tonight at dinner

Tonight during dinner...

Syd: "Mom, When is 'Kid's Day'?"
Me: "What do you mean honey?" (thinking she's referring to having a day when SHE can pick what we do for the day)
Syd: "You know..like when it's all about us kids and we get presents & cards and stuff...Like Father's Day & Mother's Day; When is 'Kid's Day'?"
Raegan pipes up: "Syd, EVERY day is Kid's Day!"
Love it.

Graduate!

Graduating Class of 2025!?

Filing into the ceremony

Posing...her idea.  Watch out Kindergarten!

Two peas-in-a-pod Besties

Hugs for Mrs. Jamie

Getting her "Diploma" from Miss Michelle

Miss Michelle (first year Preschool teacher....sugary sweet!)

Mrs. Sheryl



Mrs. Jamie

Two-Wheeler

I don't know what it is about it,;but watching my kids learn to ride a bike for the first time fills me with so much pride both for them and for my extremely patient husband who is so gentle and encouraging in that moment. I get teary everytime!
And I wish you could see close-up the last picture....her tongue sticking out just like her Daddy's does anytime he is doing an activity that he's determined about.  Love them both.

3rd born craziness

With our unusual spring-like (80 degrees in March!) weather we've been having I decided to try for Mom-of-the-Month yesterday by busting out the water table for Molly and filling it with dish-soapy bubble water. She was "washing" her sandtoys in it (fully-clothed) when I left my kitchen-window-watch to change the laundry and came back (literally like 7 minutes later) to find this:

Head Injury Trilogy

This past Tuesday, Molly (hopefully) completed our quota of head-injuries requiring stitches or staples. During a rambunctious session of "wrestle-time" with Daddy and her sissies on the living room couch after dinner, she managed to wriggle loose and clunk her head on the coffee table at just the right angle to issue a gaping wound that needed two staples. She cried a tiny bit when it happened and then only a short bit at the Urgent Care when they made her lie still in my lap to put the topical anesthetic on it. I couldn't even stomach to be in the room when they did the stapling but it didn't even seem to phase her! Not so much as a peep when the staples went in, and the first words out of her mouth when I re-entered the room were, "I have a sucker?" Then she was happy as a little clam to have her sucker, ID bracelet, and a "Big Bert Kicker" (Big Bird Sticker) on her shirt as her rewards for her ordeal. Such a little trooper!
I'm hoping we've closed the chapter of Urgent Care visits in our family for awhile. Our swipe cards are getting worn. ;)

2!, 5!, 9!, 2!, 5!, 9!...

There have been at least 100 posts that I've wanted to make these past few months but things are just busy; they just are. I'll catch up eventually, I know I will but it weighs on me, especially when I watch my "baby" two-year-old be-bop around the house doing numerous cute things that I wish I made time to blog about.
So tonight I am~with no pictures, but just the notation that lately she is doing a super-cute thing called "hide and seek" that she is obsessed with. And what makes it the cutest, is that she hides in the SAME PLACE everytime. Everytime! But sometimes she counts there and other times she is just quiet as a mouse and still -with her toes sticking out under the clothes hanging in my closet-waiting for someone to find her.
And to double the cuteness factor she counts loudly in a methodical pattern; "two!, five!, nine!, two!, five!, nine!, ready not! here I tome! And then giggles and runs out to find you.
Gosh I love that kid. 100 other times a day she makes me so tired but when she does hide & seek, I love her.

It's true.

Today stunk. Maybe because it was Monday and I am just coming off a delicious weekend of alone/adult-time with my hubby and my two youngest kids were totally crabby and missed the memo that Mommy had a pile of work and laundry to do...but maybe also just a little bit because something so wretchedly AWFUL happened in our house over the weekend that I still can't even speak about it without shivering and scanning the room.
Ugh.
So last night we arrived back home with tired but happy kids who easily ate dinner and were hollering for bed at an early bedtime. Yay.
However, I developed some weird nausea/achy-body-tired thing and was on the couch by 7:15 p.m. with only one kid in bed so far and two to go.
So, Raegan heads downstairs with Brad (normally it's me because everyone always wants me at bedtime but thank the GOOD LORD it wasn't me this time) and I continue to lay miserable on the couch.
Until five minutes later when I hear Raegan's voice say "Mom!" -with a slight quiver- followed by, "Mom, Um...my toothbrush isn't downstairs I think it's in your bathroom and I just went potty and there were two mice floating in the toilet".
Wait, WHAT.
Say, WHAT!!??
OMW, did I just stop breathing and start sweating profusely, just now??
WHAT.DID.YOU.SAY??
Oh. My. WORD.

(Good thing I always keep my cool in these types of situations.)

Then this is followed by Brad coming up the stairs and giving me a look and asking Raegan to come back downstairs to finish getting ready for bed.
Because my dear husband -Lord love him- handled things SO much better then I would have by simply saying to Raegan, "Oh look! They must have been trying to go for a swim", and acting like it was no big deal so that my eldest barely thought anything of it and could easily mention it to me in the midst of a train of thought about her misplaced toothbrush.

Instead of the bloody-murder screaming I would have done had it been me that discovered such a fright in the TOILET OF MY HOUSE.

Oh my word.

So, suffice it to say that if you happen to see mice scurrying around your garage-which I did a week ago- then make sure you buy real traps for them-not just poison- and then caulk the heck out of any small space or hole that might even begin to lead into your house from the garage...
Or just shoot them with your husband's muzzle-loader.
Whichever is handiest.
Because otherwise they will come into your house looking for a drink, or a place to die, or a place to swim.

Oh my word.

Do you think I slept well last night? Or will again tonight for that matter?
Why else do you think I'm posting this at 11:59 p.m. while my eyes bleed from lack of sleep?