Read It!

Have I mentioned Jack is obsessed with books? More so than either of my other boys at this age, Jack wants to be read to. We have books all over the house and recently just transferred some books from the big boys' room into his room and he LOVES his little collection! "Read books!" is one of the first things on his mind when he wakes up in the morning. He will bring book after book onto my lap and does not take kindly to quitting time.

Although he much prefers to be read to, he will "read" them alone if desperate enough. I often find him on the floor in front of his bookshelf, half buried in books, turning pages and reciting his favorite short phrases from them.

Now that we have company here, Jack has found a whole new group of people to read to him. He is constantly grabbing books and running for his favorite readers, yelling, "Read it!" while climbing onto their lap, invited or no.

Last night, he must have been unable to locate a book because he brought his jammies to his aunt, climbed up on her, and demanded, "Read it!" She did her best...

Sleep At Your Own Risk

I am so thankful this is not me this time. Beware where and when you fall asleep in my home. You are likely to wake up finding yourself in strange circumstances: like covered in toy cars with a 35 lb toddler riding his trike over you...

Just Not His Holiday

Thanksgiving is turning out to be... well... not a great day for Mitchell. Do you remember last Thanksgiving? Poor little guy. He still has a scar there.

Well, this Thanksgiving has been a bit less traumatic, but no less pleasant for Mitchell. He started feeling sick on Thursday and by Friday, he was sick enough to sleep off and on all day. He had no voice and a raging cough and would wake up from a restless sleep with his throat so tight and clogged, he'd have trouble breathing and panic.

The good thing was that we were waiting to do Thanksgiving until our family all got here, so that gave him a couple extra days to beat the bug. Well. today is the day we celebrate and last night poor Mitchell was so sick and miserable, we were up late debating the merits of the ER.

He's still in bed this morning. I am praying for progress. Let's keep our fingers crossed that I don't have to put ER docs on my list of things to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Shel Gets It

This one's for you, Mitchell:

HECTOR THE COLLECTOR - Shel Sylverstein

Hector the Collector

Collected bits of string,

Collected dolls with broken heads

And rusty bells that would not ring.

Pieces out of picture puzzles,

Bent-up nails and ice-cream sticks,

Twists of wires, worn-out tires,

Paper bags and broken bricks.

Old chipped vases, half shoelaces,

Gatlin' guns that wouldn't shoot,

Leaky boats that wouldn't float

And stopped-up horns that wouldn't toot.

Butter knives that had no handles,

Copper keys that fit no locks,

Rings that were too small for fingers,

Dried-up leaves and patched-up socks.

Worn-out belts that had no buckles,

'Lectric trains that had no tracks,

Airplane models, broken bottles,

Three-legged chairs and cups with cracks.

Hector the Collector

Loved these things with all his soul--

Loved them more than shining gold.

Loved them more than shining diamonds,

Loved them more than glistenin' gold.

Hector called to all the people,

"Come and share my treasure trunk!"

And all the silly sightless people

Came and looked... and called it junk.

When Mitchell and I came across this one afternoon while reading together, he immediately likened it to himself: "Hey mom! He's just like me! You think stuff is junk and I think it is all treasure!" Clearly, Shel and Mitchell are on the same page here and Mitchell is glad to have found a kindred spirit.

Super Pooper

The other day, the boys were all three down in the basement without me. They insisted I not be there so that they could have all the lights off. They love to play in the dark, scary basement with no lights on. I don't get it. It just makes me sleepy. So they know that if mom is around, at least one light has to be on, hence the reason I was kicked out. Fine with me.

Well, it turns out, they were playing super heroes. I forget who Ben and Mitchell were, but Jack's superhero name was Super Pooper! I remember it because it was a funny name, but also because he has now added that to his list of acceptable names we may address him as; as in "Super Pooper is hungry! Super Pooper want milk!" I kinda miss Mooksy, but Super Pooper has now become a bit more applicable actually.

Through no real effort of my own, Jack is insisting on using his little potty. If we are in the house and he has to go, he runs up to me and says, "I gotta poop! Need potty!" Most of the time, I am ashamed to admit, I tell him to just go in his diaper. I'm sorry, but I'm just not in the mood to potty train right now! How terrible is that!? The problem is that I like being able to be out and about for hours at a time without worrying about where the closest toilet is.

Well, mom may be dragging her feet, but Ben and Mitchell are all about this. Just now, Mitchell came booking it down the stairs to tell me that Jack needed to poop but couldn't get his pants down. "Come help quick, mom!" Sure enough, I got his clothes off and he proceeded to fill that little potty while Mitchell did the same on the toilet right next to him. After they finished pooping and having quite a lengthy conversation about poop, Mitchell dug around in his drawer for some old undies that he insisted Jack was ready for. I admit, he looks pretty cute with his Lightning McQueen bottom...

It must be nice to be my boys. Can you imagine getting this excited over pooping together? Perhaps I won't actually have to potty train Jack after all - I can just let my big boys take over this time! For now though, I'm curious to see how Super Pooper does in his undies...

Lazy Mommy and The Car That's Always There

I am not a messy person. I like things clean and neat. I like the house to smell clean and I hate the toilet seat left up. I clean at least one of my toilets every day (I have a lot of toilets and a lot of boys to.. well... do what boys do.) My bed is only unmade if I am in it and I make my boys make theirs as well. I sweep my kitchen after lunch and dinner every day and even spent all last Saturday washing the entire ground floor windows of my house using a squeegee and a huge, shaky ladder and a very *helpful* 4 year old climbing up behind me.

That said, I am not a neat freak. I don't mop every day and sometimes I just can't (or, more correctly choose not to) keep up with the tornado of a mess that my kids produce constantly. I try. I don't always succeed.

I also take short cuts. I sometimes kick something under the couch that I know no one will ever miss and doesn't really have a home, but if one of my boys sees it in the trash, will be reduced to tears. I never leave the dishes undone, but my coffee pot could use a good scrubbing. My basement playroom sometimes doesn't experience a cleaning presence for days at a time. I may have a dust bunny the size of Texas under my guest room bed.

I also have a pesky car in my kitchen. I swear, I have picked this same car up a dozen times and put it away, but still it seems to live in my kitchen! So lately, I am tired of said car and am actually sweeping around him! I kick him to the side, sweep where he was, then kick him back again and move along. Am I just to lazy to pick this guy up again? Why yes, yes I am!

Saturdays...

I spend all week long looking forward to Saturday. I'm not sure why I so look forward to Saturdays though, because it is almost always my worst day of the week. I'm not sure what it is about a Saturday that turns me into a grump; perhaps it is the craziness with no schedule. Perhaps it is how messy the house gets. Maybe I have too high expectations of everyone else in my family for what a "perfect" Saturday should look like.

I should love them. No rush to get ready for school. No making lunches at 7 am. No rushing getting the right kid to the right school on time. Staying in jammies and drinking lots of cups of coffee with my husband. A long long run. This all sounds great, right?

And, knowing me as my husband does, he tries to keep things moving. He gets all the boys washing the cars or doing feats of strength in the backyard. He takes them to the track with him. We watch movies.

I still start falling apart by the end of the day. I need to figure out a way to better enjoy Saturdays. Anyone else get a bit crazy on the weekend? How do you keep busy yet still relax on a day with no schedule?