The Goodness of Gardening

Hubby and I are both longing for a garden these days. (Am betting our neighborhood deer and black bears would love it too.) This desire is born out of so many things, from a desire to feed our family and others around us fresh and healthy foods, from the rising cost of produce especially organic stuff, from watching too many movies like Food Inc, from a desire to teach our kids about where our food comes from and how to work the land for it... etc.

Today we visited Mimi's community garden plot, where roughly 30 members of the local community have applied for and earned the right to plant and care for a small spot of soil. The plots were only about 5x10 feet yet beautifully abundant - it was amazing to see what all is being grown on this loved land.

Among the wonders of being outdoors and caring for land is the positive affect it has on the boys. Not only is it always a great opportunity to learn, but put them to work and give them a mission ("Let's water the plants and find the fruit and veg that is ready to be picked!") and I rarely see conflict, arguments, or pestering. They are too busy watching a half dozen butterflies land on the flowers, delicately picking up the carcass of a molted cicada, checking out the droopy sunflowers to see if they can see its heavy seeds, looking at the baby watermelon growing in the neighbors plot, and searching for biggest cucumbers ready to be picked.

I love the "outdoor curiosity" and wonder of my kids and would love to give them a garden of their own to care for and watch grow! Maybe someday. First I need to work on my "green thumb"....

Herb Hope

I may have some talents but growing anything green is not one of them. When it comes to keeping plants alive, I fail miserably, time and again.

Because I absolutely love to cook, I have always, always wanted an herb garden. Periodically I get inspired to try again, so I purchase a half dozen herbs and lovingly take care of them for approximately 10 days, when they inevitably begin to look like this (actually, this is probably the most success I've ever had; I think these lasted 3 weeks):

Enter my Master Gardener mother-in-law, and my inspired little gardeners who are convinced that if Mimi can grow an herb garden, we can. Last time my MIL visited she and the older boys bought and planted these lovely, gorgeous herbs. I couldn't help but look at them sadly, knowing that this is the greenest and healthiest they'd ever look.

But with reminders from the boys to water the garden, lots of cutting back of herbs, and the help of some organic insecticide stuff, I am happy to report that my herb garden is alive! The dill died and the cilantro succumbed to the Florida heat (or something like that), but the basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme are thriving! We've also got a tomato plant, being taken care of by my husband, that is growing tall and nearly ready to produce our first tomatoes! Yeah!

You can tell I'm nutso about using all the herbs, because as excited as the kids are, Tadpole did see me head out to the herb garden with my scissors a few days ago and said to me, "Mom, are you cooking with basil AGAIN tonight?"

I love my fresh herbs!

Toothbrush Time

Toothbrushing time at the end of the night is like the final (sometimes) chaotic hurdle before bed. If nothing else, it is comedy and complete "boyness" as the kids start getting wild using their toothbrushes as weapons, spitting everywhere (they finally have a legit reason to spit), and flooding the floors. I must must must video tape this one night.

Punk'd?

Had to take Quatro to the doctor today, so Hubby and I conquered and divided, and I took the younger two while he worked at home supervising the older two.

He may have had the easier job. :)

Quatro had woken at 5am, napped briefly on the 20-minute drive to the office, and was clearly tired... and wouldn't you know, it was the morning that the doctor was running not 15, not 30, not even 60, but NINETY minutes late.

Ninety minutes in a small waiting room with an active 2-1/2 year old toddler, and a newly-walking, can't-hold-me-down one year old.

I really, really wish I had started snapping photos early on in this adventure. I would have photographed Quatro accidentally pulling over an oversized one of those wire rollercoaster moving type of toys (pictured right) on top of himself and crashing to the floor (he giggled; he wasn't phased, but everyone in the waiting room gasped and held their breath)... and lovable Cubby repeatedly trying to embrace a guy in the waiting room who clearly was NOT amused... and Quatro picking up the in-reception phone and babbling into it (I honestly could have sworn it was an unplugged dummy phone, but later realized it was not)... and Cubby throwing a mini tantrum when I took away the baseball book that he kept chucking across the room... and Quatro high-tailing it to the main office door so fast that I didn't have time to move him away before, wouldn't you know, that second the door flung open as another patient came in, thus bonking him squarely in the forehead... and Cubby trying desperately to lovingly "whack" a calm little seven month old baby...

By the time we finally got ushered to our own exam room, the boys were still being good, but were understandably beyond restless. At least we had a change of scenery.

And speaking of scenery, the exam room boasts ceiling to floor windows that moment- arily take your breath away when looking down from five floors up. My kids LOVED them and showed no hesitation or fear, but decided to pound repeatedly on them. I could not keep them away. It drew them like magnets. And it had me completely nervous the entire time.

Quatro, who is proving to dislike any time of confinement, found that he could reach the door handle exiting the exam room, which naturally I would not allow him to do. Pictures are better than my description here. The sweet love, he was just so antsy, I wish he could have understood that he simply had to stay inside the room to play. Sigh.





The boys also found the doctor's swirly whirly chair to be immeasurably amusing. Round and round and round, until Cubby flung off in a dizzy twirl and the legs of the chair rolled right over Quatro's bare feet. At some point during this swirling the doctor FINALLY walked in, apologizing profusely (I do love this doctor, he was just attending to some especially sick kids today), and since his chair was occupied, sat in a little patient chair to chat with me.

Thankfully, in all seriousness, the health reports for Quatro were generally positive and showed some improvement, and I would gladly sit through hours and hours of waiting rooms with any number of my children if it meant good health, a priceless gift.

Still, I DO wonder if I was being punk'd.

Mini Entrepreneur, Part 2

After the whole "I'm charging you for leaving your shoes out" episode the other night, I picked up my each pair, put them away, and thought it was all over.

How silly of me to think my Tadpole would forget. That kid has an AH-mazing memory.

Tonight as I snuggled up to him before bed, he said, "Mommy, after we are done cuddling, look on the table. I left three tickets there for you." [Remember, I left three pairs of shoes out.]

"Here's what you have to do. Take the tickets, put them on my desk - mine is the one in the fun room, where I do all my art projects - and leave money on them. You can either leave a penny, or a dollar bill."

I don't know what's funnier to me, the whole entrepreneurial thing, him not letting it go, or the tickets themselves, complete with four-year-old spelling and drawings of my shoes on them:

High Strung, Anyone?

Noise. I live with a lot of beautiful noise from beautiful boys. But, as anyone would feel, it grates on me after awhile. Often times in the evenings I don't turn the TV on or call friends because I want to enjoy the quiet and stillness.

The other night Hubby and I escaped for some beloved sushi, leaving the kids with my MIL. We walked into the restaurant less than 30 minutes from leaving the house, so I suppose I hadn't quite decompressed yet.

While waiting to be seated I heard this loud, regularly patterned "bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk" noise and immediately the hair stood up on my arms and I thought, OH MY, where is that supremely annoying sound coming from?!!

I turned to see it was simply the sushi chef chopping food.

Yeah, I think I need to just chill out.

Mini Entrepreneur

When Hubby was around eight, he changed his name from his given name to a nickname. In order to force his parents on board with this switch, he decided to charge them for every time they called him by his given name. So relentless was he that they finally adopted his nickname. I'm not sure how much money they actually lost in this process. Ah, a persuasive young entrepreneur at eight, and the man is still an entrepreneur. And the man is still called by his nickname by everyone he knows except his grandma.

Seems that Tadpole is following in his Daddy's footsteps.

First let me say that while I dislike clutter and chaos in the house, I have a terrible habit of leaving my shoes all over. Everyone probably has something they spend ridiculous amounts of time hunting down in their house - keys, a purse, wallets, their watch... mine is shoes.

Often times I'll find them hidden in the kids' closets, lurking in the little-used living room, peeking out from under bean bags in the playroom, etc. And I'm lucky if I find them both.

Tonight while corralling the kids into their respective rooms for bed, I couldn't locate Tadpole. I finally found him in the Fun Room (that's what we call the play room) with these on his little drawing table:

I'm the only girl in the house so I guess I can't say they are someone else's shoes. Figuring he was up to something funny and harmless, I gave him five minutes to get into bed, and left to go cuddle with Tigger.

He arrived in his top bunk with several white slips of paper, which he explained to me when I crawled up to say goodnight to him, were "tickets" that I would be receiving tomorrow.

"Mommy, you will get tickets and I am going to charge you for every shoe of yours I find."

As an aside, where does he get this? Sure, the boy has always been on the neat end of things and is rather organized, but he's FOUR. And you should see HIS room. Stuff all over, and certainly his shoes are not all paired and lined up in HIS closet. Hmmm.

He went on to tell me, "I am going to charge you a quarter for the first shoe. And the second. The third one will cost you a dime. The fourth one will cost you... what's another kind... um, a nickel. And all the rest will cost you a penny."

I'm quick at math, and I knew how many shoes he'd lined up already, so I was busy calculating how much I would be out when he added, "I don't really care if you give me round money or you pay in cash!"

Needless to say, before crawling into bed with my laptop tonight, I have cleared the house of all of my stray shoes.

Buzzzzzzz

Recently, I estimated that it would cost approximately $12,960, give or take, to have the boys' hair cut over the course of the next 18 years.

$12, 960.

Should I first start with all the amazing things I could DO with that amount of money? Let's see. A tummy tuck is the first thing that comes to mind. Also, that would pay for a housekeeper twice monthly for the next several years. I could put it into a fund a buy a sports car by the time my kids were all out of the house.

As you may imagine, I decided I would learn to cut hair.

With the help of a few hairdresser friends, a great pair of scissors, some serious paying attention when I do take them to a real salon, and a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse videos on my computer, I have managed to do a semi-decent, socially acceptable job of giving my boys haircuts over the past few years.

Enter my husband making continuous suggestions about giving the boys crew cuts for the summer. "It's summer! You know what that means! Time for crew cuts!" Then, "I think you'd look great with a crew cut!" And, "Wow! Sometime you will be able to get a crew cut!"

Although I was a bit hesitant (hey, something to worry about while I was up in the middle of the night - could I pull off giving a crew cut? Would Tadpole LOOK ok with one?) I took a clue and asked the Hubby for clippers and suggestions. Thank goodness for the tutorials on Wikipedia, etc, these days, since I didn't get much in the way of advice. And the clippers, it turns out, are designed for facial hair removal, not necessarily thick, overdue-to-be-cut, little boy head hair removal, but how was I to know?

The crew cut took three times as long as my regular cuts. When all was done, I think it turned out well. All things considered, and that this was my first child's crew cut. Hubby did think that it needed a bit of touching up, and took him to his barber. So I got a few pointers on perfecting my buzz cutting for the next time.

Now all the kids want crew cuts. And I can see why... how adorable, handsome, and awesome is THIS:

Although, this kid would look adorable, handsome, and awesome no matter what haircut he had. :)

Quatro Turns ONE!

My little "baby" has officially turned one... sigh. It always amazes me how time flies by so quickly. People say it all the time soit sounds trite, but *blink* and was it not just his BIRTH day, one year ago. As he changes and grows and walks and learns new words, I can't help but mourn the loss of his babyhood just a wee bit.

I'll also now officially be retiring the "I Am One" shirt. It has served us well! Just £12 for that cute long sleeved tee that has shrunk and acquired stains over the past four years as first Tadpole, then Tigger, then Cubby celebrated their first birthdays wearing it. That one definitely goes in the keepsake box!

Here is my sweet boy eating his first chocolate cupcake and enjoying every moment of it. Happy first birthday, Quatro!

Excitement du jour...

We were getting ready for a swim yesterday afternoon when it started getting all weird in the sky; no rain, just super dark clouds and swirling whirling wind. We have these massive oak trees in the yard surrounding the pool area, and I felt a bit nervous. I mean, it was windy, and suddenly. As I watched the sky, I announced that we were not going to hang out in the lanai area, as I was a bit nervous about a branch or tree crashing down on us. My MIL later admitted she thought I was a bit cooky, worrying too much...

As I held the baby and corralled the boys in through the door into the garage area, we heard a loud bang. Instead of opening the garage door, MIL suggested we take a peek outside the guest house front door, and wow were we surprised to see this completely blocking the door and the view outside:

The boys were SOOOO excited. Uh....... I was more fearful, wondering what the heck had happened and what if any damage had been done. Time to investigate further. I opened the main garage door, furthest from the guest house door, and were we ever surprised to see that a half dozen huge branches had fallen in front of the guest house and the third garage door.


Imagine a bunch of little boys, who absolutely love trees and excitement, seeing massive branches down in front of the yard. Realizing of course that everything was fundamentally ok (thank God, really... it could have so easily landed on the house), they started winding up. "Mom! Check this out!" and "Can we climb it?" and "We gotta get a chainsaw and hack that thing up!" and "Hey! Let's crawl inside of there!"


So this morning, my wonder-parents arrived with chainsaws in hands to start chopping and bundling the tree. The boys were out there bright and early, even before breakfast, eager for the project to begin. And it was done in no time, thanks to the expertise of Baba and help from his crew which included Nana, the boys, and Papa.

Happiest Kid Ever

Honestly, as if Cubby is not already the Happiest Kid Ever... get him together with his beloved Baba and he is - if it's possible - even happier.

We went to Tadpole and Tigger's spring program at school, and Cubby got to sit in Baba's lap the whole time. Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy. And happy makes for an even more adorable kid.

What is not documented in pictures here is this: the barely touched plate of dinner Cubby left prior to racing off to the program, or the chocolate-smeared face of a content little boy after Baba gave him cookies.

Lots of cookies. So many that I think Baba lost track counting how many Cubby ate. No wonder he and his Baba get along so well.

It Doesn't Get Much Cuter...

...than a preschool spring program. Even funnier, I still think, is the unbelievable amount of filming and photography that occurs during these things. It's a wonder the kids perform under all that attention. Wait a minute, it's probably a given that they do.

Anyway, here are two of my favorite, laugh out loud clips from Tadpole (4s and Kindergarden) and Tigger's (2s and 3s) programs this year. AH-dorable.

Disclaimer: The crazy wacky video job is a result of trying to hold steady a camera with a wiggly, "confined" 11 month old in my lap.



TAKE ME OUT OF THE BATHTUB

Take me out of the bathtub
Take me out of the suds.
I've been here soaking since half past two
I feel so sudsy and wrinkl-y too.
Oh, I washed all over my body
My head my toes, in between
I used one, two, three bars of soap
Take me out......I'm clean!

Take me out of the bathtub
I'm stuck here with my toys.
Dumptrucks and squirters I think are great,
But I better take off my ro-o-ler skates.
'Cause each time I get up I wob-ble
I hold on, but it is a pain...
I tried once, twice, three times to stand
Better get a crane!




LET'S GO SWIMMING

Lots of little fish were sleeping on a rock
In the bottom of the ocean
They lifted up their heads
And they shook out their tails
And they said let’s go swimming

Let’s go swimming lets go swimming
Yeah let’s go swimming
Let’s go swimming let’s go swimming In the bottom of the ocean
Then the little fish got so very very tired
That they came back to the rock
And they put own their heads
And they put down their tails
And they took a little nap

And when they woke up
They decided to take a shower

So whey washed their hair
And they washed their ears
And they washed their tummies
And they washed their beards
And they washed their nose
And they washed their toes
And then they said

“Wait a minute, we’re fish!
We don’t take showers!”

Let’s go swimming let’s go swimming…
Then the little fish got so very very tired…

And when woke up
They decided to brush their teeth

So they got out their tooth brush
And their toothpaste
And they squeezed a little on
They tried not to waste
And they put it in their mouth
They brushed north and south
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch
And then they said,

“Wait a minute, we’re fish!
We don’t brush our teeth!:

Let’s go swimming lets go swimming…
Then the little shigh got so very very tired…

And when they woke up
They decided to ride their bicycles

So they rode to the left
And they rode to the right
And they rode all day
And they rode all night
They rode down the hill
And then faster still
And then they said,

“Wait a minute, we’re fish!
We don’t ride bicycles!”

Let’s go swimming…
Let’s go swimming…

A May of Milestones

It's been a month of milestones, of "wow, these boys are getting big!" events... so many that I haven't had time to blog about them all! Here are just a few of the fun things that have been happening.

Quatro is learning to walk! So far, in the month leading up to his first birthday, he has consistently taken 6-7 steps on his own. And lots of steps with the help of his brothers :)


Tadpole and Tigger finally got to bunk the beds that Baba made for them! Mommy was a wee bit nervous about this transition, but only one mishap so far when Tigger fell out of bed and bonked his nose in the middle of the night.






Tadpole and Tigger have also been swimming like FISH! After just a month of having the pool open, the boys went from floaties and splashing to jumping into the deep end and swimming to the edge by themselves. Here's a video from early in the month:


I can't find a picture of this, though I find it hard to believe I haven't taken one, but another fantastic milestone: Tadpole has learned to tie shoes! Yeah!!!! Amazingly enough, this bright kid picked it up in one short session of teaching. After showing him about 5 times, he successfully tied his own shoes, and has been tying them ever since. On Friday, their last day of school, I even witnessed him tying them for his brother Tigger. HOW CUTE. And, might I add, very helpful to Mommy!

Cubby's major milestones have been verbal! The kid's speech has skyrocketed, no pun intended for my rocket, airplane, Shuttle loving boy. Here he is counting down to launch, several times:




And speaking of rockets, the most recent Shuttle launch on 5/14 was beautifully seen from our house. We watched the countdown and first 15 seconds or so on the TV, then ran outside to our street where we saw the fire and contrail clearer than ever before. Check this out!

Church Playgroup

We've been doing playgroups with the preschoolers from church every week. With just four moms coming on a regular basis, we have 12 kids under 5 in the house! Pretty crazy, fun times, and the kids are developing some great relationships even at such a young age. Love it!

Laundry Breakdown

No, I didn't have a breakdown doing laundry...yet... (despite the fact that my mom, who typically helps me do much of it, isn't going to be here this week).

My friend Shannon and I were talking recently about the colors of our loads, which led me to pay attention to colors and do this analysis.

For the past week, here is my laundry breakdown:

1 load bath towels
1 load swim towels
1 load sheets
1 teeny tiny load red/pink
2 loads white
1 load black/gray
1 load green
2 loads navy/denim blues
1 load mid and royal blues
1 load light blues
1 extra large load sweet baby blues

I guess when you live with five boys, you do a lot of BLUE laundry!

Need to Get the Baby to Sleep? Try Beer!

Ok, I will write my disclaimer at the very top of this blog, as I know several of you are in panic over the title. NO I do not give nor condone giving a baby beer. Here is what I mean...

Just the other day, in church, Quatro was restless as all get out. He typically naps about 30 minutes around 9.00, and with church starting at 9.30 he doesn't get his nap in, nor does he want to nap once there. (At our church, the kids stay in service with us... no nursery.) So it wasn't surprising that he was so fidgety; he had missed his much needed nap, and it was now 10.30. All my tricks for getting him to sleep had failed. And I thought I was pretty good at these tricks, having had 4 babies now, and being Mom, you know. Nope. No snoozing.

I wandered toward the back of the church, where Quatro's godfather was standing. He said hi to the adorable fussy babe, and I mentioned that he was overtired. The Godfather (I had to write that) said, "Here, let me try." Of course, I, Mom, in my pride, handed him over but laughed, "Good luck!" Although he himself is a father of young kids, he is, after all, a GUY. Then I added, "If you get him to sleep within 10 minutes, I'll buy you a beer!"

Five minutes later I glanced over, and sure enough, the babe was zonked in his arms. I am certain (partly cuz he told me so) that The Godfather has tricks up his sleeve that are well-used with his own infant son, but I believe it has something to do with the mention of buying him a beer.

Here's why: it is not the first time I have thrown out the "I'll buy you a beer if you get BABY to sleep" line. I threw it out to a friend recently, and she got him to sleep. I said it a small handful of times to my nanny in London, and it worked each time. And once I said it to my mother-in-law about my ridiculously fussy baby Tigger on a long haul flight from Orlando to London, and lo and behold it worked then, in the time it took for me to go to the restroom and back.

Having said all this, I'm not sure I have ever actually followed through on buying said people a beer...

Bath Time

This is how a busy Florida mom "bathes" her kids during the summer!

The Sneezer

I love that my 10-month old Quatro cannot wave, walk, or talk... but he can sneeze on command. A long time source of great humor for the kiddo (from about 5 months he would hear someone sneeze and crack up), the sneezing humor has been elevated to a new level.

All Boy

Captured on film: a humorous scene from a day in the life of my testosterone-filled world. Really, I don't feel the need to elaborate; this picture certainly is worth a thousand words.

Tunnel o' Fun

My MIL gave us this tunnel for Christmas, and the kids love playing in it. I get a little tired of it being in the center of my family room all the time, so I let it hang out for a week or so and then hide it for a few weeks. When it mysteriously reappears, the boys go wild with excitement.

Here are Tadpole and Quatro hangin' in the tunnel o' fun. The crazy thing is, this was taken just prior to Quatro learning to crawl. Which begs the question, how did he get into the middle of it???!!!

Bottomless Pits

Not including the baby, here is what my 3 oldest boys (4, 3, and 2... remember) cumulatively ate for breakfast this morning:

-5 scrambled eggs
-4 pieces of toast
-1 big banana
-9 oversized fresh strawberries
-3 full bowls of cereal
-2 graham crackers
-1 quart (yes) of rice milk
-2 leftover pancakes from yesterday
-12 oz (approx) OJ

Seriously? Ok what in the world is going to happen to my weekly FOOD BILL when my kids are 14, 13, 12, and 11, for example? I honestly cannot imagine what I am in for! I will be at Costco twice a week!

Writing that made me hungry for a bowl of cereal...

Wacky Quacky

The time has come for me to say goodbye to our beloved inflatable duck bath, as baby Quatro has now officially outgrown it.

May seem like a simple thing, but this crazy wacky quacky ducky has been with us from Tadpole's first days, and has seen all four of my adorable naked babies get clean, squeal, splash, and learn to love the water. It has marked milestones of graduating from a baby tub to being big enough to sit up in a bath of their own, to being too little to contain them and ready for the real deal bathtub.

I suspect every mom has certain items that become the backdrop of memories of our precious early days as mothers. Most of the items we used daily will no doubt fade in their significance over time, as our babies turn into toddlers and beyond.

But I think some will stand out. The duck bath is one of those, for me.

Bye bye ducky!

My Zoo Animals

There are certain times when I want to embrace the littleness of my kids, bask in the joy of their creativity, and jump for joy at their brotherly love.

Like when they play zoo. I LOVE when my kids decide to play zoo together. Honestly, it is one of the cutest things ever.

It started back in London when Tigger was about six months old, just old enough to sit up in Tadpole's crib. It was, in fact, their endlessly fun nanny Michelle who helped create this activity, which is one of the rare activities that has become a tradition amongst them that they still periodically play today.

Zoo involves everyone piling into the crib - currently occupied by Cubby - along with loads of stuffed animals. They goof off, giggle, and generally amuse themselves for upwards of 30 minutes WITHOUT (and this is the kicker) annoying each other and fighting.

Seriously? In those increasingly cramped quarters, they play nicely together without pestering and hitting each other? Usually, yes.

I don't know what it is about their little game, but it's true - they love it, they love each other, and their actions prove it.

And it makes me completely melt with joy.

Sugar Anyone?

I'm so behind on blogging. Behind? Well, it's not like I have a goal or mandate to blog a certain amount. It's a good thing I'm not trying to make money, win friends, or influence people with my blogging. I'd be up a creek.

I digress. I keep meaning to post these pictures of the sugar overload we had on Valentines Day, all from simple Marshmallow Pops. My poor husband would faint. He despises marshmallows. I don't think I showed him the pops or these pictures. Needless to say, it was quite a "high-energy" afternoon. What was I thinking? Don't they just look nauseatingly sugary?