Spring is coming. I can feel it in the air. I can see it in the daffodil stems that are peaking out of the earth. I can hear it in the peepers that are singing in the wetlands behind our house. I’m glad of it. It has been a long, dark winter with too much cold and illness. Soon the trees will be budding and blossoming and the warm days will outnumber the cold. The days will grow longer, and that means evening walks and playtime outside!

The three of them play together now. Baby E joins in on their games, and while he doesn’t know the rules, he is good for squealing and dancing and playing hide and seek. He adores his brother and sister, while still requiring that they keep a safe distance. When they go to bed at night he walks up to each of their beds and chatters with them before I put him down. In the morning, they sneak into his room and climb into his crib to entertain him until I can get there. He firmly believes that all toys belong to him and should be at his disposal at all times, and beware the sibling that doesn’t remember that. He is headstrong and knows his mind. But he is also gentle and kind, and loves to cuddle and snuggle. He is a sweetheart. He is our Goobs!

These are my goofballs. They are best friends. They know just what to say to cheer each other up and just want to say to frustrate each other. The love to play and they love to pick on each other. But when one or the other is away, they don’t know what to do with themselves. I hope their relationship is always as close, and silly, and loving as it is now!

If you know me, or follow me along on this blog, you probably can figure out that I am an order takeout, stay in my pjs, watch a movie kind of girl. I’m not spontaneous. I’m not too adventurous. I like routine and I like to know what to expect! Well Tim and I have been talking for awhile about going out and doing more things with the kids. It’s something we discuss, but usually put on the back burner figuring we will get around to it eventually. After all, it isn’t like we don’t have a million and one little odd and end jobs we need to get done around the house. Well, with the success of our trip to the Natural History Museum last week, and my trip to the Phillips Collection yesterday, we decided to ride the momentum and take the kids to the Air and Space Museum today. I’ve been under the weather all week with a cold, so when I woke up this morning the thought of a trip to DC really didn’t sound too appealing. Normally I would have cancelled, but I told Tim if he could pretty much handle the kids, I’d be game to give it a try.

We got into town around 11:30 and found an awesome parking spot about a block away from the Air and Space Museum. We ate our lunch in the car, got the troops assembled, fed the meter and then headed towards the museum. When we got there there was a line. A long line. A long, very slow line. It wasn’t moving. Uh oh. We only had two hours on the meter and it was going to take at least 45 minutes to even get in the door. This was no good.

We discussed it and decided, why not hit the Natural History Museum again? After all, we hadn’t seen too much of it last week and the kids really enjoyed what he had seen. The only downside was that our awesome parking spot was literally a block away from Air and Space! Oh well. We booked it across the Mall and then meandered through the sculpture garden. They loved the sculpture of the bunny but then they hated it. Big E liked the spider and then he didn’t. We made it to the Natural History Museum and after an essential potty break, we realized we would only have about 45-55 minutes to be there before we would have to leave to get to the car before the meter ended. (Seriously DC, what’s so bad about a three hour meter? Two hours cuts it way too close!!)

What to do? Dinosaurs again? Then we saw a sign that talked about a Q?rius room for kids 8 and under that boasted hands on activities and games. So, we grabbed an elevator and headed there. It was a pretty good sized room set up with a bunch of different stations including microscopes, coloring, puzzles, dress up, bones, puppets, etc. The kids took their time doing various activities. One of the workers sat down with Big E for most of the time we were there assembling dinosaur puzzles. He was having a blast and even got a little embarrassed with Tim came over to check on him. I think he was enjoying his companion.

Baby E was walking around and touching everything in site while jabbering like he owned the place. He flirted with every girl and woman that he passed.

C was in her element moving from station to station, doing each activity, asking questions and being engaged. She enjoyed the puppets the best.

When it was time to go, we gathered up the kids and trekked back to the car, getting there with two minutes to spare. Exhausted, we headed towards home, but stopped at a church spaghetti dinner that we had been invited to by some friends from our church. It was a nice chance to sit, relax, spend time with friends we don’t see often, and eat a nice warm meal we didn’t have to prepare ourselves.

Now it is almost 8pm, but it feels like midnight! It’s going to be an early night for us. I think we earned it!

We got to make a visit into DC today to visit the Phillips Collection. It was my first time there and I was surprised to see that they had works from artists like Monet, Van Goh, O’Keefe, and Renoir (and many, many others.) The Renoir painting was the one I was excited to see and it didn’t disappoint. It was beautiful!

This morning we had what I imagine will be our last snow delay of the year. We got about two-three inches of snow last night and it was such a beautiful sight to wake up. I really do love snow. Snow often means time off of work to spend with my savages, so I always look forward to snow! C was excited to learn she had a two hour delay this morning so we had a leisurely morning of eating breakfast, taking baths, and watching some tv. It was the perfect way to start our day!

As per someone’s suggestion, I wrote a note to C’s teacher to ask her to call me so we could discuss the incident yesterday. When she called I relayed what had happened on the bus, reassuring her that I really didn’t care what happened with the ponies, but I wanted them to know what had been said between the girls. The teacher said she would bring it up with the principal based on the fact that a threat was made against C. She and the principal had a meeting about it immediately and then I talked on the phone with the principal this afternoon. It seemed to all go very well. C has her pony back and was told not to lend out her toys anymore and the other little girl was spoken to about the threat. Thankfully it was taken care of quickly and without drama!

Tonight is a breakfast for dinner kind of night. We are all so sleepy and ready for bed so I decided to do something quick and simple.

Remember that little pony? C has been asking her friend for the past few days for her little pony back and the girl she lent it to has always told her no. However today, C told me that when she asked the girl again the girl said, I’m not giving it back. If I have to hit you I can. 

Well that escalated quickly.

This is our first dealing with someone bullying one of our kids and this makes me really sad.  I knew it was going to happen, but I was hoping we had a few years. *sigh*

I’m sitting here in the living room waiting for C to come home from church. The boys are in bed and as soon as C is home that is where she will be too! A few days ago I came down with a cold, which isn’t a big deal except now my throat is scratchy and when my throat gets scratchy I cannot sleep! So, last night I got a grand total of three and a half hours of sleep. Today I had that glazed over, super super tired feeling that is usually only reserved for when my babies are infants. None of my children slept through the night before 8 months old, and until they did sleep through the night, they were up 3-4 times a night every night. Goodness, I don’t miss that!! Well, I’m going to take some ibuprofen for my throat and some benadryl for some sleep! Goodnight!

When we were kids, I remember it was always kind of fun when we did fire drills in school. The alarm would sound, and you didn’t always know if it was a drill or the real thing (btw- it was never the real thing), but you would line up and head for the doors, get outside, and wait in lines all around the school. After about 10 minutes you would get the all clear and head back in. By the time you got back inside, it took the teacher a good while to calm the class down. And if you were lucky, a whole class period was messed up because of the drill.

Well the other day C came home and told us that they were doing bad guy drills. Bad guy drills!!

And my heart sank.

She doesn’t know what an active shooter is. She doesn’t know that people have gone into schools and done heinous things to children. She doesn’t know that it is a fear that lives in the back of the minds of every mom and dad at some point or other.

She thought it was fun. A little adventure. A break from her class time.

Don’t get me wrong. I am so very thankful that the schools practice this, but it is a reminder of how times have changed since my childhood. My kids are growing up in a post-Columbine, post-9/11, post-Newtown world and it’s very hard for me to accept that we as parents have to be much more vigilant than previous generations… and that makes me sad.

For the past few nights, C has been asking to do Bad Guy drills here at the house, so we have been practicing here at home. We let Baby E be the bad guy and the kids tiptoe and hide from him as quietly as possible. They think it’s a game. And I pray to God that is all it ever is.

This evening at dinner we were talking about bullies and how sometimes C bullies Big E.

C- I’m not a bully!!!

Big E- Yes you are. But you dress like a big sister!!

Do you see this awesome hairstyle that Big E is sporting? Want to know how you can achieve this hip new look? It’s easy, you just need to follow a few simple steps.

1- Brush your teeth with your electric toothbrush.

2- When said toothbrush finishes its cycle, turn it back on.

3- Apply toothbrush to hair and move gently around your scalp. The mix of saliva and toothpaste will not only massage and exfoliate your scalp, it will also create a long lasting hairstyle that can survive at least a night of sleep and a whole day of play!

Voila! Perfection. See? Easy peasy!

So, I had a rough parenting moment this morning. C likes to pick on Big E mercilessly. Every time I turn around she is poking him, putting her hands in his face, etc. Anything that she knows won’t hurt him but will seriously annoy him. And he falls for the bait every single time. No sooner does she do something he comes running to me to tattle on his big sister. After about eight times of this happening this morning I had had enough!

Big E came running into the room, Mommy! C put her foot in front of my face. 

Big E, the next time she does that, smack her foot as hard as you can. At this point the kids looked at me like I had three heads. I spend most of my time telling them not to hurt each other, and here I was advocating the opposite!

While Big E stood there a little bit stunned, I saw C get a worried look in her eye. But what if he hurts me?!?! She whimpered.

Then maybe you won’t put your foot in his face again!!

I walked out of the room, leaving my kids completely dumbfounded. Needless to say, C didn’t do anything else to annoy him for the rest of the morning!

Awhile ago someone gave us a Smithsonian activity for the kids. It is a chance for them to dig up dinosaur bones! It’s a big block of dirt that comes with tools like a geologic hammer  for excavating mini dinosaur replica bones. What is pretty cool about it is that the two dinosaurs in the kit are the triceratops and the t-rex, which were the two big dinosaurs that the kids saw this weekend. They have been asking to do this activity for months, so it was really neat to be able to do it the day after they got to see them in person. In typical three year old form, Big E had fun, but lost interest after awhile. However, C really got into it and was digging and digging. We eventually had to put it away to make room for dinner, but I do see many digging evenings in our future!