Surprise Snow Day!!!

(Video at the end...PAUSE the music and turn on your speakers...I know they're off!)

There's my baby! No, I would never call a vehicle my baby until today! When I woke this morning and realized that the boys school was the ONLY school not following a 2 hour delay or cancellation, I took the liberty of packing all four kids into the car (as I do every morning) and driving them to the bus stop. The end of our drive consists of climbing a hill to a stop sign...

As I approached the hill, I noted my surroundings--as any good mother does! There were three big trucks ahead of me, the first one was a tow truck! Yes, I was safe--tow trucks are a symbol of safety right? White tumble weeds sat to my left and right, and in the middle and top third of the hill there were two cars sitting (1) on the side of the road, and (2) in the middle of the left hand lane (yet facing a right hand lane direction!). I stayed 10 feet from the third truck I followed and watched each vehicle like a hawk. In an instant the tow truck (just 15 feet from the top of the hill) started sliding back while simultaneously turning 90 degrees, by unintentional means, and then 180 degrees. The truck behind him slid back uncontrollably, and the third truck put on his brakes and came to a stop. I was in no mood to be hit by three large trucks, so I did what no man thought I could do....I put the Ford into reverse and drove like Mater, all the way down a long icy hill...tapping my brakes like NO OTHER driver present did! The boys were almost speechless...until I decided to back into the deep snow on the side of the road and turn around...then Aiden screamed, "No, don't turn left Mommy...don't turn left!" (I was turning right!!!) I assured him we would be okay! A car just turning onto the hill quickly stopped once they saw my skillful backwards driving and headed home! In a few minutes, I saw 5 cars driving backwards down the hill....following my lead! HA! Who says a woman can't drive?

When we got home Aiden looked out the window and spotted an interesting scene...in his words...

"That is a funny little yellow man with a striped hat! Where did he come from?"

Dear Aiden, you always bring a smile to my face!

There's my handsome Connor! He played multiplication BINGO, the Wii, Operation Toy Story, and so much more today! I think he even snuck in some reading!

Aiden...being Aiden!

And Lydia wearing my new gloves, hat, and scarf...oblivious to how ill proportioned they were on her tiny hands!

And...of course...a horse is a horse...of course, of course! ENJOY!!! We sure did!

Dogwood Trees

Soooo...Aiden had a 100 day project for school, due tomorrow! Yes, we have reached the 100th day of school (well, they haven't--recall their very late start)!

The project was to glue, draw...or whatever...100 things on a piece of paper. So, I got creative with their letter of the week...D. What can we glue that starts with a D? I could only think of "dog"...hmmm....

"Dogwood tree"!!! HA!!! Brilliant. I planned an awesome tree with 100 dog faces and pinto beans for the ears...the best dogwood tree ever!

I told Aiden, "This will be the best project in your class!"

Aiden: "Not the best one Mom."

Me: "Oh really? What have the other kids done?"

Aiden: "Someone glued 100 noodles to the paper."

....

Need I say more? Yes, tragic hit right to my Mommy center...in the middle of my heart. Oh well, I'll try again next time!

I was also listening to all of the clips on my phone. You know the Nutcracker that Aiden attended with Mimi, Sunny, Santana, Paula, Emma, and me? You know the one where he was the sole boy because of a sick little Connor? Well, on the way into town, I was in the backseat with my little guy. It was a car full of women talking about the last Nutcracker they went to...and then little Aiden's voice (oblivious to the girly talk) comes in loud and clear with a ton of excitement....

"Hey, isn't that a rocket ship up there? Hey, Mommy that's a....jet!!! It's a plane!!! It's...it's...it's a ROCKETSHIP!!! Mommy, it's a rocketship!!! I just see it!"

If only I could upload his little voice..it was so cute!

Leave it to Aiden to place a smile on your face!

Lydia's Two!

Miss Lydia turned two this past week--on the 20th!

I dressed her in frilly princess clothes, and she accessorized with her brothers items around the house!

I enjoyed her ALL DAY LONG!!!

Her aunts came by and gave her a crown, skirt, jewelry, and shoes!

Then Mimi marched in--literally--with even more beautiful clothes! She then marched back out...all the way down the driveway to her car, saluting us dozens of times! The boys were in heaven with her silliness!

The boys labored over the princess!

And she gave us priceless expressions for every gift! Her favorite happened to be a book I got her...a blank book for her to draw in! She gasped and said, "My book!" She adores her brothers and has taken to drawing because of them!

She fed Daddy cake...because she's not the biggest fan!

And hugged her Dora goodnight at the end of a long day!

She is a touch of heaven to us. At two...

Lydia loves baby dolls and even went to the extent of picking out a Birthday present for herself today--it just so happened to be a "Happy Birthday" singing Dora the Explorer (which she doesn't watch!). But as soon as she held it in the shopping cart, she stroked Dora's bangs and said, "priddy"!

She is a fan of shoes...especially high heels! Hers...or mine, it's all the same to her!

She knows when we are talking about her, and responds appropriately! As I gave her a bath tonight, I told her, "You are so beautiful Lydia!" to which she replied, "I are bootifull!"

She seems to prefer Lydia over Liddy! If I tell her "Thank you Liddy", she responds "Thank you Lydia!"

She loves necklaces and bracelets....and makeup--lots of makeup, and purses!

Her favorite food is yogurt, but she can down 2 full pieces of lemon pepper fish! Her favorite morning food is butter toast and hot cocoa....which she rarely drinks, but has to have to be just like me.

She loves her brothers and wears their hats, batman belts, and masks when they are at school...along with her heels, necklaces, and dresses!

She is fighting naps, and I am giving in to the fight peacefully...you do that after 5!

She is CONSTANTLY eating something...mostly Cheetos and yogurt!

And she is simply perfect, a breath of fresh air to the long hard days we often face.

I love you Miss Lydia...two too fast!

Sickies, Crawling, and Milk!

So today I asked, in a bit of selfishness and self pity, "Why do moms work 100% of the time and feel only 50% accomplished...if that?"

Selfish? Kinda.

But the feelings are there at times, along with the weariness, fatigue, and dark baggy eyes!

Mind you, this came after my work week was coming to a close, and I was severely sleep deprived...night work does that to a mother who can't stop working, even on a hard day!

But the payoff is great.

The boys approached me Friday night as I was finishing the dishes and laundry before heading into work and said, "Mom, I can tell you've been doing a lot of work around here!"

Me: "Thank you, how can you tell?"

Connor: "Because Daddy told me you have!"

I took care of a little guy the past 2 nights post a heart surgery. He was so sick his first night post op, but his second night was fabulous. He giggled as hard as his sore chest would allow him to, his cheeks flushed with redness, and he buried his head into his blankets as I approached him on my second night. We laughed and played for a moment before beginning our night, and he hugged me so tight this morning as I left work, stating "Why do you have to leave?" I wonder if he thought I slept at all that night!!!

My little Lydia is obsessed with me...mocks my every move and sneaks hugs dozens of times through the day.

And I have a husband who tells me he can't wait to see my beautiful face when I leave to go of to work--with my confidence these days, it helps to hear I am beautiful to him!

Maya Ruth came down with an awful UTI this past week. She had fevers upwards of 103 degrees for 5 days with vomiting, chills, and crankiness galore. She went to the doctors and was cathed...not pleasant...and confirmed to have a positive UTI culture. So, in the next week and a half we will be looking into a renal ultrasound and VCUG. Poor baby. Chances are, everything is perfectly fine...she's just a little girl susceptible to nasty bacteria. (Let's hope) She is doing better...not thrilled to be receiving her third round of antibiotics in her first 7 months of life, but doing better.

On a lighter note, she wants to move SOOOO bad, but she is determined that crawling does not take place on your hands and knees but on your bum feet and head. Maya lays on her back, arches her back so that her head and feet are on the floor and pushes off with her feet while her little head slides along the carpet. When her bum touches down, she gives herself a little boost and does it all over again! You are one of a kind girl...just when we thought we were use to all the silly things children do...we had a 5th child, and she proved us wrong!

So, tonight Daddy was playing a game with the boys...

Where does_____ come from?

The "blank" was full of objects, such as steak, pork, wood...etc.

Here's a sample of the game:

Daddy: "Where does pork come from?"

Aiden: "A porcupine." and Connor: "A pig!"

Daddy: "Where does steak come from?"

Aiden: "A dinosaur." and Connor: "A cow!"

Daddy: "Where does milk come from?"

........

Daddy: "A cow, a goat, a cat, a dog, a mommy."

Aiden: (Ever so serious and thrilled to be correct while pointing at me) "A Crystal!!!"

Closing out the Twenties!

Well, he's commenced his last year in his twenties, and I hope it was a decent commencement in his eyes...now here's to the beginning of the end!

29 years old...and what better way to be 29 than to 5 beautiful children. Aiden woke me last night, having thrown up at 2am. Maya woke me this morning with a fever of 102 degrees, but Lydia and Connor were perfectly healthy! In a few short hours, Aiden was fine...eating cake, pizza, candy, and everything he set his eyes on.

I thought I had done a great thing when I bought a chocolate cake that matched his Birthday gifts perfectly. When Daddy cut into it, I said, with my "gross" face at it's best, "What is that white stuff?"

Daddy: "You didn't buy a Bavarian cream filled cake did you?"

Me: "NO!!!" (as I rushed to the cake box to exam the description which read...

1/4 chocolate cake

Butter cream icing with Bavarian cream filling.

Grrrr....it should have read 1/4 chocolate cake with Bavarian cream filling. I felt so deceived, and needless to say, I didn't have a single bite! I DON'T LIKE PUDDING!!! I think Daddy was disappointed too.

Connor wrote "happy birthday", Aiden drew Daddy, and Lydia made a few yellow marks!

Maya ate pizza!

He sure did contemplate how to blow out all those candles!

And he blew out each and every one...better than I though he would!

The kids were delightfully surprised to get a party snack bag on Daddy's Birthday! I think Daddy needs to start making lists of what he wants for his Birthday....it's getting too hard to shop for him :)

Until the big three... O....

adios!

Ring in The New Year!

Well, I am ashamed, and I'm not ashamed all at once to say that no one in this house rang in the new year. Steve is on a stretch of 7 twelve hour shifts in a row--by the time he gets home, he has enough time to shower, eat a quick dinner and go to bed. I'm a mother who only sleeps half of my week at night...and I don't make up for the other half during the day, so there was no midnight eyes here! (Well, if you call staying up to 11:22pm close enough I did it, but it was only because I couldn't figure out a computer program I was working with.) The kiddos have never spent a New Years up with us....that's probably because since we have had kids, well, we don't stay up on New Years! HA!!! But we rang in the new year with ice cream cones...all of us did!

Maya is loving food, and when she had finished sucking away on this cone, she started squealing, but it wasn't a hunger squeal...it was rather painful to hear. I assumed that the ice cold vanilla cone had hurt her hands pretty bad, so I warmed a rag and help it snug against her hands and she instantly calmed...she then sucked the warm water out of the rag (yes, the rag was clean!).

Miss Lydia was imitating her big brother--guess who?! If their head is on the table, hers is, if they want a snack, she does...she loves her brothers!

If you guessed Aiden...you know us well! Silly guy! Today he came to me and was spinning a batman toy as fast as he could, he said, "Mom, who's this?"

Me: "Um, Batman?"

Aiden: "No Mom, who is he pretending to be?"

Me: "I don't know."

Aiden: (sounding out the word, as a hint mind you...) "Ssss....Ahh...N....ic It's Sonic!" (the game and cartoon character)

Me: (laughing hysterically at his "hint") Ya think?

And there's the leader of the pack. We went to use his Hasting gift card today...I splurged a little and made up the difference to get him a series of Star Wars books, and to replace the one book he had puked on from his other Star Wars series when he was sick the day of the Nutcracker. When I asked him if he would like me to buy it so it would replace his dirty one, he looked at me with disbelief, hesitated, looked around for a moment, got a little nervous look in his eye, fidgeted with his hands and sweetly--and quietly--said, "yes!". I guess his sweet humility and innocence made me want to help him even more, so he got another set of star wars books...he loves reading!!! In gratitude, he asked me what I would like him to do for me tonight. I smiled and told him it would be nice to have help with the dishes, unloading them.

Me: "Can you go into the kitchen and started organizing them and I will put them away?"

Connor: "Sure...do I sort them by color?"

Me: "Um, no honey..."

Connor: "Oh, I get it, I sort them into darks, mediums and whites..." (ever so seriously spoken)

Me: (giggling) "No, not like that either...never mind, I'll go do it, it won't take long anyhow, you can play!"

Connor: "Well, then maybe I organize all your plates, and then all my bowls..."

Whew...he finally got it all on his own!

I overheard him and Aiden talking tonight about their toys and Connor said how it was perfect that there was three since there are three boys in the family. Aiden said, "But Connor, Baby Shane is died..." Connor said, "I know Aiden, so we only need two right now, but one day soon, we will need three". Sweet boys...

Now, Miss Lydia came to Maya yesterday with this doll (Lydia's) and a doll that is the exact image (Maya's new doll). She looked at both dolls and sweetly gave the new and whole doll to little Maya. After doing so, she ran off to the kitchen and came back, handing me the doll and a pair of scissors, saying "Fi??" for "fix" of course. My heart broke, she has wanted it fixed for quite some time, and now that her sisters is whole, she really wants it fixed.

So, I fixed it for her and gave it to her this morning, she looked in awe at her baby...

Inspected the flaw and the subsequent repair...

And hugged the babe so tight...so happy to see her whole again.

Her sweet happiness humbled me...

And made me long for that day, when all will be whole again...

Lesson (Hopefully) Learned

My child, Aiden O., was not so well behaved in the store today. When we got home, his punishment was to stay inside while his siblings played with bikes and trucks outside. I held Maya and put the groceries away while listening to our little fire whimper and say, "I'm sorry, I said I'm sorry Mom..." I let him know that this didn't start with me, it started with his father, so he needed to communicate with Daddy.

As I walked out of the kitchen, Aiden told his Daddy, "I'm sorry Daddy."

Daddy: "For what?"

Aiden: " For not listening to you at the store."

Daddy.....long pause (you see whether we want to admit it or not, we are both very new to this parenting stuff still...after 7.5 years, 5 children, different personalities with every child, and one failed parenting attempt after another, it seems we have to really think about what to do! We've got the kids fooled though...they think we know it all!!!)

Oh yeah, Daddy: "Well, what are you gonna do about it then?"

Aiden: "I don't know"

Daddy: "Well, then you need to think about it...you can come outside and think about it if you want..... Aiden, are you coming outside?"

Aiden: "No..."

Moments later, after Daddy went outside, Aiden sneaks into the living room and whispers, "Mommy, what am I going to do about it?"

Mommy: (hoping Daddy can't hear me offering advice) "Be good at the store, and listen to Daddy when he tells you to do something."

Aiden is outside playing with his siblings, I guess it worked!!!