Jack P Hill

I signed Jack up for baseball today.  It’s was $100,  talk about some serious cash!!  I signed up Nolan and Lucas a few weeks ago and it was only $40 so I thought it was going to be about the same price.  Well I was WRONG!!  What was I going to do, tell Jack that Nolan and Lucas could play but he could not.  It has been him begging me for the past 2 years to have me sign him up and we haven’t.  There was no way I was going to do that to my child.

Sometimes I feel like he’s my one child that gets lost in the crowd. Sometime he and I don’t see eye to eye things and I can get frustrated with him easier than the others. He also gets frustrated with me,I don’t know why though    I think it has a lot to do with our personalities being so different.

The other day he woke up for school and said he had a big headache so I sent him back to bed.  He wander upstairs around 10am feeling better. I asked him if he wanted me to take him to school and he just looked at me. I think he was afraid to say NO because he thought I would get angry with him.  For those few seconds, we just looked at each other.  I had a strong feeling to let him stay home and spend time with me so I look at him and I told him he didn’t have too.

I called my mother, who was going to pick up Brooklyn from school, and asked her if she wanted to meet me at McDonald’s.  Jack was so excited to go for lunch.  After McDonald’s, he got the book “Percy Jackson’s and the Olympians, book #1 Lightening Thief”.  He has been dying to read this book for a long time.  He already has book #2 from Aunt Tamara and we bought him book #3.  He couldn’t read the other 2 books until he read the first.  Long story short, he was super excited to get #1 and started reading it on the way home.  I think he’s already halfway through it.  The movie comes out in a few weeks and Aunt Tamara promised that she would take him to the movie (along with the other cousins) if they finished the book.  He was getting nervous that the movie day would come before he even read the book.

I don’t regret keeping him home for the day even if that meant I didn’t get anything done, my house was trashed, and I spent a few dollars on lunch.  It was worth every penny being able to spend time with my oldest son who seems to get lost in the crowd. Jack’s a great kid and I love him for everything he is and will be, even if he pushes my buttons from time to time.  He keeps me from having low blood pressure and that’s a good thing. No wait, that’s a great thing!

I love you , Jack!

Nolan

I captured a few snapshots of Nolan doing  his homework. I love it that he loves to do his homework now.  Last year when he was learning how to read and struggling.  He hated to do any homework but Math.  It was hard for me to keep him focused because  he didn’t want to do it.  He told me how he didn’t like school and that he knew he wasn’t as good at reading as the other kids in his class were. I told him it didn’t matter,  but it broke my heart to see his confidence level go down throughout first grade.  I didn’t know what to do.  We had him tested and he did not have ADD or ADHD. The tests came back negative.

In the end, I came to the conclusion that he’s just different than my older two children. The funny thing about Nolan is he is actually extremely intelligent. He like to see how things work and will spend hours and hours building his time machine and playing in make believe land. In the dead winter he wants to invite his friends over to play outside so they can build things in the backyard.

He has an amazing imagination.  I love it. I love that he loves it.  I want him to be like this forever, I know that one day some child will tell him he “silly” for thinking that way and he will be peer-pressured into going with what the other kids say is the normal.  I actually have prayed and told Heavenly Father that I hope that day never comes for my little Nolan. He is kind, caring, and loves his family. He truly cares for others. He has a huge heart and an amazing memory.

It’s been years since we went camping with my sister Stephanie’s family and he still talks about the “Lightening McQueen” club he made with Aubrey and Nathan.  He tells me all the time “Mom, when they come camping next time, we are going to do such and such different..”  The kid has a memory like nobody else. (thank goodness he doesn’t take after me, )

I have told Daniel many times before, I hope one thing I can teach my children is the ability to care for others. I think this is extremely important! People need to listen to others, care for their feelings.   I am so grateful that my parents taught me how important it is to care about others and to be kind to others.  I think it was more by example than actually teaching that.  When you grow up and that’s what you know then it’s much easier to be that way in your adult life.

I hope that when my children have grown up and are out on their own, they are able to care for others, be a listening ear to those in need, and serve when are where they are needed without ever saying  “what’s in it for me? or “what am I going to get out of it?”

Nolan is an amazing little boy and I know without a shadow of doubt he will grow up to be an amazing man. Dream big little boy, dream big…

I love you Nolan!!

Nolan doing his homework and explaining it to Lucas

piles of laundry

child stayed home from school yesterday,  now another one today

drew is a walking disaster

Berkley needs me to hold her this morning

I am basically living in the bathroom

I am freezing cold

and it looks like a bomb hit my house!

Look at the double chin.  I think its so cute

Daniel took a few photos of Berkley tonight after the kids went to bed.  After he took them I realized she was 6 weeks old and I should post some mugshots for her Grandpa and Grandma’s.  She is doing well.  Still sleeps all of the time.  If she’s cranky, it’s during the middle of the night of course.  We had two night she slept for 7 hours straight but they were not back to back more random and she hasn’t done that in a few days.

People say I should keep her awake and I try, I really do.  I even have her not wrapped up and lying on the cold hard floor and she still falls asleep.  All of my babies like to sleep a ton (which is fine by me).  I think it’s better to have them sleep 21 hours a day still than have them up all the time.

Ever single day when I put Drew down for his nap after lunchtime and she decides to wake up.  Now that I think about it, maybe it’s her survival mechanism.  She pretends to play dead while he’s near her so her chances of being  pushed, pulled, picked at, yelled to, or flying objects coming towards her are less likely to happen. BUT when Drew goes down for a nappy, she is then free and clear to be wide-eyed checking out the great and wonderful world around her..   (without her big brother to bother her)

check out those chubby cheeks. I just love to pinch them.

Drew and Berkley

Drew always try to help me out even if he doesn’t understand that he hurts Berkley sometimes. He ran right up to her today while I was feeding her and I thought he was going to say “HI” but instead he hit her right smack dab in the face. She screamed!

He started to cry because he was scared of her screaming. I had to pick him up and give him loves. He was not happy that I wasn’t putting her down or making her go away.  Life with two babies is always fun.  There is NEVER a dull moment in our house!

shoving the bottle into her mouth

Drew has her calm with the bottle in her mouth

Drew takes bottle away and decide to take a sip

Daniel and I went to the Dollar store and Meijer last night to do some late night grocery shopping. Late meaning we didn’t leave the house until after 8pm.  First we ran to the Dollar store to buy some thank you notes and shower curtains.  Daniel called his mother and fed Berkley in the car while I ran in the store.

Side note: My MIL  is on her way, as I type,  to the great island of Hawaii for a 1 week stay in the warmth sun shiny sunshine.  In this great state of Michigan,  it’s 20 degrees with winds and feels like 7 outside  bbbbrrrrr it’s cold!

Back to my story–After running into the Dollar store we headed to Meijer. All 3 of us went into this store because we knew it was not going to be just a “quick trip”  We started at the back and made our way up to the front.  About in the middle is the baby section and we wanted to run over there and check something out.  As I was looking Daniel saw this:

The return of Johnny Jump Up

Can you believe it?  After 30 years it’s made a come-back!  Daniel and I both had a good laugh, took a photo, and emailed it to his Mom.

Isn’t it funny,  how little things in life can really make a person’s day?

Last night at dinner, Lucas and I had this conversation:

Lucas-  “Mom, when I was in the bathroom at school today..”

Senta- ” Yeah,  buddy–”

Lucas- (smiling ear to ear) ” I had to poop. My underwear was on backwards”

Senta (laughing) ” Buddy,  did you take it off and change it?”

Lucas (laugh and smile stop immediately and eyes get huge) ” No,  we are not aloud to take our clothes off at school.”

Daniel walks over ” Why not?”

Lucas “Because!!!”

He then ran into the mud room to put his dirty clothes into the laundry.

At least he obeys the rules at school

Yesterday Zoey had her first ever YW basketball game.  She was very excited to play.  She had a handful of supporters there to cheer her on.  Thank you AL family, TK family, and Gma/Gpa for coming to show your support, she appreciated it very much.  They ended up loosing the game but that didn’t matter to much to her, the fact she got to play made her very excited.  She was also excited for her friend Kaitlyn to be playing too.  This is Zoey and Kaitlyn first year to play. Zoey chose to be #23 so I said to her she needed to live up to that number.  She had no idea what I was talking about though,  I need to explain it to her. 

I was very proud of her getting out there and learning the game.  I wished I could be out there too.  I wish the women had a team to play on and I would be out there playing my heart out.  It’s been many years since I have played in a game and I miss it!!

I took some actions shots and after the game I ran over to the bench to get a picture of her in her uniform and she had already taken her jersey off.  She was not going to put back on a sweaty jersey.

Most of you know that from the time we were pregnant with Jack, Daniel wanted to have a girl and name her Kate.

He loved that name and so did I.  When we found out Jack was boy, we said the next one would be Kate.  Then came another boy, then another boy, and once again another boy— no baby Kate.

When we found out this summer, baby #6 was going to be a girl we thought YEAH-  we finally have our Kate.  There was no discussion that’s what her name was going to be.

Then when I was about 5 months pregnant, I had a dream that we had a baby girl and named her Berkley.  I woke up the next morning and told Daniel about my dream.  I really like the name but thought no way, no how was Daniel going to change his mind about the name Kate.  In fairness, I LOVED  the name Kate too and thought that the name Kate was going to be her name.  Daniel said that he liked the name Berkley.

A few days later, I asked if he still liked the name?

He said “Yes”.

I said, “What should we do?  Should we name her Berkley or Kate.”

We both decided that we should name her Berkley.

So we changed it.

The day she was born we both knew without a doubt her name was to be Berkley Senta Hill.  We haven’t regretted the decision one bit.

Here are a few highlights of Berkley first month with Drew:

He has tried to feed her a mint, a cracker, a sucker, a sippe cup, a candy cane, fruit snacks and that’s all I am aware of.

He takes the bottle and tries to drink it all the time. As soon as it hits his mouth he shakes his head saying yucky and usually throws it back, hitting her.

He pulled her off the couch and I was right there.  She landed on his feet and couldn’t move. He gave me a look wondering why she came with the blanket he was trying to get.

He thinks she needs the phone, the clicker, toys, kitchen utensils, pens and pencils all the time.  We find them on and around her body multpile times a day.

He can’t stand her wearing hats at all. If he sees one on her, he immediately goes and pulls it off only to throw it on the ground.

If she’s wearing a head band he tries to pull that off too, only he doesn’t know how to get it off,  he pulls it straight out then gets frustrated and lets go only to have it snap back onto her face of forehead.  She screams and he gives me the look, the “what’s she crying about”

He like to kiss her only he doesn’t know how so he head butts her, causing her the cry.

He pulls on her, he pushes on her- showing her his love, only she doesn’t care for it too much.

This is just the first month of my sweet Berkley’s life.

Pray for her safety please.