Birthday Boy

David turned another year older earlier this week. Here are a few fun facts about his special day:

- It's become a tradition that we let the kids pick out their own gifts to each of us on special occasions. As we perused the aisles of Wal-Mart, Drue's eyes lit up and she reached her arms out of the cart to get his treasured gift...trial sized women's deodorant. (I cheated a little on our tradition and steered her quickly away from that, however. Her next pick was a Superhero T-shirt).

- His restaurant of choice for his sophisticated, grown up celebration...Chuck E. Cheese.

- It has snowed almost every year on his birthday. This year was no exception.

- David and I are 6 months apart in age. Most people that I come into contact with are surprised when they learn that. They guess him to be much older than me. I am choosing to take that to mean I look young, and not that they think he acts more mature than me.

- As we were getting the girls ready for bed the night of his birthday, he ducked into our bedroom, then came walking slowly back into their room with a puzzled look on his face admitting, "I have no idea what I went in there to get". (Hmmmm...I believe this is one of the first signs....)

Daddy Daughter Ball

Pair of tickets: $50
Dress: $29.99
Dinner at Applebees: $21.22
A night to remember with your firstborn baby girl who's growing up too quickly: Priceless

 

 

 

Cheap Entertainment

One of the kids favorite games is "Jump into a huge pile of pillows". Of course I was appropriately shocked and frozen with worriment when I came home one day and saw it in progress. But...I got over that pretty quickly and decided to roll with it. Heck, Tate jumps off the ottomans with no pillows underneath, so I figured a feathery oversized nest to catch him was an improvement.

Drue has added another aspect, in addition to jumping, she does somersaults off the ottomans.

 

Good form Reese! I give you a "10". (On a side note...3 people told me Reese was getting "so tall" today at church. THREE! And they all saw her at separate times. That was too funny. I do look at her every now and then and think how big she's getting. But it's also hard to gauge sometimes since I see her everyday.)

 

Air surfing.

 

The beagles see pillows and think "relaxing retreat"...not for long. WATCH OUT MOLLY!

 

Parenting Tip #87

Placing your two most expensive handheld items (cell phone and digital camera) side by side on the console tray of your vehicle the same day you decide at the last minute to fill a large travel cup with hot spiced tea, guarantees that while your back is turned, your 20 month old will grab the cup and pour its entire contents onto them.

Backseat Blues

We bought our van two years ago for convenience sake. Well, that, and there was no way three car seats would have fit in either of our vehicles at the time. I embraced the fact that we were entering our 30s and chose practicality over style. We liked the fact that all the kids would have their own space and elbow room and not be smushed up on top of each other in a car or smaller vehicle.

Tate has now decided, however, that he doesn't want a space of his own, he wants to sit smack dab in the middle of his silly sisters...that's where all the action is apparently. He tries to trick me by scampering in ahead of everyone and plopping down in one of their seats. Probably thinking, "Mommy's so frazzled, she just wants to get us all buckled in and be on her way...she'll never notice me here."

This morning I found them like this as we were heading out to take Reese to school.

 

Reese said, "Awwww...look. Tate wants to sit by his sissies. Please Mommy? Just let him sit there."

Tiredly I explained how it was Mommy's job to keep her little ones safe and he needed to be safely buckled into his own seat in the front row. This didn't deter Reese. "Well, you could just put his seat back here between us then."

Great idea!! (If he were Tom Thumb and his carseat was only 6 inches wide....)

Before we picked Reese up later, I switched her seat with Tate's. Now Drue and Tate can get into some fun trouble in the back row together.

Sleeping Beauty

Drue is a sneaky sleepwalker. By that, I mean she can sneak so quietly into our room at night, climb into our bed, and snuggle herself in between David and I and we won't even know she's there! We are surprised many a morning to wake up and see her little brown curly head sleeping peacefully right smack dab in the middle of our bed.

On occasion, she has snuck downstairs while David is watching TV, crouched up into a little ball behind the couch and fallen asleep. Unbeknownst to David until he heads upstairs for the night and finds her there.

It always takes me aback when I go to check on her and find that her bed is e-m-p-t-y. Thus begans the mad scramble to find her. Once she was balled up next to our bed on the floor next to the wall. One morning I went to check on her before I headed off to work and found that she had gone downstairs to sleep on the couch, and had tucked herself in and everything.

What a funny little girl.

Last night, I went to check on the girls before I went to bed and to turn their light off. I opened their door and immediately saw that Drue's bed was unoccupied. I had just come from my room so I knew she wasn't in there. Just as I was mustering up the energy to go search for her, I looked down at the foot of Reese's bed and there she was.

 

Why didn't we think of this before? We could have saved some money on a bed for her. They probably would be able to sleep comfortably like this for another few years or so...

My Supermen

 

Once again David has jetted off to sunny California, leaving us behind to endure blustery winds and frigid temperatures. How sweet of him. I believe my resentment would be lessened if his mid winter business trip destinations were to Alaska...or Antarctica.

On a positive note, our menu this week will include tuna pie, tuna pancakes, and tuna popsicles, with a side of pea juice.