Holy Moley...she's a girl!

We have a ton of boys in our family, but we finally have a girl cousin. My brother, Bryan, and his wife Amy have a baby girl who we finally got to meet when we went to Buffalo a few weeks ago. She is a precious little thing and my boys wanted to hold her of course. They've been asking lately for a baby sister, but that is not happening (as far as I am concerned) so they will have to settle for a cousin. I wasn't able to catch Roy in a shot, but I just love this one of Rex. He is a ham and a half....hmmm....I wonder who he takes after?

23 Diapers--now that's protection!!

I had to post these pictures, as weird as they may be. This is the scene I found this morning when I woke the boys up: Both Roy and Rex were on the top bunk (Roy's bed) fast asleep. Aaawww, how cute right? Then I noticed what Rex was wearing...a mass of pull-ups from his waist to his knees. I could not imagine why on earth he would have on so many diapers. He couldn't even move his legs, but there he was sleeping soundly as if the giant diaper cast were as comfortable as jammies.

I did what every good mom does when she finds her kids doing something bizarre--started taking pictures and posting them on the internet! (That's the beauty of living in this century--we don't have to wait a decade to submit them to the high school year book, we can begin the public embarrassment immediately.) Bo was out in the living room so I whispered, "Honey, you've got to come in and see this." We had a really good laugh, which woke up the kids. Not a bad way to wake up--both parents in fits of laughter standing next to your bed snapping photos. I can think of worse.

Anyway, we definitely needed an explanation so here's what Roy told us. After we put the boys to bed, Rex decided that he'd like to sleep in Roy's bed with him. Roy, concerned about Rex's bed wetting issue, said, "No way! You are NOT going to pee in my bed." Rex was persistent enough that Roy relented under the condition that Rex put on an additional pull-up "just in case." Rex decided to comply, but took it a few steps further. He put on every pull up he could find--23 to be exact. What could Roy say to that? There was no risk of leaking with a giant diaper leg.

A few amazing observations from mom...
1. How does one get to the top bunk when you can't move your legs to climb a ladder? (Roy says that Rex hopped.)
2. How does one sleep wrapped tightly from the waist down?
3. When we got to the bottom of the diaper stack, not one was wet! Now that is amazing--23 diapers and all of them dry.

Never a dull moment in the Buettenback household! Thanks for sharing a laugh with us...

Figuring it out....

OK, I finally decided to figure out how to post photos to my blog. Here is a recent one of the kids (although not that recent, since Rex gave up his mohawk awhile ago). This had to have been around Easter time because that's when they were really into Bionicles. Now it's all about Webkinz. I can't keep up--their interests seem to change daily. Rex looked at this picture and said, "I'm sweet." And yes, he means sweet as in awesome, not adorable. He is both though...that's why he can get away with a mohawk. Otherwise he'd just be kind of crazy lookin'.

Last week they both started swim lessons and loved it. This week, however, they're tired of it. On Monday, Rex's teachers had to bribe him with a popsicle just to get him in the water. She held him in one arm and held the popsicle out with the other one as he swam around chasing it...it was like watching an animal trainer at an aquarium, only they knew raw fish wouldn't work on him. Roy is trying to catch up with his friend Christian so he has motivation enough to keep going. As timid as he is, the competitiveness takes over and drives the fear away. Roy has passed 2 levels in 2 short weeks and yesterday he jumped off the diving board for the first time. Today is the last day and I think we're all pretty glad about it. Next week is VBS so we'll see how they do with it. I'm trying to keep them busy this summer so as not to completely feed their Webkinz addiction.

I'll try to post more, but I've tried before too so you know you can't trust me when I say that.

What I say and what I do....

I say I like to write. I have a blog. Do I write? No.

So how much do I really like it then if I don't often do it? Don't we end up doing what we really love to do?

I used to think that was the case.......that if you really loved something you would just do it. You wouldn't be able to help yourself. Like people who run and love it. I imagine that they wake up and just have to run 6 miles as much as someone else just has to wake up and take a shower or eat breakfast.

I'm reevaluating that theory. I don't know if it's true anymore. I'm starting to wonder if sometimes we can like doing something that is hard, or takes time or a certain kind of energy...and I'm wondering if just because you like something does it mean that you can't just coast into some kind of slump where the ordinary tasks of life just start to take over and eventually feed you some lie about how you must just like ordinary life better than the thing you might be drawn to. A lie about how you must not really like that thing anyway because if you really did you would just do it.

And I'll bet that the person who loves to run probably wouldn't mind sleeping in. And I'll bet it's hard sometimes to run 6 miles. And it certainly does take time and energy.

I started thinking about this today because several people commented about an article I wrote for our MOPS newsletter...and I remembered that I do like to write and that people have told me that they think I'm good at it. Then I sit down and look at the bookmark to my blog and I feel like I've neglected it too long and I wouldn't have enough time to really write something that anyone would care about reading....and it would just be easier to check my facebook page and see what everyone else is writing about. It's kind of equivalent to pulling the covers over my head instead of getting up and running.

I can't believe I'm using a running analogy. I can't even relate to it...I should check with someone who runs to verify if what I'm saying is even close to accurate. I won't though...I'll let someone call me out on it in their comments, if they so choose....

In the mean time, I've done it. It took time and a little bit of concentration to put down a few thoughts. But there it is. No big whoop. It's true, I do like it....I've said it and I've done it. I feel better now.