The Mother of Geese

One of Spider Max's favorite climbing haunts is my desk. He loves to climb up and pound my keyboard. So much, in fact, that the old Dell reliable has some broken keys. (like the space bar..irritating...) So Brad was near the DI and stopped by and plopped down $2.00 for a replacement keyboard. Max pulled it from my desk and thought it was great to jump on it. I suppose I'm out another keyboard as well as $2.00. What blatant disrespect for my things!

I believe I have mentioned that Max is a climber. Here's more evidence: Amelia went to a birthday party and brought home a cupcake to eat later. I remember when we lived in California we couldn't leave anything out on the tables and counters because the ants would get it. Sort of the same thing with Max. Make no mistake...Amelia is going to make him PAY for eating her cupcake. It should be noted that Max even ate the paper liner from the cupcake. Nice. Sometimes the climbing results in some pretty good bumps on the noggin. I suppose that later in life when Max does something stupid people will ask him if he was dropped as a baby, and he will have to so no, but I did leap from chairs and couches a lot. Notice the giant tear on his cheek.

On the way to preschool this morning Amelia was very chatty. Amelia: Mom. Where's my friends? Me: Your friends? Amelia: Like. My friends. Me: Oh, I bet you will meet and make some new great friends at school! Amelia: Like 5 friends?! Me: Like 10 friends!! Amelia starts running to the classroom. Let me like see my 10 friends! Didn't even get a chance to form a lump in my throat cause that girl is ready!

Remember when we went to the Faux-Nie Nie Balloon Launch? Amelia took Yeow-wee along (her convaluted way of saying White Girl) and left her there. For those of you that know Amelia--that was heartbreak city...She has never had even so much as a nap without Yeow-wee. So we all said our prayers and Brad even went back to the scene of the crime with a super flash light. He made tender LOST signs and posted them all over. lost and found notice close up Wednesday night we got a call from a nice man in Provo saying he had found Yeow-wee. So Brad made the trek again to go pick her up. front door reunited and it feels so good. The part that makes me teary is that after the man called with the good news I said to Abbie, "see, Heavenly Father ALWAYS listens and answers your prayers!!". She beamed at the news and started dancing around and squealing in delight.

Amelia got a remote control dinosaur that's not reeddy scarwy. The dinosaur was also used for a fun little hide and seek game. Activity #1: Face Painting. Abbie took over the more intricate dino designs. I stuck to the simple dinosaur "footprint." Activity #2: Coloring Dinosaurs and making dino villages. Activity #3: Hide and Seek from the Dinos Hide from the dinos! Step #4: I put a baby dino in the balloon (egg) and they had to sit on the balloons to hatch it. So funny. Step #5: Dino books. I love how Hal is watching the book being read too. Activity #6: Digging for dino fossils. I made fossil molds out of plaster of paris then gave the kids paint brushes to go and find their fossils. It was very exciting. (thanks Alissa for the use of the back yard) Brushing off the fossil. Present time!-oh the kitty! Almost wanted to take off her clothes immediately to try out the new bath stuff darling hairbow (that I want to have 5 in every color), and puppy. Paint with w...

Ever had one of those days when the stars are aligned and you literally feel like you are DELIGHTING in your children? You totally get that they are your JOY ? Yep. I've had one of those today. I can't stop kissing and snuggling them. With Abbie gone all day I am so very aware how fleeting these times are and how fast they are growing up. Abbie lost her top left tooth. Man is her orthadontia going to be expensive. Here's Amelia's ice cream birthday cake with a plastic dinosaur stuck to the side. She makes me laugh and smile all day long. This picture was taken after a rough nap so I'd like to think she's usually a little more put together than this. Also she LOVES this shirt and I have to hide it from her or else she would wear it every minute. Max's new trick. He is such a different beast compared to the girls. They did not bite, scream like girls, they were weaned by 1, and they did not climb. He does. (however I would say he is basically weaned. Yay me....

You may recall this post when I coined the phrase channeling my "inner nie chi". I have been a long time admirer of her life and have been surprised at how off my game I feel this week as a result of the suffering of this family that I don't even know. (voyeur much?) I wasn't sure if I would be able to attend any of the actual scheduled launches, so I cheated and staged one with Abbie a few days early. Since I am not one to miss a party, Anne and I headed down to Provo to honor this event. . We loaded up the car and weren't exactly sure where in Provo it would take place, only that there was a rumored hot air balloon that was going to be there. So we drove lamely until we found a hot air balloon. Wah-lah. I don't know what I was expecting but this gig had pony rides, carnival type games, cotton candy, snow cones, a band, hot dogs, popcorn, bounce house stuff, a snake whisperer (?), and you could enter to win a IPOD shuffle. I was impressed. Debbie Downer, er, ...

I decided Thursday night that we needed to go camping overnight on Friday. (taking full advantage of the fact that we haven't put all the camping stuff away yet from our last trip). I made the foil dinners, changed into the jeans, and waited to load the car. Then it hit me (after Amelia was not cooperating and Abbie was acting tired/obnoxious.) about an hour before we were set to leave. I don't want to go. At. All. So I helped them pack the car. And stayed home with Max. I. Rule. Look at that packed car! Bradfo asking me to remove a flip flop that had been hurled on the top of the car after his attempts at window wipering it failed to produce results. The packed car. Me and Max heading back in the house. (Yep, realizing that I sure could use a shower.) My entertainment for the evening. Don't get eaten up by Squirrels SUCKAS!!!

Max has been helping me clean. He likes to empty out the diapers from the holder thingy in his room, which I find very irritating. He had a diaper in each hand then went downstairs and headed to the bathroom. He threw the 2 diapers in the toilet. 2 new not used perfectly fine diapers. When I lifted them out of the toilet, I was surprised to find nary a trickle of water in the bowl. Talk about super absorbant! Then just for funsies I weighed the diapers. Nearly 2 pounds. Imagine if that was filled with pee. 2 pounds of pee. How's that for a new marketing jingle Pampers? "2 Pounds of pee, and stinky is me" or something like that.

Don't get me wrong, we had a fantastic summer-- But the last 2 weeks, Abbie has been... BEASTLY Don't we adore those Fuller kids?! Now if I can only figure out a way to smuggle the 2 small ones on each end...that would be AWESOME.

I like to let Max rule the roost while his two pushy older sisters are adjusting to their early bedtimes. I will soon put him on the same schedule--in the meantime I am loving this time with him.