An artist in the making?

You decide. Here's some of the more creative pictures Andrew took this evening. Of course all picture taking was done with a great deal of giggling!

Andrew outing his mother's bad habit


It's a good thing I cleaned the toilet today!


Me at my best! Lovely!






A self portrait


The inside of Lillie's boot

The games children play

My children are strange. I will happily admit that fact. And I suppose that means their mother is strange too. With that preface, here's a story about a game called 'Snap'.

About a week ago I discovered my children playing some sort of game with the sproingy-doorstop-thingies that go on the house. Being the mean mother that I am, I made the children replace them and told them they weren't toys. Silly mother. A few days later, I had the following conversation with Andrew.

"Mom, can we pleeeeaaaase play with the doorstops? They are the only thing I've found in the house that we can play Snap with."

"No. They aren't toys. They stop doors so we don't have holes in all the walls."

"But Mom, we'll put them back when we are done. I promise."

"No, Andrew. They aren't toys." I paused, then said, "You can buy them, you know."

Imagine the light shining in my sons eyes. "You can?!?! Where?"

"Home Depot."

"Can we go there and buy some?"

I now realize what I've gotten myself into. Imagine a puppy panting and hopping up and down with excitement and that's exactly what Andrew looked like.

"Not today, but maybe sometime. Now go play."

Well, I haven't heard the end of it since and nearly every day I have heard the beggings and pleadings to go to Home Depot. There's a first for everything!! So yesterday, I went to Home Depot and bought my kids sproingy-doorstop-thingies. Oh the joy!! They are currently off playing 'Snap', which I've determined has something to do with Harry Potter, but I'm afraid to delve into the game too much. If I knew that it only cost $1.68 to entertain my children, Christmas would have been a heck of a lot cheaper!

Let there be pictures!!!!

My dear, sweet, wonderful husband fixed my fixed computer and I can now upload pictures!! Hooray!! So after torturing my readers with actual words for so long, I decided today will be a picture post!! Here ya go!

Katherine is four!!


Blowing out her birthday candles!



Thanks for the fuzzy bear Grandma!


Last, but not least, Joe, our Russian Tortoise!

It IS ringworm

My sister Lori (see Planet Mayfield) told me I don't have to rat myself out, but I feel I must. This is one of those mothering things that must be shared so other mothers won't feel alone. Or maybe they'll just make me feel better.

So, yesterday, to my absolute horror, I discovered another sore on the same arm as the hickey. My first thought was uh,oh, what if it IS ringworm. So I got on my handy little computer and googled ringworm. Then I called my mother. Then I called the doctor. And lo and behold, it IS ringworm. Let me tell you, I felt like a stellar mother!

To my credit, I DID see her sucking the same spot, twice. In retrospect, I've realized that she probably did it in response the the ringworm which is very itchy. Also to my credit, the doctor told me he thought there was no way it would be ringworm because it is usually found in humid climates. We don't know what humidity is here! He was just as surprised as I was that it was in fact ringworm. Lucky for me it's easy to treat.

Unfortunately, she's probably infected half the state with it since her mother thought it was only a self-inflicted hickey. So today I get to repent and call her school and the gym daycare and report my faupaux. Fun for me!

Note to self:
If your sister says, "hmmmm, that looks like ringworm", TAKE HER SERIOUSLY!!!

Making do

Since my computer is now fixed, I can no longer figure out how to get the pictures off my camera and onto my computer. Typical. So after much procrastination I've decided to make do and post about our exciting life minus pictures. (I use exciting with much facetiousness.)

We've had a busy week. From puking children, to turtles to birthdays. Life just never slows down!

Puking children

Aww, the joys of parenthood are many. We've survived a good long while, but Odessa broke that string of luck late Sunday night. I'd thought perhaps I'd gotten lucky when, by Tuesday I'd had no other pukers. But no, Wednesday I began hearing reports of tummy aches from Lillie and Michael, both of which are home today with the stomach flu. Though Lillie has the stomach of steel and never actually puked, she just threatened to many times. That's enough for me!!

Turtles

Now this is where pictures would have been handy. After our lack of luck with the crabs, I did some research and discovered that owning a hermit crab is much like owning a goldfish. They are cheap, but extremely difficult to keep alive. And so, after much discussion with my husband, much begging, pleading and crying from Michael who had to lay to rest the two aforementioned crabs, we decided to become proud turtle owners. And so we acquired Mr. Joey on Saturday.

Joe is a Russian Tortoise. And we learned that Petco personnel, despite claiming to own a turtle, know diddly-squat about them. After bringing Joe home, putting him into his nice, though slightly used ex-crab home and seeing him not eat or move much for two days, I did some research. I am happy to report that after putting Joe in a much more appropriate home, he is doing well and a very active, happy turtle. Never trust a Petco worker. Buyer beware.

Birthdays

Katherine turned four on Tuesday. We spent a fabulous day filled with grocery shopping (which was only fabulous because Grandma came and rescued Katherine from her mother, or the other way around!), playing with friends, a trip to Chucke Cheese and of course, cake, ice cream and presents! (I do have pictures, they are merely being held hostage at the moment!!)

As we were driving to Chucke Cheese and Katherine was in tears, I attempted to soothe her by telling her we would arrive shortly. This only increased the sobbing and I eventually came to understand that she "wanted my birthday only", which translated into "I could care less about dinner, just give me my presents!" I had left them out on the table after I wrapped them. Big mistake!! She did enjoy Chucke Cheese but was very happy to finally have her "birthday only". Happy Birthday Miss Katherine!

And so...These are the days of our lives (Cheesy soap opera music plays in the background.)

And when I figure out my stupid computer I might entertain my two faithful readers with pictures of said joyous events. Ok, not the puking, but everything else!

5 reasons not to give yourself a hickey

1. It hurts.
2. If you do it twice in the same place, it not only hurts worse but looks like you have a case of ringworm.
3. If you then scratch it, your mother will insist on putting ointment on the horrid wound you've created. And this is a tragedy.
4. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't a fashion statement. Though if you insist on wearing short sleeve shirts, you can show off your ringworm/hickey.
5. It is a conversation starter.

Katherine gave herself a hickey on her arm. Twice. In the exact same spot. It's quite lovely. And no, it's not ringworm, just a self-inflicted hickey. And the above list is 100% true.

Items Odessa brings me

These are all things she knows she isn't supposed to have, but gets anyway. And then brings them to me, and/or spits them out when caught. After which, she runs away grinning ear to ear.

1. The remote
2. My cell phone
3. Money (This is a spit out item. Lovely.)
4. Toothpaste
5. Everyone else's toothbrush, but only after sucking on them first
6. Pretend money (Another spit out item)
7. Marbles (Yup, a spit out item)
8. My camera
9. Markers (Not sure where she finds them, and she only hands them over after using first as chapstick. Thank heavens for washable markers.)
10. Potato chips (If some fool leaves the cupboard open she heads for the chips first. I dread the day she can open doors herself.)
11. Little legos from her brother's room
12. Mini skateboards from her brother's room
13. Wet wipes

I know I'll add to this list since she gets into absolutely everything. If she weren't so stinkin' cute, she'd be grounded. But it's hard to get mad at her when her little dimples are shining up at you in a mischivious sort of way!! I do my best mommy voice to reprimand all of this, but I think she sees right through me. She still smiles when she brings me things!!

THE TIMER

As a child, I thought the timer was a cruel way to enforce the eating requirements at my house. I thought my parents were just plain mean and I thought they were the only parents on the planet to use such cruel parenting methods.

I have since learned the truth. They were merely praying that us children would finish a meal in under two hours. I now have pokey eaters of my own and I set a timer when I just can't stand to have them sit at the table any longer.

All my children commit the pokey eating offense, but Michael is by far the worst. On non-school days, he can sit and eat the same bowl of cereal for an hour. I'm not even exaggerating. How anyone could still stomache the same bowl of cereal after that much time is beyond me. I think breakfast was perhaps the only time I didn't need a timer set to encourage actual eating. But Michael, he will stare into space, sing songs, have detailed conversations and SLOWLY eat his breakfast. The only meal that doesn't usually require threats to life and limb is lunch. And that's only because he has friends waiting in the wing.

Pokey eating can be made exponentially worse by meals that are not conducive to children. (This is any food that has red, or green items in them, or is not on the favorites list.) Then the pokey eating is enhanced by whining, crying, and gnashing of teeth. This could essentially go on forever if not for the timer. Though the setting of the timer is often followed by cries of woe. How could mom set the timer? She's soooooo mean!!!

That's right, I'm mean! Oh well, someday they will have pokey eaters of their own and see the wisdom of THE TIMER!!

Mourning...

No, I'm not mourning the loss of Michael's crab. I'm mourning a different kind of loss, a technological loss.

My computer has been struggling for life for quite some time now, and so we decided to dump the info on it and wipe it clean. A new slate. I'm sure some of you can see where this is going. In the process, I lost my documents folder and my entire picture folder. I haven't backed anything up in the last six months, but I do have some pictures scattered here and there on the web that I can retrieve. However, Christmas is gone, aside from the three pictures I posted here.

So I'm in mourning. I'm mourning something I can never get back. Pictures of my children. Moments that I can now only relive in my mind and through blogging and journaling. And believe me I cried.

I'm sad about my documents folder, but to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what was in it. I managed to grab my big project that I've been working on for some time, but I've lost many of my short essays and random scriblings.

The moral of the story? Backup your computer. A lot. Every day. Often. Whatever. Just don't lose those pictures that you can never replace. If I don't blog much for the next week, it's because I am in mourning and trying to rebuild my computer. Such is life. Now go backup your Christmas photos, RIGHT NOW!!!