Mom! Dude!

2009 began with a bang, but how could it not with my three boys? It was the first weekend of 2009, a Saturday morning....ah, let me reflect briefly on my life BC (before children). Saturday morning meant sleeping late, waking up to throw in a load of laundry and a start a pot of coffee. I would sit in the kitchen of my old, old as in former, house, at the kitchen counter and beside the sliding glass doors looking out over my backyard. I would watch the birds and squirrels in my backyard, thinking over various gardening projects, drink my wonderful, hot coffee, cup after cup, smell the freshly scented fabric softener I used in my load of laundry, read the newspaper, leisurely, and listen to the soothing sounds of Bach, Brahms or Beethoven on my CD player. My morning would slowly unfold as I would plan my day, my weekend, and the next week. The first Saturday of 2009 began with the Triple A Threat careening through the house like rabid monkeys on espresso, with a Red Bull chaser. A...

It being close to a year since I've blogged regularly, I'm just gonna wrap up the year 2008 in one post. Nah, it would have nothing to do with the fact that, as a full-time-office-working mother of 4 kids...well, 5 including the hubs, that I can hardly remember last night's dinner, much less almost two years ago. I actually had to go back and look at my scrapbook pictures to remember anything at all. Thanksgiving of 2008 had only two pictures. Yup, that's right...2. In a family as large as ours, and as OCD as I am about photographing every moment of my children's lives as humanly possible, to only be able to find two pictures of a major holiday like Thanksgiving is disturbing. That must have been a real hair-puller of a day. Which also does not make a lot of sense, because according to the pictures, we dined in a nice restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner that year. Although, given the chance, my kids act worse when eating out in public, just because they know i...

We arrived in Orlando around 9:30 PM. We stayed at the same condo complex as we did back in May...only this time, our condo was right by a big pond. We unpack and the boys, naturally, are wired and stayed up until around midnight. But this time, we expected that...so we knew to just go with the flow. The only really remarkable thing about our first night, other than the ridiculously late hour at which the boys went to bed, was that after dinner, Pete and the boys all got gas. I don't know from what, and why it didn't happen in the van on the way down (Thank God), but as soon as everyone got inside and started running around, they all got gassy. Pete, too. Even baby Andrew chimed in with a few tiny toots of his own. Must be a guy thing. And I said as much to Pete, or, to be exact, I complained in an exasperated tone, "what IS it with you all? Why are all of you doing this to me?" To which Alex replied, after overhearing me, "Mom, we can't help it....

We celebrated July 4th, in big style as always. We took off Thursday after I got home from work. The 2-hour trip to Tampa took about 3 hours. We got to our hotel around 9PM. We were prepared for the boys to get all excited and knew it was hopeless to try to put them to bed right away, so we let them stay up and horse around while we unpacked. We did NOT expect them to still be up and wired and running around and playing and carrying on after 1:00 in the morning, however. Those boys would not settle down. And the real problem was Andrew! He would not let his big brothers sleep. He would pick at their feet, pull the sheets on the bed, grab their fingers and hands, crawl all around, bellow out; in general, make a bunch of noise and mess and would not go to sleep! Even Alex was ready to give it up at this point, but the baby would have none of that sleeping nonsense. So the next morning, after about only 2 hours of combined sleep, the boys were up and raring to go before 7AM. We went to br...

That was a good weekend: we first went to a Mother's Day banquet at church on Friday night. Mom couldn't make it because of work, of course, but Aunt Chris went and there was dinner and then dancing by a troop of young girls, and singing by some members of our church, and a Mother's Day poem read by a youth in our church. On Sunday after church, the whole family (us, the boys, Mark, Granny, Pawpaw and Aunt Chris) went back to one of favorite places, the Gateway Grand, where we'd been for our Easter brunch. It was, as always, delicious. Austin had his first bite of chocolate mousse there. After brunch, we came back to our house, where we all exchanged Mother's Day cards and gifts...and unbeknownst to any of us ahead of time, we all got the same thing for each other....a fruit, marshmallow and chocolate Edible Arrangement! After naps that afternoon, we went to the duck pond to spend a lazy afternoon feeding the ducks. It was a relaxed, enjoyable time, but a lot of ot...

Our Memorial Day mini-vacation for 2008 got started much like it did in May of 2007: with a true test of our patience and determination. We got packed, loaded, everyone was in the van, we start to back out the driveway and Pete pushes the button on the remote to close the garage door. The garage door, previously having had no problems whatsoever, jumps off its tracks and crashes to the ground, crumpling and shattering all the glass that was in the garage door windows! It was like it was possessed...by our recurrent vacation demons. Naturally, we stopped, got out of the van and checked out the damage and what could be done about it....all the while with Alex jumping up and down with excitement, screaming, "Look! See! What happened? What we gonna do? We gonna fix it? We gonna call a bulldozer to clean it up? We gonna call a high lift to pick it up?" Only Alex would find sheer and utter delight in such a nuisance. We did the only thing we could do on late Friday afte...

Alex and Austin decided to play barber shop one day. Both boys were in the bathroom while Pete was dressing and shaving for Family Dinner Night, and Alex was watching Pete very closely while Pete used his side burn trimmer. He asked questions, Pete answered questions, and when Pete put it up and away after he was done, he made the colossal mistake of turning his back for one moment. The boys got ahold of the sideburn trimmer, took it outside, Austin sat down on the steps and bent his head down, and Alex proceeded to shave Austin's head! Yep, our middle son is now known as baboon butt! We don't even know what to do with it. There is no pattern to it. Just one big streak on the top, middle of his head, and then a big, round spot on the back of his head. Pete says at least Austin looks a little like him now. When Pete found them, he had to walk away, he was laughing so hard. It was much later before he could actually talk to Alex about the possible dangers of what he had just don...

It began with an article I found, "Potty Training in One Day" and we followed that up with the one book I always swore I would never buy, "Everybody Poops". In the days leading up to the big day, we tried talking to Alex about it. He had #1 mastered for many months; our trouble now was getting him trained for #2. Here's how it went. Mommy: Alex, we need to talk. Tomorrow is going to be a very big day for you. Alex: Uh-huh. Mommy: Alex, would you like to not to wear pullups anymore, not like your little baby brothers do? Alex: OK. Mommy: You're a big boy now, and you need to learn to not poop in your diapers anymore. Alex: OK, mommy. Mommy: Did you know that everyone poops? Alex: Uh-huh. Mommy: And grown up boys poop in the potty! Alex: Yeah. Mommy: Andrew poops and Austin poops, but they poop in their diapers, and they're babies, and that's OK for babies. Alex: OK. Mommy: But you're not a baby, you're a big boy, so ...

So here's another one of Alex's enlightening conversations. It was the day after we'd been to Busch Gardens, and we'd gotten up and gone to church and brunch that morning, so it had been a very lazy afternoon, with everyone napping to catch up on our sleep. We were all a little tired and lazy, and I really wasn't in the mood to cook a lot, or have the boys be fussy about what I cooked, so it was pretty much let everyone eat whatever they want, as long as it's leftovers, or something very easy. Alex is a little grouchy, and it goes like this: Mommy: What to do want for supper? Alex (grouchy): I don't want supper. Mommy: Are you not hungry? Alex (whiny): Yes, I am hungry! Mommy: OK, so what to do want to eat? Alex (whiny): I don't know. Mommy: Do you want chicken? Alex (huffy): I want breakfast. Mommy: Well, that's OK Do you want eggs and sausage? Alex (grouchy): No! Mommy: Well, what do you want? Alex (whiny): I want nuff...

Having a three year old is a lot of fun...one morning, on the way to school, we saw a lot of backhoes at the construction site across from school. So I purposely drove by the construction site and slowed down so Alex could look, and all you could hear from the back of the van was, "Wow! Mommy! Look at dat backhoe! What is dat, Mommy? That a backhoe?", etc., etc., etc. Then, when we got to the parking lot, every hole in the parking lot, which was caused by the recent rain, every cement glob in the parking lot, every crack in the sidewalk, Alex would ask: "That made by a backhoe?" Or "a backhoe did that?" Then, upon seeing the large sinkhole in front of the education building, Alex asked if that was made by a backhoe. I told him, "no, that is part of the Earth. It's a sinkhole. God made that." Alex then asked, "Did God use a backhoe?" ....I told him yes....now he thinks God is so cool for using a backhoe! That's Alex's new wor...

Life...or what was formerly known as life and is now known as CCC with the AAA...for Constant, Chronic Chaos with Alex, Austin and Andrew...forged ahead. It was late September of 2007, and I had three sons. Also, our daughter-in-law was pregnant with their second son. Life goes on. And on and on, in our family. So it's my favorite time of year again...football season, (and I am a Gator fan, but just don't have the patience to sit still to watch a game, so while hubby watches...and watches...and watches...I....shop)! I love the fall festivals, the fall weather, the fall decorations, the entire mood and ambiance of fall. I began to prepare for our annual family Halloween party. Another task we undertook was house hunting. We quickly began to feel the pinch of 5 of us in the house, especially since we knew we'd want to adopt again later...so we began the quest for our next (and hopefully final) family home. Now, one thing I've neglected to blog about so far is that...

So we settle into life as "My Three Sons". For someone who used to imagine that I'd only have one child, and a girl at that, how I ended up with 3 boys under 3...I'll never know. BUT: I'll forever be eternally, completely grateful. I just couldn't have imagined the fun three little boys can create! Noise, dirt, crying, screaming, clutter...all that and more would now rule my home and my life! Andrew was 8 days old when he had the first party thrown in his honor. All the usual suspects showed up and a great time was had by all. Now, with not just one, but TWO little brothers to show off for, Alex really began letting his personality shine through. One night while Uncle Albert and Aunt Nell were visiting, Uncle Albert kept trying to tell a joke. And apparently Alex understood that it was a joke his Grandpa was telling, because he kept slapping the table with his hands and laughing, out loud, ridiculously, obnoxiously laughing, at each pause for breath that Uncle...

We returned from our Sea World adventure happy, relaxed and proud of ourselves for tackling that adventure without any real mishaps. At least, no criminal, legal, financial, medical or majorly life altering mishaps. Dirt, dishevelment, embarrassment, tears, frustration...well, all that just goes with the territory, right? So summer begins. We celebrated Father's Day with a trip to St. Augustine, Florida (one of our favorite cities), where we visited the fort, shopped and rode the river boat on the Matanzas River. On July 3, 2007, Austin's adoption was final and we celebrated with a party/BBQ at the house. We invited our usual group of friends and family to join us, and as usual, it was a lively bunch. July 4th that year fell on a Wednesday, which I hate because I only the THE DAY of the 4th of July off from work, and without it falling on a Friday or a Monday, I never get a long weekend out of it. So we didn't do anything on the 4th of July itself, just used it as a bon...

Our big fun was over Memorial Day weekend when we spent three nights in Orlando to go to SeaWorld! What a blast we had! We almost decided at the last minute to not go, though, because Alex was cranky and Austin was crying non-stop with a tummy ache. We actually had the reservation agent on the phone Thursday evening and were about to cancel and get a refund, but we decided to say a prayer and hope for the best, and forged ahead. God must have a funny way of testing our resolve, however, because He really gave us one for the road. It was Friday, about 12 noon. We wanted to get on the road between 12 noon and 1PM, hoping to do most of the driving while the boys napped in the van. Pete was ready, the boys were ready, the van was completely packed, Mom had come to say good-bye to the boys, and my dad was there to say good-bye also. Pete was busy putting the final diaper bag and cooler in the van while I jumped in the shower. And it was while all this was going on, me in the shower with th...