A Daily Dose of Mischief

Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is.I have to go through a kind of a ritual before I take a shower. It involves things like turning the heat up so that the bathroom mirror doesn't fog up (and so I don't freeze getting in and out of the shower), checking to make sure the boys are being entertained in a non-destructive way, letting them know I am going to take a quick shower...etc. Usually I only have two of the boys home for this time of day...the others are all at school. Today however, it being Spring Vacation this week, I had all five of the boys to worry about. I decided not to tell them I was taking a shower since they all seemed engaged in their various activities. They found me anyway. We only have one bathroom that has to be shared between 7 people (technically 6 since #5 refuses to potty train). Its to be expected that if you are going to be in the bathroom for any length of time, you are likely to be disrupted by someone standing outside the door yelling th...

This is a recording of #4 singing part of The Saga Begins song by Weird Al Yankovic. He sang it almost non-stop the other day, and woke me up in the morning with his singing. I have to admit that the song does get stuck in your head.

#2, #3, #5, #1, #4 This is what I get to look at all week! Its Spring Vacation here, so all five of the boys are here at home ALL DAY LONG... Hopefully they will say or do some amusing things and give me more blog fodder...only time will tell. I am also trying to figure out how to put sound on this blog. I got a recording of #4 singing the other day, and I would really like to put a sample of it on the blog. I am working on it, but it may take me a while.

#5 is the "baby" in our family. He is almost four years old, but he insists most of the time that he is still a baby, because he seems to think that if he gets to be a big boy, he will have to give up some of his favorite things, like trains, Blues Clues, and cute little baby animals. Tonight at dinner we somehow got on the topic of Blues Clues, and #1 who is 10 was mocking Blues Clues. #5 said Blues Clues was for babies...and I took that moment to point out to #10 that he still enjoyed Blues Clues when he was in first grade. I also tried to point out that #5 is not a baby anymore, but that he isn't quite a big kid either. #3 piped up with, "He is half a kid!"

#5 has a bad habit of getting into food. I might not mind so much if it were things like carrot sticks and such, but its usually things like chocolate chips, animal cookies, cheeze -it crackers, and anything else that is not so great for you. I even noticed that he opened the box of Easter egg dye we bought over the weekend. Luckily he can't open plastic wrappers on his own and the dye tablets were packaged in plastic in the box...so he didn't eat those, although I am sure he would if he could open the package (they do LOOK like candy) Today I heated up some leftover Lasagna for our lunch. He ate it really well the evening before, but at lunchtime he was distracted by the computer. He started out eating, then came in the living room. A few minutes later I caught him with a handful of animal cookies. I scolded him for taking them without permission. #5: But Mom I'm HUUUUNNNGGGRRRYYY ! Me: Your lunch is on the table. #5: I'm not hungry!

We try to have weekly Family Home Evening on Monday nights. This usually involves a short lesson and an activity of some kind. Once in a while we will have a family movie night. Last week, we did that, and we watched Return of the Jedi as a family. The kids take turns conducting family home evening. Monday this week it was #3's turn to conduct, and D reminded him at dinner. #3: I want to have a family movie night! (this was said in a whiny voice) Me: We are doing something special for family home evening tonight. (At this point #4 joined the conversation) #4: Oh, so we'll still get to watch something on TV! (To clarify, we don't even watch regular TV. We live in a small town and don't get good reception, and we don't think there is much out there worth paying for cable or otherwise. All of our TV viewing is via DVD and video.)

As I have mentioned before, the boys have been known to play hangman to pass the time in church. We even got a magnetic hangman set for #1 for his birthday and he took it to church yesterday. He and #2 were playing hangman and it was #2's turn to pick the word. #1 asked if it was something to do with Star Wars, and #2 smiled sweetly and said yes. It was a five letter word. At the end of the game #2 started laughing really hard. It turns out that the word he used was LOSER. I am not sure if he meant that #1 is a loser at playing Star Wars II on the computer, or just a loser in general...but he was pretty proud of himself. I suppose I should feel thankful that we were a little bit late to church and ended up sitting in a seperate room from the rest of the congregation. We could hear the speakers and etc through the overhead speakers, but we didn't have to feel quite as embarrassed when #2 burst out laughing in the middle of the meeting. #2 also asked me if I was going to...

This morning out of the blue... #4: There are only two pets I like. One is pigs, and do you know what the other one is? Me: What? #4: Bunnies DUH! Me: What do you mean DUH? #4: Bunnies and pigs are nice! Me: Okay, but why DUH? Do you know what duh means? #4: No. I suppose I should insert here that #4 is pretty much afraid of any animal with fur. Dogs of any shape or size pretty much put him into panic, and although he doesn't freak out so much about cats, he has been known to stiffen up when one walks by. I am not sure he has ever seen a pig or a bunny close up, but he has a small stuffed pig, and a small stuffed bunny, so that is probably what he is basing his opinion on.

Ever since we got the Lego Star Wars II PC game the boys have been playing Star Wars (both on the computer, and in every day play). They were given toy Lightsabers for Christmas a little over a year ago, but didn't show a ton of interest in them until we got the computer game. Now they are fighting over who gets to play with which color of lightsaber. #4, started out calling them Lifesavers...He has been corrected a few times and has since changed his terminology to Lightsavers...Today he asked me if I could get him a Lightsaver so he could fight Dark Vader.

Today's Daily Dose is brought to you by two pre -teen girls and a 3 year old boy. Usually I use anecdotes from my boys, but in this case, I couldn't pass up these conversations. Yesterday I went to a women's conference for ages 8 and up. I rode there with two other women, and two pre -teen girls. We were in a minivan, and I sat in the middle seat, while the girls sat together in the back seat. On our way I chanced to overhear a few snippets of their conversation. They ranged in topics from Britney Spears' current hairstyle, to having a fear of mannequins. Then this bit of conversation caught my ear... Girl 1: ...I've never really done anything bad enough to get kidnapped for. Girl 2: (sounding somewhat incredulous) Sometimes people just kidnap other people. Girl 1: (getting an I think I know more than you do tone) Kidnappers and killers usually have to have a reason for what they do. This ended their conversation. I resisted the urge to turn around and g...

Today the boys had some Kool Aid (#1 had to beg me for a week to make it since I am not generally a Kool Aid kinda gal) in a paper cup...after which they rinsed the cups out and we used them for their chocolate pudding for dessert (I am such a good Mom. Such a good diet for my kids.) After they were done I told them to throw their paper cups in the garbage. #5 got upset and said: Paper cups don't go in the garbage! Me: Where do they go then? #5: On the floor. Plastic Cups go in the sink. Gee, I never knew.

My boys just walked in from school. #3...Mom, what about Lego Star Wars? (here let me insert that my boys try to make me play Lego Star Wars II every day so they can watch...its better than TV to them) Me: Is Lego Star Wars the most important part of your day? #3: YES! #2: What's that? (referring to a blog I was reading) Me: A blog. #2: Oh, then its boring. #5: (noticing that I turned off the TV and put on a CD) I HATE watching music! I don't want to watch music! I HATE MUSIC! Such is my life.

One of #1's favorite put downs is to say "You have issues." He said this to #4 in the car on our way home from church today. The conversation that followed went something like this. #4: Moooooooooooooooom ...#1 said I have issues! Dad: Do you know what that means? #4: No Dad: Then don't worry about it. Someone then asked #1 if he knew what it meant. #1: Yes. (with a duh kind of tone in his voice) #4: I know what it means...you think I'm stupid! #1: No, it means you are weird...but you were close!

#4 aka K loves to dress up in play clothes. He has been known to wear a knight's cape to the grocery store (and to be upset that I make him leave his sword in the car), and to do somersaults without losing his Zorro hat (this involves keeping one hand on the hat to prevent it from flying off...but also means he doesn't use his hands for the somersault either...so still talented!). The other day he asked me #4: Mom...How come you never dress up in a costume that is good for a girl to wear? Me: What do you mean by that? #4: How come you never dress up like a Princess? Me: Because I don't feel like a Princess. #4: But Princess dresses are nice. They are really beautiful. I suppose someone could take him to be a little chauvinistic because a Princess was the first thing he thought of for a girl to dress up as. I like to think that he is just sensitive to me not getting to do as many fun things as he gets to do. Maybe I will have to get some dress up clothes for me t...

We went to visit family this weekend, which involved a two hour drive. The boys were bothering each other as usual, and I told them to keep their hands to themselves. #3: If we keep our hands to ourselves forever then we can never play with our friends. If we keep our hands to ourselves we can never give high fives.

#5 who is only three years old has a habit of staying up late. I think he got used to it from when he was really little and if he wasn't tired yet we just let him stay up with us while we watched a movie or whatever. Now he feels like that is his personal time with Mom and Dad, and as soon as the other boys go to bed he is asking about watching something together. Usually he falls asleep very quickly and we carry him up and put him in his bed. Yesterday evening he was telling me that he was very sleepy. It was near bed time, so I said he should go to sleep if he was tired. He said that going to sleep was scary because he is afraid of the dark. I did my best to comfort him, and we did a little experiment with looking around the room with the lights on, and then turning the light off and feeling our way around to show that the same things are there in the dark. I thought that would help him, but I noticed that he still kept himself awake until almost midnight. Hopefully it was...

#4 was recently invited to the birthday party of a girl at church. He was very excited to get to attend. In telling him about the party I mentioned that they would be playing some games there. His response was "What kind of games? Video games?" Hmmm.