Mean Eyebrowns

Yesterday Ben asked me why I had mean eyebrowns. (yep, eyebrowns). Apparently I was scowling at him and he didn't like it. How does a four year old not only interpret my body language so correctly and then call me on it? Amazing. For all of you that don't know, we spent last week moving into some new digs, so I will soon have some updates on that for all!

Mommy and Me x4

So, for most of you that still read this, even though I never write, I am sure you have heard that Baby #4 is on the way. Things have been crazy with a capital C. But, I had to take a few minutes to do some updating. We finally decided to tell our little secret when my body decided that instead of being 10 weeks pregnant I should go ahead and look 5 months pregnant. I think my stomach muscles are waving their white flag of surrender. Anyway, I told Matt that I was going to have to start wearing maternity clothes, so we better 'fess up. We started by telling my family. I told Ben to go and tell grandma that mom had a baby in her tummy. I thought he already had come to this conclusion with all the talking that Matt and I had been doing, but apparently I was wrong. He just looks at me and goes "WHAT! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!". So much for delivering my message. Anyway, he was and remains super excited, steadfast in the belief that we are having a girl and determined to name that girl Lexie. Everytime I bring up a different name he says "Mom, how about we use my name this time and your name next time". I keep trying to explain to him that there won't be a next time (this is it folks), but he insists. Maddie is also pretty excited, and has been especially mothering towards Zach. Maybe she is afraid he is going to get lost in the shuffle. Zach continues to be a man of a baby. At his last check up he weighed in at 33 pounds (that is somewhere in the 150th or so percentile) and was 32 inches (not quite square). His head is finally evening out with his body, so we did not have to do an MRI as the doctor had thought we might.

If that weren't enough, Matt and I are preparing to move to a new house. We pretty much figured with baby #4 on the way, we have pretty much officially outgrown our old house. However, our old house remains on the market, so if anyone knows anyone that is interested....it would certainly take a load off my mind:) Keep checking in, I promise I'm going to keep up with this!

Wedding Fever

I have no excuse for not writing for almost a month, except for the fact that I have been living life with my three crazy kids instead of writing about it. Last night, however, was a writing-worthy night. My cousin, Kristen and now my new cousin, Derek were married last night. The kids have been looking forward to the wedding for a long time. Well, mostly to the cupcakes, but the wedding too. So, they had a very nice ceremony and reception, in which the kids fared pretty well. You can tell that they don't go out in public much, but they still did okay. Then came the dance. Holy cow, it was worth two hours of chasing them around, taking them potty and chasing them under tables to see all three of them cut it loose on the dance floor. If only I was one of those good parents who would actually take pictures of cute stuff like that. Ben was playing air guitar and break dancing, Maddie was "putting her hands up" and singing along to Party in the USA and Zach was pretty much winning over every single person on and off the dance floor with his side step, bounce up and down style. To see kids so open and unencumbered on the dance floor is refreshing. No worries about what they looked like or who was watching them, just having fun and lots of it. It makes it a lot easier for me as a mom to do the same thing. I wish that you could bottle up that free spirit and give it back to them when they are teenagers. We have a couple of more weddings this year, so I will try to capture it on film.

Tic Toc

So, if you know the song Tic Toc by Ke$ha and then you stop to realize that yes, this is my kids' favorite song right now, you can go ahead and award me for the "Coolest Mom of the Year Award". Granted, I didn't say "Best Mom of the Year Award" because the song is downright naughty, but you gotta admit I'm pretty cool if my kids are listening to Ke$ha and Lady Gaga as opposed to the Wiggles (Thank God Ben forgot about them) and Barney. I'm being a little sarcastic, but it is pretty funny that all three of them get the biggest kick out of that song. It is pretty catchy and it has a good beat and honestly, you should see Zach get down to it. He would put Michael Jackson to shame. We taped her when she was on SNL so that the kids could dance to it and they absolutely love it. I don't know if you have seen the performance or not, but it is slightly weird and features dancers dressed like spacemen doing all sorts of robotic moves in the background, which Ben then tries to copy. Maddie just dances her little heart out and sings the chorus when it comes on the whole time leading up to that announcing "Tik Tok is coming, Tik Tok is coming". If I did YouTube, a video of the three of them might just be a classic. To add to how cool they are and how wide their little musical minds go, the other day in the car they were arguing over who sang a song "Lady GaGa or Ke$ha". I can't remember what song it was and who was right, but it was pretty funny. Ben also loves the Train song, Hey Soul Sister and whenever it comes on the radio he goes, Mom, it's my favorite ChooChoo Train song. Close enough. Maddie can pipe up that it's "Jason Mraz" with just a few chords of his popular songs, which is pretty impressive as well. I suppose they have their Uncle Jeremy (and if I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Grandma Laura likes to bring up the fact that she was an All-Stater for a couple of years whenever it seems appropriate), so their Uncle Jeremy AND their Grandma Laura to thank for their musical talents. Man, they crack me up.

Kids Don't Slow Down When You Do

Have you ever noticed that you never really get to take a vacation from your kids? Or that if you are sick or down and out, they don't really understand that? That has been on my mind this week as I have been struck by "the gout". It has been an absolutely awful week for me, as every step I take hurts and I can't get comfortable for anything. But, my kids are SO funny and keep me going. Ben told me that if he gives me a big hug it will make me all better so that I won't have to feel sick anymore. So the other night before he went to bed he came and gave me a big hug and said, now mom, if you need a hug later to feel good just say Ben! I need a hug! and I will come right down. I think that was 50% about me feeling better and 50% about a possible chance to get out of bed, but sweet nonetheless. Maddie just keeps asking about the "bandaid" on my foot, like she can't really understand that there could possibly be anything that would slow her mom or dad down and of course, Zach is oblivious to all of it and is his usual eight-meal-a-day, take no prisoners, I will do what Ben and Maddie do even if I end up in the emergency toom kind of guy.

But, the one bright spot in this week has been how AWESOME my husband has been in stepping in and doing whatever needs to be done without asking, complaining or making me feel guilty for just wanting to sit in the recliner with an ice pack on my foot. I am SO lucky to have him.

On a side note, Ben somehow knows what a smart car is and saw one in the Fareway ad the other day. He told me mom, we need to go to this store, because I need to buy this smart car. It is a car for four year olds, you know. I have to say I kind of agree with him.

And, my sweet little Ben got flip flops this week and it might have changed his whole life. I have been on the hunt for crocs (will, generic crocs) in his size with no luck. So, I thought, I will just see if he is big enough to do flip flops yet. I am not kidding, the kid woke up the next morning at 630 and said, mom! I took my socks off so that I can wear my flip flops now. When I picked him up from school he was running down this list of names from the back seat and I couldn't quite get what he was talking about so, I asked him, who are all of those people? And he was like, MOM! Those are all my friends that have flip flops. He apparently thinks that flip flops have catapaulted him to some upper echelon of society and he could not be happier!

I Want to Be Just Like You!

Okay, we are going to have some serious problems with Zach. This weekend he has tried to ride Ben's bike (he did this by going to get the helmet and actually stepping up onto a pedal of the bike before I grabbed him), tried to climb up the ladder of the swingset and last night brought me all of the pieces to Elefun (which if you are not familiar with the sweet children's game involves a fairly heavy base, an obnoxiously long "trunk", about 50 "butterflies" that might as well be colored tissue paper and a net to catch the things by) and grunted until I would turn it on for him. Which brings me to my second problem with Zach, which is that he seems to be 50% caveman. He doesn't really point, he doesn't say mama or more, he just grunts. A lot. Mostly for donuts. Apparently, the strategy works for him, so why give it up? Now, the positive side of wanting to be just like Ben is that maybe one of these days he will walk into the bathroom and go potty on his own. That would be my kind of imitation!

Ben had his first foot xray after he jumped off some playground equipment with good intentions of grabbing the fireman pole and instead just jumped straight to the ground. His first xray should be followed by his first Emmy nomination. So all night that night he flat out refused to walk on his foot. I couldn't see any swelling or bruising and loathe Urgent Care past 6 pm so decided to wait it out for the morning. He still wouldn't really walk on it and when he did, looked pretty gimpy so I went ahead and called his doctor. I couldn't get him in until 1130, so I left him with the babysitter. When I came to pick him up, he literally ran to me and said excitedly "I'm going to get stickers at the doctor!!" So, I asked him if his foot still hurt and it did, so I took him (and Maddie who refused to be left behind) to the doctor's office. I felt like a moron as I walked in behind my son who ran in in front of me straight to the toys and checked him in for his "sore foot". The doctor went ahead and ordered an xray just to be sure, but as you can likely guess, it was just fine. So, at least we know Ben can act.

Maddie has been entertaining anyone who will listen to her lately with her version of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi. It goes something like this: "I hold a ball and follow you until you love me, papa-papa-razzi." Close sweetheart. But she loves it! She can also do a pretty good version of Poker Face. I guess it beats Ben's version of "Do you know the muffin man" which he swears is: "Do you know the Muffin Man? I'm a Dirty Man".

Sleep

I am reading a new book that lists some spiritual disciplines that you can try and sleep is the first chapter. You have to love a book that tells you to sleep! Anyway, that got me wondering about a lot of things...but in relation to my kids, when exactly do they start to realize that sleep is a GOOD thing! And when do adults start wanting the day to end so that they can just go to sleep? It's a funny dynamic. I mean, I get the kids point of view...you are playing and having so much fun, why would you want to interrupt that with sleep? But honestly, you get to take a two-hour nap every day and no one thinks worse of you, in fact they want you to do it. And on top of that, your parents want you to sleep as long as you can in the morning, NOT wake up. I mean, when does that happen in real life? I set my alarm and TRY to get up (it doesn't happen very often) so that I can do some work before I even go to work. It's sad. Now, if I could just get my kids to appreciate what they have!

This weekend I struggled trying to get Ben and Maddie to lay down for naps. Zach is actually in a stage where he kind of enjoys his bed, which is nice. But on Saturday I tried to lay both Ben and Maddie down at the same time and since they share a room with each other and Zach it is like walking a tightrope to not wake anyone up. And if your two older ones act like they are not remotely tired, it usually doesn't end up well. I probably trekked up and down the stairs ten times threatening that if I had to come up "one more time" something bad was going to happen (I didn't really have anything good to hang over their head, so I think that affected my effectiveness). I came up once and they were both in Ben's bed (which admittedly was pretty cute), another time Maddie had out her doctor's kit and had a little Urgent Care set up right there in her bed and Ben was rearranging the letters on his wall that say "Ben" to read "NEB"... he seems to like his name better that way. Eventually Matt had to go upstairs and lay by them and I heard him snoring while the kids continued to play. I don't know how he does that...I struggle to fall asleep anywhere other then my comfy bed (and sometimes there as well).

Speaking of sleep, Maddie just woke up her normal grumpyself at 7 am on the dot (Ben's been up for about 15 minutes watching Playhouse Disney in my room) so I better go. Happy Easter everyone!