Whittaker Woman

Dwarf City

We have been making use of these little guys.

Fog, Hoodies, and Sand

Sohaila has been studying the continents and oceans in school. She has been asking non-stop about the PACIFIC Ocean. Mom when can we see the pacific ocean? Are we near the pacific ocean? Did you know that the pacific ocean has so many sharks? Did you know... On and on. So I finally decided to make it stop! It was freezing, windy and they could not have been happier!

 








I am just grinning from ear to ear while I post this. What a great day! Oh and tonight my tummy is full of Mexican food! Really does it get any better? H

Family Night, revealed!

Every week there is always someone who compliments me on my family nights. People say, I just don't know how you do it. Let me tell you the truth...usually  there is always some drama, stress and tears!

You guys saw the fun pictures of our Football Night, now here are some real pictures.  That is me saying something to the effect... "Sohaila if you don't stop by the time I count to three you will be up in your room going to bed."

Look at those crocodile tears coming down. Drama, drama, drama! Welcome to the real side. H

Girls, Girls, Girls

I never could imagine my life full of princesses and fairy tales, now I can't imagine my life with out them.

Gap in the Grin

There are a few extra-special-I-can't-wait moments that I look forward to as a mom. One of them being my kids school pictures, but not just the ordinary school pictures, no those happen every year.  I was really looking forward to the gap in the grin pic. You know the one year where their is a inch size gap in their front grill. I love kids with the  space.  They are so cute. But look what I got... 
 I mean come on, look at this picture. Is it cute? Yes, but her teeth, it was all about her teeth this year! Oh well,  this is one of the reasons she is not the only child. Maybe one will give me the grin picture I am looking for. :) H

Parenting Gone Wrong... Again

Oh, there are days when it would  just be better to start over. I was only minutes into my day when my mouth uttered words that may send my child to a counselor one day. I can hear it now. "I remember when my mom made me feel..."
Let me set the scene, it is Sunday morning and I am doing my best to get the kiddos out the door with out any screaming or tears. I have three kid dressed, fed and I'm working on their hair. Things are going GREAT! Sohaila was next in line. I began to pull her bangs back to clip and she immediately tells me that she does not like her hair like that.
And are you ready for my great motherly response?
In my wonderful persuasive, selling tone I began to tell her that I saw a girl on TV with this hair style and she looked so cute. I could see her begin to think about it, so I jumped in to top it off by telling her that I even saw the same girl in a magazine. With those words Sohaila lit up and said "AWESOME!"
As I finished her hair I realized what I just did. I totally just told my 6 year old that we need to be looking at the TV and magazines for direction on our appearance. Those are the two places she should not look at. Ahh, I am sure she will not remember it, but these are the fun moments I can only laugh at as a mom.
This was who I saw this week that had great hair. The Palin Ladies. Volume, Volume, Volume!

See the poof, with the bangs, very cute...

And this was after my brilliant parenting advice!

Happy Monday! H

When will I accept the truth?

I am a mom. Some how most days I forget it. I guess it defines me so much that I don't even recognize the simple fact anymore.  It seems normal to me to be humming disney songs all day long. It seems normal to have someone want to be in the restroom with you no matter what you may be in there for. It seems normal to me to have 5 people sleeping in one bed.  I just don't think twice about these things.
Well, not today. September 2nd has been a day that I stare momhood in the face.  The alarm rang earlier than usual today. Or maybe it was just harder to get out of bed to start the day. None the less the day began. I walked one baby to the bus stop, which reminded me. Hey I am a mom.  I came home to my next baby saying her "throat hurt" translated means QUICK GRAB A BAG I AM ABOUT TO HURL! So I did 3 hours and 9 bags later she sits like this.

The bag did not make it to her once and so I am now washing the couch covers. Which reminded me that I am a mom! That should be enough reminders right?
Oh, but I have one child left, he woke up gave me the best morning hug, I fed him and not long after I smelt him. Nice and ripe. We went up stairs only to find out that I had another introduction to mommy-hood coming my way... a blow-out! So as I put his soiled PJ's in the wash with the cushions with puke, I just laughed and thought...Wow, I am a mom today! H

Where is the dang umbrella when you need it?

It was just like the movies, the rain began right when it came time for Sohaila to be picked up from the bus, it was a coming down, but as soon as she got off the bus it was a down pour! As I was leaving the house I realized that the umbrella was in the car, with Carlos. Which is a very practical spot for it, because I was home all day. I did not need an umbrella, well except for the 2 minutes it took me to walk to the bus stop.

We look terrible, we actually look a like in this picture. I don't know what that says... She looks like my daughter when I look like a drowned rat? HMM. Can you say pretty! Ha!
We were laughing so hard, sometimes it takes something going wrong to make a great memory! H

Watch Out For Big Sis!

You have to watch this sequence...
 
   
Losiah was getting picked up on by this sweet little girl, however Sohaila was not down with it! Look at her getting up in his business! Ha! H

First Day of First Grade

Eggs and Ice cream... Our new first day of school tradition. Works for me!

Their last moments together! Seanna missed her big sis so much today!
 

 

My baby! I can't believe it! Oh I missed her whine, I missed her jumping all over the couch, I missed her constant "I'm hungry", I just missed her! ! I hate big milestones like this because it means they are growing up. NO! H

Should I wake her?

Sohaila fell a sleep in the car around noon. It was 5:15pm and she was still asleep. Oh I love summer. I love the freedom to sleep whenever! H

The Toof...

To pull or not to pull? Part 2

We have a group of friends who meet in our house once a week, our small group. The Losiah just gets put to bed early and the girls get a movie. This works like a charm, however tonight we hear Sohaila crying so Carlos goes up to see what the problem was. He comes down and says..."Did you tell her she will swallow her tooth if she falls a sleep?"
Confession: I might have reworded Darcies words a little to see if she would allow me to pull it out. Obviously that did not work. I have many failed parenting attempts. Lets just add that to the list.
So anyways we did a little negotiating and finally we took some steps forward.
Dad was going to do the pulling. She could stop at any point and best of all the tooth fairy would becoming tonight!

 
This dance went on for about 15 minutes. Should we do it? Do you want us to wait? Back and fourth, back and fourth. Finally I locked eyes on her and begin to make up nonsense stuff to try to make her focus on me. And it worked a second later Carlos had it in his hand and she had no idea. It was perfect!   

   

H

To pull or not to pull?

Sohaila will not let me get near her. Her front tooth is barely hanging on and she will not let me pull it out. It's driving me crazy. When you were 6 would you wiggle that thing like J-Lo in 2005 or would you just let it fall out on it's own? H

One way

Well my dearest decided not to use the conventional way to keep bugs off of her with bug spray, instead she came out like this. I did not have the heart to tell her some can still bite or the fact that it was blazing hot outside. I mean really how cute is she!  H

Compassion

How sweet is my girl? Carlos made me cry because he brought up the fact that I am tuning 30 in 15 days. Look at my baby and the comfort she brought me. Oh how I love her. H

"Mommy I tried to wake Seanna up"...

I don't know if she really went about it the right way. Maybe I should explain to her that you can't read when your eyes are closed. H

REAL Family

 
Don't let anyone tell you it's not real! H

You ask, I'll answer set 10

1. How did you guys choose your children's names? They're all beautiful!
Posted by: Paloma
2. What is the significance?
Posted by: Beth

Good questions!
I remember the day like it was just last week. Carlos and I were newlyweds and free as the wind. We went to the beach for the afternoon and just talked. Ok hold on... I am having a moment here peeps. Come with me for a second as I reminisce what life was like with no kids. Oh, to be able to just get out of your car and walk on the beach. NO whining because the sand is to hot, no extra bags to carry, just the sound of the waves and my mans voice. Ahhh...
 
So we are on the beach just chatting and Carlos bust out with, "when we have our kids and if we have a girl can we name her Sohaila?" "Sure" I replied and it was simple as that.
You see Carlos is not opinionated. He really never asks for anything and when he does I usually do it. :)
Sohaila was a girl he knew in college. Apparently her parents were missionaries when she was born over in middle east and they wanted to give her a native name. And Sohaila it was.
When we chose that name I was so excited, because it was so different. I knew she would never be able to walk into a gift shop and buy a mug with her name on it, but I was ok with that. It was different and I loved it.  Sohaila Teresa Whittaker. Oh we also agreed that the middle names were gonna be after our siblings. So Teresa is from one of my sisters.

 

Fast forward 17 months and our little bean was born. Seanna Jess.
Well once you name one kid Sohaila  your next one can't really be Madison, or Kate. So we began the hunt for different names. I liked a few, Laionie was one, but all I could think about was in first grade when kids pick apart your name they would just call her Lay-on-me. So that was a no go. We really did not have a huge list but a friend, James (our roommate who lives with us now)  went online and made a list of different names and Seanna was on that list. I loved it, and now is just perfect for her. 

Now for Losiah. See if we were gonna have a boy when we were pregnant with Sohaila we were gonna name him Isaiah. We both liked the name, but there were a few reasons why we did not go with that name when it came around for our second child. First reason being the fact that Isaiah is a common name. We were now in the club of "no one can pronounce my childs name or spell it right" And so Isaiah just would not work. Another factor was that I dated a guy named Isaiah and not that it mattered because Carlos did not care about that, but it did add some incentive to not use it.
So, again I remember this conversation like it was yesterday. Carlos and I had gone on a vacation with our best friends Brian and Jacinda. We were out on a date and Carlos, busts out with "lets play with the name Isaiah" HUH? "you know lets see if we can use that name but change it up a little" So we sat there that night and thought of different names that sounded like it but were a little more unique. Then Carlos says "I always wanted my son to be named Carlos" and I said "NO"! But then he said, "what if we took the LOS (which is Carlos' nickname) and combined it with Isaiah and we make LOSIAH. And walla, there you go. Losiah Eddie Whittaker.
Now you must know that we had Losiah picked out for Seanna, before we knew she was a boy or girl. But I think what I love the most is that we named our adopted baby after his daddy. I don't know there is just something special about that.

So tell me what are your kids names?

***Update: Prounications

Sohaila: So-Hay-La
Seanna: Say-anna
Losiah: Los-iah

It's a race

Who will have the last few drops of spicy sauce?

Dang it...

I lost.

Rollin

This evening we graciously pulled up in our Hyundai next to these wheels. As I was getting Losiah out of the car I hear Sohaila say "Wow this is a nice car! This is beautiful!..."
Allow me to fill you in on a little Whittaker Trivia... We do not care at all about what kind of car we drive.  I have no idea where she would have even heard someone compliment a car. Our cars are NEVER clean and we really do not care even if it is held together with duct tape. You should see some of the pieces we have driven! Anyways, back to the Mercedes that my oldest was eying.
She stood next to it. Peeking over the side and vocalizing how much she thought this car was something else! Then I hear her say, "This car has magic"
?HUH? Magic?
She continues to tell Seanna who was her captive audience at the time, that this car has magic. It looks like this (a convertible), but with its magic it can turn itself back into a car like ours. How sweet is that!  H

6 going on 16

My teenager woke up at 10:15 this morning! Now if only I could train Losiah to sleep that late!

Remember This?

 

This was Sohaila's first day of Kindergarten. Remember this post? I think it might be one of my favorite posts here at Whittakerwoman! Even though I thought it was funny, I wasn't sure about her teachers. I am in the South now. So we kept it to ourselves and went on... I got to know her teachers through the year and realized they would love it. So, on the last day of school I printed it out on a 8X10 and brought it. I asked Mrs Pfleger to read it out loud, "Pfleger's Frolicking Frogs" she read. I stopped her and told her that she is reading it that way because she knows what it SHOULD say, But what does it REALLY say. She turned bright read and they both about died right there! They were cracking up. They asked if they could keep it to laminate it. I am sure she will be up in the  teachers lounge for all to see. It really is just so classic!

I am a failure!

Ok, where did I go wrong? How can I have missed this critical lesson in child rearing? This is how the story goes, let me set the scene for you...
It was bath time so I started the water, Seanna gets in and Sohaila is going to the bathroom before she climbs in. I remembered I had to grab something down stairs so quickly jet down there and back up. As I round the corner to the bathroom I see Sohaila letting go of the shower curtain that is directly in front of the toilet. It was strange to me, just the way she did it made some flags go off in my head.
I walk up and see that the toilet is not flushed and there is no toilet paper in the bowl. Can you see the end of the story? Yep my 6 YEAR OLD could not find the roll of toilet paper so she grabbed the next best thing. The shower curtain. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
That is all I could say. No other words came to me. I was in shock. Where did my parenting go wrong? How does my 6 year old reason with the fact that it is OK to us a curtain to wipe herself? I give up! H
 

Who needs a bathtub?

The girls are totally into doing the dishes right now..
Which makes less work for me!

Sohaila killed two birds with one stone, who needs a bath
when you get clean while doing the dishes?

J.T.

It was about a month after Sohaila started Kindergarten that we began to frequently hear the name J.T.   J.T. this and J.T. that. She calls him her "Best Friend" and we all know what that means. Her teachers say they are so gentle and kind to one another. My 6 year old is in love, and Carlos is not ok (but that is another post).
This post is about the power that Mr J.T. has over my girl.
We began to talk about cutting her hair. Why we would cut it, who it would go to. It was her decision and she was all over it. Then she went to school and came home saying she did not want to cut her hair because... can you guess?   Yep J.T. does not like short hair.
So, there I was having the conversation with my 6 year old, if J.T. does not like you for your heart he is not being a good friend. You deserve friends who love you for you...Blah, Blah, Blah. I thought I had that one saved for when she turns 15. Oh well I guess I am just getting practice in.
We finally talk her into it, she cuts her hair and right after it is done she looks in the mirror and has this scowl on her face. Pouting and mad wrapped in one. I went to her and asked her what was wrong. She told me "he's not going to like it"
By this time, Carlos is crazy. He keeps asking should we take her to counseling? I just laugh.
Ok so fast forward to Friday which was her first day back to school after she cut her hair. She was so nervous. All the kids came up and told her they loved it except J.T. he was absent. Now fast forward to this morning. Carlos took Sohaila to school. When they got to her class room they waited outside the door while her teacher went and got J.T.  She reminded him that Sohaila cut her hair and gave it to a little girl who could not grow hair.  They came out the door he looked at her and said "Wow,  I like it"
Carlos said Sohaila lit up. He said that she not only smiled, but he could see all the worry she was carrying lift off her shoulders. Really is this happening to me. Do I have a teenager or a girl kindergarten? I am slightly afraid of what God might be preparing me for.  H

The pout came not long after this.

NO!!!!!!!!

Sohaila gets off the bus today and has her mouth closed, but has the biggest grin. I ask her what... and she shows me this

And guess what I did. I started to cry. I am not a sappy woman. I don't cry much but as I walked home I had a moment. Why? Because my first baby, lost her first tooth and I was not there. I know there will be other teeth, tons to be exact, but the fact is she is my baby and i missed a milestone.
But she is cute!

You guessed it!

Before...

After

We cut the girls hair off! How adorable are they! Wow!

Today!

4:30 and 5!

Mon. Tues. Wed. THURSDAY!!!

Three more days... What will it be?

I can't wait...

5 more days until...
What can it be? H

Birthday party #12...Check, Survived...Done!

I love it when ideas come together! Sohaila had her
6th birthday party this weekend and if I do say so myself
it was great!

I made these pillows that had the info on them. It read
Bring our PJ's, sleeping bag and your favorite
stuffed friend to a sleep over that is pretend.

We had story time and sang some good night songs.

We ate Pigs in a blanket ( how appropriate!).

Then we played a game of pass the piggy.
(Piggy is Sohaila's sleeping companion)

The stars came out,

They sang to her. I know it looks like they are singing
Kum-ba-yah my Lord to her but I promise it was
happy birthday.

And what sleepover is not complete with out a movie?
This was not the original plan, but once all the kids
got there, I realized that I had no control of these sweet
children! So in it went!
When the kids left we gave them a pillow that my
grandma made of each of their first initials. They were
super cute but I did not get a picture!

I don't know who to say did this. It was either some kids
or it was Billy.  Hmmm.
So besides the stress of a party, plus the fact that I realized
I can not control 14 children alone and the small issue
of the oven catching on fire... it was a great party!
What was your favorite themed party you have gone to?

"Good Morning Sunshine"

I stand corrected, taught and then given specific instructions on how to wake Sohaila up in the morning.  I had no specific way, I would rub her back trying to bring her out of her deep slumber, but I guess it was not good enough because I have been asked to change my ways. Sohaila has given me instructions on how she would like to wake up... including the words I need to say.  And so today, as my baby girl woke as a 6 year old I spoke these words..."Good morning Sunshine."

We started a new tradition on Seanna's last birthday  called the birthday string. Carlos gets on a mission and loops and ties this ribbon all through out the house. At different places we have little gifts wrapped up for her. It such a fun way to start a birthday and something we can keep doing for years!  By 6:30am we had baked 24 cupcakes for her class, made pancakes, did the birthday string and sang Sohaila happy birthday.

Good Morning Sunshine
 

 

What are your family birthday traditions?

Girls just wanna have fun!

Nani wanted me to take this picture, she was ready
even though her local clock said 10am.

   

Parenting Advice?

We found the jets!