The Older the Better

Sadie, bemoaning the fact that she is the oldest and has to help take care of her siblings, was trying to find the bright side. "I guess it's good that I get to stay up late sometimes, and I get to do lots of things first," she said, "Like watching Star Wars, for instance, and stuff like that....But one thing that is BAD is that I will also have to DIE first."

Squishy

Jedidiah is pretty much the cutest baby ever. And he is SO GOOD. He is a happy, bubbly, gurgling, squealing, smiling, chubby, bundle of CUTENESS. The other day I wrote him a letter:

Dear Baby Jedidiah,
Please stop getting cuter every day, because you are already so cute that I can barely stand it.
Love, Mommy

I find it hard not to squish him! He makes me so happy every day...just to see how glad he is to be alive every morning, and how happy he is to see me. What a gift he is :)

Camp

This week Sadie and Josie went to Junior Sports Camp at a park close to our house. Other than Safety Town, it was the first time they'd ever been left ALONE by me with people that I don't know. Let me just say that I was somewhat of a nervous wreck when I left there on the first day. I must've told them twenty times not to leave their class for ANY reason... to stay WITH their class at ALL times... to ONLY talk to their teacher and counselors and fellow campers. Still, when I drove away, leaving them there with their canteens, their sunscreen, their bugspray, their t-shirts, their shorts, and their tennis shoes, it was hard. I turned back to look at them, standing there on the sidelines of the soccer field, holding hands, and I felt an actual ache in my heart. Silly, I know. But still!

BOOOOO!

Sadie and Josie have taught their sister well. Last week Adelaide literally almost scared me to death. I had gone to the store and left the kids home with my mom. When I got back, I pulled into the garage and came in through the utility room door. When I opened the door to come into the dark utility room, Adelaide, who had been hiding, CROUCHED IN THE DARK BEHIND THE DOOR, jumped out from behind it and yelled "BOOOO!" at the top of her lungs. I nearly peed my pants.

Thanks a lot

Mommy: Josie, come and snuggle with me!
Josie: Mom, I really do love you, but I just want to watch a cartoon.

Mommy: Adelaide, do you know what peace is?
Adelaide: Yeah, Mom. A peace of bread.

Mommy: Josie, would you like some apple juice?
Josie: Nah... Not a big fan.

Mommy: I'm feeling much better lately.
Sadie: Yeah, you really do play outside with us more, you don't take as many naps, and you don't have as many headaches, either! This eating healthy thing is good!

Mommy: C says "ck," like "candy."
Adelaide: Do you have some candy?
Mommy: No.
Adelaide: Thanks a lot, Mom.

Scootin' into Summer

It’s 7:30 on an evening in early June. The sun, which we welcomed once it finally showed up, is now descending.

The heat, coupled with the mild breeze off the lake, has turned our neighborhood into what feels like the Ohio version of the West Indies.

Summer seems to have finally arrived, and my family decides to go for a walk.

I load Jedidiah into the stroller, taking extra care not to pinch his chubby little hands in the buckle since he’s trying to grab everything these days. I pull the little socks off his feet so he can relax and “air out” his pink toes.

There is a discussion of walking versus “scooting,” that is, riding on a scooter. It is decided that Daddy will walk with the dog, Mommy will walk with the stroller and the three girls will scoot on their scooters.

They “suit up,” since there is no way I’m letting them ride anything out on the street without some head protection. They are my kids, after all, and I’m the world’s biggest klutz. I secretly wish that they’d wear their bike helmets around the house, especially on our slippery kitchen floor.

Sadie puts on her new purple helmet with the pink rubber cat ears sticking out on top. She says she feels a little bit silly in it, but I think it’s the cutest thing ever! She should consider herself lucky – I almost bought the one with the long bunny ears. She hops on her scooter and spins off down the driveway.

I remember when she couldn’t stay upright for more than a few feet. Now she can fly on that thing! She easily catches up to her dad, who has gone on ahead with the puppy. She screeches to a stop (as much as a scooter can screech) next to them at the stop sign.

Adelaide, four years younger but not to be outdone, holds on tight to her little three-wheeled Princess scooter (complete with flashing red lights on the wheels), a hand-me-down from two Christmases ago. She bends her already skinned-up knees and throws caution to the wind as she tries to catch up with Sadie; I’m glad she’s so short that she doesn’t have far to fall.

Josie decides to go back in the house for one more sip of water, so we are last. I watch as she carefully puts one flip-flop clad foot on her fancy pink Razor scooter. She stops and “dismounts” to push when she gets to the bottom of the driveway, completely unashamed that she’s scared to go over the bump where it meets the street the way her big sister does.

She just shrugs, grins, straightens out her little helmet by smacking it with her hand, looks both ways and takes off. I hear her voice channeling Tweety Bird as she rolls down the street: “Singin ' in the baff tub, happy once again, watchin' all my twubbles, go swingin' down the dwain!”

As I maneuver the stroller to catch up with the rest of my family, Jedidiah is kicking his little feet like crazy. He leans his fuzzy head over the side of the stroller tray to get a birds’ eye view of the pavement rolling by under the wheels. He squeals an ear-splitting squeal – his trademark of sheer joy (or sometimes of major annoyance, depending on whether or not he’s hungry) and says “Goo!” I laugh.

I see my husband, holding on to the dog’s leash and watching to make sure everyone checks traffic. I see Sadie and Josie, goofing off and doing figure eights around each other. Josie is laughing, her whole face alight with 5-year-old joy. Sadie is hunkered down over her scooter handles, one lanky leg stretched straight out behind her – I never knew you could practice an arabesque on a scooter.

Adelaide is puffing along, trying to catch up to them. Looking over her shoulder, she decides to stick with me and her baby brother instead, since we are going more her speed. She says, “Woo wee, Mommy. I am HOT, Mom! And I am going very fast! I like this scooter but I do not like this helmet.”

I’m hot too, and the stroller isn’t getting any lighter. But right now, the summer beckons. It stretches out before us, full of possibility. So let’s all scoot!

-from my Mama Says column for 6/12/11 on www.mentorpatch.com

She's Killin' Me

Adelaide is seriously cracking me the heck up these days.

The other day, we were riding in the car and I hear her little voice behind me, talking really low but MEAN. She said, "You guys are NOT being vewy nice. You need to just stop it. I said to STOP IT WIGHT NOW." I asked her who she was talking to. She said with a grin, "My shoes. My flip-flops. One shoe is a boy and one shoe is a girl and they are my kids. And they are NOT being vewy nice."

Last week, we were sitting at the kitchen table when Lydia came in for work. Adelaide glanced up, looked back down at her breakfast, and muttered in her low little voice: "And THEN there was Lydia...."

That very same day, Jedidiah was drooling up a storm. His teeth are on the verge of coming in, and the drool is now saturating everything he wears (and some things he's not). Adelaide, unable to resist her brother's cuteness, finally laid a big smooch on him and said, "I kissed him on he's dirty mouf!"

Yesterday, we read the story of Swan Lake and, mesmerized, she kept talking about it for hours. Unfortunately, while she remembered the plotline, she could not remember the TITLE. She renamed the story "The Magic Duck."

Today, when I told her it was almost naptime, she squinted up her nose and eyes, looked at me and said, "Humph! I not takin a nap for the WEST of my WIFE!"

Do You Know?

Last Sunday Jesse was sick and we all overslept (mainly because Jed had me up three different times and since Jesse was sick I turned the alarm off). So we missed our church's Sunday School. The kids really don't like to miss Sunday School, so I loaded them up and took them to "Children's Church" at a church that is literally 2 minutes from our house (our church is half an hour away). They had a good time and really seemed to enjoy it, but the teacher in Sadie's class gave her a little welcome packet with a pen, some candy, and some literature in it. You can imagine how I laughed when I heard her reading to Josie in the backseat:

"Josie. Hey, Josie. Josie. Do YOU know what you must do to be saved? Do you? Josie. Look at this. Do you know what you must do?"

Josie, annoyed, and trying to look at her OWN welcome packet, finally yelled, "NO! NO, I do NOT!"