Funny Charlie story: Recently, Charlie has been askind TONS of questions, mostly, "what does _____ mean." or "why do they call _____, ________." For example, today he asked, "Why is the snow called snow?" "What does, 'risk' mean?" He is also the fourth child and just to make it easier for mommy, she does a lot for him. Most of the time, he likes to be doted over, but sometimes he wants to do things "by himself". Well today, he asked for cinnamon toast, so I made it for him. He wanted to butter it himself, so I gave him a knive and the butter. It only took seconds of me watching him clumbsily moving big chunks of butter around on his toast before I asked him if he needed help. He gave up the knife without much of fight and I proceded to butter his toast for him. He watched the asked, "Mommy, does help mean do?" He got me!

Also, when he came downstairs this morning, he saw his birthday presents on the table. One, a train table, was too big to wrap so Tom just put the box by his chair. He looked at the corner of the box where it said "3+" and he said, "THAT table is for three year olds!" He definitely does not want to be three anymore, he is moving on to bigger and better things. He loves the table, though. We played with trains and did his new "cars" puzzle on it.

Happy New Year! I have added a few birthday pictures for my two January birthday boys. Luke on 1/7 and Charlie on 1/11. Tom is the family's offical cake creator, the kids order and he somehow gets it just right! In the past, Luke has asked for a train cake, pirate ship and death star from Star Wars cake. All extremely challenging and Tom didn't let him down. This year, Luke said, I think I want a sun cake. Tom and I looked at each other and without words, said, "Fabulous, that will be easy." A few moments later, he said, "maybe a SOLAR SYSTEM!" So that is what he got! See pic below. There wasn't any doubt what Charlie would ask for, he is our 4 year old, penguin CRAZY kid. We were all thrilled with how the penguin cake turned out! Unfortunately, Charlie had a stomach bug for the past three days and just started feeling better today (his b-day). Yesterday, he said, "Mom, I don't think I want to be sick on my birthday."

So, today, he got to stay home, which he REALLY enjoyed. Tom was home with him this morning and I came home for the afternoon. We read lots of books, cuddled and watched tv and both fell asleep watchin movie. What a nice day!

Oh, I must report why Tom should once again win the "best husband of the year" award. I mentioned that my feet were cold during dinner. Before I even realized he had left the table, here he comes with my slippers, warmed by the hair dryer. I definetely don't deserve him!

This post will have NO pictures, we all look gross. Emma threw up repeatedly for about 15 hours, starting at 1:00 AM. Poor thing was just miserable, as were the rest of us who had to listen to the repeated trips to the bathroom! She is starting to feel better and a few of us are questioning whether we are sick or just imagining/wondering "when will it be my turn?" So, the day wasn't a complete disaster. Charlie and I had lots of together time, once again. We did more puzzles and the weather was beautiful, so we played in the snow for a few hours this afternoon. It was about 20, sunny and no wind, a perfect outside play day. I pulled him in the sled, up and down the front yards of our very close neighbors, with Hershey on a leash in the other hand. He wants to be included in the fun too! I am sure, once again, we looked like quite a sight for the neighbors! Free entertainment, I say!

Tom and I are off to watch a movie that I fell asleep to last night, I think I saw about 5 minutes! I was tired. I am guessing I will not get much sleep tonight, waiting with one ear on gaurd ready to jump out of bed to help another to the bathroom. Unfortunately, Em is the only kid of the 4 who can make it to the potty all the time, the rest just puke where they are and yell for me! Lovely.

Charlie and I did puzzles for about 1 1/2 hours tonight. He is taking after his big brother, Luke, who is crazy about puzzles. Here is a picture of him almost done with Thomas for the third time. At schoool this morning, Charlie went on a field trip, on a SCHOOL BUS! He was very excited. They went to the Children's Theater to see a play. When I asked him how he liked it, he said, "It was VERY FUNNY!" Tom is out with Luke, Nicholas, and three of Nicholas' friends. They went to a movie then out for pizza. It is what Nicholas wanted to do for his birthday (which was two months ago...) Nicholas was excited, saying many times this week, "I can't wait till Friday" Nicholas rarely shows the emotion of excitement! Glad it is the weekend, I need a few days off from the craziness at work. By Sunday, I will be looking forward to getting back to work to get away from the craziness of home. Funny how that works! Here come the boys now, oh, boy!

Okay, I have heard from enough people wondering what happened to the "one entry a day" Wallisch blog. I guess things have been pretty busy here (that is an understatement). So, here is a weak attempt to catch up. I feel like all I do these days is "catch up", so I am getting used to it. Here are a few pictures of what is keeping our lives so crazy. Here's a hint, it is not the humans in the picture... Yes, Hershey is, no doubt, way more work than any baby we have dealt with. He chews EVERYTHING (his favorite thing being dirty undergarments and kitty litter), attacks anything under about 3 feet (poor Charlie) and torments the kitties. Nonetheless, we all adore him, how could you not when you see the kids cuddle with him, and he is pretty cute.

The kids are all doing well. It is amazing how much more smoothly this year is going than last. Even though things are busy, we are all fairly healthy and functioning, which is not how I would describe last year... What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? I realized this morning that a year ago today, I had the little surgery at Mayo that probably saved my life, at least made it so that I wasn't debilitated by another stroke! Whew, I am thankful for those doctors every day. Another reason our lives are more sane this year is because of Emma's progress. She is "graduating" from OT and her social worker, which is a bit scary for me, but I think we are ready. It is amazing to see her and the control she has. She will always be our handful, the "spirited" child I suppose you could call her, but she is happy. She smiles and dances. She has the best sense of humor, she keeps us on our toes and in stitches constantly. She still has her naughty moments, sneaking food and exploding at her brothers, but like a normal 9 year old, I think! Maybe, okay, maybe not normal, but what is "normal", anyway? She is VERY into stripes, she was incredibly proud of herself when she came down for school yesterday. All stripes. Different colors, sizes, oh, she was a sight. She seemed a bit disappointed when I told her she looked cute.

Charlie comes to mind next. What a funny kiddo. Yesterday, he and Tom were chatting, and Charlie asked Tom what 5 and 5 were. Tom said, 55. Charlie said, "THAT IS WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY!" What about 4 and 4, Tom asks. Charlie said, "44!" How about 3 and 3? "33!" "What is 2 and 2?" Tom asked. "Twody-two"! How cute is that?

Luke, oh, Luke. He is really into Calvin and Hobbs. Unfortunately, we realized too late during "Santa" pictures that he was "performing". About 10 pictures showed him with these really goofy faces that he made just as the photographer snapped the picture, just like Calvin does for school pictures. We were laughing so much looking at the pictures that tears were forming. Little stinker.

Nicholas. My responsible, 28 year old in an 11 year old body. He saved $150 to buy his own ipod. He is really proud of it and is now saving to download music from itunes. He and I ran a 5k on Halloween, also very proud of himself for that. I was pretty proud as well. He is having a really late sleepover/birthday with three of his buddies. They are going to see a movie, go out for dinner and then probably play video games until the early morning hours. He has great friends who have super parents. That is a blessing for a 5th grader. He is happy, easy going and likes quiet, alone time as much as his mamma.

I'll try to keep this up, but I am not making any promises...

I guess this is the "once a month" blog, and not the "once a day" blog. I keep saying that I will sit down and just write a bit, but it has really been busy here. Over the last month, we have started school/work and all the craziness that goes along with that, soccer, we've been sick with colds/stomach flu/and most likely h1n1 (Tom and I were tag teaming over about 2 weeks of sick kids, one day everyone was home but Nicholas, the only one who didn't get sick enough to stay home.) Although being back to work has been wonderful, it does mean that I am up at 5:45 to walk the dog, get everyone up and ready for school and at work by 7:30 so that I can leave by 3:15 to meet the kids when they get off the bus. I feel like I can finally take a breath when I sit down at my desk and have a quick chat with some co-workers. The day flies by (work is as crazy as home most days!) I have been in this position for about 1 1/2 years and finally feel like I know what I am doing most of the time. I work with the best group of people, I can't imagine having a more perfect position. Many of the women I work with have been here for over 25 years. LOVE IT!

So, I think I will give the "emma" update. She has really changed over the last month. (in a good way!) She got off the bus the first day and had a dreamy look on her face. She LOVES her teacher, this woman is PERFECT for Emma. The classroom is just what you would think of when you think of the word zen. "Mrs. Richardson doesn't have rules, she has expectations." Emma said this as if it were poetry. She keeps me laughing at very unexpected times. Like today at church. She insisted that she wear this headband she made at girl scouts the day before. Well, this "headband" is one that is wrapped in brightly colored pipe cleaners with two "antennae" with googly eyes glued on two pipe cleaners extending out from the headband. We finally compromised that she could wear the headband minus the googly eye pipe cleaners. Well, at church, she put this on in different positions, very subtly, of course. She whispered "mom, look, I am a draon." She had the headband going from her forehead to the nape of her neck and as she twitched her forehead, the headband wiggled up and down. I wanted to laugh out loud.

Yesterday, she and I were driving somewhere and she asked me, "Mom, which do you like worst of Dad's characteristics, his hygeine habits or his looks?" I laughed (outloud this time) and tried to change the subject and she said, "Wait a second, you didn't answer my question!" A few minutes later, she asked me if I read a book about how to give people really good insults when I was a kid. I said no, and she said, "I think I may just write one someday." She went on for about 30 seconds with this string of insults that was so funny, spontaneous and clever that I couldn't help but laugh.

Emma loves listening to RadioDisney. The singers are interview for short clips that are played during the day. Today, one of Emma's favorite singers said, "I LOVED school, what a great place to be challenged!" Emma paused and I thought she was going to say something nice. Well, not Emma, she said, "I am GUESSING that someone PAID her to say that!" Emma is just the most clever and spontaneous kid. I am hoping that she uses this power for good and not evil!

Nicholas is just as quick, except his humor is incredibly dry, like his daddy! Today, my mission was to organize winter stuff, you know, coats, hats, boots etc. (It is supposed to snow 2-4 inches tonight!) I never do a thorough job of getting things put away in the spring, thus I have to hunt in the fall. Well, after about 4 hours of hunting, off and on, I located most of our things. I came upstairs triumphantly saying that I found all the coats and Nicholas said, "Did you find your THREE pair of boots too?" He and Tom did their "guy-fist bump" in agreement, WHATEVER! (I found the BEST deal on a pair of Uggs this summer, 1/2 PRICE! I couldn't pass them up. Nicholas just couldn't understand how great a deal this was. He kept saying very innocently (with a bit of sarcasm), "But mom, they look JUST like the boots you have at home!" He has the "practical and thrifty" gene that is a clone of his dad's. His dad just knows to keep his mouth shut and smile when his wife buys a pair of boots that were just the BEST deal, even though they may look somewhat like a pair she already has at home. The end.

I spent the other 1/2 of the day cleaning out the garage so that I could park my car in it tonight, we are going to get more snow, maybe 2-4 inches. Ick. So, that is probably only about 1% of the actual goings-on at the Wallisch house, but I surely won't bore you with the other 99%.