Oh this family. They keep me on my toes. My wish for healthy boys lasted about a week. I landed on antibiotics at the beginning of October after struggling for almost a month with a cough that moved into my lungs. I even earned my first chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia–thankfully it was clear. Now I’m feeling pretty great and the boys started a round of coughing again. The older two aren’t doing too badly, but poor little Andrew is whiny and clingy. I think his issues might be compounded by the fact that it looks like all 4 eye teeth could erupt at any second.
Since my last post William and Andrew both had a trip to the dentist and all 3 boys got their annual flu shots. It was Andrew’s first dental visit and we learned that his crooked front tooth is because he 
favors sucking his binkie on one side vs. the other. The dentist said that once we stop the binkie, his tooth should drop into place normally. William didn’t have any cavities (yay!) and we learned that he could be getting his 6-year molars soon. I didn’t even know 6-year molars were a thing. If we keep this up, our house could have someone constantly teething for a decade straight. The flu shots were only mildly traumatic (for all of us). Andrew had two shots and cried a bit as normal. Christopher sat stoically and didn’t even shed a tear. William screamed as if we were cutting his arm off and had to be physically restrained. After the struggle, William did have a mild reaction and his arm turned red, but other than that we left unscathed.
This week we attempted the seemingly impossible and took family pictures. I had been questioning whether we should really spend the money and attempt the crazy stressful-ness with three wild boys, but the last professional family picture we had was 3 years old–making Christopher 6mos old! So we did it! It was just as stressful as I’d imagined…it’s easy to get frustrated when all you want is three kids to sit still and smile. It was a 45 minute session. William’s ability to focus lasted about 25 minutes. Christopher (who refused to have a snack before we left the house) started to have a hangry meltdown at about 30 minutes. Andrew took the first 15 minutes to warm up to the photographer, and then was over the entire ordeal about 15 minutes later. BUT. WE. SURVIVED. Our photographer sent us a sneak peak and it’s pretty hopeful that we got at least one good photo. On a side note, we had originally scheduled our pictures for Saturday 10/14, then moved them to Friday (the 13th!!) because the weather was projected to be about 15 degrees warmer. I ended up being very thankful we had tried our luck with Friday the 13th because Saturday was very chilly, and about 90 minutes before our originally scheduled picture time, Andrew tripped on the rug and ran head-first into the pantry cabinet, leaving a nice sized goose-egg.
William has been a rock-star at Kindergarten. He’s learning Spanish faster than we can keep up. He has had several good notes come home and only one mishap with pushing someone at recess. The best part has been watching him blossom socially and physically. He’s way more self assured. He scales walls and climbs playground equipment he didn’t previously have the confidence to attempt. He’s more shy than I anticipated, but he’s made several new friends (Owen, Max, and Mason) and everyone seems to know his name.
At parent teacher conferences we learned his testing at the beginning of the year already put him in the target range for where they want them to finish the year. We learned his main downfall is that he’s a perfectionist, who tends to be overly hard on himself. (It’s like looking in a mirror and seeing my younger self). He’s learning to read, and pretty excited to learn how to tie his shoes. He wants to spend all day every day drawing pictures and writing stories. He is disappointed at the lack of blank paper at school–everything is worksheets he says. It is a very fun age for sure!
Christopher is a goof. He is interested in using the potty, but still can’t manage to stay dry. He’ll do alright for the morning and then have 3 pairs of wet pants in a row. Slow progress. The other day he told me “that’s the last time I will EVER poop in my diaper”. I hope that one of these times it’s actually the truth. He misses William when he is at school and has ZERO tolerance of Andrew’s attempts to play. Christopher has always been the little brother, and isn’t really keen on playing the big brother role just yet. I think he’s making slow progress, but tends to freak out when Andrew touches his toys, instead of simply going with the flow or asking Andrew to give the toy back (which Andrew usually happily does). It’s hard to be the little brother and big brother at the same time.
I may have said this before, but Andrew is at my favorite stage. He’s slowly starting to spit out words and it’s almost like you can see his brain grow daily. He’s chasing his brothers and thinks they are the two coolest dudes in the world. He has recently learned to scale the bunk bed, putting him years ahead of this other two brothers in that skill, and making us concerned that we should wrap him in bubble wrap or require that he wears a helmet at all times. Unfortunately he balances epic cuteness with unfathomable crabbiness and whining. The last few days have been the worst! He might be cutting all four eye teeth at the same time and definitely has a cold. The teething and head cold make him clingy, whiny, stumble-y, and more prone to tantrums. His pointing and grunting is cute when he’s happy, but when he’s in a foul mood it’s downright maddening. Thank goodness the cute days outnumber the crabby ones.
Work has been busy for Jason and slow for me. Maybe that’s the reason he’s in line for a promotion and I’m not. Cutting back from full-time to part-time has proven to be an excellent move, although it has taken more getting used to than I anticipated. My extra time home with the boys almost makes me want to stay home more, which is something I never thought I’d say.
We spent an especially nice afternoon/evening at Tracy Aviary and West Jordan Park. I finished canning and we’ve started to rake leaves and prep that yard for winter. We’re generally trying to soak up all the nice weather we can get. Other notable outings this month. We took all three boys to get haircuts to be ready for William’s first school photo (10/10) and our family photos (10/13). Bless those stylists. When I had told William that school photos and family photos were in the same week he thought I meant that his whole class (and their families) would be coming to the park with us Friday to have their pictures taken. I realized this on the day of our family photos when he wondered aloud “I wonder what Scott will be wearing?”. Lol. Getting ready for pictures also involved a lot of outfit coordination on my part. NOTE: all of the boys in our family photo simply put on, or were dressed in, the clothes I told them to wear. I hope you like their outfits. This kind of matching involved one too many Amazon.com orders and an especially sanity-challenging trip to Old Navy. 
More on Old Navy. I “thought” I could quickly run to Old Navy one afternoon a couple weeks ago to simply pick up a pair of pants for work. Mind you, I had already picked out said pair of pants online and only needed to try on two pairs in order to determine the correct size. On the way to the store I explained to the boys they only needed to be good while we were in the store and we would be very fast. Fast forward 3 minutes as we entered the store and a lady with ONE toddler stole the last shopping cart (I almost tackled her). I explained to William that his only job now was to keep track of Andrew. Having lost any chance of containment, I should have just turned around. I decided to soldier on, as all three boys ran in separate directions attempting to play in the clothing racks, touch the jewelry, and generally act like untamed heathens. I got the pants tried on, and this is the point where William realized he had no idea where Andrew was (I still knew). I retrieve Andrew as William turns into a sobbing mess after I scold him. The scolding was short-lived because by the time we reached the checkout Andrew was again trying to pull jewelry off the racks while William and Christopher played some kind of noisy game that involved throwing themselves to the floor. I should NEVER attempt such a thing again (but probably will). I was totally THAT mom and I’m sorry. I took this picture to forever remember the trip.
Last but not least Jason celebrated his 37th birthday this week. William made him a card and I told him he could pick one of the free items from this week’s Harbor Freight advertisement. We’re obviously not gift-givers. How did I end up with a kindergartner and a 37 year old husband in the same year? Time flies as they say. 
Til next time!
S.~
PS: Because you read to the end, here’s our family photo session sneak peek (courtesy of Natalie Felt Photography)