(More than) Fourinarow.net

Sam, for some reason, seems to enjoy Cheerio the most. (Yes. CheeriO – not CheeriOS. Cheerio is our yellow lab.) Maybe it’s because they see eye-to-eye. Maybe it’s because Sam’s not so busy yet with other things that the dog keeps him entertained.

Or, maybe it’s because he’s part dog himself.

Yesterday afternoon, I sat outside with The Little Boys while they played in the backyard. Sam threw the ball for Cheerio a couple of times. The big challenge of this game is getting Cheerio to surrender the ball so it can be thrown again. As desperately as Cheerio wants to play ball, it’s very hard for her to let go of. If she drops it, it rolls or bounces and she gets it again. If you attempt to take it from her mouth, she either runs away or plays tug-o-war.

Sam was having none of that. I looked over to see how he was doing and he was holding the ball (which was locked into Cheerio’s mouth) and had half of her NOSE in his mouth, BITING her to get her to let go. Guess what? It worked. Not that I’m going to try it.

When was the last time you saw an animal wearing underwear? Yeah… I can’t remember either. I guess they just find it unnecessary.

As does my daughter, apparently.

Today, at preschool drop-off, Maria’s teacher stopped me at the doorway of the classroom. She wanted to let me know that the other day Maria needed some extra help in the bathroom and while helping, the teacher’s aide noticed that Maria was lacking underwear. The aide relayed Maria’s commando status to the teacher.

“Hmmm…” I replied. “I caught her the other day putting on her jeans without undies first,” I told the teacher. “I don’t know why. Maybe I should start checking, though… hahaha.”

I turned to Maria, slid my hand inside her waistband and said, “Maria? Do you have any undies on?”

“Yes!” she replied. “No,” said I, simultaneously, discovering the truth for myself.

What is up with that?!? Thank goodness she’s not prone to wearing dresses. I guess she’ll need a bit more supervision while dressing in the morning for a while.

Animals mostly stink, I guess. Apparently so does my sweet little monster Lukie.

All the way home from preschool this afternoon, he was in the far backseat by himself alternately howling with laughter and pausing quietly. At first I didn’t notice much – there is so much chaos and random noise in a van with three young children animals.

However, when Maria took a breather from telling me about school, I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw Luke howling with laughter again.

“What’s so funny,” I asked him.

“I stink!” was his reply.

I continued to watch him as he held his barefoot to his face, took a big sniff, then howled with laughter and said, “STINKY! Hehehehehehahahahahaheehee.”

Hmmmm.

Jack? He’s my party animal. When I picked him up from school yesterday, his music teacher came out to let me know that Jack invited all of the teachers over to his house on Sunday for his birthday party. “Oopps! The party was last Sunday,” I told Ms. W. “But you’re still welcome to come over…hahahaha.”

Then the principal came over. “I’m so sorry,” she said in jest, “but I won’t be able to make it to Jack’s party on Sunday. I’ll be out of town for my daughter’s dance competition.”

Yikes! I explained to Jack that we’re just going to have a family party on Sunday. Just us. And he can’t just go around inviting everyone, even though that’s very sweet. “But I want to have one where I can invite all the people that we didn’t invite to the first one,” he said.

My journey on the long road to birthday party hell has begun. And a long, long road it’s going to be.

Well, I’m off. I’ve got to go get Jack from school and then later on I’m going out with the girls – we’re gonna have an animal-free night tonight!