Sunday, April 15, 2007

Hadland is finally eight!

Well, we have an eight-year-old child! Yikes--who knew!!!

Hadland turned eight years old on Friday, and we have been partying all weekend!

By the way, thank you to everyone to sent Hadland an email. He LOVED getting all the cyber-attention!

First, on Friday, he had Lucky Charms for breakfast (he chose that over homemade pancakes with peaches and cream--that wouldn't be my choice, that is for sure!). Then he took homemade cupcakes (white cake with lemon frosting--again, his choice :) to school with him. After school he played for a while until we went as a family to Golden Corral (yep, you guessed it, Hadland's choice). After that, he finally got to play with his remote control airplane he got as a gift from G & G Wood. Actually, Larry got to play with it (so he could figure it out for Hadland). Coincidentally, Larry went to get an airplane yesterday. Go figure.

Saturday was just as good for our boy. He got to take three of his friends out to see "Meet the Robinsons" with Dad, Uncle Scott and cousins Nate and Clarissa. Afterwards, the whole group came home to eat pizza and then decorate and eat their own cupcake creations. The kids had a great time, and it was pretty low key for all the adults involved. Gotta love that! To top it all off, Hadland and Dad went shopping for Larry's new toy and then got to go to McD's and to see "TMNT." Quite a weekend for our birthday boy!

Today I sang in church. It was an adventure to say the least. In our ward, the person doing the special music actually prepares two pieces to share. Darla, my wonderful sister-in-law, accompanied me AND helped take care of the kids during sacrament meeting. However, when both Darla and I left right after the sacrament to go to the stand, Lauren pitched an amazing fit. She didn't want Auntie to leave her (mom is chopped liver when Darla is around) and wasn't going to keep quiet about it. Poor Larry was left with all four kids, two of whom needed to be held. I am up there on the stand, singing along, when I hear an incredible ruckus from the back of the room. I didn't even have to look--I knew that scream. Needless to say, Lauren and I competed for everyone's attention until Larry to flee into the foyer. Yikes! We went back down to sit with the kids until the next time I needed to sing. When Larry came in with Lauren, she actually said thank you to him when he set her in Darla's lap. What nerve! She sure is a cheeky monkey! I thought it might be a good idea for Larry and the girls to spend my next song out in the foyer, and it made a big difference. I think the people in the congregation could actually hear what I was singing! Oh my--what parents go through, right?

Another bit of news from us--we are trying to get baby Sarah to sleep through the night. Translation--we have been listening to her cry in the night a lot. It is all I can do to not run to her. I have to put a pillow over my head to not go crazy. If anyone has any good advice, we're not to proud to ask for it! She is doing better everyday, so I am hopeful we won't be suffering like this much longer. She's so darn cute that I can hardly stand to let her cry!

The next adventure will be to take away Lauren's pacifier. I am not looking forward to that! Once again, if you have any non-horror stories about this, we'd love to hear from you!

2 comments:

Tara Brooks said...

Joylyn went through that. (And has her "nights" every so often still). But what helped save my nights (AND sanity) was two things. We put her crib in our walk in closet where it is pitch black. Then we bought her a noise machine. The costant noise is soothing, but filters out all the other noises that she used to wake up to (house creeking, toilets flushing, television, etc). She still wakes up every once in awhile, but it definitely not as bad anymore. We actually get some sleep. Just try a bunch of different things. Not everything works for every child, so you need to find the combination that fits your little girl.

Tiffany said...

We also brought a noise machine for Connor (you can find them really cheap) and that seems to help a lot. We have started letting him cry until he goes to sleep also. I have finally learned his different cries. I do go in if I can tell he is scared, hurting, etc.

The pacifier... that was hard for Quinten. He was so attached to it. I had to find something he was interested in and used that. He was really into being able to use scissors. So one day his pacifier got dirty and I told him I thought he should (with supervision of course) cut off the yucky part and throw it away. So every time we found a pacifier laying around the house we made a big deal about cutting off the yucky part and throwing it away. When he cried about not having it I would remind him what he did to them. I made a HUGE deal about it being so funny! I can't even count how many times he laughed so hard he cried.
Overall my biggest mistake was I was wimpy. I would take them away and then give them back when things were tough for me. So cutting them and throwing them in the trash made it so I could not back down. However, I did go to Wal-mart in the middle of the night once with the intention of giving it back to him. Fortunately, he was asleep by the time I got back to the house. If I was up to me sticking to my guns he would probably still have a pacifier.
Good luck with your adventures!!