If this post is too long for you folks, just skip over the words and look at the gratuitous pictures. I'm trying to squeeze everything into one post. With a baby gnawing at the "girls" every three hours, numerous stinky poopy diapers to be changed, keeping three kids occupied with activities, meals need to be prepared, house has to be cleaned, laundry to be done...there's not much time for me to write more than one post a week. C'est la vie with four kids...but I love it until somebody has a meltdown, and that includes ME!

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What do you get when you have school vacation (that's one week loooong, Monday-Friday, 14.5 hours/day until lights out) with the forecast above?

In case you missed the forecast above, let me reiterate for you (and if you're my friend...you wouldn't chime in and tell me how sunny your part of the country is, just sayin'):

Monday...RAIN

Tuesday...RAIN

Wednesday...uh, R-A-I-N

Thursday...take a guess

And it's the middle of freakin' April for crying out loud and we still have the HEAT ON!

We had a pseudo-egg hunt yesterday...in the house (it's April and yet it was freezing cold out!). I say "pseudo" because my hubbie is Catholic while I'm Buddhist, but in name only and not exactly practicing. Therefore, we don't celebrate Easter or any other religious holidays, just the "perks" that goes with it, like Christmas with just the tree and the presents underneath.

Tyler came home the other day from school and asked if the Easter Bunny would be coming and if he can have an egg hunt...I figured "why not?" It's something for the kids to do while everything was closed on that day and that activity will keep them occupied for maybe...half an hour. Enough time to sit and have a nice breakfast without anyone tugging at my leg.

Boy, this parenting gig is hard work, hard with a capital H folks! Even with three pregnancies, and three childbirths, they don't even come close to the day-to-day parenting challenges. Now that our Tyler is in the first grade, every day is something different.

The other day, Tyler mentioned that while waiting for the school bus home, a few boys were laughing at him. I asked him what gave him the idea that they were laughing at him. He shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't know. I pressed on and he told me that the boys had on Halloween teeth and they were laughing. I explained to Tyler that they were probably just showing off their funny teeth. And then he agreed. But just the thought that someone might be laughing or poking fun of my son just gives me a little pain on my left side, that would be my heart.

Our precious pride and joy Tyler,

It was six years ago to the day that you arrived on this Earth and into our lives. Your original due date was 8/25 but you decided to stay in utero for nine more days since it was so nice and warm in there. What’s the rush, right?! We couldn’t wait to meet you so every single day that we had to wait is another day of anxiety and restlessness. Not to mention the thought of being a parent, having to take care of someone else besides oneself, is terrifying to say the least.