Ryan says to me, “Mom – how do you wake up Lady Gaga?”  Emily quickly interrupts “Poke her face!!!”.  Of course Ryan gets mad and tells Emily that was HIS joke and that she ruined it.  I don’t care, I thought the joke was pretty funny either way.  This is just some of the conversation that often transpires during our bi-weekly visits to meet their dad.  I could make t-shirts with some of the funny stuff they say.

I am working on a list of music to add to the iPod for these trips with the emphasis on songs that each of the kids hate to encourage good behavior.  So far I’ve learned that Ryan hates Miley Cyrus (except for Party in the USA) and Emily hates that very song.  So, guess what I’ve added?  You betcha – Party in the USA.  Next trip should be fun.   .   .  and no, I am not torturting my kids.  They asked for it last time they let out stinky gas without rolling down a window, or the time they fought for 20 minutes straight, or the time they had a french fry fight in the car and I had to hear about it from David every time we got in the car (Love ya!).

A mother’s work is never done :D

After checking out at Sam’s, Adrian says “That cashiers clan tag said his name was Adrian”. Ya think maybe he plays a little too much Call of Duty?  This is what happens when I take him out into the real world.

At 5 months, Xzavier was holding his own bottle and trying to crawl. He finally started to make some distance crawling (literally) at the 6 month mark, right about the time he got his first tooth. Two weeks later he started getting a second tooth, and this week he started to sit up on his own. The last couple of days he’s starting to pull up on the crib rails. Throughout this whole time, he’s been mashing away at the keyboard trying to be like mommy and daddy.

This is what he has to say about everything:

1szx’ NJBHJMKLHJ HK,GY RF UY IK B4T5IO/L.FB

Obviously he’s got some work to do before he’s a typing master, but he’s working on it!

At this pace, he’ll be walking by 9 months old. Personally, I think he’s growing up a little bit too fast, but one thing never changes – he’s a happy, smiling, easy to deal with little guy.

Xzavier turned 6 months on the 31st of January.  It’s amazing how 6 months of pregnancy seemed like 6 years yet 6 months with a new baby seems like 6 weeks.  He’s getting very big.  He wore newborn stuff for about 4 months, now his 3-6 month stuff looks barely fits him at all.  He’s eating solid foods and so far he’s liked everything I’ve given him except applesauce.   Really?  He doesn’t like my favorite treat?  Go figure.  Maybe I ate too much of it when I was pregnant.   He’s almost crawling – doing the rocking on all fours right now, leaping forward till he gets what he wants.  No more leaving him anywhere unattended.  He still can’t sit up on his own entirely yet – he spends more time practicing his escape via crawling than how to sit still.

Overall he is such a happy baby.  I didn’t realize I would like being a new mommy again so much, and who knows.  I may just have one more kiddo so he can have a sibling close in age.  Crazy talk I know….but I can’t help feeling like one more isn’t so crazy.  It’s up to daddy though – I am content with my 4 wonderful kids :)

Achievement Unlocked – Bricked Xbox 360 (and not due to RROD). Throw in a 3-4 week repair time and it makes for a bummed out kid eager to play 2 new 360 games. Add the defective out-of-box controller and you have an irritated mom. Gotta love Xbox.

For the first time since my kids were born, I didn’t get to spend Christmas with them as they spent this year with their dad.  Although their absence made me very sad, I decided to make the best of it.  After all, since they would be returning Sunday, 12/27 it gave me an extra few days to get shopping done and take advantage of the after Christmas specials.

What I ultimately gained from this sad occasion was crowd free shopping and clearance stocking stuffers.  While not a huge gain considering the quietness of my home on Christmas Eve/Day, it was nice.  No long lines at the registers, fighting for parking, or the last minute present wrapping crunch. Lucky for me my kids wish lists didn’t include hard to find items (flashing back to Tickle Me Elmo makes me shudder).  I did get a couple of good buys – like half price regularly overpriced candy, but that was about it.  The lack of chaos was the biggest gain of all.

I look forward to trading this quiet shopping experience in next year for the opportunity to enjoy the holidays with all my kids.  Christmas Eve wasn’t quite the same without having to remind the twins again and again that they had to wait until Christmas Day to open all of their gifts.  I also truly missed not having to argue with them over going to bed as gone are the days of bribing them to sleep with “or else Santa won’t visit” threats; not to mention missing baking Christmas cookies for Santa with Emily, among other things.

The holidays just aren’t the same without them!

Some new pics of Xzavier, including some Christmas pics.