What I learned this week

Sunday: John and I took the boys and Abby to St. Joseph to celebrate little Noah's 2nd birthday. Here he is blowing out his 2 candles on the incredible race track cake Melanie made for him. The cake was just as delicious as it looks, by the way! Picture number 2 is a little birthday love from Noah's big sister, Shelby! Happy birthday, Noah!

What I learned on Sunday: Ok, it was more a sneaky realization - I have to figure out how to trick my sister into making all the fabulous birthday cakes from now on!

Monday: Connie came home from daycare and her right hand was swollen up so much so that her two middle fingers looked like little sausages. The folks at day care have no idea what happened. She had just gotten out of the pool, then she started sqealing and crying. She says she didn't see what happened to her either. She only knows that she and the other kids were playing the "Butt Game". I'm not joking - that's what she called. it. I asked what that game is about. She said "It is when you sit down and whoever has the biggest butt, wins! Then my hand started hurting!"

What did I learn on Monday? I will never play the Big Butt game with anyone and Benedryl knocks Connie out flat. I definitely need to remember the part about the Benedryl...

Tuesday: I took Jess and Abby to the eye Dr. about 2 weeks ago. The girls picked up their glasses on Tuesday! They have been bugging and bugging me for the last week and a half about when they would be able to get the glasses. Now that we have the glasses, Jess is super jazzed and Abby is upset and hates them. She picked out her cute as a daisy purple framed glasses and loved them the day we picked them out. Now that she has to wear them, she hates the things. She also thinks they make her look like a boy - which is not true. She says she can't see well out of them. (I already knew she was going to pull that one. The Dr. told me Abby's sight is so bad without glasses that she will think the glasses are wrong because she isn't used to seeing correctly.) The Dr. said Abby has a pretty bad astigmatism and that the glasses will make her eye muscles work in a way they aren't used to. She wants to see Abs in 2 months to visit about how the glasses are working out.

What did I learn Tuesday: 8 year old girls don't know what they want.

Wednesday: I was driving the little kids out to Beth's house Wednesday morning and as usual, they wanted to listen to a kid cd and I wanted to listen to NPR. They wouldn't give up and I couldn't stomach the thought of listening to Car Songs again. So I rifled though our cds and found Jack Johnson's Curious George sound track. I put that in. As we got close to Beth's house, I remembered that there is a lullaby on the sound track that I used to sing to the boys all the time. Since we would be at Beth's house soon, I skipped a few songs to get to the track I wanted. Jack was up front with me, so I put my hand on his knee and sang the song. Please take a moment and listen for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdJVWSqb4Ck When the song was over, I looked at Jack and he had huge tears streaming down his face. "Jack! What's wrong, baby?" He took a deep ragged breath and started sobbing. He was so upset he couldn't even talk. It was all I could do to keep myself from pulling the car over and cuddling him. When we got to Beth's I had to spend about 20 minutes cuddling Jack before he would let me go to work. I was darned near ready to take him to the office with me. Later that day he told me "That song made me sad." I asked if I could sing it to him again sometime. He said "Maybe tomorrow, but not today, mommy, ok?"

Todady I learned my little Jack has some pretty powerful emotions.

Thursday: I was cleaning house when I realized the children had been way too quiet, way too long.

What did I learn: When left to their own devices, the children will SOMETIMES share. I also learned that Jack had a "head-egg" for which he needed medecine. AND, It shouldn't have come as any revelation, but I stopped in my tracks when I realized that Devlyn simply loves to make NOISE. And by noise I mean any possible noise that could be found in any way shape or form as annoying. High pitched noises, check. Loud noises, check. Repetitive noises, check, check, check, check, check. I need to think of a clever way to let her have her noise without driving the rest of us insane. Any suggestions?

Friday: I didn't learn anything Friday, other than I was one tired girl.

OK, friends, that does it for this week. As usual, look forward to more next week. Love and blessings to all of you from Owenland Park!