Terrible timing...

I’m having an “I’m the worst mom in the world” day, which probably isn’t the best time to be blogging, but I always remember the good stuff when I sit down to type about them. And when I remember all the good stuff, I think about how lucky I am, and I forget to focus on how frustrated I am with them. Make sense? Thanks for following!

Gavi’s vocabulary grows daily. His favorite things are shoes right now. He loves to put them on, take them off, throw them at his brother, etc. When I asked him where his shoes were the other day, he says, “I nunno. Find ‘em!” It was awesome! He’s a bossy little monkey, but man is he sweet!

Caleb is also a total crack up most days. He’s REALLY into the idea of getting a baby brother, and has started “practicing” on Gavi. We were playing in their room the other day when Gavi took a header into the corner of his crib. I was cuddling and kissing and trying to stop the tears when Caleb stands next to me and requests, “Give him to me, Mom.”

Now Caleb only outweighs Gavi by eight pounds on his best day, so I wasn’t sure what his intentions were. “Let me have him,” he reiterated. So I had him sit down, put Gavi in his lap, and I’ll be darned if that boy didn’t have his little brother calmed before my arms had fully pulled away. He rocked him, kissed him, and when the love fest dissolved into a wrestling match, hammered his head into the crib again. Sigh.

Then when we were at Safeway the other day, in one of their awesome fire truck carts, Gavi was starting to lose patience with life. Caleb pulled him over so he was laying across him, then started singing “Rock-a-bye Baby” to him. I swear, I started crying right there in the aisle.

Pregnancy hormones.

See, I’m already starting to forget that Caleb slugged me two times at the zoo this morning, and that Gavi has kicked me half a dozen times today. Oops. Remembering made me mad. On with the good stuff.

Gavi is getting really good with his manners. He’ll remember to say “please” for just about everything, “thank you” is “nana,” but he says it at appropriate times, excuse me is “mimi,” and he likes that one the best. He will literally squat and force little toots out just so he can say “mimi!” Oh, he gets the giggles! And eating with him is the best right now, because he’s really working on “May I be excused, please?” It comes out, “I be schcoo pease, may?” Oh, my little heart just swells a couple sizes.

Man, there are so many fun things I wanted to remember to get down, and now I can’t remember them! Caleb has his first dentist appointment on Monday – yay! We actually decided against going to the dentist the insurance assigned us and going directly to a pediatric dentist because… well, he’s kind of a wimp. But Daddy is going to take him, so I get let off that particular chore! And Grandma and Grandpa Fashbaugh are coming to visit next week, so that will be fun. And then Grandma Garmane is having knee replacement surgery the following week so that she can be up and about by the time Declan makes his appearance.

It’s funny, because I’ve still got seven weeks left of the pregnancy, but when I start looking at my calendar and seeing everything we’ve got going on, I start to wonder how we’ll get it all done! I’ve got doctor’s appointments starting to come more often now, VBS, where I’m the preschool director, visits with high school and college friends, Jonathan’s THIRTIETH birthday to plan – July 11th at our clubhouse if anyone wants to RSVP now! – the 4th of July, and a whole bunch of swimming to catch up on. I’ll be lucky to get to any of the actual house chores I wanted done before Dex gets here! But I’m okay with that! Push everything off to the last minute – maybe he’ll come early as a punishment!

Caleb’s big obsessions right now are space shuttles and sharks. I LOVE IT! I get to learn stuff about cool things, too! I was so tired of learning about concrete trucks and race cars that I was ready to have a book burning. (That’s a JOKE! I love books! But some of them did find their way to the top of the bookshelf where little boys can’t see to request them.) Let me know if anyone knows any good videos about either of them.

Gavi got his summer haircut! Jonathan did it while I was napping one day. Boy did THAT wake me up! My baby! My baby is gone! He looks like such a big boy! But you know what? He gets WAY more compliments now! Jonny and I agree that it just makes him look like Caleb – FINALLY! You can really tell they’re brothers! His hair is still that light wheat colored gold and Caleb’s is much darker, but since both their hair is short, the difference isn’t as noticeable. SO CUTE!

Speaking of so cute, my little Gavi just woke up from his nap and I have to go get him before he wakes up his brother. We’ve got SWIMMING to do!

Happy May!

I’m a little behind on my blogging again. However, this time, I’ve remembered to jot down a couple of notes to make sure that I get some of the cuter stories into my recollections. (Disclaimer: I’ve been up for three hours after less than three hours of sleep, so I might be a little punchy.) As I write this, Caleb, Daddy and Gavi are snuggling on the couch and watching Veggie Tales. Actually, Caleb is watching, Gavi and Daddy are challenging each other for authority. Gavi seems to be winning.

Since I last wrote, I’ve had three friends with babies born – Welcome to the World, Jackson, Peyton and Lukas! – been to Hawaii, gone through round two of chicken pox, and had countless other exciting and not so exciting things happen. But as this is generally about my monkeys, we’ll start with cute story number one:

Caleb asks me one evening as we’re getting dinner ready, “Did you know I love God?”

My heart swells with pride as I say, “Yes, sweetheart. I know you love God.”

“Does that make God happy?”

“I can’t think of anything that would make God happier!”

“Yeah, and it also makes me have heartburn.”

Tremendous! Later on, he touched the edge of the pan we were cooking on and shouted, “Ouch! I’m starting to get ankles!” What man can know the intricacies of the three year old mind? When I asked him to quit chewing on his toenails and he responded quite reasonably, “But my toenails taste nice.” I’m not really sure what to do with that one.

Gavi has gotten quite involved with his own independence. His favorite is to “put on” his own socks. He’ll place them gently over his foot and applaud himself for his ingenuity. Actually, he applauds himself quite obsessively. I don’t think we do it for him too terribly often, but he’s apparently gotten the impression that it’s what you do. Honestly, the kid is so dang cute that I just want to applaud him constantly.

Mother’s Day was a lot of fun this year – we rounded up our brood and headed to our friends’ house where the menfolk took care of the kidfolk and let the mommies go out for an adult lunch and a movie. We’re going to do the same thing for the boys for Father’s Day. It works out pretty well ~ not only is the celebrating spouse enjoying themselves, but the left behind one at least has someone to commiserate with (whilst taking care of four children).

Oh, another Caleb story: the boys woke up WAY too early on Mother’s Day, and I don’t live with the kind of husband that would get up to take care of our kids unless I was DEAD. (Bitter much?) So I was feeling a little cranky and underappreciated, which doesn’t lead to a good morning with hyper little boys. So after about a half an hour of being snappy with them, I realized that the day wasn’t a celebration of ME, but of the OFFICE! I’m only a mom because of THEM! So I was trying to psych myself up by singing that childhood staple of “This is the day that the Lord has made.”

Caleb interrupted me almost immediately with this helpful suggestion: “You can sing to someone who likes your singing, Mommy!” (In retrospect, I should have said that Jesus and Gavi liked my singing – while not sure if this is the truth for the latter, I know that the Lord appreciated any efforts on my behalf to acknowledge his blessings in my life. And no matter how cute that little booger is, Jesus trumps Caleb.)

Hawaii was loverly. Jonny went for work, and I was able to tag along pretty cheaply. I had thought I was too pregnant to go on a plane, but apparently you’re allowed to fly until 32 weeks of pregnancy. Mom Fashbaugh came to take care of the boys, and the three of them had a fabulous time. I would have had a more fabulous time if I’d had them with me, I think, because I spent the whole time MOPING because I was so homesick for my sweetnesses. Plus, Jonny had to work the majority of every day we were there, so I was all alone.

Before I go feeling too sorry for myself, I should mention that I read ELEVEN books while laying on the beach of Waikiki. I can’t be too mopey, because that in itself is the kind of vacation most people would kill for. And we did get to go snorkeling for half an hour at Hanauma Bay. Ohmigoodness was that amazing! We didn’t really even cry over the brevity of the trip, since it was our last day in Hawaii and just wanted to relax.

While we were on quarantine for GAVI’S chicken pox, my sister came and spent a day with us to help me deal with the world. I had seriously broken down on the Saturday before Easter when those stinking spots popped up all over him. Not only had I just finished my quarantine with Caleb, but Jonathan was leaving town AGAIN, which meant that I was on my own taking care of two housebound and shackbatty little boys. Did I say again? Anyway, Meggie took a day off work to give me some company and relief. Not only did she give me some time out of the house to get to the store and the library, but she showed up with a present! She and my folks had both pitched in to send me to a pre-natal massage! Hooray! It was absolute heaven, and I will appreciate them forever.

While she was over, we were getting ready to pray over a meal. I always ask Caleb if he wants to pray, and our guests if we have them. But this time I asked Gavi as well, who was the only person to say yes. So we all joined hands and I sneaked a peek at Gavi, who closed his eyes, then said, “Ahhhmen.” It was awesome!

Caleb has just informed me that he has a new job. “I’m the gravity man! I make sure everyone has gravity!” And the other day he announced that the United States was the new Antarctica – the old Antarctica is closed. So if you were planning on visiting the trendy vacation hotspot of Antarctica, you no longer have to look any further than your own backyard. Phew.