Look who's publilc

Wy doesn't feel the need to strip down for a bath. I had pulled the girls out of the tub Sunday morning and started getting them dressed. I called downstairs for the boys to come up for their bath. I didn't even see Wy slip past the girls' bedroom door. I was busily helping them get ready for church when suddenly I heard splashing and giggling. There was Wy - happy as a clam making HUGE splashes in the tub. He grinned and told me "Spwash! Spwash! Spwash! WADER!!!"

That boy is never without a train in his hands. If I didn't know better, I would think he was born with a cast iron train in his little fist. He is a very energetic kid and can easily become overly excited. Sadly, Wy is not someone you want in your personal space when he is overly excited. He's what I call a 'bonker'. He starts this little dance, raises his arm high and 'bonks' the nearest person on the head (or the kneecap) with whichever cast iron train happens to be in his grubby little fist at the time. It doesn't matter if you are an adult, a kid or a cat for that matter: once Wy starts his little dance, someone is going to get 'bonked'. To my utter astonishment, Libby-cat just sits there when she gets 'bonked' in the face. I am thoroughly confused as to why Libby lets Wy get away with 'bonking' her in the head with a metal train, yet when Devlyn moves in for a hug, that cat starts hissing and spitting and runs away after a few good swipes at that baby girl.

Wy is fond of driving his trains across my head and face. He will be sitting on my lap and cuddling me when suddenly he sits straight up and starts driving a train up my arm. "Chicka-choo!" he cries with a broad smile on his face. Even when I try to get away from the advancing train, he thinks it is fun and funny. "Chicka-choo, mommy! Chicka-choo!"

Dad spent the weekend in Lawrence for on of his Knights of Columbus things. Mom went down to join him Sunday and Monday. This left John and I home alone with the 6 kids. We had just sat down to eat dinner Sunday night when this little conversation came out of nowhere...
Connie: "Why don't you go to church, John?"
John: "Um...I don't know."
Me: "Well, Connie, John isn't Catholic."
Abby: "Yeah, he's public."

The folks got home Monday afternoon. I had just settled Jack, Wy & Devlyn down for a nap/quiet time. I had finally snuggled in bed for some reading when mom got in. I put down the reading and quickly put together the grocery list realizing I had a short window of time to get out of the house with only 1 child in tow at the grocery. I swung by the McDonald's and grabbed a happy meal for Jack. He sat in the back seat telling me just how he wanted his lunch. "I want ketchup on my chicken and my fries, but not on my soh-da, mommy. Not on my soh-da, ok?" Then he started rattling on about trains. "Who is your favorite train, Jack?" I asked. "Oh...Thomas and Annie and Clarabell. That's my trains I love. And Donald and Douglas and Percy and James and Henry and Gordon...and Diesel and Diesel 10..." There were other trains listed after that, but I lost track.

Beth has over sized Lego's at her house. Jack likes to build "towers" with these things. She says he always builds a single tower following the yellow, red, yellow, red pattern. He does not have a fit if Devlyn plays, but he rebuilds the tower if she gets the color pattern out of order. Here he is after having just fixed what she did 'wrong'. Connie has been very difficult the last two weeks. I think she has reached the end of her rope in regards to being separated from her mama. She has begun to work herself into hysterics at bedtime about missing her mom, talking to her mom, seeing her mom, going home...She has very recently started crying "I can't stand it!" How do you help that? Then the 8 year old starts crying and the 3 year old can't/won't settle down. It's no fun.

Jess graduates next week. She doesn't know it yet, but we have registered her for a summer math class. She is going to be soooo mad when we drop that bomb. I don't want to be there for that conversation. She is also registered for her freshman year at Mercy High in Omaha. (My aunt Johanna is retiring this year as the President of the school.) Jess is starting to get very nervous about going to high school so far away from home. She has recently started asking me if Mercy offered acting classes. She had so much fun doing Annie that she wants to do another show. How interesting is that?

Abby & Connie had their spring concert Wednesday night. I had intended to go, but the 3 little ones were crazy people that night and I knew it was just going to be much more trouble than it was worth - so we stayed home. Earlier in the week Abbie and Connie got a hold of a craft project and decided to paint some plaster magnets on the sofa downstairs. John found pink paint smears on the sofa. Both the girls denied being involved with the paint. As we continued through trying to identify the guilty party (or parties) I began noticing things like the fact that Connie had a small smear of green paint on her sock... Then I saw she had paint on her hands and arms. Then I remembered that 15 minutes before we discovered the offensive pink paint on the sofa, Abby bounded up stairs saying she was going to take a bath. I had thought that was odd becausee it was Saturday morning - then it made sense: she was destroying evidence... After a lot of bout of denials and accusations, both girls fessed up to having participated in the paint project on the sofa. Fortunately we managed to get the paint out of the sofa.

John has been working long days this week building and loading in A Flea in Her Ear at the Rep. Thursday night I decided the boys and I needed to have a Mommy and Me night out. I gathered them up and off we went to the park. We decided to take a walk around the lake before getting caught up in the fun of slides and swings. I put wy in the little umbrella stroller and off we went. Jack would run ahead and look around while he waited for Wy and I to catch up. Jack was very concerned that he wasn't seeing any ducks as we were walking. We rounded the first bend on the path and right in front of us were a gaggle of geese and their babies. Jack was so happy! He started hopping up and down and said "Mommy! Mommy, a baby ducks need a cheese sandwich!" "Well, buddy, I didn't bring a cheese sandwich with me." "Oh, is ok, mommy."

Then a man walked by with a black lab and a golden retriever. Jack said "OH! It's a Donald and Douglas dog and a Molly dog!" (Donald and Douglas are black trains. Molly is a yellow train.) We kept walking and Jack said "What's that, mommy?" "That is a bird." "I wike birds." "I like birds, too, buddy." "I will get one in my hand for you." "Good luck with that, buddy." We rounded the last bend on the path and the boys saw the slides and swings. They could barely contain themselves. They had so much fun climbing the slides and running around on the bridges.

Both of them were calling "Watch me, mommy! Watch me!" Jack wanted to swing, but Wy had a stroke when I put him in one - so there was no swinging to be had. I can't swing Jack and keep an eye on Wy while he is running around on the slides like a lightning bolt. On a side note, there has been a request that I not include so many poop stories - so I won't tell you why we suddenly packed up and left the park. Anyway - we were in the car getting ready to head off to yet another dinner consisting of "chicken and fries with soda and ketchup". I asked Jack if he knew what would make me happy. "Oh, yes. Sittin' on a Poppy couch wif Jack and watching cartoons." (On one of my recent days off, I managed to get Wy and Devlyn down for a nap but Jack wasn't having it. We curled up on Grandpa's sofa and turned on cartoons. I dozed a bit with Jack in my lap. When I finally felt utterly refreshed I realized that 2 hours had passed. I told Jack it had made me very happy to just sit there cuddling with him and watching cartoons. He said "Me too." and gave me a hug.)

The boys and I ate dinner at Backyard burger. They were adorable as you can see in my little video here. They were having so much fun making animal noises and making mommy laugh. It was a lot of fun. On our way home, we swung by the Big K-mart (Jack calls it the "K-G-I-B store" which is Big K spelled backwards) and picked up a replacement Thomas video and The Tale of Despereaux. We headed home, jumped into our jammies and curled up in "mommy's bed" to watch Thomas on the portable DVD player. It was a truly wonderful evening. (This is not the video I had hoped to upload but I was running into so much trouble that I settled for this one when the computer finally told me I had successfully uploaded something.

That wraps it up for me. Long winded this time, I know. Well, have a safe and blessed weekend everyone. Love, From Owenland Park.