brothers and sisters

When I was pregnant with DJ, even though I really wanted another baby, I was extremely worried that I was ruining Paige's life by giving her a sibling. How were either of us going to be able to handle my attention being not solely on her? What if she was jealous? What would I do?
I don't care what all the books tell you, not every child is upset by a new baby. Paige was never upset -- not once. DJ was born and he was ours! He was smiling and laughing out loud for her when he was a week old ~
He followed her everywhere and did everything she said, played every game the way she wanted him to and he was super happy to do it!
(DJ has always been super happy)
Paige was 8 and DJ just turned 6 when Kelly was born. This time, I was concerned that they were so much older they wouldn't get along.
I don't know why I worry about these things. They adored her!

They read to her and sang to her and gladly gave up their "choking hazard" toys.





As Paige grew a little older, she no longer wanted to play with DJ as much, and fortunately by that time, Kelly was old enough to do things with him.

DJ was bossed around his whole life by one sister -- the other one just took over!

I can't tell you how many times DJ has come to us upset because "Kelly said" he couldn't do x, y or z. Our answer is always, "You know, you don't always have to listen to the 2 year old" (or the 3 year old, or the 4 year old) "tell her you won't play with her if she isn't nice".

(hrumph... when Kelly was 3, her pediatrician suggested we find another Alpha Female for her to play with....)

Lately, either DJ has finally found his voice with her, or Kelly has learned to back off, (yeah -- right) but those two are inseparable! You could see it happening, but I have really noticed it more over this school break.

She tells him all the time, "DJ, you are my favorite boy!" and they are singing goofy made up songs and building castles out of blocks and DJ is helping her read.

I for one, am enjoying it all --
Maybe they will all start arguing when they are teenagers. Paige at 13 is pretty mean to the rest of them. Not so much Mikey, she likes him (he LOVES her!) but you can tell that even he is starting to get on her nerves.
And just where will Mikey fit in with all of them? Paige will be off to college when he starts Kindergarten (yikes!) and I don't see him putting up with Kelly's bossy ways!

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Spring Break

We made no plans for Spring Break. Well, no fun plans. My plan was to do a bit of spring cleaning, but that hasn't happened yet and it is already Tuesday.

I wish we could still go up to the Lake.
{sigh}

I am a huge believer on kids getting the right amount of sleep. I think so many kids are sleep deprived and their parents don't even realize it. Here is a chart from Babycenter: sleep chart Kids need a crazy amount of sleep, right? Yes, I know my kids are older, but I can't find that chart...
DJ has always been an early riser (in a house full of 'let's sleep in' people) and even now needs 10 hours of sleep. He was the one who taught me to have a set bedtime. When he was a baby, if I didn't get him in his crib between 8:00 and 8:10 he would scream for two solid hours straight! If I had him in bed by 8:00, he'd roll over and fall fast asleep!
(yes, it took me a while to figure it out)
Oh, and no matter what time he went to bed, he woke at the same time every morning -- he still does that and so does Kelly.
As he grew into a toddler, when I went to bed I would leave one of those split cleaning buckets on his crib rail filled with books and toys, so he would wake up and play instead wanting to get out of bed at 6AM!
The point I am trying to make, is that it is not a normal thing for me to let my kids stay up past their bedtime.
Until this week.
These kids have been staying up and hanging out with us until at least 10:30 every night. They are dancing in the living room, playing video games and having ice cream!

I also have a rule about homework, even when there is a break at school. They are not allowed to go anywhere or watch TV or play games until all their homework is finished. Always.
Until this week.
I haven't made them do any of it yet... AND we went to the park yesterday.

It has become a mad house!

I love having all my kids home together.

DNA ancestry

I so want to do one of those new DNA test that can find your ancestral origins. I think they are so amazing! They are crazy expensive though. There are some that are less expensive, but really only give you general outline. My father in law did the one through ancestry.com and even though it wasn't as informative as we expected it to be, it is still pretty freakin' cool!
Vic's family is Spanish Basque on his dad's side and German/Swiss from his mom. His haplogroup came back and is R1b which they refer to as The Artisans.
Here is a paragraph from his results that explains who they are:

You belong to haplogroup R1b, The Artisans, who first arrived in Europe from west Asia about 35,000- 40,000 years ago at the dawning of the Aurignacian culture. This cultural was remarkable for its subtle yet significant technological progress, like the shift from random flint collection to the use of a single stone core to shape flint tools as needed. Aurignacian decorative beads and jewelry could also be the first sign we have of the uniquely human quality of self-awareness and adornment. Additionally, some anthropologists believe that the Aurignacian culture was the first to paint. Either way, the people of this time period left behind fascinating cave paintings in France, Spain and Portugal.

The best part is at the end and it talks about his sub-group:

R1b1c4 and R1b1c6 are very specific Artisan subsections found primarily in Basque populations, but also in Catalan, Spanish, French, British and German populations.
A unique modern day population, the Basque people self-identify as a discrete ethnic group in north-central Spain and southwestern France. Early Basque culture was basically democratic and their pre-Christian religion was formed around a superior female goddess, Mari. A rich mythology of Basque creatures and characters includes imps, giants, dragons, soothsayers and other nature-based deities.

Love it!
I mean, how great is it to get a confirmation of where your people originated --

What I really want to do next, is to have Mike's maternal line tested. We have no idea where is mom's family is from because she was adopted.
At some point Robyn had tried to find her biological family. Her adoption was done though the church and the story is, that the Sister's destroyed all the records from her adoption. She had a really close relationship to her mother, so I don't know that she had a lot of motivation to search any further. She also told me that when she was born they didn't give her to her parents right away. The Sister's kept her for the first few weeks -- so her mother wouldn't "be disturbed" by a newborn! This was something her mother was not pleased with, but had to follow the rules to be able to get her baby.

Since we have Vic's haplogroup, if we test Mike, it would be easy to tell what Robyn's was. Right? I am not sure if it would work that way -- being as there are paternal tests and maternal tests, and one is more detailed that the other.
I just think it would be fun to do!