Eeeewwww, Gross!

I have a friend who found a spider in her van on her way home from Michigan and I guess it was huge and scary. My story isn't quite as fun, but here was my experience today:

We were on the way home from picking up Jacob and Kyle from school. We were about halfway home when I looked in my rearview mirror and saw.....a spider crawling on the mirror. The spider was probably only the size of a dime, but it was black and hairy with a small orange spot on it. I tried to ignore it, but at the same time I didn't want to lose sight of it. In no way did I want that spider anywhere near me!

As I'm driving, I am watching it slowly move down my mirror. Then it drops from a thread down to my dashboard. By this time I have alerted the kids that the spider is there and Jacob and Kyle can see it. They sit all the way in the back of the van, if that gives you an idea of how thick and black it was. This spider was definitely not all legs.

As it's moving across the dashboard, I suddenly decide that I cannot just let it alone any longer. However, I have two reasons for not being able to kill it. One, it is too thick and I can't stand the idea of all lof its guts rushing out. Two, the last time Kris killed a spider, I thought Kyle was going to cry. He actually asked, "Where do you think it's mommy is?" So anyway, I found a happy meal bag, quickly dumped out the toys and scooped up the spider.

By now we were almost home and I just kept shaking the bag to make sure that the spider did not crawl up and out. Once we got home, I dumped the spider out in the grass (I mean snow). I am pretty sure that this spider was not going to make it, but at least I could say to my son that I set the spider free.

Needless to say, I'm pretty sure that I was a driving hazzard on the way home today.
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Just Like Mama

I babysit a little girl two days a week at my house. Needless to say, it has been quite interesting, seeing as I have three boys. Thursdays are always a lot of fun. Jacob and Kyle go to school, so I just have Zachary and this little girl, she is 4 months older than Zachary. Today she brought him a little pink purse to play with. He absolutely loved it! He walked around, saying, "This is my purse, just like you, Mama." I loved it. I know someday he will be mortified that this picture was even taken, but I just thought it was so cute. Enjoy!

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Girls' weekend

Two of my high school girlfriends and I went away for the weekend. We all have kids so we left the hubbys in charge and away we went. We had no expectations of what the weekend would hold. We brought some old high school memorabilia and a Symphony bar (something we ate way too many of in high school) and settled in. So far, we can't even seem to keep track of time at all. We got here about 8:45 Friday night and the next thing we knew it was 2 am. Obviously I am a little tired, as I managed to sleep until noon Saturday. After a wonderful omlette breakfast (yes, at noon), we relaxed on the couch and the next thing we knew it was 6 pm. We showered and dressed and went out for a nice steak dinner, came home, watched "The Princess Bride" (what high school student didn't love that movie?), and again it was 2 am before we knew what hit us. I must be feeling better today because I only slept until 10 am. It has been so nice just to relax and talk. Not that everything has been about high school, because let's face it, we all have kids and it's hard to go too long without mentioning them, but our high school reunion cost about $170 for a couple and none of us had the money to go. Getting together and reminiscing was almost as good, in fact, it may have even been better. I have always cherished my time with these two friends and am sad that we don't spend enough time together. It's really sad because we all even have kids the same age--anyway, hopefully after this weekend we will make a commitment to get together more often. God has put these people in my life for a reason, and I do feel that my spirit has been strengthened this weekend and am truly looking forward to what He has next in strore for me.
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Pout Much?

You already know about Zachary's obsession with trains. Did I also tell you about his obsession with changing clothes. Now, many of you may think, well, sure lots of kids like to change their clothes, but you have not heard this story.

Zachary HATES to change his clothes. If he is wearing pajamas, then he wants to leave them on. If he is wearing clothes, then he wants to leave those on.

Today, we had an accident in the basement and Zachary stepped in it. His jeans are just a little too long and those got wet as well as his socks. I managed to get the jeans and one sock off of him and I threw them in our laundry room in a deep basket that we have. I got him some new pants and socks and came down to put them on him. Well, here is how I found him:

That blue basket is where his wet jeans and socks were. He was so mad that I took his clothes off that he stood there (and fell there) trying to reach into that basket and get his clothes out. No other clothes would do...he needed those clothes. Someday maybe I'll figure out what God was trying to teach me with this little one. He certainly has a strong will, but as my father told him one day last summer, "Give it up Zach, your mom will win every time." Hmmm, wonder where Zachary and I get it from?

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Marshmallow Snowmen

Okay, so the weather has been too cold to go outside, which my three boys desperately need to do, so I decided that rather that just run around, we would find a structured project to do. I went searching through my house to see what I could find. I don't like to do too many color crafts because my boys just are not into coloring. Well, what I decided on was...."Marshmallow Snowmen!" I thought we could use the same idea as the gingerbread house, but just use marshmallows to make people instead. So, after borrowing some powdered sugar from a neighbor to make some frosting, who we also decided to invite over for this wonderful adventure, we got started. I had graham crackers for the base, the marshmallows were frosted to these little squares. Then for decorations, I had thin mint cookies for hats, m & m's, jelly beans, chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, kissables, raisins, candy hearts, and maybe that's it. The kids had fun, even if more of the candy did go in their mouths than on the snowmen. Here are some of the pictures we took!

Here is Kyle eating the candy.

Here is Zachary just spooning the frosting into his mouth.

Jacob is very proud of his creation.

The finished projects--Left to right--Jacob, Kyle, & Zachary (whose hearts used to me M & M's)

God granted me a lot of grace on this project. Every other sentence was, "Can I eat this?" but all in all we had a fun morning.

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Overheard

I got to put Zachary to bed tonight. Usually my hubby does it since I put him down for every nap, but tonight, hubby had a meeting at church, so I got to do it. It seems to be a little different from naptime, but I think the favorite thing I heard tonight was the following:

Zachary (after turning on both the switch to his light and the switch to his overhead fan): I turned on my ight and my tan (light and my fan).
Mom: Yes, you did!
Zachary: My tan is on!
Mom: Yes it is!
Zachary: But I'm cold!

Well, at least he knows that the fan won't warm him up!
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Overheard

Today in Meijer we stopped to look at the tank of lobsters.
Zachary: What are they Mommy?
Mom: Lobsters, honey.
Zachary: What are they Mommy?
Mom: Lobsters, honey.
Zachary: No, what are their names?
Oh boy, I'm glad he didn't insist that we name every lobster in that tank!
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Choo Choo

My dear Zachary is obsessed with trains.

Now, I know that it is completely normal for a little boy to love trains at the age of two, cut I had no idea how far he could take it. Yesterday, in the course of about 20 minutes, he went on the following progression:

1. Carried around Thomas the Train lunchbox.
2. Saw the picture on the lunchbox and went to find the puzzle we have that matches it.
3. While working on the puzzle, he has a sudden desire to wear his train shirt (that we wore the day before). Luckily I have been trying to stay on top of the laundry and it happens to be in the dryer. He opens the dryer and goes through the clothes until he finds the shirt. He insists that I put it on him.
4. The next stop is that he asks to watch his Baby Einstein movie, "On the Go," because it has a section on trains. To this I say no, as we have watched a couple of shows already that day, and the fit begins.
5. How do I stop the fit? I encourage him to go to the basement to play with his train table--guess what? It worked.

So, as you can see this little boy wants to surround himself with trains. He even has a blanket in his bed that is there because it has the ABC's on it and for T it has a train. It's small, but it's there. He calls it his train blanket. He gets mad if we go under train tracks and there is no train on them. He seems to feel that I can control the train schedule (by the way, if anyone knows how to do that, let me know) and will actually cry about it. There is one road on the way to my mom's that follows a train track. If we see a train on it, he is devastated if I have to stop at a light and the train goes out of view.

Are we at obsession or just heathy interest?
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A Star is Born

Last night while my hubby was putting Jacob and Kyle to bed, I hung out downstairs with Zachary. Lately he has gotten back into those books where you push the buttons on the side and they make a noise or play music. You know what I'm talking about? Anyway, Zachary has a favorite one--it's a Thomas the train sing along book. Each page is a song and the buttons are the music for you to sing to. The first one is the Thomas song. As I came down the stairs last night, I found Zachary sitting on the book, pressing the first button and singing along to the music. He was singing, "Doo doo doo doo doo......" It was so cute. I will add a video of it when I figure out how to get the video on the computer. It was so funny. He just kept pushing that button over and over and over and over. He looked straight at the camera. He knew he was the star!
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Potty Training-Part 1

Okay, so with Jacob and Kyle, I didn't even try to start potty training them until they were almost 3. Jacob caught on right away, and Kyle wasn't potty trained until he was about 3 and a quarter. Not too bad, I know some moms whose boys were almost 4 and then some before they were trained so I was feeling pretty good about myself. Well, I've been watching this other little girl for two days a week this year. She is 2 and a half and she is potty trained. She started wearing underwear right before she turned 2 and a half. Zachary is four months younger than her, but at the time was no where near ready to start going in the potty. So I started to feel a little down, that I still had so many more months of diapers to go. Zachary won't be 3 until October, if he's going to follow in his brother's footsteps. Well, an amazing thing happened. Right after New Year's, Zachary started to go pee pee on the potty. So now I've been half heartedly trying to potty train him. I know that I need to get going because I put him in pull ups (which I hate) and he will go on the potty but he also has no problem going in his pull up as well. He poops on the potty--that's not an issue, but again, he also has no problem pooping in his pull up. I think I need to take the crutch away! Maybe next week--Look for more updates on this!
B

Overheard

Zachary singing his new favorite song:
"Ring around the rosy,
Pocket full of posy,
Asses, asses,
We all fall down!"
(We'll work on the sh sound!)

Jacob:
"Mom can you please put my tights on?"
He was asking for his slippers, who knows where he got tights!

Mom: Kyle, what did you sing in music class today?
Kyle: (singing) uppa, luppa, cuppa
Mom: That's a nice song. How does the rest go?
Kyle: No Mom, we didn't sing that. That's just my thinking music!
(It's just like Jeopardy around here!)
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Nostalgia

Okay, so I know that my children are a little young for me to be feeling nostalgic about them already, but lately, I have been thinking about how far they have all come. If you would have told me four and a half years ago while I was laying on my bed on strict bedrest trying to hold off contractions that Kyle would sit and play Go Fish with us at the age of four, and not just play, have strategy, I couldn't have imagined it. Yet today, as we were telling Jacob not to show us his cards because people were going to know what was in his hand and therefore not get as many pairs, Kyle started paying attention to the cards Jacob was showing and the cards that my hubby and I were asking for, and started asking for those cards. Now granted, I probably should have been trying to teach him that even if someone is showing you their cards you should do your best not to look at them, but that's not where my mind went. I started thinking about that horrible week that my babies spent in the NICU right after they were born. I thought about how much I worried that they wouldn't gain weight (both my babies were 20 pounds by 7 months). I thought about every alarm that their tiny bodies set off and how scared I was at any long-term damage they might have. I thought about how much I loved them that week and how I didn't think I could love them more than that, but as I sat there and watched my two boys play Go Fish together, I was amazed at how much more love I now have for them. I can't believe that God has given me these three little miracles to watch, guide, and enjoy. I am starting to understand what my parents see in the baby pictures of my sister and myself. To me, we are just babies, but to them, we are these fantastic creations that have been entrusted to their care. I pray for the wisdom and guidance to be the kind of parent they need me to be. I can't wait to see what their brains will comprehend next.

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This is so amazing to me! My boys can use discmans and turn the pages correctly to the beeps!

Snow Play

Okay, so I gave in. Jacob and Kyle officially started quiet time today. We have a bit of work to do in that area. They are going to have to work up to doing things quietly for an hour. Anyway, while the two little ones were still sleeping (I watch another two year old on Thursdays and Fridays), we went outside to shovel and play in the snow. I have completely failed my children when it comes to playing in the snow. The first thing that Kyle did when he got out there was try to play with his baseball glove. Now, he is definitely a baseball player and loves every minute of it, but this was not a good day for him to try and use his glove and the wooden bat that the neighbor boy left out. So I decided that I better get to work. We had a huge mound of snow on the grass by the curb, so I thought it would be fun to make a tunnel through the snow. I figured that once I got started they would be so excited that they would help me along. WRONG! They were actually afraid of the tunnel. They worried that they wouldn't be able to get back out. So, I dug from both ends and finally was able to stick my foot through the middle to connect them (I would have gotten stuck!). After that, the boys helped me dig a little bit, and Jacob eventually wiggled through. Kyle took some more convincing and Jacob went through many times before Kyle was finally coaxed through. The smile on his face though was worth it all. Fortunately, the snow was a little icy after sitting through the rain we had and all so the tunnel is pretty strong. As long as the weather doesn't get so warm that all the snow melts, we should have it for a pretty long time!

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Naps

I am fighting naps in my house. In my rational mind, I know that my babies are 4 and really don't have to take a nap anymore, but I am just having a really hard time figuring out how I am going to fill those 2-3 hours every afternnon in some quiet fashion while Zachary, who is only 2, takes his nap. I know that I am far from the first mom to ever encounter this, but still, I am baffled. Also, there are some days that my four year olds really need a nap and I want to make sure that it's not a big deal if I want them to lay down. I definitely plan on having some quiet time for them in the afternoon, but I can't make them stay in their rooms for two hours, so I continue to think....and think....

Overheard

We went to McDonald's to play at the Playland and there was a really cute area for the little tykes. Zachary immediately goes down the slide head first on his belly. Then he tells me, "I go down on my tummy like a penguin!" I guess that maybe we watch a little too much Diego in our house.
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Overheard

Kyle in the bed that he is sharing with his aunt this week:
Kyle: (mumbles in bed)
Aunt: What Kyle? (She walks closer to him and audibly hears gas being passed) Kyle, I have to sleep in that bed too!
Kyle: That´s why I told you to stay over there!

Energizer

You know that bunny that just keeps going and going? Well, that is my Zachary. He has been getting up every morning between 5 and 6 am and not going to bed until 7 or 8 at night. He has been taking about an hour and a half nap during the day, maybe two hours, and he is not crabby, and has just been having the time of his life down here! I keep waiting for the day when he is going to crash for three or four hours or sleep until 8 or 9 in the morning and it is just not happening. He loves the beach. Today he spent about 45 minutes just chasing the sea gulls on the beach. I really think he thought he could catch them. It was histerical. Anyway, I just love him so much more everyday. He is so much more flexible than I ever thought he would be. Today, there was no time for a nap and so far.....so good. Definitely an early bedtime tonight, but I am sure tomorrow he will be going and going and going and going.........
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