BAM-MOM!

Okay, I know I shouldn't make fun of the way my (almost) 3-year-old talks, but it's so stinkin' cute the way he pronounces certain words I just can't resist! For instance, Grandmom is "Bam-mom," huge is "HOOOJ," Aunt Leah is "Aunt Wee-yuh"...you get the picture. Also, his little spin on what he calls certain things is adorable. Paige is not just Paige. No, sir. She's "Paige-y." And our enormous dog (he's half Alaskan Malamute, half German Shepard...and thinks he's a poodle!) is named Gregory (after the last street we lived in before leaving Florida), but Carl IV insists on calling him "Big Horse," because he heard my mother-in-law refer to him as such. Freakin' cracks me up! Imagine a 3-year-old yelling across the house, "Here, Big Horse! Where Big Horse is?" The kid's a nut.
Alright, enough of that. Onto what the whole family has been up to.
I have decided to make more of an effort to get everybody together to go to mass again. I admit, we have been severely slacking in this area lately. It's just such a pain to get the kids to be quiet for an entire hour. I called our church and they do not have a cry-room or a nursery! What the hell?! So, we're going to have to be "those people" with "those kids" during mass, because that's the only way that the little boogers are going to learn what's expected of them during mass. So, to all parishoners of MDP, I apologize in advance for the chatty kiddos in the front...that's us. But, seeing as we have no alternative, please keep your dirty looks to yourself, I'm doing the best I can.
We have also been making more of an effort to eat dinner together as a family at our dinner table. We had a habit of feeding the kids early in the kitchen and Carl III and I would just eat on the couch a little later. I remember growing up we always ate dinner together, and it's a really important thing to instill in your kids. That is "family" time, and it needs to be something that we stick to. So, wish us luck, but so far so good!
Carl IV's 3rd birthday is rapidly aproaching and he found out that they're going to have a party for him at his school...big mistake. He won't shut up about it. Out of the blue he'll turn to me and say, "Mommy, guess what! My birfday come up soooooon! I have party and presents and ice cream!" It's cute the first, say, 12 times...the following bajillion...not so much.