Boo-Doo-Goo!

Tuesday afternoon brought visitors from San Antonio. After hearing that my brood and I were visiting, my dad's uncle decided to stop in for a quick visit. Uncle Icky was joined by his grandson, Ben, and his daughter, Tina. I had met Uncle Icky twice before (at my grandmother's funeral and at my brother's wedding) but I had grown up seeing lots of pictures of him in my granddad's photo albums. It was a bit chaotic having so many people in one place while trying to keep my four little ones well-behaved, but we managed. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and Will was thrilled to have adults around who were letting him talk a lot.

Wednesday and Thursday I've already forgotten. I know sometime in there Dad worked on the easels more while I tended to the kids and Mom worked. We had a day in the sprinklers in the yard, and were impressed by Maddie's balance as she held one foot up over the water and stood on the other foot for awhile. Jon decided to spend sprinkler time in my lap, perfectly content to stay dry. We took all four kids swimming one evening. Mom sat in the grass holding the towels and Dad and I took turns holding the little ones while Will splashed and jumped nearby. All three babies enjoyed the water and the one-on-one time, but they were ready for bed after the relaxing swishes. Dad and I played with Will for a bit longer trying to get him comfortable with the water, and with laying on it to float and kick. I got a couple of hours without kids one day and decided to do some shopping -- mostly for father's day gifts, but when I was frustrated that I couldn't find what I wanted for Allen, I went and got a haircut. I cut off 6-8 inches, but no one noticed since I always wear a ponytail anyway. One day we found Ben had taken the pack-n-play apart before he fell asleep. When we found him, he was in a cozy little ball cuddling his favorite fuzzy blue blanket in the gap between the bars. We didn't wake him, but I had to get a picture.

Today we had a laid-back morning, but Dad and I took the kids out in the afternoon. We went to a bookstore for awhile -- Dad dragged the circus train while I dragged Will and tried so hard to keep his hands off of the little things. I tried to get Will to pick a book, but he kept choosing the ones that need batteries, and I promised myself we would not get one like that this time. We ended up with two for Will -- a children's atlas and a short-vowel sound reader. Then we traipsed across the hot asphalt to the pet store. Jon was so excited about the rats and bunnies, turtles and fish, that he stood up on the seat of his wagon to peer in the terrariums. This is my son who is usually very timid about standing near siblings who mught knock him over, so we were shocked that he chose to stand on a moving object (but, when we saw him, we did stop the wagon.) We left the stores around naptime, but decided to make sure they were all as tired as possible, so we revisited the sprinkler park. Just like before, they all had a blast, but we didn't have to stay as long to wear them all out. They stayed awake until we got back to the house and then they all napped for an hour.

Dinnertime proved to be fun after dad tried to startle everyone with a loud "BOO!" The babies and Will giggled about it, then decided to join the fun. Ben was the first to shout "Doo!" and Will, my parents, and I all "jumped" pretending to be startled. That brought lots of laughter, so he did it again. "Doo!" "Doo!" "Doo!" after lots of belly laughs, Jon and Maddie joined in and everyone kept up the game. I tried correcting Ben, but then he kept saying "Goo!" instead. It was just as silly, so he had no reason to change his consonants. At one point Dad said, "Ben, it's BOO!" and Jon pretended to jump. Everyone had a lot more fun than words can describe. Just know that if Ben says, "Goo!" you are supposed to act scared. All of the kids played till they were rubbing their eyes and ready for bed. It turned out to be a pretty fun day.

In my world with four small kids, the details often get forgotten or lost in the shuffle. Who said what when? How many teeth does he have? Did everyone get clean clothes before we left? Did we change all the diapers and did everyone else go potty? Whose shirt is this? Are these Will's shorts or the babies'? I try to stay focused on the big picture, but sometimes I enjoy the details too. In the last few days, Ben and Jon got a few more teeth, Maddie learned a bit more about balancing. Ben tried to get Maddie to join him in the sprinklers, some or all of the babies now say "Cup", "no-no" (it had been nee-nee for the same meaning), and thanks to lots of reading of a Sesame Street book about meals, I think all of them can say something that sounds like "Cookie." Ben's version is my favorite as he has adopted the Cookie Monster way of growling "cookiecookiecookiecookie" as one big word.