Your Dose of Random For the Day

Have you been watching the Olympics?  Of course, I can't stop watching gymnastics.  Whenever I start watching, it makes me so excited.  It makes me miss the adrenaline of competition and the feeling of being airborne.  It makes me miss my team mates and the kids that I coached.  I just can't get enough of it.

I just heard Bela Karolyi say this about Jordyn Wieber:  "She's the strongest I've seen...maybe since Nadia". 

Um, whoah. 

But, seriously Jo, no pressure.

***

This morning we woke up to Roman and Judah jumping our bed at 6:00.  We told them to go read books quietly, because we're really good, attentive parents like that. 

So what did they do?  The went out into the hall, opened the door to Silas' room, turned on the light and yelled "Good morning, Silas!" 

Silas thought that was hilarious. 

So, I hear them laughing in there and I heard Judah get into the crib.  I yelled for him to get out of the crib.  The next thing I know, Silas comes into my room.  Yes.  The baby that was in the crib made his way to our room.

Now, thankfully, Silas hasn't really been trying to get out of his crib... yet, so I knew he probably had some "help".  (And, Lord, PLEASE, if you could prevent him from learning to get out by himself I would be oh, so grateful).  I should mention that there was no crying, so I knew everyone was fine.

So, I say "Roman, how did Silas get out of his crib?"
And Roman replied (while acting it all out) "Well, Judah picked him up and put him oooover the crib and then I dropped him verrry carefully". 

Great.

***

After the horrific and hilarious start to the day, we went to Mass, had coffee with some of our friends and Father John, dropped Roman off for a birthday party, ate Thai food, got some DELICIOUS GiGi's Cupcakes...today's flavor may have been my all time favorite:  tiramisu.  To.die.for.  Then I got to take a nap.  Bliss.  Then we made dinner, skyped with some family, and now we're watching gymnastics. 

I'm sure that rundown of my day really made yours.  And since the random train has now come full circle, I'll stop the rambling here. 

Have a good night...maybe watch some gymnastics and eat some cupcakes.  It makes a great combo.

Summer in Wisconsin

First, I just have to say that Charlie just did his crazy low bark and so I immediately thought there was someone robbibg our house or something.  My heart might have stopped beating a little.  Turns out there were some raccoons on the porch munching on his dog food.  I wish I would have gotten a picture for Roman.  But Charlie scared them away.  Good dog. 

The latest on the boys:

Roman:

• Has been having more dreams (or is just able to tell me more about them now.)  Last week, he had a dream that he was flying with Super Grover.  He told me that he got to wear Grover's hat and cape and that he held on tight to him and went to his house.  It was so cute that it made him waking me up at 6 AM to tell me totally worth it.  He was one excited boy.  He has also recently had dreams about being a "grown up and a famer" and about killing Darth Vader.  Somehow that one is less endearing than the first two. 
• The other day when we were talking about different people's jobs:

Roman:"I could be a helper for the monkeys". 
Me:  "Oh, you'd like to work at the zoo?  I bet you'd be good at that, Roman.  You love animals.  You could be an animal trainer".
Roman:  "Yeah, like the girl that lets the monkeys outside and feeds them.  Can you drop me off at the zoo now?"    
:)

• The other day he asked me "Does Charlie have a soul?"
• "Mom, can you go to the light sabre store and get me a blue light sabre?"
• When he's talking about something that is lemon flavored OR lime flavored he says "limeon".  I can't bring myself to correct him.  Another one that I've been avoiding correcting is the word "covered" instead of "cupboard".
• Always asks me "Am I doing a great job?"  (Can you tell that Words of Affirmation is his love language??)
• Also, when he's practicing handwriting he'll show me and say "Mom, is this a perfect 'E'?"
• Always talks about Jesus putting joys in our hearts.
• He's starting to try some small talk which always cracks me up.  Recent examples:  "How's your coffee doin, Mom?"  or "Eating crackers, huh?"
• Is sooooo awkward with strangers sometimes.  His incredible memory is a huge blessing in so many ways.  It's just a little bit strange to other people sometimes.  Especially when those people are people that we met one time at a park and then we saw two months later at the same park....and Roman ran up to them and said "Hi, Jamie!  Hi, Aaron!  Is your paper cut all better?" 
• He is just so sweet and talkative.  I LOVE his personality.  He wants to know everyone and he wants to know about everything.  It's going to make him really good with people - it will make him a great husband or a great priest, it will make him really good at his profession someday.  He's awesome.  It's just that not everyone understands that when he's 5.  Like the plumber that came to fix the water heater.  Roman opens the door and asks his name and asks what he's going to fix and how he's going to fix it and if he's a plumber and does he fix sinks?  and did he bring tools?  and what's a water heater?  and will it make his bath warm?  and can he watch Ryan the plumber do his job?  and would he like to color with us?  I can imagine it might be a little overwhelming for Ryan the plumber.

Judah:

• Says "scooty" for "scooter"
• Likes to put on my red high heels and wear them around the house.  When he does he always says "I wiiiiike dese boots!"
• Instead of "What does a cow say?"  Judah always says "What a cow says?"
• Always swings his legs everywhere while he's swinging so he's all over the place...and then he says "I so curked" (crooked)
• Is obsessed with Mr. Noodle on Sesame Street.  Sigh.
• Dropped a piece of salami down the vent the other day.  1.GROSS.  2.  Now he sits by the vent and says "I caaaan't fiiind sawaaaaami". 
• Is pretty much potty trained!  YAY!!!  He hasn't had any accidents for the last four days - we told him he gets a big boy bike as soon as he goes a week with no accidents.  So, maybe this weekend?  He is sooooo excited for a new bike, so I hope we make it to the weekend.
• Sings "Father I Adore You" constantly.  Which I love.  Joe had to go get something out of the boys' room after he put them to bed the other night and when he went in, Judah was whispering Father I Adore you to himself.  LOVE.

Silas:

• Is putting two words together a lot these days. 
• Still super super sweet and cuddly.  He's such a content little guy and is so lovey.  Can't get enough of him.  He currently loves eskimo kisses (he says "eh-meh-mo") and butterfly kisses ("Fah-fy")
• I wish I could explain how adorable his voice is.  I'll have to do another video soon.
• Thinks every animal says "moo".  I blame Wisconsin.  :)
• When we drive past the dairy farms by our house (instead of yelling "Cows!") he yells "Tows!"
• When we get back in the car after going somewhere he says "fun!"
• He will also say "funny" or "silly" when his brothers are entertaining him. 

You Know You Have a Good Priest When...

Today at mass the boys were...well, let's just say ridiculous.  That's the nicest way I can think of putting it. 

I feel like there's no rhyme or reason to how church goes for us.  You would think that maybe sleep or what they had for breakfast or some other factor might determine their behavior during mass, but I have not being able to make any correlation to anything that makes it better or worse. 

Today was worse, though. 

Judah and Silas were both whiney and loud and throwing things and trying to roll around on the floor and  yelling "no!" everytime I picked them up, etc.  You get the picture.  We were that family today.  For the record, Roman was pretty good.  He usually is.  He went to Children's Church for part of mass, and when he comes back he usually has to tell us everything they did (loudly) but he wasn't bad behavior-wise.  I didn't think he was paying attention to anything, but that seemed like no big deal in comparison to the little boys.

Anyway, after mass things just got better.  Judah ran right out the front door and towards the playground...into the street.  Awesome.  I'm the new girl yelling at her child and chasing after him...and he is totally ignoring me.  Then when he finally aknowledged by presence, he just stomped his feet and screamed.  I'm sure everyone is really impressed with us.

So, as I'm taking the walk of shame, carrying Judah back into the entrance of the church, passing all the nice people enjoying their pleasant post-mass conversations, I try to put a smile on my face and introduce myself to a couple that Joe is mingling with.

Fr. John, our new, amazing, young, faithful, sweet, thoughtful priest walks up to me and says "Do you know what Roman just asked me?"
"What?", I say.
"He said 'Father John, what is The Passion of Jesus?'"
I smile.  (And make a mental note that he was, in fact, paying attention.)
"He's a smart little guy, isn't he?  He just heard me say that phrase during mass...that's impressive."
Joe and I talk a little about Roman and how he remembers everything you tell him.
We contiue mingling and then some of the families head to the coffee shop down the road for more fellowship.  Father joins us. 
As we're standing in line at the coffee shop, Father John says "Roman, what is The Passion of Jesus?"
Roman responds "When Jesus died for us".
Father turns to me and says "Wow.  He does have really good retention".
Joe and I joke about how he remembers names better than we do.
We get the boys seated and I finally get to sit down. 
Father looks at me and says "You are doing a great job."
I smile weakly.  I think he can tell it's what I needed to hear.
"I mean, you know that right?  Your kids are incredible".
I choke back the tears and somehow manage a "thank you". 
He says "I saw you guys during mass - on the left side...about three quarters of the way back.  They're doing great."
We laugh and enjoy new friends and an awesome priest.
Judah climbs into Father's lap and, in the process, gets frosting all over his black pants.  Father doesn't seem to mind at all. 

It reminded me a lot of someone else I know.

What a blessing.