GIRL TALK

I was busy making lunch yesterday while the boys played Star Wars guys in the play room and the girls sat on the island in the kitchen anxiously awaiting the homemade macaroni and cheese I was making. As I was finishing up getting all ingredients transferred into a baking dish, I overheard a very interesting conversation going on between these two girls.

The topic of that conversation?

Boobs.

Yes, you heard me right, Ava was talking to Olivia about boobs. More specifically how big each of theirs would turn out to be some day.

Ava: "Olivia, where are your boobs?"

Olivia points to the correct area and looks back up at Ava.

Ava: "Good girl! Now Olivia, when you get older you are going to have small boobs."

Olivia looks down at her chest area, then once again looks back up at Ava. This time with a confused look on her face.

Ava: "You will have small boobs Olivia, and I will have have big boobs."

Fortunately Olivia is only 2, and this revelation of Ava's simply did not phase her. I can only imagine how this conversation would have played out 5 years from now.

Anyway......

This is where I found myself needing to step into the conversation simply to find out where in the heck she came up with all this boob talk.

Mom: "Ava, what makes you say that?"

Ava: "I don't know, I just thought of it."

Mom: "How do you know you will have bigger boobs than Olivia?"

Ava: "Because I have bigger pink things than she does."

I am assuming she was speaking of her areola's. A small part of me wanted to ask her to point to her "pink things" so that I could confirm my suspicions, but I decided it would be best not to delve into this conversation any more. So I left it at that and got back to making my macaroni and cheese.

Just when you think you have heard it all.

LIV'S BABY

I love moments like this. Where I peek into my baby girls room and find her sweetly sleeping, snuggled up with her much loved baby doll.

The baby doll that has to have her very own blanket, stroller, wardrobe and all. The one that goes everywhere with her - and I mean everywhere. If she has been left behind, the car ride we are on at that moment is filled with nothing but sobbing and the occasional cry out for "Baaaaabbbbby! Baaaaabbbbbyy!!"

This baby has sure been through a lot. She has been dunked in the bathtub, colored on, thrown down the stairs, dragged outside all over the cul-de-sac, left at the park, found "sleeping" on the trampoline, fed pudding, grapes, and all sorts of treats that Miss Liv feels so inclined to slather all over her face.... The list goes on and on. You name it, this baby has been through it.

But when it all comes down to it, I am certain that "baby" [her name], does not mind much.

Why?

Well, because I am certain she would never be able to find a little girl who loves her any more than Miss Liv does. And in the grand scheme of things, that is all that matters, right?

ICE CREAM MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER

Today was Anthony's very last day at his summer fun program at Sunny Hill. For some reason every Thursday that I drop him off he crys and goes on and on about how he wants to stay home. 'Cause you know, who wants to play with your friends all day, creating fun art projects, playing at the playground, watching fun movies, and all that sort of stuff? Apparently not my Anthony.

I was told by a few people that his lack of enthusiasm has most likely been that his older brother and sister and baby sister get to stay at home with me while he is gone for the day. This makes him feel left out; as if he is missing out on something big at home. I have tried to convince him that on the days he goes to school there is nothing exciting going on at home; but he just does not believe me.

So every Thursday for the past 8 weeks I have left him at school, crying big old crocidile tears, pleading with me "I don't want to go to kool Mama, I don't want toooooo!!!"

And it breaks my heart every.single.time.

With today being his very last day at school, I thought a celebration was in order. So I took all the kids to Nelson's for ice cream at the end of the day. If you don't know, Nelson's is pretty much the best ice cream place ever known to man. Why? For $3, they pile the ice cream so darn high in your cup or on your cone that you can't imagine being able to eat every last drop of it. And somehow you are able to ingest all of that ice cream because it is just that good. Seriously.

So we picked up our ice cream and managed to enjoy every last drop of the sweet ice cream goodness at home in the front yard.

Little baby boy and I even enjoyed a giant waffle cone stacked full of Peppermint Bon Bon. Can we say Yum - O?

After hogging our own ice cream for a while, we all decided it would be nice to share.

I should say we all decided to share with Miss Liv as she was walking from one person to the next gazing at each persons ice cream with those big blue eyes as if to say, "Oh, if I only had a taste of that...." This tactic seemed to work for her as she got plenty of licks from everyone's ice cream. The girl knows how to work the crowd.....

And apparently she is very happy about that, but who wouldn't be?

I think it is safe to say Anthony's last day of school turned out to be a good one.

ONE OF THOSE KIND OF DAYS. I MEAN WEEKS. OR MAYBE MONTHS.

This is me, right now. Well, not right this second, it was a few minutes ago, but what's the difference, right?

Anyway, this is me, not lookin' so hot, sitting at my computer, just finishing up surfing Facebook to see what my fellow Facebook friends are doing. Wondering if anyone else out there feels as crappy as I do. 'Cause you know you always feel better when there is someone else out there who can relate. But alas, there was no one to be found. I guess I am not too surprised as it would be difficult to find many people in my position - 9 months pregnant while having to take care of 4 rambunctious kids all under the age of 8.

I am tired. So tired you can see the dark circles around my eyes in the picture I have graced you with. So tired that any amount of sleep at this point is not helping me feel bright eyed and bushy tailed. Why so tired? Well, I have not slept all that great for the past week due to the little man that is cooking away in my belly. Due to the fact that he is so big he is kicking me in my ribs or pushing down on my bladder at all times. The pushing down on the bladder thing is a real bummer at night as it causes me to have to roll my large self out of bed to go to the bathroom. After relieving myself, I must then make my way back to bed and attempt to get back to sleep which took me forever to do in the first place. Unfortunately this happens about 3 times each night.

I ache everywhere. All my muscles feel sore, and this baby seems to find every single darn nerve to sit on that will cause shoot pains down my butt or the front of my legs. These shooting pains cause me to have to stop in my tracks and mumble a few curse words to myself until they subside. Not fun, not fun at all.

I feel winded all of the time. I walk up the stairs and it takes me 10 minutes of laying on the bed before I feel like I got my breath back. I walk down the stairs, same thing. I vacuum, same thing. I try and play with the kids outside, same thing. I grocery shop, clean the house, put the kids to bed, same thing. You get the idea, I am so large I can't seem to accomplish the simplest of tasks without feeling as if I ran a marathon. Boy would I hate to be obese. I have never been, but am assuming this is what it feels like.

So take the being tired, and aching everywhere all of the time and being winded after attempting to accomplish the simplest of tasks, and all of the other ever so pleasant ailments of being 9 months pregnant, and you get one cranky Momma.

And I hate being cranky. But I just can't help it.

The poor kids have seemed to become accustomed to my running around the house ranting about them not doing this or that, or about how the house is never clean, or how I am too damn tired to do anything anymore, and I how I feel like I have no help and I am going to lose my mind, pass out, or lie on the floor and just weep. Seriously, it gets that dramatic and is that bad sometimes.

Oh how I want this beautiful, sweet little boy of mine to evacuate my womb. Like now.


Whew, it sure does feel good getting a good session of wallowing in my own self-pity in.

14 DAYS AND COUNTING...

To my little boy presently cooking away in my belly,

I am pretty confident in the fact that you are more than ready to come on out of your comfy little home you have been occupying over the past 9 months and see your Momma, Daddy and siblings.

How do I know this you say?

Well, beyond the fact that I just want to see your sweet little baby face, there is simply no more room in your Momma's belly for you to grow!

Don't get me wrong little man, I have loved every minute of you occupying the good majority of my belly space. Well, most of it. I can admit, I have not much enjoyed the nausea that plagued me in the beginning months, the heartburn, or the needing to go to the bathroom 3-4 times a night. [Momma's just keeping it real here.] But that stuff melts away when I think of all the spectacular things that go along with having been your home, your safe haven for the past 9 months. Watching my belly slowly expand as you have grown is as always, nothing short of amazing. All the little kicks and jabs you have given me - from the ever so soft ones, to the stronger ones as you have grown are as sweet as ever. I like to think of these as your way of communicating with me, your way of saying, "hey Mom, I'm in here!" And your hiccups - those nightly hiccups that seem to come on right as Mama lays in bed to relax, boy how I love those. They have become a sense of comfort for me. A way for me to know you are doing just fine in there, growing and getting ready to make your grand entrance.

So as you know, I have loved every minute of being pregnant with you. But alas, it is time for you to come on out of my belly, the place you have called home for the past 9 months, and show your little face.

I promise, you won't be disappointed.

There are way too many people that are so very anxious to meet you, give you kisses, hugs and love you up in to a million little pieces. Especially your big sister, Miss Liv Grace.

See you soon my sweet little boy....

♥, Momma

LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST

I have been thinking a lot lately about life. More specifically about how to live it to the fullest so that I don't look back some day and have regrets. So that I don't look back later in life and say I wish I would have done that. Or I can't believe I missed out on that. I want to look back on my life and be able to say I am happy, and feel a sense of fulfillment as to how it all went down.

After thinking about how I have been living my life since we have had our kids, over the past 7 years, and even just the summer thus far, I would have to say I am on my way to doing just that.

Some snipets of our life from this summer that I believe are getting me there:

On extra hot days we sit outside in our little pool, splash around, run through the sprinkler here and there and take rests in between by laying on our towels soaking up the hot summer sun. We most often make our way to the outdoor refrigerator and dig in to the extra large freezies - which are one of the most perfect summertime treats. And on Wednesdays we have the ultimate summer treat as the ice cream man makes his way through our neighborhood. The kids run like mad jumping up and down when they hear the music coming from his truck. I swear I don't know how they hear him from that far away as it always takes a few minutes for him to make his way in to our cul-de-sac. They must have some super human ice cream man music hearing abilities. Whatever the case, they can barely contain themselves and it is something I love to see.

We pack lunches then take walks to the park where we swing on the swings, and slide down the slides until we work up an appetite to eat that lunch we packed. We head back home with the kids racing ahead on their bikes or scooters and collapse on the couches in the cool air conditioning to watch some Sponge Bob or I Carly.

On rainy days we most often find ourselves cozied up on the couches for a movie marathon. Equipped with all of the essentials - a nice big bowl of popcorn, some chocolates and big glasses of juice. After movie time we sometimes pull out Sorry and play a round or two. Although that usually ends in someone crying and the game being put away as no one likes to be sent back to home while getting a big old "Soooooorrrryyyy!" yelled in their ear. Sometimes these rainy days turn in to crazy ones where the kids are bouncing off the walls, running in circles around the island in the kitchen, trashing the playroom and fighting here and there in between all the chaos. All part of rainy day fun!

We sometimes say the heck with dinner, load up in the car and make our way to Nelson's, [hands down the best ice cream place in Stillwater] and order us up some giant ice cream cones instead. We have pizza party night's where we fill our bellies with greasy yummy goodness and wash it all down with some sprite.

We have fun weekends away camping where we grill out, swim in the pools, fish by the ponds, play with friends, and stay up way too late snuggling up around the campfire roasting marshmallows.

We have fun days out on the boat where we pack up coolers full of stuff to grill, and yummy snacks and treats to eat. The kids play in the sand making sand castles and burying each others feet, they swim with Daddy and have races out the end of the boat and back over and over again. We play and play and play until everyone is exhausted and ready to go back home. Sometimes we even stay and sleep on the boat which the kids always think is such fun. After the kids are down for the night the adults usually gather on the beach for some cocktails around the campfire. Boating weekends - where some of our best memories have been made....

Above and beyond all of this fun we have with the kids, Daddy and I also are lucky enough to get time away without our little monkeys in tow. Time to spend together, alone, without the "Mommy, I need help!!" "Daddy, so and so hit me!!" "I'm thirsty, I have to go to the bathroom, my tummy hurts...." Time to sleep in until whenever and spend our days how ever we choose to. Time to actually talk to each other uninterrupted, to reconnect.

We don't follow some sort of strict regimen in the Shelton house. We just live day to day and I think that is best way to do it. Some days we eat chicken, corn, and salads for dinner. Other days we go the ice cream route. Some days we ride bikes and run around outside with neighbor friends burning off all kinds of pent up energy. Other days we stay inside laying on couches eating goldfish and drinking juice. Some days we practice reading, and work on our school activity books. Other days we do nothing but play video games and watch T.V.

We don't do too much of any one thing. We have a perfect balance of the good and the bad, the healthy and the unhealthy in our lives.

And I like it that way.

I believe that staying on this path as both the kids and the Mr. and I grow, is going to take all of us to that special place. The place where we can look back with happiness knowing we lived our lives to the fullest and had a whole heck of a lot of fun doing so.

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways chocolate in one hand martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'Woo-hoo, what a ride!'"

COMO ZOO

I went to bed last night feeling as if I wanted nothing more than to stay in that bed of mine for the next few weeks - or at least until this baby decides to make his entrance. Why? Well, as I have mentioned many times before, it has been a very busy summer, and all I have wished for is a few days at home with nothing [and I mean nothing] to do.

After looking at my calendar yesterday afternoon, I realized we surprisingly had the option to do just that [nothing] this week. Well, except for a party at Nonna's Wednesday night and Lumberjack Days this weekend - but for us, that is pretty much nothing.

So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning with a burst of energy and the grand old thought of piling all the kids in the car to head out to Como Zoo for the day. What was I thinking? Como Zoo + any day of the week pretty much + myself with the 4 kids - the Mr. = a very chaotic and stressful event.

I decided the heck with questioning myself and my sanity, and went ahead with my plan to go to the zoo.

The morning was a typical one when trying to get out of the house. I asked the kids to get dressed 100 times while I was in the shower, which they finally did after I got out of the shower. I asked them to all clean up their messes, which they did surprisingly fast this time around. I also asked them to perform the most arduous task of all - getting a pair of socks, placing them on their feet, and then getting their tennis shoes and placing those on as well. Not sure if it is because they have been pretty much living in flip flops all summer long and forgot how to do the whole socks and shoes thing, or if they were just being plain lazy, but this took them about 20 minutes to accomplish. Whew. After everyone was clothed, fed, and had shoes on their feet, I headed out to the garage, packed a few bottles of water, the stroller, diaper bag, camera, all of the kids and myself in to the car and headed out.

We were on our way to the zoo - and I was tired already.

I decided the best route to take was 36, so we went and hopped on 36, turned up the tunes and danced away to pass the time. Everything was going great until traffic came to a dead stop. Crap - construction again. There were a few distinct moans from the back seat saying "Awwwww - traffic!!" and "why aren't we moving, it is taking too long." I explained to them it should not be too long and that we just needed to be patient - even though I was secretly cursing to myself due to being totally impatient. Go figure.

As I was waiting to creep up a few inches I looked up at the sky and noticed the clouds did not look too favorable. Meaning it looked like it was going to rain. Seriously? Seriously.

Traffic started inching along a bit better, and I started to feel confident that we would actually make it to the zoo before it was time to turn around and get Liv down for her nap. I guess the man in the lane next to me did not feel the same, as he was yelling in to his cell phone, laying on his horn, and flailing one of his arms about in anger. I looked over at him and said out loud to no one in particular, "Geeze, settle down, traffic is not going anywhere even if you yell and honk your horn; jerk." Anthony must have heard me, as he followed up my comment by saying, "Yah you Meathead!!"

Nice.

My son had picked up a doozie from my long list of phrases I use while driving and find myself needing to let my aggression out due to the stupidity of a a fellow driver. Though I do have to say, he chose a better one this time around; as the last time someone did something unfavorable on the road and I got upset, Anthony shouted, "You Douche bag!!"

I know, I know the mother of the year award is so not going to me.

So, the miles of construction finally ended, we sped up, and were able to make it to our destination. I piled all the kids out, made our way to the front doors only to find they were not open yet. And there was line of about 100 people in front of us. Time they open? 10am. Time then? 9:50am. No big deal, we waited.

Once we got inside I had to go to the bathroom. Perfect. Me having to go to the bathroom in this incredibly crowded zoo with four kids in tow. So I did the smartest thing I could think of and left Ava and Lucas with Liv in the stroller right outside the bathroom door while I ran in with Anthony, went to the bathroom, washed my hands, and ran back out to the kids as fast as my 9 month pregnant body could. Whew, no one had snatched my kids away while I was peeing - they were all still there waiting patiently.

Finally, it was time to see some animals! We headed out the doors to make our way down the outdoor path toward the monkeys when Ava yelled, "Hey there is Daddy!!" I said, "No honey, Daddy is not hear silly!" As I looked up in the direction she was pointing I saw Daddy. He had decided to surprise us and come to the zoo. Thank God.

We spent the morning walking around and seeing all of the animals. We started with the butterflies. The kids were amazed by how many there were flying around, landing on people and sitting in little bowls all over the place eating watermelon. Anthony could not get over the fact that someone put watermelon out for the butterflies to eat - for some reason this seemed unheard of to him.

We then made our way to see Anthony' s most favorite animals of all. The monkeys. or Gorilla's. Or Orangutans. Or whatever they are called. I always get them all mixed up -but I am certain we saw a few of each of them.

The boys were not all that in to me snapping pictures of them on this little outing. Neither was Ava. They wanted me to take as many pictures of the monkeys, gorillas, orangutans, as I could.

So I did.

After we were finally done admiring the Primates, we headed over to see the Bulls. And boy were they ever massive and stinky and frankly quite ugly to look at. But the kids seemed to enjoy watching them slooooowly walk around inside their fenced in quarters.

We ended our morning at the zoo with a show put on by the infamous seal at Como Zoo - Sparky. Daddy took the kids down to sit in the stadium seating area.

Miss Liv and I watched from afar as I could not get the stoller down to where Daddy and the kids were. This turned out to be just fine as Olivia seemed to find more enjoyment in dancing to the music that was playing while sparky performed than actually watching the show.

Liv must have worked up a thirst, as she guzzled down my bottle of water as we waited for Daddy and the rest of the kiddos to meet us after the show.

Even though the day started out a bit on the hectic side, I think it turned out to be quite perfect. Daddy surprised us by taking the morning off of work to join us, we saw oodles of fun animals, had lunch, got to see the Sparky Show, and even got an extra special treat. The boys chose giant bags of cotton candy, the girls, extra large butterfly suckers.

The fun morning and long drive resulted in some very tired kids when I arrived back home. I think Olivia was the most tired out of the bunch.

DAY AT THE BEACH

Yesterday I decided that I had had enough of this hot, humid and sticky weather we have been cursed with the past few weeks. E-N-O-U-G-H. Seems dramatic, I know, but try being 9 months pregnant in this. Just try.

The only thing I could think of that could help relieve some of this ho-hum attitude of I-can't-stand-another-second-of-being-massively-pregnant-in-this-horribly-hot-and-sticky-weather was to go to the beach. So I packed up the towels, sunscreen, sand toys and kids and headed on down to the Beach House to cool off in the river.

We spent the late afternoon playing in the sand and water, and ended our day by joining Grandma and Papa for a BBQ.

It was a good day - the kids had fun, I had fun, and more importantly, it took my mind off of this Godforsaken heat wave we have been stuck in. Hears to hoping it breaks soon; Very soon. Or I may very well find myself a permanent spot at that beach; or at the very least, until the end of this pregnancy.