Kisses

Dave backed his car out of the driveway to leave for work but paused by the kitchen window.  Luke held a heart sign up to the window and Dave held one back.  Then Luke blew him a kiss that Dave caught and returned.

"'You know what, Mom?" Luke said, "Kisses can go through windows 'cause 'em don't got bones."

Booger

When I was cuddling with Ally before bed, she informed me, "I still have a booger in my nose."

I took it out.  Before I disposed of it, she asked, "Can I see it?"

Somewhat reluctantly I showed her.  "Eww," she exclaimed, "I don't want to eat that one!"

I laughed.  She explained, "I don't eat the ones with black in them."

"Gross!" I told her.

From the other bed, Anna asked, "What did she say?"

"Nofing," Ally told Anna.  Then she whispered to me, "Don't tell her.  Fine, I'll eat it."

"Oh, my gosh!  No!" I exclaimed.  Then I had a little discussion with her about boogers and, specifically, about not eating them.

I'm extra glad about how well we wash our hands before working in the kitchen.

As I cuddled her I wondered if I'd somehow failed in a few of my parental duties of the younger two.  How did I neglect to let her know that boogers aren't a snack?

So, when it was Luke's cuddle time, I said, "I have a weird question...do you eat your boogers?"

"No," he said, "That's gross when Ally does it."

I kind of wished he'd stopped after "that's gross."

"Oh, so you know that Ally eats her boogers?" I asked.

"I see her finger," he explained,"and it goes in her nose and then her mouth."

Yeah...okay.

Yes, I also let me kids use knives.  Why has no one called CPS on me?

Well, yes, but...

Luke and Ally had put on the Lion King CD and we were singing along.  We'd just
finished singing the refrain, "I just can't wait to be king..." over and over, when Ally exclaimed, "I know why he's going to be king, because his dad is going to die!"

"Oh, um, yeah," I fumbled to explain, "but that's not what he means.  He's not saying he can't wait for his dad to die... he just meant, he couldn't wait to be king some day..."

Nicer weather

Luke loves that the weather is getting nice enough for him to wear his short sleeved pants.

He's such an enigma

Luke, like his mother, loves to shop for craft supplies.  When we were at Michael's buying things to make end-of-the-year teacher gifts, he saw paint in colors that he simply had to have.  I told him he could buy it with his allowance, but that it wasn't paint for paper; it was fabric paint.  He decided this meant he also needed to buy a shirt.  

I was overwhelmed with the things we'd actually needed to purchase, so I let Kate take him down the aisle and pick out a shirt.  Luke couldn't initially decide, because both the light pink and the dark pink were really beautiful, but he finally chose the dark pink.

Having to wait to wash and dry the shirt nearly killed him.  When it was finally done, he decorated it with a giant race track and really fast cars, some baby cars and some daddy cars, that could zoom fast under the overpasses and get refueled in the pit stop.  Then he decorated the track with glittery silver dots and put extra dots along the neckline because it looked like a pretty necklace.

Then, while he waited for his sparkly pink race car shirt to dry, he went and played with robot letters where the good letter robots attacked the bad letter robots with magnatile shooters.

Questions

We were listening to music in the car when Luke asked, "Is this a real song?"

I didn't know what he meant, but I answered, "Yeah, it's a real song..." 

"But," he said, "I thought it said, 'I traveled the land of sweets.'"

"Oh," I said, "It said, 'I traveled land and sea,' like on roads and on the ocean."

"Did 'em travel on a boat?"

"Probably, yeah."

"Was it a special boat that could go on land and water?"

"I think they traveled in a car on land and then on a boat in the water."

"Was it a big boat?"

We spent another full minute with him asking me questions about the kind of boat and the kind of car and me answering him, before it dawned on me how ridiculous it was that I was answering like I was some kind expert on the methods of travel of song lyrics.

Scotch of a different kind

The twins and I went grocery shopping Sunday.  I let them each pick out a treat.  After ten minutes of being overwhelmed by the wide assortment of candy that Sendik's has, Luke settled on hard butterscotch candy.

He and Ally each got one to eat in the car on the way home.  In between sucks, Luke commented to Ally, "Yum, this hopscotch is really good."

Ally agreed.

I thought this way too cute to correct them.

When we got home, Ally asked, "Daddy, do you want a hopscotch?"

Fun at the park

Nighmares

I woke up to Luke screaming in the hallway.  I jumped out of bed and scooped him into my arms.  His screaming was so loudly it even awoke Dave, who sleeps through everything, and Ally.

I calmed him down enough to finally understand what Luke was telling me, "A bag of ants overflowed in my bed!"

As I approached his bed, he clung to me harder, trembling a little.  I assured him it was just a dream, and he nodded that I was right but asked, "Can you just make them go away anyway?"

I brushed my hand along his pillow a few times and then made an abracadabra motion with my hand to poof them all away.

Completely satisfied by amazing mommy magic, he relaxed and laid back down.

I smiled at his trust, but as I got in the bed, I muttered to Dave, "Who the heck would put ants in a bag anyway?"

I want something

"I want something...unhealthy!"

-Ally

Bad walnuts, a banana, and an identifiable teacher

It always amuses me when the kids and I have a misunderstanding where I end up thinking, Well, yes, I guess that makes sense, maybe more sense than what I actually meant.

Today, I'd sent some walnuts with Anna for a snack.  At lunch time, Luke asked for some of them with his lunch, so I put some on his plate and ate popped a couple in my mouth.  As I ate them, I thought, Hmm, these don't taste quite right.  I wonder if I should run to school and give Anna something different...  I checked the bag, and they didn't expire until November, so I determined I had just gotten a bad one or maybe imagined the slightly off taste.

A few minutes later, Luke said to me, "These walnuts taste sour."  And I told him not to eat them.

I decided to send a banana to Anna to eat instead of the walnuts.  But, I didn't really have time to run to school in between sending off the kids and my yoga class, so I asked if Luke could might be able to bring it to her classroom when he got to school.

He said he could.  Then he asked me, while waving his arm and pointing his little finger to the right and left, "To get to Anna's class, do I go like this and then just a little like this and then it's just a little like that?"

Hmmm.

Ally said, "Our teacher can help us find it."

So, I wrote Anna a quick note telling her to eat the banana instead of the walnuts because they're not good anymore.  On the outside, I put Anna's name.

I knew Luke's teachers would help him find Anna's classroom if needed, but would did they both know which classroom she was in?  I suppose Luke could tell them, if he knew...

"Do you know who Anna's teacher is?"

"Yes," Luke responded confidently, "the biggest one in her classroom."

Luke, Ally, and their friend C waiting for the bus

(Luke has the banana.)

Blessings

Every few days, I have a moment where I'm completely overwhelmed with how blessed I am.  Not only do I have four kids, but I have four healthy kids, and I have four kind, smart, creative, and (overall) well behaved kids. 

This would make anyone feel blessed, but I feel blessed along with a sense of wonder, because I spent five years of my life unsure that I'd ever get to be a mother.  Sixty times when my eyes filled with hot tears of disappointment realizing that another month had gone by without a baby beginning to grow.  And my womb ached with the emptiness.

I spent five Mother's Days with my heart grieving that I may never get to be another, grieving for a baby that I hoped would somehow be.

And then she was.  And then another, and before I knew it, two more.

So I'm overwhelmed, still somewhat amazed, and incredibly grateful for my family.

I do hope this Mother's Day brings joy to mothers out there, and I pray for those grieving, either for children that they lost or those that they never had.  It's hard to feel joy when you know others are hurting, but it's even harder to not feel joy when I've been given so much.

Safety rules

I got an email the other day asking if Anna could have a playdate with one of her classmates next week.  I don't know the mother, so I was really hesitant to let Anna go over there.  I replied that Anna would love to have a playdate; how about if her son came to our house instead.  She replied that her son really wanted Anna to come there.

I realized this mom might be thinking the exact same thing I was.  I'm not letting my kid go over to a house where I don't know the mom.  So, I tried to let logic overrule anxiety, and I decided I'd let Anna go.

But, I decided to have a little review with her first.  I didn't want her to link the conversation I was about to have with her to the playdate, so I decided to have a little review right then and there.  I called her over, and I said, "Let's take a minute to remember ways we keep ourselves safe."

I'd intended to take the conversation more the direction of, "If someone asks me to do something about which I'm comfortable, I don't have to be polite..." route, but Ally overheard and ran over.  She was excited to share the gun safety rules that she, Luke, and I had reviewed a few months earlier, even if she did mix it up a little bit with things we'd seen on our historical tours over spring break.

"Anna," Ally told her sternly, "If you see a cannon, don't touch it, get away from it, and tell an adult!"

I tried so hard to praise her, "Absolutely, Ally.  If we ever see a gun, we stop, don't touch, leave the area, tell an adult."  But, I can't deny that there was a huge smile on my face picturing a scenario where this little boy secretly pulled Anna aside and showed her a gigantic cannon hidden in his house.

Here's Anna with her usual playdate, our much loved J
There aren't any cannons at his house