Putting Them To Work

Why, oh why must movers insist on sticking an orange, yellow, or blue stamp-sized sticker to EVERY piece of furniture they move? I do realize there is a purpose, but surely the moving industry can come up with something better than that? Some way of organizing and keeping track of things that does not involve stickers that may or may not want to come off in the end?

For those of you who do not list "moving" as one of your regular activities, perhaps you have no idea what I am talking about. I'll tell you: every item that a mover moves gets a sticker with a number. Every box, every piece of furniture, every vacuum, broom, bike, scooter, stroller, rug... anything that they pick up and put in the truck. They don't take them off when unloading either.

Now since I have not always been the amazingly tidy and organized person I am today (haha), I actually have more than one sticker on some pieces of furniture - from other moves! How terrible is that!?

Well, no sticker is going to live long in this house! I have decided to no longer be the kind of person who has moving stickers stuck to everything or anything! I am putting the troops to work! I made heavy-duty sheets of paper with squares all over them (much like a sticker or chore chart) one for each boy. Soon, I will let them loose to fill up their papers! I have promised a penny for every sticker they find.

This sort of reminds me of the time my dad promised my sister and me a penny for every cigarette butt we picked up one time. We jumped on that, thinking we'd make a killing (we were young enough to actually think we'd make a killing) but after spending hours picking them up (nasty), we then had to re-count them! Imagine two little girls with bags of cigarette butts, counting them one by one...

Fortunately, we will be dealing with stickers here, not dirty, smelly garbage! I just hope the stickers come off easily, or I will have to run around even more than they do, trying to respond to all the "Help, mom! I can't get this one! This one is stuck! I ripped this one! Ben is trying to steal mine!"

Thankful For Sickness

Ben was not himself today. He was lethargic and moping around. He even crawled into his bed and got under the covers at one point! He couldn't think of anything to play and when I took him for a bike ride, he wouldn't shoot bad guys with me, just rode along in silence.

All day, I was asking him if he was ok and if anything was wrong. "No, I just don't have anything to do and no one wants to play spy cars with me..." I just thought he was moping because I don't know how to play "spy cars" and wasn't showing an eagerness to learn.

Well, right before dinner, I found him curled up on the couch down in the basement. It finally dawned on me to take his temperature and, sure enough, he is sick. Why did it take me so long to suspect he was sick, not just moody? Well, normally he lets me know when he isn't feeling well and will just find a place to curl up and sleep. Today, he kept trying to keep going. He threw me off the scent!

After choking down a few bites of dinner, he took a bath without his pesky little brothers (not a luxury I usually grant any of them), and asked if he could just get in bed. He was asleep before I even finished reading a story.

I have to admit that when I discovered his temperature, I was relieved. I just breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't entering into some moody phase or some hard-to-figure-out phase. Ben has always been so easy for me to read. I rarely am left wondering what he is thinking or why he is behaving a certain way. Today had me worried, like our connection was weakening. The fever eased my worries. Sometimes I am just thankful for little sicknesses.

Parades, Classic Cars, Candy, and... Vampires?

We took the boys to see the 4th of July Day parade today in our new town. They LOVED it! Ben was very excited about the classic cars, Mitchell was a pro at scrambling for the candy and snatching more than his fair share before other slower kids could get there, and Jack loved eating the candy. I have never had such an easy time out with Jack since he was an infant! He sat in his stroller sucking on lollipops the whole time! Maybe I'm on to something with candy here....

They loved the car show and parade so much that they have been playing "parade" at home ever since. They sit in daddy's classic '66 Porsche, windows down, waving and throwing candy at us, with Jack shrieking at us and attempting to open and close, open and close the doors.

Long after Matt and I tired of scrambling for pretend candy, the boys' game had evolved into something... well, a bit stranger. A little while later, Ben shouted across the yard, "Hey mom! I'm driving in the parade with my good friend, Vampire here! Say 'Hi,' Vampire!" Mitchell then added a, "Hey guys! I'm a vampire!"

I'm not sure what vampires have to do with classic cars and parades, but I'm sure it made sense in the evolution of their game. Mitchell usually has to add his own twist to whatever game Ben has made up.

Oh, To Be A Kid...

Who loves moving? Well, I guess on some level, I enjoy moving. I like seeing different parts of the world and new beginnings, but I am talking about the physical act of moving: the packing, the moving, the unpacking that drags on for weeks, the boxes, the mess, the piles of possessions you wish you had disposed of a long time ago and now have to find a spot for...

Who loves moving? I'll tell you who: my kids! They love new places and new houses and new adventures just like I do, but they love the other stuff as well! Packing up? Sweet! It gets them excited about the adventure beginning and they get a break from cleaning up their room! Boxes everywhere? Rad! We have dedicated one whole room in our new house of too many rooms just for box forts! Packing paper exploding out of every box? THE BEST!

I tell you, these movers must have used 5 or 6 pieces of packing paper for EVERY item in my kitchen. That is A LOT of paper to mess with, and mess with it we have done! I filled my new living room with a mountain of paper and the boys were leaping off couches and doing canon balls into the pile. They were completely burying themselves. They were having fights where they just threw it at each other until they collapsed in laughter.

Of course, they might not love the mess so much if they had any concept of the work involved cleaning up that much mess, but I'd rather they enjoy this as much as possible and not worry too much about how much work it is to move. That's my job.

Just Don't Call It Football

Ben got off to a fantastic start in sports. Before the age of two, he was quite excited to throw, kick, or hit a ball. He was an amazing little golfer and ran early. "Ball" was one of his first words. If I was ever stuck for something to do with my one little toddler, I could always count on him to be happy just heading outside with a ball or a bat, or a whole bag of sporting equipment!

Then something changed. Although he is big, strong, and fast, for some reason, he now has an attitude towards all sports. In his words, "I'm just not that into sports, mom!" We have had him in soccer and t ball, and he likes to go, but certainly hasn't shown the typical Ben enthusiasm that is so characteristic of him. Getting him to play catch or practice batting or kicking a ball around is more like a chore at best, punishment at worst.

A couple days ago, though, I discovered the secret to re-opening the world of sporting games to him! I found out if you call soccer "kick the dragon's egg to the nest," he will play the game of soccer with gusto! If I call a football an egg and say he's a raptor and I'm an allosaurus and we have to attack each other while trying to get the egg back to our own nests, he can play with speed, strength, and, most importantly, excitement!

Of course, I don't love the sound effects that come with turning football into dinosaur's egg, but I'll take it if it gets Ben (and Mitchell too) excited about using the physical abilities they have been blessed with, but up until now, have chosen not to care about.

It is pretty fun to finally watch Ben excited about throwing, catching, tackling, and coming up with elaborate game plans on the field with his dad and brother (and me, of course.)

Who Makes The Rules Around Here?

We recently received a house-warming package containing some DELICIOUS cookies. The only problem with them was that there were not enough. Matt had most of them gone before the rest of us even had a chance to fight for them (and Matt normally will pass on the sweet stuff!)

To help alleviate the disappointment of my younger boys, and also to create more deliciousness, I asked for the recipe, and yesterday, the big boys and I whipped up a batch of our own.

As we were busy crumbling graham crackers up, Ben felt the need to speak his mind on the whole "dad ate most of the cookies and mom finished them off while we were in bed and it's not fair" issue. He came up with a very sensible rule of his own regarding cookies:

"Mom, can I make a rule here? I think when someone gives you a cookie, you may always eat it. But when there are kids asleep who want to eat the cookies the next day, you can't just eat them all up! "

I'm not sure why I got blamed for the vanishing cookies, when Matt ate most of them (probably because the boys know me well and it sounds like something I would do...) but it sounds like a pretty sensible rule. I can only promise to try though...

No Girls Allowed!

Now when Ben makes a sign that says, "No Girls Allowed," and I am the only girl he knows right now, who is he trying to keep out, I ask?

Ben made a "Boy's Club" yesterday, complete with a sign hanging on it. After hanging it, he had to run back to the house to make one more sign. When I went out to check out what they were up to, I was forced to stop a few feet away. The sign said "No Girls Allowed" and I was getting a little too close. Can't I read??

After some frustrated shouting across the lawn at each other, Ben from his club, me from my patio (where girls like it better anyways,) he decided he had better make a few amendments to his "no girls" rule.

The new rule is "No Girls Allowed... Unless..."

1. you are coming to push us on the swings

2. you are serving us food

3. I need to show you something

4. Jack is here and bugging us

Well, what good is this rule anyways? "No Girls Allowed" has always made me smile, first because he actually really likes playing with some girls and I have no idea where he comes up with these things, and second, because it is basically a statement from them saying "we'd like to play all by ourselves for a bit, mom. You go somewhere else!" These exceptions to the rule take all the fun out of it for me...

What I need to do is make a sign today saying "No Boys Allowed... Unless..."

1. you are coming to tell me how pretty I look

2. you are bringing me coffee

3. daddy is with you, home early from work to surprise us all

4. you've come to let me know that the dishes are now done, you've fed yourselves a healthy snack, and are now going to find something to amuse yourselves

5. you are coming to get Jack from me

6. you've been in your "Boy's Club" too long and I miss you!