You win some, you lose some

I smiled when I looked outside and saw Jack with his Batman jacket, black helmet and scooter and Hank with his Spiderman costume and Spiderman scooter.  Both with big boots on just shuffling along.

Today is Hank's last day to be two.  I have loved two year old Hank.  I am sad to see it go.  We are still having fun trying to understand what he's saying.  I asked him what he had been playing with upstairs. "Occa Occa" he repeated several times.  I finally figured out he was saying helicopter.  When he needs to go to the bathroom he puts his hand up and says, "Stop! Go right away." One phrase he says a lot is, "Alright?" Pronounced, "ah white", which he says at the end of asking for anything.  "I want fruit snacks, alright?" He also requests several times a day, "Come wif me."  If he needs help with anything, he doesn't say, come open the door, or I need something.  He just says, "Come wif me" and then he'll show you what he needs.  When he wants you to say or do something specific he'll show you and say, "like dat".

Jane was in the car and said, "Oh!  My head is spinning!"  I said, "Are you carsick?"  She said, "No, I'm just thinking, how was GOD made? How did He begin?"

Pete has been insanely clingy all month long. He is just SO unhappy and I can't get him to play by himself for more than a few minutes. I just assumed he was teething or that his new one-year-old personality just kind of stunk.    But then one day I noticed some crusty discharge from one ear so I made an appointment.  To my surprise he had an ear infection.  The doctor said the other ear looked like it could possibly have had a ruptured ear drum.  I started remembering how on Christmas day I suspected an ear infection.  And how on New Year's Day he had a fever and I thought we should take him in to urgent care but Matt and I were both too lazy to be the one to take him.  So a MONTH later I find out he probably had an ear infection all along.  Ooops, bad mother moment.  I had high hopes of him transforming into an easy-going, happy baby but he started his meds four days ago and so far he is still a pretty grumpy guy.

We finally made a trip to the library.  Jane got lots of books.  She came down at 11:00 and said she was checking her room for bad guys.  She had been reading, Judy Moody, Girl Detective.  She loves the mysteries, but they make her nervous.  She had to finish the book before going to sleep.  So I went upstairs with her and quickly read the last 20 pages of the book.  The next night she read another entire book.  We will have to get to the library again soon.

Jane told me that in the Girl Detective book that Judy Moody kept talking about books that sounded so good she was jealous.  Turns out they were Nancy Drew books and I had to tell her that they actually exist!

On Martin Luther King day I decided that I was going to be a fun mom and take the kids to Farm Country as we had gotten a Thanksgiving Point Pass for Christmas.  We decided to go right after Pete's nap.  The neighbor boy Scottie stopped by and wanted to play so I felt bad and ended up inviting him to come with us.  So I managed to get five kids in the van and we headed off.  Scottie said, "I can't believe this!  I've always wanted to go somewhere with you guys in your van and here I am sitting in your van!  I can't believe it!" We got to Farm Country and stepped out of the van.  Somehow in a ten minute drive the weather had gotten super cold and windy. The kids were devastated so we decided to go to the dinosaur museum instead and we got back in the van.  I attempted to herd the five kids towards the building.  Hank is terrified of parking lots and crossing streets so it always presents a problem when I have both Pete and Hank and have to carry Hank through parking lots.  So Jane managed to lift him two inches off the ground and shuffle her way across the parking lot.  She let him down at the sidewalk but all the kids walked down a grassy hill, now muddy from melting snow, instead of staying on the sidewalk.  I saw it was going to happen before it did, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.  Hank wiped out hard and was caked in mud from his feet to his shirt and all over his hands and arms.  I stared at him and he stared at me.  The other kids stared at me in fear.  I said, "I don't know what to do.  I don't think we can stay."  Jane's face looked like I had shot her and I decided the wrath of the children would be worse than the mess of the mud.  We went inside and I thought we'd check the gift shop for pants.  No luck.  I took all five kids into the bathroom and scraped all the mud off Hank that I could with paper towels. I tried rubbing the rest of the mud into the pants in an attempt to keep the mud from getting all over the museum.  I rolled up his muddy sleeves and we left the once-white-floored bathroom.  We made our way through the museum, the kids having fun and me just trying to keep everyone together and happy.  We finally made it to the end--a sand pit where the kids can pretend to discover dinosaur bones.  Pete's diaper was full to the brim with pee and was just starting to leak so I put Jane in charge of the kids and took Pete for a diaper change.  I took off his slightly wet pants, took off his slightly wet onesie and threw his diaper into a big lidded trashcan.  Then I searched my purse and remembered that we had used all the diapers up at church the day before.  So back on went his wet onesie and his wet pants.  I rushed to the kids and told them to put their shoes on NOW.  We had to get to the van, where I knew there was a diaper in the glovebox, before Pete peed his pants.  The kids didn't complain too much about the abrupt ending and we made it to the van pretty quickly.  But not quickly enough.  Pete and the stroller were soaked.  Off went the clothes, on went the diaper, in went the kids and home we went!  Phew!!!  Being a "fun mom" is way too much work!  But it was worth it.  Jack told me he would never wish for a different mom again.  But then again, two days later when I didn't let him eat candy right before lunch he told me he wanted a different mom.  Then he cried because he broke his promise that he would never want a different mom again.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Pete during a rare moment of playing by himself.  He is in the stage where he loves to put things in and out of containers.

Jack had on quite the awesome outfit while doing homework the other day.