Good Morning!

My young 'uns are up soooooo early! They are fed, groomed, dressed, covered in sunblock and bored by 9 a.m. If we were home they would be doing morning chores. That isn't so easy here! In lieu of morning chores they go outside to save the frogs. Today they found one as big as their hands. Oh the excitement! Not so, for me. It was in a spot requiring my help for a successful rescue. Ew! Blech! Yuck!
We did add a bug hotel to the backyard. It was a suggestion from our science book. According to Katie the inn is vacant. I have not yet worked up the courage to look myself. Again, ew!
We also moved one lucky (???) tadpole into our indoor tadpole habitat in hopes of watching him/her transform into a baby frog. Five days later the tadpole lives. By my standards we have success!
Our next experiment (a word that John can barely pronounce though he chooses to use it often, along with confusing - as in Mom, I was very confusing about that!) will be with trash in large glass jars. We are going to do compostable trash in one and trash that doesn't break down in another.
Oh the fun of summer!

Trivial moments

Allison to me - Mom, do cup and cake rhyme?

Me - No.

Allison - Is it an alliteration?

My thoughts - Really, Allison? How do you pick these things up?

Katie to me - Mom, what is the name of the place where Gregory took us to play and eat?

My thoughts - What awful, dirty place did he so thoughtfully (because at 16 taking your nieces and nephew anywhere IS quite thoughtful!) take them to? I am stumped.

Allison - Chick-Fil-A

My thoughts, again - Really, Allison? That was her first and only time going there and it was days before! How does a 2.5 year old recall like that?

Allison is just recovered from a fever. No other symptoms. Claire now has the fever. 103+. She doesn't handle being sick very well. I will pray over and over that she passes through this as quickly and easily as Allison did.

Good deeds

Picking up glitter... Glitter, litter with a g to dress it up. My kids thoroughly enjoy picking it up so it is quite appropriate that we call it glitter. Picking up glitter is something we do very often. Every trip to the store starts with each child picking up at least one piece of trash and depositing it in the garbage can. I must be especially diligent lest they pick up something particularly disgusting. Receipts and bags - OK. Anything wet - ewwwwww! I introduced the idea that a clean Earth is a better Earth. John started the clean up tradition when he was a wee one (about 1 year old) visiting the park.
Recently my dad treated the kids and me to a ferry ride. Katie noticed the trash floating around in the water and gave us all (strangers included) a lesson about how the fish and ducks cannot live with those things in the water. Oh how I wish I had jotted down a few of her quotes!
My do-gooders request help saving frogs daily here. The frog mommies lay eggs in the decorative pond. We watch them morph from egg to tadpole to tadpole with legs to tiny frog. Those tiny frogs (and a few big ones plus a few crabs) sometimes find their way into the salt water swimming pool. That is when Operation Frog kicks in. We do daily pool checks, fish out the little buggers and release them into the grass. Katie and Allison are quite certain that the large croaking frogs are the mommy frogs saying Thank You! for saving the babies. :)
Saving the frogs isn't our only mission. We are all quite diligent about making sure no children end up in one of the many water hazards near here. All of the kids wear bracelets that alarm when they get wet. The bracelets are particularly sensitive. Claire licking one or Allison sweating on one while she naps will set off the alarm. Because of that sensitivity we have many water hazard drills. They are paying off! Today just Katie and I were home while Claire napped in her crib. Katie sat at the kitchen table doing a craft while I walked down the driveway to check the mail. Halfway up the drive I heard the pool alarm sound. My first thought was - Yikes! Katie freaks out when any alarm goes off. I ran into the house and instantly noticed Katie... Fingers in her ears, standing at the back window, scanning the pool. She caught sight of me, ran over (fingers still in ears) and announced Mommy, there are NO kids in the pool! I was so proud of her for reacting quickly and safely. Together we went outside to take a walk around the pool check for frogs...

Dreaming about Daddy

I caught Allison as she awakened this morning. Mommy, when you were at the store a snake bited my finger. My daddy opened the snake's mouth and got my finger out. Then he put a bandaid on it and I am all better now. How intriguing to hear about her dream and how sweet that it is about her daddy saving her. I can only hope that the snake part wasn't too traumatizing.

John brought some matchbox cars to me and started... Plus one and three is four. Whoa! I have introduced this during playing. Is he really catching on? He 'played math' on and off all day and added rocks to make the equations more fun. At one point he even remarked Now THAT is my kind of math. (Picture his head tilted to the side and imagine the smacking noise he makes with his lips when he is expressing an important point.)

He asked me to play bubbles with him. He successfully made lots of bubbles then passed the stuff off to me. I couldn't make a great bubble! Heck, I couldn't make any bubble. Lucky for me I had John with me. He asked to have another turn and very successfully made more bubbles. Am I smarter than a four year old?

John and I also spent some time flying his glider outside today. (It was a great Mom & John day!) The glider takes a short charge and is designed to fly 20 feet... When counting to 20 he was missing 16 quite often... 14, 15, 17, 18... So everything we do involves counting to 16. For multiple glider flights he counted to 16, released the plane and watched it fly through the yard. Retrieve, repeat! Unfortunately the plane caught a gust of wind that sent it 200 yards north, 100 yards west and three stories high where it is now parked on the top of a townhouse. Oops. With tears in his eyes, MOM! 16 wasn't such a great idea!

Science 101

Tomorrow we are going to start the summer of science. I found a book at the library with age appropriate experiments and I can't wait to try them. I'll share the good and the bad...

Commercial free, please

This morning when I sat around the table with all of the kids Allison said to me, Mom, my heart is OK. Is your heart all better? She was referring to some trivial moment earlier when I said something was breaking my heart, probably someone throwing recyclables in the trash or the like. John responded, My heart is not OK. It isn't even here. It is in Honduras with Daddy because I miss him. Awwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uncle Gregory, John, Katie and I ran a few errands while the little girls napped today. We were a block away when I realized I needed a few things from the house. Turn around. Pull into drive. Send Gregory in to get the items. It was pouring down rain and Katie said to me. Mom, you sent Gregory in for those things because you don't like getting wet, right? Yep, she is right!

The kids see more TV in a day here than they see in a week at home and with that TV time comes commercial time. Daily I hear from Katie, Mom, will you please order me some Bendaroos. I don't even know what Bendaroos are. Reference the trip mentioned above... Our first stop was Bed Bath & Beyond. As we walked through the door and I headed back to find lunch boxes Katie spotted Bendaroos. Who knew? She is now a walking Bendaroos advertisement. (Singing) Benda-what? Benda-who? Benda-roos? Over and over again. Punctuated with You can use them again and again. And Bendaroos won't make a mess. What will they think when we go home and they realize we don't have cable. Heck, we don't even have a TV anymore! Those Bendaroos will fill lots of free time then!

New Friends

As a stay at home mom to young children I've recently come to this conclusion...
Meeting potential friends is a lot like dating. I go to places where people I might enjoy befriending tend to congregate. I approach someone who looks attractive to me. I initiate small talk and request to exchange numbers. I call or send a note and then wait and wonder if I will get a reply. We meet a few times in mostly neutral places and decide whether or not going to the next step is in the best interest of both of us. Those social skills I am teaching the kids will come in handy for the rest of their lives!

Better days!

John spent the night in his bed (yay!) and came in just before 6:30 to wake me up. I sent him downstairs to have breakfast with Grandpa. He was back within minutes bouncing around, begging me to get out of bed and see the breakfast table. It seems that after his bedtime Yia Yia put a colorful striped table cloth out. John to me, Mom, you have to come see what is on the table. It is the most beautiful (beautiful is very exaggerated) table I have ever seen. What a fun moment - even if it was before 7!

Today I took all of the kids for a trip to the grocery. (I am not afraid!) I pushed Claire in a beep-beep cart (my kids' nickname for the race carts with steering wheels) while Katie, John and Allison followed behind me - each pushing their own mini cart - all in a row. We went through the store like a mama duck and her little ducklings. They were all well behaved. Lots of shoppers told me so! I was so proud. :)

I found a note from Aunt Misty today from a month ago. Katie was having a sleepover there. When she was coloring Misty commented on how many crayons they had and how lucky they were to have them. Katie (because she is MY daughter) said, Yeah, we should sell some away!

May I have a pillow with that?

Some time late last night (I never check my clock during late night wake-ups; it just ruins my night) John came in to see me. He was in wet pajamas... I fixed him up and invited him to crawl in my bed. I certainly wasn't going to waste sleep time changing his wet bed! Not too long later he popped up and said Mommy, I am coughing and getting sick. Ugh! After a long trip to the bathroom I brought him back to my room to settle down - FINALLY - for the night. That sweet boy loves to sleep in my bed. Yet he KNOWS that getting sick in my bed is unacceptable. So... When I brought him back to my room, without prompting (heck, I hadn't even thought of it; I just wanted to get back to sleep!) he said Mommy, can I please have a blanket and pillow to sleep on the floor next to you? My heart just melted. I know, it seems like such a small thing. Still, my little boy was thinking about me - or, at least, my rules - even when he was sick and tired.

Tidbit

Katie to John - Look! We are driving close to the ocean.
John - We can't see the water yet, we just see the cranes putting the containers on the ships.
Katie - Oh yeah, the containers go on the Chicargo Ships.

Chi-cargo ships... Are those cargo ships built in Illinois? She cracks me up!

Boys? Or just my boy?

Someone with experience raising boys (or any good advice even if you don't have boys!) please help...
John is a disaster. Defiant, defiant, defiant. As soon as I start to tell him to change his behavior or attitude he argues with me, talking over me and assuring me that he is in the right and everyone else is wrong. His most annoying behaviors... Laughing when I discipline. Shooting Allison in the face while she screams "Don't shoot me!" Then yelling at me that they are fake bombs when I take all of the guns away. (THAT is why we don't have toy guns in our house!!!!!!!) Pushing on the stairs. Pushing Allison into the pool. Swimming when I am not outside. Passing at mach speed on his bike. He has that 'I know everything and I can do everything better' attitude that irks me about other kids. GOOD GRIEF! What am I going to do?????????
The cherry on top... He locked me out of my parents' house today when I took the trash out.
Really, help. PLEASE!

Daily Doodles

I wonder... Often! What are they thinking? Do they wonder what I am thinking. Nope! They assume they know what I am thinking.

Today John decided that drinking water is best when it comes from ice. He spent most of the afternoon putting ice in a cup, placing the cup in the sunshine and returning every few minutes to sip the melted bits. He was so excited about his discovery! He even recounted the steps for Grandpa tonight at dinner.

Claire thinks the best part of being at Yia Yia's is the shoes lined up near the door. She puts a new pair on every few minutes and stomps around in them. None of them are hers. :)

Katie wants to know if Dr. Seuss is Yia Yia's doctor. She also wants me to go on a date. Spence won't be thrilled about that! What she really wants is to see the babysitter! I can arrange that even if Spence isn't here to go out on a date with...

Allison. Yikes, Allison! She is my challenge these days. Why must we survive these stages? She doesn't like anything we have and she doesn't want to do anything we are doing. AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!