Dude. Sweet.

Random post.  Sorry. :)

I feel like I'm getting old.  I'm 33.  I look at Senior Pictures on Facebook and think they look so young.  Kids I remember are getting married.  Aren't they still like 8 or 9?  No?  Ugh.

Prom season as well.  Makes me happy to have boys.  Yes, the girls look gorgeous.  But man, I'd worry about my daughter.  I guess I will get to worry about my nieces instead. :)

Been on the hunt for bargains lately.  Not sure why, as I'm trying to de-clutter my house.  I'm taking the 30-day challenge from IHeart Organizing and am CLEARING out the clutter!  I've got so much that has moved with us from ND to CO to ND again and I do not need it all!  I'm also feeling the need to be craftier (or crafty even) other than cakes.  I don't know that I'd want to put a bunch of stuff in my house, but I'm kinda tired of bare-ish walls.  I will be doing a gallery wall though soon, a la Young House Love. :)  Just need to work out some details and start nailin. 

I don't know why my husband will carry a glass around with him and put it on the end table when he goes to bed instead of taking 10 steps and taking it to the kitchen.  Is it really that hard?  I think not.


I've got a few cakes on the line for upcoming events.  How do I quit my job and make cakes full time?  I need more practice but I'm loving the cakes! :) 

K, I think my randomness is done for right now.  Later gator.   

Sons and Mothers

"A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life." ~Irish Saying


Today, I had a visitor in my office and we got to talking about families and she said she had four sons.  And then she teared up and said the saying above and how true it really is and how heartbreaking for the mother. 
 
I've thought of this in the past, because a dear friend of mine also has only sons and she's worried when they grow up and get married that she will lose them.  I always laughed because why would she worry about that now, be happy and let them grow up and welcome a new daughter into your life when they find that right girl.  But to see this woman today, 58 years old, in tears in my office because she has no one at home to take care of anymore and they don't call her for advice like a daughter would - really opened my eyes.  Last spring, when Samalander was born, an aunt included a letter to me in her baby gift - talking about boys and their moms and the bonds that you can build with them.  I need to find that letter and re-read it.
 
I think about how many times I call my own mom when I have problems or just want to chat.  Pretty soon it's been 45 minutes and I have no idea what we talked about but it's time to go.  I don't know how often my brother calls my mom.  I know DH doesn't call his mom very often, he always calls his dad.  Why is this? 
 
Right now, I am THE WORLD to our youngest boy.  He will bypass his dad and beeline for me, every time.  DH will be playing with him and if I walk through the room, he turns his head like an owl to see me and then will end up following me around.  When does that end?  I don't know that I want it to (except of course when it's with tears and him standing there with his arms up begging to be picked up - or he'll sit on my feet if I'm at the counter in an effort to get me to pick him up rather than continue what I was doing). 
 
I guess I can only hope that my three boys will end up with a wonderful girl who will want to drink wine and play Scrabble with me.  Is that too much to ask?  I don't think so. 

Insane Clown Posse

A few weeks back, we went to the circus.  Friday night was free for kids and I ended up getting a free ticket as well.  Score!  Though I knew that it was good that we got in for free, as I would be dropping some change inside.  Darn carnies.

We met my seester and her son, and my seester-in-law and her two girls (it was just me and the two big boys.  DH took Samalander home).  As soon as we walked in the door, we were assaulted with flashing lights from the GREATEST THING EVER (if you're a 4- or 6-YO boy).  Light-up swords with a globe on the end.  OOOOH aaaaahhhhhhh.  And a whopping $10 each.  Seriously?  So the boys were super excited and I said - this is it, nothing else if we get these. OK!!  Sigh.  Fine. 

So we start to meander towards some seats.  Everywhere we go, it's full.  Or there's onesies and twosies available.  Um, we've got 5 kids and 3 adults.  Crap.  We eventually find a section towards one end but we can still see all three rings fairly well.  BUT we can't sit together.  A couple in one row, a few in another and the other three in another.  Sigh.  Oh well, we want them to WATCH the circus anyway rather than play with each other and be generally annoying.  This might be a good thing. 

Right in front of us were the elephant rides.  Elephants take big poops.  My boys were amazed by it.  And had to tell everyone around us about it.  And the shovelers.  And what was in the garbage cans.  I guess that's what happens when you have boys.

I had a master plan to cut out at intermission.  Of course, the Ringmaster (freaky dude by the way) kept saying that the show was NOT over.  Way to undermine me buddy.  I appreciate it.  The boys were being super good anyway and so yes, I decided we could stick it out.  They went with their aunt to the bouncy slides and forked over $5 EACH to go down the slide 3 TIMES.  They must make a boatload of money at the circus for what they charge. 

By the end of the night, I was amazed to realize that they hadn't begged for food, for more toys, for elephant rides, or a ring of fire.  Since when we watch cartoons, there's a cacophony of "I want that" all the time, I was truly surprised. :)  All in all, a good night was had. 

Oh, and the swords broke the next day. 

Victory will be mine...

There are a lot of random, useless knowledge that DH and I will throw around the house.  Can you name all 7 dwarfs (I could)?  Which leads into naming the Supreme Court Justices (I couldn't).  If I for sure want to stump my DH though, I should ask him for the Von Trapp Family names.  Because HE WON'T KNOW IT.  He has never seen The Sound of Music! 

I don't know if he was under a rock while growing up, but how can he not have seen this movie?  It's a classic!  It's been on TV a ton!  Beautifully restored and digital image-tized (totally made that word up).  But you know what I'm saying. 

This past weekend, I was reminded of this fact when Grease came on VH1 and he said something about never seeing it either!  What the what!??!  I feel like I don't know him at all anymore!  Ok, sorry, I feel melodramatic tonight.  I guess I shouldn't be shocked, but c'mon. 

So now....how do I get him to watch both the Sound of Music and Grease without letting him know that I've made it my mission??  Because he is as stubborn as I am.  Worse in some ways. So if he knows that I'm trying to do this, he'll totally buck the system and then relentlessly mock me for even attempting to dupe him. 
Do I make sure it's on the big screen that he just got?  Entice him with some Pizza Corner Pepperoni pizza and an ice cold Mellow Yellow in a frosty mug?  (seriously, it'd probably work better than a beer or a Limon/7).  Or do I pull out the big guns - bribe one of the boys to say they want to watch it with him?  ;)  (well, that's only for The Sound of Music - I don't think I'll let a 6YO watch Grease yet). 

Any tips to try to get him to watch these with me!?? 

UNO!

One year ago tonight, I was resting "comfortably" in a hospital bed, my DH by my side.  We were anxiously awaiting the birth of our third (and final) child.  We weren't sure if we were having a boy or a girl, though everyone tried telling me it had to be a girl - must have been wishful thinking.  Deep down, I never was able to get on board with that idea - just didn't feel right. 

Nurses coming in and checking things out, helping things along if need be.  Not the most restful night, but I guess it was prepping us for when we got home again.  Decided at 5:30am to start the pitocin - let's get this show on the road.  My water broke an hour later - by itself in a very weird egg/bubble type of episode that the nurse had never seen before in her career (I'm awesome, what can I say) and then I started getting sick.  Sick sick sick to my stomach.  My very large, very swollen stomach.

While it seemed like forever at the time, the process went pretty darn fast.  I guess kiddo number three will do that.  Samuel Grant was born at 8:30 that morning (gonna be a "Sam" regardless of gender was our idea).  He was a good two pounds heavier than his older brothers were - what the heck!??!  How does that happen??  Our doctor (yes, my doctor is also his pediatrician) hefted him up and said "oh we've got at least a nine-pounder here."  NO FRICKIN WAY.  But yes, he was 9lb 6oz.  Compared to the 7lb 12oz and 7lb 3oz that his brothers were - this was INSANE!

But even with his size, things went well.  We went home the next day, rather than spend another night in the hospital.  Call us crazy, but we just wanted to get our family home.

He has turned out to be a wonderful baby (must be the parents).  He sleeps, he eats, he laughs, he plays, he entertains and he loves.  He's into everything possible and will squeal with displeasure if you take something away - but it's adorable.  A-dor-a-bull.  

So tomorrow we will celebrate Sam (Samboni, Samalander, Hot Sam & Cheese, Sir Sam-a-lot, Samburgler, Moons over my Sammy, etc) on his first birthday.  We will have cake (lovingly made my moi) and ice cream and pizza and we will have fun and be merry.  He won't remember a moment of it but first birthdays are for us anyway. ;)

Kinder kids

What was I thinking - having two boys with summer birthdays.  Thankfully, I got it right by the time the third one rolled around - he's a March.  No questions about going to kindergarten when he's 5.  Our first child - he's a June.  We did the kindergarten readiness and screening that is required by the school - he of course was very ready.  Our second child - he misses the cutoff for entering kindergarten by ONE DAY. 

ONE DAY.  So now we have to go through some extra hoops if we want him to go to kindergarten when he's 5.  Yes, he would turn 5 the month he would start school.  So now we apply to early admission.  Because he misses by ONE DAY.  In addition to the regular school screening, he also has to go an extra screening through the county. 

It's such a hot topic among parents (and grandparents apparently, yes, mom, I realize you're triyng in your own passive-agressive way to get me to keep him back until he's 6).  The thing is - he's ready.  He can do all the things that the school says he should be able to do by the END of the kindergarten year.  So I know he's ready. 

My only concern is that during his testing/screening - what if he frickin chokes?  What if he starts messing around?  Screening happens well before he's 5 - it starts in March!  Ack!  I do NOT want to pay for daycare for another year for this kid. ;)

Mobile

Hot Sam and Cheese started crawling on New Year's Eve.  And now he won't stay in one place.  EVER.  He's popping up all over, I've never had so many doors closed in my house before. 

The kid is fast.  He's not walking yet, but he's pulling himself up all over and basically irritating the bejeezus out of me.  Why can't he just stay put?  Why does he need to sneak into the slightly open pantry door and pull all the swiffer dusters out of their box?  Why does he have to pull open the drawer that has plastic baggies in it and strew them all over the kitchen?  Why does he have to spot an open door and proceed to go into my room, into my bathroom and dump the bathroom garbage over?  (please note, amazingly enough, I had just emptied the garbage in there and so there was one toilet paper roll in the garbage - nothing else.  That has to be a miracle and totally reduced the ick factor).  But still.  The only way I can get him to stop moving for a minute is to start clapping - he'll immediately stop, sit back down on his bottom and start clapping along.  :)

Just STAY PUT.  But he won't.  And soon he'll be taking those first steps away from the safety of holding onto the couch.  And then he'll run.  And my mind will run straight out the door as well. 

*I feel I must put a disclaimer here.  It's not that I want him to end up being the lazy people like in the movie Wall-E, but my baby is growing up too fast here people.  And since he's the last one, I'm a little....let's say "overly emotional" when it comes to him doing these big things.  He's 11 months as of yesterday.  Argh.