S3 Day

Today we were doomed to get an ice storm.

The teachers told the boys to prepare for it.

We worried and stressed over it.

I changed S3's dentist appointment because of it.

It rained.

We didn't even have a two hour delay.

S3 and I reclaimed his dentist appointment.

S3 was thrilled he had the day off of school.  A cavity to be filled was never looked forward to with such joy.  His brothers, on the other hand, thought it was totally unfair and sort of wished they had a cavity too.

Every day S3 runs around the house annoying his brothers, getting them in trouble, shrieking in laughter and silliness.  The moment he gets away from his brothers he is all kind and quiet, he runs to open the door for me and hardly says words to me.

Because it is a rare day indeed I only have one of my four boys with me, I try to make it special.  I could just drive to the dentist and then right back home again, but why not live it up if we are in the city anyhow?

After the dentist, we drove to Target to look for summer shoes for him.  He was happy to find a pair and discuss with me the pros of his new stylish shoes.

Then I found these shoes for a mere $29.99.

 S3 assured me I should purchase them.  I forwent it to purchase gas for the suburban instead.  It made me quite sad.  But I think I may have found an even better pair at Sears (on line, because I couldn't get these shoes out of my mind.) 

But after shopping we visited Starbucks in the Target (such brilliance there) were I told my coffee drinking son I would get him his own Starbucks coffee.  He chose a strawberry shake drink.  I tried not to gag as I ordered my coffee.  S3 then kept close watch to see how to make delicious coffee.  I told him it would be quite alright with me if he learned to make barista yummy coffee.

 He just looked at me like I was crazy.

We had to visit Staples, where I found a fonts program and cheered a bit in the store (although I did not purchase it) and S3 then knew I was crazy.  

 I made it up to him by buying him a calculator.  He loves calculators, it's so crazy and cute. This one bends a million ways and looks all retro and he was thrilled with it and a package of pencils that looks like money.

I told him I would take him to lunch and he chose McDonald's.  I told him he could pick something new if he wanted and he chose here....

 And I knew he was the brilliant child I knew him to be.

He could not figure out why on earth they would toss peanuts on the ground but was rather thrilled with the fact he was going to eat STEAK for lunch.  I love his grin....

He ate every piece with the toothpick that said "medium".  He thought they were brilliant to serve the steak with a plastic toothpick.  I asked him about school and tried to treat him as grown up as possible.  He had a great time. I had a great time!

Special shout out to, Mario, our server at Logan's who was about as kind and nice as could be.  When S3 left his calculator behind, he flagged us down to return it.  And that was after he was as kind as could be, keeping us well fed and filling my iced tea about a zillion times. 

After lunch we drove home and he told me he would really like to do one more thing with me since it was just him and me.

Melt. My. Heart.

We played Blokus. He and I throughly enjoy this game and it was fun to play it with just him.  When the games were done, he curled up on the couch to watch a movie in the short amount of time before his brothers arrived home.

A great day.  A day I don't think we'll ever forget.  I am so glad we didn't get an ice storm and he had a cavity!  However, I should just take a day with one of my boys on a regular basis so they don't all try to get a cavity to get a day with mom.

Dentist Day

Today all the boys had dentist appointments.  (This is where my husband begins laughing...he is not known for his endless amounts of patience and sitting in a waiting room waiting on four boys to get their teeth cleaned is not his thing. At all.)

But that was our day.

I, personally, despise going to the dentist.  I have a dentist phobia and just can hardly bring myself to go.  I try not to share this sentiment with the boys but when S4 clings to my hand and begs me to go with him to the back room, then curls his toes and twists his fingers I know he has inherited my dentist phobia.

Poor boy.

We finished up with just one tiny cavity found in S3's mouth and headed to run our errands.  And where, tell me, does one get such great service at the gas station?

The windows were sorta washed, the tank was nearly filled, the help was superb. 

We then headed to Meijer to get our Tide detergent, winter boots for S2 (so you KNOW it will not snow anymore this season) and look for a vacuum.  Ours broke and being without one is not pleasant.

At all.

Since all the boys were out of school, since we had survived the dentist, since I had just gotten paid, I told them we could go to the "cheeseburger shop" as S4 calls it and they could order whatever they wanted.

You should have seen their eyes.

It was priceless.

IF we happen to go to McDonald's, we order off the dollar menu and usually drink the bottled water I have in the back of the suburban at all times.  Not today, no siree.  It was kids meals, angus burgers and the like.  And to top it all off, shamrock shakes just made their yearly debut and they know Moma couldn't resist one.....so we all got a shake.

The total?

Just over $32 dollars.

This is why we don't ever eat out.  This is also why the boys told me four zillion times "Thank you, Moma!".

We visited a McDonalds with a play land...because what sort of McDonald's wouldn't have a play land?  The three youngest boys then spent the next nearly two hours jumping, sliding, running and squealing with joy.

The grandparents sitting behind me trying to read as their granddaughter played were not impressed with my bunch of hooligans.

S1 looked through his new favorite book, an assortment of tools to help you survive in the wilderness.  I deleted pictures off my cameras, caught up on my planner, and sat there as long as I could stand, sipping my shamrock shake and thinking it really was a pretty awesome afternoon.

So awesome, in fact, that I wore my boys out.

But, if every six months we get to celebrate surviving the dentist like this, I imagine we'll make some pretty grand memories.

Sleeping till Noon and no Coffee for 32 hours.....

Today I slept till noon.

Really.

I am drinking my first cup of wonderful, French press, extra bold coffee in 32 hours.

This is how that came about.

I went to the dentist.

I went into the dentist feeling fine and dandy and came out in near tears. I don’t like to go the dentist at all. AT ALL. And I do a pretty good job of staying away. I take great care of my teeth and have kept all my wisdom teeth all this time. But one of my back wisdom teeth cracked and was painful for about a day and then it was just gone and all was wonderful. Until my dentist tricked me to getting a check up (I was there with the boys and they suddenly had an opening at the exact time I arrived, how convenient!) and although I assured them I was fine with the broken tooth, they made an appointment to pull it out.

I was so scared I could hardly sleep the night before. I knew it had to be done, but knowing and feeling are sometimes two totally different things. I loaded all four boys up and we took off. When I sat in the dentist chair away from my boys, I informed them just how scared I was.

They gave me gas for the first time in my life.

Wow.

When they gave me the shot, I did really wince in pain. And then I started breathing on that gas mask as much as I dared. It’s a good thing because apparently the tooth was stuck in my head and not too fond of leaving either. I would not have been surprised at all if the dentist had jumped on the chair to get a better angle to yank the thing out. I was there for an hour and a half getting that thing extracted. I found it comical when they asked if I hurt at all. As if I would ever in my sane mind allow someone to yank my head around and extract a tooth from my head. Clips of Alias came back to my memory.

Now really truly I think my dentist is a sweet man. Really. The office staff claims to love my boys. But after an hour they were getting restless. Enough so that S1 herded them back to the office where I was to let me know that S3 and S4 were acting like (his exact words) “they do at home”.

And what exactly could I do about it?

The view of Moma laying with her head tipped back and mouth wide open and not able to threaten them at all, well, that was too good a sight to pass up. So my boys hung out and watched the procedure…S3 even sat on the windowsill just to get a better view.

I felt loved.

On our way home, with my cheek swelling and numb, I let them get a pizza at Little Caesar’s (they had never had that happen before) and then stopped at the library and let them get a stack of movies, arrived home and told them not to wake me unless an emergency. They could not believe their great afternoon before them and they settled in while I fell asleep…till four.

My wonderful mother called to check up on me, and I was making dinner, and she stepped in and said, “I’ll take the boys”. I really felt I could handle them, but since she wanted to…

So I sent them on their way with my mom, watched a movie all alone with the dogs and an ice pack, and went to bed after the news. And slept till NOON!!!!!!

Think my mom knew something I didn’t? So here is I sit, ready to go back to bed except its five in the afternoon and the boys will be home soon (mom is feeding them, no small feat), sipping my yummy coffee, hoping the Motrin makes me feel no pain and thankful for a long night of sleep.

At Least We Left them Laughing

(warning:this is a long post. I have been working on making them shorter, really, but this was such a bad trip it only could be told long. It could have been longer.)


Today was a day I wish I could just forget. Instead, I will write a blog about it...so you all can laugh along with the workers at Arnies.

When this is written, I am off to bed. With a headache.

Today S3 had a dentist appointment. He was sooooooo thrilled to get to go to school, drop off his back pack and then LEAVE school. This was a BIG deal.

I had Jr with me today. And because Hubby was worried what our Sadie girl might do in the house alone for that long, I had the adorable big five month old puppy with me too.

And S4, of course, who I always have.
What could possibly go wrong?

Because I was going to the CITY, I dressed up a bit. High heeled black boots, fancy black sweater I scored at a going out of business second hand shop and fancy top I wear usually on fancy Sunday's. I shocked everyone when I dropped the boys off at school, I usually am in old jeans, slip on shoes and a hooded sweatshirt.

When we arrived at the dentist, a good 45 minute trip away, I thought it would be good to walk our dog since she has started whining a bit when we were right in the city. When I took her out, she was shaking so badly I was afraid she might be sick. We walked the perimeter of the property, which is really a very pretty wooded lot in the middle of the city, she was shaking so badly. The boys were climbing up the snow banks and falling in them and thinking this was the greatest time ever. I was sinking in the mud, my high heeled boots disappearing.

I had to lift my puppy back into the suburban to take S3 in for the appointment. Doing so got me a bit muddy. From lifting her, sure, but mostly because the boys let go of the leash and she darted, panicked and I had to lunge to save her. At least I was wearing black.

Jr has a cold. He didn't want to be held, couldn't crawl around, and wasn't too bad but wasn't too fun either. It was about this time that I realized I didn't really eat breakfast, just one pop tart at four thirty this morning and that had long done its sugary job and I was starving.

The boys dental hygienist came out to inform me S3 had some cavities. This woman, I am sure, may in fact truly be a nice lady. But she takes the whole “teeth cleaning” to a new level. I, personally, despise going to the dentist. I would rather do most anything else than go there. Really. I hate it. It's why I brush my teeth with a one hundred dollar spinning toothbrush just so I don't have to go. The boys leave her scared to death all their teeth will fall out because they aren't taking proper care of them. I don't think anyone could really take the 'proper care' of teeth the way she thinks they should. And she REALLY doesn't think I know what I am doing to ruin my poor boys teeth...one day she came out of the office to find the boys eating donuts and nearly hit the roof telling me what awful things the sugar was doing to the boys teeth.....but that's another story.

So, I didn't take the advice she had for me well. But I do try to be nice.

And I hope she never finds out about this blog or this post.

I asked the boys if they had to pee, they didn't, and we were off.

To celebrate S3 surviving her cleaning his teeth, we stopped at Biggby and I got them the biggest kiddie drink ever. I have NEVER done this with them so they thought they were just the coolest, and as a mom, it's fun to watch their eyes get huge and realize they are being super spoiled and just enjoy the moment. I have planned this moment since I knew we were going to the dentist.

About ten minutes down the road, S4 starts crying, then wailing, he has to go 'guck' (poop). Bad.
At the same time, Jr begins to really wail. I think he secretly loves coffee and thinks he should have gotten some too. But his bottle was going to have to work, and I couldn't' get it to him.
I pulled into Arnies. All who know Arnies is cheering that is a great place to stop. It's a yummy restaurant, a wonderful bakery, and is one of the cleanest places and prettiest bathrooms.
S4, who always seems to need to get out and in the suburban via the drivers side, suddenly decided he needs the other side. He is standing in the suburban crying and moaning while I am unbuckling Jr and holding Sadie back from jumping out.

I told S3 he could look at the donuts while S4 went potty. S3 took this as meaning he could bring in the pies that he thought looked good and show them to me.

Now just picture him, ripped red coat because it's his favorite, not because he doesn't have another one, dentist gloves on his hands, glasses making his eyes look big and adorable, shoes on the wrong feet...opening the bathroom door to say “this, Moma, I want this!”

All the while, S4 is sitting on the toilet, explaining in great detail to me that the gucks are coming out, that they have to fall out of his butt, why its taking him so long, etc.

S3 had not shown up in awhile so I went out to check on him, who was wandering around, checking out what he needed to show me next. S3 is the kind who would just follow a stranger around talking with them or unintentionally getting lost. He is accident prone. All the time.
Between me checking on the S3, jiggling Jr in the mirror to keep him happy and trying to rush S4 along, I was at my wits end.

I bough three treats for us when we left (2.32, that's CHEAP) just to make up for the commotion we caused. All three workers were laughing and smirking and trying to be professional but not able to pull it off.

It gets worse.

We get to the suburban where Sadie has decided she can't sit in the back anymore and must sit where S3 was sitting. S3 moves his car seat to the very back, then he hands his donut up to me (why?) and drops it. Then he moves his car seat back to the second seat and works on the leash that we realize is caught between the seats. Then he releases the leash, gets the car seat and moves it back to the last seat. Then he needs his donut.

I go to take a sip of my extra shot coffee only to realize that it is spilled all over the lid and every time I take sip it spills over me. There is something defective with the lid. So I look for a straw. I don't have one.

We get on the highway and my purse leans, LEANS, against S4s foot and he has to tell me about it and insist it get moved. I change lanes and his water bottle gets stuck under my foot.

About this time, I see my husband has called me twice. I call him back. He wants to know what has taken me so long today and why I haven't called him yet.

Since my 'good wife' tip is to not bombard your honey with bad news first chance you get, I tell him I am on my way back to school right then.

I'll spare you the ride conversations and minor issues to the school.

I came home and wrote this blog.

And now I can't nap. The extra shot has kicked in.

And my dog is fine and sleeping on the couch and sweet again. And S4 is napping because he informed me he is really really tired.

And I made a lot of people at Arnie's laugh today.