3 outta 4

I am SOO tempted to use this on our baby announcement...it may stand out among the other beautiful faces on your fridge door and make you snicker. But it's just too cruel- I'd have to include that in his baby photo album and then he'd grow up to be like angry like eminem and that wouldn't be worth all the giggles i'd get...would it? Eminem is pretty successful...
No, really I do want Cort to be happy, so I'll just post it here and use it as a launching pad to say that Cort is expressing Sloane's sentiment.
The honeymoon is over and she's MAD. I must say, it's still nothing near the havoc I thought this would cause for her, but she isn't totally pleased with Cort all the time anymore. She tells me "Cort is ALL DONE nursey!" And she isn't as interested in holding him as often.
It's clear now that she has been promoted to 'big kid' now that Cort is in the 'baby' position, which makes Jackson a double big brother and Billie is still ruler of the world. Sloane plays with the big kids now, on the big kid facilities and has even made it clear that she's ready to be potty trained. Which is, of course, a major inconvenience to me because a diaper can wait 3 minutes while we finish checking out of line at the library with our 47 books and "Mom, I have to use the bathroom" is a drop everything and RUN type thing for the first couple weeks. Ugh, like I want to do THAT with 4 kids. Not that we're EVER going to the library again...because today Sloane had a total fit ( laying on the floor and kicking complete with baby taradactyl screeches.)
um, yeah...so, that was NOT FUN and I had to be like "get out...locate the nearest exit...get out without checking out NOW...you can not check out that star wars book and no, not even the paper airplane one...do NOT collect $200...do not pay library fine...just drag screaming child out away from all these nice,quiet, library go-ers RIGHT NOW (while continuing to nurse Cort in the sling)). Sooooo....
That was my morning.
And I know I should have had this experience much earlier...I have been lucky enough to never have a full on uncontrolable tantrum in public before. Billie and Jackson were not much of the tantrum type. Whining and crying while in 'time out'; yes...screeching in a store; never happened. Until now. I have a sinking feeling that Sloane might make up for all that.
As for Cort, this picture is about the worst thing he's ever done. I DID hear him cry once in the van when he woke up hungry 10 minutes before we got home...but that's about it. Billie: the other day when we were doing 'lesson time' she said "Let's do the word problems Mom! Word problems are my favorite!!" (and she meant it). Jackson: super sweet and helpful, even when he's bad he's good because he goes right to time out (stomping up the stairs). 3 out of four ain't bad. that about sums it up 3 out of the 4 aren't bad.
Maybe one day i'll write about something other than Sloane...maybe when she's 30.

Big news!

If you're thinking "Big news for the Solley family? pregnant...again?" that's not it. That would REALLY be something since Cort is just 3 weeks old. So...not pregnant...what's something else major that we do every couple years? If you guessed move to some far off land...you're correct.
You probably all know that we've hoped to work for the Foreign service for a long time. We're doing it, serious pay cut and all. Come visit us now because we'll be off to Botswana or Lisbon early next year! (You can come visit us then too, but you'll have to fly.)
We don't have any idea of our future destination but we should have at least some idea by October. As for right now, Cort is wonderful and Billie and Jackson are the colicky ones!!! They have been totally acting out and sorta rude for the last few days. It's an adjustment and they're used to waking up and getting like 3 fun activities each day with all the grandparent attention (spoiling). I think they need some kind of kid re-hab for when the grandparents leave...time for them to come down. But once they're back in their routines and we get back on track with some school time and reading time...i think (hope) they'll calm down and be back to their old silly selves.

I shouldn't post this without bragging about how amazing Bill is- he's super smart and has mad skills so that everyone wants to hire him...such a good breadwinner/best dad and provider/bike riding teacher/swim instructor/tickle wrestler/chili maker/infant on chest couch napper/arm wrestler/sore loser/ in the universe.

Sloane reigns supreme

Just to remind me that I have NO idea what my kids are thinking and NO ability to figure out what they'll do next...just in case I needed to remember that life is full of suprises Sloane has decided to embrace big-sister-ness. Of course, it's not big sisterhood to her as much as it is possessivehood, Cort is HERS and she does let me know when he needs something. It's much more exciting than the plastic baby version because Cort actually 'coos' and has moveable limbs so she can let me know when he needs 'nurse-y time' and she loves to do the 'wipes' part of the diaper change...not actually being of any help but if it keeps her happy...well, I'll go along with it.
And that about sums up our theme for the last two weeks: "wow! Sloane is happy...let's just let her do WHATEVER she wants and keep it this way." Each day we keep waiting for it all to fall apart but at 8:48pm tonight it will be two weeks and mostly happiness.
Billie and Jackson go back and forth between extreme highs and pathetic lows. The grandparent factor brings on a lot of the highs (think chuck-e-cheese and ratatouille) and fighting with each other (Jackson turns five and is no longer willing to follow blindly along
with Billie's rules and rationale...did that friends thing only work for 4 years?! yikes!)
accounts for the lows and SO MANY lost priveleges. It's very possible Jackson will go the rest of the summer without another popsicle.
In any case, Cort is adorable and very easyily going along with all our adventures.
He's been content to sling around the grocery store, park day, Glen Echo, the craft store,
the library and he sleeps well on his lambskin spot on the couch (DO NOT JUMP ON THE COUCH WHEN CORT IS THERE!!) while obnoxiously loud ring-around-the-rosey and castle games exist around him. He doesn't seem to mind the constant snuggling requests "can I hold Cort now?" and he's really just a good little guy.
So good that I'm hesitant to write this because once I'm convinced of something...it usually changes. Or maybe the theory was right and chaos reached it's peak at 3 children...4 is on the plateau? I guess we'll find out soon.