It's a Vivas Thing!

Fred

Meet Fred.

He's our newest family member! His new BFF is Jonathan.

This is Jonathan's face when he first met Fred...

He says they look a lot alike...

Merry Christmas!

My Boy Turns 13!

Thirteen years ago, we welcomed him into our family.

And watched him grow and change.

And enjoy life

And the things life has to offer

(Ok, I just had to add this one...because I like it so much!)

My Karate Boy!

Who sometimes breaks things!

(And puts up with scary relatives!)

A helicopter ride with his oldest brother for his birthday!

And rollercoasters to continue!

My boy is growing up. Not so much a boy anymore, but more a young man. He isn't afraid to take care of his mother and always seems to know how I feel. I love his sense of adventure and his great attention to detail. I love how he carries on a conversation with his father; both of them engrossed in whatever technical thing has captured their attention. I love to watch him help his younger sister with whatever it is she is working on and the way he always knows how to fix things....and where to find the batteries!

I love watching him look up to his older brothers and sister.

I sure love having him in our family.

Happy Birthday, Son!

Jinglevogonsmitd

The title makes absolutely no sense, does it?

That about sums up the Smart One's educational studies right now. Poor boy like things to be detailed and make sense to him. They need to be clear and precise. Real.

Oh, and did I mention it needs to make sense?

And enter Vogon Poetry...for English.

Which he already doesn't care much for. Because he'd rather be doing math or science.

Because they make sense to him.

Vogon Poetry?

An example, if you please:

Oh freddled gruntbuggly,

Thy micturations are to me

As plurdled gabbleblotchits

On a lurgid bee

See, now the Smart One and I love to jingle. We can jingle for hours and have a blast doing it! One of us will start and we'll go on and on and on...while everyone else rolls their eyes at us and begs us to stop. But tonight, we had to try and come up with Vogon Poetry for his class assignment.A whole page of non-sense.

We managed to make our way through, but I'll have to admit, it wasn't pretty. I hope we didn't make any sense at all.

Because in order for him to get an "A" it has to be non-rhyming-made-up-pointless-garble.

Some days, I like it better when he was home edumacated.

 

 

An Extra Hour

Today, we gained an extra hour. I had visions of sleeping in with a quiet house.

It didn't happen.

Because, I am a morning person. And no matter how hard I try, I will always be a morning person.

Which means my body wakes up when it is early.

No matter what.

It seems Bboo may be inheriting that trait a little. I say a little, because she can sleep in if she's really tired.

So, we decided to get up and make breakfast. The girl had bacon on her mind and just had to have it! We went to work in the kitchen cooking bacon and grits and remarking how the Smart One could sleep through a tornado!

And we put on music. Lots of it!

It started off with Cyndi Laupers's, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Dad said said, "Girls Just Want to Have Bacon") and it kept going from there.

Music from my childhood...teen years...etc.

And finally, the Smart One woke up.

And joined in.

And we sang.

And danced.

And laughed.

And ate bacon.

I'm sure in the spring, we won't be so happy with the time change.

But this morning, I gained an extra hour with my children.

What did you do with yours?

Bad Mom Award

Today was one of those days. It's one of those days where I am realizing how much adjusting I have to do as a full-time working mom.

The Drama Queen has very busy Wednesdays, so I try to remember to have her have everything ready on Tuesday night before she goes to bed. Early. Well, at least I try to get her to bed early.

It doesn't always happen.

So on Wednesdays, we rush out the door with everything she'll need for the rest of the day.

After work, we go straight to dance.

Dance bag; check.

Get to dance.

Dance pants in dance bag; check? Nope. Ok, so I remind her why it's important to make sure she's ready the night before and now she'll have to wear jeans to dance. I don't have time to get her home and back. She's not thrilled, but she realizes it's also lack of preparation on her part. And we walk inside.

To a room full of girls all dressed up.

Because today was dress up day. They're in cute costumes of bumble bees, angels, and princesses.

And she's in jeans.

And she doesn't even complain.

We forgot. I feel terrible. And she's a trooper.

After dance, she realizes she's forgotten her AWANA book. Too late, Dad can't go back and get it.

See, after dance, she goes straight to AWANA at church. It works because she has some special daddy time that they enjoy each week.

Again, she realizes she needs to prepare better and have her book in her bag.

Here's where we switch gears for a moment. I'm headed home with the Smart One (Dad picks up the Drama Queen from me at dance and gives me the Smart One to take home after he's just finished bowling.) Anywho, it's Bboo calling. Who's taking her to the game tonight, because she has to dance at half-time?

Yeah, I forgot. She doesn't usually do this on Wednesdays. I let her know I'm on my way home and hear her lose it. Because now the dog is sick and went on my carpet and what is she to do?

I get home, clean it up as best as I can, call dad to get the carpet shampooer from his sister, realize we're not having dinner anytime soon and get her to the game and the Smart One to karate. (Now you can understand why Wednesdays are so hard!)

Hubby helps get dinner going; we both end up missing Bboo dancing at the game; I get the carpet shampooed while hubby deals with yet another issue...and finally, we ask a friend to bring home the Drama Queen. She does.

And the Drama Queen walks in to let me know the her car one two races tonight and came in 3rd in another race. And nobody voted for her car in the design category and that made her sad. And she was a little sad that Daddy and I didn't make it to watch her race, but that's ok, because she knows we love her.

*Sigh*

We missed the AWANA Grand Prix races tonight.

Yeah, I forgot about that one, too.

I'm pretty sure I could win the Bad Mom Award tonight.

Or maybe not. Because despite it all, I have great children who tell me they understand and love me and don't hold it against me that I messed up.

And that brings me joy.

Male Bonding

Yesterday was a pretty good day! Church was grand; choir went well even through the chaos and we even survived Walmart ...and helped a lady in distress!

And then, we came home...and spotted a TON of baby spiders just hatched from a nest. And right at my front door, I might add!

Only, it was a nest of black widows. So my three manly men decided to take care of them.

How's that, you ask?

Well, it was decided they couldn't kill them with a shoe in the air. So, one of them was told to stay put and make sure none of them escaped into the house. The other was sent in search of a flashlight. And Dad? Well, he went in search of the torch!

Once the torch and the flashlight arrived, the son in charge of making sure no spiders entered the house asked if he should get the fire extinguisher; after all, what if dad torched too much and caught the house on fire? Same son was told to get a shoe. The mama black widow was huge and if the torch should miss her, a back up shoe was needed!

Seriously, I don't think I've ever witnessed such male bonding. So much so, that I started texting the Good Looking One thinking he might want to show up and join in with his brothers! He got a good laugh out of the whole thing, but never offered to come over.

Amazingly enough, my house survived any flames. The wooden chair smelled a little smoky, but no fire.

Vivas Men, score 1

Black Widow & babies, score 0

Haircut!

 Before

After

It's been a while since he had shorter hair!

Laughable Moment #28

I'm sitting here talking to the Smart One. He's had a rough day. Jumped off his sister's loft bed, hit his cousin's bed below and then his feet flipped backwards, leaving him to land on his face, but he used his hands to block....and whalla!

We left urgent care with a splint from his fingers to his shoulder. Looks like it is a fracture of the growth plate in his elbow. We see the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning.

So, as we're sitting here discussing the fact that he leaves for camp on Sunday morning for a week...and he may have a full cast...I wonder about his hair; who's going to wash it, how will he shower, what will he do at the beach....

And he bursts out, "That's not what I am worried about, mom!"

Oh?

He's worried about the fact that he'll have one arm darker than the other!

And for all the guy readers out there...he states it was a cool fall, just in case his mom is making him look not so smart after all.

Mom's Back!

Slowly, but surely, I am making my way back from this illness that has taken so much of my past few months. On Monday, I slept through Bible study time with the Smart One. That made me sad. On Tuesday, I woke up, went downstairs and made hubby coffee and then asked the Smart One what he wanted for breakfast. I wasn't sure what he'd say, because before my illness, I made him waffle sandwiches most mornings. Hubby said he doesn't want them anymore; he's offered.

Guess what he wanted? You guessed it! His waffle sandwich made by mom! Oh, Joy!

 

Ah...and it's gluten free, too!

A little egg, a little cheese, a sausage patty, 2 waffles...and a little syrup to top it off!

He ate; I read. We talked.

Just for the Joy of It!

   

For more joyful posts, go to Good, True and Beautiful each Thursday.

Special Memories

I was sitting here in the dark tonight with the Drama Queen, listening to my son's music. I played it several times.

She finally asked,

"Mommy, why do you keep playing it over and over?"

"Because," I said, "It takes me back to a special memory."

"What's a special memory?"

So I told her, "A special memory is a memory of something special that has happened to you, or with you and someone else. It can be anything, but it brings back that special moment."

"But why is this song special, Mommy?" she asked.

So I told her about the song and the memories it created the day that the Talented One played it for me. And no matter what, I'll always consider it "our song." And when I"m tired, or he's just there playing, sometimes I can ask him to play "my song" and he does. I don't have to tell him which one or why, because he knows. And he plays it for me. And I think back to that first time, when he played it for me over and over. And so, sometimes, I just like to sit and listen to it over and over.

So she asked again, what kind of special memories I have. And I told her about one I have of the Smart One. He was younger, and it was just the two of us and we were listening to praise music in the living room. And a song came on. And he just lifted his hands up in praise to the Lord. He lifted his face up and closed his eyes and just sang and swayed back and forth, with his arms outstretched and his face shining as he sang along. I honestly don't even remember what song it was; but the moment..wow. I'll never forget that moment.

And so we talked of why I want to keep homeschooling her for now; so that we can created special memories together. 'And we talked of things we've done together. And we talked about just knowing, some day, that there is that one special memory we can share and how she'll have other special moments with other loved ones; maybe even her own children some day. And we talked about how important it is to just stop sometimes, and grab that special moment; make a memory, because you won't ever get that chance back. Grab it while you can.

"Mommy, why can't we go back?"

"Because, those moments only happen once. We can't do it again."

And she asked me, "Mommy, can you be there with me when I have my baby, so we can have that special memory?"

I'm not sure what her future husband will say about that one, but I know, when she has that precious baby, I'll be reminded of this night. The night when we sat and listened to the Talented One's beautiful music and talked about grabbing the moments in life that we can and making those moments count.

Because tonight, we made our own special memory.

He's Unique!

And you gotta love him for it!

The Smart One, that is.

He has the ability to crack you up.

He'll walk into a room, thrilled, because he's learned to do yet one more weird thing with his body.

I'm talking about him walking in to the room, so proud, because not only can he fold his tongue in half, now he's found some other weird way to roll it. It kind of looks like a bowl. I can't do it. He tried to teach me once; I thought I was going to suck my tongue down my throat and choke in the process!

He loves to run up while I try to hobble down the stairs and have me hold on to his shoulders so we can dance our way down in a conga line. Well, he dances, I hobble.

He loves to sing all of the "Free Credit Report.com" songs.

He's a huge fan of origami. I'm talking it's an obsession! And he's good at it! He's also good at Etch a Sketch.

He has his young cousin calling him the genius. His older brother is slightly bothered at how he just knows things.

He actually knows what DNA stands for; and can even spell it out!

He's amazing with nun-chucks. I don't know how he manages not to hurt himself!

Did I mention he cracks me up? Last night, B-boo was showing me her dance for dance try-outs at school. The Smart One wanted to show me his dance. I reminded him that he doesn't have a dance. He insisted he did. He was so insistent, I caved and told him to show me.

It's amazing how fast he can come up with something...and move his skinny little body in such a laughable way. Yeah, he had a dance. I was hysterical.

And he never stops. Well, except when he's asleep. And please don't wake him. He's NOT funny, when he's been woke up from his beauty sleep.

Just now, he walked into my room. He asked me to look at what he could do. And then...

he proceeded to stand in place and flop his arms back and forth like rubber bands trying to take flight...

because he wanted me to hear how funny his bones sounded when he does that because they can pop.

And then, he lies down on the bed and crawls under a blanket and moves really, really fast; because he wants to see if he can create sparks from electricity.

You see, his brain never stops working. He's always trying to come up with some new invention. He doesn't take "no" for an answer. And he rises to the challenge. For instance, he was once offered $20 by his oldest brother if he could lick his elbow. The Good-Looking One thought it would be funny watching him try, because he knew it was impossible.

He was wrong. The Smart One took the twenty bucks!

Yes, he is most definitely unique.

Hide-n-Seek

I'm sick and tired of seeing doctors. Really. I'm tired of waiting rooms and being told to be patient and take it easy and let myself recover. It's been 5 weeks already for goodness sake! I don't want to be told it will take 14 to 16 more weeks, or even a few more weeks. I don't want to be told to stay off the stairs and stay on the couch or my bed. Who wants to spend their time laying around all the time!?!

And I was dreading this morning's appointment, too.

But then, as we sat and waited, I watched this dark haired little girl with an orange balloon playing in a little cubby while her mommy waited to see the doctor. She was so cute; about three. And then, another mommy showed up with a little red haired girl about the same age. And the dark haired cutie asked,

"You wanna pway wif me?"

And the red haired girl says,

"Yeah!"

I sat there and chuckled at their three year old conversation. It's been a long time since I've had one that young! And then, the dark haired girls asked,

"Do you wanna pway hide en seek?"

"Yeah!" was the reply.

So the dark haired girl had the red haired girl count. And she was so cute, with her head against the wall, counting in her little girl voice while the dark haired girl raced across the waiting room with her orange balloon!

And I was reminded of times when my own children hid.

I remember when my oldest, now 22, was about the same age. Grandma was watching him and she called me in a panic one day. She had looked everywhere for him and couldn't find him anywhere. This went on forever; until she discovered him hiding under the organ bench, giggling while she frantically searched for him.

Or when my youngest, not even two, was our little Houdini. One day we were all sitting in the living room watching TV. On my way into the kitchen, I asked them all not to let her out of their sight. When I walked back into the living room, she was gone. Just...like...that.

No one had seen her move. We searched the house; searched outside. Searched the garage. We searched up and down the streets. And just when we frantically ran inside to call 911, I happened to catch a glimpse of her little lime green outfit. Behind her doll stroller. She was all tucked up under; watching; giggling. Hiding.

Or B-boo. Who was a climber. So much so, that at 10 months, we had to zip her into her crib. You can read about that here. Anyway, by the time she was about 18 months, she could climb anything. And I mean anything! I'd find her *hiding* on top of our 8 ft tall entertainment center! One day, I found her hiding on top of the refrigerator. She wasn't so much about hiding, I think, as about climbing. Until she could climb no more. We couldn't let her out of our sight, because we never knew where we'd find her!

And then there was the Smart One. He didn't do a lot of *physical* hiding, but he loved to hide under bowls. As in if he wasn't wearing them as a hat, he'd hide his face under them. Under blankets. He thought he was so cute. (So did we!)

And the Talented One. I remember him hiding his face in his hands, knowing that if he couldn't see us, we couldn't see him. We'd laugh and go along with it.

So, I guess the waiting room wasn't so bad today. I had the privilege of being taken back in time; somehow how finding those memories that had been hidden up until this morning.

Quirkiness

This morning as B-boo was in search of whipped topping, I had to laugh. You see, each morning, she has a cup of hot chocolate with whipped topping and usually a bagel with cream cheese. She's willing to eat other things for breakfast, but do NOT mess with her whipped topping. Which brings us back to last night really. Hubby had to go to the store and so I asked him to get more whipped topping because I didn't want B-boo to run out. I know she'll flip if she gets up and finds none. She just can't start her day out without it. Or the chocolate.

For the most part, her chocolate is left alone. No one else seems to have the fancy for it that she does. We're talking Ghiradelli hot chocolate. Good stuff. And whipped topping.

So hubby purchases two whipped toppings, only to find out there was already one in the freezer, bring us up to three in the freezer because there was a hidden one, no TWO in the fridge. Except, one was empty and the other almost. Which of course, threw her into a panic, because that meant she might not have whipped topping for her chocolate! But, Dad to rescue, he showed her how he'd stocked up just for her.

And speaking of chocolate, the Smart One doesn't like the good stuff; he only likes the Nestle or Swiss stuff, mixed with milk instead of water. I think he's loopy, but he leaves B-boo's chocolate alone, so it works. What he likes is the gluten free waffles. Don't let him run out, because his morning preference is a waffle sandwich. This means, waffle, egg, sausage patty, cheese, waffle. He will go without the sausage, but he prefers to have the sandwich. He also prefers certain socks for his feet. They have to fit, just right. This is really important to him.

And the Talented One; you have to make sure his bagel is completely covered with cream cheese. If he sees bagel, he'll put more cream cheese on it. He's quirky in other ways, too. For instance, he doesn't like to have his hands dirty; and please don't ask him to touch raw meat. And don't touch his hair. And he likes his own bed. Always has. As an infant, he'd stay up until placed in his crib; then he'd fall asleep. To this day, he rarely does overnights because he likes his bed.

I can't blame him for that one, though. I like my own bed, too. And my pillows have to be placed a certain way or I can't sleep. And I don't like to crawl into a bed with wrinkled sheets. If my bed is unmade for any reason, I have to make it before I can crawl into it. I know, they probably get their quirkiness from me!

The only one that seems to have no real quirkiness is the Drama Queen! She's our flipperty jibbet who just goes along for the ride! She'll sleep anywhere, eat just about anything (as long as she's not allergic to it!), and doesn't always care about what she's wearing.

The only one that is even more so than her is Chicken Noodle Butt. He'll eat anything. Sometimes hubby likes to have fun with him to see how far he'll go. As in chocolate on rice mixed with ketchup and who knows what else. The joke is if no one wants it, give it to Chicken Noodle Butt. His only "quirkiness" is his calendar. He lives by that calendar! Don't mess with it; don't argue with it. 

And then...there's hubby. I'm not sure I can even go there. I'd have to say his "real" quirkiness is his feeling for food. As in, if he doesn't feel like eating it, he won't. If he's not in the mood for it, he'd rather just not eat. What a funny man. I laugh when he stands in front of a full fridge, looking for something, but finding nothing that he is in the "mood" for. You gotta love him.

Our poor kids don't stand a chance at normalness.

Etch-A-Sketch

The Smart One has the most amazing talent. Would you like to see? He did this on the Etch-A-Sketch in about five minutes! Notice the sun behind the space shuttle and the people even have eyes! I don't know how he does it, but it's pretty cool!

Quotable Quotes #3

Conversation with Chicken Noodle Butt, age 5

Me: "Is it just me, or is it freezing in here?"

Him: "It's just you; but I'm warm, so you should cuddle with me!"

Conversation with the Smart One, age 12

Him: "I can say, "HI" in ten different languages."

Me: "Really?"

Him: "Hi, in ten different languages." Then he smiles and says, "I'm a genius! I should be in college already!"

By the way, I think it should be noted that I'm actually home. I haven't been here for several days. As a matter of fact, I don't think I'll be home again until next Monday except to sleep. So I'm taking advantage of the fact that I have a couple of hours (aside from picking up kids from school) and I'm going to play on the computer.

Maybe.