Public(x)

Around here Thursday is library day. This means that we go to the library every Thursday. You see, our county checks out videos for one week. Books for three weeks. So this means I have things due every Thursday. I try to never (ever!) check things out on another day of the week, thus making it more complicated for my brain and body to get things back on time. I check the status of my account on the computer before I go, make sure I load up everything that's due, and so it goes every week. (Ever since I racked up $26 of fines while in the hospital when Libby was born, I'm quite careful.) Jimmy likes to go too, so many times we head out after dinner. You would think I'd go alone or just with Jackson, so as to accomplish much more without breaking any decibel barriers, but that's just not how we roll.

Tonight I felt as if I was officially a home school parent when I attached only one seat into my double stroller and filled the rest of it up with books. I usually have a list of things I'm looking for in addition to just getting fun books for the kids to read. It's quite an ordeal, keeping up with four kids, and keeping my mind enough to remember the alphabet so I can locate books. I am going through the alphabet in my head...COR...COS...shushing children...COT...eyeballing everyone..."No, don't pull out any books"...COTH...here it is... It is a crazy process and I don't know how I haven't been kicked out of numerous library branches. I should be banned from the county library system but hey, it's public.

And public it is. Tonight we had to endure a group of teenage boys sitting in the children's area using words that should not be said in the children's area. I don't like to think of the germs we are exposing ourselves to...but aren't library germs more educational or something?? And tonight I had to pick up a DVD and the attendant (whose nationality I will not disclose) seemed to barely speak english and I had to write down what I was looking for. When I was standing in line I was all of a sudden burning up and just felt generally nauseaus. I looked at my watch. 7:15. Like clockwork. I have some sort of 12 hour "maximum time alloted to be a mom" because once I hit this limit I am a time bomb. My patience and energy begins to lessen at an amazingly fast rate.

So we finish the library but our day is not done. We need milk. Have to go to Publix. As we pull into the parking lot I tell Jimmy, "I could just go in..." but I need not finish. He likes to go in too. We all go in. That's how we roll. Taking Tallahassee by storm one errand at a time. So it's more of the same. Trying to use my brain power to figure out which is cheapest, remember what we need, all the while counting heads and uttering words that just come out like I'm a robot..."Stay by the cart"..."Come back"..."Walk with mommy"..."Watch out!"...

We get to the checkout and all of a sudden I'm done. I'm hot, still nauseaus, but can't remove my sweatshirt jacket because underneath is an embarrassing piece of "mommy" clothing I refuse to completely reveal in public(x). I have no more patience or energy. It has gone. Jimmy takes the kids to the car. I have Penelope but she is still small enough to be contained and/or distracted. I think she tried to eat a plastic bag but I didn't care. I revived enough on the ride home to gather enough energy to help get everyone to bed. And even though my brain and body are tired, I took a shower to wash off all my public germs and have now recorded our library day experience for posterity. Whew. I'm going to do my best to do nothing for the rest of the day. I'm ALL DONE! (I'm doing the sign language in my head.)

Brain Lotion

Tonight Libby tried to sell me some brain lotion. Penelope (who has been playing babies lately...so cute) was putting some pretend lotion on her baby and I noticed and praised her for it. Libby said, "That's brain lotion. You put it on your brain and it makes your brain feel good." I said, "Oh, I'd like some of that," thinking the pretending would end there. But she then went on to tell me the different parts of your body you can put it on (I had begun changing and dressing Penelope and wasn't paying much attention) and asked me if I wanted some. Snapping out of it and realizing she had been talking to me, I bent over and closed my eyes and asked for my brain lotion. She pretended to pump it sort of over the top of my glasses so it would go into my eyes saying, "If you put it in your eyes it gets to your brain faster because your eyes are close to your brain." I think she must use the lotion a lot because I think her brain works a lot better than mine sometimes.

So here I sit, typing a blog, hoping it will relieve the pain in my own brain. We just got back from a trip so I'm coming off of four plus hours in the car. I am going to share some pictures of our weekend in Brandon with Jimmy's family. His brother Gary and wife Sharon live in Israel so their once a year visit is special and especially so this year because they brought their new baby Sa'ar this time. I am Aunt Julie again and he made it as sweet as it could possibly be with his big smiles and soft round baby head. We helped to throw Judy, Jimmy's mom, a 60th birthday party and also met Sharon's sister, Rachel, (who introduced us to the next coolest game ever) and her two children, so that meant lots of kids and company on the premises at all times. But also lots of fun and excitement. Welcome to America, Sa'ar! Happy Birthday, Judy! We got you both gifts--Brain Lotion! If it existed, that would have been a great idea. A smart baby and some extra help for the aged. Just kidding. Neither of them need it.
Cash and Shaya with their painted faces.
Libby had a great time holding Sa'ar.Here is Judy blowing out her last candle. The 60th on one of 60 cupcakes in the shape of a 60.The Alley grandkids. Complete with leftover face paint.Here is our new nephew. He is just as squeezable as he appears to be.

Somebody's got the blues

I couldn't resist taking Penelope's picture this morning after I discovered her sucking on a blue Crayola marker. She wasn't sad or upset, only became so after I took the marker away and abandoned her to go retrieve my camera. I also didn't realize how much she had sucked and ingested until this evening when I changed a diaper full of blue pee and blue poop. Like not just a little blue, as bright as the blue in this picture. I've had some interesting finds when I open up a diaper but I saw the blue through this one even before I opened it. I am going to resist the urge to make excuses about how it is possible for me to have left a marker on the floor in the reach of a baby, how I left her alone without checking on her for so long she was able to do this, and how it's just plain white trash to have a child that looks like this. I have no excuses. I was just cleaning up from breakfast, hiding in the kitchen, enjoying an uninterrupted piece of toast and being a good mommy and taking my vitamin. Sometimes these things happen. Sometimes more than not around here! Forgive me, Penelope!