Ummmmmm......

I had one of those "I have no idea what to say" Mommy moments yesterday at lunch. Here's how it went down:

Graeme: Mommy, do babies come out of your belly button?
Me (wondering when he stopped believing that mommies poop out babies): Ummmm, no.
Graeme: Well, where do babies come out?
Me: Ummmmmm.......
Chloe (with an all-knowing smirk): Graeme, it's private.
Graeme: What?
Me: Ummmmmm.......
Chloe (still smirking): Graeme, babies come out your privates.
Me: Chloe!
Graeme: Ohhhh.
Me: Graeme, I'll explain it to you when you're a little older.
Graeme: Okay, like when I'm 25? I'll have my wife by then.
Me: Yeah. 25 will be great.

The funny thing is, we've had this conversation before and (fortunately) my kids don't seem to want to discuss how babies are made, just how they come out. But we haven't talked about it for awhile so it just really caught me off-guard. The problem is, my kids usually won't settle for the easy answer so if I had told them that babies do indeed come out of belly buttons, lunch would have been abandoned for a vigorous and lengthy inspection of everybody's belly buttons. And, I have no idea when Chloe figured out where babies come out. I guess if you're a girl it's just a matter of logic, but this probably means I'd better start anticipating awkward questions from her. Incidentally, Graeme has already informed me that he and his wife and children will be living with me in this house for the rest of our lives. Boy, a children's anti-aging serum would sure come in handy right about now......

Graeme's 7!

I'm not going to wait as long as I did with Kai to wish my sweet Graeme a Happy Birthday! I can't believe he's seven already! It seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital and were shocked at how much he slept. He barely woke up to eat and poop. I guess he was storing up for now because he never even sits still anymore!

We had a lovely McDonald's party with only a couple of friends from Graeme's class. It's not a milestone birthday so we didn't let him invite every kid he knows, but how can you open presents without at least a couple of curious onlookers?

The best thing about the party is that the McDonald's manager was very nice and let us bring in presents and cake without paying for an actual party! I had to put in this last picture because it just cracked me up.

Graeme looks completely disgusted with the cupcake in a cone that he's holding, but he actually loved it!

Anyway, a good time was had by all, especially me since I didn't have any mess to clean up afterward! Happy Birthday, little man!

Little Things

A couple of nights ago while we were getting the kids ready for bed, we were watching a show about skunks on PBS. There was a man on the show who runs a refuge for skunks (he apparently can't smell the skunk stink which is why he got into the skunk business). Anyway, this guy rescued four baby orphan skunks and raised them. At the end of the show he released them back into the wild.

When this happened, I realized that Graeme was becoming very agitated. I asked him what was wrong and found out that he was upset because the skunks were going to be alone. I reassured him that they were wild animals and they would be just fine but he became more and more upset until he was crying for these poor baby skunks. What a tender heart!

A little while later I was trying to get Kai in the tub and he and Graeme decided that they both needed to use the potty at the same time. The usual screaming, pushing and crying ensued but when I rushed into the bathroom (to prevent bodily harm), I discovered that Graeme had convinced Kai they could go at the same time. So there they both were, in their birthday suits, peeing to their hearts' content. I laughed so hard I cried. Kai later told me (very proudly) that they made an X. The best part is that now Kai is trying to convince Chloe that the two of them can pee at the same time! As much as Chloe always wants to join in on anything, I somehow doubt that this is going to happen.

Finally, Kai was having mini corn dogs for lunch a few days ago. He was making rocket-like noises and flying the corn dogs into his mouth so I asked him if the corn dogs were rockets. He got that funny look on his face, the one that says: "I'm doing something I think is hilarious and I don't really want to share it with you" and told me the corn dogs weren't rockets. "Well what are they, then?" I asked. "They're bombs!" he said, and started laughing and making bomb explosion noises. What a goofball!

I guess it's these everyday little things that really make this life worth living after all.

Graeme's great!

Graeme's teachers have a fantastic discipline/organization system in place. Really terrific. Of course, Graeme is having a rough time, probably because he is physically incapable of sitting still for longer than about 30 seconds. Seriously, he doesn't even lie still when he's sleeping.

Anyway, Graeme's teachers give the kids a strike each time they break a rule, disrupt the class, etc. Poor Graeme always gets at least one strike each day. Until Tuesday! No strikes! Hooray! The same thing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Hooray! I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it! He's so smart and creative and tender-hearted that it was just killing me to have him get in trouble all the time.

We all made a big deal and took him to McDonald's for dinner tonight. He also got a couple of awards at school. I'm sure Monday will be business as usual, but it was sure a nice break from all the stress and worry. Hooray for Graeme!

Snow!!!!

I guess the powers that be overheard me complaining about our complete lack of snow, because it snowed early this morning! Here are some pictures I took before it melted away:

Guess it's time to wrap the trees.



And take the net off the trampoline.



And clean off the back porch.


The snow was really a nice surprise, though, because the weather people all said the storm would pretty much pass us by. Hah!

So yesterday I was going through Graeme's backpack and I found a letter he wrote to Santa at school. I'm not sure what the actual assignment was, but his letter is hilarious. I couldn't scan it to add to this post, but I'll quote it for you and you can imagine the first grader handwriting and erased words. Here it is, as true to the original as I can get it:


12-3-08
Dear Santa, Thank you fo
-r your reiindeers,and I ha-
ve a few questions,How do
your reindeers fly?How do
your elvs make presents
so fast?And How do you
resist the cold?Well thats
is all the questious so goodby
youxr friend, Graeme Carver.


He cracks me up. The funny thing is, when he read it to me, all the words and grammar were correct. And in case you were wondering, "resist" was one of their vocabulary words a week or two ago. So today I'm most grateful for:


Graeme.



Snow! Because the older I get, the more magic there is in a surprise snowfall.

Yellow grass on the mountain that glows in the sun.



A digital camera. So I can share the beauty that I see every day.
Insulation. This picture was actually taken almost four hours after I turned the heat up to 70. Hooray for insulation!

Sick again

Well, Kai and Graeme flip-flopped last week. Graeme had stomach issues and Kai's got a fever. It's hard when any of the kids get sick, but it's much worse with Kai because he's still a little guy.
I was fighting back tears as I put him in bed last night because he was so sick. His temperature was 104 (even though we alternated Tylenol and Motrin every three hours all day), he wasn't eating or drinking, he was really shaky and I had to carry him everywhere. Also, he slept most of the afternoon and evening but he still went right to sleep when I put him to bed. It was so scary! Honestly, I don't know how parents dealt with illness before modern medicine!

On the plus side, he actually slept until 8:30 this morning, drank juice and water and ate breakfast. His temperature is still 103 so he and I are home from church today, but he's definitely improving.

Yesterday as he was resting on the couch I would look into his feverish eyes and ask him how he was doing. The response was always "great". That is so Kai. He is definitely my happy angel baby.

After he got up this morning I fell to my knees and thanked my loving Heavenly Father for helping him through the night. I love my kids so much! Raising them is a nonstop challenge. I feel so terribly inadequate whenever a crisis arises but I can't stop thanking the Lord that these three precious spirits are mine!

Graeme Is Also Exceptional

Okay, I just have to do a little more bragging. I talked to Graeme's teacher today and she was very impressed with how well Graeme is reading (he's in Kindergarten). She also said that his pronunciation is very natural and a pleasure to listen to.
Of course, every time I talk to his Speech teacher she goes on about how smart he is and what a great kid he is.
The funny thing is, I was considering waiting a year to start him in school because he's so super energetic and I didn't think he would do well in school.
Hooray for Graeme!
You know, Kai (who's 2) can already spell his name...........

He broke her nose?!?!

Graeme broke his primary teacher's nose. Yep, broke it. Bleeding all over the place and everything. And, as if it wasn't bad enough that he broke it, I didn't actually find out about it until Sunday night as we were putting him to bed. He prayed for his teacher's nose to stop bleeding. I of course called her Monday morning and found out that it was indeed broken (I know I keep repeating that but I'm still kind of in shock about it), it was an accident (thank goodness) and she's okay. The bright spot in all of this is that now when other moms are complaining about the naughty things their kids do, I can top 'em all. Hopefully his teacher will look at it that way too. (nervous chuckle)