Bedtime -

So bedtime at the Trent house should include the following: Bath, Book, Bed (+ Prayers too). Bedtime with 2 boys has continued to evolve into more and more of a process. Getting both boys into bed earlier with the school year has also added complications.

Typically, our evening ensures a number of ups and downs prior to the boys being asleep. Each night is a new adventure, although many times it is comical. For instance, tonight included the following:

Bath - both boys took a bath, and needed a bath badly! Bear had dried snot on his face with dirt mixed in - yick! There was also paint under fingernails, and more dirt there too...

Breathing Treatment - Bear is once again struggling with his breathing, so twice daily, the boys get a break in the action for Bear to inhale a smoky concoction through a nebulizer treatment.

Brush teeth - Hmmm, which brush to use? Can I use your toothpaste? I want to do it first! Whoops, don't mind the toothpaste all over the counter...not to mention the cap of the toothpaste tube.

Hydration - both boys get to have 4 drops of water prior to bed (approximately, I am joking kind of, but not really), not to much so that we don't have an accident, but this is also an integral part of the routine.

Kleenex - Bear feels it necessary to clean out his nostrils prior to hitting the hay...God forbid us forget!

Bathroom - Everyone needs to take a potty break, no matter how small the attempt. Bear has this down to a science and often goes to the bathroom 3 times within an hour time frame prior to being asleep. Yes, he really is going - he knows this is the only thing he can get out of bed for, and he works it!

Hostage negotiation - this was a new step this evening. LT asked if he could sleep with one of Bear's stuffed animals. Bear is a REALLY good sharer with his brother, so of course he said yes. LT then offered to let Bear borrow one of his "guys." Bear picked out one and that is when all heck broke loose. Poor hubs walked into this mess right in the middle and ended up doing the negotiation. We knew things weren't going to go well RIGHT at bedtime - not the best idea in general. LT ended up crying himself to sleep with the stuffed animal on the floor. Bear, of course, went to bed happy with a new "guy" in his bed.

Infirmary - Bear often takes his time going to sleep. It seems to just take him longer to settle down. LT is asleep in 3 minutes, literally. Bear came out 30 minutes after getting in bed with a bloody lip. When asked what he was doing, he gave me a visual of a somersault into his headboard. Not really settling down in my opinion...Seriously???

Can you believe that they get any sleep at all with this drama???

Had a rough week...

So no baby yet, that isn't what made last week a doozie. We had quite an illness that was hanging over our house for the week. (God willing, I will not get infected!) All 3 of my boys almost died last week from some unknown virus. (Not really, but it seemed that way.) Corey brought it home from work and the rest was history. The week went something like this:

Tuesday night: I woke up around 3:45am and couldn't get back to sleep. I figured, this is good practice for when baby arrives, so I just rocked out my day accordingly - and did a pretty dang good job if I do say so myself :)

Wednesday night: I nestled myself snuggly into my bed for a long night sleep which was quickly interrupted by Bear around midnight. He took a number of trips to the bathroom throughout the night and needed my help. When he was in bed, he slept like a hot potato hopping all over the place. His belly did NOT feel good.

Thursday night: Again, nestling myself into my bed for a long night sleep, which was quickly interrupted by LT. He comes down to our room and I was nice enough to let him climb in with us. BAD CHOICE. His entry into our bed means absolutely NO sleep for this Mama. He too might as well have been doing the Macarena in bed because he was ALL over the place. I was still in good spirits feeling sorry for my guy, so again I rocked out the next day under 4ish hours of sleep.

Friday night: After keeping LT home from school, I felt for sure that the end was drawing near, the other two had finished up within 24 hours, so I was banking on a good night's sleep. Not so lucky. LT had another bad night on Friday and was still puny Saturday.

After being sequestered to the house all week and going on just a few hours of sleep for the week, I was starting to get into real bad place. Luckily the cloud lifted on Saturday and all beings under this roof were better.

Around this time during pregnancy I am prepared to do a sort of "boot camp" in the sleep department. This is somewhat like God's prep course for baby's arrival. I am up a number of times during the night going to the bathroom or just up being uncomfortable...but last week takes the cake! Like Mimi said, thank heavens this happened now instead of after baby's arrival...

Kinder is kicking our rear...

Kindergarten has been far more of a challenge for the whole fam than I anticipated. (Now, I will look back on this when I have one in 5th, 2nd, and Kinder and laugh my hiney off, but for now, this has really been a challenge.) Let this serve as a warning to all of you girls who have kiddos in preschool and are enjoying that gig, that someday it will be over. I clearly just have a lot to learn on the big kid school circuit. First of all, homework...seriously, in Kinder? Apparently his teacher is pretty dang serious. LT has homework 4 nights a week, and although not difficult, it can be after he has been "schooled" all day long at his desk. Second, it seems like time has just been ripped from our hands. We have to have LT at school by 7:50, which doesn't sound early, but it is a heck of a lot earlier than 9am, which is when preschool started. We are also getting everyone in bed earlier too so that the group is well rested, which means bedtime is 7:30 pm around here lately. I don't feel like I have nearly enough time with my big man :( Third, there is all this other "stuff" that you have to figure out: buying lunch, snack time, which specials are which day, where to drop off/pick up, and the list goes on and on...below is a picture of LT on his first day, ready to get the "party" started...

Speaking of big man - he just turned 6 on Thursday. That's right folks, he is the big 6. Many of you are thinking, holy buckets, where has the time gone? My thoughts exactly! We had his birthday party recently and he was in heaven! He wanted to have a "water party" which included slip n' slide races, water gun fights/freeze tag, a pinata, and cake. After 1/2 a can of bug spray, 2 tylenol, a dose of benadryl, and a band aid, I think the group had a great time. He had a hard time going to sleep because of all the excitement! Below is a picture of LT taking a turn at hitting the pinata...

Bear also started school a few weeks ago. That transition has been much easier for all of us. He LOVES it! He has 3 friends which he knew previously and also is really enjoying his teachers, playing on the playground, and doing lunch/nap at school. There were no tears on his end when I dropped him off thus far. In fact, he barely has time to say 'goodbye' to me prior to leaving. Below is a picture of Bear with his teacher on the first day...

We are all getting very excited about the arrival of baby brother. I am measuring 2 weeks ahead, although my doctor was very quick to tell me not to get too excited about him coming early. He has been really busy in my belly and the boys are ready for him to get here. 9 months is a long time to a 2 and 5 year old! I feel HUGE - and look huge. Many people assume I am due in a week or so, when in reality my due date is 9 weeks away. Ugh.

Last weekend we headed out to the ranch and it was so nice to get away. We had a very relaxing time and I slept in BOTH mornings. Corey got in a couple of dove hunts while out at the ranch and the boys had plenty of fun in the mud. (It rained on Saturday morning...) I was thinking the rain would put a "damper" on our weekend, but it actually was a plus for my little men :) Grandpa gave LT a Daisy BB Gun for his birthday to use out at the ranch under MUCH supervision. The gun was an antique of sorts because it was actually given to me many years ago. Daddy had high hopes that I was going to be a big hunter - which, unfortunately for him, didn't work out very well. Fortunately for Grandpa, he didn't have to go out and buy a new BB Gun, right????

I've Got Stuff To Do...

Well, actually, we didn't have a lot to do over the week before last, unless you include going to the beach, taking naps, eating, and playing. My parents were generous enough to have my entire family down to Galveston Beach, where they rented a beach house...as we have done a few times in years past. My Aunt Betty and Uncle Ken also rented a house and a number of other people came down to play. It was a huge party the whole week and everyone had a blast. The boys of course thoroughly enjoyed themselves and Bear continues to ask when we are going back. He seems to think of it like going to the park down the street.

Bear was so cute, because I would ask him if he wanted a snack or wanted to go in the water and he would answer with "I've got stuff to do." The busiest 2 year old on the planet, right?

Another tid bit that I know many of you are dying to know about is the butterflies. Well, we brought them all the way down to the beach and many of them happened to "hatch" out of their cocoons en route...right in the back of my car. What a treat to have them all fluttering about when we arrived in Galveston. All 5 of them made it, and the boys released them in Galveston...we saw many other butterflies and knew they would be partying with their friends out there :)

Bear with Uncle Tommy

Both boys "fishing"

LT started Kinder today! Woo hoo! Now he is a true "big kid" going to a "big kid school" like a lot of his friends. We knew plenty of neighbors and friends from pre-school, so he felt right at home. There were no tears from LT, and none from yours truly either, I am proud to say :) He was ready for us to take off right after he sat down in his seat. I can't wait to pick him up to hear all about his day.

Grammy and Pa were so sweet and took LT school shopping for his first day. They got him a Bakugan backpack, lunchbox, and thermos...along with some fun pool toys for he and Bear. Logan also picked out his first day of school shirt...please notice the "big boy" skateboards below...

Bear has been enjoying being the only man of the house since LT's departure. He will have that coveted role for approximately 2-3 months until baby brother comes along. We attended a playgroup with a number of HIS friends today. A lot of our previous activities were centered around big brother, so he had a blast playing with kiddos just his age.

Premeditated Gorilla Face

As a kiddo, it was the family saying that whenever someone was pouting and sticking out their lower lip, they were making a "gorilla face." This was a term that was coined by my father - at least in our household - and we were often told to lose our "gorilla face" if we were behaving poorly. My middle sister Allyson was especially good at making gorilla faces back in the day.

Fast forward a few years and now the "gorilla face" has made an appearance at our house in Flower Mound. LT must have learned how to make this face from one of his friends. One day the face didn't exist, and now it is in full effect. Now LT has shown his "gorilla face" making skills to his younger brother. The other night I was cracking up because after about 5 gorilla faces prior to bed Brody was giving me a lesson on the "how to's" of gorilla face making:

First, you cross your arms

Then you make a grouchy face

Then you put it all together...and voila! Gorilla Face!

Additionally, we have 5 new members of our family...5 painted lady butterfly caterpillars arrived via US Mail the other day. We already had the butterfly habitat, which was a gift from Mimi and Grandpa for our birthday, so we decided to grow some more butterflies. All of this was a great idea, until I realized the butterflies will be going on vacation to Galveston with us. Nothing like a good road trip, with a few of your caterpillar friends, right?

I.heart.summer.

I LOVE summer. I love everything about summer...vacations, the heat, swimming, watermelon, BBQs, lazy days, sun tanned little bodies - really, pretty much everything. Now, per my blog regulators (my sisters), this post is extremely delayed. I don't disagree one bit.

Once again, my family moved. Yes, for those keeping track, that is move number 2 for my group, and I am pretty stinking glad to be settled. During our last move into our rental house, we were in essence "camping out" and only got out bare essentials to survive. (Toys, minimal clothing, sheets, plastic plates, and our TVs.) After all, why box it up twice, you know? There were many luxuries that were missed and I have been relishing in getting to know them once again. (Ahhhh, to have more than 2 dishtowels in the kitchen!)

The boys have settled into our new "digs" nicely. They were initially obsessed with our stairs. For those of you who have always or never had them - you might not get this...but, going from a house without stairs to a house with stairs was monumental. The boys have been sliding down the stairs, jumping off the stairs, playing on the stairs, throwing things from the top of the stairs and just enjoying every last step. I would say I didn't get it, but once upon a time in my childhood, I did get it. We loved playing on my grandparents stairs....I remember, so I am trying to be patient about the whole thing.

I do feel as though 1/3 of our summer has been robbed from me. I am just now getting "back to normal" and it is stinking JULY for Pete's sake! So, now it is time to get my "summer" on. We will be having much fun and many adventures from this point forward...I have already told the boys to get their game faces on. As the stay at home COO of our household (or cruise director) this is really MY time to have the boys full time and enjoy every minute.

I did decide to finally take the plunge and put Bear in underwear full time. (Just ask him, he is happy to show just about anyone.) I was really hesitant to do so prior to the move, expecting him to regress fully and hop right back into diapers after we finally settled. I waited until after the move then realized I was being lazy and didn't want to deal...so here we are...wearing underwear full time and doing pretty well. He has conquered his fear of "big potties" and is standing up and handling up on his business. Which is really SCARY because now I have two boys 5 and under who are standing and peeing in my bathrooms. Yuck-o! Any of you moms who have this situation happening at your houses know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Any of you who will one day have this happening under your roof, may the force be with you. It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

I have included a slide show of all of the stuff we did to the house. We purchased a foreclosed house and decided to put some money into it to make it what we wanted. We painted the whole thing, replaced all of the floors, remodeled the kitchen, master bath, and media room...among many other things. Bless my hubs for being the General Contractor of our remodel project. He did a fantastic job and I must say we are thrilled with the outcome. Please remember we still have lots of things that we still need to do to the house - it is still a work in progress. I have included before and after pics for your enjoyment. Just copy and paste the below address into your browser...and play the slide show -

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BZtWbJy1bMj-

I am also going to close by asking you to pray for my Nana. She passed away earlier this month and we are all sad, but also thankful to have her in a better place. I am sure she was very happy to see my Dad's side of the family together again at the funeral - it had been a while and was wonderful to see the group. Thank you Donna and Grandpa for hosting the weekend.

Memorial Day weekend

Last weekend the Gruningers headed out to my parents ranch for our annual gathering over Memorial Day. It was very relaxing, although a smidge warmer than I would prefer. Texas is heating up in a hurry. The ranch was crawling, literally, with all kinds of critters. Auntie Al even tried to pick up a real snake! (Brave, and super sporty, I think so!)

LT is really into bugs right now. He tries to find a bug EVERY time he is outdoors...which is quite often in the life of LT. Last weekend he found and caught approximately 20-30 grasshoppers, and about 5-10 caterpillars. He attempted to catch a number of lizards as well, but was unsuccessful in his efforts.

The group was really lazy and ate way too much over the weekend like we always do when we are out there. Daddy smoked both of our dinners on the smoker and they were delicious! We also enjoyed sopapilla cheesecake for dessert...yummy!

Everyone took naps, read books, and rode the mule and 4 wheeler. The boys enjoyed "helping" Grandpa with a number of projects...there is always work to be done out there, and the boys love to be in the middle of it. Here are the boys with Grandpa after putting together a bench near the house:

On another ranch related note, last night LT seemed to break out in a mysterious rash. I was somewhat in a panic thinking chicken pox? Fifths Disease? Poison Ivy? So prior to our move this morning, we made a $25 trip to my pediatrician's office for him to tell me that LT had been attacked by chiggers out at the ranch...which the bites aren't currently itching. Yes, I am grouchy that I wasted $25, however, I am relieved it isn't one of the other possibilities.