at 3:00 in the morning

This. This just happened at 3:04 a.m., and all I could do was laugh.

Not a normal response, mind you. However, approximately 30 minutes ago, this 32+ week pregnant mama was awoken by my oldest daughter saying that the youngest daughter was in complete hysterics. Said hysterical child would NOT state the problem nor be comforted by anyone other than said pregnant mama. Three annoyed and grumpy older sisters were all awake and had endured enough tears from the youngest sister.

This comes on the heels of a fun (yet exhausting) weekend away where no one (especially the pregnant mama) got enough sleep. Though completely justified, I thought it might be weird to cart in the five pillows that I sleep with nightly just to survive two nights in a hotel. I may reconsider in the future if necessary.

Anyway, so upon arrival in the girls' room, I know right away what has happened. Olivia has wet the bed, and she is as worked up as an old wet hen. She cannot stop crying to save her life, and despite the moaning and groaning from the two oldest sisters and multiple offers to "help" from child number three, I am doing my best to calm down Olivia.

Did I mention that Josh has the nerve to still be out of town for the next 17 hours? Back to the story.

Olivia starts spouting off demands between sobs of discomfort: I need new jammies...and I only want soft, fuzzy ones...and I need Vaseline for my bottom because it itches...and I'm cold and wet...and...and...and...

And since it's 2:45 a.m., it is absolutely reverse hostage negotiation time. I will do just about anything at this point to calm down this raging storm of a five year old. Because let's be honest... discipline at this late (or maybe early?) hour is not going to get us anywhere.  Put out that fire and get all of those kiddos back to sleep!

The initial round of pajama options that I presented were denied on account of not being comfy enough. The fuzzy blue penguin pajama pants were then demanded, but they were nowhere to be found. These negotiations were not going well.

So my pregnant body starts frantically digging through laundry hampers and finds the requested item after approximately two minutes and seven seconds. Not bad on the whole. The remaining negotiations went quickly enough to satisfy all involved.

I get Liv cleaned up and transferred to a different sleeping location, clean up her bedding and bed, and make it to my own bedroom of refuge.  And then the spider...thinking he was all up in my face and trying to get a reaction out of me while sitting so nicely on my comforter.

My message to the spider: Ha. Ha. Ha. You don't scare me. I just dealt with a crazed, dazed, and unreasonable five year old for the last 20 minutes.  I laugh in your general direction!!!

Okay...time to sleep.

bedtime prayer

Josh's dad had back surgery this past spring, and Olivia has diligently prayed for him over the past several months.  Even though we've corrected her several times and told her just to pray for his back to feel better, she continues to pray for the surgery.  She added a little extra to the end tonight...

Dear God,

I pray for Grandpa and his back surgery and...(several second pause)...and that he doesn't get old.  Amen.

I hope it's okay to laugh during prayer time.  I couldn't help myself.

lego mania

I am not exaggerating when I say that the girls spent the entire weekend playing with legos.  They built, sorted, and made an entire little village on the one side of our playroom.

Two funny/scary things came out of this.

First of all, Olivia obviously walked through one area of the village and wasn't quite as careful as she should have been.  Amelia commented, "I think a tornado came through here!"  Meredith responded, "I think it was a Livi tornado."

Second story:
Did you know that you can download lego plans from their website?  People are pretty rough on their instruction guides around here.  So, when the girls were putting together some of their older sets this weekend, they had the computer sitting down low on a kitchen chair so that they could see the plans from the computer.

Our laptop typically sits on the counter right next to where they have been working this weekend.  At one point this morning, I heard Olivia say to one of her sisters, "I held the computer, and I didn't even drop it."

Cue pride from the child.  Cue panic from the mother.

We then had a very serious discussion about how "you may NOT move Mommy's computer! You may ask Mommy to move it for you, but you may not move it yourself!"  ...followed by prayers of thanksgiving that she didn't drop it. :)  Whew!!

olivia: age 3.5

There is so much sweetness wrapped up in this child that I don't even know where to begin.  Age three and a half suits her well.  Josh put together the top bunk of Amelia's bed, and now Olivia is sleeping in the bottom bunk with Amelia on the top.  

After 11 1/2 years of constant use, the crib is unoccupied.  Bittersweet, for sure.

Olivia has transitioned extremely well to her big girl bed...probably better than any of her sisters.  She likes to follow those three big sisters, and since they stay in their beds (mostly), she stays in hers.  

She loves her Grandmas, Grandpas, sisters, Pipper (her stuffed dog), and flashlights (see story below).  She has a weird habit of talking about dying.  I have no clue why, but she is constantly asking about people dying.  We just roll with it. :)

She is a total giggler, and the girls can make her laugh in a heartbeat.  She is so affectionate, and she just gives great hugs.

While the girls are doing school, she plays by herself so nicely.  Playing in her little kitchen, looking at books, and playing with her dolls keep her pretty distracted throughout the mornings.  

Okay, so the flashlight story....

This photo is framed on my bathroom counter:

Olivia was in the bathroom with me the other day while I was getting ready.

Olivia: When did you take this picture, Mom?

Me: That was at Thanksgiving a few years ago at Aunt Jill's.  You weren't born yet.  You were in my belly.

O: Yeah...I couldn't see then...it was really dark...and I couldn't see...uh-cause I didn't have my fwashwhight.  

If only she could have had her flashlight in the womb. :)

Love this little stinker pot.  She is a joy every single day.  

oh those pirates!

Amelia is currently sitting at the counter drawing out of a How to Draw People book.

She's drawing a pirate.

A: I don't know...I guess I'll use this one for the skin color.

Me: Yeah, it's hard to choose a skin color since everyone has different colored skin.

A: Yeah, I know...especially pirates.

dusting off the blog

My poor, poor blog.  It is a little dusty around here. :)

I have so much I need to document in this location, and we have been beyond busy with everyday life.  Thankfully, November tends to be a slower month until Thanksgiving, so I'm looking forward to a little downtime.  

November also brings lots of hunting from the husband which means I actually get to upload photos and sit at the computer after all of my little people are in bed.  

There are several topics that I'd love to post on in the next several weeks.  Seriously, so much has happened around here.  I have a smartphone.  Our house addition is in full swing.  All of my girls are sleeping in the same bedroom.  Our youngest child is 3 1/2 (which totally changes my outlook on life).  My oldest child is working on 12 (which totally changes my outlook on life).  Needless to say, I have some posting to do.

We've been so busy that I haven't even uploaded photos.  I have a funny Olivia story to share, but as I looked at my uploaded photos, the most decent one I could find of her was from August at the lake.  Seriously, shame on me.  I'll work on it.  

Okay, so funny Olivia story...

Olivia LOVES to help me in the kitchen.  I was baking cookies this morning, and she brought our step stool over to the mixer to help.  She got her hands messy with something, so I told her to wash her hands.  This conversation followed:

O: (as she's getting off of her stool) Don't let anybody take my stool.

Me: Okay.

She then moves her stool over to the sink to use it to reach the sink while she washes her hands.

O: (looks over to where her stool was previously)  HEY!!  WHO TOOK MY...(looks down where she's standing)...oh...I'm standing on it.

Three year olds are lovely.

b.i.f. thirty

Amelia is getting her hair cut in a week.  Here was our conversation about it:

Me: How do you want your hair cut?

A: I don't know!

Me: Do you want it just trimmed a little or do you want it cut shorter like mine?

A: I want it cut short like yours!!!

(pauses for a second)

A:  Well, no...I don't think anyone would recognize me.  I better not.

thanks, but no thanks

I just saw a sponsored ad in my Yahoo news feed: Two Easy Steps to Look 22 Years Younger

Let me think about this for a moment.  If I were to look 22 years younger, that would take me back in time to 1992.  I was 13.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I pray I never have to look like my 13 year old self again.

Can I get an amen?!

sisterly love

Oh, how fascinating it is to watch big sisters and little sisters.  I kid you not, the pictures below were taken approximately 30 seconds apart.

Can you tell who wanted the first turn?  

sweet summertime

The girls love eating on the deck.  I guess Olivia loves eating with her feet propped up as well.

amelia turns six

Guess who turned 6 last week?!!  She spent the day with Grandma doing some birthday shopping, and they also went to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman which they both enjoyed.  (On a side note, when Josh came home from work, Amelia excitedly announced that she and Grandma had watched Mr. Peabottoms!!  So funny.)

Her grandmas and grandpas gave her a book light, a tea set, sandals, a swimsuit, a watch, and nail polish. :)

Claire and Meredith gave her some play jewelry and playdoh.  

We gave her the new Tinkerbell movie (The Pirate Fairy) and a bicycle bell.  

Her 21-year-old friend, Nina, came over and watched The Pirate Fairy.  (Have I mentioned that Amelia has best friends of all ages?!  She makes friends more easily than anyone I've ever met!)

For her birthday dinner, she wanted pancakes, blueberries, smoked sausage, Hershey kisses, and punch.  

She asked for an island cake with dolphins, and her friends James, Lauren, Landry, Colson, and 9-day-old Noah enjoyed cake and ice cream with our family.  

Thankfully, we had everything for the cake already in the toy bins...loved that we had mini-birthday hats for the octopi. :)

Amelia Kate,
You are energetic, non-stop, and a complete chatterbox.  You are not a smidgen short of being one-of-a-kind.  The dramatic fashion in which you handle disappointment could use a bit of work, but you love people, offer forgiveness, and enjoy life more than the vast majority of the population.  Child, you set a beautiful example without even being aware of it.  What a blessing you are!  Hope you had a wonderful 6th birthday!!

too much information

Most kiddos really don't have a filter when it comes to appropriate topics at the dinner table, and my amazing six year old definitely falls into that category.

We went out to dinner tonight at a local restaurant with my dad.  And one of the owners (who my dad and I both know) came over to chat with our family.  

As she was chatting with Olivia, Amelia piped into the conversation: "Yeah, she's not feeling too well.  She had diarrhea earlier."

Of course, we all laughed, and I was thinking that we might need to discuss appropriate topics for dinner conversation sometime in the near future.

The following portion of the story is waaaay too much information, but it's just too amusing not to document for the history books.

  

Shortly thereafter, I took Olivia and Amelia into the bathroom.  As Olivia was sitting on the toilet, Amelia noticed a little bit of poop still on Olivia's backside that I had obviously missed when cleaning her up after her nap. 

A: Mom, she still has a little poop on her bottom.

Me: I see that...sometimes that happens...(and recalling our earlier conversation at the table)...you don't need to mention this to anyone once we go back out to the table.  

A: (slightly shocked) Oh, I wouldn't do that, Mom!  You don't have to tell me that.

Me: Well, you already made the announcement that she had diarrhea, so I thought I should mention it. :)

Love the way she makes me laugh.

slight exaggeration

Each school day, the girls have to complete their memory work.  It includes all subjects with things like history dates, grammar rules, scripture verses, word definitions, random important information, etc.  There is a rotation so that they are reviewing things about once a month and practicing new things on a daily basis.

Currently, Claire has some definitions that she's working through.  There are probably about 15.  She has to read through them at least 5 times when she does her memory work.

In light of this info, here is our most recent conversation regarding memory work:

Claire:  Mom, these definitions are taking forever to get through!
Me:  There aren't that many.  Just work through them.  I'll go through them with you once or twice if it would help.
Claire: No...I can do them...they just take like 2 hours to go through!
Me: Two hours?  I don't think so.
Claire:  (sigh) Well, they take at least 5 minutes!!!

We don't exaggerate around here at all.

b.i.f. thirty

For beginners, this is what Liv's hair looks like when she does it herself.

Conversation between Olivia and me today:

Me: Olivia...did you know that I love you?
O: Yeah.
Me: How did you know?
O: Cause I take a nap.

Well, it certainly helps. :)

wibi wu

Olivia is extremely verbal these days, even if half of what she says doesn't always make a whole lot of sense. Whenever she's grumpy, we say, "Olivia, are you grumpy?"  She always responds very firmly, "I NOT BUMPY!" It's adorable.

What is also adorable is the way that she says her name.  She refers to herself as "Wibi Wu" instead of Livi Lu.  She can't say Olivia or it sounds like Amelia. :)  

Today, the girls and I were sitting on Meredith's bed being silly, and Olivia was having a bad attitude.  We started singing "Livi's grumpy, this I know.  For her actions tell me so...yes, Livi's grumpy..."  ...to the tune of Jesus Loves Me.  Her continued response?  "I NOT BUMPY!!  I jus Wibi Wu."  The first part in a grumpy voice, the second in a sweet voice.  

Christmas Eve

Josh trenched all day for the house addition on Christmas Eve.  He was a wee-bit tired at the end of the day, and obviously there weren't any pillows within arm's reach.  I guess stuffed animals were sufficient.

b.i.f. twenty-eight

Olivia loves to attack me when I have a camera in my hands.  She's a complete photo-bomber!

tonight's dinner prayer

Amelia's evening chore is to help set the table.  I had asked her to put small bowls on the table tonight for fruit.  Being the textbook five year old that she is, she stacked all 6 glass and ceramic bowls on top of each other to carry them to the table.  

That same textbook status urged her to hold on to just the bottom bowl.  I turned around just in time to witness the carrying of the bowls.  Unfortunately, I didn't see it quickly enough to fight the evil force of gravity.  

You know what happened next.  

I'm not going to lie.  There was some yelling in the room from the adults.  There were some tears in the room from a certain five year old.  There were broken ceramic pieces all over the kitchen floor.

Josh cleaned the mess.  We sat down to dinner since it was already on the table.  The five year old was still crying.  Josh comforted her, she settled down, and she requested that she offer the dinner prayer:

"Dear Lord, 

Please help us to remember to not carry so many dishes at one time.  And please help the dishes to not be very expensive at Kohl's."

There was more, but I was laughing so hard that I couldn't even concentrate.  I tried to conceal it.  Unfortunately, laughter like that is virtually uncontrollable...and infectious.  It was both.

dinnertime chaos

If you can imagine, the dinnertime preparation hour in our home can be a bit of a crazy time.  Olivia is clingy because she's still waking up from her nap, Amelia is grumpy because she's hungry and her snack from 30 minutes ago has worn off already, Meredith and Claire are thinking that RIGHT NOW is a great time to bake some cookies, Aunt Jill is on the phone because she's on her way home from work, and Josh is calling to let me know that he had to stop on the way home to pick up a few things for the new roof that is being put on the house this weekend.  

Okay, okay, this isn't EVERY day...just today.  

While all this is happening, this little pumpkin...

(she's not as innocent as she looks)...decides that she is going to get into my spice bin, which was sitting on the counter.  I didn't notice, and apparently no one else did either.  

In a short minute, there was ground cumin all.over.the.bar.area.  Yikes.  

Meanwhile, this one... 

...was trying to make peanut butter cookies for the guys who would be working on our roof.  As sweet as that was, a certain adult who was in the middle of cooking dinner and cleaning up ground cumin needed to assist her, and let's just say it wasn't good timing.  

The adult told the child to immediately stop making cookies.  That event would have to wait for a later hour when the adult wasn't losing her patience.  

While I was cleaning up the cumin, the toasted pecans turned into burnt pecans.  Lovely.

Finally, I found two minutes (while the broccoli was steaming) to have a discussion with Olivia about getting into my spices.  When I picked her up, I realized that she had poop leaking out of her diaper. 

Enough already!!

We made it through dinner with only one small milk spill.

Shortly after dinner, obviously not learning anything from the pre-dinner fiasco, a certain 5 year old...

(who is absolutely as ornery as she looks) ...was playing with our homemade batch of firecracker rub.

I could give you two guesses as to what happened next, but really, you'll only need one.  

Currently, our trash contains about one full cup of spice and has quite an interesting aroma...spicy.  

I always knew we needed to keep weapons, medications, scissors, glue, and the like under lock and key.  I think I'm going to add spices to that list as well.

oliviaisms

Josh had late shift last night, so the girls and I were dining alone.  I rarely sit down and eat with them when Josh isn't home.  

But, I had actually planned a dinner for the evening, so I sat down and ate with them.  Everyone was in a really great mood, and no one complained about the food.  Well, maybe Amelia complained about the food, but I didn't notice because she complains every night about the food.  I digress.  

Anyway, so we had a great dinner.  The girls were laughing with each other and telling stories.  And it seems like the end of our meals always turn into making silly faces at Olivia and trying to get her to do funny things.  

Tonight, Olivia was just jabbering away, saying absolutely nothing decipherable {as usual}.  Amelia looked right at her and said, "Olivia, your words make absolutely no sense!"  This reminded me of another dinner conversation shortly before Olivia was born about her possibly being Chinese and us not being able to understand her.  And then I thought, maybe she IS speaking Chinese and that's why we can't understand her.  Just something I'm currently pondering.

So, as a little background to the next part of the conversation, Olivia's favorite word is no.  All day long.  I'm sure I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that she says it at least 200 times a day.  She often says it once very firmly and loudly, and then follows that up with several short, trailing off nos.  

Conversation between A and O:

A: Olivia!  Do you know what a cow says?!

O: NO!!  {As in, don't ask me these types of questions; I have no time for your silly cows! Think Grumpy Cat style.}

A: Olivia, a cow says "moooooo"!

O: {in the same tone that Amelia just said mooooo}  Nooooooooooo!

Hysterical laughter followed.  Love these girls.