In the truck with a 6 year old.

As most of you know, J is a bit of a talker. Ok, maybe that's an understatement. The boy pretty much never shuts his mouth. Especially in the truck. Yesterday was no exception. There are run-on sentences and no paragraph breaks and no warning for subject switching. It pops into his head and he says it. Our conversation yesterday:

J: "Mom, can we ride cows?"
Me: "We could, but I don't think they would appreciate it."
J: "But cows are nice, right?"
Me: "Yes, they are, but I'm sure they can be mean when they want to."
J: "Like when someone tries to ride on their backs?"
Me: "Yes."
J: "What about horses?"
Me: "Yes, we can ride horses."
J: "No, I mean are they mean?"
Me: "What, when we try to ride them?"
J: "Yeah."
Me: "No, not normally. They are usually nice when we try to ride them."
J: "Why do donkey's spit?"
Me: "What?"
J: "Why does a donkey spit?"
Me: laughing, "I didn't realize they spit. Where did you see that?"
J: "Animal Planet."
Me: "Well, maybe they spit because their mouth tastes bad. I've never seen a donkey spit."
J: "I've seen a donkey poop."
Me: "Good for you."
J: "If that field over there has too many field mice, then they could run all the way to our backyard and try to get in our house."
Me: "I don't think we have to worry about that. They wouldn't like you chasing them around the backyard."
J: "Can you make sure N doesn't pick up any scorpions? I don't want him to get bit by one."
Me: "I'll make sure. But we don't really have a scorpion problem around our house."
J: "Do dust mites eat our skin?"
Me: "Do you ever stop talking?"
J: pause, "No."

Now, imagine, all this was in our 15 minute drive home. Impressed, aren't you? He gets the talking from me, for sure. At this rate, he'll be the smartest kid around!

Party like its 1999!

Ah, another year comes to a close tonight. I can hardly believe 2010 is over. I feel certain it just began yesterday. Now here we are preparing the black-eyed peas for New Year's Day. Sigh. They pass by so quickly now. I remember being a kid and a year lasting waaaay longer. Like, 12 months or something. Not now. Its more like the blink of an eye. My kids are growing faster than I can keep up with and I've got more gray hair than any 30 year old woman should have. Can someone stop the clock, please?!?! My sister-in-law just had a brand new baby 2 days ago. My sister-in-law who was a pre-teen when I got married, is a mom now. Sigh. I feel ancient. What must my parents feel like??? One foot in the grave? Alas, this is the way it works. And, as always, I will make my New Year's resolution -- first off, no New Year's resolution. Secondly, nix the first plan and swear off sugar and carbs. Thirdly, exercise times ten. And last, but cetainly not least, spend more time watching my kids grow up. Most of these never take root after a good solid effort. Hopefully the last stays around all year.

Nerf Wars

Well, alot has changed since the last time I blogged. We finally got out of our yucky temporary lodging and bought our "new to us" house. We are all moved in and unpacked. It was quite a feat but we persevered and are happy to stay here until we die. Well, maybe not until we die, but pretty darn close. Its no fun moving yourself even if it is only 20 minutes down the road. I'm pretty sure the kids would have homesteaded right in the empty field on the side of the road if I told them we didn't have to move anymore.

I really have so much to catch up on, but for now I am only going to update on the Nerf Wars in the house tonight. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time! For Christmas J got two new Nerf guns, one being the Stampede, which if you know Nerf, you know its a pretty awesome gun! So these guns combined with the one he already had is obviously a war waiting to happen. When we got home from running errands this evening, the house became a war zone. Picture this: the object of the game is for two players to hide while the other counts to 12. Yes, 12. Whoever shoots and actually hits someone is the winner. Then it all starts over again. J is in the laundry room counting. '1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10...11..." at which point I see him peeking around the corner. I yell at him to stop peeking and keep counting. "12...13...14...15...16...17...18...19...Oh wait, I passed 12! Here I come!" All the while Cory is pushing the girl ahead of him into the dark dining room whispering loudly, "GO, GO, GO!" J comes racing around the couch at full speed only to get bombarded by the other two as he rounds the corner. Went down without firing a single shot and he's the one holding the stampede. Next, Cory is going to count and the other two lie in wait. Well, that's the idea anyway. Cory is counting and S runs and hides behind the chair where I'm sitting. I hear her scrambling around and as soon as Cory yells, "Here I come," she gets scared, comes out from behind the chair saying, "Daddy, I'm here!" and pulls out the lamp from the wall as she trips for the next ten minutes. I hear J in the other room, "Is anyone gonna find me?" Cory and the girl join forces and decide to take down the enemy. Cory pushes S in front of him and says, "You're point man." Um, yeah. She couldn't even hide behind the chair in a bright living room without getting scared. I'm sure she'll forge the dark hallway and bedroom first. You betcha. She huddles in the foyer with her bazooka at ready and Cory ambushes the small child in the bedroom. Chaos ensues and, as always, fussing and fighting follows and Nerf guns are put away...again. The battle may have been won, but the war is still going. Until the next gauntlet is thrown...

All moved in!

We are all moved in to our new home. Well, our temporary new home. And not quite moved in. Living out of boxes mostly. So, I suppose we are not moved in at all. But we are in a new home! And its nice and big. That being said, we are trying to get out of it as soon as possible. Why you ask? Well, stairs are not a babies friend. We haven't lived in a house with stairs since J was a little baby. We haven't had any accidents, but I really hate the whole baby gate thing. Drives me batty! Anyway, we are looking for a house to buy in the very near future. Its nice being able to just shop around and really know the house we are buying is one we want and not one we settle on.

In other news, J had a birthday today! Big guy is 6 whole years old today. Sniffle. My baby is growing up. Makes me sad. At least he still acts like a three year old so I can't be too sad, right? Just kidding. Sort of.

Alrigthy, ladies and gents, I just wanted to post a quick update. I shall be back when the boxes release me again!

Word to the wise

OMGosh, I am pretty sure I have never been quite so busy in all my life. The movers come in less than a week and have already done the pre-move inspection. Chaos may now ensue. They decided to drop off ALL of the boxes and packing paper needed to pack my entire house in my garage. My garage that was already overflowing with the unloaded attic. Sigh. We are having a rough time moving around in there, for sure. I have finally finished most of the craft projects I wanted to get done prior to the packing. But I still need to paint the front bathroom and get it out of the way. I recaulked (is that a word??) the tubs and now I just need to get the painting out of the way. There are several base boards that need painting as well as some trim. Hopefully I can get that taken care of after the movers are already gone. I have things that need to be filed in the file cabinet and closets that need a final 'going over' before they are good to go. I have to defrost the deep freeze and unhook all the electronics and washer and dryer. Pack all the things that can't go with the movers and put them somewhere that they won't get accidentally packed. I think this is becoming a to-do list rather than a blog entry! Anyway, just a word to the wise -- no blogs for a bit until I get settled in my new home where I can sit and blog in peace without a to-do list! Ciao!

Tubes

It looks as though my littlest one will need tubes put in his ears. He keeps getting ear infections and they are recommending that he sees an ENT doc to talk about tubes. Most of the doctors we have seen believe its inevitable. This is new territory for me. My other children and been very lucky regarding ear infections and we've had no issues to speak of. Now comes along N with his defective set of ears. :( Poor little dude. I'm a bit nervous about the process, but who wouldn't be? But the outcome will be well worth it -- no more ear infections and a happy baby. Sigh. I dream of it already. He really is such a sweet little guy when he's not hurting so I can only imagine what he'll be like once he's not in constant pain. Just this evening we were playing on the chair together before bed time and he was playing rough and trying to bat my glasses off my face. I told him, "Gentle," and brushed his fingers over my face. When he decided to be rough again, I said, "Show Mommy gentle." And he did, by golly. He brushed his little fingers over my face just like I showed him. I'm pretty sure he's the smartest boy on the planet. He'll be curing cancer tomorrow, I'm certain. Eh, I'll settle for a cure for chronic ear infections.

Busy, busy, busy!

Once again, life has gotten in the way of blogging. I kept meaning to sit down and just type a quick little something, but it has been pushed to the back burner every time. We have been so busy lately that I feel like a dog chasing its tail. Neverending! But we are on the road to getting moved out and moved on. We haven't moved in almost 5 years and I forgot how difficult it really is. On the one had, I've never had three kids and no husband to help when we've moved. On the other hand, I was given a pretty much unlimited amount of time to get this ball rolling, so that's been nice. I went to schedule the movers today and I had all three kids with me (cause that's how I roll!) and I was trying to keep them in one little segregated area while we were waiting our turn. S stood right in front of the man behind us while he was trying to do something so I asked her to move and excuse herself. He said, "Oh, no ma'am. You're the one in here with three kids. I applaud you. I will stay out of your way." Blink. Blink. Now, I'm used to the dirty looks and considerable stares of people who are inevitably annoyed by my children when we are in any sort of line, such as post offices, grocery stores or liquor store. ;) Anyway, it was a nice surprise to hear someone actually say they admired me. Why, little ole' me?? Of course, it could have been that he was scared I would ask for help, so he put the kabash on that real quick. Either way, it was nice to not want to slap someone for throwing around nasty stares!