I am upstairs, helping my six year olds was their hair. Lauren stands up in the tub and looks out the window.  "Hey mom.  Declan just climbed out the window."  To which I reply, "Don't be silly.  He has not climbed out the window." Ignoring me,  "Hey Devin, look at this.  Declan just climbed out the window."  To which I say, "Stop being silly! You shouldn't say that."  I go downstairs to fetch clean jammies out of the dryer, and sure enough, Declan is not in the sun room where I left him.  I go out on the deck and at this point see Declan playing on the swing set, and Collin climbing out the window.  I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera off the table and snapped these shots.  I swear, in no way was this shot set up or contrived by me.  Although apropos, it was a pure coincidence that the kid was wearing a shirt that says 'my parents are exhausted'.  As for the naked hiney, what can I say.  Collin prefers an unfettered lifestyle.

In their own words...

Last night my number 5 guy was not feeling too well.  He came up to me and said "Mommy, my tummy makes me sad," his way of telling me he had a stomach ache.   I love it when they come up with their own way of seeing the world.

Another great fall day

Soccer on a sunny Sunday :)  

This is my son with his big play of the game, if you can't tell from this horribly blurry shot! It's hard to take a picture when a three year old is trying desperately to pull you toward the port-a-potty for the third time in 30 minutes).  He zipped the ball past the kid in white, and set up his team mate to take the shot and score!   It was a brilliant pass, if I do say so myself!  Apparently (I think) it's called a wall play.  A box play? Whatever it is called, he did it perfectly :)  And it was really cool to see everyone jump to their feet and start screaming about how well he did it- even though he didn't  actually score the goal. It's one of those mom things- knowing that for tonight, your kid falls asleep feeling really good to be himself.  Score!

The finer things

Is there anything better than a golden  Saturday afternoon football game, little girls in cheer leader costumes and perfect fall weather?  Not much, that's for sure.

And another story

And this is my favorite story about Joann...

I met Joann many years ago in our neighborhood book club (about 7 years, actually!)  Each month we take turns hosting the group.  The first time it was my turn I was very nervous.  I mean REALLY nervous!  I went through all the preparations and the big night finally came.  As I was rearranging some furniture to make more seating in our TV room my oldest kids (who were ONLY kids at the time, and about 2 years old) thought that the couch looked really cool pulled out from the wall.  They decided that they were going to turn it into a stage for a puppet show, and wouldn't mommy's book club love it?  As the guests arrived I kept shooing them out of the room.  At that time, I was the only member with children so young, and I figured it wouldn't make a great impression to have them running amok during our meeting.  So every time they tried to sneak in I shooed them out, embarrassed.   We ate, we had some wine, we discussed the book.  As we were all getting ready to leave, Joann says, "Hold it! I've been waiting all night for the puppet show.  Let's see that puppet show before we go anywhere."  Folded her hands in her lap and smiled at me.  I've loved you ever since Joann!  Baby Jack got lucky with his choice for grandparents :)  And I survived my first night hosting the book club.  It wasn't until my second turn hosting that I exploded the wine! And my fourth time hosting I ate almost an entire key lime pie that was left over, got sick, and figured I'd given everyone food poisoning!  And most recently, my son (same kid - now 9) decided that it as too hot in our house, and kindly adjusted our thermostat down to about 57.  Everyone had icicles hanging off themselves before I figured it out.   But I know now that these flaws are overlooked by dear friends.  And the red wine doesn't hurt either!

2 stories

This is my friend Joann's favorite story about my kids... 

My older two children (who are now 9, but were 3 at the time) figured out that their rooms shared a common wall.  They would spend some time each night at bed time tapping on the wall or yelling through it.  One night they figured if they just made a small hole they could peek at each other!  How resourceful!  Well, I guess they knew their mother wouldn't much care for this plan.  So they made the hole behind their doors- so when the door is open, you can't see it.  This was possibly a happy coincidence- or maybe they are criminal geniuses!  Anyway, they chipped away at the drywall night after night until they had a satisfactory hole going.  Then one day I noticed some drywall chips on the carpet.  They had been flushing most of them down the toilet, but I guess they missed a few.  I was very surprised by this, and also a little irritated.  They assured me that this was nothing to be upset by, and it was very very awesome.  So I told them that I was never going to fill in their "awesome hole" and we'd see just how awesome it really was, in a few years.

Well, 6 years later my son is trying to stuff toys and every possible thing in there to keep his sisters from spying on him and his friends when they are playing Pokemon!  The girls, however, just poke whatever is in there right out the other side!  (The hole has grown over the years.  A 6 year old head fits in there very nicely, this I know for a fact.)

Tomorrow (or whenever I get around to it) I will tell you my favorite story about Joann :)

learned behavior

Yesterday evening I am at cheerleading practice with the 6 year old girls.  (I also have the 2 year old boys with me, and my 9 year old son. My 9 year old daughter is at soccer with my husband coaching).  We've been working on potty training for weeks now.  My boys are completely trained, and can do it perfectly, no problem---provided they are naked.  The minute any type of clothing, pull up underwear, etc is on their bodies they forget everything they've learned. (This goes over well at preschool).  So last night, we are at the playground, watching practice when Collin announces his "Pee pee is coming out RIGHT NOW".  I realize we will never make it all the way up the hill, into the school, down the hall, and into the bathroom.  And I want to reinforce this potty training  breakthrough, rather than letting him pee the pull up.   So I really quickly hustle him around the corner, and behind a parked car.  Sadly, he suffers a bit of performance anxiety, and it takes a bit longer to get the job done than I had anticipated.   As I am helping him readjust his "Bun Bob Pear Pants" shorts, I turn around and realize there are 2 little tots who have followed us to our hiding place.  Two kids  who now have their pants down and are peeing in the grass.  Their parents will be so pleased when they show off this new trick they learned.