Nose

This conversation took place this week after Wyatt woke up from his nap

Me: Wyatt, where is the shirt that you had on when you went to bed?
Wyatt: I took it off
Me: Why?
Wyatt: Because.
Me: Because why?
Wyatt: Because it had nose on it.
Me: What's nose?
Wyatt: I wiped my nose on it so I can't wear it now.

When Mom's In Charge

John has been traveling a lot for work lately. The only good thing about John being gone is that we have some creative dinners. I don't bother to make a big meal if it is just me and the boys so we spice it up a little. We do a lot of breakfast-for-dinners including pancakes, waffles and cereal. We also do a lot of frozen meals like frozen pizzas. We also eat around 4:30 pm instead of waiting until John gets home. Since there is little prep for these meals the kitchen is really fast to clean up and I have a lot more free time with the boys at night. Tonight was one of those nights and John didn't get home until 9pm so we had cereal for dinner, played outside, and then did a bath in the pool in the driveway. Afterwards I let the boys watch Diego and while I fixed their milk they all climbed onto my pile of clean clothes and watched tv. Although Sammy wiped his nose on one burp cloth they didn't knock anything onto the floor and sat perched up there for 30 minutes. It was a really relaxing night alone with the boys for a change.

Daddy's Boy

Tonight John and Wyatt were sitting up on the couch together they had a conversation that went something like this...

John: Boy Wyatt you sure are getting big!
Wyatt: Yeah, I'm getting big.
John: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Wyatt: Silence
John: Do you want to be a doctor?
Wyatt: No.
John: Do you want to be a police man?
Wyatt: No.
John: Do you want to be a fireman?
Wyatt: No. I want to be you Daddy.

List-a-holic

We are starting to get packed for our trip Up North. We go to Drummond Island every year for the 4th of July and every year we need more stuff! This year we will be driving 9 hours with 6 people and a dog in our mini van! I have lists coming out of every corner of this house! We have a list of stuff that needs to go in the cooler, a list of stuff that has to be packed at the last minute because it is constantly in use, a list of clothes to pack, a list of food to pack, and on and on. I haven't even started packing....I'm still working on the lists! We went to 3 different grocery stores today to get everything that we needed for this trip. I'm looking forward to getting there so that I don't have to think about packing any more!

Last night I had a dream that I was being held captive by the Duggar family from the reality tv series "18 kids and counting". I literally couldn't stop having nightmares about them last night. Does that mean that I am subconsciously petrified of being a part of a really large family? It's a good thing that I don't have 4 kids or anything!

Date Night #2

John and I had our second date night tonight. We went to eat at PF Changs on the waterfront and then did a little walking and shopping. It was great and we already have our next date night planned!

Idewild

John skipped work today and we spent the day at an amusement park called Idewild created especially for little kids. Most of the rides said that you had to be under 48 inches to ride and they had some cute stuff. They had a mini Ferris wheel that the kids wanted to go on together, but each car only had 2 seats so Jonah and Wyatt sat together and Sammy was by himself. When the ride was over and the kids all made their way to the exit, Jonah and Wyatt spotted Sammy and hugged him until they all fell into a pile on the ground. They missed him so much during the 3 minute ferris wheel ride! It really made me thankful that we have an even number of kids...someday everybody will have a buddy on the ferris wheel ride! Wyatt even went on a big roller coaster with John and loved it. We didn't get home until 5 pm today so it was a long day, but we already can't wait to go back!

We Love Kristen

Kristen, my little Mother's helper, came to help out with the kids this afternoon. They absolutely LOVE her! The boys all ran up to her today and hugged her as soon as she got here. She played with them outside for 2 hours while I cleaned and even exercised inside! I absolutely LOVE Kristen! We are so lucky to have such a great arrangement.

The Beach

We spent the morning at the beach at Morraine State Park with Bethany and Madison. The kids can't wait to go back it was so much fun! I gave the kids their bath in the kiddie pool tonight since I was on my own and they were in heaven! They should sleep well tonight!

A Letter

Dear Lady that works at the Post Office,

I am sorry about the scene that you witnessed from our crew last Friday. When we walked in with 2 Father's Day packages to mail and 4 kids under 4 in tow, you should have taken your break. I know that the line was short, but it was still long enough to take apart a box and stamp display (which I seriously tried to put back together but those hangers are ridiculous)...and why does the lobby echo anyways? After we all made it to your counter it was nice of you to babysit the three little kids after I abandoned them there to chase Wyatt through two sets of double door into the parking lot without so much as a hello. As you may have noticed by my stellar tackling skills I have been working out with a personal trainer. And yes, the spanking was necessary, though the threats about jail were a little much I will admit. But, after seeing a police officer in line (along with 10 other bug- eyed, gaping mouthed customers) I couldn't contain myself. Afterward, when you offered to give Wyatt a big surprise and it was stickers and not a leash and collar I apologize for calling you crazy, but at least I didn't say "f$#$%&* crazy"! And yes, I never answered your question about the little one....he is a boy too! Yipee! So Happy Father's Day from the craziest Mom on the planet! Maybe next year we will just send flowers!
Love,
The Rodgers Tornadoes

The Movie Theatre

Today the kids took their view master projector onto the basement stairs, turned off the lights, and watched a movie together. I wish those movies were a LOT longer!

4 Months Old

On Tuesday Shane will be 4 months old. It is amazing how fast the time has gone! He is still an amazing sweet little guy. I have never been around such a pleasant baby. I honestly thought that my other boys were really easy babies, but Shane is 100 times easier! I can honestly say that I have never been frustrated with him at all! With my other kids I can think of several times that I had to let them cry it out or spent hours trying to calm them down, but Shane is just happy to go with the flow. He is my most social baby, rarely cries, and loves to talk to everyone that he sees. Shane loves to watch the boys run around but is especially fond of Wyatt. When he wakes up, he lays in his bed and talks instead of crying and gets a huge ear to ear grin on his face when you finally go in to get him (Wyatt usually races me into Shane's room so that he can be the first one that Shane sees). My favorite thing about him is his little giggle which he has been doing since he was about 9 weeks old. He is ticklish under his chin and on his belly and giggles so hard that he usually gets the hiccups. I am still exclusively nursing him which is a huge surprise to me. I assumed that he would probably be bottle fed since nursing would give the other boys too much unsupervised time to get into trouble, but he is a fantastic nurser and we have a great schedule that doesn't seem to be hard on the kids or me. Honestly I am scared to wean him because I am nervous that his schedule won't be as perfect as it is now if I change anything! I feel like he is growing up way too fast! Today I think that I spotted a tooth starting to poke through and I got all weepy because I really love that toothless smile. I don't know if I am enjoying Shane so much because he was a total surprise or if it's because he is our last baby or even if it is because he is a super sweet smelling perfect little guy! I do know that the past four months has been a whirlwind of activity and craziness that I couldn't ever have imagined in my wildest dreams. But it has also been the most rewarding 4 months I have ever had as a mother and I can't imagine life without baby Shane!

Mr Miyagi

Did you ever see the movie Karate Kid? Mr Miyagi spends half of the movie trying to catch a fly with a set of chopsticks and finally succeeds at the end of the movie. I spent half of my day today trying to catch (even though I am using a fly swatter, Wyatt says I am trying to "catch" the fly) a huge fly that the kids let in to the house early this morning. Tonight right before bed Wyatt actually CAUGHT the fly with his fingers and brought it over to me while it was struggling and buzzing trying to get away. I have no idea how he caught a live fly with his fingers or even how he managed to keep it alive but it was a little Mr Miyagi-ish for me... so we ate it! Just kidding. He let it go and it flew away and I finally got it with the fly swatter after the kids were in bed.

We have had a few rainy days this week and decided to make cookies yesterday to kill some time. We used Grandma Kathie's cookie recipe and the ingredients that she left for us last time she visited. I have never made sugar cookies with all three kids. We usually make snickerdoodles or chocolate chip cookies or something that doesn't require rolling dough and using cookie cutters. It was a little stressful. The kids love sticking their fingers in freshly rolled-out dough.They also love using their cookie cutter about 89 times a minute like a miniature jackhammer to make their cookie. But, what they especially love is shaking their sprinkles onto the cookies so that each sugar cookie has a tiny pile of sprinkles that looks like a volcano resting on top of it. The cookies were delicious though and we might attempt making sugar cookies again in 2011.

Last night when it was storming at bedtime there was tons of thunder and lightening. Wyatt turned to John and I and said "Mom, why is it taking a picture outside?". Do you think that Mom takes too many pictures of him?

Finally, tonight Wyatt ran head first into the corner of the wall in the family room and really whacked himself hard. He cried for a while and then looked up at me finally and said "Mom, I almost cracked my head open...and then I wouldn't be able to see because my eyes would be gone!"

My Little Tornadoes

Jonah and Samuel have become experts at TRASHING the playroom. On this particular day they were alone in there for about 15 minutes and moved the armchair over to the window, piled all of the toys within reach into a pile where the chair used to be, and unlocked the windows in the playroom. Lucky for me, I taught them both how to clean the playroom so we had it cleaned up in no time!

The Music Truck

We ate lunch and dinner on the deck today since the weather was so beautiful. Tonight we made burgers on the grill and just as we were finishing eating, an ice cream truck drove into our subdivision with his music blaring. The kids all went bonkers asking "what's that Mom?" "what's he doing?" and John and I told them that it's a music truck that drives around playing music for everybody to hear. A music truck is such a great idea when you are 2 and 3 years old! The kids started asking questions like "Mom, is he going to play different music on the music truck?" "Where does the music truck live?" "Where is the music truck going?" "When is the music truck coming back?" "Is the music truck going to wake up Shane?" Holy cow they talked about the music truck for over an hour! How long do you think that we can keep them in the dark about the music truck?

What The What?

My new favorite saying is "what the what?". It is from the tv show 30 Rock. I use it when I walk into a room and chaos has ensued...so you can imagine that I use it a lot. I used that phrase about 987 times today! The kids were nuts. They must still not be fully recovered from our trip to Canada. It became apparent that were were going to have a rough morning as soon as we loaded everyone up in the van to go to the park followed by Costco. There were only two baby swings at the park and nobody wanted to ride with two people in a swing so all the kids yelled and screamed until we said that nobody was using the swings. Then Jonah snuck up behind John and got into the diaper bag and dumped my suntan lotion all over the picnic table while John tried unsuccessfully to keep Shane from crying. Finally Wyatt took off toward the parking lot and wouldn't stop running until John tackled him. So we loaded them all up and brought the kids to Costco to give the employees a little glimpse into Hell. Everybody was yelling because nobody wanted to hold our hands on the way into the store, everybody wanted to hold the Costco card, then nobody would stay in the cart, and then they were all starving. They wanted to climb on the display swing set, listen to the music on the cd display, and were still starving. John finally took the entire cart to the back of the store and spanked Wyatt (who was the loudest by far) and forbade everybody from making a sound. They had to sit in the cart without talking for the rest of the shopping trip. They were quiet for about 15 minutes after that. It was great! The checkout people thought that they were just so cute and sweet. They waited until we got back to the van to continue the torture. Everybody fought over sitting in the same car seat, nobody wanted to buckle in, Wyatt suddenly forgot how to buckle himself in, the Dora video wasn't playing loud enough to hear over Shane's screaming, and the kids were really really hungry. We managed to get them all fed, changed, and in bed for naps in record time! Then John and I sat down on the couch, looked at each other and said "what the what?"

Giving Up

John and I were thinking about taking the kids strawberry picking tomorrow morning. I decided to check out some nearby places online and see what their crops were like, picking times, etc and didn't get around to it until midnight or so. Most places online gave a phone number and said to call to check out picking conditions, availability, and times before coming out to pick. When I called expecting to get a recorded message about their hours, I seriously had 2 different places answer their phones after midnight and talk to me about strawberry picking in the morning! What the heck? I am done waking everybody up in the Pittsburgh area tonight so you can rest easy....you won't get a call from me tonight I promise! I'm off to bed I swear! But seriously what the heck????

USA

We are back in the USA! The border crossing guard told me that she thought that I was crazy or didn't know any better than to travel with 4 kids ages 3 and under! I think that it helped speed me across customs because they didn't check my vehicle at all! Maggie came home tonight too! She has been doing therapy for a week now and has convinced Keith to get a golden retriever puppy. He already has one picked out in Michigan that he will be bringing home over the 4th of July. The puppies sure are cute in the pictures from his breeder, but not quite as cute as this threesome!

Fun in Canada

We had a fun packed day today and hit Niagra Falls, Marine Land, and a park on Lake Ontario. We had tons of fun and got some great photos in the process.

I'm So there

Did you read this on CNN today?
KELSO, Wash. -- A 4-year-old boy's brief joyride in his family's minivan came to an abrupt end when he crashed into a ditch Friday afternoon, fire officials said.The boy's mother told police that the 4-year-old used a stool to retrieve the keys off a key rack in their apartment. He then unlocked the van, started the vehicle and put the vehicle into drive, the mother said. According to a witness, the boy accelerated the van and drove 100 feet before turning left into a ditch. The witness called 911 and helped the boy out of the van, fire officials said. When Cowlitz County firefighters arrived, they found the back of the minivan sticking into the air with the rear wheel off the ground, said Capt. Mike Zainfeld in a press release.The boy wasn't injured and the van sustained minimal damage, Zainfeld said. The crash occurred at about 3 p.m. on Corduroy Road.Police said there was no property damaged during the boy's drive.There will be no citations issued against the parents. Police said the embarrassment of the incident was punishment enough.
My thoughts....
I want to meet that kid! He seems vaguely familiar.....
Wyatt could have driven a lot farther than 100 feet before crashing
Wyatt would have walked home and pretended to have no knowledge of the incident Instead of embarrassment the punishment should have been drivers ed!

Sweet Shane

She has developed a really bad cough. It's a fake cough. He uses it to get attention from anybody that is in the room. I fell for it for a day or so, but the boys still don't realize that he is manipulating them even though he coughs with a big smile on his face. They race over to him and wipe his mouth or pat him until he stops. How is it possible that at fifteen weeks, Shane has already figured out how to trick his big brothers into showering him with attention?!?!?
Tomorrow we are heading to Canada for a trip to Marine Land with Bethany and Madison. Everyone is excited and we will have plenty of great stories to share so stay tuned!

Date Night #1

John and I are going out on a date night every three weeks. My friend Bethany comes over and watches my kids one night while John and I go out, and then the next night I go over to her house and watch her daughter while she goes out with her husband. Last night we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant just the two of us. The service was super fast and we were out of there in the blink of an eye so we decided to go to downtown Pittsburgh and see the Duquesne incline. It is ranked as the third most romantic spot in America and the second most beautiful view in America because it overlooks the Golden Triangle of Downtown Pittsburgh, and surrounding area including the upper Ohio River valley and lower Allegheny River Valley. It was a great view and the weather was perfect. Afterwards we went out for ice cream and enjoyed eating it outside. We finally got home around 10:30 pm and had such a good time that we are already planning our next date night...and we are open to suggestions!

Pet Therapy

Maggie is doing some volunteer work this week. She signed up to be a pet therapist for our friend Keith. Keith's dog Sidney bit him in the face yesterday morning. He called us at 7am and asked John to drive him to the hospital where he got 7 stitches under his right eye, a tetanus shot, and a prescription for antibiotics. He was upset about his face, but even more upset about the fact that he knew that Sidney couldn't be trusted and needed to be put to sleep. Keith made an appointment at the vet last night and John went with Sidney. John sat with him and he died peacefully. Keith was emotionally spent last night. He lives alone and has had Sidney for 11 years after rescuing him from the pound. Sidney has lived with Keith in three different states and sleeps in his bed with him every night. It was obvious to us that Keith didn't want to go home to an empty house last night so John and I volunteered to let him take Maggie home for a while and ease the loss a little. Maggie was thrilled to jump in Keith's car yesterday and get some one-on-one attention from him! I talked to Keith today and he said that Maggie slept in his bed with her face about 2 inches from his. He described her as very loving and we are happy that she is so comforting for him. Maggie is on vacation this week and loving life...I hope that she wants to come home again after Keith finishes spoiling her!