Dear Santa...

[Yes. Anthony still writes a letter to Santa every two weeksish. Usually it's a letter for the whole family. Here's tonights example. He's recently discovered exclamation marks. Sometimes he's so sweet and funny - My favorite is the section that he wrote for John.]

Christmas List

Rosie

Dear Santa I want a doll with cloths and a bed with a pillow and bat and boll and a stroller to go with it. A boock about prinsusis and a agnas sait costyom (Agnus saint costume) with a lalb (lamb - funny that he remembered the 'b' at the end but didn't get the 'm'). And a new ester bascit (Easter baskit) with prinsusis all over it. And more!

Anthony

I want a ship as lon (long) as me. And I want a video game that I can be a race car driver and race other race car driver's lice (like) the one at the Fredric Chuce Cheeses except that myn will be on the TV. and I want some camaflosh aremy pants and army shirt and an army coat. And I want a boa and arose (a bow and arrows) like the one at Walmart. And I want a lot of sords and alot of guns and sheld's to go with the sords. and lots more presents!!!!!!

Thomas

Thomas wants some cow some hores and some sheep and some geese and a tracter and a big barn.

CeCe

CeCe wood lik some new baby toys and some new cloths and lots more.

Momy

Momy just wants us to feel happy. She just want CeCe to have new cloths..........

Dady

Dady is the same way except that he go's to worc....so he wants to have new boocs about Jesuse and other saints.....

THE END

By Anthony Love

[For the record Santa, while I do want everyone to feel happy I also wouldn't mind if you dropped an ipad and maybe a pair on binoculars under my tree. The End. By Alexis Love]

Rosie Today

Anthony hugs Rosie really hard. "Anthony, I love you my brother but you are too hug-idy."

"Do you know who made you that dress?" "Yes, Aunt Reenie! She's a really good uncle."

Practicing her "R" sounds. "W-w-wain. W-w-wocket. W-w-Wabbit. W-w-WOSIE!"

Conversing with Rosebud

Rosie: When Natalie is a princess at her wedding I am going to be a princess too. I am going to wear a pink dress with roses and I am going to have a crown with pink hearts and I am going to have petals and throw them down. Mommy, I am sorry that I cried when you threw my petals at Miss Walker’s wedding. When Miss Walker was a princess then she was Mrs. Mileo I should not have cried.
Mommy: It’s OK Posy, I shouldn’t have thrown your petals down, that was silly. Hey, do you know who Natalie is marrying at her wedding?
Rosie: No.
Mommy: Uncle James!
Rosie: Oh! Wow! That is so great!

Mommy: Rosie, I found your beaded socks!
Rosie: Oh wow, mommy! You have great eyes! The perfect eyes for finding my beady socks! Bella shared these beady socks with me. It was so, so, so nice of her. She’s my best friend. Actually she is my best friend and Lucy and Jane are my best friends.

Rosie: Mommy, I think I’ve got the same sickness as Anthony.
Mommy: Well, you don’t have a fever. And you don’t have a cough. And you don’t have a stuffy nose. So I don’t think that you do have the same sickness.
Rosie: Well. Remember that time when I had the croupy cough and threw up in my bed? See? So I can be sick too.

After learning about the letter sound ‘mmmmm’.
Rosie: Mommy! I’ve got the sound for it! I L-L-L-LOVE M-M-M-Mommy.

With her arm around Thomas who is crying because I won’t let him go upstairs.
Rosie: C’mon honey. Sometimes it’s just difficult. Let’s go downstairs.

Unfortunately I cannot capture in words her hilarious looks that accompany all these conversations – her nostril/lip curl combo or her frequent double eyebrow raising or her self assured squeaky voice that can’t consistently say her L’s or R’s but somehow manages to be very articulate anyway. Can’t beat a three-year-old girl for sweetness.

Kids: the only sure path to humility

A:  You know I don’t care about things in heaven. I only care about THIS world!

Me: The world does not revolve around you.
R (screaming and sobbing): YES IT DOES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: You can not push little kids. You have to understand how serious this is…
A: I don’t care about them. I only care about MY life because it’s MINE!

It is just SO good to see the fruits of my labors.

Thomas “the shadow” on the tree farm

Do you think they can see me?

Blogging Made Easy

“Mommy! Carrots in! Carrots in!”
I thought he was telling me that he wanted to put the carrots into the soup but later I lifted the towel off of the rising bread dough and lo and behold, he had been trying to tell me that he had already put the “carrots in.”

A taste of this years calendar…

Sugar and spice and everything nice. That’s what little girls are made of.

Good Morning

Daddy: Rosie, you’re my snuggle-puss.

Rosie: You mean your fluffy, toasty marshmallow.

Happy Pumpkins to you, too!

Pumpkin Lovers

Also…Pumpkin Lover

Thomas continues lovin’ on his pumpkin

Poor innocent, unspoiled Thomas. Doesn’t know that his beloved will be rotten and covered with fruit flies by the end of the week. But for now, a few glorious days he will bask in the glow of pumpkin love.

The Paci-Hoarder

“Hello, I’m Thomas. And I’m a paci-aholic.”
Now that we don’t let Thomas just wander around all day with a paci he has taken to squirrelling them away. Where to - I don’t know. What I do know is that there have been a couple of times when I’ve spent 10 minutes before bedtime scouring the place for a pacifier finally finding one left in a toy bin or in the backyard or sometimes going out to buy a new one. Then he’ll come puttering downstairs in the morning with his mouth and hands full of pacifiers. But I looked in his room, in his crib, under it, everywhere. I swear – I really don’t know where he is keeping them!

The other neurotic paci-related behavior that he’s developed is truly weird. If he gets upset during the day and doesn’t have a paci readily available he will lick whatever is closest. Most often the ground. Tonight it was the sour crème. So someone will take a toy away from him, he’ll screech and then some observer will report to me, “Um. Your son is licking the sidewalk.”
To which I like to casually respond, ”Yeah, that’s what we do when we’re upset.” Today he licked a pile of mulched leaves and then the sour crème. Just weird. Kids can be so weird.
Anyway, I suppose that by letting him get so attached to his pacifier I am just doing my part to provide Marlboro one more faithful consumer. Anything to do my part.

Dedicated to James Logan - puttin' in his time with the Hos. You rock, bro.

"I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told.
I have squandered my resistence,
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.
All lies and jest.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy,
In the company of strangers,
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin' scared.
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters,
Where the ragged people go.
Looking' for the places, only they would know.

Lie-la-lie...

Asking only workman's wages I come lookin' for a job,

But I get no offers,

Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.

I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome,

I took some comfort there.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la. And I'm laying out my winter clothes, and wishing I was gone, goin' home

Where the new york city winters aren't bleedin' me, leadin' me goin' home.

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade,

And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down,

Or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame,

"I am leaving, I am leaving."

But the fighter still remains.

Lie-la-lie...

The Burden of the Mind

Mommy: I need you to think about what you did to D. and what you need to do in the morning to make up to him.
Anthony: But I can't - I have SOOOOO much to think about!
Mommy: What?
Anthony: I have to think about how I need to get used to doing chores so that I can earn money so that I can buy more tracks so that I can build a bigger bridge!

Ah. Priorities, priorities.

More Morning Rose and Morning Mose

This morning

Rosie: Hey! I haven't had breaksist yet.
Daddy: You're right, Rosie. What do you want?
Rosie: Um...maybe some Kix. No - I want pasta with cheese. That's my favorite.
Daddy: That's a good idea, why don't we have it for lunch?
Rosie: Yes. Let's have lunch.

Anthony scrambled up on my lap while I was sifting through my morning internet reading and eating a bowl of Rice Krispies with sugar on top. (yes. I know. But I don't let the children see me putting the sugar in the bowl.) He wanted to see the weather report because this is what we do.

Sunny, followed by thunderstorms but Sunday is going to be sunny all day.

"Why does God always make Sundays sunny?" I explain that he doesn't but maybe he is trying to make Sunday special this week since it's been so rainy.

"Why does God spell Saturday wrong? It should be Sat-ur-day. But he just puts it Sat."

Sat.



Does anyone have an email address for God's IT director?

Oh the Humanity!

When we had 3 young children I often felt as if people were looking at me like I had 2 heads (well, I did sort of have 4). But deep down I thought that I was probably just imagining it. I mean, really, it's not like we're the Duggers or something. But now that we have four young kids I KNOW that people are looking at me. Because they tell me. I don't walk past a single person in the grocery store who doesn't make a comment about the quantity of Lovelettes and the overwhelmedness of the mom.
I think nearly all of them are very positive. When we had three I got a lot of, "are you done?" or "I was done at 2, I can't imagine 3!". But now that we have four the comments seem to have taken a turn for the positive. It's almost as if they look at me and know that I must be a horse of a different color and they should accommodate my eccentric child-bearing ways. So now I hear, "are you planning on having more?" or even more frequently, "my _____ (fill in aunt, grandma, best friend) has a lot of kids. It's nice, you don't see that much anymore." There is, of course, the constant, "wow, you sure have your hands full" but this no longer bothers me because it is a completely warranted observation.
When we had 3 I lived in fear that I would be embarrassed by their behavior, or my behavior, out in public. And sometimes I was. Now I simply count on it. I do not go anywhere without attracting lots of attention and it is ALWAYS because I've lost control of someone or simply lost someone. So we don't get out much. It's hard to walk into a place being completely certain that you are going to walk out embarrassed.
But the other day we had some errands to run that couldn't be put off anymore and so we all piled into the car and drove off to Lowes. We were chatting with people as we shopped because people always chat with us and random passersby were commenting on the quantity and ages of the kids and continuing on their way. There were even some pointers off in the distance. I was generally trying to just stay focused and get the hell out of Dodge when Anthony said, "Well. It looks like everybody's noticing us today."
"Yeah, it does look like that. Why do you think that is?"
He thought about it for a minute and concluded, "Because...we're cute?"
Yes! That is exactly it! I'll just take comfort in that thought the next time I feel like abandoning my grocery cart in the middle of the store and hightailing it out of there. MOST people out in this world like to see families and children. Sometimes I think that we give the few negative looks or comments far too much weight in our conversations as FertileMyrtles. Just remember that pregnant women are cute (I can say that since I am not!). 5-month olds are cute. 1 year olds are cute. 3 year olds are cute. 5 year olds are cute. And if you happen to have all of those things together you've got so much cuteness that people are bound to acknowledge it with a look or a comment.

A Sad Commentary on my Housekeeping, or not...

Upon watching a few busy ants on the window seat in the kitchen:



"Ants and mice are pretty special. They come and eat the things that we don't want to clean up."

A Sour Morning Rose - caught on camera

Rosie and Anthony are sitting next to each other eating breakfast. Anthony is having frosted mini wheats and Rosie, o-gret (yogurt). Anthony leans over and kisses Rosie on the cheek. She gets a mad face and responds, "Daddy, Aferny kissed me and got me all wheat-ey."

They turned to each other and smiled and said giggling, "Wheeeeaaatyyyy".

And then she returns to the scowl. Some days a girl just wakds up on the wrong side of the bed. It's going to be a long day for the rest of us. And this is why it's important to have a camera without a delay.

A Few of my Favorite Things

My own personal garden gnome:

Saturday morning bike races that start with: "Let's pretend that you got a headstart..." just to even the playing field.

This curl: On this head:

Unrequited Love

Age of Reason, revisited

I wrote a post a long time ago about approaching the age of reason and the age of innocence. In that post David was the "wise as a serpent" and Anthony was "innocent as a dove". My how the tables have turned.
This morning while John and I were still trying to wake up the kids were padding around on the first floor being suspiciously good. Anthony walked in and with a transparently leading comment said, "Rosie found the cookie dough. She saw the bowl, tipped it over, looked into it and saw the dough. Then she just felt like she had to have some. So she did."
Daddy: and then you had some.
Anthony: Noooo, ROSIE had some.
Rosie then walks in with chocolate around her mouth and very openly recounts the story of how she has been eating dough in the "hiding place. It was dough. With chocolate."
"Did Anthony have any?"
"Yes."
Well, well, well. First Confession is only a couple years away now.

Anthony on Easter...

"So, Jesus died so we don't have to? So it's kind of...good that he died."
Ahhhhh. Beat that, Satan.