Tonight I read Charlie The Snowy Day. Towards the end of the book, the boy puts a snowball in his pocket and goes inside only to find it is gone later. This was our conversation.

Charlie: Why was his snowball gone?
Me: Well, if you put a snowball in your pocket and brought it inside, do you think it would be there later?
Charlie: No.
Me: Why not?
Charlie: (with a little smile and look of knowing in his eye, leading me to believe he had come up with the answer) Because some bad guys will come and take it away.

Frankie's Favorites

Frankie is a full-fledged 1-year-old now and like our other kids, he's into everything.  He reminds me a lot of Sam at this age: maximizing destruction and danger in most of the things he does. Here are a few of his very favorite activities:

1) Emptying out boxes of pasta onto the floor and then dragging the noodles throughout the house. Because what's the fun in keeping a mess like that contained to just one area? While pasta seems to be his favorite, he'll settle for a box of crackers or cereal if he can get his hands on it.

2) Trying to destroy our lamps. I don't know why he seems so set on breaking our lamps, but he works at it every day.  Either he pulls the plugs out of the sockets and walks away with it so the lamps come crashing down or he climbs up onto the end table and bangs on the lampshades, denting and cracking them, sometimes knocking over the whole lamp, sometimes falling off the end table. I spend at least 30 minutes a day just trying to distract him from banging on the lampshades while he fights and wrestles me, desperately trying to get back up on the precarious end table.

3) Getting me to vaccuum the rugs and then not letting me vaccuum them. He will stand by the vaccuum and cry until I turn it on, and then block my path so I can't move the vaccuum. Eventually we  manage to get the rugs cleaned, and then we do it again because he cries when I turn the thing off.

4) Unwrapping Christmas gifts. Believe it or not, not one of our older 3 kids ever unwrapped a Christmas gift before we told them to do so. I guess with four kids, there's bound to be a first for just about everything a child might think of to do. I had several gifts wrapped and under the tree a week ago. Now I have several unwrapped boxes under the tree and lots of wrapping paper in the recycling bin. Did I mention he also got ahold of 3 large tubes of wrapping paper and shredded them all? I think one of his gifts for Christmas is just going to be a fresh role of wrapping paper for him to play with - the only question is how to wrap it....

5) Pulling everything out of our tin foil/plastic baggie/saran wrap drawer and then emptying all the boxes of their contents. I finally gave up on everything in that drawer and stashed it away somewhere else. Not only does is it a pain trying to restuff a box full of ziploc bags, but the tin foil box has sharp edges.

6) Unrolling and ripping apart rolls of paper towels with the cat. Frankie loves unrolling toilet paper and paper towels, and he discovered that the cat shares this love. I could hear him laughing and playing with Coco the other day when I was getting something done upstairs. I thought he was just running around the island with something for the cat to chase or throwing a ball for her to chase. But no. I came down to find the kitchen floor covered in bits of paper towel from not just one but two rolls of toilet paper. He unrolled them, Coco ripped them apart. The drawer that formerly held our tin foil and baggies is now full of paper towel pieces that I use to wipe up small spills or noses. If he gets into it, he might make a mess again, but he can't do much more damage.

7) He will actually play with toys from time to time, but rarely with any toys that he can play with independently. His favorite is a jack-in-the-box, which he can get out of the box on his own. Getting it back into the box is a different matter. Fortunately, motherhood has given me a high tolerance for  kids' desires for repetition so I don't mind hearing the tinkling tune of Pop! Goes the Weasel three hundred times a day.

Since we left for our Oregon trip on Frankie's first birthday, I never did get around to posting his first birthday pictures. We got lucky, and my sister generously baked a cake for us so we could celebrate Frankie's and Gabby's first birthdays together (they were born 4 days apart).

Birthday buddies and grandma

Old Fashioned Fun

It didn't dawn on me how unsanitary bobbing for apples is until we had it all set up and I started explaining how to do it to the kids. As far as I know, no one got sick, though. And it was well worth the fun!

Lunch on the Dark Side

As I cut up grapefruit for our lunch, it didn't really register that Charlie was breathing much heavier than usual. I didn't notice, that is, until I said, "Could you get some spoons, Charlie?" and he replied in a deep voice, "You mean, Darth Vader?"

Oh, my mistake. "Yes, I meant 'Could you get some spoons, Darth Vader?'"

Apparently Darth Vader likes to eat with a Monsters Inc. spoon.

That's a first

With each new child comes new experiences that I never expected to happen in my life.  There are all sorts of phrases I never thought I would say, like: "No, you may not write newborn across the baby's head with a Sharpie" and "Don't pour juice on the cat."

The other night Frankie was sleeping in our bed. And I use the term "sleeping" very lightly here. He woke up in around 2:00 and was wide awake for some reason. Fortunately, he seemed happy to just flop around the bed for an hour or so, talking occasionally, while Seth and I lightly dozed.

At one point, he lay down right on top of my head and proceeded to thrash and spin around. All of a sudden he started fussing and trying to get away from my head, but he couldn't. He had gotten so wrapped up in my hair that he was stuck to the back of my head. And I wasn't at an angle that allowed me to disentangle him so I had to wake Seth up and tell him, "Frankie is stuck in my hair."

I had read before that women with very long hair should keep it up at night if they have children in bed with them, but I didn't actually think mine was long enough. I'm comforted by the fact that the manner in which he entangled himself is not something I could ever sleep through. Still, I'll be keeping my hair up at night more often - especially if Seth isn't around to free us.

Oregon!

As promised, here are a few memorable moments from our trip to Oregon.

First off, we had to get on the plane to get there, which was a bit of an ordeal. We got to the airport at 5:00 am with 2 hours to get through security and have breakfast before taking off. After spending way too much time trying to get our seats together, the lady at the ticket counter finally printed our tickets.
Unfortunately they had other peoples' names on them.
Fortunately Seth caught it.
Unfortunately she spent another 45 minutes trying to get it fixed while we just wanted her to get us through security so we could get on the plane and ask people to switch seats with us if needed. Fortunately someone else finally came through to help and pointed out that we were going to miss our flight if she didn't print the dang things and get us through security. So she printed our tickets with random seats and sent us to security.
Unfortunately, after going through the line to security, we were informed that for some of us, they had printed off tickets for the 2nd leg of our flight and not the first, which meant we had to go back to the ticket counter and start all over.
Fortunately both the security line and the ticket line were pretty short so we got through quickly but we were starting to cut it really close.
Unfortunately we were asked to step aside while they did a further inspection on Elena's bag. They pulled out her jacket that I had pulled up from the basement and packed for the trip. I saw the man pull something out of her pockets and said to Seth, "I think she must have had some rocks in her pocket," to which the man responded, "Those aren't rocks."
Nope. They weren't. They were bullets. Bullets!!! I kid you not.
Apparently the last time Elena wore that jacket was last spring when we went to a graduation reception at the local Sportsmen's Club. Where people practice shooting. And the ground was littered with used shotgun shells, a few of which Elena picked up and put in her pocket because she's a collector like that.
Seth and I reacted a little strongly when we saw what they were, thinking we were going to miss our flight for packing ammunition in our children's bags, which made Elena start crying. The poor thing had been up since 4:30, after all, with no breakfast, and she felt responsible even though it was in no way her fault.
Fortunately, another TSA agent came over, and when the guy holding the bullets asked, "What do we do?", she replied, "Just keep the shells and let them go." Well, that was easy.
In the end, we made it on our plane (seated together), but didn't have time to eat.

Well, that story was much longer than expected. If you're still reading, let's switch to pictures and shorter stories for a bit.

We lucked out weather-wise on the trip. We came at the end of a long spell of rain for a week of sun. The warmth made for perfect snow-man making weather in the mountains. Everyone pitched in to help with the snowman. Charlie liked looking for rocks and sticks to use for the eyes and arms. Right as we were posing for this picture, he spotted a little stick, picked it up and said, "Wait! He needs a wee-wee!" and proceeded to (as  Adam put it) make sure we really had a snowman. And then he turned toward the camera, ready to take the picture as though everyone made their snowmen anatomically correct.  

Here we are at "It's a Burl." Neat place. Hard to explain briefly. You can google it if you want to see more.

Exhausted after another day of sight-seeing

 We didn't have room in our luggage to bring 6 pairs of boots so we had to improvise a few times as you can see in these 2 pictures. There wasn't much we could do once Elena stepped in a creek wearing her only pair of shoes, however, so one lucky girl got some brand-new boots. And then proceeded to wear her dirty and slightly soggy shoes the rest of the trip. 

Monkey Feet

On our tour of a still functioning lighthouse

Visiting a covered bridge (the little boys were sleeping in the car)

Checking out the koi pond at a vineyard with Adam (who took most of our other pictures)

A couple of lizards the kids caught - the blue-tailed one was especially cool

One of the highlights was definitely the redwood trees in Northern, CA. Frankie insisted on walking on his own, which would have worked well if he would have followed us but he seemed to prefer to wander off into the forest alone so we had to keep a close eye on him.

This is the root system of a fallen Redwood

It's a little hard to see in this one, but Sam and Charlie are walking along a fallen Redwood. We really got a feel for how big these things were when we couldn't even let the kids walk all the way down to the end of the fallen trees because they would end up so far away.

 Another highlight was the beach. We went to three beaches, and the cold water didn't deter the kids from playing in the waves one bit. I think they could have stayed on the beach from morning to night without ever noticing they had missed several meals. The force of the waves, however, made us set pretty strict limits on how far in they could go. Basically not at all, but their favorite was running away from the waves when they came way up onto shore.

And then there was the moment when this guy stuck an orange M&M up his nose.  We were just about to take off when Kjersti (our friends' older daughter) said, "I think Charlie has an M&M in his nose." And it wasn't coming out. I was thankful that it was something that would eventually melt so we just had to keep him calm while we waited a little bit and then keep blowing his nose until all the orange coating and chocolate was out. The trickiest part was to keep from laughing throughout the process.

And then on the flight home, Elena's bag was once again held up. She got a panicked look on her face, turned around and said, "I don't want to watch and I don't want to know what it is." We had let each of the kids get a couple of small souvenirs. Elena's first was a mood ring that she gave me for safe-keeping at a beach and I promptly lost within an hour. Her second was a water-filled squishy toy. Which she made sure to pack in her bag. Which was a carry-on. Which are not allowed to have that much liquid. The very kind security lady took pity on us and didn't take away her only remaining souvenir. While I'm thankful for our security checks and their rules, I'm also thankful there are still people in the world who can use a little good judgement and common sense to make the occasional exception.

Ok, last story. On our flight out of Minneapolis, Elena came back from the bathroom and said, "Darwin is on this flight!" Darwin is a man we know from our home town. I told her it must just be someone who looks like him. "No, it's him. He's even wearing the hat he always wears!" So I checked it out, and she was right. He was several rows behind us so we didn't get much of a chance to talk.

While we were heading to the gate for our return flight, the kids were hoping Darwin would be on our flight home and that he would sit by us. Since we were flying a different airline for the return flight, I told them it wasn't likely. And even if he were on the same flight, with 200 seats, the odds of him being seated next to us were even less likely. Well, the odds were in our favor: we found him in the airport playing the flute with some local musicians, of all things. The kids enjoyed listening for awhile and then we boarded the plane. (You get to board right away when you fly with more kids than any intelligent person would attempt to fly with.) We took up 5 seats, and the rows were 6 across so there was an empty seat next to Elena. And guess who had the lucky ticket. Darwin, of course! And Frankie even let Darwin hold him for awhile - a bonus for us both.

A New Record

Our kids have all been poor sleepers until they reach about  years of age. They get enough sleep, they just don't always have the best timing. So far Charlie has been the worst, although Frankie appears to be following in his footsteps.

The biggest issue is getting them to sleep at a decent time in the evening. Once they hit about 2 years of age, their naps very easily interfere with bedtime at night. So earlier this week when Charlie fell asleep at 3:45 in the afternoon, I was not the happiest camper.

I tried waking him up right away to no avail. For the next 3 hours, we tried waking him every 30 minutes or so: we tried taking him outside, standing him up (he just walked back to the couch and fell back asleep), blaring loud music, tickling him, letting the cat climb all over him, letting Frankie climb all over him,....nothing worked.

At 6:30 I finally gave up and brought him up to bed thinking maybe he would just sleep through the night, although we were prepared to be up with him at 2:00am. I was shocked when we woke up at our regular time. He slept 15 hours! I'm thinking major growth spurt?

Oh, Shirt!

If I had to choose, I would say The Blues Brothers is probably my favorite movie. I can't decide if that makes me a dork, shallow or really cool.

So the other night when Charlie was up past 11:00 and wasn't falling asleep, I saw that it was on TV and decided to let him watch it. I planned to rope him in with the police car chases and music (2 of his favorite things) and then figured it would bore him to sleep when they switched to less exciting dialogue. I figured right about him loving the movie and wrong about it eventually boring him to sleep.

I also figured that the swear words would be removed since it was on TV. I guess the rules have changed since I was a kid. We've seen the movie enough that Seth and I managed to talk loudly over the TV whenever a swear word was coming. And we only missed one - the one when the driver of the Good Ol' Boys' RV says "Oh, S***!" right before driving into a lake.

We kind of held our breaths, hoping that if we didn't react, he wouldn't even notice it. About a minute later, just when we thought we were in the clear, Charlie said in a completely innocent voice, "I like the way that guy said, 'Oh S***!'"

Seth was on it quicker than I was and said, "He said 'Oh Shirt!'" Charlie was a little skeptical at first, "He said, 'Oh Shirt'?......Why did he say 'Shirt'?"
Then it was my turn to cover by telling him there was a shirt lying in the road, and that's what made him drive off into the lake.  That seemed to satisfy his young and trusting mind, which could never imagine his parents would tell him anything untrue.

Seth was hesitant to even have this posted on the blog: exposing our kid to profanities and blatantly lying to him all in one night. Pretty sure we're not in the running for Parents of the Year Award. I thought the story was too good to let it get lost to our undependable memories, though.

He has reenacted many things from the movie, but it has been a few months now and he has not once used the phrase "Oh Shirt!" or anything similar. Here he is chasing bad guys around the kitchen island. I love how he even whips the back end of his "car" whenever he turns a corner like they do in the movies. Unfortunately for Charlie, this activity was ruining our floors so we had to put an end to his car chases. Hardwood floors and kids just don't mix that well...

And here he is listening to his new favorite CD while dancing on his tiny "stage."  I'm pretty sure some of those moves are straight from the movie. For the first 2 weeks after getting this CD, if anyone dared to play anything other than the  Blues Brothers Soundtrack, Charlie would stop whatever he was doing, yell "Noooooo!!!" and run to the CD player to switch it back. I'm glad to report he has gotten over that and we are once again allowed to play a variety of music.

Charlie: Mommy, you are beautiful.
Me: Thanks, Charlie!
Seth: What about me?
Charlie: (after studying Seth seriously for a minute) Daddy, you are....red and yellow.

That was the closest he could get to describing Seth's skin tone.

A glimpse for now

We went to visit friends in Southern Oregon last week, but between unpacking, getting ready for Halloween, and a nasty head cold, it might take me a bit to get all of our pictures and stories up on the blog. So here's just one to tie you over.

This was our first attempt at a family picture on the trip. We had to wake Charlie up to take it so our friend, Adam, who was taking the picture was trying to get Charlie to wake up and smile. At one point Sam made a farting noise, which got a giggle out of Charlie. Then I made the mistake of saying "All you really need to do to get him to laugh is talk about farts and butts."

It's been a few years since we've hung out with Adam, so I had forgotten that of all people, he would have no shortage of material in this area. He immediately started singing a little diddy called Alphabutt, which of course became the kids' new favorite song. As you can see in the picture, Sam was especially entertained - particularly when he hit the line "C is for Cat Butt."

For those of you who are intrigued enough to hear the song, you can listen to it here. WARNING: If you don't want your kids running around saying things like "D is for Doo Doo" and "L is for Loud and Long farts" do not play this while they are within earshot.

Safety gates are safer when they are shut

Frankie got this gash when he fell and hit his head on the edge of an open baby gate. It's not huge, but it was deep enough that I couldn't tell how deep it went. I didn't actually see the fall. I just heard it and came around the corner to see a gaping hole in Frankie's forehead. I resisted the urge to call 911 and he was running around laughing within 3 minutes. Once he (and I) calmed down, I searched the area for what could have cut him, realized it was the baby gate, and was assured that it wasn't a nail or something that could have gone in extremely deep.

After Charlie's $1000 ER visit to glue shut a cut that probably would have healed OK with a band-aid, I couldn't decide whether to bring Frankie in for this one. Fortunately, my brother is a doctor so I sent a picture to see what he thought. He said bring him in for a stitch or two, so it was off to the Urgent Care with all 3 boys. We lucked out with a very short wait, and no need for stitches. The older boys were a big help and Frankie smiled through the whole appointment.

 The glue was definitely a good idea though. It wasn't closing up as quickly as Charlie's had, and being on his forehead, he might prefer not to have a scar. Although, you never know with boys - maybe he would have loved it.

Having two rushes to the hospital for cuts in the last 6 weeks, I'm hoping the old "bad things come in threes" theory doesn't come true here. Twice is enough.

Quote of the day

Charlie had his friend, Debbie, over to play yesterday. She often says things that make me laugh, but yesterday's quote took the cake.

I told them the neighbor was bringing her dog out, and that they could go play with him if they wanted. At the mention of a dog, Debbie excitedly told me (in her adorable high-pitched voice):

"Ooooh! My grandparents have a human and his name is Uncle Eddy, and Uncle Eddy has a dog!"

There was a brief pause before she said "human," so I think she was going to say her grandparents have a dog, realized it was actually Uncle Eddy's dog and corrected herself accordingly. It might not be as funny written out, but it was the funniest thing I've heard a kid say in a long time. And I hear kids say funny stuff all day long.

What the heck?!

Due to either divine intervention or a crazy coincidence in addition to Seth and I having a simultaneous lapse in good judgement and some miscommunication, we somehow ended up with a cat yesterday.

A cat. As in the animal neither Seth nor I ever really wanted to have in our home.

Don't get me wrong. I really like cats and I loved growing up with one. Seth likes friendly or entertaining cats, but not scary cats who trap him in a basement for 45 minutes (that's a story for another day and better told in person). But the hair and the scratching and the litter box and and the eventual traumatic death that will probably happen while we still have kids in the house who will be devastated were all reasons that we didn't want one.

So how on earth did I end up typing this post with an adorable cat curled up and purring right next to me? I'm asking that question of myself, not you. I'm still in a bit of shock over this.

As far as I can tell, we were tricked into the whole thing by some cosmic force. Maybe the kids have been secretly praying for one when I wasn't listening. Or maybe the cat has been praying for a family. Or maybe naming our youngest kid Francis spurred St. Francis of Assisi, that lover of animals, into finding us a pet for Frankie's first birthday.

Here's more or less how it happened:

When the cold weather hit last week, we got mice in the house. No surprise there, it happens every fall. The thing is, this year, we couldn't seem to catch them. We've always set out traps right away and been done with the whole mouse thing in a week.  So Sunday night, as we were lying in bed after hearing what sounded like a mouse the size of a raccoon running around in the walls, I turned to Seth and said, "Should we just get a cat?" And to my surprise, he said, "Maybe we should." And then we went to sleep.

So the next morning I talked with a friend who lives on a farm who said we could borrow one of their young tomcats for a couple of weeks. If we liked him we could keep him, and if not we could return him. That seemed like a safe way to consider getting a cat so we decided to go ahead with it when we got back from vacation in 2 weeks. My only regret was that it was a tomcat. I preferred a female so that, should we decide to keep the cat, we would have the option of exposing our children to the incomprehensible cuteness of newborn kittens.

Lo and behold, within an hour of us deciding that we were ready to try out this furry animal in the house thing, a beautiful, friendly, cuddly, great-with-kids, youngish? female cat quite literally showed up in our front yard.  Our neighbor found her out front, handed her to Elena and said, "You want a cat?" Elena ran in and asked Seth who said, "Definitely not." (I found this out later).

While I was trying to figure out if she belonged to someone, Seth went out for a run, stopping to talk with our other neighbor, Kelli, on his way out. It turns out the cat was a stray that they had been taking care of for a short time but didn't really want to keep.

Through a series of conversations between the kids, us and our neighbors (none of which were actually between Seth and me), I was lead to believe that Seth was fine with getting the cat as long as I was ok with it. And he was led to believe that I said I was fine with it as long as he was ok with it.

So we both ended up not wanting to be the terrible parent who said no to the cat after the other parent had said yes. In the end, we both "agreed" with each other's "decision" when in reality, neither of us actually officially made the decision to keep her.

By the time we figured this out, she already had a litter box, food, a name (Coco), a theme song ("Coco the Calico! Coco the Calico!" sung  to a tune similar to Waltzing Matilda), and had been baptized. Ok, the baptism thing is an exaggeration but the theme song is 100% real.

So far, she's not even a good mouser, which was the whole reason we got a cat in the first place. Ironically, the day we got her, we  suddenly started catching mice in the traps. We've got 6 in the last 2 days. Like I said, tricked. By cosmic forces.

Anyway, I suppose you'll want to see her so here's a picture. We'll take her in this week to find out how old she is and to make sure she actually is a girl and not rabid and stuff.

Oh the excitement!

THEY PAVED OUR ROAD TODAY!!!!!!

That may not be so exciting for our readers, but trust me, this is very exciting news in our household. Like new-baby exciting. Or winning-the-lottery-exciting. Or Trump-and-Clinton-have-both-decided-to-step-down-as-presidential-candidates exciting. 

Ok, maybe not that exciting, but I did catch myself loudly squealing with joy when I saw what was happening before I realized what I was doing. And I'm not an overly emotional person so that says a lot. With a 90% chance of rain forecasted for today, the kids and I prayed last night (a few times) for the rain to hold off until our road was paved. And it did just that! They finished about 20 feet past our property line before they had to quit due to the rain.

It's looking like our new living room will be done this week, too. Seth just needs to finish up the trim, and we can move the furniture in and start using it. I'm looking forward to this even more than I was looking forward to having the road paved.

I hope Charlie will like the new living room with a play area for him. So far he hasn't been a big fan of the remodel. He has asked on several occasions to have our old kitchen back. He also misses our old bathroom and our old sink (barf). Unfortunately for him, the first thing we have done so far that he liked was temporarily move all of our furniture into the current living room so we could finish the floors and trim in the new living room. 

This is the state of the living room we have been using for the last 2 weeks. Cozy, in't it? Charlie took one look a this arrangement, and said, "YES! I love it!!!"

I, on the other hand, am very anxious to have more than a few square inches of floor space in our living room. And to not having to rescue poor Frankie from getting wedged in between all the furniture 5 times a day. Most of my time at home since Frankie became mobile has been spent just keeping him safe. If it weren't for the older kids who have been forced to  willing to help watch him for a bit every day, I would be so behind in basic day-to-day chores I would have long ago lost hope of catching up before the end of the decade. 

Of course, being the mother of 4 kids, I don't actually have any expectations of being genuinely "caught up" until our youngest is a sophomore in college at least. Fortunately, 9 years of motherhood has prepared me to happily accept the persistent feeling of being behind and to let things go enough to continue enjoying our beautiful (although dirty) family. Double fortunately, my parents have frequently swooped in to take the kids right when I'm about to hit the "I can't do it anymore" state.  I do hope that once the project is done, the phrase "Hmmm...I wonder what I should do next" will pass through my brain from time to time.  It's been a long time since there hasn't been something (or someone) pressing it's way to the foreground of my mind screaming "Me next!!! You need to take care of me next!"

To give you an idea of what I mean, here is a clip of the condition of our house while Frankie mastered the art of walking. As you can see, it doesn't exactly scream, "Go ahead and let your 10 month old roam free and unsupervised while you get a few things done." 

And just to be clear, he is completely covered in sheetrock dust, a look similar to but not to be confused with the pasty-white-summer's-over-Minnesotan look.

Front Row Seat

We're in the homestretch of the road project in front of our house. At least I hope we are. I've been telling myself that for the last 3 weeks.  Our sidewalk and driveway are finally done, and the road is supposed to be tarred on Tuesday (although I won't really believe that until I see it).

It's been long enough now that all of the construction guys know Charlie by name. He takes his little chair and frequently watches them work, talks with them when they are between tasks, and dreams about which job he would most like to do when he grows up. (He has decided on being the guy in boots who gets to walk through the fresh cement, smoothing it out as he goes).  The excavators have lost their appeal for Charlie, but I fully expect the tarring process to be exciting enough to hold his attention once again. We might have to watch that one from inside, though.

 

One of the guys, thinking for a minute that I lived in the house next door to ours, commented that our "neighbors to the south" have quite the singer on their hands. Confused, I said there was no house to the south of us. When he realized that we lived in that house, he pointed at Charlie and said, "Oh! Is he the singer? We heard someone belting from two blocks away and said, 'Sounds like there's the next American Idol.'" It could have very easily been either Charlie or Elena. When I told the kids about it, both of them said, "That was me."

Shooting the breeze

Frankie is walking!

Frankie took his first steps at about 10 months old, which was the same age Charlie was when he took his first steps. Initially, he seemed to have a preference for walking outside on the concrete. Now he is practicing his new skill inside and out, much to our delight. He no longer spends all day trying to get one of us to hold his hands and walk him around. He still has an affinity for climbing things so the stairs have been blocked off, and we try to keep the step-stools put away to avoid a sprained arm like the one Sam got at this age from climbing up a stool and falling off.

Not to overshadow Frankie's accomplishments, but you can get a glimpse of Seth's latest work in this video as well (more pictures to come). He made the island out of a black walnut tree that one of his clients cut down a couple of years ago. I love that this island was not only built by Seth but was built from a local tree at that. It astounds me what he can envision and create entirely on his own. 

 And this from a man who didn't think he was smart going through elementary and high school because his strengths didn't lie in reading and writing, which translated to poor grades.  I find myself getting more and more frustrated with our school system that tests and rewards only a very limited type of intelligence, creating a constant struggle and false sense of inferiority in those whose strengths lie elsewhere. Too bad they don't test spacial or interpersonal intelligence on the ACTs. Seth might have gotten a full ride to college.

To see a "before" shot of what the kitchen looked like, here's a video of Charlie and Sam unloading the dishwasher that I shared on the blog 2 years ago:

 

"Squints"

That's what Seth calls Sam on occasion.  I have no idea why.....

Not only do Sam and the Sandlot character have the same glasses and prefer to wear their caps backwards, but they also both love baseball. I just hope Sam never pulls a stunt like that scene at the pool (although I honestly wouldn't put it past him).

Here are a few more snippets from his summer of fun on the baseball field with friends and two cousins:

What must the neighbors think....

Who needs pockets? 

For that matter, who needs pants?

(those are my sunglasses and a hammer, in case you can't tell)

In other news, Charlie had his first visit to the ER this weekend. It was nothing too major, but it wasn't the most convenient timing. Then again, when is a trip to the ER ever convenient?

We were at a wedding dance, and Charlie had asked if he could climb up onto the stage with the bridal party's table. I told him no, and he listened until he noticed some other kids crawling around under the table about a half hour later.  I guess he couldn't resist after that. Just as the dance was getting going, I heard a cry over the music and 400 voices in the room (it was a large wedding), and headed to the rescue. There I found Sam trying to help Charlie who was crying under the table, bleeding from his knee, and a bit tangled in the lights used for decorations. He must have scraped his knee on a nail or something sharp on the floor.  Several people looked at it and thought it would probably require stitches.  Since we only had the one vehicle and didn't know how long the ER visit would take, the entire family got to tag along.  

Charlie was a trooper and cooperated very well. The rest of the kids did as well, too, for that matter.

I think we gave the people in the waiting room some entertainment, and the nurses were impressed. They were able to patch him up just using glue, but of course we had missed the dance by the time it was all done. 

Having been a parent for 9 years, I've learned a thing or two and I was able to resist the urge to rub salt on his wound by scolding "I told you to stay off the stage!!" I did once ask if he remembered that I had told him to stay off, and he did, but I left it at that. I don't know that he needed the reminder, though. Several times at the hospital, on the ride home and before tucking him into bed, he said in the sweetest little voice, "I'm sorry for going on the stage. I didn't mean to get a cut. I promised not to go on the stage and then I did. I'm sorry, Mama." I was hopeful this would mark a turn-around point where he would start listening a bit better when we tell him not to do something. So far, this has not been the case: he still comes back with, "But I won't get hurt! See?" 

Oh well. The best I can hope is that the message is buried in there somewhere and will someday come to mind and prevent him from serious injury....

The "Messy Baby" Stage

Look who discovered the tupperware drawer. Oh happy day! (for the baby, I mean - not so much for Mom)

In addition to being an expert mess-maker on the floor, he has frequently been requiring multiple baths a day. This is what happens when someone says, "How big is Frankie??" while he's eating chili. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but his entire head and both arms are covered in chili. And yes, he has a "girly" high chair. Our blue one broke, and we are borrowing this one from a friend.

 Looking at all these pictures of Frankie, it has occurred to me that it might not be so difficult to identify whose baby pictures these are in the future. Most of his baby pictures contain glimpses of the ongoing construction in the background.

Yummy yogurt!

And this one is just for fun. We've been seeing a lot of Papi around here this summer. Between the house project and the busy baby, Seth and I have had very little time to tend to the garden. My dad has been kind enough to come at least once a week to make sure everything is harvested, watered and weeded. He's become such a regular, that all the neighborhood kids have started calling him "Papi" as well.

If only disciplining were always so easy....

Today Charlie was lying on the floor and kicking the new kitchen island that Seth recently installed. I forget why exactly, but he had a reason that made sense to a 3-year-old: he was make-believing something that required kicking the cabinets. Anyway, Seth got after him for kicking it and told him that if he damaged the island that he just put so much time into building, he would be in a lot of trouble and Daddy would be very angry. Charlie stopped and went off to do something else.

About 10 minutes later, I heard Charlie say from upstairs, "Mom, can I come out now?"

Me: Come out from where?

Charlie: From my time out.

Me: Why are you in a time out?

Charlie: For the island.

Me: I didn't realize you were in a time out. Did Daddy put you in a time out?

Charlie: No...I did.

Me: Oh. Well, yeah, then I think you can be done now.

I then heard him come out and apologize to Seth, who had also forgotten completely about the earlier incident. "Sorry for what?" Seth asked. "For the island." Charlie told him. "Oh...I forgive you", buddy."

Under Construction

I've been very thankful this summer that I generally have a pretty high tolerance for chaos. I'm very, very far from Type A. Occasionally, I wish I were more orderly and structured, but I think this summer would have pushed me over the brink if I were. As it is, we've just been going with the flow and having a wonderful summer together while making slow and steady progress on the house. 

 Since June, the road in front of our house has been under construction. And since we lack a back alley, that has meant parking a block away, which isn't a huge deal until I come home from running errands after dark with a sleeping toddler, a crying baby who wants nothing other than to be held by Mom, and a van full of groceries that need to be unpacked. Fortunately this has only happened twice when I didn't have Elena, Sam or Seth around to help unload. The inside of the van could also use a very thorough cleaning - not an easy feat to do a block away from the house. Plus, the grocery store, library, post office, etc. are all on the other side of that street.  I don't know which is more work: loading everyone up in the distant van to drive around the construction, or trying to get the kids and a stroller through the muddy canyon (it's been raining a lot this summer) on foot. Today we had to leave for Mass 10 minutes earlier than usual so we could walk around all the muck to get to the church across the street. It dawned on us as we were walking that it would be easier to drive to the next town and go to their Mass than it is to go right next door. You know it's getting old when the 3-year-old, who was initially delighted to watch all the diggers and construction trucks working day after day says to you, "Mama, I want our street to be black again." Even the retired men who would come to stand and watch the action along side the little boys back in June have seen their fill and stopped showing up (apparently watching heavy machinery holds an attraction that does not go away with age for males).

The road in front of our house

Our front yard (formerly a beautiful perennial garden and hedges) as they relaid the pipes. On the plus side, we now have less weeding to do...

In addition to the outdoor construction, we've also had ongoing indoor construction since February. Things are coming along nicely, but there is still a large portion of our house full of all the stuff that will eventually be stored in yet-to-be-finished cabinets and closets. This picture is of the clutter at its worst, but that's more or less what half of our home has looked like throughout the summer - just add a bunch of tarp and tools to the mix. One recent improvement: I think Frankie is finally starting to realize that those bits of sheetrock on the floor aren't that tasty. More pictures to come of Seth's beautiful wood-working skills. I'll wait until things are a little closer to finished before sharing.

Here's a shot of Seth sanding the floor to get it ready before installing the new island. Rather than cover everything with tarp, he taped down a "tarp tent," inserted the end of a shop vac underneath while he sanded, and shot the dust straight out the window. The things this man comes up with.... It sure has been great to watch his immense talent in problem-solving over the 15 years we've been together.

Motherhood: one big never-ending "brain fart"

I've been asked by a few moms who have fewer than 4 kids: "What's it like having 4 kids??!"

Well, for starters, you do things like go out in public dressed like this and don't even realize it until your daughter points it out an hour into running errands.

I can't believe that worked

At lunch today...

Charlie: I want chocolate milk.
Me: Sorry, you can have regular milk or water, but not chocolate milk.
Charlie: I want chocolate milk!
Me: No, you can have plain milk or water.

He continued to insist on having chocolate milk for another minute or two, when I remembered that he had had a small piece of chocolate earlier, so I  tried a new tactic, not really expecting it to work.

Me: Well you already had a piece of chocolate today, and it's sitting in your tummy. So when you drink regular milk, it will mix with the chocolate in your tummy and turn into chocolate milk.
Charlie:....OK!

Problem solved.

Sombrero

One of the things I love about Elena is that she has never been afraid to march to the beat of her own drum. She doesn't get too hung up on being like or dressing like everyone else, and she doesn't shy away from doing something that might make her stand out a bit.

This was exemplified earlier this summer when I had her go out to pick strawberries on a very hot and sunny day. She soon went back inside to get a hat and returned wearing 4 baseball caps on her head - one pointing in each direction to give her the maximum amount of shade.

I started to say she should invent something like that, when it dawned on me that someone already had: the sombrero. So she quickly ran up to the attic and grabbed a sombrero I used for Spanish class. It was big enough to shade almost her entire body.

A few weeks later, Grandpa Jim called to see if the kids could go pull weeds in the bean fields. He told them to get ready as early as possible and to wear a hat because it was going to be another hot day. Once again, Elena went out in her sombrero (although she took a slightly smaller one this time). I didn't get to see Grandpa's reaction when she showed up, but I'm guessing he got a kick out of it.

Summer Fun

The summer has been flying by with lots of mini vacations and outdoor fun. Last week we spent our annual weekend at the cabin with all of Seth's family - only this year we got a whole week of fun in the sun. We lucked out with the weather and created many more wonderful memories.

Frankie was teething or growing or getting over an earache or something, so he didn't allow me too much time to run around with the camera capturing moments on "film" (what's the digital version of film?), but I did my best. I'll share a few highlights:

Charlie and Reed once again had several "concerts" out in the back yard, joined occasionally by Noah. Fortunately the neighbors like kids and commented how much they enjoyed the music.-

The kids had so much fun swimming, boating, tubing, etc that getting them to sleep was quite a bit easier than it has been in the past (with the exception of Frankie, but we've never had good baby-sleepers). Charlie even napped most days and still went to bed with the other kids - a huge improvement from last year!

My favorite Charlie moment was one morning when he woke up, crawled in next to Seth and started talking quietly. He must have wanted to sleep a bit longer, but couldn't fall back asleep. It sounded like he was whispering "Eyes! Stay shut! Stay shut, eyes!!" I wasn't 100% sure I was hearing him right, so I asked Seth what Charlie was saying. Seth said, "He's telling his eyes to stay shut."

Here he is napping with Seth out in the lake:

I will also probably never forget the lip retractors from the weekend. After watching the "Watch Ya' Mouth Game" video on Youtube, of course we wanted to try it. (China is making a killing off of dental lip retractors now). The adults played a little bit, but the retractors were a huge hit with all the kids. I didn't think they would fit their small mouths, but as you can see, they had no trouble. Several times during the week, I looked out onto the dock to see kids casually fishing with their lips peeled back unnaturally far.

Sam also tried knee boarding and did impressively well.  He stayed on for quite a long time, and had a blast. The only problem was that he was strapped in good and tight so he wouldn't slip off the board, so when he finally let go, he flipped under and didn't know how to unstrap it. He was submerged with no way to get out for about a half-minute. Richie was driving the boat and whipped around immediately so Seth could jump out and get Sam, but I'm sure those 30-40 seconds seemed like an eternity to Sam, who couldn't see that help was coming, and was panicking under water. He managed to get his mouth above water once for a quick breath before going back under so he never swallowed any water.  The next day I saw him strap himself onto the kneeboard (on the ground) and practice unstrapping it over and over again - something we clearly should have had him do beforehand. I don't know when he'll want to try it again, but it looks like he's not going to shy away from it. I hope at the very least this usually fearless boy will now have at least a healthy fear for the water, which could serve him well in his "invincible" adolescent stage. 

And the fishing! At our friends' cabin 2 weeks ago, Sam was fishing on the dock when we heard him start hollering for help. Thinking Charlie had fallen in or something, Seth ran down as fast as he could to see Sam's fishing line bent over as he tried to reel in a bass. We ate this beauty up for supper, and it was delicious!

Cell Phone Pics

I finally upgraded from an old flip phone to a newer (but still old) slider phone. I delayed even after I had to glue four of the buttons back on, but decided to bite the bullet when the #5 button fell off and I couldn't find it to glue back on. Anyway, I had to pull all the old photos off the phone in order to keep them. I guess the kids went through a "tongue phase" about 6 years ago.

I also found these gems:

(This is Charlie)