Easter Expressions

Easter this year was pretty delightful. I'm always a sucker for dyeing eggs. There is just something so satisfying about those brilliant colors. The boys were big into the rubber band technique this year and we even had three minion egg wraps, whose pure awesomeness almost melted their minds.

The Easter Bunny left shiny new buckets for the boys in the morning with bubbles, kiddie gardening tools and Beatrix Potter books in them. We waited until after church for the Easter egg hunt so they had their cute Sunday outfits on still. I thought we'd get some adorable pictures, but mostly we got a wide variety of interesting facial expressions.

"I look down on all you lesser mortals who don't have as many jellybeans as I do."

"Cheese!"

"Super Egg-Hunter Away!"

"Am I in trouble? This one is for me, right?"

"What the?!?!"

"I hope my careful hand placement is drawing your attention to my very stylish robot bucket."

"This is serious business. The key is to keep your eye on the eggs. Don't look away, even if your mom approaches you with a camera."

Tobias: "Now, where did that egg go? I just had one..."
Benjamin: "I must move super slow so that Tobias doesn't notice me putting his egg in my bucket."

"What could be better than an orange Easter-egg filled with candy? Two!"

In the late afternoon, there was an Easter dinner potluck at a local park. This was genius! Weather permitting, I want to do this every year! There was a ton of good food, the kids played at the park and we enjoyed being with good friends since we couldn't be with out extended families.

What made Easter even sweeter this year is that David John finally seemed to "get it" for the first time. He connected the resurrection story with the holiday. For days after Easter Sunday, we were receiving e-mails from the Easter Bunny which David John then printed (read printed-by-hand and then laid on the actual printer) about the importance of Easter and that it is not just about Easter eggs, but also about Jesus. I loved hearing him teach this lesson over and over to little brothers but also friends and strangers throughout the week. Is there any better expression of Easter than the faith of a little child?

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

So, a crazy thing about North Dakota- it is windy. I mean, really windy, exceptionally windy, egregiously windy. So, when I saw kites on sale, it was a no-brainer. Of course one should own kites if one lives in North Dakota. You can fly them year-round.... except when it is 60 below.... or when those crazy electrical storms happen. Didn't Benjamin Franklin try that once? Something about discovering electricity?

Anyway, the point is we had kites. We met some friends at a park and had a blast. I chose the park, but I had forgotten how many stately trees the park had.... and also that the park abutted several private backyards with high fences... These conditions made for some interesting kite flying.

Benjamin managed to both get his kite treed and crash land it in someone's backyard. Luckily, these particular someones came out to do yard-work shortly after the crash. In typical polite North Dakota fashion, they carefully retrieved the kite, untangled the string from their bushes, and handed it back without a word of complaint. I love North Dakotans.

Since my boys are, well, boys, I should have anticipated that they could make even kite-flying a violent and competitive event. For some reason, I envision flying a kite as this peaceful, even serene activity, during which one gazes up at the heavens with only the wind whistling in your ears and ponders the mysteries of life. Instead, the intense winds whipped the kites around so fast that you really had to be on top of your game if you wanted to keep it in the air. Also, you had to avoid your brother's kite which was purposefully trying to knock yours out of the air.

These "kite wars" resulted in some kite injuries. I patched them with duct tape, what else? They are still going strong. That day at the park was pure joy. I had the "Let's Go Fly a Kite" song running through my head, I was with a good friend and my boys were delighted at the spectacle of those kites. As I look at the pictures, I feel like one of those kites. My little boys sometimes send me soaring with joy, they sometimes have me tied in knots, or treed. They sometimes cause me to crash-land, sobbing in a neighbor's or a friend's yard because syrup-all-over-the-carpet?!?! Really?!? or What do you mean you "accidentally" knocked your chair over, leaving a hole in your wooden door and your finger is now stuck in that hole? These boys are crazy, but they also keep me grounded, tied to something that I love more than I thought I was capable of loving. They remind me, with gentle or not-so-gentle tugs when my mind and heart stray to come back, to be here, with them. The little guys that I love today will be different little people tomorrow. Life is fleeting, the winds of change are blowing, let's go fly a kite today.

Fairy Tale Ending

Recently, we checked out a children's book from the library written by Charles Dickens. It was a charming little fairy tale with a message about hard work. It's called "The Magic Fishbone" and while it involves a princess and a fairy godmother, the ending is anything but typical:
"'It only remains,' said Grandmarina in conclusion, 'to make an end of the fishbone.' So she took it from the hand of the Princess Alicia, and it instantly flew down the throat of the dreadful little pug-dog next door and choked him, and he expired in convulsions. The End."

My boys looked a little shocked after I read it but I laughed out loud. I may or may not have been thinking about a certain devil dog that belonged to a previous next-door neighbor. Anyway, the funny thing is that before the rather shocking last paragraph the story had wrapped up in true fairy-tale fashion with a happily-ever-after scenario. So, for the last few days I've been imagining random paragraphs I could tack onto the end of my own story. It has helped me to laugh about things that might otherwise have made me a little cranky. Here are some of the endings I have come up with to add to the following: "So Sarah married a tall and handsome pediatrician and had five blue-eyed boys and lived happily ever after."

"For the next several days, Sarah would continue to find mostly-eaten tubes of chapstick in the most unusual of places. Each time she found one, hidden under a couch cushion or lurking behind a tissue box on the counter, it was as if her toddler was reminding her of all the goodnight kisses they would share past and future and also that she really needed to a better job of baby-proofing her house. The End."

"As she looked into a pair of those big blue eyes he said to her, 'Mom, I can pick my nose with my toes.' The End."

"As she walked down the stairs, her hair streaming behind her she smiled at the sound of laughter coming from her kitchen... until she saw the milk issuing at high velocity from the mouths of her children. She spent the rest of the day cleaning milk off of every kitchen surface. The End."

"And the boys spent a happy quarter-hour jumping off of the top of the basement fridge onto a pile of cushions on the floor before their mother caught them. The End."

"She had been meaning to reorganize those shelves anyway. So it was a good thing, really, when the boys climbed on them and pulled them over. As the contents of the shelves rolled across the storage room floor, Sarah smiled to herself. Her life was so full of cleaning and organizing opportunities. Who could ask for anything more? The End."

And Sarah wrote a blog entry and then went to bed and dreamed of a happily-ever-after in which she is able to sleep in without fear of the house being destroyed. The End.

Drinking Problem

A while ago, I was at a friend's house. Tobias ate a rather soggy cheerio off of her back porch. She apologized but I replied that it was no big deal. My boys have put much worse things in their mouths- the most outstanding incident being when I swept out Gabriels mouth and found a dead cockroach. Anyway, as I related in an older post, poison-control and I go way back. My boys just have a penchant for putting things in their mouths that they should not. However, I now know the protocol for what to do when most household items are ingested so I haven't had to call poison control in a long time. Tobias decided that I should rekindle my relationship.
While I was in the bathroom, (moms of toddlers should really just have catheters) Benjamin decided to wash his hands with some hand sanitizer which he then gave to Tobias who decided to drink it. What to do? There was some on the floor, I didn't think the bottle was full when he got it but his breath definitely smelled sanitized so I knew he had ingested some, I just wasn't sure how much. I googled this issue to see what I should be looking for to know if he was drunk or even had alcohol poisoning. Here's the problem: the symptoms were useless. They were all things like, "Impairments of balance, unsteady gait". Yep, at 13 months he always looks like he's about to topple over. "Lowered decision making ability leading to erratic behavior" Remember the part where he drank, DRANK hand-sanitizer? Yeah, I think we've got those symptoms covered too. "Slurred speech" Can you even tell if a child's babbling is slurred or not? His "Ma-ma, Da-da and Ba-bas" didn't sound slurred to me but I couldn't be sure. "Volatile mood" This is a child who can be gigging hysterically one second and then will collapse in a forlorn heap on the floor because I inform him, in a gentle voice, that he may not play with the knives in the dishwasher. Mood swings? Check.
So, I had to call poison control. Luckily, it was a very small container of hand sanitizer and we knew he didn't get all of it, so with some simple math we could determine that he was not in danger of alchohol poisoning.
This kid is determined to keep us on our toes. Since then, he has eaten a fairly large quantity of Desitin. Yummy, but luckily this was one I was familiar with. He has also taken to climbing up on counters to steal food and non-food items alike. He loves to eviscerate fruit. I think he may, in fact, be a fruit bat.

Just yesterday, his "unsteady gait" caused him to trip head-first into the brickwork by the fireplace. So, he got his first set of stitches.

At least he got a clean bill of health at his most recent cardiology appointment. Looking at himself on my phone kept him fairly still during his EKG. I love the resulting photos.

We are so grateful for this kid even if he does act a little tipsy.

Albuquerque

Don't you just love to say Albuquerque? I got to take a momcation last month to visit my wonderful friend Holly who lives in New Mexico. We stayed up way-too-late every night talking and giggling. We did a lot of shopping and sightseeing and just generally soaked up time together. We got to go to Tim's Place, a darling restaurant that serves food and hugs and is owned by Tim, who has Downs-syndrome. The food was amazing, the hugs were great and Tim also dishes out compliments. He told Holly that she was "awesome" and called me "cute". The weather was sunny, as always, and beautiful. It was a nice break from snowy North Dakota. Here a few photos from the trip:

Mr.Medium

I am pretty sure David John has a severe case of middle-child syndrome. He has taken to referring to himself as "the mediumest brother". This is entirely appropriate seeing as he is the 3rd of 5 boys and he is our only child who lands exactly in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. I suppose if there were a superlative for being in the middle, it would fit him. However, he is by no means average. Here are a few of his recent non-average quotes:

One day we were talking about names and the difference between a title like Mommy or Daddy and a given name. We then talked about first names versus full names. Marc asked the boys if they knew their grandparents' full names. David John said he knew his Oma's full name. So, we asked him to tell us what it was. He confidently replied, "It's Oma Oma Ricks."

David John often gets a bad case of what we call "the crazies". This condition is characterized by poor impulse control and lots of running around accompanied by general naughtiness. Thanks to a suggestion from a friend, David John and I made a "crazy box" together complete with crazy faces and mustache tape. Now, he had a place to put his crazies so that he could calm down when it was time to go to bed. I was very grateful for this crazy box a few weeks ago when he informed me, "Mom, I put my idea to flood the basement bathroom in my crazy box instead of actually doing it." Yeah, the crazy box can be a very good thing.

Despite being the middle child, David John does not seem to be lacking in self-esteem. He often asks me if Tobias cried while he was gone to Joy School because, clearly, Tobias cannot be happy without David John around. It's true that Tobias seems to have a special affection for David John. At dinner one evening, David John made Tobias smile and giggle. David John then sighed heavily and exclaimed, "You're in love with me, Tobias!"

I took the boys to a small circus that stopped in Dickinson last weekend. David John was captivated by everything but especially by the acrobatic and balancing acts. After watching a very impressive feat in which a man balanced on three different layers of rolling cylinders on a high platform and then preceded to pass hulahoops over his body David John turned to me and said, "I am never going to try that Mom, " I was relieved to hear that but then he added, "until I'm a grownup." One of the acts involved balancing on chair frames stacked in various ways. These chairs had no seats, which David John noticed right away. Before the act even started he whispered in a loud voice. "I know what his trick is going to be. He is going to sit on a chair with no bottom!" Yes, that would have been impressive. I think David John was actually a little disappointed when the guy just stacked up the chairs and did handstands on them.

And 3 Shall Be the Number of Thy Counting

Our little April Fool turned 3 this week. Benjamin is in turns sweet, stubborn, hilarious, aggravating, emotional, ridiculous, fun and dang cute. I have quite a few Benjamin pictures and quotes I've been meaning to share anyway, so here they are along with some birthday pictures and fun facts about all things Benjamin:

This little injury happened in February courtesy of a big  brother slamming his thumb in a door. Benjamin became rather attached to his "black thumb" and used it to start conversations with friends and strangers alike. "Look! I have a black thumb." At some point in March, I was trimming his nails and noticed that the black thumbnail was only hanging on by a thread. I quickly yanked it off so the new nail underneath could start growing. It bled more than I thought it would and I felt really bad because Benjamin started crying. I quickly learned, however, that he was not crying about the pain, but because of the emotional attachment he had. "You taked my black thumb!" he wailed. Days later, we were sitting in the van waiting to pick up David John from Joy School when I heard a little disgruntled voice muttering, "She taked away my black thumb. It is not nice to take people's black thumbs. You should not do that." A month later, I think he may finally be over this insult.

Fun Fact: Benjamin is not potty-trained. Nope. He's 3, but conversations about potty training generally go something like this: Me-"Benjamin, let's go sit on the potty so you can get an M&M!" B-"No, I can't sit on the potty." Me-"Why not?" B-"Because I not potty-trained." Me-"I know you aren't potty trained. That's why you need to practice sitting on the potty." B- "Sorry, I too little." Head. Wall. Repeat. He did finally pee on the potty for the first time today. I am cautiously optimistic.

I wish I had a "before" picture so I could say "This is a slinky." "This is a slinky after Benjamin. Any questions?" I find I sometimes have similar feelings about my mind and my body pre- and post-children. Anyway, we are rough on toys around here. I'm not sure why we even give this kid toys. He can personify any object and play with it. Meals sometimes take a very long time because the characters in his drama can only be eaten after they've fulfilled their purpose to the plot.

Fun Fact: In our house, mysterious beings visit us in March and turn random things green. Last month we had green milk, green pancakes, even green pizza dough. Most of my boys call these beings leprechauns but Benjamin, being a mathematically-minded person calls them "hexagons". Euclid would be so proud. Math is magic, right?

One day I peeked in Benjamin's room while he was playing with these three toys. His play is usually more violent than I would prefer so I assumed that there was going to be some sort of battle and heroic rescue involved. It looked, to me, like those two superheroes were menacing that poor little dog. I was surprised that Spiderman was a villain. The Hulk is changeable, but Spidey you can usually count on to be the good-guy. Boy, was I wrong. As it turns out, that innocent little dog was really an evil mastermind planning to take over the world. He was so powerful that it took TWO super-heroes to fight him, subdue him, and take him to jail and that was only after the dog escaped at least twice. I guess when you are a little guy, it's nice to think that little guys can make big waves.

Fun Fact: Benjamin is definitely a child of the smart-phone era. We have some Ninja Turtle toothpaste for the boys, but Benjamin always calls them the Fruit Ninja Turtles. In fact, I don't think he is aware that the word "ninja" can exist without being preceded by the word "fruit".

Fun Fact: Benjamin is not a neat eater and he almost never uses utensils. When we went to the circus, everyone got some cotton candy. Benjamin looked like he was sporting a fuzzy blue goatee.

Benjamin couldn't decide what he wanted for his birthday, or what kind of cake he wanted, or what he wanted to eat for dinner. When asked, "What do you want for your birthday?" he would answer, "Cake and presents." "What kind of cake?" "Umm, yellow cupcakes, no green cupcakes, no blue cupcakes with white frosting or yellow frosting and M&Ms." That is how I ended up making rainbow cupcakes. All the boys were super happy with the results.

He did, indeed, get presents including real cowboy boots, the movie Frozen, a CD that is so bad it's good entitled "Dinostory: The Ultimate Dinosaur Rock Opera", robot pajamas (which he pronounces pee-jamas), a Thomas Uno game and some lacing cards.

Fun Fact: I did not make up that CD title. It really is that bad and consequently, that awesome. We checked it out from the library a few times and the boys are all obsessed. You can listen to a few of the songs complete with animation on youtube.