They keep right on growing up, I wish they would slow down!

The other morning, my husband and I were startled awake by a loud crash. Knowing my 4 year old is often up first, and hungry, I was instantly afraid that he might have fallen off of something in the kitchen. We jumped out of bed and hit the floor running to see what was wrong. As we passed the nursery, my husband noticed that Monkey boy's little mattress was leaning up against his sister's crib. Brent ran in there and started looking under the mattress for her, since she wasn't in her crib.
I heard the little ones and continued down the hall to the bathroom. There they were, cleaning up the bath toys. I found out later that they had been playing boat and the whole bin of toys had fallen into the tub. Hence the crash.
We were instantly relieved, but perplexed by the mess in the nursery, and the fact that our daughter was no longer in her crib.
We sat on the bed with our littles and asked them about it.
Monkey boy told us that he had put his mattress up to Girly's crib so that he could crawl in and cuddle with his sister. Aw!! Girly kept interrupting him to talk about sliding. When they were tired of cuddling, they used the propped up mattress as a slide to get out of the crib.
I guess it is time to move Girly to a bed. I have been dreading this day. For all my children, it has meant the end of the glorious nap. Gosh I love naps.

***
On Friday night, we had sent our thirteen year old, The Boy, to brush his teeth before driving him to Youth group. (Does it seem right that a child that is old enough to go to youth, still needs him mom to remind him to brush his teeth? And to put on a clean shirt?)
When he came downstairs, he looked a bit different and it took us a minute to figure out what he had done. He had shaved his eyebrow. Or at least part of it.
When we asked him, what on earth would possess him to do such a thing, he said, "I wanted to shave, but I don't have any other hair on my face." At that instant, my mommy heart melted for my little boy who so wants to be a man. And then I had to break his bubble.
"I am so sorry son, but you probably won't have much to shave even when you are twenty. Your Dad only shaved for special occasions when I met him, and he was over 19 already. You may be waiting a long time."
This is the only time I have ever felt remotely sad that we are not hairy people. Poor kid! I think my husband had quite a bit of gray hair before he needed to shave daily.
His dad did tell him that any time he wanted to try shaving, to just come and ask Dad and he would show him how. Even without facial hair.

Speaking of facial hair, Girly is always telling daddy that he needs to shave. Every time she kisses him, she pats his face and says, "Dad-dy, you need to take off your spikes! I don't like spikes."

***
We went for lunch with Grandma and Grandpa after church today, and during our very long wait for the Grandparents to arrive we had a little issue with our 10 year old, Superboy. Now dinner time has always been a time of conflict for Superboy. Being the younger brother to The Boy, who was always soooo big , sooo brilliant, soooo beautiful, soooo outgoing and personable, sooooo everything, Superboy has often chosen the road less traveled in order to stand out. I think it may have become even more pronounced when he became the 'middle' child.
Part of the way he has chosen to express his individuality has been by being a picky eater, hence the meal time issues. Today it was a slightly different issue though. Daddy told him to pick something to eat off of the children's menu, just like usual. His big brother ate off of it until his 13th birthday, and considering that what he wanted to eat was 2 dollars cheaper on the kid's menu, and it included drinks and dessert, we really wanted Superboy to eat off of it until his 13th as well.
He, of course, wanted nothing to do with any of the items on the kids menu. He was sure that he would starve to death if he had to eat off of it. He was giving us death looks, pouting and eventually getting tears in his eyes about it. And, Monkey boy, who idolizes Superboy, was starting to fuss and saying he wanted to eat something from the big menu too. So Daddy took Superboy out to the car for a chat.
It turns out that he felt like we were grouping him with the littles by making him eat off of the kid's menu. We were treating him like a baby, instead of a big kid like The Boy. I could totally understand that, I felt kind of bad for him. Of course he doesn't want to be grouped with the 'babies'! He is one of our big boys.
Dad still made him eat off of the kids menu.