CUTIE PATOOTOIE

This past week has been pretty rough around the Shelton house. We have had the incredible misfortune of coming down with a nasty bug that has slowly been passing from one child to the next.

What kind of bug you ask? One that causes high fevers, achy bodies, no desire to eat or drink much of anything, and a need to sleep all the time. Not fun; not fun at all.

We have spent the week watching movies, sleeping, playing games on the Ipad like it is nobody's business, playing out "violent fights" with Nerf guns, eating freezies, watching more movies, sleeping some more, creating forts with the pillows and blankets from all the couches, and generally making a massive mess of the house.

I think it is safe to say that the kids, not to mention little old me, are getting extremely tired of doing all of the above. They just want to get outside and run around with the neighbors, hit up the local parks, swim in the neighbors pool... really anything that does not involve being in the house would be heaven sent.

Because of how the past 7 days have played out, getting out of bed this morning was a little less than desirable. All I had to look forward to was another day in the house with 5 kids. 4 of them bugging each other, causing fights, and bouncing off the walls begging to get out of this Godforsaken house. But I dragged my butt out of bed after hearing all the kids running crazy downstairs watching cartoons, came down, got the monkeys fed, headed back up to talk to the Mr. for a bit, then headed back down to make my coffee. [My morning routine.]

As I walked into the kitchen I heard Ava giggling hysterically and looked to find Liv running around in circles saying "No!! No!! Noooooooo!!!" As I made my way to the family room to see what was going on I noticed different colored squares all over the back of Olivia's pajama shirt and a few on her legs [she had long since ditched her pants.] Wondering what these colorful squares were, I moved closer and closer until I realized that they were stickers. For some reason, my 7 year old thought it incredibly hysterical to chase her 2 year old sister around the family room sticking bunches of tiny stickers all over her back. Go figure.

"What is going on Ava?"

Barely able to get an audible sentence out in between her giggles: " I am putting stickers all over Olivia."

"Why?"

"Because it is fun. And I am bored."

"Try doing something that does not make your sister mad."

"I am sick of doing everything inside."

I bit my tongue as I walked away saying under my breath, "I hear ya."

This is when I realized we seriously needed some time out of the house.

So this afternoon, I decided to heck with it. We were going to actually get out of our pajamas, and get outside to play for a bit.

This plan was successful. The kids ran around in the front yard happy as could be. As Miss Liv was doing her seventh or eighth lap around the tree, I noticed her little butt cheek was hanging out one side of her diaper.

This was nothing new, as I often find her plagued by a "diaper snuggy" being she does not like to keep her clothes on. What kept me staring and laughing was this:

Seems one of those stickers her sister was determined to place all over the back of her shirt found its way right to her little butt cheek.

Neither the snuggy nor the sticker seemed to faze her - I think she was just so happy to be outside to care.

HELPING HANDS

Anthony and Liv are quite excited for their brother to get to an age where he can actually do something with them. Something like ride bikes, play in the cul-de-sac, play Star Wars guys or Little People in the playroom, hang out on the couch and eat snacks while watching a movie.... You know, the sort of things he will not be doing anytime soon.

But this does not stop them from attempting to do such things with him at the ripe old age of 3 1/2 weeks. Most often this ends with Nathan screaming [likely from having numerous toys shoved in his face and in his hands with the hopes he will hold onto whatever it is and play along,] and Liv and/or Anthony stomping away frustrated with his lack of playing skills.

I try to remind them that he is still a baby and that it will be awhile before he is able to partake in playing puzzles, board games, action figures, [or anything else for that matter] with them. Either they don't get it, which would not surprise me being they are 2 and 4, or they are simply gluttons for punishment and enjoy trying to get him to play over and over and over again to no avail.

To me? Insanity. Einstein's definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Sound like my kids?

Here is what I found when finishing up cleaning the kitchen after breakfast:

Yes, those are Nathans legs hanging out from underneath all of those toys. And yes, he was able to breathe underneath it all - his brother and sister were courteous enough to not cover his head with anything.

I would have to say, it looks as if Nathan does not seem to mind having what seems to be every single one of his toys strategically placed around him while hanging out in his bouncy chair.

I think he may becoming accustomed to his brother and sisters attempts at playing with him - poor guy.

PAPARAZZI

Since Nathan was born I have taken on the ever fun for me/annoying for him roll of snapping an obscene amount of pictures - with him being my subject matter. Pictures of him sleeping, taking a bath, sitting in his bouncy chair, being held by his brother, being held by his sister, laying on his blanket, even pictures of him crying - most likely in protest to all the Godforsaken pictures I am taking.

As I did with my other 4 monkeys, I have once again become best friends with my Nikon D40. I never leave home without it.

This all makes me think of myself as a member of the Paparazzi. A person who is obnoxious and annoying as ever when it comes to snapping pictures, but has a knack for getting some really fabulous shots. Alright, the fabulous shots part is something that occurs every once in a blue moon for me, but when I do get one it makes it that much better.

This afternoon I was busy taking on my Paparazzi role, snapping picture after picture after picture of Nathan in the same pose, in the same outfit, and in the same location. I know, ridiculous, but I just can't help myself. He is so darn cute. In fact, he is the cutest almost-1- month old baby ever. [ I know, I know, annoying statement. But I am allowed to say that, I am his mother after all.]

Here is a sampling of those pictures:

Hellllooooo cuteness. No?

Another sweet picture of my Nathan with is eyes peeking out from underneath his hood. Not my intention at all, but when I am holding a baby in one hand and trying to snap a picture in the other, perfect pictures are hard to come by. Heck, they are hard to come by when I have nothing in my hands but the camera.

Not the greatest shot, looking like he is getting tired of the camera in his face, no?

And here is the fabulous shot of the day. My almost-1-month-old sticking his tongue out at me after what was probably the 70th flash of light his poor baby eyes had taken as a result of me snapping an obscene amount of pictures.

This was when I decided it was time to put down the camera, quit the whole Paparazzi thing, and give the little guy a break. At least for today.

CLOTHING OPTIONAL

My girl Liv Grace does not like to wear clothes lately. Or diapers for that matter.

This all started about a month or so ago, though it feels like a year. One day out of the blue she decided to take off her shorts and t-shirt and meander around outside in the cul-de-sac in only her diaper and sandals. I laughed a bit thinking how cute it was, carried her little butt back into the house and got her dressed again.

Over the past month her behavior has escalated to not only taking off her clothing, but her diaper as well. And this is not just happening once a day. Oh no. Each time I find her undressed, I go in search of her clothing and get her back into it. I do this time and time again throughout the day, and let me tell you, it is no easy feat as her clothes are usually strewn all over the house. Sometimes the diaper is on the stairs, her pants are on the kitchen floor, and her shirt is on the carpet in the playroom. Sometimes she finds more interesting places to drop her drawers, such my closet floor, the mud room, or on the ground in the garage. I have even found her clothes on the deck in the back yard before.

The girl does not seem to care where she is, when the mood strikes her, she simply strips down to nothing but her bare butt and goes about her business.

I find her laying on my bed watching Dora naked, sitting at the kitchen table eating her snack naked, running around outside with the neighbor kids naked, playing on the swing set - even attempting to go down the slide naked [which she quickly realized was not possible]. She even has been found jumping on the trampoline in the nude.

You get the idea, the girl prefers to be in the buff.

On a positive note, I have recently been able to convince her to at least keep her diaper on, and she seems to be as happy as when she was roaming the house and its surrounding area without one.

I have to say, I am comforted by the fact that this is just a stage she is going through, and that at some point she will show a bit of modesty and actually want to wear clothing.

She is only 2, so I figure she has some time to change her ways before her behavior is considered inappropriate; no?

WAYS TO SAVE

Lately the Mr. has been talking about how we need to start cutting back on our spending. Who am I kidding - he has been talking about this for years now, and I do agree. Having 5 kids can make it difficult to stay afloat financially, so cutting expenses here and there is a must. And I think we have done pretty well at doing that over the past year if I do say so myself.

Some things we have cut out?

We canceled our satellite radio - which is a big deal believe it or not, as I really loved to listen to Howard Stern on the rare occasions I did not have the kids in the car. It was also quite nice to be able to have such a wide variety of music stations so as not to feel like beating your head against the steering wheel after listening to the same 5 stations play the same 5 songs over and over again.

I laid off the wonderful girl who was sent from heaven that used to come clean my house every other week. Oh how I miss her... Leaving my house for 3 hours with the kids and coming home to a sparkling clean house was nothing short of pure bliss.

I stopped shopping at Kowalski's. Let us have a moment of silence to mourn this sad fact....

Alright.

So I stopped shopping at my favorite store, the one where you can actually park within a mile of the front door, where you can grab your cart along with a Starbucks coffee and leisurely walk the isles filling your cart with food. The one where you don't have to wait in line for 30 minutes wanting to pull your hair out, in order to purchase your groceries. The one where pleasant, happy employees reside, that pack your groceries for you while you wait, walk them out to your car and load them up. Yes, I stopped shopping at this little slice of heaven - basically the most expensive, but best grocery store ever. And I am back shopping at Cub, sometimes Wal Mart, and it makes me want to cry.

I began making lists when I need to go to Target, and forcing myself to buy nothing but what is on that list. And for any of you ladies out there who shop at Target, you know how very, very difficult that can be.

I started clipping coupons, and I actually have been using them. Not that I never wanted to use coupons before, I just never found anything in the coupon books/ads, etc that we actually use in our house or that we need before the coupon actually expires. I now make it a point to use the items I find in the coupon books in lieu of other items I enjoy using better.

And just recently the Mr. informed me we were going to be getting rid of Direct TV and going back to standard cable. I love Direct TV.

Ahh, sacrifices, sacrifices, no?

So as you can see, we have been on a roll as far as cutting expenses goes - and these are just a few examples. It still is no where near where we need to be, but everything we do is a step in the right direction.

But I have to say, there are certain things we spend money on that are better left alone. Things that are, should we say, worth every penny we spend and better left to the professionals. Things such as hair cuts.

The Mr. has been talking for quite some time about wanting to ditch the expense of getting the boys hair cut.

My response every time?

No. Way.

I agree that their hair cuts are expensive - $15.50 each plus tip, but I have always been under the impression that this is money well spent. I think cutting their hair seems like an easy task, but actually being able to do it and make it look nice is a whole other ball game.

Yesterday he decided it was time to give it a shot. I bit my tongue and smiled nicely as he headed out to Wal Mart to purchase the appropriate "tools". When he arrived home, he took his test subject, AKA Anthony, out to the garage to give his hair cutting skills a whirl. I wanted to cry.

5 or so minutes later, Anthony came running into the house "Mommy, look at my hair cut!!" As I turned around, I caught a glimpse of the "hair stylist" laughing so hard his shoulders were shaking up and down. He managed to get out, "It is not that bad." before I looked over at my Anthony and saw this.

These pictures just really do not do it justice, as it is looks worse than this. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband dearly, but a hairstylist he is not. So I would have to say, as hard as he tried, his attempt at giving Anthony a hair cut had failed. Miserably.

Me, I simply said. "So you finally tried it, and we can safely say that the boys hair cuts are better left to the professionals."

His response? "That was just my first try, I will get better at it."

As horrible as I thought the hair cut was, it seemed like Anthony was as happy with the outcome as his Dad was. Go figure.

A PERFECT LITTLE PLACE

My sweet little Nathan has decided to change his ways, and now spends a good part of the day time hours awake - all bright eyed and bushy tailed. Gone are the days of waking up here and there to eat, poop, or look around a moment or two before falling back to sleep.

I can no longer take a shower whenever I want, get ready whenever I want, go to the bathroom whenever I want, run out to grab the mail, talk on the phone, etc. without my little bug wanting to be held, wanting a boob, or just wanting to cry and be cranky for a bit.

And I am fine with all this; but as if every other baby I have had, it always takes some adjusting.

I have learned to use my ergo baby carrier around dinner time when he is fussy so that I am able to get the other four little mouths in the house fed. I have learned to hop in the shower to quickly clean up the first moment I am able to get him sleeping soundly. I have learned to wait until Daddy is home in the evening to make any sort of important phone calls so that I am not interrupted 5 minutes into the conversation. I have learned to take him to the bathroom with me and sit him on my lap [not the easiest thing to do], or just listen to him scream while I try and go by myself [which is far from a peaceful experience].

And if he throws me for a loop and gets up at an inopportune time, or if I just have to get something done right now, I give him the boob. The boob always works. It calms him down in no time flat and makes him happy so that I am able to get whatever it is I want to get done, done.

Rarely do I find myself in a position where I cannot figure out a way to accomplish something with my little bug in tow. But the past few days I found myself in a bit of a pickle when it came to getting ready for the day. I managed to get him down for his nap, get in the shower, get out of the shower, and then the minute I began to actually get ready, he woke up. How do you get dressed, blow dry your hair, and put on your make - up with a baby in your arms or on your boob? Just not possible - I am good, but not that good.

I struggled through the past few days, listening to him scream bloody murder while I scrambled around getting ready. But I knew I had to come up with a solution, as for me, there is nothing worse than having to listen to my baby scream and cry. And today I came up with that solution.

Take a look.

I cushion my sink with my towel, then wrap him in his blanket and snuggle him right up in that sink. He loves it. He is happy all snug and warm hanging out with Mommy, and I am happy being able to take my time getting ready in peace.

It's a win, win situation. Perfection.

OUT OF MY MIND IN LOVE

I have taken a bit of an unexpected hiatus from posting this week as I have been busy loving this little man to pieces.

My Nathan's first week of life has been quite a busy one. With me taking pictures of him as if I were a member of the paparazzi, and lots of people wanting to hold him, love him and squeeze him every minute of the day, he must be thinking enough already!

Of course I had the pleasure of loving him to pieces for the first few hours of his life....

Then I thought it only fair to let Daddy have some time to get to know his son as well.

After having a whole day just Daddy, Nathan and I, it was time for his brothers and sisters to come to the hospital to meet out new little bundle.

And boy, was it ever love at first sight.

I managed to get some more snuggling in with my sweet baby boy [is there anything better?]

Before Grandma and Papa were able to make it to the hospital to meet their 7th grandbaby. I think it is safe to say that they were not disappointed. They seemed to dive right in, drinking in all of his sweet baby boy goodness.

I have to admit it is not always sunshine and roses. When he gets hungry or wants Mama to hold him, he can tend to get a bit angry. Going from completely calm and peaceful, to an all out screaming fit within seconds.

But no worries, I still love him to bits even in his little fits of rage; as after getting his belly filled, or getting snuggled up next to his Mama's chest, all is fine in the world.

Oh, and did I mention my little man's hands? How big they are? So big that after he came out of my belly and was placed on my chest it was the first thing Daddy and the nurses and I noticed. We laughed as I held out my finger and you were able to wrap your hand all the way around it. So big, yet so very delicate in all their amazing baby boy sweetness.

Is he not the sweetest? I know I am his Momma, but I have to say, yes, he is. Hands down.

NATHAN JAMES SHELTON

Our beautiful baby boy has finally arrived!

Born at 4:08pm,weighing in at 9 lbs 1 oz, and 20 3/4 inches long.

He is simply perfect. We could not have asked for a sweeter, more precious little boy to love.

Welcome to the family Nathan James, we love you to the moon!