Abbyism

The other day I bought one of those plastic pools and my three big kids were loving it. They had so much fun. (It seems one of the best parts is filling the pool and the inevitable squirting of each other, and lots of other hose fun.) Anna wasn't initially excited when she saw the 5 foot plastic pool with cute little fishies on it, but the second the hose was on, she was completely committed. I was working outside as they alternated between frolicking in the water and soaking in the sun on their towels. I walked by their towels and heard Abby say, "This is the funnest day EVOW (ever)! (Brief Pause) Well, thewe AWR (are) funnow (funner) days, but THIS is one of the funnow ones!"

Benjamin

Benjamin is at the age I absolutely LOVE. He's really beginning to have some independent ideas and then a desire to communicate them. I love watching that process; although, it's not without its challenges.

He's started going to the back door and slapping it while yelling. This is his way of telling me he's ready to go outside. If that can't happen right then, he then gets really mad at me.

Whenever I'm in the kitchen he's usually in there looking around while I put things away or make a meal. Every time I open the freezer he's right there grabbing the door before I can close it. He then reaches in and pulls out the bag of popsicles and drags them over to me grunting at me to give him one.

The other day I was doing something in the kitchen and he was playing in the lazy susan. He found a container of sweet potatoes (which I don't feed him anymore, but used to be his favorites) and walked over to Brennan in the family room. He handed the container to Brennan and started grunting for Brennan to open it. I put him in his highchair and fed him the sweet potatoes just like old times. He was content.

Our computer is a laptop that we keep on the desk in the family room. Benny is obsessed with it and has managed to really mess it up a couple of times, so we have to keep it closed constantly. Occasionally, one of us forgets to close it and it's like he was radar because before I know it, he's climbed up the desk chair and worked his magic to the computer. He knows this is the forbidden fruit too, so once he gets to the computer he's always looking behind him and hitting keys in a mad rush. Little stink!

This morning he found some of Nate's underwear and brought it to me and wouldn't stop grunting until I put it on over his diaper. He is currently walking around in diaper padded Spider man underwear happy as a clam.

For some reason it's the cutest thing to watch him figure things out and see that he usually has something in mind when he's doing something. He knows what he wants and knows this mama can hardly ever resist him. This little guy is also in kind of a hurry to grow up and do everything. It has not occurred to him that perhaps there are some things he should try when he's older. If he sees his sisters or brother do anything, he's rearin' and ready to go. We love Benny.

Woman v. Wild

I believe there's a show called "Man v. Wild" on the Discovery Channel. I've never actually seen it, but I've heard about it. From what I've gathered it's a British guy, from Special Ops type guy, that gets dropped in the middle of some treacherous expanse of land or water and has to somehow survive.

He's got nothing on me. The other day I was walking around my yard with my Mom asking her questions about some plants when I suddenly became alarmed and said, "Oh my!" and in her typical cool, calm and collected way my Mom yelled, "WHAT?! WHAT?!" As calmly as possible, I said, "There's a snake." She replied, "WHERE?! WHERE?! There it was casually soaking in the sun. I ran and got Brennan who about 5 minutes later came out with gloves, a shovel and a garbage can. Just as he walked out the door, the snake slithered back into the bushes. I tried to stop him with my shovel, but missed. Brennan poked around for awhile, but couldn't find him.

I've been trying to tell myself that it's no big deal and that they're actually good. They eat snails. I hate snails. I looked up photos of all the snakes that live in Utah online and I'm pretty sure it's a Wandering Garter snake. I also read that they can have a litter of up to 20. I can maybe handle one snake in my flower bed just as I'm getting ready to plant things (yes I'm aware it's like 2 months too late for that), but 20 baby snakes is just a little too much for me. I'm praying that our snake is a single male with no females anywhere near.

In the meantime, while Brennan is out of town, I was out all morning sawing off out of control Forsythia bush limbs about 2 feet from the snake sighting. I would step into the dense foilage and saw like my life depended on it. (In case you don't know, this type of snake is "harmless", but that's little comfort). I'm not asking for my own tv show or anything, but I am impressed with myself.

My Head Hurts

Warning: I set this blog up mostly to share cute stories about our kids with our loved ones and to record them for my benefit; however, occasionally I may write just to help me unwind a little bit. I love being a Mom and adore our kids. I do not want to have a negative whiney tone to this blog generally, but I also don't want to paint an idyllic picture too far from the roots of reality. I hope you'll forgive a few light-hearted vents about some of the day-to-day sanity testers.

Brennan is out of town until tonight. I stupidly stayed up pretty late last night because I had to see what wedding gowns three soon-to-be brides ended up with on a special edition of "What Not to Wear". I know, I'm an idiot. Anyway, I'm a little tired this morning and my head hurts and here's what's going on around here:

I'm trying to talk to my Mom on the phone (Mom on the phone = we need Mom right this second for various couldn't-be-further-from-an-emergency reasons) to get sprinkler advice while Anna keeps bringing me different beverages and snacks that she's not supposed to have to see if for some reason she can right now. Abby is working on a birthday card for a birthday party she's attending in a few hours and is saying, "How do you spell 'happy'?" "H-A-P", I say. "H-A-T? she says." "No, H-A-P" etc. Nate has a butter knife and is stabbing an empty cracker box.

My head is not feeling any better.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Many years ago before I was married, I went with my family to visit my grandparents. We were sitting in their basement having a pleasant visit when my Grandma invited us to go upstairs and partake of her amazing homemade rolls. I went upstairs and opened the fridge which is where she said she had put the butter. The first thing I noticed was a great big tub of Country Crock butter. I carelessly grabbed the tub by the lip of the lid. To my surprise, the tub was heavier than I anticipated and the entire tub minus the lid (which I still held) dropped to the floor. Imagine my further surprise when I saw an explosion of red sauce all over my Grandma's kitchen. That big tub of Country Crock was really full of spaghetti sauce, but now it was empty and spaghetti sauce was EVERYWHERE, including dripping down from the ceiling.

My little sister came up the stairs at that point and her little jaw dropped. There was her much older, wiser 19 year old sister in the middle of the biggest mess she'd ever seen. I stood there for a moment in total shock. As that wore off, terror set in. I knew this wasn't something I could take care of on my own -- I needed reinforcements. I told Eliza to run down and tell Mom I needed her. She obediently ran downstairs and "whispered" loudly, "Mom, Ange spilled spaghetti sauce all over the ceiling!"

Two seconds later, the whole family was standing in the kitchen in stunned silence. Finally, someone broke the silence. It was Grandma, and she was laughing. Not just chuckling to spare me further humiliation. She was downright laughing -- hard. I can't tell you how grateful I was for her reaction. I knew she wasn't the type to pitch a fit and get angry over spilled milk, so to speak, but I didn't know she would laugh harder than I'd ever seen her do before.

We all cleaned up the mess as we laughed although I think Grandma and Grandpa discovered sauce for quite sometime thereafter.

Why am I writing about that you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Last night I was rushing around trying to get dinner ready and everything situated so I could go to a meeting. I put dinner in the oven, showered and got ready and made it back to the kitchen just before the oven timer went off. Pleased that I was a few minutes ahead of schedule, I decided to delight my kids with a pitcher of kool-aid. I finished making the drink, pulled dinner out of the oven, and called the kids to come and eat. Anna was the first to come and was thrilled to see the kool-aid. I walked out of the kitchen to put a rag in the laundry room and walked back in just in time to see Anna drop the pitcher onto the floor. Red kool-aid was EVERYWHERE -- her, the floor, the ceiling, the cabinets. Horror and irritation flashed through me and then...the laughter. I laughed and laughed as Anna cried. She was covered in red stickiness and still a little stunned. I cleaned it up and comforted Anna by telling her my spaghetti sauce story. We both laughed.

Our Brilliant Child

This morning I gave Benjamin a snack. He happily ate it, tottered over to me, took the wrapper, tottered over to my desk, crouched down, and gingerly placed the wrapper in the little garbage can. I can't tell you how cute it was. I've never taught him that, in fact my older three children still don't have that concept down and I have taught them :) Anyway, we're quite sure it's just one of many facts in evidence that he's brilliant.

Escaped...Again.

So our 14 and 1/2 month old got out of his crib this morning. After putting Benny to bed last night, Brennan warned me that Ben was very close to getting up and over those four walls of his crib. I dismissed his warning as that of a paranoid Dad. There was no way my little baby could break out of his crib. Well, this morning I put him down for a nap which he did semi-willingly. A few minutes later, however, we heard him crying and screaming and then....a thud. No, I think that was one of the girls shutting a door downstairs. Just to make sure I walked down the hall to his room. I opened the door and there he sat, right next to the door. He is now sitting in the port-a-crib (higher walls and lower to the ground) screaming. Little stink. We love Benjamin.