Can't say I blame him

This is what I get for waking up late and letting this kid roam around the house unsupervised.

I suppose I asked for it.

*Scroll down to pause the blog music before watching

A few things to note:

- Apparently I sound like a man when I wake up in the morning? Eh

- I think Oliver had his hand in his mouth because he was trying to suck the chocolate remnants off. UGH

- I was trying very hard not to laugh. I mean... c'mon. How could I scold him? He was just so happy to eat it! It was a chocolate covered donut. with sprinkles!

Small talk

[Scene: Sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch]

Evelyn: "Oliver, what did you do last night?"

Oliver: "Uh... sleep....?"

Evelyn: "Oh yeah?"

Oliver: "Yeah"

[End Scene]

Maybe this will become a habit.

I finally woke up early* today and had some quality alone time with a large cup of freshly brewed coffee and the internets.

We'll see how long I can keep this up.

I would also like to add that Oliver slept until 8:30 which is late for him and very nice for me. Oh, and I thought I'd mention that I'm nursing (w/ no hands! Big thighs have got to be good for something, right?) Wesley I as type this.

*for those of you who know me, early means anytime before 8:00am)

I'm going to sleep after this. I PROMISE

Do you ever have one of those moments when you feel like writing but don't have much to write about? Well, I do. I'm having one of those moments right now actually. Which is why so far I have yet to written anything interesting. or important. or relevant.

So yeah, I just feel like banging away on the keyboard. Today's been a relatively slow today. The last couple of weeks have been more lazy than normal, if that's even possible. I've been sleeping later (bad. BAD!) which in my case means past 12:00 and when this happens, I'm pretty much shot the next day. When I finally peel myself out of bed around 9:00, Oliver's already been up for who knows how long, roaming the house with his blanket dragging behind him. By this time, he's starving and ready for breakfast. Usually the first thing he says when he sees me is

"Can I eat?"

*hangs head in shame*

How bad of a mother can I be? Making my son wait for breakfast so I can get some sleep! Jeez. I really need to sleep earlier. Anyways, he can't really reach anything ready to eat in the pantry although I know he's tried. I've woken up many mornings to find the pantry open, chair pushed up to the front and random things strewn about the kitchen - rice, cans of tuna and spam and a large bottle of syrup. Once he realizes he can't eat any of it, he usually just makes some sort of fort by stacking up the cans. I guess he's got to figure out how to pass the time until the rest of us wake up, right?

Man, just typing that out makes me feel kind of guilty. But not guilty enough to get out of bed at 6 or 7 or whatever time it is he decides to get up for the day. Thank goodness the rest of my kids like to sleep as much as I do. I know this will all change once Evelyn starts school in the fall so I'm just going to enjoy the opportunity to be a little lazy less structured. That is, until I have to drive her to school with the younger two in tow. That should be fun! Uh huh...

And no, I'm not going to send her on the bus. Not this year. I'm She's not ready...

***

I'll leave you with a picture of my two sweet boys.

The same very boys that will very likely eat me out of house and home.

All about Wesley

Concentrate...You can DO IT.




























Almost there!




























YES!!!





























OK. We GET IT. You can pull yourself to a standing position.
That's fantastic!

Now GO. TO. SLEEP.




***



Wesley, whatever you do, don't turn around. There's a crazy frog right behind you.

















Wuh.... what are you looking at? Is there something on my face?

And it was a new roll, too!

Me: OLIVER! What are you doing?!

Oliver: Uh.. NOTHING?

Rambling...with a side of fries.

Blogging. Facebook. Email.

I often find myself wondering how much is too much, really. I mean sure, on Facebook you can choose whether or not you actually want to accept that Friend request, or share your blog to the public, or reply to that email from a friend of a friend... of a friend but so easily the line between what is sacred and what is public becomes... not blurred... but almost smudged to the point of being erased.

I admit, when I first signed up for Facebook I vowed to never use it for anything more than keeping up with friends with whom I didn't get to see often. Now I check it on a daily basis, adding my two cents worth of comments here and there. My "personal" blog" is linked to my profile for any of my "Friends" to view and I like to consider myself a professional emailer - just try it, I will reply to your email with lightening speed!

Side note - do you like my use of quotations? I should post a picture of myself "quoting" with my hands, jeez. We should play that drinking game where you take a shot everytime I use quotations. Um, not that I drink (really, I don't) or have ever played that game.... I was just saying...oh nevermind.

It's ironic that I actively use many of the social networking tools created to keep in touch with "my people" (DRINK!) when in reality I am a pretty private person. Yeah, yeah. Feel free to laugh and think I'm joking. But I am! Ask my sister! Oh wait. Don't ask her...Then she'll tell you what I'm really like.

***

Huh... Totally lost my train of thought. I just wrote that last part and then went downstairs to bring Oliver upstairs and put him to bed, went back downstairs to take the fries out of the oven (FRIES!), came back UP to bring Oliver a book, went back DOWN to dish the fries up to bring them back UP to the office and then had to go BACK DOWN because I left the refridgerator ajar and it was beeping to let me know to shut it already! Then I came back UP and jammed the fries in my mouth. NICE.

Anyhoo! I guess what I'm trying to say is that you think you might know a person based on how he/she portrays him/herself on a public forum but it's simply not true. Wouldn't that be judging the book... not by the cover but by the preface? What I share on Facebook and my blog is merely a tiny portion of what lies within. Rarely do I share or open myself up wholly for those around me and it's something with which I struggle. Keep in mind that most, if not all, people share what they want you to know about themselves.

As I get older, I find it more challenging to forge deep and lasting relationships with new people I meet. Only since I've had my children have I opened myself up to others and can say I've made very faithful friends through the process. But it's not to say that it was always so easy. Building true relationships require give and take, ebb and flow. Just like anything else worthwhile, it takes true effort.

I choose to share tidbits of my life on FB and on this blog and I am truly thankful that there are those few (HI LISA! HI MACALLA! HI TERRI!) that read this regularly. Just know that there's more to me than just a FB page and a blog. That being said, I will continue to try my best to provide photos of children screaming, dancing and laughing. Just know, that's only a tiny portion of my life. In reality, there's a lot MORE screaming, dancing and laughing going on. Well, that combined with some yelling and crying. It's a veritable party up in here.

***

Concentrating on riding her new (handme down) bike.



















Big guy now has his sister's old ride. He looks upset in this picture, doesn't he? Well that's because he was! He couldn't figure out how to get off the tricycle. I mean.. c'mon. Really? I don't... why.... how could you NOT figure out how to get off it?





















I know. I KNOW. Kid needs a haircut. But look how cute!













Completely gratuitous video of the baybeeeee

Sand, Heat and Wedgies. Good times.

So far I think I like blogger. I've been able to add some recent pictures to the sidebar as well as a few other fun things. The pics are from our trip to Oregon a couple weeks ago. The five of us drove down to Cannon Beach and then spent the night in Portland. The next morning we met the Russell's for a trip to the zoo and then stuffed our faces at Honey Pig in Tacoma. It was only a short two day road trip but I don't think either John or I can remember the last time we had so much fun. For those two days, it was like we didn't have one worry in the world, which if you know John, is very rare.

I was surprised how much the kids loved the beach. Even I was relaxed and chill, even though sand was flying everywhere and we had dressed the kids in jeans instead of shorts. Hey, I thought it was going to be cold! Anyways, Evelyn dumped a few shovels of sand on Oliver's head and, while normally I would freak out at the thought of dirt nestling itself in every crevice of my children's bodies, I just let the kids have fun no matter how messy they got. By the time we got back to the car, the sand had dried off and it was pretty easy to dust them off. Although, later in the hotel Evelyn did wonder why she had sand in her underwear. :)













Other than that, things have been pretty uneventful around here. We're enjoying the heatwave as much as we can. Thankfully our house is about 10 degrees cooler than it is outdoors so we've just been holing up inside. John bought the kids a large pool, despite my explicit instructions to not bring home a gigantic one. So of course he bought the largest one sold. In his (meager) defense, it was the only size pool left. But I would have rather than no pool than a gigantic turquoise blowup monstrosity. Nonetheless, the kids enjoyed splashing around in the water. That is, until Evelyn discovered that yucky bugs can fly in the water and ruin all the fun! Seriously, that girl is afraid of bugs like I am afraid of heights. Unfortunately she has inherited my ability to be afraid of basically everything in this world.

Fabulous.

Also taking after her mother - WEDGIE!