My little boy is a whole hand

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SILLY PANTS!

Yep that's right Silly Pants is a whole hand today. A whole foot. The price of a meatball sub at Subway. How can that be? How did time fly by so quickly? Obviously a cruel joke God is playing just to toy with me as a mom.

In a month I will be registering him for Kindergarten. He will be starting school. Can that be? My little boy? Wow...

So this morning I heard him awake and went up there to sing Happy Birthday and well to tell him Happy Birthday (the kid has wanted to hear those words for weeks now) and he was so excited to realize that finally HIS day had come.

For all of the boys on their birthdays I let them choose what we will have for each meal. Last year we had ice cream sundaes for breakfast...yep I let him have it for breakfast. This year he has asked for Fruit Smoothies...I personally like that one much better.***Correction Alert!!!! After writting this we went down to have breakfast....Silly then decided he wanted an ice cream sandwich and a cookie. Yep I gave it to them...there went the smoothies...oh well maybe next year? Unlikely! He has not decided what he wants for lunch yet - most likely some sort of sandwich although after this morning I wouldn't be surprised if he asked for a candy bar. For dinner we are having homemade pizzas. He will make his dough and put on his toppings. That is what he wants so that is what we are having.

BF & SIL are coming for his birthday dinner. Prits is unable as she is ill right now - not a good thing - we pray for a speedy recovery as she is leaving with BF for Florida next week.

Silly is so excited for dinner and I think he is even more excited because in 2 sleeps (that's how we count days) he is having his party. This year we are keeping it low key (last years was not and well the ones to come will be crazy as he keeps getting older) But I think he would be excited if I gave him some balloons and only 2 people came over. He is truly easy to please. We are having over a few family and friends and just celebrating the past 5 years of life of this wonderful little boy.

Well I am going to stop now - as I do not feel like getting terribly emotional this early in the morning...I will just say....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SILLY PANTS!

Early Morning Meltdown in the Snow

No the snow didn't melt...no it was not me who had a meltdown (although that would be the most popular answer)...no none of the boys had a meltdown...well that last one is not entirely accurate. Husband had a meltdown in the snow...err with the snow? Because of the snow? You can decide...

So we went into today knowing that Husband will be working till 7pm. (Ugg!) This morning he wanted to get out the door at 6am to beat traffic and get a full 12 1/2 hours in for the day (Ugg again!) So I sent him on his way with a lunch and snacks, locked the door and went upstairs to give the boys their cups.
A minute later I hear the door and go down (as it was locked) and there was Husband asking me to help push him out of the snow (that he had driven himself into) (no he did not say that, but it was obvious)

Take a step back and think about my Husband. A rather calm, almost passive man that kind of hangs back, doesn't really confrontation and is pretty level headed, more analytical and purposeful than anything. Not that way this morning. I am going to give you a more PG rated version of how it went and the conversation that happened...by conversation I mean a Monologue of my Husband as I did not dare utter a word.

I get into his car and am told to go forward while he pushes. I go no where. He goes to the front and tells me to go in reverse - I do and no where...again...As I was trying to go in reverse I thought it would be a good idea to crank the tires so that if I did move I would not go farther into the snow...apparently that's not what he wanted..
"What the hell are you doing? Why are you cranking the wheels? Keep them straight! NO Straight!"
I get them straight and he gets a shovel.
He shovels out the back tire and I get to go forward again...nothing...
Well not nothing...
This is the beginning of the meltdown.
"F this Fing car, Screw you (to the car not me), F the snow. I am calling in sick." talk about over reacting...
He then goes to the front of the car and we try reverse...again. I get about 2 feet and stop - maybe I should have had the wheels cranked huh? No I did not say that...are you kidding me? Have him go all Jack Nicholson "Shining"on me. I think not.
So then he proceeds to spit on the ground..yep that's what he did. Spat on the ground.
"F this, I HATE Minnesota, I hate the snow. I am quitting my job. I am not Fing dealing with this. Maybe if the Fing drive way was shoveled properly this wouldn't have happened. F this. Fing Car. Piece of Sh." Now to clarify - the entire driveway was shoveled and well he was technically in the yard - had we cleared the snow that's where he would have been.He then starts to shovel some more - while taking breaks to beat the snow as if it were something that could feel the pain and would give in to his insanity.
"Fing snow. I was Fing trying to get to work early, trying to beat the traffic and now I might as well just stay home. Why does this Fing happen to me?? F you snow!"
We try again to go both forward and back...oh and this time he says I SHOULD crank the wheels..haha...a little late now don't you think? Went no where - and fast!
So then he goes and opens the garage door, gets in the Explorer and backs out. He gets out, grabs a blanket and puts it on the hood of the car. Now in my own thoughts I would have thought it be a better idea to go from behind. I mean the truck is fairly large compared to the Sable and well the at least there would be less chance of damage (I mean it's not like he is calm and collected right now...) apparently my thought was not appreciated as he went ahead with his thought - I was terrified the man was going to push me into the neighbors garage when he got in the truck. Nope he gathered enough self control to go slowly and push the Sable out of the snow.

Now I know there are things I am missing in there...He said so many things that really cracked me up (after the fact) but I don't think I got them all.

Moral of the story??? Even the most level headed person can go Crazy and meltdown....Poor Husband had a bad start. I pray the rest of the day goes better for him.

Side note...they always said that you marry a man like your dad....not true...I married one more similar to my mother....go figure....


What a way to start the day.....

Art project with a purpose...

So we are planning a BIG family trip to Disney World in Florida. The trip is tentatively planned for Dec 09 or Jan 10. That gives us 1 year to fully prepare and save. That will be no problem. Everything we need is set to save and well - we ARE going - barring any act of God or such. The boys and I made a Countdown to Disney Calendar. So each day they go to the calendar and mark off that day. Yea, I know...over 300 days left...but they love having that visual reminder and well they are just so darn excited.

With me being the craft junky that I am had a thought...let's make a Disney Fund Jar for each of the boys. The thought was then solidified when I spoke to BF and she mentioned that she was thinking of giving Silly Pants cash for his birthday with the thought it could go toward his on Disney stash of cash. Great minds think alike!!

Yesterday we went ahead and made their jars. They had such a great time making them and well are looking forward to collecting money in them. When one finds a penny or a nickle or even one of the fake coins we have around here is finds it's way into a jar.

We started the project with Kerr Jars...the kind you would just use to can fruit or jelly. Then I grabbed our enormous container of cut up pieces of paper and the Mod Podge.* I gave them each a sponge, paper, Mod podge and a jar and told them to go at it. That's what they did...

Here Monkey is Mod Podging, sticking pieces of paper & being his task-oriented self.

SillyPants is being extra careful to do a good job but stay clean!

While all this was going on Mini C was sitting in his chair, snacking, laughing and trying to eat whatever pieces of paper got close enough to him to grab! He really enjoyed watching his big brothers do this project.

Here is a picture of Silly Pants all done with his project and thinking to himself, "How do I get it full really fast??" Each respective jar has their name on it with Disney Fund. And here is Monkey with his completed jar. Sorry about the picture - he was having a rather weird moment and well...smiling wasn't happening the way it normally did...Got to love him!

Needless to say I made Mini C's jar - well that's not totally correct I did have him "help" me - but that ended when he continually tried to eat the paper...he really doesn't need that much more fiber...

Mini C with his jar, he actually wouldn't let it go once I gave it to him. He was quite funny about it - so he ended up holding it till he finally pushed it to the ground...thankfully they are strong jars!

Silly Pants & Monkey showing off their jars. They were so much fun to watch while they made them. So meticulous & precise. They turned out wonderful and now it's time to find a good spot to put them.

So now when the boys find money it will be a battle to divide it evenly - or just well enough so that everyone gets something that will make the jar jingle. If you would like to help them in the efforts to make their jars jingle feel free - we are out of change!

*a wonderful compound that can be used on just about anything - to make anything - and in turns makes it nearly water proof - allows it to last a lifetime and well just a whole lot of fun to play with and try to think of things to use it with. The boys really love it and I LOVE trying to figure out things to make with it...I wonder if I can buy stock in it....

AM wakers...

Our boys are early risers...However Silly Pants was NEVER as bad as Monkey is at this point. He has been continually getting up BEFORE 5am. The reason??? Who the heck knows...it doesn't matter if the kid goes to bed at 7 or 11 he still gets up at the crack of dawn...well before the crack even thinks of getting up.
I just can't figure it out. We had thought about an alarm clock and setting it - but then realized that if someone were to actually sleep past the sun rising then they would be awaken by the alarm. So we are getting the GoodNite Light. It is supposed to change from glowing as the moon to glowing as the sun when it is time to get up. So the boys would have a visual que on when they could exit their room and make noise.

Hopefully it ships quickly as I (and Husband) are lacking large amounts of sleep and well I would rather not feel cranky or short fused so often. It is not a feeling I enjoy and well as a household no one deserves to feel tired all the time or like Mommy is having a "bad day." Especially when it can be avoided by getting an extra hour of sleep.
You may suggest "why not slip a little Benadryle (totally the wrong spelling...by heck what do you expect from a woman that is lacking sleep??) in their water at night?" Well actually they have had it before and well...it did NOTHING...if anything it made them more antsy....Go figure...They are my boys after all. Short of giving them a bottle of Gin to down, this Lite is what I am laying my hopes, and with any luck dreams that I may have once again, on.

Baby signing...

When my boys are big enough to eat food (which I swear is form birth) I teach them how to sign. Mini C has been doing really well at catching on to this.
We started with More, Please, Thank you, water, milk & eat...I think those are the basics...

Yesterday I was in the kitchen getting some things done with Mini C on the floor playing. He sounded as though he was going to be getting upset so I looked at him and asked him if he wanted something to eat (signing "eat") and gave him an arrowroot cookie.
It felt like less than a minute and he was making noises to let me know he had finished (I didn't really believe it as it was so soon...sure enough he had eaten it) so I acknowledge it and he signs for "more". I hand him a sweet potato nibble. He literally takes it from me squishes it with his hands drops it and signs "more." So I hand him another and he looks away. He then looks at me cautiously, as if to make sure I wasn't going to hand him another one of those, and then signs "more" again.
I than hand him another arrowroot cookie and he was happy as can be.

Now normally he loves the sweet potato nibbles...apparently that was just not what he wanted and well he did what he could to express that to me with being able to use words...I found it was very effective...

Moral of this story? Even a baby can say "hell no" to something. It just may not sound the same...

Blonde moment #1....

So if you know me .... there will be more... but BF stated that maybe I should blog about this one...that got me thinking...I will blog about all of them then...why not? Who cares? I don't. Do you? If you do, well then oh well. It doesn't matter. So here we go...

I was talking to BF on my cell phone...Sprint to Sprint gotta love it! So the house phone rings 3 separate calls so finally I decide to answer it. I deal with the retard that kept calling and then needed to finish a thought I had to BF.
Problem then was...where did I put my stupid cell phone?? Yea, in the matter of 2 minutes that I had it put it down and dealt with the phone call I managed to misplace it. Go figure...oh and that's NOT the blonde moment I am taking time to type...

I decide fine - I am irritated I can't find it so I will call it from the house phone...I mean that is the fastest and most effective way to find it right? Yep!

So I hear it ringing and pick it up...wondering to myself...wait for it....wait for it....

I think to myself ......"Who the heck is calling my cell phone??"

Yep...That's right....I called it and I wondered who is calling me...all at the same time....

Nothing else I can say about that....

Bowling...

So while Husband had time off for the holidays we had decided to take the boys bowling. They just opened a new Brunswick XL in Lakeville. Well we figured it was down past Hom Furniture. We were wrong...it is about 3 miles from our house! What a nice surprise.

So when we got there they told me it would be 1 1/2 to 2 hour wait (they open at 11 and we were there at 1130). Boy were we ticked...so the boys went with Husband to look at the arcade and see what else they had to offer. While they did that I went back to talk to someone...I mean we only wanted to bowl one game and really only needed to have the boys bowl.

Well I got up there and another lady informed me that if I only wanted to bowl for an hour that we could get a lane right away. WONDERFUL!!

So here they are enjoying bowling..

Here's Silly Pants using the wonderful ramp they provide - he got a spare!

Here's Monkey using the ramp - the kid got a strike! Seriously!!*

Here the two big boys are waiting as patiently as they can for their turns

Mini C did really well, he really liked all the lights...and well the food I fed him too...Monkey loved the whole thing. He already wants to go back again.

I didn't get a shot of Silly alone...he just wasn't havin' it.

*I will try to post a picture of the final score card today....