cookies...

Why do kids eat the middles out of their cookies? Why do boys like trucks? These things were not invented yet when people were created, but these things seem to be instinctive....

Yas, I went a-shoppin' today. Mirielle, we went to Target without you again, my dear! Can France be better than Target? Wow, alot of shoes were 75% off. And a dress I couldn't decide on when it was half-off was 75%off today. Just for the record, the kids were not angels. They were bored looking at the clothes, and dropped 10 or 12 bikini bottoms onto the floor....they had the sillies...I had to put my foot down and make them hold onto the cart. Then Charlotte Claire almost had a meltdown when I picked out a cute little dress for her cousin's birthday, and I didn't get one for her, too. Sorry, sweetie. I know it's cute, but NO. Ouchie...she really wanted the dress....and I was hoping she would be okay, because 15th child or not, what in the heck do you do with a crying 3 year old in the middle of Target? I have never quite figured that out. I can't just leave, like some of the magazines say...I drove way too far for that. And I certainly can't just get them whatever they want to avoid little fits....they would be more spoiled than they already are......then to the toys...I warned them on the way over there that we were NOT getting any today...so they were fine....Charlotte Claire DID ask for a dozen or so things, though....I picked her up a 30 cent box of crayons, and Jonathan some 50 cent colored pencils....yeah, they are a little spoiled....then we went to the grocery store.

When we got home with all the stuff, Margaret took off to her room to try on her new stuff, she found 4 or 5 things on the clearance rack. She was also packing to go to her friend's house tonight, they are going to a water park tomorrow. I put away the groceries, got Camille and Charlotte Claire down for naps, (C.C. only lies down long enough to drink her sippy cup of milk, and gets back up)(and today she decided to poop in the naptime pullup, yay!)....and barely sat down, when Paul came in early...he had things to do this afternoon, and got home by 4:30....we decided since we only had the three younger kids here for dinner to just have grilled cheese and fresh blueberries. And Pringles crunchy chips, the kind in the bag...way too good.

Suzanne and Sonja came back from their overnight stay, after Margaret left for hers. They are exhausted.....Camille is now the only kid up. It is so wierd to have such a quiet Friday night. Usually the older kids would be clattering back in the door from youth sports, ravaging the kitchen and making a general racket. A nice happy racket, that I do miss.

So, the question is, did everything go the way I wanted it to go today? Is that the usual measurement of a "good" day? If so, it was not a good day. My 12 year old can be moody. I don't want to embarrass her, she is such a good girl, but not always easy for me to get along with...but that is my fault, too. I find that I expect certain answers, a certain attitude, and when I don't get it, boy, I don't like it....I DO have to deal with it, can't let her be disrespectful, but I also have to deal with how it affects ME. I cannot just be snotty back. No, I really have to be awake to how I react. Anyway, we took our 40-something minute trip to the store with her back in the third row seat....I was pretty surprised....and I felt really bad. No co-pilot?! We had not been arguing, or anything, she was just mechanically doing what I asked her, and rebelling against going to the store in her own special way, even though she said she was okay with going...make sense? Anyway, I kept my mouth shut about how bad I felt that she was choosing to ride back there....and by the time we shopped together (and I bought her stuff!), she was okey-dokey again...she rode home in the front seat and we chatted all the way home. hmm. Then she disapeared and left me with the groceries and the kids...hmm. Oh well.

Camille is the only kid up, and she has a wipe. She is washing her dollhouse. She has only a diaper on, and not because that is all her lazy mother put on her. No, she likes to undress. I have to be like a hawk, a hawk with a good sense of smell, because if I don't know when she poops, she will try to change herself. She wants to use the toilet, and I am not ready for that yet. No, having the three-year old trash the bathroom is fun enough. Oh, the water on the counter, the tons of toilet paper used, the toothpaste she has squeezed out....adding Camille to that does NOT sound fun.

I have three half-gallons of icecream in the freezer. $2 each at Price-Chopper, with a coupon for $1 off three. So, three for $5....$1.67 each. And we have cones. I will not have any tonight, I will not. I will only have some when I serve it to the kids, and I will just have a little.

Hey, I just remembered something...my boys are coming home in a few days, and they might bring me some Norwegian chocolate! Woo-hoo! Now if I could just get them to bring me a pram, too.....

I do believe that babies come from heaven. And that God sends the children...but I still have Baby Withdrawl Syndrome. It is a new syndrome, one that I just this minute made up. It consists of an intense longing for a newborn. It is usually found in women who have had baby after baby for so many years, that the end of this pattern seems empty and sad. Women with this syndrome don't necessarily long for another pregnancy, especially if they are getting on in years, but they dream about someone just handing them a baby. They see young unwed mothers propping bottles for babies in infant carseats, and are tempted to ask if they can just have the baby. (no offense intended, these moms truly love their babies, too, this syndrome just produces this baby greed that is unexplainable).....this syndrome must have an end, maybe menopause? It hasn't been diagnosed in enough women for this to be determined. If you, or anyone you know, may have these symptoms, please let me know..I think Cassie-Ann has it, and my sister Cheryl too. When women with this syndrome hear other mothers say, "I had BLANK # of kids, and I am DONE"....they do not understand for the life of them how a person can say that....DONE? (I am kind of kidding...I know there are many medical reasons, many personal reasons, it is a highly personal area altogether....I am just writing how I have it.....) And I am really at rest about it, I just would LIKE another baby. Newborns are just so delicious. Meeting, rocking, nursing, cuddling, smelling, kissing a new baby...oh, just heavenly...and then they only get better....better and better ....even Miss Camille, who is still up, taking her diaper off again while she eats a peanut butter sandwich cookie (well, just the middle. She is putting the sides back in the bag and getting a new cookie with cream still in it....I am pretending not to notice....otherwise I will have to do something about it...just don't have any Famous Amos peanut butter cookies at my house...).. I probably should take action soon, she has now taken her diaper off, and has dropped all the cookies on the floor. A naked toddler putting the cookies back in the baggy.....she needs to go to bed now....sweetie that she is...