Good Morning Bal-Ti-More!

I think I mentioned last week that Katie's new fav movie is Grease. I can't really tell you how excited I am about this because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE musicals. I love to sing and dance around the house all the time. My kids often just look at me with a quizzical look and say "what are you doing?" It's probably all my years of dancing and being in choir(s), I can't help it, I break out into loud song and dramatical dance all the time. So I am THRILLED that my girl is loving Grease. I'm also thrilled that she doesn't understand at all what most of it is about. Luckily her least favorite song is Grease Lighning (which is one of my favs of the whole movie). I don't think I really need to be explaining what a p---y wagon is to a 5 year old. I am, however, a little concerned that she might be singing it on the playground at school. Surely I would've heard about it by now--being that she goes to private Catholic school and all--I bet they wouldn't let that fly. I remember my sister and I roller skating in our basement to that song and singing the lyrics loudly--obviously we didn't know what we were singing...but I bet my mom was upstairs saying "Oh, Lordy...my sweet innocent girls." (Notice...the loud singing and dancing began at a young age).

So I got even more excited when the movie Hairspray came on yesterday and Katie exclaimed "Mommy, I love this movie!" I can't figure out if it's all musicals that she likes or if it's 50s/60s inspired musical. Either way, I don't care--LET'S SING AND DANCE!!!!!

WM just rolls his eyes at us.

I thought I was safe on naughty lyrics (none, really in Hairspray) and having to dance around the sexual references but I was not prepared for this question from her...

"Mommy, why can't the brown people dance with the white people?"

"Uhhhhh....errrrr.....well.....ummmm....LET'S SING AND DANCE!!!"

Then I tried to explain it in a way a 5 year old might be able to understand. And this is what she said.

"Huh, well, that's dumb. I guess people weren't very smart back before we were born."

God Bless her little heart...don't you wish you could keep our children so innocent and forgiving forever?

(sigh)

Hey--LET'S SING AND DANCE!!!!!!

"Good Morning Bal-ti-more!"

Make A Wish

Happy Birthday to WM!

Today is his birthday!

Since the day I met him he is a firm believer in not celebrating--or really even mentioning--his birthday. So I spend the whole day feeling guilty that I don't have any great gifts, delicious dinner or special plans. But I know that if I did these things it would make him irritated. And we DON'T need that!!! So, we laid low today. His only request was that instead of a cake he wanted me to make banana bread with mini M&M's. So that's what we stuck candles in and sang Happy Birthday.

Love ya, WM! I'm glad there's a November 9th--because if there wasn't, then there wouldn't be a you. And your kiddos think it's fun to celebrate daddy's birthday.

Here he his blowing out the candles on his birthday bread.

Oh--and to clarify--about my bathtub post. WM was busy putting Baby Lam to bed, that's why he couldn't address Patrick's needs--people have been asking. :)

A Nice Warm Bath...Nothin' Better to Wrap Up the Day

I love to take long, hot baths. Especially in the fall/winter, but I also take them in the warm months of the year. But it's been awhile since I've taken a loooooong, hot bath, the kind where it turns the skin bright red and fingers and toes are pruned because you've been soaking for 30+ minutes. I took lots of those long baths in the weeks that followed the birth of my each of my babies. WM knew it was the only time I would have to myself in those new days of motherhood and would graciously rock, bounce, walk with a screaming baby who wanted nothing but mommy and her boobie. Those bath days weren't relaxing--listening to my crying baby on the other side of the door--but it was nice to just sit there and be by myself. Since it's been a little more chilly the last two days, I decided to indulge myself tonight. And it went a little something like this...

(Keep in mind that all dialog is through a closed and locked bathroom door...me on the inside, everyone else directly outside the bathroom door).

8:00 p.m.
Me (to the kiddos and WM): "I'm going to take a bath"
Them: (no response--total ignoring of me).

8:02 p.m.
I get in the bathtub.

8:02 and 15 seconds p.m.
Baby Lam standing outside the bathroom door screaming and banging on the door

8:05 p.m.
Baby Lam still standing and crying outside the bathroom door (so much for relaxing)

8:06 p.m.
WM gets Baby Lam and starts putting her to bed--ahhhh, peace and quiet, try to relax.

8:06 and 30 seconds p.m.
Patrick: "Mommy, will you get me a 'Pri Sun?" (That's how he says Capri Sun)
Me: "When I get out of the bathtub"

8:06 and 40 seconds p.m.
Patrick: "Mommy, I still need a 'Pri Sun, can you hand me the one in there."
Me: "No, I'll get it when I get out of the bath"

8:06 p.m. and 45 seconds p.m.
Patrick: "Mommy, hand me that one in there"
Me: "Patrick, there aren't Capri Suns in the bathroom"
Patrick: "Yes, I put one in there"
Me (noticing one sitting on the sink): (sighing loudly, getting out the bath and opening the door so a huge blast of cold air invades the nice toasty bathroom I've created): "Here...go finishing watching the movie"
Patrick: "I love you, mommy"
Me: "I love you, too, sweet pea"

Feeling guilty for being annoyed at my sweet boy who loves me, I immerse myself back into the warm water.

8:07 p.m.
Patrick: "Will you fix this?"
Me: "What?"
Patrick: "This..."
Me: "What Patrick, I can't see what you're talking about"
Patrick: (exasperated) "THIS"
Me: "Patrick, when I get out of the bath"

8:07 and 5 seconds p.m.
Patrick: (sliding a broken plastic ruler under the bathroom door): "THIS...will you fix this?"
Me: "I can't fix that, it's broken"
Patrick: "But I need it"
Me: "I'll tape it up when I get out of the bath"
Patrick: "Ok.........(long pause).....you're taking a bath?"
Me: "Yes, I'll be out in a minute"

I sit there for 30 seconds waiting for the next interruption, and just as I let my guard down and start to relax my muscles and slide a little deeper into the water...

8:07 and 35 seconds p.m.
Patrick: "Mommy?"
Me: (not answering)
Patrick: "Mommy?"
Me: (not answering)
Patrick: "Momm......"
Me: "WHAT?"
Patrick: "I need another 'Pri Sun"

8:08 p.m.
I exit the bathroom fully dressed and ready for bed.

And that, my friends, is why it's not even worth to try anymore. I guess I'll stick with my morning speed showers.

Breast Pads

I realize that just by reading the title of this post that I've lost 100% of my male readers and a good chunck of the rest. I know that all the men saw it and their faces got hot--that 'hot' feeling your face gets when you're terrible embarrassed, NOT the 'hot' feeling when you think something is "hot", as in "that chick is hot"--in no way am I suggesting that breast pads are a turn on and make men "hot"--geesh, people. Oh goodness, let's stop before this thing goes too far south. But since I'm a "Baby Machine" and "The Queen of Breastfeeding" (titles that WM has bestowed upon me) to me, talking about breast pads is as normal as men talking about sports.

ANYWAY...back to the post...

When my mom is in town--like she was a few weekends ago--it is a ShopFest. Not so much for me, because I don't really like taking 3 kiddos shopping, but it is for my mom and my sister. Those two will shop for any bargain. That's not my style of shopping...I know what I want, I go to the store, I buy it...who cares if it's on sale or not. If it is...it's a bonus for the day and I go buy myself an extra Starbucks. But, when mom is in town, everyone wins...my kids get lots of clothes/shoes/books/other kid items and I usually score one or two things, too. I ended up with a great pair of shoes. They weren't really my size, but I figured they were close enough, I'll make them work. When I tried them on they slipped a bit, but a couple of those shoe insert things and we'd be good to go.

So yesterday I was ready to debut my new shoes. I was all dressed and even put on pantyhose/stockings/nylons/whatever you call them (I call them pantyhose, although I've yet to ever have a pair that actually comes with panties--that cotton material at the crotch doesn't count as panties). When I put on my new shoes they slipped pretty bad, so I thought "I just need another shoe insert, but I don't have one." And I went about getting ready.

While in the bathroom, in the back of the bathroom closet I spotted them, the perfect shoe insert!

A box of breast pads!! After breastfeeding 3 kids for a year (or more) each, I've got quite the stash of breast pads. I've always wondered what I was going to do with them, and now I know!

I stuffed a pair in my shoes and voila! Perfect fit!

You never know what an old box of breast pads might come in handy for! Since my shoe insert discovery, I've been thinking, and here's some of my other ideas...

Ear muffs/warmers--a little peice of elastic and two breast pads...there ya go!

Coasters--they are designed to soak up liquids

Bandage--no reason a little Scotch tape and a breast pad couldn't work as well as Band-Aid brand

Picture frame--just cut a circle in the middle and put in a photo--perfect for dad's office (or maybe not)

Oven mitt/pot holder

Got any other ideas??

Finally--Halloween

I promised that I would get around to posting about our Halloween, so I finally decided to bite the bullet and get it done. In years past I've always wished I had more than one opportunity for the kiddos to wear their costumes. One short evening doesn't seem like enough. So this year we found more activities. Actually we may have over done it. We had FIVE Halloween events. I'll try to give our festivities justice in photos:

Event #1: Boo Ha Ha trick-or-treating. It's one of the great things about living on Brookside, you walk out your door and there you are in the midst of the madness. Baby Lam didn't go trick or treating down Peoria, the timeframe didn't work well with her nap schedule. And you don't want a fussy, tired kitty at Halloween parties planned for later in the day...

Event #2: Halloween Parade--again...walk out your front door right onto the parade route. It's great. The kids loved it. But Baby Lam only last about 20 minutes. She wanted to be part of the parade and wouldn't be still. So she and WM headed back to the house to watch college football.

Here we are before heading out to Boo Ha Ha. Katie was a Snow Princess and Patrick was a race car driver (or as we found out, Tony Stewart, the race car driver).

Event #3: Halloween Party at Cedar Ridge--I wanted to the take the kiddos to this last year, but Baby Lam was itty bitty, so we opted to stay home. But we made it this year and grandma got to come along! So what was the best part? Katie won the costume contest!! She was SUPER proud of herself and marched right up to the front to receive her prize. WM actually had to go up and get her because she wanted to stay standing in front of everyone. We had a great time and WM and Patrick went on the "spooky" haunted hay ride. WM said it wasn't spooky at all, but Patrick sure thought it was. But as he said "I was very brave and didn't cry." Katie didn't have any part of anything that might be remotely "spooky." She stay back at the clubhouse with Baby Lam, grandma and I.

Here's Katie in her award winning costume (along with spaghetti stains on her chin). It's not a very good pic, but it's the best one of her whole costume.

Here she is getting her prize.

Baby Lam, a.k.a. "Baby Kitty" hanging out on the patio at the clubhouse.
WM and Patrick getting off the haunted hayride. Notice he's changed costumes from earlier in the day--now we're Batman.
Event #4: Halloween party at my office--this was a hoot. It could've been called "Kids Gone Wild." The kiddos decorated pumpkins, played games, ate snacks, etc., etc. The best part was trying to get a group photo. I can't do it with three kids, what ever possessed us to think we could do it with 8 kids ranging from age 4 months to 6 years?

Don't they look like a happy bunch of kids??

Event #5: Halloween night--the big event. I actually didn't get any photos from the big night. Patrick, Katie and I went to my sister's and trick-or-treated with my niece and nephew. It's something we've always done. They are in 2nd and 4th grade and are probably getting tired of their "little cousins" tagging along, but they were good sports and my kiddos had a great time. They were worn out by the end of the evening. And when we got home, WM had Baby Lam asleep in her bed--after they had handed out all of our candy.

Here they are the morning after...as if they hadn't had enough sugar over the previous week and a half, we went and got donuts the morning after Halloween at this super cute donut shop that has fun holiday donuts. Katie chose a candy corn shaped donut...Patrick opted for a baseball and as you can see in the photo, Baby Lam didn't really care, she just wanted to know who ate all her donut holes (it was her, by the way)!

In addition to these 5 activities we also had Kindergarten and pre-school parties. So, all in all, we had a great Halloween season this year, have more candy than Target and Walmart and our costumes got LOTS of mileage. I would say it was a success. I'm actually a little relieved it's over, now I'm prepping myself for the upcoming doozy of a holiday--Christmas. I think we have enough candy to last us the rest of the year.


Boo!

Clarification

Ok, so I guess I need to clarify things a little bit. I guess there was some confusion on my comments about KU v. K-State. So let me put it this way.

K-State provided a better education FOR ME. I needed to go to a university where professors, academic counselors, TA's, etc. were more approachable and willing to help me. Would I have received this at KU? I don't know, maybe so. But all I knew and what I had to base my decision on, was what happened to my sister when she needed help when she was attending KU. (She ended up doing fine, by the way). But that's what I had to go on when deciding between the two. I knew I didn't have the aggressive personality it was going to take to succeed like I wanted to in college. So...I, me, got a better education at K-State because the environment fit my personality better.

WM knows that I'm a KU fan, too. He just likes to stir the pot...because I wasn't giving him the reaction he was wanting when he was taunting me this weekend. :)

What Will Today Bring?

I was going to do a "Monday Mumbling" yesterday, but in the midst of adjusting the little ones to the time change, it just got away from me. So what should we call our weekly update that is happening on a Tuesday? Tuesday Tattles? Ok...that'll do. Here goes...

Halloween--I'm coming down off my sugar high that I got from my kiddos treat bags. I'm a little sad the holiday is over, but part of me is ready to move on. All my fellow bloggers have been so good about posting pics of their little ones. I promise, I'm going to do that. Probably later this afternoon or this evening. So if you're in need of a little pick-me-up...stay tuned.

KU/K-State--this weekend was the annual KU/K-State football game. WM gets WAY more excited about this than I do. Fortunately for me, if you ask Katie if she like the Jayhawks or the Wildcats she will always answer...the Wildcats. I know that the value of an education that you receive at university cannot be measured by the outcome of 300 pounders tackling each other. I know that I got a better education at K-State than I ever could have at KU. Visit each colleges website and see who has more Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall scholars (actually K-State is 1st nationally amoung state universities). In life, what will get you further? A good education or a good football team? So I guess K-State really is the better school, huh?

Election Day--Hmmmm, I'm not going to say much about this because I think everyone knows my stance. I'm just not one to shout it from the roof top (or my front door, or my office door, or the bumper of my car--it's just not classy). I'm a stubborn person, I know who I'm voting for and no matter what you say it's not changing my mind. I did stand in line for 45 minutes this morning...with Patrick and Baby Lam...to vote. It was a challenge with a wiggly little 14 month old, but we got it done. And Patrick was SO good and such a good helper. But I have to admit, while I was standing there I was proud that we as Americans can go vote freely without worry of being shot or beaten. I was proud as a woman that I'm allowed to vote, unlike so many women before me.

Will I be proud this evening?

No, probably not. I will not be proud of the direction we will be headed. I will not be proud that riot police have been called into our major cities.

I know there will be lots of people celebrating, but let's talk in 4 years and see how you feel about your decision then.

But enough about that. There are things that are more powerful than whoever our President will be...God and prayer. And I think that if there were ever a time for both of those in life, right now is that time. I know I will spend more time talking to God, reading His Word and doing His Will than I will talking to our President, reading his agenda or doing his will. I know that God loves me and cares for me and WM and our children. I'm pretty sure that our new president won't give a hoot about me. So pray tonight to the One who really can make change happen...

Pray for our country.
Pray for peace.
Pray that people do the right thing.

And as always, pray for our children...just because you should.

But here's some great news...Katie's new fav movie...Grease! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that movie. Thank goodness she can't understand 95% of what they are talking/singing about. I do love to listen to her sing "Look at Me, I'm Sandra D."