Boys Wonderful Boys

Being a mom to many brings about some very interesting challenges. Being a mom to many boys just brings about pure chaos and noise. I'm not sure if I'm just becoming immune to the ruckus and what not, but I do know that I am finding myself able to let it all 'roll off' a little bit easier. Sure, there are days when the boys literally drive me bonkers with their constant rumbling, and there are days when have to peel myself off the ceiling after having to deal with yet another 'crisis'. (read: fight) But lately, instead of screaming at the kids to get off each other and stop pummeling one another, I just calmly tell them to "go get him"! They will fight it out for a while, and there is always howling and sometimes blood and bruises--but they survive. I have found it doesn't do any good for me to shout at them to stop. They can't hear me anyway.


Eli is gleefully on his fourth day with no shower. The doctor said he could shower after 3 days, but could not get water in his ear for a month. Eli is taking that to mean he shouldn't bathe or shower for that long. He did however, want to bathe with the dog last night. Thankfully I didn't let him, because just the amount of dirt that came off the dog alone was almost enough to clog the drain. He hasn't hit puberty yet so we don't have to deal with stinky armpits or anything, but since he has very thick long-ish hair, he's beginning to look like he's joined the Hair Club For Men. Even though I don't smell his pits, I do smell his head! He's also collected quite a bit of dirt on the areas of his skin where he had large amounts of medical tape holding his IV and monitors in place. His arm is sporting a dirt tattoo which I hear is so cool these days :) I think I will force him to bathe today. If I threaten to withhold food until he does, that will likely make it happen sooner.

Today was supposed to be my baking day, so I can load up the kids lunch boxes for the week, but I've been a little lazy. I actually started the process of getting ingredients out to make a batch of cookies and muffins, but realized I had no brown sugar. So, I had to drive alllllll the way to Safeway just to buy that. Since I was out anyway, I had to stop at Starbucks (which is lucky-for-me located just inside Safeway) for a grande, half-caff, non-fat, iced caramel macchiato with extra caramel. Yum!

I suppose I'd better get cracking on that baking,the laundry, and getting the kids outfits ready for the week. Tomorrow is picture day, so I want them to look at least a little presentable.