What else would we be doing on the 2nd weekend of Spring?

Beside losing our kids in the snow?

Oh, there he is. A "friendly" snowball fight. The picture looks like they worked so hard,

but really it was mostly daddy.Same for the tunnel.

W is for Wednesday

"W" is for...

• WORDS OF WISDOM - Finger painting and a thumb-sucking child DO NOT MIX.

• WORDS OF WARNING - From the 6 yo, "Where is my brother hiding? He better come out, 'cause I'm going to get my gun."
  
• WORDS OF WOMEN - Here's one forward I actually kept!

1. Keep learning.
2. Enjoy the simple things.
3. Laugh often, long, and loud.
4. The tears happen.
5. Surround yourself with people you love.
6. Cherish your health.
7. Don't take guilt trips.
8. Tell people you love that you love them.
9. Forgive the people who have made you cry.
10. Keep your cheerful friends.

Happy Wednesday!

T is for Tuesday

Continuing with the theme...."T" is for...

• TOILET TRAINING - Six days and only one accident! He may actually accomplish this! And, yes, that is a walkie talkie clipped to his underwear.

• TOTALLY TECHNICAL - Check these out. He won them in some fundraiser promotion at school. Sunglasses, a radio, and earpieces all in one. He loves them. I, on the other hand, have no idea what he is listening to at any given moment. Yesterday when I asked him what music was on, he said, "They are talking now. I think it's just something about Obama's speech." Where, oh where, did my little boy go?

• TRASH TALK - The above-mentioned older son came flying through the dining room being chased by his brother. He yells out, "You want a piece of me!?" We were trying to figure out which movie that line might have come from, when my son informed us that it didn't come from a movie, it came from his (very conservative) cousins. My husband then stepped in and took very fatherly action: "You don't say that at school do you?"

M is for Monday

The letter of the day is "M"! "M" is for...

• MEAN MOM - This morning in the grocery store my 3 yo took off running down the aisle. He has done this before, but he always stops at the end, turns around and heads back. This time he rounded the corner and took off across the entire store. I was less than impressed and let him know it with a stern "in your face" lecture. For the next two minutes we strolled around the store in silence. As I was picking out pears, he asked if they were apples. I cheerfully said, "No, these are pears." He looked up and responded, "Oh, are you nice now?"
  
• MEDICAL MISHAP - 2 1/2 weeks ago my son hurt his foot. The xray looked fine. 1 1/2 weeks ago he was still struggling, so I took him back in. The xray looked fine. I felt like a fool and apologized for wasting my pediatrician's time. THIS morning he called me. The radiologist saw a fracture. Nice. Thankfully, he is doing okay, so we don't have to cast it.
  
• MARCH MADNESS - One of our favorite times of year! Here are my boys enjoying the games.

For Sale

This morning began with a facebook chat with a friend where we discussed how nice it would be if we could just move our six kids into her house, and she and her husband would come live here with us -- kid free. Well, we can dream....it was definitely one of those mornings.


Shortly after that my phone rang and a different friend asked the simple, "How are you?" To which I said, "I have two kids for sale, do you need more at your house?" Note to self: Don't say that if there is any chance that the kids are nearby. My 6 yo instantly burst into tears. 'Cause I seem like the kind of mom who would sell her kids?

It's almost 5:00 now, and I am counting down the minutes until my husband walks in the door. He will have never looked so good. Today we have had multitudes of time-outs, lectures, extra chores, and when all else failed, I made the boys sit on the couch, hold hands, and say "I love you" over and over to each other.

If I were a drinkin' woman, someone would have to scrape me off the floor right now. Instead, I think I have gained 10 lbs in the last 10 hours.

How Does He Think of These Things?

There are so many times I wish I would have been blogging when my oldest was little so I could have record of the crazy things he said. The funny quotes that come from a little 3 yo just crack me up. Here are my latest favorites:


When asked if he liked the meal that Mike made for him, he replied,


"Yes. It's fresh. Ziploc fresh!" (Quote from his favorite movie - Madagascar)



**********************************************************


When he peed in his underwear for the 14 millionth time, he ran out and said, "I'm so sorry, mom. I'll never ever, never ever potty in my underwear again. Okay?"


**********************************************************


After reading a book about dinosaurs, he exclaimed, "When I see a dead stegasaurus laying on the ground, I will leave it alone so it doesn't hurt me!"


**********************************************************

And the best one from this morning when playing with his brother,

"Where am I? Where did I go? I'll have to go look for myself in the WILD!"

All Boy

This weekend my husband and my friend's husband took our kids on a nature hike. After they had been gone for an hour, my friend gets a phone call from the guys. "You should really come out here, it's beautiful and the kids are having a blast."

We informed them that we were in the middle of very important business (setting up her blog)and we would come when we were finished.

An hour after that, the phone rang again. "Really, you should come down here and see this. But you might want to bring a bullet-proof vest for us."

What? Why? Huh?

That was enough to make us head down the trail behind the house. He was right. The scenery was gorgeous, and the kids were having a great time.

Why the bullet proof vest? Because they let HIM do THIS! The pictures do not even begin to do justice to what this child looked like...not to mention what his BRAND NEW NIKE TENNIS SHOES and the jeans I had packed for church looked like!

Of course, he couldn't miss out on crossing "the bridge with no wood".

And who do you think spent hours cleaning this stuff? I bet you can guess.

Warning: Just Say No

In case you ever have a friend who innocently asks you to set up a blog for her...just say NO! This is what you end up doing for hours...and hours...and HOURS! And if you think about suggesting adding pictures of her family to the blog, don't do it! Especially when the family just keeps going...and going...and going! By the time we are actually finished, they'll probably have added another kid to the family!

Happy Birthday!

I love surprises. The only thing better than being the surprisee is being the surpriser. Yesterday we drove to Illinois for the weekend to celebrate my friend's 40th birthday. We arrived completely unannounced (to her, anyway), and got her good!

Today is the big day, and because we are such sweet friends, we set her up with a blog! What a nice birthday present. Check it out at www.relativelycrazy2.blogspot.com.

Patient Update

I've been getting a few comments and emails asking how the little guy is doing. The answer is....I wish I knew!

A few days into the cast I started getting the feeling that maybe he could walk more than he was letting on. I also discovered the cast was rubbing the back of his foot raw. So, I took it off to see what would happen. He still asked to be carried everywhere, and would whine like crazy anytime I suggested he take a few steps. The advice I got from everyone was that 3 yo will walk after an injury when they are healed and ready to go. So, I waited.

However, when his father got home from snow skiing, we put him to the test.

Daddy asked him to walk a few steps, and if it hurt, he didn't have to do anymore. After a bit of fussing, he did it, after which he exclaimed, "Look, I can WALK!"

Now he is running and jumping again, but he walks with a LIMP! I don't even want to know what that means.

One of Those Days...

You know, the kind where you have absolutely nothing planned so you think that you are going to get all kinds of things done during the day? But then one thing after another happens, and your day looks like this...

• My husband was out of town for the weekend, so I already should have known that with no back-up around, I probably wasn't going to accomplish everything I wanted to.


• Factor in a 3 year old who can't walk, and that adds a new dimension to life. However, his immobility did have its advantages. He actually sat and played in one area for longer than he has since he was in the "sitting up but can't crawl" stage.


• My parents took mercy on me and had the boys nap at their house for the afternoon so I could try to recoup some lost sleep from the two previous nights of continual crying because of the foot injury.


• I woke up from my nap, ran through the shower, and then looked out my window. I saw dark clouds. Lots and lots of dark clouds.


• My phone rang and, of course, it was my mom. "Are you heading this way? We have weather moving in."


• Yes, we do. I jumped in the van to head into town. Thirty seconds later I could tell something was wrong with my van. I heard a noise I knew I shouldn't be hearing, and it felt like it was working twice as hard as normal. However, with the rain, roaring wind, and thunder, it was really hard to tell what was going on. I begin having visions of my van dying 2 miles from town and a tornado heading right toward me.


• I prayed my van into town, and as I hit the city limits, the hail began.


• As I pulled into my parents driveway, the tornado sirens started blaring.


• As I pulled into my parents garage (yes, they made room for my van in their garage), I noticed my van was smoking.


• I did what any girl in her right mind does - I ran inside and yelled, "Dad, my van is smoking!"


• We ran back outside - rain and hail pouring down, tornado sirens blaring - to make sure my van wasn't going to start the entire garage on fire.


• We returned to the house to my oblivious 3 yo and freaked out 6 yo who were in the basement with grandma.


• A couple of hours later I took the boys home. Since my husband was gone, I did the responsible thing and headed downstairs to make sure the sump pump was working (we've been bitten by that one before) and all was well.


• At the bottom of the stairs I was greeted by an obnoxious odor. The kind you get when something has died in your house. We've lived in the middle of a wheat field for 4 years, and amazingly enough, this is the first time I've smelled this odor in this house. It was about enough to kill me, but I had trouble mustering up the courage to go searching for it.


• I teetered back and forth between being brave and taking care of it on my own, and calling my father to help me.


• My dad came to rescue me.
• And I officially am an idiot. After a significant search through the house, we found the problem. Last week I cleaned and organized the freezer in the basement. I took inventory of everything we had and made a pile of stuff to throw out. Only it seems I didn't actually throw it out.
• Oh well, at least I don't have mice.

Question of the Day

What do you get when you mix 1) a crazy three year old running at full speed, 2) concrete, and 3) crocs?

This...

Disadvantage: The child refuses to bear any weight on it at all, resulting in me carrying him everywhere.

Advantage: I never have to wonder what he is getting into! The poor kid doesn't move much.

Season Over

"Mommy, look at the slide! It's snowing! Now we can build a snowman!"