children in morning, parents take warning ...

  Remember that old nursery rhyme-- "Red sky at night, sailor's delight.  Red sky in morning, sailors take warning!" ?  I'm abridging it a wee bit.  'Children at night, parents duck out of sight.  Children in morning, parents take warning!"

                                    

       And in our case, I don't mind them in the morning at all... but the only time that I get to myself typically runs from about 4:30- 6:00 am.  I'm pretty sure they've sniffed this out, because the last two days they've been up at 5:25.  And worse-- they started talking amongst themselves and are taking turns.  Two days ago, LJ took the early shift and wanted to eat cereal with me at 5:15.  Today, he woke up just long enough to holler a couple times as I shot into his room to calm him down, which was surprisingly easy.  Turns out he was just giving the 'all clear' for Judah, who poked his cute little head up and started 'talking' through the door at us as soon as Elijah went back to sleep.  I don't care if he is only 15 months old; Judah's going to sleep in LJ's room sooner rather than later.  Then they can yap at each other all they want and I DON'T HAVE TO WAKE UP TO SHUSH THEM... just saying.

     The other person who has to watch out for the 'children in morning' is the "beautiful mama," as Elijah likes to call her.  I'm going to let her do a Mother's Day post tomorrow, but one of my highlights was at 8:30 in the morning--  we (the three knights) had been up since 5:30, and were getting a wee bit restless.  Rachel had been out the night before for some pre-Mother's Day celebrating and had stayed up until 11 or so, which is waaaaaay past her bedtime, so we agreed she could catch some beauty sleep until 8:30 or 9.

                                      

      I outlined the plan to my two lieutenants.  We would tiptoe upstairs, I would give Rachel a kiss, and Elijah would whisper "I love you" to her and give her a present.  It would have worked very well except lieutenant #1 only listened to HALF of the instructions.  He tiptoed upstairs quietly like a champ-- then improvised.  Bursting through the door, he screamed, "SURPRISE, BEAUTIFUL MAMA!  WE LOVE YOU!"  Rachel's awakening was, um, abrupt... and I have the utmost respect for her that after the first terrified gasp, she actually enjoyed her little ceremony without killing anyone.  And's that why I love her-- at least one of the reasons.

          Yup, children in morning-- take in low doses.  Have a good night all!

Things I actually said today

   No picture today... so you will just have to use your imagination.  These are things I actually said today-- context given after the quote.

    "To be clear, is he planning on working all day or watching the child?"  -- to a mom-to-be at our church small group tonight.  She had just explained to me that her researcher husband will be watching the newborn child while working two days a week.  I'm tentatively dubious.

    "Can you please not walk with a penguin in your mouth?  I don't want you to fall down and kill yourself." -- to Elijah, who was carrying so many plastic penguins he had to carry them in his mouth.

    "Come over here now or I will not change your diaper and check your man-parts!"  -- Elijah again, using any leverage I can to get him to come over for a diaper change.

    "Really?  Really?  Really!"   --- to Judah, in sheer exasperation that he literally had to be held for fifteen minutes straight or else scream like Banshee from X-Men at any hint of me placing him on the floor.

   "Yeah, he's one.  If you don't want him to touch it maybe you should move it out from under his hands."  -- to a six-year-old at small group, who was very upset that after he put his shiny globe literally under Judah's nose, Judah then played with it without asking permission.

   Finally, a throwback reference to yesterday:   "Uh-huh, yesterday was pretty rough.  I felt bad for Rachel, though.  She essentially had to deal with three cranky men all day, and the only distinguishing feature between me and them was that I finally grew out of diapers."

   Well, I can't take it back now.  The life lesson here is that when you have kids, you may as well trade your dignity for a minivan-- you're only going to one of them over the next twenty years.

         Have a wonderful night all!

   
               

I don't think I fit into the routine :)

               I say this as cheerfully as possible, but I think I owe my whole family an apology.  You see, today was a rain-filled day, which in my world will occasionally mean that I get to stay home with them.  About three years ago, this seemed awesome.  Time at home with the new little Elijah giving the Queen a nap (especially because the first four weeks after he was born I was working 65-hour weeks) meant a smoother situation for everyone.  About a year ago, it wasn't too bad.  Now, when I stay home, it's pretty awful.

              I think half of it is me.  When it's gray and lonely, I'm pretty rough to live with.  Elijah doesn't seem to mind because he's my doppleganger-- he's just as irritable as I am.  Judah doesn't seem to mind because for the past month, it doesn't really matter what's going on around him, he just whines.  We're all hoping that this phase clears pretty quickly-- he's such a delightful child when happy, and such a delight-sucking child when whining.  But even after all that, it's at least half me.

             Which leaves the poor Rachel/ "beautiful mama."  She now has not two cranky young knights to deal with , but three.  Things that used to be fun, like lunch, degenerate into serious dicussions of how to parent as each of us feels like our parenting styles are being questioned.

             By dinnertime, EVERYONE was ready for war.  Humorously enough, dinner was a war.  It's not often that a + b = c at this house, but this was one time that we all could see the storm coming; it's just that we weren't smart enough to get out of its way.

                              

         So I think we learned a few life lessons today.  (Honestly, we already knew these; we just forget a lot-- at least I do.)

            1)  I should NEVER stay home from work unless I am actively playing a lengthy video game;  in my case, free time = hell.

            2) Naps and me do not agree.  (I passed out from 1-3pm, with disastrous results.)

            3)  Rachel is awesome!!  (By anyone's definition of justifiable homicide, she could have killed Judah and I today; a liberal judge probably would have let her off the hook for Elijah too.)

            4)  Even awful days have redeeming qualities; the boys and I sneaked out at 4 and got her something special for Mother's Day under the guise of a walk!

         Hope you all are having a fantastic night!  (I know I am; I'm sitting by myself in peace and quiet!)

it's gonna be exciting!

          Every once in awhile, it's hard to see out of a gray tunnel up here in the oh-so-lovely North.  (Brief aside: any weather people out there able to tell me why it averaged about 68 in March but is somewhere near 55 so far in May??)
          Work is either sitting at home waiting for the clouds to clear or doing incredibly fun things like move furniture and investigating crawl spaces with cobwebs very much like these.

                                          

            So on days like today, I choose to look forward to things in the not-so-distant future that just might snap me out of my funk.

            Some of them include:  1)  spending a little early-morning time with this little snuggler and his 'faceplug,' since he has taken up the "someone must wake up at 5:30 to make sure Dad's up!" mantle from his older brother.




      2) This one will probably make the lovely Naomi Deckert happier than anyone else-- I finally finished my amazing video game Valkyria Chronicles (highly recommended for anyone who likes great sweeping dramatic/ romantic stories combined with strategic battlecraft), which means that I'm launching back into the world of writing some stories or novels at night... I can't decide between finishing a longer book that I've already started or writing a shorter story about the unwitting escapades of  a very small detective.  Either way, I'm happy for the chance.

     3) I'm looking forward to completing the training process so that Elijah can make me coffee unassisted-- he thinks he can right now but the last time he did everything right save putting the cup underneath the Keurig... thank goodness for eagle-eyed Judah!!  (Anyways, it's fun now that they want to do almost everything with me.  It might take a little longer, but I know the days are coming where I won't be able to dig up help if I had a backhoe.)

                                 
 

      4)  Finally, I'm thankful to be invited to celebrate the wedding of my sister Kristin as on June 2nd, she becomes Kristin Carroll... it has such a nice 'ring' to it!  She may regret the invitation once all three of us knights show up in our shining suits of armor/ polyester, but at least the Queen will make an appearance!

        Hopefully you have some similar delights coming your way soon.... have a wonderful night!

When life throws you a squirrel,

make squirrel-ade!  (ok, that's just disgusting!)

 
 Actually, today life did throw us a squirrel and it was a bit of a night-saver.

         Lately, Judah has been (I hesitate to use the term 'mamas boy') a bit more sensitive to the EXACT location of the Queen.   LJ has always been a bit of an independent young knight, telling us to 'go away!' pretty much since he could form the words, but Judah has always trended a bit more loving/ cautious.  And then he got clingy.  Yup, Rachel leaving for work the past three weeks has been a bit... louder.

        So after I did the dishes and put the food away, it was time for a walk around town in their red Radio Flyer wagon, or really anything that would make them shut up.  (I'm clearly aiming for parent of the year here.)  The plan failed inasmuch as Elijah didn't shut up at all; rather, he kept a running commentary on our every movement that occasionally paused for breath.  And thus it was that 45 minutes later we arrived home with the only things keeping me going being the sovereignty of God and the promise of fresh-brewed coffee upon arrival.

        We were about to go in the house when I heard an awful scratching sound.  It sounded like a dog knawing on a bone high in the air above us.  Since I'd never seen a flying dog before, I was a little concerned.  (If you thought a pigeon letting one go on your head was bad, wait until you get nailed by a flying St. Bernard!)  It turned out that indeed an animal was eating a bone high above us, but no luck on the dog front.  It was our friendly neighborhood angry squirrel.  40 feet above us in the tree, he placidly knawed on an old bone (Ina and I figured out later that it might have belonged to her dogs eons ago), presenting a sight I had never seen before.

       Suffice it to say that we live in enough of an urban area that this is kinda a big deal.  For the next 20 minutes, coffee was forgotten; Ina and Mary got out of the car and joined us in our little act of squirrel voyeurism.   It obligingly ran from limb to limb and finally perched up atop our telephone pole for five minutes before losing its grip and abruptly dropping the bone a couple feet from Judah, then causing a bit of consternation by racing down the tree at us before neatly disappearing (poof!) into the tree itself.   At that point, this brave knight, laughing hysterically, grabbed his children and ran inside before they could find something to poke into the little hole where I'm guessing Mr. Squirrel has made his abode.

        It's not quite 'the wild,' but it was fun to get out and about tonight... however, this suburbanite thinks that's about all he wants to see of wild animals this month!

        Have a wonderful night!

   

when things get a little crazy...

this house does it right!!!

   And by right I mean LOTS of really awful dancing by the boys .. and better dancing by the Queen!  (of course)  Basically, the only thing I'm good at is picking the music... but I'm really good at picking the music!

         Without further ado, here are five songs that really get these boys flying all over the kitchen:


5.  Rain over Me --  (Marc Antony with Pitbull)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmM0653YvXU&feature=related

4. YMCA -- Village People  (actually, I'm not sure that we've ever listened to this...just look below)

    3.  You're the Lion of Judah by Robin Mark-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOYlr_42FUU  --  (and really, they just sing along pacing themselves until 3:20, when the Irish step breaks out... then ALL BETS ARE OFF -- and sometimes Elijah's pants!!

This is Judah's attempt at cage dancing... probably to our #2 song, Forever by Chris Brown -- and if you haven't seen it, the wedding dance to this song is worth the watching-- I totally would have done this at our wedding if the song had been made yet... we just got married 2 yrs too early! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0 )

 

And the #1 song in our kitchen is definitely Dynamite by Taio Cruz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KghS5W7nvzs&feature=fvst) ... when he was Judah's age, Elijah would throw his hands up at the chorus and dance around like a madman... there was one Christmas that he got almost everyone dancing with him-- it was pretty funny.

           Like I said, I know how to pick the music ... have a wonderful night all!

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

     because I think that LJ inherited his storytelling from me!   (At this point I can hear Rachel's voice in my head, "you mean his stories are never quite true and always a little overly dramatic just like yours?")  And while it's true that I am prone (and LJ as well at times) to a wee bit of exaggeration, I always draw back on my mentor Dr. Peter Stine's saying:  "When the truth and the facts collide, the truth must ALWAYS win out."

      Honestly, I don't know how true the following story is (I wasn't there for most of it), but this is what happened when I tried to put Elijah to bed tonight:

      Micah:   LJ, Daddy has to leave in one minute... who do you want to pray for tonight?

      LJ:   Hmmm.... Grammy and Pa.  And Auntie Laura and the baby in Auntie's tummy, and...

     Micah:  Ummm.... Auntie's not pregnant.

       LJ:  Yes she is!

    Micah:  No, I'm pretty sure on this one.

        LJ:  Oh, ok.  (Looks at me like I have no idea what I'm talking about since he just saw her and I didn't.)  We pray for GrammyPa, auntie with no baby, GreatGramma Dale, Aunt Robbin, GreatGramma Dale....

      Micah:  Oh, you remember GreatGramma Dale?

    LJ:  Mmmm-hmmm.  I really like GreatGramma Dale.

     Micah:  Oh, why?

   LJ:  (in a totally dissociate voice, like he's reading a story)  Because I whacked Baby Bekah (who is older than Judah) and she told me that was mean and she was telling my mother so I not do it again.

    Micah:  And that's why you like her?

   LJ: Yeah!  Yeah!  I hit Baby Bekah and GreatGramma said, "I get your mommy and I make you stop!"

    Micah:  (giggling uncontrollably)  So did you stop?

   LJ:  Well, I stopped but she goes to get mommy anyway, but she couldn't.

    Micah:  (has no words)

  LJ:  (pauses)  Because Mommy was washing her hair in the tub with a huge hose!


 -- At this point I completely abandoned the prayer time and listened/ howled with laughter to/ at him for the next five minutes (so much for leaving right away) as he told me all about it.  You, my wonderful audience, will have to let me know if this is totally normal for 3-yr-olds to just go on and on like this, but at least this time it was funny-- and I hadn't seen the incident.  Sometimes it's just a running commentary on what he's doing WHILE WE'RE WATCHING HIM DO IT.  That's less cool.


          Have a wonderful night all!