No one laughed

I wish I had a photo of this one. My husband likes to make us all laugh by pulling the waistband of his shorts up as high as it will go (yes, I admit that after 12 years I still chuckle). Yesterday was no exception, when apparently he hiked them up when they were all outside playing. Last night when the boys were getting ready for bed, one of our sons hiked his pull-up as high as it would go - and then he asked his dad, "why did you pull your shorts up like that?" and Dad answered, "because it was funny." Our son responded dead-pan, "No one laughed."

Do you wanna see my BIG MOUTH?!?

Dogpile on Daddy

Alligators and Hippos

The boys were watching a video about different kinds of animals. My husband has fun identifying the animals incorrectly and then the boys correct him. After calling a hippo an alligator, he asked our 5-year-old what the difference was between the two. Our son's answer, "well, they both like water...but they have different names."

I guess we need to work on the mammal/reptile distinction.

Cease-fire

A request made by our 3 1/2-year-old to our 5-year-old while riding around in the back of the van:

"Please stop shooting me, my gun is resting."

Toys on the other side of the Earth

Every night before bed, our five-year-old goes into the bathroom to take care of business. We often have to call in and ask if he's done. One night last week he was in there for a particularly long time. My husband asked him why he didn't let us know when he was done. Our son said, "I got distracted, I was thinking." Curious, my husband asked what he was thinking about. The answer: "I was thinking about toys on the other side of the earth."

Go figure.

Ms. Dimples

Ms. Dimples is four weeks old today. I was so pleased to capture this picture of her smiling with her eyes open.

The Princess has arrived!

On May 23rd we welcomed our newest addition to the family. Here she is being adored by her big brothers :)

A Better Translation

It's been a busy few weeks preparing for the arrival of baby #4 - she's making her grand entrance tomorrow morning. One afternoon the boys were a bit more wound up than usual, and I commented about putting on a video to help them un-wind. A little later our five year old asked, "can you put on a video to help 'unwild' us?"

I think he captured the essence of the moment better than I did.

Easter Update

I just realized that after all the complaining I did last Easter about getting a family photo, I should probably post this photo of everyone cooperating (with the camera on a tripod) this year. These whole-group-shots are so few and far between!

Gearing up for the baby sister

A couple weekends ago a girlfriend threw my first baby shower. It's a little different having a shower for your FOURTH baby - but it was actually a lot of fun considering this is our first little girl. When I came home from the shower I was greeted by all my boys who were very interested in all the gifts. Our three-year-old asked which ones were for him :)

At first they were having fun just looking at the clothes. That quickly progressed to actually trying on the clothes. I'm sure someday these photos will be the source of great embarrassment, but for the present it was just a lot of fun.

The harsh realities of turning five

Our oldest son turned five today. The day seemed filled with far too many realities for a five year old. As he dressed himself this morning, he asked me (quite concerned) if he would now be too big for his shirt. I assured him that it would still fit.

A little later in the morning, he asked why Daddy had to work away from home today (he sees his daddy work from home from time to time and I guess he just wanted him home today). I was just trying to affirm what a good Daddy he has, and how thankful we are that he has a good job. I took the opportunity to mention that someday he too would be a good husband and daddy etc, but got a far different response than I had expected. He got really quiet...and quiet turned somber...and somber turned to tears. And he said, "but I don't want to not live here." It took ten minutes of talk and consoling to reassure him that adulthood was still a far ways off, and that he didn't need to "worry" about it.

I mentioned how he would one day find the woman he was going to marry, and would want to have his own home and raise his own family. Then he quietly responded, "but there are so many women...how am I going to know which one to pick?" I assured him that when the time came God would show him the right one.


To end the day, the boys played outside for a good part of the afternoon. And it seemed as if to add injury to insult, he slipped from the top rung of the steps and landed right on his privates. Poor guy, he didn't even know what it was that hurt so bad. All he could say was that he hurt his bottom.

After all that happened today...I'm glad we actually celebrated his birthday yesterday!

Turning Five

We celebrated our oldest son's 5th birthday yesterday. He had requested a Cars birthday cake, so we decorated with all Cars decor (the funny part about all this is that he really didn't care for the video...but all three boys love the character merchandise). Even our 19-month-old can say "Queen" for McQueen and "Docsun" for Doc Hudson.

We gave the birthday boy his choice of what part of the cake to eat, and he picked the street. Does it get anymore boy than that?!?

New Item on the Menu

We were at dinner the other night ordering our meals when our three-year-old asked our waitress for "chicken thumbs." I guess the boy prefers thumbs to fingers. Then again, it's not like chickens have fingers either!

Canned Smiles

Why is it that saying "cheese" or "smile" works so well for some, and NOT for others?

Mr. Clean

Safety Patrol

It's good to see them all wearing helmets, but I would expect nothing less from the Safety Patrol. Our almost-five-year-old has a thing for handing out "safety violations" in the form of an orange cone (not pictured) that he sets wherever said "violation" takes place.

Sense of Smell

Our boys have been going through "Katie-withdrawals" lately. Katie is their favorite babysitter, but for the last few weeks when Katie has come over, it's been to practice guitar with me (preparing for our upcoming women's retreat). Last week, our three-year-old woke up from his nap just after Katie left. He asked, "but where's Katie?" I explained that she had gone home already. He stopped, looked around, and with a smile on his face replied, "it still SMELLS like Katie."

Have Pillow, Will Travel...and Sleep

Some kids have a security blanket, our middle son has chosen a security pillow. It's not the easiest thing to carry around, but I guess it's worth the effort once he reaches his destination.

Three-Year-Old Privacy Rights

This morning while I was in the boys' room putting clothes away, our almost-three-year-old pleaded from inside the closet, "Mommy, can you please close the door so I can have some privacy?"

I am used to finding him in the closet when he's working on his business - I'm just not accustomed to the request for privacy. I wonder if that would work for me?