Top Ten--November 2009

10—Adam’s picky palate. The kid refuses to eat the sacrament bread every single week, so I was surprised a few weeks ago when he picked up a piece. Instead of putting it in his mouth, however, he handed it to me and said, “Peanut buttah, mom?” Despite my desire for him to start taking the sacrament bread every week so he knows this is why we come to church, I refuse to bring peanut butter to spread on the bread so he’ll eat it.

9—The first snowfalls brought a few important facts to my knowledge. (1) 3 out of 4 of my children’s zippers are broken on their winter coats. Whaaaaaat? Do they break in storage? Cause I swear they were fine when I put them in. (2) I am paying good money to heat my kiddos’ rear ends. Perhaps there is an invisible magnetism between children’s bottos and the heating vents that I was not aware of??

8—K: There’s a 5th grader on my basketball team.
M: How do you know he’s in 5th grade?
K: Because he’s like 10 ft. tall or something.

7—Foods that have earned a “That’s disgusting!” from at least one child this month: peaches and cream oatmeal (brown sugar, peaches and half-and-half . . . what’s not to love, really?), pad thai (a family favorite), chicken pot pie (another favorite), and bacon, eggs and toast. Surprisingly, nobody said anything about the blueberry muffins I forgot to put sugar it. They really were disgusting.

6—Kye’s perpetual grin. Sounds like a good thing, right? It’s sooooooo not. He grins every time Isaac gets into trouble, which, sadly, is quite often. (So, at what age are kids supposed to display signs of empathy again? *Sigh* Just wondering.)

5—L: Mom, Abby told me that very, very fancy people ALWAYS leave food on their plates, so ta-DAAAAA! (She even used her hands to showcase her dinner, which she’d only taken 2 bites of.) Unfortunately for her, we are not fancy people.

4—M: Isaac, please go tell Lucy and Kaitlyn to come upstairs.
I (standing right next to me): LUUUUUUCY! KAITLYN! COME UPSTAIRS!
M: Isaac, please go down there and tell them.
I: But, mom, it’s easier to yell.

3—I kicked Kye. In the head. During our family picture session. Now before you contact DCFS, please know I was doing a song and dance (literally) behind Jacki, our amazing photographer-friend, to try to get a real smile out of Lucy. Kye just happened to be behind me and caught the brunt of it. It left a mark. You can still see it. But on the up side I can kick pretty darn high. Thank you, Turbo Jam.

2—Adam’s 2 year old angst. Tantrum causers this month: putting the wrong cereal in his bowl, wanting to watch football with Zach instead of napping, having to use a sippy cup instead of a regular cup, changing him out of his pajamas, having to wear pants, and the kids shutting him out of their rooms.

1—Giving thanks with family and friends. We had so much fun with the Nelsons here. Imagine it: the kids played and watched movies and talked and imagined and ate and had a blast. (You have to imagine b/c we took exactly zero pictures.) We had fun eating and talking and making food and playing games and visiting with neighbors and shopping. (I had fun, Lindsey, but I’m never doing Toys R Us on Black Friday again. Ever:)