Life At The Circus

I’ve got pictures of all of my kids as babies snuggling up with our beloved dog… I’ve got the classic shots of them getting a big wet slobbery kiss while they giggle with glee.  And Maggie lovingly observing their tummy time activities. But, of my four children, my youngest is by far the most captivated by our dog.  He truly loves her.  He excitedly greets her when we come home.  He persistently chases her around our house to give her big squeezes and to beg for wet kisses.   Maggie is by far, the most patient dog I have ever seen.  Hands down. Here he is watching a show on my phone under the school table, while snuggling with his best bud.   Recently, he’s decided that Maggie must need a blanket and pillow as she sleeps on the floor.  (I love this picture… a boy, his dog, his weapons, and “his” Iphone….) Here he is “tucking her in” with her blanket and pillow and kissing her goodnight. See what I mean by patient? I am sure ...

We finally got some snow this week.  I really use the term “some” rather loosely.  Does it count as snow if you still see blades of grass poking up through the white?  It appears it does.  Because I had to do just as much work gathering hats, mittens, snow pants, and boots to bundle up my 4 little Eskimos to head out and play.  And even though the mountain of soggy laundry was higher than the snow fall accumulation, I gotta say they had a solid 2 + hours of fun dragging each other around in the snow and sweeping off our steps.  And we got 3 days of hot chocolate out of it as well.    Brother of the year award goes to my 8 year old,who cheerfully pulled all 3 of his siblings around on the sled. And then he pushed them down our “hill” I learned a lesson watching them out the window this morning.  You can complain and whine because we didn’t get as much snow as others or we don’t have a real hill.  Or you can go out and make do wi...

The youngest circus member is 2 and a half now.  (HOW CAN THAT BE?) And I have to tell you he makes me laugh.  EVERY.SINGLE.DAY with the cute little things he says, the WAY he says them and those precious little facial expressions.   He totally has my heart.  He still LOVES choo-choos.  Plays with them every day.  He has also recently started enjoying Sesame Street…particularly Elmo (who he affectionately calls Emo )  (like Nemo only no N)  He loves to run around the circle on our main level… many, many times a day he will run laps around that circle then come to me and say “ faster and faster?”   He’ll wait with these precious expectant eyes for me to say “yes, faster and faster” and he’ll take off running again. Yesterday when the kids were doing school at the table, he happily colored beside them.  Then he walked over and handed me his paper and said, “I’m done my math Mommy.” The big kids were playing Rock, Paper Scis...

I am a words person.  Always have been.  I love cards, and notes, texts and e-mails.  And I save them.  Yup… every note Scott ever passed me in high school,  every birthday card, Valentine card, anniversary card… I have them all in a box. So, it should come as no surprise, that when my kids start writing, I started hoarding those precious words as well.  I know can’t save them all, but I do try to save the “significant ones”.   Letters to their baby brother when he was still in my belly, family portraits drawn in crayon of stick figures, Mothers Day cards….I have a file in my filing cabinet as well as a few envelopes and shoe boxes stuffed with them.  Recently, one of my children has developed a love of words as well.  Now that she’s growing in her reading and her phonics, I am finding she’s taken to the pencil and paper in a manner that surprised me.  Last month, I found a note taped to her door.  It was written after sh...