Picture of the Day

Going for the trifecta today...Amanda falling asleep on the plane as we descended into the DFW airport. She never sleeps on the plane until we are within 20 minutes of landing.

Kid Quote of the Day

Not exactly a quote, but here are some of the questions Andy asked me today at lunch. Did you know they are making a new Smurf movie that, I think, comes out today?

Who is your favorite Smurf?

Who is the Smurf, that isn't Papa Smurf, that has the red beard?

How come Papa Smurf gets to wear red pants?

How come the Smurfs say "Smurf" in front of everything? Like Smurftastic?

Why does Smurfette act like she has a crush on Papa Smurf when he looks like he is so much older than her?


That last one is a good question. I guess he doesn't know anything about Hugh Hefner yet.

Bubbles

My sweet little girl decided to emerge today, after Charlie had to alligator wrestle her this morning to get her dressed. For some reason she does not like changing her clothes. She never wants to get out of her pajamas in the morning or into her pajamas at night. Who knows.

Anyway, after a little complaining this morning she was a perfect angel as we dropped Sarah off at art camp, stopped at the pool store to get her a pair of swim goggles (which she refused to remove for a couple of hours) and also once we were home. It could be because she asked me if we could go outside and blow bubbles and I acquiesced. Either way, she had a great time chasing and blowing bubbles, although I think she got tired of the taste of bubble mix since she doesn't understand you aren't supposed to touch the bubble wand to your lips.

These are the things I will miss.

Picture of the Day

Amanda after eating a Crush Cup of yogurt. You're not supposed to use a spoon, but it's probably not meant for almost 2-yr-olds.

That's All She Wrote

I think I'm ready for summer to be over. No, that's not right. I NEED summer to be over. Between Amanda not wanting to do anything I ask and the other two being, well, themselves, I just don't have anything left in me. I'm not the only one, I met up with two friends today who are counting down the days until school starts. A lot of it has to do with the fact that it's been over 100 degrees for over three weeks, but honestly that hasn't impacted us too much because we've been gone and missed a lot of that. When we are here, however, we can't really go outside. We could, but it's not fun. At all.

There isn't one single incident that pushed me over the top, it's just a lot of time spent together and an overwhelming feeling that the kids don't appreciate anything I do for them. I lost it with Sarah and Amanda today on the way home from Andy's gymnastics class. They are always too loud, I can never bring enough for them to do, and they always ask for food or a drink or something I don't have with me and then whine incessantly about it until we get home and they can put it into their greedy little mouths. Today was no different.

I was so frustrated with them I told them that I'm not taking them anywhere to do anything for the rest of the summer. Oh, Charlie is shaking his head right now as he reads this because he knows I shouldn't have said any of this. Don't make statements about things you can't follow up on. No Chick-fil-A, no McDonald's, no bounce houses, no roller skating, nothing that I have to pay for for the next three weeks. We can sit in the house and rot, and every time they say they are bored I will have a wonderful answer for why we aren't doing anything. I just have to think of it.

On top of that, I told Sarah that next week she and Amanda can't come to Andy's gymnastics and they were going to have to pay for the babysitter. I've already lined it up. She is not excited about that at all, but hopefully it will teach her a lesson. If not, I will at least get an hour to myself and it won't cost me anything.

Picture of the Day

Amanda throwing a fit in Target,


and outside the credit union. Notice the pants that don't really match the dress.

The Terrible Twos Begin

I'm not sure what happened to my sweet little baby girl (well, when she wasn't yelling at me to pick her up), but she is totally and completely gone now. She is two weeks away from her second birthday and 100% immersed in the Terrible Twos.

We noticed it a little bit last week while we were in Destin, but we thought it was because she wasn't getting naps. She didn't want to get out of the pool, didn't want to take showers, didn't want to get dressed, you name it. But it was late in the day and she was tired and somewhat understandable. The problem is that it didn't stop when we got home.

Monday morning she refused to get dressed. I had to pry her out of her pajamas and her wet, wet diaper and then fight her to put clothes on and hold her down to put a diaper on. She is very strong. I tried to give choices, I am not new at this, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Didn't want to pick out her clothes, didn't want to pick out a pretty diaper, didn't want to do anything. We struggled, I won, but I definitely heard about it.

Yesterday wasn't any better. I tried for awhile to get her dressed and diapered but she had learned from the day before. She sat on her changing pad on her knees bent over so I couldn't get a diaper on and she rejected any and all clothes. After a few minutes I gave up and just left her there. Surely she would get tired of being there all alone and give in? Nope, the older kids went in to see if they could do anything and came back reporting that she had pooped and peed all over herself and the changing pad. Nice. I got to clean off a screaming child on the toilet and in the shower and then somehow, miraculously got her in a diaper. I took the clothes and shoes to go. She refused to leave the house, we had to get Sarah to art camp, and after I left her alone in the house for a couple minutes while getting the other two into the car she finally came out. I think she thinks she won that one. I didn't get her dress or shoes on until we arrived at the car dealership for a quick repair about 30 minutes later and told her they required clothes if she was going to get out of the car.

The final straw was today. She gave me the same business in the morning until I finally let her pick out her own clothes. She really wanted something from her winter clothes drawer but since it's been over 100 degrees for the past 25 days I didn't think a long sleeve velour dress was a good idea. Once I directed her to the correct drawer she picked out some capri pants and a dress. Wasn't intended to go together, but did match. After dropping Sarah off at camp we stopped by Target. She started crying as soon as we entered the parking lot. She struggled as I tried to get her out of her seat, kicked and screamed as I walk with her under my arm into the store and threw herself on the floor and refused to move. All I needed was one thing, she didn't care. I finally got her to cooperate when I told her we could go look at toys.

After Target we went to the credit union. Same thing. She didn't want to leave because she was playing with a toy, and when I dragged her out she crumpled to the cement sidewalk and wouldn't move. It was only about 10:30 a.m. at this point. This went on all day.

I know two is hard, but I can already tell you that Andy and Sarah were not this bad. It's not that "oh you just forgot because it's been awhile". No, really. I remember thinking Andy was difficult at two, but that three was really bad. Many, many people agree with that statement. It should be called the terrible threes. Two isn't that bad. I'm sure I had issues with Sarah as well but since she couldn't walk until she was almost two it was just other stuff. This one is a challenge and she's not letting up anytime soon.

We'll get past this, yes. But it really sucks to be in it right now. Sarah starts school, and Amanda too, in two weeks and then Andy the following week. If I can just make it until then I will get a break. If she doesn't drive me insane before then...

Back From the Myrtle Trip

Every year we take a trip to Myrtle Beach with the same three families. Other couples have come and gone, but there are four of us who have stuck it out and continue to go every year. We started going in 2001, when we were all newly married and didn't have any kids. At that point it was a three day weekend that was filled with late nights of cards and drinking, sleeping in, lounging at the pool or beach and lots of sports. It was one of those trips that you actually needed a vacation after you got back because you were so tired.

The second year two of us were pregnant. It was exciting, but not quite as much fun. The third year we had two infants and another was pregnant. You see how it goes on from there. It turned into a week long trip because there was too much stuff to shlep with the kids and we are now, eleven trips later, eight children and eight adults.

We call it our Myrtle Beach trip, because that's where it all started. The plan was to go there every year for, well forever, but four years ago we went to Destin because one of the girls was pregnant and it was a little closer for her. A year later we went to West Palm for other reasons, and then last year we decided that we were kind of done with Myrtle Beach. So, this year after a small search (I would love to say exhaustive search but if you knew the people we go with we are all too lazy, except Charlie, to search that hard for anything) we decided to return to Destin. We will always call it the Myrtle trip, even if we never go there again.

For the first year of many, I actually felt relaxed last week. Maybe it was because the guys only golfed twice instead of three times, or because the girls got two days away from the kids instead of one, but it just didn't seem as difficult as it has in the past. It's more likely because the kids are getting bigger and more independent. We had a five bedroom house, one for each couple and then one was the kids' room. The five oldest kids slept on the third floor bedroom, the three girls on the bed and the two boys on the floor. The kids got along really well, there were very few times that an adult had to step in to referee, and they took care of themselves more than in the past.

One morning I was the first adult downstairs and all five kids were in the living room playing Wii. As I came in the room they said, "there aren't any bowls so you'll have to use a plastic cup, and there aren't any spoons so you'll have to use a fork." They had gotten themselves cereal and since they couldn't find any bowls they used the plastic cups that they had used all week with their names written on them in Sharpie, and eaten it with a fork. Definitely not as good, but they didn't wake anybody up to fix the problem, they solved it themselves. Of course there were clean bowls in one cabinet that they weren't aware of and there were tons of clean bowls and spoons in the dishwasher, but now they know to look there next year.

The only problem we had with independence was Amanda's. She has no fear whatsoever of the water. I have never seen a kid that little so confident in the ocean (ok, technically it's the gulf). The waves didn't bother her, she kept trying to wiggle out of our arms when the water was way over her head, and all she wanted to do was run back and forth in and out of the water and dive at our feet. She never complained about the salt water and could have stayed in there all day. The only thing that brought her out was a snack. She ate more food on the beach than the rest of us combined.

I've never really been a beach person, I hate the sand, but Destin is different. The beach is a made of white sand so it doesn't get that hot on your feet and it doesn't stick like crazy like the beaches on the Atlantic side. The water isn't as cold and it is so much clearer. I liked everything about it. Usually I find it such a beating to go to the beach, but this year I really enjoyed it.

Overall the trip was a blast. All of us look forward to it every year, and I know as the kids get older it's only going to get better. I am so glad that we started this tradition and can't imagine why we would ever stop. Especially if we can come home from a vacation and actually feel like we got a break.

Long Lost Video

We haven't seen our Flip video camera since we got home from London in March. I was convinced we had lost it, as Charlie is known to lose things, but he found it tonight in a backpack that we never use. Here's some of the video that was on it. The first was walking around the city, the second was on the flight home. I look aweful, but nobody looks good on a plane. Ever.

Picture of the Day

The kids at the museum last week, along with Cindy's daughter, Zoey.

Bulb Syringe

When we travel, we always bring too much junk with us on the plane because we never know what we are going to need to keep the kids occupied. Andy is easy, anything electronic and a book will usually do, but the girls are a little harder, especially Amanda. I think my backpack weights about 50 pounds, so when we were packing for my parent's house Charlie went through it to see if there was anything we could leave behind.

There is a pocket on the very bottom of the backpack that we never use. I'm not even sure what it is for. We used to put a few things in there that we would need in case of an emergency, usually health related things like baby Tylenol, but haven't used that pocket in a couple of years. Charlie opened it up and there was a blue bulb syringe inside. The kind that they give you at the hospital when you have a baby, I'm pretty sure the one we got when Andy was born. You know, 8.5 years ago.

We weren't exactly sure what to do with it, so it's been sitting on the desk in the office all week. Normal people probably would have thrown it out, but we sort of have hoarding tendencies, always afraid to throw something out in case we, or someone we may remotely know, need to use it some time in the future. That's why our house is always a mess, we can never throw anything away.

Anyway, the other day Andy asked me what it was. I explained that it was used to remove snot and boogers from baby's noses when they are little and too small to blow their own nose. Then I had to explain to him how it worked, squeeze it and then stick it in your nose, not the other way around, and then watch him stick it up his nose. Gross. Do you know how many germs were probably on that thing? Yuck.

Even better, today he was trying to show Amanda how to use it. She stuck it up her nose, in her eye, then Andy asked me if it worked on ear wax. Double gross. At that point you'd think I would have taken it away, but no, it's sitting in a bucket full of toys in the office so the next time the kids get bored they can lick it a few times.

Man, school really needs to start soon.

Picture of the Day

Not the best picture of Amanda, but here's a shot of the kids saying goodnight to each other one night last week at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The Color Purple

Amanda's vocabulary is growing daily. I still can't understand half the things she says, but she's saying a lot more and even trying to make sentences. She's also starting to learn her colors. Well, at least one color, purple. I think she got this from Sarah. Purple is one of Sarah's favorite colors.

Every time I give her a vitamin I ask her what color she wants. She always replies purple. Of course that doesn't mean that she really knows what color purple is. So, one time I gave her a yellow one instead to see if she knew that it wasn't purple. Oh, she knew, and she got really mad at me for trying to switch them out.

Another time she wanted to wear a head band of Sarah's, so I got out the container we keep them in and asked her what color she wanted to wear. She went straight for the purple one and said purple.

So I'm starting to think my kid's a genius. I honestly don't remember when the other two started learning their colors, but I don't think it was this early. My smart, smart baby. Not so fast. One day I held something up and asked her what color it was. I think it was white. Her response, purple.

Okay, so she definitely knows purple when she sees it, she just doesn't know any names of any other colors. That's still good, right? Not really. When we were visiting my parents we went to the museum with my friend, Cindy, and her kids. Her son, Griffin, is 18 months old. He walked up to the toy with all these colored balls on it and started naming off the colors. Blue, red, yellow. Holy crap! Not only did he know more than Amanda, but he's four months younger than she is.

So she's no genius, just right on track. Or maybe even a little behind. That's okay too. Being the third kid, I don't spend a lot of one on one time teaching her colors and numbers or letters. However she does have Andy, Sarah and me to teach her the ways of the world that a lot of kids her age don't experience because they are the first or second. I'm okay with that, she has plenty of time to learn her colors.

Except for purple, she's got that one down.

Picture of the Day

Andy's "matching" outfit of the day.

You're Wearing What?!?

Yesterday Andy came downstairs wearing an olive green shirt with khaki and brown accents and black shorts. I made some comment about how his clothes never matched. Andy retorted with his ever constant "What do you mean?". I told him that I would pair that shirt with some khaki shorts, to which he answered black matches everything. He's got me there. Although it didn't look as good, black does indeed match almost everything.

Today he came into my bathroom and said, "See, I match." He was wearing a light blue shirt and orange shorts. I just started laughing. Either the kid is color blind or just has no style. Either way, I think I can dismiss any thoughts I may have had in the past about him being gay.

Kid Quote of the Day

We were driving and I was quizzing Andy on his multiplication tables. So that Sarah didn't feel left out I asked her a couple of addition questions. Then Andy took over.

Andy: Sarah, what's 7+5?

Sarah: Ummm.

Andy: It rhymes with elves.

Sarah: Lucky?

Home Again

Last Saturday we packed up the kids and my niece, Lauren, and headed to Michigan for the week to drop Lauren back home, spend some time with my parents and get out of the heat. The trip went smoothly until they shut down the Detroit airport due to thunderstorms and we got diverted to Chicago O'Hare. As far as diversions go we were really lucky, because they had us on the ground long enough to refuel and take off again and didn't even let us off the plane. The only real problem was that it was late, so Amanda was uber tired, and Sarah has just been diagnosed with an ear infection that morning (yay for Saturday hours at the pediatrician) so multiple trips up and down were not very comfortable for her. We finally made it to my parent's house at 2 a.m.

The next day we went to a BBQ at my friend, Missy's, house. It was Missy and me and two other friends from high school that I haven't seen nearly enough since we graduated. Oh, and our kids and spouses too. It was fabulous to catch up and find out what was going on with them and see all 11 of our kids together, wow! I also gained some respect for the area where we live and the education Andy is getting when I listened to them talk about their kids' public schools. Michigan is having huge cuts in education, as well as everything else, right now and even though we're seeing cuts too they are not that bad. Overall it was a great day and all the kids got along which made it extra nice.

On Tuesday my Mom and I took Andy and Amanda to see Cars 2. Sarah didn't want to see it so she and Grandpa went on a "date" and did something else just the two of them. I think everybody was happy with this arrangement and it gave Sarah some much coveted one-on-one time. Amanda made it through maybe 30 minutes of the movie and then she and I had to spent the rest of the time hanging out in the lobby with her yelling at me because I wouldn't let her play in the garbage can or something like that. Last time I take her to the movies for a very long time.

Wednesday Mom and Dad took Sarah and Andy to see Kung Fu Panda 2 and I stayed home with Amanda. See, not doing that twice. It gave me a few hours to regroup and hang by myself and even get a little nap in with her. Very nice.

Thursday we took the kids to a bounce house place and they bounced for a couple of hours. Nothing better to wear out your kids than bounce houses. They even played together for a bit and Andy and Sarah fought over who was going to get to play with Amanda. I made some crack to my Dad that I needed to have one more kid so they each had somebody to play with and then followed it up with something like "but who am I kidding I can't even handle the three I have." Besides the fact that Charlie would leave me and then I would be stuck with four kids. Alone.

Friday we went to the children's museum with my friend, Cindy, and her two kids that are about Sarah and Amanda's age. The museum had this small play area for the little kids which is where we spent most of our time. I learned one big thing about Amanda while there. She does not know how nor wants to learn how to share. At all. You would think that as the youngest of three, meaning there are two other kids in the house, that she would know how to share. However, I realized that when she doesn't get what she wants, she doesn't wait her turn, she just screams and we give it to her. Because she is really loud and nobody wants to listen to that. The good and the bad is that she will be going to school two days a week this fall. Good because she will have to learn to share, bad because it's going to be painful until she gets to that point.

After the museum we went to the only McDonald's in the Lansing area that has a playground. I'm not sure why, but they've turned the two by my parent's house into upscale wifi hot spots, I guess because there aren't tons of Starbucks around? I don't know why you'd want to sit at McDonald's all day, but they must like the prospect of those type of clientele rather than the snotty-nosed ones that are extremely messy and make tons of noise.

Charlie came in Friday night and we went to Old Country Buffet for dinner. The stereotypes are true. There were a lot of old people there. So old that instead of thinking my kids were cute they were giving them dirty looks because they assumed they would be loud and obnoxious. They were probably right.

Yesterday we took the kids to feed the ducks on Michigan State campus. Since it's summer and the number of students on campus, and therefore the number of students feeding the ducks, decreases dramatically during the summer, the ducks were very hungry. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it was just ducks, but there were lots of geese too. They weren't aggressive or anything, except for a few that were sticking their tongues out and hissing, but they were about the same height as Sarah and definitely taller than Amanda so the girls were pretty intimidated. The rest of us had fun, but I don't think the girls care to feed the ducks again anytime soon.

So, that's about it. We came home today without any delays or weather problems. The kids are in bed and since I did laundry almost every day while we were gone (not sure why I do this, or why I don't do this at home) we came home with almost no dirty laundry. Which means instead of having a messy house all week while I unpack and try to get the laundry done, I can just take the clothes and put them in a bag for our next trip, yay! We're back to the heat and the few appointments that still go on all summer, but we're happy to see our friends and be in our own beds.

Thanks Mom and Dad, see you in a few months!

Picture of the Day

Kid Quote of the Day

Me: Okay, if you don't want to clean the playroom then God only knows where the cleaning ladies are going to put everything.

Sarah: Then we'll just ask God.