My Alligator Purse

My daughter has spent most of her life thinking about #1. Even when she is helping the other kids, its usually to benefit herself.

But these last few weeks she has gotten into the giving spirit. She has spent hours holed up in her room drawing pictures, writing letters, and making wrapping paper for her friends and family as Christmas gifts. She even scoured her room for toys and trinkets she was willing to part with. Her gift to me was a spider ring leftover from Halloween and a beautifully drawn portrait of our family.

It was so nice to see new traits in my daughter; compassion and generosity.

I have absolutely no excuse. The kids have been on winter break for 2 weeks and we have done nothing but hang out together at home. We have stayed in our jammies, eaten more snacks and fewer meals, and in general have been lazy. They have played with the neighbors, skipped naps and stayed up late. Its been heaven, for all of us.

But Monday marked back-to-school for the boys. They were almost an hour late the first two days. It was hard to get back into the routine. Then they were so cranky and tired when they got home from school. Sure, it was nice shopping with only 2 kids instead of 4, but they were so worn out at the end of the day. They missed each other too. Lainy Ann would mope all day and Connor wanted nothing more than to play outside with everyone when he got home from school.

Last night the kids received the last of their Christmas gifts from grandma. They had little time to play with the toys last night before bedtime. So first thing this morning they were shooting nerf guns and playing cars. And we were late for school again. But they were playing so nicely. Connor even said “Do I have to go to school today?” Its only kindergarten and preschool. So I made a deal with them. If all of them promised to rest (watch a movie) so mommy could rest then they could stay home.

They played outside all morning with the nerf guns. There are quite a few ‘bullets’ on my roof now. Even Alexander got into the act and was running around outside playing and swinging on the seesaw swing. We put batteries in toys. Everyone took a turn with the new remote controlled car and Chinese yo-yo. We played a crossword game on the DS, sent email thank you notes, and cuddled on the couch. I feel only slightly guilty since I didn’t want to deal with the fight to get everyone to school this morning. But how much longer will they be little?

I have decided to go play with our visiting cousins this afternoon, just to overcome the guilt.

“It’s raining. Do you know what I love most about the rain?” asked Connor last week.

“Do you love jumping in puddles?” asked William (3 years old)

“Nope, I don’t have to water the plants when it rains because the rain does it for me.” replied Connor.

Yup, mom is such a slave driver that the kids beg for it to rain. How horrible of me to ask them to water their tomato plant. LOL

Its a house full of boys so there are droids and robots EVERYWHERE. We even have droid phones. This year Santa brought Caskey two of his own droids. He had two so he could share with his boys. But surprisingly they haven’t been lent out yet. They are under close watch in the off-limits office.

Tonight Alexander and I visited Daddy in his office to say good-night. Daddy and son spent a few minutes playing robots together for a bit. It was pretty cute watching Alexander move the robot around, watch it fall over and then set it up right again. He even caught Daddy’s robot once or twice to look at it and then set it back down to let it roll around and bleep. It amazing such a little boy can play robots with his Daddy. They had such a great time together.

Yup. We are bad Catholics. Although we attend church regularly and teach our children to sit in the “big” church rather than the cry room, we have ignored some of the family traditions that go along with the Catholic Faith. This year we are doing homestudy for Lainy Ann’s religious education as she prepares for her First Holy Communion. As a result we have been looking for more ways to integrate her religious education into our everyday life.

Tonight we ate a meal together and lit the Advent wreaths the children made at church last week. We lit a single candle and talked about how we could remember God in our lives by helping our family. William will help by giving mommy hugs. Connor will help by doing chores. Lainy Ann will help by cleaning the living room. Then we prayed. Lainy Ann asked if she could say the prayer and she choose to say the “Our Father”. Connor also wanted to pray. He said, “Dear God. Thank you for the flowers and gardens. Thank you for letting us know about you.”

Making Advent Wreaths

On Veteran’s Day we ventured out to the Reagan Library for a celebration. It was an outing akin to the kind I used to take with my friend when we each only had one or two kids. Now when we go somewhere we take the big van; 2 adults and 7 kids aged 6-15 months.

The main purpose of the event was a ceremony honoring veterans and quite a few speakers and a performance of patriotic songs. Although I would have liked seeing the ceremony I think the audience enjoyed it more without our brood present.

Instead we visited the booths set up outside the library with authentic gear from the Civil War and other wars. There were canons from different times in history, and a sewing demonstration. A C-17 flew 1500 feet over our heads while a Civil War canon was shot to welcome it. Later a helicopter landed on the south lawn throwing dirt and grass in the air. Then the boys climbed in and got to aim the machine gun.

A group of 4 Blackhawk helicopters flew over head in perfect formation.

My favorite part of the day was just before we went home. We visited Reagan’s memorial to pay respects to one of our greatest presidents, after all we had a namesake in our presence. Although little Reagan is still too young to know who she was named after, we started her education on that day.

Connor read aloud the words written on Reagan’s memorial. “I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life”. ~~ Ronald Wilson Reagan

♥ ♥ ♥ There is something truly magical and inspiring about hearing a 5 year old boy speak such wise words. ♥ ♥ ♥

Connor has x-ray eyes. For weeks he has been telling me he can see all the blood and bones inside of me. I try and trick him and say, “oh yeah, then what did I have for lunch?” knowing full well he say what I ate. He smirks pretty big and pretty proud of himself as he answers me correctly.

Last night Santa visited to give the kids a little encouragement on good behavior for the next few weeks. He left letters, glitter (now being called freezy-eazy snow because it doesn’t melt) and a jingle bell. We all marveled about how he got into our house with no one noticing. Then Connor say, “I saw Santa last night”. So we asked him questions about Santa so he could play expert and tell us what his super x-ray eyes saw. Then he says, “I can see everything in the whole world”. I said, “Really? What is Grandma doing right now?”

Connor replies, “Uh oh. They just shut off. My x-ray eyes aren’t working anymore. They do that, turn on and off like that whenever they want.”

Caskey is always telling me to relax and be more spontaneous. He tells me its not about the destination, but about getting there. I have a hard time with that concept, so I plan everything to the last detail. My spontaneous trips are when the departure time is in a 2 hour window. But even when I plan the littlest detail an adventure can still happen.

Last weekend we set out to attend a Civil War Reenactment in Moorpark at Tierra Rejada Ranch. We planned it for almost 2 weeks, including looking up the schedule online, accounting for snacks, travel time and clothing. We decided to take the Big Van (Monster Van) and go with my mom and step-dad. My step-dad even has some of the reenactment clothing so he was going to bring his gear so he could “play” too.

Everything was according to schedule, well for us, we were 10 minutes late. I pottied everyone before getting in the car and snacked them. But 30 minutes into our drive William tells me he needs to use the restroom. Well, there is no telling a 3 year old bladder to simply hold it. So we started our adventure. We got off the freeway and started looking for a bathroom. We found a Jack-in-the-Box and headed inside where I realized William was just bored riding in the car and did NOT have to potty. *sigh* We were going to be late to the event and the baby had been woken up, all for nothing.

But things were much worse than that. The Monster Van chose that exit to blow a fuse. Our car no longer started. Connor kept trying to suggest ways to fix the car, God love him. Thanks goodness for Google Phone because I was able to find a local dealership and ask him why it wouldn’t start. Thanks goodness for grandparents because they could entertain the kids while Caskey fiddled under the hood and I read the manual. So there we were stuck at Jack-in-the-Box until we could fix the problem or even figure out the problem to fix.

While we waited the boys got their haircut, professionally, and even got a lollipop afterward. Since we were stranded we ended up walking to 3 different hair salons ranging in price from $12 to $40 for a simple haircut. The kids played in the outdoor seating area while we waited for the other grandma to drive out an extra key and try to save us. The extra key didn’t work either, so it was time to call in the big guns, AAA. The kids got to see the Monster Van lifted and towed away. The boys (all 5 of them – Caskey and Tom) were fascinated. Then we got to drive 3 miles all squished into the little van to drop the car at the dealership.

Eventually we headed on our way to the Civil War Reenactment. We were a few hours late, but had fun nonetheless. We saw tents and campfires, rifles and cannons, ladies in period dress and horses ready for battle. We listened to President Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg address. We watched a cannon demonstration and saw the Wilderness, Day 2 Battle. Papa fought for the North and won. Then we ended the evening with dinner out.

But at the end of the day we asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was. It was a toss up between tow truck and cannons.

Connor loves me. A lot. He must tell me about 20 times a day how much he loves me. He tells me many different ways too. “I love you the most, mommy” “I love you more than any other person in this family” “I love you more than Daddy.”

But my favorite is, “I love you more than the whole Universe. What is a Universe anyway?”