I am boy flower boy- watch me grow!

The little ones were up early this morning… #4 woke up crying and I met her at the bedroom door just as she was turning on the light. I hurriedly flipped the switch off so that she wouldn’t wake up #3. (I was not, by the way, successful in this.) I brought her to my room and put her in my bed… after removing the shoes she had fallen asleep in. (I guess after going to bed last night, she got back up and put her shoes on.) Not too much longer, I hear #3 headed up the hallway. He gets to our bedroom door, turns around, and heads back down the hall. Fortunately, he did not go downstairs but was only making a pitstop at the potty. Unfortunately, I still had to get up and help him because a half-asleep 3-year-old is helpless at 5 in the morning when he’s gone poops... and even more so when he has sleepily slumped himself too far down in the toilet… A little boy’s bottom in contact with potty water (needless to say, poopy potty water) requires a moma’s assistance.

During all of this, I hear #5 rustling around, chattering away. He played happily for quite a while. Eventually I got out of bed and started his breakfast since I wasn’t sleeping anyway. #s 3 and 4 were both asleep, snuggled up next to one another. It was adorable! I knew the flash would probably wake them, so I didn’t take a picture. (Since they were both up soon after I went downstairs, I guess I should’ve captured that Kodak moment after all!)

I didn't capture that, but I did capture the post-breakfast (but pre-cleanup) jam faces... well, most of them. #2 had already washed up, and #5 didn't have any jam... We had quite the sticky black raspberry mess!

We got #s 1 and 2 dropped off at school this morning, and I stopped by the post office to drop off some mail. By 8:45, #3 was asleep again, so we ran a couple “drive-thru” errands (dropping off library books, dropping off a movie rental) while he got a little morning nap. By the time we got home, he was waking up. We parked in the driveway, and I started unloading everyone. I had the baby out of his carseat, and #4 had gotten out of hers and was climbing over the seat to get out of the car. #3 got out of his seat but instead of getting out of the car, he got on the floorboard. He is a flower seed and is planting himself, he says.

“Surprise, Mom! I’m a flower!” He starts to pop up from the floor, but he is moving in super-dooper slow motion… like the slow motion of slow motion. “Tell me to grow, Mom. Say, ‘Grow, grow, grow!’” So I tell my little flower to grow, grow, grow, and he eventually grows big enough for me to pull him over the backseat. I picked my flower, smelled it, and said what a pretty handsome flower it was. He slides out of the car and steps onto the driveway, and I ask him what kind of flower he is. He shakes his head and giggles. “I’m not any kind of flower, Mom. I’m [Blessing #3]. I was just pretending. I’m not really a flower, silly!”

.............................................................................