Other things

So what else has been going on?

-Andrew had his first sleepover a few weeks ago. That's right, a sleepover for a 5 year old birthday. 6 boys. I told the mother over and over that she was crazy. Utterly crazy. I had six five year old boys over for 2 hours and thought I would die. I was positive Mr. Nerves wouldn't stay the night. I told him over and over that I would come and get him at any time of the night and then bring him back to have breakfast with everyone. Instead? He had a FANTASTIC time, as did all the other boys. And now Andrew thinks WE should have a slumber party. Um, no? I uttered the words I thought wouldn't be necessary until the teenage years, "Well, I'm just not as cool as Carter's parents."

-Lily is CRACKIN' us up with her psychotic mood swings and demanding presence. I feel like I should be more irritated than I am. But I strongly believe that she has the benefit of being our second child on this one. I just laugh at her most of the time (behind my hand...I wouldn't want to enrage the enraged one). Some highlights?

-----Many many of our battles are at mealtime. I asked her one day what she wanted for lunch. She yelled indignantly, "I don't want NOTHING!" I replied, "Okay, I'll make Michael macaroni and cheese and I won't make you anything." She screamed back, "I don't want ANYTHING, I want NOTHING!" Ugh.
-----We have flashes of her pre-teen self. One night after dinner she brought Jeff a book and asked him to read it. He pushed back his chair in order to share the book with her. She suddenly started screaming and pointing to all the family members, "YOU don't talk to me. YOU don't yook at me. YOU go away. YEAVE ME AYONE. JUST YEAVE ME AYONE." and she stormed out of the room and stood angrily with her hands on her hips. And the rest of us looked at each other rather bewildered at what kind of psychotic episode we'd just witnessed.
-----She likes to read books at night after I've put her to bed...and it stays light out well past her bedtime, so there is no need to put on a reading light. She went to bed a bit later than usual the other night, and when it got dark she started to cry. I went up to investigate and she said, "Mommy, will you turn on the window again so I can read?"
-----She asked me again to stop the rain. We were driving and she was apparently irritated by the rain hitting the windshield. Control freak.


-Michael is still not walking. He definitely could if he wanted to. He is crazy fast at crawling, so I don't see him being very motivated yet. I am ready for him to walk. I've never had a crawler in the summer, and it is seriously limiting my choice of parks to play at. Mulch=Ew, gross

-Michael is still not talking. He has this weird Arabic-sounding garble that he spits out. He definitely THINKS he is talking. He's even giving up the sign-language in favor of his made up language. Which is frustrating for everyone. We affectionately call him "Cave man".

-Despite not walking or talking, Michael is still showing he is figuring out this world around him. He loves to turn the tv off while his siblings are watching...and he does it for affect. He puts his finger on the button and turns to watch them while he turns it off...with an evil grin on his face. He love to pick up brushes and sprints to brush Lily's hair before she screams in protest. He finds pictures of dogs and points at them saying, "ook!" and then points directly to Shadow and says "ook!" again. He is watching everything we do and can mechanically figure out almost anything. Baby proofing that worked for 2 1/2 years in this house for Lily...Michael has destroyed in a few weeks. He has a 6th sense about open bathroom doors, gates taken down, open dishwashers. He is maddeningly persistent and observant and also maddeningly cute. He wrinkles his nose when he is especially laughing at you and gives the best open mouth kisses in town. He likes to "ickle ickle" your belly and legs. He loves to "help" me empty the dishwasher, thoughtfully taste testing each piece of silverware (Note: do not use the silverware at Giselle's house). He loves taking wet washcloths and wiping the floor and the table and especially Lily's face. God, we love him.

-Andrew starts camp today! 3 hours at his future elementary school doing crafts, playing games with the teenage counselors, playing in the sprinklers. I'm excited for him and terribly terribly nervous for myself. What to do with the 2 littles...what to do...at least they have started to play together. Nothing either of them likes more than a little wrestling. And Lily is really very gentle about it with Michael...it is so cute.

-Andrew refuses to read with me. He gets frustrated so easily with himself and just wants to be perfect at it right away. Which I understand intimately, since this is one of my greatest faults and why I've never really been great at anything. I hate seeing him inherit this trait. But I think he is so ready to read that he is just instinctively picking it up. I will spell things out to Jeff and half the time Andrew figures out what I'm spelling. And I catch him reading books to Lily sometimes...following the words with his fingers. And at the grocery! He is constantly checking with me to see if he's figured out the packaging..."Mom, does that say 'wild rice'?" So I know he's getting it...I'm just not sure how. :)

Enough. Time to get going on the day!