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...

I LOVE it when that happens

I am quite terrible at RSVP'ing to the birthday parties that our kids are invited to. This is true despite the fact that I was terribly hacked off at the people who hadn't called when *I* was planning a party. But the fact that most of these invitations are placed in the kids mailboxes at daycare does not help. That is probably my lease organized time of the day. Between toting a baby through the snow, taming Max from running all around to talk to his old teachers and trying to get two 3 year olds to put on their coats, mittens and hats as well as collect lunch boxes, the mailbox contents are really low on my totem poll.

So, when I got the email this week saying "Hey, let me know if you are coming to Jayden's party Sunday (that I invited your children to 3 weeks ago but you have been too lame to reply)," I responded quickly that Yes, in fact, we would be very happy to join, if we were still invited. It also seemed great timing, given that we had an open house from 1-3pm, and the party was 2:15-4:15. My mom and I got everyone packed into the car ~12:30, went to grab some lunch (wouldn't want to dirty the kitchen), then hit Target for gifts and headed out to nowheresville Plymouth to Pump-it-up. It was totally worth the no-nap day to get the physical activity of 2 giant rooms of inflatable slides and bouncy rooms.

Why, oh why don't I recognize any of the children waiting at the front of the lobby? "We are here for Jayden's party....?" "Who?"

Yeah.... it's NEXT Sunday. Who sends out the "are you coming to the party?" email TWO weeks ahead of time?? Who does that?? 

It's been really fun having the boys back at the house with no naps and no physical activity. I think my mom's in the other room seeing if she can fly standby out of here.