A Shortie

My sister, Hanny, has been giving me a hard time about not blogging frequently enough (as if I'm not busy with 4 children, 3 days of packing left before we move, 2 busy baby boys at home all day, 1 hubby who is married to Harvard Graduate School of Design, and 1/2 a busy baby boy in my tummy making everything more difficult - but whatever), anyway in an attempt to make Hanny happy I'm going to share a few funny story about Maya (quite possibly my weirdest child).
Story #1
The other day I was combing Maya's hair after her bath, and thinking what a BEAUTIFUL little girl she is. She's had a few times where she has mentioned that she wanted to play with certain girls at school, and they told her she couldn't play with them. She never seems bothered by these instances (she's a lot like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter), but as the mother I'm bothered. I was thinking to myself "Who wouldn't want to play with Maya? She's cute and nice and friendly and so many other wonderful attributes" when she suddenly looked into the mirror, flared her nostrils, and said "hey, doesn't this look like a pig nose". Oh, that's why, she's weird.
Story #2
Maya came home from school and told me that she had to bring a dollar to school tomorrow because she was buying a pony from Jocelyn. I wasn't too concerned because I thought she meant a toy pony, but as the conversation progressed I discovered that Jocelyn lives on a farm and Maya had some sort of bargain with her that she would sell Maya a "real, white, pony named Snowflake" for a dollar. I tried to explain to Maya that a pony cannot live in her bedroom, and I thought she understood until the next day she came home and told me that she had given Jocelyn a dollar for a puppy (since she could keep a puppy in her bedroom). Lucky for us Jocelyn has yet to smuggle a puppy into the school.
Story #3
I was watching a show where the family home-schooled their children and they were talking about how their children were less influenced by fads and trends (They were buying shoes at a thrift store). I was fondly reflecting on my home-school days and thinking, "Yeah, that's one of the nice things about homeschooling, the kids are much less judgmental towards each other, and feel free to express their individual styles. Anything goes fashion wise". Then it suddenly dawned on me that Maya has been wearing a big furry Santa hat to school everyday this week. She doesn't just wear it to and from school (in lieu of her stocking cap) but leaves it on all day long. I thought about interfering until she told me that her friend Kimberly loves her hat and is going to wear one just like it tomorrow (I guess if Kimberly says it's ok...)

I miss the Fall

I think winter is starting to take it's toll on all of us. Bennett is resorting to creating his very own computer spaces and Miles is just running around all adorable like he doesn't even realize he's cooped up. Bennett is a total bath addict. He asks for a bath at least twice a day. It's sad when bath time is the highlight of your day. Miles has learned to jump. He jumps around like a cute little lunatic. We've started a reward system in which the kids can earn Service Stickers by doing services for one another. When they're Service Sticker chart is full they get a string of Christmas lights to hang in their bedroom. Pretty exciting, some of the services I've noticed are : trash being taken out (without asking), Porter shared his stocking treat with me and Miles, the other day he unloaded Maya's part of the dishwasher, Maya decided to play secret santa and leave fruit snacks in everyone's stockings. They seem to really like it, and I love the improved attitudes. Oh, the joys of bribery.

On another note, the storage space is reserved and Casey and Bennett took the first load over today. We're getting there. I'm thinking we will try to get everything loaded into the storage unit on the 18th, then we're out of here. Casey had his big presentation yesterday and I, for one, am glad it's over. He still has work to do, but we can breath a sigh of relief (hopefully no more absolutely absurd work schedules). I can't believe he's almost done. He's applied for a few Army Corp of Engineer jobs (I'm keeping my fingers crossed), and within the next few weeks we'll start job hunting in earnest. I'm praying the job will come quickly so the kids can get back into school, I can find a new OB, and we can start to settle ourselves into a new chapter of our lives. If it weren't for the uncertainty this would be totally exciting!

Stir Crazy

We've been home bound for a few weeks now. With Casey working from 6am-12am every day we've been without a car. Porter and Maya spend the majority of the day at school (luckily we haven't missed the bus), and the babies and I putter around the house all day. Last night the kids were all jumping all over my bed (a huge pet peeve) and I turned around to yell at them and noticed they were all in their undies. They looked so cute I decided to allow the misbehavior and snap some pictures. Don't you love their "What Mom? We weren't doing anything wrong" Faces. Crazy little hooligans. Miles and Bennett both seem to be getting colds, but we were left with the car today so I could take the kids to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's and I'll be danged it a little snotty nose is going to keep us from all that fun.