In case you didn't know...

This is what you're supposed to do with rubber darts...who needs a dart gun when you can stick the darts up your nose????

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Happy Hump Day!!

But today was no ordinary Hump Day! It was the Wednesday of our first-ever Spring Break!!! We've never experienced Spring Break in this family before since 1) the Christian school that Isaiah went to and the babysitter Mikey went to in Fremont never took Spring Break off and 2) I've always worked so the kids would have ended up going to a sitter anyway.

We had an action-packed day today and the sure sign of an exciting day is three sleeping, snoring little boys in the backseat throughout the entire drive home. This I love because I get a lil bit of 'quiet time'. :)

First on our agenda was to stop at the Nordstrom Rack in San Leandro. I couldn't possibly head toward Alameda and not stop at The Rack, especially with some gift cards we received during Christmastime burning a hole in my wallet. Fun times shopping with three boys in tow. Yeah right...but I got what I needed, including a spike in my blood pressure for a good 30 minutes.

Next we headed over to Papa's office to pick him up for a lunch date. We walked into the lobby and Isaiah proclaims, "Good afternoon. We are here to see Mr. Shawn Adams" in his best authoritative voice, while Liam and Mikey immediately start jumping on the waiting room sofas. I'm sure the receptionist was amused.
.After lunch, we toured through Papa's offices and laboratories. He works for a medical device company in Alameda called Penumbra. They engineer and produce neural stents that go into patients with neural aneurysms. It's kind of neat how when I tell people what my husband does for a living, some will say, "Wow, thanks. My aunt (or grandma or dad) had one of those put in." However indirectly, the lives of people are being saved and I'm super proud of Shawn for being a part of it.

The boys love seeing him in action and had a great time exploring and playing with the microscopes in the labs. Mikey was super funny because he was looking into the scopes with both eyes closed. Being the lab geek that I am, I thought it was hilarious. I tried to take pictures, but I was warned that no photography was allowed. I guess they need to keep their top secret procedures top secret and don't want anyone to know that their secret ingredient is superglue.

After we parted with Papa for the afternoon, we headed over to the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) in Downtown Oakland. I made it a point to go this week because their theme was "Tool Time" and the boys were able to make tool belts and safety hard hats, on top of the usual painting and playdough time. They love tools, period. They both have their own tool boxes at home and love going on trips to Home Depot with their Papa and come home with a new tool to add to their boxes each time.

Here are my little painters. Isaiah was actually dancing while he painted. Makes me wonder if I've got the next David Garibaldi living in my house. :)

This safety hat decorating is some serious business, people.

Their finished products. So stinkin' cute.

I'm not quite sure what Isaiah's vision was here, but he insisted I leave him to do what he pleased. And that, I did. He was super excited with his result.

I absolutely love the MOCHA. I love to keep my boys immersed in art, in every way, shape and form. And I love that they love it just as much as I do.

I Think I Might Need Help...

I'm obsessive, I don't deny it. I'm obsessive about many stupid little things, like the way the dishwasher is loaded, the way clothes are folded, the diaper to extra clothing ratio in my diaper bag before I leave the house, how far I park my truck from the edge of the driveway. I walk Isaiah to his Kindergarten class every morning and don't leave until I watch the class, in single-line formation, march their way into the classroom...even with the two other boys tugging on my pant leg. I could go on and on. But I never thought anything about it all and just wrote them off as silly, little obsessions that could actually be helpful in one way or another.

Now, for the situation that sparks my concern about my obsessiveness....Since Isaiah's birthday last month, he has collected a number of Lego sets. The kinds for kids ages 8-12 or whatever, which means they have a gazillion thousand miniscule pieces per set. Since then, I have been finding pieces strewn every which way around the house and it has been driving me insane. The even crazier part is that I think Isaiah has inherited my obsessiveness (lucky him!) because I can pick up and show him a single lego and he can tell me exactly where on which set it belongs.

In order to contain this mess that keeps me up at night, we went to Wal-mart in search of a reasonable, yet effective, means of store it all. Depending on the size of the set he has, we (or, I) picked an appropriately-sized plastic box to store the pieces. While the two little ones were napping, Isaiah and I sorted through all of the pieces and separated them, as best we could, into their very own comfy, new homes complete with their instruction booklets. This is how it looks now. Neat and tidy, yeah?I was quite happy with how it all turned out and was actually kind of proud that Isaiah was such a big help in accomplishing this with me. It really, truly was something that bugged me to my core!!!

Later in the day, my sister came to visit and spotted the tidiness that used to be a giant lego mess. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Seriously, Katrina? If you're going to be that obsessive about it, you may as well not even buy them!" Well, let me tell you, that statement invoked some serious thought! I then remembered the time I expressed my concern about this situation to Shawn, who also thought I was crazy, and his suggestion was, "Don't even bother! Just throw them into one big Rubbermaid." That just sounded disgusting and unacceptable to me!

But, there is one thing that makes me feel like my obsessiveness has gone a little too far. Because we were only able to roughly separate the pieces by set, there is still a box of unknowns, with no home. So sad, I know. Because I didn't want to have to deal with a lego orphanage, the thought crossed my mind to go through each instruction booklet and locate every single piece that it calls for. Just so I can be sure the sets are complete and I can sleep better at night. The more I thought about it, the more I thought, "I'm flippin' crazy", but also, the more I wanted to do it!

Someone, please, tell me. Am I crazy? I can take it, I swear. I just need to hear it, so then I can do something about it. lol If no one responds then I will assume that I'm perfectly normal and the world can go back to turning happily, and obsessively, once again. Thanks. :)

I Want a Girlfriend....

We were in the car driving to Target the other day and my sister, Kristine, and Professor Isaiah were having a conversation that went something like this:

I: I want a girlfriend.
K: Why?
I: I don't know. I just to do.
K: Why do you think you need a girlfriend?
I: Well, if I don't get a girlfriend, how would I get a wife?
K: Well, what do you need a wife for?
(Long, thoughtful silence)
I: Who's going to do all the scrapbooking?!?!
K: (Laughing hysterically) What else does a wife do?
I: She cooooookkks every day....she cleans up the house while the babies are napping....
K: I don't think you need a wife, I think you need a mom. That's what moms do and you already have a mom.

Thanks, Kristine, for helping me dodge another bullet titled, "marriage talk". I'm also glad to know my son is growing up thinking the critical purpose of a wife is so that he may enjoy scrapbooks for many years to come. Family historian? I'll take it...