A Couple Stories For The Books

• Riley, Wyatt, Ben and I are sitting at the dinner table and Ben gets this great idea to put his food in his mouth and then spit it back out again on his plate.  Ben has this way about him that, when he wants to, can make just about anything funny.  So of course Riley and Wyatt start laughing.  I'm trying to hold mine in.  So he does it again and again.  I look at Riley and Wyatt and say to them, "Stop laughing at him.  He thinks it's funny so he keeps doing it.".  Riley pauses for a minute then looks at me and replies, "But he is kind of funny mom."  How do you argue with that???  I just waived the white flag.

• Yesterday I go downstairs and poke my head in the kids room where they are playing.  "Whatcha guys doing?" I ask.  Wyatt informs me as he sits at the table drawing and Riley and Ben are lying on the beds, "We're playing house.  I'm the dad and I'm on a VERY important phone call.  The mom is dead.  Riley is the daughter and Ben is the baby."  I say, "Oh, well that's sad." when he tells me about the mom.  Then he goes on to say, "Yah. (with a "whatever" shrug to his shoulders) My name is, well actually, I don't have a name. but I'm on a VERY important phone call."  "Ok.  Maybe your name could be ........ Bob?"  "Yah.  My name's Bob."  I walk out of the room and he yells after me, "Actually my name is Pecker and I'm on a VERY important phone call."  "Pecker?"  "Yah, Pecker."  It's a good thingI wasn't in the room with him anymore because he was very serious about the whole thing.  I don't think he would have appreciated the laughter on my face.  Where does he come up with this stuff?

Spaghetti Dinner

First of all I want to thank the Chicago Youth for hosting the spaghetti dinner.  The food was good, but the company was better.  You can't beat hanging with friends/family and catching up with old friends.  We had such a great time.  Now for the stories...

Collin: Uncle Scott made Collin cry.  Not cool dude.  (In Uncle Scott's defense Collin had just woken up.)  Collin got his cries out on Uncle Scott and proceeded to be a willing participant in "pass the baby".  Everyone seemed to be a bit smitten by him.  Take him peeps - He's all yours.  I promise you'll be returning him by the end of the day.

Wyatt: I actually had to tell him, "Don't lick my toes!"  Gross.  He did make a new friend today, Brayden, and they were playing cars under our table, hence why he was so close to my toes.

Ben: Cherise took Ben over by Gregg to get his nuk.  Gregg says to Ben, "If you want your nuk you have to do a trick.  Dance for me."  Ben, "No."  Gregg, "Fist pump."  Ben, "No."  Gregg finally throws up the white flag and gives Ben his nuk.  Then he turns around.  Ben, "Hey Ree."  (Ben's nickname for Cherise.)  Ben proceeds to shake his booty followed by a fast turn (Ben's way of dancing.) and then laughs.  What a butt!

Riley: When we got in the car to leave and  Riley was having a real hard time buckling her seat belt.  She was getting really frustrated.  "I can't do it mom!!"  "Yes you can."  I moved Collin's seat over a little bit to give her more room to find her buckle and she got it.  Then she sang a song, "Mommy helped me buckle my seat belt. NOT!"  Real nice.  

I sum this up by saying that it was so nice to have dinner with my dad and the kids.  It was wonderful to see the smile on Michael's face all night long while working with the youth.  It was great to hear Alex's laugh through the open windows as we walked into church.  How great to sit and talk about vacation plans with Aunt Heidi.  And finally I have to give big props to our waiter Nathan Pusch.  Your hospitality was fabulous.  We wanted for nothing.  He even went the extra mile and tried to help Wyatt figure out the best way to east his spaghetti.

Precious Children

Yesterday I made a Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake. (From a Box.  Don't be to impressed.)  As the kids are eating a piece for dessert Riley's already trying to get another piece.  I suggested maybe we leave some for daddy when he comes home.  Her response to this was, "Maybe Daddy would like to leave some for his precious children."  

When they woke up this morning Jason said to Riley and Wyatt, "Hey kids, I have something for you."  Both of them jumped off the couch and ran into the kitchen super excited!  Jason had saved some cake for them.  



Benjamin and Bee

We have a new member in our family.  Ben has adopted "Bee" as his baby.  I'm still not sure if I should refer to it as a he or a she.  Bee looks more like a she to me, but I was corrected by Wyatt.  "Bee is a HE Mom!"  Ok then. 

Ben and Bee do everything together.

They eat together at every meal.

They lay together.

They dance together.

They swing together.

They get haircuts together.

And last, but not least.  (I promise you.)  They sleep together.  Ben tells Bee "Ni, Ni Bee".

Correction: Ben sleeps and Bee keeps an eye on him. 

Not gonna lie - Bee kind of creeps everybody else out though.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Oh my...  You would have thought it was prom night at our house tonight.  For the past week it's all we have heard about, it's all anybody has heard about.  When we first found out about the dance Jason decided to make it a whole night event and go out to dinner with Riley first and then the dance.  He asked her where she would like to go and she said, "McDonald's!"  Jason, "No, where else?"  Riley, "Taco Bell?"  Jason, "No Riley, a nice restaurant."  Riley, "Ahhh, I know!  Lobster Tails!"  And so it was set.  Red Lobster and then the dance. 

She got home from school today and hopped right into the bath.  Washed up.  Went downstairs and put on her Sunday best.  There were some options put out there about how to do her hair.  We wrested between dots, side dot, or side ponytail.  In the end we went with a side ponytail braided.  Then she picked out the perfect earings.  Finally a little glitter eye shaddow and some red chapstick.  She was ready for the ball. 

Before Jason had even started getting ready she was already planning her dessert.  (Nannie would be so proud.)  Then daddy got dressed in his Sunday best and they were off.  More talk of dessert was made on the car ride to the restaurant.  Then when they got to the restaurant there was (according to Riley), "two big piles of lobsters..  Not even dead..  They even still had their heads on."  Daddy and Riley enjoyed their lobster tails and for dessert chocolate chip cookie oozing yummies from the inside topped with delicious ice cream. 

The dance was great.  I received a text from Jason and it said, "I was told not to dance with her.  She wanted to play with her friends."  Followed by a crying face.  Riley did the limbo twice and then told daddy to get out of line.  She ran around with her friends skipping, laughing, and just soaking up the night.  By the time they walked in the door both had smiles across their faces from ear to ear.  A true night to remember.

No worries - It's not the stomach flu!

I went grocery shopping today while my cousin Cherise watched the kids.  I came home and saw that the empty prunes container was laying on top of the recycling bin because the bin was full.  So I changed the bag and didn't think anything of it.  Later in the evening I gave the kids a bath.  Riley took the first bath and Ben hopped in with her.  After she was done he decided to stay in and take a bath with Wyatt.  I go in to wash up Wyatt.  Just after I put the shampoo in his hair and he starts suddsing up his body Ben farts.  Only he didn't just fart, he sharted.  A brown cloud starts to form around him in the tub.  Ben just looks at it and starts saying, "Ewwww".  I pull Ben and Wyatt (with shampoo still in his hair) out of the tub.  Ben starts whining and pointing to his butt.  I yell to Riley to get me a diaper quick!  We get the diaper on him and he seems happier.  I put Wyatt's head over the tub and rinse his hair.  Wyatt actually almost jumped back in the tub to get washed off.  GROSS! 

A few minutes later you can hear the water coming from Ben's back side.  Riley starts busting out laughing so hard I thought she was going to wet herself.  This happens another time or two and were finally done.  I go to change his diaper and there is brown water flowing all over the place.  He is laying on a towel on my bed and it is flowing off the towel and onto my blankets.  The kids just think this is hysterical.  I'm yelling at them so they can hear me over their laughter to get me a poop bag.  Then I'm yelling again because one bag just wasn't enough. 

As this is happening I think back to the empty container of prunes that prompted me to change the recycling bin.  I wanted to make sure Ben didn't have the stomach flut so I text Cherise and ask, "How many prunes did Ben eat today?"  She calls me back because as soon as she read it she's thinking, "I forgot to tell her about that with my crazy afternoon with the kids."  Apparently she walked into the kitchen to find Ben's mouth so full of prunes that she wasn't sure how he was even chewing them.  Then I told her that the container was probably 1/2 full and she just starts busting out laughing.  That's some funny shit right there!

Don't worry Cherise - Someone once gave Riley the container of prunes to snack on when she was little and the same thing happened to her.  Only when it hit Riley we had just got to my in-laws house and we were sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner.

Wyatt's World

Across the street from us the neighbors have a truck topper in their front yard (classy - I know.)  Yesterday Wyatt went out to the bus, saw this, and told me that the truck sunk into their yard and they can never drive their truck again.

Then this morning we opened a new pack of hangers and one was broken.  I asked Wyatt to put it in the recycling bin and instead of doing that he got the duck tape, took it to his daddy, and asked him to fix the hanger.  Duck tape really is the first tool a guy learns to use.