Camping with my Niece and Nephews

This 8 day camping trip we started out with Baby Backup (who, as you can see is not such a baby anymore) and Jr.  And my new nephew, Baby B

 Since Oma/G'ama was busy and Momma's needed a break, I got to spend a lot of time being the ultra cool An' Niese.  It's a great job to have.  You let them into your cool camper that has cupboards with food in them and a TV. An' Niese rocked.  Especially when I feed them as many cheese balls as they could shove in their mouth while filling teeny tiny cups of water for them.  It also helps if you are a girl and your An' Niese remembered to pack the glittery blue nail polish for you.

 But this cracked me up, my niece felt I may need a baby doll in my bed.  People, I haven't had a baby doll in my bed since I was a little girl.

 My niece, Backup, used to not like me....or anyone much....at all.  But that's changed. This weekend with them I had all kinds of fun with my Jr and spending time with Backup and B.  I don't get to see them often, as in, I can go months and not see them so to spend so much time with them was a real gift.

As well as a regular trip to get an excedrin.

But with little ones you get special gifts, like getting to braid Backup's hair.  And giving B a bath.....camp style.

Backup and Jr were a hoot to watch.  And they would do crazy things all the time.  Like when Backup decided that to properly sit in a chair you must lay on the ground.

 And Jr thought that made perfect sense.

They only stayed a few of the eight days but I am thankful for those few days so much.

And I think that this video will be one we will talk about for as long as we camp.

(And we'll try not to mention how big MY baby is compared to these little tykes.)

My Christmas Miracle

I know this is a Christmas post and we are done with Christmas. But this is a post I just had to share.

This little girl is even my phone background picture because I am still loving this moment so much.

Remember Baby Backup? Well, she isn't such a little baby anymore. And my sister better watch out because Baby Backup is gonna use up a lot of words in a day, competing with my sister. (insert evil giggle here)

But all along Backup hasn't liked me.

I've tried, numerous times, to be the cool aunt. But she doesn't like me. So much so that one time, at a my brothers annual awesome Fourth of July party, she pulled my hand to get her some iced tea. I giddily poured her a cup, where she promptly dumped it on my flip flopped feet and danced away happily.

She has a love affair with Buzz Lightyear. The only girl in our family and she loves anything Buzzy. For Christmas I got her a puzzle. I figured it was too old for her but once I had it stuck in my head that I wanted a puzzle for her I could not be dissuaded.

She.

Loved.

It.

But when her mean old parents would not let her get all those tiny pieces out for fear they would be lost (Puh-lease!!!), Aun' Niese came to the rescue.

I think she was pleased I did.

I knew she was totally playing me. She hugged me and pointed at her parents and cried some more and when I threatened my sister to hand over the puzzle (I can still pull oldest sister rank), Backup skipped off to the table where we worked on the puzzle.

I think she likes it.

Later, she let me paint her fingernails.

She

Won

My

Heart

And I loved my Christmas Miracle.

Zoo Meltdown

Every year we take a trip to the zoo. It’s a huge deal. We love this zoo, the big high light is that this zoo has giraffes. And this year they have THREE baby giraffes. And you get to FEED the giraffes. It’s amazing.

This year was no different. My mom, my brother and sister in law and Jr and my sister and Baby Backup and two tagalong friends headed out with me and the boys. Yes, we were a sight.

After the thrilling train ride to enter Africa, after the thrill of feeding giraffes, we were off on long walk where kids take “ranger” tests to see if they would make a good African Ranger. The first test is a pull up bar, and they ask if you can do five pull ups.

S1 tried it and was thrilled when he did it, and then he did two reps of five. Sheer elation. S2 was not to be outdone so he finally pulled off one. He beamed. S3 wanted to try, and I helped lift him up. When he dropped to the ground he flexed his muscles and grinned as only a nearly six year old boy can. Then came S4, who was sure he could do it too. I lifted him up just as I had S3, but S4 was sure I had only helped him and he was determined to be just like his brothers. So he didn’t want me to help him, not at all, and without me helping him he couldn’t do it.

S4 crumpled to the ground, sobbing. “I am not strong!” he wailed. I tried my best to encourage him, tell him that he was indeed strong, but nothing worked. He wailed. He sobbed. He was louder than the annoying screeching birds.

We came to another “test”. A beam on the ground to walk across like a tight rope. He and I both saw this as our second chance, he jumped on with a little hesitation and began to walk across it, slowly a grin coming over his face. He looked up at me as he came to the end to show me his big beaming smile and then he tripped, slipped off the beam and fell flat on his face.

He wailed louder than before, his shoulders slumped, he just kept crying “I am not strong! I will never be strong!”

It was pitiful.

By the time we caught up with my family at the monkeys, all the monkeys stared at us as though we were the wild animals. My brother had heard us coming (how could you not?) and mentioned he was glad that screaming kid wasn’t part of our group, till he realized I wasn’t there, and then realized the screaming child was his nephew.

S4 was sure I was lying to him telling him he was strong so he put his chubby little hand in Oma’s hand and let her walk him out of Africa where he whined he wanted to go home.

We boarded the train home from Africa exhausted. By the time we had gotten off the train, S4 was his normal happy self, ready to conquer all the zoo again.

Boys.

The Great Christmas Play

The boys were in a Christmas play for our church this Sunday and I could tell you that it went off without a hitch and it was perfect and all went smoothly.

Then you would look at the title of the blog to make sure that you were, in fact, reading the correct blog and then you would believe it had been hijacked.

But it DID go very well. The play went perfectly. The boys were great......
Well....
Sorta.
Here is what happened.

You recall my bad day that wasn't so bad. Yes, well, the glass places are closed until Monday so we did not have the suburban. But we had the great to the rescue cab and half, nice and cuddly close, plow truck.

On Sunday, the day of the play, we had church, we had dinner and then I had a little tiny bit of time to clean a big huge mess. And cook. And bake.

But I had a great plan. I made the cookies and then when husband brought the boys to church for their last practice at 4:30, I would clean the floors, wait til then to clean the bathroom, and be ready to go by 5:15 to be to church by 5:30 to get a great seat and cheer on my handsome fellows.

I have great ideas.
They just rarely work.

As I was getting the boys their shoes and socks (this is a big deal, they all had socks on!), I told S4 to go in and wash his face. He was gone a very long time. He came running out of the bathroom grinning. “See my hair, Moma?” he asked. “I cut it just like Daddy does!”

And he had. A big huge bald spot right in the very front of his head.

You see, Husband cuts his own hair. He buzz cuts it, along with the boys hair. But he trims his goatee with scissors, it gets singed by the hot wood heat so often he usually trims it every few days. And always always always when we are headed out to church or some other look nice event.

What do you do? I just sweetly smiled and said “Wow...how about we not use the scissors again though, okay?” His hair is so short I am hoping no one notices the bald skin....but I will.
Not long after the boys had left and I was jamming along to great Christmas music, the phone rang. It was husband. “Honey, please tell me that JM is home with the extra set of keys to the Dodge.....”

JM plows with Husband.

“Um, I think so.....” I said, straining to see if she was but not seeing her car. “Why?” I asked afraid of the answer.
“Somehow we locked the truck. And it's still running.”

Well, I skedaddled, grabbed the extra set (we so are making hidakeys after this!) and jumped in the big mean Dodge with the hunking huge v-blade and raced to be the hero.

It's kinda fun being the hero for Husband for once.

Except, the gas light was dinging just as soon as the Dodge rumbled loudly to life.

But I talked to Dodge, told him how to shift correctly and warned him of the predicament he'd put me in if he left me stranded with no gas and made it to the rescue, and then Husband and I celebrated by rolling into the gas station.

We are very romantic.

This put a HUGE crimp in the getting the house ready for the Christmas play party but I figure they are family and they are forced to love us anyhow so we raced to the church and arrived five minutes before the play began, when our family was all there already, waiting for us.

The play went off without a hitch. S1 had a speaking part and he has been grounded from all hunting or target practicing until he memorized his lines and since he said them correctly I am sure hunting will be in the very near future. S2 grinned perfectly, stood perfectly, sang perfectly. S3 was hard to see because he was on the far side of the group and I could only catch glimpses of him from where I was sitting. Then there was S4.

This was a big deal to S4. He was finally old enough to be in the play with his guys. He knew every sang every line with determination, a constant bop of his head to keep time. “Gloooo,oooo,ooooo,oooo, ria” was a fun one to watch him sing. Every new “o” was a new bop. When the play would start up again after the song, he would turn and watch it, I mean, why not, that's why everyone was here. And since he was at the end of the row, why not get comfy? Here's a few poses.

GM, my sister in law, and I especially liked when he was up on his knees waving his butt in the air like he had a tail. And then there was time when just the girls talked in the play and who wants to listen to girls? Apparently not him, because he just laid right down on the middle step in the middle of the stage and waited for them to be done.

But when it came time to sing, he stood up straight and sang proudly.

GM and I giggled through the whole play. Husband, at the other end of the pew, couldn't see him. So only half the church seen S4's antics.
Which is good.

(after the play, S4 didn't get the mic during the play, thank goodness!)

Afterwards my parents, Husband's Mom, my brother and sister in law and Jr and my sister and her husband and baby Back-up all came back to the house to eat the cookies and sloppy joes I had made and we ended up having more food than we needed and having more fun than expected.
It was a great night.

That went perfectly.

Baby Backup learns to Eat!

Sunday we all went to Lake Michigan. By “we” I mean the six of us, my Dad and Mom, DP, her husband and Baby Back-up, GM, my brother (her husband) and Jr. We had a great time but watching Baby Backup eat reminded me that I was going to blog about her. (My sister is groaning in protest, I’m sure, but since she has no internet maybe she will never know. HA! HA!)

At Christmas, there is a commercial where two sisters are advertising for a vacuum cleaner or steam cleaner. One sister has a perfectly clean house, perfectly clean children and she loves her vacuum. This is my sister, DP. The other sister has kids swinging from the ceiling and jumping on furniture, she also loves the same vacuum. This is me.

My sister is a great baker. She makes all her meals from scratch. They are made with whole wheat rolled oats ground by hand organic type food. I am envious of her on this. I wish I had the time, or even cared. I buy Spartan brand flour in the biggest bag they have to make all my cookies with granulated sugar and Hershey chocolate chips. She does not, everything they have to eat is healthy.

Her biggest weakness is ice cream, where she does take Baby Backup and goes very regularly to the dairy farm/ice cream shop/really cool place down the road from her home.

So, when we went camping, DP packed the organic juice and healthy food and her splurge for Baby Backup was fishy crackers, which my boys loved and gobbled down the first afternoon of camping. I packed cheese balls, hotdogs, licorice, smores, cheese in a can, potato chips, fruit roll ups, mountain dew (camping trips mean you can drink soda), hot cocoa with marshmallows OR whipped cream in a can. My mom thought to get pudding cups, that don’t need to be refrigerated, and S4 called ‘puddles’.

When Baby Backup seen our food, her eyes widened. When she tasted a cheese ball, her eyes widened even more and her mouth made an "ooohhhh". Have you ever seen “Over the Hedge”…..yah, she became Hammie and I became the world’s greatest Aunt.

This clean little niece of mine discovered sugar and ‘bad’ food and had a ball. She ate and ate and ate and ate and ate. DP said she has never seen her eat so much food in her life! We would go to the beach, licorice (which is very good fish bait, by the way) would drop in the sand. Never fear, Baby Backup was near! She would gobble it all up, sand and everything, before we could get to her. She loved cheese balls, shoving a whole one in her mouth to make sure no one could take it. She loves m and m’s.

Baby Backup might have been the one to have the best time of all of us camping.

When she arrived home, DP gave her a bowl of whole grain cereal. She looked at her mommy as if to say “you want me to eat this?” and promptly dumped it on the floor.

(eating breakfast, a moment of cleanliness)

Now, in case you think that I feed our boys junk food all the time, please understand, these are boys who munch pickling cucumbers for snacks, pick blueberries from the field to eat and eat home made dinners and lunches nearly every day. But when we go camping, we pack munchie ‘special’ snacks to enjoy. Only during vacations do we become little piggies.

I had some cheese balls left from camping and brought them to the lake with me Sunday. She was never so happy to see us all as when she spied her cheese balls.