I'm in love.

I was surprised to see that a brand new loaf of bread was almost gone by this afternoon. But then I found this right before dinner:

JASON!!

It's hard to get mad at him. I'm in love with that boy.

Today we played a game where he was putting dalmation figurines in a little purple drawstring bag. He thought it was funny when I handed him something that didn't belong.

I have to record these moments because in 13 years he might not be so lovable. I remain optimistic that he will be though.

My Youngest

Happy Baby

Serious Baby

Devil Baby

You have to love little boys...

It was about time to get a new one anyway.

Jason loves his bling.

I'm going to clean the kitchen tonight. Or so I say I am going to clean it. It's likely it won't happen.

Tuesday

This afternoon Sarah was mad at me. I don't know why. I pulled out the camera and made faces behind it while I shot a video of her. I was successful. She was trying so hard to be mad, but just couldn't do it.

If you are wondering why I have 5 Diet Pepsi cans with their tops cut off - we were melting old crayons in a pot of water yesterday.

Then my kids decided to have a slice of bread for a snack. I think my potato comment the other day corrupted them. They were so excited to show me their butt bread. I'll spare you the video.


At dinner Jason spilled enough lettuce and cheese from his salad to make sitting in his high chair uncomfortable. He devised this new position:

It works.

Learning to share

My girls made hot chocolate today. I was pleased to see Sarah and Wendy share one mug without any arguing. Emily had her own.

I know I didn't post yesterday. But I retro posted a video of Jason eating salad.

Jason Eating Salad

Look at those toes!

Today I by chance examined my kid's toes. I feel like a horrible mother. I never thought to pay attention to their toes. I feed my kids, I dress my kids (most days), I brush their hair, but I never thought to groom their toes. On the agenda for this week: Pediatric Pedicures.

This child is in need of some cuticle trimming.

Not too bad. Some jagged nails, dirt, and dry skin.

Aww. This child inherited my second toe.

This poor child!

(These feet remain anonymous.)

Spud Heart

My kids found this in the bag of potatoes today. I said it looks like a Valentine's potato:


Or a butt potato:

But then I found this one which is the true butt potato:

Happy Friday!

My happy cells are recuperating

Today was a much better day. I've been a little lazy on the pictures the past week. Not lazy about taking them, just posting them. Here's a little update:

February 11

Jason on his daily search for chocolate.

Just when he thought he had been defeated, he attacked my container of brown sugar. I didn't think to hide that.

The good thing about a sugar high, is that it causes them to crash. He crashed on the couch just two hours after his 10:30 AM brown sugar binge.

February 13
As I mentioned yesterday, I do the bare minimum to keep the household functioning when I'm sick. This is what the kids looked like most of the week. I'm pretty sure I didn't wipe Jason's face until bedtime.


February 14

A little combo Valentine and Mardi Gras celebration.

Rachel learning how to suck a mini Reese's Cup out of its wrapper.

February 16

Our weekly family photo.

February 17

Rachel chillin. This picture was taken at 5:00 PM. Notice she is wearing the same outfit she was wearing in last night's photo. I told you - bare minimum. If it ain't dirty, don't change it.

I'm sorry

I can't help but want to apologize for my lack of spunk the past few days. I'm not quite sure what is wrong with me. I'm almost sure I had the flu last week and that it zapped my happy cells. This week, I'm doing what it takes to keep my children alive during the day and all I want to do is the bare minimum to keep this household functioning. I actually took it a step beyond the bare minimum today and washed the dishes. I think my funk might also be due to the fact that I can't smell anything. I can breathe just fine through my nostrils, I just can't smell very well. It's a great thing when it comes to changing dirty diapers, but when it comes to eating, it can be kind of depressing because I can't taste. Aggghhh! I'm hoping that it comes back! That would REALLY stink not to be able to taste ever again. Darn illness!

Little House

I've been watching Little House on the Prairie Season One with my kids the past few weeks. I've checked them out from the public library. It's my attempt at teaching them what life was like in the late 1800's. We've had a good time watching them. The last time I watched the series I was just a kid and loved watching Mary, Laura, Carrie, and their dog Jack, but now watching it as a thirty-something year old, I can't help but think that Charles Ingalls is pretty hot! I wonder if thirty-something year old women of the late 70's and early 80's thought the same thing or if it's just my dazed, post-illness brain thinking that pioneer men are sexy. I'm pretty sure it's not just me. How can a woman not think Charles looks hot with his shirt off. Heck, he even looks good in a nightgown. I love that show!

Writer's Block

This illness totally wiped me out last week. I woke up on Saturday morning thinking, "Holy cow! It's Saturday morning and I did absolutely nothing this week except watch TV." I'm feeling better, but I'm tired. My physical actions seem to be about two seconds behind my brain. I wish I had read more this past week. Being sick seems like the perfect opportunity to read, but I didn't even want to put forth that much effort. I would've had to move my eyeballs. I hope to be more inspired this upcoming weeks to write. As of now, I am a complete loss for words. Blah! Sorry!

Good news

I'm feeling better. No more fever. Yay!

Bewitched

Still sick. And to put a big cherry on top of it all, Aunt Flow came today! Aunt Flow can be kind of a heavy person, but I'll put up with her because she is going to help me conceive my next child.

I taught a lesson at Church two Sundays ago titled, "Come what may, and love it!"

I'm having a hard time loving it, but I'm trying. I introduced my kids to Bewitched today. That was fun. We watched Tabitha cast spells on her toys to make them come to life and they danced around her room. It was pretty funny. Here's a clip:



I think if I'm sick any longer I might start hallucinating that the toys in our house are coming to life.

For the record, I'm a dedicated blogger. I still blog when I'm sick.

Chocolate Detector

I'm convinced that my son has a built-in chocolate radar. Last night I removed the chocolate from this cupboard to prevent Jason from raiding it . Today I let him climb on the counter so I could watch him make the disappointing discovery. To my surprise, he took it to the next level and actually found some fun size M&M packages that I stowed away a long time ago on the second shelf. I didn't see those last night. I let him eat one or two packages before lunch because when I'm sick, I simply don't care. Then after he left the room I hid them.

12:30 PM

However just 4 hours later, he decided to take a look at the neighboring cupboard and found my stash of Hershey Bars. So I let him eat half a Hershey Bar because I'm sick and I simply don't care. (You can also see by the looks of my kitchen counters, that I don't care about them either.) I made him share the other half of the Hershey Bar with his sisters.

4:30 PM

He's going to be mad when I'm feeling better.

Oh, and if you're searching for some chocolate and can't find any, give me a call. I'm renting out my chocolate detector for $25/day. What a deal!

I'm going to go finish being sick now.

I don't have much to say...

We've been sick the past couple of days. I'm not quite sure what it is. Something like the flu, bronchitis, miserableness. It's making my kid's breath stink! The only good thing about being sick is that it's a good excuse to lay on the couch or in bed all day and watch movies. Last night I watched Teen Wolf and today we watched Princess Diaries 2. I'm feeling better now and looking forward to the Bachelor.

When life gives you little boys...

I went upstairs on a quick errand. I came downstairs and caught this:

How can you get angry at that? You don't. You just force him to share a handful of chocolate chips.

Today's lesson: When life gives you little boys, make breadcrumbs!

In case you're wondering...

Microwave popcorn still pops even if your two-year-old rips open a pre-popped bag. It's just a little messier, but not a big deal because it goes well with the crispy shredded cheese that's been sitting in the microwave for the past week (or two.)

Oh! The Drama!

Today Sarah and Wendy got in an argument over who was the rightful user of the pretty purple daisy spoon at lunch. This was their dialogue while lunch was cooking :

Wendy: Noooooo!! That's my spoon!!!!
Stomps her foot.

Sarah: Nu-uh. It's mine.
With a smile.

Wendy: It doesn't match your pants!!!
Tears drip down her cheeks.

Sarah: It matches my shirt.
Points to her lavender stripes.

Wendy: It...it...it...it matches my dress!!!
Points to her lavender nightgown.

Wendy won. Her dress had more purple surface area than Sarah's shirt. However, by the time the macaroni and cheese was finished cooking, the purple daisy spoon was nowhere to be found, so she settled for a different spoon.

The Victor

Goth Girl

I was a little surprised when I saw Sarah come into my bedroom this morning dressed like this. I was happy that she made the effort to match. I heard Wendy remark to Emily, who were both dressed in pink, "Emmawee! Emmawee! We not wokstars."

Now I must dedicate this song to my friend Carrie who is about to pop with her #5. I think many of us can sympathize with her. Home stretch, baby!

Operation Toddler Awesomeness Aborted.

Today Jason was not awesome. He gave me a hard time at naptime and climbed out of his crib. I knew it was too good to be true!

Teaching children self-reliance

My husband usually puts Jason down for a nap after lunch. Today my husband got distracted teaching Emily some music. When he realized it was getting late, he searched for Jason and found him already in his crib doing a little final playing before falling asleep. I guess Jason became impatient and put himself down for a nap. He's learned how to climb into his crib. How's that for toddler awesomeness? I can't believe this is the same kid I had to use Super Nanny tactics on just a couple months ago to get him to stay in his crib. Pfff! Who needs parents? The kid can dress himself. He can feed himself. He can put himself to bed. Now I'm just waiting for him to potty train himself. Once he's finished with that, I suppose it's time to send him off into the wild.

The Big Five

February 2004

(I'm embarrassed about my dyed hair.)

Sarah was my baby doll baby. Born 6 lbs. 1 oz. at 4:38 in the morning. After her birth I hoped to never have an early morning baby again. My husband doesn't do well with little to no sleep. When we were at the hospital, I couldn't get comfortable in the hospital bed at about 2:30 am while I was laboring. The nurse asked me, "Would you like to put your legs up?" Half asleep in the chair next to me, my husband answers her, "No, thank you, I'm fine." I gave him a look that said, "You fool. She's talking to the pregnant lady in labor!" I might have said some unkind words too, but I forget. He did wake up for the delivery and I forgave him for falling asleep. I give him credit for trying. I think he drank 4 Diet Cokes and a Rock Star at the hospital. It was a lonely labor, but it was probably a lonely labor for many women that day because it was Super Bowl Sunday.

Where's Sarah?

Sarah turned 5 years old today. She bore her testimony at church for the first time. She felt special today because she woke up to a new dress (Walmart Christmas clearance) and a new necklace to wear to church. We established a new tradition today that the birthday person gets to say the prayer at all the meals. Emily didn't think it was quite fair, but then she realized that her birthday is next.

She loved her new Hello Kitty wallet from my parents. She actually got 5 dollars too. Poor Bradley only got 2 dollars on his sixth birthday. I gave my parents a hard time for that. Surely they had 4 more ones somewhere in the house.

She loved her cake.

Rachel did too.

Tonight as we watched Kitty Half Time on Puppy Bowl V, Sarah said to me, "Today was a good birthday!" I can't believe she's five already. She's still wearing size 3T!