April 2025

Who plays in a sprinkler in April? These kids are nuts. 

It’s amazing what warmer, sunny weather can do to my mood, but it’s equally disappointing about the opposite. I hope Mother Nature is finished with the summer-winter whiplash and we can have a few months of glorious spring, before I start complaining about how hot it is 😂. 

April was a fun month. Going places with our children can be hit or miss, but our outings this month went well. Quinn had his best weekend ever a few weeks ago. He had his first away from home, not with family playdate with his friend, Merritt, who is his best friend at school. He spent the morning at Merritt’s house, and since he had filled up his reward chart, he got to go somewhere fun in the afternoon. I had ordered dirt from Lowe’s to fill my new raised garden beds, so after we packed the Jeep with it (literally. Like, the entire trunk and the boys’ floorboards. I needed to fill 36 cubic feet 😬), we stopped at Four Seasons pool in Moundsville. Quinn had been wanting to go there, and he finally earned his trip. They had such a great time playing in the water. I enjoyed it, too, until they propped open a door to let some steam out. Inside was great, outside was not 😅. Letting the cold air come in right by the entrance ramp of the pool was an inconvenient choice, in my opinion. It didn’t ruin the fun, but it did drive many away from that spot, which is the easiest way for kids to enter the pool. 

🏊‍♂️ 🏊‍♂️ 

We all got to experience our first reptile expo, which was very interesting. We’ve had an assortment of reptiles before, and by we, I mean Philip because I don’t care to own animals that don’t have fur. I don’t see the point in having something that won’t love me back 😅. I will say our bearded dragon was the coolest of them all, but that doesn’t mean I want another one. I’ve always been terrified of snakes, but I joined a FB group a while back that helps in identifying and educating about them, and that exposure truly helped me rationalize my fear. So, while I still don’t care to come upon one in the wild, I’m less irrationally scared of non venomous ones. However, before I agreed to go to this expo, I questioned my husband about his intentions 😂. I didn’t want to come home with anything, and we didn’t. It was really neat to see all of the different species. It was quite an experience. 

I thought it was so funny that it was looking at us upside down until Philip told me that was because it was trying to push the lid off and escape 😳. 

We had tons of Easter fun, with activities, egg hunts, family dinner, and new bikes 🚲 🚲. Quinn had outgrown his 12” bike, which could’ve been handed down to Ash, but it seemed unfair to buy Quinn a new bike and not Ash. We could’ve waited until his birthday, but that’s three more months for him to be riding a bike that’s too small. They ended up with semi-matching Spider-Man bikes, a 16” and a 12” with training wheels. Quinn was good to go with his, but Ash is still figuring out the pedals. Hopefully he’ll get it down soon. 

🚲 🚲 

Parks & Rec Easter egg hunt. They were in different age categories, so we had to divide and conquer. Philip took Quinn to the 4-6 side, and I had Ash in 0-3. Next year they’ll be together. 

Ashy did not like the Andes chocolate and mint egg he got at the park egg hunt 🤣. I laughed so hard at his displeasure. 

Dying eggs. I didn’t want to dye real ones because they’re stupidly expensive and I didn’t want to waste 24 boiled eggs. I eat them scrambled every day, but boiled isn’t my cooking method of choice. 

We had Easter dinner with my brother’s family and dad. Those middle ones were maple no bake cookies and they were amazing 🤤.  

We had an egg hunt around our yard.

Doing those fun things together are what keep me sane. It feels like so much of parenting is always having to do the hard thing. That part especially sucks when you’re unprepared, like, whenever you go somewhere with your kids, expecting it to be fun and then it’s not. They lose their minds, forget how to be behave. And when it’s somewhere that you don’t particularly wanna leave? That’s the worst. I’ve had my share of carrying kids out, kicking and screaming, from places when they (ok, maybe just Quinn. For now, anyway), weren’t behaving. If it’s just an event for them, I’ll scoop and go, no problem, but when it’s somewhere like a family birthday party, it’s a lot harder to enforce the consequences. I don’t want to have to leave, not to mention, they shouldn’t have the power to ruin things for me. However, unless putting them in time out where we are is an option, I’m stuck because they’ll be even more disruptive. It’s a no win situation. All I can do is try my best to control the situation and carry out the consequences whenever we get home. It would be easy to let things go once we get home, but then there would never be change. Parenting is always having to do the hard thing, and it’s exhausting. 

That being said, I could definitely pick fewer battles and save myself some mental anguish. I find myself in an autopilot “no” cycle when I get overwhelmed. I often feel out of control when the boys have been on a never ending fuss fest, so then it’s, “No,” “Stop,” “Knock it off!” Things that I may have overlooked will be given high priority in correcting as I’m grasping at straws to regain control. The toys that have been laying on the floor all day suddenly need picked up in order for me to calm my anxiety. I have to declutter my environment to declutter my brain, but I’m not the person who cluttered it, so then there’s a fight that I’m definitely going to win 🥴. I mean, on the one hand, it teaches them accountability, but on the other, there’s probably a better approach to getting it done aside from becoming a drill sergeant. 

Despite needing to possibly chill on some issues, there are two I refuse to allow any slack on: flushing the toilet and throwing trash away. Quinn is awful about leaving bathroom surprises. If I see him even heading for the bathroom, I shout, “If you use the toilet, you flush the toilet!” I’ve said it at least 542 times, but it hasn’t stuck yet 🙄. So, whenever I discover he hasn’t flushed, I make him come flush it…even if he’s in another room or outside playing with friends. I’m ruthless for that teachable moment. The other is for trash. He was the only one eating a pop tart the other day—Ash and I don’t like them, and Philip was at work. I saw Quinn eating it. When I was closing up the garage later that evening, I discovered a pop tart wrapper in the backyard, by the trampoline, where Quinn had been most of the day. All signs pointed to Quinn, so I yelled for him to come pick it up. He threw a fit, insisting that it wasn’t his 🙄. By the time he did it, he was lucky he wasn’t heading in to time out over the way he behaved about it. I could have avoided all of that fuss by picking it up myself, but I’m thoroughly committed to one day having children who don’t do that shit 😅. 

We’ve been trying to let Quinn make some of his own choices, knowing full well that he’s going to make a bad one. We try to give him all of the information he needs, and even our recommendations, and then he’s free to choose on his own, but he must accept the consequences of his choices. He had been wasting food for several days before a trip to Sam’s Club. It’s our routine to shop and then hit up the cafe for pizza, a soft pretzel, and ice cream. The rule is always that they must first eat “real food” before they’re allowed to have the junk. I didn’t expect Quinn to be super hungry because he ate sausage patties before we left the house, but he insisted that he wanted our usual at Sam’s. He took about 3-4 bites of pizza and then wanted ice cream. We laid it out for him, told him he had already eaten quite a bit, which was great, but that also meant he probably wasn’t still hungry, especially since he didn’t finish his pizza. We were buying gummies (which they rarely get) and recommended he eat some of those instead, and even said we would get him some ice cream later, after he got home and wasn’t so full. He insisted he was going to eat the Sam’s ice cream. We made a deal that if he ate at least half, he was good to go, but if he wasted it, he wasn’t allowed to have any junk food for 3 days. We tried talking some sense into him but his stubbornness won out. He got the Sam’s ice cream and, predictably, he wasted it. He also got his consequences, which hit even harder when one of the neighbor kids brought out sugary drinks for everyone and he wasn’t allowed to have any. The lesson was hard fought, but he has been more careful in his food choices since. 

We would never make our kids eat something they don’t like, and we even don’t want them to keep eating if their bellies are full. However, if they ask for something that we know they like, they are expected to eat most of it. They are not allowed to say they’re full but then go eat an entire box of Cheez Its. That seems like a reasonable rule to me. 

I’ve seen lots of memes of people talking about how troublesome the second born is and I always think, “Hmm, can’t relate,”because Quinn has set the bar so high 😆, but I’m starting to think I just can’t relate yet. Ash is in his limit testing era, and I can’t tell you how many times a day he responds, “I don’t care” to something I say 🙄. I can’t decide which is more annoying, that, or him calling me “bruh.” He has quite the vocabulary. It’s unfortunate bruh is included. 

He’s turned into a tiny tornado lately, leaving anything he touches in his wake, on the floor. It drives me crazy, but as soon as I tell him to pick something up, he immediately starts crying 😑. He then tries to guilt trip me by saying, “You’re making me sad, Mama,” or “You’re making me cry.” He knows how to tug the heart strings. One morning, he came downstairs after I had gotten up and I asked if he had a good sleep. He said no, so I asked why not. He said, “Because you weren’t in my bed with me” 🥺. 

He doesn’t wanna sleep by himself, or do anything by himself. He gets mad when I won’t help him clean up a mess he’s made, one he’s fully capable of handling alone. I’m not sure if it’s just a bid for attention, but he doesn’t want to feed himself most of the time either. He’ll take two or three bites by himself and then say he needs “help,” which means he wants you to do it for him 🙄. 

Both boys had an insatiable need for attention while my friend was visiting one evening. Tiffany, an old childhood friend, and her son came to hang with us, and the entire time they were here, my boys said, “Hey Mama,” about 675 times. They suddenly acquired new skills that needed to be shown off, like jumping up and down and running really fast across the room 🙄. After the like, 15th time, I finally snapped and told them to go somewhere else. I was tired of being interrupted and not being able to finish a thought. Later that evening I was venting my frustrations to Philip and he said he was about to come say something to them at the same time he heard me do it. He was in another room and was still annoyed by it. 

They’re not very self reflective to their own annoying behaviors, but they definitely recognize them in each other. As we were walking out the door to go somewhere last weekend, Asher grumbled about Quinn, “He’s being so ‘noxious today!” 😂. I don’t know where he’s heard that before……. 😇. 

Speaking of sarcasm, Quinn is trying his best to understand and use it. Sometimes he gets it right, but most of the time he’s just sassy. He told me the other day, “I just roasted Asher. He said, ‘Mom’s ready,’ and I said, ‘Didn’t ask.’” Sick burn 🫠. 

Quinn heard his first ever ‘yo mama’ joke a few weeks ago from a neighbor kid. He got so offended and was ready to defend my honor 😂. I heard him yelling at his friend that he shouldn’t say that about his mom, so Philip stepped in and explained he didn’t really mean it about me personally. However, I’m okay with those kinds of jokes going out of style 😒. 

Quinn is easy to offend, though. Especially because he thinks the whole world revolves around him. He has outgrown playing with most toys, but Ash is very into action figures and things like them. He usually takes a bath while Quinn is at school and always has toys in the tub. Sometimes, if we don’t get to it, he takes a bath later, and then they want to take a bath together. I like that it saves time, but then they argue about Ash bringing toys in with him. The last time it happened, Quinn claimed, “He’s just trying to get me in trouble by bringing those toys in!” 🤯 Like, what? 😂. I was like, “He plays with toys every single time he takes a bath, it has nothing to do with you.” 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

If they’re in a room together and I don’t specify who I’m talking to and give a command, such as, “Get down,” it doesn’t even occur to Quinn to look around, or maybe even consider that I’m not talking to him since what I’m saying doesn’t make sense in regards to him 🙄. Ash will be, say, climbing on the table, and I’ll say, “Get down,” and Quinn will immediately say, “I’m not even doing anything!” I’ll be like, “Yeah, I know. That’s why I’m not saying it to you.” 🤦🏻‍♀️ Egocentrism at its finest 👍🏻. 

Quinn’s hearing issues seem to have disappeared following his surgery, which is promising. Ash, on the other hand, had an ear infection a few weeks ago, so I’m hoping we aren’t headed down the same road with him. We had a really rough Monday night, Ash woke me up and kept me up for over two hours. In my sleepy state, it didn’t occur to me to ask if something hurt, or to medicate him. Whenever we got up on Tuesday, it finally occurred to me to question him beyond, “What’s wrong?,” and he told me that his ear hurt. I was like, “Oh, that makes sense,” and gave him some Tylenol.  Since it was Tuesday, I texted Mollie to let her know that I planned to take him to EZ Care as soon as they opened, but I would keep her posted since I was supposed to have Iris that day. My suspicions were confirmed, he had an ear infection and was prescribed amoxicillin. He was feeling better from the Tylenol, and not contagious, so I told Mollie I was going to get his medicine and then we would come pick up Iris and still go to Story Time. So, that’s what we did. Whenever we got out to the new 4H office (it moved out Route 7, if you didn’t know), Mollie was strapping Iris in my car, and I wanted Ash to get his first dose of antibiotic as quickly as possible, so I filled the syringe while we were sitting still and handed it to him to take. He takes medicine like a champ, so he slurped it right down. I wish this story stopped here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. I don’t know if it was a bit of motion sickness from the windy road, or the warmth of the amoxicillin (they always say it tastes better when it’s been refrigerated), but as soon as he got it down, it came right back up. He puked in two or three waves, all the while poor Iris was trapped in the seat next to him. She was crying, he was crying, I wanted to cry 😂. It was one of those ‘WTF do I even do now’ moments. Mollie grabbed me some paper towels and a Walmart bag, and I did my best to clean up some of the mess. I had extra clothes in my car for him that were a size too small, but I stuffed him in them anyway 😅. Iris stayed with her mom, and Ash and I went home, where I spent an hour cleaning my car. Ash ate some rolls and took a nap. He was good to go whenever he woke up. I hope poor Iris didn’t get too traumatized from it. I felt terrible about it, but obviously, I didn’t know what was going to happen. Honestly, I really needed to set my bar lower for her anyway 😂🤪. We made cupcakes the week before when she was here, so I bet now she’ll just be thankful when nobody pukes in her presence 🤣🤣. 

My ice cream cone cupcakes received two approving thumbs up 👍🏻 👍🏻 

We missed the one, but we still attended many Story Times at the library. 

We rehung the circle swing that we had when we first moved in, before Kim gifted us the porch swing. It’s on the other side now, which isn’t a great place, but oh well. The kids are enjoying it. 

They’ve definitely tested it’s capacity 😬. 

I had to get Quinn a wrestling dummy so he would stop throwing his brother around 🙄🙄. Even the dummy took a turn on the swing. 

The boys got slime for Easter and Iris loves it as much as we do. We’ve had almost daily slime play  since they got it. 

We’ve searched for hidden toys, and made many snakes, slugs, and mustaches 😂, but the best thing has been slapping bubbles into it 🫧. Lincoln showed us how and it has been a lot of fun. Quinn is the expert bubble slapper. It’s frustrates me that he’s so much better at it, but every time I failed, Iris sang to me, 🎵keep trying and you’ll get better🎵 🤣. I asked her where she’d heard that song and she said on Daniel Tiger, so now I’ve heard it plenty 🫠. 

We had a good STEM lesson with the slime, too, involving magnets. We put some circle magnets into the slime, and then used a stronger magnet to pull them out. Our other STEM lesson came in the way of color changing spoons. I bought them on Amazon and they change colors when they get cold. Ash had a great time dipping all of them into ice water over and over again for a couple of days. 

The crazy weather inspired a sensory bin, and a youtube video about it will be out soon 😉. 

We repurposed many of those plastic eggs we got during the Easter festivities and I made a YouTube video about it. You can watch it here: 

https://youtu.be/8z4zQL3v6Mo

Places we went

We got to watch another of Kate’s softball games and hang out in the back of Uncle Greg’s truck with Oliver and Memphis. The weather was nice, but you couldn’t guess that from Asher’s wardrobe choice 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

Lori had to work the concession stand at one of the games, so Oliver came to hang out with us. The boys loved trying to make him laugh. I took them down to the park and laughed at them trying to catch the squirrels. It is impossible to get the three of them to stand still and look at the camera at the same time, but that top pic of my two goofs cracks me up 🤣. 

We got to celebrate this cute little thing officially turning into a teenager 🥺. Her boyfriend and best friend weren’t making happy faces so I fixed them 😅. Haleigh celebrated her 20th birthday as well, but I didn’t get a good pic of her. Remember how I was talking about my kids misbehaving at a family birthday party? This was it 😑. 

Ash and I have been doing Walk It Out Wednesday at The Center for Children and Families. It’s a 1.7 mile round trip group walk. Come join us! 

For someone who doesn’t actually do any of the walking, Ash sure gets tried out 🤭. We drove up to Bridgeport to pick up our MAC.BID purchases one day after our walk. This is how I drove him around the warehouse while I searched for my stuff. I was hoping the whole time that he didn’t fall out. All of the other customers kept pointing out that he was sleeping. I was like, “Yep, I’m aware 😅.” 

Kim and I took a beginner pottery class. I have a pottery wheel, but I never quite got the hang of it. The class helped tremendously, so if I can ever commit to making a huge mess, I may give it another try 🤪. 

Sophie PUPdate 🐾:

This poor dog is scared to death of storms, so she’s been having a hard time with all of the rainy weather. She seems to know whenever a storm is coming, and then she’ll start following me around the house. I love that, I don’t have near enough people in my life who do that already 🫠. 

She’s literally my shadow some days 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

🥰 sometimes I like her cuddles…

Sometimes I don’t 🙄. 

Even when she isn’t sitting on me, she’s always watching 🙄🙄🙄. 

This is her signal that it’s green bean time. She gets a can every night. If you give it to her too early, aka, whenever she wants it, she’ll forget she’s already had it and will try to weasel another one out of you. We leave the empty can sitting on the edge of the counter above her bowl so we both know when she’s been beaned 😂.