We celebrated Christmas with them last night, and threatened all the children who were threatenable with not getting to open their presents until we got a good picture of them all sitting in front of the tree.  The only two who heeded the threat were Tad and Rupert.  The older three know better to sit and smile, plus they were responsible for holding the two little ones – Rerun and Ringo – in place.

Naturally, the last picture taken is the best one.

Books were exchanged.

LEGO was also popular.

Ane, as the only girl in the bunch, got… something girly.

Even the grownups were not left out.

Then we ate ice cream and cookies and called it a night.

And so another Christmas together has passed – and we are still completely outnumbered.

So, on Thursday I made sure they had a snack when they got home from school.  Rerun actually had his lunch once they got home, so everyone just ate at the same time.  Tad opted for a giant bowl of applesauce.  And as a special treat for Ane, I fried up a dozen potstickers – known in our home by their Japanese name of gyoza – for us to share.  It was my lunch and her snack.  I told her she could start with two.

Well, those two went down quite easily while I was cleaning up the living room and making sure Rerun ate his lunch.  Ane asked for a third.  I said that was fine.  I was snatching a bite here and there, but I really was trying to get cleaned up.  Handy Mom was bringing her three over to play, plus she had agreed to watch Ane, Tad and Rerun for me while I went to Ane’s parent-teacher conference.  We live two miles from her school, and the conference was going to be all of 20 minutes long.  And I had promised that Rerun would be down for his nap.  So Handy Mom agreed to make baby-sitting part of their play date.

Ane asked for a fourth gyoza.  I said fine, but NO MORE.

I finally got Rerun fed, cleaned up, and tucked into his crib just as Handy Mom was pulling up.  I finished off the last couple of gyoza on the plate – I had been taking a bite here and there while I got everything ready – and I got them inside and settled before I headed off to my conference.

The conference itself was just fine, no surprises – Ane is bright, a very good reader, has a little trouble with math concepts when they are first introduced, but eventually gets them, and needs to not socialize in class so much.  I was back in record time, keeping my promise to Handy Mom that this would be the easiest baby-sitting job she’d ever have.

Tad was busy with the iPad, and Ane was playing with Handy Boy and Handy Girl, while Handy Baby Girl made a valiant attempt to roll over on the floor.  Handy Mom and I were chatting about her growth, when she mentioned that our friend, CW Mom, who had a baby girl the day after my birthday, had just weighed her baby, Lottie, and found that she weighed 13 pounds.

“I think her seven week old is as big as my five month old!” Handy Mom exclaimed.

“Well, Lottie was bigger to begin with,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, Handy Baby Girl was only six five when she was born… How big was Lottie?”

I got up and looked at Lottie’s birth announcement on my refrigerator.  “Eight five,” I said.

Ane looked straight at me with a guilty expression on her face.  “How did you know that I ate five???” she said nervously.

Handy Mom and I both stared at her, dumbfounded.  Then I desperately had to fight off busting out laughing.

While Handy Mom and I had been talking about pounds and ounces, Ane had heard “eight five” and translated it to “ate five” – and her guilty conscience did the rest.

“You ate another gyoza?”  I managed to get out.

“I’m sorry, Mom, but they were soooo good and I was really hungry!” she cried.

Honestly, I’d had not a clue – I was so busy preparing for everything that I hadn’t kept count.  But someone else obviously had.

And that someone else has big ears that haven’t really picked up on what homophones are.

Friend and the boys were meeting up with us, so we hung out in the African village right in front of the savanna, waiting for them.

Rerun has gotten old enough now to want to walk around, so I decided to let him out to stretch his legs.

He liked looking at the animals out on the savanna, too, like the giraffes.

When Friend and the boys arrived, we started walking around to see all the animals in the savanna area.  The hippos were snoozing out on the beach, enjoying the cool weather, but we decided that the hippo statue was a good place to take a picture with all seven kids.  We managed to get precisely one shot, and this was it:

One and done, people.  I leaned over to Friend and said, “I think we had too many children.”

We then saw the penguins…

… and decided that we were too cold, so we went indoors to the Day Exhibit (formerly the reptile house), and warmed up by looking at all the snakes, lizards, dwarf crocodiles, swimming turtles and tree kangaroos that were there.  Friend and I had to leave the strollers outside (no strollers are allowed in the indoor exhibits), and I discovered a creative way to keep track of Rerun and give him enough height to see everything:

Friend and the boys left us at lunchtime, right after seeing the flamingos.  Tad thought hatching a fake egg might be fun, and Rerun thought his brother might be on to something.

After we ate our picnic lunch in the food court (it gave us another chance to warm up), the kids insisted on the rain forest trail.  The jaguars were obligingly napping right in front of the windows.

Then we went inside the rain forest house, which is warm and humid, and we saw the baby ocelot, more snakes, lots of birds (which Rerun loved), and poisonous golden and blue dart frogs.

Rerun thought they were pretty fun, too.

We can’t ever miss the bears and the river otters, so we walked up to the “bear aquarium” (as Tad calls it, because of all the water), and Rerun enjoyed the bears, salmon, and river otters.  He also got a close look at the river otter statues.

I decided to do something we’d never done before – go inside the Zoomazium.  It is a giant indoor play area with slides and rocks for big kids (on one side) and little kids (in a gated play area for preschoolers and younger), along with building blocks, puzzles, books and family bathrooms.  Ane and Tad took one look at the large play area with the slides, and were off as soon as their shoes were off.  Tad was so fascinated with the whole set up that, while I kept a very close eye on him, we had not one incident of him getting too wound up and pushing or shoving or hitting another kid. (Hurray!)

Rerun was just happy to be inside and have toys to play with.

By the time I insisted that we’d put off Rerun’s nap long enough, the kids were satisfied with their day at the zoo and Rerun was so tired that I didn’t even bother to strap him into the stroller – I just plopped him in and off we went to the car.  He was asleep before we left the parking lot.  The older two and I decided to stop at Dick’s in Lake City to get milkshakes as a special treat.

I think we made the most of having a day off!

We started out with the zoo’s newest attraction first, because their feeding was at 9:30 that morning – the new clouded leopard cubs!!

These two are less than two months old, and VERY cute.  And we were smart to make the 9:30 feeding, because we could really get a good look at them.  I walked by at 2:30, when I knew the afternoon feeding would be, and the viewing area was packed.  The early birds got to see the cute cubs!

After that, we wandered around, looking at other animals…

… and Rerun got out of the stroller while the zoo wasn’t so crowded, and walked around for a little bit.

Finally, we could hold Tad off for no longer, and we went to get good seats for the shark feeding at 11 am.

Rerun was fascinated by the size of the tank.

The sharks put on their usual good show, and Tad was thrilled to see his old friend, the wobbegong shark.

The wobbegong shark is the last to be fed, since it is a carpet shark and stays on the bottom of the tank.  At one point, Tad was talking to the wobbegong shark when a nurse shark swam right up in front of Tad’s face, and I could swear that it was making eye contact with Tad – who was thrilled that the nurse shark had come right up close.  It made me wonder.  After all, sharks have a sixth sense – they can sense electrical currents via their ampullae of Lorenzini.  Every living being gives off an electric “aura” of some kind.  What would a shark sense from Tad?  Someday, when he is older, we may have a chance to find out.  But it does make me think…

There was plenty more to see than just sharks.  Point Defiance also has marine mammals, like walruses, sea otters, and seals.

Tad loved seeing the seals (and immediately quoted the opening line of one of his favorite documentaries, Air Jaws, by saying, “For the seals, there is no escape.  A great white shark is stalking them, and she is very hungry.”), but Rerun got quite a kick out of them as well.

The nice thing about Point Defiance is that the zoo and aquariums don’t offer everything, but what they do have, they do well.  When we go to Woodland Park Zoo, we can never see everything in one day – there’s just SO much.  And there’s so much variety.  At Point Defiance, there’s more focus on fewer animals, plus the aquarium.  This is the only place in the greater Puget Sound area that we can see sharks.  There aren’t even sharks at the Seattle Aquarium – just a research station talking about the sixgill sharks that live in Puget Sound.

The kids had a fabulous time together.

We wound down at the zoo’s very nice play area, which was suitable for kids of all ages.

We let the kids ride the carousel and visit the gift shop to end the day.  Both Ane and Lisa chose to get clouded leopard cub stuffed animals.  Tad picked a plastic zebra shark for his always-expanding collection of replica sharks.  Rerun got a mini plush bamboo shark, which he has graciously agreed to share with his brother.  T.J. picked out a fuzzy hanging monkey.

And poor Rerun was so wiped out by the end of the day that I had to carry him to the car instead of making him ride in the stroller – and he fell asleep in my arms by the time we reached the car.  And we were parked fairly close!

It was a fun, and very full, day.

His social skills, on the other hand…

We were at Friend and Doc’s house yesterday for Ane’s weekly piano lesson and a lunch play date.  We were just winding down (I had pushed off Rerun’s nap to the limit, and while he wasn’t cranky, he was rubbing his eyes quite a bit), when Tad decided to take a foam bat to Head’s head.  Head burst into tears, and Tad went running, because I had seen the whole thing, knew it was completely unprovoked, and Tad knew when he heard me that he was busted.

He was made to apologize (“Sorry, Head, I no hit with the bat”), and Head was made to accept the apology, but clearly, both the Brain and Head have had their fill of Tad’s antics, especially when it comes to hitting.

I’m not sure when this is ever going to stop.  Part of it is that when Tad is around the Brain and Head, it’s always at their house or ours, which I consider to be “uncontrolled” environments for Tad (i.e. not school, church or therapy).  Whenever Tad is left to play on his own with other children, he simply cannot control himself.  Sometimes the kids will just back off and leave him alone.  Other times, like with the Brain and Head, they present as easy targets and Tad just lashes out.

And, then there’s Ane and Rerun.  We try to prevent Rerun being left alone with Tad, just because we know that Tad could really hurt him.  Rerun finds some of Tad’s attentions funny, like Monday night, when Tad was hitting him with a stuffed shark.  Rerun was actually giggling, which was just encouraging Tad, which I finally put a stop to because I never know when Tad was just going to cut loose and really whack him one.  Ane and Tad scrap regularly, and she’s old enough to keep an upper hand with him, but that will probably change someday.  However, she is the one person who he really wants to play with and is dependent on for a playmate.  It absolutely kills him whenever she has a friend over to play, because it means that he is left out.  And that’s really the only time that he ever feels “left out.”

As he gets older, his lack of self-control just becomes more stark in contrast to his peers.  We walk a delicate tightrope of asking other kids, including Ane, to play with him… and then we try to stand vigilantly over the play time so he doesn’t hurt anyone.  It’s exhausting.  It’s depressing.  And I really don’t see an end in sight.

All I can hope for is empathy from the parents, because the kids around him are fed up.  Goodness knows, I’m fed up.  I pray daily for some sign that he will develop self-control someday.

His speech has improved dramatically.  He can now express ideas and tell me his likes and dislikes.  He’s learning to present a “calm body” in ABA therapy.  It’s Shark Week, so he’s loving what’s on the TV right now.  He’s really focused on coloring books and is demonstrating that he can stay in the lines and use appropriate colors for objects (apples are red, Cookie Monster is blue), plus he’s using crayons, which means he’s working those fine motor skills and his writing grip.  I see SO much potential in him.

Which all ends the moment he takes a swing at someone else.

However, our Saturday plans were shot when Tad threw up on Friday night and generally felt cruddy for the next 18 hours.  He stayed home from Sunday school, but he really has recovered well.  I’ll be sending him to school today.

And then May started off on a REALLY high note…  We were enjoying our evening at Friend and Doc’s house, playing baseball with the kids after dinner and having some ice cream… when Oddball called the Webmaster.  When that call ended, the Webmaster said, “Turn on the news, NOW.”

And that is how we learned that Osama had been dispatched to his just reward… which I know was not 72 virgins.

For the seven children gathered around the four adults, who were all born in a post 9/11 world… they didn’t really understand or care.

The adults did.

When we got home from Friend and Doc’s last night, and were getting the kids inside, we heard a neighbor lighting off a firework.

I know the Webmaster was wishing we had some to light off, too.

Where Math Bingo makes you solve math problems, and then select the correct answer on the bingo board, Word Bingo works on sight reading.  The game says the word aloud, then you have to pick the correct word off the bingo board.

Ane is doing quite well at the “first grade” level, and is enjoying this game.  Her biggest hang-up is actually finding the answer on the board.  In true Ane fashion, she will yell at the game when she’s flustered.  “It’s not on here!  I can’t find it!  How am I supposed to – oh, there it is.”

She was playing the game for the first time on Monday, with Tad watching over her shoulder.  The word was “him.”  Ane could not find it and began her rant.  “Where IS it??  I don’t see it on here AT ALL!!”

Tad casually leaned over his sister’s shoulder, and tapped “him” on the bingo board without saying a word.

I busted out laughing.

And then I discovered that this was not a fluke.

I set Tad up as his own player on the game, at the “pre-primer” level.  And he is… reading.  He will often tab the “repeat” button to hear the word again, and use the process of elimination to find the right word, and he does make mistakes.  But not too many.  He is reading the words to play the game.

I showed Friend how he was doing this after piano lessons yesterday, and she just smiled and said, “It’s so nice to be right!”  She predicted, long ago, that Tad would be a much quicker study at reading than I believed he would be.

I’m glad she was right, and I was wrong.

“It’s nice to see something come easily to him, isn’t it?” Friend commented, watching him play Word Bingo.

I couldn’t agree more.

Then, to fortify myself for the week to come, I left the kids at my parents – who were also kind enough to take in Rupert – and Friend and I went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Purple Cafe.  Ringo came along for the ride with us, since he’s only 5 months old and doesn’t move.  Doc is at a conference down in Anaheim, and he took the Brain and Head with him so they could also go to Disneyland for Head’s 7th birthday.  So, since we were both now husbandless, it seemed like an ideal time to have a girls’ dinner!  And many thanks to Grandma, Gichan, and Auntie for keeping an eye on my kids and Rupert… and for wiping Rerun’s nose.  His nose started leaking on Saturday and I stayed home from church with him Sunday morning.  I think it might be teething related, but I’m not sure.

So, I am a single mom for the week.  Fortunately, it’s this week and not next week, because the kids are on spring break next week.  And they even have this Friday off, so Ane will be hanging out with Rerun at Grandma’s for the afternoon that day, while Tad has his regular therapy sessions.  So at the very least, we have a mostly normal schedule this week.

I salute all the single parents out there.  You do the work of two people.

And I salute my parents and sister – thanks for having my back.

And I’m offering a bribe to my children – behave this week, and Mommy and Daddy will buy more apps for the iPad!  I promise!!

Rerun only napped once yesterday, so he had to go to bed early.  He really should have had a cat nap before dinner, but I was going at full speed to get dinner made for us, Friend, Doc, and the boys.

I missed getting to just play with my little Rerun.  Honestly, who wouldn’t be tempted by this little face?

It’s enough to make me abandon making Sunday dinner and just order pizza.

Fortunately for everyone else, I persevered.  Dinner was on the table on time, and Rerun ate a full dinner and got an arrowroot cookie before rubbing his eyes and clinging to me, crying.  I finally had time to nurse him and put him to bed early.

But tonight is Leftover Night, just so you know.  The fridge is full, and I don’t want to waste time thinking about cooking today when I have my precious little boy to play with.

And the kids go back to school today!!  This week is shaping up to be crazy, so expect light blogging.  Both Tad and Rerun have doctor appointments this week, which promise to be very interesting.

I caught an episode of Good Eats recently and taped it… Alton Brown was making a banana pudding.  Now, pudding is one of those kid-friendly desserts that I don’t mind making for the kid explosion that we have every Sunday evening (or in this case, Saturday).  Oh, and the Webmaster and Doc also have a weakness for pudding.  Doc especially.

So I decided to try my hand at it.  I had never made a pudding from scratch before, but there’s a first time for everything.  And in the episode, Alton even went so far as to make his own vanilla wafers for the pudding.  I didn’t have the time or measuring scales (that recipe was using weight measurements for the dry ingredients), so it was Trader Joe’s Ultimate Vanilla Wafers to the rescue!  They taste fabulous all on their own.  And I didn’t use any banana liqueur to soak the wafers.  I was planning on feeding this to small children, after all.

The recipe earned a solid thumbs up from all the kids and adults.  The custard was divine, the wafers had just enough crunch left to them, and it had just the right amount of banana.  Doc was of the opinion that adding the banana liqueur might have made it taste too banana-y, so I think it was a good call to omit it.

Even Rerun got a small taste of it – but he’s not too big on cold food.  He would have liked a wafer all to himself, but we’re not quite ready for that yet.

The only person who really didn’t want the pudding was… Tad.  To him, a pudding is only one flavor.  CHOCOLATE.

We drizzled some chocolate syrup on top of the pudding to appease him.  He ate all the syrup off and left the pudding.  Figures.  The Webmaster ate Tad’s bowl of pudding, and Doc polished off the few bites left in the serving bowl for me.

So, after the success of the banana pudding (which I have promised to make again soon), I started hunting for a from-scratch chocolate pudding recipe.  Because I’m a sucker, that’s why.

I’ve found a couple of potential options.  I’ll let you know how they turn out.  And I will take some pictures next time!

And if I actually made two puddings, maybe I’d actually end up with leftovers.  Maybe.