Jaylon's babysitting DRAMA

We had an invitation to an adults only dinner party on Saturday night, so that left us with the task of finding a babysitter. Now here and there, for short periods of time, we have recently started allowing Jaylon to babysit for us. After all, he is 13 1/2 and I began babysitting when I was a mere 11. So we decided there was no time like the present to try it out for a longer period of time.

We had pizza for them to eat and a movie for them to watch. They each got the lecture about Jaylon being in charge and reminders about their behavior. We reiterated the rules of staying inside and not answering the door. So we were fairly confident things would be just fine. And of course the baby came with us.

The dinner party was relaxing and enjoyable, with no word from the home front...that is until my phone started ringing about an hour and a half into it.

No one had broken a bone. The house was not on fire. A stranger hadn't come to the door. It wasn't even that anyone was disobeying Jaylon, or arguing with each other. There was an issue with Gracie. She was screaming hysterically in the background.

She had managed to get a comb stuck in her hair.

Poor, flustered Jaylon. He didn't know what to do. Gracie wouldn't stop crying and screaming (and if you know Gracie, she is our most emotional/dramatic child in any situation). She was begging him to cut her hair, which we promptly told him not to do. We coached him on how he might get it out. He kept calling us back...Gracie kept screaming...the comb was still stuck. I suggested she get in the shower, get her hair wet and try to get it out by herself. No luck.

After eight phone calls, lots of tears and plenty of frustration on Jaylon's part, the situation subsided. I told him to put a movie on, leave the comb in her hair, forget any attempts at putting her to bed and told Gracie to wait until I got home and we'd get it out.

We got to enjoy the dinner party, even if my phone did ring a total of ten times. The kids survived. The house was a disaster. We found Emmie passed out in our bed amidst many random things. We were proud of Jaylon. And we got a great laugh and a funny story to tell thanks to Gracie. Apparently she was trying to see if she could curl her hair by rolling it around the comb. It could have been worse...

Emmie didn't last until we got home. She went to sleep, painted face and all.

Gracie didn't seem to think the situation was as funny as we did.

My ever resourceful husband solved the problem thankfully.

The goal was to cut as little hair as possible.

It was an eventful day for Gracie...she had lost her tooth that morning.

11 Months Old

Eleven months old today...amazing. Aaron is so much fun! His personality is coming through more and more. He has five teeth now and the sixth one is working it's way out. He says "mama", "ball", "hi" and "bye" - of course the clearest word is "mama" and the others are really just the beginning sounds, but it's obvious he knows what he's saying. It's fascinating to watch him take it all in and try to communicate, especially with his siblings, whom he adores! He finally started eating something besides breast milk...he never took to baby food/cereal so we just skipped that stage. He loves avocado (no surprise there since it's my favorite) and sometimes he will eat puffy baby snack things, emphasis on sometimes. His preference is still boob and it's hit or miss whether he'll eat anything else. He crawls turbo speed now and pulls up on everything. He still sleeps in bed with us...what can I say, Emmie still joins us most nights too. What a fun age this is! I can't believe he's almost one. Where did the year go?


He loves to sleep on Daddy's chest, actually Daddy has the special touch to rock him to sleep.

He had his first swim in the pool over Mother's Day in Palm Springs - loves water!!!

Did I mention the kid pulls up on everything? Such a ham for the camera too, always waves.

This is his other pose for the camera...almost like he knows he should smile.

Crazy few weeks we've had! It has been so long since I've posted. We've had dentist and ortho appointments left and right for no reason except the regular check ups. The last couple weeks of April we hosted three different homeschool related events at our house. The boys had to take the California state tests which is always a joy (not!).

The stomach flu hit our family and blew through like a storm...somehow I was the only one to avoid it. Who knows how many loads of sheets, towels, PJ's and blankets I washed that were covered in barf - oh the joys of motherhood.

We spent Mother's Day Weekend in Palm Springs with my Mom and Ted relaxing and swimming. Such fun! It stinks when you've got a sick kid that coincides with a pre-planned trip and you stick him in the car with a small trash can to puke in as you drive out to the desert anyway...knowing it's only a 24 hour thing and not wanting to cancel the trip! Poor Jaylon - he was the last to get it, so we knew it would be over after him. With five kids we have learned to just to roll with it.

Last week was a whirlwind of drama, literally. My girls were blessed to take part in their very first play. Our homeschool group did a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - it was fantastic! The girls had very small parts, but enjoyed it just the same. Their first experience with acting. What fun!

And now tomorrow afternoon we load up the car and drive across the desert to visit my Dad and Grandma for a long weekend. It's always fun to travel to Phoenix because we stay in a hotel and get to swim a lot and have yummy free breakfast while spending time with the world's goofiest grandad. My kids can hardly wait.

Only three and a half weeks of the school year left. I just can't believe it! Gracie has just started reading in the past couple days, so that is a huge milestone for her. She is so excited and I am so proud of her. It has been a good school year, actually, I feel like this has been the best homeschool year yet out of the past four years. Who knows what the summer holds in store for us? I'll figure that out after June 11...