There was much fun...

Can't wait for Florida...

Me.... so.... sleepy... Worked 'till 3:30am last night, have to get to bed tonight for a 7am shift tomorrow. Thus, I cut this morning's sleep short in an effort to not be lying awake at 2am tonight wide awake. 

This week is really fun...

Packing

I knew this was going to happen...

We are leaving on a jet plane Friday morning for Florida! Yippee! As one of my co-workers puts it, we are taking "a trip." "A vacation" is something we used to take. Something, I hear, we will take again in about 4 years. But, since this is as close to relaxation as I am going to get, I am still very excited.

The problem. I work basically every day leading up to the 7:20am departure on Friday. (I do have a day off, but it's after I work until 3am the night before, so a good portion of that day will be spent sleeping). I had days off last week, but it seemed ridiculous to pack 10 days ahead of time. I knew I would get to Sunday, look grimly ahead to the upcoming week, then ask myself "When, oh when, am I going to accomplish all that needs to happen before we leave?"

Between the 4 car seats, a baby Bjorn, 4 sets of summer clothes (which are SOOO readily available here in 26 degree Minnesota.... did I mention our house is on the market), buying new crocs, finding my sunglasses, figuring out how we are actually going to GET to the airport, getting our dog to a friend's house, organizing entertainment for 3 children on a plane, and leaving this place in pristine condition to allow showings in our absence... oh, sweet lord.

So, wish me luck. I hope the relaxation of next week is hard core, because I am going to need it!

Again, compare and contrast

Yet again, I am amazed and how much #4 and #1 are twins much more than the twins. Check it out...

Leo

Max

Max

Leo

Leo

Max

The way Calvin sees it

Calvin has put it together. Food = Fuel. When you eat, you grow, right?

Now every morning, he proudly finishes breakfast, pops out of his chair and says:

"Mom. Look how tall I am! I ate a lot."

I just proudly tell him he looks taller every day. He should hit the ceiling any time now.

Billy Jean & Bobby

Last night was the 7th Annual Shack Nasty costume party. I am VERY unfortunately on my way to work at the moment. Just wanted to shoot a few of the best shots up here...

Leo's first chow

More generous with the morphine

I think I am going to sue REI. They sent out this catalog looking thingy yesterday that was sealed in the center of the side you are supposed to open. It said "Open here!" Now, every other catalog in the world is sent out without this little seal, and they seem to weather the postal service fairly well. I mean, Pottery Barn seems to manage OK in the global economy...

But, I do what I am told. I reach in there with my finger to slide it across and out, releasing the little glob of goo that binds these pages together. It is only as I whip my finger sideways that I feel the slightly shorter, posterboard-firm page that has nestled itself under my fingernail.

Sweet heavenly father...

As I sat by the kitchen sink, with blood freely flowing out from under the 1/4 inch deep separation of nail and skin, I was fairly certain someone had lit my finger on fire. I was home with Leo and Spencer (fever, but otherwise bouncing off the walls... oh, and I just got the phone call saying Calvin is the same and needs to be retrieved...), and I honestly thought for a few seconds that I might just pass out. That passed, followed by the sudden urge to throw up. Thankfully, that too passed. I gently soothed myself with the gentle whisper of choice swear words...

It was completely excruciating. And this is coming from the chick who had baby #1 without meds. The ice pack just made it hurt worse. As of this afternoon, it has stopped throbbing at all times. 

So, I just changed the bandage for the first time. You would barely know that anything was wrong. I mean, yeah, the cut's under the nail so you can't really look at it, but seriously? THAT much pain? I see people on a regular basis with fingers literally hanging on by a thread. (Table saws really should be banned). And then there was that one guy who showed up with his WHOLE hand in an igloo cooler next to him.... And here I am ready to pass out from basically a nasty paper cut. 

Note to my MD self - more morphine, more quickly. You can really never go wrong. (Except for that gal that totally bamboozled me for a quick hit of narcs with her fictitious shoulder dislocation, but who's counting...)

Leo's latest

Little man can now make great strides across a room in that good old fashion form of locomotion called Barrel Rolling. And, he might just eat a few good toes along the way....

Uhm... little help mom...

The Lowlight of Highlights

Through the insanity of daily lives, I have tried to come up with some threads of structure that the kids might look back on fondly. The nightly book, the morning quiet time I have with Max before the bus, the dinner-time "highlights and lowlights." I have great hopes that highlights and lowlights will grow over the years, be a great springboard for the boys to realize they can talk freely about their days at dinner, the good and the bad... They will look back in the upcoming years as think "You know, we could talk to our parents about anything...." Won't that be great??

Well, it may bloom some day, but for now, it's has become Omar and I's lowlight. First, it starts with the shreaks of "HIGHLIGHTSANDLOWLIGHTSMEFIRST!!" as soon as the butts hit the chairs. I used to pick who went first by doing Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo (EMMM). But now the person picked to go first wants to do EMMM themselves to pick who goes first. Then, after that person gives their H&L, THEY have to do EMMM to pick the next person. And so on, and so on, and so on (including mom, dad, Leo, Dulsi, grandma....). Even the last person picked is chosen by a bizarre one person rendition of EMMM while pointing at the last kid over and over again. Interject frequent interruptions and indignent cries of "Mom! He's interrupting me!"By the time all this transpires, Omar and I are ready for dessert, and the kids' plates are basically still full. Sometimes, I have stuck a fork in my eye by this point...

The new twist is the kids want to do something new, EMMM getting so passe... Spencer makes up some new story about a flying dolphin, pointing to people in no particular order with each word, and after he goes on mostly non-sensically for a good minute or so, points to someone as if it was all predetermined. Max puts his hands behind his back and has us pick a number between 1 and 10. Spencer picks 59, Calvin picks 0, and then there is mass confusion of who goes next.

Ah, childhood. Let no good idea by parents go unpunished...