LaLa

Last night we were at my parents and my sister Carla was there with her kids. Justin walks up to Lydia and gives her a little hug. He then says, "Hi LaLa." (Or what sounds a lot like LaLa) Pretty cute!

Another tooth

Nathan had a front tooth that was a little loose yesterday, but it kept getting looser as the day progressed as he was determined to get it out. It eventually fell out last night. I know I have wrote about the troubles I have when it comes time to getting the boys to bed and lately Nathan has refused to go to bed unless we do. Which is not a real hardship on me as I go into my room an read for a while or watch TV. Only, oops, I fell asleep last night and did not get a chance to play tooth fairy. I was going to play tooth fairy this morning when I got up to take my shower, but I did not want to take a chance that I would wake the boys up before I was ready for them to get up. I decided that I would just play tooth fairy when I got them up for the morning only they got up before I got a chance to.

Nathan must have looked for his money and then came out to talk to me. He asked me, "Mom, do you know why the tooth fairy didn't come? It's because my tooth fell off the bed!" I made all the appropriate noises and then we loaded up the van for the trip to daycare. I made an excuse to go back in the house and that is when I finally played tooth fairy. Then on the ride to daycare I said that maybe the tooth fairy would still come this morning since it was still dark. Sure enough, we get home this evening and the tooth fairy had already been here. That darn tooth fairy must have been running behind schedule today!

Small World

Sometimes the world seems so large, and other times it seems so small. For example, when my boss was vacationing in Europe a few years ago (I forget which country) they happen to see a man walking around with a Hobart coat on. Since my boss is not timid, he walked right up to the couple and asked where they were from. They said that they were from a small Ohio town. My boss said that he is from Ohio and then asked them what town. The told him that the were from Troy. My boss excitedly stated that he was from Sidney. What are the odds of that?

Today at work, a co-worker asked me and another gal from Loramie if we knew who was getting married in the church this weekend. I said my cousin was. She then went on to explain when she was younger that she used to babysit for the groom as they lived directly across the street from her parents house. Her parents were invited to the wedding this weekend. What are the odds that my cousin is marrying a guy from West Chester, and my co-worker who originally hails from West Chester and used to babysit for him, and I work together?

Chipies!

I took the two older boys with me to church yesterday, and if I was thinking, I wouldn't have done it. Since the girls played in state tournament on Saturday, and a lot of people went to watch them play, church was packed yesterday. Like Christmas mass packed. People were sitting in the choir loft. Because it was so crowded, Nathan had to sit in the pew in front of me while Darren sat with me on my lap.

As they were bringing up offetory later, Darren watched them walk up the aisle. He must have gotten a good look at the bowl of wafers when they walked past because he looks at me at excitedly and said, "Chipies!" (His nickname for chips) I kind of snorted because that is pretty cute when he looked at me again and said, "and juice!" I bite back a shout of laughter. Obviously my kids need to go to church more....or at least explained the religious symbolism.

Skeeter-Bug's Four year checkup

I meet my Mom at the doctor's office on Wednesday so that Darren could get his four year check-up. He has gained a whopping three pounds in one year. Last year he weighed in at 32 lbs and on Wednesday he is at a fighting weight of 35lbs which puts him in the 45% percentile for weight. What? How do I have a kid that is that skinny? He needs 3T jeans for the length, but about 18 months for the waist size. Darren and Justin could really almost share clothes never mind that they are 2 1/2 years apart. He was 41 1/2" tall which places him in the 75% percentile for height which is pretty good.

I did ask the doctor about these flesh colored bumps that Darren has on various spots over his body as well as Nathan. He said that they were caused by a virus, and that they would go away on their own in 6 months to 2 years. The doctor also explained that the bumps are harmless and they are not sure what causes the virus that causes the bumps. Hopefully some of these bumps will start disappearing in the near future.

Perfecting a hobby

I know I have mentioned before how much Justin likes to play in the toilet. Well, he is now perfecting his craft. Last night, in the space of five minutes, he put the hand towel in the toilet, Darren's brand-new travel-size Etch-a-Sketch and the cordless phone. At least he hasn't learned how to flush yet!

You can zip it

When the weather is cold, I make sure that at least the younger two boys wear footie pajamas to bed. They are constantly rolling out from underneath the covers or kicking them off. Last night after Darren's bath, he asked me if I would help him put his pajama's on. I told him sure seeing as how he had put his foot thru the arm hole. As I was helping him get his p.j.'s on correctly, he told me, in all seriousness, "You can zip them up for me."

What? That is his favorite part and he is letting me zip him up? He must really love me!

Doesn't run in families?

There are certain illnesses that the doctors claim are not genetic. For example, appendicitis supposedly does not run in families. Yet my Dad had appendicitis, I did, my sister Carla did and so did my sister Stacey. We were all roughly the same age at 21 except Stacey was a little younger at 18 1/2.

My Dad has a bad back and he has had a few surgeries. My sister Susan has also had some back issues and I could barely walk over the weekend and Monday until I got into the chiropractor Monday evening. I woke up very stiff again this morning but after applying heat for about an hour, it was feeling pretty good.

Now I find out that my niece Julia has broken her nose. Just like me and her aunt Stacey. Granted our broken noses were because of some drunken escapades and Julia's was just because she was being a mischievous kid. Although if you think about it, it is about the same.

Maybe because I have four siblings and that constitutes a large family that it is just a coincidence that a lot of us suffer from the same aliments. Maybe. Luckily, knock on wood, none of my kids have had to have stitches or had any broken bones. Nathan has a scar on his forehead from the time I tackled him on the road and a small scar at the corner of his eyebrow where he got hit with a toy that him and his cousin were tossing back and forth. Those are just the more noticeable scars on my kids.

Skeeter is four!

Today is Skeeter's (Darren) fourth birthday. We celebrated his birthday yesterday with his grandparents, and godparents. He was pretty excited to have a party for himself at his house. I made shredded/pulled/BBQ pork sandwiches, potato salad, cheese noodles and set out salad just so we had something green to go with all the yellow food. I also made him a dump truck cake (which I may post a picture of if I ever take the time to figure out how to download pictures). I flew thru the decorating process, but I think that it turned out pretty decent.

As Darren was opening gifts later, my sister had to remind me that four years ago I fell on top of Nathan while I was overdue with Darren by three days. That was not a pleasant experience that I want to repeat.

What can I say about Darren? He is a skinny, knobby-kneed, ornery firecracker. He is a trouble maker and will do anything that anyone dares him to do. He eats like a 400lb linebacker, but never seems to gain an ounce. He defiantly has the build his Dad had in the days when Bruce's metabolism was running in high gear.

Second date

Since Bruce and I had no plans this weekend, I decided that I was going to take the older two boys to the movie theater. Rango and Gnomeo & Juliet were playing. I decided that Rango was probably going to have a long line, so we were going to see Gnomeo & Juliet.

As we were getting ready to leave, Leslie (the neighbor girl) calls and asked if Nathan was allowed to play. I told her that he would have been allowed to play, and then Nathan yells, "Stop. Wait Mom!" I told Leslie to hold for a second and Nathan asked if we could bring Leslie to the movies with us. I said sure and told Leslie that we were getting ready to go to the movies, but she was welcome to come along with us.

Before we left, Bruce was teasing them about going on a date. As we were driving to the movies, I was listening to their conversation. I can only imagine what my parents had to think as they were listening to our conversation and driving me to the movies or bowling alley when I was in school.

I told Leslie that I would buy her ticket, but if she wanted any snacks, she had to buy them herself. (She tried to give me some money for the tickets so that is how I knew she had some money) She was very well behaved, but I can't necessarily say the same about my two. About ten minutes into the movie Darren said that he wanted to go home. About halfway thru the movie Nathan said that his foot fell asleep and he wanted to get up an walk around. Since we were in the very back row, I told him to stand up and wait for his foot to wake up.

It has been some time since I have been to the movie theater, because Bruce usually falls asleep in a dark room, and if I have a few hours to myself I would rather read than watch a movie. I enjoy movies, but not enough to pay $7-$8 for a ticket for me and then another $5 plus for a snack. Call me old-school, but I would rather buy a movie from Walmart for about the same price.

Technology, schmuckology

As a lot of people are aware, I enjoy technology, but to be honest it intimidates me. I don't own an iPod, a Blue-Ray player or anything that is just out on the market in the past few years.

I have a digital camera but I am terrible at taking pictures and terrible about downloading them. We have had a computer at home for over two months now, but I have never taken the time to figure out how to download the pictures. In fact, I got my camera three Christmas ago and I still have the very first picture I took with that camera still on it. Along with the picture I took last night.

Nathan wanted an iPod for Christmas two Christmas's ago, but I was afraid to get him one for two reasons. I knew that he wasn't responsible enough for one and I had no idea how to download songs onto it. Luckily, my sister Stacey got an iPod Touch a few years ago and no longer needs so she sold me her old iPod cheaply. And aunt Stacey is responsible for putting new songs on the iPod for Nathan.

I also think that it outrageous to spend X amount on something when in a few weeks or months the technology is already outdated. To keep it in perspective though, I just think about how much we spend on a Saturday night when we get a sitter and go out with friends. That in itself is a small fortune.

I am trying not to pass on my intimidation of technology though. I recently showed Darren how to play some games on the computer and while he struggled on how to operate the mouse, within ten minutes he was an old pro. His little hand on the mouse moving and clicking is inspiring.

Little sister

I know that I am a bit behind, but my baby sister turned 21 about ten days ago on the 23rd of February. How is that possible? If I can convince her to stop having birthday's now that she hit the legal age, maybe I can stop having birthday's myself and keep from getting older.

Because she is so much younger than I am, I think that is why I was never a nervous/worrier/anal parent. I didn't raise Stacey, but I saw how my Mom did it and for the most part we all turned out fine. At least in my mind!