Do you remember?

Here I am with Jack, Abby and Devlyn minutes before bedtime one night this week. Abby and I were taking turns reading a book about bats and Jack kept begging for his picture to be taken. Once the camera was out Abby & Devlyn insisted us all being in the picture too...

My sister Melanie and I took all the kids out for a group photo on Monday. (A Mother's day present to ourselves.) I cannot explain the nightmare that was. Minutes before we left the house Wy found a sippy cup with RED juice and dumped it all over his WHITE shirt. I managed to get him changed and headed out to the hall in time to see Jess had some big black blotch on her shirt.

In order to get Jack to cooperate for the photo, I had to promise him we would get chicken and fries for lunch. Wy proceeded to have the biggest meltdown of his short lifetime. I had to drape myslef in a white cloth and hold Wy in my lap just to get him in the photo. (So even though I'm not in the photo - I'm there, I'm just under a mondo white blanket holding an hysterical little fella.) The girls were pushing each other, throwing shoes at each other, and who knows what else while Mel and I were picking out photos. Connie made a point of telling me "I'm hungry" every 5 minutes. Devlyn followed nearly each of those comments with "I have to pee." After we were done with all the photo buesiness, Mel and I took the crew to Chick-Fil-A - another nightmare. Near the end of lunch Jack looked at me and said "Can Jax go play in a kennel?" I had no idea what he was talking about. "Can Jax play in a kennel, mommy?" I turned around and there was an indoor play area. There was a multi level play unit that led up to a slide. In the middle there was a landing of sorts with mesh rope walls to keep kids from tumping over the sides. The only thing that made sense to me was that Jack thought the mesh looked very similar to Marley's kennel. (Marley is Aunt Beth & Uncle Doug's dog.) On a side note, Beth used to have a terrible time keeping Jack OUT of Marley's kennel. Jack loved to crawl in there and play.

Parents: Do you remember the days of potty training? Do you remember the days of poopy underwear? Do you remember trying to get those underwear off of a litle one and then dunking and swirling said panties in the toilet to get as much poo off of them before you had to wash them out in the sink? Well...

Jack pooped his pants one afternoon this week. He came to me walking like he had just gotten out of the saddle. He said "Mommy needs to change Jax' pants." I told him HE needed to change his pants. He dillied. He dallied. He dilly-dallied. After numerous attempts, I finally got him into the bathroom and told him he could change his pants on his own. When I returned to check on him a few minutes later he was standing at the stool with a very wide stance. He had poo on his pants, which were in a puddle on the floor. There was poo on the floor, poo on his sox, poo on his legs, poo on the toilet... And there he was, dunking his underwear in the toilet. I asked him what he was doing. He said "I'm cweaning my pants." I took pity on him and helped him out. I knew from the get go that there was going to be poo everywhere. I just wondered if making him deal with his pants himself might encourage him to use the toilet BEFORE he used his pants.

Jack LOVES Harry Connick's The Happy Elf. He asks to listen to the CD in the car. He asks to watch the DVD at home. He runs around singing the songs anywhere and everywhere. The title songs goes like so "Seven days a week, every week of the month and every month of the year, he's got us making presents and I'm happy. Every girl and boy gets their own kind of toy. We like to fill 'em with joy. We're working over time to make 'em happy. Then on Christmas Eve we jump on Big Red's sleigh. We don't miss a chimney on our jolley way!" Well, Jack sings everything word perfect until..."When on Christmas Eve we get a big red snake..." My boss suggested I get a video of Jack doing his own Happy Elf lyrics and send it to Harry Connick jr.

Jack makes up songs all the time. Here is one John overheard this week:
One is for Mommy, who just jumped a cow.
Two is for Daddy, who just jumped a cow.
Three is for Gammy, who just jumped a cow.
Four is for Poppy, who just jumped a cow.

Jack told John that he wants a Thomas birthday party. He also told John tht he wants "a tape measure and a level" for his birthday presents. He has good timing in regards to being aware of getting presents. His 4th birthday is at the end of March. Then Connie will be 6 in April. Jess will turn 14, I will be 36 and Wy will be 2 at the end of May. Daddy & John share a birthday in July and then we get a break.

Wy decided he wanted to wrestle with Jack so he crept up on him nice and slow and JUMPED him! Connie tried to join in on the fun, but the boys seemed to agree that this was boy business and tried to keep wrestling and keep her out of it at the same time...

The kids were sitting around the table eating breakfast this morning and making a lot of noise. Mom finally said "OK! We are playing the quiet game." Abbie sat straight up and said "Hushpuppy, one, two, three, four!" Wyatt looked at mom for a second and then started humming and dancing in his seat. Here is Wy reading to himself.

Wy doesn't like me to love on the cats. You know how kids will try to seperate the parents when they hug or kiss? Or when mom points to dad and says "mine" then the little one will run to dad, grab him and declare "MINE!" Well, that is about how Wy acts when I try to love on the cats. It isn't that he thinks the cats are his, he just doesn't want me to love on them. When I pet Gracie, he will push my hand away and say "NO". If I hug her or Libby he will actualy start to cry.

Here I am doing homework with Connie. She is learning to read and one of her daily projects is to take a highlighter and find words she knows in magazine or newspaper articles. I pick one of her words and sether at it.

Before I go, I should tell you all that my mama has been working on her Master's degree for the last 18 months and she is DONE! As worried as she was she wrapped up her graduate work with a 4.0 grade point average. Way to go mama!!!

My last comment before I go: John was sorting through our taxes and Jack said "Daddy, what are you doing?" John said "Taxes." Jack said "Daddy? Can I do taxes?" John said "Buddy, you will have plenty of your own one day." Jack said "Oh, OK" and walked off.

OK - so it is mostly about Jack, but all I can say is - he was funny this week. I promise to write more about everyone else next time. In the meantime, much love and many blessings from Owenland Park!

Everybody loves bubble wrap

Every Valentine's Day for the last 10 years I have sent John a heart shaped pizza for lunch. Because we have a house full of kids and Valentine's Day Fell on the weekend I gave John the option of having his pizza ON Valentine's Day and having to share with the kids or having the pizza delivered to work on Friday. The Friday option would let him have the pizza all to himself AND brag to the fellas yet again that his sweet girl sent him a heart shaped pepperoni pizza. He opted for Friday. Then I asked him if he really wanted the pizza this year as it is so predictable and well, boring. He said "That is a silly question."

The first Tuesday of each month is Can Day at John Paul II. I sent each of the girls to school with 2 canned goods only to find out later in the day that Can Day is the day you bring in all your empty soda cans for some fella to recycle and raise money for the school. It has nothing to do with canned goods. Imagine, if you will, the ration the kids gave me when I picked them up from school on Tuesday.

Every day I see something on the school calendar or newsletter that takes an interpreter to understand. Things like "Feb 17 - Confirmations Mtgs 8th gr SPX & 7th & 8th gr QHR". OK - I understand there is a meeting on the 17th. It is for Confirmation. Now, what time is the meeting? The school represents 2 parishes - so is the meeting at Queen or Pius? Is it a meeting for the kids? For the parents? Both? The list of my questions just goes on. I am thinking about asking if I can get a parent 'buddy' who I could call with my 10,000 questions.

Wy insists that I kiss his Thomas trains on the face. Hug Wy, kiss Henry. Talk to Wy, kiss Harold. Give food to Wy, Kiss Thomas. Stop folding laundry, kiss Molly...
He doesn't want to drink milk anymore. He only wants juice. He follows me all over the house asking for "Jew! Jew! Jew!" If I give him a sippy cup with milk in it, he throws it down and pouts at me.

He is beginning to take after his big brother and start his responses with "We-ellll..." "Wy, how are you?" "We-elll...na! na! na!" (Na is Wy speak for snack.) "Do you want to eat?" "We-elll...(and he runs for the table.)

Mom took Jess to Omaha for what they call a 'shadow day' at Mercy High. Mercy is one of the high schools Jess is thinking of attending and prospective students have to spend a school day with a current student. They went up Thursday night so Jess could shadow on Friday. School wound up being cancelled on Friday due to snow. They have taken pity on us and aren't going to make her reschedule her shadow day. Here she is being a silly goose.

Abby is working toward her First Communion this spring. She and I attended her first meeting this week. The kids listened to Mrs. Alexander talk about Communion then they made a craft project. They put together decorations that they strung onto a vine wreath. The kids will put these up to decorate church the day they receive Communion. On the way to the meeting I mentioned that we weren't very far from Gran's house. As we left she asked if we could drive by to see the house. We parked outside and sat there for a few minutes. She asked why there weren't any cars out front. I told her someone had bought the house but that no one was living there yet. We didn't talk much. We just held hands and sniffled our way home.

Jack lives with his hands in his pants. I reached my nice limit when we walked into Church last Sunday and saw him walking along with both hands down the front of his pants. I said "We are in church and you will not put your hands in your pants young man." He didn't put his hands in there once during mass. I was very proud of him.

My girlfriend Shannon sent us a HUGE care package. She sent Thomas stuff for the boys, hair ties and other girly stuff for each of the girls and board game for the whole family. She sent a couple of packages with these little foam animal cut outs encased in capsules. You drop the capsule in warm water and watch your animal grow. The younger crowd was fascinated! It went a little slow so their interest picked up when I handed everyone a spoon and let them stir their capsules. Wow they had fun when the animals took shape. "Mine is a duck!" "I KNEW mine was a pig!" "Mine is a...what is it, mommy? Oh, at's right, is a ooster!"

Beth was bringing Jack, Devlyn & Wy home a few days ago. Devlyn sits in between the boys in the back seat and Beth said Devlyn was fussing with both the boys. Beth would tell her to keep her hands to herself. She would do that for a minute, then turn and mess with the other boy. This went on for a while and while Beth was putting gas in her car she heard crying from inside the car. She opened the door and asked Devlyn why she was crying. She said "Jack put his finger in my eye." Beth asked Jack what happened and he said "Well...my hand just went over there."

I don't know where it came from, but we had a very large sheet of bubble wrap that I had no idea what to do with. I finally laid it out on the kitchen floor yesterday morning and let the kids go to town. We danced, crawled, hopped and ran all over the bubble wrap. The kids sat down and popped bubbles with their fingers, toes, knees, elbows, noses. I drew the line when they started popping the bubbles with their teeth. (The last thing I wanted was for someone to choke on bubble wrap.) There was so much popping and squealing I thought for sure my Dad was going to holler at us. He was a good sport though and let us have our fun.

That does it for me. I'm still aiming for Fridays, it just isn't working out very well. I'll try to get in a few more pictures next week. Until then, God's blessings on you all!

Love, from Owenland Park.

Herding Cats

Every morning John and I help each other get Devlyn, Jack & Wyatt loaded into the car or truck. John helps me on Tuesday & Wednesday and I help him Thursday & Friday.(We take turns taking them to Beth's house.) As I pull out of the garage, John stands in the garage and waves goodbye to us. The kids show him "I love you" fingers and give him 'bones' as we drive away. I however stand in the driveway at the back of the yard and watch John and the kids drive off. I wave goodbye and show them "I love you" fingers. They give me 'bones' and I give them 'bones' right back. So I am standing there in the cold at 7:00 in the morning, waving 'bones' with my fist in the air and I swear it looks like I am declaring "Black power!" to the neighborhood. Sometimes I want to shout "Can I get an Amen?!" Something is wrong with me.

Jack loves to sing. He sings to himself all the time. Every song he sings is either one I taught him or from one of his shows. I was startled this week when I heard him singing something I didn't recognize: "Wonder pets, wonder pets, we're on our way. To help a friend and save the day. We're not to bed and we're not too tough..." I don't understand the last phrase. I suggested to him that the song might be "We're not too BIG and we're not too tough." Well, let me tell you, he became very cross at this very idea that I might stick my foot into something I know nothing about. He told me quite sternly that the song says "we're not to BED and we're not too tough." He wouldn't hear anymore about it so he changed songs and walked away from me.

Jack had a terrible fever this weekend. He was fine all morning until I started to get ready for work. He was fussing for John when I jumped in the shower and when I got out he was full on inconsolable. I picked him up and that boy was just burning up. I had John grab the a thermometer and Jack had a 103.7 temp! I managed to get a dose of Tylenol in him, but he put up a big fight about it. We called the Dr.s office - of course it was about 20 minutes before they closed. She told me to take his temp in another 10 minutes and call her back. Well, the Tylenol started to work and dropped his temp to 103.2 so the nurse said to keep a close watch on him but to take him to the hospital if his temp went up at all or if he started throwing up, coughing or severe fussing. (I have begun referring to the kids as my 6 pack...let's face it, it's the only 6 pack I'm EVER going to have) Anyway, even though we had the full 6 pack at the house, John was put on Jack duty, I had to head out to work, Mom had to study for her FINAL final leaving Dad in charge of everyone else. Slowly through the day Jack's temp held and fell, held and fell. He asked if he could lay down in mommy's bed. (Isn't it funny that he calls it "mommy's bed"? He never calls it daddy's bed or mommy & daddy's bed - it is mommy's bed.) So John gave him the hook up with the portable DVD, a Thomas movie, a sippy cup and some snacks. Then Jack said "Can Wyatt take a nap with Jack in mommy's bed?" Doesn't that just kinda break your heart from the sweetness of it? I woke him up when I got home and he was feeling much better. His temp was still up a bit, but not enough for me to worry. And that boy DEVOURED dinner. He wanted to sleep in 'mommy's bed' again that night and I said OK. So there we were cuddled up for the longest time and I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not. I had to get up but didn't want to wake him so very quietly I said "Jack, are you asleep?" And very quietly he said "Yup."

Jack ate oatmeal at breakfast one morning last week! Mr. 'I won't eat anything if it isn't a hot dog, fish stick or salad' actually ate apple cinnamon oat meal. I did have ma put brown sugar and raisins in it, but he still at it!!!! It'll probably never happen again... He also ate tater tot casserole, which surprised me because I was sure he was not going to eat what was under the tater tots - but he tore it up! Wa-hoo! Maybe I should serve more tater tots?

Wy had a pretty rough time a few nights ago. I don't know what was up with him, but he was uncomfortable, irritated and no one was getting back to sleep. John finally took the little guy downstairs, put on a movie and cuddled up on the sofa with Wy guy. Here are my tired boys the next morning.

When it is time to sit down to dinner Wy immediately starts asking for "Hands!" He knows it is time to pray. And he has started making the Sign of the Cross with us this week! He still doesn't eat any vegetables...unless you can somehow make chocolate count as a vegetable...hmmm

Wy answers "Yeah!" to every single question you ask him. "Are you hungry?" "Yeah!" "Are you happy?" "Yeah!" "Do you love mommy?" "Yeah!" "Do you want to want to read a book?" "Yeah!" "Do you want to want to take a nap?" "Yeah!" And the only things he wants are 1: "bwan" banana or 2. "Pie" to be 'up high'. In other words, he want to be held by mommy or daddy. He has also started to call his grandma something that sounds like "cookie". It took me a few days to figure out he was trying to say "Gammie" and not randomly demanding sweets. Here he is wearing last night's salad bowl on his head. He was very proud of his "hat!"

Jess has recently been allowed to wear make up, which has been very exciting for her. She got a little carried away with the eye shadow and eye liner and we had a note from school saying it was too dark. Much to Jess' chagrin we had to lay down some rules. She caught the 'hair cut' fever and had Gammy chop off all her hair at about 9:00 last night. She was surfing the web and found some fun chunky hair cuts. She wouldn't let it rest until Gammy pulled out the scissors and started cutting away. Then Jess acted as if mom was hacking and whacking her hair off willy nilly. For as much fuss as she put up, eye rolling and refusing to come out of the bathroom, she likes the cut and it looks real cute on her. We styled it today so it flips up in the back and lies super flat in front - fun, modern and sassy.

Abbie is really starting to enjoy reading. She has to spend 15 minutes every day reading. Initially we had to hound and hound her to get this done. There was pouting, there was crying, there was full on stare at you mode. (I used to say this was the face she pulled when she was trying to decide where to put your body when she was done with you. Now I just think it is the look she has when she knows she is stuck and is going to have to do something she doesn't want to do, but she is still desperately trying to figure a way out of it.) Now that child brings me the timer every day and chastizes me if I start it before she has sat down and opened her book. I have explained to her that she can read even after the timer goes off, but she wants to do it all by the book. And that means not starting the timer till she is ready.

Connie falls on the steps about 85% of the time that she comes into contact with them. This weekend she grabbed onto and broke one of the balustrades as she fell down or tripped up the steps. I keep talking to her about paying attention to what she is doing, but she races up and down those steps in her socks or flip flops and disaster strikes. Poor John was planning on having some quiet time at the house while the rest of us were at church Sunday morning, but he spent that time fixing the stairs.

Devlyn is working on learning letters and numbers. She loves to sing the ABC song, but she refuses to sing about H or R. She just skips right past them as if they never existed. I have come to think of them like the Lost Boys. Only they are the Lost Letters. The boys, Devlyn and I had lunch with Gammy today. As we were waiting for our food to arrive I thought Devlyn might impress Gammy with how well she is learning her numbers so I said "Devlyn, count to 10 for Gammy." Without missing a beat (or looking up from her paper) she said "10."

And finally, here is Gracie. She is in KTO (Kitty Time Out) after knocking down the curtains so she could look out the window. I know she isn't on the naughty step, but putting a cat in time out is like...well, herding cats.

OK - parent teacher conferences are this Friday...may the force be with me...
Well, that does it for this week - Much love from Owenland Park and until next time, may God's blessings be upon you.

My lesson for the day:

I was in the bathroom cleaning and the 3 little ones were banging around in the shower. They were opening and closing the doors. OK - they were slamming them open and closed. I finally couldn't take it anymore and sent them downstairs. A little while later I noticed Wy had something on his face. I thought it was jello and where did he get jello? Anyway, I cleaned him up and went on my way. Maybe 10 minutes later he had more red on his face. I cleaned him up and was looking around for something red that he might be eating. No luck. Then we were sitting at dinner and Wy pointed at me and lunged for my dinner plate. The end of his finger had been sliced off. It wasn't deep, but it was enough to be bleeding. John cleaned him up and we were off looking for the cause of the problem. One of the girls brought me a SHAVING RAZOR COVERED IN BLOOD. It had to have fallen out/off of it's shelf in the bathroom when the kids were raising the roof in there. It didn't help me to know it had been on the shelf. I still felt awful and irresponsible because he got hold of that thing.

I was cleaning the bathroom (I spend a lot of time cleaning the bathroom now that we have 4 more people in the house...) Anyway, I was cleaning the bathroom Wednesday night while Abby, Connie & Devlyn were playing in their room. Suddenly, Daddy came flying up 3 flights of steps faster than I think I have EVER seen him move. Then he starts yelling "Do you think that is funny?" I had no idea what was going on, so up I went to the girls' room. After looking around and not being able to figure out what had been going on, I asked Daddy what had happened. It turns out that he was outside and looked up at the girls' bedroom window and saw shadows of children climbing onto something tall and jumping off it mere inches in front of the window...

FLASHBACK: Sometime in the early 80's...My sisters and I shared a bedroom on the 2nd floor. We also shared a bunk bed. It was early morning on a Saturday, I think. We were playing store. I remember being on the top bunk as I watched Melanie climb that ladder. I also remember watching her loose her grip, tumble backwards and slip out the second story window with only a baby blanket wrapped around her and a Strawberry Shortcake purse over her shoulder. I remember looking out the window and seeing Mel lying on the ground 2 stories below. I remember yelling and yelling to wake up Mom & Dad. I remember Dad FLYING out of the house. Fortunately, Mel was and is fine. The first thing she said was "My purse is dirty!"

Well, I'm sure that was what went flying through Daddy's head as he watched the shadows of these 3 girls jumping off the dresser and bed that live beside and below the window. Fortunately, no one was injured (unless you count my terrified & irate father).

We are quite a sight to see at mass these days: We are completely out numbered by children, we sit in a different location, we take up about half a pew with just our coats and the kids' backpacks and someone or other is either fussing or being talked to about their lack of behavior. Yesterday it was time for the Sign of Peace and Wy took it to heart. He gave peace to everyone and kept right on doing it until mass was over. "Pea! Pea! Pea!" He would shake hands with everyone in the family, then go for the folks sitting beside us and right back to the family then the folks beside us. There was a couple sitting behind us who couldn't stop laughing about it.

Three times now since the girls have been here I have heard a great THUNK in the middle of the night. Each time my investigations have revealed Connie fast asleep on the floor. I am grateful she sleeps in a bunk bed and her bunk is inches from the floor.

Jessica has auditioned for and been cast as one of the orphans in the John Paul II 8th grade production of Annie! I don't know when performances are, but I will keep you all posted. Congratulations, Jessica!!! She has to put in a few service hours as she prepares for Confirmation and so she has helped pass out donuts at Parent appreciation day. She also volunteered at Bishop Miege to pass out pizza for something or other. I'm really happy that she is making friends and having a good time.

Connie, Devlyn and the boys all got hair cuts this week. (John too for that matter. It was just a hair cuttin' week, I guess.) Anyway, Devlyn's cut is especially cute when blow dried with a little product. Doesn't that sound really weird when talking about a 3 year old? Anyway, we blow dry it in the back so it is all flippy and Kah-yute! I pulled out the nippers to cut the boys' hair. The last time we went down this road, they both freaked out - especially Wy. So, I let them watch me set it all up and turn it on. I let Jack hold the nippers and he right away put it up on his head and declared "Jax do it." I let him rub it on his head (the guard was on so he wasn't in danger of hurting himself or cutting his hair.) John and Wy were sitting there and Wy only raised a bit of a fit when it was his turn. Good job boys!!!

Connie has completely destroyed her school shoes, so I took her out after dinner on Wednesday to pick out some new tennies. We took Jack with us and just as we pulled out of the garage Jack says "Look, it's a beautiful moon and star, mommy!" Sure enough, there was a brilliant white crescent moon and star hanging low in the sky all by themselves. I stopped the car and asked the kids if they wanted to make a wish on a star. Oh, that got them so excited. So I had them repeat "Star light, star bright" after me and then had them each make a wish. They ate it up!

My sister Devon came to visit the girls this weekend. The girls made beautiful place cards to put on all the chairs around the table. John made a delicious lasagna and we had a lovely dinner. Dev brought one of Jess' friends with her, a young girl named Kayla. Here are Jess & Kayla having fun in the hot tub.

One morning this week one of the girls had something in her hair and I was already at my limit. I was tromping down the stairs and muttered something like "Now we have to get this sh** out of your hair." Well, Jack was right behind me and he scratched his head and said "Mommy, can we get some sh** out of my hair?" Little ears are listening even when your whispering. That was my lesson for the day.

John caught me reading to the boys at bed time a few nights ago. OK - that does it for me. I'm pooped and this is late...again. We'll aim for Friday this week and if not, anyone up for putting me in a nice quiet time out all by myself? Love, from Owenland Park