Check it out, Uncle "Dabid"

We came back to cucumbers!!! No tomatoes yet, hopefully soon!

Our first bob and larry....

So, we planted our garden the weekend after Easter (you can see before pics in the post, "The farmer and the dell and Tank"). It has definitely filled in. We have been able to eat green beans twice and chopped up a few teeny, tiny squash to put on top of salads, but tonight we were able to saute enough vegetables (squash, zucchini, and beans) to feed the little ones, Michael and I, AND JJ and Pops. It was very exciting! Mae and Whitt check the garden every morning. Mae was so excited when she ran in. She immediately announced that we had our first Bob and Larry (yes, she is talking about the characters in Veggie Tales!). How proud does she look !?! And, there were two more Bob and Larrys ready to be picked by the time she got home.

Whose kid is that?

I promise #2 needs a blog all to himself! Here are a few highlights from the past week and half: Michael was in Charlottesville for a wedding the weekend before last. I had put all the kiddos down (or so I thought), and was enjoying a nice glass of wine while watching a movie snuggled in my bed. With movie over and wine gone, I went to put the empty glass in the sink and turn on the alarm. I stepped out into our pitch black hall only to be scared right out of my skin when I all of a sudden hear a little voice behind me asking for a back rub. I flipped on the light to find the little dinosaur pajama wearing ninja (the kid was able to somehow get through two child-proof gates, one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom) with his "lizard" boots on and his dump truck filled with the entire cast of cars from Lightning McQueen. Come to think of it, I think he was also wearing his fireman's helmet. Two nights later, Michael is back in town and finds him in his flashing cowboy boots and paper #3 crown that he got when he celebrated his birthday at school. And, yes these antics continue. We are hoping the new "Time to wake" clock we ordered after will help. The kid has a strong affinity for dressing up and he takes it pretty seriously. We went to a superhero birthday party this weekend. Whitt borrowed a padded spiderman costume from a friend. It was almost ninety degrees and pretty humid, and he refused to take not only the costume but also the hood off. We only saw his face for a brief moment when the cupcakes arrived on the scene. He quickly gobbled up some sugar, rehydrated, and was back scaling the swing set scaring a few other children in the process since no one knew who he was (the eye holes in the costume were dime-sized). I heard more than a few times, "whose kid is that?" during the party, and I proudly got to take claim to him. He was dripping wet by the time we got home. By the way, he is pretending to shoot webs out of his hands in the picture above. Isn't Mae's face in that picture priceless, like he is totally crazy! As a friend of ours said, "That kid knows how to party!" Just when I think his strong will might get the better of me, he does something that makes me laugh so hard my sides hurt. He just loves life and gives it all he's got, and I in turn just love him to pieces. A quick note of the jack-o-lantern picture, that was last Tuesday, no where near Halloween. And, at 8:30 in the morning. He had just finished taking dinosaur and panda on a stroller ride. And, yes, he lined up every single truck on the sofa to watch "Super Why" with him.

No ac for AC....

Rewind a few weeks ago, we are cooking out with some dear friends, all of our kids running around like wild banshees with fits of giggling interspersed. Now up until this fresh crop of babies around Bruce's age, most of our close friends have had little boys except for sweet Ann Charlotte. Don't get me wrong, Mae loves playing with "her boys" as she affectionately calls them, but she has a special fascination and female kinship with AC. So, when it was time to change AC's diaper, Mae immediately followed Laura Lee, the mommy, to help with the chore (have I mentioned Mae has an extremely strong mothering instinct and is fascinated with all things baby). Laura Lee came out barely containing laughter and evidently this is the conversation that occurred back in AC's bedroom: Mae noticed the fan in her room (I should also mention Mae is in a big "why" stage, very specific "why" questions). M: Why does Ann Charlotte have a fan in her room? LL: Well, it helps keep it cool and gives a breeze. (or something like that was said) M: Oh, well we don't need fans at our house. We have air conditioning! Fast-forward to the present. The past two days have been pretty warm and humid; the first days of the year where it feels like summer instead of spring. Mae looks at me, you can see the wheels turning, and says, M: Do you think we should go get Ann Charlotte and bring her to our house to stay? J: Well, they are at the beach right now, but we could have her over when they get back. Why? M: She might be really hot without air conditioning. Bless her heart! And, yes, she said that last sentence with all the drama and flair of a true Southern belle. She makes a mama proud!

The World's Greatest Stuffed Animal

This morning as I took this picture of Bruce enjoying his new birthday gift from JJ and Pops (I know, it is two months early), I thought to myself, "Poor Ernie, how life has changed for you!" Ernie came along after Tank, but he to was treated like our "baby" before the real babies entered the scene. They got all of our attention. They were brushed, walked, even sent to doggie "daycare" while we were at work. Then came baby #1, Miss Mae. The girl baby wasn't so bad for Ernie. Sure, she pulled and tugged on him a little, but for the most part she was pretty gentle. She loved playing with him and she even shared her toys, but she definitely encroached on the attention he was used to getting. Then there was baby #2. Once again, it didn't seem so bad. In the beginning, the new baby gave him something warm to snuggle up with on those cold Chicago mornings. But, just when Ernie was getting adjusted to the new addition, Whitt became mobile. Ernie soon realized there is a big difference between girl babies and boy babies. He was constantly being chased and hunted down. Mae treated him like a baby doll, very nurturing; Whitt treated him like a wrestling partner. And, finally baby #3, Bruce doesn't seem to possess quite the same energy level of Whitt, but he is more aggressive (probably due to being the youngest of three, his defense mechanisms were sharpened early on). Bruce thinks Ernie is the world's most interactive stuffed animal. A different noise comes out him every time Bruce pushes, pulls, grabs, yanks (which of course makes Ernie all the more fascinating to Bruce). Bruce literally tries to drag the poor dog around the house. Bruce loving every minute of it; Ernie tolerantly trying to sleep through it, only rarely escaping underneath our bed for some solace. So here's a thank you to Ernie for the countless hours of little people entertainment he provides. By the way, that picture was taken at 7:30 this morning. Yes, we were already into the ride-on toys that early. And, before anyone calls animal protection services, Ernie came to us from a trailor park with thirty other dogs. We are big step up from that even with the little ones, and he still sleeps in the bed with the man and I at night (even with his snoring).

Junk, Part II

I think the pictures say it all. Notice, Whitt is sleeping on the last eighteen inches of bed. And, this was just during nap time! For any of you that are new to our blog, the original "Junk" is a couple of weeks back if you are interested.

The Rolls Royce of Motherhood

Do you ever have those moments where you think, "Wow, this is my life. Things have really changed!" ? Well, it happened to me today. After carpool, we needed to run into Target. I say run, but you really don't just "run" into places when you have your three little buddies. As we were wheeling through the store playing "I spy", I realized three different people had looked at me and immediately said, "You certainly have your hands full!" I suddenly looked down and noticed I was pushing a mammoth shopping cart. Seriously, any cart that allows you to push around three children and still have plenty of cargo space is beyond massive. That is when I realized I was in a whole other ballgame! I normally say, "my cup runneth over," but in this case, "my shopping cart runneth over." Only, at Target, right!?! By the way, the view from behind the cart looks just perfect to me, a blessed life! And, yes, pushing that thing around counted as my workout for the day.

Is it just me....

or can this kid seriously rock some lizard (aka frog) boots?!!

From a frog prince to our King of Kings...

So, I have to rat the man out. One night a couple of weeks ago, Michael and I spotted a good-size frog hopping right outside the door to our backyard. The kids were already asleep, and I was in my pjs. I asked Michael to catch Mr. Frog knowing the kids would love checking it out the next morning. Sheer panic and disgust swept over his face, and my request was quickly rebuffed. Well, our little friend decided to pay us another visit yesterday afternoon. I found him back by our hose when I was about to start watering. I raced inside, grabbed a container, and rounded up the crew. They were so excited; we had our own little outdoor science lesson. We talked about amphibians and hopped around like frogs. They named him/ her, Sam John for Whitt and Elizabeth Sarah for Mae (yes, the frog had a middle name in both cases). As I watched the delight and amazement in their little faces, I was reminded of Mark 10:14, "These children are the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." (the Message version) Our Father is continually revealing his glory through nature; He is literally screaming out to us with His creation. How could we ever deny Him when He is all around us!?! Yet, so often I find myself taking it for granted. Watching my children experience something for the first time is like having a fresh pair of lenses, what a blessing that is. To often I am busy overthinking everything, inadvertently setting limits in my mind on His majesty and power, and my three and four year old just get it! They notice all the intricacies of beauty that surround them with an open heart and mind. As all things lead to our Creator, we found ourselves talking about what a vivid and incredible imagination our God has and wondering what he must have been thinking the day he created the first frog. Whitt decided He was thinking of "squirmy" things.

It's genetic....

Sharks fascinate me. Don't really know why, they just do. "Shark Week" on Discovery is one of my favorite weeks of the summer. I could watch episode after episode. Well, today when I picked Whitt up from school, he immediately ran up to me dragging an enormous stuffed animal shark. He was so excited; he could barely get the story out of his mouth fast enough, "Mommy, Mommy I wrestled the shark into taking a nap with me. He started to roar, but I made him be quiet! We need to respect our friends during rest time. His name is Bruce." (not sure if the name part is a "Nemo" reference or baby brother reference and yes, Whitt basically talks in a stream of consciousness kind-of-way) Whitt is pretty much a mini-Michael, but I am more than happy to take claim to the shark thing. And, I know exactly where I will be the last week of July in the late afternoon when it is just to hot to be outside any longer, snuggled up on the sofa with my little man watching and learning more about sharks. Sounds perfect, doesn't it!?