Jake's Birthday and some random ramblings

Last weekend Jake and Tressa and Squirm came up to celebrate Jake's birthday. We watched the Squirmster while they went to dinner and then we had "cake" and ice cream and opened gifts. Jake is the funnest person in the world to shop for. He's a kid at heart and so we always let our kids pick his gifts. He's a good sport and usually ends up leaving most of the gifts Charles gets for him here at our house (i.e. Darth Vader and the light saber), so that he can play with them. This year Charles picked out a Darth Vader t-shirt that came in a super cool Darth Vader collectible box. We found it at Christmas time and it took a LONG time for Charles to forget about it and quit asking if he could keep it for himself. Jake looked awesome in it. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of him with it on! Kaylee's "gift" is more like a quality time gift. She got a Praying Mantis kit for Christmas as her science gift from Louis' parents. She was kinda nervous about the idea of growing a bug. I think it looks pretty cool. You send off for the eggs and then watch them grow, but we just don't have a good place to do that kind of stuff here in the Townhome. So.... I suggested to her that she give it to Jake so they can grow them together at his house this summer! They were both pretty excited about that. It should be an interesting adventure!

So in other random news.... Spring Break officially began for me today. I have mixed feelings. I just took a super tough Economics test this morning, so it's a huge relief to have a bit of a break. And I don't have really anything else to do until school starts again. I am glad of that. But the sad part is, I don't have anything super exciting to do. Kaylee and Charles don't have Spring Break until April which means that we CAN'T GO ANYWHERE THIS YEAR! I usually take the week of Spring Break to go up to Idaho and visit all the grandparents and my old roomies, but this year NO GO!!! I can't go now because the kids would miss school. I can't go when they're out because I would miss school. So, besides wishing the university and the school district would coordinate to my liking, I almost wish I didn't have a Spring Break. I would rather just end classes a week (or two) earlier. Maybe BYU really does have all the answers....? So I will likely spend the next week getting work done on the cars, registering Charles for Kindergarten, and hopefully reading a good book or two. Unless someone wants to take my kids all week and then I'll go off to Texas or Virginia, or California! Any takers? C'mon don't everyone speak up at the same time.

Secondly, I am extremely frustrated with my kids. They are good kids, don't get me wrong. Exceptional in some cases. Like when they decide they actually DO know how to clean their rooms and make their beds and rinse their dishes. Or when they don't think that I'm trying to poison them at dinner and are willing to take a real human size taste of something. I get so aggravated when they forget they know these things, but what is really grating on me today (and lately) is that they have reverted to baby talk. AACK! They didn't even make these annoying, stupid noises when they were actual babies, so why now? It is especially frustrating to me with Charles because he has been speaking so clearly for so long that now I find I can hardly understand him. His is less a gaga goo-goo thing and more just mumbling/whining when he talks so it's really tough to understand him. Kaylee just sits around and makes all the dumb animal sounds and goos and gaas. I lost it today trying to do homework with her. She's seven now. Do we seriously have to listen to these nonsensical noises? They both had best grow out of this in the next ten weeks.

And that is my final random note.... I have only ten weeks left of feeling this baby boy trying to push it's way out of my belly button. I think I might make me a little count down chain. And I am sorry to disappoint some of you, but I do not believe in belly pictures. There will be none. I don't like to have any kind of documentation of these fat days. Too depressing. So just imagine me with one of those huge rubber balls you will start to see in the store stuffed into my body, and I do mean the whole body, not just my stomach, and that would be about right. Can you see it? On the positive side, when I suck in a bit, I can still see my toes. I knew there must be SOMETHING good about having huge feet!