Big Boy

Last night during dinner, Adam came over to me and asked for a bite of my rice (he had rice still on his plate, but that is another blog). I gave Adam a small bite. Adam looked at the spoon and said, "That is tiny. My is not tiny. My not want tiny bite. My am big. My want a big bite." So I gave Adam a great big bite and he sighed a big happy sigh.

Poetry With Gramma

One night when Gramma was here, Ruth and Kate stayed up late and we all wrote poems. The next night Gramma showed us how to make little books and we painted them and put our poems in the books. We had a really fun time doing this with Gramma and I am pleased to say that we are at least quite creative. Here are our poems.

Haiku's by Diane
Ruth
Ruth is a fairy
Dancing with pretty flowers
My magical girl

Kate
Kate is really great
her eyes are big green emeralds
Sunshines when she smiles

Johnny
Good and smart and clean
playing games and learning things
happy little boy

Adam
Run, Jump, Shout for Joy
Wrestling brother and sisters
Fun Happy Adam

Rachel
Sometimes an angel
Singing a beautiful song
peaceful and happy

Two Poems By Kate

The wild deer prancing through the wood.
The silent breeze goes by.
The fairy tales of springtime bells.
Th white maiden in the gown.
The handsome man in bow and tie.
The wedding bells go by.
And in the flower girls basket,
Is the spring we love.


I am Grandpa.
I don't like poems.
So I did not write a poem.

ps. Kate says I am a poor sport.


Two Poems by Gramma

Buttons
Round-- square.
Metal-- glass.
Plastic-- clay now baked.
Yellow, brown, a dot of orange
A kiss of blue.
Holes in the middle
Thread drawn through.
Buttons, Buttons, Buttons,
Old ones from Gramma's tin--
Diamond ones-- pink and brown.
Green-blue, pearl, clear.
Patterns-- white shirt buttons.
Buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons.
Buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons.
And More...

Sa Lither
Sott, Sweet, Smiles,
Smart silvery smiles,
Small sunshine smiles,
Silent still smiles,
Snow surf smiles,
So smile smile, so smile,
Sweet Sott Sunshine
Some simple
Some seem
silly
some somber

A Lot of Poems By Ruth

I hear a big noise.
That sounds like a voice.
Saying the Volcanoes Arose

Winter is here
It makes me cheer
To know that Christmas is near.

Kate is eight.
She looks great.
But sometimes she can be late.

About a Star
That is glass
It looks like brass,
All shining, gleaming there.

The wind is blowing strong
I have had this feeling all along
It is a nice day.

And Finally Poems by John Wesley Robertson
Pretentious
Poems are pretentious
Trying to sound important.
Their boasts are empty.

My poems are the best.
Unlike the rest.
Displaying the talent with which I am blessed.
But if that's so...
I just do not know,
Why others who hear them,
So quickly do go.

Gramma and Grampa Came

I needed to say that Gramma and Grampa came. We love it when they come. Johnny and Adam wrestle with Grampa all day. Ruth and Kate shop with Gramma. Rachel cuddles with Gramma and relishes that she has two more people to read to her. Johnny had a Mario Kart companion in Grampa. Kate loved having a quiet talk with Gramma. Ruth loved going with everyone to Exploration Place. I was glad to have my parents here helping and playing with my kids, and still just taking care of me. Grandparents are the best. We are sad that they live so far away. Thank you for coming Gramma and Grampa.

About Rachel

Rachel wanted John to take her potty, but John was working and did not have the time to take off. So I grabbed her up and brought her in to the bathroom. I asked rachel, "Do you want daddy to take you potty?" Rachel said, "yah, da-ee paw-ee" I then asked, "Do you want Daddy to play outside with you." Rachel said, "Yah, Da-ee ou-yie" Then I asked, "Do you want to go get the mail with Daddy?" Rachel responded, "Yah, Da--ee mail." I asked Rachel, "Do you want to play a game with Daddy?" Rachel said, "Yah, da-ee gay." I then asked, "Do you want Daddy to kiss you." Rachel shouted, "NO!!!!!!" After that Rachel said no to anything thing else I asked her. That is more typical. Generally if you ask Rachel anything at all she just says no. I think that I asked her so many questions because I was enjoying the fact that she was talking so much.
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John and I really like this picture of Rachel even though it is definitely a grumpy faced Rachel. Rachel saw me point the camera at her and this was the result. She has decided that she does not like getting her picture taken.

If At First You Do Not Succeed

Kate had to practice her spelling words three times each and this is the result. Take a close look at dollar, window , and hello. Either this was a good joke on Kate's part or she didn't look at the words very closely. But John and I thought this was pretty funny so Kate did not have to redo it. Making your parents laugh is like getting a "get out of jail free" card in the beginning of Monopoly.

Anya Esther Robertson on Blessing Day

Here is my beautiful little Anya Esther in our family heirloom blessing gown. My Grandmother found this dress in an attic of an old house in Sanford, ME in the 1940's. My mother was christened in this dress. Myself, and all of my siblings were blessed in it, and now all of my daughters have been blessed in it. I think that Anya is just beautiful, and good natured. We are very blessd to have her in our family. My parents flew to Wichita from Maine and my sister Amber flew from Utah. It was a nice day. I am glad that my dad was there to assist in the blessing. Family is a blessing, and we are so glad to have our six little child making our family bigger and happier.

The Truth about Me

It seems to me that from people's commentary they have a very mistaken idea of who I really am. People seem to think that I am a really good mom who does a lot on very little sleep. Well, for about the first 7 weeks after Anya was born I was getting very little sleep. But Anya has been sleeping from 10:30pm until between 4am and 7am since she was 2months. (She is just over 3 months now). So I can actually get plenty of sleep if I go to bed early enough. But I usually don't go to bed before midnight so I only get between 5 and 7 hours of sleep. But that is still very do-able.

Now as far as me being a really good mom. That is just plain old not true. I lose my temper and yell way too much. I make my kids do a chore if they shout a lot in the house, but I am still too lazy to walk to find some one I need, and just shout for that person across the house. When some one spills anything, I just about flip out. I amaze myself at how little control I can have when one of my kids dumps a bowl of cereal on themselves. My first instinct in dealing with my kids when they are screaming about something is to give them a big old smack on the bottom and tell them to shut up. Thankfully I usually have more control than that. But I think it is scary at how little sympathy I have for a kid who has just fallen down. When my kids are sick I think "gross germs" and "I don't want to deal with this" instead of "my poor little baby, I want to help you and hold you and make you feel better".

Here is a good illustration of how bad I really am: A couple of weeks ago Rachel went through the house and in the space of about half an hour dumped books off from every book shelf, broke some of Ruth and Kate's things, and drew on the walls in three different places just before dinner. I was ANGRY!!! I put her in time out. I started cleaning up and Johnny would not stop talking to me about Zelda and I yelled, "JUST SHUT UP AND DO YOUR CHORE!" That got John's attention and he asked why Johnny needed to be yelled at. Then I just felt more angry. Ruth and Kate started complaining about having to pick up messes that were not theirs, Rachel and Anya were both sitting in chairs screaming and then I saw another enitre shelf of books completely dumped out at the bottom of the steps and I lost it. I grabbed Rachel, spanked her and started yelling at her to put the books back on the shelf. John came at that point told me that I was out of control, and took Rachel away. So then I was even more angry and yelled at John to stop talking to me and said that I would leave if he did not. At this point Ruth and Kate started crying and holding onto my legs. John then pointed out how horribly I was behaving, and said that he was going to take the kids out until I calmed down. Well, I grabbed the crying baby and said I better feed her. Then John and the other kids left. I felt like crap, fed the baby and cried and cried and thought that I would have to move away from my family while I cleaned the whole messy house and made dinner. John came back later and we fed the kids and put them to bed. I painted with Kate because I had already promised her that I would and then cleaned all of the bathrooms and went to bed with out talking to John. The next day John asked why I was mad at him. I thought that he took the kids out because he thought that I was just a terrible mother. He apparently took them out because he thought I needed a break. So as everyone can see, I AM NOT A GOOD MOM. I can even be a very bad mom.

Most days I try to shoot for ordinary mom, and I pray that I do not ruin my kids.

Now some people may think I am a good mom because I am fairly organized, but that is because I don't like chaos (as illustrated in the very embarrassing terrible story) I can clean the floors and paint walls right after a baby is born and put a belt back on my washing machine because I cannot stand to get behind in chores. I think that just means I am psychotic. I happen to know a few other moms who feel the way I do about getting behind so I feel justified. But John is always begging me to take a break and to let ht house get messy. Oh well, I know it is weird, but I feel more sane if my bed is made and there are no dishes in the sink.

That is the truth about me.