Just let me grab my purse.

 

That's what Tommy would say, if he could talk in sentences.

  He's been pretty happy to walk around the house sporting Dani's Hello Kitty purse lately.  It's pretty cute, and I actually think its cuter that there does not appear to be even the slightest sentiment among my children that there's anything odd about it--because, really, there isn't.  Dani and Tori don't really seem to identify anything of theirs as for girls, or of Tommy's as for boys.  Tori's as happy wearing a Spider Man shirt as she is Hello Kitty.  Tommy rocks the girls' hand-me-downs all the time.  Dani and Tori are just as likely to pretend they are Mario and Luigi as they are to play with their dress up dolls.  Tommy is as happy to chew on a Barbie leg as he is to chew on a toy car.

I think it's pretty cool. 

 

 This is the state they are usually in, however.  Running, chasing, shrieking and generally instigating each other into zaniness.  At any given time, one kid is acting silly enough to inspire the others to bounce off the walls.

 Inspired by one of my favorite nursery school toys, I picked up some building blocks last week.  Much to Big Man's dismay fatherly joy, they all required assembly. Strangely, Big Man kept referring to them as recyclables.

 We could not build them fast enough.

If you need me, I'll be in my castle.

Making it work.

Mass chaos. That's what things feel like these days. Too little sleep. Way too little sleep. Too much work, at home and at work. The Big Man and I are like ships passing in the night, sneaking a few words in at night when he gets home or in the morning when I hurry to work. But it's good chaos, as good as chaos can be. The girls love their little brother, and make mischief everytime he distracts me for more than a minute or so. I wish he and I saw each other more, but besides that, all is well. Dani is the most amazingly articulate kid; loving, and silly, and sensitive and whiny. She's trying to figure all of this family expansion out like we all are--she takes queues from Tori's naughty not-quite-a-big-kid behavior to screech and make messes, because it's more fun than being the biggest sister sometimes. But she's the go-to kid, always at the ready to help. Tonight I was getting the girls milk before bed, and Tommy started wailing while laying on the couch. I walk into the living room, and Dani was putting his pacifier into his mouth. :) Amazing kid.

And the little maestro here, is the mischievious one. She's the kid whose sneaking into the kitchen cupboard when my back is turned, and trying to drink the maple syrup. When the house is quiet, it's not because she's sleeping, it's because she's somewhere she shouldn't be, like splashing in the toilet or climbing onto the dining room table to see how much salt she can pour out of the shaker before I notice she's gone. People meet her for a minute or two and generally observe that she's got a mischievious look about her...and she's so damn cute that she generally gets away with it!

Tommy's settling in too. He's alert and wakeful for longer periods, and is slowly starting to realize that mommy would appreciate him focusing on sleeping at night. I'm going to need to work on that, as Big Man's headed back to the midnight shift on Monday...wish us luck!