The Day Pops Tricked Me Into Marrying Him... Better Known As *Valentine's Day*

Last night for FHE, I was trying to tell the Toadies about how Pops and I spent our first V-Day together. Let’s face it, I have a tough crowd. This split second pic is the longest I have ever seen them sit at once. You can ask all those in nearby pews at church if you mistake our children to be well behaved. While 13 years ago on Valentine’s Day marks the day that Pops proposed to me, it isn’t quite as engaging (love a pun) story as the Valentine’s Eve story.

This is the scintillating tale that unfolded to capture the attention of my wiggly little Toads.

You see, I was a single girl back then. My options were wide open (even if my sister Mindurs was praying for me because I was an old maid). Pops has many a fine attribute that attracted me to him, but I may have been looking for something to put his case over the top. Because Pops and I both had to work on Valentine’s night (Saturday), we were having our hot date the night before. Pops had arranged for a very fancy evening. We had tickets to the Utah symphony. Of course I wore my most dazzling outfit: high heels, dangly earrings, a pearl necklace (this part is, of course, for Abz). Pops, first took me back to his place where he had prepared a candle lit dinner. There was crisp salad (the kids all said, “yuck!”), buttery warm garlic bread (“yuck!), and the richest, velvetiest, dreamiest lasagna I had ever tasted. Quite simply, I was blown away. This was the missing piece. I had known Pops for 7 years at this point and honestly had no idea he was such a masterful chef. Actually I was a bit dubious so I tactfully asked, “This lasagna is incredible, did you make it?” Pops, smiled and nodded, “Yes, I cooked it.” Well. There I had it. If there was ever a way to my heart, it was paved with tomatoey and cheesy. That pretty much sealed the deal. After dinner Pops presented me with a dozen chocolate covered strawberries, which lasted less than a dozen minutes. I was pretty sure he was going to drop to his knee right then and there, but he didn’t. Instead we went to the symphony and had a wonderful time together. Turns out he didn’t have the ring until the next day. He got off work at 11:30 p.m. zipped to my house in about 15 minutes and before the clock struck 12:00 he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

The rest is history, well except for the part where sometime later while having dinner with his mother the topic of what a great cook Pops was came up. Sheri has a fabulous sense of humor. I wish I could do this some justice, but it went something like this. I said, “Wow, this dinner is delicious Sheri. I can see where Pops became such a great cook!” At which point she looked up at me, and then over to Pops where they exchanged “a look”. I said, “Tell me something Sheri, did Pops really cook that dinner for me on Valentine’s Day?” Her face was straight, but her eye’s deceived her, “That depends on what you mean by ‘cook’” she said. Here is where I should have seen the writing on the wall, Pops was *born* an attorney. It all boils down to the meaning of the work “cook”. Some might think it means to combine ingredients to create a dish to eat. Others believe that it simply means to heat up something their mother actually made.

I was TRICKED! Can you believe that Pops TRICKED me into marrying him?!!!! HE TRICKED ME! HE TRICKED ME!

At this the kids came UNGLUED….

Pops was working, so he was not there to defend himself. His first chance came the next morning when he stumbled out of bed. Abizella was there waiting for him, “How come you tricked Mommy with the lasagna?”

Secrets

When it comes to secrets, this girlfriend LOVES them! ...she just can't KEEP them.
She just can't keep that mouth shut!

Abz, "Mom, everybody knows something that you don't."
Me, "Really? Hmmmm? Would this have something to do about Valentine's Day?"
Abz, "Yes..."
Me, "Really? Would it have to do with a present for me?"
Abz, "Yes..."
Me, "Is it pretty?"
Abz, "Yes..."
Me, "Does it smell pretty?"
Abz, "YES! Mom it's FLOW..."
Me, "STOP! Don't tell me it's a secret!"

Okay, so maybe it is me that has a hard time with secrets. Abz confided in me last night while preparing her Valentine's for her class. She had a flush of excitement and tugged at my arm to bring my ear close to hear her heady whisper. She said, "Mom, I know who I am going to marry! His name is Scooby Doo (name changed to protect the secret *wink*). He is a boy (her first confession that boys are worthy of liking)." I whispered back, "He sounds wonderful. Why do you want to marry him?" She replied, "Because he likes to play with dolls, even though he is a boy."

Maybe I can take a page from Abizella. She actually turned over a new leaf recently. She came home from an errand with Pops and plopped down on the couch next to me. I said, "Did you just eat donuts?" She looked at me completely straight faced and said, "No." I studied her face for chocolate frosting and said, "Really? You smell like Dunkin Donuts." She again convincingly said, "No." Knowing that she not only can't eat a donut without smearing it ear to ear she can't keep it a secret no matter how badly she wants to rub it in.

I checked in with Pops, "Hey, did you and Abz just go out for donuts?" Reluctantly he said, "Ya... but Abizella insisted that she wanted to keep it a secret, how did you know?" I explained that you can't even go through the drive through at Dunkin Donuts without picking up the smell. He shook his head and said, "Too bad, she even thought to carefully wipe all the frosting off her face so no one would know."

The weight of the secret was too much to bare because awhile later she came to me and told me that they did go get some donuts. She explained that she just *loves* secrets. I get it, I do too!

Best Brothers

I have three brothers. Growing up, the older two brothers would fight over who the baby brother would call his, "Best Brother". This meant that the baby brother was lavished with love and attention by the jealous brother who currently was not the , "Best Brother". And just to hedge up his bets, the current "Best Brother" would take it up a notch so as not to lose his coronation. Sometimes being the baby comes with benefits!

Over the last couple of months it has been fun to see Tadpole go from his two brothers' greatest nemesis, to an actual playmate. Recently Superkid has invited Tadpole into his Lego land domain where they have played peacefully together. It seems that Tadpole might have actually learned that fitting Lego pieces together = invitation to play with cool Superkid and busting up precious Lego creations = immediate expulsion.
It just warms the heart to see them snuggling.
And with Superkid and Abz gone part of the day, Tadpole has turned to Little Chief for companionship. His sometimes irksome baby brother makes a great splash companion. If I try to pluck Little Chief out of the tub, Tadpole will beg to let him stay and play. Little Chief is always game for more tub time. How can I deny these little faces?
Tadpole has even been good to help Little Chief navigate the utensil drawer. In a world where not all kitchen gadgets are created equal, Tadpole is quick to demonstrate the superior attributes of the wire whisk. Smashing success.
With a campaign like this, Tadpole may just end up as "Best Brother". Who says that you have to be the baby?

Where Have I Been?

Okay, Little Chief is growing and changing faster than I can handle. Of course I am happy to have a healthy, developing child. I'm just saying that everything is happening too fast!

Superkid and I spend most of our days away from home. We are often met with lack of enthusiasm as we announce another great trick that Little Chief *just* mastered.

For example,
"Wow! Look! Little Chief can go from sitting to standing in the middle of the room!"
"Ya, he's been doing that all week."

"Did you know Little Chief can climb into the dishwasher?"
"When was the last time you did the dishes?"

"Did you see THAT! Little Chief just walked across the floor pushing a chair!"
"He pushes stuff around to help him walk all the time."

"When did Little Chief learn to drive?!"
AHH HAAA!
I scooped you all! I'm the one who drug the truck from the basement!

FYI:
Today was his 9 month appointment. He put on a good show for our favorite doctor.
He is 29" (75th percentile) and 21 lb 11 oz. (68th percentile). We'll take it!

Quotable Toad

My Grandma gave my Mom some good advice.
She told her to jot down the funny things the kids say and shove them in a drawer in the dresser and deal with them when you have time. She said you think you'll never forget, but you will. I know I do. Every time I talk to my parents they ask me to tell them a story about each of the kids. I usually draw a blank and tell them to go read the blog. I have been compiling a list of crazy things the kiddos have said and sticking it to the fridge... so here it is.

Okay first up on Superkid's list is a conversation he had with Grandma on Christmas. After answering her questions of what he got for Christmas he politely asked what she got. She told him that she had received some clothes. Empathetically Superkid nodded and said, "Ya. That happened to me too." But she already knew that, she sent him clothes. It was jsut hard to remember because she also sent some AWESOME toys.

Next up, after dropping the mega-awesome-super-complicated robot that he had lovingly constructed with Legos and seeing it smash to smitherings on the floor, Pops and I braced ourselves for a 7 year old melt down. Instead Superkid balled up his fists and blurted out, "Curse you gravity!

And certainly not last of all he reached out and patted my stomach and joyfully declared, "Looks like you're brewing us up another baby!" I'm not.

Here is Superkid playing his air guitar. This is how he puts his "cool" on as he struts into elementary school each morning.

Abizella is obsessed with hearing her birth story. Whenever we are driving somewhere she asks me to tell her about it. She also is relentless in asking me for a sister. She'll say, "I hope you have enough bones left over to build a baby sister for me." (Of course, as long as I have extra bones in my stomach, I can build more siblings for her, right?)

These are Abz's kickin' new boots. She brought them in a bag to show her class when she was "Star Student" last week. Her class must have been impressed because Abz promised them that she would wear them the next day (see Grandma, *some* of us understand your joy of receiving clothes for Christmas).

Because Abz is so obsessed with talking about babies in my stomach, one day while driving around Abz was talking about how Superkid was in my stomach first... down the line to Little Chief being in my stomach last. Tadpole piped up and said, "Stop eating babies Mom!"
Little Chief is a sleep talker. I love listening to his babble. The best ever was the morning when he woke me up with a soft little, "Mmmmmmooooooommmmmm. Mmmmmooooooommmmm." I thought I was dreaming. But after I wiped the sleepies out of my eyes he was still at it.