Yes, is was tomorrow.  Thursday was, to be specifically, because Wednesday he’d been told a package was coming, “tomorrow.”  Sadly, it didn’t come Thursday.  Mail is finicky here sometimes, like it’s gotta cross and ocean or something.  Tsh.  Go figure.

Friday was the day.

A better package has never been sent. A longer post should be written… but… we’re rearranging the furniture and I must needs go help. Why are we rearranging? Because SOMEBODY’S COMING TO VISIT SOON and it seemed like a good excuse to get things all spiffed up. I’m kind of rambling now, so I’ll just get to the pictures already.

He really likes his pillowcase, Zannie. You’re amazing.

We can’t wait to see you!…

What’s up?

Oh, me?  Same old same old.
Which means, in case you’re wondering, doing laundry, washing dishes, kissing boo boos, wiping noses, cracking the homework whip, slave-driving the chore train, tickling tummies, reading stories, saying prayers, and trying to steal cat-naps on the couch when I think they won’t tear the house down.

And also, lately,
CHRISTMAS!

Oh so fun.  I love it.

But it’s sucking up all my extra time.

So, as is customary, the blog suffers.

Facebook doesn’t, though.  Does anybody see anything wrong with this picture?  Me too.

SO.

I resolve henceforth to blog more, facebook less.

A few weeks ago my mom sent a package, which we opened after the kids went to bed.  John saw something inside it and his whole face lit up like a Christmas tree.  He POUNCED on that pomegranite, saying in a high, nasally voice,

Stories like that are …

As I was in the kitchen cleaning up from lunch, I overheard little E singing to himself, to the tune of “If You Chance to Meet a Frown.”  When I looked over, this is what I saw:

His frosting improv cracked me up.

Ah, Mr. Eagle, you do make my world a better place – and you certainly took good care of that sticky pyrex for me, too.…

Seems to be the policy here in Hawaii, which might explain why school doesn’t get out until mid-June… and then starts right up again August first.

(Ask me how much I like that, by the way.)

However!

It was great to have all my little ones home today.  I loved it.  They were anticipating a NO-FRIENDS day, in which I was hoping they’d remember how to play together again.  Not that we don’t love our friends here, of course, but that every once in a while I feel the need to rope them all back home and establish “We are Smiths, this is our house, we all live together, we all work and play together,” with no distractions.

Well, it worked fabulously.  I had in mind that I’d let them play after they cleared the breakfast table, and we’d …

“I’m a baby,” he says, assuming the rock-a-bye position. 

“Really?” I ask as though it’s news to me, “I thought you were a big boy.”

“No,” he says very matter-of-factly, “I’m a baby.”

“Oh good,” I say, “Will you be my baby forever?”

“Nope,” being three, he’s very good at that word.

“Only for a yiddle bit,” he states, “Just a yiddle bit.”

Yes, buddy. Only for a yiddle bit. I’ll love every minute ’til then.…

2 weeks ago tomorrow

Baby G was born.  Beautiful delivery.  Favorite quote from the midwives who were there, after it was over:
“You really didn’t need us.” 

Yep.  I agree.  Glad they were there anyway, and grateful (so grateful!) that they read my mind in terms of their involvement.  After the initial monitoring and the barbaric waking of the baby with a loud buzzer on my tummy (Oh look!  Now that he’s awake his heart rate looks wonderful.  Go figure!  Sorry, baby - I would be trying to sleep through labor if I were you, too.)  they left me alone and let me do my own thing.  It was exactly what I wanted. 

My favorite:  During that initial monitoring — the one where the stuff is strapped around your tummy — the nurse in L&D let me undo the obnoxicity that is an elastic-strap-around-a-contracting-uterus …

The birthday fairy came, as is our custom.  Brought a dragon and some dragon jammies he’ll be wearing forever.  Happy kid, check.

I didn’t plan anything with any sort of notice, which is also my custom during the last month of pregnancy.  If you weren’t invited, don’t be offended.  There wasn’t anything to invite you to until it was happening, honest!

Thankfully we had folks we could hire  to come stand in so the poor boy felt loved.

Just kidding. We didn’t have to fork out the big bucks for that. They came anyway, bless their hearts.

Paying the store to make the cake so I wouldn’t feel guilty for not making a cake like I usually do, now, that’s a different story.  And just in case you’re wondering, I don’t encourage merchandising ’round here.  In fact, I’m a bit scarred by it, since it took years to wean …

makes me very happy.

We had two or three months of trash can drama.  Do you want to hear about it?  Well, okay, if you insist.  And here I thought no one but me would be interested in something quirky and random like this!

The Trash Can Drama

The old one had a lid that fell of at the least provocation, didn’t contain smells well, AND encouraged trash-can-overload – none of which were happy for a morning-sick, super-powers-of-smell-sensitivities mommy, or a roaming baby who likes to empty containers of all kinds.

I banished said trash can outside.  Good riddance to bad rubbish-holders!  It was tricky to not have a trash can inside, though.  I tried using the small bathroom trash cans, thinking I could delegate trash-dumping to Doodle if it was small enough… But that didn’t work.  We’d over-fill them and then he …

This little monkey man is at the stage most would call “handful.”

How’s that?

Well, let’s just say I discovered this week that he has the amazing ability to turn a bottle of glue into a 35-ft trail across the house… in all of about 30 seconds.  Maybe he needed the trail to find his way back to the sink.  Maybe he was just trying to make it obvious that I really do live in a Family Circus cartoon.

Happily, I also discovered glue cleans up pretty quickly, even off couches.  Thank goodness for small miracles!

The little monkey stinker boy figured out how to climb out of the crib about… oh, 3 months ago, maybe.  This was bad news for bedtime, but good news for Freedom who had definitely outgrown the bassinet. 

My first two kids made the transition out of a crib pretty …

And I didn’t put it back up.  (The first red curtain story is here.)  Instead, I finally gutted & reorganized the laundry room.

I actually never thought this would happen.

No, really, I didn’t.

That room has been an absolute disaster for a long time.  Like, since we moved in three years ago.

Where’s the “before” picture?

On the stolen laptop’s hard-drive, of course!

Bummer.

I know.

You could look through your blog’s photo archives and see if you saved it here, you know.

Oh, I could!  Let’s see if I find anything.

Wow, that’s pretty bad.

Yes, it was.  And *that* was already after the tackle-the-project was underway.

Why was the laundry room such a mess, though?

I don’t know.  I’m a lazy procrastinator and I don’t like to tackle big projects?

Nu-uh.

Oh, wait, you’re right.  That was the old …