A place for everything

She wanted to organize her closet, so I pulled out my label maker and taught her how to use it.

When I returned, in addition to finding she had labeled each of the bins her toys live in, I noticed she had also labeled her toothbrush, her toothpaste, her soap dispenser and her toilet.

"Look how organized I am!" she announced.

I may have created a monster.

He comes by them honestly

I don't hand out bandages all that easily.

The kids know the rules. If it's not bleeding, it doesn't need a band aid. (Those things aren't cheap, you know!) You have to be pretty banged up to get bandaged in this family.

But Jacob? He earns them almost daily. We crossed stitches and a cast off our list long before he turned two. Band aids hardly seem like a big deal anymore. There's just no stopping this kid.

It makes sense, when you think about it. Have you seen the nonsense he has to keep up with from those two crazy older siblings of his?

We pretty much live in survival mode around here.

That was easy

It was the most anticlimactic transition to two wheels ever.

He begged and pleaded for a solid week for us to remove the training wheels, and each time, we told him that if he'd wait until the weekend, Daddy would help him learn to ride his bike.

We just knew that taking off those training wheels would mean hours and hours of chasing him up and down the street, stooped over, holding onto the back of his seat to keep him from teetering to one side or the other before he got the hang of it.

That's a big commitment. One I was not willing to undertake with a baby on my hip.

So he waited, and eagerly stood watch as Daddy finally pulled out his tool box and removed the training wheels.

The two headed into the road, looked both ways, and Caleb climbed up onto his big boy bike, checking behind him to be sure Daddy had a good hold on him so he wouldn't fall. He pushed the peddles around once, then once more, and he was off, with Daddy stooped over behind him, hands firmly gripping the back of his seat while Caleb gained confidence and stability.

And then, just like that, it happened.

As Caleb's feet pushed the peddles around more and more quickly, the role of the bike-holder-upper became less and less critical.

I watched as his dad let go, and my four-year-old peddled off down the street after his big sister, totally unaware that he was doing it on his own.

He's already proving himself a force to be reckoned with. Abby has tired of inviting him to race her to the cul-de-sac and back. It took only a a few occasions of being lapped by her younger brother to take the fun out of the competition for her.

Now they simply ride, much too fast and much too fearlessly, in my opinion, up and down the street until the sun goes down or I offer them popsicles to bribe them to come inside. Caleb is loving his newfound freedom, and Abby is loving having another big kid to ride with.

The training wheels are officially a thing of the past for Caleb. He's unstoppable now.

Decaf amphibians

If you can think of a way to spend a morning that is more fun than hiking and hunting for frogs and tadpoles, please, let us know.

But I don't think you're going to convince the kids.

And the stop at Starbucks beforehand? That was totally altruistic.

What would the kids have kept their frogs in if mom and dad hadn't polished off a couple of mochas on the way there?

We all scream

Ice cream is good.

Ice cream dates with Daddy are better.

Selective hearing

We were trying to wait patiently for Abby to finish up at VBS. But waiting patiently does not come easily to the four-and-under crowd.

We sat in the balcony, in the back, so as not to be a distraction to the other kids and parents. Because my kids can be a little distracting sometimes.

Levi was craning his neck around me and trying frantically to climb out of the baby carrier on my back to see what was going on. Jacob was making a bridge out of pencils in the back of the pew in front of us. And Caleb was testing every square inch of the pew we were seated in to see which part was the "squishiest." (And I use the term seated lightly.)

I was convinced my eldest son was not paying a lick of attention. I could be certain, because my vocal instructions were apparently totally inaudible. The crawling and wiggling continued, despite my warnings to the contrary.

Gradually, the music quieted. My children's laughter did not. I did my best to shush them, but found that I had become not only inaudible, but invisible to them as well.

Then the leader spoke up from the stage below us.

"Let us pray," he announced.

I was suddenly aware of the total lack of movement next to me. I looked over to find Caleb completely still and silent, head bowed, eyes closed, hands folded in his lap.

He stayed that way for the duration of the prayer, then said his Amen and resumed his wiggling.

This kid never ceases to amaze me.

Play with your food

"Mommy, you know what?"

What, Jacob?

"I tell you something!"

Tell me.

"Look at my chicken nugget! It's a big big muscle!"

Well, look at that.

It sure is.

Slow and steady

If you've ever tried to pick Caleb up, you know what I'm talking about. He's solid as a rock. Bumping into him is a little like running into a brick wall. He's nearly 40 pounds of solid 4-year-old muscle.

It made sense to us when he was a baby and threatened to eat his weight in finger foods and whole milk. But how he manages to maintain his physique these days is a mystery.

In the Dinnertime Olympics, he brings home the gold for dawdling at the table and slow eating.

Perhaps because he never stops talking, or perhaps because his little brain is always coming up with some new idea, Caleb can't seem to finish a meal in any sort of reasonable amount of time.

I think that creative and clever mind of his is to blame. Where I saw a slice of pumpkin bread and some raspberries, he saw a dump truck. So of course he had to build it to make it easier for the rest of us to see.

This kid's going to be an engineer one day.

A break in the rain

Are we happy it finally warmed up and stopped raining so we can play in the creek again?

Yeah, you might say that.

Thrifty

If I had known what a huge hit this toy was going to be, I might not have wasted so much time bargaining with the owner of the thrift store where I bought it almost five years ago.

In my defense, I could not have foreseen one day having enough kids to play with all four sides of the thing simultaneously.

I'd say that was $6 very well spent.

Make me a sandwich

Baby food has long been a thing of the past. And now we've crossed into a whole new realm of convenience. 

Turkey and cheese sandwiches for the entire family makes assembly line lunch preparation that much easier.

No more cutting up foods for this guy. Just toss a sandwich on his plate and he's all set.

In other news, we now go through an average of five loaves of bread a week. I'm fairly certain these two milestones are related.

Do not disturb

She takes her art very, very seriously.

She cannot bother with noisy little brothers or a mom who wants to ask questions about what she's doing.

"I'm an artist, Mommy," she explained. "I just need to work on this right now."

I can barely draw stick people. And if you want to know how bad I am at drawing animals, you need only ask Jacob. When a 2-year-old criticizes the puppy you drew for him, you know it's bad. 

This art thing comes from her dad's side. Come to think of it, so do the math thing, the space thing, and the curly hair thing.

I guess I'll take credit for the sarcasm and the good grammar.

Ninja skills

What do you get when you combine one very heavy sleeper with one very stealthy mommy?

That moment of hilarity when Jacob wakes up with more than just stuffed animals in his crib.

It was totally worth the climb.

Pride of ownership

These brothers are going to be good buddies.

It's hard not to be, when you're forced to share everything from your room to your toys to daddy's lap.

There's no such thing as private property at our house.

Training for the future

Caleb likes to talk.

A lot.

Mostly about what he's going to do in a minute, or in ten years. Or about what Sharky had for lunch. Or about some trip he and Sharky took in his imagination. 

Most recently, he's found it necessary to remind me over and over again that he's going to be a scuba diver when he gets bigger. (He needs his back to get bigger, he says, so that the tanks will fit him.)

Scuba diving is not the goal, of course. Swimming with sharks is the goal. Scuba diving is the means to an end. 

Training for his future in shark diving began today at the neighborhood pool. 

So that brings our lofty goal tally to one astronaut ballerina and one scuba diving ichthyologist. (That's a zoologist who specializes in fish, in case you wondered.) Jacob, with his limited command of the English language, has communicated only that he may or may not want to be a puppy when he grows up. And Levi has yet to declare a major. 

We might want to start thinking about beefing up those college funds soon.

Keep 'em busy

I strapped markers to the backs of toy cars, and now my kids think I'm a genius.

Considering that this kept them occupied for a full half hour while I cleaned up breakfast, they might just be right.

Efficiency

"This way it doesn't take so long, because I can brush both sides at once," she explained.

Her reasoning skills are excellent.

Her dental hygiene, on the other hand, could use some work.

Proper motivation

We've found a great way to get the kids to get ready for church without dawdling.

Promise them they can go outside and check the squirrel trap as soon as they're dressed and their teeth are brushed.

Don't worry. We released all God's creatures back into the wild before driving away.

Eating out

You know all those moms who show up at Chick-fil-A in skirts and sundresses with one or two children and sit chatting or enjoying a calm meal while their kids play nicely on the playground?

I'm pretty sure we ruined their nice quiet dinner.

Abby was more than willing to give a boost to the toddlers who weren't quite tall enough so they could climb all the way to the top of the slide while Caleb reassured their moms, "It's okay, she's my sister."

Moments later, some big kid called Caleb a name and made him pretty upset. Jacob got in between his brother and the bully and shouted, "Stop yellin' at my Cay-wub!" in his loudest and most intimidating voice.

That might be the last time that nine year old messes with kids less than half his age.

Happy dining!

Firstborns

Neely is 17 months older than Abby. But Abby is almost an inch taller. 

Abby's going into first grade, but Neely already finished first grade.

Both have baby brothers. But Abby has three younger brothers, while Neely just has the one.

And both of them are really, really good readers.

This makes these two firstborns experts on a lot of things when they get together.

Tonight, that meant finally agreeing that they would read the book together, each taking a page at a time. And each girl would do her best not to correct her friend if she failed to sound out a word properly, or skipped one altogether.

It took a lot of self control on both their parts. But they seemed to enjoy every cooperative minute.

We moms couldn't be prouder.  

Linus and Lucy

Play us a song, Piano Man.

Don't worry....your big sister will help.