Mazel Tov to ME!

I gotta tell ya, as a non-jew, October is killin' me.

No, this is not rooted in some deep-seeded antisemitic emotions that I have kept hidden from my good lefty, Carleton roots. As the mother of 2 three-year-olds that attend the Jewish Community Center for daycare, once you add up Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashana, Sukot, and the most recent holiday I can't begin to spell or pronounce, I am thrilled the high holidays are done.

The boys have been home 2 days of each week for the last 4. Now, one could argue that it shouldn't be strange to actually take care of my own offspring, but add the newborn and the fact Max was off from school all last week.... ooof. I awoke this morning with a wonderful feeling of having survived a long storm.

So, what did I do?

Photos of the rest of my head will follow. Right now, it's blissfully just little Leo and I at home, and he hasn't figured out how to push the button on the camera yet....

The mind of a 6 year old

As I am making dinner for the kids last night, I hear Spencer start to cry downstairs. He and Max are down there by themselves, and the crying is followed by "Sorry sorry sorry sorry" by Max.

I don't know whether he meant it, or heard me coming and hoped the litany of Sorry's would turn me around and force me back upstairs.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: What happened
Spence: Max hit me
Max: I didn't hit him... I hit him with a pillow
Me: Spencer, were you guys having a pillow fight?
Spence: Yah, but I told him to stop.
Max: He didn't tell me to stop.
Me: Spencer, did you tell Max to stop?
Spencer: YEAH!
Me: Max, your brother told you to stop. You need to listen to him.
Max: Well, he said stop, but he DIDN'T say to stop throwing pillows at his head.
Me: Max, what else do you possibly think he was talking about???

After this conversation, I don't know whether to start Max in Special Ed or Law school.

It was a good run

You know those stories we all heard about, either in real-life, or in some Oprah's choice novel... the mom/dad who went out for cigarettes and just never came back...

My husband just left to get us some dinner, and I don't truthfully know if he will ever return.

He just left a scene of the un-showered wife with the baby on one boob, three sons in the bedroom fighting bedtime with one fake crying over some grievous wronging over the denial of his right to a stuffed animal, and a kitchen woefully empty of any food other than Dino-bites and fish sticks. (Cue the country music)

This all comes as a grim chaser to the morning that will live in infamy. Now, I know it isn't right to laugh uproariously at the misfortunes of others, but at times, I just can't help myself. This morning, Max and Spencer came padding into our room as they usually do at 7:00 (not 7:02). As they climbed into the space between Omar and I, the usually squabbling of who gets to be next to mommy ensued. Every once in a while, as we did today, Max is allowed to win in the name of mild parity, and Spencer begins the passionate conniption (sp?).

Having awoken 37 seconds prior to this maelstrom, neither Omar nor I are really in the mood. But, since this is life as usual, we try bring things to a dull roar... but then it happened. The smell.

Both Max and Omar (keep in mind, I have the barrier of a 6 year old at this time) recoil from Spencer. Though Spencer was kind enough to remove the obviously foully poopy diaper before coming to our room, that doesn't mean he cleaned up any of the remaining detritus from his derriere. He clearly had taken off that Huggies, dropped it in the Diaper Dekor, pulled up his 8 year-old nearly thread-bear Peter Pan hand-me-down PJ shorts, and came in our room for some quality snugglin.

Now here is the part I can barely type about because of the tremors caused by laughter as I sit here. In the battle over real estate in our bed, Spencer apparently sat on Omar's face.

Though he describes it as possibly the grossest thing that has ever happened to him, I can still find the silver lining of humor.

I wonder where that dinner is...

Why we can't leave

I love our neighborhood. I mean it, I LOVE our neighborhood. Not only do we live across the street from a park, but the families that congregate there all like each other. Not just "chit chat about the weather" when we are there kind of "like each other." I mean hang-out-without-the-kids, drink-wine-and-beer-secretely-at-the-park (or not so secretely), talk-about-ten-years-from-now kind of liking each other.

And that doesn't even begin to talk about the relationships all our children are forming and shaping. These are the friendships that may not last forever, but you sure remember them forever. I am sure there are shinanigans I will hear about in ~20 years that I will only barely be able to deal with even with the time delay. So far, however, no one has kissed, died, broken a bone, carried a torch, or shown-you-mine (as far as we know).

We are still in the realm of activities that the kids proudly show off to the parents. They found that the woods at the end of the park have endless sticks and downed logs. They decided to collect them and fortify the tree fort that they play at on the other end of the park. After working as a team, ages 3-8, for ~20 minutes, they were able to get this huge piece of wood across the park and set it up as a balance beam/bench.



Yes, our house is WAY to small for us right now... but how could you even think of square footage when you would be leaving behind something so much more important?

A sentance you should never have to say

Boys, why is there pee on the wall?

Happy baby, Angry baby

Cliff Note life

Just wrote a one handed email to my dear friend Mark... seemed like a good summary of a day in the life around her =e:

baby in one arm... very slow typing,,,

leo - awesome baby. 3 wks old and has done some 6hr stretches at night. makes for a much more pleasant mom to the 3yr old maniacs.

calvin - really loving saying no. thought that was a two yr old thing...

spencer - smothering leo with love. only danger is he will hug him too tightly. very very sweet

max - seeming more adult every day. hops on the bus in the am, gets off at 4:30 and answers "not much..." to all the motherly probing questions about what did you do, what did you learn, etc.

omar - very happy. brewery going great guns. starting to feel like everything is coming together beautifully

me - happy as a clam. lovin being home with leo. we always keep things interesting around here! never a dull moment...

b