Too Hot to Handle

(or more lovingly subtitled: The four hours in which I curse the 4 to possibly 5 males in my home for their sweetness.)

I don't sleep well right now: allergies + heat + pregnancy = no bueno.
So even though I only had about 4 hours of sleep the previous night and fought off the evil nap demon courageously and victoriously during the course of the next 19 hours of semi-comatose "awakeness," despite going to bed around 11 pm, I found myself tossing and turning around 1:30 am.

Zsa-man: 
Well, I tossed and turned myself face to face with a specter.
Enter Zsa-zsa, my cute little recently birthday-ed 5 year old.
"Mommy, I had a bad dream."

This seems to be somewhat a theme of the past three nights and I am sure that when I am again coherent enough to remember what a nice mommy is, I will try and see if I can help him deal with bad dreams.  But for the moment, he just started my struggling-to-sleep body into full alertness.

Fortunately, years of dealing with the repercussions of "horrible middle of the night responses" that have given my older children PTSD from waking up the sleeping momma bear have helped condition me to temper my responses.  It has actually been quite a while since I have gotten up angry.  Well, it wasn't the last time this fateful evening.

Staring blearily into the beautiful cow-like brown eyes of my Zsa-man, I found myself grumbling something about: "go potty first then you can snuggle with me."

Fast forward 2-45 minutes and once again I turn over--again, semi-comatose--and am once again startled into full wakefulness by the 5 year old specter haunting the side of my bed. I stifle my grumbling marginally successfully this time as I lovingly pick him up to set him between Quinn and I.
And then I feel the moisture.  My darling little bed-wetter has soaked through his pull-up once again and the process becomes infinitely more complicated.

The evil, sleep-deprived mom monster is beginning to make itself more asserted as I gently extract him from the bed before spreading anything to my own bed and say somewhat gruffly, "You need to change before you can sleep with us.  Back to the bathroom to change."
He and I go across the hall, bearing new jammies and wipes and he sweetly proceeds to dress, apologizing a few times, bless his heart. I assure him groggily that he is a sweet boy as I try to convince myself to keep the bear in the cage, knowing he is sweetly innocent and just needs a little magic mommy snuggle to scare away the nightmares.

We stumble back through the darkness into the night of my very own room and face the bed.

Enter the baby and Q-dawg's moment to "shine":
I face the bed that despite providing no real deep sleep supplies infinite comfort for my pregnant body. I consider the size of Zsa-man's body. I consider the space left by my husband's sweetly intended snuggling approach to beyond the middle of our queen size bed in his sleep.  I consider the space required for my over-large "pioneer stock" pregnant body to lay down. I whisper Quinn's name a couple times to no avail.  I gently push-encourage his body to return to "his side" of the bed. I lay Zsa-man down right next to his father. I squeeze myself sideways onto the remaining strip of luxury bedding.   For five minutes.  I change my position so my head is at the foot of the bed and my overly large tummy has room beneath the space left by Zsa-man's short body.  I am not left to only grumbling over my (possible) little infant son's ability to emanate large waves of heat and the continual block and flow of my allergy induced mucus in my head.  So grateful to be pregnant...just not appreciating the extra heat of having the snuggling inside and without at the moment.

Fast forward two hours--Spooner's turn!
I wake up to heat.  Lots of heat.  Zsa-man has snuggled away from his father and is making his way down to my end of the bed. I bless the Benadryl I took during my last bout of awakeness that allowed me a blessed few more hours of sleep. I hear quiet little kid breathing behind me.  All mothers know this sound.  The sound of a child waiting watchfully over their parent, eagerly awaiting their wakefulness in a semi-quiet state: quiet enough to indicate they are trying to be quiet to let the parent sleep and noisy enough to not allow that slumber.  Apparently, that is not enough for sweet little Spooner as he crawls onto the bed next to me, snuggling.

Going through my head is how sweet this moment should be, how it is truly special that my 7 year old is so tender-hearted and loving...as he gives me little kisses and puts his arm over and back and over and back and over and back off of my shoulder to snuggle.
Then, he gets the blanket.

I begin to feel the temperature escalate exponentially as he gently lays down a blanket over my pretending-to-sleep-overheating body.  Tucking it up under my chin, draping it carefully over my body and even making sure my toes are under, I hear a happy sigh and  whispered, "I love you, Mommy" as he then gets back onto the bed to snuggle against my back again.

That does it.  After a huge moment of self-restraint to savor the pure sweetness of the moment, I heave the blanket off my body, whisper what is the best "thanks" I can offer at this moment of sleep-deprived raging heat to my darling little boy and stumble into the bathroom, whipping the door closed behind me.  Glancing at the clock I see: 5:26 am.  Super.  Grumbling about "no way I am getting any more sleep tonight!" I deal with an awake momma bear.
The shower beckons.

Enter the final player, Chugger-dude:
As I turn the shower on, I remember a conversation I had with my sweet fifteen year old son just a regretfully short hours before as we both prepared for bed.  He commented on how since he started taking cold showers, doing the Polar Bear Plunge on Jan 1st into Lake Ontario hasn't been as hard.

Inspired, I thought about how refreshing that sounded considering my over-warm, heat-generating current condition, pulled on the shower and stepped in.  "This is horrible!" I exclaimed as I struggled to catch my breath.
Yes, he didn't force me in.
Yes, he would have probably encouraged me not to.
But somehow it was a very fitting "end" to my "night" that I should be cursing Chugger-dude, as I had all the other males in my home...

...and all because they are so sweet.

A Look at Chugger-dude

Chugger-dude has found a magical way of putting Binks to sleep:sitting in the crib with him until he goes to sleep. He has done it a couple times now.  So cute!

Chugger-dude is also quite the football player.  We had a great game yesterday as we wished Elder Pedersen well on his way to a new area.  It was only our family and the elders for the most part, but it was so much fun!  The Goob was pulling in more of his passes, Liliputian did a great job, and I had a lot of fun both playing and catching passes and watching Q-dawg play.  That is always one of my favorite parts of playing.  He bumped the Goob out of bounds quite forcefully at one point, and they were both grinning ear to ear afterwards.  Love the relationship Q-dawg has with his boys.   And I love it when they are big enough to take him on!  The Goob is not quite big enough yet but he is working at it :).

This week he had fun learning Swedish on Duolingo, playing the piano and playing basketball as a family at the Y.  That kid knows how to steal, dribble, fake and make three pointers like no other.  Q-dawg and I just smiled and laughed as time and time again he would either steal it from us (as we tried hard to keep it from him) and then turn around and make the basket.  He keeps himself low to the ground and just grabs it right out!  Crazy.

Chugger-dude is so cute with his little brothers.  He is frequently the one to make them squeal loudly in delight in the house. I try to discourage the excess noise, but love his relationship with them.  Good kid.

We are planning a special trip to the temple since Chugger-dude's next birthday is his twelfth.  He may get the priesthood on Christmas ("It's like a Christmas present from God!") and then pass the sacrament for the first time on January 1 ("What a great way to start the new year!"). (The parentheses were Chugger-dude's comments.)  We are excited for him and love that young man!

Pictures Chugger-dude took

I think this is what Spooner set up on his game board

We thought Chugger-dude had lost his hermit crabs finally to death...

...but they had just molted!  Whew.

He loves to carry them around.  It always startles me when their creepy limbs poke out of the bottom of the shell he is carrying.  "Want to hold it, Mom?" :)   Nope.  Not really. :) 

Precision, Princess Mommy and Plans

"Mom, it's only 7:01 and I have an hour...nope, wait," checks his watch, "...59 minutes to finish my other jobs. I have already done my basics." I love the precision of that little lad, Chugger-dude.  Growing up in so many ways.

Spooner made me smile the other day in his own way.  We were loading up into the van to run to the store and get some ground beef. (It turned into a Daddy, Chugger-dude, Papaya, Binks, Mommy and Spooner "date.")  Anyway, I was making pirate sounds to him as I buckled him in.

"I'm Pirate mommy," I growled. "Argh!"

He looked at me seriously.  "No.  You pincess mommy," he informed me with a "duh, mommy" look.

Oh!  So sweet.  My little guy sees me as a princess.  Love it!

I am missing the Goob as he is at NYLT, but I am very excited for our anniversary weekend to go and pick him up!  We were going to go to Broadway but decided on a better option...visiting Q-dawg's parents in PA!!!  I am so excited!  We are going to drive down to beautiful Watkin's Glen on the way down to PA and hike, then hopefully meet up with them for dinner and then games!  I love playing games and just spending time with them and so does Q-dawg, so it will be a fun way to spend it.  We will spend the night there and then head over to NJersey to the Goob's camp the next morning to pick him up then begin the long drive home.  We have friends staying with the kids at home and tons of garbage (aka "yummy" food) to keep them happy :).  "Cold cereal!!!" they cried for joy when I asked what they wanted.  So funny :).  We will all be happy, right?

Liliputian also headed out for a bunch of fun with cousins for the rest of the week and I am missing my olders but also enjoying the dynamic of youngers.  They are so calm and sweet :).  Well, I guess most people wouldn't use the word "calm" to describe the levels of noise and activity that ruled our house most of yesterday (including Chugger-dude whistling through my 15 minute attempt at a nap...not so happy mommy!).  But the underlying feelings are ones of peace with no residual contention or frustration.  I'll take it!

Chugger-dude's Life Goals

"Hey, mom," Chugger-dude began, "I want to be a person who can't walk."  Interesting life goal.

"Or a policeman on Halloween."  Strange and stranger.  Maybe he thinks it would be a fun night to be a cop?

And then it sunk in.

"Ohhhhhh....you want to be those for Halloween."

"Yah."

Okay.  I am glad we finish these conversations :).

Chugger-dude and Paracord

Do you have any para cord, Mom?" Chugger-dude asked yesterday.  "I think so...in a box in the mud room," I replied.

"Can I use it? Do you think you have 12 feet?"

"Why?"

"You know those pioneer spinners?" he explained.  "I want to make a huge one."

I just love 11-year-old boys!  He has been busy creating, burning, breaking and building...when he is not lost in daydreams or rough housing with his baby brothers.  Or coming up with those 11-year-old "just kidding" jokes that are oh, so funny :).  I love phases.

The recent paracord obsession came from when they were being baby-sat when Q-dawg's sister got married recently.  We came back to pick them up and saw a room full of kids, paracord and one brave soul guiding the whole group into weaving bracelets.  So cool!

The kids were delighted to discover I had a bag full that someone gave me from the MAAC up in the mudroom on a shelf.  Hours of fun.

Our trip to the Erie Canal

 Hava just "crashed" on our beautiful little hike on the Erie canal, causing skinned palms and bloody knees, not to mention volumes of anguish...so sad!  I put her in the stroller and we turned around, heading back home. When I told her that she would get better, she wailed, "No!!!! I will never get better!!!!"

"Okay," I replied, "I guess the leg will have to come off at the knee then."

"No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Love Drama Hava.

Along the way, Papaya was dancing along the edge of the Erie Canal, as close to "danger" as possible...as usual.  Chugger-dude came up to me.

"Mom, look at Papaya."

"I see her."

No response.

"Mom, don't you think we should have her come on the other side of the railing?"

"Nope," I replied, smiling, "I think she is fine."

Walking.

"Mom, how about we set some boundaries...like a line that she can't go across?"

"She is just fine.  The worst that will happen is that she will fall in and I will have to jump in after her."

I have to make these decisions every day with my dear Papaya.  So many times, the feeling is "let her explore the limits of what she can do; you will be amazed."

I pick those "boundaries" with care and bless cautious Chugger-dude's heart for his tender concern for his sister!

Chugger-dude's voice

I just helped Chugger-dude post a delightful account of his experience yesterday.  Love that boy!

Chugger-dude's blog

"Cousins and friends

Yesterday We worked and played with cousins We went to the Dwyers at about 3:00 pm and ate  dinner and did Family Home Evening.

(Mom typing)  During Family Home Evening, Brother Dwyer showed us something that happened during the second session of the last General Conference.  There was this boy, he couldn't walk and he wanted to do the children's choir and he was always smiling and happy.  So he did the children's choir and he wanted to stand with the rest of the kids and so his older brother went with him and held his hand so that he could stand up when all the other ones did.

We also played cops and robbers.  I was a cop.  We also helped them get ready for winter by helping pick out plants from their garden and we threw tomatoes at Lek and Patrick and they threw them back at us.  And then, once Pipalicious came up behind my back.  She had this good, juicy tomato and she threw it at me and she hit me on the back!  There was this big spot where it hit and I had seeds in my shirt that night when I took it off. I still haven't gotten her back yet!

My job was to roll up 11 sleeping bags and put them away.  Eight of them had been for one bed, which was the Goob's.  Our cousin and Spooner were attacking me when I did it and so I didn't finish the last one until after our cousin was gone."

Blue and Gold Banquet, Birthday Girls, and Performances

One of my favorite boy scout nights of the year...the Blue and Gold Banquet!  A night of minimal behavioral expectations, built to cater to kids, and a meal I don't have to cook or clean up.  I am all over it!

We have a yearly tradition in our ward: the cub scouts decorate cakes and bring them.  This year, I was pleased that they requested that they be more cub scout themed...and more made by the scouts themselves.  I was craving Reese's Cheesecake Brownies and they are simple enough for Chugger-dude to make so we made these and he decorated the top with a little mini campfire and tent.  It looked just like the camping trip to Antelope Island they went on with the 11 year old scouts a few months ago...without all the frost. (Powdered sugar!  Shoot...next time.)

Papaya spent most of the time swinging from the folding chair racks on the side.  Our "arrangement": she cannot climb on them during Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, and I pretty much let her climb to her heart's content any other time we are in there.  She swings like a monkey and is as much at home walking across the top bars as she is on the ground.  She does tend to display her panties too much, but I pick my battles.  Every once in a while, she would swing down for a kiss and a bite of food before venturing on top again.


Liliputian and Avot joined us late, coming straight from a Young Women's basketball game.  Technically, their time in Young Women's doesn't overlap at all with Avot's birthday at the beginning of the month and Liliputian's at the end.  They celebrated in style with a shared "Sisters Birthday Brunch" on Valentines' Day, pretty close to halfway between their birthdays.  They invited other "sister pairs" that were their ages among their friends, played games, ate food and had a chocolate fondue fountain.  They were in heaven!  The girls that came were pretty low-key about the fountain but true appreciation was shown for it when I allowed the rest of our kids to descend upon it when the girls left to play more games.  They dipped pickles, olives...you name it, and, yes, it was chocolate and not cheese.  Nasty.

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Avot and Lek participated in a Sacrament Meeting Program last Sunday with their Resonate madrigal group.  The music was excellent...except when Avot lost it toward the beginning of their last number, "As Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman."  Spooner had come with Q-dawg and I to watch and he was at the end of his second sacrament meeting...with no nap...and no treats or toys for the second one.  He was done.  He stood on my knees, leaned forward, pointed his finger dramatically Avot's direction and gave her the stare of death.  Avot's face turned bright red as she tried to contain her laughter.  Her laughter infected the girl next to her so the poor third alto was on her own and confused about what was going on.

Spooner's impact on the Sacrament Meeting didn't end there.

Q-dawg was sitting on the edge and had really done the lion's share of dealing with our out-of-control two year old.  After the last talk, Spooner was off, walking up the aisles to the front.  Hey, if Avot and Lek were there, he could be there too, right?  He wandered to the front and then came back, turning just out of reach of Q-dawg.  He headed to the other side around the sacrament table and disappeared from our sight.  This is not our usual practice (to let our children wander at will) especially not at a ward that wasn't our own, but here we were!  Q-dawg thought his little towhead bobbing up and down on the podium was adorable and I was stuck in all my pregnant glory one seat in from him.

When time came for the closing prayer, Spooner walked across the podium front as if it were his turn to say the prayer, even stooping to try and pull out the step.  The youth were all chuckling and I was counting the moments until we were done :).  The person who was going to pray for the ward had apparently either forgotten or was also distracted by the little tow-head.  When "the pray-er" finally made it up there, Spooner was on his way down, was snagged by Q-dawg and ended in a phenomenal tantrum when I decided to try and contain him.  As always, Q-dawg was right.  To not contain was less distracting and infinitely more cute.

The best part of the whole meeting?  Lek's talk covering the blessings of personal revelation and how even though he went to Hungary kicking and screaming, it was worth it and awesome.  He said I couldn't use it against him, and I am not...I am just recording it here for future reference. :)  There is a difference.

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A note about enunciation: 
We have fun with our children's verbal idiosyncrasies.  Avot used to trill her tongue for "please" and would always say "tookie."  "C-C-Tookie," she would say as we tried to help her say it the right way.  Since then, we have realized that they always grow out of this cute phase of oblivious mispronounciation...all too soon.

Currently, Hava calls Pipalicious "Paw-er."  It is fun to listen to :).  Q-dawg loves to imitate it, but to get the nuance of in implied "p" is kind of tricky.  "Paw-er! Paw-er!" we often hear.  One time, I tried to correct her by saying it with a solid "p" but she just looked at me blankly and repeated how she said it, "Paw-er," like "of course, mom...that is how I am saying it!"  It's cute.  It will change soon enough.

Sickies and Chugger-dude

I have a houseful of sickies right now...well, enough to feel like a houseful.  It has been fun to watch Chugger-dude during his down time.  While watching cool BBC Nature videos, he has been mastering the art of paper airplanes.  I miraculously was able to figure out a particularly tricky fold, so now, apparently, I am the "go-to" helper :S.

As I was struggling with the most recent challenge, Chugger-dude confidently said, "I am glad to have a mom like you who is smart enough to fold paper airplanes."

"Does that count when I just got lucky?" I asked, continuing to struggle.

He just gave me that awesome Chugger-dude smile.  Love it!

William Tell Play

Three of the kids were just in an awesome play, "William Tell."

Here was the flier:

Big things come in small packages...

and big ideas can be shared by small actors!

Come be inspired by our children's production of the classic tale of

WILLIAM TELL

A tale of action
A tale of bravery

A tale of taking a stand!

"Cowards conform to circumstances...

...but a brave man bows to no evil!"

Bring your family and friends and join us for a FREE 30 minute performance
of a retelling of this heroic story of one of Switzerland's greatest heroes.

Nov 1st: Daytime Performance at 11 am

are at the Clearfield Library

REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED 

Chugger-dude played the son (we named him Thomas) who had the apple shot off his head.  He also played the part of "older Thomas" who was "telling" the story on the side to his kids after he had grown up.  Liliputian was his wife (when he was older, of course) and the timid town executioner.  Pipalicious played the spunky town baker. They were all fabulous!  The play went smoothly and people were inspired by our spunky little cast.

Pipalicious: aka Village Baker

Liliputian: aka Mother Tell and Executioner

Chugger-dude as Father Tell, just minus his cool, crocheted beard Avot made for him

Chugger-dude as Brave Thomas, who stood while his father "shot the apple" off his head

 I am hoping to get the youtube private version up soon for those who missed it...it was great!