The Trouble With Toddlers

I should have known. Daniel's mom told me he did this when he was a kid, and it seems that my boys always follow in Daniel's footsteps. This morning while I showered, the boys were at it again.

It started when I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. As I was just about to turn on the water for the shower, I heard a man's voice. I ran to the living room and saw that a man had come to the door to sell us something, and the boys had opened the door for him. I slipped behind the door and shut it before the man saw me. Sorry if that was anyone reading this!

I lectured them about opening the door for anyone when Daniel or I wasn't in the room, and then headed back to shower. After my shower, I was drying off in the bathroom and I heard Ethan cry. He sounded really distant at first, but then he started to get louder. I realized I was hearing him from the window! I ran to the front door, and sure enough he was outside on the porch. I again lectured the kids. I told them that their baby brother could have been ran over and killed. Usually the scare tactic works for my bunch.

Daniel's mom told me she had to get those high up security latches to keep him inside as a kid - I think I'll be going to Lowe's tonight to get some. She also told me about Daniel throwing the lawn furniture into the community pool. Now she has a pool at her house - we'd better keep an eye on Avery and Ethan...

(Don't worry - the door to the pool already has the high-up security latches!)

As We Sleep

The nights around here are getting crazy! I mean when most people are soundly asleep (except those with teeny babies), the people in our house are very busy.

Last night Avery started crying in his room, and shouting "I can't open my eyes!" I ran to his room, expecting to see that he had gotten pink eye or something. When I get to the room, he's fine - but the room is completely dark. He keeps screaming about not being able to open his eyes, and so I pick him up and take him to the hallway where there is some light. "Can you see now?" I ask. He can. I guess it was just so dark in his room that he thought his eyes were closed. This is my fault, really. I put up blackout material on his windows, because the rising sun was making him wake up at 6 am. He sleeps longer in the morning, but now he cries and gets scared at night.

Two other nights he woke up screaming. When I go in his room, I find that he's standing in front of his dresser, beside the train table. He thinks he's at the door, but it won't open because it's not really there. So I tried putting a night light in his room a couple nights ago, and he slept the whole night with no problems. However, Ethan decided that the night light looked like fun, and he stole it. That must be why Avery cried last night.

After I put Avery back to bed, Abby started yelling, "put it over there! No, over there!" I went in her room and said, "What?" She told me she was talking to Ethan - who, by the way, was sound asleep in his crib, in a completely different room. She's always been a sleep-talker, but then again, so has Daniel. Daniel used to talk in his sleep about moving pallets around when he worked at Meijer years ago, and about pistons when he worked at General Motors. Just one of the many things that I love about him...

Last night I was also awaked by a loud sound. I looked over at Daniel, and realized a glass picture frame had fallen off the wall, and landed inches from his head. He was sound asleep, of course. I moved the frame, and hugged him to make sure he was okay. He didn't seem to care, but I guess he was okay.

So tonight I'm hoping I'll actually get to sleep! I'm going to make sure the night light is in Avery's room, Ethan is not in Abby's room, and the picture frames are secure. But I'm sure something new will develop anyway.

Good Day/ Bad Day

Today the kids slept in. They were supposed to go to the zoo this morning with their grandma, but they slept and slept. Instead, the kids and I went to the park for a while, vacuumed out the van, went back to the park for lunch, and then got gas (Ethanol, actually), and aired up the tires! I know it all sounds so glamorous and exciting! So we did a lot, but in between doing things the kids drove me nuts. They were whiny from too little sleep and too much activity over the weekend, and they fought and fought. But when they were not fighting or whining, they were so cute. And right now, as the boys sleep they are so cute. Why is it that sleeping babies are so adorable? I know, really - it's because they are quiet and completely well-behaved at the time!

Today as we ate lunch at the park a bird kept flying over towards us looking for food. I told the kids to throw a little bit of their crackers towards the bird. Of course they completely misunderstood or disregarded the "little bit" part, and threw lots of crackers instead. But then the little bird came over, quickly grabbed some cracker, and flew under our van to eat. Ethan got so excited to see the "dog" (say that with a long o!), and shouted "woo woo" at the poor bird. Then they all threw more crackers on the ground, along with a couple pieces of ham. Another bird showed up - obviously not a vegetarian.

It's nice to let the kids get really tired sometimes, and then go home. They sleep, and I get a break. I wonder if working parents see naps as necessary as stay at home moms do...

Other Broken Toes

Well, hurt at least.


But look how happy he is! What a boy.

Something New **UPDATED**

So, last night I broke my first bone. Yup, my toe. Daniel laughs at me, because he's broken a toe and still worked and pushed copiers around and saved the world with a broken toe. But really, it hurts. It hurt more yesterday than today, but it still hurts.

Since I'm broken, we couldn't do any hiking today. Oh yeah, and then I made it rain. At least that's what Daniel said. He thinks my negativity caused it to rain, and so his morning was enveloped in a bad mood. But then the rain stopped, and the sun came out, and it got really, really hot. Then Daniel was happy. So we went to a yard sale. Did that help his happiness? I do not know.

At this yard sale I snagged a couple things that I've been searching for, and let's just say we can now go bike riding with the kids. Daniel took one of the items for a test ride:


So we got some new things that were old to somebody just 2 days ago. Yard sale-ing is so much
fun when you find what you want for a good price!

While we were out, we noticed an "event" that appeared to be happening in the neighborhood we were in. It turns out it was something like this:


(An actual photo of the house as it was Saturday)


We didn't see Ty Pennington, but we did see the house from far away. It was like the president was in town or something. The streets were closed around the neighborhood (which made it really hard to get to garage sales that were being held there). There were army men everywhere, being given volunteer "orders". The TV news crews were there, people were being bussed to the site, and other people walked quite a way to see the house, cameras in hand. One of the local garbage companies even donated brand new, shiny dumpsters to use during demolition. I read online that this was the largest crowd that has ever gathered to watch Extreme Home Makeover. Leave it to Southern Ohio to be the biggest "spectator" group ever.

Our Busy Weekend: In Pictures, Part 2

Some other things we did last weekend:

Abby loved swimming, Ethan did not. He does love to sit on the edge with me and splash his feet until I get more soaked than the people actually in the pool, though. Poor Avery was napping and didn't get to swim.



Please don't pick the daisies (or any other wildflower). Really, there were signs telling us not to - the park was trying to reclaim the wildflower field and reestablish the native flowers of Ohio.



Another moose-head picture. Abby argues that it looks slightly more like a giraffe. To me it's wood.


There should be lots of hiking pictures to come on this blog. I just bought a hiking-type backpack carrier for Ethan! We also are fixing up our bikes, and looking for baby bike seats or a trailer for the kids or something. If anyone knows anything about bike accessories, clue me in, please!

Our Busy Weekend: In Pictures, Part 1

You have to do some sparklers on Independence Day, right?






Hiking in Style (note the rough terrain we had to endure)







Watching the baby plants grow at the arboretum.







We saw a turtle, and he ate our bread!









Avery said this wood looks like a moose head.

Too Much Information

Well, last week and weekend was really, really busy for us. It seems like we were doing something every day, which kept me from posting anything at all on my blog. So, by (un)popular demand, I present to you everything I thought about but didn't have time to blog about in the past week:

Last night while I was rocking Ethan to sleep (yes, I still do that), he cried a little after he was asleep, and jumped. I guess he was having a bad dream. I always think its so sweet the way babies will be sound asleep, and suddenly start laughing because of a dream. However, I've also always hated when little babies cry because of a bad dream. Don't you wonder what those teeny little minds can be dreaming about? Do you think wee little babies dream about mommy milk and pacifiers? What do teeny little new babies have to dream about, anyway? They've just been born, and haven't experienced anything yet! My little babies used to occasionally laugh out loud or cry as they slept - even when they were less than a month old. Avery actually laughed in his sleep before he ever laughed out loud while awake. Has Freud ever covered baby dreams? I bet he has, actually...

Well, one day when Ethan was awake, the kids and I were out driving around and we saw a lady walking her dog. She stopped, pulled out a nice sports bottle, and then let the dog drink from it. Do you think she would have taken a drink from the same bottle if we had watched long enough? Gross. I'm sorry, but drinking after a dog turns my stomach. I don't even like to let them lick my hand.

This made me think about a story I read in the local paper, about a family that lost their dog and hired a doggy detective. They actually paid some guy to put up posters, have some search dogs smell the dog's stuff and search for him, and go to every local animal shelter looking for the dog. I wonder how much they paid him to do all that? They offered a $500 reward for the dog.

Well today a bulldog or pit bull or something nice looking (yeah, I'm a doggy genius, I know) was running around my front yard. He was wearing a collar with tags, and he came right up to me and the kids. That made me think about rewards for missing dogs. It's not wrong to collect those rewards, in my opinion. So would you say that if someone found a nice looking dog with tags in their front yard, they could keep that dog for a few days in case someone puts up signs looking for the dog, and collect the reward? Don't worry - I didn't do that - I was just wondering. After all, it keeps the dog safe until someone looks for it... Entrepreneurs, you might want to look into this.

Speaking of animals, my neighbors have 4 new (and I mean brand new) kittens. Yesterday they sent the tiny little things outside. Alone. All day. In 90 degree weather.

Now onto the 4th of July. This weekend we ate Mexican food, saw fireworks, lit sparklers, swam, and went hiking. We found this nice trail at an arboretum that takes you through a reclaimed pasture, which is full of wildflowers and tall grass. I felt like I was hiking through a prairie. Too bad none of the kids nor Daniel shared my joy.

I put Ethan in the sling (baby-a-go-go pouch sling), and carried him on my hip sometimes and my back the rest of the time. He seemed to enjoy it, and it was a lot easier to hold him for hours. The only problem is, I ended up sweating a lot in the spots were the sling rested on my shirt. Now we're looking for a backpack carrier for him, instead. The kind with a frame and a cargo area. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Another thing I did this week was go to CVS, again. I literally made over $30, and got free lots of stuff. The reason I mention this is because I actually took some of my free stuff abundance and gave it to people. I've been meaning to do this for a while, and I finally actually did it! Now I can't keep myself from going back and getting more. I'm going to have to work on that.

So was everyone else busy this 4th?

Does This Really Matter?

Partly because tomorrow is July 4th (that's Independence Day to all you Canadians :o), and partly because Daniel loves doing online quizzes like this one, I'm encouraging everyone to take the US citizenship quiz. This should certainly be easy for any native American, right? Well, I scored 70%, which is passing... But what does this say for my patriotism, education (homeschooling, no less), and understanding of history? Now, I know Daniel will not be surprised with my score. He rather enjoys my retelling of history, I guess - he laughs a lot when he hears me.

So, if someone was really trying to become a citizen of our country, would knowing these answers really matter? I guess these things are taught in our schools, but no one is born with this knowledge. However, people are born citizens of the US. Who decided that knowing the name of our Chief Justice qualifies you to receive all the benefits of being a US citizen?

And anyway, what exactly are the benefits of being a US citizen? You have to pay taxes either way. You have to obey the laws either way. You have to start at the bottom and work your way up either way. According to the US Citizenship website, the only thing you gain as a citizen is the right to vote. Hmm... I'll let you decide if that's worth it or not.

So, have a happy July 4th. Enjoy those fireworks and that hotdog. See a parade. Dress in red, white, and blue. After all, you've earned it if you passed the citizenship test.

It's Just One Cookie in the Van...

... What's the big deal?

A Girl and Her Fish.

"I'm just going to watch her until she's done pooping."

The Daily Shower Wars

The kids have made getting into stuff a tradition while I shower. Too bad I shower each morning. This is getting old.

Today I come out of the shower to find an entire storage cabinet emptied, all my sewing thread unraveled, the caps off the craft paint & all over Avery, and all the ribbon unrolled. They literally dismantled every craft supply I have. I then noticed that the TV was on, but the screen was blank. It turns out the screensaver had been activated, because the kids had found the remote and changed the TV to the Spice Channel. Yes, that is an "adult" channel. Thank goodness it's pay-per-view and they couldn't see anything!! I just get so tired of them doing things like this every single day. Today I had to pawn them off on my mom because I'd had enough by 10 am.

I try to reason with them. I tell them that mommy gets so mad at them for being bad and doing what they shouldn't, but mommy wants to be nice to them and happy with them all the time. I try begging them. I try bribing them. I try shock - "why are you watching that channel?? That has bad things on it!" Abby's response? "Will we learn to do things to other people by watching that channel? Don't worry, we only watched the good parts, not the bad ones." What a relief...

Nothing, and I mean nothing I've tried works. They get into something every single time I shower. I really like to shower, I'd hate to give it up. I also think Daniel would hate to see (or smell) me give it up, too. But the kids get more and more dangerous by the day. Saturday morning I walk into the kitchen after my shower, and find Avery on the counter. He has every single knife out of my knife block, lotion squirted all over the counter, and he's trying to "cut" the lotion with the knives. I had the baby gate up, but he just knocked it down.

Maybe this makes my kids seem like big brats. They're really not - just when I shower. But I'm writing this out of desperation. What can I do? I need ideas. Has anyone gone through this? Did it ever end??

Learning from TV

Today while I watched TV with my kids, I learned a lot. I learned that Abby wants to go to the Cayman Islands this summer. After all, she "told me that!" ...I must have forgotten. I learned that all kids are super special. I also learned that if a kid wants to be a donkey, then you're a jerk if you don't let him.

Apparently Kai-Lan's friends are all super special, and one of them is only super special if he's dressed as a donkey. His horrible friends were playing safari, and let some other kid play the donkey. It turns out that every single kid in the world is special somehow - some can jump super high, some can run super fast, some are super smart. So anyway, this kid wants to be the donkey and he wasn't, so what did he do? Of course, he got the heck outta there. Why even hang around your friends if they won't give you exactly what you want, anytime you want it?? The kids were concerned, so they went after him and figured out the problem. They decided to take turns being the donkey and everyone was happy.

What else did I learn from that? The same thing my kids probably learned - if you don't get what you want, throw a fit or sulk until you do. It works, just ask Kai-Lan and her friend. These are just awesome skills to teach our kids. It goes right along with the "nobody loses" idea that is permeating schools and soccer fields everywhere. Our kids are so super special, they deserve to never lose and never be without what they desire.

Umm... Didn't the Bible say to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves," (Phil. 2:3)? It sounds to me like Kai Lan missed the boat on this one. Personally, I would rather teach my kids what God thinks than what some cartoon Japanese girl thinks.

Although I do think my kids are pretty special - maybe even super special. But that's for my mind to think - I don't expect everyone else in the world to agree or recognize this specialness every second of the day. If my kids want to be a donkey, but someone else is already a donkey, then I would say, "too bad - guess you're the giraffe instead." After all, are there even donkeys in the Savannah at all?

My kids are special to me, but they don't need special treatment from teachers and other kids and other adults because of it. Instead, I aspire to make my kids normal. That's right - just like kids are supposed to be, and have been for centuries. Even Jesus was a normal kid at some point. Why can't we just celebrate the kid in our kids, instead of always looking for something that makes them better than other kids? I've talked about this before, on a mommy level. Read this to see what I have to say on the matter. Because I'm so darn super special myself.

Now if I could just learn why all of Kai Lan's animal friends have only one tooth, but her human friends have no teeth...

Another Hidden Picture

I went into Abby's room to check on Avery, who was supposed to be taking a nap. I opened the door and found this (and yes, the room was clean when he went in there!):

Notice the red blanket. Can you see Avery under there?

Here's a closer view:

Pretty tricky, that boy...

Glue!

I found this great website with recipes for a few different kinds of glue. I'm making the decoupage glue to decorate a table I got for Abby - I love the "as-is" section of Ikea! That's right, I've learned to not completely hate all things Ikea. It's a nice store if you stay downstairs.

Back to the glue. The stamp glue recipe at the bottom of the page sounds awesome. My kids love licking things, so I will definitely be trying that one out. If anyone tries out the other recipes, let me know how they turn out.

Glue, glue, glue.

Money Can't Buy Happiness - But Gum Can!

The whole getting-into-things-we-shouldn't-as-mommy-showers thing is getting very, very old. Nearly every day the kids do something to ruin something while I shower. I'm thinking I'll have to shower at night instead, or at 5 in the morning, or something...

Today they got into my purse while I was in the shower. The boys squeezed out all my good hand cream all over my rug (yes, the rug, again). They then used my credit cards (and my CVS Extra Care card!!) to scrape up the lotion, and rubbed it back into the rug. Avery also enjoyed chewing lots of gum while I was showering.

When I saw it, I punished Avery and took away the gum he had in his hand. He started crying, of course. I then made him go potty while he threw a little fit. After he actually went potty, I figured I may as well reward him with the gum he had already opened. He then told me:

"I'm happy now, because I have gum."

And the tears stopped.

How to Entertain a 2 Year Old for an Hour

Summer Camp at Home day #... I don't know. But we made sock puppets and it kept Avery happy for quite a while. It seems 2 year olds don't just like sock puppets on their hands, they are also funny on their feet. 4 year olds seem to like sock puppets filled with buttons.

Look Closely

Can you spot the hidden picture?

The Out of Doors

We went hiking Saturday. Things like this really tell you what kind of temperament your kids have, and how much they like the outdoors. Turns out none of my kids enjoying falling on their faces onto a pile of rocks (go figure), they all love orange day lilies, and one of them loves peeing in the woods (and another one gets jealous of the one who gets to pee in the woods). We also learned that Ethan tends to roll if he falls down near a pond.

We only hiked a total of 1/2 mile, but it sure took long enough to be at least 3 miles. The kids did really well, and especially liked the creeks they got to walk through and the bridges we crossed. We also saw some dead and stuffed animals in the nature center, and a real (alive) chipmunk and frog.

We even got a family picture!

Take 5.

Because sometimes you just need a juice and Teddy Grahams break. Yes, that's a laptop next to him - he writes this blog, after all.