Popcorn and a movie!

Almost every night that my husband is working my 5 year old wants to make popcorn and cookies and have a "picnic" in the living room while watching a movie. Since his life has pretty much been turned upside down by these twins since they were born I try and meet this request. When the twins were smaller I would get them to sleep and then we would have a picnic and watch movies, and it would be lots of fun. Now the twins are older and determined that they participate in the fun.

The ending of this story is the same each night- me yelling at everyone to go to bed while I crawl around on my hands and knees picking up popcorn and saying "I will never do this again!"  But, lets go back to the beginning! After I have popped the popcorn and made the cookies Maddox gets a big bowl full and a cookie and goes to the couch. The twins both have small cups filled with popcorn and they are so excited. They sit in their little recliners in front of the tv and munch on their snack. I finally get to sit down for about 2 minutes while there is peace and happiness in my living room. For 2 minutes I watch them eat and have one of those really great mom moments. Everyone is smiling and happy and so excited to be eating popcorn all together while watching Snow White, Jungle Book, or The Cat in the Hat. It is one of those moments when everything really makes sense, I would rather be right here right now watching them eat and laugh then anywhere else in the whole world. AND THEN... the inevitable happens! One of the twins wants the other ones cup. So, they pull on the cup until the other lets go and popcorn goes flying everywhere. Then one gets up and starts stomping the popcorn while the other is trying to eat it off the floor. This is all happening while Maddox is yelling for them to be quiet and move away from in front of the tv.

I am picking up popcorn and trying to get everyone to sit back down. By now, one or both of the twins has gone over and tried to pull Maddox's popcorn from his lap and/or his cookie and drink, and probably succeeded. So, now I have a few other messes to clean up. This continues for a few minutes until finally I can take no more and I get everyone ready for bed and away they go. Then I am cleaning up the living room, saying to myself, "why do I do this, I am not doing this anymore!" But, I know I will because for those few minutes everything makes sense and all is right with the world!

Sweet Maddox

How much do babies cost?

A good friend suggested I start a blog because I always have so many stories to share about my crazy life with 3 boys 5 and under. I decided it would probably be a therapeutic experience for me so I began thinking of the kinds of things I would write about. When I picked Maddox up that afternoon he got in the car and immediately began talking about things he wanted and how much money they would cost. Money is a new issue on his mind, and he constantly ponders why money controls everything and why things have to cost so much.

After asking numerous times why I think $4.00 is too much for a baby zhu zhu pet, he said "well, how much do babies cost, because we have plenty of them?" So, just as I have spoken to him since he was a baby I began to explain that babies themselves don't cost anything but their food, diapers, etc... cost plenty and that I also had to pay the doctors and the hospital to take them out of my belly. (note: this is the same child that at 3 told me that the twins were not in my belly they were in my uterus) He thought about this for a few seconds and then said, "I hope you got back some of the money for me cause I think they cut me with the knife, in those pictures of me as a newborn I was bleeding all over!"

I explained the blood, we talked about reproduction a bit more and then he said "I hope I met some friends in the nursery!"  Ok- I thought, I will surely be able to find some topics to write about!