Things you never thought you'd hear yourself say...like last night I actually said, "don't bite the baby." Andrew was "holding" Jonathan on his lap and instead of chewing on his own fingers (like he usually does), he slipped Jonathan's fingers in his mouth instead and nibbled. Well, not nibbled. Bit. And Jonathan cried.
No harm done, and the guilt that Andrew felt from making the baby cry was punishment enough!

Spring is on the way! This morning on our walk, Beth and I heard the "peepers" by the creek for the first time this year. Let's see...it's February 22. Only one month until it is "officially" spring, and yet it was 50 degrees when I left the house to walk at 6 A.M. I don't know if I'll ever get used to this.

Yesterday I had a dentist's appointment to fill a cavity. So the boys stayed here with Andrew, Matthew, and Joel while I went there. It was the first time I've left Jonathan with them, and he did fine. He's old enough now that I feel pretty comfortable leaving him. In fact, I think we'll start him in the church nursery pretty soon. He's getting too "talky," so that even when I am able to sit with him in the service, I'm distracted and not paying attention.

So I came home from the dentist, all numbed up and the novacaine didn't wear off until about 7:30 last night, when I was finally able to eat some dinner. I'm not that sore this morning, just a little achy in the jaw.

The Olympics are KILLING me...who said it was legal to have coverage until MIDNIGHT?! I haven't stayed up that late, but I hate the way they arrange things so that you HAVE to stay up to see the best stuff. We've been taping some of the ice skating...we have that Italian ice dancing fiasco on tape. If looks could kill.... We'll probably end up taping tomorrow night's skating, too, since no doubt Sasha Cohen will skate last at 11:40 or something insane like that. I really hope she wins. I've been a fan of hers since she first came onto the scene.

A Trip to Atlanta
Yesterday (Saturday) we all piled in our faithful minivan and drove down to Atlanta for the day. David's youngest brother, Jimmy, is planning to move down there in April or May, and he was visiting for the weekend. We took the opportunity to see him. It was a three and a half hour journey down in the morning, which wasn't bad with the kids. We had lunch, and Jimmy showed us around the part of the city where he'll be living and working. I successfully restrained my urge to steer the van towards IKEA. We went to a nearby mall to let the kids walk around a little bit, but it turned out that most of Atlanta's population of 12-15 year old girls were there also. They were having an autograph signing with the cast of "One Tree Hill." The line went most of the length of the mall! I guess I am officially old because I really didn't care at all...I was more interested in the contents of Pottery Barn Kids.

We left Atlanta around 4:30 but didn't make it home until 9:15, what with traffic, rain, and a dinner stop. So we were worn out last night. The kids were really good travelers though. It's a good thing since their parents are so spontaneous sometimes.

Do-It-Yourself Dishwasher Repair

This morning I noticed our dishwasher wasn't working. Inspecting it further, I discovered a part of a Happy Meal toy (another reason to avoid McDonald's) inside the vent on the door. I removed the offending toy, and pushed the door in. Still no dishwashing happening. Hmm...maybe there are some other toys in there...
Checked the circuit breaker (intact), pulled off the front panel and checked the electrical hookup (fine), and finally unscrewed the interior part of the door to look for more offending objects. I DID turn off the breaker before I did this. But everything looked normal. Hmm...maybe I should call David at work and see if he has any ideas...
Put everything back together (amazing it all still fit) and call my husband. He suggested checking the breaker (aren't I smart) and...

CHECKING THE WALL SWITCH.

Oh...yeah...North Carolina code requires the dishwasher to be on a switch, which somebody (not I, said Mommy) turned off last night.

Flipped the switch, and the dishwasher hummed like a dream. It's washing my dishes as I type.

Now, wasn't that fun?! Let's do it again! I especially liked the part with shooing the toddler away from the electrical wires and wrestling the screwdriver away from him.

Yesterday, immediately following church, we saw our first snow of the year! I acted like a lunatic and immediately bundled up Andrew so he could go out and walk around in it. He was less than enthused...he didn't mind it, but he just kind of stared at it. So, apologies to those of you who are digging out right now...we just had a few flurries and then back to sunny weather. I'd rather we get buried a bit here, but that doesn't happen too often, and when it does, nobody knows how to drive in it. They think four wheel drive means you can go seventy in whiteout conditions. Or so we hear.

At lunch we always quiz Cameron on what the sermon was about. He can usually remember. Yesterday our pastor preached on the portion of Scripture where Jesus teaches on removing the log in your own eye before helping your neighbor with his or her speck. To further illustrate the point, at lunch, David went and got the broom. He said to Cameron, "you know when sometimes you get an eyelash in your eye?" (yeah) "What if I tried to help you out with an eyelash in your eye when I had this broomstick in my eye?" (raises the broomstick up into his eye). "That would be pretty silly, wouldn't it?!" So he explains the spiritual concept a bit (having an awareness of your own sin before confronting someone else about theirs), all the while holding the broom up in his eye. Needless to say, Andrew thought this was slightly crazy but hilarious.


Jonathan got some new equipment over the weekend...we pulled the highchair out of the garage and cleaned off the Exersaucer that somebody gave us. Here is a picture of him in his highchair, watching us eat lunch. He was sixteen pounds at his four month checkup, so he's on pace with his brothers' size even though he started out a pound and a half smaller.

Cameron and Ben are outside right now blowing bubbles. Here's a photo of them.

This is my first post to our new BLOG...hope you enjoy it. To the left you see all of our boys in our bed (L-R, Andrew, Jonathan, Ben, and Cameron). They think it's really fun to get in our bed when they get up in the morning, while Mom and Dad get ready for the day.

I was hoping we'd get some snow this morning as forecasted, but alas, just rain appeared. I think we'll have a quiet day around here...just stay at home and maybe watch some of the Olympics. We watched some of the opening ceremonies last night but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I knew the torch wouldn't make it in until at least midnight, and the US would probably file in around eleven. Why, why oh cruel NBC must you torture us like this?

David is reading The Magician's Nephew to the boys right now. He read them The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe last month and they loved it. Now every imaginary game that they enact involves Peter, Lucy, Edmund, and Susan (usually in that order).

CharlotteMommies.com crashed yesterday and two thousand women in the greater Charlotte area wondered, "What should I do now? Clean the house or something?!". It should be back online by Monday.

Cameron and Ben went to the dentist this past week and did GREAT! They were prepared since I got a book out of the library that talked about going to the dentist. Cameron even wowed the hygenist by telling her how many teeth he had. She said he might be losing his first tooth in the next few months. Ben doesn't have all his baby teeth yet...he's still getting his last set of molars. I have something new to dread as it is finally time to get my wisdom teeth out. One has come in all the way, the other is about halfway through. That's what you get from being pregnant for four years...maintenance on your mouth declines.

PS. I just ran spellcheck on this entry and the blog software picked up the word "blog" as a spelling error. Ironic, don't you think?!