Buddies

They fight sometimes. They call each other names and say "go away, stop bothering me!"

But secretly, they love each other. They are buddies, with the Spud following big brother around wherever he goes. They sit huddled over their Kindle, companionably watching Woody Woodpecker and giggling at all the same moments.

They make this momma's heart smile. Life with four littles so close in age can sometimes be difficult, but seeing my kidlets become friends for life is worth it.

Mind Rush

It's Saturday night. The insanity has settled down. Three deliciously sweet children are curled up in tight corners of their beds. One especially stubborn baby is swatting at the cheerful frog on her new play mat while simultaneously rubbing sleep from her eyes.

I am sitting crisscross applesauce on my bed while gathering children's church materials and planning curriculum for the next several weeks. I am having trouble focusing on the tasks at hand as my mind busily runs through the past week's activities. Around here weeks fly by so fast that sometimes it's hard to be aware of what exactly went down.

I got my hair cut this week in an a-line cut. It's easy and chic and gasp! age-appropriate, AND I still like it several days after the cut, so that's saying something.

Little Sprout startled me one day by rolling over and getting quite a distance across the room in this fashion. I don't remember my other littles doing that before three months old. The Beast keeps asking me now to "make Baby Bean do her special trick."

A dear friend moved all the way back east this past week. We had one last girls' night while our kiddos played together and ate spaghetti. I miss her already but am so excited for her and this new directions in her family's life.

Miss Suzie, the Beast's speech therapist, and an autism specialist came over to our house on Friday morning to conduct an observation and evaluation of our Beast. The results of that evaluation will determine whether or not we will be eligible for more special services. I was a bundle of nerves before they came but thankfully the ladies were able to put me at ease. The whole thing went rather well, considering I had to stop and feed the baby in the middle of it all.

Time to take a deep breath and put the swirling thoughts in my head to rest for another day. I'm thankful for a baby that finally gave up the fight against sleep. I'm thinking I should take my cue from her and get some shut-eye too. good night world.

InstaFriday #2

It's time for another Iphone photo dump, courtesy of InstaFriday from Life Rearranged and my everpresent phone to catch those little moments. So, without further ado, here's our week in grainy Iphone photos:

The Boy Scouts have been selling ice cream treats after church each week to raise money for their troop. For several weeks, we had been steadfast naysayers until the Nerd finally gave in this past Sunday, allowing the kids to pick whatever they wanted while I visualized my laundry detergent at home and fervently hoped it would erase any damage made by the popsicles.

I was very proud of Davey - although the ice cream cart advertised Spider Man popsicles, they ended up not having any. Instead of having a major meltdown, he very calmly chose another character and seemed pleased with his selection. (and in case anyone is wondering, the SpongeBob and Sonic popsicles taste awful! My kids didn't think so, but I ended up with a taste or too and they were disgusting. )

I managed to catch a few shots of party guests at our "Monkeyin' Around" bash on Saturday.

That's full-on party excitement, folks!

The birthday boy wanted me to take a picture of him and his cookie cake with my "funny phone camma." I obliged.

I have slowly been getting my feet wet in the whole couponing thing - this week I really managed to get some great deals without stressing myself out too much. With coupons and a quick trip to the local bakery outlet, I managed to get all of this for five dollars. Go me!

Surprise! They were serving up 25 cent bowls of ice cream at the splash park on Tuesday. This was a perfect scenario for me - eat the ice cream, get it all over yourself, and then go rinse off in the splash park. I call that a "win-win."

Halloween costumes have emerged from the closet as various little people around here have taken turns being Ironman, Spiderman, a shark, and Thomas the Tank Engine. Apparently the Shark likes himself a little TV time.

Library time is always a fun excursion for me. I take four kids and tell them repeatedly to be quiet and pick out their two books without disturbing the other patrons. The Spud always picks his books out in record speed because that leaves him more time to terrorize the library. Here he is searching for the key in a treasure chest "can you find?" book.

I scored some much needed girl time with my Rachels last night - no it's not a secret club; I just happen to have two close friends named Rachel. :) We hit up Panera Bread where I greatly enjoyed the above meal. The cashier had the nerve to ask me if I would like the pastry packaged up to take home later. I said to her, "Lady, look, I'm pregnant! Just put it on the tray with all the rest of the food!" We fully intended on walking through the mall or visiting the local bookstore after we ate, but conversation led us to stay firmly at that table until closing time. Ah yes. The food was very good, but the fellowship was far greater.

And that's it for this week. Now my phone is ready to capture whatever is in store for us this coming week.

Wordless Wednesday - Friends :)

nothing like sharing a giggle or two with your best friend. . .

Friends

What do you do when your child seems to be an outsider? How do you handle it when it becomes evident that your child is being left out of things? How much should Momma get involved?

A few mornings ago, I herded my chaotic crew into the Drama Queen's school into the early morning room. I was teaching the junior high Spanish class that day; so I stayed in the room, trying to maintain some control over the male offspring before handing them off to their babysitter. I watched my daughter walk to the back of the room and sit in a row of chairs all by herself. One of her classmates walked over and asked her, "Hey, why do you always sit by yourself? Come on over here and sit with us!" My daughter shook her head, "No, I don't want to. I wanna sit here." The classmate shrugged her shoulders and walked back to her friends. Soon they were pointing at the Drama Queen, whispering and giggling. I looked at the cluster of girls, arms around each other, undoubtedly saying mean things about my daughter. Then I looked back at my girl. She seemed unaware that any whispering and giggling were going on. Honestly, I wanted to march right over to those girls and demand to know what they were whispering about. Then, my second thought was to go over to the Drama Queen and ask her why on earth she didn't want to sit with friends.

I agonized over what to do. It was tearing me up inside to see my little girl all alone while the other children played and chatted together. Finally, despite what I WANTED to do, I backed off and went to my classroom to set up for Spanish. But the images of what just happened stayed in my head all day. I decided to talk to her about it after school.

I tried to wait for an appropriate time to bring it up.

"Honey, who is your best friend at school?" I questioned her.

She shrugged. "I don't know, Mom."

"Well, what about. . . " and I went on to list the other girls in her class.

"No, I don't think so, Mom," she answered.

"Sweetheart, why didn't you go and sit with the other girls when they asked you this morning?"

"I didn't want to - I wanted to be by myself," she stated firmly.

"But don't you want to have friends and spend time with them?"

"No," she said flatly. "I don't really care, Mom."

You can't force your kid to make friends, can you? I was at a loss, not knowing how this worked. When I was her age, I loved being around my friends and would never have wanted to be by myself. This was foreign territory for me. I decided to let it go and talk to my hubby about it later. Being the introvert in our relationship, he might have some insight into the whole thing.

Ten minutes later, the Drama Queen spoke up. "Oh, I know, " she said. "Mom, my best friend is Tanner. He says he's gonna marry me when we grow up!"

Well, then. Maybe we have a different social problem altogether. . .

:)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We have gloriously rung in 2010 with friends, food, and much fun! We invited two dear friends over and (after a hasty cleaning spree) broke out the mini tacos, taquitos, empanadas, and pizza.

The little monsters were beyond thrilled to stay up past their bedtime and indulge in Pringles, pepperoni pizza, and root beer. We all watched a movie over dinner and then played some GiraffeaLaff Limbo with the kiddies. The guys followed up with a wild pillow fight and sent them giggling off to bed.

After tucking the sugared-up little ones in bed, we opened our new Super Mario Bros game for the Wii and had a blast playing through the levels together. Well, mostly we depended on the Nerd's mad gaming skills to get us through each obstacle while the rest of us did our very best to jump on each other's heads and cause mass confusion.

At 12:00 midnight, we shouted Happy New Year! rather giddily(well, all except the one who had already fallen asleep on the floor and was snoring heavily). I finally called it a night around 3:00 am.

And, I am pleased to say, the kiddies were kind and let us sleep in a little. New Year's Day was full of more movie-watching, game-playing, general laziness, and a fun trip to IKEA to spend some Christmas money. Dinner involved Swedish meatballs and mac'n'cheese and free meals for the kids!

A Happy New Year indeed!