The Best Hooligans in the World

Want to know why I'm the best mom ever? Because I do things like take a picture before confiscating large and dangerous weapons or rescuing my children from high ledges. Or referring to them as the Hooligans so much that it becomes standard practice by everyone who knows us. (That's not going to change, by the way. If anything, their hooliganism is only increasing daily.)

But either way, they definitely ARE the best hooligans. Here is an example from Katie's preschool.

I take no responsibility for her wardrobe.

Yeah, she's pretty silly. I hope you can read it in this picture. And apparently she really likes to clean her room. You'd never know if it you saw her room. She says some pretty good things, though. Such as: "Mom! An ant crawled up my shorts! . . . Mom, I almost got a disease! The disease where an ant crawls on your bum and then gets dead, and you have poison on your bum!" Yeah, I'm not even sure there was an actual ant.

I still hold that 4 is worse than 2 or 3 for her so far as far as tantrums and such. But you know what else? She's awfully sweet. If I ask one of the boys to give me a hug or a kiss and they make the rascal face and run away, Katie will run over and give me a big hug and kiss to make up for it.

Last Sunday, the youth speaker said something about "I love my mom. She's the best mom in the whole entire world." Katie immediately popped up from her coloring book and said (probably too loud for church), "Hey, Mom! You're the best mom in the whole entire world too!"

Learning about spiders at preschool. Also, her outfit.

Yeah, she's pretty cute. She's pretty funny, too. Remember how she just barely got a haircut? Hence the cute little bob? Well, last week, I was giving the boys their haircuts, getting my hair clipping on, and Katie decided it was her turn.

I was like, "Okay, I guess your bangs are getting kind of long. We can give them a trim."

 Katie said, "No way, Mom. You gave me a haircut at the bottom of my neck. I want a haircut at the TOP of my neck."

I said, "Um, kay."

Then this happened.

Look at that girl!

Yeah, she's got a little bitty pixie do now. It's perfect. She got really excited, saying, "Mom! Now you don't have to brush my hair anymore!" I had to explain that yes, I do still need to at least smooth her hair. But to be honest, I actually don't have to brush it every day. I just finger through it and her hair stays pretty nice. It's been amazing for both of us! Not to mention, Katie can get away with pretty much any hair she wants and look extremely adorable. After all, she told me, "Mom, I'm not going to become a hair nazi when I grow up." (Disclaimer: I don't remember the context. At least I had the presence of mind to write it down. :)

See? Hooligans.

You know who else is totally catching up on the hooliganism? Let me tell you. Her brothers, Josh and Peter, have taken to being rather silly. They talk like Katie, too. I think they've learned from her hooliganism. Of course, most of what I hear from these boys is "No biting, Peter!" "No pushing, Joshy!" But, you know. Most of what I think is adorable is just all the regular things they say in their adorable little toddler voices. You know, like, "My hands are all grubby now." Or, "I can sit in my seat and have pizza?" I know. It doesn't sound that exciting. But you should hear little Petey's little voice saying all these things.

Or, you know, Josh in his monster voice saying, "Let's watch ELMO!" or "Time to brush teeth!" or "I WANT PIZZA!!!" You know, like a little pizza monster.

Those hooligans.

Actually, Peter's thing recently is "forever." He has no idea what it actually means. But he'll say things like, "Can I have a cheese stick forever?" Or, "I want my turn with bubbles forever." Or, "Joshy took my breakfast forever!" It's kind of the most adorable thing forever.

See how Mike is mostly not on the couch anymore?

Joshy, on the other hand, has discovered "cool." The other night, he woke up with a stinky diaper. So I went off to get a clean one and some wipes, and when I went back to his room, he grinned and said, "A clean diaper? That's cool!" It's kind of hilarious. He says "That's cool!" or just, "cool!" whenever I least expect it. Like getting a clean diaper. Or when I toss him his gummy vitamins at breakfast. Or whenever. Today I taught him to say, "I'm a cool guy!" And he thought it was hilarious. He went and told his dad a whole bunch of times.

The biggest problem is that they mostly just love to full-body tackle each other at every opportunity. Either they're lying on top of each other so they can't get up, sitting on each other's faces, or trying to forcibly use the other as a pony. And most of the time, I think they like it. Except for when they don't. 

The funniest part is that I think Peter is way tougher than Josh sometimes. Josh has, what, 6 pounds on his brother? But Peter lasts longer on the bottom of the pile than Josh does. Also, Peter is the one that has to be restrained because he's getting out of hand. He's the smallest, but he's the feistiest.

Guess what's in their buckets? Tomatoes. Seriously.

But even with all the hooligansim, they love each other. They hate when the other one is in time out, even if the time out was because they were getting beat up. Especially if it's Peter in time out. Joshy HATES that. He stays just outside the "don't be by Peter when he's in timeout" line until the timer runs out, then bolts over to him saying, "Petey's all done! Petey's all done!" They're pretty cute. They even hold hands when we're going some place and we're in a parking lot.

I sure have good kids. They can be hooligans, but I'm fairly sure I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm pretty sure that as much as they are hooligans, their ability to use their imaginations and think their way in and out of trouble is a good sign. I remember my mom saying that if a kid is getting into trouble and keeping you on your toes, it usually means they're healthy and getting enough to eat. Similarly, I think kids who are mischievous are usually kids who are intelligent and creative. I just gotta keep reminding myself of that.

You know who else is pretty awesome? Their dad. Let me tell you about it.

Hooligans on the go!

First, there was Mother's Day. Not only did Mike arrange a babysitter and make this fun plan for us to go on a real live, actual date, but he totally kept it a surprise. He told me to get dressed so I could go pick up the babysitter, but I still didn't know where we were going or how long we'd be gone or anything. Want to know what we did? First we got some Potbelly's sandwiches (SO GOOD! You should try them) and snuck them in my purse into the theater to go see Avengers!!!!

I know what you're thinking. "Brittany, that's just a secret present to himself. It was supposed to be your day!" But let me tell you. I watched Agents of SHIELD religiously this year, and I'm a huge Marvel fan. I was so excited for this movie, it was crazy. Seeing Age of Ultron is probably the best present ever and my husband is just awesome enough to know me that well. He's pretty great.

And after the movie, we went and bought a whole bunch of potting soil so I could put my little seedlings I had started outside on the balcony. My garden is planted for real! BEST Mother's Day ever!!! Mike is pretty amazing.

He let her try his fancy, real one.

But he's also amazing just by himself. The week before Mother's Day, some awesome friends came and watched our kids so I could go with Mike to his Bridging Ceremony. See, I guess there's this thing where after they finish all their classwork and before they start rotations, the med students all get together for a big almost-graduation-thing and celebrate. It sounds anti-climactic, and I think it felt like it to the students because they all still have to take boards in the next few weeks, but I was still really proud of him.

When the dean of the medical school was giving her congratulations and remarks and such, she was trying to explain to all of us family and friends who came how difficult of a program these students had completed, just doing the schoolwork. And she's right! Mike has worked his buns off to do well in school. I know most of the time he just thinks he's falling short, but he really isn't. He's amazing.

Right now, while he's in crunch time for boards, I think he's especially amazing. He is super-stressing about doing well enough to get whatever specialty he wants, which means he needs to spend pretty much every waking moment studying. That can't be easy. Especially when I'm super needy and hormonal and sick, and the kids are constantly pushing me away and saying, "No! Daddy go? Daddy do it!" They don't want me. They want him. And he doesn't get much time to pay attention to them. But he's doing it. He's constantly taking practice tests, going through question banks, freaking out about his practice scores. But as much as I'm a pitiful whiner, I'm really proud of him. He's trading in a couple weeks of cramming in his study-cave for a future career that he'll enjoy and a happy life for his family. I think that helps a little.

Here's a pic we got a friend to take at the Bridging Ceremony.

See how handsome he is in his white coat?

Unfortunately, this photo also brings up another point: my giant 'ole whale-like pregnant belly. Oh yeah. I'm only, like, eigh . . . nine . . . eighteen weeks? I should probably check that. Hold on. Nineteen. I am nineteen weeks. And I already feel like I look super pregnant. But if we think about it, I'm probably still super skinny compared to 19 weeks with the twins. 

Okay, I just got side tracked. I don't have 2012 pictures saved on this computer, so I just went back on my blog to see if I posted a picture of that. Hence the picture to the right, which is actually of me at 15 weeks with the boys. And I'm pretty sure that's how big I am now. I feel slightly better.

But you need to watch this video that I found. It's the Christmas a couple of weeks before Katie turned 2. This will show you what a precocious talker she was. Also how absurdly cute she was. (And is.)

But while I've been slowly turning into a whale, I've had some body issues. As per usual for me. But Katie loves my pregnant belly. I will say right now that WE DO NOT KNOW YET if it's a boy or girl, but Katie still runs over to me all the time and kisses my belly button, hugs my belly, and says, "Mom, I'm just SO excited to have a baby sister!"

She is my self-esteem. To her, a skinny little 4-year-old, the goal isn't to be skinny. Of course we're teaching her about what's healthy and what's not. But we've also told her that as much as she runs around and plays actively, she's not in any danger at all of getting fat. And when she talks about my "big giant belly," she has this tone of pride in her voice, because she knows it's about her baby sister. And when she talks about growing up, she wants to be big and strong. Most of all, she wants to be strong. We've even had pretty deep discussions about the "girl on fire" in the Alicia Keys song. And if any girl is on fire, it's probably Katie.

So that's what she's teaching me. It's not about being skinny. It's not about how beautiful everyone else thinks you are. Katie knows she's a beautiful princess even when she's covered in salsa and her hair hasn't been brushed in three days. She just wants to be strong. And that's really what matters.