Talking crazy

    This morning I was determined to get a shower in before 10am. Ben was busy playing some kind of war/army/airplane game in his room, so I put on Barbie Mariposa for Katie to watch. I set out all her high heels and crowns so she could dance to the music.
    15 minutes later I came out of the bathroom to see Katie playing on my bed with Little Pony’s. So I headed to Ben’s room to see how many army guys had survived the attack of the medieval horses. He wasn’t there.  I walked down the hall and peeked around the corner and there he was, sprawled out watching the Barbie movie.
    I said, “Hey, buddy, you done playing your game?”
   He jumped up like he needed to make a run for it. He says to me (while shrugging his shoulders) “I was running out here to find my other guy and I tripped on Kate’s toy and fell. I couldn’t even get up because my leg hurt. I wasn’t even watching this movie.”
   I just said, “It’s ok if you want to watch it, it’s a good movie.”
  “I DEFINITELY don’t want to watch it “ (he says to me with his eyes glued on the TV.)
   “Well, someday your wife will be glad that you put up with girly movies like this”. I said.
   He turned and stomped out of the room and said, “Now you’re just talking crazy.”
   

When the cat’s away, the mice will play…

  Three afternoons a week I have Katie all to myself. Or you could say she gets my undivided attention, which hardly EVER happens. At the start of the school year I thought to myself “Awesome! Katie will take a nap and I’ll have 3 afternoons ALL. TO. MYSELF. Well, that has maybe happened 4 times. Maybe. Instead, this three hours has morphed into something special for her and I. A rare time when she can actually get a word in edgewise, jump on the bed all by herself, and play in the sink while I wash dishes. It’s very fun for both of us.
  But lately, I’ve noticed an interesting turn of events. Instead of hanging out with me, she makes a beeline for the bedrooms. The first couple afternoons I didn’t pay much attention to what she was doing back there, I was just really happy she was keeping herself entertained. So, when it happened again on Thursday, I went to investigate what was SO MUCH COOLER than being with me. I almost laughed out loud when I walked into the room. Katie was playing with all the toys that are off-limits to her when her big brother and sister are home. She had Ben’s puppies all  lined up, Emma’s sacred Barbie collection strewn about, and was wearing all the fancy jewelry. Wowza. I have to say she’s one tough cookie- taking a risk like that.
   She heard me at the door and turned like a deer caught in the headlights. I’m pretty sure she thought she was headed for the slammer right then and there. She said to me, “Sorry mom, Kate play with Barbies.”  She gave me the look. The one that means please just let me do this just this once and please don’t say anything about this ever to anyone please!
    So, because of her bravery, we have a secret pact. We may need an intervention one day. But on any given weekday afternoon, you will probably find us taking Barbies for rides in their jeep, having a wedding ceremony for Ken and the Mermaid princess, or taking puppies to the doctor for check-ups. The evidence is then carefully put back in it’s rightful place before 3:30 rolls around. Don’t judge us too hard…..

Busy Guy

It's been pretty busy around here for Ben the last few weeks. It's usually Emma that has lots of activities going on, but I guess that means our guy is growing up. He is very busy with T-ball, and we're all having fun watching him play. They have 2 games a week and 1 practice. Well, when it's not pouring down rain. The kids have already learned a lot, and they actually all remember to run to first base after they hit now! He also had a field trip to the Alpaca farm in Ridgefield, and he loved it! Here are some picks of the little man....

Shoes

  Twice a week Emma has PE at school. Today was one of those days. I had set her sneakers and athletic socks by the door with her backpack, all ready to go. As I was rushing to get Katie up and dressed she ran in and asked if she could just take the sneakers in her backpack and wear something else. I assumed she wanted to wear boots. Apparently I was too busy to notice what shoes she was wearing until AFTER I dropped her off and watched her walk into school. There she went, wearing Capri stretchy pants, Nike athletic socks and high heeled black dress shoes. We clearly need some kind of screening process before the morning drop-off…

Dinner dilemma

I may need a big HUGE piece of chocolate after the last 2 hours we had in our house. It seems as of late that Ben feels he doesn’t need to eat what we put in front of him at dinner. Not cool. So, at 6:40pm we showed him what he needed to eat in order to be done. The tears came. He came up with a million reasons why he couldn’t eat the food. When everyone else was done, the temper tantrum started. Dave took the girls outside to play.  I started in on the dishes wearing the shooting earmuffs that Dave uses for firearms- it‘s pretty good at muffling loud screaming. I stayed strong- I wanted to give in so bad. As the minutes passed, big deep breaths were all that was keeping us going. He missed playing outside, watching TV, and checking on all his animals. At 8:10pm he finally ate his food- He ate it! We were all exhausted and drained, and he had to go straight to bed. We held onto him tight and he said he was sorry.
  When I tucked him into bed I said, “That was a pretty bad night, wasn’t it?”
  He said, “Yeah, it was bad, but some nights could be badder.”
  I said, “What do you mean?”
  “Well, if you got shot or stuck in a bad storm that would be worse.”
Hmmm..the kid does have a point, but at least we made some progress in the Hughes house tonight!

Damaged Pride

   Yesterday morning my sister Alicia and I were sipping coffee and attempting to have a conversation. It’s a little difficult when you have requests for juice or to come watch a dance show every 5 minutes. But, we were doing our best. Soon, we had the kids all doing crafts at the table so we could get some talking done.
   Out of nowhere Emma looks up from her coloring and says, “Mom, you are really lucky to have a mom that is so creative and good at crafts.” Hmmmm.. Ouch.. That must mean I’m NOT creative, right? Well, as I’m processing that juicy piece of info, the legs of the chair I’m sitting on TOTALLY break- you heard me right. The chair BROKE. It felt like slow motion. I heard the crack, felt myself going backwards, coffee cup and all. Hmmm.. Alicia witnessed the whole thing and can verify every moment.
   So, here’s my list of things to do tomorrow:
1. Only eat grapefruit and go run 15 miles
2. Learn to crochet a hat and color IN the lines
3. Go buy a new kitchen chair
P.S. I have not seen my sister laugh that hard in a long time ….

T-ball Practice

Well, Ben’s first T-ball practice did not disappoint. Hilarious. Seriously hilarious. And he totally loved every muddy minute of it. I can’t decide which moment made me prouder. When he ran out on the field with his mitt on the wrong hand or when he threw the ball underhand to his coach. Luckily, he wasn’t the only rookie there. But my all time favorite part of his first practice happened when it was his turn to bat. He got all lined up, bat over his shoulder, serious look on his face. And then, mid swing he lowered his bat and gazed up at the sky. His coach said, “Come on buddy, you gotta hit the ball”. Ben just pointed up and said, “Check out that cool airplane!”. It’s going to be an awesome season, I can just feel it

A night with Kate

   Two nights ago most everyone in our house was sound asleep. Even the dog. I was tired, and had just sat down to bask in the quiet for a few minutes. The problem was, a cute little wild-haired girl was peeking around the corner at me. With a big smile on her face. Usually, this would be a problem, and I would be taking big deep breaths to stay calm. But, she hasn’t felt good in so long that this made me smile. I motioned for her to come on out and she did her happy skip run and bounced up on the couch. We watched Bubble Guppies and Dora, we played with Squinkies and Pet Shop, we ate Ice cream and went outside to look at the moon. She reorganized the sippy cup drawer 3 times.
    At 11:30 pm even her cuteness couldn’t stop me from getting sleepy. I told her she had to go to bed. “No mommy, dance with Kate”, she says and grabbed my hands. People, I wanted to go to bed SOOOO bad. I didn’t even want to get up off the couch. And I admit that I groaned a little bit on the inside. But, we turned on a Disney Princess CD, and started to dance. When I spun her around she giggled until she could hardly breathe, and it was the best sound in the world.
   Going to bed at 1am isn’t super cool. But having a baby girl that feels better is AWESOME, and I am gonna soak up every minute!

Palm Sunday

Last weekend Dave had Swift Water rescue training up by Tacoma, so the kids and I headed south to spend some time with the Bodine clan. We spent a couple days at my moms and then Palm Sunday we headed to Lincoln City. We got to go to Crystal and JD's church and then hang out at their house. We had a great time!!! (Dave had fun too, but was very cold and sore by the end :)