Oops

So I totally messed up the html of my pretty pink blog and had to resort to this one. I'll fancy it up soon.

Handy Kandi

Micah likes the show "Handy Manny." That's where this title came from.



I've been using my birthday present a lot lately and wanted to show you my latest project. Our fireplace is a very... I'll use the word, unique... looking structure. It obviously used to have a wood-burning stove and then you would store the wood for it on the side where the extra bricks are. Someone in this house before us installed a gas stove and now the whole thing just looks awkward. I thought a mantle on the fire place would "ground it" (a phrase I learned from HGTV) a little more. I'm also trying to tie more black accents into the room. Here it is...





You can't even tell that some of my "measurements" (this word is in quotations because I don't really measure) were completely off and I had to cut and paste a little. A little putty and paint can cover up almost anything.

More Skabeedos

Yesterday, Micah was watching "Arthur" on PBS and the show was about head lice (yuck, I itch my head every time I hear that word. Its why I get my hair cut every august before I start teaching again). Then after the show they have a little time where real kids talk about the stuff in the show. This kid somehow connected head lice with mosquitoes and talked about how they suck blood, etc. Micah, of course was enthralled and even though the people on the show said the word right, Micah kept saying "skabeedos." He's never had a problem with spaghetti.

Aaargh!

Aaargh! I am pulling my hair out! Not that I need to, it's falling out like I'm pregnant (No, Mom. I'm not.). My most recent pet peeve is Micah saying that he's hungry. Now, coming from a family who struggles with weight issues already, we wanted to handle this carefully. We know that many times when he says he's hungry, he's just bored, but half the time he hardly eats any of his meal and then complains that he's hungry for the next three hours. I made a plan that we would have five designated eating times: 6:30AM Breakfast, 9:00AM Snack, 12:00PM Lunch, 3:00PM Snack, 5:30PM Dinner. I've had this schedule for a couple of months now, but of course he still asks when snack time will be. So, genius me, I made a chart showing the time on both clocks so that he will know when meal times are.

It worked for a day. He still likes the chart, but he still asks constantly. So today I set the oven timer and told him it will beep when it is snack time. He's still not satisfied. As of now, we have 25 minutes until snack time and he keeps asking! I tell him that I'm not going to answer that question any more and to go look at the clock. Aaargh! It doesn't help that he had about two bites of oatmeal for breakfast and said he was done. This morning I have asked him at least three times, "What should you do tomorrow?" His reply, "Eat more breakfast."

This conversation just happened. Micah looked at the timer on the oven.
M: Mom, now it's dot dot two two.
Me: Okay.
M: I'm getting really hungry, Mom.
Me: Yeah. You're going to eat a lot at snack.
M: Yeah.

I really don't want him to develop the eating habits that I have, so I'm trying to model good eating. I don't know what else to do. Aaargh!

Any suggestions???

The Skabeedos

Micah came into our room this morning and said he had an owie.
Me: It looks like you got a mosquito bite.
Micah: You know how they make owies? (with lots of emotion) The skabeedos bite you and climb inside your skin and drink your blood and then you have a skabeedo bite (arms out, palms facing up at shoulder height like he's saying... what else would they do?).

I don't want four kids...

...at least not ages 4 and under. Two of my sister's kids arrived last night to stay with us for the week while she takes the three older ones camping. Justin was going to sleep on Micah's trundle bed and Jenny on the floor in Amelia's room. We heard the girls for a good two hours after they went to bed because Amelia kept throwing her water cup and her binkies out of her bed so Jenny would give them back to her. She thought it was a great game. Jenny, however, wanted to go to sleep.

The boys were another story. Justin was really lonesome and kept crying for mommy... which made my sensitive boy cry too because he gets sad when other people cry. So they wanted to sleep in our room. (Whatever makes them go to sleep) After an hour in our room, they were playing and laughing still, so I told Micah he had to go back to his room. So he went to sleep on the trundle because he really wanted to and Justin was in our room. He went right to sleep. For the next hour Justin cried that he missed Mommy and wanted to go back to his "other room". We called his Dad and they talked for a while and then I made a deal with Justin. I said he could go back into Micah's room, but he would have to sleep on Micah's bed (because Micah was on his) and he would have to be very quiet because Micah was already sleeping. He agreed to this and I put him in the room. We never heard another peep until morning. Whew!

This morning started out great. I took a shower while Ryan started making Chocolate-chip pancakes with whip cream. I came down and served breakfast. Justin ate a whole chocolate chip! They finished and played while Amelia took a nap at 7:00. The kids promptly woke her up at 8:30.

*****I've never written this much. Can you tell I'm trying to avoid them?*****

We were going to go to the free movie at 10:00 so I started packing the car at 9:00 (anxious, do you think?). We got to the movie and made it through a half hour of it before Micah and Amelia were done with it. So we headed back out to the car. I got the kids buckled in and got into the car with a big sigh and promptly called Ryan to see if there was any way he could take a day off this week. He's taking Thursday off and his sister, Kristen is taking tomorrow off to come help. I think I'll survive now.

They're great kids. So sweet and well-behaved... any mom with four kids under four would want these four. Its just me. God didn't wire me for this. I enjoy it once in a while but am physically and mentally exhausted when its over.

The Haircut

Last night we were talking about how Micah needed a haircut. Somewhere in the conversation, Ryan said, "Micah, do you want Daddy to cut your hair?" Micah said yes. So we decided that we would do it outside and Micah could sit on his slide while Daddy cut his hair.

***REWIND*** Micah HATES haircuts. He doesn't like noise and buzzing and anything touching his ears, etc. When we take him to Little Clippers he screams so much that the place almost clears out. (Although he does much better if Grandma takes him and Mom is not there.)

***Back to Yesterday*** Ryan started with the clippers and it was okay until it started pulling his hair a little bit. He made it fairly well through the the top of his head being cut, but then he was DONE. He didn't want a treat, or anything. He liked his hair the way it was. Ryan kept trying to reason with him and finally we just had to pin him down and cut the rest. Now remember how we were outside? I seriously thought the police would be knocking on our door, because if you couldn't see us, you would think we were torturing our child. I still wouldn't be surprised if we got a call from Family services or whatever it is called. Anyway, *sigh* it's over, it's very short, and it shouldn't need to be cut for a LONG time.

Photo Shoot

I took the kids to the park this morning to try to get some pictures. I'm never really happy with picture people or Sears or places like that, so I thought I'd try them on my own. Amelia wasn't too happy about getting her picture taken, but Micah can always ham it up.

I'd like to thank the wonderful people at Disney...

who has my son dancing around the house in his underwear singing, "Shake, shake, shake your PEA-nut!" He watched an episode of Mickey Mouse Club-House where an elephant was up in a tree and all the characters had to shake their peanuts to get it to come down. I mean REALLY! Like no one in the studio thought that might sound wrong?

unbloggable?

We had one of those hard-to-blog moments today. We went to the mall for dinner after Ryan got home so that we could enjoy some air-conditioning. As we were walking through Nordstrom to the food court a lady walked by with a wild hairstyle and Micah let out this loud yelp-laugh and pointed at her. Luckily she had walked by and the place was loud enough that she probably didn't notice. It caught us so off guard. I think we laughed for the next five minutes. Ryan said, "See, this is what we would be missing out on if we didn't have kids. We would've just talked quietly under our breath."

Our Party Crasher

Tonight we had a picnic with some of Ryan's extended family at a park. There were many different groups around and right next to us was a birthday for a five-year-old. So after we had been there an hour or so, a lady came walking over and said, "Do you know who Micah's mom or dad is?" I told her it was me and she handed me a goody-bag from the party. I must have looked a little confused and she said, "He took a pretty-good swing over there." I said, "He hit the pinata?" They had a Lightning McQueen pinata and I noticed the kids taking swings at it, but didn't know my son was participating. Apparently he had just wandered over there and got in line with the other kids. Ryan had just had a big talk with him about staying at the swings and not talking to any strangers. I guess once you tell them your name they're not strangers anymore. (: On our way home in the car, Micah said, "Do you know why I had a fun day?" (Why?) "Because I got to hit the piata (that's what he calls it)!"

We often cover the basic stranger danger questions like,
What do you do if someone says, "Come here little boy, I have some candy for you."
and "Do you want some money, little boy?"
and "Your parents told me to come get you."
I guess we need to add, "Little boy, come hit the pinata."

Crazy.

Amelia

I know I haven't talked about her much, but frankly its easier to write down what Micah says rather than what Amelia does (since she can't talk).

However, yesterday she was playing in the kitchen in her favorite cupboard. Later on I walked in the kitchen and saw the cupboard door open a little and wondered why.

I opened it up and look what was there...

One more story

I forgot about this one...
The night before last I went into Micah's room because he was whimpering. When I walked in he was sitting up by his bookshelf. In a whimpery voice he said, "I'm having a hard time." I said, "Lets get back in your bed, okay." And he did. And that was that. He didn't remember in the morning and thought it was funny.

When we need food?

This morning I was making chocolate-chip pancakes and Micah asked me the question with concern in his voice, "Mom, when we need food, do we stand with a sign by our beds?" Every time we cross the bridge, Micah asks what the signs say that the people are holding. Sometimes we tell him, but other times ("Why lie, I just want beer") we just tell him that they want money. He is very concerned about them and I've thought of getting a bag of McDonald's hamburgers and giving it to the guy with the sign to share with his friends. I'm just not sure how to teach him about that. When he asked why we don't give them money, we said that sometimes they don't make good choices with the money. Something to keep thinking about.

dream

Last night Micah came into our room at about 4:00 and told me in detail about his scary dream.
M: There was a man looking at me in my window, and do you know who it was? It was the cat in the hat, and he did this (Micah covered his eyes with both hands and then opened them up slowly to peek out).
Me: That sounds scary. Lets go back into your room and get cozy.
M: But the scary dream will come back (whimpering).
Ryan: You can pray that Jesus will help you to have good dreams or no dreams at all.
M: (Still whimpering) Okay. You pray Mom.
So I prayed and we walked back to his room and he got in his bed.
M: I just wish I could have good dreams like playing in the pool or going to the park.
We talked for a minute about other good things to dream about and then I left and he went to sleep. He didn't have any more dreams after that.

I may have said this before, but I don't like his dreams. I can't be there to protect him. Maybe its like practice for when he is in the real world. What will he do when he gets scared? Will he pray and ask God for help? Am I equipping him to be brave or to just come running to me? I hope that I am teaching him to put on the armor of God.

dusty?

Micah likes to dust with Ryan's feather duster. Yes, its RYAN'S! So when he started telling us he was dusty, we thought... okay, we didn't know what to think. Sometimes he just says weird things. Lately he has been very insistent that he is dusty and needs to change his clothes. I finally figured out that he means sweaty. Last night it was so hot in his room and when Ryan went in he said he was dusty. Ryan was glad I figured that one out because he would've thought Micah was just talking in his sleep. Anyway, another mystery solved!

Free Monkey

This morning Micah was in our room watching "Magic School Bus" while we were getting ready. I don't know what they said on the show, but it was free_______ something. So Ryan said, "Free Monkey!" to Micah. Then Micah said, "Four daddy, five mommy, six lights..." To him, free sounds just like three.

Soon we went downstairs and Micah started eating a waffle for breakfast. As soon as he finished his waffle, he popped up out of his chair and said, "I'm ready for lunch now."

Our trip to Spokane

Last Tuesday, Micah and I headed up to Spokane to visit my sister-in-law and the kids while my brother was across the country studying in music-geek land.

Micah playing with someone else's toys.

Noah in PJs

Sam and Micah

Micah and Noah on the motorcycle

Rub-a-dub-dub three boys in the tub