8 Random thoughts in my head (everything from babies to nicknames to nail polish)

Sometimes I have a cohesive idea for things I want to write about and other times there are just a lot of little thoughts swarming around inside my head.  Today it’s the latter, so I’m just going to go with it and give you a 30,000 foot view of what’s going on with us:

1.  Baby No. 4 just started solid foods. I start with avocado. I mash it up with a fork, add some milk and wa-la, baby’s first food. Baby No. 4 has done OK with it so far. She’s not really sure what she’s doing. Most of it goes in and then slides right out as she drools down her front. But every once in awhile she swallows some, so we’ll call it a win for now. She continues to open her mouth and doesn’t turn her head away when the spoon comes towards her, so I think she’s just getting the hang of it. The older kids think it’s great that she’s finally eating real food—although they’re still anxious for when they’ll be able to feed her things like fruit snacks and potato chips.

2.  Baby No. 4 is trying to crawl. This one makes me want to cry. She’s only 5 months old, yet she’s up on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth and even hurling herself forward as she tries desperately to figure out how to move on her own. It’s a cruel, cruel world we live in. Why can’t she just stay little forever?! The 2-year-old was this way (crawling at 6 months and then walking at 9 months), so it doesn’t really surprise me that Baby No. 4 is already trying to crawl. She’s got two big sisters and a big brother to keep up with!

3. The 6-year-old starts first grade on Monday! We have our school supplies ready including a brand-spanking-new backpack and lunchbox. I don’t know which classroom she’s in, but she assures me that she knows and that I shouldn’t worry. (She doesn’t know.  She thinks she knows, but she’s basing it on exactly nothing. I imagine that if I don’t find out, we’re going to be walking aimlessly around on Monday morning, trying to figure out where she needs to be. I feel like this is the type of information that the school should provide …) I know most people get sad as their kids get older—and maybe it’s because she’s the oldest and I know there are others behind her—but I’m not sad at all. In fact, I’m super excited for her to be getting older and bigger and having all kinds of fun new experiences. Look at me! I’m so well adjusted! (Yeah, right.)

4.  My deodorant sucks. It’s not so much a DE-odorant as it is an odorant. And not a pleasant odorant either.

5.  Four kids is totally overwhelming. I didn’t think that going from one kid to two was that big of a change. And going from two to three wasn’t very shocking either. But three kids to four is like, WHOA! WHAT IS GOING ON?! Suddenly I can’t keep up. With anything. Ever. There are so many of them. They’re everywhere all the time. It’s like comedian Jim Gaffigan said, having a fourth kid is like you’re drowning and then someone hands you a baby. That’s how I feel. All day. Everyday. 

6.  The 2-year-old has taken to sleeping with her flip-flops and sunglasses on. The other night, after putting her in bed, I heard her wailing. When I went into her room to find out what was wrong, I learned that she could not sleep because she didn’t have her sunglasses. Obviously.

7.  We’re big on nicknames. Everyone has a nice, formal name that we gave them at birth. Then they each have (several) nicknames, some more ridiculous than others, which is what they actually go by. A sampling of those nicknames: 

•      6-year-old: Bug, Lou-Bagel, Goose, .338 Remington Ultra-Louis;
•      4-year-old: Meat Man, Roast-a-boo-boo, P-to-the-roast, .204 Roaster ;
•      2-year-old: Big Moo, Moo Boogie, .300 Mert Mag;
•      5-month-old: Funky B (I’m confident she’ll get more nicknames as she gets older, but for now this is her only one.)

8.  I’ve picked the nail polish off four of my 10 fingers, which has nothing to do with anything except that it details nicely what a hot mess I am. The remaining six fingers that still have polish on them have three weeks of new nail growth at the bottom. It’s a real classy look.

That’s about it for the randomness going on in my noggin right now. What random thoughts are rolling around in your head?