Let's just call him my favorite boy in the world

Me: Ian, you are my favorite boy on the whole planet.

Ian: You know, there could be boy aliens.

Me: You would still be my favorite. I wouldn't like them as much as I like you.

Ian: Well then, I guess I would be your favorite boy in the galaxy.

Me: Yes, I guess so.

Ian: Actually, I would be your favorite boy of ALL the galaxies, because there are lots of other galaxies that could have aliens.

Me: Yes you would.

Does this shirt offend you?

It really really bothers Ian when I wear it. He hates it. I got it from my mom and the first time I wore it he badgered me with questions- why was I wearing Grandma's shirt, why did she give it to me, why did I have to wear it. He complained all day about how much he didn't like it. I forgot about it until a few days later when I put it on one morning while Ian was still sleeping. I kid you not when he woke up the first words out of his mouth were a stern "I told you not to wear that shirt."
The next time I wore it I knew it would cause a ruckus, but I don't like taking clothing orders from a four year old, so I threw it on to run to the store. As I was bent over Ian buckling his carseat he looked me over and said sadly, "You look horrible."

Now me being me, I couldn't help but wonder if I could some how use this to my advantage. I know time-outs or taking away privileges don't work with Ian as punishments, but what about threatening him with the shirt? "If you don't pick up your toys, I am going to go put on Grandma's shirt!" I bet he would do whatever I ask him, that is how much he hates this shirt.

Lookin' good

Ian said (looking down at his clothes,) "I really like this outfit. I've got my Mickey Mouse shirt, my red shoes, my sunscreen...I am lookin' good!!!"

I laughed and shouldn't have. I was sternly told there was nothing funny about what was said.

Funny things courtesy of Ian

Today he asked me "Mommy, is it okay if Brodie and I go save the world?"

and later I was prepping him for his ring bearer duties trying to get him excited. He said, "Mommy I don't want to be a ring bearer. A ringbearer looks like a gentleman and I want to look like a worker guy."

Hey, at least he has figured out that he won't be wearing a bear suit! And no worries Erin, I have bribed him so he will do a good job and be happy about it.

When Brodie's mom came to pick him up Ian said (dragging the carseat over to her,) "Hey Brodie's mom, I can carry Brodie's carseat for you."
Michele said "Oh thank you Ian,"
To which Ian replied, "Just doing my job!"

I walked in the living room yesterday and discovered Ian playing with a ball of my yarn. When he saw me he startled, threw the yarn down and said quickly "I was just making a sweater!"

Fun in the garden

See what we did today? Barry was nice enough to come over and make us a little garden area. The kids were so excited to plant their seeds. We planted corn, lettuce, carrots and green beans. We are growing tomatoes inside that we will put out there once it is a little warmer.

Easter Pictures

Birthday Planning

Ian and I had an impromptu birthday planning meeting tonight at 10 pm. He had to get up out of bed to come talk to me about birthday plans, because you know, his birthday is in February (time's a wasting!) He would like to go to Shucky Cheese. Also, for his gift, he would like a giant Mickey Mouse doll that says "Welcome to the Clubhouse!" and then sings the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song and then sings the "Hotdog song." Then (and this is the really cool part) you push a button and he turns your room into the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. What to do? I am pretty sure you can't buy that just anywhere and I only have 10 1/2 months left to shop.

Putting the smart in smart-mouth

Today I was getting the boys a snack and Ian was complaining because he wanted juice instead of milk. When Brodie heard the word juice he brought up a new word- diarrhea. Neither boy knew what it meant but they (well mostly Ian) thought it was amusing to use it over and over again while they were having their snack. About the sixth time Ian said it I had had enough. I asked him to please stop saying that word. He told me, "Mommy this is a private conversation." I was surprised and asked if he even knew what 'private conversation' meant. "Yes," he answered, "That is when the two of us are talking and the other person (that would be Mommy) shouldn't be trying to talk to us."

Yay for peace and quiet!

Ian has fallen asleep earlier and slept through the entire night both nights since we moved him downstairs. There is no fighting and screaming. It is wonderful. We are trying to figure out how to do the bedroom shuffle so that he can have a real room downstairs. I think it will take a little remodeling (ie installing a door in the family room.) Neither Karl nor I have what you would call an inclination toward such things so we will see how it goes. Or doesn't go.

New pictures

I just got the little kids' pictures back (apparently shoelessness is the theme of the month.) The big girls got theirs taken at school and we should get them back soon. Also, last week I took all four to get their picture taken together. I think they turned out pretty cute- I can't wait to get them back.

More bedtime woes

We have been having some bedtime issues with Ian. I put him to bed around 8 or 9 and he stays awake for hours upstairs yelling, pestering the girls and just causing trouble in general. Tuesday night I put him to bed at 8. I fell asleep about 11 and was awakened at 12:30 by a clattering noise in the kitchen. I went in to see what it was and was surprised to see Ian sitting at the kitchen table playing with Moon Sand. Does that make me sound too negligent? Like one of those moms who is asleep on the couch in the middle of the day and the police knock on her door after they find her naked 2 year old wandering down the highway? But honestly, I don't know what to do, other than sit in a chair outside his door all night. So my thought is that maybe he is just not tired at all when I put him to bed. Which, as much as it pains me to think this, might mean it is time to give up his nap. Sigh...I love his naptimes. It is so quiet and peaceful. And if there is no naptime, that means I am on duty from 7 am to 9 pm with no break from entertaining, fetching drinks and food and fielding demands. But I can't have him up all hours of the night either. So today, we are seeing what happens when we forgo the nap.
Here is how I found him when I went to call him for dinner:



He only slept for about 10 minutes though, so that doesn't count. It is now 10 pm and I still hear little footsteps upstairs. He should be exhausted. He played hard at the park, then running around the house with his friend. We went to the library, then to Grandmas. I am worn out, why isn't he?

Update: It is now 10:30 and he is asleep. Still far to late for a four year old to stay up in my opinion.

The dudes (and Elizabeth) go to the library

I took Elizabeth, Ian and the little boy I babysit to the library today so they could pick out some books. For them this means yanking some random book off the shelf and thrusting it at me so they can run off and play in the little playhouse. Anyway, as we were leaving, the security guard called out "Bye boys!" Ian said "We are not boys, we are dudes."
As we got in the car Ian asked if we would eat lunch when we got home. I told him yes and asked "Are you guys hungry?" Ian looked at me like I just asked a really dumb question and said "Mommy! Us guys are always hungry." Duh!

Not much to say, but a lot of pictures

No energy for a real post, so here are just a few random things:

Elizabeth only likes the park when there are no other children there.

I don't have any current pictures of Annika because her eyes are closed in every single one.

My kids are getting really sick of me following them around taking their picture.

Along with his drum, Ian got two drummer shirts, one made by Erin, the other bought by me because I am not crafty like that. I had to post these because I thought Ethan (the other drummer in our family) would like.

Embarrassing moment # 564

Today I took the van in to get it inspected. Turns out it needed four new tires (which we suspected.) So we were told it would take an hour, but it ended up taking 2 1/2. I was starting to get desparate for ideas on how to entertain Sir Chatterly and Baby Busybody after they got bored with their books and crayons. So I involved Ian in a rousing game of I-Spy. I spied a race car, he found it. Then it was his turn.

Ian (loudly): I spy a man with an angry face! Do you see him Mama?

Me(realizing he is talking about the customer sitting five feet away from us but hoping to head off any further comments): Shhh. No I do not see anyone who looks angry.

Ian(pointing at the man): He's right there Mama! See?

Screaming gulls and other nighttime woes

There has been all sorts of nonsense going on around here after I put the kids to bed. There is yelling, fighting, thumping, doors slamming, etc. As far as I can tell the problem is Ian wants the girls to play with him when they are all supposed to be sleeping. They won't and he gets mad, then they get mad, then I get mad. He came to me a while ago to tattle:

Ian: The gulls are going to yell at me and they are going to wake up Elizabeth!!

Me: What are you going to do to the girls that would make them yell?

Ian: NO!! I am not trying to tell you about me I'm trying to tell you about the gulls! They are going to wake Elizabeth up!!

Me(wearily): Please just go to bed and leave the girls alone

In other news, our upstairs bathroom is about to become closed to the general public. The layout of our house is such that all four kids are upstairs with a bathroom for themselves, Karl and my bedroom is downstairs. This would all be well and good if the children would go to bed and stay in bed. But no, they are up until 10 pm getting into all sorts of shenanigans up there, many involving that bathroom. Here are some things I have discovered them doing:

Annika and Ian carrying buckets of water in his room and dumping them on his hardwood floor so they could play 'swimming pool'

Someone put a roll of toilet paper in the sink and got it wet, then tore off little wet pieces to create a sort of paper mache effect all over the toilet, sink, floor.


Smearing toothpaste everywhere (I already blogged about this one)


Pouring water on themselves and each other


Due to all this activity, I have decided that henceforth that bathroom will be closed. Karl is purchasing a lock and it will be installed as soon as possible.

Shucky Cheese

For Ian's birthday we had lunch at Shucky Cheese (Chuck E. Cheese.)It was pretty low key- I just took Ian and Elizabeth. It was G. Goody's day off from work so thankfully she came with me which was very helpful. I prefer to run a one-on-one defense with the two littles when we are at crazy places like Shucky Cheese. It turns out G. is also very talented at skee ball, so she was able to score us a bunch of tickets. Elizabeth really liked skee ball too, Ian preferred the whack-a-mole or anything with a gun. I think he had a good time. I owe him another outing though, since he had to share this one with his sister. The deal is technically that you get to have one on one time with Mommy or Daddy for your birthday, so I don't think that this really counted. I took some videos of Elizabeth that I thought were cute, but then I am a little biased. If you want to watch just click on the little arrow at the bottom left of each picture.

Oh the drama...again...

Annika came to me crying because Ian told her she is "the boringest girl he has ever seen."

Happy Birthday Ian

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

You knew this was coming! In honor of Ian's birthday I have put together some of my favorite pictures of him. This has tons of pictures, so if you don't want to watch it's okay, I mostly made it because it is fun for me. Also, I couldn't find any upbeat music to set it to, so sorry about that (Mom).