New Year's Eve

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Our children go to bed every night between 7:30 and 8:00 pm. This rarely changes and my kids hardly ever argue bedtime. It is a great routine and I think they enjoy their little one-on-one prayer time with Mommy.

For New Year's Eve, I thought it would be fun to have a family movie night (sans Samuel who can't stay up past his normal bedtime). The kids had been looking forward to it all day. We began the night at 8:00 pm with the movie "Enchanted". I popped the kids' popcorn--a rare treat--and Connor and Ariana cuddled on my lap. Honor would have nothing to do with the cuddling.

About an hour into the movie, Honor started complaining about being tired. I told her she could go to bed. She was happy with that idea...until she realized Ariana would not be joining her. Then she thought it would be fine to stay up and watch the end of the movie. Every 10 minutes or so she would complain, "Oh! I've been sitting here for SIX MINUTES!"

The movie got over around 9:45. Honor immediately jumped up, stretched really big and announced she was tired. Daddy looked over at Ariana and determined that she was too tired to stay up for another movie and Connor was amenable to going to bed. Thus their New Year's Eve ended. Here was the conversation I had with Honor while tucking her in...(imagine your most whiny, overly melodramatic actress saying the following lines...)

Honor: I am sooo tired!

Mommy: But you liked the movie, right?

Honor: No! I don't want to watch movies!

Mommy: But didn't you have fun tonight?

Honor: I liked the popcorn, but I don't want to watch any more movies!

Mommy: I'm glad you liked the popcorn.

Honor: I don't want to watch any more movies ever again!

Mommy: Okay. Good night Sweetie.

Honor: Goodnight Mommy.

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Captivate Us

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I love this song by Watermark. I just found it the other day when I was looking for my next song to sing for special music at my church. The words are powerful. And I just loved this video of this dancer--I thought it was beautiful.

Since I will be singing this song in two weeks, my kids are forced to listen to me practice it a couple times every morning (the singing, not the dancing). The words are "big" words so it didn't surprise me to hear Connor announce:

"God made Captain Vatus too!"

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Just Curious...

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Are my husband and I the only parents that wait until the kids go to bed before opening their presents and "testing" them to make sure they work??? We had to find out of those remote controlled cars that Honor and Connor got would race around the island in the kitchen okay...

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Honor....

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Honor got a little pink purse that contained three little stuffed puppies. She LOVED it and begged us to allow her to take it to Grandma's house... so we did--it's Christmas after all. Well, on the way out the door to head for home, Honor realized that she lost one of the puppies. After a frantic search, we decided that Grandma could find it later and bring it to church on Sunday. We all headed out in the pouring rain for the half hour drive home. (I thought it was just misting--my MIL informed me that I was delusional.) About 1/2 a mile from Grandma's house, there is a little park with a rather large slide.

Honor: "MOM! I see my puppy. She's at the park. Let's go get her!"

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After nap, I let Honor play with one of her new toys. It is a magnetic story board--basically it is like putting stickers on a background, but they are magnets. She didn't understand the difference in how you have to peel off magnets verses stickers and accidentally ripped part of the picture off of one of the magnets trying to get it out of the packaging.

Honor: "MOM! I need duct tape!"

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My mom called and I thought it would be fun to have Honor answer the phone. I pushed talk and handed her the phone.

Honor: "Merry Christmas!"

Grandma: "Merry Christmas, Honor!"

Honor: "Hi Grandma from Iowa!"

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I Am A "X"

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Driving over to grandma's house, Connor out of the blue yelled excitedly: "I Am A 'X'!"

Daddy and I looked at each other, curious what made him say that. Pretty soon he said it again...slower this time... "I Ammmm AAAAA 'Xxxxx'!"

Then Daddy figured out what he was trying to do. My "big" kids are really into reading signs lately. He was sounding out the really large sign on the movie theater we passed...

"IMAX"

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Poor Connor

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My sweet little boy Connor is really the best behaved of all my children. He almost always obeys immediately--usually without complaining. But he also seems to be the one that gets in trouble the most. Why you might ask? Because he tries to do the same things that the girls do...but he's not as sneaky and gets caught. I am very thankful about this because he doesn't understand the correlation yet--hopefully he will just learn not to do anything naughty, but I doubt it. Eventually he will probably learn the lesson Honor learned at an early age and passed down to Ariana...

if you are going to do something you know you are not supposed to do...be sneakier about it!

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We Don't Do Santa

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Okay, people may call me a spoil sport, but I just don't see the point in continuing the tradition of "Santa Claus". There are many reasons for this:

• Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth.
• It is a religious holiday to remember that the greatest gift to the world was given in the birth, life, and sacrifice of God's Son.
• When you celebrate a birthday, you don't bring some stranger into the birthday and make a big deal about them.
• Saint Nick himself probably wouldn't want people to add him into the celebration.
  
• It's confusing to add an extra person into the holiday--that person being the one who gives them gifts thus taking all the glory away from the real meaning of Christmas.
• I try not to lie to my children--they might not always get the whole truth, but blatant lies are discouraged.
• I am their teacher so I don't want to teach them things that are wrong.
• We have many other traditions that are plenty fun, we don't need the Santa Claus tradition.
• They already think of Christmas time as "magical" simply because the atmosphere of the entire world changes.
  
• I try not to let my children focus on the things they "want"...I hate hearing them start up a list of "I want this, and I want that". It just sounds selfish to me. I try to get them the things they want, but I don't want to encourage them to focus on their wants. I want them focused on others.
  
• Frankly I don't know one small child who doesn't find sitting on a stranger's lap in the mall a traumatic experience.
• And the purely selfish reason...why do I want another person getting credit for gifts that I spent good money for?
  

So we just don't talk about Santa Claus in our house. Of course, Good Ol' Saint Nick is everywhere so they kind of know who he is. But every time one of their favorite tv shows talks about him I just turn it off--or if they absolutely insist on watching it, I make sure to explain that Santa Claus is a pretend person that some people celebrate at Christmas, but Jesus is REAL. Otherwise we just don't mention him at all when we pass pictures of him on the street. We don't read "The Night Before Christmas", we read "The Holy Bible". The Christmas music we listen to all centers around Jesus.

I am not saying those that add him into their traditions are necessarily wrong or that he is evil--I don't think that. I realize that the real person behind the Santa Claus myth was a great man and as the kids get older, I will definitely tell them about the wonderful things he did--the factual things. But for now, why confuse them?

Thankfully most of their friends don't follow the Santa Claus tradition either and I try to steer them away from their neighbor friends during the month of December so they don't accidentally give anything away--I don't believe in spoiling other people's fun.

Why do I bother writing about this? Well because yesterday it kind of came back to haunt me.

I had a bit of a sinus headache and I was tired so I was lucky that I had gotten my kids dressed and a load of dishes done. The clothes that I picked out were decidedly summer clothes, but I figured we weren't going anywhere so it wasn't a big deal. I at least pulled Ariana's hair out of her face with a hair tie, but I didn't brush it. The house was a mess. And, in a rare case of unpreparedness, I forgot to look at the calendar.

Not only did my licensing worker show up (previously scheduled had I looked at my calendar!), but my case worker showed up 10 minutes later (NOT previously scheduled). Talk about POOR TIMING. They thankfully didn't seem to think I was as bad a mom as I thought I was, but still, when people who have the power to remove my children from my home stop by, I usually have the house cleaner than normal...not utterly destroyed! Thankfully my case worker thinks very highly of me and my licensing worker is really nice (my normal licensing worker is on maternity leave so this one barely knew anything about me...UGH! Talk about poor first impressions!).

Anyway...all that to say that right before they left, my kids were playing in the forbidden Christmas room (their toy room is closed during the month of December so that we can have an undisturbed Christmas room complete with undisturbed presents...) and the case worker smiled down at the little chatterboxes and politely asked if they were excited about Santa Claus coming to visit. The room got deathly silent as my children seriously looked up at him as if he were an idiot. I'm not joking. They gave him the strangest looks--why would a pretend person be coming to their house? He seemed worried/confused that they didn't respond to this joyful question--doesn't every child know about Santa Claus? Thankfully they didn't say anything so I was able to ask "are you excited about Christmas?" To which they shouted "YES!" He was satisfied and left happy.

Sigh...

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Ariana's Favorite Joke

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Every night when I tuck Ariana in, after I say my prayer, before she says her prayer, she expects to tell me a joke...the SAME ONE. Every night. And Every nap time. The SAME ONE. Here it is for you amusement...


Ariana: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Mommy: Why?

Ariana: To eat a hot dog!

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I started being a smart alek and answering "to eat a hot dog" when she asked her question so she changed it slightly:

Ariana: No. To see a birdie eat the hot dog!

Don't ask. I have no idea.


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Counting Backwards With Mommy

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Ten: The number of times a day Mommy asks her children, "Are you the Mommy?"

Nine: The number of times the exact same joke is told and fake laughed at during lunchtime before Mommy tells Connor it is enough.

Eight: The number of times an ice pack is taken from the freezer per day for real or imagined injuries.

Seven: The number of times per day that a child screams, "Samuel is going to get me!"

Six: The number of toys that are brought to Mommy each day for fixing due to "curiosity".

Five: The number of children's shoes that are currently missing their match.

Four: The number of stinkie diapers Mommy changes every day from Samuel alone.

Three: The number of times a day each child is banished to the no fit corner to calm down.

Two: The number of screams between sisters before Mommy yells, "Don't use screams to communicate with each other!"

One: The number of toilets that overflow everyday due to eager potty trainers "learning" how much toilet paper to use.



Zero: The number of seconds Mommy regrets being a Mommy to the four most beautiful, intelligent, creative, humorous children ever made.

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I Feel Like Complaining

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It's cloudy outside...I hate it. It really affects my mood...so you all get to listen to me complain...turn away now!

Why is it that I always choose the loaf of bread that the box cutter "accidentally" sliced open so that the bread goes stale in 2 days? Of course that is longer than we usually keep a loaf of bread so it doesn't really matter, but its just that I ALWAYS manage to get an open one--and I LOOK before throwing them in the cart!

Why is it that, on the days when I choose to be stupid and stay up until 2 in the morning, those are the days when one of the children wakes up at 4 in the morning, my husband wakes me up at 6 and then again at 6:30, and the weather outside is cloudy making the noise coming from my children's room at 8 am seem like its still the middle of the night?

Why is it that when I go to the grocery store, random strangers feel the need to ask my opinion on abortion? It has happened to me TWICE now! Do I have a sign on my forehead that reads "I am against abortion, ask me about it?" or maybe it reads, "If you're thinking about having an abortion and want to be talked out of it, I'm your woman!" I would like to think that I am being used by God to save the truly innocent, but it frustrates me to not know the outcome!

And on a lighter note...Why is that my children wait until I'm sitting down about to eat my breakfast/lunch/dinner before informing me that they need to go poopie?


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Best Excuse...

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...for why Honor shouldn't have to go to bed now:

(said in all seriousness)

"But, I'm almost 16!"

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Dinnertime Conversation

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Daddy: I love all of my children!

silence

Daddy: Isn't there anything any of you want to say to me?

Connor: I want a Robopet for Christmas.

Daddy: I said I love you...isn't there anything you want to say to me?

Connor: I like robots. WALLE is a robot.

Daddy: I said I LOVE YOU...don't you want to tell me you love me too?

Connor: I love you Daddy....... We have presents under the Christmas Tree!

Honor: There are Christmas lights outside!

Ariana: It's Christmas!

Daddy: Don't you love me Honor?

with a big grin, Honor shakes her head no

Daddy: Don't you love me Ariana?

with a big grin, Ariana shakes her head no

Daddy: You love me, don't you Samuel?

Samuel: YEAH!!!

Daddy: At least my boys love me. I guess I'll have to do something special with just my boys.

Honor: I love you Daddy!

Ariana: I love you Daddy!



...and that is how love is purchased in our home.

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Connor's Compassion

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We were watching "Time Warp" on the Discovery Channel and the above commercial came on--except with a man instead of a woman. I must confess that I was slightly disturbed by the imagery, but Connor's reaction was priceless.

"Oh no! That man lost his hat!"


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Where Did This Adult Come From?

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My kids occasionally throw fits when they don't get their way. (Steph, control yourself...sarcasm can lead to severe health issues I hear...)

So this afternoon when Honor and I came downstairs after nap time and I told her that she wasn't going to be able to watch "Word Girl" because she didn't take a nap, I was completely unprepared for the very adult response.

"Yes, Mother. I understand." No whining, no anger, just a little grown up in a child's voice/body.

Where did she come from???

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Dancing Leads to Marriage

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Connor: I want to be YOUR Highness and dance with you.

Mommy: Okay.

Connor: And when I grow up, we can get married.

Mommy: Nope. Mommy's already married to Daddy.

Connor: But I want to marry you!

Mommy: Nope. See this wedding ring. It tells everyone that Mommy is married to Daddy so I can't marry anyone else.

Connor: I want to wear a wedding ring.

Mommy: Someday you will get to wear a wedding ring like Daddy's.

Connor: When I get to marry Daddy?

Mommy: You can't marry Daddy, you're a boy.

Connor: Can I marry Aunt Steph?

Mommy: No. Aunt Steph is married to Uncle Chris.

Connor: Someday I will get married.

Mommy: Yep.

Connor: And I can dance with you?

Mommy: Yep.

Connor: Honor can dance with Samuel.

Honor: No! I don't like boys! I only like to dance with girls! I will be the Highness for Ariana....


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