Living not striving…

This is what Eli says each morning when I present him with a pair of shorts that have… pockets.  This is apparently his new obsession.  He must have pockets to stuff with gumballs, squishy plastic frogs, rocks, dandelions, bugs or any other treasure he comes upon.  He gets really excited when he wears the few pairs of shorts he has that have several kinds of pockets.

This started about two weeks ago and for a few days I tried to fight the trend and in a no-nonsense way dress him in whatever shorts I decided were appropriate for the day, even if they did not have pockets.  Sometimes giving in to these little battles frustrates me.  Eventually I realized that it was futile and ridiculous.  Let him wear pockets!  Honestly most of his shorts have pockets anyways.

I still think it is the cutest thing though when I present him with his clothes and he breaks out in his super sunshine grin and squeals, “Pockets, yea!!!”

Unfortunately someday it will most likely be much more difficult to bring him such joy:)  So for now each day I find an outfit with pockets.  Now he is requesting pajamas with pockets.  I have tried to explain that they don’t really make pajamas with pockets.  Sigh.  Yes do comment if you know who sells pajamas with pockets (on the pants not the shirt), but I don’t know how far we will take this obsession….

I sure do love that smile though!

His little imagination is wide open these days.  This morning I was trying to do housework but instead while unloading the dishwasher we were surfing.  Then in the playroom we were fighting with light sabres and then paddling our pirate ship with guns and pirate hooks.  Later in the day we were also in a band and made a guitar and microphone out of tinker toys.

(Don’t get the impression that all I do is play with my kids.  I wish I did it more often because it really is fun and a large part of why I stay at home with them.  BUT more often than not I get way too caught in housework and my To Do list.)  Enough about that.

Then I got tickled when he came out with this get-up.

I remember when I was pregnant with my first little one I attended a church party and one couple with a four year old were moaning about bedtime.  They were saying how their little girl will just scream and cry and get up out of bed and make bedtime such an ordeal.  I seriously remember being baffled and thinking, “What is their problem?  They are the adult, she is a four year old child!  Put her in bed, shut the door and make her stay!”  What a judgemental know-it-all I was!

Eli gives me a run for my money.  I wish I could say bedtime is peaceful.  But many nights it ends up with a spanking because he simply will not stay put!  Tonight before I had to spank him I sat by his bed to pray and talk, hoping this (since we already did bath and books) would help him wind down.  Well, he decided to tell me a bedtime story.  I am biased I realize, but he does amaze me with his wit.

He said that today he saw an “astronaut going to moon with thing on his head and I waved but he didn’t wave back.  But then he kicked me so I had to go to doctor.  Then doctor popped astronaut ’cause it not nice to kick.  Then space man caught moon and made it break up into pieces.  But I was like astronaut and used my wings to fly and catch all pieces of moon.  So tomorrow daddy has to take his hammer and fix it up so we can see.  And mommy did you know inside pillows are candy?”

Wow, no wonder he can’t fall asleep.  With stories like that flying around in his head it makes sense why he is up and down and up and down!

McCall has been asking Mark for over a year to take him to the climbing wall.  We really weren’t sure if he was ready for it and it just never worked out to take him.  So this weekend we set aside time to go on “dates” with the boys.  McCall has had a rough two weeks adjusting to school and we recognized he seems to need some extra attention.

So Friday night I took him out to Barnes & Nobles and found him a craft book and then we went home and made cookies together. (What? Yes I like doing both of those things, but he really did want to do them!  I did not manipulate him)  Mark took the two little guys to the new Rita’s ice cream place (we had coupons of course) and then to the pet store.

And Sat night I took the little guys to Barnes & Nobles (they do like the stage and train table) and then home for cookies.  Mark and McCall went to the climbing wall.  McCall climbed 3 1/2 times.  Mark said he was amazing!  He was so proud of him.  He was apparently like a little monkey.  I was a crazy climbing kid apparently my mom recollects and so it was fun to see him take to it so quickly.  He didn’t want to leave but Mark had to convince him that he was tired.  So we have now found a fun new outlet.  I have tried for several hours to post the video through youtube and vimeo but to no avail.  Seriously all my techy friends what is my problem?  Would someone please set up a tutorial for me?  Maybe I can post it eventually.

And by the way for those of you that know me well and know my aversion for anything “crafty.”  When I came downtairs this morning McCall found a great idea from the book I bought him.  I vaguely remember him asking me EARLY this morning if I knew where a shoe box was.  Well, he decorated with cut-outs and twine this box  and then sponge painted it two layers and three colors.  It really is lovely but WOW lots of paint everywhere and lots of mess  Lord stretch me to help me encourage his gifts and interests!

A few weeks ago on a particularly difficult day a group of my wonderful friends cleaned my house for me.  Apparently they tried to vacuum my floor and realized that they might have to pitch in and buy me a vacuum.  You will all be glad to know that problem is finally solved.  Last weekend I temporarily lost my cool and literally tossed four (no you did not misread I said FOUR) broken vacuums out my door onto the porch.

I have been telling Mark for months that we need a new vacuum.  He was fine with me getting a new one but I just kept putting it off and trying to “make do.”  That was dumb!!!  Mark was out working in the yard that day so McCall ran outside and apparently told him that “Mom is losing her mind.  You need to come inside.”  Did he come inside?  Oh no!  He is no dummy.  He knows that when I am losing it like that the best thing to do is stay out of the way for awhile.

Here is a picture of the culprits, devil vacuums!

I did some research about prices,etc.  So Friday I became friends with our local Oreck salesman in the Florence Oreck showroom and this is my lovely new friend!

It is not the most flattering picture of her but she really is lovely.  Lightweight, trim, not very noisy.  No bells and whistles but I love that!  I am glad to get the floor vacuumed I don’t make it around to the corners or drapes (who has drapes?) and forget the couch cushions.  Anyways those little extras were the downfall of those other four vacuums. They always broke!!!

Okay I’m getting all worked up again…. I need to go vacuum the upstairs and calm down.

This was a conversation we had on the way home tonight.

McCall: Was God created?

Mark: No, He has always been.  Kind of strange, huh?

Haig: Who was created first?

Mark: Adam

McCall: So does that make men better than women?

Mark: (emphatically) No!

Then McCall informed us that he tries to act like an adult and be mature but we still treat him like a baby b/c we call him “baby” and “little boy.”

What is that about?  Seriously?!  Haig had a serious heart to heart with me this morning where he told me that he no longer wants to be called “Haigy” but now just “Haig.”  Oh I am sad.  My little boy is only 4, not old enough to cut out his pet name!  He even wants me to tell his teacher Ms Price to not call him “Haigy.”  I told him he would have to tell her that if he is serious about it:)

Lastly, Haig was on the potty today and told me had “had some gasoline”.  I tried to explain with a straight face the difference between “gas” and “gasoline.”  Oh life with little ones!  Funny stuff!

This is how I found Eli after about 45 minutes of putting him back in bed and continually checking on him to get him to stay in bed.  He is pushing naptime later which is making bedtime challenging.  Ah the fun of this age as they wean away the nap:)

Notice how he is propped up in the first picture, trying his hardest to not fall asleep.  In the second picture he has a basketball hoop on the bed, books and then the toys he discarded on the floor.  I guess he decided the Noah’s Ark, cars and very pointy-tailed dinosaur that he slept with the night before made snuggling down a bit uncomfortable:)  At least he finally took a nap:)

I deal with migraines more frequently than I prefer.  People often ask me if I can trace the triggers and try to avoid them.  Mine tend to be hormones, lack of sleep, rainy weather, heat, stress… and tonight I tried to explain a new one to Mark that I have been realizing.

The onslaught of constant questions from three curious little boys.  As we drive or hang out at home I am constantly fielding questions and trying to come up with intelligent, patient, theologically correct answers.  Here are a couple I remember from today:

“What are food stamps?”

“If God’s finger came down from the sky and you could ride it where would you go?”

“Does the world need gas station workers?”

“Why do our cars hate us?”

“C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”

“Can the tooth fairy be a boy?”

“Can I use your hot glue gun?”

“Why don’t you run for President?”

“Why doesn’t that man love Jesus?”

“Can we give our Bibles to Newspring Church?”

“Pop Tarts are fruit right, because they have fruit inside?”

“We will have cars in heaven, right? Because the Bible says there are streets.  Why else would we have streets?”

 ”C-c-c-c-can I play g-tar, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play g-tar, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play g-tar, Mommy?”

“Will you introduce me to neat people when I get to heaven and will we all live together?”

“Can we go to Disneyworld in heaven?”

“Can I use Daddy’s knife?  I want to use these bottle nipples to make a robot that can feed babies.”

“C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”

“Can we watch the meteor shower tonight?  Pleeeeaaasssee!”

So, …… I have had a migraine for two days:)  Any suggestions?  Maybe school will help a bit.

The Olympics have lots of cool and unusual sports.  Always seem to surprise me.  Badminton, white-water rafting, beach volleyball…

I asked Mark if he thought they might acknowledge diaper changing, toddler-wrestling, car seat installing, putting two year olds in a car seat while throwing a tantrum or force-feeding 4 year olds as olympic events.

If they are I am excited because I am pretty sure I could medal.  I did wrestle a 4 year old into an infant car seat recently.  Long story…. but mighty good exercise:) lol

Today was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A.  If you dressed up like a cow you received free food.  We are all about free food so since it also goes along with my attempts at being a fun mom plus the need to plan inside activities until Haig can swim again…. we went all out.

It was fun.  A little stressful as all things creative are for yours truly, but it turned out well.  I am not so good with needle and thread but we survived:)  The kids loved spending time at Chick-Fil-A, the food was of course great, we got lots of attention and we met some other families that dressed up as well.

I hope they do it again next year:)