My comedian

I do remember that I have a blog--honest!

We went for a walk yesterday to pick up M from scouts. On the way, G found a stick that was the perfect shape for a magic wand. He waked down the sidewalk turning things into flowers.

Thank goodness it was flowers and not transformers. How does he even know what these things are without having seen the movies??

Anyway, he looked up at a house and pointed his wand. Swish. "I turned that house into a flower!"
Me- "What about the people who live there? Can they live in the flower?"
G- "Yes! (duh) It's a big flower."
Me- "what about their beds? Where will they sleep?" Sleep is often a special concern of mine.
G- "They're flower beds!"

Hahahahahahaha

4 kids is quite the thrill ride

3 weeks ago, I let G go play outside, but told him he had to stay on this side of the street. If he wanted to cross to his friend's house, he had to ask me. Well, I look up and he's gone. I called his friend's mom, and yup, he was inside playing. He told her I said it was okay. I had him come home for lunch.
Later that day, another neighbor was over (we seriously have an Ozzie and Harriet neighborhood!), but I told him he HAD to stay in the backyard or come inside. I sit down to nurse the baby and look out the window. He was across the street at the girl's house! I stuck my head out the door and told him to go back to the yard. He screamed at me so I told him to get inside. He took off running. I started following him, baby still latched on. He ran faster and crossed the main street in our neighborhood. This is at 3:30 pm! The busiest time with kids coming home from school and whatnot. The neighbor asked if I needed help and I shoved Baby M into her arms and took off running. I chased him for 3 blocks but couldn't catch him. Fortunately, MIL was loading things into her car. I ran back and yelled at her to start the car, we had to catch G. It took her a second, but we chased him down. He ran 6 blocks and was running along the highway. When I jumped out of the car to catch him, I caught him by the hood of his jacket (thank goodness for that hoodie!) just as he darted into the highway!!
I have never run so hard in my life or been so stinking scared. Terrified would be a better word.

So, today (what is it with Wednesday??) had come home from the library, and I had my thinking cap on. Knowing that E is a runner, I closed the garage door before I got him out of his carseat. I knew that the back gates were closed, so I smugly went inside to nurse the baby and get lunch ready. I heard E call "stuck". Figuring he had gotten stuck either in the weeds out the back door or in the toys in the garage, I sent G to help him. Biscuits in the oven and meat in the pan. I'm good! G comes in to tell me he can't find E. Look again, I tell him. He does. Still can't find him. I tell him to look in the toy bin. He's not there. Dang. I go put on my shoes and head out to look for him. I start calling him and can hear his voice coming from outside. Must be stuck between the garbage cans. I keep calling to keep him talking. I start getting worried when I can't find him anywhere, despite being able to faintly hear him. Then I look up.
The words that came out of my mouth can't be printed in a family-friendly blog.
He had climbed up our 2 ladders leaning against the side of the house. 2 10 foot ladders. Yes, 10 frikkin feet! He was at the top!!! I hand baby to G and scream for M. He comes running out and I tell him to go get someone. Who, he asks. I don't care! Anyone!
I knew I could get up there, but wasn't sure how stable the ladder was or how I would bring him back down. The kid weighs at least 35 pounds after all.
M came back with the next door neighbors and the neighbor across the street came to help too. Neighbor J climbed up and handed him to neighbor C while I steadied the ladder. We got him down safely, and put the ladders down.

So what does he do this evening? Yeah, he finds a ladder in neighbor J's garage. Climbs all 10 feet of it to the storage shelf. Thank goodness he knows not to climb down eh?

My kids are freaking me out.

Graduation

Of course, we start with cute baby picture. :) This is what I wake up to in the morning. Life is pretty good.

The day before J's graduation, we had fun at our house. We started with presents! We got her a vacuum. Hopefully it works better than what she has. She's been asking for one for awhile now. Her parents bought her a Kitchen Aid mixer. It seemed at the last shopping trip that it was do or die on that one. J handed her mom a rebate at Macy's for a free attatchment when you bought a mixer. "Here mom, you can use this when you buy my mixer." Silly girl.

Of course, there was much picture taking. And picture taking of the picture taking. I only got into this family cuz I passed the weird-ness test. LOL

Then the kids played in the wrapping paper. Must remember this next holiday. Don't worry about gifts--wrapped boxes are sufficient!


Father and Daughter. Awwwww.



For dinner, we fired up the fire pit. We roasted hot dogs, roasted marshmallows, and made banana boats. And smelled like campfire. Yay!
To round out pictures, E tried on Uncle S boots and hat. Lookin' good!

Now J is all graduated. Next up is the big exam. But she'll pass that no prob. Go J!!

Tie-dye party

A few years ago, we invited our next door neighbors over to do some tie-dye with us. The kids had a great time. We decided to make it a regular thing. In our new house, we still have fun with our old neighbors, but now, we get to spend more time with the kids across the street. This year, we hosted a bigger party. We invited 3 other families over. That brought us to a total of 7 adults (one dad had to work) and 12 kids, including the 2 babies. We bought the dye and chemicals from Dharma Trading, everyone brought white clothes to dye. C mixed up 12 colors of dye. We helped the kids tie up their items the way they wanted, soaked them in the fixer, and let them go at it with squirt bottles of the dye. They haf a blast! The hard part of course is that the shirts had to sit for about 12 hrs. C and Neighbor MB rinsed everything, we washed them and the kids all wore their stuff the next day.
Everyone is already talking about next year. We are going to be one colorful neighborhood!

Sharing

E loves our new baby. Trouble is, he loves her a bit too much. Know what I mean? We have a doll that M named "new baby" when he got it when he was about 2 or 3. Funny enough, he picked out a black, boy doll. So, I keep telling E to get the baby doll. He is not to be fooled. He knows that our doll looks nothing like the baby he wants to hold! So off to the toy store we went. What kind of family has to finally search out a white doll dressed in pink? LOL
He loves his new doll. We couldn't get buckled into the car seat until the doll was out of her box. He tried to put her in the pouch, so I made him one of his own. Now, when he tries to yank his sister out my lap, I can tell him to go get his baby. So far so good.
I took some cute pictures of him with the doll. Here he is on his potty sharing the dolls pacifier. Funny, since neither he nor his sister would have ANYTHING to do with a paci!



And a great big kiss. I think I mentioned how everytime E says "baby" it has to be followed by a kiss to baby's head. Well, same rules apply apparently!

I'm loving baby M's feet. She always has her toes flared like this. Too cute. I know it won't last. :(

Growing girl

I can already tell she's getting bigger. Bigger cheeks, a little padding on the fingers and toes, mini rolls on the legs. And look! She now actually fits into a newborn-size sleeper!
These pictures are mostly for the benefit of my mom and dad. I can't find any of my baby pictures, and I want to know if those are my baby eyes. I'm thinking, from what I remember, that she looks a fair bit like my baby pictures. I could be way off, naturally.
Those of you who know us IRL are welcome to weigh in too. C or S, whaddya think?

Baby in her Kanoe

First, a cute picture of my babies. Every time E sees his sister, he says, "BABY!" and plants a kiss on her head. Too cute.

I knew I would need someplace to put baby M down once in a while. I looked at swings and bouncy seats. Briefly. I realized that anything that touched the floor would be something that E would climb on. There didn't seem to be any products made with this dynamic in mind!
I had looked at baby hammocks for E, but never bought one. Now I wish I had. After doing some more research, I settled on the Kanoe. It seems to be well made and I don't think I'll have much trouble selling it when we're done with it. It is lovely. Baby M isn't terribly fond of it right now as she has a cold. But I think she'll like it when laying down isn't so uncomfortable.

Close up. Can't get enough of her cuteness!