He's had a Birthday, shout Hooray!

How does time go by so fast? M and K got big fast, but I feel like with Little B, time is going even faster. It's gotta be because I know that he's our last. I want to hold onto all his cute baby things for as long as I can. There are already so many things I miss. Like,when he was little enough that he would sleep on me at church, or his cute bum wagging back and forth as he crawled across the floor, or how he used to love being in the stroller when we would go for a walk instead of now where he MUST push it or the entire walk is filled with a very upset child yelling,"AND OUT, AND WALK, STUCK!!!" He doesn't not like to be strapped into things and will try to get out while telling you over and over that he's stuck.  I miss his open mouthed kisses that he would plant on whatever part of your face his mouth happened to land on. I miss the little baby that is know a wild and crazy two year old. Thankfully, he still has a little bit of the adorable baby chub on the backs of his hands and his feet. He'll still lay his head on my shoulder when I put him to bed, but not for very long. After he has established that M and K are going to bed too and he's not the only one being banished to bed, he says,"Bye, see ya!" He LOVES to go to Target. I know, such a happy mama! Truthfully, the reason he loves it is because of the free cookie he can get at the bakery. As we're at the light by Target, the light that you can't even see the store from, he'll get all excited and in a high pitched, almost scream voice he'll say,"coooookieeeee?!!!!!!!!" Today after we took the kiddos to school we were coming home and he said,"And Target?" I asked him if he wanted to go to Target and he said,"YEAH! A cookie and sicker(sticker)!" I love looking at clearance and he loves getting a cookie and a sticker, which he promptly takes off the paper and sticks on his forehead. He came up with putting the sticker there all on his own. He does it every time and I have gotten used to it. When we were there on Saturday he did it and M and K about died laughing. It is pretty funny and we had a good laugh about it. He loves to play outside and if it's time to come in before he's ready, he'll stand there, bow his head and cover his eyes with one hand while he cries. Watching him do it is truly heartbreaking. I keep hoping that I'll have the camera when he does it so that I can get a picture of it. (I know, I'm a little strange.)  He loves dogs and cows. In his head they're always together. If he sees a dog he yells,"A dog! Where a cow go? Moo!" We're still totally enamored by him and are so happy that he's ours forever!

I forgot to mention that he loves suckers. Loves isn't even the right word. He asks for them for breakfast and all day long. On his birthday he could have as many as he wanted. I don't know how many he ate, all I know is that I was shocked to see that there were some pictures without a sucker.

I don't know who loves this car he got more, him or K. He loves it so much that he wants it parked in the garage next to B's car.

Of course he got a train. He loves it, especially when K let's him have a turn using it. I'm pretty sure we've told K close to a bazillion times that it's Little B's train so it's Little B that should be sharing with him, not the other way around. I wish that we had already taken Little B's birthday pictures, but we haven't. Maybe next time! Happy birthday little boy! 

Pals

 These here little fellas are pals to say the least. What might be more fitting is that they are one in the same. The only differences are their age and one of them has glasses. Other than that they are basically the same person. Just to clear the air, we do not put them in the same jammies. I got little B in his jammies first. K saw what ones he had on and said,"I'm going to wear my Planes jammies too, that way we can match!" They both love cars and trains and boats and balls and to put the marble track game thing together and watch the marbles roll along the thing they just built.

They love to play together, although the dynamics are changing ever so slightly now that little B can talk. Where K used to rule the playing field and do whatever he wants, we now here little B say,"No K! Stop!" The first time little B said it, K thought it was cute and proceeded to take away the car he wanted. But when little B took it back K didn't really like it anymore. Thankfully we have enough little cars to cover three small countries, so there's always enough to go around! (I'm not kidding about the amount of cars that we have in this house. See the wooden box in the background? FULL of cars. We're talking so full that unless the cars are put in there right, the lid won't shut. I know we have a problem. There are days when the crazy in me comes out and I go through it and throw some away because I can't stand finding them all over the house. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to find them in little crevices whilst young ones are in the bath.)

Sometimes when people come into our house that don't really know us they probably think that we never clean up the toy room. We do, it just doesn't look like it. It is totally normal to have the marble track game thing set up standing next to the door. Next in line are the cars that are in a pile next to the little police station and last of all are the trains that are taking up the rest of the floor. I used to have them clean them up as they went, but it was a waste of energy because they just go in circles of things they are playing with. I think that their little brains run on a chant that goes a little something like this," eat, marbles, cars, trains, repeat." If the weather's nice then they throw in going outside, but mostly they spend their days in the playroom together. Little B has become especially attached to rescue vehicles. He calls them all," Wee-o, wee-o's" He can spot them from an incredible distance too. The other week I was just finishing mopping the floor. He had been playing with his little police car. He kept saying over and over, "A wee-o wee-o." I kept asking him if he was playing with his police car. He would answer in a very excited voice,"Yeah! And a wee-o wee-o!" I got done mopping and went to rinse the mop out. I had to pass the window by the door. He was standing there staring outside. That's when I noticed that there was a fire truck across the street. We decided to use the outside water spigot to rinse the mop so we could watch the fire truck.

My guess is that it was a carbon monoxide detector that went off. There were no flames shooting from the windows and no smoke billowing up. People still go in and out of it every day, so clearly it wasn't destroyed in a tragic house fire. Anyway, we loved sitting out there watching the firemen come in and out and when they were able to leave, it drove right in front of our house. Best. Day. Ever! 

As the firetruck was driving by, it stopped, a fireman got out of the truck and walked across our grass. He gave little B this hat and said that they had all noticed that we had watched them. He asked little B if he liked the firetruck. Little B just stared at him with huge eyes. He didn't say anything so I thanked him for the hat. After the firetruck had pulled away little B started waving frantically and yelling,"BYE A WEE-O WEE-O!" I was able to get this semi good picture before he took the hat off his head and ripped it in half. Have I mentioned that he's crazy?! He likes rescue vehicles and K likes to shoot his Nerf gun.

I know he's outside in jammies. He didn't feel good this morning and by the time this afternoon rolled around there was no need to change. Yes we are so classy and let our kids play outside in jammies. Anyway, there's something white hanging in the tree. I don't know what it is. When I pointed it out to K he said that he thinks it's a butterfly cocoon. I told him I think it's too big to be a butterfly cocoon. He told me he would get his gun and shoot it down. As he was shooting at it he said,"Actually, I don't think that it's a butterfly cocoon. I think it's a baby tarantula." Great! In that case please continue to try and shoot it down from the tree! As we all know he gets his skills from me and so the white thing continues to hang in the tree at this very moment. I don't know what's in it and hopefully whatever it is, stays there until it's supposed to come out and then it can just climb down the tree and go away. Little B's job for now is bullet retriever. He doesn't mind it as long as K will let him shoot the gun once in awhile. I just love the fellas in my life and hope that they are always pals.

We love ice!

The other morning the phone rang at the awful hour of 5:45. Truthfully I was getting up to work out, but to hearing the phone at that hour made me one of two things was happening. Number one thought was that there was a family emergency and something terrible had happened to someone that we love. Or, school was going to start late. It had been raining all night and they tend to cancel school when it rains. Well, not just water rain, it has to rain ice. Anyway, I bolted down the stairs to get to the phone right as the machine picked up. Thankfully, no family crisis, just a two hour delay to school starting. If school's not going to be canceled, I'll take a two hour delay! The phone rang again at 6:45 saying that due to the rain that had turned to ice, school was no longer delayed, it was canceled! I clicked my heels together and did a little dance. No, I'm not making that up. If I had any kind of patience, I would consider home schooling our kids just so they could be home with me, but I know myself and home schooling would end very badly, so to school they go. But, I do love when they get to be home with me! The only bummer when it rains ice is the ice. It looks like snow, but it's not. M and K were so excited to go play in it. I tried to explain to them that it wasn't play-in-able, but they really wanted to go play. Out they went. I bundled up and then put little B in so many layers he almost couldn't put his arms down. The sun was out and it actually wasn't very cold. Our house sits at the bottom of a small hill. We had this great idea to go sledding down our street. Not gonna lie, at first I was really nervous to try it because it really was just ice. There was probably two inches of ice all over the road. We tried sledding, loved it and ended up playing outside until the sun had turned the ice to slush and the sled wouldn't slide anymore. We noticed that there were a lot of people using the road at the end of our street. That's a major hill, so we went over to try that one out. Our neighbor from across the street was born in Florida and had never seen snow. She's M's age, so she came sledding with us. At the top of the hill she just kept saying, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die!" I couldn't help it, I laughed at her and told her to be brave. I told her that she wouldn't die, that she was going to love it.

M and K were so excited to go all the way down the hill! They didn't care that they were going to be flying down a hill of ice!

Oh man! I stood there laughing at their happy screams. 

K would scream and then laugh. M couldn't help but scream and E was so scared that she would scream and then scream louder. Once they made it to the bottom and E knew that she had indeed survived, she stood up and said," That was so awesome! Can we do it again?!"

K took charge of this run and instructed me on what to do and how to make it so we didn't go too fast. Little B didn't know what to think. I didn't realize that I was squishing him, at least it kept him stuffed in the middle tight right? The whole way down K and I were laughing and little B was totally silent. When we got to the bottom he said,"again?" I asked if he wanted to do it again. He got a huge smile on his face and said"Yeah!" He started marching back to the top of the hill.

K made it to the top before little B could get there. When I took this picture it was so bright outside that I didn't realize that K was already going down the hill. I put the camera down just in time to see the inevitable happen. Clearly little B got wiped out. K couldn't stop so as he slid down the hill he yelled out sorry. B laid on the ice not being able to roll over to stand up because he had too many layers on him. I tried not to laugh as his little arms were flailing and his legs were kicking trying to stand up. Thankfully, he was more scared than hurt, but when I picked him up he was saying,"and done, and home, and done." Poor kid! It was lunch time anyway, so I rounded up the kiddos and we went home. M and K were not done being out on the ice. By the time lunch was over and cleaned up, the ice on the road had either melted or turned to a slushy mess. They went out anyway and discovered that another neighbor had a perfect sledding driveway! Before you go call DCFS on me, when it rains ice here, everything is shut down. The entire day I saw one car driving in the neighborhood. No one knows how to drive in the inclement weather and so they stay in their house. I knew they would be safe sledding down the driveway because there were no cars out.

They stayed outside and played on their driveway until dinner time. I could hear them screaming even though I was inside the house. I went out to check on them and the one that didn't get to sled was on check for cars duty. The other two weren't allowed to go until they had heard that it was safe to go.

We had bathed them before dinner to help them warm up. Playing out in the ice most of the day is hard work! It was such a fun day! What made the week even better is that the ice melted and the next time it didn't rain ice, it snowed real snow!

The real snow day started out with a power outage. Thankfully, B was off because he had been on call the night before, so he was home. Clearly, it wasn't too warm in our house. Even when the power's on and the heater's going, our house is drafty and cold. I thought it was just me that thought our house was cold, but the other day my friend was over. She was sitting in front of the window. She asked if the window was open. I said no, it just feels like it's open because the windows are so drafty. Anyway, so to have the power out made our house just real chilly! To pass time and to try to prevent the freezing process from starting, we bounced a ball back and forth to each other. I knew it couldn't last long, the snow looked awesome to play in. There were two problems with going out into the snow. #1- The power was out, so when they came back in, there was no way to warm them up. #2- we don't own any snow pants, boots or waterproof gloves. I knew that they would be so cold if they went out there. It was only a matter of time before they would ask to go out. I was truly hoping that they would be so cold inside that they wouldn't want to go outside. Of course I was wrong. The ball game lasted until 8:45 and then they wanted to go out. I hate snow. I hate that it's so cold and that you get wet and then freeze. My hands freeze and my feet get so cold that they hurt. And have I mentioned that they power was out? Oh that's right, the power was out, so there was NO WAY TO WARM UP!!!! That didn't not sound great to me. B loves to play in the snow and he really wanted the offspring to be able to play in it because the forecast for the next day was warm, so the snow was going to melt. He took one for the team and took all of them out so they could play. They had a great time and I was able to get a couple pictures!

This was before they went out. We don't have any gloves for little B, so we put socks on his hands and then put sandwich bags over the socks. He kept them on for the picture and that's about it.

Yay for snow days that there's actual snow and not just ice!

What a cute kid right?!

M is totally nuts and unzipped her coat. She said that she was getting hot. Clearly she's a little sick in the head!

K would pick up huge amounts of snow and throw them without compacting them into a ball. Every time he threw snow, it was like your own personal snow storm as it fell down on you. Little B wouldn't pick up the snow himself with the socks/sandwich bags on his hands. He had B pick it up and hand it to him. He ended up just ripping the socks off his hands. Then he really didn't like to pick the snow up. Maybe someday we'll get real gloves.

What's not to love about this one?! I am so glad that they were able to play in the snow! I'm even more glad that B was home to play with them so that I didn't have to! Too bad the snow was gone the next day. Yes, the next day. It was sunny and warm, so it all melted. Now you know why we don't have snow gear. The snow doesn't stay around long enough to justify buying any. 

   

Kids and food

K(after he had parked 24 cars, four rows of 6, at a diagonal on the kitchen table):"Mommy, guess what these cars are doing."
Me: Parking at the store
K: No
Me: Stuck in traffic
K:No
Me: Waiting in the pick up line at school
K:No
Me: Trying to drop kids off at school
K:No
Me: Basketball
K: No
Me: Gymnastics
K: No
Me: I don't know, what are they doing?
K: They are at a drive in watching a movie because that's what cars did in the sixties
Me: (laughing because that was really random and how does he know that? I didn't tell him that I did that in the 90's too)
Basically kids are awesome. That's all really. Can I just take a minute and talk about little kid food. Little kid food is the best! I love goldfish, the crackers of course, not the real fish. I was at Costco the other day and saw their big box of goldfish. Usually I have enough self control and just keep walking, but that day I had none. I picked up the box and was able to make it to the car before I busted them out. Both little B and I were in heaven as we made the half an hour drive home eating our little fishies. Hot dogs, oh man! I love hot dogs. I always have, pretty sure I always will. I can't look at the nutrition facts. Not because if I look I'll stop eating them, because I won't. Just knowing how much faster I'm getting to a heart attack gives me a little more anxiety. I love hot dogs in almost any form, corn dogs, cut up in mac n' cheese, pigs n' a blanket, really any way they're presented is wonderful and amazing! Grilled cheese sandwiches are a gift from heaven! Although, it has to be made with fake cheese, real cheese is too advance for my palate. Cheese pizza is the only kind of pizza to eat. Man oh man! If there was someway to have an IV drip, that you could taste, of cheese pizza from Dominos I would totally do it! Not great that I love all this food. In my defense, I don't eat them very often. I haven't had cheese pizza in almost a week! Clearly, it's lunch time, so I'm off to eat some goldfish and an orange!

Here comes trouble

You might look at this face and think he's cute. Which of course you're spot on about. He was saying "cheeeeese!" as I took the picture. Miracle of miracles, he'e eyes are open! He usually keeps them shut tight when we try to take his picture. I don't know why his eyes are watery, he wasn't sad, just leaky eyes I guess. Not only is this little kid cute, he is full of mischief and trouble! I'm talking trouble with a capitol T! You know those times when small children "help" and you find yourself thinking that what they are doing is actually no help at all? Yes, of course you do! We've all had moments of feeling like we're going to explode because we could make dinner or cookies or the bed or clean up the toys or unload the dishwasher(you get it) about a million times faster than this little person is doing it. Well, with this kid, I don't just think it. I'm pretty sure that at least 700 times a day he hears, "actually, that's not helping at all".  I feel like by the time I've asked him to stop doing whatever he's doing, fixed what he broke (yesterday he pulled out all the shoes and then disassembled the shoe cubby. No lie.),  cleaned up what he dumped or put away whatever sharp object he's be running with, he's moved on to something else. I'm not kidding. One of his favorite things to do is push the stool over to the counter where there is a light switch he can reach whilst standing on said stool. He stands there and flips the light on and off. Admittedly, that's not that big of a deal. What is a big deal is that he loses interest in the light fairly quickly. He then moves onto the toaster, which he loves to push the thing down and turn the toaster on. Now, I don't want you to think that I stand back and let him do this of my own free will and choice. No sir, I do not. He waits until I'm knee deep in wiping up the water he just dumped all over the floor. You might be thinking, don't give him water in a cup. I don't! We give it to him in a water bottle. The kind that you have to screw the lid onto. The kind that adults use. He has learned how to unscrew it and with a smirk on his face dumps the entire thing on the floor. So, while I'm cleaning it up, he takes advantage and starts for the light switch/ toaster spot. While I'm cleaning up the small lake that is now rolling along the grout of the kitchen, the lights are being turned on and off in rapid sequence. Just when I think I might have a seizure from the lights, it stops and I hear the toaster being played with. I leave the water and pray that I'll have time to finish cleaning it up before someone slips and falls and cracks their head open on the tile. Have I mentioned that I hate tile? I hate tile. I digress, by the time I make it the five feet to remove this small child from the toaster he has somehow managed to not only play with the toaster one handed, but using his other hand he has gotten into the knife drawer and has pulled most of them out, might even be sucking on one while asking for an apple. Put the toaster in a cupboard you say? He loves to play in the cupboards! He would just pull it out, drag it over to the air hockey table, unplug the table and try to plug the toaster in. No, I'm not exaggerating, something else he loves to do is plug and unplug the air hockey table. Put the knives where he can't get to them. There. Is. No. Such. Place! I take him down, put the stool away, clean up the knives just to turn and see that he has moved to the other cupboard and has pulled out all the pans and lids, has one foot in a pan and another one on a lid and is trying to use them as skates. I have him help me clean it up and as I'm closing the cupboard, he has opened the dishwasher and pulled the bottom rack out.

Off he goes. He loves to push it running full speed around the kitchen. Our downstairs is a loop and so he tries to go in circles. Truthfully folks there are some days that I just don't care. Yes young one, please push that rack around the house if it means you aren't playing with the knives or the toaster or the toilet. The toilet. I have a love hate relationship with the toilet. I love that it's convenient and that it flushes. On the other hand I hate that it's convenient and that it flushes. M and K put one car in the toilet when they were little. K dropped it in but only after M told him to. I fished it out, cleaned it well enough that surgery could have been performed on it and gave it back to them. I told them not to put toys in the toilet, they said ok and that was the end of it. Well, except for the one time K wanted to know if undies would flush down, they do. Anyway, they didn't play in the toilet. Little B on the other hand L.O.V.E.S to play in the toilet. I try not to let him out of my site during his waking hours because if I do, he'll go play in the toilet. If I notice that he stopped running around the loop of the downstairs while screaming at the top of his lungs, which is also high on his list of things he likes to do. So, if he doesn't finish a lap, we have a conversation that goes something like this.

Me:"B?!"

Little B:"Huh?"

Me:"What are you doing?!"

Little B: no response

Me:" Get out of the toilet!"

At which point he comes shooting out of the bathroom. This is a true story folks. It happens at least once a day. Here is where I fall. In the morning after breakfast I send M and K upstairs to brush their teeth, make their beds and get dressed. Well, little B follows them. (It's not like I'm laying on the couch wrapped in a blanket sleeping. I'm cleaning up breakfast and yelling out the time. If I don't yell out how long they have until we leave, they won't be ready on time. I also have to clean up whatever disaster little B has created in the half an hour he's been awake.) He loves to walk around with his toothbrush so he can brush his teeth. He loves to get his socks that he wants to wear for the day and throw them over the banister along with his blanket and sometimes if we're lucky, his pillow and his monkey and clothes etc. etc. etc. I can hear him talking with M and K, but as soon as it's quite I know that something is going down. I might even hear K saying,"B! stop playing in the toilet! Mommy! B is playing in the toilet again." I go upstairs, scrub little B down and tell him not to play in the potty. At which point he always, without fail asks, "why?" If I don't hear the silence quick enough or if both M and K are in their rooms, then it's almost a given that I will find a toy floating in a toilet. The pool toys are usually the victims. I found two of those squishy balls you can take to the pool and squeeze and they fill with water and then you throw them, you know what I mean right? Well, I found two of those in the toilet one day. I took them out and threw them away. Well, a couple days later M came and said that the toilet was clogged. I said I would come fix it, but of course I forgot. Well, that night I lifted the toilet lid and saw that the water was all the way to the top. I told B that M had told me it was clogged but I forgot about it. B being the hero that he is said he would fix it. We were talking about what could be clogging it, because the water was clean so we didn't think it was, well, ya know. Anyway I just shook my head and then my eyes got real big. I knew what was clogging it. I looked in the garbage can and sure enough, one of the swimming balls was missing. Little B had come into the bathroom, stuck his hand in the garbage can, gotten the swimming ball and flushed it. Not great! Thankfully when B plunged it, it went all the way down. There is nothing that is safe from being dunked by little B.

Case and point. This is his monkey. He loves his monkey. He calls it his baby and will carry it around with him, well, until he throws it across the room, or at whoever is in his line of fire. This is not the first time his monkey has taken the plunge. The first time we couldn't find it before he went to bed. he doesn't have to have it to go to sleep, he just likes to. We really couldn't find it. We looked all over the house. We ended up just putting him to bed without it. After he was in bed I had this sinking feeling that we should look in the toilets. I walked into the master bathroom, lifted the lid and found his poor sad monkey shoved inside. I don't know when he did it. That particular day had been a busy one, so he really was with me or next to me all day. The monkey had soaked up a lot of water, so it had to have been there for hours. I'm guessing he did it while M and K were getting ready for school. We pulled it out and put it in the washer. This morning I was folding laundry. He told me that he was going to go get his baby. I watched him walk down the hall, but instead of turning left to go into his room, he turned right. That's where the bathroom is. I went running down the hall, but it was too late. He must have put it in there earlier this morning. When I got to the bathroom he was trying to pull it out. I told him to leave it so I could hold it above the garbage can as I walked it down the hall to the washer. The good news is that the toilets in our house are usually flushed after they are used, so at least the water is clean for whatever toy is going for a swim that day. Poor little toys! I love little B! Heaven knows that, but sometimes he makes my hair turn from brown into bright white! 

 

M's turn

I couldn't do a post about the boys and leave her out could I? If I had been smart I would have done all of it on one post. Oh well. M still does gymnastics and loves it. I took the camera a couple weeks ago. They went to do the rope and I was so happy that I was going to be able to get a picture. Of course that was the one week when her teacher told them doing the rope was optional and M didn't do it. Bummer! I know this will come as a shock, but I did manage to get a couple pictures.

I love watching her flip around. Sometimes I don't get to watch as much as I would like because I have to chase little B around. She has improved a lot over the last year and she still loves to go every week, so that's really good.

This is just because she's cute. I love that she's the other girl in this house. We share perfume and can almost share shoes which is really exciting! Sometimes she starts to laugh and can't stop, she's the best! I just love her!

Basketball!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but K has a very specific order in which he will try sports. First was soccer, then football, now basketball and then he'll try baseball. Well, it's basketball season round these parts and we're in it full swing. We showed up to the first practice and found out that K's friend from school is on his basketball team. I don't know if K looks like he loves basketball because he really loves it or if it's because H is on his team and he loves playing with him. Whatever the reason, K loves basketball! Watching them play is adorable. There are no fouls called, they can travel and double dribble. It's awesome when one of the kids gets the ball on one end of the court and runs, holding the ball, all the way to the other end to shoot it. You can hear parents from all over the gym yelling,"dribble it! You need to dribble the ball!" It seems like if the kid can hear their parents and they try to dribble it, it hits their foot and they end up kicking it. Holding it and running seems like a much safer bet! I have learned that K gets all of his athletic ability from me. Poor kid! He got the ball and was running, and actually doing a semi-productive dribble, to the basket to shoot the ball. I was cheering like mad! Little B won't sit and watch the games, so B and I switch off with sitting on the bleachers and watching, and walking around with little B. It was my turn to be watching K play when this amazing play was unfolding. I was clapping and yelling for him as he shot the ball, when my ears tune in to B yelling from the side lines,"K! That's the wrong basket! Don't shoot it!" I had no idea that he was running towards the wrong basket. Thankfully, K missed the shot, but he still had a huge smile on his face. Clearly, he didn't know that he had shot at the wrong basket either. B may have the dominate genes when it comes to the looks of our children, but I donated the genes for their amazing sport skills!

I love that he's using both hands to dribble! That's my boy!

Sitting with his friend H as they watch the game. They get so into it and they keep score on their own. They've told me that they've won every game by a lot! We love watching him play and love that he has such a great time.