Four Items of Business

E loves detective stories.  Nate the Great.  Encyclopedia Brown.  Things like that.  Recently she heard about a crime in the neighborhood from some school friends (I admit I am a little suspicious as to whether it actually happened).  She drew up a "Wanted" poster that night.  It said:

"Wanted: Thief.  Unknown Name. Unknown Looks."

She drew a picture of a bandit below.

She also recently found a small plastic fork.  She attached it to a drawing of a road and labeled it:

"A fork in the road."

That girl definitely takes after her father when it comes to humor.

****

M has begun drawing presents for everyone.  After craft time I always find scraps of paper left on my pillow, hung to the door, or waiting on my desk.  With both her and E in the craft production phase I am going to need a warehouse for all of their treasures.  I have taken to hiding some of them in the bottom of the trash can.  It is sad when it happens, but I don't know what else to do????  M signs all her pictures (even the ones drawn directly onto the walls).  She used to sign them Mee.  Then I taught her how to draw a "g".  Now she signs them Mgg.  I don't know if I'm up to correcting her.  She's so proud.

****

Lately, GQ likes to say the following:

"Mom, I love you."  Pause.  "I love both of you."

Does this mean he considers me a split personality?  That he loves both the cranky me and the nice me?

****

Every night S gets a bottle.  Usually I nurse him before I give him the bottle.  Still, when it is 7:00 he somehow knows that the bottle is coming and he will barely put up with nursing.  He keeps looking around for that contraption that just flows with seemingly neverending milk.

He is also taking to sucking on his fist.  As a thumb-sucker myself, I hope it doesn't stick... but it is really cute.

Easter Day

For some reason, when my new camera uses its flash everyone's faces come out red.  I am not sure why this happens, and will read the manual someday to figure it out.  (Or make Justin read it for me.) Until then, when Justin uses the camera (and it is on automatic) you will have red faces (above).  When I use the camera (on aperture mode) you will have washed out faces (see M below).  I have read the manual about that one, but have not quite figured out which f-stop to use when, or whatever.  Obviously I am a great photographer :)

Welcome to Easter morning at our house.  Justin and I debate the amount of treats to be eaten.  I would rather they just all disappeared as soon as possible so I can slack off on the monitoring role.  He wants to curtail the amount in the hopes of having pleasant, un-sugar-highed children for the rest of the day.  As a result, they get medium candy which results in whining for more candy and un-pleasant sugar-highed children the rest of the day.  Excellent.  Or...... don't throw up now.... eggsellent.

This child (above) has obviously decided to grow up.  I am not sure what he is thinking!!!

Oblivious to the race for eggs:

Happy Easter!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

And off to the races they go! One of the families in the ward has this large piece of ground they offer up to the Easter Egg Hunt every year.  Last year it was cold, and I was a baby and wanted to go home.  This year, it was a little bit nicer.  We stayed until it actually started raining.  I felt guilty for racing to the car and not cleaning up, but Justin informed me that since we had an actual baby this year it was totally legal.

Finding eggs:

Eating Eggs:

And my favorite photo of the whole day:

If that is not childhood, I don't know what is.

Lucky Lilacs

With an early Spring comes an early Lucky Lilacs.  When I noticed the lilacs blooming mid-March I could hardly believe it.  Lucky Lilacs isn't usually until Mother's Day!!!  I had planned on inviting some friends to the festivities this year, but since the Lilacs were perfect over Easter it didn't work out.  Instead, we had Lucky Lilacs a week too late for the flowers themselves.  I had to hunt down a few un-brown blooms the weekend after Easter.

Baby S had his first Lucky Lilacs ever.  Since my mom thought she'd have time to send the glasses later, we went without.  Last year I used sunglasses, and felt pretty stupid. I am not sure if I would have felt better with old-fashioned eyeglasses, but maybe we'll try next year.  I did enjoy the pictures Justin got of little S enjoying his first reading.  The first picture is my favorite.  Not only does S look amused, but E looks so happy to be watching Lucky Lilacs begin.  (She had gotten over the fact that we were going youngest to oldest by this point.)

He is definitely gazing in that lilac (above).  What do you think he sees???????

Below I told him to spit on his lilac.  He blew a few bubbles instead.

The kids gather around to hear his clue so they can go find his present for themselves.  I didn't get pictures of the rest of the kids on my lap because Justin wanted to videotape it instead.  But we definitely got a few higgledy piggledy's in there.

This year I had six hiding places to remember.  It's a little pathetic that I almost lost M's right after I hid it.  Apparently I need a little whispering in my ear.  After all the searching, with their prizes:

Playing with Baby S's bubbles:

(Lucky Lilacs is a family holiday started by my Great-Grandpa Rees and continued by my Aunt Becky.  A Lucky Lilac is any Lilac with either less or more than four petals - no cheating !!!!  Once you find one, Aunt Becky looks inside the Lilac.  With a few magic words and a little spit, the hiding place for a prize appears.)

For Your Amusement

Last Friday, I went to WalMart. Luckily, I only needed a few things and I was soon in line. While we waited, another patron commented on M's red hair. Since GQ was near me - in the cart - I played with his hair. It is a little red, and I am always wondering what color it will eventually be.

It was then that I noticed it.

At first, I did not know what it was, but after a few attempts to brush it out of GQ's hair - I realized...

This was a tick. And it was attached.

I would like to tell you that as a calm and collected mother of four, I went and bought some tweezers (I was at WalMart) and removed the tick with competence and finesse. This, however, is not what happened. Because:

THERE WAS A LIVING, WIGGLING, BUG ATTACHED TO MY TWO YEAR OLD'S HEAD!!!!! AND IT WAS SUCKING HIS BLOOD!!!!!

I do throw up. I do poop. I do lip gloss, and fingernail polish, and fuschia crayons in dryers. I do not do bugs attached to heads.

I am not a social butterfly, but I quickly began polling my fellow-shoppers on tick removal. I think I hoped that one would magically whip out his personal tick-removing tweezers and take care of this for me.

I have exactly 4 people programmed into my phone on speed dial.
I called them all. Only one of them answered.

Meanwhile, I tried not to look at GQ's head. Then, I felt guilty for being scared to look at GQ's head. Then, I called and made an appointment at the pediatrician to have the tick removed.

This may seem pathetic, but I don't care. I just wanted the tick out. And I never wanted to look at it again.

Unfortunately they did not have an appointment available for another hour and a half at the pediatrician. I was already grossed out that GQ had slept and napped with what he now happily called "my tick." This was unacceptable.

So, I called Justin again and told him he would have to leave work, come buy tweezers, and remove the tick himself.

Because frankly, I was pretty much flipping out.

And this is what he did. Because he is nice and loves me like that. And because I was hysterical, you know?

I did manage to watch him take the tick out since I knew I couldn't make him leave work all summer. Which is good, since E had one yesterday morning that I did manage to remove on my own.

I don't know. Between the mice and the ticks, I may be leaving Iowa tomorrow.

Freshly Laundered Hair

I like to brush S's hair with the towel until it's dry (and sticking straight up).  For some reason this amuses me greatly.  S is not so amused.

Snuggling with Daddy

Look at them all matchy-matchy.  I made Justin look that way because they were supposed to both be profile.  Mostly it just made him look goofy.  I take full responsibility.

That Church thing is just exhausting.

Visiting the Nauvoo Temple

Beautiful bright flowers.  A break in the rain.  A nice visit to the Temple grounds.

E found several treasures.  Later I found them pressed in a book, waiting for some art project.

M squinting because the sun was too bright.  Did I mention it was cloudy and rainy?

An attempt at a group photo:

Visiting with Grandma and Grandpa

Riding the carousel:

Rough-housing:

Wearing Grandpa's hat:

Thanks for visiting!  We loved having you here.

It's me again!

Aren't I handsome???  I really like to smile right now.  And if people don't hang out around me and make googly faces and funny noises, I show my displeasure by screaming.

I try to get my tongue out and talk like all those wierdos I live with.  It is a tricky, tricky business and takes a lot of concentration.

And that wears me out!!!

4 Kids, Birth - 3 Months

Because it's fun to compare: