Pruetz Family Goings On

I don't really have anything specific to write about -- just some fun little stories about the craziness we call the Pruetzes.

On Saturday night, we had some friends over for a dinner party: The Sauters, the Schaefers and the Miceks. They all brought their kids (seven in total, including my three) and we had a fantastic time drinking, watching the Spurs game and talking while the kids were up to no good upstairs.

And when I say up to no good, I mean up to no good. We knew they were playing and being loud and doing some strategic rearranging of our upstairs bedrooms. They're all good kids, so we didn't do much checking.

Luckily, they are good kids and no permanent damage was done. But imagine my surprise when, after the party, I walked into my bathroom to see every single toy Devin owns in our bathtub. And when I say every single toy, I mean it. Every toy. The shelves in his room and his toy chest were completely empty. Hundreds of Hot Wheels, stuffed animals, Disney action figures and miscellaneous paraphernalia was piled into my garden-sized tub. If I had stood in the middle of the bathtub, the mound would have come to my knees. No joke.

But who could be mad? It was totally revocable and the kids had a blast. We weren't mad in the least, although I could kick myself for not taking a photo before we cleaned it all up.

The next day was Mother's Day and my only request from Todd was that I would have a day of doing nothing. And while that's nearly impossible with three kids, I was given the best possible "do nothing" day. Todd fed the kids and put them down for naps and did stuff around the house while I relaxed. It was a great day.

It brought back lots of memories of last year's Mother's Day, when I was released from the hospital for a few hours to celebrate the day with Todd and Devin. I returned to room 142 having contraction after contraction. My doctor told me that we wouldn't be able to do any more day passes because of it, but little did I know that the next time I would return to our home, I would be a mother of three. The babies were born the Friday following Mother's Day.

As we approach the twins' first birthday this Saturday, I have a lot of weird feelings. 99% of them are good, but 1% of them are memories of the very scary first few weeks of their lives. I look at my babies and think, "They almost weren't. They shouldn't be." But they are. And I am humbled daily.

Getting back on track...

Yesterday, the kids and I took a trip to the San Antonio Zoo. Our city has one of the top-ranked zoos in the country and now that I have the time to do so, I plan on taking the kids there often. We even bought a family membership which provides us all with free admission for a year.

And going to the zoo here in San Antonio isn't like it was when I lived in Houston. In a city the size of Houston, going to the zoo was an all-day event. There was the hour drive downtown, the ridiculous parking situation and the crowds that flock to Hermann Park (where the zoo is located) every weekend. If you left at 10:00 a.m. and stayed for four hours, you'd leave the park just in time to hit rush-hour traffic. It was a no-win situation.

But in a city the size of San Antonio, getting to the zoo is no big deal. A 20 minute drive, free parking and free admission. You can stay an hour or two and go home without feeling like it was time or money wasted.

So anyway, we went with my friend Erin and her son, Colin, who is Devin's age. The boys had a great time running from exhibit to exhibit and they were thrilled by the wild animals, giant fish and various primates (that's for you, Aunt Jill. Otherwise, they'd all be referred to as monkeys!).

Here's the kicker, though...

When we got to the lion exhibit, one of the male lions was sitting close to the viewing area, but with his back turned. Devin took to making some noises at him...first a few soft roars, then a louder roar. Then he made his now-patented flamingo noise (learned from the flamingo exhibit at the front of the zoo).

When that didn't get the lion's attention, Devin took to a flat-out scream. A loud, high-pitched, can-hear-it-from-a-mile-away scream.

Note to self and all others: Lions do not like loud, shrill screams from little boys.

Apparently, Devin's voice caught the lion's attention because as soon as the noise left my child's mouth, the lion whipped his head around at lightening speed and stared directly at Devin.

Now this wasn't just some, "Hey kid, what are you doing?" look. This was a very quick, very mean look that caused the dozen or so people around us to all gasp collectively. For a moment, we were in the savannah and this lion had just scoped my three-year-old out as dinner. Before I could recall that I was in a very safe place and situation, I had a moment or two of panic. I truly believe that if he could have, that lion would have pounced on Devin and gobbled him up.

That's right, folks. You heard it here: My kid is loud enough to tick off a lion. The King of the Jungle. The most feared of all creatures. But my child managed to momentarily get the upper hand with him.

Proud? Yes, a little. Thinking I may never take him to the lion exhibit again? You better believe it.

Yesterday afternoon, Devin had his first gymnastics class. I was a gymnast for many, many years and when I got bored of that, I was a diver. So I have a vested interest in the sport and was thrilled when my friend and across-the-street neighbor, Susan, asked if Devin wanted to join her son, Reid (one of Devin's best buddies) in the gymnastics class.

Devin did really well. We had a couple of bumps at first when all he wanted to do was jump into the foam pit, but once he got the hang of doing the circuit, he did great. His teacher even commented that she really liked Dev and hoped he would continue. So I guess we've got plans for Monday afternoons.

Life with the girls is good too. As expected, shortly after finding Faith's two bottom teeth, Gracie's showed up too. They are doing great on their solid foods and seem to be going through a growth spurt, as they are taking 15 or so ounces of milk every night before bed. Yowza!

So that's about it for us. I have some pictures, but I'm trying to figure out how to get them onto the laptop without first putting them on the desktop. Hopefully soon...

Erin