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A Beauty Tip from Sean

Sean started preschool in the afternoons. He really likes it and I do too. The only tricky part it Brooklyn's nap. Sometimes she crashes at 11:30 and I have to wake her up at noon to drive Sean to preschool. She won't nap again after that and that makes the rest of the day--especially the evening very hard. 


He is enjoying doing crafts and projects--especially painting. He likes a few of his classmates, but is annoyed by others (the screamers). We have a lot of talks about being kind. We also talk about how to clearly communicate that something is not OK with you--like being licked or screamed at.

Brooklyn is liking school too. She loves to walk the older boys to school each morning.  Of course, for her, accessories are important. She loves shoes and bags.


Our house addition is moving right along. I will be honest--it's stressful. I didn't want to move to a new house because of the stress associated with it, but this is comparable.  I also feel wasteful and overly extravagant when I know of people who have much less than we do. Don't get me wrong, I am excited about the possibilities and the newness and it is fun to watch the progress.  But, it will be nice when it is all finished.

It was quite exciting when they put the trusses on the top. 

That was a very hot day--about 108 with the heat index (humidity).

The addition is now completely framed and roofed. They are working on installing the electrical and duct work. The walls have been cut out in the basement and the wall on the main floor will be knocked out this week. 
There is a team of guys at our house from 7 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. By the end if the day, I'm so through with noise and chaos.  The after school hours are the most difficult. Helping the kids with homework and keeping an eye on Brooklyn and Sean so they stay out of harm's way is hard. To add to that, the neighborhood kids always want a "tour". I almost always say no.

One particlularly stressful day, I attempted to get the kids to bed a little early so I could have a bit of peace and maybe be able to sit down and get some preparation done for Primary singing time. I sent the boys upstairs to take baths while I finished cleaning up the dinner dishes. I kept Brooklyn by me (or so I thought, but the story of how she gave her baby a bath in the toilet full of pee water is going to have to wait).  Soon enough I could hear bath time chaos thundering from above. There was a lot of splashing and laughing.  I knew there would be a mess when I got upstairs, but based on the noise, it couldn't get much worse than it already was. Unfortunately, I thought they were just splashing and playing. I did not know they had discovered the girls razors.  Andrew ended up with some cuts on his back (were they trying to shave their backs??--I have no idea) and Sean ended up with a bald check mark shape on the side of his head.

Sean's check mark required some intervention so that he would not be so weird looking. Since the next morning was church, I didn't have time to give him a haircut to fix the mess.  I remembered a friend telling the story of when she gave her husband a bad haircut and used mascara to patch up the bald places until it grew in. Sean wore mascara on his head to church on Sunday!  It worked okay for that day, but Monday morning I gave him a haircut.  He was pleased with how his haircut looked and how my miraculous haircutting abilities camouflaged the bald checkmark on his head.  He asked, "Hey mom, can you help me put some Jell-O in my hair so I can look even more handsome?"  I cracked up.  He meant gel, of course. 

So, Sean wants everybody to know about the miracles of mascara and Jell-O in your hair.

He also wanted me to wrap his hair in a towel after his bath so that it could dry properly.

I thought Andrew had grown out of the stage of saying funny things like that until yesterday.  We were hurrying to church late, and I ended up getting pulled over by a cop for speeding.  I only got a warning, as I always do, but the kids thought it was pretty funny.  Andrew couldn't wait to tell dad after church.  When Rick eventually got home later that afternoon, Andrew said "Dad! Did you know that mom got RUN over by a police officer this morning?!"  It's funny how just one word changes the whole meaning of a sentence.

This is Andrew's newest trick. 
Tree climbing is also very popular at our house nowadays. 

Comments

Chelsey said…
Love the shaving story. I can totally relate to having something crazy like that happen. I will remember the mascara. Really, were they shaving each other's backs??? Got to wonder.
Chelsey said…
Love the shaving story. I can totally relate to having something crazy like that happen to me too. Got to wonder, what were they thinking shaving each others backs?

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