CHOOSING MY BATTLES

As always, Anthony kept himself busy this morning in the bathroom while I was taking my shower. He rummaged through the cabinets, and drawers, putting deoderant on his arms, rubbing lotion all over his legs, brushing his hair, you know, making a mess of things. He also took out the scale, stepped on up, and patiently waited for it to display his weight. When the numbers appeared, he yelled, as always,

"Momma, how many am I today?"

"You are 33 and a half today."

"No Mom, that is not right, I am only free (3) !!

"No honey, that tells you how much you weigh, not how old you are."

"Oh....."

A few minutes pass in silence as I finish drying my hair and cleaning up the bathroom.

"Hey Mom, I was two for a really, really long time."

"Yes, you were two for a whole year, and now you are three and you will be three for a whole year too."

"I really liked two Momma."

"Why Anthony?"

"Cause two was just so much fun."

"Yes, I bet it was."

The conversation ended there, as he went back to the business at hand, grabbed my make up remover pads and started rubbing one all over his face. Half way through his pretend make up removal , he began singing a song, one that I had not heard in a very long time:

"I like big butts and I cannot lie, and a girl walks in tonight...."

Yep, even though he has the words completely wrong, I am sure you know the song -unless you happened to be hiding under a rock during the late 80's. So my 3 year old is running around singing this, of all songs. Lovely, right? And let me just say, the (incorrect) memorization of these lyrics was not my doing, as I am surely not driving around in the car with the kids rocking out to Sir Mix A lot.

"Anthony, where did you learn that song."

"I don't know, I just learned it."

"Honey, someone must have played it for you or sang it to you."

Getting mad: "NO. I just learned it all by myself."

I decided to leave it alone.

What can I say? I wisely choose my battles with the kids, as some things just aren't worth getting all worked up about. So he makes a mess of my bathroom on a regular basis in his quest to get ready for the day, and is currently running around singing "I Like Big Butts." It could be worse, right?

GRADUATION DAY

**apologies in advance for the low quality pictures. One of these days both the Mr, and I are going to have to figure out how to properly use this nice camera of ours.**


It was a big day for my Lucas Alexander. Today was graduation day for his Karate class, which meant that he would be graduating from the beginner white belt to the next level, the gold belt.

At USA Karate they make each and every graduation to the next belt so very special for the kids, which I think is so neat. Lucas was just thrilled when he walked in the door today and saw all the Mom's, Dad's, Grandma's, Grandpa's, friends, and other people who came to watch their loved ones graduate. It was a true audience for the kids, and I belive this made it that much more special for each and every one of them.

Once everyone got settled in, they began having each child, by themselves, show all the different techniques, punches, and kicks they had learned to get to this point.

I was surprised at how respectfully all the kids sat, watched and waited as each of their Karate buddies took turns showing what they could do.

They then had them all do some different punches and kicks as a group, to show the 9th degree black belt's that were present what they had learned.

They each even got to bring Mom or Dad out on the mats to practice a few kicks and punches, which Lucas thought was really cool. And actually, I did as well, as he chose me to practice with, not Daddy which surprised me.

After proving to everyone present that they were indeed worthy of receiving their next belt, the Karate teachers began presenting each child with their respective belts,

and a very special certificate that stated their achievements.

Before we left, I made sure to get a picture of him with his Karate teacher, Mr. Ranch.


At the end of the ceremony, Lucas walked up to me trying to contain his excitement, but I knew he was just beaming inside. You could tell how very proud he was of his achievements, which made me so happy, and so very proud myself.

My Lucas Alexander - he has mastered the white belt, and is now onto bigger and better things with the gold belt. Before I know it he will be a green belt, then a blue, a red, and on and on until he reaches the black belt. And after seeing his transition today from the white to the gold belt, I can say that I am so looking forward to each and every one of those graduations.

JUST IN CASE THERE IS ANY CONFUSION....

The kids kept themselves busy this morning, sifting through their sticky, colorful letters in order to create a name tag of sorts for everyone's chair at the kitchen table.

Surprisingly, they did not give up half way through the project when they found they had run out of A's and V's. They simply used different letters, turned them upside down, or cut them to create the letter they were missing. Very smart children I have if I do say so myself.

After about 30 minutes of organizing, searching, cutting, and strategic placement - here are the fruits of their labor.

When I asked why they had thought to put everyone's names on their resective chairs, I was given this answer: "Well, so that everyone knows where they are supposed to sit."

You know, in case after 6 years of sitting in the same chairs there comes a point where anyone forgets where to plant their little bottom at dinner time. Just in case.

But it was a cute little project they came up with. A cute project that kept their little minds busy for 30 minutes, and off of any thoughts of beating on each other, calling each other names, fighting,yelling or any other sort of torture brothers and sisters love to inflict on one another. For this reason, it was in my opinion, one of their best little projects they have come up with to date. Yes, indeed it was.

BANANAS OVER BANANAS

My Olivia loves her bananas. If she could, she would eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and anytime in between.

Yesterday, I gave her a banana at snack time and decided to let her roam freely around the house while eating her favorite food. I figured it would be an extra special treat to not be restrained by the confines of her high chair.

Turns out she enjoyed this very much....


Wow - I am kinda in shock that Mom is letting me wander around with this banana in hand, I wonder how far she will let me go with it.

Oh, time to stop for a moment and take a few bites.

What, Mom? I am so not going to trying to make a run for those stairs that are a just a mere few feet away. No, I would never try and go upstairs with my banana. Never....

Alright, I will stop right here at the bottom of the stairs, squat for a bit and enjoy a few more delicious bites of my banana. Hmmm... Not tasting the same - oh, silly me! It is upside down!

There we go, I have it right now. Deeeeeeelicious!

I wonder how this peel tastes? Ummmm, not so good.

On my way back to the kitchen now cause Mom just won't let me go up those darn stairs. Time to take a load off for a while.


Almost done with the banana now, and I do have to say that I am just so thrilled that Mom let me have it without being in my high chair. What a great day!

ANOTHER FIRST COME AND GONE

Tonight was a big night for my Ava. Tonight she went to her very first slumber party at her friend Lauren's house.

It was such fun to see her excitement and anticipation for this big night all day - actually week, long.

When I finally dropped her off today at 4 o'clock, all of her pent up excitement and anticipation came flowing out, along with Meghan's and Lauren's. The three girls ran around in the front yard, screaming, being silly and laughing with delight at the fact that they were all having their very first sleepover with girlfriends. It was really so very sweet to see.

Over the past seven years I have been witness to many of my Ava's "firsts". From saying her first word, crawling, walking, going off to preschool, making the big transition into Kindergarten, having her very first play date, riding her bike without training wheels.... so very many "firsts." And now tonight, another first. I brought her to her friends house for her very first sleep over.

I am so very happy to have been able to witness all of these wonderful milestones in her life, and especially the ones that are being met now as she is getting older. The sleepover is the first of many wonderful experiences she will have as a child. I am so looking forward to all of the others, ones that I recall quite vividily from my own childhood as some of the best times of my life.

TO SNIP OR NOT TO SNIP

The Mr. has been not feeling so swell for the past week and a half. He has been sleeping 8-9 hours each night and still waking up feeling tired and run down, complaining that his head feel "full" and he is just plain old feels like crap. There were even a few days over this week and half that he arrived home early from work and climbed into bed - and there was even a day where he just stayed in bed and did not even attempt to go to work. This is all very strange as he usually pushes through head colds, flu type symptoms and other things as heaven forbid he were to miss a day of work.

Anyway, yesterday he sent me a text (aren't we hip, texting and all), saying he was coming hoome for lunch. As we sat together with the kids eating some delicious hamburgers I made for everyone, he said "Can you make me an appointment?"

"An appointment? You mean a Dr's appointment?" The reason I had to ask is he never ever goes to the Dr. He hates going as every time he gets sick enough to make his way there, he waits for hours to actually see the Dr, only to find out that, yes, he is sick, and he will just have to push through it. No antibiotics, nothing to make him feel better.

Why does all this make him so angry you ask?

Well, in his words, "because all I have to show for the stupid visit to the Dr. is a wasted afternoon spent in the waiting room, and a $150 Dr. bill all for 10 minutes spent with a Physician only to have him tell me I am sick and there is nothing they can do about it. I know I am sick, I did not need to pay someone $150 to tell me that."

Anyway, back to the question: He wanted me to make him a Dr's appointment?

Answer: "Yes please."

So I made one for him, and out the door he went to see this Dr. in the hopes that he would get some sort of relief from the constant pressure he was feeling in his head. Relief being some sort of antibiotic.

I received a phone call from this husband of mine about an hour later, cheerfully asking me if there was anything I need at Wal Mart. I did not even had to ask, he had gotten a prescription, and he was happy at last.

He strolled into the house a while later with a smile on his face and this in his hand

First of all, I have to say that this is the cheesiest brouchure I think I have ever seen. A husband and wife holding hands, lovingly looking into one anothers eyes, walking down the beach with a children's amusement park in the background. Really?

So beyond the ridiculousness of the brouchure, I have to say that I was very surprised. The Mr. has always been a bit hesitant, alright, very hesitant to even think about a Vasectomy, and now he is coming home with all the brouchures and forms to go ahead with it and "git 'er done?"

I asked what in God's name brought this up in conversation while at the Dr. getting his sinuses checked? He simply said he decided to ask him about it, and that he actually got his intital consultation over with, so that when he wanted to go ahead with it all he had to do was call and make the appointment. Then came the question: "So when do you want me to take care of this?"

I said nothing. I had to think for a moment, or more like a few months. This is a big decision. Yes, I know we have four beautiful kids, two boys two girls, a perfect little family. (This is what everyone says to us, and I do agree.) But I still have such a problem with doing anything permanent in this department. Even though I am 99% sure I do not want anymore children, I still do not like the fact that this little procedure would make it so that I would be never be able to ever have children again. Well, at least not with my husband. (Kidding, kidding.)

Today at lunch, he asked again, "So when do you think I can go ahead and get snipped?"

My answer? "I don't know."

And really, I don't know if I will ever know. Which should make him very happy, even happier than he felt right after getting that prescription in hand earlier yesterday. As at least for now, I am sparing him the pain and recovery of what has to be done in order to make it so that we are never, ever able to have children again.

MY LOVER OF MUSIC

Liv loves to dance. Every time any sort of song comes on the radio she is waving her arms around and cautiously (so as not to loose her balance) bouncing up and down rocking out. If Ava is playing Jonas Brothers on her boombox, Liv can be found smack dab right in front of the speakers, dancing away happy as can be. If we are in the car where she is confined to her car seat, you can still find her saying her head from side to side, clapping her hands and waving her feet around in excitement. If we are playing at home and watching T.V. She will even interrupt her play time if she happens to hear the theme song to ICarly come on in the family room. Yep, she does. When the music starts she picks herself up off that playroom floor and scoots her little self as quickly as could be into the family room to get her groove on. When the song ends, she makes her way back to the playroom and continues to play with whatever it was that had captured her attention before the music had pulled her away. So you get it, the girl loves to dance.

Yesterday we were out in the garage, listening to the kids Bible school CD on Ava's boombox. All the kids were dancing to the ever so famous "I Get Down" song, "This Little Light of Mine", and some others, and Liv was right where she always is, in front of the speakers, dancing away all smiles. All was well.

Then Ava decided to go into the house and return with her, actually my very expensive headphones that she has no business playing with, and plug them into her boom box so that she could listen alone. Nevermind all the other kids that were enjoying the music, and happily dancing along. (As of late, this is typical behavior from my 6 1/2 year old, something I need to work on....) The other kids frowned a bit, but were not too affected my the sudden stop in the dancing festivies. Maybe they were tired out and needed a break, whatever the case they all moved on to their scooters, bikes and other outside fun toys. Everyone but Olivia of course. She was NOT having this at all. She wanted her music back on, and she wanted it back on now.

Ava took one look at her screaming sister half way through her lack of music induced temper tantrum and decided she would share her headphones with her and placed them on Olivia's ears. And what do you know? She loved them. She was a bit confused as to how these large things that were placed over her ears were producing the music she so loved....

At one point, she glanced up at me with a look that said, "hey, Mom, what the heck are these things?"

I did not take her long to get used to them, and even figure out how to keep the much too large for a 1 year old headphones on her ears by scrunching up her shoulders so they would not fall down. Smart little girl I have.

The time had now come, it was afterall inevitable, that Ava decided she wanted the headphones back. She swiftly took them off Olivia's little ears, and placed them on her own without a second thought. And of course, another temper tantrum ensued. She screamed and screamed.....

until Ava relented, and placed the ever coveted head phones back on here ears, where they belonged (according to Olivia).

Ava lost interest, or maybe just gave up on ever retrieving the headphones for her own personal use without listening to Olivia melt down, and walked away. This made Olivia quite happy. She spent the next 20 minutes or so (no kidding) happy as ever, dancing away in the garage with the headphones on. Finally, she removed the headphones from her ears, placed them around her neck and looked up at me with a look saying, "Can you believe this Mom? These things are so cool!"

Miss Olivia Grace, my music lover....