisters had their own milder version of a sleepover spending the night in the same room in sleeping bags. Luckily they got more sleep than Sophia! When I picked her up, she looked exhausted, and the dad said the 12 girls quieted down around 1am!!!!! Needless to say, by noon today she was so tired and cranky we sent her to her room where she is still napping 3 hours later.

This morning, Isabella (3 yrs) got to get her first haircut! She was so excited for our girl date to the salon. I told her my favorite part is having someone wash my hair.

Next came the cutting. She was quiet, but thought it was hilarious to see the hair fall to the floor. Carol always curls the girls' hair. This is their FAVORITE part! Isabella couldn't stop smiling in the mirror and saying she couldn't wait to surprise her Dad, sisters and brother.

In Trouble Now!

I knew the day was coming. I just wasn't ready for it. Last night, Sam became the boy I expected him to eventually become. He quietly pushed a stool from the bathroom into the dining room, climbed on it, climbed on to the chair, and right on top of the dining room table. Agggghhhhh! It's too early for him to be a climber! Like I said, I knew this day was coming. He already climbs onto the coffee table, the fireplace, and last week stood on a rolled up sleeping bag in order to reach my laptop. (The boy has some balance!) But, you can't get too hurt falling from those places. He's onto bigger goals I guess. Now we've got to screw the book shelves into the wall because I'm sure they're next on his list to be conquered.

Everyday Ordinary

I've been feeling guilty about not blogging more regularly - but everyday life has been just that, everyday - a bit ordinary really! Not that I'm complaining. I don't need catastrophes, injuries, or otherwise dramatic events happening on a daily basis. It's nice to have the kids all healthy for a few weeks in a row now and to be strumming along in our everyday routine. The Christmas shopping is done with the exception of the teacher gifts which will be made soon. Now its just up to some elves to get busy and get things wrapped. There are officially only 12 days until Christmas. Don't worry, I'm not going to break out into a song. The all-important Christmas letter is ready to print after I buy some more ink. And then I think we'll be ready to start the holiday Christmas baking -- YEAH!! Chris and I are on a mission to simplify the holidays this year, be less busy, do less, and stay home and enjoy our family more. Here's hoping we don' upset too many people in the process!!

Pumpkin Pie, X-rays and antibiotics

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Plenty of turkey and most importantly - pie. So much fun visiting with family and catching up with people we haven't seen in a while. Friday, after lunch we were cleaning up the table at Grandad's house when Sam started playing with his favorite toy in the world. Doors. Sam spends ALL day opening and shutting doors. Closet doors, room doors, drawers, Little People barn doors. you name it, he opens and shuts it. He decided to play with Grandad's wooden trash can door when it slammed shut on his little fingers. His little finger instantly turned purple, bled a little and looked horrible! I had to take him in to immediate care because he kept crying so much I knew it was hurt pretty badly. It turned out to be broken - well fractured. To be exact, he has a "minor avulsion fracture of the medial aspect of the distal tuft of the left ring finger." Its a small fracture, but its his first official broken bone -- to match his chipped front tooth. He's all boy for sure! Nothing a little antibiotics and a few bandages won't fix.

Tooth Fairy Continued....

For those of you keeping up with our epic saga with the tooth fairy, I wanted to give you an update. Friday, Sophia came home from school with another beautiful tooth necklace. Yes, once again, her tooth got loose enough at school that she went down to the nurse and had her pull it out. (Thank you, again, Nurse Ensey for saving me from that job!) I figured the novelty of two teeth sitting on my kitchen counter would wear thin and we would be expecting a visit from the tooth fairy immediately. Not so fast! Sophia still doesn't want to "cash her clunkers" in (sorry, not as funny written as it was in my head). So, unfortunately, I now have two shiny plastic tooth necklaces sitting on my kitchen counter. I'm going to either have to get creative to encourage a visit from the tooth fairy, or at the minimum require the necklaces to find a new home - preferably somewhere in the basement!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloweeen! The kids had a great time trick-or-treating this year and they all went with the superhero theme -Bat Girl, Wonder Woman, Super Girl, and Spider Man. Luckily, we get to send a bunch of our candy to the "less fortunate" friends at Daddy's work who don't get to go trick-or-treating. (Also works for parade candy). And yes, that is Spider Man's little blankie!

Tooth Fairy

Yesterday, Sophia got off the bus and ran in the house as excited as she could possibly be. She lost a tooth at school, not just any tooth, but her FIRST tooth!!! Losing it at school, to a first grader, was the best way possible to lose it. Her tooth was loose and the teacher sent her down to the nurse, who (lucky for me) pulled it out and put it in a nice little tooth shaped necklace to take home (pictured above). All night long I answered questions about the tooth fairy, how she got in the house and how she would leave a $1 bill under her pillow in the morning. Then it came time for bed. Sophia thought about it and thought about it, and she decided she was not ready to give the tooth fairy her tooth. Chris said, what if it were $5? Nope, not even for $5. I asked what she was going to do with an old tooth. She quickly said she wanted to wear the necklace to school the next day. GROSS. I explained that was not an option since a tooth was really just an old body part that fell out, (ick) and that she could reconsider giving it to the tooth fairy the next day. So I guess the countdown begins. How many days will the tooth sit in the little tooth box necklace? Sophia has another loose tooth, so I'm guessing the novelty will wear off and the cash will eventually win. I'll keep you posted!

But the fruit of the spirit is...

As Anna practiced her memory verse she caught us off-guard. And as usual, we had to make the instant choice as parents - to laugh or not to laugh. "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, penis..." Oh my gosh! Did she just say penis instead of peace? Luckily, I was not facing her so I could laugh silently, Chris on the other hand was facing her and had to praise her appropriately for learning such a long memory verse. She would burst into tears if she knew we were laughing at her. Ms. Lori would not appreciate it if we didn't correct her and teach it right. "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against these things, there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23. Here's hoping it comes out correctly at church on Sunday! If not, sorry Ms. Lori!

I can't let my sisters go to school!

While getting in the car yesterday, little Izzy said, "Mommy, I just can't let my sisters go to school." I asked why, and she said she needed them to play with her. It melts my heart! Chris and I have spent years having people ask us why we had our children close together in age. As if that were a question I would EVER ask someone! But, needless to say, people ask us often, or ask us if our children were planned? Can you imagine asking someone that? Seriously! But, other than the idea of getting through the diaper stage faster, we knew we wanted our children to be close enough in age that they would play together, be great friends, and love to share in some of the same activities. By the grace of God, we have that! Our children play together all day long. The little ones miss the older ones on school days, and they are excited to see eachother when the bus pulls up in the afternoon. My kids rarely tell me they're bored or ask me what they can do. They just play together. What a blessing!

How many times can you watch The Land Before Time?

Sophia woke up Sunday morning with a fever and hasn't really been able to break it yet. She's been sent to our own version of an isolation room - my bedroom. Ughh. Since the germs were already in there, that meant Chris and I slept in the living room. Me on the couch, Chris on the floor. To be clear, Chris could have slept on the couch or a bed downstairs, but he wanted to be near his little girl. So all day Sunday and all day Monday, Sophia has spent time in our room watching The Land Before Time. I'm sure its a great movie, but, really, to spend ALL day watching it seems a bit much. To be fair, she discovered the Bonus Features early Sunday afternoon and has been navigating them since. I'm trying to encourage her to branch out and try a different movie. We'll see how this afternoon goes. Surely there's a limit to how many hours you can spend on a single movie?

Dora & the Health Department

Our pediatrician's office does an annual flu shot clinic for 1 week. The timing was perfect because Sophia had Thursday and Friday off from School. We went in on Thursday, and they said they had closed the clinic the night before and didn't have any more shots. Uggghhh. On to the Health Department. I took 4 kids, ages 1, 3, 4, and 6 to the Health Department where we proceeded to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes in a waiting room filled with non-English speaking families. No big deal - right? Except when your children are absolutly positive that they speak Spanish thanks to Dora the Explorer. I seriously wanted to tape their mouths shut as they butchered the language, probably insulted people saying who knows what! Thank you Dora for giving my children the confidence to humiliate me in public!!

Guess its not Wednesday yet?

I started my day by dropping off Anna at preschool and then heading to the bank to open a second savings account. I'm actually trying to keep Christmas and birthday gift money separate finally! I was waiting to talk to the banker when I got a call from the preschool director. I had dropped her off on the wrong day and needed to come get her! She was not happy with me at all and wouldn't talk to me for a while. Geesh. So, I guess its not Wednesday afterall!

First Haircuts

Last week the time finally came to cut my son's hair for the first time. It was traumatic for him and I both. He had beautiful little curls (which my husband affectionately called "flippers" as somehow that was more masculine than curls). We got out the clippers and, as expected, the sound scared him. He cried. I almost cried saying good-bye to my baby. He now looks like a well-groomed little boy. Still cute, just so different! Two days I had to come back and trim up a few spots that I missed. He did a much better job holding still and there were no tears from either of us this time. Hopefully he won't be scarred for life!

Please, please, please come home soon!

Chris has been out of town for two days and Anna, my 4-year-old has been devastated. She is a true Daddy's girl and normally wakes up every morning and crawls into bed with us for a little snuggle time with her Daddy. She keeps breaking out into tears saying "Daddy's not supposed to go on trips without me!" Her prayer tonight was that "Daddy please, please, please come home soon!" She misses him so much she has already made a big yellow sign to take to the airport to welcome him home. Did I mention he's only been gone TWO DAYS!

Can you be a stay-at-home mom if you don't stay at home?

Welcome to my world! I am a 31 year-old stay-at home mom with a wonderful husband and 4 beautiful children. Some people want to be teachers, doctors, lawyers... I always wanted to be a mom. It is great- most of the time. I get tons of hugs and kisses and get to experience plenty of firsts. First time to crawl, walk, say "mama," break an arm, throw up, fall in a toilet. You know the routine. Lately, I've been so busy I've begun to wonder if you can really be called a stay-at-home mom if you're never at home. I get caught up being the PTO president, errand running, "to do list" toting mom that I don't spend that much time at home. Luckily, 3 out of my 4 still nap so I'm guaranteed to be at home every afternoon. I'm thinking, though, that maybe they should call it an "on-the-go" mom rather than a stay-at-home mom.