Up, up and AWAY

Sometimes I think the folks who write this comic have hidden cameras at my house. (You'll have to click on it to see the whole thing, I'm experiencing technical difficulties - the exact term is P.I.C.N.I.C. Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)

I got my boys to eat dinner the other night by telling them it was a "Superhero Supper" and that every food would give them a different super power. The potatoes gave them the ability to blink three times and turn invisible, the carrots let them shoot lasers out of their fingers. It may not work every night, but I'll take what I can get.

It was also hilarious because JJ couldn't figure out how to count and blink at the same time. I tried to get him to re-create it on video:

Humor at our house

This is mostly for my husband.

Our children are doomed.

Give it up

This year for Halloween we went with a Twilight theme. Ian was a vampire and JJ was a wolf. It worked out perfectly. The baby got to be Bella, I didn't have to dress her up, and all she had to do was whine and bump into things - she does that anyway. (If you haven't read the Stephenie Meyer books, just disregard that)

But it made me realize, I really don't like Halloween. Fortunately, the boys were willing to wear costumes we already had and John bought the candy. But coordinating everything was absolutely no fun for me. John really likes Halloween, so in years past I have tried to make it fun. I even made a Halloween quilt to put on our bed for the month of October. This year it didn't even make it out of the closet.

And I am totally OK with that. In fact, I officially turned Halloween over to John. He is in charge of costumes and candy and deciding what to do. I will help in any way he asks me to, but if he doesn't want to do anything, we will sit at home with the lights off and watch a movie - not even a Halloweenie movie.

It is amazing how liberating it is to just give up sometimes. Realizing that some things just aren't as important as I try to make them. Nobody's feelings were hurt, the world didn't end and I was just a little bit nicer to everyone because I wasn't worried about one more thing.

I am going to try and do this a lot more often.

Sucker

I let my kids dress themselves, mostly. I'm usually so happy that my children will get dressed on their own that I don't care what they wear (and I hide the things I don't want them to pick out.)

But occasionally, they end up with some odd combinations. This week my oldest wore a clip on tie with his T-shirt three days in a row. His justification? "Can I wear this, Mom? I think it would look nice." Heck, that is my reasoning for half the stuff I wear.

And my three-year-old wore his pajama shirt all day long the other day. It is an "I heart New York" shirt his grandparents brought back from vacation for him. "But this has a heart on it and. . . (pause while he puts his hands over his heart) . . I love you."

The end of the world as we know it

She isn't exactly crawling yet, but she is so close. So now I'll have to vacuum and sweep every day and find a baby gate to go around a corner. This is the complicated stage.

Plus, HOLY COW! I forgot how complicated baby food is. I much prefer the only-milk diet or able to feed themselves. This in-between, messy, feed-me-mommy stuff is a pain. It makes me think of Dave Barry: Babies do not ingest food through their mouths, they absorb it through their chins. You will save yourself and the baby a lot of trouble by simply smearing the food on his chin instead of putting it in his mouth and making him spit it back out again, and again, and again.

But she is ready for people food. I can tell because she begs. This is her "Give me a bite of your sandwich" face.

Q & A

Those people who say that staying home and raising children is not intellectually stimulating have obviously never had a conversation with my sons.

Here are a few of the questions I've fielded over the last week or so.

"How big is a chemical?"

"Why did Heavenly Father create fingernails for our hands?"

"But HOW did they get the baby out?"

"What's a groove?" (As in The Emperor's New Groove)

"Why are guys sometimes bad?"

"Do wolves come from wombs or eggs?"

"Why can't we see stars in the day?"

"Where is the daddy elephant?" (The zoo's breeding program uses artificial insemination)

"What are spires for?" (As in church steeples)

The answers are not necessarily that complicated, but trying to put them into a preschool context certainly is.

Luxuries

I've been thinking about all the simple luxuries I get to enjoy in my life. Mostly because I just finished "The Undaunted" by Gerald Lund, a historical novel set in the late 1800's. One of the characters is a coal miner who started working in the mines at six years old. It got me thinking about all the things I take for granted. Throughout history and even today there are so many people who are not as fortunate as I am.

So here is my list of luxury in my life:

• I don't have to wake my children up in the morning. They can (usually) sleep as long as they want.
• The furnace comes on all by itself.
• Hot shower.
• I get to lay in bed and cuddle my children without having to hurry away.
• I can leave the dishes undone at night and still have enough bowls for breakfast in the morning.
• Running water.
• Safe neighborhood.
  
• My kids have so many toys that they can throw them at each other and still have some to play with.

To be honest, that last one kind of ruined it for me. I decided I should stop daydreaming and get some work done. But it was nice to spend a morning being grateful for things I usually don't even notice.