Sarah's 1st Haircut - 2yo

Before pictures

After pictures

Random Pics

Playing in the rain Our new-to-use tractor and snowblower

Visiting the zoo

Checking out the garden

First slumber party

I'm Fried

Why? Well, it's not because I'm single parenting four young children and growing another one for 2.5 weeks. It's not because I just got done carting my oldest two to their summer rec programs and entertaining the youngest two during the programs - for six weeks. It's not because I'm driving Jonah to OT 1.5 hours away every week. It's not because I'm cooking and cleaning and lawn mowing and child training and wiping butts and all the other mundane things I do in a day. It's not because I'm getting ready to start school next week. Well, then, WHY you ask? It's because last night I woke up at 3ish in the morning to FOUR bats flying around my house. Yes, on top of everything else, I have to deal with bats in the middle of the night. Not just one bat, but FOUR. So, what happens when bats are flying everywhere? At first I thought I only had two in my bedroom, so I closed the door on them and went to open the outside doors. Then I discovered the other two. Great. I opened the outside doors and opened my bedroom door hoping they would all leave. Then I ventured upstairs to see if I had more up there. Thankfully not. I shut the boys' bedroom door so the bats wouldn't go in there and then went downstairs to do the same for the girls' room. Somewhere along the way I called Mark and woke him up. I mean, if I have to deal with this, he should loose some sleep too, right??? Unfortunately the bats didn't figure out how to get out right away. While they were zooming and zipping around, the barn cats decided they needed to come in. Great. I took a couple swipes at one bat with a broom, but it ended up crawling up a wall into the unfinished ceiling. That's even worse than having them fly around. Then Jonah woke up, and I went to comfort him while waiting for the bats to leave. I suppose I could have sat on the couch and calmly waited for them to depart, but I didn't. I hid with my boys and waited. I finally heard a little squeak in the upstairs family room. I opened the bedroom door a crack and saw one of my barn cats carrying a bat in her mouth. I had visions of a dead and gorged bat somewhere in my house, so I asked her to please take it outside. Fortunately she complied with that request. I think she found the last one, and I can't find any remaining in the house today. I am NOT - NOT - NOT looking in the attic. I have a call into The Bat Guy. I don't know who he is, but I hope he can help me. I am so worried about tonight. I'm guessing those friendly four have friends hiding somewhere.

The car seat scamble has begun

Yikes. I just ordered Sarah's new car seat since it was on sale for $184 (much better than the $230 regular price). Unreal! We have 49" of space in the back seat of the van. Sarah's new car seat (the narrowest 5 point harness available) is 17" wide. The two backless boosters we have are 16" wide. 17+16+16=49 Do you think it will be a tight fit for three kids back there? If we can't make it work even after using seatbelt extenders, option B is to order a new 15" backless booster for $70+shipping. And then once I have spent a small fortune getting three kids into the back row, we have to buy a new infant car seat as well. After the car seats, I have to think about all the other baby gear I need.....all the gear that I just gave away 8 months ago. I'll be seriously rethinking the baby gear gift giving process after this kid. This is the most expensive baby yet. Mark won't be quitting his 2nd job any time soon. In fact, maybe I can convince him to stay in Alaska longer. :)

Here are a couple laughs for ya

Last month we took the van into get some work done. Since I have to stay at the shop the whole time, I prepared the kids and everyone had little backpacks with books, toys, and snacks. I'm looking like a great mom when we walk in. :) Anna, Jonah, and Sarah go right to the waiting area and settle in. I go to the counter, and Eli follows me. I start talking to the guy behind the counter...a stereotypical service station kinda guy....a little rough, a little dirty, and pants hanging a little low....and little Eli walks up and says, "Do you have a hooker?" The guy leans over the counter to see where the noise is coming from and Eli asks again, "Do you have a hooker?" Thankfully my brain connected to my mouth, and I quickly told Eli that they don't have hooks for his backpack. I wonder how often customers have walked in and asked for a hooker? And then....just so you get a glimpse of how competitive Jonah is....Yesterday he set up a game of Trouble. Do you remember that one? The one you move pieces around a circle and push that annoying, loud popper thing? Anyway, he designated one team as his and one team as Eli's. Eli was nowhere in sight. Jonah plays the game all the way though by himself, and I didn't pay him much attention. When he was done, he came to me in tears because "Eli won the game." Uh....Didn't he notice that Eli wasn't physically present during the game? How do you console someone who lost to himself?

Sometimes you just have to laugh

at life. This afternoon we said goodbye to Mark as he left for 2.5 weeks in Alaska, and I headed out to the garden to pick peas. It's 80 degrees, sunny, and I'm rather pregnant. You can imagine how much fun it is to pick peas...a lot of peas. Sarah pooped in her underwear so I paused to clean her up and put her in the bath. I ran out quick to finish my last row...back aching the whole time...and our beloved mother cat rubbed against me. I felt something wet, looked down, and saw she had smeared cat poop on my leg. Very, very nice. Now off to shell and freeze all those darn peas.

No rabies for Eli!

The rabies test came back negative. Good news! We'll be moving on to the next adventure now! Here is a picture of Jonah in one of our pine trees. He went through a stage where he climbed every tree - as high as he could go - to check out the bird nests. I think he was inventorying what type of bird built the nest and whether the eggs had hatched yet. For this particular picture, I was hanging laundry outside and heard him calling me, but I couldn't find him anywhere. I suppose you can see why! And here he is after catching a wren. Birds don't carry rabies. I guess we have to have a list of wild animals they can catch and which ones they can't.

Here he is again setting up an experiment - or "trap" as he says.

Designing the trap.

It's ready. If a brick falls on an egg, what happens?

Setting off the trap with a hammer (what else would you use???) You guessed it, the egg smashed all over the cement. Mission accomplished. The cats enjoyed cleaning up.

3yo boy + wild ermine = rabies scare

So, if you decide to go mow the grass on any given afternoon, what do you tell the kids? My standard directions are - clear the lawn so I can mow, be nice and help each other, help Sarah get a snack, and tell me if Sarah poops. I forgot to mention that they shouldn't try to play with wild animals. Yesterday a little ermine (you'll have to google it - it's a short tailed weasel) ran into our front yard while Eli was playing. He saw it and started chasing it. Well, it ran into a toy and was trapped. Eli tried to grab it, and it bit him. Not good. After Jonah & I killed it, I called the clinic to report our animal bite, and they wanted to see us in 10 minutes. Yikes. This is when a hormonal, pregnant mom starts to cry. Thankfully Mark came home from work to take Eli and the dead ermine to the doctor, and turns out that weasels are rabies carriers. So, I drove this dead creature to South Dakota State University in Brookings last night and now we are waiting for the test results to see if he will have to go through rabies treatment. What a day! These boys are always an adventure.