Same old us

It's been exactly a year since we've seen each other. And it was good to see that nothing has changed.

February 2011                                             March 2012

The baby's a little bigger now, and doing his best to keep up with the big kids.

The boys are no longer in diapers, and they're talking up a storm. But they're still the same very messy, very busy, very silly boys they always were.

And the Abbys are still the very best of friends.

Just for grins, Rebecca and I took the whole crew out for lunch one day, just us moms, to see if we could still handle being severely outnumbered. Except for that episode where a train went by and all the kids rushed out onto the sidewalk to watch it, we managed to totally keep things under control.

It's good to know we've still got it.

Graffiti

We have some long-awaited guests flying in tomorrow, so we're all doing what we can to prepare for their arrival.

For mom and dad, this means house cleaning and menu planning.

For Caleb, it means mentally preparing for some major truck sharing.

And for Abby, it means decorating the driveway.

"It needs to be really colorful so they'll know where we live," she insisted. And then she talked the third grader across the street into writing an enormous greeting for our friends in the middle of the road in front of our house.

I can see this new box of chalk is not going to last long.

Healthy competition

Sometimes, to make our morning meal more exciting, I like to encourage a little sibling rivalry in the form of competitive breakfast Olympics.

This morning's event was the Potholder Fork-Holding Challenge. Points were awarded for speed, style and efficiency.

When the match was over the oatmeal bars were all gone, and my kids' hands were still clean.

Everyone's a winner.

The weather outside

...is perfect for all sorts of things these days.

Like scrapping our dinner plans so we can spend the evening hiking through the woods instead.

And for letting those in-like-a-lion breezes blow through our hair.

Under construction

There are major renovations taking place in our backyard, and what used to be a great place to play will one day be an even greater place to play. But in the interim, our yard is simply a giant mudpit, the result of excavating an enormous hill of dirt and rocks to make a level spot for a playset. In lieu of being able to use the backyard while the bobcat is back there moving mud around, Caleb is perfectly content to sit on the porch, lemonade in hand, and cheer the crew on. I'm fairly certain he fancies himself the supervisor of this construction site, and he loves to encourage his workers as they move mounds of earth and piles of pavers into place.

"Great job!" he'll cheer as the operator adds a load of dirt to the top of an ever-growing pile.

"Nice building that wall!" he'll say as the pallets are brought in and the stones begin to take shape.

The workers smile back at him, and occasionally ask for his opinion on where they should put the next rock. I'm afraid when the construction is completed, the swing set we install might be a let down compared to the fun he's been having.

Jacob has been clawing at the back door for days now, desperate to get back into the great outdoors. And once the mound of dirt was flattened out, and the rain stopped, that's just what we did. He would have driven that tiny dump truck through the enormous tracks in our yard for hours. But eventually he got so muddy that he could no longer safely navigate the squishy earth below his tiny feet, so he had to settle for a bubble bath instead. This did not go over well.

And Abby, my budding entomologist, finally got her wish. After watching and wondering about the fate of the six-legged critters she's so fond of, she was finally released to do some wildlife rescue. She spent the better portion of an hour combing through about 900 square feet of mud with her little fingers and removing all of the worms and insects she could find to a safer, undisturbed location on the opposite side of the yard.

I'm starting to rethink this whole swing set thing. Maybe we should just dig up the rest of the grass and let them play in the mud all summer.

Zoo: A Haiku

   Spur of the moment

A trip to the zoo? What fun!

We should bring a friend

Three kids in blue shirts

Easy to find in a crowd

And not one is lost

A seesaw for four!

And four wee ones to ride it

Be gentle, Abby

Kind, thoughtful Caleb

And sweet little Lydia

Sure make a fine pair

Much cotton candy

A sugar coma sets in

Naptime near at hand

It has frogs, and it twirls

As of today, my four-year-old is officially convinced there's nothing her mom can't do. This may or may not be a good thing.

She's observed my slow progress on her Easter dress over the past few weeks, and had asked if she could pick out her fabric next time I make her something. Truth be told, I had planned to complete the Easter dress and bask in the glow of having accomplished that sewing project for a long time before starting another one.


But she persisted, and yesterday, with coupons in hand, we headed to the fabric store early in the morning to let her do some shopping.

In a move that didn't surprise me in the least, she found the most adorable pink frog fabric in the store, paired it with some lime green, and then asked if it was on sale. (It was.) I've trained her well.

We came home, scoured the internet for some simple projects, blew off all our chores for the day, and got to work. By the time the kids woke from their naps, the fabric was pressed and ready to go. We measured, trimmed, destroyed an old pair of jeans, then took a break to eat leftovers for dinner.

After dinner, the sewing machine took over the table again. Abby removed pins as her soon-to-be skirt took shape, and Caleb sat across from us at the table, collecting scraps of fabric and telling us all about the pants he was making for Sharkie.

Our project was completed just as Abby was settling down for the night. But I was too excited to let that stop me (and I knew she would be, too). So I tiptoed into her room, turned her light back on, and showed her our finished product. She immediately hopped out of bed, exchanged her frog pajamas for her new frog skirt, and marched down stairs to show Daddy.

This may be the first time I've ever completed a project that quickly. Now if I could just find time to sew the last button on that Easter dress...

Ninety minutes

When we work as a team, the hubby and I sure can get a lot accomplished.

This morning, he took a quick break from his day job to help with a little overscheduling problem I found myself in (a result of not carrying my enormous planner with me everywhere I go).

We left the house at 9:45, two kids in his car, one in mine. When we met back home at 11:15, two kids had been to the dentist, one had been to his three year check-up, and we grown-ups had exercised our right to vote.

Jacob wasn't scarred for life by his first dental check-up, Abby earned a new stuffed frog after reporting back to the dentist about the success of her Stop Thumb Sucking campaign, Caleb racked up a goodie bag and a Tow Mater sticker from his doctors' visits, and all five of us came home with stickers telling the world that we voted.

And we did it all in just an hour and a half. We totally rocked this parenting thing today.

Hold the cheese

When I ask him to smile, I get Cheese Face.

When I ask him to smile with his eyes open, I get this.

When I showed him this picture of his eyes-wide-open smile, Caleb made an astute observation.

"Mommy, look!" he exclaimed. "I made a new scary face!"

I think I'll settle for Cheese Face any day.