An October Plague

It's only mid-October and already so much illness has been ricocheting from one kid to the next at the big boys school. Everything from colds, to strep throat, to stomach bugs, to the dreaded H1N1. So far, five of the six of us have had a nasty virus in the past week with only Fall2 being left out. We'll see how long that lasts! As of this moment, only Summer10 is sick.

All of this nasty germiness has taught me some things which may or may not be true.

1. Having tickets to a major sporting event will actually cause your children to become ill. Case #1, Cleveland Indians tickets clearly caused Fall2 to develop croup in June. Case #2, OSU Buckeye tickets clearly caused Winter3 to introduce this virus to our family this weekend.

2. A child who leaves his room and comes to the top of the stairs to tell his parents that he's not feeling well will throw up before he gets a chance to say anything. The chunky splashing sound will communicate far more than words.

3. The most active child will bounce back the most quickly. This is why Winter3 was sick only overnight and then better. He was able to run circles around the rest of us who were attempting to move from the couch.

4. Damp spots on the carpet, although cleaned and deodorized, are still gross. No matter how many times you try to remember the pattern of leaping that will safely get you down the hall, it is a guarantee that you will land in at least one spot. Ewwww.

5. A toddler who never got sick will think his brothers are staying home to play with him. He will bop their nearly lifeless bodies with toys because surely they're not sleeping but rather playing hide and seek.

6. Finally, this one I know is a fact...neighbors who offer help make everyone feel much better!

Oh boy!

Every so often, someone will ask me if we'll have a fifth child to "try for a girl." I have to stop myself from bursting into laughter. For one thing, our fourth child was a surprise beyond all surprises and miracle beyond all miracles. Don't get me wrong, I'm convinced that Fall2 was meant to be with our family. He fit in seamlessly with everyone else and if my family can agree on nothing else, we all agree that Fall2 is about the happiest and most joyful baby you'll ever meet. It's just that we're not going to try to make more of anything. Besides, I have four boys. If I had five children, I'd probably have five boys. I wouldn't trade my boys for anything but four is plenty, thankyouverymuch.

When I was pregnant with Fall2, some friends told me that he must be my girl. I knew, just knew, that he wasn't. And that was fine. I'd made peace with being a mom of all boys long ago. I will miss out on alot of girly things but that's okay. As far as I'm concerned, being the only female in the family means I have no competition for queen/princess/goddess of the house. Plus, I have a nice matched set of children. And what kind of girl would I have with three big brothers? Probably a girly girl wearing a dress but carrying worms around in a purse. Would she ever be asked out on a date? As protective as my boys are of me, I can only imagine what they'd be like with a little sister.

I hope to have one daughter-in-law who likes me. The odds seem good. My own mother-in-law is a great role model...everyone likes her. I pay careful attention to friends' in-law horror stories because I definitely don't want to be the dreaded kind of mother-in-law.

Daughters-in-law are waaaay in the future. Right now, I content myself with nieces and friends' daughters and stories about their girls. Some of these stories make me realize how loud and active my boys are. Some of these stories make me grateful for my loud and active but far less dramatic boys. Regardless, I have four wonderful, healthy, happy and funny children and I am grateful for those little men every day.

Anyway, Summer10 and Spring7 are sure that one of the goldfish must be a girl. Maybe I could just glue a pink bow on the hermit crab's shell? Um, maybe not.

I'm Baaaa-aaack

Okay, so no one ever told me that writing is like exercising. All is fine and dandy when you're in the routine but if you take a couple weeks off, say to get everyone back into school schedules, BAM all of the sudden it's more than two weeks and hard to get back into it.

I have missed writing. I've received so many compliments about my blog...many from people who are not related to me. Amazing! I kid but truly appreciate all the nice things people have to say.

So what's happened over the last few weeks? For one, my Fall baby is no longer "Fallwhatevermonths," he's an official Fall2. How much easier is that to write and read?! Spring7 and Summer10 are bouncing along with life. Winter3 started preschool two days a week and he hates it less every week. He never really hated school, he just hated me leaving him. On the second day of preschool, he had to bring a family picture to school. He spent the entire four hours wandering around the classroom, sucking his thumb and looking at our picture. How's that for heart wrenching? He does enjoy it now, doesn't mope around the classroom but drop off time is still hard. Leave it to my family to create a scene beyond all scenes. Imagine this...teacher steers Winter3 into class. Winter3 bursts into tears and begins yelling "Mommy! Moooommmmyyyy! I want Moooommmmyyy!" This hysteria causes Fall2 to burst into tears because a.)he doesn't like it when his brother is sad and b.) he doesn't like to leave his brother any more than his brother likes to be left. Good times. We're definitely not people who can come and go unnoticed.

Winter3 talks about his friends and teachers. He sings me songs from music class. Tells me what he did in gym class. Laughs about the book "Mrs. Sporkey" read (not quite close to her name but it works for him). I know he's happy and loved at school. I know the transitions will get easier because I went through the same thing with his big brothers. I just hope he finds a good balance...I don't want it to be too easy for him to leave me at any age!

The Fourth R is Recess

For years and years people have joked that a little boy's favorite part of the school day is recess. This is certainly true for Spring7. By the time lunch is over and it's time for recess, Spring7 is like a puppy who needs to be let off a leash. If I ask him about his school day, I get answers like "reading" and "stuff" and "I hate writing". If I ask about recess, I get a minute by minute detailed list of who he played with and what exactly they did.

This morning, he got dressed and with an irritated voice told me he had a problem. His major crisis: shorts with no pockets. How is he supposed to bring his Matchbox airplanes to recess without pockets? I dug out a pair of pocketed shorts and saved the day. Yes, he'd rather sit at school with airplane wings poking him in the thigh for several hours than be without.

I'll never complain about problems so easily solved!

Pets? Aren't Brothers Good Enough?

For the place where I am in my life right now, the best pets are my neighbors pets. The lack of furred creatures in my house is partly choice, partly necessity. No walks, no food, no vet bills, no poop. My kids give me all of that stuff that I need. A bigger issue is that in our family, we have cat and dog allergies. Fortunately, we found out after our last cat died and before we got a new one. (I really miss having a cat in the house.) Hamsters, guinea pigs and the like are cute but I don't care to own one.

We do have three pets: two goldfish and one hermit crab. Apparently, I have a special talent for nurturing small things because these critters have lived far longer than I expected. Our goldfish, $0.19 feeder fish we rescued from a terrible fate, are more than three years old now. Our hermit crab, Clawed McBroad, is almost 2 1/2.

Seriously, I'm stunned that my hermit crab is older than my youngest child. When Summer10 bought Clawed, we researched hermit crab care and discovered that he needed a crabitat. Yes, I said crabitat. (One of the best words, ever) A crabitat is a pretty simple place consisting of sand, a water dish, a little shell for food, extra shells for when he outgrows his current shell and a coconut hut for hiding from prying eyes. At this point, I think I'm the only person who still interacts with Clawed but I like having him around.

This isn't to say that the boys don't still think we need more pets. In fact, one day I thought Clawed had died. I saw a crumpled little body in his crabitat, said a prayer for him (my God loves even the crabbiest of us) and went to tell the boys. Can you believe that this happened to me twice before it became ingrained that hermit crabs molt? Anyway, Summer10's first words were, "Oh well. Now can we get a parrot?" A parrot? As in another thing that talks? As in a bird that will live forever and require a large place to live? I don't think so!

There must be something about birds and my kids though. Today, Spring7 and I saw several large birds flying over our house. He told me, "Mom, I'd like to have a hawk for a pet. Then I could walk around with it on my arm."

I could be the mother of a seven year old falconer.

I'm not cleaning up falcon poop either.

Five More Minutes?

I'm not a morning person. The older I get the more I realize this is just part of who I am. I love the morning but hate getting up to see it. Why can't dawn come at 10 am? Unfortunately, the rest of the world isn't on my schedule and I can't hit snooze on the school bus. I'm happy to get up and get my big boys off to school in the morning but they're usually up and dressed before I am.

Yesterday, Summer10 asked for a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast. While he put on his shoes I got his cereal ready. He walked into the kitchen and said, "Wow, that was fast." I told him, "Yep, your mom works pretty quickly." Here's the number one sign your child knows that you aren't a morning person. Summer10 replied, "You're really fast, once you get started."

Maybe I should teach him how to make my coffee?