halloween

it was an equal opportunity costume halloween this year. aidan was a horse until it was time to go trick or treating, he then opted for lion (presumably so he could roar). for his school party he was a clown. jack was a zebra. however being a part of 'team monkey see, monkey do', he too was a clown at some point.

you can't really read what i typed in the picture above, but aidan spent endless hours sitting on the pumpkins (trying to hatch a jack o lantern?) and jack just kept trying to eat them. what did i do for entertainment before kids?

some recent pictures

i love this picture so much. it's aidan with his best buddy emma. it just reminds me of being a child and being happy. not to spoil it, but john did make a point worth mentioning ... it's too bad they weren't feeding apples to the horses instead of carrots.






















jack's pictures either look super serious like this or (see below)





















and this kid just won't bloody pose for me. i wish i had the time to count how many pictures i have of a) his back b) his tongue and c) his eyes closed. it's a lot.

















... and following on from two pictures ago. you get my point.





















aidan & emma actually feeing the carrots to the horses. (they are wearing their casual post-hot tub attire consisting of a lovely purple swimming suit and no shoes on the lady and character underwear with sockless -black- character shoes on the gentleman).

"if you give a fish a squirt of soap ..." and other things i've learned this week

LESSON ONE

we experienced our first household loss due to aidan's obsession with soapy bubbles. i do have a photo of the bubbles percolating out of the top of the tank, but i'm going to spare you.

our disposal options:
1. flush it? no, too much like nemo. nemo went on his merry way down the drain very much alive. should probably make sure child knows fish has died.

2. bury it? no, will definitely try to dig it back up at a later date. no. no. no.

3. solution: put it in bag and take directly out to the big trash bin. not gross at all.

LESSON TWO

if you grab a hold of a cactus, it grabs back. it grabs your palm, the front of your fingers, around the sides and it may even try to get the back of your fingers too. tedious to remove. (i heard -too late- that you put duct tape on them and rip away ... someone also suggested letting elmer's glue dry on the hand, then ripping it away). good times.

LESSON THREE

when you go grocery shopping with two children and you let them ride in the car attachment thingy on the front of the cart, it is always best to keep an extra close eye on them to avoid conversations like the following:

"ahem, excuse me, ma'am? one of your children is trying to choke the other one."
"ah. thank you very much. --in an effort to fill the dead air-- does that mean that i may be leaving the store with one less child?"
awkward.

in the not too distant future i will be a paxilite. i will use this forum to tout its wondrous and magical abilities. i will see rainbows and butterflies. i will sing songs. i will skip.

the eternal attempt to photograph both kids together

interesting follow up

at some point during the day i'd like to forget (btw-after i posted aidan decided to try peeing on the carpet in the corner of his room. never done that before. it was awesome) i threatened aidan's pacifier if his mood (actions) didn't improve.

this is one of my favorite mom mistakes. threaten with something you really, really don't want to follow through with. how about - no cartoons tonight ... or no books tonight ... or no play time in the bath tonight. there are plenty of things to put out there that i would be happy to follow through with. the binkie, though, is a treasured calming object in this house--for all of us.

i work every day to follow through with my 'promises', both good and bad, so aidan knows i'm serious. so, bedtime comes on the bad day and i'm trying desperately to think how i can get out of taking the binkie away so that i don't have to deal with the tears and probable no sleep until midnight, then waking up at 3am wondering where it is and screaming again ... and on an on and on. my compromise--if you can go to bed and stay in your room to show me that you're a good listener and a big boy, then i'll bring the pacifier in to you in 1/2 hour. wait, wait wait ... "okay, mommy" and hops into bed.

1/2 later i go in (very proud of him for being quiet and staying in bed) to bring him the binkifier and he's passed out on the floor in front of his door--no passie, no blanket. he's NEVER fallen asleep without the pluggifier.

hmmm ... okay, now we might be on to something. next day was school and he happily agreed to only bring his blanket for naptime and to leave his dummy (that's what they call it in australia, i think it's funny) at home. i figured there was no way he'd nap and that he'd probably throw a tantrum. nope, he slept & didn't pitch a fit. okay, now we're really on to something.

SO, to come out of the really yucky awful day, my 3 1/4 year old has now spent three nights and two naps with only his treasured blanket (which i will let him keep until he goes to college).

i realize this was a very long story for really nothing that anyone cares about. i need you to understand what an enormous deal this was though. we fight over that damn pacifier every morning, noon and night. he's constantly trying to sneak back into his room just to suck on it. really, i was harboring resentment toward the plastic and silicone object of aidan's affections.

happy days. (now i need to make sure i hide jack's binkie every day before aidan can get to it!) *sigh*

today. seriously, i'm not rolling three days into one. just today.

i'm working on about 4 hours of sleep (dumb, dumb, dumb).

we start out with play doh. they both ate it. we subsequently put it away.

i watch aidan drop a toy on jack's legs just to see jack's reaction. he cried, because that's what he does. timeout.

i am upstairs. i hear a noise. i ignore it. i hear aidan, "yeah jack! let's get it all out!". i look down the stairs and see they've dug about a bucket full of dirt out of my plant and it's sitting in my entryway.

my dad hung up on me because he didn't want to listen to me telling aidan 6 times (with zero acknowledgement from the child) to get off of the pool cover roll-up mechanism thingy. he thought i would find humor in the hang up. i didn't.

aidan wouldn't nap. aidan wouldn't even stay in his room. aidan took everything out of his bed and put it on his floor. he also tore apart a book. ironically the first piece i pick up from the book is about picking up and being nice to your little brother.

they keep hiding auntie joanie's clean clothes.

i go outside to check on both boys after about 2 1/2 minutes of leaving them alone. aidan is eating a flower and jack is eating chalk. both are completely unfazed by the taste or texture of either of these items.

at this time aidan also has a chair under the pomegranate tree. he was attempting with the child's chair to reach the fruit 8 feet above his head.

we go back inside after jack steps in something unknown, but very yucky.

back inside. aidan hands me something wet and says "what's this?". "oh, aidan, that is somebody's CHEWING GUM!" it was bubble gum flavored, i smelled it. no one here has that. it must have come from the kids next door. since it was wet, pretty safe to say aidan was chewing on it. he informed me a bird had it in its mouth and accidentally dropped it. i made him sanitize his hands and drink a glass of water.

some hitting, kicking and spitting has occurred along with a total of 4 time outs.

the highlights:

nothing they ate appears to have any immediate effects of being poisonous.

there has been no biting.

all pee has made it into the toilet today.

i made a to do list (nothing got done, but the list exists, so that's a start)

i was somehow able to cut aidan's fingernails at some point.

it's 4:00, dinner is on the table. they will be in bed by 5:45 and asleep by 6:15.

this boy is fantastically wonderful

the big guy has decided that he would now like to pee standing up. his aim is about 80% accurate. i therefore have a new job similar to that of the guy who walks behind horses at a parade doing clean up. the other day i told aidan to go ahead and wash his hands while i cleaned up the wet toilet (and floor). as he climbed up on the stool to turn on the water he looked over at me (with my trusty toilet paper and disinfecting wipes in hand) and said, "mama, you really need to get a bigger toilet" ... ahhh, so true aidan, so true.

julie

senior pictures on the cheap. i realized when taking these that it might very well be the first time i had a willing participant in the photo taking relationship ... julie didn't try to eat the camera, blow raspberries at it, close her eyes on purpose, turn her back, or scream "no pictures!" and run away. good job jules.