Want One Bad

As part of my on-going effort to recreate my own childhood.

First Sleepover

The plan: Get a sitter for the kids.

Have all of the adults run to another house where it is quiet.

Go back to pick them up later, and have our wonderful neighbor say we should just let them be.

Bonus.

Total kids knocked out in one room--six ages 4-6.

Spontaneous Pledging

One benefit of pre-school--having four kids that can spontaneously break out into the pledge of allegance at any given time.

The Cupcake Incident

Pre-school cupcake parties.

I have opinions layering on opinions about birthday parties for toddlers/pre-schoolers and invitation lists and organized parties and then the pre-school cupcakes and goodie bags that you are nearly obligated to turn up with on your child's birthday. All that alone, there is this:

as I do the rounds before finding the children last night, picking up homework, seeing if everyone has had a green day or a red day, checking boxes for information sheets, I run across a single cupcake in Nicholas' box.

Phooey.

Time for a quick life lesson.

Here we go.

The maniacs spot me and come running. All eyes, except Ben's, are on the cupcake in my hand. Then I hand it to Nicholas, and the girls have a fit, and I explain the situation to the girls matter of factly. Alida doesn't let it go and falls in a heap. She cries the entire way out of the center; she cries getting into the car; she cries as we drive off.

After a short conversation where Nicholas lets me know the girls are upset because they didn't get to sit in the front seat and Ben corrects him to let him know that, in fact, Alida is crying because she wants a cupcake, this follows:

"I know. I'll split it in half and share it with you Alida!"

"Can I have some brother?" asks Elaine.

"Sure. I KNOW! We'll cut it in four halfs."

(I started the math lesson but decided to shut my mouth and let this play out.)

"But, Ben already had a cupcake so he doesn't get any," Nicholas declares.

"That's right," agrees Ben.

"Okay sisters but after dinner and mommy will cut it with the knife."

And do you know, that's exactly how it played out.

Wednesday, September 1

The day that Elaine's world crashed in around her as she was forced to wear the preschool uniform top. She is my only child to complain so far. Day 2 went with a whimper of complaint. And then the holiday was upon us.

Alida has graduated from sippy-cup to travel coffee mug--she's taking this big girl thing a little too seriously.

It's Magical

When there is a major traffic back-up on a night we both already had to work late (he had a two hour drive home),

Why even bother attempting to make dinner?

When they can ignore fast food and play with toys at the table for half an hour.

"It's gucky."

Good Boy.

Well, good boy until you show up in our bedroom at 2:30 in the morning wanting Doc Oc's arms reattached. Argh.

My Pre-schoolers

Yesterday my boys joined the ranks at daycare of what they call "pre-schoolers." Transition is complete, and they are off and running. There hasn't been a single potty training accident at school since we started wearing big boy pants a month ago, there is handwriting curriculum, and Benjamin exclaims at least once a day now that he is a "big boy." Stop. Did I just say handwriting curriculum? Are you kidding? They are 2! I know, not for long, but technically they are still 2! Yet here they come every day with sheets from school where they have been tracing letters. They purposefully sing the alphabet. They count things. Last night Benjamin was looking at a shark book and explained that the whale shark does not have big teeth. (I'm so proud of my shark lover--he may have got some coaching along the way...)

And then this. As we picked up our mound of papers yesterday (really daycare, we don't need two of every announcement for their class and four of every announcement for the daycare. We just don't.), out fell two envelopes. Our first birthday party invitations. After I finished snickering because the party was for Jack and we were to RSVP to Jill (I take my amusement where I can), I started wondering who in this mass of people was Jack? They've been in this class officially for one day, who is Jack? Was I supposed to learn every one's name that fast? The boys have only recently started referring to their classmates by name and the girls are still "baby."

And then I noticed the date of the party. Oh good, we'll be out of town. My blood pressure over my many opinions on this issue can lower. For now at least.

Thank You Jenny

I often wondered if that was hard writing that out when you were expecting your own baby and likely thought that perhaps your own husband was probably the Best Dad.

But even after dealing with our millions of children day in and day out, you still went and thought it would be a good idea to have your own baby.

And that baby will now get to do his or her own art projects with you in the future, and we will miss them.

And the ladies have had the opportunity to stay home and stay healthy with many thanks to you.

You were even brave enough to go on an outing with this mess of kids. Thanks for all of your commitment and help. We hope that this past year will make having your own little one feel like a piece of cake. Good luck and best wishes. But don't think you won't be hearing from us because we're too nosy not to pester you for updates now and again.

And thank you for loaning us your sister too! I now have both your cell phone numbers, and we plan to use them.

Saturday

They could have kicked back and chewed on their feet and pretended to hold their own bottles.
They could have gotten outside and played in the sunshine for the first time a good little while.
They could have been entertaining and silly.They could have ... well any number of things.
Benjamin could have let loose with an all-out smile.
They could have gotten some exercise.
Or a real nap.
Or too much attention.
Or some good couch time in front of the tv.
Or a whole lot of love.
Or hung out like good little people and not torn the house apart. But dad and I wouldn't really know because we got to spend the whole day out and about without little people. And do you know what we did? We talked about and shopped for little people. Thank you so very much Mark, Jennifer and Elvetta (who seems to have avoided the camera...) for allowing us a day to pretend we were carefree.

An Ode To Jenny

These people smile sweetly when she arrives in the morning (which is one of the best ways I can think of to know that we have a loving person watching our kids during the day).
We've never heard of this happening during nap time, which we really can't say for ourselves.
I've never come close to seeing this when I came home. In fact, I hear she doesn't allow them to do that, so they flip out and throw things all over the place when we arrive on the scene.
And if she has ever let them just play with their food like that, she did an amazing job of cleaning them up, washing their clothes and setting them straight before we arrived home.
Now. How much would it take to get you to come take care of bed time for us?

The Scene Upon Arriving Home Monday

Dad, hard at work making sure the boys take a nap.
(They will no longer sleep in their beds. Now they sleep on the floor.)
All we were missing were the empty Kool-Aid cups
in this silent-as-I-walked-in-the-door house.Oh wait, it's Alida. Nope she's not sleeping. Because the girl
DOES NOT SLEEP.

I'm Not Copying, I Swear

So to the question: How do you do it? I reply, I usually spend my drive in to work thinking about what post needs to go up today. They are usually prepared ahead of time on the flash drive, or I work out the language in my head on the drive in.So when I saw the Farthings doing this today, I laughed because I was already thinking of posting the boys doing what you see below today.
So when we finally had to wrench the basket back so that we could perhaps finish the millionth load of laundry that weekend, guess who got upset and screamed bloody murder. Yep, Benjamin who apparently was enjoying his not so quiet, quiet time.
And in other parts of the parallel universe, our Elaine is now taking her first round of Amoxicillin for her first ear infection thanks to a stuffy head and chest that leads to such things. Poor girl was a trooper through a breathing treatment and poking a prodding at the doctor's yesterday even though she was blowing snot bubbles all over Dr. Snapp. (Fourteen pounds and 14 ounces when weighed yesterday even though she's been refusing food for a day or so.) The morning report is much better, and she has turned a corner with no fever and no nose dragging with the bulb syringe this morning. Both girls decided that 5:30 would be a great time to wake up this morning and play. By 7:30 they were beside themselves and chowing down on bottles looking exhausted right in the middle of the boys routine of morning cartoons and then breakfast. And, I slipped out the door leaving Jenny-the-master to deal with the chaos and grandma and grandpa using a bit quicker step to get out the door to experience our city with the kids' cousins and uncle who came in last night to spend some time with us.
I am hoping that long morning naps are now taking place.
And, in other news we have now hired Sarah to do all of our web design since she was so awesome in making the new banner for the blog, which I LOVE.

The Library, Four Kids, and Iraq

We don't really agree with it, but apparently it is customary to allow Jenny to have a day off here and there. We would tie her down and keep her all to ourselves if we didn't think the kids liked her so much that they would probably free her. Anyway, some days, Jenny gets to take the day off.
And it is Patric's turn at duty because mommy has meetings and no time off at work because she's been birthing babies for the last two years. And then you remember that daddy also has a speaking engagement at a middle school to talk about Iraq (no weapons or talk about war please...)
And the school fills the library up with kids to hear daddy talk about war without talking about war.
And all you can do is take the little ones along and say many prayers and pack many Oreos for the trip. And, you know what? We have pretty charming and well behaved kids when other people are around! No incidents to speak of, and Benjamin, of course, walked right in like he owned the place. The ladies were swept up by many teachers. And Nicholas? Well Nicholas, I dare say you contained your naturally overflowing energy very well son.

The Stubers Announce: Five Little Noses

Four of the human variety and one of the saline variety. The bulb syringes have been put to the test, and the ladies fight them off as well as the boys ever did. We're so proud. Saturday and Sunday nights have been full of snuffles and snoring and sucking, poor things. And an extra thank you to Gracie's whole crew: Jen and Mark and Elvetta and Larry for babysitting through the beginning of our first snuffles and loving babies with stuffy noses. We swear, we had no idea the congestion was going to get that bad while you were on shift...

Flip Flopping

Uncle Brian reminded us the other day that we are late on our registry for baby gymnastics for the GIRLS. Now if you know the brood, you know that we spit some coffee out on the monitor while scoffing at the baby gymnastics article, choked a little bit, and then started a diatribe on economics/child rearing/loss of common sense/accompanying lack of social discretion/and working mothers, and this exact diatribe was spewed out for the 50 millionth time and has really become a stump speech that those closest to the brood are sick of hearing.On further reflection, we would like to announce that the brood is publishing a policy change effective immediately. We support gymnastics for your baby; we support all forms of structured activity for your baby, whatever age. We support you spending the money that you spend on it. We support your choice to provide developmentally appropriate activities for your 4-month-old baby; we support your well-thought-out plan to socialize with other baby's parents; we support your need to fit in with the other parents in paying for classes for your baby; we support you.Because when you do that, we get this:


That's right, our own private park at 10:00 on a beautiful Saturday morning. See all those cars over there? We guess they were all carrying the children off to their classes at the community center.

Halloween--A Scary Day

The day began with our best Frankenstein's Monster impression.
Thank you for the masks Jenny!
Nicholas was not pleased with his vampire cupcake until he could dissect it and figure out the mystery.Benjamin just didn't want to be a mess from foolin' around with the cupcake.Thank you Jenny for dealing with the mess that came anyway.Art Project time! Spiders from hand prints and ghosts from foot prints.Jenny! You had a mess of a day, thank you!In the background, dad left work early to get the boys to take them for flu shots, ran home to relieve the nanny, got dinner ready and fed boys, fed the babies and got the movie ready for the evening. Mom ran to the grocery store to load up on a week's worth of groceries on her way home from work, unloaded, laid out clothes for the following day and bedtime, cleaned up dishes, and dressed babies for the festivities. Whew.The mandatory sit everyone down and attempt a photo shot. Yes, they are all watching the tv.Wait for trick-or-treaters. Poor Nicholas got his hand slammed in the door after one customer. It was a little spooky having screaming Nicholas, feeding babies for bedtime, and passing out candy all at once. His fingers still bend though, so we think he's good.

The Tube

By far, the hardest worker in the Stuber house.