It's About the Kids

It's midweek and the feeling of "slump" is in the air. Though there are a host of deep, profound, and I'm sure much more important things that could be talked about right now, I am going to boycott it all and do a Family Wagon Drive By. And by that I mean, I'm going to talk about my kids.

It's hard to think about much else today. It was wet, sleety, spitting and grey outside, which meant we were all INside making the most of our cozy little 3 bedroom apartment.

Let's begin with the Baby. She's not a baby anymore in my mind, really. Elsewhere I have written of how she has endeared herself to me in various ways during this past year, but today I must bemoan one of her more bothersome qualities. The girl is BUSY. This morning alone I found her: perched atop the boy's bunk-bed, about to fling herself headlong into the abyss below (mind you she has been working herself up to this by steadily climbing up and down the ladder each day, willing herself the strength and stamina to go one more rung per 24 hour time period), throwing away precious, classic hardcover editions of "Peter Rabbit" and "Flopsy Bunnies," dumping entire glasses of water all over her face, pounding away ferociously on our NEW laptop, playing with toilet brushes as if they were hair brushes, and turning on the shower head full force with piping hot water. I'm just saying, it makes it hard to get stuff done.

If you have children, maybe this sounds normal to you, kind of like a routine day with a 14 month old. But for me, I have been lulled into a stupefied state of motherhood by two very laid back, easy going man-children who could barely roll over at 9 months, considered attempting to crawl around 11, and finally thought it a worth-while pursuit to start joining the land of the hominid around a year and a half. They never ran away from me in public, weaned themselves quite nicely around 9-12 months old, and had somehow convinced me that our gene pool was a set recipe of "Mom can handle this" level of difficulty. Then this little female arrived and true to the state in which we received her (opting for the gender surprise this time around), we are running around like deer in the headlights trying to keep up with this girl.

I feel a little bad, neglecting to give the other two very much space in this entry. For the sake of not being exclusive I'll give you a little idea of what they are up to:

• Man-child #2 spends every morning, every moment before naps, every moment after naps, every few minutes before bedtime asking if in the NEXT moment when he wakes up he can put on shorts "just fow a wittle bit!" It is freezing and the kid is obsessed with nakedness.
• Man-child #1 spent no less than 2 hours after coming home from Pre-K changing his outfit from one ill-fitting, "it's not PERFECT" pair of pants to the next, pursuing the unattainable dream of looking, but especially FEELING just like Batman. Poor Robin waited in the wings for the full 2 hours until it was finally ready and then... it was naptime. 
• Man-child #1 printed and sounded out two letters to his two teachers, apologizing for his lack of listening skills yesterday (he was very sensitive to it... usually doesn't have a problem with this)
• Man-child #2 filled an entire plastic gallon bag with the smallest size Lincoln Logs, apparently to either store them away for next winter (since he hid them in the plastic food bin), or as a secret pirate loot of golden coins (since he later stored them in a plastic tupperware bin and climbed to the top of the bookshelf where it remains...)
• Man-child #2 was given permission to don the Red Vest  on a trip over to our neighbors. Highlight of his day I think.
• Man-child #1 had a very enlightening (what I was going for as I began my diatribe on works of fantasy and the Redemptive uses of our imagination) and in the end utterly confusing (what  I discovered was actually happening about 5 words into said diatribe) conversation with his mom about Aslan and God and the REAL. I need a different brain.

Hope this helps you feel more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-be up to date on our kids! My wonderful husband is away for the next week or so, which means I will either be awol for the next several days, or freakishly writing ineligible ramblings as I seek to connect with the outside world after countless hours spent with the worlds most delightful human beings under the age of 5!