Summer

So many summer fun times .... so many picture-worthy moments!Playing at the parkBubbles

Sisters - My beautiful daughters

Bicycle washings

Preparing for the assault

Bike rides

Sleepovers in siblings' rooms.

Baseball games.

The results of eating of dishwashing detergent . . . a whole new meaning to having your mouth washed out (by tears and Electrosol)!

Swinging Naps

Sunday morning doughnut breakfasts at the "gas station"

One More Milestone

We are officially bottle-free in our house . . . 6 nights with no nighttime bottle and 2 days with no naptime bottle (they may hate me at Mother's Day Out tomorrow when naptime rolls around!) Dex is doing amazingly well, crying pretty hard for a few minutes at bedtime and rarely even fussing during the night. A milestone that came on very quickly for me. Sigh. Maybe too quickly. We will never have bottles in our house again. That cabinet that was one of the first ones set up when we moved into this house - the one that has all of the little cups and bottles in it - it will seem kind of empty now. I longed for so many years to be at the point that we could enter the baby years, and those years are so quickly fleeting now. Sigh. Again.

Will I Be Able to Do It?

As I get ready to call it a night, I'm summoning up all of my gumption for later . . . I'm gonna need it. Last night, I was at the clinic late, and Nick ended up bringing Dex home and putting him to bed. Fortunately, although at the time it seemed quite unfortunate to Nick, I'm sure, the milk I'd bought earlier in the day was still at the clinic. So, Dex went to bed with a cup of juice instead, which instantly hit the floor in disgust. He cried and then went to sleep and did not have a bottle in the middle of the night. There was a little crying in the middle of the night, but he always went back to sleep before I caved in and warmed any milk. Can it be that my baby boy has had his last nighttime bottle. Like so many other "lasts," I didn't see it coming. Have I rocked him at night with his "bah-be" for the last time? I remember wanting to really soak up the last time Brandon nursed because I knew he was losing interest and eating mostly solid foods, so I was all prepared for the next night being "it." The little stinker wouldn't even latch on the next night. That last had come and gone. I'm super sentimental about these things, and I think God just rips the band-aid off, so to speak, and puts me out of my misery.
I just hope that I don't cave in tonight, in the wee hours of the morning, when I know a bottle will make the crying stop, and I can sink back into my warm covers . . . Gumption.

5 Star Living

Turn-down Service ... Pashaw!
Room Service ... Phooey!
Laundry Service ... Blah!
Those 5-Star hotels don't have anything compared to the Coston Home. We have TP Service. There's always a pile of toilet paper, already unrolled, right beside the toilet when you need it.

I am a blessed woman.

Cami is 3

I like to let the birthday kid decide what they want to do on their special day. When I asked Camryn what she wanted to do, she said that she wanted to go the park, go to Abi's school playground, paint her fingernails, and buy cupcakes. Well, the weather didn't cooperate with the Cami's outdoor plans, but we came up with a satisfactory alternative.
I think what the child chooses to do when they can do anything they want to do for the day tells a lot about what is important to them! Camryn's day involved a lot of play and junk food:
* pigtails
* a poptart at the gas station
* playing at Monkey house in the bounce-arounds
* Strawberry Shortcake movie
* pizza for lunch
* fingernail painting with purple sparkly nail polish
* princess cupcakes
* dinner and play at McDonald's
* another princess cupcake

And Now, Little Dex, You Can Pay Taxes!

Our entire journey to Dex has been marked by a series of envelopes bringing news and necessary documents. Today, the final envelope arrived: his Social Security card. Everything is official with both the Chinese and U.S. governments!

A Breakfast Tune

The family discussion about where to eat dinner when we eat out is generally fraught with frustration and dissension -- and everyone swearing that Dex votes for whatever their vote is for. Makes me want to go home and have bologna sandwiches -- and, if you know how I feel about bologna, you'd know how frustrating this decision really is.

Saturday night started out with the same yin/yang approach .... until Brandon suddenly had a unique idea: "Let's have smiley face pancakes at ipod!" To which everyone under 7 joins in shouting, "Yeah! Ipod! Pancakes! Ipod!"

I think my kids are as technologically gifted as I am! But we all love pancakes, especially with smiley faces and lots of syrup!

Miss Independence

The conversation this morning went something like this:
Me: Cami ... time to wake up.
Cam: Sits upright in bed immediately
Me: (Thinking: something is very wrong here - she never stays upright within the first 5 minutes of being awake.) What's wrong, Cam?
Cam: I have to pee-pee!
Me: Great! Let's go to the bathroom.
Cam: No, nevermind, my bed is all wet.
Me: (Stupidly sticking my hand under her bottom.) Oh, wow, why did your diaper overflow so much?
Cam: I don't have on a diaper.
Me: What happened to your diaper last night.
Cam: Well, I took it off when I got up in the middle of the night to go poop on the potty. Don't worry, Mommy, I put it in the trashcan.
Me: (Shocked!) Did you wipe?
Cam: Yeeeeesss! (Eyeroll)
Me: (Rushing to the bathroom to check out the situation). Thank you, Cami, for putting your diaper in the trashcan -- and half a roll of toilet paper in the toilet with the little terdies you didn't flush. (Gag!)

I'm feeling the independence coming on -- no more nighttime diapers! That would mean we're back to only ONE KID IN DIAPERS! YeeHow!

Weeks in Photos

I've gotten so behind on blogging .... too overwhelming to try to catch up.

So, a photo montage it is!

B loves his Papa Elton and his dog!

Brothers!Look at that little stinker,
poised and ready to smack me in the back of the head with a snowball!Both sets of cheeks were pink and cold!Nothing better for a little boy than an empty box and a sheet of bubble wrap!

Merry Christmas Season!

Life is so crazy busy for us right now, with four kids and all that is required to get this clinic up and running, but I'm determined to enjoy the Christmas season with the kiddos!

Brandon and Camryn enjoyed "Polar Express" day at Mother's Day Out, cozy in their pajamas with lots of yummy snacks to munch on.

We debated even putting up a tree this year, out of fear that Dex would have it on top of him. I decided we'd risk it since he has such a hard head and we have three other kids who were very disappointed at the idea of not having a tree. So far, he's hardly even noticed the tree. So, I'm very glad we put it up this year. A few pictures in front of the tree ...One of our favorite traditions is going to ride the train at Creekmore Park. With the wintry air, all the Christmas lights, and music playing, it's such a fun time! This year, it was even warm enough that the kids could play on the playground equipment without freezing. Cam thought it was really cool that she got to play in the dark?!The girls on the train.The boys on the train.They were handing out candy canes while you waited to ride. Dexter devoured his and then begged his brother and sisters to share theirs with him!Every year, the regular gals from the gym get together and have dinner together for Christmas. We had a great time this year at Olive Garden. Look at those hot Mommas!We took the kids to visit Santa when he was here in town ... much better than the mall Santa experience because there are no lines and you can take photos. Brandon was bold and stepped right up to be the first to sit in Santa's lap. Dex did better than we expected, but he was definitely not a fan of Santa.