Well, as I was putting T in his car seat this morning, I called to the kids and told them to head to the front door so we could get M to school. When T and I got there M, L, B, & S were ALL there waiting and ready to go. That in itself was quite a surprise. But the even bigger surprise was the BIRTHDAY PARTY that was also at the front door! I’m still not quite certain whose special day we were celebrating (I’m under the impression it may have been one of the dolls), but we all sang “Happy Birthday” and marched in our party hats to the car.

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I’ve got a new “toy”—we found a good deal on one of those stroller-jogger-bike trailer things. It is so incredibly easy to maneuver around! I think it’s got to do with the swiveling wheel in front and, obviously, the big wheels in back. It gets up and down the curbs so smoothly! It will fit three of the kids in it (I think we got four in it with S on a lap), but that would only be for walks. There are two seat belts, so for the bike trailer it would hold two. T alone in his car seat could go for a walk, but this weekend I went on a couple walks with him—once with B and once with S. When I did that, I bungeed T’s seat just to be double-safe. It would be really hard to bump him out (or for one of the kids to push him out), but I figured we wouldn’t chance it.

We had a nice holiday weekend. We all had a four-day weekend, so it truly was a little vacation for us as a family. Friday was a school holiday since there wasn’t a snow day we needed to make-up. N got quite a bit of yard work done, too, while the weather was a bit cooler. Yesterday morning the kids got all fancied up and we had “church at home” and did some Old Testament Bible stories from a CD set the kids have, and then that evening, we took the kids to Wendy’s (where B looked at the pictures of the Frosties with m&m’s and Butterfingers and Oreos and asked me, “Are those cavities, Moma?”) for cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets, and then we went to the “Fishy Park.” The kids had a great time playing on all the toys and climbing the rock wall. Today we worked and played out in the yard some more. While we were out there, I made some sun tea and put some mint leaves in it (from our mint plants) while it was brewing—yum! We grilled chicken and vegetable shish kebabs, had ice cream bars (on sale for $1 a box), played croquet. It was nice.

Now it’s back to getting up early and getting to school. We have 2 weeks left. Now we’re ready for summer vacation!

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Take a second to think of your favorite flower. Is it a rose or a sunflower? Or maybe an iris or a lilac? Think about the flower, its color, and how it makes you feel. Mine has long-been the daisy, and I’m one of those wacky people whose favorite color is orange. Now let’s take a look and see if your mood matches your flower! (I don’t have any orange daisies in my yard, so I’ll have to plant some and make an experiment out of this!!)

I tore this article out of our newspaper about a month ago… it’s taken me this long to get it blogged!

Match your mood to your flower:

Increase energy with red roses: Because red has the slowest vibratory rate and longest wavelength, it stimulates adrenal glands, boosting energy.

Enhance alertness with sunflowers: Yellow light waves stimulate the brain, making one alert, clear-headed and decisive. And because people generally associate yellow with the sun’s rays and daylight, it’s said to help people feel more optimistic.

Relax with bells of Ireland: Green affects the nervous system, allowing people to breathe slowly and deeply, slowing the production of stress hormones and helping the heart relax.

Boost confidence with irises: The color indigo stimulates the brain’s pineal gland, which is the regulator of sleep patterns. Indigo also helps to free the mind of worries, fears, and inhibitions.

Get a good night’s sleep with delphinium: Blue triggers the production of melatonin, a brain chemical that helps with relaxation and sleep. Blue also stimulates the thyroid gland to release thyroxin, a hormone that regulates metabolic rate.

Prevent allergies with orange daisies: Orange strengthens the immune system and the lungs, which can ward off spring allergies. Orange also has a strong beneficial effect on the digestive system and can stimulate (this is for those married folks) the sexual organs.

Relieve stress with lilacs: Violet has a cooling effect, alleviating “hot” conditions like heat rash and sunburn, and suppressing hunger and balancing metabolism. It also stimulates the pituitary gland, the part of the brain that releases tension-fighting beta-endorphins.

How did the flower test work for you? Does your mood match your flower?

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Because I'm a copycat like Pinky, (actually I guess I would be a copy-copycat or maybe a copy-copy-copycat... depending on how far back the personality-test blog-chain goes!), I too am posting the Myers-Briggs personality-type test. Take it, and see what it says about you. I found a pretty accurate description of myself. According to the MBTI, LaughterThoughts is type ISFP, otherwise known as introverting, sensing, feeling, and perceiving. Evidently I am gentle, loyal, and compassionate. I appear reserved and unassuming. I quietly do things for others. I am patient, accepting, and nonjudgmental. I have a live-and-let-live attitude. I am sensitive to conflicts and disagreements. I have little need to dominate or control others. I don't know... Does this sound like me? What do you think? Based on the test results, I was given some typical occupations that are compatible with my personality.... Well, in my line of work, I am definitely a beautician, counselor, nutritionist, food service worker, nurse, recreation leader, secretary, teacher, and police officer!! How about you? What does the test say about your personality type??

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M came home from school today with some of her school projects... she has her science notebook journaling the life cycle of ladybugs (it has a table of contents and all!) ; she has her weather journal recording the daily weather conditions of wind, rain, sun, etc.; she has some drawings. These were two of my favorite of the pictures. They are such pretty watercolors. The first is "Rain on Me," and the second is a picture of a dog going into a mitten. The mitten isn't in this picture because the paper was too big to scan the whole thing.

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Poor little B looks like he’s turning into unicorn boy and his horn is trying to push out his forehead. The man who coined “goose egg” for a knot on the head obviously never had a toddler in an unfortunate accident involving siblings, a stroller, and a concrete driveway. Otherwise, I really think the term would be “dragon egg” or something else more descriptive of the monstrous beast growing on my son’s head. Obviously more concerned with his well-being at the time and not wanting to capitalize on a very horrible situation, this picture was taken a day later, so the swelling has gone down considerably. It was bigger than I could ever have imagined. It protruded from his head at least an inch and was even larger in diameter. Many ice packs and a couple doses of ibuprofen later, it's looking comparably better. Even so, I don’t think I’d be too surprised if he started sprouting wings…!

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Last night after the kids had gone to bed, B came back downstairs. He was wearing his Tigger backpack on his back and a big grin on his face. N was writing a report for work, and I was feeding T. I told B if he was coming downstairs, he was going to be cleaning. (I figured he would head back upstairs if being out of bed meant doing work… I was wrong!) He picked up puzzle pieces and tic-tac-toe and actually enjoyed his clean-up time. After he finished putting away the puzzles, he headed into the kitchen (still wearing his backpack). I asked him what he had in his backpack. “My imagination is in my backpack, Moma. That’s why I have to wear it to the kitchen.” ("Ahhhh...") So then I asked him what he was going to do in the kitchen. “Use my imagination, Moma. I have it in my backpack.” ("Ahhhh..." again) He took off the backpack, got on the floor flat on his back, and began to spin in circles. I just grinned and wondered what was going through the little mind of his... with that imagination at work.

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The kids got a new Highlights magazine the other day. This afternoon M noticed a sundae recipe in it. It didn’t sound especially appealing for me… especially since I was feeling pretty lazy and didn’t want to work on a food project right then. This evening after dinner, we were all out in the front yard. M disappeared, and no sooner had I said that I wondered what M was up to inside, out the front door she comes with my surprise snack. She had read and followed the recipe directions (but chose to ignore the part about an adult’s help, I guess!) and had prepared a treat for me. It was an apple sundae for moma—apple chunks, peanut butter, whipped cream, and pink sprinkles. Surprisingly, my surprise snack was actually really good! I have always liked apples and peanut butter, and the whipped cream on top almost gave it the flavor of caramel apples or something. It looked pretty funky, but it was tasty. (I told her I was glad she didn’t put jelly on it.) But, just a few minutes after I had finished my bowl of apple sundae, M asks about how much dinner I had eaten, mumbled something about snack, and out she comes with another special something for me. Since it was not more of the yummy apple sundae, it went into the refrigerator for tomorrow.

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Well, my unofficial No Parking notes must have looked official enough... Big & Scary was actually parked in the lot this morning! Of course, several new mamas have taken her spot along the curb. I didn't find where N put my notices at first, but it was a little too busy this morning anyway... would've been too difficult to stay undercover. :-) Maybe tomorrow. We'll have to get out the door earlier, so I can get the best parking spot for a stakeout.

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There is a parent/visitor parking lot at M’s school. The curbs along the inside are designed for a pull-through student drop-off. It’s kinda like McDonald’s. You don’t go park your car in the drive-thru and go inside to order your french fries. That would be pretty silly and, well, pretty annoying to everyone else! That’s just not how it’s done. M.W. Elementary is not McDonald’s, but the concept is obviously the same. Well, obvious to me at least. It’s probably obvious to most of those other mothers, too, but being a little selfish and lazy, they park and leave cars there anyway. (And it is NOT out of desperation due to a full parking lot… there are plenty of open spaces.) I’ve been observing (and enduring) all of this for a few months now. With a carload of kids, it’s nice to be able to let M out the car door and onto the sidewalk that goes right to the front of the school and right to her classroom.

Yes, that WOULD be nice. Unfortunately many moms who take their kids all the way to the classrooms every morning choose to park in the drop-off lane rather than in a parking space (which would add like, what?, ten feet to their walks?!). This is quite frustrating for the rest of us. It only takes about 8 lazy mamas to block all the curb space… and that doesn’t leave much room to maneuver—in any car but especially in a Suburban. Plus the parking lot is designed for counter-clockwise flow only, so when the cars are parked in the spaces along the curve and cars are parked along the curb, there is no getting through… and you’re pretty much stuck there until one of those parked cars moves.

Several weeks ago, I called the school and let them know what was happening. The next morning I arrived to find they’d put out a couple orange cones and “student drop-off only” sandwich boards (Let me not forget to mention that the curbs are already marked NO PARKING). The problem maybe wasn’t quite as bad, but most of the lazy, selfish mamas just parked around the cones and did their same ol’ routine. I waited another week or two, and then I called the school again. They added a few more cones. Nope, those die-hard lazy ladies keep on parking. It’s the same ones every morning. Since the school has not decided to hire a parking lot monitor, I decided to volunteer my services! …Of course, I’m doing it Robin Hood style. You know, undercover and anonymous!!

I got on the computer last night and printed up my you-are-parked-in-a-no-parking-zone notices. We got out of the house a few minutes early this morning, parked in the parking lot, and began our covert surveillance operation. After M headed to class, I stayed around and watched the cars. And then I waited until the mamas were off at a distance, and I stuck my notes on the windshields. As this was a secret operation (and certainly had not been approved by school personnel), I was very sneaky. There is one lady who is…. well, one big, scary mama. Let me stress that—BIG and SCARY. Not wanting to still be in the parking lot when these lazy, selfish mamas returned to their cars (because at this point, I figured they’d be lazy, selfish, and DISGRUNTLED mamas), I pulled out and parked along the street so I could observe the aftermath. The only one I could see very clearly was Big&Scary, and I was glad to have left the parking lot! She read the note, turned towards the parking spaces, looked around, and then held it up in the air and ripped it into pieces… you know, mad-doggin’ that person in the parking lot who dared leave the note. (Now, did I mention that this was a big and scary mama??) Maybe I should just put on my “official” parking lot monitor orange safety vest...“Just doing my job, ma’am.”

Well, moving on…

Last night was the Awana awards ceremony. M finished her first year of Sparks and L her second year of Cubbies. Next year, they will be in Sparks together, and B will be a Cubbie! Of course, B already has his weekly Cubbies night with Moma and Daddy, so when the girls got their vests on, he got one for himself—a silver poofy winter vest he found in the coat closet. He let us know that he was on the gray team, and this was his uniform. (During the pledge, he was singing "We're Awana Cubbies!") After the girls had been recognized, we snuck out and went to Dairy Queen. Too “long” of a ceremony for our other restless little’uns. (At one point during the program, I gave S a pen and paper so she could scribble. She did that for a while, and it really worked to distract her. She got really quiet as she concentrated on her artwork. Then I realized that she wasn’t coloring the paper anymore, but she was coloring all over her body. She was definitely entertained.) I had a buy one-get one Dairy Queen blizzard coupon, so we got two blizzards and split them up among the six of us. (T just smiled and kicked as he watched the rest of us eating.) They all really enjoyed the m&m blizzard, though M was initially sad because she wanted an ice cream cone like Ainsley had. A is her fellow-Sparky buddy who was also at DQ having an after-ceremony celebration with her family. (N & I shared a cappuccino-Heath blizzard (minus the Heath) and it was mmm-mm tasty!) At one point, we looked over and saw that B and S had put water into their blizzards… they were making milkshakes, they said. Ew! Luckily we noticed before they stirred them, and we were able to pour off the water.

When we got home the kids went upstairs to do the bedtime routine. Except S. She snuck off into the kitchen to play in the sink… where I caught her brushing her teeth with the cleaning-the-muck-off-the-dirty-dishes brush. Double Ew... and definitely an “ew” in a completely different category than the watery milkshake “ew”!!!

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Okay, my visitor counter is a big exaggeration right now... I was tinkering with my blog template, and with all of my previews, I added quite a few ticks to my counter! No wait-- I'm just really popular!:-)

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We have an overnight artist! B went from scribbles-only artwork to a drawing of me-- his first drawing ever. It's a picture of Moma taking a shower, he said. I told him that I loved the lips he gave me. Aren't thet so full and pretty?!

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Here is a Cinco de Mayo picture of T-- three & 1/2 months already!!!!

The kids watched Peter Pan. L has been going around the house as Captain Hook. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that B thinks he’s Peter. I looked over as he stood on the couch and squatted down and got himself into launching mode. I tried to stop him, but my brain was working faster than my mouth, and the words just came out in garbled slur of nonsense: Abbadabuh, duh, duhbaba! Doh!

His arms went out to the sides, and

he dove. Unfortunately, he dove off the couch onto the coffee table. Fortunately, he’s a tough little guy, and landing on the coffee table didn’t seem to faze him too much. There was a little grunt and an "ow," but that was followed by

"I CAN FLY!!!"

I told him that next time he might want to consider flying onto the cushiony couch!

All the flying must really be wearing B out. He's been falling asleep at random times again. He fell asleep on his burger recently, and then he fell asleep on the potty a few days ago (recall the hide & seek

game). Yesterday he fell asleep right before dinner... (at least this time he was actually on the couch... about to somersault off but still on the couch.)

Tuesday S took a really long nap, so when it came time for bed, she wasn’t very tired. She went down okay, but after a while, she climbed out of the crib and snuck downstairs. I was feeding T and watching American Idol. She hopped up on the couch and sat with me for a few minutes. Then N came in from the backyard and took her back upstairs. She’s just barely two, but she’s a great example of how observant little kids are. Today she’s been holding the toy microphone to her mouth while singing (a song she’s picked up from hearing the other kids sing it) and swaying around and dancing… performing just like the contestants on American Idol. I snapped a picture. Maybe one day I’ll be saying, "Just look at the picture-- we always knew she’d be a famous singer. She’s been performing since she was two!" (Really, look at the picture. You can almost see her dancing in it!)

M has been making teeth out of paper and scotch tape and putting them in baggies with the date (of tooth "loss") and leaving them for the tooth fairy. Once there was a note: Dear Tooth Fairy, Can I have five dollars? And once she made a tooth for L so that L could have the tooth fairy visit her since she was already going to be at the house to collect M’s tooth. The tooth fairy took L’s "tooth" from under the pillow and left her some "money." Fake coins for fake teeth. The tooth fairy cut circles out of paper and wrote "25 cents" on them. L was a little disappointed, "Awww, maaannn. It’s just pretend money!"

N came home with a bag of fresh rhubarb somebody at work had grown. I’ve never had rhubarb before, but not wanting to waste it, I made him a strawberry rhubarb pie. It was actually pretty good! He really liked it. M liked it. L didn’t try it but wasn’t too sure about whether or not she’d like it. (Though she still wants her piece—it’s in the fridge, untouched but being "saved.") B liked his piece (after Moma ate all the visible pieces of rhubarb out of it), and S stabbed hers with a fork but never tasted it. All in all, the rhuberry pie, as L calls it, was successful!

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Okay, this picture has nothing to do with my blog, but I thought it was a cool picture of my mutant strawberry!

Ever left a phone message for someone that you wish later you could go back and delete? Well, yesterday afternoon, I had a big scare. I was holding T and all the other kids were playing together—going from the backyard to the living room to their bedrooms—just busy, busy, busy and having a great, happy time together. At one point, M, L, & S come parading past me, calling out for B. It caught my attention because they called for him so many times and he never answered. They didn’t know where he was. I checked the backyard around the side of the house, I checked the garage; I checked all over downstairs.

I sent M and L upstairs to check every room, as I went out the front door. My heart just sank because I saw that the front door was completely unlocked. I remembered locking it when had come in from school, so I figured he was out there. Amazingly I stayed calm, but my heart was racing. I kept calling out to him, and I looked out in the park, and I looked down the street, and I looked in the front yard on the other side of the driveway. The girls came out of the house and said he wasn’t upstairs. I told them to look again and to look in the bedroom closets and everywhere. I ran back inside, put T in the baby swing, and got my phone out of the kitchen. I went back outside and called N while I looked more. I called once and got the voicemail where I left the panicked “CALL ME BACK NOOOOOWWWW!!!!” message. Then I hit redial called right back again. I got him that time. Luckily he was in from the field and at the office, and he immediately left for home.

With no sight of B anywhere outside, I went back inside to look some more. I kept yelling his name over and over and looked behind the couches and under the tables and under beds. I said, “B, if you’re hiding from me, you need to come out right now! We’re not playing a game right now!” Never an answer from him, never a giggle, never anything. My heart was racing, and my mind was racing (Do I call the police? Do I drive around and look for him or do I stay here? Is he lost or does he even realize that he’s gone? Did somebody pick him up? Is he looking for me? Is he crying? Is he scared? Is he playing?). I stayed pretty calm on the outside though… (I didn’t need a nervous breakdown in front of the other kids.)

I went into our bedroom again, looked behind the chair, looked under the bed, looked into the bathroom. I started to leave, and then I turned back to the bathroom and went in further. Well, somehow in the girls’ grand searches, they had skipped our bathroom, and somehow in my quick room surveys, I hadn’t look far enough into the bathroom.

There, sitting on the potty, flopped over, was B—sound asleep. I don’t know how he didn’t hear us yelling and yelling and yelling for him. I called N, told him I’d found him (relieved that I’d found him, but a little embarrassed that I’d found him in such an obvious spot and embarrassed over how I must have sounded in my help-help-I’m-scared message). B obviously never knew what had happened, but I guess he sensed the urgency and nervousness because he was so clingy and needy and cuddly after that.

Okay, so fast forward to this morning. We take M to school and are running a wee bit late… I see Michael and his grandma headed down the street and we’re not even out the door yet (Michael is in M’s class). I send the kids out the door to get into the car, and I pick up my purse and keys, only to knock my drink over and have it spill all over the little desk at the front door. I mop it up with a towel from the bathroom and then run out to the car where the kids are already. We rush to school (as much as you can rush in a school zone). Well, this is a good story but is off the subject, so I won’t go into all that… but that is how the morning started. You get the idea! When we get back home, the kids start playing, picking up where they left off when we went to school. We’d been home all of maybe three minutes—I’m nursing T, and L comes in the back door, telling me something about outside. I notice that it’s awfully quiet. I ask where B and S are. She says they’re not out back. I don’t hear them upstairs. I tell her to go check the front door real quick and see if it’s unlocked. (This comes to mind so quickly because of yesterday’s scare.) She comes back and says yes. So I get up to go out front, telling her to go upstairs and check the rooms, and L says, “Well, I think they might be out in the front yard because the door is cracked.” The door was definitely open, unlocked and ajar, and they were definitely outside… off around the side next to the garage, filling up a toy bucket with rocks.

B and S are becoming quite the little buddies lately… and, boy, do they get into some mischief. After finding them outside, I drag them inside and then just a couple minutes later I hear them upstairs. I’m a little suspicious, so I go up the stairs to look. B has my bottle of water open and has stuck a ballpoint pen in it and is swishing it around. S has my chapstick and has turned it and smashed it all up in the lid.

Never a dull moment around here, that’s for sure.

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Look Ma! No hands! (and no clothes?)

N took M out on her bike last night… first time with the training wheels off. (We’ve been talking about doing that for about a year!) He said he didn’t know if he’d ever let go because she was so zig-zaggy. But he decided to just do it, and she picked it up right away. She can go a pretty good distance on her own and usually “stopped” only because she swerved off the path and into the grass. She was using her hand brakes and everything. I got a few pictures, got a little video. It was funny. I had to keep reminding her to watch where she was going and not to watch me and the camera! …because her bike usually ended up where she was watching. If her eyes were turned toward me, then her bike eventually came right towards me, too.

In the car today, L went year by year and told me which kids were going to be in school and which were going to be home with me. She started with the fall and said how she and M would be gone, but I’d still have three at home. It’d be like that for 2 years, and then B would be in school. Then the next year, S would join, and I’d only have T at home. She eventually got to T in school and no kids at home (“unless, of course, you have more kids by then,” she let me know). She was like, “Wow, Moma, and then you’ll get some quiet rest time everyday, don’t ya know?!” I asked her what she thought I’d do all day with no kids around the house. “Aww, Mom. You’ll go shopping and decorate the house cute.” What’s that supposed to mean… I don’t have a cute house?!:-)

B has been quite the ornery guy lately. At random times throughout the day, he has been quite opposed to wearing clothing. I’m literally forcing his clothes onto him. A couple of times, he’s come out the front door when I’ve been outside, and I turn and see him, and he’s completely naked. He goes into the house hollering and fussing because I’ve told him he needs to get dressed. This morning, I fixed his cereal, and after I’d poured the milk in, he started crying because he didn’t want kid milk (whole) in it, he wanted some of that adult milk (skim). Too bad, go eat it anyways! He fussed, but I went about my stuff. I left the room to do something, and I came back to the kitchen. S wanted some more cereal, so I went to the bag of mini-wheats to refill her bowl. I noticed milk on the bag, and then I noticed milk in the bag, and then I noticed that the mini-wheats were sorta soggy. I asked why there was milk in the (new) bag of cereal. B says, “I didn’t like that bowl of cereal.” Evidently he just dumped in back into the bag, milk and all.

When B was on the potty this afternoon, S went in the bathroom doorway and started pulling off her pants and diaper. I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty. She shook her head no, but she continued pulling off her pants. B got off, and I put the potty seat on and plopped S up there. She cried and said “nu-uh” but we all stood around and cheered for her when she went wet-wets in the potty. Then she was very proud and smiley. She just came down from her nap, and L has got her on the potty again. L opened the bathroom door to let me know that S had gone again. S just said “yay!” Moma says “yay” too!! Maybe I can get M and L to do some potty training for me this summer!!

T has been a good little sleeper lately. He’s been going down for the night at a nice, early (relative to prior bedtime!) time (about 10) and usually sleeps all night long. He’s still a happy, easy baby. He is full of grins. During church Sunday, he kept cooing and “giggling.” M likes to "mommy" him. She does a pretty good job of comforting him. Earlier he woke up from a nap and was crying to eat. She picked him up and was soothing him. Then I spy her out of the corner of my eye and she's lifting up her shirt. Guess she thought she'd take a stab at nursing him, too. I snatched him away and explained that was for moma to do.

Well, I'm smelling a stinky S, so I guess I'd better change her. Too bad she didn't take care of that while she was on the potty!

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