Summer so far

My big kids have been out of school for over three weeks now. They haven't started getting on my nerves too badly... yet.

The last week of school was so busy. Especially for Raiden. It seemed that there was something going on every day for him that last week. We had Field Day, the TAKS Test ice cream party, the class picnic, and I don't even remember what else.

It was a great week, though!

The first week out of school we basically just slept in, cleaned the house and chilled at the crib. We also cut Raiden's hair for summer.

 

Sage attempted to give Kaitlan a mohawk as well.

She doesn't look like she cares much for it.

The second week out of school, Raiden had Cub Scout camp. He has been a Scout since first grade, but this is the first time he went to the camp. He had a blast!

Raiden's group doing the opening flag ceremonies one day.


I had to keep the girls occupied while Rai was at camp so we went to a museum one day. Sage thought it was so awesome to see real art by famous artists.


Sage has also enjoyed playing a bit of dress up with Kaitlan!


One Saturday morning we took a road trip down to Dr Pepper, Texas! (AKA Dublin, Texas the other 51 weeks of the year)

They were celebrating the Dublin Dr Pepper's 119th birthday.
The Dublin Dr Pepper plant is the oldest Dr Pepper plant in the world!

Dublin Dr Peppers are different than regular Dr Peppers, though.

Dublin Dr Pepper is made with real Imperial sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.
 
 Some guy did a really awesome sand sculpture.

It looked like a whole lot of work to me!
Despite the look of things here, a good time was had by all. It was pretty hot that day!


And of course, Sage has been taking more pictures of herself.


This past Saturday Sean and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We went to dinner and then spent a couple of hours together kid-free before stopping for some late night ice cream and heading home. Unfortunately all of the kids were still awake when we got there. We had a really great day, though. We have been through a lot together in this first 12 years of our marriage but look forward to dozens more!

Summer so far

This message is NOT approved!

What does a parent do when they don't approve of one of their children's friends?

I have never had that problem until now.

I have always had an uneasy feeling when my son talked about this boy. Unfortunately, Raiden thinks this boy is the funniest kid ever. Besides his friend Noah, he says this is his best friend. Other kids at school will tell you that he and Raiden are best friends.

A few months ago I was checking through Raiden's text messages on his phone when I come across one from this boy (whom we will call Jason*). Not unusual. What was unusual was what the message said.

Something along the lines of, " you want to have sex with Kari*"

I was not happy. These are eight and nine year old boys we're talking about.

I was even less happy when I saw Raiden's response:

"you want to have sex with Hope*"

Raiden and I had a talk about that. We discussed how he didn't really even know what sex was and how it was inappropriate for boys his age to be discussing sex and including these young girls in their conversation.

Now I feel that Sean and I are pretty open with our children. I believe in modesty, but I believe that there is nothing shameful about the human body. I believe in answering any questions regarding sex and just life in general in an honest, age appropriate manner.

Okay, so I have allowed Raiden to continue to hang around Jason and he even had him over for his birthday slumber party.

Sean was very unimpressed (I don't think that's a word. oh well!). He felt that Jason acted a little uncouth to be in the house of a friend that he has never been to before. Now don't get me wrong. I know that boys will be boys and I did expect them all to have fun. I suppose I just hope that my son behaves the way I expect him to behave when he stays over at other peoples homes. Not the way Jason behaved that night.

So now to the text message that Jason sent to Raiden at 5:30 this morning. Yes, you read that right.

He first sent a message that said he was camping.

I looked at it, ignored it and put Raiden's phone on the kitchen counter.

A couple minutes later I had walked back into my room and sat on the bed while I waited for Sean to finish getting ready for work. That's when I heard Raiden's phone going off again.

I figured I would just text him back telling him that Raiden was still asleep. I didn't expect to see the message I saw, though.

Once I clicked on it, I saw that it was a forward. No biggie. Then the picture popped up.

I just stared, jaw agape.

There was a va-jay-jay staring me straight in the face.

I know, right?!

It had been edited to sort of look monkey-ish (like a snow monkey IMO --TMI?) and had an attached message that read: "this is what happens to white girls when they have sex with black boys."

I was floored!

I doubt the kids mom knows he has this on his phone. I only met her when she dropped off and picked up Jason for the sleep over. Then again, she may know. I don't know how she rears her children. All I do know is that she appeared to be a young mom, though I don't know how young, and is not with his dad. I am definitely not knocking young mothers being that I am 30 with a 12 year old. Nor am I knocking the fact that his parents aren't together. Things happen. Plus, it's not my place to judge anyone.

I am concerned of my son's relationship with this kid, though.

I am also a little concerned about what else this boy is exposed to.

I immediately deleted the message in order the keep Raiden from seeing it and went straight to Sean to tell him.

Am I over reacting if I tell Raiden that I don't want him talking to Jason anymore?

I will tell you that the first thing I thought was how relieved I am to know that Raiden will not be going to public school next year. In fact, I am about to print off the paper that I send to the school to let them know.

I want to protect my children and keep them innocent as long as possible. 

*not their real names! duh!

This message is NOT approved!

What is this all about?!

As mom to an almost-teen girl, I've noticed a big change in my daughter of the past year. One of those changes is how she seems to take tons of pictures of herself mostly in the bathroom making goofy faces. You know, silly teenage girl faces. She posts them to her Facebook and Myspace. Some of her friends take these same kind of pictures and I've seen others as well. I'm sure most anyone who has been on the internet has for that matter.

Here is one just before the goofy faces started:

Now they're all so ridiculously funny! I'll let you judge for yourself:

I find them hilarious! There are many more that she has taken on my cell phone, but I have either deleted them or I'm just too lazy to send them all to my email and then blah blah blah. I have told her that she should wipe the mirror down before taking these crazy shots, but I guess she "forgot".

Does anyone have funny self photos of their children? I could do a whole 'nother post on my son and his up-nose shots. Kids.... Gotta love 'em!

What is this all about?!

No One's Happy

What can I say... I tried.

For more than 20 months now, we have been co-sleeping with Kaitlan.

Go ahead, call me a hippie. I don't care. =)

For much of those months, my husband has been trying to get me to start putting KK in her crib. Here lately I have been trying to do that. After all, it would be nice to sleep on more than a corner of the bed.

Can we say bed hogs? Yes, the both of them.

I was doing pretty good at getting Kaitlan to sleep and then putting her in her own bed. It may be 11pm when I get her in there, but heck, I had space to sleep! She may wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning, but I can handle that. Just bring her back to my bed and nurse her back to sleep.

Yes, I am still breastfeeding a 20 month old kid. Call me a hippie again... I still won't care.

You think Dad would be happy about this.

Right?

Well imagine my surprise when we're laying in bed after I put Kaitlan in her crib and he mumbles from his pillow:

"I want my KK back in bed."

You're kidding me.

All I could muster was an "oh really?" and left it at that. I was too tired to ask him what in the world he was thinking.

Where do you think she's been sleeping since?

If you said with Mom and Dad, you got it right!

Since that night, we have moved in Sean's brother who is a truck driver and mostly only here on weekends, so he sleeps in Raiden's room when he's home. Kaitlan's crib is in Raiden's room so we don't even worry about putting her in there when Uncle Jake is here. I try to at least put her in her crib for naps, but she seems to sleep so much better in "our" bed. Actually, I wish we had a king size bed so we could fit all 3 kids in bed with us. I know, I know. I just love all of the togetherness, though!

No One's Happy