A Week's Worth: I Just Got Monday's Laundry Put Away

It's been a full week for us here in the Chaos. I did the laundry on Monday, washed and folded, but didn't get it all put away on hangers and in drawers until today...even with the older boys putting their own away! How many nights we go to bed with the dishes done and how quickly we have the laundry put away after it's folded in baskets in bedrooms is always a good indicator of how busy our week has been!

Here's the summary, by family member, of the four days following Valentine's Day. (And sadly, I even forgot to take pictures!) So sorry for the boring picture-less post. But off we go anyway!

This week Tommy had his 15-month checkup, Zach had his 10-year checkup and Josh rounded out the 1.5 hours at the doctor's office with his 6-year checkup. The kids are all healthy and growing well. Hooray for health! Josh continues to dominate the middle of the charts, as he's our only kid who hangs out in the 50th percentile for both weight and height. Tommy's height has continued on track, but, as happens for all of my children after weaning from my apparently cream-only milk, his weight has dropped down into the 10th percentile. So he has a new curve to follow, which I hope he will do with gusto. Josh ended up with only one vaccination, while this was a big visit for Tommy--with four pokes. But as we always tell the kids, better to have the poke than the disease! However, we have yet to have a child take us at our word on that. They still freak out about the shots. Zach was pleased that this year there were no needles necessary, but is already grumbling about next year when he will need two.

TOMMY CHAOS:
Tommy has earned a new nickname among our family members: Darth Tom. He's had a string of illnesses since just after Christmas that have plugged his nose and reddened his throat. Because of that, he has become a total mouth breather!!! In church on Sunday, during one of my classes, he and I kept getting glances and little chuckles as Tommy's breathing was nearly as loud as the teacher. Add to his open mouth breathing the fact that he has two teeth and four molars coming in all at once, he's constantly covered in an abundance of drool. Icky. Tommy is also getting faster and faster on his two little legs. I just LOVE watching him walking around, looking like he's about to lose balance and fall over at any minute, but he never does. We tried "real" soled shoes this week for the first time (rather than his Robeez). He stood there for a minute looking at me like I had just cemented him to the floor, then started crying, refusing to take a step. I offered my hand, and showed him he could still take steps. He smiled, made a happy sound, and off he went! Now he gets really excited to put on shoes. I hope the repetition of the word "shoe" gets him talking, "shoe" makes a great first word!

LUKE CHAOS:
Luke has decided this very week that he LOVES to give kisses and hugs. It's really cute and he's so darling, making sure we all get hugs and kisses before we go anywhere or go to bed. The uptick of "I love you, Mommy!" at bedtime has also been welcome. But, and this may sound horrible, after the 45th kiss it can get to be a little much. Especially because he kisses whatever part of you is closest to his mouth. Adam and I are getting a lot of kisses on the backside (uncomfortable!) and I got one on my calf today. Unfortunately, because of the sheer volume of Luke kisses in recent days, Tommy now gets instantly irritated whenever Luke starts kissing him, Josh too. You will now often hear us saying, "Thanks for the kisses, sweet Luke, but that's plenty for now."

But it is better than the other new habit he seems to have picked up...biting! He's not a toddler, so he knows there are limits to biting: it's not hard, usually just a little nip, and so far he's only bitten family members. But WOAH! SO not OK. We've never had a biter, so any tips for getting it to stop would be welcome!

Along with those lovely things, he's taken to saying "poo poo, pee pee" all the time. Isn't that fun?! Not. We've tried time-outs in the bathroom (where that kind of talk is appropriate) and that works moderately. It drives Josh crazy, and I keep trying to tell Josh that the bigger reaction he gives Luke, the more likely Luke is to continue. So right now Luke has also earned himself a few new nicknames: The Lover, The Chomper and Potty-Mouth.

JOSH CHAOS:
Josh has had a pretty typical week. He is always a trooper. He is my errand-buddy, driving here and there with me, helping entertain his little brothers while we are away from the house. He plays ninja and knight with Luke in the mornings, playing as "Dr. Villain" against Luke's knight character named "Sir Speed-Up," reads Luke and Tommy stories, and does his very best to put up with the things Luke does to purposely annoy him. In the afternoons, he includes himself in the games the big boys are playing, passing up opportunities to play with his neighborhood friends in favor of time with his big brothers.

This week he's been working hard on a new business endeavor he and his big brothers concocted together: Loonie Spoonies. They have decided to make plastic spoons into little characters by decorating them with art supplies. The boys are still in the planning and pricing phase, and Josh is up to 14 spoon character designs he could make for you ranging from "Cupid" to "Ed."

BEN CHAOS:
Ben is headed off to Washington today to meet with my parents for his 8-year-old birthday trip to Hawaii to see volcanoes. It is going to be incredible! They are actually flying out of Portland, so they can drive past Mount St. Helens on the way to Oregon where they will stop to learn about and see a stratovolcano (prone to explosive, ashy eruptions) before visiting the shield volcano (constant mild lava flows) on the Big Island of Hawaii. Even though I am completely envious, I have been so excited for him to take this trip. What an adventure it's going to be! I've been so focused on all the fun he's going to have that I was able to push off my nervousness and sadness about having my baby so far away from me until this morning.

My parents are amazing caregivers and I know they are going to keep him safe and sound, but OH! Hawaii is so far! And with travel days he's going to be gone from me for 10 whole days. GASP!!! It makes my belly feel a bit mushy. He only left a few short hours ago and I already miss him like crazy! I have to get my brain back to the excitement and joy this journey will be for him and ignore the missing/nerves. Adam flew with him on the plane to Washington, and is looking forward to spending the long Presidents' Day weekend with his family after sending Ben off tomorrow. He will work in Everett Tuesday and Wednesday and then come home. We will miss him too!

ZAC CHAOS:
Zac is doing well too. Yes, that's Z-A-C. He's decided that he'd like to spell his name that way. He started a few weeks back spelling his name on school papers without the "H." OK! It might take me some getting used to, I'll probably forget a lot, but if that's what he wants, it's fine by me!

Our dear Zac also had a friend from down the street, who is in his class at school, and has never come up to play before, come up to hang out yesterday...a little girl. It was no big deal. They hung out like he hangs out with his guy friends, playing Wii in the basement. I even had to tell him to ease up on playing too tough against her. He says she's just a friend who wanted help on a certain part of Super Mario Galaxy. But her visit necessitated a discussion about having girls over to play now that he's getting older, which is fine, but he needs to understand the rules that will go along with having girls visit the house--such as doors always open and letting little brothers play with them too. I also felt it was time to talk about how girls can get the "boyfriend" idea in their heads a lot earlier than boys start thinking about "girlfriends," so he needs to be careful, treat girls with respect and consider their feelings, but also remember that they are to be only friends, and in no way is he to allow himself to be considered a "boyfriend" at this point in his life instead of just a "boy friend." Zach is now in 4th grade, and I was in 5th grade when I had my first "boyfriend." Cody. Funny thing, we're friends on Facebook now! But in 5th grade he asked me out in a note, we "went out" for three days, never speaking a word to each other the entire time, and then broke up in a note. I can't remember who ended it. Maybe I've blocked it out because it was too devastating. :)

Today they went down to her house to hang out. After making sure her mom was home, I still sent Josh along with them. Nothing like an annoying younger sibling to keep you innocent! Trust me...AL. I'm hoping the world of young romance is a long way off for Zach still, but he's now prepped and ready to be the best boy-who-is-just-a-FRIEND in the whole world.

COLLEEN CHAOS:
It was a packed week for me. With the holiday on Monday, and truffles to make, I had waited until Tuesday morning to getting ready for three days of preschool. I had a snow make-up day for preschool on Wednesday, so I held class three days in a row (Tue, Wed, Th). It was amazing how adding the extra day made me totally pooped! But we are talking about artists and colors in class, and there was a lot of painting and mixing of color, so it was a really fun week with my school kids.

Wednesday morning Adam, Josh, Luke, Tommy, and I drove down to our mechanic to pick up the van in the morning. They couldn't find any reason why the instrument panel had turned off and the battery had died the week before. It was NOT the alternator, as I had suspected. But it's all working again, so I guess, until next month when something new will go wrong I am sure, we've got a functioning car! The van is paid for, so it's really hard to convince ourselves that we want/need to take on a car payment, even though the van seems to make the drive to our mechanic, Hutch, monthly now. After this recent, inexplicable problem, I am suspicious that the van is done trying to die in a grand and dramatic way (because we keep getting it fixed), but has resorted to attempting death stealth-like, so we CAN'T fix it and it can retire in peace.

In addition to the stress of mystery car issues, every night this week has been spent helping supervise Ben, who is homework-resistant, while he finished up a big project on Thomas Edison before leaving town. He had to write a report and make a "paper doll" to go along with it. It came out FANTASTIC, but I forgot to get a photo! Dang! The paper doll even has a lightbulb made of pipe cleaners and a puffy fuzz ball over his head. Getting Ben to do normal homework can be trying on its own, so this extra boost of homework just exhausted me! I know he was pretty sick of it too, but MAN! That kid can procrastinate with the best of them! If he has a choice between getting the assignment done and staring into space, he'd pick the latter. I know we are BOTH happy that Thomas Edison is sitting on his teacher's desk today!

Last night, I hosted a baby shower for my friend Lydia who is expecting her sixth baby. It was a fun night of chatting and oohing and ahhing over cute baby clothes (and a lot of packs of diapers). I love getting together with the girls, and it was an easy shower for me because all I did was supply the location, other friends brought the decor and the food.

ADAM CHAOS:
As I said, Adam is off for a nice relaxing weekend in Washington. He deserves the break! He works so hard and still comes home as an active, invested dad and husband. Monday and Tuesday his new boss was out here visiting the Colorado Springs site. He was in meeting after meeting with her, in addition to his usual meeting after meeting schedule. But Ann seems like she is going to be a great leader for the team, and Adam is looking forward to working with her.

On Wednesday afternoon, while I sat at the doctor's office with four boys, Adam came home to get Ben from school and take him to basketball practice, all at the last minute. What a pinch hitter! I am so grateful for my darling partner in crime.

So even though it's been a good week, this week has been extra busy. Hahahaha! What week isn't extra busy for us???!!! I think we are all feeling a bit zombieish. I'm looking forward to ordering pizza for dinner, and once everyone is tucked in tight, having a bath and then climbing into bed with my book! And of course, a nice long Presidents' Day weekend with four great boys!