hide-and-seek (aka shout-at-the-wall-and-run)

Flora and Scout play hide-and-seek.  Scout hides while Flora puts her face to the wall and counts loudly to twenty.  She runs off to find Scout.  Timber immediately runs to the wall-spot that Flora has vacated and presses his face to the wall to shout nonsense before running off after Flora.  He has no idea what he's doing but loves playing the "shout at the wall game."  It makes me laugh every time! 

kids say....

Me:  Timber, say "Mama."
Timber:  DORA!
Me:  Mama
Timber:  DORA!
Me:  MAMA!
Timber:  DORA DORA DORA!

*****

Scout:  Mommy, I don't know which way to go.
Me:  (in sing-songy Dora voice because, yeah, I do that) Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?
Timber:  MAP!
--Flora, Scout, and I all turn to stare at him in surprise--
(only Dora-moms will understand)

*****

Me:  Scout, do you need to go pee-pee?
Scout:  No, I need to FLYYYYYY!

*****

Cute Flora-words that I don't bother correcting:
pattern = patterin
something = fumpin
level = langle

cinderelly cinderelly

I just sat at my computer and typed this conversation while it was unfolding.  Typical pretend-play for them.  And no, it wasn't my idea for them to sweep.  Three- and four-year-olds aren't exactly productive sweepers!

Flora and Scout both have brooms and are vigorously cleaning the kitchen floor, cabinets, and walls.

Flora:  Oh, I WISH we could go to the Ball.  All we do is clean clean clean.
Scout:  Yeah.
Flora:  Playing Cinderella is fun!
Scout:  Yeah!  We just clean and clean.
Flora:  Cinderella Scout, don't you want to go to the Ball?
Scout:  I want to go to the park, Cinderella Flora. 
Flora:  We can't go until we do ALL our cleaning.  Work work work!  Cinderella Scout loves to dust and Cinderella Flora loves to sweep!
Me:  Maybe it's time to go the Ball now!
Flora:  No.....we still have a lot to clean up.  We can't go to the Royal Ball until it's dark outside.  Too bad we have to sweep.
Scout:  Yeah....it's too bad.  Hey -- let's sweep the toys!!!
Flora:  Okay!
(sweep toys)
Scout:  Flora!  It's dark outside now!!
Flora:  Good!  We can go to the Ball now!  Let's take our cleaning stuff because I heard there's a lot of things to clean at the Ball.
(they go sit in a box with their brooms -- their "car")
Flora:  Oh, look!  It's Max!  (Max=Timber)
Scout:  Max, you can't come to the Ball because you are too dusty. 
Flora:  Let's dust him off!
(they attack Timber with their brooms, which he absolutely LOVES)
Flora:  Now we need to clean off our beds.
(they sweep two laundry baskets)
Scout:  There.  All clean.
(they each climb into a basket and curl up)
Flora:  Goodnight, Cinderella Scout.
Scout:  Goodnight, Cinderella Flora. 

little miss bossy pants

Flora and Scout were playing firefighters.  Scout ran into the room and said, "Mommy!  There's a fire on you but I have the hose to spray the water on the fire!"  Flora ran in behind him and said, "And I have the checklist to make sure he does everything right!"

And then a few days later we were all cleaning Flora and Scout's room.  Scout volunteered to be the "book man" and pick up all the books.  Flora volunteered to be "the person who makes sure everyone else is doing their work" and ran to get her notebook and pen. 

football, etc...

We are Denver Broncos fans in this house and the kids really get into it.  Every time football is on tv they ask if the Broncos are winning.  During the Broncos first playoff game against the Steelers, Flora declared that she would hold up her Bronco bow (a blue and orange bow courtesy of Aunt Mel) every time the Broncos scored a point.  And she did.  With every score, Flora would solemnly raise her Bronco high -- kind of Statue of Liberty style -- while the rest of us danced and cheered.  When the Broncos pulled off the overtime win the Borkert crowd went wild!  We all did our Bronco dance and Timber was dancing longer than any of us!  He obviously didn't know what prompted the spontaneous dance party but he wasn't going to let that stop him from boogie-ing!

Unfortunately, the kids had to go to bed early in the Broncos/Patriots game last night.  When I went in later to check on them, Flora asked, "Did the Broncos win yet?"  Sadly, I had to inform her that the Broncos were not going to win this game.  "Bummer," she said.  Yeah.....I agree.  Today we are watching the Houston/Baltimore game.  When I turned on the tv, Flora asked if it was the Broncos.  I told her no and then informed her that it was the Texans and the Ravens.  She gasped, put her hands to her cheeks in excitement, and said, "Mommy!  I think I have a Texas swimsuit for this game!!"  Lo and behold, she did!  One of her Barbies has a University of Texas cheerleading outfit.  Where did THAT come from???  We'll have to trash that when she's not looking.

Other stories:

**I told the kids they couldn't play outside on a really cold day.  Determined to prove that she could dress appropriately for a chilly day outside, Flora informed me that she was going to put on "one thousand clothes and two panties."  She didn't make it to "a thousand clothes" but she did manage to squeeze into twelve shirts!

**Our church recently celebrated it's 25th birthday.  I told the kids that we were going to have a birthday party for the church and Flora said she was going to make a present for the church.  She was gone for a minute and then came back to show me the imaginary present she had made.  "It's a new stem!" she said.  "A new stem with colors and lights that flash and it spins around!"  Haha....awesome.  I would love to see our church steeple replaced with her colorful, flashing, spinning "stem." 

whirlwind bedtime

The kids had a rare late bedtime tonight.  I'm usually pretty strict about them being in bed by 8pm but tonight we were visiting friends with a new baby so we got home a little after 9pm.  My job was simple:  pajamas, diapers for Scout and Timber, brush teeth, bedtime.  To the inexperienced reader it may sound simple but I knew that wrangling three kids who were already on a sugar high and a I'm-so-tired-I'm-out-of-control-zany high was going to be tough.  For further reading on bedtime wrangling, see this post.

We had a plan.  Upon arriving home, I would change Timber's diaper and put him in pajamas while Flora and Scout went potty and put their pajamas on.  Then I would put Timber to bed and help them brush their teeth before putting them to bed.  On the drive home I went over the plan with Flora and Scout several times to make sure they knew their roles.  They were enthusiastic and I was optimistic.

*cue dramatic, ominous music*

We pulled into the garage and I unbuckled Timber and grabbed our makeshift diaper bag (a gift bag) and my purse and told the big kids to hop out of the van.  Flora pretended to be asleep and Scout climbed into the driver's seat.  Lovely.  After much cajoling and warning of the darkness that would engulf the garage once the overhead van light went off, they finally walked into the house.  We had to stop and start several times on the way up the stairs because Scout had to jump twice on every stair and Flora was scared of the dark house.  Timber and my bags were getting REALLY heavy.

We finally made it up the stairs and Scout and Flora each ran to a bathroom (hooray!).  Just as I was about to change Timber, Scout needed me to help him with his shoes.  Then Flora started crying hysterically from my room because the bathroom light was off (she's going through a scared-of-the-dark phase -- obviously).  I took off Scout's shoes and plopped him on the potty then scrambled to my room to assist Flora.  Just as I turned on the bathroom light for her, I heard Timber take a nasty fall in the hallway.  I rushed to comfort him and Flora started crying hysterically again and I noticed that Scout was now off the potty and running around naked.  This was NOT the plan.

So....new plan.  I changed Timber in the bathroom with Flora so she would stop crying and go potty.  Scout running around naked was low on my list of issues for a few minutes.  It's not like it's the first time he's been naked.  Eventually, all of the kids were dressed for bed!  Hooray!  I put Timber to bed (one down, two to go!) -- he always goes to bed so easily so that wasn't an issue at all (best part of my night probably!) -- then went to help Flora and Scout brush their teeth.  Of course, 10 seconds into the teeth brushing Flora fell off her stool and hurt her bum.  More hysterical crying.  I have to say that, in my experience, girls are MUCH bigger cryers than boys are.

Brush, brush, brush -- then corral them and all their bedtime stuff into their room.  Read a book and goodnight.  WHEW!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that somewhere in this 30 minutes of chaos Scout and Timber EACH managed to eat soap.  Two separate occasions.  Soap that has been in that bathroom for months now.  Why did they suddenly decide to put the soap in their MOUTHS tonight??  And not even in a get-into-trouble-together-because-we're-brothers-and-that's-what-boys-do sort of way but individually in a I-think-I-should-eat-soap sort of way.  

And then to top it all off, Scout says that Jesus is poopy.
"No, he's not," I say.
"But Baby Jesus went poopy in his diaper," Scout replied.
I didn't have anything to say to that.
He was right.  
(Grandma, I doubt your pastor uses this one in a sermon!!)

It was a crazy evening -- I'm dieting and by the time all three kids were finally in bed I was FRANTICALLY digging through my purse for the sugar cookie that the babysitter had sent home with me.  "Frantically" might not even be a strong enough word there.....I'm pretty sure I could have fought off ten strong men for that cookie.

But now all is quiet and I'm happily blogging (and feeling surprisingly little remorse about that cookie) and looking forward to tomorrow.  Tomorrow is FRIDAY and this Mommy gets Friday mornings OFF!

Goodnight kids -- hello sleeping in late and shopping!

today

There was nothing very special about today.  Nothing to make this day stand out in my mind years from now.  In fact, I'd guess that the entire contents of this day will be completely forgotten in less than a year's time.  It just seems so sad to think that all of the laughs and growing up that took place today will vanish into the vault of time so soon. 

I'm listening to piano music so of course I'm feeling nostalgic and sentimental.  Is it even possible to listen to piano without a lump in your throat??  Not in my experience....

So I want to preserve a few little moments from the day.  Because I don't want to forget how Scout put his pajamas on inside out and fell over from laughing so hard.  Or Flora's intent expression as she make a perfect bed for Olga and tucked her in to sleep.  I definitely don't want to forget the perfect kiss -- kissy noise and all -- that Timber planted on my cheek before bedtime.  I want to remember Scout crawling into bed with me this morning and gently stroking my cheek when he thought I was asleep.  And the BIG hug Flora gave me tonight -- her perfectly pudgy little arms wrapped tight around my neck.  I don't want to forget the way Timber ran and threw himself into my arms when I sat in the hallway and held my arms out to him.  I want to remember that I had the opportunity to carry all three of my babies at some point today.

There were a lot of not-so-lovely moments today too......a LOT.   But I don't mind forgetting those.