Kate

Kate said, "I have a big fat mouth and I'm not afraid to use it." She also says, "Hoolarious," instead of hilarious. Kate is Hilarious. She can be really fun.

Current Events Mingled With Fond Memories

Our Cat, Meg, gave birth to four kittens last night. Our kids were so excited that they used their high pitched I'm going to burst with excitement voice and sang Christmas carols. (The Christmas carol part is really true. Funny Huh?) So bursting with excitement Ruth and Kate actually got themselves ready for school with 20 minutes to spare. They almost never get themselves ready. Usually I just become a big old nag. So during their spare time they decided that each of the four oldest kids would get to name a cat and they each chose which one they wanted to name. Adam named one Boy. Johnny really did not like that name and begged me to make Adam name him something different. I refused. So Johnny decided not to name a kitten after all and to just call the one named boy, Chatty. Ruth named hers Spice, and Kate named hers Gigi, after the cat in Kiki's Delivery Service. So I named the last one Kiki.

At dinner tonight we were telling John the names we gave to the kittens. Johnny got after Adam for the poor name choice of boy. John asked Adam if he liked the name Boy. Adam said, "Yeah, my am boy." That reminded me of Ruth. So to help Johnny feel less upset we told these two stories about Ruth and Kate.

1. When Ruth was three she said that her name was "Girl Ruthy". By three and a half Ruth dropped the Ruthy and decided that her name was just "Girl". When people would ask her what her name was, Ruthy would say, "Girl". One day during Ruth's dance class Ruth's teacher said, "Come here, Ruthy." Ruthy would not come. Ruth's teacher asked her again. Ruthy said, "My name is not Ruthy. It is Girl." Ruth's teacher replied, "Your name is Ruthy. Come here, Ruthy." Ruthy again insisted that her name was Girl, so Ruth's teacher gave in and said, "Okay, Girl, come here." Ruthy actually continued insisting that her name was Girl until she was nearly four and a half. Then she wanted to be called Ruthy until first grade when she began insisting that everyone call her only Ruth.
   
2. When Kate was three and people asked Kate what her name was, Kate always said, "Kate Prettiful." If you would say, Kate, Katie, or Kathryn. Kate would make you say "Kate Prettiful." That lasted until she was about four. Now Kate insists on being called Kate. She will tolerate Kathryn, but she will completely ignore whoever calls her Katie. If you keep calling her Katie she will eventually correct you.

So wanting to be called funny names, and using funny names at three is a tradition in our family. In fact, when Johnny was three and a half to around four and a half he insisted that people call him, John Washington Robertson, and he would ignore poeple who would not say his full name.

Frustration

I just got back from Wal-mart with all of my children. That is hard anyways but today they seemed particularly determined to run away, wrestle, drag behind, and pull everything off the shelves. Kate and Rachel kept staying behind. Rachel pulled things off shelves. Ruth tried really hard to help with Rachel while saying very loudly how we just need to tie Rachel up. Kate and Johnny kept wrestling. Kate also kept squeezing in between me and the cart and making it difficult to push the cart. Adam sat in the cart, but when I did let him out he sat on the bag turn table at the register. But, while these things were down right annoying and people certainly looked at me either like I was crazy or with pity, the frustrating thing is how much groceries have gone up in price. Everything is like 1 1/2 more than what it was 2 weeks ago. Gas has done the same thing. So I ask, how are we suppose to stay in our budget when nothing else stays priced for our budget? But I think if I announce beans and rice and no more cookies from here on out there will be mutiny in our home. It might actually be cheaper now to feed us on the McDonald's dollar menu. So I have come home from the store $45 shorter and about one meals worth of food. But since the kids were so bad I had good reason to make everyone do a chore and now the house is all cleaned up and I have not done any of it.

ps. A few Highlights: 1. Anya smiled through the whole store. 2.Ruth made sure we did not lose Rachel, and 3.Johnny really was pretty good. But Johnny still had to do a chore for picking on Ruth and Kate when we got home. Ruth had been given a chore in the car ride to the store for picking on Kate, and see above for why Kate had to do a chore.

Night Out For Me, The Mom

Last night John had me go out by myself to get a break while he stayed home and took care of all six kids!!! That is not always easy. He played tag with them most of the time. But he astonished me by putting them to bed. That is a really nice thing to do for a mom. A friend of my with kids all my kids same ages said that she would pay some one a million dollars to put her kids to bed. It is so true. Bedtime and cooking dinner time are my two hardest times of the day. Anyway, Adam was in his bed, but he was really crying. I went in the help him settle down. I did the usual send him potty, help him say his prayers and give him a drink of water and a cookie. After I tucked him all in again Adam looked at me and asked, "Where did you go mom?" I actually parked the car at a park and did some writing. Anyway, Adam gave me a "that is not a good reason to leave me, mom" look, and said, "Did you know I was crying?' (he actually said I instead of his usual my). Well, that was just cute and sad. I hugged him and told him that I loved him. Kate also wrote me a note that said I missed you and had a drawing of her in an ocean of water and tears streaming down her face. John said that when he said that it was bedtime Adam started crying, so he gave him a cup of hot cocoa (that must be why he was up at 1:30am with a soaked bed:)). It is nice to be missed, but I only left for two hours. I am our only way of feeding Anya, so two hours is my limit. Kids are sure funny.

Not Really Funny

This should not be funny, yet I find it so. You see Johnny and Adam wrestle and fight all morning everyday until Johnny goes to kindergarten. I have just gotten used to this constant brawl we have. I kind of think it must be a boy thing. So today when Adam came to me upset and said, "Mommy, Johnny tried to take my neck off" I had to suppress a laugh rather than being absolutely horrified as I should have felt. Knowing how things really are, I asked Adam what he did to Johnny. Adam said proudly, "I hit him on the bum." But then Adam continued, "But Johnny tried to take my neck off and that is BAD. Do something, Mommy." So I yelled across the house,
"Johnny do not strangle, Adam." Then Johnny yelled back across the house, "But Adam hit me because I took my cube game back." Anyway, this isn't really suppose to be funny. It was just the way Adam put things.

The Champ

I know that 'The Champ' is Johnny's Uncle Jay's nickname, but John (the dad)thinks Johnny is becoming a real contender. Johnny has become very competetive, and he is really good at a lot of things. He is the best Mario Kart (game cube version) player in the family. He has won the gold trophy on all of the cups. In fact Johnny would like any one who reads this and sees Jay to tell him that he knows he has beaten him because Jay's gamecube does not have the 'all cup tour' on it. He won that by getting a gold trophy on the special cup at 150cc. Johnny is very proud to think that he is better than The Champ, Jay.

Today, Johnny was telling me that he is just the best and that everyone knows that he is just the best. I should emphasize the period there. Then Johnny told me that his strategy for being the best is just to do the best that he can. That, he says, is why he is the best. So there you are. Johnny is definitely in competition with Jay for being 'The Champ' Robertson.

Just A Fun Day

Tuesday was just a fun day. I did at lot with the kids and it all went well and we all had fun. In general conference a few weeks ago Elder Ballard told mothers to enjoy more of the doing rather then looking toward the finish. At first I did not see how that would work. How can I enjoy putting my kids into their pajamas when they are running away from me yelling no? Well, I just thought I would try, and when I remember to enjoy my kids the days are good and relaxed and fun. I feel a lot happier too. So anyway, Tuesday, we did a lot of fun stuff. Tuesday was earth day and so the zoo was free. Adam and Rachel do not remember ever going to the zoo. I think Rachel was 2 months and Adam was 19 months the last time we went. I have never seen Rachel so excited. She ran ahead of me pretty much the whole time and squealed, and even screamed, every time she saw a new animal. She would run up to get as close as she could squealing and screaming and saying, "I see a...". I did not know that Rachel knew so many names of animals. Although she did make some cute mistakes. She called goats dogs, and cows pigs. I think Rachel liked the sheep the best and she liked the giraffes second best. She stayed looking at the giraffes while Adam and I looked at the rhinos. Adam said he liked the gorillas the best. The gorillas were wrestling and banging on the glass. That made them pretty exciting. I stopped to nurse Anya while we watched the mere cats. Rachel wet her pants at this point. And this is when Elder Ballards advice came in handy. I just looked at Rachel's wet pants and the puddle on the
ground, asked Rachel if she wet her pants (She said, "yep, wet." )and we just let her air dry and continued having fun.

When we got home we were pretty tired and it was time for Ruth, Kate, and Johnny to get home from school. I had them do their homework right away as usual while I folded laundry that I had not gotten to earlier and we chatted and had fun. Then I went outside and played wiffle ball with them. I did not feel like making dinner so we got John and headed into the car. We bought a bucket of KFC and ice cream cones for all. Then we headed to a park. Again I used Elder Ballard's advice. The kids wanted to just go and play so I did not make them stay and eat. Some of them grabbed chicken
and ran and others said they were starving just before bed. But there were no confrontations and that made our
family time better. I held Anya the whole time and even went down the slide with Anya and Rachel a few times. I walked around the water with the kids and smelled the pretty lilacs that Kate picked. I did not get upset with Kate for picking park flowers or Rachel for walking into the water. I just enjoyed watching them. John played freeze tag with Ruth, Kate, Johnny, and Adam (as seen in the pictures). The kids just loved that and John got his exercise. It was late when we got home, but Ruth and Kate had cleaned the house to earn bigger ice cream cones before we left, so even bedtime was easy. It was just a fun, good day.