Yeah, yeah, we love our kids unconditionally. Even when they are little stink-heads and you kinda wanna wallop ‘em, you still love them so hard it makes your heart ache. It can take my breath away sometimes – that blobby-knot creeps up in the back of my throat and my eyes start a-blinkin’ back the tears. And sometimes they just stress you out. They stress you out so much that you’re convinced that God actually made a mistake and you weren’t meant to be a mother, but actually a celibate cloistered nun. But He didn’t. Nope, no mistake. I love these kids, but holy majoly they stress me out!

This ‘lil here bloggeroo will be focused on one of our offspring: “The Monkey…Jenny Junior…Angel Baby…Baby Cakes…Zacharoo…” Zachary is one tough little hard-core piece of four-year-old manly boyness. He is gregarious. He cracks himself up. He tells knock-knock jokes that are usually ridiculously lame and of the four year old persuasion but every once in a while he’ll tell a great joke, like this, “What do rainy clouds wear under their clothes?...THUNDERwear!” (For the record, he did hear this on “Sid the Science Kid,” but he didn’t share it with us for a few days, AND he has impeccable comedic timing).

Zachary gets bruised and bonked and dinged up and isn’t super quick to cry about it. He’s tough and yet he’s also the kid who will call urgently for me from downstairs. I go rushing down thinking that there’s a fire or some equally awful emergency like he’s gonna pee his pants or he sees a spider or something. Then when I get down there, Zach smiles up at me for a moment like he forgot what he needed so badly and says simply, “I love you.”

Zach has had a tough couple of days, but you sure wouldn’t know it. I had decided that since Matthew only has one more full week of school ‘til summer break, Zach and I should do some fun activities together. So, yesterday morning, I surprised Zach with a trip to the zoo. I told him that he would get to pick every single animal that we saw and each activity we did. Thankfully, we did have time to eat a picnic lunch by the otters and we’d just gotten over to the new Meerkat exhibit when I happened to notice that I had a message on my cell phone. Zach and I were headed to the indoor play area that he was SO excited to visit while I listened to my message. It was the school. “Hello, Mrs. Martin this is Mrs. Blah-blah-blah, and I’ve got Matthew here in the school clinic. He has a slight fever and you’ll need to come pick him up.”

Poop. And of all the Mondays. Typically we’d be home doing laundry or out running errands (conveniently close to the school), but no, not this time. We were a good 20 minute drive away plus the 15 minute walk through the zoo to the car. I told Zach that we were going to have to leave because Matthew was sick. I prepared myself for some major-disappointment sadness-action. But instead, Zach just sighed and said, “Poor Matthew.” Now, he’s no 4 yr. old saint, he did complain a bit about not getting to play at the Zoomazium, but he left the zoo quickly and with no fight at all. I didn’t have to promise crazy things – just that we’d start at the Zoomazium next time. He didn’t get any bribery from me – no pet pony or elephant for him!

(Matthew – is totally fine, by the way. Had a brief, random fever so I had to keep him home from school today. Oh, and he doesn’t need eyeglasses…more on that whole situation eventually…someday…not right now).

Today, Zachary had his (yes, a little late) four year “well check” visit with our pediatrician. Zachary has literally grown at least an inch in the last month, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that he’s in the 90th percentile for height and still 50th percentile for weight. (Dude, I would LOVE to have those kinds of measurements). And his butt cheeks are still as cute as they were when he was six months old. They haven’t grown any bigger or any less cute in 3.5 years. Just so ya know.

Dr. Benda surprised me a little bit after listening to his heart. “Well, huh…He does have quite a strong heart murmur. And since his chest wall is so thin, it’s really pronounced. But it’s kind of regular in its’ irregularity. So, I’ll just make a note of it and we’ll check it every time.” Um, huh? Heart murmur? Thin chest wall? Yeah, OK.

Then when it came time to look at Zach’s manly-boy parts, I noticed again a bit of hesitation from her. She poked around his tummy below his belly button, and after looking quite puzzled said, “Huh!” Gotta love it when a doctor says that! Turns out, Zach most likely has a hernia that will require surgery. We’ll be setting up an appointment with a Pediatric Urologist at Children’s Hospital next week to find out if surgery is in order (Dr. Benda seems to think so). Great.

And lastly, the appointment was topped off with not 1, not 2, no FIVE shots. Zach cried a tiny bit and then shook it off as soon as I reminded him that they said he’d get FIVE stickers. When we got home, Zach proceeded to share his FIVE stickers with the rest of us. Mike proudly sported a Spiderman sticker on his chest all night. And I have an “Awesome Patient” Kung-Fu Panda sticker sitting right next to my laptop. A heart murmur, an upcoming surgery, FIVE shots, and then, while we’re cuddling on the couch reading a bedtime story I accidentally – I swear! – jab him in the eyeball with my thumb. He rubs it a bit and gives me a look like, “Seriously, woman? Haven’t I been through enough?!” Then, in his sweet little way – working the system a bit – he says he’s just TOO tired to walk to bed and would I carry him. Well, I can’t say no to that. It’s the least I can do. So, NOW, what do I do? I clasp him by his upper arms – right where he received his FIVE shots – and tug him up. My dad asked why I didn’t bother just dropping him on his head since I was on such a roll. Thank goodness, Zachary is asleep for the night, where I can’t do him anymore damage…let’s hope.