Yep, getting bigger!

I have noticed lately that Micah's sleepers and onesies are getting a little tight on him.

When he was born, he wore 0-3 months clothes.

At 6 weeks, I dug out the 3-6 month clothes.

Here we are at about 12 weeks (3 months), and I dug out the 6-9 month clothes yesterday! This is actually nice because Christian wore 6-9 months during the winter, so I have a whole wardrobe ready for Micah!! He still fits into his 3-6 months, and some 6-9 month clothes fit and some are going to be bigger. We will work between the two sizes for now.

I put a 6-9 month onesie on him today and it fit him great!! Grandma Mary bought him this outfit right after he was born. We had him all dressed and ready for church this morning...and then he decided to fill his pants. :( Unfortunately., he did not wear this outfit to church!

Who knew my 3 month old would be wearing 6-9 month clothes?? Oh right, when you start out at 10 pounds, you are just going to move through clothes a lot faster!!

Got Any milk?

Matt and I are heading to Mexico in less than two weeks. He won an award from work and the prize is a FREE trip to Las Cabos, Mexico. And yes, we are leaving all four children behind.  I tried to talk Matt into taking Micah with us, but since there will be about 80 other people from his company there, he thought it was not the place for a baby. I tend to agree. Honestly, I think it will be a big drinking party the whole weekend!  We are also going to be doing some activities, like zip lining, that we would not be able to do if we had the baby along.

In order to leave the baby behind, I need to get enough milk pumped for him to drink while I am gone. We are going to be gone for four days. That is a lot of milk!  I figure he eats 4 ounces each feeding (I am guessing) and he eats six times a day. That is at least 25 ounces a day. I need to take this times four days and I have 100 ounces of milk! At the minimum!

So far I have 55 1/2 ounces stashed in my freezer. I have at least 55 to go and I have less than two weeks.

I was pumping about eight ounces a day until a couple of days ago. Ever since last week, I am only getting 2-3 a day. Why?? Mr. Micah has decided he wants to eat 7-8 times per day. Instead of pumping off any extra milk, he is eating it! I really hope I can get enough milk pumped and I don't have to give him any formula.  He is also MSPI, so if I had to do formula, I would have to get the really expensive kind!

I am assuming he is going through a growth spurt right now because he is also sleeping 11-12 hours straight at night!  Either my body needs to make more milk or he needs to slow down a little. :)

Friday Night around here.

Every Friday night seems to turn into movie night around here. I think it's a great idea to spend time as a family on a Friday night, but I usually end up doing my own thing. Why? Because the rest of my family insists on getting science fiction, super heroes, or some movie I have no interest in. They are also usually PG-13, but Matt insists that they are ok. (I am done fighting this battle!) Tonight they are watching "Fantastic Four." I read through the summary and didn't really have a huge desire to watch it, so I am spending my evening doing something else, like sitting on the computer, doing laundry, and reading a book.

Honestly, I am not a big movie watcher. I spend a lot of time in front of the TV during the week while I nurse Micah. By Friday night, I almost need a break from the TV instead of sitting down and watching it some more. Honestly, I would rather play a game or do something that is interactive. I talk to kids all week, I would LOVE to interact with an adult more! (But the other adult in the house likes to sit in front of the TV and do nothing on a Friday night.)

Lately, I am usually busy with Micah when the movie starts, so even if I want to watch it, I end up missing half of it due to him. Tonight, he fell asleep right at the beginning, but like I said earlier, I had no desire to watch tonight's movie.  The kids even said, "Mom, you won't like this one." Gee, thanks. Last week, they got a movie that interested me, so that was very enjoyable and I could tell they did it on purpose.

There are a couple good things that I do enjoy about Friday nights.  It is our informal night when it comes to eating. Each person has a favorite spot where they sit in the living room and once supper is cooked, each person gets what they want and we start the movie as we eat off TV trays. Unfortunately, we only have seating for four in our living room, so usually someone has to sit off to the side. Tonight, my spot was behind everybody and my chair was the exercise ball. Sometimes Christian and I will share the recliner and a TV tray, but by the time I got done with Micah and got my food tonight, everybody had their spots claimed and there was no room left for me.

Another thing I like is that if I don't like the movie or have no interest in it, I kind of have a couple of hours to myself to do what I want! (When does that ever happen??) I have to take care of Micah, but tonight he fell asleep so early that I had time to myself! I ended up curled up on my bed reading a book, which isn't too bad either! Silence is golden! Until the movie is over and then it is time to get everyone to bed....

New Camera!

We are part of a small group through church and we meet every Sunday night. This has been good for everybody, including our children.  We are with another family with 12 and 10 year old girls and a 7 year old boy; this matches up almost perfectly with our kids! They are also homeschooled.  There are other families in our group too, but these are the ones our kids have really become friends with this last year.

While us parents are doing a Bible study, the kids are usually upstairs or downstairs playing. But these older girls do not play, they come up with big endeavors!  At the beginning of fall, they planned a newspaper and they really wanted to sell it! Between the four of them, they had written articles, picked out games, and typed everything out! Quite the self-motivators! I think they also wanted to start selling ads, but by that time, the enthusiasm kind of fizzled out.

Their next idea was "Modest Models for Christ." They were making books, drawing pictures, and even making videos of how young girls/ tweens should dress to be modest. As parents, we were very proud that they had actually been listening to us!

Their latest adventure is movie making! Courtney loves to write scripts and put on plays, so I am sure this was her big idea! The other three are just going along with it. They came up with this idea a couple of weeks ago and even though we did not have small group last Sunday, we had this family over anyway, so they could film their movie. These girls worked hard for at least two hours on this movie while their mom and I sat in the living room and talked. :)  We love this self-motivation!  (I was watching their movie Sunday night when I kind of got queasy from the non-stable camera.)  They had written the entire script, memorized it (kind of), made props, and filmed it all.

Courtney has been so serious about this movie endeavor that she mentioned to Matt that she wanted her own camera. (She had been using either a camera on an old cell phone or our nice camera up until this point.) She has enough money from dog-sitting, so she and Matt picked one out on Amazon and she ordered it.  Why shouldn't she have her own? She is old enough to be responsible.

Her camera came yesterday and she is super thrilled! I foresee many movies in our future!

Another first!

After a successful night of sleeping in his own room, I decided to try something else new and I put Micah in the church nursery! He had just fallen asleep on the way to church and I knew if we took him to church, he would probably wake up from the music. Or if he didn't wake up from the music, he would wake up when it stopped and then I would have a crying baby. I am getting tired of making a dash to the door with a loud baby!!

I got him registered and put him in the nursery while he was still sleeping in his carseat. I told the lady who was working to try to get him back to sleep if he woke up (this kid gets overtired WAY too easily) and if it reached a certain time for him to eat, then feel free to text me and I will come feed him.

I took him there about 10:45 and about 11:30, I received a text that he needed me. Perfect!!

I fed him and by the time I was done, church was over. The lady said he was awake about 15 minutes before they paged me and he was happy! YAY!

This little amount of time was perfect. This was the first time I actually left him in the care of somebody else and it was really nice to have a short break.  It is also good for him to get used to somebody else taking care of him for a little bit.

It was really weird sitting in church with just Matt!!

First Night in Own Room!

Last night, I did it. I moved Micah into his own room. It was time.

I moved his swing from our room to right inside his door and once "Magic Megan" got him to sleep, we put him in his swing in his room. This was at 9 pm last night.

I didn't hear from him until 7 am this morning! He did great!

I think this will work! Now to get him out of his swing and into his bed!

Time to move to your own room.

Micah has been in our room since he was born, but now I think it is time to move to his own room.

He has been consistently sleeping through the night, so I don't even get up with him anymore. He does sleep in his swing and if he starts to fuss or rustle in the middle of the night, I just reach over and turn the swing on. Sometimes I wake up a couple hours later and the swing is still swinging. :) He hasn't slept in his pack n play for a couple of weeks now, I think we can take that down. With the pack and play and the swing beside our bed, our bedroom is a little crowded in that area! He doesn't really NEED to be in our room anymore, so I thought I would try his crib out last night.

I got him to sleep last night and put him down in his crib in his room. And just like I thought, he woke up right away! He knew what I was doing! I tried to settle him down for about 15 minutes, but eventually picked him up. I knew he wasn't going to go back to sleep.

I went back to our room and nursed him again and laid him down in the pack and play. Again, he wasn't having it. He wanted his swing!

I then put him in his swing, but by this time, he was over-tired and just cried. I just let him cry it out as the swing swung and he eventually went to sleep.

 Maybe I will try plan B tonight, which is to put the swing in his bedroom and let him sleep in it. I think once we get his stomach settled down, he may be willing to sleep flat on his back. We will get there eventually!

You think this is funny?

We have a doll around here that Courtney got when she was younger and it's name is Big Baby. It is about as big as a real baby and the kids love to put Big Baby in places and trick me! They did it when Christian was little and they are doing it again with Micah.

Here is an example of something that they do:

Which baby is the real one??

Kind of freaky, isn't it?

It's really bad when I turn around and Big Baby is in Micah's swing or in his bouncy seat and for a second, I think it is Micah, even though I don't remember putting him there. They are almost the same size! The girls just think this is hilarious and now they have Christian in on it too!

Look, my pictures FINALLY downloaded!

Here are my basketball players this year!

Basketball Season has begun!

Courtney has been waiting all year for basketball season to begin and it is finally here!

Courtney and Christian are playing with the Upward Bound league this year at Westside.Church. Last year, Megan and Courtney played, but Megan is too old this year and Christian is old enough.

Christian's games this year are at either 8 or 9 am. His very first game was at 8 am this morning. We were all up by 6:45 around here in order to get him to the church by 7:45!! That's early for us! I am not sure which team won, they don't keep score for the K/1st grade teams. Poor Christian though, he didn't quite know what to do most of the time! Like Matt said, as long as he is on the right side of the court, we are  happy. :)  There were times when he was spinning in circles, giving his defender high fives because his hands were up, etc.  Sometimes we just yelled at him from the sidelines in order to get him where he was supposed to be. I know within a couple of weeks, he will have this all figured out! He is probably the youngest kid on the team, but since he is of kindergarten age, he could play. (I also think all the other kids are in public school and used to listening in a group and lining up correctly. Christian, not so much!)

Courtney has her first game at 2 pm. We have to have her up there by 1:45. That time is much better! I have not went to any of her practices yet, but Matt says she is doing great! She has been practicing basketball all year and has really improved in her skills. When she started last year, she could not even get the basketball up to the basket and now she can make 5 in a row! She has worked hard! We will see how she plays today!

I also love this basketball league because it is Christ-centered. They pray before every game and do devotions at halftime. They also do devotions during practice and teach kids the values from the Bible. I love it! Plus it is something to do in the dark, cold days of winter!

Micah's Two Month Appointment

We had a couple appointments for Micah yesterday.

First we had his two month appointment with his pediatrician.  He was not happy most of the time, mostly because I left the house and he was off schedule. Yes, the schedule we had worked so hard to get back on!

All of us were really anxious to see Micah's new statistics.

His weighed was 13 lbs. 5 oz and he was 24 inches long. He has gained three pounds since birth and grew 2 1/2 inches. His head was 16 inches, so that grew 1 1/2 inches. Very good Micah!!!

The doctor checked him out and listened to his heart and all was well. She looked at the spots on his head and said it was just some baby acne and to not wash his hair with baby shampoo anymore, but to just use water or some very gentle shampoo. I just nodded and smiled because I really knew this was eczema and was probably caused by his food intolerances!

I also discussed with her my upcoming trip to Mexico and how I need to go about pumping milk for Micah before I leave and while I am gone. She thought I should bring all my milk back. I am still debating about that one! I asked her what I should do incase I can't get enough milk pumped beforehand and she said I would have to supplement, that is what I figured. I told her that most formula is milk based and that he has never had milk. She then recommended a soy formula and I should have said that he was soy intolerant, but I didn't know for sure at that time, so I agreed with her. She ended up giving me two cans of soy formula, so I would have some and not have to go buy some.

We also discussed shots and how I wanted to slow down the shot schedule because I have had many reactions with my kids. We agreed on the two most important ones and he got them. He was already screaming at me because he was hungry, so he just kept screaming through the shots. The girls had gone to the waiting room because they didn't' want to see him get his shots.

His second appointment was with our chiropractor who does all our food testing. I had his blood drawn a couple of weeks ago and we got the results back.  Our doctor was really puzzled because one of the main things that came up with gluten. Micah had three of the five markers for gluten!! She knows I am gluten free! My doctor was puzzled. She just kept saying, "He has to be getting gluten from somewhere." The only thing I could think of was that I have been eating quite a bit of the regular oatmeal instead of the gluten free oatmeal lately. She said that he must be super sensitive if he is getting it from oatmeal! She told me to reread every label of everything that I am eating to try to figure this out.

Soybeans also came up, so I cannot use those two cans of formula that my pediatrician just gave me! (After reading the label, I don't think I would want to give it to him anyway. The very first ingredient is corn maltodextrin!!! Otherwise fake corn sugar!!! I don't even eat corn maltodextrin!!) I asked my doctor what I should do about milk and she told me to pump like crazy before I leave so I don't have to give him any formula. I about have to now!! Having an allergy to soy also means I need to switch the butter that I have been using the last few years. Not a big deal, but I need to find a store that carries it now.

A few other things came up. Almonds was one and I said we drink almond milk, eat a nut mixture, eat almond butter, and eat almonds. No wonder it came up! She told me to lay back on the almonds and to maybe switch the almond milk out with rice milk once in awhile.

Both yeasts also came up. Yeast is fed by sugar and starches, which I watch on a daily basis. She said most of the time at this age, yeast shows there is an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria in the gut. She told me not to switch what I am eating, but rather give him a probiotic to balance things out. Easy enough!

These were the main things that she noticed. Some other foods came up, such as bananas, apples, turkey, ham, etc. She wasn't too concerned about these, she just said to make sure we are rotating foods every day, which I also do! Lamb was his highest number and I don't' even eat lamb. We kind of had a good laugh about that one!

She told me that I was a pro at this and she wasn't worried about me. I told her that maybe someday, we will be off a special diet, but not today!

While I was there, I also decided to get myself, Courtney and Christian tested. I am really curious where my gluten is now and where Courtney's peanut allergy is. She still gets sick if she eats peanuts.

I am glad I got some answers for Micah. I feel bad having to see two doctors, but that is what works for us!

School

Now that Christmas break is over, we are attempting to get back to school. I promised we would get back on January 4th and we did.  For the last week or so, we have been able to get one lesson of math done a day for the girls and a lesson in phonics done with Christian.  Some days this has been a challenge and some days, it has worked out well.

I have found that if I am up during the night with Micah, I tend to sleep in and not get out of bed until about 9. All my kids sleep in too, so we all rise late on those mornings. By the time we get breakfast, shower, get dressed and ready for the day, it is usually about 11-12. By this time, it is too late in the morning to get school done and we do it in the afternoon.

If we get up earlier, like 7-8 am, I can get most of the schoolwork done in the morning.

It has also been tricky trying to coordinate school around Micah. I usually get him fed and content and put him in his bouncy seat. I start every day with Megan's work. We usually can get through her work on and get started on Courtney's lessons. Usually about halfway through Courtney's lesson, Micah starts to get restless and needs a nap. Megan is usually upstairs doing homework, so I usually let him fuss a little while I finish with Courtney.  She also gets distracted during this time,which doesn't help any, especially when she is learning a new concept (like yesterday!)

I usually can finish up Courtney's lessons and then I need to stop and get Micah to sleep. Once he is asleep, I may be able to get to Christian or he might have to wait until later. I can usually fit him in somewhere during the day.

I feel that if we can get Micah to sleep through the night, then we can get up earlier and get some school work done in the morning. If this happens, I can add schoolwork back in during the afternoon too! But if Micah needs a nap or needs to nurse, school gets put on hold temporarily.  This is going to be a big juggling act for awhile! We are definitely not going to be able to go the same pace that we were before I had the little bundle of joy!

Back on Schedule!

After our horrible night a couple days ago, I decided to get Micah back on schedule. We were on one, but I wasn't following it as best as I should have. I woke up Monday morning and was convinced that this baby was going to eat, be awake for awhile, and then take a nap, no matter what. I didn't want to nurse when I wasn't supposed to and I wasn't going to let him sleep when he got done nursing. I wanted to see if this made any difference in relation to sleeping at night.

It totally made a difference! I was really strict about this scheduled on Monday and he ended up going to sleep at 10:30 pm, but woke up at midnight. I turned his swing on and he didn't wake up until 7 or so!!

I was strict again on Tuesday and last night, he fell asleep at 6 pm and we had to wake him up at 9 to eat.  He was awake for about an hour and about 10, he fell asleep again. I didn't see his eyes until 6:30 this morning!! He slept for almost 12 hours straight! Too bad I was awake at 4 am. :(   If baby is asleep, then I should be asleep, right?? Apparently not!

Let's see what today brings. :)

PS He does so well when we stay home and can stay on schedule. Today he has his two month checkup plus shots, so we will need to leave. We also got his allergy results back, so we need to go visit our other doctor about that. Groceries are getting pretty low, so we may hit Wal.mart after these two appointments, but that may be pushing it for this little guy! I may need a nap later anyway since I have been up since 4 am.

Really rough night!

Right when I think things are going pretty well, things go completely sour. :(  and I am exhausted! Good thing this little two month old is so cute....

We had a big day yesterday and I started it out with a very bad sore throat, pain up into my ears, dizzy, and very weak. I decided that I was not feeling well enough to go to church, so I was going to stay home with Micah. It was also -2 degrees out, so we didn't think it would be a good idea to take the baby out in the cold.  Once all the other kids were ready, they went out and got in the van. Matt joined them and when he turned the van over to start it, it just clicked. The battery was dead.  Ugh! (We sort of knew this was coming too. I am just glad it didn't start when the van was in the garage!)

Everybody came back into the house and took their coats and shoes off.  Matt then headed out to get a new battery because we had to be somewhere by 1 pm.

Soon Matt got the new battery installed, and I was feeling better.  By noon, we were ready to head to Lincoln to my grandma's house to celebrate Christmas. It was not our year to go to her house on Christmas day, so we met up with my brother and his wife and went yesterday.  Things went very well and it was nice seeing everybody again!

About 3:45, we left Lincoln and headed back home. We got home in time to play a little Minecraft (Matt and the kids) and I warmed up some leftover chili. We ate and were back out the door by 5:45 for small group.

Up unto this point, Micah had been sleeping and eating and doing what he usually does on a daily basis. He woke up when we got to our host's house and I fed him. He was awake awhile and during this time, one of my friends was holding him. After about an hour, he was starting to get tired, so I told my friend that he likes to suck on his pacifier, be swaddled, and bounced in order to get to sleep. She was trying to give him his pacifier and insisted on rocking him, but he wasn't going to sleep. She eventually swaddled him, but it wasn't working either.  (VENT TIME: Maybe I should have just taken him at this point and did it myself, why don't people listen to me?? Seriously, a pet peeve of mine. I say what he likes, but yet people do what they want anyway!)

After awhile of doing this and not getting to sleep, he wasn't having it anymore and wanted to be fed. We were past naptime.

I sat down and fed him again. It had been two hours, which is my minimum, but he didn't take a nap, which he ALWAYS does between feedings. He ate half-heartedly and acted like he couldn't get any milk.  He was just pulling on and off and getting frustrated. He got some milk and I eventually just pulled him off for good. I was tired of the frustration and he was somewhat content. We continued to hang out at our friend's house for another hour and he was awake the whole time.

Around 9:30 we left and headed home. He slept a little bit on the way home, but really, no nap again. By 10:15, he was awake, in his pajamas, and ready for bed. I sat down to nurse him again and again, he got some milk, but was on and off the entire time. I don't think he got enough to fill him up. When we were done, I had him asleep and I went to lay him down and he woke up! UGH! I had a long day and I just really wanted some sleep myself (plus I was still fighting my cold).

I let him cry a little bit and nursed him again. For the second time, I got him to sleep and then laid him down. For the second time, he woke up. I am not happy with this kid at the moment! Just sleep!

Again, I nursed him, got him to sleep, and laid him down and for a third time, and AGAIN he woke up! Every time he woke up, he would just cry and cry and there was no calming him down until I nursed him. Was he really still hungry? Why won't he stay asleep?? It is about midnight by this time and I started to cry out of frustration and tiredness. My throat  still hurt and I knew I needed some sleep.

I woke Matt up and he took care of him for awhile. I didn't think I needed to nurse a fourth time because this cycle could go on all night and I didn't have any milk left!

Matt's way of taking care of Micah was to put him in his bedroom and lay him in his crib. We both laid down for some sleep while he cried. I know this is not the best thing to do, but there was nothing that was working. I had NO milk left for him, the swing wasn't working, and he was not consolable.

We let him cry a little bit and after a few minutes of sleep, I went in there and rocked him a little bit. He calmed down for about 10 minutes and then started crying at me again. I put him back in his bed for some more "crying time" and went and laid down some more. Now it is about 1 am.

About 1:15, Matt went in there and rocked him. He was in there for a long time and eventually got him to sleep. Hallelujah! He brought him into our room very quietly and put him in his swing. He turned the swing on right away, and Micah stayed asleep! This was about 1:45 and Micah ended up sleeping for about 30-45 minutes!

About 2:30, he was awake and crying again. I could hardly believe it. At this point, Matt picked up his blankets and pillows and went downstairs to sleep. He usually doesn't help me during the night, but he did last night. I don't blame him for going downstairs. I was thankful for the little bit of help he gave me!

About 3 am, I finally gave in and nursed him again. I had a little milk, but not much. He nursed and went right to sleep. I put him in his swing and turned in on. Amazingly, he stayed asleep! Now, is this going to last?? I stayed up until about 3:30 and he was still asleep.

I turned my light off and went to bed myself. Exhausted!!

So why did getting him to sleep take forever last night??

1.  Was he hungry? Could have been. I didn't have a lot of milk, but I had what I have every other night.  He just usually doesn't want to eat nonstop like he wanted to last night.
2. Was he overtired? He skipped two naps he usually would have gotten in, but didn't.
3. Did his stomach hurt and he wanted to keep eating to make it feel better? Maybe.We are still waiting on his allergy test results.
4. Was there something I ate that was upsetting his stomach? I didn't eat anything out of the normal yesterday.

Whatever it was, let's fix it and get some sleep!!!

Nights are Getting Better!

Someday I will get a full nights sleep! I think I am getting closer!

For about a week, I had Micah sleeping in his swing because he had a snotty nose. He tends to gag a lot on his snot, so I thought that would be best for both of us. :)  He would wake up once during the night and some nights he would eat, but other nights, he went back to sleep when I turned the swing on. These nights I would often go back to sleep and the swing would still be swinging a couple of hours later! But we were both sleeping, so that's ok, right?

A couple of days ago, I thought that I should try to get him back in his pack n play. I think he was getting used to swinging while he was sleeping and I didn't want to turn this into a habit that we cannot reverse.  I need to have him sleep on his back and without moving.

Two nights ago, I put him to bed back in his pack n play. This night, he only got up once at 4:30 and wanted to eat, so I fed him, and he went right back to sleep. Great baby! Last night, he had trouble getting to sleep, so it took awhile. I fed him and laid him down, I "thought" he was asleep, but apparently he wasn't! (He likes to play opossum!) I picked him and he decided to SCREAM at me for a little bit! Finally I figured out that he wanted to nurse some more to get himself back to sleep (Another habit I don't want to get into!). I nursed him and he went to sleep again, so I laid him down again. This lasted about a minute again and he was back awake! AHHH. I turned the music on from his swing, which usually helps and rocked his pack and play, even though it is not meant to be rocked. This settled him back down and back to sleep. Again, by the time I rolled over and curled under my blankets, he was back awake again! I think he woke up four times last night before he finally settled down. I started putting him to bed at 10 and by the time he was out for good, it was almost 12:30! Not ideal!

But the good part is that I did not hear him rustling until about 4:30. At that time, I just reached over and rocked his pack and play a little bit and he went back to sleep. Nice!! I wish I could go back to sleep that fast at 4 am!

I didn't see him again until 7:45 this morning, so he technically slept all night and did not get up to eat, so things are getting better. I am just tired this morning.  He gets to nap all day, I don't!

After I get him sleeping well in his pack and play, my next goal is to move him into his crib in his room. I put him in there yesterday for a nap, but that only lasted about ten minutes. It's a start thought, I say!

Back to school, I mean it this time! :)

Since I didn't quite manage to get back to school before the holidays, I knew we HAD to get back after Christmas. By that time, we would have had eight weeks off and that was good. Even though I still have a fussy and needy baby, I figured there was surely some time during the day to get a math lesson in!

Monday was my goal and the kids knew it! I think Megan and Christian were a little anxious to get back to school, but Courtney was perfectly fine not having school at all.  We got up Monday and managed to get Megan's and Courtney's math done and I even got through a lesson on phonics with Christian! He has pretty much been teaching himself how to read these last eight weeks, so I decided to start him on kindergarten phonics (Does that make him a kindergartener now??) We spent the afternoon on Monday grocery shopping. Micah got an A+ because he slept the entire time! (We had one very bad shopping experience with him before Christmas!)

Tuesday was an interesting day.  We had to sue our contractor who did work on our house last fall and Tuesday was the day that we went to court. We were all anxious to see whether he would show up or not! Matt and I agreed to take all the kids to court, so they could see what it was all about and maybe learn something! We all got dressed up and were out of the house by 9:30 because court started at 10:30. Just as we predicted, our contractor did not show up and we won the case! Now he owes us $800 and we have a judgement to prove it!

After we got back home and had lunch, we got started on school.  Unfortunately, we had to quit about 2:30 because some little children had to clean the house to get it ready for piano lessons. I only got through Megan's lesson and half of Courtney's. This was also due to a baby screaming in the background!

Wednesday worked about the same.  I slept in because some little boy was up from about 4-6 am, so I went back to sleep at 6 am and slept until about 9.  By the time we got up and had breakfast, it was about 10.  But instead of doing school, Matt and I were on a mission to get to an appointment to get our passports at 12:30. (He won a trip to Las Cabos, Mexico in February). The passport office sent us a list of documents we needed, so I was busy trying to round those up in the morning.

Matt came home at 11 am and we headed over to Walmart to get our passport pictures taken. With those in hand, we headed over to the passport office. Once we checked in there, they looked at our pictures and told us they were no good! Apparently you can't smile or have teeth showing in your passport pictures! We were not happy! We went to Walmart because they were half the price of the passport office!! We had to redo them right there because Matt didn't want to wait any longer to order our passports. He also didn't want to take any more work off.

After our passports were ordered, we headed back to Walmart to return our bad pictures! They didn't want to give us our money back, but they eventually did.

By this time, it was 1:15 and Matt needed to be back to work by 1:45.  He took us back home and we got lunch. By 2:30, I was sitting down with Courtney to finish her math lesson from the day before! After her, I went over Christina's phonics lesson and about 3:30, I got to Megan, who did not want to stop playing Legos to go to school! She said it was too late in the day (according to her), but I said we need to go to school! I think these children have had too much freedom the last eight weeks and I had a little bit of issues yesterday with them following directions with school!

So here is Thursday and again, we will aim for a math lesson. I know eventually Micah will be able to entertain himself with toys, but until then, we will just do what we can! We will also get back to more subjects, but it may take some time to find a new normal around here!