I seem to write a lot about Jamesy. I guess it's because three year olds say funny things. Today in sacrament meeting James decided to go to sleep. He's funny like that - in the car he will ask me if he has enough time to take a nap, and then be out in two minutes. Well, in sacrament meeting he decided to take a nap and was laying on my lap. Then, not very quietly, he started to talk to me. I told him I was trying to listen to the speaker. James then (loudly) said "Could you ask him to be quiet? I can't sleep with his noise!"

Claire kept rubbing my tummy all morning. She kept saying I looked pregnant (children are SO healthy for my self esteem) and she wanted to feel baby moving. I asked her if she wanted another baby (she has always said that she did). Today she surprised me by saying no. Her reasoning? It might be another girl and she doesn't want to share anything.

Tonight Claire's room is such a disaster that she couldn't get on her bed without cleaning up heaps of stuff. She is sleeping on her floor in a pile of clothes. I really don't know what she will wear to school tomorrow, as her laundry is strewn all over her room. I really need to go cleanse everything in there, as the smell is creeping out. However, as in this case, I get frustrated and tired of dealing with it, so sometimes I let the mess go too long. I am horrified that I could give birth to such a messy person. Seriously, I don't know how this happened to me. We have three boys in one tiny bedroom, and it's always perfectly clean. There is one girl with her own room and it stinks to high heaven of dirty socks, which I can never find because she flings them all over her room. I am going to have to move all her furniture to find the dirty socks and undies that are lodged back there. She has more pairs of shoes than payless, which she unfortunately needs because she flings those everywhere too. I don't know where she came from!!!!!! Maddening!!!!!! Thankfully she is generally a sweetheart and easy to love.

Daniel is FINALLY old enough to feed himself, so last night at dinner I plopped some bread crumbs on his tray and began to eat in peace. It didn't last long - the little stink grabbed the rest of the piece of bread off the table and shoved it into his mouth.

Jared, always the worrier, told me to quickly take it out before he choked.

James, my sweet three year old suddenly quipped "A horrible way to die!"

Today Jared and I went on a date. We met at Wegmans to meet Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss! It was a lot of fun! We were supposed to have lunch together as well, but Jared needed to get back, so I ate alone at Wegmans (surprisingly, I was fine with it. When you're used to juggling 6 people while you eat, a meal in peace is kind of nice!) Anyway, Jared LOVES the Cake Boss, so I was really excited that we got to go to his book signing. Only Wegmans would do something this cool.

On an entirely different subject, my house is really, really clean right now. This is due to an outbreak of .... head lice. Ew ew ew! I was drying Claire's hair before church on Sunday, only to notice it was full of nasty little bugs. We didn't go to church. Instead, Jared made an emergency trip to CVS for the special shampoo, I washed Claire's hair, then spent two hours picking bugs out of her hair. It was truly a labor of love. It was also truly horrifying.

Monday morning I woke up with an itchy scalp. I decided it was probably just the power of suggestion, but no such luck. I had a mild case of head lice. Luckily, a kind member of my ward lent me a special electric comb that zaps the bugs. As I write this, I feel like something is crawling in my hair. Again, power of suggestion, but I am going to go comb my hair with the electriculter comb just in case.

I have spent the last three days doing massive amounts of laundry. If it can be washed, I have washed it. My house at least smells nice and fresh. If only I could guarantee that my head is nice and fresh to match! Ew ew ew!

Yesterday the kids were off school for election day. I decided to attempt to make it fun for them, and to take them to the zoo. Then I decided that was wayyyyy to much work (the zoo is complicated to get to, and someone stole my GPS out of my car). Plan B was much simpler, and I took them to a local (and free!) petting zoo.

I am quite proud of Joshua - he was not afraid, and willing to pet all the animals. Claire and James were not so adventurous, but Joshua petted a calf, pigs, goat, and rabbits. We also saw chickens, turkeys and peacocks. We had a very interesting discussion at the peacocks:

Kids: "Why is one so colorful, and the others just gray?"

Me: "The boy peacock is colorful, and the girls are gray."

Kids: "We want to see the boy peacock open up his tail. When is he going to do that?"

Me: "I don't know, he only opens his tail when he wants to mate."

Kids: "What's mate?"

Me: "When he wants the girls to notice him."

The kids were pensive for a moment, then Joshua said "Claire, look away and pretend like you don't see him. Mommy, ignore the boy peacock."

We tried it. It didn't work.