Woot! Woot!

So this morning Collin decided that he would only come down stairs if I went upstairs and walked down with him.  The trouble was, I really didn't have time to do that.  I was trying to get the older 4 kids out the door to the bus stop.  After a few minutes of yelling he decided to come down on his own.  He was very miffed that he didn't get his way, so he went into my living room - the only room in the house that is verboten (where I keep the antiques and china we never use).  In fact in our house this room is known as the "no allowed baby room".  So Collin went in there and threw himself down on the floor and started throwing things about and wailing. A good old fashioned tantrum.  I went in there and helped him to calm down.  Then I made him clean up the mess he'd made. And while he was putting the cushions back on the sofa, eureka! (Motto of the state of CA) there it was!  The missing key. It magically grew legs and wandered into a room no one is allowed in!  I'm just glad it has been found.  So I guess tantrums aren't always a bad thing!

I still want to run over something though.  I mean, other than scooters, accidentally.  

All three of my girls are in the Girl Scout program.  Regan is a junior scout, and Devin and Lauren are Brownies this year.  But, they almost weren't.  The troop leader was having a hard time getting volunteers to help the troop.  So she was going to disband the troop unless one parent volunteered to be a "camping mom" and one to be  the "cookie mom".  In a weak moment, I caved.  (I went for "cookie mom" because I figured it didn't involve sleeping in a tent and pooping in the woods).

So, since December, I have been involved in organizing and selling cookies, collecting money, ordering more cookies, depositing money into two accounts, and

 planning those annoying booth sales where you are cornered every time you try to go buy some milk and bread.  We will be finished (assuming everyone turns in their money) on April 3rd.  

So today I start to count and organize the latest batch of money to make our next deposit tomorrow.  I count up everything people have given me from their personal sales.  Everything adds up!  Fantastic!  Then I go to get the cash box, to count the profits from last weekend's booth sale.  Small problem.  The key is gone.  And no one knows who took it, or where it could possibly be.  

At one point Declan insisted that Collin (who was napping) had taken it outside and thrown it into the bushes.  I am not sure what my neighbors thought when they saw us in the cul-de-sac swatting bushes and looking around.  He then told me that after Collin threw the key into the bushes Connor (who was at school) came and threw the key into the gutter. Or maybe it was Lauren(who was also at school). Yes, it was definitely Lauren.  At this point I went back inside. Keyless and clueless.  

My big plan is to go to Walmart tomorrow and see if I can find a similar one, and open the box. Plan B is running over it with my car. I'm actually not sure what this will accomplish, but it kind of sounds like fun.

New One

I am in the kitchen this afternoon unloading the kids' backpacks when I hear things being thrown over the second floor banister onto the floor in the foyer below.  A beloved (and forbidden) pass-time in our house.  "Who's throwing things over the rail?!" I yell out.  "It's me, Declan", yells Collin.  A pause.  "No, it's ME, Collin," yells Declan.

Claiming blame in someone else's name.  Good one.  I guess that's what brothers are for :)

Ironically though, it turned out to be Lauren!

Ever wondered...  if you made a birthday cake, a nice yellow birthday cake - with a whole stick of butter in it! And frosted it- yellow, like Sponge Bob.  And decorated it so nicely for your daughter's birthday... what it would look like if a three year old came along and licked all the frosting off?  ALL the frosting?  

(This is not the guilty party, by the way.  The guilty one was hiding under the desk.  This guy learned how to use the web camera, and loves to be a part of any picture taking.)

In his free time, my son also plays basketball.  A couple of weekends ago we were at one of his games.  I was sitting right behind the basket, so that I could get a picture of Connor making a shot.  My husband, and the rest of the kids were some distance away, on the sidelines.  At one point during the game Collin decided he was going to get a drink from the water fountain.  The water fountain was located with the restrooms down a very short hall right next to where my husband was sitting with the kids.  I see the two of them talking and then Collin wander off alone down the hallway toward the water fountain.  At this point my husband forgets all about Collin and begins watching the game. I am trying to watch the game and watch for Collin to return.  I notice it is taking a bit longer than I am comfortable with.  Just as I am about to get up and go off in search Collin saunters back in.  He very casually walks back into the gym, and climbs up into his seat beside my husband.  Completely naked.  No pants, no shoes, no socks, NOTHING.  And begins to watch the game.  At this point I am gesturing frantically to my husband.  He finally turns and notices his naked child next to him and, in the nature of fathers everywhere, loses his mind.  

Can you believe I was sitting right there with my camera, and didn't get a picture?  What was I thinking? (It's hard to see, but in the photo above, he is in white, #42- he has just thrown the ball toward the net- toward, but not in!  :)

I went over to a neighbor's house tonight and heard the nicest thing about my daughter.  (The dress twirler, who is part monkey).  This neighbor substitutes in my daughter's school.  Today she was subbing in the special ed classroom.  One of her students goes to PE with my daughter's class one day a week for mainstreaming.  Her name is Olivia.  My neighbor told me that Olivia was having a very bad day today.  She had to restrain her several times, and there were a lot of tantrums and other behaviors going on.  When she brought Olivia to the gym she was having some trouble.  Apparently, most of the first graders were very wide-eyed and staring, not knowing how to respond to this.  But Lauren stood up (they were seated on the floor) and flung her arms open and said "Olivia!  Come on over here! "  And Olivia calmed down and walked over to Lauren, and Lauren gave her a big hug, and then sat her down right next to her on the mat, and told her, "I'm so glad you're here, I was waiting for you to come!"  And then Lauren held her hand, and rubbed her back throughout the class whenever she was getting nervous or upset.  But Olivia made it all the way through the class, participated and had a good time, with Lauren.  My neighbor told me she and the PE teacher were both amazed that Olivia was so successful, and that Lauren had totally jumped right up and made Olivia her friend in that way.  I am really proud of her, but not so very surprised.  She's like a little walking heart- with her shoes on the wrong feet :) 

Lauren recently discovered that our computer has a camera built into it.  And it takes all sorts of wacky photos.  I came in one day and discovered we had over 100 pictures in our "photobooth".  90 of them were Lauren!!!

So today I am on my way to a parent teacher conference and dropping off my 9-and-three-quarters daughter at a friend's house on the way.  As we are driving to the friend's house we drove past something that smelled truly awful.  Awful like 157 Don's Johns. All piled on top of one another.  On a hot day in August.  On the sun.  I finally made some comment like, "Oh my gosh what is that smell??!!" to which my daughter replied, "Oh, I thought that was you mom."

Kind of reminds me of the birthday card my sister got from my nephew.  He worked for an hour on it, drawing the picture, getting the letters done perfectly.  The message reads "Happy 100th birthday mom".