Colorful School Days & a Park Poop

So my kindergartener has been getting into trouble lately at school. Mostly he finishes his work, gets bored and gets chatty. Really chatty. He had his first "red day" at school this week.

His school uses a color-coded behavior chart type of discipline/encouragement and here's a little of how it goes:

Green = good/neutral, everyone starts off on green

Yellow = bad, note home
Orange = worse (I was unaware that orange existed until this week), note home
Red = really bad & a chat with parents

So that's from acceptable to bad. But then there's...

Blue = better than good
Purple = super good, great even!
Pink = pretty much unattainably good! You win the behavior chart! Or something...

It's all pretty confusing. I think I really just got the hang of it this week, mostly because Simon has been a few different colors. I emailed with his teacher and we've hopefully found a way to help. Mostly, Simon (and a few other kids) will be given extra busy work allowed to practice their "word wall words" when they finish their work. I even let Sime pick out a brand new little notebook to take to school for this.

Another thing that will hopefully help is rewarding him if he stays at green or above all week. Simon's teacher suggested this. Since he had a bad last couple days, this morning I told him if he got above green today, we would celebrate. The kid got all the way up to purple (super good, great even!). So to celebrate we got McDonald's for dinner and had a picnic at the park.

Yay, right?! Well, so far this post has only focused on one child. Enter Charzie, my newly potty-trained two-year-old. She's been constipated/refusing to poop for the last three or four days. She had a few painful poos and got scared of going. I gave her stool softener. Then I got some prune juice. She wouldn't drink the prune juice. Then I found the right mixture of prune juice + apple juice + water so that she would drink it. She drank quite a bit of it today. I also gave her half of a FiberOne bar. Then she finally pooped! Hooray! She worked up quite the sweat and it was rock hard (yeah, too much detail, I know, but poop is a subject frequently mentioned here). So I was relieved that I wasn't going to have to deal with poop at the park now! Or was I?

Yes, yes I was. And not just Charzie's...

The kids and I were mid-McD's picnic when Charz announced she had to go potty. I thought it would be a quick pee-pee but it turned out to be a big ol' poop. This one was much easier to push out, I could tell. She had gotten like four days worth out in an hour! So we wiped, flushed, washed hands and went back to our McD's picnic. We cleaned up, took our toys & drinks to the van, then went to the playground. We'd been at the playground maybe five minutes when Charzie announced that she once again had to go potty, just pee-pee. Simon & Jonas also announced that they had to go potty, too.

Since the main doors to the bathrooms were open and there was someone else in the women's room, I let the boys go pee in the men's and told them to come stand outside the women's when they were finished. As I was helping Charz, I smelled something stinky. I looked down and saw she had some remnant poo in her panties. I don't think she even realized she had gone, it was more of a shart really (when you pass gas and a little something extra comes out...), but poo nonetheless... and I had left the diaper bag in the van. Then I heard Jonas' poop song, the one where he sings to the world that he just pooped. Did I mention that I had taken the kids out for this picnic alone? Yeah...

I yelled to Jonas that he would have to wipe himself because I couldn't go in the men's room. All the while people were walking by and going in and out of the bathrooms. I wiped Charz up as best I could with the cheap toilet paper. I got her undies and pants off. Thankfully her shirt was long enough to cover her. We washed hands and I wrapped her messy stuff in a paper towel and walked out to see Jonas standing at the door of the men's room with his shorts & undies around his ankles. He looked at me and said, "I pooped, Mommy."

So I picked him up, took him to the women's bathroom, wiped him, flushed, had him finally pull up his shorts, washed hands and headed to the van with both boys and a pants-less Charzie. Got her cleaned up and put fresh undies & pants on her and we went back to the playground even though I really just wanted to go home.

We were there to celebrate Simon's "purple day" and had only played for five minutes before Poop-fest 2013 happened. So we went back and played. Both boys bonked their heads. Charz threw a fit because she wanted to do things big kids were doing, but we stayed. And we saw some friends! Then we went home, I gave the kids a bath and got them all ready and put them to bed.

One would think I would have learned by now that at least one child always has a poop incident whenever I take them all somewhere by myself, right? But if I did, I wouldn't have as many amusing stories for you, then, would I?

Epic Win

Model Charzie

Guys... guys... guys, guys, hey GUYS! (I'm using the gender neutral, casual you version of "guys" here) I have an epic win in my house and I really needed it...

After 5 years and 4 months of having from one to three children in diapers, they are ALL POTTY TRAINED! My 2-year-old Charzie worked hard this past week, earned M&M's, ice cream, stickers & jelly beans, and she's been wearing adorable toddler undies during the day (pull-ups for sleep times). She wakes up from nap dry. She wakes up dry about half the time overnight. She'll pee on pretty much any potty. She's pooped on the potty for the last three days. AND two of those days she was sick and still used the potty! Oh, this mama is super-pumped! And I'm gonna brag on her.

Kitty bath

You see, a certain eldest child was three-and-a-half before he would consistently pee on the potty or poop on the potty at all. The middle one was potty trained before the eldest. We used all kinds of rewards/bribery/calendar-with-stickers tactics, but it was sibling rivalry + "dump dollars" from my mom that got the eldest one motivated. Being naked and a poop fascination motivated the middle one (and we were totally surprised when he just potty trained himself). Mini M&Ms for everyone + the promise of a big Hello Kitty toy and lots of excitement were Charzie's motivation. I think mostly M&Ms, though.

With having three kids, I can say potty training was truly different for each child. But the one thing that they all had in common was that they had to be motivated and/or feel like it was their idea.

The only outfit she'd willingly wear to church one Sunday

 Oh, we are so excited in this house! Next, we'll have to get rid of the pacifier & bottle. But we'll let her hold onto those baby things a little while longer...

An Adventure Requiring Chocolate

This morning has been... well... um... an adventure, we'll say... an adventure requiring chocolate, yeah, that sounds better. It hasn't been all-out bad, but I wouldn't say it's been good.

I guess this morning really started last night when I couldn't stop reading this Reddit topic. (I really must warn you that if you click the link, you will probably get sucked in, too. This comment was particularly engrossing.) So I went to bed later than I intended. Then about 30 minutes after going to bed, Charzie fell out of hers and I had to help her back into bed. She fell out again just after 5:00 this morning, only she wouldn't get back into her own bed after that...

So Charzie was in our bed not sleeping at 5:15 or so this morning. Then by the time she started settling down like she was going back to sleep, the boys come bouncing into the room. We were able to get them to snuggle for a bit, but Charzie got jealous and angry. And then we needed to get up and get all ready for the day so Chase could go to work and I could take Simon to school.

Despite Jonas wanting to pick up every nut he saw along the way walking Simon to school, we were on time. Jonas and Charzie rode in the double stroller on the way home. I let them watch a show and have a snack while I finished getting ready to run my work errands.

As we were heading out the door we saw two of our neighbors chatting. One of those neighbors had a baby almost two weeks ago and was showing him off. Of course we had to go check him out! (He was all squirmy and perfect and looking snuggly in his car seat.) As I was chatting, Jonas & Charzie started playing in dirt. This wouldn't have been a big deal had they not just had baths last night (we generally do two bath nights per week). And I didn't have time to clean them up before running errands. So they were just dirty kids. I'm not talking just dirty hands or a smudge or two of dirt here, they had been throwing the dirt and watching the wind blow it on each other. Yeah, they were kind of covered.

On the way to the Post Office, Charzie, who had been up since 5:00AM, fell asleep. I was lugging her, wrangling Jonas and trying to get the mail out of the little box (it was crammed in there). Charzie fell asleep again on the way to the building where our church holds services and keeps a sort of office space (if you can call it an office, it's really more of a tech booth/library/office space). We share a building with a Goodwill regional headquarters. So, again, I lugged Charzie, wrangled Jonas, carried mail and the diaper bag (which was heavier than usual because I packed the iPad to occupy Jonas).

Charzie woke up by the time we got to the "office." I did my work while she drew & Jonas iPadded. Then I locked up and left. Jonas had gotten defiant and lost iPad privileges and then we headed out to the van. I got to the van and noticed that the key was gone off of my keychain. The van was locked. We have one key.

I did as much peeking as I could to see if I had dropped the key inside the van before locking it. Couldn't see it. I was having visions of being stuck with fussy small children who were ready for lunch while awaiting roadside assistance. Tears hadn't welled up in my eyes yet, but I could tell they were close. So we headed back into the building. Thank God it was where I thought it might be! It had fallen off my key clip when I unlocked or relocked the "office."

Jonas seemed to pick up every tiny object up off the ground in his path. Some of those objects made it into the car with him. One was a rock. When we got home, he not-so-lovingly threw that rock at me. He was in trouble. He was also angry that he was in trouble so he got sassy, which got him into more trouble and sent to his room all by himself. At least this time he only dumped one box of toys rather than making a giant mess of every toy and book he could reach in his room like he did last night.

We had a heart-to-heart after he cleaned up his mess. Then we had lunch. I'm pretty sure lunch saved the day. Getting to eat lunch in the living room while watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse is quite a treat. (And that treat was all Charzie's idea!) Lunch and sneaking myself some chocolate.

Jonas' Super Rad Aquabats Water Balloon 4th Birthday Extravaganza

As of today, my Jonas is four years old. We had been planning on having an all-out party for him since last year he didn't get one due to our big move (we bought a house and moved in four days before his third birthday). We had thought he would have a Batman theme and were looking for someone to show up dressed as Batman, tights and all...

But right before I started gathering party supplies he told me he wanted an Aquabats party. I said OK and that I wasn't sure if there were Aquabats party supplies, but we'd figure something out. Turns out there are Aquabats party supplies but only online at one web site. Before ordering I made sure he actually wanted an Aquabats party, and he told me he wanted "an Aquabats WATER BALLOON birthday!" So that's what we did...

Invitation front

Invitation back

So the Aquabats would be an actual rock band who also happen to be super heroes. I was a fan in the 90's but sadly never got to see a live show where they dress in their super hero costumes and battle evil monsters while playing music all live on stage. They now have a TV show for kids on The Hub and there's a season on Netfilx. Rock band + super heroes = awesome in Jonas' book.

For Jonas' cake, I made it chocolate with buttercream icing and drew the Aquabat logo guy on it. I also made a bunch of funfetti cupcakes with cookie burgers on them (thanks Pintrest!) in honor of one of Jonas' favorite segments on an episode of the show: Burger Rain. (You can watch a video of Burger Rain at the end of this post.)

I altered some decorations I had from Charzie's Yo Gabba Gabba party (I'll have to post on that later) to make them Aquabats-appropriate. And we had fruit, veggies, chicken nuggets, cheese & crackers to snack on.

Decorations & snacks

I had ordered some official goodie boxes & fillers for our kid guests, and then Jonas helped me choose some extra stuff to stick in there, too.

Guest loot

We started out just hanging out and snacking. I had a water table set up for the two-and-under crowd. Then we really kicked things off with a water balloon toss.

Water balloon toss

Next, the kids got to take turns chucking water balloons at Snakey. Snakey is actually a monster from the show. I painted him on cardboard and covered it with contact paper. After they all had a couple turns, we had them line up and attack together. They thought it was awesome.

The boys chucking water balloons at Snakey

But even more awesome than that was when they got to use a water balloon slingshot to battle the Floating Eye of Death (another actual monster from the show, which I also painted & contact-papered). I rigged this bad guy up on the kids' fort. I tell you what, boys ages 3-6 were all about that slingshot.

This guy had some fantastic aim.

After defeating Snakey and the Floating Eye of Death, we had a water balloon and water gun free-for-all. Then it was cake time.

Cake time

Jonas blew the candle out at the wrong time and freaked out. I re-lit it, he blew it out at the end of Happy Birthday and all was well.

We had cake and ice cream (vanilla or "monster" which had M&Ms and cookie dough in it) and then opened presents. Jonas got quite the birthday loot! The big surprise was our big gift at the end...

Jonas discovering his drums

Yes, we're crazy and bought our four-year-old drums, real drums, for his birthday. Kid's got rhythm.

And of course, Jonas being Jonas, had to go and do this:

This picture sums up Jonas

Now watch yourself some Burger Rain!

An IHOP Adventure

So I was standing in the women’s bathroom at IHOP making sure my two-year-old wasn’t licking the floor or anything, when my almost-four-year-old opens his stall door announcing (in the sing-songy voice he usually uses when he makes this announcement), “I poooooooped!” We were not the only ones in the bathroom, and he was wearing only his shirt and socks...

Backtrack. I took all three kids (ages two, almost four and five) to IHOP by myself tonight. No, I am not brave, but yes, I am crazy.

I took the kids to IHOP because their daddy has been out of town since Saturday night. Before that he had been home only a few days after returning from another work trip. The kids need to be thoroughly distracted when Daddy is gone because if they’re not (and sometimes even if they are) they go nuts. I was already going crazy at home so why not go crazy somewhere else where other people would bring us our food and then clean up after us? Right?

At IHOP with Middle One 

My middle child, the mostly naked one in the IHOP bathroom, has the most difficult time. When he gets particularly upset he goes into what we call “Hulk Mode.” Once in Hulk Mode, it’s nearly impossible to talk him down and we just need to let it run its course. But sometimes, sometimes we can talk him down by giving him something to look forward to later. Something like IHOP. I can tell him, “If you’re going to throw fits like this, I can’t take you to IHOP,” and he just might calm down.

Pancakes would be the favorite food of all three kids. IHOP is a pretty safe bet for me to take the kids by myself. The servers have always been super nice and it is a sit-down restaurant where you sort of expect to hear loud children at the beginning of their sugar rush. You just don’t expect naked children loudly singing about their poop.

**NOTE: IHOP did not sponsor this post, though I wish they did. I'd love some free pancakes!**

Happy Mother's Day

"When you're giving up, put on your Mom Jeans!" It's from one of my favorite SNL "commercials." Here, watch:




Probably the only SNL "commercial" I might like better is the Oops! I Crapped My Pants! one.

Yo Gabba Abners

Chase & I put our family in the Yo Gabba Gabba theme song and it goes...

SIMON! He's smart and artsy!
JONAS! He's mad and funny!
CHARZIE! She's sweet and curly!
MOMMY! She does the laundry!
DADDY! He loves his iPhone!
Let's all come and play with the Abner fam today!
Yo Gabba Gabba, Yo Gabba Gabba,
Yo Gabba Gabba, Yo Gabba Gabba
Yo Gabba Gabba, YO!

Neglect

Yeah, I've been completely neglecting this blog. It's not that I haven't had ideas to blog about, it's more that I haven't felt like any of those ideas are worthwhile.

I'm tiring of blogging about what's been going on and just posting pictures of my super cute kids.

Before everyone and their grandparents were on facebook, this blog was an easy way to show my friends & family what I've been up to, but now they can just facebook stalk me or instagram stalk me or twitter stalk me and see that in real time or close to it. I'd rather write something a little more entertaining.

The problem is, I've been uninspired.

I don't think I'm going to change the world or become some sort of internet comedian or make it as a mommy blogger or anything. I just want to write something... else?

Since I'm uninspired, I'll just give an update with pictures of what's been going on:

Simon got glasses.
Jonas wants glasses (and will wear his sunglasses around the house).
We had about a week of sick kids.
We cleaned up lots of gumballs from our yard.
There are still lots of gumballs in our yard.
Simon turned 5.
I made him a bug cake & we celebrated with our church community group.
We also made a trip to Kings Island to celebrate again with family.
Chase has been playing music.
I went to a concert at a basement venue where I saw Lucius and Tall Tall Trees.
I hula hooped with a friend between sets because a hoola hoop enthusiast hangs out at the house where we saw the concert.
Chase bought me a Lucius shirt.
I waited too long to change Charzie's diaper & pee got on that shirt.
I'm working on Charlotte's 2nd birthday party.
It's Yo Gabba Gabba! themed.

Now pictures:

Simon showed me bugs in a book & I put them on his cake

Spectacled Sime blowing out his candle

Simon at Kings Island with his funnel cake

My grandpa poking a kosmoceratops with his cane at Kings Island

Simon & Jonas showing some dino-love at Kings Island

This one is almost 2!

The birthday invitation (front) I designed for Charlotte

Bat-Charz

Charlotte (just about 22 months old) was just acting tired but it's too early to put her down for a nap. We'd already read some books and I decided it would be better to let her watch some TV than to have her fussing now (from her being tired) or later (from napping too early and getting tired)...

Me: Do you want Mommy to turn on a movie for you?
Charzie: Yeah
Me: What do you want to watch? Princess? (Cinderella)
Charzie: No
Me: You don't want to watch Cinderella?
Charzie: No
Me: What do you want to watch?
Charzie: Batman!

My baby girl is borderline obsessed with Batman, and I'm not talking the modern cartoons or movies either. She loves Batman: The Movie starring Adam West. She asks to watch Batman at least once a day and will laugh maniacally if I turn it on for her. She talks about Batman, Penguin and Joker. She calls her room "My Bat Cave" and will also say that the arches from our entryway to the dining and living rooms in our house are the Bat Cave.

Charlotte actually watches the movie, too. She'll gather her blankies and some toys on the couch and just sit watching Batman. I'll hear her exclaim, "Oh no! Batman! Look out!" during parts of the movie where Batman seems be in peril. She will get up and play a little while the movie is on, but she makes sure to keep an eye on her hero.

I can only assume her Batman obsession started with her big brother Jonas being all about The Bat. But this girl is taking it to a whole nutha level. We might be in trouble here...

Valentine's Soaps 'n Stuff

So, it's Valentine's Day.  My kids love their friends and family and enjoy making things to give/send to them.  I'm kind of artsy and a bit crafty, so when the mood strikes and the kids aren't cranky and one or more of them are occupied or napping, I like to help them make things for their friends & family.  I don't think crafting with your kids makes you a good parent and the inverse of not crafting with your kids certainly does not make you a bad parent.  Other than making art using pencils, crayons, markers & stickers, we only do a handful of crafts a year (you know, because I have three small children which equals utter chaos most of the time most days).  This year it worked out for Simon (age 4) and me to make these cute little heart-shaped soaps to give to the kids' friends, their cousin and grandparents...

Cute right?  We already had the soap-making stuff (glycerin bars, soap dye & soap scent) because a couple Christmases ago we made soaps with tiny ornaments inside to give out.  As the kids and I were perusing Target a week or so ago, I came across these ice cube trays in one of the bargin bins at the front of the store:

I know melting crayons down into different shapes using trays & pans is a pretty popular craft right now, and that was the inspiration for this soap project.  When I saw the tray I instantly thought it was perfect for making little soaps!  And since we already had the stuff at home, there was no loading the kids up to make a special trip to get supplies, it really was the perfect Valentine craft.

I simply melted the glycerin in a big bowl using the microwave, Simon stirred while I added the soap dye & soap scent, then I used a ladle to pour the liquid into the tray.  It hardened in less than 30 minutes and was ready to pop out.  Simon & I used some plastic wrap to package the soap.  I tied it with some paper ties from packaging from some Imaginext toys the boys got recently (I saved the ties because I thought they would make some cute gift wrap options, glad I did).  Simon was the art director as I made tags on the computer.  Then I just cut the tags out with scrapbook scissors (because I cannot cut a straight line to save my life and the wavy scissors make that less obvious), punched a hole and tied the tag on.

I think our tag is pretty clever, if I do say so myself...

I felt the need to put "It's soap!" on the tag because I wouldn't want their friends to mistake it for candy...

The soaps are small, cute, smell good without too much scent, AND the kids love using them to wash their hands (3-year-old Jonas will purposely touch the potty so that he has to gets to wash his hands with these soaps!).  So they're decorative yet practical.  It's very likely that Simon and I will do this again next year for his kindergarten class Valentines.  How is it he's old enough to start kindergarten next school year?!?!

So the soaps were Valentines for the kids' friends.  A few weeks ago while we were at Target (different trip than the aforementioned one, we all love us some Target), on an impulse I got the kids some way awesome Valentines cups...

Target had this whole display of circus-y Valentines stuff.  If you really know me, you also know that I love love love the circus.  So I really couldn't not get these cups for the boys.

I especially had to get them because for Simon's 3rd birthday he had a circus party and I made Jonas into a strong man on the invitations & decorations...

So then I couldn't get the boys a cup without getting one for Charlotte as well...

Just look at that girl!  She likes monkeys and will often just sit on the floor saying, "Mon-kee soun, mon-kee soun... AH! AH! AH!"  So the monkey cup was fitting.

So I hope you enjoyed my super-long Valentine's post.  I'll leave you with a picture of Simon being the strong man on his cup.

Life Aspirations

When I grow up I will be a super-strong ninja.  I will be able to lift 10 houses.  If there are bad guy ninjas, I will fight them.  If there are no bad guy ninjas, then I will just save people from fires.  -Simon, age 4

A Lincoln Coloring Page for YOU!

It's Ol' Abe's birthday today.  I drew this years ago and made it into a coloring page.  Print it.  Color it.  Enjoy.

Oh, and while sitting in my lap as I posted this, Charzie looked at my Lincoln picture and said, "Oh no!  Scary Guy, don't eat me!"

Just Some Cute Kid Videos

Having gone back and read my last few posts, I noticed that I've been quite the downer!  But of course, dealing with The Sick hitting all five members of this household and the things that go along with said Sick will bring just about anyone down.  The kids didn't leave the house for a week and a half and I left the house once in that time.  We were all going a little crazy.  So today I have a couple fun videos of my kiddos to share.

Alright, my kids love to play dress-up.  They dress up as superheroes, knights, Ninja Turtles, pirates, secret agent guys, bad guys, police officers, magicians, and many other things.  My kids don't just dress up as these characters; they totally get into it and become the character.  Anyway, today Jonas decided he wanted to be a Ghostbuster.  So here is a video of Jonas as Dr. Peter Venkman:



Of course Simon had to jump in, too.  This next video is from a few weeks ago before The Sick.  The kids were playing with Play-Doh and Charzie kept saying she was making applesauce.  She's a cute one, she is...

I Should Rename My Blog "The Poop Chronicles"

Our upstairs bathroom has been smelling like poop, and not just after someone does their business.  It's smelled like a deuce for days now.  After the middle-of-the-night-top-bunk puke the other night, I had left Simon's jammie pants in the bathroom.  I thought, maybe I'm confusing the poop & puke smells.  Those have been laundered and the bathroom still reeked.  I cleaned the potty seat thinking, maybe during Jonas' "ballerina" episode the Spiderman potty got some splash-back.  Nope.  Cleaned it.  Bathroom still smelled nasty.

Chase pointed out it seemed to be coming from the sink.  I went in search of a turd.  Could one be hidden in our bathroom?  I mean, my boys have been consistently pooping in the potty, but who knows what goes through their minds?  I was just about ready to check for an upper-decker when it hit me: We had babysitters on Monday and one of the girls said she had changed a post-nap Charzie poop diaper.  The diaper must be in the bathroom trash next to the sink!

Mystery solved!  Hooray!  I really needed a win after the sick hit our house.  Simon seems to be better, but poor Charzie had it out both ends today.  With the way Jonas has been acting, I'm pretty sure he's next... or it could just be he refused to nap today.

Cake?

As I was checking 19 month-old Charzie's diaper...

Me: Is there poop in there?
Charzie: No. Dere's cake in 'ere.

The lesson here is never consume any cake offered to you by my toddler.

(Just to clarify, there was poop in there.)

Jonas Songs

Here some songs that 3-year-old Jonas has made up; a couple a while a go and a few more recently, but he sings them all (and the main lyrics are the titles):

Beetles & Bees

God is King

Punch My Bread

Punch My Pets

Clap Your Pizza

And that's Jonas for ya.  I felt the need to post something amusing after cleaning up 4-year-old Simon's middle-of-the-night-top-bunk puke and waking up this morning to Jonas freaking out because he had some "ballerina" in the potty and a drip got on the stool.  It's been a sort of groggy, sort of slap-happy morning complete with an all-out toddler tantrum from Charlotte (who was angry that I put away the iPod touch she had quit playing with).  But thankfully, thankfully there has been no more puke and no more poop... yet.

Sick Day: Another Angry Ear

All of these things happened before noon today:

Woke up unable to hear out of my right ear. Also, it was bleeding.

The husband took a sick day for me since I need to see a doc.

The husband went to an early morning meeting with some guys from our church since prompt care doesn't open 'til 8:00 anyway.

Saw a doc who told me my eardrum was red & bulging. He sent a prescription to my pharmacy.

Met a lady & her two middle schoolers in the cold cold cold parking lot looking for a way to get some breakfast. Told her I'd get them some when I came out.

Got my Z-pack.

Gave the lady some cash. Seriously, if they were out in that cold of weather, they needed it. Nice Lady & nice kids.

Came home. The husband took the 3 year-old out to run some errands.

The muffler all but fell off the car while they were out.

The garage told the husband they couldn't get to it 'til this afternoon.

I bundled up & loaded up the other two in the van to go pick up the husband & 3yo.

Forgot the van key inside after corralling the kids outside.

Attempted to chisel the windshield wipers out of the ice.

Almost drove off leaving the diaper bag in our front yard.

Got to the garage where the husband told me the 3yo had pulled the fire alarm.

Oh, and the garage guys said the car was almost ready right when I got there. (Seriously!)

Watched the fire truck pull into the parking lot.

The 3yo & 1.5yo fell asleep on the way home (messed with naps).

The husband prepared the kids' lunch.


OK, lunch was after noon, but all the other stuff was before noon. It was quite the busy sick day. I mean, I usually feel like I've accomplished something if I can get myself & the kids dressed by lunch and maybe get one chore started!

And my ear started feeling a little better. The only good thing about having this ringing in my ear & (hopefully) temporary hearing loss is that the kids' whining/bickering/general loudness is muffled. I can almost pretend it's coming from somewhere else!

No Poop in MY Tub

Tonight, I barely escaped a poop in the tub.  To date, none of my kids have ever pooped in the bathtub.  (Although infant Simon did poop in his towel once.)  I had finished washing 18-month-old Charzie and was letting her play while I had moved on to Jonas.  I looked over and she was no longer sitting on her bum but was instead squatting.  No biggie, she just sits like that sometimes.  Then she got the look.

Yeah, the look.  You know, the poop look; the one where they just kind of stare while they make that concentrating smile/frown.  I still had two kids to wash and did not want to get everyone out, clean the tub, refill and wash.  (Realistically, the boys would not have gotten their much-needed bath.)  I quickly made Charzie stand up and yelled for her daddy to come get her.  No poop in my tub!

So Chase came and dried her off, lotioned her up, put her overnite diaper & jammies on her.  A short while later she was playing in her brothers' room while we got them all ready for bed.  Charzie squatted a bit, then squatted a lot.  Chase asked her what she was doing.  Her response was, "Poopie!"  And there, in her diaper, was a good-sized turd.  That was one poopy diaper I was happy to change; happy because it was a diaper and not bathwater.

Twitterpated

I keep intending to update this blog, but, as you can tell, it just doesn't happen that often...

BUT I did start a twitter a little while ago.  Yeah, I know, there are only four people on our planet who don't have one, but I am no longer one of those people.  So if you want to hear more about my kids' poop, the crazy stuff that my kids say/do, some of my slightly amusing insights, get five updates from me one day and then none for a week and a half, you can follow me on twitter @weesherweesh.

OK, now the baby has dumped everything out of the diaper bag and the 3 year-old is sticking as much of that stuff as possible in his ears, so it's time to put an end to that...

Simon was NOT Electocuted or Why I'm Exhausted Today

Small children are exhausting, especially at nap time.  That's right, nap time (you know, a time of rest?) is the most exhausting time of the day if you have small children.  No matter how tired they are, kids will use everything in their arsenal to resist a nap.  Well, at least my kids do.

Baby Charlotte is 17 months old.  She is in transition from two naps to one nap a day.  I liked two naps because her second coincided with Jonas' nap & Simon's sometimes-nap-sometimes-rest time meaning I could nap, too.  On days Charlotte takes one nap, she wakes up about the time the boys go down and things get kinda crazy around here.

Jonas is 3 years old.  He will only willingly stay in bed if I lay next to him until he falls asleep (usually I fall asleep, too).  When Charlotte is awake, I have to go up and down the steps at least three times (most of those days seven times) making Jonas get back in bed before he falls asleep.  I consider this working off the kids' confiscated Halloween chocolates.

Most days 4-year-old Simon is pretty good about staying in bed.  He has to rest on my bed otherwise he and Jonas rile each other up too much and neither will rest.  I have Simon take a few books with him and about half the time he ends up falling asleep. Today I thought he was asleep until I heard screaming...

I was downstairs with Charlotte organizing the bookshelves, unpacking a few framed pictures & knickknacks and hanging our metal "A" on the wall in between the seven trips up and down the stairs attempting to keep Jonas in bed without having to stay in the room with him.  Jonas had finally fallen asleep (I assume) when I heard Simon screaming.  From the way it sounded, I thought he had stuck his finger in an electrical socket and was being electrocuted or maybe he was having a seizure (he has had a seizure before).  So I raced up the stairs (for the eighth time), ran to my bedroom, flung the door open and with the breath that I could muster asked Simon if he was OK.   He was.  He said he was singing.

Yes, I mistook Simon's very loud singing for him being electrocuted.