I had to take a picture of London today when we were heading out the door to pick up Kristofer. I mean really, who is cuter than this?! And lets not forget his stellar red carpet look. It is definitely the training pants hanging out that make this outfit. Wait, maybe it is the white socks. You decide!

Guess what Kristofer learned at school today?

Yep, he learned how to make spit wads.

Today I am getting sneaky in the kitchen!

Yesterday, I made a vegetarian chili and today I decided to add some pureed spinach to it for lunch. I am having a hard time getting good veggies into my kids so I thought I'd see if they noticed.

While I was heating the chili in a pan I put the spinach in the blender with a 1/2 cup cold chili and blended away.

When the chili was heated, but not boiling I added the spinach/chili mixture and heated until just warm. This way the nutrients do not get cooked out and the taste of the spinach was undetected.

"Mmm, YUMMY!" Says the boy who will not eat green!

I learned all my deceptiveness from Jessica Seinfeld and you can too in her cookbook Deceptively Delicious!

You know you are a mom of boys when...

In our family we call the penis a winky. Why? I have no idea. That is just what we do. This past weekend we started calling it by the correct name and the boys got a good laugh about it. I guess it sounds funny to them.

Today, Kolton was waiting his turn to use the bathroom and said, "Mommy! I'm holding my peanuts!"

Why Love Isn't Enough: Part Three

Why Love Isn't Enough: Part Three Check it out and educate yourself!

How Full Is your Bucket?

The book How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids by Tom Rath is a great way for kids to see how our emotional bucket is affected by others around us and how we treat others. I am hoping that by reading it to our boys they will see how treating others the way you want to be treated is truly the right thing to do.

Why Love Isn't Enough! Part Two

Check out Arleta's Blog post: Why Love Isn't Enough: Part Two. There is a lot of good information there.

Children's Book-Horace

This looks like a great children's book about adoption and fitting in.

Why Love Isn't Enough! Part One

Check out this blog series written by Arleta James.

She is a phenomenal therapist who works at the Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio and has helped our family tremendously in the past 7 months.

He thinks I'm squishy.

Kristofer woke up to go to the bathroom this evening and when he came out I carried him back to his room. He snuggled into me and was rubbing his hands on my upper arms and said, "Mama, you are so lovable because you are squishy and cold, and warm, and squishy and just nice to love on." My heart just melted. Who knew that being called squishy could be such a compliment?

In the past few weeks I have noticed some some real progress with Kristofer and his attachment to me. He is smiling at me more, having less disrespectful talk, reaching out for love and affection, and opening up and talking to me.

Before his brothers came home, I believe he was very attached, but in the course of trying to help his brothers attach his emotional needs were not being met. This caused us to have some detachment in our relationship. I am so thankful things are on the mend and I am thrilled to have my lovable boy back.

You might be too big to rock...

...if your feet touch the floor and you can help do the rocking.

He kept snuggling deeper and I didn't have the heart to shoo him to bed. He is such a snuggle bug. Sigh...

I think I can.

One if my guys likes to scream and cry and say, "I can't" when he is trying to do something that takes a little effort. Sometimes he whips out the fussing even when it is something he knows how to do.

Last night when I was reading stories I decided to read The Little Engine That Could. I think we need to read this more often to help encourage them to try harder even when it looks difficult.

My Homemade Happiness: You Know You're A Mom of Boys When...

My Homemade Happiness: You Know You're A Mom of Boys When...

You go to open the fridge and this is what you find.

Check out: Why Love Is Not Enough.

Kristofer had a behavioral blow up last night and what it came down to was not being able to spend much time with mommy.

I try every day, when he gets home from school, to be attentive to him, but one of his brothers works his hardest to not let it happen. Said brother will throw a fit, and you might think it is easy to blow off, but he screams in our ears, destroys the house, or tries to run outside which of course puts the attention on him. Arleta's blog post explains why this happens with said brother.

I decided to make a special date with Kristofer tonight so I wrote him a note.

When he got home I sent him to the mailbox to get it and he was so excited. After he read it we had this conversation:

K: Mommy, what is a date?

Me: A date is when you go do something together. Like papa and I will go to dinner or a movie by ourselves.

K: Oh, so are we going to go to dinner together and that is a date.

Me: Yes.

Kristofer was so sweet to me for the rest of the day and open for hugs, loves and kisses.

We went to our favorite restaurant and had a good time together. Kristofer opened up to me about school and we had some good conversations. It was really sweet because he opened the doors for me and held my hand. He has a hold of my heart pretty tight. Sigh...