A Snake & Bugs

Yesterday morning as the kids and I were loading into the van for a trip to Walmart, I see Aubree round the corner to get in on her side and then I hear a scream, "There's a snake!" as she comes running back around.  My mind went all over the place as I pictured a menacing python or some such horror.  Fortunately, upon a distant inspection, it appeared to be a small harmless black snake although we may never know.  He actually seemed to be somewhat of a friendly fellow who sat there just watching us as we stared at him and then finally went about our business.  I say "friendly" but in reality, I absolutely detest snakes.  Put me in a pit of spiders and I would probably be fairly calm.  But snakes...I don't do snakes.  The girls, of course, were intrigued by the whole thing.  The discussion continued after we got in the van.  "Aubree," Calleigh says in a conspiratorial tone from the back seat, "I wonder if that snake was Satan?"  She pauses to think for a few moments.  "Nah, Satan has wings."    

The sight Aubree saw turning the corner of the van.

This was using my mega zoom feature.  Believe me, I backed the van up to do Aubree's buckles.  It may have been small but I wasn't turning my back on that thing!

The bugs I'm referring to where the respective sick "bugs" that Duncan and I came down with this week.  Duncan had a bad headache and some sort of stomach bug over the weekend which then passed on to me later in the week..  Fortunately, in neither case was it too terribly bad and I was able to go about my days fairly normally.  But really, it's not like you have much choice since three kids don't take care of themselves.  I dream about the day when I can be like "Hey, Calleigh, go make lunch for your sister and brother."  But that will probably be the same day that she tells me she wants to get a tattoo or something. So on second thought, I think I'll manage.  One of the other symptoms was a lack of appetite so Wednesday and Thursday I only had a bowl of soup for the the day and today it's still been a little off.  And Wednesday night I did something that I can't remember the last time it occurred.  I went to bed at 9 pm!  I felt like I was missing out on a doing so much but in the end, I was too tired to care all that much.  Thankfully, as of now, we have not passed anything on to the kids.    

Last Sabbath Duncan stayed at home with the aforementioned horrible headache while I sent to church with the kids.  That is always a challenge just for the mere fact that Brady always nurses during the sermon so I'm in the mother's room.  Hence, the girls had to come with me "behind the curtain."  Aubree didn't seem to really get this concept because she kept asking, even after Sabbath School, when we were going to go to church.  Later, we met the Bergherms at a park for a picnic supper and some fellowship.  While there, we noted a mother who seemed to be having a challenge with her son who appeared to be autistic.  The girls did a lot of staring which then prompted us to have to launch into a discussion on what autism was.  Fun times.

Sunday morning after First Watch, I ventured off, solo, to a baby shower for my friend Fiorella.  That left Duncan, who still wasn't feeling his very best, with the three kids who had a birthday party for Luke, Zachary, and Kaleb scheduled at the Marionette Theater in the mall.  I promised to duck out early from the shower to help with things which I did.  Duncan actually texted me that he was afraid Aubree might have pink eye since she was rubbing it and saying it bothered here but after a few sets of drops, nothing ever developed further.  Anyway, the kids enjoyed a little puppet play at the theater, which we had never been to before, and then had some pizza and fancy birthday cakes (courtesy of Jennifer, of course) afterwards.  A fun time especially considering, according to the girls, that the boys are their future husbands....although I can't really remember who it is this week.  Zachary?  Luke?  Blake?  It's always changing.  Calleigh will declare that she's going to marry one of them and then Aubree, naturally, says she's going to marry that same one, and then an argument ensues.  Oh, we have so much to look forward to!

Marionette Theater

The birthday boys and their cakes behind them.

Fiorella. She's due to have her boy or girl on Calleigh's due date, May 11.  Yes, believe it or not, there are a few people who still keep the sex a surprise.  

Monday morning we went to the Bergherms to watch "Charlotte's Webb" since we had the play scheduled for Wednesday morning.  As is typical with many DVD's, both versions of it were scratched which them scratched our plans.  No worries, the kids can keep themselves plenty entertained with some horseplay and such.  At one point, Evan landed pretty hard on Calleigh's face (no real harm done) and I said "Well, there you go.  That's payback for when you bit him in the face when you were almost two and he was a baby."  You can see my blog entry for that here.  When that happened, I barely knew Jennifer.  Good thing she didn't hold it against me!    

Before the DVD started skipping...

....and after.

Tuesday was a routine library/story time outing and a quick stop at the nearby consignment store that marks some things down to 75% off at the beginning of the month.  I did get a couple of things.  Wednesday morning we went to the Shakespeare Theater to see "Charlotte's Webb."  The kids got to sit on the front row on mats just like they did for the Miss Nelson play so you couldn't beat the seating. It was very entertaining although I will say that this is the first play that we've seen where there hasn't been any singing involved which I think was better for Brady.  He still was good but he was getting a little rambunctious and things didn't quite hold his attention like in the past (although, he's obviously getting older too).   After the play, we went to Moss Park like we usually do and Duncan met us for lunch.  

Thursday was my sick day so we didn't do much other than go to Walmart and face the snake.  Luckily, I felt better this morning and we were able to do our yard sale routine.  There weren't many, perhaps because of Good Friday, so we had some extra time in the end to try a new playground that I once again, discovered while driving around to yard sales.  See?  They really are helpful besides just getting great deals.  I've really gotten to know the neighborhoods in this area pretty well.  We were the only ones at the playground and then two little sisters in princess outfits arrived and Calleigh and Aubree thought that was just the neatest thing.  At one point it started raining and we had to gather under the roof at the picnic tables.  Well, the girls took this as an opportunity to talk to the mom and the two sisters about this, that, and anything else they could think of.  Seriously, those two sisters probably said like two sentences while Calleigh and Aubree talked just about the entire time (with Aubree basically echoing everything Calleigh said).  The mom was probably relieved when the rain stopped and I rounded them up to head out.  And I mean really, how many more random people are we going to tell that Dewey died?

Speaking of yard sales, this was a little funny...Calleigh wanted me to tell her a story this afternoon about Moses and the Israelites so I started in on the story of manna.

Me: "So, there wasn't any manna on Sabbath because they were supposed to gather extra the day before.  Now, what's the day before Sabbath?"

Calleigh: "Yard Sale Day!"

 

I thought this was a question that Calleigh had put a lot of thought into... "Mom, did you know that there are people who smoke that don't know they're killing themselves?"  In her mind, I bet she thinks the ones that smoke somehow don't know it's bad or else why they would be doing it??  

This week I had some more major frustrations with Brady and his lack of interest in formula.  I decided to give it a go again because his nursing just seems so poor. Most of the time I'm fighting him to stay on (if I start singing I can usually get about another 60 seconds).  I tried some milk, rather than soy, based formulas this time but both brands were duds.  I guess I need to just face the fact that formula isn't going to be happening.  Hopefully I can keep the nursing going until we hit 12 months.  Clearly, I will not be nursing this little man to 19 months like I did with his sisters.  I did a little research online and I came across a lot of stories from mothers who reported that there kids barely wanted to drink anything, either formula or breastmilk, at this same ago so I'm trying to just chill about it.  In some of the cases, the mothers gave their babies cow's milk, which of course, you aren't supposed to do until a year.  I'm not ready to take it to that level yet, though.  In the meantime, I'm trying to keep him stuffed with solid foods.  But sometimes you feel like there's something more you should be doing when you see all the fat babies out there the same age and younger. 

On that note, I'm going to call it a night.  Have a Happy Sabbath and a wonderful Easter.  

 

What is about kids and dishwashers?

The kids all playing together

Look who climbed his first stair this week.  Time to get the gate back up!

Love these guys!