This morning provided me the fodder I needed to get my creative juices going. It (perhaps) all started when we moved Zachary into a room with Maddie. Ben has been begging for his own room and Maddie has been begging for a roommate, and poor Zach is just a pawn we move around to make our other kids happy, so lo and behold, he ended up with Maddie. Well, more and more he has been dressing up in her clothes (see picture below). This morning he came down in a complete Maddie outfit (and by complete I mean complete with her socks and her teeny tiny panties) telling me "I'm a grill, mom, I'm a grill!". Before I can go on, I should mention that Zach can't pronounce "girl" and after my every effort to change this speaking pattern in him, I've pretty much given up. So, he wasn't referring to himself as a grill so much, as a "girl". Which in the moment I instantly split my mind 50/50 into "isn't that cute" and "I'll love my child no matter what". It got a little worse when I insisted that he had to change his clothes when we went out in public and could wear whatever he wanted when we got home and he is crying (real tears), telling me "but mom, I'm a grill...I'm a grill". However, by the time we got home he was insisting he was Rich (an Imagination Mover), so we will chalk this one up to what is surely indicative of an amazing imagination that will probably come up with a cure for cancer in the near future.
I also sometimes fear for a life of OCD for Wesley. Does anyone else ever wonder if their neuroses sometimes rub off a little bit on their kids? For instance, Matt is totally OCD about shutting off lights (to his defense, probably about as OCD as I am about leaving them on). But I can be in a room putting away laundry and all of a sudden the room goes dark. It's not that we didn't pay the utilities, Matt just needs to have the lights off and forgets that sometimes light is imperative to completing a task. Well, Wesley is already this way about shutting doors. The kid can't go by a door without shutting it. Preschool door, any store door (which proves difficult when they are automatic), random person's car door...you name it, the kid throws a fit if he can't shut it. Maddie is also a little OCD about cold lunch. (And honest to God I'm not exaggerating this part). I let them take cold lunch once a week. It starts on Sunday when Maddie wants to know what is on the menu so she can decide her cold lunch day (so far, so good). Once the day is decided (and God help me if it is later in the week) she mentions no less than 10 times a day which day she is taking cold lunch, what she will have in it and wants to know when I am going to pack it. I tend to pack it the night before and she will continue to come downstairs to see if I have it packed before she can fall asleep and the first thing she will say when I wake her up in the morning (seriously - I have woken her up out of a dead sleep and these are the first words out of her mouth) "You need to put ice in my water bottle for my cold lunch". Often followed up with, "I dreamed about my cold lunch last night". You'd think the kid was getting caviar and gold dusted creme brule in her cold lunch, but typically it is a salami sandwich (cut into heart shapes, mind you), a gogurt and a string cheese.
Just a side note on Wesley before I sign off: I'm pretty sure he will supply me with plenty of funny stories in the years to come. Two quick previews: all the kids were sitting down to breakfast one morning and I went up to get his clothes picked out. He was yelling at me from downstairs and I figured he probably needed a refill on his chocolate donettes. Instead, he was sitting cross legged on his high chair tray and looking like the cat that just ate the canary. (See the pic below - not quite the same situation but it will give you a good idea). This is equal parts a "holy cow thank God he didn't get hurt" parenting moment for me as well as a huge vouch for the safety design of the Graco high chair. Or, take for instance how nicely Zach and Wes were playing in the basement together while I got lunch ready today. I started to think we might finally be over the hump of constant hovering supervision with our kids (so as they don't harm themselves or others) until I went down there to let them know lunch was ready and Wes was inside the entertainment center, his head sticking out the far side playing with the power strip that we thought we so cleverly hid. Awesome.
