Baby In A Bar

I spent my morning in a most unexpected place - a pub. Why they chose a pub as the site for free TB tests for school volunteers, I don't really know, but the coffee was hot and good and I'm not complaining (too much.)

Given that I still have one child not in school and no nanny like most of the rest of the moms seem to have, I just packed that big baby into the bar with me. Where am I supposed to put him while I fill out paperwork? On the dirty floor, of course! I'd sit him down at my feet with my entire purse in front of him to choose his toy from (something he would normally go crazy for) but he had no interest in that women's accesory today. He had bigger aspirations - the bar.

I'd just get my papers back in my lap and start writing again, when he'd be off, sprint-crawling, trying to get behind the bar before I could catch him again. I finally sat my chair right down in the way of that path, so he decided under the table full of papers and files and directed by bossy nurses would be a fun place to explore. "Excuse me, bossy boots, I need to get my baby out from under your table."

When that lost its charm for him, he decided to make friends. Every woman in there had her purse at her feet and Jack took that to mean they were set there for him. Plenty of unsuspecting women looked down to find a big, slobbery baby chewing on her expensive purse or digging around in it to find her cell phone and make an embarrassing phone call.

Any attempts at annoyance at this child though disappeared the moment they spoke to him and he looked up and showed them his toothy smile. Yes, those teeth were a hit! I must have had a dozen comments on how cute his teeth are! At least we have moved on from "Wow, he sure has big cheeks!"

Now this process of getting one tiny shot took longer than you can imagine and we ended up spending over an hour at the bar, waiting for my turn. Where were all the other babies and young kids? Like I said, I think a lot of these moms either work outside the home or can just afford it for their own sanity and have nannies who help out so they left the little ones with them. While Jack was definitely a nuisance, he was still a hit with all the moms and even charmed the owner of the bar. Once, he pulled himself up to a standing position, using a woman's legs to help and ended up standing with his head under her skirt! "Excuse me, let me get my baby out from under your skirt."

What an interesting way to spend a morning. I hope this isn't the beginning of a love of bars for him.

Spiders: Friend or Foe?

My older boys are best friends but are so different from each other!  They don't look alike, they don't have similar personalities, they don't respond the same way to correction or to encouragement.  One loves rewards and hates punishment, the other doesn't seem terribly concerned by either.  One is a snuggler, one needs a lot more space.  One savors his special treats, one gobbles it down in one bite if possible.  Maybe part of the reason they get along so well is because of these differences.  Their interests are similar, so that keeps them together and the differences keep them from getting bored, maybe?

Well, the difference in my boys was obvious to me today in regards to a spider.  I heard Mitchell down by our front door, talking in the kind of baby talk he usually reserves for Jack, but Jack was with me, so I was curious who he was talking to.  I called down to him and asked who he was talking to and he said, "I found a friend spider down here and we are just talking!  He's nice!  I'm going to pick him up now."  He played on the stairs with his new "friend" for 10 more minutes or so.  I forgot to ask what became of his new friend - whether he was left to go free or ended up squished on the wall.  To tell the truth, I'm not too concerned with it.  

Ben was not home for this, but I knew exactly what he would have done, had he found the spider instead of Mitchell.  Picking it up would be the last thing he would do, I'll tell you that!  We had a conversation about spiders a few days ago, actually, and Ben admitted that he was afraid of spiders and if he saw one, he would be too afraid even to step on it with his snow boots on.  "It would be way to scary!"

While they disagree on whether real, live spiders are a friend or foe, they are agreed on scary pictures of spiders on the internet.  They regularly ask me to look up pictures of tarantulas and "the biggest spider I can find" and we have even added a new "kiss" to our dozen or so fancy bedtime kisses: the tarantula kiss.  Yes, I regularly give my boys a tarantula kiss before I turn the lights out and leave them to their silly nighttime rituals.  

My Dentist Is Evolving

I have another update on my dentist.  I know, I post a lot about dentists, but I just happen to have a 3-year-old who is obsessed with being a dentist!

This afternoon, I left Mitchell and Jack together, playing unbelievably well together considering their age difference, to clean up the kitchen a bit on my own.  When I finished, I checked up on them and Jack was laying on the couch in Mitchell's room, mouth open, with Mitchell "working" on his 4 teeth.  I could not believe first: that Jack had climbed up there, second: he had not fallen off, third: he was laying still, fourth: he was allowing Mitchell to poke around in his mouth without biting him, and fifth: he was loving it!  When Jack saw me, the game was over, of course, and he wanted me to play with him instead.  

With his first patient all fixed up and moved on to other things, it was my turn to see "the dentist."  This can be a scary thing as I never quite know what to expect, given the assortment of tools he has to choose from.  Well, this time, my dentist was quite thorough and showed he has learned a few more skills and added some new services to his list of jobs he performs.  After a quick flashlight in the mouth, I then got my hair brushed (with a real brush, not a toy saw!), my hair blow-dried with a power drill, and my back scratched (this one was performed with the toy saw, but it was surprisingly effective!).  Then I had to sit with my feet up in the air for "about 12 hours" and I was good to go!   What a full service dentist I have!  So relaxing!  This time at least...

Sometimes I Really Love The Smell of Shaving Cream

The one down side to Matt doing well at work is that he is gone a lot more.  I really can't complain as his success is what allows me to do what I love to do, which is stay home with my boys, but we sure do miss him when he is gone!  

I have had many years to get used to his traveling - first on my own, then with one baby, then with two little boys, now with three.  Although it isn't ideal, we have a system worked out and we get along just fine, but I still feel the same way I did when we were first starting out in our life together and he'd have to leave.  That first day is a killer!  It doesn't matter what time of day he leaves, even if he leaves at a time he'd normally be gone at work anyways.  I know he is gone and I get an unshakeable, sad feeling.  Kind of a nagging worrisome feeling that is there all day.  I am always surprised by this feeling and how strong it is every time because it doesn't seem to fit with me and my personality.  I really don't expect this from myself, but it happens every time.

In response to this "sadness" that comes upon me, I have begun doing some funny things, just to remind me of my missing husband.  I wear his boxers or t-shirt to bed.  I shave my legs with his shaving cream because it smells like him.  I drink an extra beer in honor of him (ok, that one I do for myself and my own sanity!), I sleep on his side of the bed, and sometimes wear one of his hats around all day.  I'm not sure any of these things make that first day less... "blue" for me, but I do them anyways.  

After that first day, I feel just fine again.  Sometimes we have a great time while he is away, doing special "mommy" things like movies in my bed or eating out at places Matt doesn't ever want to go to.  Other times are tough and I just need him home to help me with my crazy kids, but it is only that first day that produces the crazy, weird feeling in me.  I guess I just love my husband.

A Girl Could Get Used To This

About a week ago, Matt and the boys started having secret meetings without me - "no girls allowed" type of thing.  They had important plans to discuss and afterwards, secrets to keep from mommy, lest they spoil the surprise.  So off Daddy went on a trip for a few days while the boys bravely attempted to keep their secret.  I'm pretty sure Mitchell wasn't paying too much attention in the first place while the plans were being made so it was not too difficult for him to keep his thoughts off of it and his mouth shut.  Ben, however, was very excited about it and kept wanting to drop hints to me without actually giving the secret away.  He'd bring it up at funny times and try to get me to guess what they were planning and then trying to find ways to give me clues without actually giving it away.  It was all very cute, I must say.

Matt returned home from his trip late a few nights later, but got up very early the next morning and woke the boys up.  Their special plan was to make mommy coffee and breakfast and have it ready by the time she woke up.  Well, they of course were not able to accomplish this without waking me, but I did enjoy staying in bed while the smell of coffee and breakfast wafted up to me.  I could hear all sorts of whisper laughs and hushed giggles and quiet instructions on how to best crack an egg or how to brew coffee.  They were having a great time down there before sunrise.  After a while,  Mitchell carefully climbed the stairs to my room, bringing a hot cup of coffee to me with a giant smile on his face.  He told me to sit up and drink my coffee but don't come downstairs yet!  "We aren't quite ready!  You just relax with this special coffee!  Bye!"

Well, I usually make cereal for breakfast - the clean up is minimal and I have a lot to do in the mornings.  But this breakfast was delicious and huge.  It was even worth the giant amount of mess that was left covering my kitchen from counter to counter.   The boys were so proud of what they had done for me and it was such a fun, early time together for us all.

Since then, the boys have been finding little special things to do for me all on their own.  Today was a perfectly cute example of this.  Matt took the boys out to the park this afternoon and when they returned, Mitchell and Ben had picked out "beautiful leaves for mommy" that they carefully brought home without smashing them.  Matt said it was funny how excited they got when they saw the leaves, came up with the idea that I would love them, and then spent time picking out the best ones to bring home for me.  My leaves made it home in one piece, despite their brittleness, were presented to me with much hugging and smiling, and are sitting prettily in my kitchen window.  It is times like this that I love being a mommy, especially to my sweet, thoughtful, and loving boys.  

Just Because You Don't Get It, Doesn't Mean It Isn't Funny

A few nights ago, Mitchell came running up to me, insisting he had something really funny to show me upstairs - a joke, as he called it.  I followed him upstairs, insisting that my eyes were closed until the proper moment of revelation.  He led me to my closet (I may have peeked a tad on the way there - I don't fully trust him with my eyes closed) and instructed me to open my eyes!  I looked around my closet, but didn't quite see the "joke."  I'll show you what I saw:

What, you don't see it either?  I smiled and asked him to show me what it was that was so funny and he directed my attention to the empty beer bottle he had placed on the shelf with a look on his face that said, "Are you kidding?  Can't you see the hilarious beer bottle I put there?"  He then started cracking up as if placing a beer bottle on the shelf in the closet is the funniest joke one could play.  He then called Ben in and he got it!  He saw that bottle immediately and started cracking up too!  "That's so funny, Mitchell!"  

Ok, I don't really get it, but in the end, it was pretty funny.  We don't get to laugh together in the closet very often.

It's A Good Thing He's Handsome...

We were having toilet troubles a few days back, but trying to get someone out here to take care of things for us, as is our right as renters, was not working out well for us, so my loving handyman husband took matters into his own hands (with a little prodding from his loving wife.)

One trip to the hardware store and only about 10 minutes of messing around in the bathroom later, he had successfully fixed the toilet problem!  Or so I thought.  Notice anything wrong with this picture?  No?  Let me show you a close up:

Now do you see it?  I was not the first to discover Matt's handy-work; Ben was, and he discovered in true "Ben style."  He went in to use the toilet, but after doing his "duty," he turned around to flush and was momentarily paralyzed.  Something was not right here and he did not like it.  "Mom!  Something is wrong with the toilet!  It looks funny and I don't know what to do!"

Yes, the handle has been put on upside down.  It does take a bit of getting used to to flush your toilet upside down.  You almost have to re-learn how to pull the flusher up instead of the life-long habit of pushing down.  This is just so funny to me that I insisted he leave it as it is.  I LOVE that he fixed the flushing problem for me and putting it on this way has only added to the amount of smiles and chuckles I get in in a day.  Thank you, my loving husband for "fixing" things for me.  Yes, you are handier than I sometimes give you credit for, but not quite as handy as you might think you are :)