Routines, mornings and Matthew's crap

I know I don't blog as often as I used to, but frankly things are settled into a routine. It's not like fun, exciting things are happening around here on a daily basis. But honestly how routine can life with four kids be? Well let's take a brief glimpse into an average morning in the Hahn household. Most days begin around 6:30 a.m. when I am awakened by Matthew poking me. "Get up mom! C'mon mom. GET UP!" He is very insistent. He gets a cup of milk from the fridge (I stock the fridge with a sippy cup of milk the night before) and his "mommy crap" and we head downstairs where I change his diaper and we settle down to watch cartoons. Or rather, he watches and I doze. Then around 8:00 chaos ensues.

8:00 a.m. I am still in my pjs, making breakfast. Gotta head in and wake up David.
8:15. Ok, Rachel is dressed and ready to go. But she still hasn't eaten. Here have some food. Need a drink too?
8:25 David has eaten and is only dressed because he slept in his clothes last night. 8:35 Rachel heads out to the bus stop.
8:40 I yell at Rose to get dressed or she'll miss the bus. Rachel comes back in, complaining that it's cold and she needs a coat and gloves. (If you think it's cold now, just wait a couple months kid.)
8:45 David heads out the door.
8:47 Rose finally gets her backpack together and leaves too.
8:51 The bus comes and I'm free (mostly) for a couple hours.
9:00 Relax a bit. If it's Monday or Friday, 3-year-old Emma is also here. She's the youngest daughter of my best friend and Matthew's partner in mischief-making, who I babysit 2 days a week. If it's Thursday, I pack up Matthew and head off to my weekly bowling league. I don't bowl so well but we always have loads of fun.

Ok, I know what you're thinking after reading all that: What exactly is a "mommy crap?" Each of our kids received a lamb's wool blanket when they were born. And each of them has been very attached to it. Rachel loved hers literally to pieces so we got her another one because she was so upset when it disintegrated. Matthew loved his also and dragged it everywhere with him. Eventually that one also started to fall apart. After losing (and finding) it several times we gave him Rachel's old one in addition to his tiny worn one. So when he lost the little on, he still had a big one to sleep with. So he called the little one "baby crap" and the big one "mommy crap." Baby crap has been lost forever but he still loyally clings to mommy crap. The "crap" part came because Phil tried to teach him to say "scrap." As you can tell, he can't quite manage the "s" yet.

Well that's all for now.