Free Range Family

It is pretty late. Anna is up again cluster feeding before she falls asleep. I feel like she may sleep for longer than seven hours because she has eaten so much this past hour. So I figured I might as well do my Darling Dozen post for today. This is the twelfth and last week of the Darling Dozen. I simply cannot believe that Anna is already twelve weeks old and that in a little over a week she will be a three month old. Wow! She is just so big and so ready to be bigger, I joke that she is twelve weeks going on twelve months! She is so determined to sit up and crawl and move around like her big brother! Its amazing! So I have total mommy brain. Went to sub that art class yesterday and I expressed my excitement about finally having a birthday party tomorrow. My boss was instantly confused and after looking through our records, I realized that I was just crazy and had made up a fictional party in my head lol. No, my first birthday party is October sixth! Okay, so today we just have the ...

Last Wednesday night, we went to my old workplace, Chuck E. Cheese, for Alan and Anna's cousin Ry'ana's third birthday party. Alan and her share a birthday and were even born down the hallway from each other! How close is that for cousins? Alan had been talking about this party all day while we hung out and made his birthday mini cakes. It was pleasantly surprising because I thought he would be upset about sharing his birthday with his cousin's party. However, he was really excited to see her and kept reminding me everytime I mentioned his birthday that it was Ry'ana's too. What a smart boy! But Ry'ana and Alan hadn't seen each other in forever so upon first seeing each other, they were extremely wary. It was cute and they of course warmed up real fast once they found out that they had gifts for each other! It was different being at Chuck E. Cheese then, on that day specifically. I worked there for five whole years, right up until the day I gave birth ...

Another post that totally qualifies as rambling lol...  Oh the joys of being a daycare teacher. I have worked at the Child Watch daycare center in the YMCA for a year and a half now and the crazy things I have seen/said/done are worthy of going their own book lol. All I have to say is: kids are an adventure, whether they are yours or you are just in care of them. For example: Yesterday at work, we were all playing outside. The combination of the wind and the excited yells of the kids, it was kinda hard to hear out there. This little boy asked me a question from a distance where I misheard him. He also said the same thing several times, really fast. I thought he said, "Teacher, may I be here?" so I said yes. But in reality, he had asked me if he could pee there. He instantly went to the window and started pulling down his pants. Lol I shouted and ran because there was a considerable parent line at the desk and they were about to get a peep show. Thankfully, I caught him ...

I know that I have posted about our plans for the fourth on here before, I think its just been on a blog hop or something. I thought I had already written a whole post on it before, but alas I haven't. So here you go! We are going camping at Canyon Ferry Lake for the fourth. This is tradition with my side of the family to go camping here every year. Last year we went up for a few days, and had a wonderful time! Alan loves to see his family and camp with them! He loves being outdoors! We will be leaving this Saturday morning, around like 11 am and will not be back until Monday night, around like 10 or 11 pm. I will not be taking my laptop with me, nor will I probably have service, so I will be absent from the blogging world for a while. But I plan on keeping a notebook "journal" for each day, so I remember our daily events! I can't wait to bring back many stories and hopefully pictures, I will probably have to do a week marathon of posts! I will not be participatin...

Today was a sad day for Alan and I. Alan's BFF Korbin and his family are moving to Seattle on Wednesday, and today was Korbin, Keanu and Erica's last day at daycare. :\ We threw them a potluck party and I tried to make them chili but we didn't have any meat. And the bean chili tasted nasty lol. So I brought pop. :) Alan and I had a talk about Korbin moving this morning, and I think he understands. He tried to be really nice to him all day today (sometimes they rough house and fight like brothers) and even gave him hugs and kisses. They played cars and dinosaurs together. And they shared their snack (even though it was the same thing lol). They even played ball and tag with the big kids. Unfortunately, Alan fell asleep in the high chair and Korbin left before he woke up. :( But I talked to Erica and maybe we will meet up just before they leave town to say goodbye for real. I am so sad though! Alan's last really good friend moved to Arizona when Alan was nine months...

Today was another hot one. 84 degrees almost right away when we woke up at 7:30. I had to work this morning in Child Watch and teach my Kindergarten art class plus Lon was finishing up his sixth folf basket, so Alan came with me to daycare. The first hour Alan was the only kid in there, so he got to decide which side he wanted to play on. He changed his mind about every... ten seconds lol. But then more kids started showing up, including on of Alan's older friends he hadn't seen in a while. They ran and played ball together, and had a wonderful time. I had to leave him at daycare for my art class and he didn't even care! :) Lol art class was good. We made Summer Collages and Hand print Birds (I feel like I've already typed this before lol, maybe earlier in the week!) and my chatty girls finished their kites from last week. We will be moving this classes' art show to the Saturday after next, due to one student's absence for the holiday weekend. But we still dis...

Hope everyone has a wonderful day today! I know mine will be long and most likely stressful because I work from 10 am to 8 pm with a half an hour lunch break. But at least Saturday I only work two hours and then I have my childhood friend's baby shower. Then Sunday is Family Day and its also my good friend and co-worker Kari's graduation party. It will be a good weekend for us, and I'm so proud of Kari! Congratulations lady! I love you! Me and the beautiful Kari! The weather is starting to get better here in Billings. It has only rained lightly the past few days. I have been able to walk to and from work the past three days, and that has been an awesome stress reliever for me! I have to post about my theory on modern walking and pedestrian travel, hopefully sometime this weekend! Here's Five Question Friday!! Enjoy! Do you apologize to your kids? Of course I apologize to my kid and to all children, if I have made a mistake or an error in judgment. Children...

This was quoted from a close friend of mine, Korbin's mother Erica, on Tuesday. Ever since I have been a child, I have heard how Montana is stuck in a drought. I've heard it from my grandpa, a rancher and farmer, and my dad, an avid outdoorsman, as well as many various people. Now I don't know if this drought is a real drought, or a fictional mind block in the majority of Montanans lmao... (Just poking fun here, I don't need any offensive comments on this post). But whatever drought it is, its gotta be over by now!!!! It has been raining here for about a week now, almost non-stop. I guess it has been raining most places around the US but man, has it made a lot of problems for Montanans. Via There is flooding all over the state, and there are flood warnings for most of Montana in place until Saturday. Alan's great aunt and uncle are stranded in there house outside of Molt, MT. And Korbin's (Alan's BFF) family is stranded on the reservation due to fl...

Today is Alan's best friend Korbin's second birthday. Via Yesterday Alan went with me to work (another advantage to SAHD:Alan stays home too!) to celebrate Korbin's birthday. Alan, Lon and I drew Korbin an Elmo birthday card. Korbin loved it. :) Then we let the boys play and they ran all over, terrorized other children lol, and climbed just about everything in site. When we were ready for a break from them lol, we threw them up in a high chair for cupcakes. And they were some yummy cupcakes! Alan and Korbin enhaled theirs in under a minute lmao. What wild boys. :) Overall, it was a great day with Alan and his best friend. Happy birthday Korbin!

Well not quite lol, but I work like ALL the time these days. Which is the complete opposite yet oddly similar to what I was doing last year, when Alan was only a month old. I was a SAHM for his first year of life, and finally got a job just two days before his first birthday lol. I've now been working there for almost two months, and I love it. :) I get to work with kids, which is my passion, and Alan gets to interact with other children his age and older.  Its perfect! For those of you who don't know where I work now, I work at the Billings YMCA. I teach an art class for young children, run their birthday party program, and work in there Child Watch drop-in daycare. This keeps me very busy as I am working three different programs while most employees there only work one. I am there in the mornings til noon, then I go in from 3 to 8, and I work Saturdays too. But I thrive best sometimes in busy schedules, so I think I'll do okay. Plus when I get tired of one program, I ju...