January 2012 – The Groft Zoo

Nerf Shotgun

Poor quality picture, great story.

Max told Jay on Sunday morning that he wanted a nerf shotgun. He got two nerf guns for Christmas – one shoots the big green balls (the gun in the picture) and one shoots the little nerf darts with suction cups on the end. But he wants a gun that shoots a spray of “bullets”. Can you even imagine the mess of a tiny nerf shotgun pellets shot all over the house? Thank you, Nerf, for not doing that.

Max just couldn’t take no for an answer. He figured out a way to do it. He took the gun that shoots the bigger balls, loaded a plastic Easter egg full of smaller soft toys (Squinkies) and closed the egg loosely. Then he carefully loaded his gun with it and *poof* he had his shotgun. The egg popped open when the gun fired and little soft plastic toys sprayed all over the floor in front of him. He was quite pleased with himself!

That’s imagination, I tell you!

Milestones in Gus’s Life

At two and a half months, Gus weighs in at a whopping 14lbs, 5oz. Which is somewhere around the size most of the kids were at 4 months old. Big guy.

He still wants to be held nonstop but this week both of these things occurred, even if they were short lived:

I bought just one more pacifier type to try, and he ~~likes~~ tolerates it more than the others. So that is something…

Then this – with the help of the above pacifier:

You can’t see his face, but he is sleeping. Sweet, sweet naptime, while not even being held. Yes, he is sleeping on his tummy. I know, I know. But that is how my children sleep.

He is starting to enjoy a little (very little!) bit of down time trying to bat at his toys or watch his brothers and sisters play. But mostly he wants to be held BY ME and jiggled or nursed all day and night.

Stocking up for the Global Pillow Fight

My big gift this year was money for a new comforter. The trick was finding one that matched the red in the curtains and the blue in the cosleeper. (Which will probably be set up in some way in our room for at least the next two years, so it may as well match.)

The shopping for it was a bit of an event. Gus hates shopping and seems to scream through every attempt I make at it. We wandered the bedding area at Dillards, only finding things that had red but not blue or blue but not red or that had both but were really ugly.

But we found it! We even added some decorative pillows to top off the look. There are positively piles of fluffy stuff on there now!

Happy New Year 2012!

The new year began for me with picking up kids from the family New Year Party. But then came sleep in a toasty bed.

In the real morning (not just counting when the clock turns to AM) I found the little ones (mostly) happily coloring and keeping (mostly) quiet while the older kids slept in.

Around the lunch table, we toasted the new year with sparkling cider and a “Please, let it be better than 2011!” and everyone shared their resolutions.

Molly: Nurse
Lily: Say a Hail Mary Every Day
Max: Be more careful to be neat in his seat work at school
Tessa: Pray a decade of the Rosary every day
Ben: Run more
Posy: Get a job
James: Purposeful practice of his music, eat healthier
Jay: Go on a date night once per week (I like that one!), keep his truck cleaner
Me: Read 12 books (1 per month – or more if possible), and blog more

Last year I tried the Picture a Day challenge and didn’t last very long with it. This year I am trying a more modest approach with a goal of 2 picture based blog posts per week. I think that will be much more doable.