Hair Color Time

At dinner, the kids take turns picking a blessing. The "blessings" range from a traditional Catholic prayer (known as "The Cactus Blessing" in our house) to earth blessings said at preschool to simple songs. Most even have something to do with giving thanks.

Leon, who is always walking to the beat of his own drummer, made up his own blessing which he picks every time it's his turn. It's a song called, "Horses Are Black." Shockingly, the first line of the song is, "Horses are black." Then he names the colors of many different things, rambles a bit, and ends the song with some "la la's." He typically sings things like, "The sky is blue," and "Tomatoes are red."

The other night he sang,

"Horses are black.
Mommy's hair is yellow (pauses to study me) and black."

Perhaps it's time to touch up my roots.

Memorial Day Weekend

So my sad but true excuse for not writing more lately is that we have been TV bums lately. Any time I am not dealing with the Battle of Natalia in the evening, I am on the couch watching The Office on DVD. It's actually great, and apparently the kids even support my viewing habit. For Mother's Day Michael got me another season to watch and told me he likes when Jeff and I laugh while he is sleeping. (Which leads me to think he is not sleeping if he hears us laughing, but that's a whole other matter.)

But a little bit about this weekend. We really had no plans, which was wonderful. We were looking for a restful, relaxing weekend with no sick people and no soccer clinics. Then we decided we were going to finally boot Natalia out of our room, and the latest plan was to pawn her off on her sis. That didn't quite happen. We did get Ree's room rearranged and slightly picked up, and we ordered a toddler bed for Natalia. (We are giving up on her ever really sleeping in a crib. The bars freak her out. And we're pretty sure she gets that no one else in the family sleeps in a crib.) Otherwise, we mostly had fun.

Ree's preschool graduation was Friday afternoon. They held it outside on the playground. The kids had decorated, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch afterward.

Saturday was the day I was supposed to work on the girls' room. I did work a little. But I also made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, which were a huge hit. (And considering how much syrup they normally put on them, a few chocolate chips and some whipped cream on a whole wheat pancake isn't all bad.)

As part of the room redecorating, I pulled out Ree's box of dress up clothes. The kids all spent hours playing with everything (and, yes, the box is heavy on girl clothes). Leon is surprisingly good at walking in heels, and it drives Michael nuts that he can't quite master it.

  Here Michael is dressed as the Sparkle Fairy.

Sunday morning we finally made it back to the beach for the first time since St. Patrick's Day. Knowing that holiday traffic would be insane, we went early and ate breakfast on the beach. That turned out to be quite enjoyable. The rest of the trip was okay but not fabulous, and it made us realize we definitely need to get out to the beach any weekend we don't have other plans.

We also learned that we need to take snacks even if we have breakfast on the beach. The kids were falling apart by the time we got home and ate lunch at 11:45. Thankfully, everyone in the family except Ree took afternoon naps (Jeff and I may have slept the longest!). Sunday night we headed out to the opening of a chain restaurant called Marlin and Ray's which is a lot like Joe's Crab Shack. Jeff is friends with the general manager, and we got free seafood for all and $5 grown up slushies. Good stuff.

We went grocery shopping after dinner on Sunday so that we wouldn't have to deal with that on Monday morning. That gave us time to break out the little pool for the first time this year. Natalia made it in the pool briefly, but decided she didn't like it when she got wet.

The other kids had a great time without her, and Natalia enjoyed playing in the club house by herself.

So in the end, it was not a productive weekend. But after playing outside, eating popsicles, baking cookies, and having Play-Doh time yesterday, the three big kids each declared Monday to be a great day. And we loved having a weekend where everyone was healthy and able to play that much.

So it turns out that little stomach bug we had at the end of April was a bit like the jelly-of-the-month club. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Since I last wrote about it, the bug took down both of my parents and revisited some of us for Round 2. I managed to get the sickest I can ever recall, and over the course of three days kept down only a bowl of mashed potatoes, and it didn't sit entirely well. (I will say, they were the tastiest mashed potatoes I have ever consumed. Go KFC, the kids' pick for Mother's Day.) Today Leon was symptom free, although the poor little guy looked a bit haggard and we've taken to calling him "Skeletor." He has had various issues for 13 days straight, although thankfully, most of the time he felt okay other than his stomach being angry. (We took him to the doctor after three straight nights of vomiting, and although we're still waiting for the results of one test, everything else has come back negative. He is technically relatively okay.)

I would think that being pretty much out of commission between my own sickness and my kids for the past four weeks would make me feel horribly behind. I think I did feel that way after Round 1, and I went nuts trying to get caught up, and I'm pretty sure that's how I ended up sick with Round 2. So now I am in a very relaxed, slooow place. And I kind of like it.

Over the weekend Jeff was at a soccer clinic all day Saturday and Sunday, so I got to hang out solo with the kids. On Saturday, we went grocery shopping. That was it. The rest of the day went to making food, serving food, cleaning up food, and wiping bottoms. Sunday I had planned on setting up the little kid pool outside, but when it was too cold (!), we did other outside activities. I set up cups with colored water on the kids' picnic table, and I took Ree's easel out for outdoor finger painting fun. The kids also ate popsicles, and we all had fun. Well, mostly. Michael was in freaking out mode all day, but that happens with him.

While I am rambling, just one more Michael story. This was classic Michael - all book smarts and not an ounce of common sense. Tonight Ree wanted to play a game from preschool after dinner. It's a combination of Charades and Twenty Questions. Each person acts out an animal, and everyone gets to ask them questions like, "What color are you?" and "Where do you live?" to help them guess the animal. Ree had a list of animals she got in a kid's meal, and when it was her turn, she pointed out the name of the animal she was going to act out so that I could help the boys ask relevant questions. Michael guessed correctly, and he got the next turn. He had watched Ree's entire turn, so I assumed he knew what to do. I pointed at an animal name and asked if he could read it. He said, "Yes. Cow!" I said yes, that was right, but we didn't want anyone to know the animal. I then said, that we would try again but this time he should just think the word his head but not say it with his mouth. As I did that, I happened to point at my head.

I actually pointed to the same word again. Michael smiled, pointed to his own head, and shouted, "COW!"

A Little Jackson Pollock

Tonight while Ree was taking her shower, she saw me looking at a red mark on her arm. She then told me, "Don't worry, Mom. It's not blood. It's paint. We were doing a little Jackson Pollock at school."

Mr. Full Disclosure

Michael, like Abraham Lincoln, tells no lies. Unlike Abe, Michael takes it a step farther. He also keeps no secrets. He is Mr. Full Disclosure, and he shares everything on his brain from what he got you for Christmas to very imaginative descriptions of his toilet training success. (Gross story alert! One time he proudly told me he had "a numbers poop." When I ask what that meant he said, "It looks like a 7!")

Michael was the first of the kids to fall victim to the stomach bug that recently hit our house, and on Monday he stayed home with me while Jeff, Leon, and Natalia took Ree to school. I was planning on working from home that day, and Michael normally begs to watch TV for hours on end, so this seemed like a winning combination. We would sit on the couch together, me working and him a breathing, blinking lump. It turned out when he was actually allowed to watch as much TV as he wanted, he quickly grew bored with it. He read, colored, and even played on my iPad before I had to pull out the big guns.

I got out the old fashioned Play-Doh Fun Factory. I had actually forgotten about it (we also have a fancy one that multiple kids can play with at once) and the kids hadn't played with it in a really long time. Playing with the Fun Factory came with a caveat that we would put it away before everyone returned. Jeff was planning on getting back just before lunch, and I did not want to deal with Leon having a meltdown because he didn't get a turn.

Michael had fun, and I showed him how to make all different shapes, and we did put it away as soon as Jeff pulled in the driveway. Michael, of course, was then hysterical when they entered, but I thought we managed to successfully convince his concerned brother that Michael was just not feeling well and no one was the wiser that Play-Doh fun happened.

On Wednesday, it was Leon's turn as the sick child who stayed home with me. Again, I planned to work while he watched TV. However, the first thing Leon said was, "Let's use the Fun Factory to make spaghetti!" Thank you, Michael.

Ree wasn't feeling well either and she was home with us too. So Jeff took Michael and Natalia out for a morning of fun so we could have some quiet. While out, Michael managed to tell everyone he saw that his brother was not with him because he was sick and he threw up a lot. I am sure that's exactly what they wanted to hear.

The Week of Sick

We've had a week of sick in our house. Prolonged sickness is never fun, and it's completely unexpected in late April/early May. This time it's been a stomach bug that has taken us down one by one. Here's hoping we are all back to normal soon!