Birthday

My one and only boy is 9 today. Wow. I've always thought of him as "my little boy," but he's quickly outgrowing that title. I guess I'm going to stubbornly ignore his age until he starts growing facial hair. Won't be able to deny it any longer then.

For now, he's still my sweet little quiet guy. He helped me make his birthday cake yesterday. A simple white cake with chocolate frosting. He likes to keep things simple, at least when it comes to food.

Happy birthday, buddy, you're a good kid, and I'm proud to be your mom.

that's one big aaaaig!

Yup, Quacker's laying eggs again. This one's the biggest so far. Moops wants me to start using the nasty things to make bread, cake, scones, etc. She claims they're "gourmet." Uuuuum, no. No, not gonna do it. Ick.

I tend to stay away from all things egg-related. Admittedly, I will occasionally (rarely) consume some store-bought product made with eggs; but I'm quite sure that those eggs grew on some kind of "egg-plant" hidden away in a squeaky-clean greenhouse... I refuse to even consider the idea of eating something which plopped out of some feathery creature's "vent."

They make a great supplement to dog food, though.

(No offense to all you egg-eaters out there. Clearly, I've got issues.)

a visitor

Moops stepped out the front door and almost stepped on this:



A black rat snake, about three feet long. School work was immediately postponed, so we could all get an eyeful. I guess it's that time of the year again. Eeeeeek!

Super-Cool Grandma

Look what the kids got in the mail today!

A gift from Grandma Vic: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick.

Flipping through the book, I see it includes hundreds of charcoal drawings. The author describes his book as, "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things."

KK started reading within minutes of opening the package. This is the same girl who claims she doesn't like to read...

She's already on page 135!

Cool Grandma

E-Man's birthday is coming up, so Grandma Vic took him birthday shopping yesterday. They went to ToysRUs, and came home with 781 pieces of Lego-heaven!

Jabba's Sail Barge

If you're a fan of Legos and a fan of Star Wars, then the Lego Star Wars series is really where it's at! In his rush to get it all assembled, the sweet boy must have forgotten that he really doesn't like his sisters very much, because he let them help. They worked together for a couple of hours. Worked together n-i-c-e-l-y, for a couple of h-o-u-r-s!

Boy, oh boy, what I would do for a 781-piece set of Legos every day! Did I mention that they worked together nicely and q-u-i-e-t-l-y??

Once everything was assembled, they insisted on some pictures. Now we'll always be able to look back and remember the ONE time this set was completely assembled, since Lego sets have a way of merging with each other, intent on becoming one large mass of disorganized madness.

Here's a nice close-up of Jabba and Princess Leia. I really hope I don't get flagged for this. Her outfit is a little, shall we say revealing? tasteless? trampy? And I'm pretty sure Jabba is "nakers."

And just in case you've ever wondered what Jabba looks like from behind, the nice Lego designers have got you covered - the Barge opens up in the back!

Did I mention that E-Man was really excited about this awesome Lego set? This must be the coolest Lego set ever; because not only did he forget his un-loving feelings towards his sisters, but he also chose to play with Jabba's Sail Barge all evening, not so much as touching his new video game.

Where's my thermometer? I think that boy's got a fever.

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's Day card from daughters #2 and 3.

Hope you all have a wonderful day, I know I will.

i'm going to be sick...

We watched the movie "Troy" Sunday night. The one with Brad Pitt(iful).

Bad. Bad. Bad.

I knew not to expect much from Hollywood, but it was soooo bad. So bad.

So I guess what I'm sayin' is...

straight from the baby's mouth

two,

five,

sick!

sevuuuuuun....

and eight!

and nine!

and ten!

out of touch

Little Miss loves to brush her teeth. The other morning while she was busy brushing, I looked away for a split second. When I looked back, she was scrubbing the area around the drain with her toothbrush! Yuck!

Time to get a new toothbrush. Sounds easy enough. Or so I thought.

So we're grocery shopping, and I head to the toothbrush aisle (which is always crowded - I despise crowded grocery store aisles). This particular store has all the toothbrushes hanging up high. I start at one end, walking slowly and looking for a toddler toothbrush. I don't see one; I must have missed the little kid's toothbrush section while squeezing between other customers and saying, "excuse me," five or six times. I proceed down the aisle in the opposite direction. This should be easy. I have four kids. I've probably bought a hundred miniature toothbrushes in the past 12 years. Okay, at least a few dozen. Where are they?? I don't see them!

I notice a woman and her little boy approaching. They stop right next to me. She crouches down.

"Okay, Bobby, what kind of toothbrush do you want?"

Huh?

"Oh look, here's Diego, you like Diego."

I slowly begin to realize that, after searching the aisle for at least 3 minutes and being on the verge of giving up, I'm standing right in front of the toddler toothbrushes. I didn't see them because they are displayed two feet off the floor. I'm not kidding, my belly button would have had to look down to see them.

Am I this out of touch? Is this where they've always been?

Yeah, I get the reasoning behind it. It's much easier for small children to peruse the myriad of cartoon-themed toothbrushes when they are displayed close to the floor. But what about me, a frazzled mother of four? They don't want to make things easier for me? I'm standing in WallyWorld, feeling like an idiot because I can't find a toddler toothbrush!

No, Little Miss didn't get to choose her own; I grabbed an Elmo toothbrush and ran.

another nice day

Lovely weather this morning. Too lovely to be stuck inside doing schoolwork, so we high-tailed it outside to work in the garden and release some energy.

Our lettuces and tomatoes are coming along nicely. We've planted okra, banana peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers. Apparently the three nights of freezing temperatures zapped the bush beans we planted, so we planted some more.

I played "mean mommy" and forced the big kids to do laps around the driveway.

I played "good mommy" and took pictures of all the kids.

Little Miss gets to lounge around while everyone else works.

KK's face has recovered from the poison-whatever she had all over it.

E-Man and Moops take a well deserved rest.

Actually, that's Clyde filling in for E-Man. As you can see, Clyde takes his job very seriously. E-Man doesn't like to have his picture taken; however, he will allow me to snap a picture if I promise him 30 minutes of video game time. Sorry kid, it's a school day - no video games!

Time to get busy... see ya soon.

toddler-haiku:

playing in the dirt

pouring water, making mud

a very nice day