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I think it is way too late for a sanity check, but I will go on with this post anyway.

This morning on the way to church I had a little realization.  “Josh,” I said,”do you realize that Mack is a couple months short of being three years old, which is also the same age Ruby (our oldest) was when we brought home Mack as a newborn (our third)?”

The thought is mind-boggling as I look at Mack right now.  He is just now potty-trained (PTL!)  He talks pretty well.  BUT HE IS STILL YOUNG!!!!  AND STILL CAN BE QUITE NEEDY.  So, how we survived all three kids in such a short time, only the Lord knows.  He has been so good to us.

This is when Mack was about three months old or so.  Ruby was three and Molly was two.  I think Ruby is in a pull-up.

Baby Mack and Ruby!

He looks a bit afraid of being in the middle of these two girls, and he probably should have been.  However, he now holds his own.  He even weighs about the same as Molly now.  The girls better watch out.

Oh, Mack.  The third born.  The baby boy.  The one that gets what he wants most of the time.  The one that has had the least amount of “teaching” moments with Mama.  Oh, Mack.

We were just sitting around after Mack got up from his nap.  Josh was on the phone for work.  We’ve had 1/2″ of snow, so there is just no way possible anyone can drive in these horrible conditions.  Safety first!  🙂  I decided to try and take advantage of a few quiet moments with Mack.  He was eating NERDS as a prize for staying dry during nap time and then for going potty right when he got up from his nap.  (He has been soooo easy to potty train.  SOOOO easy!!!)  I asked him what color the NERDS were.  He said, “Let me think.”  LONG PAUSE, lots of crunching.  No answer.  “They are PURPLE, Mack.  PURPLE.”  I walked over to the markers.

Yellow.  Blue.  Red.  Green.  Basic, right?

He held them.  I asked him to give me a RED marker.

“No, Mack.  That one is green, like the grass.  Which one is RED?”

There were just too many choices.  He could not figure out which one was red.

I would ask him for a color.  He would, guessing, pick out a marker and hand it to me—all the while looking at me like he was looking for me to give him the right answer before he handed over his final answer.

One time when I was trying to get him to tell me the color of one of the markers, I asked, “Mack what color is the one in your hand?”  He said, “Um.  Let me think about it.”  After a pause, I said, “Mack, tell me the color of this marker.”  He said, “Let me see….”

Then, he asked me, “Well, what is it?!!”  I said, “It is YELLOW, Mack.  YELLOW.”

“Yes, it is,”  he replied, as if I was the one that we were waiting on to say the right answer.

Josh was off the phone by now.  I called him over to witness this craziness.  He offered to play along.

It didn’t go so well.

Mack would run off because he was totally over playing this silly “Guess the Marker Color” game.  He was down-right mad.

This is what he wanted to do:

Build a tower with the markers…you don’t need to know what color they are for this.

He really is smart.  I am truly not concerned (yet).  I am sure he will learn his colors in time.  However, Josh and I had the same conversation we have had several times before about how the girls knew their colors and could recognize their alphabet by now– and with ease!  They are each so different.  Like I mentioned before, he picked up the potty-training so much easier than the girls did. Molly has just recently mastered #2 with no help and/or drama.  He stays in his bed so much better than the girls did, too.  His manners (thank you’s and please’s) are far more consistent than the girls.  Each are extremely different and very much their own little person.  It is fun to watch them grow and to see more and more of their personalities each day.

Here’s a glimpse into my Ruby girl.

Yesterday they had been out playing in the snow.  I thought it would be nice to come in to the house, get off the cold jackets and boots and hats, then wrap up in a warm blanket…so I threw two big blankets in the dryer.  I helped them get off their coats and stuff, then got the blankets out of the dryer and wrapped them up in them on the couch.  They loved it!  Ruby said, “Oh, thank you for this warm blanket” as I wrapped it all around her.

Then, as I was making sure her feet were all covered, she said, “OK, now scoot.”  You see, I was blocking her view of “Little House on the Prairie.”  How dare I?!?

“Little House” is another whole story.  I feel like the Ingalls have moved in with us.  More on that another day……..

We just don’t know quite how to act when it snows around here.  I mean, I know how I WANT to act–grab a blanket, a book, some hot chocolate and sit in a comfortable chair near a window.  I did that for about five minutes this afternoon.  For the most part, I was doing laundry while the kids screamed about the snow.

Lots of laundry……

This has nothing to do with snow, but this family has a towel issue.  There should never be this many towels that need to be washed and dried after a week.  Seriously.  An issue!

Back to the snow.  We saw it begin to come down.  Josh came home a little early to play in the snow with the kids.  They somehow knew that I wasn’t going to frolic in the snow with them for hours, but that Josh probably would.  I might have used to be concerned about that—that they don’t picture me as “that kind of mom,”  but I am so ok with it now.  We all have our strengths, the things that our kids will remember about us….playing out in the yard in the freezing temps just won’t be one of mine.  Teaching them to keep things in order or where they belong will be one of those things that they attribute to me, I hope.  Just the other day Molly asked me to help her organize her art supplies drawer because she just couldn’t find anything.  Another time she said that she needed help “switchuating” her markers.  And I helped her, of course.

OK, back to the snow again.

It was really coming down.

Mack was asleep during the first round of frolic.

I broke out the Timberlands.  These shoes are 16 years old.  I got them when I was a sophomore in high school.  I keep them for our one day of snow a year.  They look fantastic considering how old they are.  Ruby usually asks me why I am wearing Josh’s shoes when I put them on.

The weather made driving conditions challenging, but the kids didn’t seem to mind.

Even Josh wanted to try out the slippery conditions on the scooter.

Ruby getting Josh back for throwing a snowball at her

And I will leave you with pictures of each member of our family out in the snow.  One of us is grumpy.  One of us just can’t seem to smile for a camera.

Just one of us.

Here’s to hoping the snow keeps coming down.  Ruby said it would not be a Winter Wonderland if she didn’t get to build a snowman.  Bless her southern little heart for getting her hopes up for such a thing.

It has been a productive day.  I woke up early to a quiet house and hot coffee.  I got a chance to exercise uninterrupted.  All the kids took a shower and got dressed.  We had eggs and pancakes for breakfast.  Ruby and I got all of her school finished with no arguments and only one water spill.  Molly didn’t distract us–a miracle.  My kitchen is clean.  My laundry is going.  Very nice.

There has been one slight hiccup.  Mack asked for a banana.  I said no because it was almost lunch time.  I heard some tapping and hitting while I was doing some laundry.  I said, “Mack, you come here right now.”  No answer, and he didn’t come to me.  I called for him again.  No answer.  I went to find out what he was up to.

He looks concerned, doesn’t he?

He used their toy violin bow to get the bananas close enough for him to reach them.  Then, he ripped them open and stuffed his mouth.

Notice his hand covering his behind…to keep me from popping it.  He is looking away from me.  If his mouth wasn’t full of banana he would probably say, “You can’t talk to me, Mama.”  This is what he says now when someone tells him something he doesn’t want to hear.

Crazy monkey.

Today has been one of those lay-around-the-house-and-do-nothing days.  For the kids, at least.  After the movie, Mack wanted a snack.

He ended up dumping them out and gathering all sorts of kitchen utensils to play with.

Molly jumped in on the fun.

Molly pretended to be on the phone for a lot of the afternoon.  She was talking to “Sarah” who had “a one hundred and fifty six fever.”

Sounds serious.

Mack came up from the basement (I didn’t know he even went down there!) with some more stuff.  I asked him what in the world he was doing with all of that!!!!

He said to me, “Mama!  I have to go fishin’!!”

I see.  Nice Barbie fishin’ pole.

And please don’t judge me because he has a cold and is without a shirt.  I can only do so much.  He accidentally pee’d all over his shirt and undies and bathroom floor.  I cleaned him up, put on a pull-up (he’s drinking a lot of fluids to get better), put on his jeans and then got sidetracked before I got around to going upstairs to get him a shirt.  He is now fully dressed.

Here’s to hoping tomorrow is a bit more productive.

I think because of these times:

We are now experiencing these times:

Ruby had a slight cold, but fought it off.  The other two have let it get the best of them.  We went to the doctor after two nights of not-so-great sleep for anyone.  Molly’s is probably just viral, but we got a prescription if the fever isn’t gone by Friday.  Mack had a flaming ear infection.  He told me last night when he woke up moaning;  I went in to check on him, and he said, as clearly as ever, “Mama, my ear hurts!”  Wow.  That was nice.  He told me exactly what the problem was.  Gotta love it when they communicate!  Sure enough, the ear was in bad shape.  We have medicine now and, hopefully, all will be well very soon.  In the meantime, Milk Duds and a movie seem to be doing the trick.

A shout out to Molly in the top picture—Did you notice she is riding her bike with NO training wheels???  I was literally “shouting out” to her from the back door each time she came around.  I wanted her to know I was proud of her, but I was not about to hang out in 20 degree weather.  No thanks!

I am NOT a cold-weather-gal.  I despise it, actually.  It sometimes makes me mad when I get very cold.  Just ask Josh.  He laughs at me and tells me how great the cold weather is!

Molly likes warmer days, too.  She takes a different route than I would take as she dreams of warmer days, but hey–whatever works.

Start a fire.

Put your bathing suit on over your clothes.

Get your beach chair.

Have a seat.

I think she forgot her sunscreen.

Why must he do this in every picture?

Molly and my mom, Sweetie, sat together for a little while one afternoon over our Christmas break, and Molly learned to tie a shoe!  I was so proud of her.  She was even prouder!

I asked Sweetie if she would teach all my kids to tie their own shoe.  And if she was up for it, there is a certain little guy in my house who needs to be potty-trained!  (The potty training is actually going really well.  No accidents today.  No pull-ups today either.)

So weird to be in 2010.  Just a weird number.  Maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, we had a little New Year’s Eve get-together.  It was lots of fun.  Good food, lots of friends and wii.

Hope everyone has a great start to this new year!