National Aquarium & Orioles Fan Fest

This weekend was spent in Baltimore and what a great weekend we had! The kids had Christmas #3 with the grandparents and aunts/uncles. Boy are they some lucky kids! Normally when we go up there we end up sitting around and visiting and just playing with the kids at the house and catching up with everyone. Not this weekend! Aunt Jennifer piped in Saturday morning with the fact that she had 4 tickets to the Orioles Fan Fest downtown at the Convention Center. So she, James, Roman, Hope, Bethany, and I caught the light rail downtown to go to Fan Fest.

The light rail itself was a lot of fun for the kids. They were so excited and kept yelling "Wheee!" everytime we'd go over the slightest hill, and "Hold on, here we goooooooo" everytime the train would take off from a stop. They loved it! We got off at the convention center and so just walked across the street and we were in. It was a tad crazy in there. Roman HATED the "bird", but Hopey was happy to get her picture taken and meet him. The lines for autographs from the players was insane, so we didn't do that. They kids enjoyed several of the kid stuff there though and we had fun watching them. Bethany got a huge kick out of all the free stuff being handed out. And the kids got hats, balls, and general admission tickets for this season's games.

After that we headed down to the Inner Harbour. It was $1 days weekend at the Aquarium and Train Museum. We have done the train museum in the past and as to them the light rail was train enough and because it was off the beaten path, we opted not to bother, but did head down to the Aquarium. The kids had never been and it was something we've been talking about doing for awhile now. Unfortunately, tickets for Saturday were sold out by the time we got there, but we did make it just in time to hop in the line for advanced Sunday tickets before they closed it off for the day. And maybe it was fortunate this happened this way as the girls were beat from all the walking and it was way past naptime so we started losing them by the time I got through the line. So back on the light rail and home we went.

On Sunday we got up and Grandma, Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Anthony, James, Roman, Hope, Bethany, and I headed back downtown, this time we drove, to go to the Aquarium. They took us right in, no lines to wait in and the kids were just in awe of everything from the second they walked in and saw the "bubble tubes". We covered everything except the new Austrailian exhibit which had a really long line to get in. The sharks, dolphins, birds, frogs, and deep water glowing fish were big hits with them all. After several hours we headed back to the house stopping at Glory Days (yumm!!!) for lunch.

We headed home shortly after that, and all three kids slept the whole way!

Ray Lewis hit on Aunt Jennifer

Today while down at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, we took a little break and sat down in the lobby of one of the hotels. Roman was in hog-heaven being downtown with all the Ravens fans and Ravens flags and novelties everywhere. So Aunt Jennifer strikes up a chat with him and asks who his favorite player is.... "Ray Lewis!" Aunt Jennifer smiles and says, "I know Ray Lewis, we hang out at the same place on Wednesday nights, he likes to hit on me." Expecting an excited, or at least impressed expression, Roman instead returns with a serious look turned scowl as his little hands balled into a fist and I began to laugh. My boy is so literal! He thought she meant Ray Lewis was hitting her, as in beating her up! LOL We clarified and Aunt Jennifer explained in more detail, but I'm not sure poor Ray Lewis will ever look quite the same for his #1 little fan!

Christmas 2005

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas this year was such fun! The kids are 6, almost 4, and 2 and sooooooooooooo into Santa and all things Christmas. The join and excitement on their faces when they saw all Santa brought them was just priceless. They got some really great stuff this year from Santa and others. The moms spent the night with us and I'm not sure who enjoyed Christmas morning more this year, the kids or the moms watching the kids.

Roman was a bit disappointed last night as it was too warm to really start a fire. We've had such a mild winter this year. Last year as he was inspecting the cookies and milk and fireplace he found a small piece of red fabric in the fireplace that was slightly singed. He had warned us that Christmas Eve that if we didn't put the fire out early that Santa might not be able to come down the chimney afterall. His delight over invisioning Santa burning his butt on our fire was priceless and he's still laughing about it this year, so was a tad disappointed that he couldn't reenact it. Sick little boy, yes! No big surprises this year, a few footprints in the soot and some crumbs in the fireplace... that Santa sure is messy! ... otherwise it was a pretty calm, until he went to open his stocking stuffers and discovered a sandwhich box for his lunchbox with a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. He was so upset and got the funniest look on his face. His conclusion... "Santa accidently wrapped his lunch up and stuck it in my stocking!" "I'm not supposed to get his lunch for Christmas!" The funniest part of all is that about an hour laterly he defiantly sat down and ate it with this devilish little sparkle in his eye cause he wasn't eating Santa's lunch!

After opening presents and everything we all got dressed to head up to Kari and Kermit's for Christmas dinner. I got the kids dressed and was finishing up getting ready myself when I hear a scream from mom in the living room. Ran in to find Barbara holding Bethany, both covered in puke! So they both got cleaned up, changed clothes and I was cuddling with Bethany while everyone was finishing and she threw up all over me. It was so incredibly disgusting! By then we had decided we weren't going to chance the hour drive up with a sick baby. Problem was, mom had taken off with Hope in between incidents so we had to go. James ended up staying behind while Barbara, Roman and I loaded in the van and headed to Fredericksburg. It was a really nice afternoon and dinner. Aside from us, Kari, Kermit, Abby and Megan, Aunt Bonnie, Gloria, Ashley, Joel, Aunt Philly and Uncle Dave all came over. The kids practically had a second Christmas with all the presents!

When we got back home Bethany was feeling much better and we just enjoyed a nice relaxing evening while the kids watched their new movies and played.
Bethany throwing up

What's Santa's Name?

Last night I was cooking dinner and Hopey came in and told me she wanted to write a letter to Santa, but didn't know his name. What? So I inquired further, "but mommy, I don't know his www name to find him!" Welcome to Christmas in the 21st Century!!!

Tanta

Yesterday Bethany awoke to presents under the tree that I had wrapped up the night before. They were for the moms, aunts, uncles and whatnot. They were under the tree before, just not wrapped. Well she thought Santa had come and got so excited that she sat down and started opening them before we could tell her otherwise. It was too cute! She is soooooooo excited about Santa. The other 2 didn't even know who he was at this age, but I guess that's a benefit of having 2 older siblings. She has been running around for days telling everyone that "Tanta's Toming!"

Sibling Protection

James came in and saw someone had unplugged the printer and began to fuss at the kids. "So, who did it?" "Well, if no one's gonna fess up everyone can get punished" Roman speaks up, "Punish Bethany only, she did, I saw her." So James looks at him and says, "Jeez Roman, what happened to protecting your sisters?" Roman's answers, "Well, I gotta protect myself!"

Who Loves Ya?

Today we got our first snow of the year. Roman got up first and we checked together to see the white covered ground outside. Next came in Hope. Roman told her to peek out the window and she was soooooooooo excited at what she saw! Roman asks her, "See, who loves you? Hope just looked around and smiled at everyone then shrugged her shoulders. And Roman says, "God! God loves you very much and sent all this snow down just for you!"

The Tall Tall Tale

Last night we met Angie and Jason and crew for dinner at Don Jose's. Afterwards while the adults talked in the parking lot, the kids played in the back of the van. Somewhere, Josh found Roman's old switchblade comb and asked to borrow it. We were meeting them the next night anyway to see the lights downtown at the James Center, so he said okay, to just bring it back the next evening. Well today, Roman comes home from school with the comb and note from Ms. Neal asking us to please not let him bring it to school again. Here's what Roman had to say:

Well, Josh's teacher caught him with it and got freaked out thinking it was real and called the cops. The cops interrigated him and he ratted me out, telling the cops I gave it to him, so they came and talked to Ms. Neal who talked to me and sent me home with the note and comb. I didn't have to talk to the cops though.

What actually happened, or the closest thing we can piece together from Maddy and Josh's side of the story is that Josh carried it to lunch and gave it back to Roman then. The lunch lady saw Roman with it and told Ms. Neal who just took him in the hallway and had a little talking to on why we don't bring things like that to school.

What are we going to do with this boy?!?

The Farting Deer are Back!

Okay, so the "Farting Deer" is a Roman story from last Christmas that didn't make it on here because I didn't create this blog until February! So in short, everyone has seen the white lighted deer, specifically the buck, that people put on their lawns around Christmas time. Well, last year in the middle of Lowes as we were looking for new outdoor decorations for the holiday season, Roman starts laughing hysterically... that I can't stop, I can't breathe, I'm gonna pee my pants, obnoxious laugh that at home would literally have had him rolling on the floor. Of course, you just have to ask! "What is so funny?" I mean come on, we're in the Christmas decoration section, what could possibly be THAT funny? Roman's response:

"See that deer? He just farted!"

Cute, but not quite following you. "Why would you say that?" Roman's response:

"His tail is sticking up and he's going 'hmrrr'" The part you can't see in that statement is a 4 year old struting across the floor then stopping, sticking his butt out behind him and puffing his chest up with chin up high going 'hmrrr'! Hence, then and forever in the Trettel household we have the "farting deer"!

I had absolutely forbid them to bring that thing home, but after about a week is snuck onto my lawn, much to the sheer joy of my son.

For those of you in the Richmond area you can only imagine just how obnoxious he got when we visited the James Center a few weeks later! There must be 100 "farting deer" there!

So, this year, I caved and as they were on sale, we bought an entire herd of "farting deer". I believe there are 9 total in all sizes and Roman and his sisters could not be any prouder of their holiday cheer!

Express Yourself

Recently we watched the movie "Racing Stripes", one of Roman's newfound favs. In this movie there is a rather crude and disgusting fly character and at one point the fly falls into a guy's espresso and begins to fart to which he tells the other fly "I'm just putting some express in this espresso!" Roman found this to be the highlight of the entire movie! What is it with my kids and bodily noises? So last night he's in the bath and begins laughing so hard that James yells in to find out what's going on to which we are greeted in an ever so sweet voice "I'm just expressing in this espresso, Dad!"

The Christmas Show

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year at grandma & grandaddy's with all the aunts and uncles. The kids were in heaven as it has been quite some time since we were up there. On Friday after Thanksgiving, Roman, Hope and I drove up to Aunt Philly's while James stayed behind with Bethany who got spoiled rotten "I'm rotten, rotten, rotten!" as she would say. At Aunt Philly's we met up with mom, Aunt Peggy, Carlee, and Leia for lunch, then proceded further north to Lancaster, PA to see a Christmas Show. Roman and Hope had never been to anything quite like this before. It wasn't a play, just a live show with different acts of singing, dancing, and silly little skits. They were both in awe, and despite Roman's determination to have a horrible time, he quickly melted and was laughing himself silly in no time. The performers were great! About half way through the first half they asked for volunteers to come up on stage. Mom leaned forward and told Hope and Roman to raise their hands. With great enthusiasm they did. They were sitting on the 5th row and the guy spotted them immediately and told Roman to come on up. Hope latched on to the back of his shirt and followed him up there too. About halfway up the stairs as they realized they were going to be standing in front of hundreds of people, they both looked back, turned white as ghosts, with a momentary panic look. Still, they proceded and much to my surprise when asked their names they each told them without hestitation. The skit they were joining was about this crazy elf named, Stanley, who was in charge of wrapping presents at this gift wrapping stand. Roman was handed a box and they were told to stand in line to have their gift wrapped. Stanley then turned into "rapper" Stanley instead of gift "wrapper" Stanley and broke out into this big rap and dance number on top of the table in front of Roman and Hope. The hysterical part is Roman did not flinch, did not show any sign of emotion or recongnition what-so-ever, just stood there staring at him while Hope would watch, then turn back towards the audience and shrug with this look like "What is this guy on?" LOL After he finished his rap it was time to wrap the present. First he had Roman stand to face the side and hold out the box with both hands. Then he moved Hope to face him and told her to hold the box, which she did... with one hand. He grabbed her other arm and she'd jerk it back. He'd grab it again and she'd jerk it back. Then he said "I think you're hiding something from Stanley, what do you have in that hand?" At this time, with the cheesiest grin ever she proudly held up her hand complete with a smuggled, half-eaten Sugar Daddy! Stanley nearly lost it, then proceded to pretend to lick her lollipop before placing her hand back on the box. Next he began to wrap the box, with the kids hands still attached, then he brought out a bigger piece of paper and completely wrapped up both of them together as one big present. As he was finishing up he cleared Hope's head saying he was scared she couldn't breathe in there and stuck an enormous bow on her instead. Finally, he went to present them to the audience and attempted to turn them. He was behind Hope and leading her shoulders attempted to move her and she'd force him back, and again, until he got so tickled he declared he must have glued her feet to the floor! It was hysterical! Roman said he didn't like being wrapped like a present, but his smile and twinkle in his eyes said otherwise. Hope on the other hand was in all her glory, especially when several people approached her for her autograph after the show!

Another Tooth Missing

Roman lost his 3rd tooth last night. It was very loose and driving him crazy, so James volunteered to pull it. Much to my shock Roman allowed it, and using a baby wipe for a little friction James easily popped it out. It bled like crazy, but Roman was so proud to have another tooth out that he didn't even peep. Not at all like my typical blood-squirmish boy. The first thing out of his mouth after that.... "I can't wait to get to school tomorrow to show Ms. Neal!" He really does love his teacher. Heck, I'd say she ranks above the ToothFairy right now, and for a 5 year old, that's HUGE! He almost forgot to put his tooth under his pillow, but quickly came running out panicked, looking for it shortly after we put him to bed. He got another dollar and some gum. Not quite as excited about the gum as last time, he instead became quite "knowledgeable" and excited about all the American symbols on a dollar bill.

Hair can't be TOO long....

Hope Elizabeth is a total and complete girly-girl. She loves all things "girl". She is infatuated with long hair. Recently we were having a discussion about hair after one of our many battles to rid her of tangles. So I asked her "How long are we going to let this mess get anyway? To you butt? To you feet?" To which she replied, "Just above my 'un-wear-wears'" "Why stop there?" And this is what she had to say, "I don't want my hair all the way down to my butt, cause then I would fart of it, and everyone would know I farted on it cause it would go 'thloop'" as she demonstrated with her hand by flicking it forward. To make matters worse, Bethany got so tickled I think she actually did pee her pants and started running around the house declaring she was going to grow her hair all the way to her butt!

Mommies Know Everything

Ever since Roman could talk and ask"how do you know that" I have told him that "mom's just know everything". Today he concluded that mom's only know everything because they went to school, and now that he's in school he knows everything too!

Owl Madness

Sometime recently Roman apparently learned about owls at school. EVERYTHING you could ever hope to know about owls. ALL types of owls. And of course the noises they make. Roman has it in his head that he can hunt owls by attracting them with *hoots*. Very, very loud, obnoxious hoots! The first day we received a lecture on all the different types of owls, their habitats and various other facts about them. He was especially excited about the burrowing owl. "Did you know there's an owl that lives underground?" He spent the better part of an hour stomping around the yard looking for burrowing owls. Then it was to the trees where he'd stand and *hoot* at the bottom of every tree in the yard. We have a lot of trees in the yard! Over the following days he has frequently stuck his head out of the window of the car and *hooted* into the sky in search of a real owl. We can only hope that Ms. Neal teaches something more quieter next time! LOL

Parent/Teacher conference

I was a little nervous going into the Parent/Teacher conference. This was our FIRST ever parent/teacher conference and the first real feedback we've gotten since the nightmare of Kindergarten registration testing where we were told Roman "failed", even though it was not supposed to be a pass-fail test. We had been so strongly encouraged, felt more like pressured, into sending him to pre-K summer school, and our decision not to do so, of course, it hard not to question if that was the best course of action for him. All of the papers Roman has brought up have been positive, he is always on "green", and the brief interactions we've had with his teacher have been positive, but to hear that he is doing amazingly well in Kindergarten was sheer relief! We were thrilled with his progress thus far. And so incredibly proud of our little man. We thank God daily for his wonderful teacher knowing many of our friend's children have not been so lucky. She seems so loving and kind, always smiling and in high spirits and appears to genuinely care of the children in her class. Plus, the changes we've seen educationally in Roman over the last few months has been astronomical! He's always been a smart kid, but seems to really be 'getting it' and putting things together now. Ms. Neal even recommended he try a reading class. Of course we're thrilled to hear this and I know once Roman starts reading, he'll just love it. We couldn't have asked for a more positive first Parent/Teacher conference and look forward to working with Ms. Neal, and of course Roman, for the remainder of the year. Go Roman!!!

btw... Ms. Neal did not say "SO" when we addressed his eating issues from last week!

Hopey's first Campaign

We have always made a point of bringing the kids with us to the polls while explaining and letting them be a part of the process. This year I did some campaigning for the Kilgore for Governor campaign. Today I volunteered to take the morning shift to hand out Republican sample ballots and was told they were short staffed to cover the evening shift, so of course I volunteered to pitch in again. Hopey wasn't so thrilled with that ideal and was very clingy since I had disappeared the evening before to attend a campaign rally with President Bush - which was AWESOME! So, instead of fighting my beloved 3 year old, I loaded her up and headed to the polls. She was so excited to be getting some 1 on 1 time with mommy and was too cute handing out sample ballots. I always said since she has inherited my love of gab that she would someday go into politics. Just grooming her at an early age!

Humpback Rocks

As gorgeous as this weather has been how could we not spend a day enjoying the great outdoors? James has been excessively whiney and not feeling well. Not up to really going out or doing much of anything right now. Poor guy! So I got in touch with Angie Sammon, the mom of a little girl, Madison, in Roman's class. Madison has an older brother, Josh who is 7. So we loaded up in the van and with all 5 kids in tow... a 2 year old, 3 year old, 5, 6 (well, close enough), and 7 year old we headed to the mountains. Humpback Rocks has always been a favorite hiking spot of mine and it has been years since I've really been in the mountains. We have been talking of going for the last 3 years, but had yet to make it. The kids had the best time! They claimed cabins at the foot of the hill as their personal clubhouse and I think would have played for days if we'd have let them. They wrestled in the leaves and attempted to climb a tree. They ran, they laughed, everyone just had a really great time. We did attempt the hike up to humpback rocks, but not much past the first stretch we bailed. Bethany was determined to hike it herself and was becoming quite crabby from all the hard playing they had already done. We let them run around for awhile in the big field then came back down to play in their "clubhouse" some more. The kids were just great together and we had no incidences. I can't even begin to say how pleased and relaxing this was, especially with Angie's great company!

Ms. Neal says "SO!"

Roman did not eat his lunch, nor his snack this past week. He came home everyday with a full lunch box, and an empty stomach as he devours everything in sight. We assumed the first few days he just really wasn't hungry and still feeling bad from the flu-bug he's been battling, but by Friday it was just getting a bit ridiculous! When discussing this with him he really wouldn't talk about it, so I told him I would be asking his teacher about it at parent/teacher conferences next week. He says, "Go ahead, Ms. Neal will just say 'So!'" LOL We'll just see if that's what Ms. Neal has to say on Tuesday!

Halloween 2005

Roman's new buddy, Matthew Jennsch, from soccer and his mom, Kary, met us at our house for trick-or-treating this year. The kids had a blast and boy did they rack in some loot this year!

Bethany 2 year Stats

Bethany had her well-baby checkup today. She is 25 lbs (25% - woohoo! First time above the 15% since birth!) and 33 1/2 inches long (50%). She is "perfect" to quote the doctor! She found Bethany to be very well spoken for her age and advanced in nearly all areas. Of course we've always known this! She even commented on how well she can hold a tune as she broke out into her rendition of "Old MacFarmer" in the middle of the checkup. We discussed the hair pulling and she does not feel it is a problem, just a stage, but we will continue to keep close watch over her. She has been eating us out of house and home, so I suspect we're in for, yet another growth spurt this coming month. She has already maxed the 18 and 24 month pants in length and is wearing 2T's now with a few 3T's even. Her foot size is up to a 7 1/2, but quickly approaching 8's. Boy, is she taking after her brother with those feet! Roman also has shot up drastically on us and is maxing length in the size 6's we just bought him at the beginning of the school year - 2 months ago - and will be needing all new clothes again before winter even arrives!

Bethany's Birthday Party

Bethany's party was Saturday and we had a blast! It was so much fun! We went to the pumpkin patch at Chesterfield Berry Farm. Jon, Alicia, Steven and Garrett; Kari, Kermit, Abigail, and Megan; and Barbara all met us there. Hadn't been there in 2 years and boy has it grown! We started off with a barrel tractor pull ride that the kids just loved. Then to the bounce house. It was so cute watching her in the bounce house with all her friends and family. Her chicken legs kept sliding down and she'd just fall over and lay there being bounced around. Such a little goof! Then it was onto the haywagon ride out to the fields to pick out our pumpkins. We got some good pictures in the pumpkin patch. Finally a stop in the corn pit - literally a pit filled with feed corn nearly knee deep on me. The kids LOVED this. And ended with a quick run through "Pirates Cove" a cheesy kid-friendly haunted house. Then it was back to our house for some yummy chili and grub - I made an entire, large crock pot full of chili and I barely had enough left to cover 2 chili dogs, so someone must of have liked it! LOL Jon and Alicia couldn't make it back to the house for dinner as they already had plans, but Mike, Adrienned and Joshua were able to make it over for dinner, so that was fun. A round of pin the tail on the donkey then cake/ice cream and presents. It was a wonderful time! Bethany looked adorable in her chicken costume! Check out all the pics:

Bethany's Birthday Cake

Bethany's Birthday Cake

I saw this cake (okay, similar) on the Wilton website and just loved it. Of course they had icing animals and a silo and everything, I simplified it, but still, the results came out great! My first attempt at cake decorated started with Bethany's 1st birthday last year. Let's just say I've come a long way in the last 12 months!

(in case you can't tell, her party theme for this year was Fisher Price Little People Farm.)

More party details to come....

Roman's 1st Real Play Date

Roman had his first play-date today with Matthew Jennsch. Matthew is a little boy from his Fall soccer team. James and I like his mother, Kary, a lot and felt comfortable enough for Roman to go over to their house for an afternoon of fun. He ended up staying for dinner and I think would have spent the night if we'd let him. Baby steps... mommy's still catching up with this letting go stuff!

Balding B Update 2 - We Chopped it Off!

Bethany's hair is GONE! We took her tonight to chop it off. They actually left more than I had expected, but the hairstylist was one of their best and said it should start filling in fine from there as long as she stays off it. I've busted her twice trying to pull on it since then and it's only been 3 hours! ARGH!!! Hopefully she will not find enough left to really bother and will soon give up. That's the plan at least. Actually it looks so much cuter than I ever imagined!

Balding B Update

Bethany continues to lose hair by the fistful. We correct her when we catch her, but come on, she's a very active toddler, we can not possible keep our eyes glued on her hands 24x7! I also have been sticking a glove on her hand when I notice her getting sleepy-eyed. That seems to be when it's at it's worse. I just don't know what else to do! She sucks on 2 fingers on her left hand, so it's only her right hand causing problems... which makes it all the worse imo. She has always carried a Barbie or My Little Pony, or some other baby doll with realish hair texture and has pulled out several wads of hair there, but I don't mind that, she can have ruin all the toys in the world if she'd just leave her own hair alone! So frustrating!

Multi-Lingual Kids

Roman starts a multi-lingual after school class today. I completely forgot all about it, but fortunately James remembered so I called the school at lunch to confirm it starts today and told them to make sure Roman's teacher knows he's not catching the bus home since we didn't tell him about it - since I completely forgot we even signed him up for it. LOL It's supposed to be casual vocabulary in 4 different languages... Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. He can already count to at least 10 pretty fluently in Spanish and knows some of the numbers in all four and a variety of Spanish and German words and phrases already. I personally hated French, so other than counting have steered clear of that one at home. I don't remember too much Japanese, but after years of karate, just couldn't get the counting out of my head. LOL Hopey is speaking more and more Spanish everyday thanks to Dora and LeapFrog. Fortunately it's Latin-based and similar enough to French for me to keep up with her. I keep telling James we're going to have to find a Spanish class soon or we won't be able to communicate with her. LOL I'm not complaining, I think it's important for all the kids to comfortably speak at least one other language.

A Balding B

My little Bmonster not only sucks her fingers and bites her nails, but has recently tossed her matted hair Barbie's and My Little Ponies for hair twirling. Hair twirling in itself isn't bad, Roman does this too and has since he was a baby, but Bethany twirls her hair then yanks it out by the handful! I noticed Friday she seemed thin on one side and thought it was just a bad hair day. Then we dug 2 hairballs out of the child's mouth wrapped tightly around her fingers and I started paying closer attention. Sure enough she's literally pulling all her hair out! She looks like she has a one-sided mullet! It's really short, spikey and you can see the scalp on the side she's pulling on. She's beginning to look like a shaggy haired dog with mange. It's HORRIBLE!!!

Madison Sammon's Birthday Present

Roman was invited to a birthday party this weekend for a little girl in his class named Madison. This is really the first of the "unknown" friends ever. Meaning, every other birthday party we've been to we've known the birthday child and known what he/she likes and whatnot. This time we have NO IDEA. So, what do you buy a 5 year old girl that you don't even know for her birthday? Roman said he'll take care of it... that was a scary thought! But, I took him to Target and he picked out a Barbie Veternarian that was pretty cute. He tells me "This is IT! Madison likes animals I think, and I've never met a girl yet who didn't love Barbies!"

Chicken Boy

Chicken Boy is Roman's self-chosen nickname post Aunt Jennifer's wedding. At the reception the DJ encouraged participation with props, including a feather "chicken" mask for the chicken dance and blow up guitars for a few rock numbers. Someone appropriated one of each and Jennifer past them on to Roman the following morning. The result... Chicken Boy! Roman puts on the mask and turns into a rock'n roll freak.

Bethany Speaks

Bethany's speech has exploded over night. I am finding it difficult to tell her and Hope apart at times. Her favorite words are "NO" and "MINE". Everything is Bethany's these days. She still babbles, but daily more and more of the babbles are turning into whole sentences, whole conversations. I guess since the other 2 were late talkers, our 22 month old seems absolutely amazing with how well she is talking!

Hopey Serenade

During the 9 hours drive home from the lake we spent the majority without modern technology aka no movies, video games, music or any other sorts of distractions. Instead we spent the hours talking, sleeping, and listening to the kids make up games and songs. Hope, loving to sing as it is, spent a good part of the day serenading us all with her rendition of "Aunt Jennifer" which consists of only 2 lyrics and a variety of tunes. The old standby's of "Old MacFarmer" and "ABCD" of course, but out of the blue came "The Sun Comes Up, The Moon Goes Down" to which she made up an entire song about how fun it is to play all day when the sun comes up and the moon goes down and verses for all the places she loves to play. It was very cute and James and I were quite impressed with this impressive impromtu!

Hopey Starts SOCCER!

Hope Elizabeth had her first soccer practice tonight. Her feet were too small from Roman's first pair of cleats and we could only find 1 of his first pair of shin-guards, so we had to sprint to Strictly Soccer before heading over to practice. Wouldn't you know - PINK soccer cleats, matching PINK shin-guards, and a PINK ball were her products of choice! They are the cutest little pink Diadora's ever and she looked adorable wearing big brother's shorts and shirt (way too big on her) and her new soccer stuff. Her team is called the Magics and there are 10 little boys and girls. Much to our delight there are 5 girls on her team, so she is definitely in Hopey heaven! James is coaching her team through the Manchester YMCA and has a real assistant coach this season, Coach Stephanie. So far she seems great! They just look sooooooo cute out there!

Aunt Jennifer & Uncle Jesse's Wedding

On September 10, 2005 Uncle Jesse officially joined our family. Aunt Jennifer was absolutely gorgeous and looked so happy and relaxed. It was as it should be! Roman was a handsome ring bearer, tux and all, but when the big moment came he froze, freaked, turned and ran for cover! NO WAY was he walking down that aisle with all those people staring at him. I was called back a little too late, so as the most adorable little flower girl - Hope Elizabeth! - began walking down the aisle, Roman and I snuck down the side and joined daddy and Bethany. Hope did AWESOME! She looked like a little princess and smiled and walked all the way down all by herself. We were so proud! After the wedding she told us "My prince ditched me at the door! I didn't know a princess could walk down all by herself, but I did it!" Shortly after the ceremony began I had to bolt with a very restless Bethany. She just wouldn't sit still and was beginning to fuss, so we went down to the church nursery to play. The ceremony was relatively short and when Bethany and I came back up for family pictures and to see the bride and groom off we discovered our adorable little flower girl didn't make it through the wedding. She had fallen asleep sitting up. It was too cute! Bethany was still being restless and wouldn't stand still for anything. Doubt many good pictures of her will come back, but she looked adorable all the same as a little honorary flower girl she wore a matching dress to Hopey's. When they went to make the introductions at the reception, all the men in the wedding party wore sunglasses. Funny how suddenly Roman was willing to strut his stuff hiding behind those shades. Why didn't we think of that earlier? At the reception all 3 kids turned into dancing fools and stole the dance floor! The DJ passed around various blow up toys and masks and silly stuff to get the audience out of the chairs and on the dance floor having fun. Roman quickly fell in love with these blow up guitars, and with his shades on morphed into a rock star, or so he thought. Bethany discovered blow up microphones, but, in true B-monster fashion, chewed holes in everyone that came near her. Hope liked the air vent on the floor as is blew her dress up like a ballerina and she spent quite a bit of time dancing around on top of it. When she wasn't there you were sure to find her dancing it up on the dance floor with anyone and everyone she could find. It was a lot of fun! The kids certainly had a blast and we are all very excited to welcome Jesse into our family!

Who's Day is it?

After putting on her beautiful princess flower girl gown, having her hair done up in a curly bun with a gorgeous tiara, makeup and nails done just like the big girls, upon entering the limo Hope asks, "Who's day is it again? Aunt Jennifer's or mine?"

Bethany's First Haircut

Bethany had her first haircut today! My baby girl is all grown up. She looks so cute! She did really well for the most part, of course she fidgeted as any 22 month old would, but overall she did great and is absolutely adorable! I have, in the past, trimmed her bangs up, but this is her first real haircut and boy, what a difference it makes! We have tons of pics, but as usual, haven't uploaded them yet. One of these days I'll have to go bad and just add pics to all these entries. :)

Roman - School Update

Roman is doing great at school. He just loves his teachers, his fav part of school is recess - 2 times a day!, and has his sites 100% on the treasure chest. This is a program his teacher does. Everyday in his folder he has a chart and gets either a green dot for excellent behaviour, yellow for we had a few issues, but overall good, and red for we didn't do so great today and that one usually comes with a note from the teacher. Well, for every 10 consecutive green dots he gets to go to the treasure chest where she keeps little $1 store toys, character pencils, bubbles, just fun odds and ends that the kids can have as a reward. Apparently they also have corresponding frog charts in class showing their frog jumping to the treasure chest (unless that's just how Roman's imagining it in his head, was hard to tell from his description. LOL) and he is non-stop talking about how good he's gonna be and can't wait to reach that treasure chest. It is too cute! So all good on the school front!

Sheer Determination

James has a bad habit of leaving his Coke lying around the house. Today it was on the fireplace, within easy reach of the Bmonster. Bethany spots it, yells "Coke" in her happiest voice and grabs it up with a grin. James calmly conviscated it and said "Honey, no coke" and put it on the second shelf of the bookcase. Bethany looked at him, reached over grabbed it. So again, he conviscated and this time moved it to the top of the speaker. She looked at him, climbed up onto the arm of the chair, stood up and grabbed it saying "COKE". So this time he said "No", conviscated the can and moved it out of reach on the top of the mantle. Or so he thought.... with an evil laugh, she climbed on the arm of the chair, then to the back of the chair, then proceded to step on the bookcase and climb the shelves until she could reach over and snatch the can off the mantle, took a quick drink before it could be conviscated and began laughing her most evil little laugh.

Only Draw on Paper Given to You by Mommy or Daddy

... This is the rule in our house. So today, being a tough day on everyone with Roman heading to school, James told Hope she could have a special treat outside. Hope got quite excited, "Trweeeet? trweet trweet trweet!" So James brought out the sidewalk chalk which we have had for some time and never actually used. He explained to Hope what it was "... you can draw on the sidewalk with it". And the conversation went something like this.

Hope: OH NO!

James: What?

Hope: I'm not going to draw on the road

James: Why not?

Hope: Because you'll yell at me or spank my butt and make me clean it all up, so I'm not gonna do it and I'm not gonna get in trouble!

Guess her punishment of having to wash down the walls the last time she wrote on them has paid off and committed to memory. Of course she has since washed down nearly every wall in the house. Seems anytime she so much as thinks of writing on the wall, she gets a washcloth and water and washes them instead!

Our KINDERGARTENER!!!

Roman is officially a Kindergartener! This morning he was up and ready to go long before school time. After his excitement over riding the bus at orientation we decided to let him ride the bus afterall. I mean, it's only about 2 blocks away and he is the last one on, first one off. Of course I had already made arrangements to go in to work late. By 8:45 there was no more containing his excitement and we conceded and headed to the bus stop.

Note: his school doesn't start until 9:20 and his bus doesn't even start it's route until 8:55!

Once outside we took a bunch of pictures, then walked to the corner where his bus stop is. Much to our surprise we weren't the first ones there! Turns out there are 2 other little Kindergarteners - Kayla and Katie - who live just around the corner from us. Kayla too was so excited that they came out early and within about 5 minutes Katie arrived as well. They were all too cute jumping around and chatting about the unknown. As the bus arrived, I was bracing to try not to cry and handed the camera to James but before the camera even left my hand, Roman shot off across the street, briefly yelled "bye" over his shoulder and flew onto the bus. No hesitation, no sentimental, emotional good-bye there. He never even looked back!

BUTTering up the Grandma

At Target, Roman ask James for a new toy and he tells him no, to go kiss grandma's butt if he want's something. So he grabs the toy off the shelf and runs over all exicted to her. Proudly displaying the new toy he desires he says:"Grandma Kiss my butt!"

A foot or a foot

Hope has to get a haircut before Aunt Jennifer's wedding next weekend. So we were discussing it, and as I always do when teasing her about her "long, bootiful hair" I told her we should chop it off and admiring how long it has gotten held it up to chin length and jokingly said we would only take a foot off. Hope looked at me with those big eyes now the size of saucers with this disgusted look on her face. "Please don't cut off my foot!" as she grabbed her little foot in her hand and held it tight!

Old Teachers

When discussing last night's orientation with Roman this morning he tells me, "I loved it! But... I thought Miss Neal would be old." LOL Where he came up with that we do not know.

kindergarten orientation

Tonight we had Roman's Kindergarten Orientation. The girls were hoodlums and acted up from the moment Roman was taken back to meet his teacher. I ended up out in the hallway trying to entertain them during the introductions, speeches and whatnot. We saw Roman's friend Kyle from teeball this summer there. We didn't even know he was going to Reams. Desiree was also there, but Roman did not end up in a class with either of them. After awhile James came and relieved me so I could watch some of it too and we continues tag teaming them every 10-15 minutes till it was time to meet up with the kids again. We were told in advance that during our introduction to the school the Kindergarteners would be introduced to their teachers and classmates, see their classroom and ride the bus. Last time Roman rode a bus on the last day of Ready Rams he freaked out! "Mommy, did you know they don't have seats? You just bounce around all over the place!" and he has been soooooooooooo nervous leading up to this day that we weren't quite prepared for the happy smiley boy sitting on his spot on the carpet amongst all his new "friends". His teacher, Ms. Neal, introduced herself and proceded to have the kids read a story. Roman seems to be very comfortable with her and James and I couldn't be happier. We look forward to working with her throughout the year. Best part of all.... no more fears! Roman is so incredibly excited about starting his "second day" of school. (apparently, in his mind, tonight was his 1st day of school).

Pass it down

This weekend we picked up James's guitars and amps from Grandma and Grandaddy's. The kids have never really heard James play and were quite amazed as he cranked it up upon arriving home. As we were settling down for the evening and putting things away Roman grabbed the guitar and attempted to play it. James told him not to touch it again. Roman's response, "but it's mine". After some bit of discussion on the rules of the guitars and establishing the fact they were daddy's guitars, Roman was still insisting, "No, it's mine, you pass it down". WHAT?!? By now frustration aside, James calmly asked him, "Why do you think it's yours? Why would I pass it down?" Roman's response.... "That's just what you do with stuff, pass it down to your kid, just like AJ Foyt passed those craftsman's tools down to his son and down to his son after him, in the commercial. So you pass it down to me. And I just thought then, the guitar was mine." Roman is an advertisers dream child! All this from a 30 second NASCAR Craftman's tool commerical!

Now THIS is an Excuse!

I was talking to James on the phone just before lunch today and I hear

"Roman, go stand in the corner"

Roman's voice in the background could be heard clearly "What did I do this time?"

James snapped "Don't sass me boy, get in the corner and I don't ever want to see you smack Bethany in the head again."

I could hear Roman getting upset and frustrated at that point, his response:

"I didn't hit her, she wouldn't leave me alone and then my hand got stuck to her head!"

I could so clearly visualize this playing out and could see James's anger at his son hitting his sister just fade away into a blinking stare as he tried not to laugh not quite knowing how to respond. Of course, me not actually being there, was totally cracking up through the phone and had to bail the boy the out.

See, Bethany had eaten dirt pudding with gummy bears when we had dinner at 5 Mile Post the night before and since we got home on the late side I didn't give them a bath, just wiped them down before bed last night. As Bethany was laying in my lap for story time I was stroking her hair and it got stuck in the sticky mess called her hair, so I knew what he was talking about, but James was clueless and thought that had to be the most clever excuse ever! Further explanations produced this scenario:

Roman just went to push her away from him as she wouldn't leave him alone and when he put his hand up to move her over, it got stuck in Bethany's sticky mass and as he was attempting to untangle, James caught what, to a normal bystander, looked like he was hitting her in the head!

Family Reunion

Saturday was the Hill family reunion where all my mom's sisters and brothers get together once at year at my Uncle John's. In the past it has been mainly just a sibling thing, but this year the kids & grandkids were invited. We were supposed to go, along with Steven and his family and Kari and her family, but we backed out at the last minute due to extreme hike in gas prices. Then I started feeling bad about it and changed my mind at the last minute and we all piled in the truck and headed to Baltimore. Turns out Kari and Steven both backed out too, but it was still great to see all the aunts and uncles some who have never met the girls, some I haven't seen in years, some I just don't see enough of.

I had called ahead and let Uncle Dave know we were coming and apparently he didn't tell anyone. As James and I were getting everyone shuffled in Hope ran to the back door and just stood there looking in until grandma spotted her. I think grandma loved that especially cute entrance.

Uncle John has a big pool in the backyard and despite the fact that we ran out without bathing suits, it wasn't long before the kids found their way into the pool. I think Aunt Darlene would be the primary instigator here! Next thing I know Hope is knocking on the backdoor completely naked and having to go potty.

"What are you doing? Where are your clothes? Where are your underwear??"

Hope "I'm not riding home with wet 'un-wear-wears'!."

Aside from my little streaker I walked out to discover boxer boy aka Roman, and the soaking wet, I'll just jump in with my clothes on, B. They did have a blast though and eventually I did manage to convince Hope to put her underwear on at least. It took a lot of coaxing from everyone, but Roman soon discovered that he was tall enough to walk around and play in the shallow end. By the end he was even grabbing hold of pool noodles and letting Uncle Roy pull him around in the water. Hope wouldn't leave the steps area and Bethany enjoyed laying on the raft and being pulled around like a little princess. Then, out of the blue, Roman decides he wants to jump off the diving board just like Uncle Roy! Roman - the boy who is petrified of water was entertaining the idea of jumping off the diving board into the deep end. It took him more than 5 minutes to work up his courage, but with a lot of cheering and a dollar bribe from Uncle John, much to my astonishment he did it!!! He jumped off the board onto a raft below and Uncle Roy helped him kick to the edge. He didn't fully go under because he had grabbed the raft on the way down, but still... MY BOY! Jumping off diving boards! Man has he grown up this summer! James and I couldn't be prouder.

Then as if that wasn't big enough, my often shy in front of groups of people, little boy proceded to join in on karyoke. When we would have expected Hope Elizabeth to grab the spotlight, nope, it was totally Roman's day! He sang his heart out for everyone, microphone and all. ABC's, Row Row Row Your Boat and so on. With Row Row Row Your Boat he scored a 97%, or an "A" as Grandma informed him and he was quick to let anyone who would listen know. This means that he kept up with the music and sang the right words through 97% of the song! He is quite the singer.

All and all we all had a fabulous time visiting with everyone and hope to be able to do it again soon!

Mommies Know Everything

The kids are always asking me "how do you know that?" in regards to everything. And I am always telling them "mommy knows everything!" So the other night James and I are sitting in the living room watching TV just after having put the kids to bed and I yell "Turn that light off", to which we hear lots of loud whispering and movement as they struggle to get the light off. A minute later I yell again "Turn that light off" and they do very quietly and turn it right back on, so I yell again "I said turn it off".. "off"... "I said off!" At this point there's a lot of groaning, and "How does she know that?" and I yell, "I heard that, and I told you, mommies know everything!" This pattern continued one more time with me repeatedly yelling "OFF" about a dozen times before they gave up and went to sleep.

At that point, James looked over shaking his head, and says "Come on, how DID you do that?" Because the living room used to be arranged so that the recliner was just off the end of the hallway and it was easy to tell when the back of the hallway would light up, but now it's on the other side of the room and impossible to see down the hallway to tell if the light is on or not. At first I played along and just shrugged and said "I told you, mommy's just know everything". After some groaning and proding I had to admit.... If you look towards the hall, there's a TON of pictures on the wall, so whenever the kids turn on the light it reflects in the glass on the pictures and you can see those from the chair!

Kissing Energy

I had a hard time waking up this morning. One of those oh so comfy days where you just don't want to get out of bed. So James tells Hope "Hopey, give mommy kisses so she has energy to get up.... "

Next thing I know I'm being smothered in Hope-Hope kisses. I reluctantly roll over and start to face the day. Next thing I hear:

Hope: "OH no, now I don't have any "injuries" quick, someone kiss me!"

What's for lunch - 2

When asked today what he would like for lunch, Roman replied, "A mayo sandwhich" Okay, would like anything on your mayo sandwhich? "yes, hmm.... how about turkey, lettuce, and cheese (pause) Just don't forget the mayonoaise!"

Losing Water

In our house there is an 8 o'clock cut off for drinks to help avoid accidents at night. Tonight, right before bed Hope decides she needs a drink and she would not let it go. After begging, sticking out the pouty lip, lots of hugs and kisses, and hitting up both mommy and daddy, she comes to me straight faced ready to get serious.

"But mommy, everyone knows when you sleep you lose water"

Hope, that's EXACTLY what we're trying to avoid!

James lost it and as we both sat there laughing hysterically, she quietly stomped off to bed.

Beans Beans are Good for your Heart....

Tonight for dinner we had taco bake, veggies, pears, and refried beans. Roman picked at his dinner and declared himself full. Once everyone was done, and we were inspecting the plates, we noticed Roman hadn't really eaten anything. So James tells him "Whatever you do, don't eat those beans! You remember how the song goes" Our little music lover piped in questioning what song he was talking about....

Beans beans are good for your heart,
The more you eat the more you fart,
The more you fart the better you feel,
So eat them beans with every meal!

This created great excitement and Roman preceeded to scarf up on some beans when James mentioned that he really shouldn't eat anymore of the taco bake as it will give him really stinky farts. I have never seen that boy clear a plate so quickly.

10 minutes later... "Daddy, when are those farts gonna start?"

1 hour later (in the middle of the grocery store).... BOOM...

Crack in the Sac

This morning, under the assurance he wouldn't get in trouble by his daddy, Roman came into the bedroom to rudely awaken me. "Mommy, you're late, get your crack out of the sac" followed by massive giggles and a quick "daddy said I could say it" So I played along and proceeded to stick my butt up in the air. When he again said "Mommy, get your crack out of the sac" I replied, "My crack IS out of the sac" to which he responded, "Put your crack back down and get all of you up"

6 Peanut Butter & Jellies

Today for lunch we had peanut butter and jelly sandwhichs (a Hope-Hope favorite). I asked her how many pieces she wanted, 1 (no cuts), 2 (cut in half), or 4 (cut in quarters). She said "3" as she does everything these days since that is her age. So I explained I couldn't handle 3, and she chose 4 and went on with her business. Bethany only eats half a sandwhich so I had made her a half and cut that into 2 smaller pieces. So then comes Roman's turn...

"How many pieces do you want today?"

Roman: "Six"

"I can't do 6, either 1, 2, or 4"

Roman: "Well, Hopey has 4, and Bethany only eats half a sandwhich, so she has 2, so if you make me a whole sandwhich cut into 4 then make a half and cut it into 2, 4 + 2 = 6. I want 6 peanut butter and jellies today."

"HUH??"

He's FIVE, how the heck does he know how to add like that?

Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE 4

I'd love to say... She's done it! We're out of diapers... but that's more than a little premature. We are still making progress and little B-butt is still doing great overall. This weekend we bought a new big screen TV. With this TV came a lot of packaging styrfoam which of course just nag at every kid within a mile to just crumble up all over the place. Okay, so every normal kid within a mile. But my little B, she's much more creative than that. This afternoon when I came home for lunch I was sitting in the recliner and suddenly smelled poop. Bethany came running up to my chair, from where I was not sure, and exictedly announced she had pooped. I wiped her butt and complained to James that the poop was really stinky as the bathroom is down the hall and the smell was way too strong. A quick investigation and James identified the problem... a bowl shaped piece of styrfoam from the TV packaging had become Bethany's personal potty. Turned out to be nearly the exact same size as her little potty and amazingly, although still disgusting, it contained everything very well with no mess to clean up! She really is making progress though, I swear! :)

Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE 3

We're making progress!!! Tonight she was sooooo adorable. I was trying desperately to finish reading a chapter for one of my classes and the kids were "supposed" to be in bed but Bethany was fighting it. She was actually already in her diaper and pj's and went running down the hall to the bathroom. A few minutes later I hear "mama mama mama mama" and I tried so hard to ignore her, hoping James would go check on her and clean up her potty this time and then here she comes running out of the bathroom her little legs spread eagle like she'd just gotten off a horse and sorta jumping up and down as she walked up to me. Then she grabbed my hand and still jumping up and down starts yelling "mama see, come now, mama see" So I couldn't resist, it was quite obvious she was VERY proud of herself, so I let her drag me in the bathroom and there it was, two huge turds floating in the big potty! Bethany just pointed and jumped up and down saying "yeah poop!" At which point everyone came running out of their prespective rooms to admire her business. LOL Amazing what excites us as parents! LOL (especially since it was in the big potty so no mess to clean up!)

Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE 2

Bethany is still doing great pee-peeing in the potty. However today she had a slight accident. Hopey was laying on the floor watching TV and Bethany was sitting on her back. Well, she forgot she wasn't in a diaper or maybe is just truly the little monster we sometimes claim her to be, whatever it was, why ever, we may never know. What we do know is that as she sat on her big sister watching TV, at some point, said sister became Bethany's personal "potty". She pooped on Hope!

(No need to mention just how freaked out our little drama queen was and daddy can't explain what happened with going into complete hysterics.)

Roman's Ready for School!

My baby boy had his school physical last week. He really did great despite the minor freak out over the shots. He looks about as close to perfect as possible. He rang up in the 80% for weight and the 70% for height, so doing great there. The only slight concern is that he still has a heart murmur. Has had it since birth and was told he should have outgrown it by his 1st birthday. Normally at 5 this still wouldn't concern the doc much as it sounds to be a minor murmur, but after discussing my dad's heart history, the doctor decided to sent him to a cardiologist just to make sure it's nothing serious. So we have to schedule that for sometime early August. Otherwise he's perfect!

Then this weekend we went shopping for school supplies. He picked out a backpack with more pockets than he'll even know what to do with, but it looks cool - "Just like Col. O'neill's commando pack". He picked out 2 lunch boxes and a thermos to carry milk in - he'll be bringing his lunch instead of buying it. Then of course all the stuff his school requires for his grade. The fact that they specify so specifically on everything just drives James insane. I can certainly see why his rebellious attitude got him in more than a little trouble during his school days and keep telling him to butt out so as not to rub any of that onto Roman. Roman can't have character or colored pencils in school, they only want yellow #2's. This literally drove my husband insane, until I finally gave in and allowed them to get a pack of brightly colored erasers to top the yellow #2's... afterall if Bethany gets ahold of them she'll try to eat the erasers off the tops anyway, so I'm sure we can use the extras. Finally the last item on the list, an art shirt. It says not to buy an actual art shirt, to use an adult size teeshirt, recommending an old one of dad's. Problem is, James is a pretty big guy and his shirts would literally fall off Roman. So I agreed they could go wild. Told Roman to pick any color or logoed shirt in the store for his art shirt. James got so excited he's running around looking at racing teeshirts, baseball shirts, flurouscent green, you name it. What does Roman pick? Solid WHITE! LOL

The Princess Room

The princess room is nearing completion. I still have a little touch up painting to do and the crown molding still needs to be installed. The crib has to be broken down and the room basically organized and stuff hung back on the walls. But the new princess bed is in!!! For those out of towners, you'll also be happy to know the royal bed is a twin over full bunk bed, so we actually have room for guests now. Of course Bethany looks soooooooooo tiny in her very first big girl bed as hers is the bottom bunk - the double. We've had a few skirmishes over the ladder so James has temporarily removed it until the excitement of the new bed calms down some. The last 2 nights have found all three hoodlums sleeping together in Bethany's big bed. Just too sweet. The royal bedding is now in place and looks AWESOME if I do say so myself.

Last night, perhaps in the spirit of the princess room, more likely just to be a goofball, Roman apparently needed to fit in and sometime in the middle of the night changed into a pair of Hopey's princess pj's to sleep. I about died laughing when we went to check on them before heading to bed ourselves only to find out 100% all American boy sleeping peacefully in pink and purple pj's. Funnier still was the horrified look on daddy's face!

Little Sneakers Strike Again

This weekend Ronda, Renee, Joey, Andrew, and Allie came to visit us. With Aunt Ronda always comes junk food. So, after a quick run to WalMart and 5 bags of candy later, she was satisfied there was enough crap in the house to last the weekend. Saturday afternoon Aunt Ronda walks into the the bathroom to find the light on and Hopey hiding out, face covered in chocolate, with her pockets buldging with those yet eaten. The following morning Aunt Renee noticed Bethany standing in time out and went to see if she was okay - she does occassionally put herself in time when she's down something bad - this time she was standing there "hiding" eating some of the candy Hope had snuck down for her! She's getting much sneakier in her old age though. She just turned and looked up with her big green eyes with no evidence of her crime, until she smiled her evil little grin and out trickled some chocolatey drool!

Weekend with Aunt Ronda & Aunt Renee

Ronda, Renee, Joey, Andrew & Allie visited us this weekend. We had an awesome time! Was quite refreshing, and we all miss them already. Was so great to see them and actually spend quality time with everyone. They got in Friday evening in time for dinner which was almost finished up when they arrived. After dinner we sat around catching up, then everyone pitched in and put the girls' new bunkbeds together in time to watch the season premier of Stargate SG1. After all the new sci-fi shows ended we were sitting around and my sister Renee starts talking about Harry Potter, so 5 of us loaded into the car around 11:30 and hit the bookstore in time for the midnight release. Barnes & Nobles had a line wrapped twice around the inside of the store then out the door and half way down the length of the building. INSANE! So we tried Books-A-Million. This one wasn't too bad so we went in. They had people dressed up in all sorts of wizard outfits, crafts centers to make your own wizard hat or wand, the news crew was there, it was crazy, but fun too. Andrew was quite embarrassed from time to time, but I think he enjoyed himself even if he didn't totally admit to it. Saturday the girls' went out for a quick breakfast, then garage saling, followed by shopping when we couldn't find any good garage sales. Aunt Ronda and Aunt Renee both spoiled the kids - no surprise there. Shortly after lunch we dropped Hope and Bethany off for naps and headed to the movies. We saw the new Herbie movie, really enjoyed it, so much that I took my whole crew + Barbara to see it on Sunday afternoon. Roman went hysterical with all his fav race car drivers in it and is still talking about it. Hope was ecstatic that her "Peaky Priday" girl was starring in it, and Bethany - well, let's just say she's not quite ready for all that, but at least I had seen it before so didn't mind hanging out in the back with her and leaving the theater now and then as she'd get too rowdy. Still it was her first movie, my baby girl is growing up. Overall, just an awesome family weekend!

Bad Daddy Moment

After lunch today James wanted to give the kids a treat and pulled out the popcicles. So he walked into the living room carring a box of popcicles and asking what kind everyone wanted. Roman got excited and started yelling "Strawberry!" So James pulled out a strawberry popcicle and proceeded to throw it at him from across the living room. Only Roman didn't see him throw it and started to jump up and run toward him for it. You're probably guessing what came next. Popcicle meets Roman's head at full speed ahead! Clocked him right on the noggin better than he could have planned had he tried. Roman of course went hysterical as it was a hard frozen popcicle, and James felt like absolute crap, but me, the innocent bystander, couldn't stop laughing.

Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE

The momentum has not stopped. She is now frequently using the potty. She still isn't quite making it there in time, but she will start to pee then hold it, run to the bathroom and finish in her little potty. With the exception of naps/nighttime, she is doing this consistently. We still have her in diapers as she didn't seem to care for the pull-ups just yet. I think he little butt is so tiny that the pull-ups are big and bawlky making them less than comfortable for her. Still, we are very proud of our Big Girl B. Go Bethany!!!

Hope the Beauty Queen

Hope got into my purse and stole my lipstick this morning. That's a first for us as they know better than to mess with mommy's purse. I had invisioned when this day eventually came that I'd have a huge mess and some really funny pictures, but heck no, that girl put it on like a pro... without a mirror or anything! I caught her primping in the mirror afterwards and asked her what she was doing "just checking my lipstick", normally meaning chapstick, but this time it was different so I questioned and she admitted what she did, then wiped it off and did it again.... perfectly! Where did this child come from?? This little super girly-girl can not possibly be MY daughter!

Bethany's Potty Training

Bethany has begun to potty train herself. Unfortunately the will is stronger than the physical abilities! She's driving us all a bit batty, but is making it about 1 in every 3 tries now. The rest lead to a lot of laundry and clean ups on aisle 1! Yesterday she followed me into the bathroom while I was getting ready for work, put the potty seat down and climbed up to brush her teeth while I was brushing mine. Then she realized, hey, I have to go potty and sat down and pooped.... with the lid still down! GROSS!!!!!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We had planned to go to Aunt Deanie & Uncle Charlie's house on the eastern shore, but had to cancel at the last minute. Instead, Kari, Kermit, Abby & Megan came to visit us for the weekend. We had a great time! It was so good to see them and we are all excited about them moving to Virginia. On Monday we went to Jon & Alicia's and had a cookout followed by fireworks over the lake. The guys had a lot of fun shooting off the fireworks and the kids just went nuts over them all. I had bought glowsticks and glow jewelry for the kids to play with and good thing too as it was so dark out there I was worried we may just lose a kid or two!

Note to self: the glowing barretts worked great for the little ones!

It was a lot a fun and a great weekend!

Wake up Mommy

Saturday morning as I'm laying in bed being lazy and sleeping in, James sends Hope in to wake me up. "Mommy, get up right now... when you wake up".

Girls and Clothes

Well, it appears we have another clothes junky in the house. Hope has always been addicted to clothes and quite demanding on what she will and will not wear, generally changing her mind and her clothes more times than I can count in a day. Well Miss Bethany is 19 monthes old now, and sure enough, she's following in her sister's foot steps. Today was laundry day, and so all her PJ's were clean and folded ready to be put away. She changed PJ's 4 times tonight. I have a feeling it gonna get even crazier around here.

As if that's not bad enough, the girls are constantly fighting over clothes. They are 1 1/2 and 3!! There are certain things (like anything Dora right now) that I buy matching... not because I like to dress the girls alike all the time, but because it drastically cuts down on the fights in the house. They even picked out matching Dora bathing suits for this summer! Now our bigger problem is that Hope is Miss Skinny-mini and can still easily wear 2T shorts and dresses/nightgowns, while even though the B-monster is a little light weight, she has a budha belly and is still in diapers, so she is wearing mostly 18m clothes but some 24m/2T stuff. I'm sure you can guess where this is going.... Some of Hope's old clothes that still relatively fit have been passed to Bethany causing constant fights over who gets to wear what!

I knew having 2 daughters just 21 months apart that this would eventually happen, but come on, I thought I'd have a good 5-10 years before any of this started!

Swimming Break Through

For the last 5 1/2 years I have been attempting to teach Roman to swim. Now I have taught several younger cousins and nieces and nephew to swim. Kids who's parents never thought it would ever happen, I seem to have a knack for getting them comfortable and confident and the water. But my son?? Not happening!

Roman as a baby, at a prime time in life to start basic swimming and water confidence, living in Florida of all places... Roman a a baby was petrified of the water. Now don't get me wrong, he LOVED the beach playing and splashing in the surf and he liked to ride around in his little floaty in the pool and he looked forward to bath time every day, but if you tried to hold him in the pool he would glue himself to you and want you got out you were finally able to pry him from you, all the while he's screaming bloody murder.

As Roman hit the toddler years there was no change. Around age 3 in preparation of our cruise I worked hard with him on swimming and the only success achieved was that he no longer screamed, just held on for dear life! At age 4 I began cracking down and tried to push the issue a bit. He was now old enough to touch the bottom of the low end of the pool and the shore side of the dock at the lake. He did great... as long as his feet touched the bottom! Otherwise he would hold on for dear life. I attempted some basic practices like holding on to the side and kicking his feet out behind him.... yeah right! Or just get in a float and pick his feet up off the bottom to float, even for a mere millisecond... no way!

Well, with the addition of our little pool in the backyard, I, Julie Trettel, mommy to Roman Trettel IV have achieved the impossible!!!! After 5 1/2 long, frustrating, challenging years, we have our very first swimming break through!

In a matter of 15 minutes time he went from the description described above to a child willingly and without hestitation FLOATING in the water! He was using a ring float and began by just picking his feet off the bottom of the pool and kicking straight down, like he was riding a bicycle. Then I had him hold on to the kick board (with the ring float still around him) and with him feeling confident he wan't going under I was able to get him to allow me to pull his legs out behind him and help him kick his feet in actual swimming fashion. This of course was quite awkward with him still hestitant with me and the help of 2 floatation devices, so we slowed down a bit and started with basic floating. I calmly began talking with him and started floating on my back as I did. He completely relaxed in the water for the first time ever and within seconds had ditched the kick board and with only the ring float began relaxing and floating around the pool completely stretched out. We pretended to sleep in the pool and stretch out big and tall in our "bed". This worked GREAT!

FINALLY, we are to a starting point where I can begin to teach him how to swim! Oh, and when it was time to get out of the pool, he asked if it would be okay if he just slept in the pool tonight!

Star Wars Madness

You know your house has been taken over by the darkside when anyone mentions or pulls out anything related to Star Wars and your 19 month old begins humming the theme song!

Princess Aurora

Tonight Barbara, Hope and I ran over to Toys R Us to pick up a few pool supplies and a new Nemo table and chairs set for outside, and the cashier was apparently a huge Disney fanatic and he made notice of Hope's Snow White bandaid tatoo on her arm from her shots earlier in the morning.

"Is that Snow White on your arm?"

Hope nods

"Is Snow White your favorite princess?"

Hope nods again

"That's really cool. My favorite princess is Princess Aurora, do you know who princess Aurora is?"

Very excitedly Hopey nods, yanks up her dress to show off her Princess Aurora bandaid tatoo on her upper thigh where she had gotten a shot and says "See, I have Princess 'Booty' too, right here, and on my 'un-wear-wear'" as she points out her panties as well! It happened so fast that I just stood there with my mouth open as the poor cashier just freaked and didn't know what to do or say. LOL I got her dress down quickly and he tried chatting about other Princess things until I just started cracking up. On the way out the door Hopey turned to wave bye and he said "Now don't you go showing Princess Aurora off to any other strange guys, you hear"

Bethany Stats

Bethany finally had her 18 month checkup today. She weighed in at 23lbs and 32.5 inches. That's 5th percentile for weight, 50% for height, and 55% for head circumference. Same growth curve we've seen since birth. So she's doing great!

Dancing Flowers

As we were heading to the girls' doctor's appointment this morning R-E-S-P-E-C-T was blaring on the radio. I came to a light and looked in the back seat to see Hope and Bethany dancing and singing along with the radio. Then Hopey stopped, grinned and pointed out the window. "Look mommy, even the flowers are dancing!" The wind was blowing just right and it really did look like the flowers were dancing in tune with the beat.

"Those Other People"

This past weekend we bought a pool - thanks Grandma!! - for the kids. It's one of those large blowup pools, 12 ft around and 3 ft high. Yesterday we were able to get it up with much laughter and frustration from and over the kids. They were just soooooo excited about everything and couldn't help but want to "help" and couldn't seem to stay out of the water once it started filling up. They're really going to enjoy it this summer!

So anyway, today when I got home from work I put them in their bathing suits and the kids and I headed for the new pool. They all had so much fun! It turns out that the 3ft deep must include the blow up bubble part at the top because in reality it's only about 2 1/2 foot of water coming up about belly button deep on Roman, chest high on Hope and much to our amazement, chin deep on the shallow side on Bethany. Yes we have a deep end and a shallow end as the ground is slightly sloped.

The kids and I had a ball splashing around and playing in the water. As James and I began dicussing dinner, Roman announced he had to go to the bathroom so out he went and disappeared out into the house. Next was Hope dancing around having to go to the bathroom so out she went and disappeared into the house. Taking advantage of this, I got Bethany out and we started heading in to dry off and dress for dinner. About the same time Grandma showed up and Roman and Hope returned. Roman was disappointed and stomped back inside pouting while Hope went into theatrical hysterics. Grandma took it upon herself to tend to the Hope-Hope. Once inside she asked Hope what was wrong. Hope's response, "Those other people won't let me back in the pool!" Laughing Grandma asked "Who's 'those other people'?" Practically growling through gritted teeth she huffed "That mommy and daddy right there" pointing at James and I as we broke into hysterics.

Playground Bullies Move to Teeball

James is coaching Roman's Teeball team this season, now that soccer is over. Well, today we had Teeball meet and greet followed by our first practice. As Tyree began calling off names and separating into teams, the first member of the Mariners walks over.... Noah Anderson.... the cousin of the bully we had so much trouble with during soccer season! And worse, his mother who is the one I thought would take my head off when I approached her about the boys at soccer's meet and greet!

Neither of us said anything about it and she was overall pleasant enough. Fortunately her nephew is not going to be joining us. Though this should certainly prove to be an eventful Teeball season!

What's for Lunch?

When asked today what he would like for lunch, Roman replied, "A ham sandwhich"

Easy enough, what would you like on your ham sandwhich?

"cheese, turkey, and mayonaise (pause) and NO HAM"

Bethany Update

With so much going on with Roman and Hope these days I feel like Bethany sometimes gets over looked, especially on this blog. So here's a little bit about our almost 19 month old B-butt! At one and a half years old, Bethany Nicole is still smart as a whip. Her comprehension is amazing. If you tell her to go pick up a piece of paper, take it to the kitchen and throw it in the trashcan, you can bet it'll get done. She's a great little listener, even when it's not what she wants to hear. That generally leads us to a temper tantrum. This girl has one heck of a short fuse with classic throw yourself on the ground kicking and screaming temper-tantrums. But aside from that she is mostly a little sweetheart. She has bossy tendancies and is as demanding as the day she was born. Independant and stubborn to her very core.

Personality aside, Bethany is also talking up a storm. Earlier this month we went to Five Guys and Bethany and Hope fell asleep in the car on the way, so while James and Roman ordered, I stayed in the car while the girls napped. The radio was still tuned to Radio Disney, as it generally is these days and I was concentrating on something else when all of a sudden the song "Who let the dogs out" came on and at the end of the chorus when they start saying "Who let the dogs out" I nearly jumped out of the truck startled by a squeaky "Woof Woof" from the back seat. It was the B. She gets so excited about dogs and is always yelling "Og og Woof Woof" Some other favorite words right now.... yellow, purple, fish, remote, chocolate milk.

Bethany is really starting to play with the older two now. She tries to be the leader, but doesn't usually win that battle, though occasionally she will just deliberately grab and take off running with a favorite toy just to let them know who's really in charge around here! Most of the time she is playing really well with them though. Then there are times, like earlier today when her joining in isn't such a great thing. She picked up Roman's new "LandAmerica" lighted bouncy ball that I brought home from work with me and tried to throw it down the hill like Roman and Hope had been doing. Difference.... Roman and Hope were in the grass and Bethany did it in the driveway, down the hill, into the street, and CRUNCH run over by a car.

In 2 weeks Bethany will be going for her 18 month checkup (a little late) and we will see how much she's grown. Judging by the fact that she is maxing 18m clothes already, wearing a lot of 2T's - her and Hope are already fighting over clothes as Hope can wear some 2T's and Bethany is wearing some 3T shirts - I'd say she's grown a LOT in the last 3 months!

Miss Vanity

Tonight at PetSmart Hope was looking at the rats and hamsters and this little girl of about 9 or 10 with long brown hair was there too. Hopey squatted down next to her to look at a chinchilla - or cat as they thought it was - and she starts stroking her hair and says to the girl "I have beautiful hair, just like you"

Welcome Home Nemo, and our other new family members

Roman has decided his beloved fish, Chig, just couldn't be replaced, so there will be no Chig2. Instead of getting another Chig-fish (black, white, & orange goldfish) he has picked a few different smaller fish to join Rain - Bethany's fish and the sole survivor of the tank. So we now have Red, Sizer, and Sparky. Red is a female swordtail. Sizer is a lyretail molly. Sparkey is a ghostfish. They make quite a crazy family in there.

The awesome, most amazing news is that Nemo was discovered hiding out at PetSmart today! See Hopey's beloved Nemo croaked the day after Chig. Not having the heart to go through all that again, we just told her that Nemo must have missed Chig an aweful lot. Who'd have thunk all we had to do was go to PetSmart? We walked in and Hopey proclaimed "NEMO! There you are, how'd you get in there?" So of course, we immediately rescued him and brought Nemo safely back home.

The Great Escape

Yup, Bethany's done it! She is officially in and out of the portable crib like there's nothing to it and she finds great humor in climbing out and switching beds with her brother and sister at bedtime. Last night after a particularly rowdy evening, James peaked in to find Bethany in Roman's bed, Roman in Hope's bed, and Hope in the port-a-crib! Bethany is becoming such a big girl. Our concern now is that when the princess room is complete, then what? Does she go back into the big crib and take a chance of falling trying to climb out or is it time to seriously look into a big girl bed?

Latest Potty Time with Hope

James called me at work today and while we were chatting he started getting concerned as he realized he hadn't heard a peep out of Hope in awhile. So, wondering if she had gone down for a nap on her own, he sent the boy to find her while we continued to talk. Roman says "Oh, she went potty daddy" -- "Yeah, but that was awhile ago Roman, just go find her, and if she's still in the potty, make sure she's okay for me"

Next thing I hear is Roman giggling, "yup, she's still on the potty come see" Next I hear massive laughter from both James and Roman as they attempted to paint a picture of Hope Elizabeth sitting on the potty asleep. Unfortunately I had the digital camera with me at work, so James had to grab the 35mm and take real pictures. Can't wait to see them, I'm told it's a hysterical site, every bit as funny as the time she climbed into a small rubbermaid box and fell asleep.


UPDATE: I had started writing this awhile back, but didn't get around to posting. The pictures came back this weekend and as soon as I figure out how to post pictures on here I will post one for sure. It's an unbelievable site and I have no idea what that child was thinking! She was just sitting on the potty and fell asleep, she curled up in a little ball on top of the potty seat like a cat and took a nap! It's a HYSTERICAL site!

Spring Fever - Love is in the Air

I must have two of the biggest little lovers in the world. My kids have such big hearts and just lay it right out on their sleeves. If only that pureness could last forever!

A little over a week ago we went to Jon Jones surprise birthday party. The kids knew most of the kids there or had met them before at least. Across the street from the Jones's is a little boy about 2 years older than Roman whom he has played with from time to time. What he didn't know was that this boy has a younger sister. KAYLA. In the 2 hours we were at the party this little girl managed to squirm her way into the heart of my son to the point we're still hearing "when can we move to the lake?" That in itself is hysterical as Roman is the kid that just doesn't handle change well and would do most anything to never move again, yet one afternoon with Kayla and he's ready to move to Lake Shawnee in Powhatan. But what really threw us for a loop and had James and I smiling was the look on his face following her around and the devastation when told him it was time to leave. Anyone who has ever seen the movie Bambi will understand when I say, my son was truly "twitterpatted"! Guess this is the end of Desiree, his first little love whom he's vowed to marry some day.

Now Roman has always been a little lover, but this spring it seems to be contagious... Hope Elizabeth has her first crush! Yup, at just 3 years old, my daughter has the biggest crush on Roman's little soccer buddy, Joe Dombroski, and it's a bad one. And, this should not come as any surprise to anyone who has ever met our theatrical little girl, there is nothing suttle about her crush! LOL It started one day after soccer practice back in April. Joey helped her during a round of tag that she attempted to join in on, and the rest is history! During the following weeks "Joey" popped up into everything in our lives. The picture on a swing set box at Lowes with a little dark haired boy of about 5 "OH, that's Joey, this is the one I HAVE to have" Or in picture books at the book store "Let's read this one, mommy, doesn't he look just like Joey?" Then she started getting really silly with him. He'd show up for soccer practice and she'd run right up to him close enough to kiss the poor boy and bat those long lashes and say "Hello Joey" in her sweetest little voice. One day after soccer practice we went out to dinner with Joey and his dad and of course Hope had to sit right next to Joe and at times we thought she may just climb into his lap, or plant a big one on him. And whenever Joey would say something the slightest bit funny Hope would laugh as if it were the funniest thing she'd ever heard. She was hysterical and his proud daddy sarcastically made the comment "Yeah, that's my boy, I have that effect on the girls too" LOL Since then she has taken to chasing him, literally, everytime she sees him and calling him over and over again "Joey, Joey, Joey" Now soccer is over so we won't see much of Joe, but it hasn't slowed her down any, she's still talking up a storm about the boy. My baby girl - her first big crush!

Awesome End to the Spring 2005 Soccer Season

This spring Roman, once again, played soccer at the Manchester YMCA. James had not wanted to coach but I signed him up anyway, but to his dismay over half the team had requested him for coach. Overall they've had a really good season. Before this final game they were 3-3 (though we're not supposed to keep score).

At the final game there were 9 of the 11 players present. We started off strong scoring almost immediately by David (the team's most assertive player). Following shortly after that came a goal from Cordell (our most energetic player). Jamal - one of our youngest players, a laid back little boy who loves practices and hates games as he has zero aggression by nature and won't go after the ball when another child has it - got more ball time on the field than he has in the entire 2 seasons he's played soccer. Joey (our highest scorer) scored 3 goals, Roman (best all around) scored 2 - one with the assist of Andrew Dixon (most powerful with the force). I have been so proud of Roman all season, but his decisive stand on teamwork and telling everyone how Andrew set him up to score that goal, so that it was his and Andrew's goal and shouldn't be counted for just him, was too precious! Andrew also scored a goal on his own. Now Andrew has been the kid all season practicing his jedi moves on the field. He's a 4 year old player with decent attention span, but can often become distracted - what 4 year old doesn't? - anyway, from over halfway across the field Andrew, who had just been practicing his jedi force pushes again, kicked the ball and scored an unbelievable goal! Keegan (most improved player) who wouldn't even play at last week's game scored his first goal of the season... and then another! Sam (best defensive player) also scored a few goals. Sam and Roman were on fire with defensive plays throughout the whole game. Owen got in a few assists, and came so close to scoring a goal too. At the 5 minute warning, James attempted a crazy setup to get Jamal to score. He lined up 4 of the strongest players, 2 on each side, to pave the way straight down the field in tunnel formation, but when the whistle blew, Jamal kicked the ball and just stayed put jumping up and down ecstatic to have gotten some more ball time. It was too cute! What an awesome game to end on 7 of 9 players scoring!

After that we headed to AppleBee's for lunch where James came up with awards for each of the players on his own. I was quite impressed by that! I ran to Office Depot and found some perfect sports certificates, complete with soccer ball stickers and all, then printed out the awards certificates when I got home. Finally, it was off to the banquet. It was supposed to have started raining at 4 throughout the entire evening, but at 5 when we arrived back at the Y the sun was shining bright and we had perfect weather conditions the entire evening. Hotdogs and Hamburgers on the grill, adult conversations while the kids had full run of the playground and soccer fields made for a great evening! Last came the awards and trophy ceremony. James told a brief story or memory of each child as he explained their given award. It was wonderful!

Now what? Teeball! It starts in 2 weeks (6/6) and James has been asked to coach. At least 3 of this seasons soccer team will be joining his team too. I know Greg Kemp's final words as he presented James with his coaches gifts, really made for one happy Coach James, so I'll end with those.... "A sign of a good coach is when the season is over, the kids still want to play. Not only do these Tigers want to play, they are on fire for more soccer! Coach James - one great coach!"

Roman's Date

My little man is one smooth talker! We took him to see the Star Wars episode 3 movie at a pre-screening 2 weeks before opening night. Then decided opening night that mommy and daddy would have a date night and leave him home this time. Not to be swayed, my smooth talking son propositioned his grandmother....

"May I escort you on a date?"

Where would you like to go

"I'll take you to see the new Star Wars movie!"

So sure enough... the grandmother that hasn't been the movies probably since the original Star Wars was released, is out on a date with her beloved grandson.

Mom, Gail.... watch out, he's liable to sweet talk you gals into dates as well, anything to see this movie again!

Shacking up the Kids

Well, since Roman's room is now empty, we decided to take the opportunity to paint the girls room, something that's been on hold for over a year now. It will be a long and grueling process, as just finding the time away from the hoodlums is hard enough, let alone enough time to actually accomplish anything. But we've started the process at least...

Hope's toddler bed was moved into Roman's room and the pack 'n play was setup for Bethany in there. So now, not only does Roman have no toys, but 2 sisters shacking up with him. Right now it's still a big party, but we'll see how long that lasts!

All the other furniture was moved into the middle of the girls' room and tarped as we begin transforming it into the ultimate Princess room. A princess pink venetian plaster on the walls, pale purple on the ceiling, ultra white trim with the addition of some fancy crown molding around the ceiling. And of course plenty of Princess decorations to make it complete. If I ever learn to post pics and if we ever manage to actually complete this room, I'll try and put some pictures up for all to see. Wish us luck!

Roman Loses His Toys

May 11th, that was the deadline for Roman to get his room cleaned once and for all. James and I had just finished trying to give him his space not say too much about the mess in his room, but as the toys piled high and the floor could no longer be seen, and as it began to spill out into the hallway, we had to say enough is enough. One week he was given to clean it up. A deadline of May 11th at noon was given to him. Judging by the title of this blog, you can easily guess, he failed to meet that deadline.

This had to be the hardest thing I've done as a parent. With him standing by, over my lunch break, James and I removed every toy in his room, including his beloved race cars and star wars boys. His train table was disassembled and removed as well. All that was left behind was his bed and golf clubs - I was not about to threaten to throw away/sell his good sporting equipment. The noises from him during that process were heartwrenching and I cried through much of it too. I honestly don't know how James and I made it through, but following through with threats is something we're working hard on, so it had to be done.

Once the room was cleared he began to calm down. I returned to work and before my whopping 5 minute commute had ended, he was on the phone.... "Thank you mommy, we should have thrown all those toys out a long time ago. Now my room is so big and I can even practice my golfing in it!"

Okay.... not quite the response we were looking for, but a welcome change to the hysterics we faced the previous hour. That night I went through everything and sorted a lot of the small stuff into baggies ready for yard saling. Other stuff was sorted by type, some of which he will be able to earn back, but most of it will be thinned out as it is obviously too much and way too overwhelming for the little guy.

We will see how well he takes care of his toys and actually plays with them as he finds stragglers around the house that weren't confiscated and as he begins to earn back some of his favorites. We're hoping this was not all done in vain and that he will have learned a big lesson here, but only time will tell!

Playground Bullies Continued

Back at the beginning of soccer Roman had gotten into a fight with one of the green team boys. Now that same little bully is picking on my girls. Today before practice Hopey was playing with a ball and kicked it all the way down to the far soccer field. From there I heard her screaming and crying and looked up to see the obvious conclusion of what occurred... that little bully was heading away as fast as he could with her bright pink soccer ball. James got there first, retrieved the ball and returned to it to Hope bringing her back to our little corner section for practice. Not 5 minutes later Bethany was throwing the ball into the big goal next to where our team practices and the same little bully attempted to take her ball away. Not being easily swayed by bigger kids having to always battle for her territory against Hope and Roman, Bethany threw herself down and tackled the ball, standing back up triumphantly with her ball in arms. That's when the bully grabbed the ball from her, pried it out of her hands, then put his hand on her head and pushed her to the ground as he took off with the ball, laughing. Most of the parents on our team saw it and James again beat me to the kid and this time marched him over to his coach. Practice began at that time and we didn't have any more incidents. I'm torn on what to do from here. I tried being civil when Roman was busted fighting the kid, and now there's little doubt in anyone's mind that it was much deserved, even if I didn't like it. The mom was less than helpful last time and I honestly think she'd be proud of him, despite the fact that it was two young girls. I'm hoping to steer clear of the kid and praying for no more incidents in the next few weeks, but if so, I guess it's time to talk to Tyree - the Y's sports coordinator and see if he will intervene. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Star Wars PreScreening

Today, thanks to my amazing friend, Lynn Fox, Roman, James, Rob, and I got to experience the final episode to Star Wars 2 weeks before it is to be released to the public. We arrived early so did a little shopping. Then headed over to meet Rob in front of the theatre. There was a group forming around the entrance, but we weren't sure if this was our group or not, so not knowing where to go or what to do, James walked up to the ticket counter and asked. "Where do we need to go for the pre-screening of Star Wars?" Ticket lady "Star Wars doesn't start for another 2 weeks" James, "I know, we're hear for the critics screening of it today" Ticket lady, "They're doing that here? Today? They don't tell us stuff like that, go ask the Service counter inside, that's where all the promotional, group, and special showings are handle" I found it amazing that the people who work there don't even know what's going on. They kept the movie that hush-hush. So finally we are pointed out to join the group in front, about 50 people or so and shortly after are shuffled through to a staircase and told to form a line. Someone is standing by checking names off the list as you walked by to the guards at the bottom of the staircase. When our turn came, he asked for name, I told him "Trettel" and he looked at me funny, obviously knowing everyone else there except us, and so he asked what group we were with. I just grinned and politely said "Lucas Films" He had this funny shocked look on his face, and rushed us through thanking us for coming and whispering to others that representatives fromLucas Films was in the house. I had made Roman, James, and Rob all wear kakis and nice shirts, and although they were griping about it when the critics arrived in cut off jeans and dirty teeshirts, I was glad we dressed up a bit. Before proceeding upstairs everyone was searched with a metal detector and purses and bags were thoroughly checked. It was crazy! Finally we made it through and headed up stairs to a private theatre used for screenings. Everyone was very excited and emotional. Roman was the only child in attendance. When the head guy came around next it was to ask if everyone was ready to begin and shortly after started the movie. From that point on there wasn't a peep in the place. I could literally hear myself chewing at times everyone was so into it and quiet. Roman did great, covering his eyes for a few scenes when the music would change insinuating a battle scene approaching. But overall he loved it and when we left they were all talking a mile a minute like 3 little boys in a candy store! The movie was awesome, we all thoroughly enjoyed it. THANK YOU, LYNN!!!