Meet Dramagirl

Weewee discovered a way to entertain the baby and build her Lego empire at the same time. It may look like they are only criss-crossed but indeed she has Pink trapped under her arm. Pink loves to play with Legos, the smaller the better. She sees no use in playing with the ones she can't choke on! So in response to one of my multiple desperate pleas for someone to please take the baby for a little while Evie figured out how to multi-task. That's my girl! She is the handiest girl to help a momma in a pinch! I'm continually amazed at her flair for taking care of things. From cooking to cleaning to concocting some fun scheme she is my go-to girl, and she can hold her own in full contact basketball against the boys. She got her own tool kit for Christmas and I have been reaping the benefits ever since. A few years ago I lamented that StrongMan was not able to change Buster's bike tire for awhile and very nonchalantly she replied, "Oh, I fixed that a long time ago." Buster didn't even know she had fixed it! She is now my official thing-fixer when daddy's not home. I knew she had it in her when she was 4 and took apart her toy vacuum cleaner with a screwdriver. Who knew those things had so many screws!?I have to watch her very carefully though, she has a knack for technology that I don't have and when I'm not careful she changes things on my computer that I can't fix! She thought it would be fun to play a joke on me so one day she hid all of my desktop icons. I flipped out! "Would you please leave my stuff alone! I don't have time to mess with this!" She was trying not to laugh while she showed me how to get my icons back. She is definitely the type to outsmart a parent, she would make a great lawyer for all of the loop holes she finds. In her preteen years she has developed quite the personality. For all of her handy ways and joke playing she is very sweet and always comes to the defense of any disadvantaged party. She has been known to rat out some brother for something and then come to their defense and plead their case when the judge has meted out their sentence. She loves a good practical joke and is always up for some kind of game- the more ruthless and cutthroat the better. I still owe her a game of Monopoly. She has really gotten into soccer and has a good mind for strategy. She has made some good friends on her soccer team, though the recap of practice and all of the drama 15 twelve-year-olds spread around is alternately amusing and exasperating to me. It makes me laugh when she comes home talking about the soccer episode of the day- apparently she doesn't realize that their drama is an innate part of her, though admittedly I'd rather have her style than the other girls; hers is a fun pre-teen drama, not the snooty, full-blown teen drama (can we dodge that bullet?). Understandably she did protest though when she read that I was using her nickname of Weewee for her blog name. I promised her I'd change it- I love you Dramagirl!

Man vs Tree

For the longest time I have wanted this pine tree chopped down and carried away. I'm not into pine trees anywhere where I care what is under them and this one just caused too much mess too close to the house, not to mention that the half that was in the shade of our other tree was missing branches and needles; it did not look healthy. It was not a bad tree, just so close to the house that we got a squirrel infestation in our attic which consequently cemented my desire to get rid of the tree. I want a front deck and the tree was not conveniently located for that. I came home last Friday to find my StrongMan at the top of the tree. I had no idea how big the tree was until I saw him at the top of it wielding a hand saw (he later measured and said it was 30 ft tall- yikes!). I waved and smiled my appreciation and then went inside where I wondered which would be left standing, the tree or my StrongMan. I was more than thrilled about all of those safety meetings he has at work about being in high places and needing to be harnessed in, not to mention the gratitude I felt that he was actually wearing the safety gear! It was a huge job and it carried into Saturday also where between soccer games he managed to get the best of the tree. He also cleaned up the humongous mess, which was as sweet to me as the chopping down was! He ended the day with a cozy fire in the backyard with the neighbor kids all clamouring to see how many sticks they could pitch in the fire before StrongMan decided they should stop. All of that and he still took me to Hops by the lake for a late night happy hour! I think my next post will be about him! This is a photo of all of the kids who helped him deal the final blow and pull the thing down safely. I can't take credit for the photo- yep, he even thought to commemorate the event with a photo! (oh, and when I was searching for a blog post idea... he said I should write about the tree, though I think he was only kidding!)

Project 365? 182 1/2? 52?

My cousins have inspired me to do as they are doing and try what they call project 365. This project entails posting a new photo every day for a year. This is somewhat overwhelming to me, not to mention that I'm not sure I can come up with that many interesting things to photograph and post about! I think perhaps every other day or once a week would be a little more feasible. We'll see how far I get. I mulled this over with a friend earlier today who said that she recently read a book written by a woman who had done something similar. Although instead of photos she prepared a different recipe each day out of Julia Child's french cuisine cookbook. She then compiled her blogs about it and wrote a book. Now she's famous so that just goes to show. You haven't read her book either? Ok so maybe not famous but she wrote a book! Anyhow, we thought about what could we do each day that would capture our interest for an entire year. The cooking thing is out for me- just ask my family! My friend said she likes mixed drinks- personally I think that would be more interesting than french cuisine! Anyhow, I think for now I'll stick to photos and posting, unless anyone else has a better idea!

In the spirit of photo posting, here is one of my absolute favorites of Pink sitting in a patch of creeping phlox. She loved it there and was quite to content to just sit there and sample- if you look closely there is a blade of grass that fell out of her mouth. I long to kiss her when I see this photo- the very essence of baby!

Are you sure this is allowed?

I truly admire parents who start off with the right balance of when to allow something and when to disallow something. It has taken me a whole 6 children to learn to enjoy my baby- in everything she does. Perhaps it is the level of chaos that already exists at my home, nothing she does can make it worse, or perhaps it is the realization of how exquisitely perfect a new little baby is and how much of a blessing she has been to us that causes me to really redraw the lines of "permissible". I truly can't believe that first of all, I allowed a baby to try out baby food while sitting on the table instead of properly clamped down in a high chair (we don't even own one anymore!) and secondly, to stick both hands in the food cup when I realized she was not interested! I have turned a new chapter! She sort of seems to be asking whether or not this was allowed... sort of like it went against everything she had read in the baby manual! She was ok with the first few bites but I think she really preferred experiencing the mushy much more than she enjoyed eating it! It was a great mix too- coconut milk, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and a little molasses. She seems to want to eat, though I prefer to hold off until she's closer to 12 mo. Just when I get a good mix going to give her, she decides she's really not into it after all! Maybe Buddyboy will like it!

So I Started a Blog!

So now that I started a blog I'm not so sure I have anything truly interesting to say! I sort of get the feeling that my blogging will consist of the same sort of random ramblings that so often put my husband to sleep late at night. I didn't realize how much pressure would be on me to produce something worth reading... so it may be a little dull until I get the hang of this! I love the idea of having a place to jot my thoughts, in their assorted and jumbled order. This hasn't been too painful, just a small start! Check in later for the joke of the day...

The Joke of the Day...

I enjoy a witty sense of humor and really love to laugh over a good joke from time to time. However, with this many kids I can only take so many knock-knock jokes, mom-spell-your-name puns and a-man-walks-into-an-ice-cream-store off shoots. On one particularly harrowing day (the Boy's Life Magazine came in the mail- it is FULL of jokes) I decided that was all I could take and laid down the law. I can only hear ONE joke in a day. Immediately each child tried to tell me their joke. "No, no, no I interrupted... only ONE joke per day, not per person, so you'll have to get up early to get yours in first." Satisfied that I would be left in peace I went about my business. The next morning Grogus was up first as usual. He usually rambles around getting dressed and doing whatever 4 yr olds have to do in the morning and leisurely greets me every morning with "tan [can] I have a banana and peanut buddah?" Short, to the point and no nonsense. This morning however he came tearing down the stairs and ran into my room. I wasn't quite sure what was going on. "Mom, what has 5 wegs, 1 head, a wot of ayms [lot of arms] and," "WAIT!! Grogus, you're messing it up!!! Now we have to wait until tomorrow to tell her the joke", came the disgruntled protest from Bubbadootz, still in his pajamas and I think, only half awake. "Ok, so I tan tell this one to mom? Mom, what goes up the hill with 5 wegs and 1 head, a wot of ayms and some eyes?" Some tids [kids] on a hoyse [horse]!" Bubbadootz was really irritated then, "NOOO That's not it! Grogus you still didn't get it!" He walked back into his room shaking his head in disgust. For almost a month now I have faithfully heard my one joke daily but I can count on one hand the number of jokes I've heard- 5. This is not to say I haven't been told a joke- it just means that I've heard variations of the up the hill one every day. Oh, and the knock-knock joke from Bubbadootz. "Knock-knock, Who's there? Panda. Panda who? Panda bear. Get it mom?" Um... yep, I'm so glad for the joke quota. The older kids' jokes are rather entertaining, Banena on occasion slips hers in when Grogus has stayed up too late. Weewee has no hope. One corny joke is no incentive to get her to give up the pillow any sooner than absolutely necessary! Buster tries an entirely different tactic. He just waits till Dad comes home and unloads his arsenal on him. Win-win for all involved! Plus, Dad can out-corny-joke anyone, even a pack of half-pint clowns!