Bad Mom Moment

Little B has been our most mischievous child so far. If someone is not watching her...she WILL be getting into something. She has been the one who eats the toothpaste-luckily I found out it's not as poisonous as I thought! She likes to either drink her bath water or dump her bath water out all over the floor. The toilet has been one of her favorite play areas...her dolls like to go swimming in it, she likes to unroll the whole roll of tp and drag it around the house, but her favorite pastime is going in the cupboard and taking out the fresh rolls of tp and finding out how many she can shove into the toilet.

Other antics include using markers to decorate her whole body right before church, supplementing her room decorations with her own crayon-drawn murals, and if she gets the chance she likes to scribble on photographs and/or library books with pen. More dangerous favorites include playing with matches (and lit candles when available), sticking keys in electrical outlets, running with scissors-you name it, she's done it.

Being home with her all day, one may wonder where I am when she is doing all this?? Well, I have to admit sometimes I am blabbering on the phone, but often I'm being a good little homemaker and putting laundry away, cooking dinner, helping someone with their homework...and various other noble-housewife-pursuits. Or maybe I am just looking away for ONE SECOND!

Well, her latest incident came yesterday and unfortunately it was one of those times when I was blabbering on the phone and not pursuing a "noble-housewife-task". She was upstairs and decided to 'count' Allison's money, which consists of all coins. I heard her making a strange coughing/screaming noise and she was saying something was stuck in her throat. I ran upstairs as she was saying "now it's in my tummy!!" (with a little smile on her face). I asked her which coin and she pointed to a silver one. Now, we wait....

I'm saying two prayers: THANK YOU GOD FOR NOT LETTING HER CHOKE, and PLEASE LET IT BE THE DIME!

Giant Pumpkin Head Cake

Last weekend, we had occasion to bake a Giant Pumpkin Head Cake. If you love cake, I'd recommend this one. It serves more people than there are who actually want some. What you do is make 2 dense pumpkin bundt cakes, stick them together, and slather the whole thing with the brightest orange frosting you can make...then add a face. Oh, and don't forget the stem...an ice cream cone slathered with more green frosting! It weighs about 200lbs and really sticks to the ribs! Great way to fill up hungry little bellies for days and maybe even weeks. I'm definitely keeping this one in my recipe box.

Meet 'Midnight'

When I was little I always wanted a rabbit. More than anything. My parents knew this would be a terrible pet for us and never gave in. I'm sure they also took into consideration the fact that I was DEATHLY afraid of our cat to the point that I would not walk past the cat. If the cat was waiting in front of the door when I got home from school, I would call my mom from the porch so she could shoo him away so I could walk past. Oh, and this happened pretty much every day. Unfortunately, I was also terrifed of every other cat...and this lasted my whole life until now.

Our 9yo, H, has been wanting a guinea pig. I was actually considering this, knowing they don't bite or scratch like cats, but RH wasn't thrilled with housing a rodent. Plus, the ones at the pet store sort of gave me the willies. The pet store girl didn't really help, either. She said guinea pigs didn't smell at all, but she then qualified that statement by adding that she, herself, LIKED the 'barnyard' smell. So that was sort of a red flag.

But I wanted a pet for the kids...we both grew up with pets (ok, none of those pets ever really worked out-but at least our parents tried!). Plus, I love my house-full of kids....but our mini van is feeling really crowded as it is so I don't see us adopting those twins I always wanted.

All of the sudden, my neighbor K tells me she has this wonderful stray cat hanging at her house and she really wants it but her husband says no and the pound will have to kill it. We go see him and he's The Best Cat! He does not bite, scratch, chase, meow, attack shoe laces, and he's beautiful! And I am a self-proclaimed Cat Hater! Yes, the thought has occurred to me that he is terminally ill or extremely old..but he looks neither. I would name him Mellow Yellow but he's black so the kids named him 'Midnight' (RH wanted Jet...but he'd be more like Barge).

We brought him home the very next day and last night he was purring away with 4 kids doting on him constantly. Little B says, "Mom, I like buying cats!" Then A tells a story of her friend who has a dog who "Just laid 2 puppies!"

'Baby' Turns 3

Well, the baby of the family is now three! B had a fun party with friends and cupcakes in the backyard. When you ask her how old she is now, she promptly replies: "fifteen"...not sure why she keeps doing this...

The very next day after B's birthday, we found out that we have a new little cousin, "E"! From all accounts, he is very adorable...though we won't get to meet him in person for a while since he is on the other coast. Keep those photos coming!
R is happy because, well, the family needs more boys! E will need to be good with a bat & ball to fit in with all his cousins...and since his parents are such baseball fans, I'm thinking this won't be a problem.

Lazy Crazy Summer

It's been so long since my last post and so much has happened. First, we bought our beach house. It's a fixer-upper with an awesome view of the exhilarating Pacific Ocean. Yes, it needs a lot of work...but it's an investment. It came with a dog house in the front yard, which the kids like to sit on. More on that whole thing later.

The day of the closing I took the kids out to the east coast to visit all of our family out there for a month. It's not easy flying across the country with 4 kids in tow...but it seems to get easier every year-and, more expensive! We had a wonderful vacation spending time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. RWH joined us for a bit and we went with my parents to Cape May, NJ, for a week. We all had so much fun. It was hard when it was time to leave but we got a nice long visit with everyone.

We also have Uncle J. with us again! Uncle J. is RWH's brother who has stayed with us in the past and worked for us on several projects around the house during his summer breaks from college (yes, he is 13yrs younger). So he came out to live with us again this summer and ended up spending most of his time working on the beach house, luckily for us since it needs so much work and we're getting old and lazy.

Now that we're home from our trip 'back' east and adjusting to summer and Uncle J. being here, the kids and I are spending a lot of time playing, relaxing, swimming, reading, running, biking, eating, taking long walks and watching lots of movies. Sprinkle in some rip-roaring sibling fights, a few bee stings, lots of skinned knees and more than our share of potty accidents, and it's a typical, crazy, frustrating yet wonderful summer with the kids!

Ignorance is Bliss

We are getting ready for our summer vacation 'back' east. Our oldest daughter, H., was thinking of the airplane trip and remembering the last one she took with RW a few months ago. She said he had bought her a bottle of 7-up just before they had to go through security. She had only taken one sip when the security workers took the bottle and threw it in the trash. Then they asked her if she had any other bottles.

She asked, "Why do they have to do that, Mom? I mean, why can't they just make sure the caps are screwed on really, really tight?"

Moving to Sesame Street

Ok, today A. had the chance to become a star and probably won't because of me. Let me explain. The teacher at A.'s preschool has a reality show about her family on cable. The camera crew practically lives at her house and films the day-to-day life she leads with her husband and 4 kids on their farm. We don't have cable, so that's about all I know about it, but she's fairly well-known as the show has been on for about 4 years now.

So last week, she gave all of the parents a waiver to sign about having our child on t.v., since the camera crew wanted to film her at her day job as a preschool teacher. I signed the waiver, excited that A. might be on t.v.(!) yet also unaffected since I knew we would probably never see her since we don't have cable.

The day of the filming came (today), and I called a friend who is in the morning class to tell me what happened, since we are in the afternoon class. She said that they were not going to be filming during preschool after all because all the waivers weren't signed, but that they would film on the end-of-year party at the teacher's house.

Frankly, I was relieved because A. always gets herself dressed, combs her own hair, and keeps her face clean. And she does it HER way.
You can imagine that what this results in: a 5yo girl who rarely (if ever??) matches, has wild hair (to her defense, it's so thick that it's wild even when it is combed), and usually has some sort of remnants of the latest meal or snack on her face and/or shirt. And I'm the kind of mom who picks my battles and as long the kids have bathed relatively recently and don't have a wad of gum stuck in their hair, I'm feeling pretty good. I guess that's what having 4 kids can do to you.

OK, so when I found out they weren't filming, I was happy to check out A.'s outfit but not have to go there. Not really matching, but not totally clashing. Only a few remnants of lunch on her shirt...face clean. No gum in the hair. Good to go!

Yes, you know where I'm going with this. We arrive at preschool to CAMERAS, CAMERA MEN, and children dressed to the nines. Fancy dresses, fancy shoes, fancy hairdos (even the boys), and along comes A. (didn't you know we were filming today??) Luckily I seemed to care way more than A.-she didn't even realize the situation and I wasn't going to tell her. I was too consumed with trying to remember the last time I saw a kid on Sesame Street with Cheetos stains on her shirt. Oh yeah....never.

Don't worry A., you just wait til the end-of-year party. We will make it on that show...in fact, you will steal the show with your perfect hair, beautifully coordinated outfit, and clean cheeks. And then you will be discovered. You still have a chance of fulfilling my childhood dream of being on Romper Room.....