If a schedule is so great, why didn't my teeth get brushed?

It has come to my attention that there are anonymous fans out there. This pleases me. Its good to know that my blog gets read - and hopefully enjoyed - on a regular basis. This inspires me to write more. There's not a whole lot to report, but I'll give you what I've got.

Who wants to know how the toddler training is going? Robben is doing well, but the process is stressful for me. I'm trying to get him on a schedule, which will make each day smoother and more predictible for both of us, but in the meantime, it just screws me up. I do thrive on a routine personally, but I have to ask myself, "why didn't my teeth get brushed today?" Is it because it wasn't scheduled in? I don't know. When you break the day down, there seems to be so much of it... time I mean. Time to schedule activities for the little man. Not all of his time is supposed to involve me, freeing me up to be able to accomplish more. Great. But figuring all that out is pretty cumbersome. I'm a person that likes things to be settled, so as long as something is "in progress" I'm thinking about it. So all day long I think, "okay, so after the nap I'll have him play in his room for 15 minutes, then maybe he can have a snack..." With all the thinking (obsessing), I failed to accomplish the foundational tasks of dressing myself, applying makeup, etc. I try to live without regrets, but I do have one for today: I regret that I wasn't wearing a bra when my neighbor stopped by and stayed for a half hour. I did manage to get the laundry done (that's where the bra was)... well, that's kind of an overstatement. I got the laundry CLEANED. It's not all folded. So anyway, back to Robben. He is a super smart baby and quick learner. He takes instruction very well. The book said to strive for compliance 60% of the time. Apparently that is the age-appropriate expectation for a 14-month-old. Which means, if I tell Robben to come to me, he will 60% of the time. He is doing great with that. He even initiated several kiss-blowing sessions today, which leads me to believe he doesn't have any major qualms with the new boundaries. I'm sure in a matter of days or weeks we'll be a well-oiled machine.

We revisited Air Bud tonight. We watched Fireproof (as a family, plus Amy, minus Tyler - as usual) and Ally cried at several different parts. Wesley admitted to being on the verge of tears at one point. I asked Amy (his girlfriend) if she's ever seen him cry, and she said no. So I offered to start talking about Air Bud again. Of course the kids all started talking at once. Todd said, "you know Air Bud's gotta be dead by now." They all argue, insisting that he's still alive, if not young and vibrant. They mentioned such movies as "Snow Buddies" and "Space Buddies" which apparently are about the offspring of the infamous Air Bud. Todd said they're not his puppies, they're his great great great grand-puppies, which I thought was hilarious. We got out of the conversation with no tears. Bummer.

Speaking of things I think are hilarioius: Have you heard that song that goes, "I kissed a girl, and I liked it..." It's sung by a girl. Her name is Katy something-or-other. Oh Katy Perry. I came up with that all by myself. Anyway, yesterday Elissa was sweeping around the litter box (her chore) and began dancing about with the broom, ending with quite an elaborate dip and a kiss. I said, "did you seriously just kiss the broom?" She replied, "no, I just pretended to." And then proceeded to sing, "I kissed the broom, and I liked it..." It made me laugh out loud. She's a card.

There's something else I thought was funny. Unfortunately, I'm not the one to communicate it. If my husband were a blogging man, the story would be his to tell. He is alone with the kids on Tuesday and Thursday nights because I take Ally to volleyball practice (we leave at 5 and get home around 9:30!) This arrangement has actually been quite positive for our relationship, as one might imagine. Anyway, last night when I got home, it was just heart-warming to hear his stories of cleaning up baby puke (it actually involved the mop and the washing machine) and being asked to sign multiple papers by multiple children with poor observation skills. Seriously, who would actually think it's a good time to ask to get a paper signed when your dad is mopping up puke? Wouldn't you be concerned about getting drafted? They should've been, cuz that's exactly what happened. I just think it's so funny what they are not aware of... well, it's funny when it's not me :) Wesley actually brought Todd a paper that he needed signed saying that Todd had witnessed Wesley studying for an econ test that not only Todd did not witness him studying for, but in fact he had not studied for! I realize that was a huge run-on sentence with missing and misplaced puncuation, but my husband has already gone to bed and is waiting for me and I don't have time to figure out what the poor sentence needs. I probably could have figured it out in the time it took me to explain myself, though. I'm actually quite good with vocabulary and grammar...if I don't say so myself. In any case, with a sigh and a huff, Wesley went off to "study" for this test to get his stinkin' paper signed and was back before the puke was finished getting cleaned up! I must say we have instilled some pretty solid study habits in that one!