Number 1, Number 4, and a Yelling Lady
I am the “recycling lady” of the main building of the school. Which means that, once a week, I take all of my boys and we take all of the bins of paper to be recycled to the dumpster. Sounds easy. Actually, it did sound easy to me and that is why I signed up to do this particular chore to help out at school. My oldest did a really great job helping me with it yesterday. He was in charge of pushing the youngest in the stroller while I did the bins. #2 and #3 helped me a little, too. When my oldest goes back to that school, he is treated like a celebrity. He is mobbed by the children that he knows from there and nearly everyone gives him a hug. He eats it up. And, he loves talking to all of them. Someone told him that he was doing a great job pushing his brother in the stroller. He replied matter-of-factly, “Oh, yes, I’m a great driver.” This reminded me so much of “Rainman” that I nearly lost it laughing.

The baby is testing all of us now. He is still precious, most of the time. But there are times when he is getting into everything and getting on everyone’s nerves. Thankfully, he enjoys playing with toys and this gets him out of our hair, periodically. He loves all toys that have hats. Woody from “Toy Story” is a favorite as are all the playmobile figures that have hats — particularly the pirate. Of course, the all time favorite toy with a hat is Mr. Potato Head, or as he is referred to by #4, Tay-Tay. Yesterday, he was very methodically playing with Tay-Tay’s arms, etc., at the table while I was preparing dinner. I looked at him, playing so well with a toy that he adores and said, “Do you love Tay-Tay, E?” Instead of saying, “Yes,” as he usually would when asked such a question, he slowly picked Tay-Tay up, looked into Tay-Tay’s eyes, and gave him — very slowly and with much feeling — an eskimo kiss. This, of course, left me standing in the kitchen with my hand over my mouth trying not to laugh and trying not to shed a tear about my baby growing up. Wah.

And, the reason that I blogged about both my youngest and oldest and their respective sweetness/preciousness is that I felt like letting the both of them have it when I took them to the park this morning. The main reason that we went to the park was to air out the baby, who was wreaking havoc in the house with energy that is best taken outside. So, off to the park we went. Now, the days when I could just take him to the park and swing him are over. Now he is about jumping in to leaf piles, flushing the bunnies out of the little patch of trees, chasing birds and running all over the place. While he was doing this, I lost track of #1. I start calling his name and running to find him. I thought that he had wandered off after something or someone and this was really scaring me. Meanwhile,#4 sees his chance to make a break for it and hikes it up the hill to another apartment complex parking lot. After I found #1, then I had to get #4 who climbs hills as quickly as a mountain goat. Those two stinkers. Thankfully, everyone was found and not run over by a car, etc. But, I think to myself, as we are calmly walking home, that my neighbors probably don’t know what to make of me. I’m sure that they are thinking, “Wow, you know, I thought that Ann was so laid back until I heard her yelling today.” I was trying to give up yelling for Lent. That didn’t work out very well.