lambs....doofus

They are not really connected. Just two of the themes I'll post about right now!

It's been a busy couple days---as usual, I guess. With 5 kids it's rarely a boring couple of days. Especially when one of those 5 kids is William. Guaranteed a laugh a day, even when he is driving you nuts.

Today Elijah had a well child check (he still calls them "wild child checks" in all seriousness). He is doing very well and amazingly he has jumped off the top of the growth chart for height (over the 100th percentile). This is a big surprise because even though we knew he had grown a ton, he has historically been small to average. Now I know where all that food is going! I suspect we will have similar news when Ben has his checkup after September.

Following the wild child check, we had to stop at the tech college to drop off a take home test with a teacher. I drove around a bit looking for the best spot and I heard a chirp from the backseat (from the guy who can't talk) "JUST PARK!". (for those of you who don't know William, you must know that even though a lot of these comments sound bratty, they really don't sound that way when he says them--he delivers his lines with great humor).

So I turned around to see him and....he had my make up bag out and "his" makeup on. It almost matched his nail polish, except the mascara was on his eyebrows instead of his eyelashes, and he had used his lipstick for rouge. I haven't seen anyone do that for a long time. Joan used to do that. So then I had to take him into the nursing office with me. We stopped in the bathroom and I did what I could but as I did not have Oil of Olay handy he pretty much had to be a hussy for the rest of the day. Fortunately the nursing instructors are all moms and lots of them are/were pediatric nurses, so they thought he was a hoot.

After the appointment we went to Target. While there William kep asking for toys and I would always say "No, too expensive." So then I would suggest something much cheaper and he would close his eyes so daintily, smirk, and mimic me "No, too 'spensive."

He also informed me that we were not in Target. We argued for a bit until I asked "well, where are we then?". And William said, "In a store, doofus!"

Now, granted, THAT is darn bratty, but again the delivery was hysterical. Lij cracked up out loud and I couldn't stifle it either. So the comedian crossed his arms and smiled smugly. So I'm a doofus.

Tonight he made his first real friend! First, some background on Ana.

She is fascinated by theater, in large part because Joanie has been taking her to plays at the Paramount for a long time. She also wants to be on stage and sing and do all that stuff I'd rather die than do. It's interesting because she is very shy. She is signed up for two theater camps this summer (there are many good, affordable options for that around here-it's great). Over the weekend Joanie took Ariana and Ben to Seussical the Musical and Ariana came home excited about two upcoming plays, Pollyanna and Peter Pan. She asked if she could audition. The plan was to allow her to try that in the fall after she has had more theater training. I was hesitant, but she was persistent. I did some research and from what I have read, it is a non-threatening environment...so I said she could.

This required printing off sheet music and learning some of it. Obviously I am not the parent to do that. Obviouslier Brian is not either. We had a hard time coming up with an idea for who could play it for her on the piano. Joanie had the great idea to ask her friend Lisa, who lives on a farm and has baby lambs and is an excellent musician. Lisa agreed, and so tonight myself and my crew headed out to the farm near Kimball. First we had a tour and got to hold the baby lambs. Now we all think we need some. The funniest part of the evening was that they are bottlefeeding a newborn whose Mommy has the maternal insticts of Brittany Spears, and Zac WANTED THAT BOTTLE. "BAH! BAH!" (That was Zac, not the sheep).

But the bestest part, besides that Ana got to play the piano and hear Lisa sing, was that William made his very first buddy. Andrew just turned 3 (he signs this by holding up 2 fingers) and is an only child so it was an awful lot of company for him and he was just the perfect gentleman. He even shared his poop-in-the-potty reward stickers with his visitors. He has a room full of tractors and hotwheels! He shared sooo good...I was really impressed. How the heck can mine have 4 siblings each and not be as good at sharing as he is?

I really wish I'd had my camera with, because these guys visited. On the swingset they were talking about if Andrew's truck is broken or not. In the house they talked about toy tractors and Andrew told funny jokes that only William understood.

We were offered tractor rides but Ben was the only one who accepted. The others chickened out. Leave it to my Boo to be the brave one!

Andrew conducted most of the tour, I think. " That's poop". "That's my tractor" "That's my dad".

As we pulled away after a fun and productive evening, I heard from the backseat "When can Andrew and the lamb come over to our house?"

One last thing to end the post with a laugh. Zac has two little rubber duckies from Ana. He now holds them and says "quack quack". Yes, Zac Jack quacks.