The Things They Say (and do)

This morning I went out to water my garden and shortly thereafter Nate came out. When he saw me he sternly said, "Mom, you can't just go outside without asking anyone!" It's good to be missed. Also, lately he's in that letter phase where he'll just list random letters and ask me what they spell. It's so confusing and frustrating for him when often I have to explain that those letters don't really spell a word. He also says, "Mom, can I have a B-R-E?" which can mean anything from an otter pop to a friend over and if I have to ask what he means it's highly offensive to him. We love Nate.

We have a song we like to sing along which goes "cool, cool water running down your face". Today Nate sang that very phrase and Abby said, "Nate, it's not 'cool, cool water!'" Nate and I both looked at her and asked what she thought it said, she was suddenly sheepish and giggled as she sang, "cuckoo, cuckoo wah-wah". We love Abby.

Ben is still very much attached to his "beep" (binky) and we've recently lost several and are down to one which is just asking for trouble. To remedy this precarious situation I bought a couple more the other day, but couldn't find his usual kind and the new ones are significantly smaller than he's used to. Today after a fruitless search for the "one" I gave him one of the new ones. He put it in his mouth and then immediately furrowed his brow and said, "MOM, not wuhking! (working)" He noticed the difference. We love Ben.

Anna and Chloe spent an entire afternoon dressing up themselves and my other kids. They also carefully applied make up to each other and Abigail and then had a photo shoot. We love Anna. Here are the results:

The sporty look

Working it

Can you see the coaching in the reflection?

Quite a team

working it, part II

model gone wild

a little coaching

note the wardrobe change on Ben.

My Not So Favorite Part of Being a Mom

Yesterday afternoon Ben woke up from his nap with a really goopy eye. Shortly after that it began to look red. I called our pediatrician who called in some drops and it's looking MUCH better now, but this gives you an idea of what it did look like:



Yes, his face and hands are dirty, I do clean him but he's always dirty. He's smiling because he's holding a piece of gum for enduring his hated eye drops. It was breaking my heart watching my big blue-eyed boy walk around like this. He still really hates his drops and it is so sad and cute watching him run away with his chubby little hand covering his eye. Thankfully he is doing and looking much better now. We love Ben.

Poor little Natey banged his forehead on the corner of the bathroom counter tonight. It's really small, but he was bleeding and it is pretty open. Because it's so small we didn't do stitches but are wondering if we should? How do you know? Sigh. I'm so not medical. He came right out to show me and when I saw the blood I knew this would be traumatic. He told me he needed a napkin. I grabbed a paper towel and wet it. He said "No, Mom, don't get it wet!" I kept trying to tell him it would work better if it was wet and would help it not stick to his cut. He held his little hand out and in his bravest most adult voice said, "Mom, no I'm serious, I'm serious don't wet it!" Each time I tried to make my case he would just say "No, I'm serious" over and over. It made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. He is so amazingly stubborn. For now he is sleeping soundly. We love Nathan.

I know that these are not a huge deal, but I hate to see my kids in any kind of pain, and I hate that I feel so inept to help them and know what to do.