Dean and Opossums

This past summer we had a opossum kill a few chickens.  One was Gimpy, our chicken with a deformed leg and an eye that didn't work, but the kids loved her.  Probably because they could tell her apart form all the other chickens and she was slow so they could easily catch her.  Then the opossum injured our rooster so bad he died from his wounds.  For months (not exaggerating) Dean would say with great sadness "Rooroo (rooster) died.  Possum kill him." and he would hang his head down and look so sad.  Sometimes he adds "He kill Gimpy."  Months went by with Dean talking about this all the time.  On day my friend's son said "We know the rooster died.  The opossum killed it.  Get over it already!"  I tried not to laugh.


Days later we caught the opossum in a trap and Brad killed it.  Brad sent me a picture for proof.  The kids saw the picture and Cecilia and Dean were fascinated.  They zoomed in to the details and Dean would ask for days to see the dead opossum and would show it to unsuspecting bystanders.  Dean doesn't like opossums but he enjoys seeing dead opossums.  He also gets great pleasure out of saying mean things about them.  He would even joke about eating one.  We were at my inlaws for dinner and my father in law cooked a pork tenderloin.  Dean hasn't been eating well and my mother in law told him it was opossum and that we were all having opossum for dinner.  He was so very excited!  He ate a ton of meat that night.  A few day later we were having corn beef and I told him it was opossum because I wanted him to try it.  He refused because "this is red meat and possum is white meat."  He talks so much about opossums that it is going to become his nickname.

The Night Dean Woke Everyone Up

Last Wednesday Vincent and Joel seemed to think that "no you can't sleep in my bed" meant sneak into Mommy and Daddy's bed.  They are getting big and while I can still move them it isn't easy.  Brad quickly volunteered to take Vincent's bed.  It is the newest mattress we have in the house, it is very comfortable and it is a full sized bed.  I like sleeping there too!

I squeezed in our bed between the boys and slept like a rock from 11:30 pm-3 am when Dean woke up screaming.  I brought him in bed with me and we snuggled for a bit.  He then loudly demanded his blankets, so I went up and grabbed them.  20 minutes later he demanded a glass of milk.  I begrudgingly complied because I wanted sleep and didn't want the other boys to wake up.  At that point Cecilia woke up and joined us in bed.  The boys sleep like a pile of puppies and Cecilia doesn't like anyone touching her.   It doesn't go well.  Dean was mad his blanket wasn't perfectly arranged over the top of him. He stole my pillow and was angry I had a blanket at all.  That arguing went on and off for over an hour.  At 5:30 I was at my wits end and brought Dean to Brad.  Dean was less than thrilled. At this point Joel wet my bed and Vince, Joel and Cecilia were all sort of awake.  I put a towel over the wet spot and left them all to go run on the treadmill.  It was the only thing that was going to save my sanity at that point.  None of the big kids fell back to sleep and I found them arguing in my room after my run.  However, Brad did manage to get Dean to fall asleep!  It was a very long day for me! I put a smile on my face for work and had the kids in bed by 8:30.  I was in bed by 8:45 and slept like a baby...well one that actually sleeps thru the night.

Cecilia's Creative Planning

I try to get the kids to pick out their clothes for the next day at night.  I put Cecilia to bed one night and she had no clothes picked out.  I went in to check on her before I went to bed and I found her clothes picked out and creatively arranged near her bed.

Dean and Cecilia Get Locked in Jail

Dean and I were lucky enough to tag along on Cecilia's class field trip to the Plainfield Police Department.  It was pretty cool!  They gave all the kids little deputy badges before they started the tour.  The kids are studying a unit on transportation so we were there to see vehicles mostly but also to get a tour.  We learned about taking finger prints and how they find fingerprints.  They showed us the van they used to transport evidence.  We saw a couple police motorcycles, a bicycle, two different police SUVs, and their special show 'n tell vehicle.  They showed us their indoor shooting range, gave us a tour of the jail cells (they let the kids go in one and they locked them in there for a minute or two.) and the kids each had their mugshots taken.  Most of the kids were smiling but one kid made a sad face and it was hilarious!

Dean seemed to have little too much fun running around the jail cell and hanging on the bars of it. Cecilia was surprised to find out that if you spend the night there you had to lay on the concrete bench.  It made an impression on her.  All the police officers we saw in the station were very nice and happy to talk to the kids.  One police officer explained what all the tools on his uniform were and what they did in preschool language.  It was entertaining to hear him explain a taser gun in a way preschoolers could understand and not be scared of.  He said if the bad guys were being mean to him he could use it to make them freeze.  I thought he did a nice job!  It was an interesting field trip and I learned a lot and Cecilia now thinks she wants to be a police officer.

Dean and his Crib

Dean's room is our master closet.  It is up a set of narrow and steep stairs in what should have been an attic but the people who built our house made it into a master closet.  Our clothes are up there, we store photos up there, the legos live up there and Dean's crib is up there.  He loves it!  Dean has been able to climb out of his crib for several months.  At first he only did it a couple times when he was really worked up in the middle of the night because I was returning him to his own bed and kicking him out of ours.  Or because I was making him take a nap and he didn't want to.  A month later it was happening more than I would like so I waited for him to attempt to climb out and yelled at him for trying to escape from his crib.  That lasted for nap time but after a month or so he started letting himself out of his crib in the morning.  He wouldn't even yell for us to get him, I would be in the shower and suddenly Dean would appear outside the shower door and start talking to me.  It really didn't bother me because he was waiting until morning.

When my other kids did this I just put them in a regular bed, but a baby gate in front of the door and solved my problem.  The other 3 kids don't fall asleep right away and there is usually some shenanigans after I put them to bed for the night.  While Dean can sleep through anything he can't fall asleep if he knows his siblings could be doing something fun.  He just doesn't want to miss out on the fun.  With school and busy schedules I really can't move Dean into a big bed downstairs with the kids, so when he refused to sleep in his bed a month ago I panicked.  I finally agreed to let him sleep on his crib mattress on the floor in his room.  He went right to sleep and was a good boy.  The problem is I don't want him to stumble and fall down the stairs and the way they are built I could put up a baby gate but he could still get down the stairs because of where the wall is vs where the stairs start.  When he climbs out of his crib he has to be fairly awake to be able to pull it off, awake enough that he can also maneuver the stairs.  That night I convinced Brad to help me move Dean back into the crib before we went to bed.  Dean's room has a motion activated light, so we had to crawl across the room, scoot the mattress close to the crib, carefully life sound asleep Dean and the mattress into the crib and lower it down evenly so Dean didn't roll off and our fingers didn't get pinched.  It was successful and we looked ridiculous.

A couple weeks ago Dean decided he was no longer sleeping in his brown bed (crib).  He wanted to sleep in his white bed.  We had no idea what that was.  After a lot of tears from a very frustrated Dean I figured out the white bed was his grey and green pack 'n play.  He tells me it is more comfortable than his brown bed.  So he now sleeps in there right next to the crib with his little pillow and his favorite blanket while his head touches one side and his feet touch the other.  He can climb out of there too, but he is happy to sleep in there and rarely climbs out during nap time or bed time unless it is morning and the sun is up.  As soon as school is out he is going in a bed and moving downstairs with the big kids.  Until then we are hoping he just keeps cooperating at bedtime and nap time.

Dog Class Graduate

Vincent is in 4-H this year and I convinced him to show our dog Pete.  I did a couple obedience classes with Pete and he caught on very fast and does well.  He is young and full of energy and outweighs Vincent, but I think it will work.  Our older dog Bristol is a fabulous dog but at 12 years old she doesn't really have any desire to listen to the kids unless they are feeding her or letting her in and out of the house.

Dog class practice

The class we went to was offered on Monday nights which meant for 6 weeks Vincent got off the bus, ate a snack, went to swimming, came home and ate dinner and then left for dog class.  It was a very busy 6 weeks and as much as I enjoyed having time alone with Vincent I am glad our Mondays back to a normal level of craziness.

Pete loves all of us but he keeps a close eye on me.  After the first week of class I wasn't sure that Vincent would be able to show him.  Pete would only look at me and not listen to Vincent if I was around when they were practicing.  By around I mean if I was in the house and they were outside Pete was looking for me.  I had to be off the property for it to work.  Not very conducive to Vincent showing Pete.  Over the next few weeks Pete quickly figured out that Vincent was in charge.  Pete began to listen to Vincent more and more.  Vincent did an excellent job following instructions during class and not letting Pete get away with anything.  By the end of the 6 weeks training class Pete would still glance at me like he was saying do I really have to listen to this kid?  I would give him the same look I give all my kids when we are in public and they are supposed to behave.


I will be interesting to see how the 4-H dog show goes.

Bus Incident

I drive the big boys to school every day.  They ride the bus home.  It is a 40-45 minute ride after school.  Most days Joel falls asleep on the bus and Vincent wakes him up when the bus stops at our house.  The other day the bus pulled up the the house and the bus doors didn't open.  The bus driver was talking to the boys.  When they got in the house I asked them what it was all about.  Vincent quickly told me that Joel was in trouble and the bus driver was going to write him up.  Joel wanted to laugh but knew he shouldn't.  Vincent was quick to tell me what happened.  The bus driver told the boys "Make sure you gather all your things." and Joel repeated what she said, but in a baby/minion voice.  She thought he was mocking her, he kind of was but he tells me he was pretending to be a bay.  I tried not to laugh and told him getting a write up wasn't a good thing.  He asked me what a write up was and I attempted to explain it.  We use the 1-2-3 Magic program in our house so I told him it was like getting a count and that 3 counts get you kicked off the bus.  I saw the wheels in Joel and Vincent's head spinning.  Neither one likes riding the bus home after school. I quickly added that if you get kicked off the bus you were walking home and it isn't a short walk.

A Great IEP Meeting

We are relatively new to the world of IEPs and the meetings that go along with them.  This is only our 4th year dealing with it.  I have sat in on 5 meetings at 3 different schools for Joel.  After the first meeting at the first school I was scared for my son's education and I basically told Brad we had to move into a new school district.  We moved a few months later.  The next two years with preschool IEPs was not a big deal.  The people were nicer than the first school district and the program was better and Joel was doing well so the meetings were not bad.  In kindergarten we had some issues and the very long 3 year review.  It was a new school, new therapists, new teachers and Joel was struggling to adjust at first.  Plus the teacher was reluctant to listen to my tidbits about Joel and his learning.  I don't blame her because I am sure many parents say the things I did about Joel listening even if he isn't making eye contact and Joel understanding but taking a long time to respond and a few other things.  I am sure parents make their kids out to be better than they really are.  She didn't know me yet and didn't know that I am honest about my kids especially when it comes to areas they need help in.  I don't blame her.  I have clients stretch the truth about their pets at appointments and say things like "oh they never bite" or "oh they would never get into the trash" or "they only get table scraps once a month" and most of the time I don't believe them.  Plus in kindergarten we had a therapist I wasn't impressed with.  It made for a long year, but Joel showed the teacher that what I said about him was true and she became a valued member of his team.

At the end of last year we found out one of Joel's therapists (one of the one's I liked) was retiring.  The one I didn't like was leaving, I was so happy! And with the disbanding of the special ed co-op we wouldn't know until the beginning of the school year who Joel was getting for therapists and a case manager.  I was a little worried.  I finally got to meet all of his therapists face to face at the IEP meeting.  All 3 seem to be wonderful people who truly like Joel, want to help Joel and appreciate his quirks.  Combine that with a teacher who is a really good fit for Joel and we have an all star team this year.  The IEP meeting was relaxed, friendly, and Brad and I really felt like they were all on Joel's team.  I walked out of there happy and not grumbling which isn't always the case after one of those meetings.  I told Brad that I wish we could keep that team for many years!  

Mission get Baby Belle back

Right before Christmas Cecilia had a sleepover at my dad's house.  She brought several of her "babies" with her.  She forgot most of them there.  With all the excitement with Christmas and New Year's she didn't notice.  Then toward the end of February she started missing them.  We went to my dad's for dinner and completely forgot to get the "babies."  Then Cecilia started asking almost every day about her "babies" and when we were getting them back.  Cecilia had a birthday party in Aurora for a couple hours this past weekend and I asked my dad what he was doing.  He was going to be at my sister's house just 25 minutes from the birthday party.  We made a plan for me to pick up the "babies" and meet my dad, sister, and nephew for a late lunch.  It was quick and a bit rushed, but it was fun to see them.  Dean was also with me and was Mr. Chatterbox.

Abram, Nanno, and Dean

Cecilia was so happy to get all her missing "babies" back and as soon as we got home she lined up all her favorite babies together since they had been missing each other.  It was so cute I left them there for 2 days.  I now know which ones are her favorites!

The Babies

A Nonfiction Library

One night when the kids were supposed to be going to bed Joel had an idea.  He can't always let his ideas go for another day no matter how hard he tries.  Unfortunately he is usually so enthusiastic about his ideas he drags at least one of his siblings into it.  So at 8 pm Joel decided he needed a nonfiction library.  He was going to go through all the books and get nonfiction books.  Vincent and Cecilia went into his room after I left and dumped out little storage boxes and made a nonfiction library on top of a dresser.

I was happy with the location because last time Joel made a library in his room he emptied clothes out of the 2 dressers in his room and filled them with books.  Clearly he got in trouble and to fix it he put clothes on top of the books.  It was a mess and annoying!



The day after they made the nonfiction library we were all instructed to checkout books and I was told which one I was allowed to get.  I am really glad they like books but I feel like a nonfiction library is unnecessary.  Seriously what 6 year old decides they need one of those!

A Picture From Joel

Joel came home from school after learning about Dr. Seuss all week with a picture.  The idea was to write about something he didn't think he would like but then he tried it and liked it.  Below is the picture.  It reads "I didn't like chicken but now I love it!!"

It took me a second but if you look he drew in his mohawk, or mohog as he calls it.  Then if you look in the after picture on the right side  you can see chicken feet sticking out of his mouth and he has a smile on his face.  I laughed so hard when I saw this.

Grandpa Craig's Birthday

I wasn't expecting Craig and Diane to be back in time to celebrate Craig's Birthday.  I had no gift.  I had no gift ideas.  I talked to the kids to ask them for their ideas and they had some rather creative ideas.  Many of which I wasn't so sure Grandpa wanted or needed.  The kids and I agreed that I would write down all of their suggestions and let Grandpa pick which one he wanted.  I wrote in a couple ideas of my own in so he could find something reasonable to circle.

What was on their list?  Here are a few.
1. Lizard that shoots blood out of his eyes to protect himself against predators
2. Puffer fish
3. Gold fish
4. The Unbranded book (Vince said that was more of a Grandma Present)
5. A Spy Chase Paw Patrol Book
6. A turtle
7. A tortoise
8. Apple Pie (I added that one.)

There was more but I can't remember them all.  Grandma decided he didn't want apple pie.  He wanted banana cream pie with homemade whipped cream on it like his mom used to make, but the bananas can't be brown.  I haven't the slightest on how to do that.  I have never made a cream pie or homemade whipped cream.  He thinks is sister Holly has one of the recipes, so I need to find time to stop by and see if she has a clue about what he asking for.


Joel is into Minecraft right now.  He wanted to make Grandpa a card.  He had me print a picture of a Minecraft Creeper and then he wrote "Happy Birthday Creeper!" on the paper.  Grandpa has no idea what Minecraft is so I had some explaining to do once he opened Joel's card.

The Center Circle...take 3

In the 3.5 years we have lived in this house I don't think we have ever had a time where something wasn't under construction or renovation.  We have a circle driveway with grass in the center and big rocks around the edge of the grass.  The grass area used to be larger, but then we needed the driveway wider so the bus could fit around the circle without getting stuck.  When we did that we had to remove the wood retainer wall they had around the center circle.  Brad then put in big rocks he found in other areas of the yard and cleaned up some of the shrubs and the ground cover that was in the center circle.  It took a long time.  Now a couple years later and we are talking about the center circle and what we are going to do with a couple of the ugly shrubs that are left and how Brad needs dirt to fill in a different area in the yard.  He mentioned stealing dirt from the center circle and I told him to take as much as he wanted I wanted the circle smaller so the driveway could be wider.  He went right to work and one of these days we will finish it. I keep voting to get ride of the area all together but there are 2 nice trees, a hydrant and some electrical things out there we can't disturb.  The circle will eventually be 1/4 of the size it started as 3.5 years ago.  The kids are looking forward to having more room to ride their bikes.

The half on the right side of the picture will be gone and part of the gravel driveway.

Saturday Silliness

Earlier this month Vincent and Cecilia had an idea.  They told us the idea.  We said it wasn't a good idea and it was bedtime.  And then Brad and I went along with the idea.  I am not sure if we were just too tired to fight it or if we kind of wanted to see how it all was going to work out.

They wanted to make a human pyramid with Dean on top and get a picture of all of us.  We attempted.   We put in good effort.  We tried a different way.  Mostly failed.  The pictures do it no justice because you can't hear the directing from the knuckleheads, the commentary and the laughter.  And just for fun the dogs thought they needed to help.   I have no idea why we agreed to this but I am glad we did.

No pyramid is complete without Super Hero Dean

Kisses from Pete

Dean jumped on me from the couch before Joel was on Brad

New technique. I was convinced Dean was going to fall and get hurt.

Attempting to look at the camera for a picture.

Dean is trying his best

Bristol comes to supervise

3 of us looking and only 5 of us in the dog pile

Pete watching us from the comfy couch wondering why his humans are so weird

I have no idea what is happening here

New game

Brad likes this pyramid best!

Grandma and Grandpa are back!

After being gone for 6 or more weeks my inlaws returned to Illinois the first week of March.  Just in time to enjoy some of the cold weather we were finally getting.  They missed out on all the unseasonably warm days.  My kids love all of their Grandparents, but since we are neighbors they get to see Diane and Craig a lot and going 6 or more weeks without seeing them made their return very exciting.  There were hugs, followed by 4 kids talking all at the same time very loudly and quickly and I am not sure Grandma and Grandpa completely understood any of them at first.  It then turned into who can show off more to get their attention and then settled down to normal craziness.  We are happy they are back!

They finally settled down enough to sit for a book

Dean getting some cuddles

Breakfast Dates

Brad and I rotate taking one kid out for breakfast on Sunday mornings.  They get to pick the place and we don't get to complain about it.  Although if they take us to the same place two times in a row they have to pick a different place next time.  Last time I had a date with Joel he didn't want to really go anywhere so we had a date in the garage.  We ate food we had at home that we both liked and we sat on the floor and talked and had fun.  We called it Restaurant de la Garage.  Joel really enjoyed it.  The other kids thought it was the coolest things ever!  When it was my turn with Cecilia a few weeks later she really wanted to have a picnic.  It was too cold for that so we sat in the back of the SUV and had breakfast.  The best part was that Brad was our chef and Vincent was our waiter.  They both did an excellent job and even served us drinks in real wine glasses.  Cecilia felt so special and truth be told so did I.  We didn't order anything special just grapefruit, toast and OJ.  We had a blast!  Vincent even gave us a bill and it said "2 kisses" was what we owed.  My grandparents often have Sunday brunch.  They are wintering in California so we sent them a picture of our Sunday breakfast with our fancy glasses.

We are hoping Brad and Vincent will request a restaurant when it is their turn for a date so we can be their chef and waiter.

Riding time

Sunday we took the horses over to the arena to let the kids ride.  They like to ride the pony but I prefer them to ride her alone in the area, on the deep sand, with no trees to crash into and their helmets on.  Buttercup is not a bad pony but it has been a month or more since she was actually ridden and I wanted a soft landing for the kids.  She is supposed to be our confidence builder.

Joel and Buttercup

Vincent and Ollie

Brad brought Ollie and Peter Pan over to ride too.  I wanted Brad to work on Peter Pan and test him out a little.  Peter Pan was a perfect angel and acted like he had been ridden yesterday when in reality it has been months.  Hopefully he will be that good on the trail too.  Ollie is always an angel and the kids all love riding him.  Buttercup we worked a bit before putting Joel on.  He was adamant that he wasn't going to trot bareback and I told him that was fine.  Buttercup started trotting because she was trying to get away from Ollie, trotting turned to bucking and Joel managed to stay on.  He was scared but pretty proud of himself.  He yelled at me and told me "you see I told you I don't trot bareback!" Then he took a lap around the arena on her with me 5-6 feet away at all times, because she tends to walk slower if I don't walk close to her side.  Ollie passed up Buttercup.  Buttercup started jumping and bucking.  Joel didn't stay on and ended up with a very small bloody lip where he bit himself when the pony was trying to dump him.  He wasn't happy with the pony and either was I, so I rode her around the arena a bit to see what she would do. She was very good for me, but I was probably too big for her to even try bucking off.  I looked ridiculous.

Ollie following a little close to Buttercup...this was seconds before the bucking started

Brad made Vincent ride Peter Pan.  Peter Pan is a good horse and I truly think Vince will like him and want to ride him some day.  But for now Vincent is afraid of him and he sort of has a reason.  I mean the horse had laid down twice with kids on him (never Vincent) but that is it, no bucking, no kicking, no spooking.  A horse laying down when you are riding it is scary, so it is going to take Vincent awhile to trust Peter Pan again.  There were some tears, but Vincent rode Peter Pan around and seemed to like him.  Vincent won't admit that anytime soon though!

Joel and Dean and the goat.  Cecilia was there too, but my phone died and I didn't get very many pictures.

And just for fun when the kids weren't riding they were playing with a goat.  Joel even put a helmet on the goat.  I don't think we ever got a picture of that.

Grout

A couple weeks ago I was getting after Vincent and Cecilia to start behaving and told them instead of time outs they were going to have to clean the grout in the kitchen with toothbrushes if they got to a count of 3.  Counts are what you get in our house if you misbehave.  Counts 1 and 2 are like a warning and 3 is a time out.  Some of the kids like time outs more than others.  Sometimes I let them do hard, boring, jobs I don't want to do like clean baseboards instead of serving a time out.  It usually takes longer than a time out but often they prefer a job.  They both ended up on a 3 but it was at bedtime and I wasn't about to start a grout project then.  The next day after school they reminded me about their punishment, I had forgotten.  I wanted to be a good mom who follows through on everything so I pretended that I remembered and sent them to look for toothbrushes so I could quickly look up how to clean grout on Pinterest.  Lucky for me we had all the supplies in our house so it looked like I was prepared and knew what I was doing!

Working hard.  If you look close to the cabinets on the right you can see how dirty it was when we started.

All 4 kids started helping and Joel and Dean left 15 minutes into the project and went off to play.  Vincent and Cecilia worked for an hour and our floor in the kitchen looked amazing.  The problem is that we have the same flooring in the kitchen, dining room, powder room, laundry room, front entry and both kid bathrooms and all rooms are connect by a hallway with the same flooring.  All the other tile in the house now looked disgustingly dirty because the grout in the kitchen was so clean.  It was amazing, I kept walking in there staring at the floor.  I had never seen it that clean, even the day we moved into this house. 

Vince and Cecilia, my great helpers

That night we did the kitchen.  Friday and Saturday we tackled the dining room and the hallway from the kitchen to the powder room.  The kids started on the powder room but didn't get very far.  It was actually fun because you could see the difference you were making almost instantly.  Plus Vincent and Cecilia took turns working on it the whole time with me so we could talk and spend some quality one on one time together.   And when they weren't around to talk to I was able to catch up on some online sermons I like listening to.  It is a little daunting to think about getting to the rest of the floors, but if I keep handing out counts with the punishment being cleaning the grout we should get it all done by the time summer starts!  Bonus is the kids really can do everything but the clean up by themselves so I don't really need to supervise too much.

Reading Buddies

Joel's reading skills have really improved in the last couple months.  Just the last couple weeks he is voluntarily reading books in English to us.  He was doing really well reading in Spanish and he refused to read to us in English, and this past week he has been bringing books to us and reading to us!  It is amazing!  Sometimes when he does his reading homework or wants to read to me I can't just sit there next to him and listen.  That sounds bad and neglectful but the kids get home around 4:30 and they get ready for bed at 7:30.  That leaves 3 hours for dinner, homework, playing and any after school activities we have.  I am on my own many nights and can only help with so much homework while I cook dinner and manage the kids (aka keep Dean out of trouble).

Now when Joel needs to read a book I keep him in whatever room I am working in (usually the kitchen) and either Dean or Pete sits by him while he reads.   I am close enough to help with hard words but I can keep us all mostly on task.  Dean usually stays pretty interested in the books and Joel points out every detail in every picture to Dean.  Joel is reading in Spanish most of the time but Dean doesn't seem to care.  I give Pete the stay command and he sits very nicely near Joel "listening" to the book.  Every time Joel says "El Fin" or "the end" Pete gets up and walks away and finds me.  Usually there are multiple books that get read at a time so Pete has to be told to go back and sit down.  I think he is starting to think "the end" means he is finished with his sit-stay.

The other day Vincent found a book and wanted to read it to all of the kids so he told them all to get on the couch so they could see the pictures while he read.  They looked so adorable all reading together!  

Wanna Be Awesome!

Dean was running around the house with a small laundry basket on his head proclaiming he was some sort of superhero.  He was using a tongue depressor as his sword and dancing around.  He was pretty sure he was the coolest thing ever.  Brad was in the house for lunch and told Dean he was looking good.  Dean took off and came back with a laundry basket for Brad and held it out and said "Wanna be awesome?!"  Like any good parent would Brad put on the laundry basket, Dean got him a sword and they both danced around because they are awesome!

Brad and Dean being awesome!

New Haircuts

For several months Vincent has been wanting to put gel in his hair to make it stick up.  I try to explain to him that his haircut and his hair can not be helped by gel.  Then he was on a Mohawk kick.  He kept talking about them but never directly asked for one and I kept pretending like I didn't hear him talking about it.  Sunday night I told the boys to line up because they all were in desperate need of hair cuts.  I can do one haircut and that is a simple buzz cut.  It is fast and it is easy and they all look good in it.  We vary the length depending on what they are feeling like but that is the extent of my creativity with their hair.

I chickened out half way thru and made Brad take over.

Sunday Vincent asked for a Mohawk and I really had no good reason to say no.  I started to give him a Mohawk and then realized it was going to look stupid if it wasn't centered and an even width and I did not plan ahead at all.  I was getting nervous about the whole things so I handed the clippers to Brad.  He has cut the boys' hair less than 5 times.  I have been cutting it since Vincent was 2, but I didn't want to be responsible for them looking ridiculous and Brad had a Mohawk as a kid so he had more experience than me. 

Several days later and he still loves it!

Vincent easily convinced Joel to get a Mohawk but Dean was not an easy sell.  Dean was adamant that he was not getting a Mohawk just a regular big kid haircut.  At least someone around here doesn't cave to peer pressure!

I never ever thought I would be a parent who would let their kids have a Mohawk.  I laugh when I look at them for that very reason and the fact they look like tough kids and they really aren't.  I don't know how long this phase will last but Joel has mentioned he wants his name cut into his hair like his friend.  I can tell you the mohawks are growing on me and I do think the kids look kind of cute with them.

Joel still loves his hair!