Vacation

I did well at the Target clearance. It will be all I can do not to ask Husband to stop at every Target between here and our lake house tomorrow.



Speaking of, I'll be gone for a few days. We're taking all but one kid with us to our family lake house. BabyGirl will be staying home with Grammy. (Don't even get me started on the Mommy guilt, but she eats sand and opens all the cabinets, you know?) I'll try to update some and put up DOTD's but it might not be possible and hey, everyone deserves a vacation, right?

The Gap

Not the store.

In my son's mouth. StinkyMan has lost his first tooth. He told me "Look, Mommy, my tooth is wiggly!" and five minutes later it was out. So now he has the cutest little gap in his bottom teeth and is one 50 cent piece richer than before. (Our tooth fairy is on the cheap side of things.)

My little boy is getting so big.

*sniff*

Quick Fix

Today Peanut plastered a Band-aid over her nostrils.

Why?

"Because my nose is running and the Band-aid will stop that."

Gotta give her credit for ingenuity.

She did it!

Every night when I put BabyGirl to bed I say "Night, night, Baby. Get good sleeps. I love you."

And tonight, for the first time ever, as I was closing her door, my baby said "Ah wuv ew" back to me.

This is the stuff that makes it all worthwhile.

Scandalous!

So, the other day StinkyMan and Peanut are drawing at the table. After a while Peanut brings me a picture. "It's for you, Mama. It's Boo's door" (from Monster's Inc.)

"Thank you. I love it. Great job!" and she runs back to the table.

Then StinkyMan brings me a house that he drew. He's quite proud and so am I. I've never seen him draw a house before and I think it's quite good for a 5 year old. I tell him so and he beams, then runs back to the table.

Then I hear the laughing. It's loud and bawdy and maniacal...the kind of laughter that generally means they are up to no good.The kind of laughter not usually associated with coloring and drawing. I come around the corner and watch for a while. Those 2 kids are laughing so hard, I think they might actually pee their pants. And with every stroke of StinkyMan's crayon to paper they shriek with glee and naughtiness. Whatever this is all about, it's obviously hilarious.

I edge closer to see a paper filled with this:

Clearly not getting it, I decide to interrupt their peals of laughter.

"What are the two of you doing? What's so funny in here?"

They both turn around to look at me, barely able to keep their faces straight. Peanut tries very, very hard to put on her best "disapproval face" and fails miserably.

"Mommy," she says solemnly, while her lip quiver betrays her, "StinkyMan is drawing HEINIES!"

Cue laughter, as they both dissolve into puddles of giggles. StinkyMan draws another and another, each as funny, if not funnier than the last.

Clearly this is the naughtiest and most scandalous thing they could think of. I also let them continue on. There is something hilarious about drawing heinies, even I can admit that. There is also something sweetly innocent about it...they were drawing heineis. Not butts, rear ends or even bottoms....heinies.

If that is the naughtiest thing they do all summer, we'll be in good shape.

I must add that the next day he drew more heinies, but they were made up of shaky lines because they were dancing heinies. We've since had a chat about where and when it is acceptable to draw heinies. That's just a call I don't want to get from the kindergarten teacher.

Knots

I spent the better part of 6 hours between Sunday and Monday combing out Curly's hair. I am not exaggerating. And once I finally got all the tangles out she wanted to go in the pool. My oldest child is part mermaid, so I felt guilty saying no. So I said yes.

Big mistake. Huge. Because after 30 minutes in the pool, it was incredibly tangled again. And after 90 more minutes of hopeless picking at her head, I gave up.

Today, our hair stylist cut these out of my Curly's hair:

Those are knots. Not clumps of hair pulled out of a hairbrush, not the hair swept up off the floor of a salon. Those are the actual knots.

You can't really see how bad the knots were, but they were horrific. I couldn't get my finger through the middle of them. The stylist said it was like dreadlocks, wrapped up in themselves and the worst she had ever seen. She worked hard to untangle a good portion of the mess, but some of the tangles just had to be cut out.

And so my girl's long curly hair is now to her shoulders. She loves it, I'm on the fence. I adore her long, gorgeous locks, but I won't miss the snarls and tangles of summer swimming. I would never stop her from her favorite activity just to save her hair. And it's just hair, right?

Right?

Fly me to the moon

Peanut (admiring herself in her new bathing suit): Look at me, Mommy! I look like a rocket star!

career plans

Curly: Mommy what was the first job you ever wanted?

Mommy: I think I always wanted to be a teacher.

Curly: And you had enough money to buy a teaching job?

Mommy: Well, you don't buy jobs. You go to college and get your education and then you earn a job. You go on interviews and they decide if they want you to work there.

Curly: What job do you think I'd be best at? Teacher or science?

Mommy: You mean like a scientist?

Curly: Yeah, but not the mad kind. Just the regular kind.

Mommy: You could be a science teacher.

Curly: Never mind. I think I'll just be a rock star.

You know....

...that you are the fried mother of 4 kids on summer break when the baby has purposely spilled her yogurt all over the table, wiped it up with a paper towel, then sucked the yogurt back out of the paper towel and YOU LET HER because it will buy you 5 more minutes of entertained baby time.

Truth

Curly: Mommy, why does your hair look like that?"

Mommy: Do you like it? I let it air dry. I think it looks nice...kinda different.

Curly: It's kind of a mess. You shouldn't have curly hair. I think straight is more your thing.

Mommy: Oh. Curly hair is your thing and straight is mine?

Curly: Right!

Mommy: I didn't know that. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Curly: Maybe a ponytail would be better for today.

Mommy: I'll take that into consideration.

Who taught this kid that honesty is the best policy?

Bummer

Despite Curly's best cheering effort:




Holland (aka The Netherlands,) the homeland of my mother, the kids beloved Grammy, did not win the World Cup in soccer today. It was a good game and I yelled at the TV a lot. Peanut at one point said "Mommy, it's just a SHOW!" which is what I tell her when she gets scared or bothered by what she sees on TV.

For the record, what my Curly spelled out there, all on her own, is supposed to be "Holland Rules, Spain Drools" and I couldn't agree more.

A whale of a problem

Curly's nose was stuffy. After much sniffling and attempted nose blowing and even some Kleenex covered booger picking she told me in frustration "Mom, no matter what I do, my left blow hole is all plugged up!"

Grown Up

Mommy: Peanut, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Peanut (after much consideration): Taller.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!


Be safe, have fun and remember what a great nation we are. Happy Birthday America!

Oops

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good about our morning schedule. I was in the shower before it wasn't morning anymore. We were headed out for a walk. The house was relatively clean and the kids couldn't wait to see the neighbors new baby when they joined us for our stroll.

I'm contemplating all this as I'm drying my hair. Things continue to go smoothly as the kids dressed themselves and played together while I put on my makeup. My hair goes up in a cute pony on the first try. Incredibly pleased and still deep in thought about how well having a summer schedule is working out, I start to hairspray my hair. Even the hairspray seems to be flowing out of the container nicely, in keeping with the ease of the morning. Everything is going right.

Then I smell the unmistakable smell.

I'm not hairspraying my hair.

I'm dousing it in sunblock.

Lovely.

My cute pony is suddenly not so cute looking anymore. It's a smidge on the greasy side....much like I hadn't taken a shower at all.

Never revel in a perfect morning. The minute you get a big head, something goes wrong.