New Boss in Town

I have been completely blindsided.

Out of nowhere a little spark has been lit inside of my sweet little baby.

Apparently, once you can crawl, you can rule the roost.
She is now the self-proclaimed boss of herself, her siblings, her food, her toys,
her nap schedule, her parents, and most importantly, her hair.

Oy.

Check out those wonky-tonk ponytails and all that hair in her face!

That is a sure sign of the wildness within.

And trust me, when you pin her down to take care of it,

she lets you know that you've crossed the line.

She wiggles and squirms, screams and squeals,

and uses those little mitts to bat my hands away.

And once I get a clip or something in there, she yanks that bad boy out.

But even if she has her own opinions - which she regularly voices,

she is sooo stinking fun!

Her personality is exploding out now and she's crawling, babbling, laughing

and most definitely finding her spot in the family.

We all eat her up and may or may not spoil her just a little bit.

Snow

This is for all of my cold weather relatives.

You know, the ones who think I've gone soft.
(Which may or may not be true...)

The other day we were walking to school and stumbled upon a small pile of snow.

I honestly don't know where it came from, but there it was.

I said to the kids, "Look at that guys!"

They walked over to inspect it and Jack gives me his raised eyebrow look and says,

"Mom, what is that?!"

Oh come on, Jack! 
We can't show our faces to the relatives if you can't even recognize a small pile of snow.

Good grief.

Since then though, he has wanted nothing more than to spend some time in real snow.

But since his lame sauce parents haven't taken him to the mountains,

Mother Nature granted his wish...kind of.

Would you look at that?!

Real live "snow" in my very own backyard.

Actually, it's just a little pile of hail that gushed out of the gutter,

but you've got to take what you can get, right?

The boys had a great time touching it and driving their trucks through it

Well, for a minute or two until it melted.

But at least now he will recognize it, right?

Good Morning Mother

As a mother, one of the greater injustice's in the world happens on Saturday mornings.

Can anyone please explain to me why I have to drag the kids out of bed every school day

but as soon as Saturday comes,

DING! 

wide awake before 6 am.

Not cool.

This Saturday was no different.

I heard the girls at 6:00.

Thankfully, Brooklyn loves to be a little mother

so she played in her room with Aubrey while I got to stay in bed a little longer.

Which was my first mistake.

I heard the boys get up shortly after and go in to play with the girls.

No problem - they are all playing nicely, I can lay here a little longer.

Right.

It was a great idea - until I heard,

"Mom!  Jack and Bradley made a mess!"

Awesome.

Good Morning Mother.

We'll teach you to try and sleep in.

By the way - since when is 6:30 sleeping in?!

Out of my groove.

So you know how some people blog very regularly and then all of the sudden they stop?

Do you know what I always think?

They must be pregnant.

And I'm usually right.

I tell you this for a very important reason.

I tell you this because even though my blogging has significantly decreased, I am not pregnant.

Were you thinking I was?

Shame on you.

I've just been outta my groove.

Do you ever get like that?  Like you're a zombie - just going through the motions?

Bleck.

You see, nothing makes me happier than a mega productive day.

I make my list (I love lists) and spend the day going check..check check check check

Beautiful.

But lately my friends, I've been lucky to even make a list.

I've had lots of random tedious things I've been working on

which seems to have sucked the life out of my productivity.

Booo for that.

But, yesterday I rejoiced because I had a big ol' list which ended up which a bunch of big ol' check marks.

Booyah!

Since then I have been feeling like a wet dog. 

Shaking off and snapping back into action.

 Now all I need is for the sun to come out and stay out

(have I mentioned how much I LOVE the sunshine, and dislike dreary, rainy days?!)

for no one to get sick ever again (especially me)

to stop having 3 treat days per week (1 Kira, 1),

to get these rotten taxes done,

to go spend my free $10 at Kohls,

oh, and while I'm whipping out this list -

I want Daylight Savings to go away.  (Yes,we've adjusted, but wasn't that annoying?)

Ok, I think that's a good list for now.

I'm not asking for too much, am I?

P.S.  I would also like a little house elf to magically clean the house and have dinner on the table.

And maybe do all that laundry that I'm behind on.

And clean my van because it's ultra dirty.

Oh, and the fridge could really use a clean-out.

Do house elves do taxes?

Bruiser Bradley

Every morning when Aubrey is sleeping and Brooklyn and Jack are at school, I get a little time with just Bradley - which of course, we both love.

The only problem is that Bradley is a little rough.

Actually, scratch that.  He's alot rough.

After several injuries, (including a small black eye) I have decided that in order to be prepared for playtime with Bradley, I am going to start dressing like this.

You think I'm kidding?

Turn the baseball in that picture into a

35 pound man-child barrelling into me at top speed.

It can be frightening.

And painful.

I really, really love playing with him. 

I'm a rough-play kind of Mama, but that boy is getting so strong!

At this rate, I won't survive to see him on his first day of Kindergarten.

A Miracle

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to announce a miracle.

Yesterday I took ALL the kids to the store - make that 2 stores - by myself.

Yep, that classifies as a miracle because THAT my friends can be a wild experience.

But it gets better.

They didn't run.

They didn't scream.

They didn't whine.

They didn't touch things they shouldn't.

No one gave me "the look."

(You know, the one that says "You've got way too many kids there, sister."

  AND my heart rate didn't raise even once.

Not once!

Amazing.

It's never like that.

And it was beautiful.

I was so proud of them that I showered them with gifts of fruit snacks when we got home.

And asked if I could take a picture of them

(A mother has to document a day like that, you know.)

But apparently that was too much to ask.

Bradley started turning savage on me,

and the other three were having focus problems.

Oh well, they brought their A game when it really mattered.

And I was one happy Mama!

Turning Tables

I LOVE hot showers.

Like really hot showers.

You know, like super steamy bathroom, red lobster skin hot shower.

And if I could, I would spend many many hours minutes in there.

Ahhh... Positively delightful.

Well, growing up, my Dad (for some unknown reason)

had an issue with my extensive blistering showers.

And on more than one occasion my water would suddenly turn ice cold.

How convenient for him, being a plumber and all.

It was harsh really.

It turns out he was concerned about something trivial like the water bill or something.

Well, as often happens, the tables turn.

And strangely enough my little Brooklyn loves really hot, really long showers.

And what do you know? 

Now that I'm paying the water bills, I find myself having a problem with Brooklyn's marathon showers.

Well, after repeatedly asking her to get out, my instincts kicked in.

I'm not as clever as my Dad
so I don't know how to make the water immediately go cold from other parts of the house,

so I just strolled in, stuck my arm in there and gave the knob a full turn.

She got the message.

I must admit that it was strangely satisfying.

As if I had found my place in the long line of parents who repeat their parent's form of child persuasion.

Here they are.  My parents.  Back in 1984.

And that there is 2 year old me.

Back when I was taking nice, long, hot baths.