Brilliant idea, stupid cats

So last week, I went over to visit my sister in her new house and she showed me the most wonderful thing! They have two gigantic cats that make my Donny look teeny weeny and they got a self scooping cat box! It's brilliant! In my family, I am the automatic cat poop scooper! So I coveted, and then I bought.

And then I introduced my stupid cats to the brilliant, new cat box. Which my stupid cats are afraid of. They act like it's a death trap that will eat them alive if they step foot in it. So after cleaning cat poop up for two days (and not from the cat box, mind you), and grounding the cats to the unfinished basement, I brought out the old cat box and set it up next to the new, cool cat box. I also thought to mix their old litter with the new stuff in hopes that they will eventually make the switch.

So far, they are pooping in the old one, but not the new one, although one of them will pee in the new one. Poor winter is just acting like everything is going to come alive and eat her. She's still terrified of it.

So here we sit with a brilliant idea and stupid cats!! (Big sigh)

On again, off again.

Such are the joys of year-round school. I personally am not a big fan of the year-round school system. And this year we are on a track that is very much on again off again. My kids started school three weeks ago, and today they start a three week vacation. Fun for me. The good thing about the first few days off track is that they are all friends and I barely see them. The bad thing, after two or three days they can't remember how to entertain themselves and I get to hear, "I'm bored, there's nothing to do" for the next two and a half weeks.

So they have been outside playing in the water, or in the basement torturing cats for most of the day. Lillie finally came inside a few minutes ago and informed me that she was going to color because the boys were picking on her too much. Awww, brotherly love!

We still have football and gymnastics, so that will break things up a little bit. But I am preparing myself for the upcoming whines. I am prepared though. I have a chore schedule all mapped out, I have math games for the older kids, and I think I may make them have mandatory reading time! I'm such a nice mom!! At least they'll think twice before they complain about not having enough to do!! I have PLENTY of things they could do! (Insert evil motherly laughing here!)

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Who me?!?





Not me! It couldn't be!!


This is what happens when you let the baby have an M&M cookie in the car to preserve your sanity. It was worth the mess!!

Toddlers

I love toddlers. Most of the time, anyway. They are amazing. They learn at such a quick rate, that it's mind boggling. And I sometimes wonder what we would be like if we continued to learn at such a rate. We'd all be brilliant!

Odessa is fascinated by life. She is curious and, dare I say, so smart! I teach all my babys sign language, and she has picked it right up. She says, or rather signs, bye, dog, cat, Dad, please, where, more, all done and milk. See, she's brilliant!

I love to watch her move. It's amazing any of us learned to walk with the bulk of a diaper between our legs. And yet, she toddles all over the place, albeit very bowlegged! But oh so cute! She's figuring out her personality, which is a hoot. She absolutely loves her siblings, loves to play, loves to laugh. She knows what she wants and how to get it, most of the time. It's amazing that someone so little understands so much. When I talk to her, I can see the recognition in her face. Especially if she's doing something naughty! Don't let her trick you into thinking she doesn't know exactly what she is doing. She likes to look at books at points at pictures. She loves the park, although we are still trying to teach her to sit before she goes down the slide. Makes me just a tad nervous!!

I don't love the tantrums, the biting, or the orneriness. But overall, toddlers are just plain fun to watch. They are little, tiny people venturing out in the world! And they are little for such a brief time but I am just soaking it all in! Todlers are great!

Melancholy

I had a perfectly acceptable day yesterday. I cleaned, dusted, mopped and vacuumed. I washed 4 loads of laundry. I even had time to start reading the new Stephanie Meyer book. With the exception of Katherine and Michael forgetting how to go play, some tantrums from Odessa, and short naps when she needed long ones, I had a pretty good day. So when I went to go pick Andrew up from football, the melancholy that settled over me was not at all expected. I sat watching his football practice with Odessa climbing all over me, and looked around at the other mothers there. I felt a bit like a ragamuffin, with my hair in a ponytail, my eye makeup mostly worn off, making me look tired, and boogers smeared on my shoulders. The ladies were all well-groomed, hair in place, fashionable clothes, neat manicures, sitting around planning all of the wonderful things they were going to do for our boys. It didn't help that when we arrived, one mother made the ever-so-lovely "wow, you've got five kids" statement. I know on every level that I shouldn't compare myself, and my turn will come not to be booger smeared. But there seems to be something about us women that causes us to look at others and compare ourselves. Now who knows if those beautiful, well put-together women are actually happy. But somehow, my desire to be completly worldly sometimes overtakes what I know about my life. My life is great! I have wonderful, smart children. And I wouldn't trade a one of them for a manicure. (Ok, sometimes I would trade one of them for a manicure!) So today, I am going to remember what I have, and I'll probably do my hair, just to make myself feel better, and remember that what I have is great!

The dreaded toy room

The toy room is the bane of my existence. I've cleaned it up a billion times and made the kids help me a billion more. And every time, the toy room throws up on itself and all over the basement. I am thankful it is mostly confined to the basement, with the exception of a few things I keep upstairs for the baby to play with. But every time I look down the stairs, or have to go to the basement for something, I just wanna cry.

So this week, I decided to take action. The last time I cleaned it up, with the aid of my children, I gave them all "the lecture". It goes something like this. "If you dump all your toys out one more time, I am going to throw it all away. You don't take care of your stuff and you have no respect for your belongings. I'm sick of it and I'm not going to tolerate it any longer." Now, I've probably given this speech multiple times. And they all made the appropriate somber faces and promised not to dump the toy room again. Of course, they are children, and their memories are two seconds long. So what did they do? They dumped the toy room in the name of a really cool fort. And of course they didn't clean it up and before too long, you couldn't go downstairs without injuring yourself.

So, as I began cleaning up the other day, but I decided to make good on my word. Or mostly anyway. I threw away a large garbage sack of crap. (Crap = broken toys, McDonalds toys, stuff I don't wanna see again) Then I boxed everything else up, except for just a few things. Then I took each kid in and made him/her look in the empty toy boxes and I asked them what I said I'd do next time they dumped it! Miracle of miracles, they all remembered what I'd threatened. It was worth it to see their dejected looks when they thought I'd actually thrown it all away.

They are now attempting to earn back their precious toys. And I've decided that anything they don't care to earn back before Christmas is going to the DI. And if they dump it again, they get one warning, then I really will throw it all away!! And this mom means business!! Stupid toys!

The wet game and Stop all the crying!!

This was just too funny and I had to share.

Michael knocks on the back door. I open it and see that he is somewhat wet.

Me: What's up?
Michael: Ummm, we were playing the wet game and I tried really hard not to get wet but...
Me: No, you can't change your clothes. It's hot outside, you'll dry.
Michael: But I tried really hard not to get wet!

I'm thinkin' that if you play a game with your friends called the "wet game", you might just get wet. Who knows though, I'm just the mom who puts a damper on all kinds of fun games. Like the mud game, and the dirty game, and the run through the house with a foreign dog game...

A minute later

Michael: Can I get my swimsuit on?
Me: Are you going to play the wet game some more?
Michael: Yeah, I think so.

So now they are playing the "wet game" in swimsuits. It makes sense, doesn't it?

On to stopping the crying. We were outside earlier and I was chatting with a neighbor. They have a little yappy dog, but she's smaller than Don Juan. (Don is my big fat cat.) I see Katherine standing in my yard crying.

Me: Katherine why are you crying?
Katherine: There's a dog. (insert much crying sound effects here)
Me: Katherine that dog is not going to hurt you.
Katherine: (continues crying) But I'm scared.

My neighbor kindly put her dog in the house.

Me: Katherine, the dog is in the house, come play.
Katherine: Did they close the door?
Me: (insert eye rolling and sighing) Yes, the door is closed.

I'm always thinking of the phrase "There's no crying in baseball." Apparently, with Katherine, there's crying in nearly everything. Today's dog situation comes on the heels of last night's dog situation.

The older kids were playing in the same neighbor's backyard, with said dog. Katherine runs inside our house with her big alligator tears and much crying.

Me: What's wrong?
Katherine: There's a dog and it scared me.
Me:Ok, stay inside then.
Katherine: (sniffle, sniffle) I'm all better now.

Out the front door she goes. Not five minutes later the door opens and I hear her running and sobbing.

Me:What's wrong?
K: The dog scared me again. (sniffle, sob, sniffle, sob)
Me: Well then don't go outside anymore. That dog isn't going to hurt you.
K: But it scared me. (sniffle, sniffle)

And out she goes again. I was surprised when she didn't come back inside crying about the dog again and about fifteen minutes later I went out to call the kids in to get ready for bed. And where do I find Miss Katherine? Perched on the highest rock in the neighbor's backyard. She wasn't crying, but she wouldn't go play either. I called her to come home and she cried from her perch all the way to the gate, stopping for a minute to completely freak out at the dog. I wanted to yell, "there's no crying!", but I restrained myself.