Our first outing :o)

Today was my first outing as a mother of 5, lol. We went to the park with our friends from our Homeschool Playgroup. It was so much fun! It's nice to have friends that I have so much in common with and who raise their kids in a similar way. Plus since we all homeschool we have similar schedules and can go to the park and stuff during a school days too to avoid the crowds. Today there were a lot of kids at the park since school hasn't started yet. There was another big group of Moms and a couple of daycamp type groups of kids. We all had a great time and it was so nice to see everyone. We don't always get to do as many things with them as we would like because with all the kids there are always lots of appointments and things to do. I only have a babysitter for the warmer half of the year so I have to get everything done then :o) All Winter I'm on my own and have to either take them all with or schedule for later in the day so that Daddy is home. He's really helpfull though so that works out great.
I've been feeding A2 as much high calorie and fatty foods as I can. I add whole milk to things instead of water and then add powdered milk too. I bought 2 big bags of pears last night and tonight made a whole bunch of pear sauce for her. This will hopefully keep her from having to use her stool softeners. It's also nice to have to add to her oatmeal and cream of wheat. It will be interesting to see if she gains any weight. I'll be weighing her every week to see how she does.
I was very excited today to see that crawling is now her favorite mode of transportation and she's getting around much better. She had been just spinning from her knees to her butt, around and around to get everywhere. Crawling is difficult for her and I can see that. She hangs her head down and really tries to keep her body close so she can balance.
I have been putting her in the stander every day for at least an hour or so. I don't think she's ever used one before and I think it will really help, not only for her leg strength but so her standing up straight and her upper body control.
She's such a honey. Tonight when she fell asleep she was right in the spot where I put her. It's nice to know that she wasn't wandering around her bed but that she was comfy and went to sleep. She was lying on her side and was sucking her thumb! I had never seen her do that before. It was SO cute!
P finally decided to be jealous of her new sister today. P had already finished eating her lunch because she's super fast and I was still feeding A2 her lunch. P came over and wanted a bite and I told her no and she just started whining and eventually it turned into all out bawling. I don't know if she thought A2 was having something better than what she had or what. She has always had a thing about bowls. If someone has a bowl she has to have some of whatever it is. She needs to learn though that you don't always get a bite of eveything that everyone has. Whenever we have a birthday or something and everyone is eating cake and ice cream, she'll hop around the living room from one person to the next and want bites. When your bowl is empty you are history and she's onto the next person. It's a hoot but we need to stop it now because otherwise it will be a hard habit to break later.
I really think I'm going to start a little bit of homeschooling tomorrow. The kids are getting stir crazy and I think a little review might be good for them. When all they have to do all morning is play, the get to fighting and bickering. When they have school, lunch, outside time, and then in to play, they don't tend to fight so much because it's not just all down time.
I think the hardest thing about school this year is that W is in Kindergarten and A is in 1st, so W only has a half day of work and A has a full day. She's going to have a hard time with that. Maybe I'll have to find some extra stuff for him to work on his penmanship or something.