Sadly, This is a True Story.

The scene was lunchtime today. I had just served up some pipin’ hot mac and cheese a few minutes prior. Bennett hadn’t eaten any yet because it was too hot.

I went over to the table.

I said, “Let me stir this for you to help it cool off.”

Then I took a bite to check that it was ok to eat.

And then Bennett said, “Did you know that I spit in there to cool it off?”

And I said, “YOU COULDN’T HAVE TOLD ME THAT 4 SECONDS AGO??”

I so wish this wasn’t true. But it is. And he swore that it was the first (and last) time he’s ever spit in his food.

My Superbowl Halftime Entertainment

He probably said this 30 times last evening…hope you can understand the classic line he’s saying!

This is Love?

Are you kidding me?

One of my favorite magazines is “Real Simple” (many thanks to Hannah for my first subscription to it!). There was a little section this month about love, where readers wrote in their response to the following question:

“What is the most surprising thing about love?”

Julia in Cincinnati answered:

The process of slowly falling in love with the really unexpected things about someone. For example, I am totally smitten with the way my fiance, Jason, smells early in the morning, after a long night of sleep. It’s so human and so absolutely him that I can’t help but inhale and snuggle up.

WHAT? I love my husband. I really, really do. And it’s not like he has a problem with body odor. But for real, the last thing I want to do in the morning is smell him. My breath stinks, his breath stinks, and I really just can’t wait to brush my teeth and take a shower.

I can’t be the only one, right? Right?

—–

In this month’s issue there was also this really sweet article about couples who have been married 50 years or more. I loved it, and I think you will, too.

Today I…

…had a “for sale” sign placed in my front yard. In the next day or so, the “coming soon” part will be removed and we’ll be in business! Anyone want to buy a vacation home in lovely suburban St. Louis?

…went to Luke’s school performance for 1st and 2nd graders. Very cute, but the gym was PACKED. Like crazy-packed, sitting uncomfortably-close-to-strangers packed. We could have sat in the reserved seats since I helped a bit with the program, but we didn’t get there as early as planned (for reasons I won’t blog about to avoid embarrassing a child of mine in the future) and Matt didn’t know we had reserved seats and he got to the gym first. Oh well. It was fun!

…discovered, thanks to Jack Henry needing something to do at the performance, that I apparently have a little fat/loose skin on my neck that is good for pinching if you’re a 2-year-old.

…drove to DQ in the rain and in my pj’s and slippers, because ice cream sounded good. It’s been a wild week getting the house ready for sale, so I rationalized needing Blizzards.

…was thankful that “The Office” was new tonight, and pretty funny.

…made some fun summer plans!

…listened to my two younger boys play with their baby cousin, and laughed at their laughter.

…prayed for several people I know who are going through rough times.

…shopped online for comforters. And drawer pulls.

…found out that Jack Henry’s tubes are now BOTH out of his eardrums, and that a third set of tubes and an adenoidectomy are likely in his future (we had a regularly-scheduled ENT appointment today where I got the bad news). I am praying that he just makes a miraculous turn around in the next 6 weeks and the doctor changes his mind.

…decided to go to bed at a decent hour.

Out of The Mouths of Babes, Part 20

My first day babysitting Will, Bennett said this to him as Will was crawling towards me:
“Hi Will! Are you looking for Cousin Mom?”
I said, “Uh, Bennett, he’s going to call me Aunt Nicole.”

—–

Luke came upstairs and said, “Mom, I have a really bad hangnail, and it’s really hurting…can you clip it for me?”
I answered that I was just starting to change Jack Henry’s diaper, and he’d have to wait just a minute.
He sat in JH’s room, holding his finger, while I changed JH, who had a bad diaper rash and was kind of whimpering while I cleaned him up. To soothe him, I said, “I know that hurts, buddy. I’m almost finished.”
To which Luke responded, “Jack, it CANNOT hurt as bad as my hangnail. Trust me.”
I had to try hard to keep my eyes from rolling back in my head. The drama.
(In Luke’s defense, when I did get to clipping the hangnail, I discovered that he’d actually torn his fingernail pretty low, which does really hurt! I’m surprised there wasn’t more drama.)

—–

Bennett, when the movie “Cars” was starting, “Great!  I haven’t seen this movie in years!  I mean, in ages!”

—–

Obviously, we’re getting ready to sell our house. Our realtor has this adorable contract that the boys sign that says that they will do their best to help us keep the house picked up so that a buyer will like it. When the house sells, the boys get a $20 gift card to Target/Walmart/wherever. On the night they signed their contract, I told them that I would like for them to clean up the basement, as some of our big toys were headed to a storage unit for the next several weeks. Then, this lovely line came out of Luke’s mouth: “Hey Mom? Can I clean my room first before I clean up the basement?” I probably stammered around for an answer before agreeing!

—–

Jack Henry has skipped his nap a couple of times in the last week, and ages 2-4 of Bennett’s life (primarily without naps) started flashing before my eyes in a really bad way. I was in his room holding and rocking him, trying to get him to sleep, and I said, “Buddy boy, 2-year-olds need naps.” He replied, “Nooooo. Not ne (me)!” “Not ne!” has become his answer to lots of things he doesn’t want to do. Not diggin’ this “I am superior to all other 2-year-olds” behavior. I WILL get him to nap again. My sanity cannot handle another chronically sleep-deprived kid.

—–

Jack Henry had a bad diaper rash (mentioned above), and I twice caught him in the hall closet. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, “dandaid. hiney.” I love that he was just going to try and fix it himself!

—–

milked-down chocolate milk – noun. Coined by Bennett. It’s the end product of pouring 2% white milk into a cup that previously contained chocolate milk. As opposed to watered-down chocolate milk.

First Glimpse

Here are some quick snapshots I took this morning at the new house during our inspection! Commentary on each picture.

here it is! we’ll be doing some landscaping work over the next few years to make it look more like our taste. which, if you know us, means that we’ll fill it with dead plants and grass.

my favorite part of the house!

other side of the kitchen…the pantry is unfortunately deceptively tiny, but i’m really happy to have that message center!

view from the breakfast area to the deck.

we’ll talk about this later. it’s getting it’s own post.

view from the kitchen into the family room. i really love this, too! matt is envisioning a big screen over the fireplace…

main floor laundry. so, so happy.

ahem. the first room with wallpaper. main floor half bath. but wait, there’s more…

yep. a border.

when you walk in the front door, this is to your right. i’ve fallen in love with these number hooks from pottery barn for the wall between the stairs and the closet.

front room, which will be our office/living room area. dining room is to the right, and i didn’t get a decent picture of it. it’ll be our playroom for the next couple of years.

jack henry’s room!

luke and bennett’s room…will be cardinals themed. they’re excited!

another view of luke and bennett’s room

affectionately called “the duck room” due to the wallpaper which is hard to tell from this bad picture. this will be a guest room.

boys’ bathroom. we’ll make a few minor changes here, but it’s pretty nice.

master bedroom. we’ll be trading out that fan :)

view of the bathroom from the master closet

closet! i’m hoping to have a closet company come in and do some work in here.

i totally fell off the picture-taking wagon when we got to the basement, so this is pretty much all i have. it’s just one open room, really, with a couple of storage areas.

basement bathroom. this will be really convenient!

This Does Not Bode Well. UPDATED

Disclaimer: Yes, Jack Henry’s hair is RIDICULOUS. Olivia came down to do haircuts at our place last week, but JH was sick and already in bed and super-crabby, so I just skipped his. We’re going to try and make it happen this week! His hair, even when not so overgrown, totally has a mind of it’s own, and 10 minutes under a stocking cap, which he wears daily for a multitude of reasons (mostly his), makes it even more wild.

UPDATED TO ADD: My friend Suzanne had her boys make Jack Henry a little encouragement video that is so cute…you have to go take a look at it!

Getting Ready…

Matt and I spent the major part of the weekend getting the house ready to go on the market, which will hopefully happen sometime in the next week or so. Here’s the breakdown:

Saturday, 6:54am: awakened by the boys. Might as well start the day.
8:15am: kindly ask Jack Henry to not sit on that box of wine glasses that mommy just packed. Shake box. No rattling – good sign.
9:30am: leave the house with all 3 boys in tow; head to Krispy Kreme for their Saturday morning ritual.
9:47am: the entire family is eating fresh-off-the-line donuts. This makes Luke really happy. Because we feel like we should still buy something and not just eat the free donuts, we buy a dozen.
10:25am: drive the kids by the new house! See a little boy playing outside a couple of doors down in the cul-de-sac. Potential friend for the boys?
10:40am: arrive at storage unit, where we’ll be keeping some of our treasures until we move into our new house. Find out that the computer is down in the office, and wait, and wait, and wait while the dude behind the desk tries to get us all signed up (nevermind that I’d actually reserved our storage unit online a couple of days prior).
11:08am: shoot daggers out of my eyes, as the children are nearly to lose their minds with all the waiting. Condone the game they’ve created, which is picking up the granules of ice-melting salt off the carpet of the showroom (I know, eww. But seriously. They were nearly to claw out each others’ eyes.)
11:20am: finally get our storage unit! Boys think it’s really cool. I think it looks like a garage.
12:35pm: after a quick lunch of fruit for the boys to counteract some of the donut action, we head to Zach and Michon’s, where the boys will be spending the next 26.5 (but who’s counting) hours.
1:15pm:Hayley arrives at Z&M’s to babysit all 4 boys for a while as Z&M have a work event for the afternoon. Jack Henry greets her fondly with a “no, no, no, no.”
1:25pm: leave the boys at their house with a box of Krispy Kremes. Sing Hallelujah chorus.
2:15pm: after an errand, get home and get to work. Spend next 6 hours moving boxes to storage (Matt and our friend Mike) and spackling, sanding, painting, scrubbing, packing and vacuuming (me). Hayley joins me for a little painting.
8:15pm: Matt convinces me to go to El Maguey for dinner. I agree reluctantly, as I look pretty rough, but I’m hungry.
8:35pm: Seated at our table. Next to a couple (him – 50ish, Caucasian, and her – 30ish, Filipino) who finds it necessary to LOUDLY discuss /argue their finances (I know what he made in 2008, and what his house is worth), vacations (he’s a good dad, darn it, and he should get to go to the Philippines this year with her), and his ex-wife and the bone-head agreement he made in court. Good times.
9:15pm: Gluttony, pure and simple. We both majorly overeat. Probably emotional eating as we tried to deal with our neighboring table couple’s marital issues.
9:30pm: Briefly consider painting again, but decide against it as I’m feeling too fat and I’m not sure I can get up and down off the step-ladder. Pack some dishes instead, clean the glass in the house, and do laundry. There’s lots to do tomorrow…

Sunday, 9am: go to church. Hold babies in the nursery.
11:00am: Put on painting clothes again. For the next 3 hours, Matt moves more stuff to storage, and I paint (MUCH more painting than I’d planned). Hayley and her friend Hannah arrive to help out, and we get lots of little stuff done.
3:30pm: Matt gets home with the boys, who are wiped out from their fun weekend.
5:40pm: (this is no joke) Jack Henry goes to bed for the night, and we head out to small group.

The timeframe, at this point, is a little up in the air but I hope that the house will be officially on the market by this weekend. The next step is to have a photographer take pictures for the website. And for me to get some sleep.

That’s One Way to Solve a Problem

Yesterday morning, Jack Henry’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Laptop stopped working, and he called out to me, “Mom! Batt-ees!” Bennett confirmed that yes, indeed, the batteries needed to be changed, and that he wanted to be the one to do it.

I let him go to the kitchen and match up batteries to find the size he needed, and I guided him through how to put the new ones in. Jack Henry assisted with putting the little plastic cover on the back, and we were set! Except we weren’t. The toy wouldn’t work. I looked all over the place for some kind of on/off switch (other than the one we were using) and didn’t find one.

So I tried another set of new batteries. Still wouldn’t work.

I got out a talking Lightning McQueen toy, and replaced the batteries in it to make sure that our batteries weren’t bad, and they weren’t. So I tried THOSE batteries in the laptop. Still nothing.

I finally told Bennett that I would try to find the manual (which I don’t think I kept, as this is not a complicated toy) in our file cabinet or online. While I was doing that, Bennett walked into the office with a huge smile on his face and the laptop working.

“Mom!” he said. “I fixed it!”

“What did you do? Did you find a hidden switch?” I asked.

“Nope! I sitted* ** on it!”

Of course then I questioned whether he’d sat on it with the intention of that making it work, and he confirmed that he did. I thanked him for his ingenious effort, but asked that he please not sit on other things that aren’t working before checking with me first!

*Note to self: teach him the past tense of “sit.”
**On second thought, don’t teach him that. He won’t be saying it much longer, and it’s cute.

BIG NEWS!

After two days of waiting (impatiently) and lots of back-and-forth, we finally got a contract on our new house worked out!

We’re all really excited, as the boys saw this house with us on the first day we saw it (which, incidentally, was the house’s first full day on the market). Even Luke, for whom this move has a big impact, since he will be going to a new school next year (he’s getting a post all his own here when I can manage it), is happy. A thought just occurred to me though; it’s possible that they’re happy because finding a house means no more “let’s just drive by this one and see it” or “kids, we’re going to an open house!”

So now comes the really scary part for me: selling our current home. Yikes. We have accumulated a LOT of stuff in the last 6+ years, and while I’ve definitely been working on cleaning things out, anticipating that this time was coming, there is a lot of work to be done between now and listing the house, which will hopefully be soon. Ideally, we’d love to close on our new house and have time for wallpaper stripping (wait until you see one of the rooms!) and possibly a flooring change before we are living there.

Can’t wait to share pictures and our ideas for the house! I’ll get some snapshots when we have our home inspection done in the next couple of weeks.