Chip, charming #3, always trying to make a unique place in the world for himself. Today he went to school in his brother's birthday cake hat. With one tall red boot and one short yellow boot on. His answer to every question was "no" and he wouldn't kiss me goodbye. Not meanly, just trying out some new stuff.

Robbie, middle child. Always trying to get more more more attention. "Look at me! Look at me!" is his rallying cry. He is empathetic and concerned about others around him. (Watch me neglect the middle child some more: this paragraph of his is shorter than the others!)

Mike, oldest child. In-freaking-charge. I often feel guilty that he has to do everything first. He has to be the kid that I "learn on" — the starter model. I certainly won't be as apprehensive about kindergarten for the other boys. I don't worry about potty training Chip. I never worried about when Robbie would learn to crawl or walk. From Mike, I knew all these things would work themselves out in time.

No way to know the first time

But I didn't know that when Mike was doing all these things, and that has made his transitions more difficult. But is that a bad thing? He's had to be more self-reliant. He's always been the trail-blazer. He's rarely afraid of new situations. He loves being the biggest brother.

And while I think that being the first-born has placed extra stress on his life, today on his birthday I am reminded of the positives. He is my first child to turn 5, and I think I'm more excited than he is. When I tucked him in last night I told him that this would be the last time he would ever be 4, and we both giggled.

Sometimes it's good to be first.

Before I went to bed last night I popped into the boys bedroom to re-tuck everyone in. I snuggled with sleeping Mike for a while, and reflected on how 5 years ago we were not parents. I thought maybe we never would be. Then Saturday morning March 2, 2002 we got the call that changed all our lives.

"A baby boy was born — come get him!" And we did.

It takes me longer than 19 minutes to just get the kids out of bed. The people at the Daily Mail are on crack.

Easy winner of today's snort-laugh award.

Really good pregnancy news. And more. I love it!

I had and have a serious don't ask don't tell policy in effect on this subject.

I've had the image of what this slide must have looked like all day today. Thanks.

Phew.

Race your Hotwheels to the mall? You have got to be shitting me.

Starts funny (hey, farts are funny) and ends really well!

And Happy 5th Birthday to my amazingly wonderful boy Mike! As I tell you all the time, you turned me into a mom. Thank you so much.

No, this really isn't going to turn into a sports blog, but I do love going to hockey games. My step-dad has shared season tickets to the San Jose Sharks since the team started, and about once a year he gives Mr. Plain and I a set of tickets. My mom watches the kids while we have a fun night out on the town!

One of the highlights of last night was the guy sitting in front of me. Check his noggin! He is so into hockey that I guess he caught a few pucks in the parking lot. (Or maybe it was Jay in town for the game?)

I remember going to hockey games when I was in college on the east coast, and they were so fun! The other teams were always SO MUCH bigger than our guys, and we frequently lost, but we (in the stands) always had a blast.

Need a new car? Here's some fantastic advice.

I'd rather go to Chuck E Cheese!

Another convert for Google Reader.

Yesterday was the love of Mike's life's birthday party, so we went to get her a gift. As we were driving to Target, I suggested we get her Hullabaloo. Good choice, right?

Apparently not. And here I quote Mike. "NO, Mommy. Girls like beautiful things. Boys like cool things."

Hmmm.

After clarification, I learned that "beautiful" pretty much equates to "princess," so we made our first trip down the pink aisle. Mike chose some light-up Barbie mules complete with a light-up Barbie mirror-cum-magic wand.

The birthday girl's mom was nice enough to invite Robbie too, so the three of us headed off to Chuck E Cheese. Never having been there before the guys were very excited. They had a blast, although Robbie was disturbed that the mouse didn't talk. And for a while I thought I was going to have to climb into the Habitrail to get them out of this car.

On the drive home we were talking about how fun the party was, and wondering if the birthday girl was going to like her gift.

Then I had a thought.

I said, "Mike, you know what? I'm a girl. A grown-up girl. Do I like beautiful things?" He said yes. "Do I like cool things?" He very definitively said no.

Wow.

I told him that I love cool things. And that I think princesses are OK, but they're not my favorite. That completely blew his mind, and he sat quietly in the back seat for a while processing that.

So yeah, I had a pretty good weekend ;)

I am saddened to report that yes, today is in fact Monday. Sigh.

PMS looks good on you ;)

Ha Ha, Karly is drunk!

OMG, a 4 column blog layout. At this rate of development, I'll be able to have a 9 column blog in a year, and never post content ever again!

Just reading this makes me tired.

Oh Jenn, I'm so sorry.

Last night we saw Reno 911: Miami. Hilarious! Granted, I had absolutely no expectations for it, but it was great. It had the predictable slow moments, but how can you dislike a movie that gives you such quotes as

"Who brings a weed-whacker on a boat?"

and

"I like the hair. It's so Stamos!"

Plus, get this, some fine film making too. Go see it and tell me the scenes shot from the outside of the motel are not fabulous.

But here's the best news: we get to go out every Saturday night. I discovered that a teacher at the boys school was interested, and BAM, now we get to have lives. We've known this teacher forever, and the boys absolutely adore him. It doesn't get any better than this.

And note that this was a very small journal to begin with — about 5 inches high. I didn't read these pages before scanning them, because I think I'd need to get new glasses first.

This goes on for about 30 pages! No, not all from one day. What, you think I'm the unabomber??

Sarah's got potty training questions.

What a sweet smooch photo.

Jean Luc Picard appears to be trying to corner the market on mom blogs. He owns some Plain Jane Mom too. And no, I don't get this either.

Weight Watchers appears to be harrassing Mona.

"SCROTUM!"

And look, I've got kudos, nothing but kudos for folks who want to get their bodies healthy, lose weight, exercise, and so on. And there's a movement called "Fatblogging" that Jason Calcanis started. He blogs about his current weight, how much he's exercising, what he's eaten. All this is also cool. It reminds me of the "Future MILF" club, but with one crucial difference. Can you imagine the sheer CHAOS if women bloggers started calling out other bloggers and suggesting that they join the Fatblogging community? Lordy.

Sometimes I feel like burning this journal. I feel that when I grow up, I will be so different, it will be like having a complete stranger reading it. It is strange how I think of myself as being completely different when I grow up.

And the funny thing is that from my vantage point at 39, 15-year-old Jane does not feel like a stranger to me. But the young me would be so surprised to see how we turned out ;)