Memorial Day and more May

Saturday morning, our ward youth were invited to help put up flags at the Veterans Memorial Cemetary.  We met at 7:30 am.  We had three youth show up.  That part was disappointing, but it was a good experience.  It only took, at most, an hour.  (And there were so many donuts, cookies, chocolate milk and juice leftover they were begging people to take them home.  So I did my part and my kids were thrilled.)  There were other groups there before us.  I wasn't sure about going, partly because it was at 7:30 am on a Saturday, but mostly because that's where my dad's buried.  I haven't been back since the funeral.  I've thought about it many times, even planned it, but never been there. Some people may think that's awful, but it's just the hardest place for me to go.  I think about and miss him every day.  I just don't like to be sad more than I have to I guess, so I avoid it. 

It was nice to be up there to see all of the flags though.  They said they had 4,000 flags from last year and bought 900 more.  There was only a few left over.  It really makes you appreciate the sacrifices others have made for us.

Friday was the elementary school dance festival.  It was nice and overcast so we had some umbrellas just in case.  Here in Utah we use our umbrellas for shade more than we do for rain.  We always take them to parades and Brady's football games.  The kids all love to play with them so it's quite amazing nobody has lost an eye.  Anyway, Friday morning in the car on the way to take Brady to school, Tyler was wearing this shirt.  He said, "I'm wearing a green shirt.  I'm ready for Patrick's day!"  The other kids laughed and told him it was already past St. Patrick's day.  Tyler replied just as happily, "Next it's Sponge Bob's day!"

Here's Mia at the dance festival.  She's in the yellow right in the middle of the picture.  The kindergarten did the song "Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King.  The theme this year was Broadway.

Chloe is sitting down in the brown shirt on the right.  She was clear on the other side during the performance and kept getting hidden behind the other kids so this is probably the best picture I got of her.  I took pictures of Brady, but I couldn't even find him in the picture, so I won't bore you with those.  I videoed it, but I won't post that either.  5th grade did a song from Newsies I think.  I've never seen that movie, so I'm only going by the costumes.

Tyler loves playing Lance's iPhone.  The minute he walks in the door, Tyler's asking to play it.  Colin and Isaac were really enjoying whatever he was playing as well.  Love that pink carpet. 

We got the sprinkler out for the first time a week and a half ago.  It was only about 75 when they were playing in it, but they'd been begging to get it out.  They had a lot of fun.

Isaac, on the other hand was not too happy when he got sprayed.

His awesome big brother helped him feel better by giving him a tennis ball and letting him play with his new racket. 

And when Tyler got thirsty, he got himself a drink.  I keep telling myself he'll grow out of this.  At least I think he will.  I don't know any adults who drink water off of the driveway.

The garbage truck came by too.  That was super exciting. 

Here's a couple more old cell phone pictures.  Last year we left our kids for a night at Lance's sister-in-law while we went to a wedding.  They loved the slip n' slide.

They have a nice little hill that makes it much funner than our flat yard. 

The trampoline was also a hit. 

They did a good job of wearing them out.

They also have a nice little park by their house.  The baby on the left is Tyler.  Isaac's on the right.  Both adorable.  I'm pretty sure Tyler was over a year old.  Isaac's about seven months.  I don't think I'll ever not be amazed at how much hair Isaac has.

Poop in the Street

Friday, May 11th.

Tuesday (the 8th) I was reading to my kids before bed time and I got something in my eye.  I tried to get it out, but I think I just managaed to wedge it in deeper.  It was irritating the rest of the night and the next day.  I managed to make it through the morning even though it was really annoying and painful.  I went outside to stain our new deck and I really shouldn't have.  The sun really aggravated whatever it was.  I was quite the sight.  My eye kept watering and my nose was running since I've developed some allergies to something this year. So it looked like I was crying as I was staining away.  By the time I came back inside, all I could do was sit and close my eyes.  Fortunately, Isaac was asleep and Tyler was playing outside with his cousin.  That night for Young Women's we went to a dance performance at the high school since we had three girls in the show.  I was half tempted to wear my sunglasses inside because it helped take the edge off of the pain.  I didn't though.  It was ok during the first half of the show.  During the second half, they kept backlighting the stage different colors and for some reason, that bothered it more.  One of the other leaders told me her mom just had some hardened mascara removed from behind her eye so that made me a little paranoid that it was something horrible and not something I could just wait out. 


Thursday morning Isaac had a well child visit.  I made an eye appointment for right after that and prepared to deal with the pain as we drove to the doctor's office.  That was pretty awful.  I really shouldn't have been driving.  My eye was watering and irritated and driving towards the sun was causing major blurry vision.  I almost had to pull over a couple of times.  We made it there safely though.  Isaac's appointment went pretty well, at least as well as any doctor's appointment can go when you have 5 kids with you.  All of the kids got to look at Isaac's eardrum this time.  Last time, Chloe didn't get to see it and there was a meltdown after that.  Isaac sat very still and was very patient.  The doctor was pretty impressed that he sat so still for so long while everyone looked at his eardrum.  Isaac is definitely my most patient child. 


At the eye doctor's we got to wait about an hour before we even saw the doctor.  The first half was in the waiting room which had a few toys, more room and less expensive things to break.  For the second half, we got to be tortured with a small room, lots of things to touch that shouldn't be touched by little kids, and hungry, bored, tired kids.  There was a few tears shed in that room.  Finally the doctor came and was able to determine I had a 2mm corneal abrasion with a tiny particle stuck under my eyelid.  He put in a numbing drop, removed the particle and prescribed an antibiotic.  Life was much better after that, except for the tired, hungry, bored kids.  I fed the kids, sent three off to kindergarten and put one to bed.  The other was happy to watch a few cartoons for a little bit. I was able to regain a little of my sanity.  I can still feel the tiny scratch, but with the particle out, it's much better.

Last night I ditched my kids with my brother and snuck out to a Paparazzi jewelry party at my sister-in-law's house.  I brought Isaac with me since he wasn't feeling too swell after his shots.  After I bought a few things, I had a few refreshments.  I gave Isaac a cupcake.  He wouldn't take bites of it, of course, he just wanted to hold the whole thing.  I found a bowl to put it in and let him go to town with it.  I was sitting on the kitchen floor with Isaac on my lap so he wouldn't destroy her house or the jewelry.  He used his fingers to lick the frosting off of his cupcake.  And when he was ready to get up, he pushed himself off his lap with his frosting covered hand, right onto my chest.  I had a perfect white handprint on my brown shirt.  Very attractive. 

Later I was getting him ready for bed.  He's had some diarrhea (which the doctor attributed to teething since nobody else has had it) and I have the worst sense of smell so he'd been poopy for a while.  His bum was sore, so I let him go naked for a few minutes.  I was hugging my half naked boy when I felt a little warm sensation on my pants.  Nice.  My life is just so glamorous, handprint on my chest, pee on my pants, what more could a mother ask for. 

Today when I put Isaac down for his nap, Tyler came in and was being grumpy so he climbed on his bed and said he was tired.  He wouldn't come out, so I just left him there, fully expecting him to come out a few minutes later.  It's been two hours.  Apparently, he was tired.  I will most likely regret this tonight when he's still awake at midnight.  (He was up until about 10pm which is generally the same time Chloe and Brady finally give up for the night and go to sleep.)

Sunday May 20th.

For Mother's Day, Brady wrote some very insightful words for me in his class at school.  This is the back. 

And here's the front.

 It's nice to know my kids recognize me for what I truly am!  It's posted on the fridge to remind myself to be a little nicer.  After I had a few good laughs over it, I asked Brady if he knew what "hurendus" means.  When he said, "no" I told him it means worse than terrible.  He said, "Well, I meant the opposite of that then." 

Last year my brother brought a tricycle over to our house since his son had outgrown it.  About two hours later, Lance backed over it with the truck and busted it up a bit.  It's been in the garage as another project for Lance.  Brady and his friend Max beat him to it.  They found some duct tape and some training wheels and went to town. 

By the time they were done with it, they had added another training wheel and some sort of contraption on the back so they could sit on the step in the back instead of the seat.  It was pretty awesome.  Those two have a lot of fun creating things as well as destroying things.

Kohler's had strawberries on sale last week, a full flat for $8.99.  They were really good strawberries too, so we enjoyed a couple of flats.  I made some jam and we ate a bunch plain.  I even dipped some in chocolate.  Tyler loves fruit.  I think he'd be happy eating fruit all day long.  And this is what he'd look like every day. 

That was the first time he wore his shirt from Itty Bitty Football.  It really doesn't matter what shirt he wears, he usually ends up like looking like this by the end of the day.  He's a busy boy.

After church on Mother's day I had Lance take a few pictures of me with our kids.  I wanted to do it before church, but not enough time.  Isaac's eating a Dorito.  He had some immunizations that really worked him over.  He had a fever for about 4 days and would hardly eat anything.  I was just happy he found something he wanted to eat.  In case you can't tell, Chloe's on the right.  She wanted her hair straightened.  When Chloe has straight hair we tease them that we can't tell who's who.

Back in April, Lehi City had it's annual appreciation day at the Legacy Center.  They had free hot dogs, fire trucks and a swat vehicle to walk through as well as people passing out information about the different city departments.  They also had three bucket trucks they use for the power lines.  You could get a ride in the bucket too.  Brady was taking a cross-training class, so we happened to be at the Legacy Center when they had it.  We waited in line for about 45 minutes for their turn to ride in the bucket.  They put harnesses on each of the kids, then harnessed them together in the bucket so nobody fell out, then took them up as high as the bucket would go.  I only had my cell phone, so my pictures are not very good and you can't tell who's in the bucket, but this is all about memories, so just pretend this is a fantastic picture.

My kids are in the bucket on the right.  You can see a couple of hands waving at me.  They had a great time.  As you can see, it was cloudy and a little rainy at times, but that's fine with me.  We would have roasted had the sun been out.  By the time we were done with the bucket ride, the hot dogs were all gone, but my kids wanted to go through the information booth line since they were giving out such fun things as pencils, magnets and cups of popcorn.  It took about 30 minutes to get through that.  I was so ready to go home by then.  The kids enjoyed it though.

On the Saturday before Mother's Day, we had some cousins over.  Lance was taking them over to his mom's house to jump on her trampoline for a while.  He looked for Tyler and Andrew, but couldn't find them right away.  After he yelled for them, he realized he was in the neighbor's empty lot next to us.  In the back of the lot is an old dog run with a cement floor.  Apparently, they had to use the bathroom and were too lazy to come in the house.  I'm probably a bad mom because I let Tyler pee outside if he's in the backyard.  Well, apparently he decided it's ok to poop outside too.  Both of them had pooped on the cement!  Lance got a shovel and made them scoop it into a hole.  Then they had to stay home instead of go to his mom's house.  They said they wouldn't do it again.

Tyler didn't keep his word though.  The next day, Colin came in and told me Tyler had pooped and peed in the road!  I just about lost it.  One of the things I love most about Tyler is his unpredictability, but sometimes, it's a lot to deal with.  At night, after the stress of the day is over, I can laugh about it, but scooping your son's poop out of the street, is not so funny in the moment.

I finally downloaded all of the pictures off of my cell phone so here's a few old pictures.

Every once in a while my kids get into a kick where they like to wear their coats backwards.  Here's Tyler with his on backwards.  We were out for a walk on a semi-warm winter day.  There's two pink dots in the distance.  That's Mia and Chloe waiting at the corner for me.  I think this was winter of 2010 judging by the coats my kids are wearing.

April

Yes, I realize it's May, but somehow April hasn't happened here. 

The Saturday before Easter we had our annual Easter egg hunt at my house.  I love Easter.  It's probably my favorite holiday.  I have 5 diaper boxes full of easter eggs I fill each year and then invite all of the cousins over.  We have a large backyard with some very interesting hiding spots.  I gave up on the city Easter egg hunts when Brady was little.  Too many people and not enough eggs.  We've had the hunt at my house for eight years now I think.  It might only be seven.  I don't remember if we did it the first year we lived here.  It takes hours and lots of candy to fill the eggs.  This year I kind of kept track of how much money I spent on candy and lets just say it was a lot.  I do like buying candy though!

Here's a few pictures of the filling process.  I let the kids help out at first.  Yes, Mia's in a swimsuit.  No, I'm not sure why.

At first Isaac just played with the eggs until we started eating candy as we stuffed eggs, then he just wanted the candy.

And eventually he learned how to open the eggs.  Then he would bring me the candy out of the eggs for me to open.  That's about the time the kids were done helping and I finished it at night while I watched pointless tv waiting for Lance to get home.

Every year we take a picture on the porch before we let them loose.  Some of the cousins are so old now they don't even come anymore.  They're off to college or too busy playing sports.  Others were just babies when we started. 

Here's Isaac's first egg.  He's trying to get it open.  He was a little slow at gathering the eggs since he kept stopping to open them.  Lance stepped in to help him get his share.

Tyler and Colin ran by a bunch on the ground so they could get the ones Brady put up in the tree. 

Mia found a nice quiet corner to fill her bag.  Surprisingly enough, she found the golden egg she hid before anyone else did.  She was pretty proud of herself for accomplishing that.  That's my brother's boat, not mine.

I made Brady slow down after this.  I told you we have some interesting hiding spots.  Those tires all came from Western Moto and ATV.  Lance barely has time to sleep, much less dispose of used tires.  Fortunately, I have an awesome brother (the one who owns the boat) who volunteered to take them up to Salt Lake where they're supposed to go.  So it doesn't look near as bad now.  We still have that white car though.  It was my little sister's car.  I keep hoping one of my soon-to-be driving niece's will want it, but so far, there it sits.  It needs some work to pass emisions if I remember correctly.  And that white van's a beauty, isn't it?  Runs good, fails safety, or emissions- now I forget which one since it's been so long- because the check engine light doesn't, yes I said doesn't, come on for a second right after it's started.  So it's been there for two years now.  Like I said, Lance doesn't have time to sleep, so no time for car projects, even if that means posting them on KSL to sell.  The blue and silver toolboxes belong to someone else.  We're very good at storing things for other people.  You should see our garage, and our "little basement" which is about a 4 foot high crawlspace where we store lots of things.  It's very handy. 

Chloe found her share of eggs too.  She loves those snowboots.  She would wear them every day if I let her.  She likes them because they're soft inside and easy to get on.  That little pickup is another project.  Apparently it overheated and the head needs to be replaced.  Once again, no time.

Tyler gave his first talk in Primary.  He did very well.  He was disappointed that the microphone wasn't working though.  Halfway through, he asked, "How long is this going to take?"  His talk was only two paragraphs.  Without the microphone, not many of the kids heard much or any of his talk, so hopefully, not too many heard his question either. 

When we ran out of size 6 diapers for Tyler at night I finally decided to bite the bullet and try to get him potty trained at night.  I don't force the night time potty training usually.  I see no point in waking him up every three hours to go pee.  When he's ready, he's ready.  He'd been dry 6 out of 7 nights pretty consistently for almost a month so it was worth a shot.  Well, he was wet 6 out of 7 nights without a diaper.  He's such a sound sleeper he doesn't even wake up if he's soaking wet.  I've been tempted to give up, but we keep trying.  He's been dry the last 4 nights in a row.  A couple of times he's even gotten up to go pee, so hopefully, this will work. 

I finally took Isaac's pacifier away.  We took Mia's pacifier away at about 12 or 13 months.  Tyler was probably closer to 14 or 15 months.  Isaac was almost 18 months.  It seems I'm getting more and more lenient.  I just hate the couple of nights of a sad baby.  He only had it in bed, but he'd get it out or somebody would get it for him.  Plus, he wasn't sleeping very well.  He was waking up at least once or twice wanting his pacifier, but he'd lost it somewhere in his bed.  I was getting sick of this cycle, so in the trash they went.  Cold turkey is the only way to go.  He was very sad the first night.  He cried and cried.  I went in there about every 15 minutes to console him.  He was lying on his back and he kept putting his hand up by his head where I'll put it if he won't take it because he's busy telling me he doesn't want to go to bed.  I just kept telling him, "all gone."  He went to sleep after about an hour.  The next day at nap time, he was sad, but he didn't cry.  And by bedtime, he'd accepted it was gone.  I'm pretty sure he was the easiest.  I know it was a couple of nights before Mia was over it.  (That's not too surprising.  She's very good at showing her displeasure with anything in life.)

We had our ultrasound on April 20th.  The baby looks very healthy.  It's definitely a boy, in case you couldn't tell. 

I was pretty surprised.  I've been planning on it being a girl pretty much since Isaac was born.  I just had it in my head we'd have another girl.  I absolutely love my boys, but I have sooo many girl clothes I've been hoping to use again!  I can't bear to part with them yet.  There's so many memories in those clothes (very vague, blurry memories, but memories nonetheless).  It was a wild time and now that they're six, I can hardly believe it all happened.  At first after we found out it was a boy, I kept having to remind myself we needed a boy name, not a girl name.  I think I've finally come around to him being a boy though.  I'm fine with it.  We have plenty of drama with our two girls.

Our girls had their kindergarten field trip the morning of the ultrasound.  They were very excited to ride the bus and go to Hee Haw farms so I didn't even tell them we were having the ultrasound.  I knew they would be upset.  I showed them the video of the ultrasound after school.  I got my camera ready and turned on the video waiting for the hysterical tears to come, but they were both fine!  I was pretty shocked.  Mia was so sad when we found out Isaac was a boy.  She cried and cried.  And all I could do was laugh because she was so upset.  I just didn't know how set she was on having a baby sister.  I guess now she realizes that baby brother's are cute and fun too. 

Tyler's suggestions for a name were Lisa and Gaspard.  I had no idea where he came up with those and thought it was very odd since he has an Aunt Lisa.  A couple of days ago we were watching Disney Junior and a show called Lisa and Gaspard came on and it made much more sense.  Although, I'm not sure why he likes those names so much.  It's kind of an odd show if you ask me. 

After living in our house for eight years with our back door opening up to this:

I finally decided to just get this done!  (In the picture on the left you can see the rebar that's under the sliding glass door.  Only a slight hazard.  My kids aren't supposed to use this door for that reason.) 

It already looks tons better, don't you think?  Here it is with the concrete and stair framing done.  Gorgeous and worth every penny I paid the guy to do it.  I had him put in those tall posts so I could put up a curtain since it's west facing and incredibly hot in the afternoon.  At first Lance was resistant to having somebody else do it.  (He knows he's fully capable of doing it, but once again that no time problem kind of gets in the way.)  I told him I'd just get some bids and see how much it was.  After I got the bids, he was all for it. 

Who can resist wet concrete?

I'm hoping to order the Trex tomorrow.  I went in last Saturday to order it, but there was a big ad for a sale that starts tomorrow for Trex.  I can wait a week.  For now it's still pretty entertaining.  The kdis have races in between the joists.  The smell of the wood reminds me so much of growing up.  My dad was a contractor, so there was always a house under construction to explore. 

Little Isaac really needed a hair cut.  I've been putting it off for months saying I was going to get his pictures taken with his long hair, so I'd just trim enough to keep it out of his eyes.  Something always came up though.  He's either been sick with a red snotty nose or I've been sick or someone else has been sick, so no pictures.  Yesterday, I finally just decided to cut it.  I don't think any of my other kids had even hair cuts by this time, much less 5 or 6.  Here's my handsome boy before. 

Chloe took this picture of us.  I should warn you I have no makeup on, which is generally my only look lately.  You can see some baby belly too.  My sister-in-law says I actually look pregnant.  Not that there was any doubt, only that according to her I don't show until I'm 7 or 8 months.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Mostly, I disagree.  I always feel like I'm huge.  I'll have to start taking pictures to compare to my last pregnancy. 

And here he is after.  He looks so grown up.

The girls kept saying he looks more like Tyler now, so I found a picture of Tyler to compare at about the same age.

I guess they're right.  They real twins are Tyler and Brady though.  Here's the best digital picture of Brady I could find at that age.  Do you like Lance's self-portrait face? 

 

Good thing I have such cute boys.  It will be interesting to see who our newest boy will look like.  I'm kind of hoping he'll have lots of hair like Isaac though.  Then if it was curly like some of my other kids, that would be perfect!

More spilled milk, and lots of Tyler

Colin decided to join the cereal spilling fun.  It was so great.  He spilled it, then just sat there and watched it continue to spill out of his bowl instead of moving his hand to stop the cereal from spilling.  So fun.

You'd think I'd get smart and start making pancakes or eggs for breakfast.  But I haven't.  You can kind of tell from the above picture, but we got some new stools.  These ones are "giant"ones.  Eve's boyfriend moved and so kindly gave these to us.  Now they don't fight over the "big" stools, they fight over the "giant" ones.  And speaking of Chris, he totally ditched us for dinner yesterday.  I made dinner, cleaned the house and he went golfing instead.  It's not like he doesn't golf every day already.  (He's a golf coach.)  I may not be thinking so highly of him now . . .

I have lots to say about Tyler, but I have to tell a few stories about Brady first.  He's a funny kid.  The other day, he came upstairs wearing black shorts.  On the back, it looked like he had brushed up against some dust.  When I told him he had something on the back of his shorts, he kind of smiled strangely and "tried" to wipe it off.  It didn't come off, so I tried.  Instead of it feeling dusty, it felt greasy.  Then I noticed the streaking was all about the same width and realized what it was when I could smell my fingers.  It was deodorant.  I asked him why he had deodorant on the back of his shorts and told him to go change.  He didn't answer or change.  I told him everyone at school was going to laugh at him.  He didn't care.  He proudly went to school with his deodorant shorts.  It was still on there and visible when he got home from school too.  He said nobody even asked him about it.  Weird.

A couple of months ago before school, I was upstairs and Brady was downstairs with Isaac.  He was just watching him and very spontaneously said to nobody, "I just love this age.  It's so fun."  It was adorable. 

He's taken Isaac outside a couple of times the last couple of days.  Isaac doesn't wander like Tyler did.  He's happy if he can chase a few balls around.  Our neighbors have a couple of dogs.  Isaac loves animals.  Brady has taken Isaac over there a couple of times to pet the dogs when they're outside.

One day we were outside when the kids came home from school.  (I've been letting them walk home more, especially if Isaac is taking a nap.  Brady takes his responsibility to get the three younger kids home safely very seriously.  If they don't stay by him or listen to him, he takes them by the hand or hands and doesn't let go until they get home.  Of course, this usually means the younger child comes home screaming.  Brady's funny because he gets so frustrated and he tells me he tries very hard not to get too mad at them.  He just holds their hand/wrist very tightly all the way home.  I've told the younger kids several times they need to listen to Brady and stay by him.  Apparently, they'd rather learn the hard way.)  Anyway, on this day everyone walked home cooperatively.  As soon as Isaac saw them coming, he ran to them.  When he got to Brady, Brady scooped him up and gave him a hug and carried him back to me.  It was one of those moments that make being a mom worth it. 

And now Tyler.  In my last post I promised you a story about his previous favorite color, purple.  One day he was downstairs playing with Colin.  Somehow, Tyler hit his cheek on some part of the stairs or wall and it left a pretty big bump.  Tyler hates to have anyone look at his bumps and scrapes, but eventually he took his hand off and asked Colin if it was bleeding.  Colin told him, "No, but it's purple!"  And Tyler very calmly replied, "That's ok.  Purple's my favorite color."  Then went on playing like nothing happened. 

The bathroom downstairs smelled very strongly like pee.  I cleaned the toilet, all around the toilet, took out the garbage and it still smelled like pee.  I turned to the shower and I had a flashback to a couple days before.  Tyler and his cousin Andrew had been playing in the shower.  I was upstairs and heard them, so I told them to get out.  At that moment I knew what they had been doing.  I opened the shower to find a nice yellow ring all around the drain of the shower.  It was quite disgusting.  Fortunately, after I got that cleaned up, it no longer smelled like pee. 

And while we're on the subject of pee, one day Mia came running down the stairs yelling, "Mom!  Tyler, Andrew and Colin are peeing in the same toilet at the same time!" 

Another day, I was sitting in the living room and Tyler and Andrew came from upstairs where they had to pass a bathroom and opened the front door.  I didn't pay too much attention to them until everyone outside started yelling, "Tyler!"  He was peeing on the mat in front of the door.  Don't ask me why.  He just looked at me like it was the most normal thing to do and he couldn't figure out what the fuss was about. 

He's a little obsessed with the fact that he has a "weiner."  (When Brady was little he knew all of the correct terminology about male and female anatomy.  He never obsessed or talked about it that much, some of my other kids have been a little more vocal about their knowledge, hence my recluctance to focus too much on the correct terminology.  Somehow weiner sounds better than the alternative coming out of a 3 year olds mouth.  Brady was very intrigued with uvula's though.  He loved to see them.  He'd ask people who came over if he could see their uvula.  A few people were a little taken aback until I pointed to my own.)  He's constantly asking me if I have a weiner.  For a while he wanted to see my weiner.  Even though I've told him repeatedly I don't have a weiner.  One day he was playing with play doh so my big rolling pin was out.  He was playing with that for a while.  Then he stuck it in his pants, somehow he got it wedged in there so he didn't have to hold it, and said, "Look.  I have a big weiner!"  How do you not laugh at that?

Our hotel at Disneyland had a swimming pool and hot tub.  The last night we took some time to use them.  The swimming pool was freezing cold, so I sat in the hot tub along with a couple of other adults and kids.  Our kids kept coming over to it as well.  Tyler started to get in the hot tub and he said, "Ow!  It burns my weiner!  Mom does it burn your weiner?"  Of course I told him again I don't have one.  Tyler- "I wish I didn't have a weiner."  Me-  "Why not?"  Tyler-  "Then it wouldn't burn my weiner."  I tried to respond quietly and he was about as loud as he could be. 

Earlier that day while walking back to the hotel from Disneyland, Lance's mom tripped and fell.  Later, Mia said it was sad when Grandma fell.  Tyler said, "Why?  She didn't turn into a vampire."

Last week, Tyler was playing with these two lego people.  Do you want to hear their conversation?

 

"I'm a girl.  I don't have a weiner."

"I'm a boy.  I have a weiner." 

For dinner one day, I made grilled cheese sandwiches.  I asked, "Who wants a grilled cheese sandwich?"  Tyler responded, "I want a boy cheese sandwich!"

Before we went on Splash Mountain, we passed out poncho's for those who didn't want to get wet.  Tyler said very firmly, "I don't want a nacho!" 

I went to a friend of mine's baby shower months ago, (the babies are now 5 months old).  When I came back Tyler said, "You're not supposed to take a baby shower.  You're supposed to take a big shower!" 

One day after I dropped the kindergartner off I ventured to Kohl's to find bigger coats for my girls.  I've already lost Tyler there once so I knew it would not be fun.  He has no anxiety when he can't find me.  He just laughs and keeps running.  Anyway, I was looking at coats and he got too far away so I went after him.  He was stopped in front of the lingerie section looking up at two mannequins who had on only bras and panties.  He saw me coming, looked back up at the mannequins and said, "Oh.  Bye ladies," then took off. 

Every night before bed, I read books with the kids.  Instead of picking a book, Tyler took every single book off of the bookshelf. 

At first they were all in a big pile.  He would say, "Cannonball!"  Then jump into the pile like he was jumping into a pool.  Then he started making "snow angels".  When I asked him to make a "snow angel" the next morning so I could take a picture, since the night before I was not amused and more concerned about getting everyone to bed, he said, "No, it's book angels."  And this is what he did.

For a while he was convinced he was getting a jet pack for his birthday.  And not a fake one either.  He wanted a real one he could fly with.  He wanted a jet pack themed birthday too complete with jet pack cake. He hasn't talked too much about that lately.  Hopefully, he's moved on.  I have no idea where to get an affordable jet pack these days.

He made me proud one day though.  We were sitting in the van waiting for the kids and Tyler wanted to listen to some music so he was changing the radio station.  Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana came on.  He stopped and said, "Ohh.  I like this one."  At least he has good taste in music. 

When I told Lance that story, he said he didn't realize I was such a big Nirvana fan.  I can't say I've listened to Nirvana in years, but come on.  I grew up just miles from Seattle, the grunge capital.  How could I not be a fan?