Overheard at work...

Pacific Islander to a practicing Muslim: "So, what did you do for Easter?"

Muslim: "Uhhh, I don't..."

Pacific Islander: "Oh!"

This one made me giggle...never know what I'm gonna hear.

America's "Funniest" Home Videos

A little known fact about that sweet husband of mine is he LOVES watching America's Funniest Home Videos. He introduced the boys to the show a little while ago. They also love watching and laughing hysterically at the misfortune of others. I watch it and see my own kids getting BAD ideas.

Two weeks ago they were watching it while I was a work. That afternoon Lincoln climbed out of his crib. Stephen put him back in and out he came again. (He's the only one that's ever climbed out of the crib.) After a few days of his new found freedom during nap time Stephen came in and said, "You know America's Funniest Home Videos had a clip with a kid climbing out of the crib and now Lincoln won't stay in his crib. I think he learned it from there." I smiled sweetly, or not so sweetly, (while screaming in my head "I TOLD YOU NOT TO LET THEM SEE THAT!") and replied, "Can we ban that show from the house now before we have any broken bones from playing Funniest Videos?" After all, these kids do have half of their coordination, or mainly lack thereof, from me. He agreed that he'll have to be sneakier about watching it.

I was going to just lower the side down so he could climb in and out easier with less neck breaking potential but our crib was on one of the recall lists. They sent us these little things that made it a permanent, up all the time, side. Now I don't know what to do with the kid. I really really really want to delay adding him to the mayhem of Gabriel and Garrett's room for as long as I can. The toddler bed is ready and waiting for him, but I'm a chicken and don't want to move him yet.

This was a really long way of saying that darn show has been banned from the Monkey house.

*6 months ago, today, and on a Wednesday our Lynneah came into the world. I still haven't even written up her story...sigh... First I have to see if this dinosaur computer can even handle pictures. I promise we love you too Lynneah, even if there's no evidence to prove it.

Don't you hate it when every computer in the house breaks at the same time? I've found it rather annoying and VERY inconvenient! This one works intermittently at best....I'll take advantage.

Other news of the kid sort...

Gabriel: I continue to work through the acceptance that he will be repeating 1st grade. I struggle with my contribution to his educational falling apart by continuing to work and not doing better in the months after Lynneah's birth. I continue to be amazed how fast I get thrown back to just before he turned 2 and the process of "I think something's wrong...yes something's wrong...here's the hill you have to climb to fix it." I have to always remind myself denial never fixes anything. He's in basketball now and truly seems to get it. He's a rebounding monster and shows some real potential. I'm glad, he needs something to excel at and feel good about. He is very good at art and told me he wants to be a map artist when he grows up.

Garrett: Came apart at the seems in the months following Lynneah's birth. Again, I'm struggling with this one too. He wants to be a happy boy, but is miserable most of the time. He's really entrenched in that 2 year old stage of magnificent, body flinging, tantrum stage. He's getting big enough now that it's dangerous to those around him in public...not to mention the looks I get from people. I really really want to help him without breaking his spirit. He turned 5 and announced the next he was off to kindergarten. Poor kid is now asking if summer is over yet nearly everyday. He's in soccer and practice and games are pure bliss for him. His coach is very sweet about his inattentive bouncing on the field. He feels special there, wish we could manage that feeling for him more.

Lincoln: Has embraced all that being 2 entails. He's still our little "blonde sheep". He's talking like crazy! One afternoon he was sitting on my lap and gently took my chin in his hand and turning my head said, "Look at me." "You understand?" "Really!?!" Then jumped off and ran off to play. He's still a Momma's boy. He LOVES suckers, balls, and trying to be one of the "big boys". He falls ALL THE TIME. He's a perpetual bruise. He comes in now tells me "bunk", gets ice, holds it on his head for a second, then keeps going.

Lynneah: Is finally more like a normal baby. The pulmonologist said her lungs now sound the same. We haven't done any imaging but sounding the same is good. She continues on her cocktail of acid controllers but if it's working I'm not messing with it. Food introductions will be a slow careful process. The GI gave me some good ideas if food is not going well. Her kidney is still swollen but slowly going down. I hope it'll be normal size soon. We're anxiously awaiting the day she begins sleeping through the night. I love her laugh! Her brothers love her too...to the point of making her cry several times a day. :)

Stephen: Continues his "booter" year in his new job. He likes it. He's a busy guy and I'm grateful he puts up with the unbalanced, crazy life his wife causes most of the time. He's a quiet guy, but I know when something's up. They made a couple changes at work and my Stephen came back. I was happy to see him again.

Me: I'm working 2 days a week. The more I cut back on work the fatter (if I'm working I can't be eating) and busier I get. We continue getting medical bills on top of digging out of the unemployed hole we were in, so I keep working. I've decided for each year you free fall financially it takes 2 to recover. Our little house if feeling a bit claustrophobic with all the kids and noise. My mom fed the missionaries over here a while ago. They walked in to me holding a baby, then the big boys came banging in, then Lincoln came running in tripped, fell and proceeded to cry. One of them said, "Wow, kids everywhere." I'm running out of places to put kids down for quiet time that has them separated from each other. This may be a long summer.

In short ANY time we're all in public it's a full on embarrassing circus.

Dear Wisconsin,

Keep your dang Snowbirds! I hear Florida likes 'em, send them there.

You know that saying about visitors and fish stinking after 3 days? Change the days to months and it about sums it up. Every year you taint the few months of decent weather we have by clogging our streets, doubling our commutes, giving our kids dirty looks, running us over and off the streets, and being all around annoying. We know many of you are no longer allowed to drive in your home states, yet you come here and blatantly disregard the the restriction...NOT ok.

Really?!? Was it necessary to park 1 inch from my bumper? It took all I had in me to not scratch the crap out of that shiny Buick hood while putting the big ol' stroller in my trunk. Yes, this one happen to be from Wisconsin, but my disdain is equally shared for Snowbirds from Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, etc.

The day drastically improved after this little incident with a luke-warm date (kids were in tow) to Sam's Club and Cold Stone later. I'm so addicted to the Founder's Favorite with just a little caramel and lots of the fudge. My sweet Stephen humors me with a date at least twice a month. Have I mentioned how glad I am that he has a job again and we can do that? My mouth watered every time we drove by a Cold Stone, and I knew we couldn't stop, during our broke years.

My Lonely Little Petunia in An Onion Patch

I'm so glad I get to see more of this lately. The cocktail of acid controllers seem to be working a little better...finally.

Stephen says all the accessories that come with girls are silly. HA! He has no idea what's comin'. I've decided to condition her. She gets a bow everyday, whether we leave or not, so that way she'll be used to it and maybe let me put them on her for longer. I know eventually it'll get pulled off the second I put it on, but if it's just part of life maybe I'll get a little longer.

I just like this one.
This is the first day-time nap she's taken in her own bed *not* the swing. That's something else she'll need to get used to. Someday she's going to weigh too much for the swing and have to know how to sleep in a bed.

Sleeping Like a Baby

Do all kids do this??

I've found both the big boys with sound asleep with their jammies filled. Now Lincoln's doing it. The big boys preferred soft stuffed animals. I don't know what Lincoln was thinking putting a bunch of hard toys down the legs of his jammies.




I fished all these out of his jammies...all the way to his ankles.

Dear Global Warming,

My kids loved the snow that fell in the desert! Keep the up the good warming. Although, the frozen and busted pipes at the in laws house was a bit excessive.

Notice our little early bird is already dressed while the normal sleeper is still in jammies. These were taken much earlier than anyone should be awake. :-) I'm NOT a morning person and had been awake since 2:00 am when Lynneah woke up and stayed that way for a while. Stephen had to work so I spent the rest of the "night" at the other end of the house. Fun. It was worth it to see their excitement.

I watched throughout the morning in hopes that the snow would slide down and fold over itself at the bottom. Never happened, not enough snow I guess. (That would be carpet at the bottom of the slide to cushion Lincoln's rear end when he smacks the ground....Stephen's funny idea.)

They were funny to listen to and watch. I let them check it all out. Made hot cocoa in sippy cups and put them back in their bedroom till it was late enough to face the day. Where's Lincoln? SLEEPING.
I'm not a nice enough mom to wake a sleeping toddler, especially with church later in the day.