Another whirlwind of a week is zooming by, and I would like to take note of some of the stuff that the children are doing. Mo has officially entered the dumping phase. I hate the dumping phase. Chlo was a dumper too, and it isn't kind to our finances. Last week after the bubble bath dumping incident, Mo has gone on a wasteful spree. The logic of his spree makes no sense to me. All I see is waste. One of the first things he did, was get into my deodorant and dig large holes all over in it with his fingers. Then he smeared the stuff he dug, on the floor. This proved problematic to me when I needed to use my deodorant after my shower. It crumpled all over the place. He also begged and begged for Ramen noodles that day. He did eat for a while, but then he let the ramen sit and get greasy and cold. At this point, the baby was happily playing in the cupboard under the counter where his forgotten ramen sat. He climbed up on the counter and proceeded to fling all of the gummy, greasy noodles all over the baby's cute head. She didn't seem to mind the ramen shower, but I did mind. It was a mess to try and get all of the gummy, salty, goo out of her fine hair. Another, mess, more waste.
Mother's day was this past Sunday, and I must say that it was one of the best Mother's days ever. My kids are getting quite good at trying to make a big deal out of those special days. Oak made me a nice flower pot with grass growing out of it at school. This was given to me, along with a kind letter from my Oakers. Rooshkie's class had done something similar, and Jazz also gave me a nice letter that they had written at school. At shrsh, more Mom's day gifts were created for me. The bishopric gave all of the Mom's a bag of white chocolate covered popcorn. Jazz was given a nice candy bar to give to me, and all of the kids got a little container with conversation starters to give to their Mother's. Mo's class made the little hand print gift, and my older girls surprised me with homemade cookies. Rooshkie and Jazz had an elaborate candlelight dinner planned for Ryan and I. It was all very thoughtful. Mo, on the other hand, stole most of my gifts. He begged and bawled for Jazzerz candy bar. When I got to the car after shrsh, Mo was just beside himself with grief. Jazz had told him, that the candy bar was for me, but that I would probably give it to him when I got to the car. And I did, let Mo-ster have the candy bar. He stole my popcorn, which he shared with everyone, and he stole all of my containers with the conversation starters because he thought that they contained candy. He wouldn't even let me have his handprint picture because he had made it. Little Mo...it isn't Mo-s day...it's Mothers day!
The next morning, after all of our Mother's day partying, I was met with a buttered countertop. What is with Mo, and the butter lately? I just don't know. Anyhow, he had taken a cube of butter and put a thin film of grease all over the counter. I wasn't sure how I could salvage any of it. I was making pancakes that morning, and caught myself telling the kids that if they needed butter, they just needed to rub their pancake on the countertop. I started laughing before I even got all of that information out there. Sags thought it was funny too. After I mentioned that people needed to rub their pancakes in the buttered countertop, Mo woke up and seemed proud of his handiwork. He climbed on the counter, got into the butter and slid rapidly back and forth on his hands and knees. I get it now...he was putting the butter to a good recreational use. Needless to say, that stuff was not easy to clean up at all. I scrubbed and scrubbed and the counter still ended up looking shiny.
For FHE, Ryan and I had decided that we should read the story of Moses with the kids. We had watched a new version of the movie, and although the portrayal of the bible story was interesting, it was largely inaccurate. As we read the account of Moses and his ventures, Mo interrupted Ryan with a bit of pertinent information. "Dad!" he yelled...."Satan is weally bad!!!" We all agreed to Mo's additional information and went on with the lesson.
This week we had kindergarten registration for my Chlo. She was so excited. Chlo is definitely ready, I could have sent her last year, but she barely makes the cut-off, and they have all day kindergarten here. I didn't think she was ready then, but I think she is now. Anyhow, I got up earlier than usual, just so I could get away with my Chlo for an hour. While I was out hanging pants on the clothesline, I got the distinct impression that I should get in the house and get my shower over with. Unfortunately, I ignored the spirit, just so I could get the pants flapping in the wind while I got ready. I figured I had tons of time. I had worked out pretty good that morning and did need to get clean, and I wished I would have obeyed the spirit. By the time, I went in to take my shower, a backhoe from the city had showed up to fix a waterline, and had shut all of the water to my house off. This made me frown a huge frown. I know better than to ignore the spirit, and it is my belief that our loving Heavenly Father wants to save us from all kinds of trouble....even the little stuff. At this point I was just trying to decide how I could wash up. I recalled that I had set a bucket under the swamp cooler faucet. It had been leaking a week ago, and Ryan fixed it, but I had not moved the bucket. I figured I'd be fine if I could just wash up a bit. I took some face cleanser out, and washed my face first. I ran back in to check the baby, who was at the time eating pages out of my scriptures (adds new meaning to the words "feasting upon the word of Christ"). By the time I got back out to grab my precious bucket of water, and take it up to my bathroom, I found it dumped in a upside down splash on the sidewalk. WHY???? I mentioned I hate the dumping phase....I was really hating it then. Mo, of course had no explanation as to why he had dumped my bucket of water...none at all. He needs to read about his Bundy ancestors out on the Arizona strip for sure. Not a drop was ever wasted out there, and look at him, wasting butter, dumping water. They would be disappointed in their grandson for sure. At that point I was scrambling for any water whatsoever. The Mikkelsen's do have a bunch of water stored, but I didn't want to tap into such a big resource just to clean up a bit. I finally found the dumped bubble container. When he dumped the bubbles last week, he filled the container with water. It was small, but perfectly soapy to freshen up with. Next time, I have got to listen to the spirit.
When I went to get the baby dressed that morning, I kept noticing brown streaks on her little white onesie. I scratched my head at this, because it had been washed and placed clean in her drawer. I finally figured out that Mo had painted streaks of eye shadow in her hair....nice brown eye shadow. He really needs to take a break from all of his hard work.
Thankfully, my Sags was around that morning, practicing her flute for her upcoming concert. She wasn't really given the option of watching the other kids as I went with Chlo to her registration. Every once in awhile I think its important for each kid to get a little one-on-one time. Mo was extremely ticked off, but I left him at home. Registration went just fine. They went through an evaluation with her, and basically told me that for the most part she was ready for kindergarten. They did ask that I allow her to have access to scissors more, because she seemed to struggle with that part of the evaluation....the part where they get to use scissors and cut things out. This made me start laughing...which just got me a confused look from the school teacher who was consulting with me. I explained that Chloee had given herself quite a few haircuts that were all pretty awful. Hence her need to practice using the scissors I guess. I just hope that she doesn't choose to whack her hair off again with all of that practice that needs to happen before August. They sent her on her way with a nice bag of pencils, and markers, glue, and activities. The rest of her day was spent happily working on various paper projects with her new supplies. She got way upset at one point and explained that she could no longer concentrate with Mo and his "making noise, and chewing up stuff!" What is he, some kind of deranged animal?
When I returned, Sags was quite clear that she was unable to get any of her work accomplished because of little Dilly (Salem's new nickname that Mo gave her)...shocker Sags! Welcome to my world!
I want to make it clear, that my little Mo is not all bad...he is actually quite a loving little guy. He really loves and cares about his baby sister. I get reading some of these posts, and he sounds worse than Dennis the Menace. I realize that three is the hardest stage...a four year old, is way easier to reason with, but two and three is way difficult. I know this, and this phase will pass. I love my little Moroni.
With that in mind, I move on to the next Mo and his wasteful ways example....I went to make the kids sandwiches for their lunch one morning, and noticed we were almost out of bread. This surprised me because we had like three loaves the evening before. However, if the kids get into a toast making fest, a loaf is gone pretty fast, so I wasn't all that surprised, but just made a mental note that I would have to run into town, and grab bread, or make bread. I am not one that loves running into the store. I really hate shopping and avoid it if I can. So, when I entered Chloee's room a short time later,and noticed the whole loaf of bread displayed on my step aerobics step, I was relieved and kind of confused. Relieved because the loaf was not yet crusty, and it was on a clean surface...kind of...but confused as to why it was there. Mo was of course, my first thought....why Mo? He explained that he needed that bread to feed his animals....end of story. There was no talking him out of it or convincing him otherwise. I went downstairs and put the loaf of bread back in the bag...ignoring germs or anything else because hey...it saved me a trip into town, and probably $200 at the store. He of course was way mad. I finally gave him a few heels for his animals, but this was not good enough for his animals....he wanted the nicer pieces of bread....sorry Mo...too bad, because I am not bending on this one. His animals were lacking because of me. For some reason, I still don't feel bad about it.
He also took two or three effervescent Airbornes and threw them in with his cereal one morning. And it was no surprise that he wanted nothing to do with his breakfast after that. Sags came down with a confused look and asked why there was something "fermenting" on the counter top...I was all kinds of nervous about this because I had just cleaned the kitchen nicely the evening before...things that sit out for days ferment. But, no it was Mo and his airborne cereal. Pretty gross indeed.
Another somewhat disturbing story is that of an electronic toy that once belonged to Oak. It had buttons with all of the letters on it, along with a number of animals and the sounds that they make. It had also come with six books or so, and the device would read the book to a child, if the right button was pushed. We have had it several years, and it has been a great toy. It was a great thing to give little Dilly if I needed her distracted. Unfortunately, Mo and Chlo left it outside, it got sprayed by the sprinklers, and now it seems to have an eerie mind of its own. The other morning I was up really early, because my Oakers needed some pants wershed and dried before school. I think it was like 4 when I started the laundry, and at this point it needed to be hung on the line. I went out and kept hearing a rooster crow. I was seriously thinking that there had to be a long lost rooster roaming the hills. In fact, I was just going in to tell Ryan to go and find the Rooster, and we would take it to the ranch, where at least he would have some chicken friends. It was kinda ironic how appropriate it seemed...the early morning sun, hanging clothes out on the line, the remote location, and the lone rooster crowing. I finally figured out that it was just the electronic toy stuck on the rooster sound...seriously crowing over and over just like a regular old rooster would do. The next story is what gets me a little spooked. I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I decided to go down the hall to the bathroom because Ryan and my baby wake so easily. I opted for even leaving all lights off. Anyhow, as I was leaving the bathroom the electronic toy gave a loud R....a lone letter in the dark stillness. I hadn't touched the dumb thing, and it hadn't been making any noise before that. What is ironic about that one random letter, is that my older brothers call me R...they have called me R for years. It repeated itself just for good measure. That crazy thing was starting to have a mind of its own, and so I set it back outside where it squawked random letters and sounds the rest of the night. Thankfully it died sometime soon thereafter. That ought to teach the kids about leaving their toys outside.
On a very positive note, Doug and Larissa were blessed with their baby boy. Little Zachary is as cute, and as little as they come. Jams, Sags, and I went down to deliver their show steer meat to their buyers, and so we had the opportunity to stop in and hold him. He is all sorts of little and wriggly...so congrats to them!
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