Kids are expensive

The brakes went bad on our van. Mike took it to a shop that had an opening last Saturday afternoon. The mechanic mentioned to him how he sees a lot of brakes going bad on minivans....because soccer moms drive them around!! Man, that's offending. So I asked him what exactly IS a soccer mom? Weeeelllllll, it's a mom with kids who drive all the time running to practices and games and school and errands, putting lots of wear and tear on their minivans. I guess since I live with five boys and four of them play soccer, averaging four games a week, I can fall into that category. Not to mention how much they EAT and how often I have to run to the market. I'm not happy about the title of soccer mom. Although, there is always a loose soccer ball rolling around in my van.

So this baby will not produce any teeth. He's been "teething" for months, I guess? He is not sleeping very well and was up at seven this morning. Way too early for a Sunday. So I asked mike to watch him for a few minutes. This is the difference between moms taking care of kids and dads taking care of kids:

MOM: wakes up, feeds kids, changes baby, feeds baby, packs lunches, makes coffee, makes husband lunch, oops, baby gets dirty so bathes baby, changes baby again, (notice mom has not eaten or changed or anything yet?) then mom gets on big kids to get dressed, mom finally runs to throw clothes on so she can run kids to school, after school, gets coffee mug, checks email, eats something....shew. I'm tired just thinking about my mornings.

Now, DAD: wakes up, mom asks to take a shower so please PLEASE watch baby!?! Okay, so dad puts baby on floor, gets newspaper, pours cereal, sits to eat and read at table, oops, baby has pulled trashcan over, dad pours cereal for other kid, kid asks what bugs are all over floor....oops, maggots. Dad cleans trashcan and trash and maggots off floor and rinses out trashcan, um, where is baby?? Okay, so mom comes downstairs and all is calm. Oh, then some kid has to slip and tell her that maggots were in the kitchen. Mom screams and cries and breaks out the bleach and scrubs floor, yanks up baby and tosses him into tub. mom spends all day looking for and worrying about maggots. Dad makes coffee. Oh, actually re-cycles coffee through filter from previous day. : )
(I should not be journaling about this since I want to forget this memory. It even kept me awake last night.)

I've made some pretty super recipes lately. Last month I was on a funnel cake kick. There are some massive cinnamon buns in the fridge right now that I need to eat. This morning, I made scalloped potatoes and ham in my crock pot before church. Yesterday I made a pecan pear salad, the day before that, buttery pretzels, and of course, my cinnabons. Today I'm running to target for some fish. Yes, I buy my fish from Target! They sell frozen wild Mahi Mahi. And the price is fantastic, $8 for four steaks. And of course, we need diapers. Kids and babies are expensive.

The bumblebee

Have you ever had a bee stare at you? I was forced inside because an intimidating bumblebee was staring me down. His eyes were looking right at me! He flapped his wings and stayed in one spot and kept darting in and out. So, I brought my coffee and book inside. I try to sit outside alone while the baby naps. This baby does not have any teeth yet. But he's huge and acts like a toddler. Today he managed to wiggle the knobs on the stove. Yesterday he opened the utensil drawer. And today he made a beeline for the toilet brush. I read an article online about baby proofing and it says to "get down on all fours and craw around" to see what could be harmful...that is ridiculous. I have to buy objects to plug up the outlets and a baby gate to block the steps could be helpful. We call him Calzilla.

Yesterday I took the baby on a walk and to play in some fountains. It was so much fun we went back with the rest of the gang for dinner last night. I packed a picnic. Noah became grumpy at one point and sulked off under a tree and ate alone. The kids played on the swings....all four of them. Matt ended up stepping on a strange small prickle in the fountain so I have to call and make sure he is up on his shot. And I'm so happy that my now middle schooler still loves to play. He certainly is not maturing and growing into his tweens anytime soon. He played the longest in the fountains. He is the one who comes home from school and plays legos for an hour. But he is also mature enough to take care of his baby brother alone for small amounts of time and help out around the house and school. Yes, he even does chores at school. It's good for him.

On an unrelated note, there is nothing worse then accidentally buying the wrong kind of creamer. I purchased lactose free fat free creamer. Gross. So I had to use my back up supply of creamer powder in my Starbucks this morning. I have a few dollars in my purse so I'm going to walk to the store with the baby to get the good stuff. How sad when creamer is a luxury.

The Beginning of School

My kids crack me up. Today I was playing blocks with Cal in his room when Matt ran in with a folded up piece of paper. He told me it was a Harry Potter map and asked me to be Prof McGonagal....not in cat form. I guess you can only get that if you know Harry Potter, huh?

I woke with a migraine today, so Mike kindly let me sleep and stayed with the baby. It was a throw-up headache. Yuck. Sorry. Later, he picked up the three boys from school and ran a few errands, one was to Sears to pay our bill. Apparently, at Sears there was a demo set up with free food and Mike and the boys got roped into buying the fun, expensive, little contraption. The kids were so excited about this thing. They mimicked the demonstrations. Mike even bought m&ms to make Blizzards. I already have a small electric chopper. I use it to make baby food. There is no spot for this one. Sooooo. Because I have no place to store this chopping mechanism and all it's parts, I will have to pull my grocers bins off the wall, paint my kitchen red and buy a few shelves with baskets to store it all. : ) I guess I do love the new kitchen gadget after all.

Kids finished day two of school today. Noah started wearing a belt and needs help. Matthew, poor Matthew, only has hand-me-down items. Maybe one day he will get a new backpack or lunchbox. Even his binder was Josh's old used binder. I wanted to buy him a new one BUT they are $15!!!!! So, I got out some pliers and a zipper and fixed the old one. Good as new. Josh got all new items this year. He's a middle schooler now, new uniforms, shoes, backpack, lunch box. He's happy. And now I hear Cal stirring in his crib. Trying to squeeze in blogs is hard to do. I mean to write down more of our days, celebrating life together. That's why I call this good intentions......I'm trying. Off to grab this little guy!

The Waffle and the Polka Dots

Last night, as I was going through the daily routine of vacuuming up the Cheerios, I spied a waffle behind the living room chair. It had a few nibbles taken out of it. I picked it up and finished vacuuming and then tossed it in the trash. I could not figure out how to feel about this waffle. It feels almost normal to find a waffle behind a chair in my house.

Calvin has the polka dots. Mike took him outside last night for no more than ten minutes and the poor little guy got bombarded with bites! I counted at least a dozen. And since he was dressed in a long sleeved shirt and pants, ALL the bites are in his face, wrists and hands!! I was telling the kids today about Josh's first day of preschool. All the kids and parents were sitting in a circle while the teacher read a Raggedy Ann and Andy book. She turned to a page of Andy sick in bed, covered in red spots and when she asked the class what sickness he had, Josh shot his hand straight up in the air: He has the polka dots!! :)

Enjoying children

This baby has his first ear infection. He was awake an entire night screaming and restless. It was miserable and we thought he was just teething. But the next morning, I touched his ear and he winced. We had already decided to take the kids to the lake for the day, so while the big kids swam, we took turns holding Cal. He is such a great baby! Then home and the doctors and off to get meds filled. That's when I encountered the annoying woman at the grocery store.
Her, yelling at her son and daughter to move so I could squeeze by with my cart: Get out of the way! She's trying to get by! (looking at my baby) Oh, enjoy this stage while you can!
Me: oh, I am. I have four.
Her: wow. You're brave.
Her kids were good! She just had two! She didn't have to say that in front of them, implying that their ages were hard and they were being a bother. She also made me think of my own kids and how often they find things to argue over. But when I'm out with my kids, people comment on how well behaved they are. I love every stage of parenting these kids. It gets harder, the older they get, the more you have and the more busy their schedules become...like, soccer starting today.....sigh....until November!!
But, enjoy every bit of it. Not just when they sit quietly in a shopping cart. Enjoy the six year old jumping up and down in the living room yelling: Gnomes! Gnomes! Gnomes! Until mike asks him to stop. :)
Enjoy the eleven year old, coming home from soccer with sweaty hair and a flushed face, asking to play on this iPad that I'm currently using! Enjoy the eight month old who is as happy as a clam despite refusing to sleep today, and the eight year old who was overjoyed at unlocking some character called Wolf on smash brothers brawl this morning.

Cheerios Everywhere

You can find at least one Cheerio in every single room of this house. This morning, I found one Cheerio under my covers, at the foot of my bed.  There was one outside of my 11 year old's room.  One morning, as I undressed and changed my baby's diaper, I did notice he was covered in Cheerios under his pajamas.  He slept with them stuck to his stomach all night, poor little thing.  This afternoon, there were hundreds of Cheerios all over my dining room floor--thanks to my 8 year old (he eats his cereal without milk, spilling them on the carpet), I was hoping the baby would crawl around and gobble them up!  Today I accidentally spilled a baggie of them into the diaper bag.  I better go clean those up!  Oh, and my minivan--that is the Cheerio-mobile.  My dad stopped by today and commented on Cheerios being on the floor.  It drives me batty!  I vacuum every day.  Sometimes twice a day.  This is how life is right now.

I'm trying not to wish the time of young, messy kids and babies away.  As much as I hate cleaning and getting the guys to pick up after themselves, I don't want them to grow too soon.  The day I have Cheerio-less, spotless carpets will be a very sad day.  I will miss these little signs of life around my messy house.  

Good Intentions

I just watched my husband delete his blog. I told him we needed to blog to remember tiny happenings in life. After reading that Donald Miller book when it came out--thousands of miles?? I can never remember titles to books or songs, anyway, it inspired me to journal. I journaled until I became pregnant and my brain turned to mush.

Last week, I rearranged my bedroom and under my bed, I found a dust covered blue butterfly journal and my heart sunk. My last entry was dated November 2010. I had a baby in December and had not jotted one tidbit about him. Seven months--forgotten. I will try to blog for my kids. I want them to remember the fun things we do every day.....like today, when my six year old called me at the grocery store to remind me to buy fish food for his new carnival goldfish. But I had already checked out.

So I took Noah to the petstop. That's what he calls it. Today Calvin saw birds up close, in cages for the first time. Today Joshua started writing a pen pal. He lives in Ohio. Today Matthew cracked us up. He wants Josh to ask his pen pal if he smokes cigarettes and is drunk.

And now I must go clean off the iPad since it is covered in wedding bubbles that my husband discovered in the basement.....it's been a good day!