Another Post About Trouble

In other words, I'm going to talk about Lily for a bit here. First let me just say that she's off-the-charts cute. And look at Ella; isn't she a fantastic older sister. Mom, where's my sister? I want one like her. Hop to it.

We can't figure out what she did to get her face all dirty like this, but it probably involved eating some of the dirt. I hope it tasted good.

She obviously needed a bath after whatever she did in the dirt. I ran her a bath, tossed her in the bubbles and headed downstairs for a few minutes. After five or ten minutes Del asked where she was and when I told him she was in the tub he volunteered to go get her out. On his way up the steps he starts complaining about a dirty diaper. "Hey, did someone leave a dirty diaper up here?" Mom, Dad and I are all shaking our heads and denying any diaper-leaving of any sort. We continue to discuss whatever important matter we had been discussing when suddenly we hear Del laughing out loud and a "OH MY GOSH, YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS."

I run up the stairs and when I get to the landing Del stops me in my tracks and turns me around and points. The stench of stinky-poo is assaulting my nostrils big time. See that little pile of brown stuff over there? Guess what that is.

No we don't own a puppy. But we do have a Lily. Apparently she had the urge and she got out of the tub to find a cozy place to deposit her poo. She was so sure she was in trouble (which she was) that she was extremely well behaved the rest of the night. Methinks little Tiger Lily needs to be potty-trained.

I'm sorry I just posted two pictures of poo and you had to look at them. Scroll up to the top and look at the cute pictures of Lily again.

Lily

Not to be out-done, Lily stuck around for four questions.

1. What is something mom always says to you? "pink"
2. What makes your mom happy? points to self (she's right, she does make me happy)
3. What makes mom sad? pink
4. How does your mom make you laugh? walk juice

She then turned around and ran away laughing maniacally.

Lily tried to burn the house down today. I should have taken pictures of the fire truck and the firemen that came to see if the wall was going to suddenly burst into flames. Unfortunately I was more concerned about the fact that three strangers were in my house, in the girls' room and the beds were not made and there was junk all over the floor. ACK! Darn.

Anyway...

I had put the little bugger down for a nap. About 20 minutes later we hear her crying from her room. We were just across the hall in the sewing room. Ella goes in to see why Lily is crying and Lily is standing at the socket where the night light is. The socket and night light are black and there is a bracelet broken and burned on the floor. There are a few black marks on Lily's finger. Don't worry, it was just surface. She did get a shock but the black soot just wiped off her finger. She's fine.

What happened was that the night light was not stuck all the way in the wall. It is very possible that Lily herself pulled it out and then tried to put it back in or something like that. Lily goes into Ella's "treasure box" and gets out her bracelet and then drapes the bracelet over the exposed prongs of the night light. The prongs are hot and create and arch..arc?...of electricity, scaring the living daylights out of Lily and shocking her some. The firemen said that the bracelet acted sort of like a circuit breaker or fuse and that's why the circuit breaker itself didn't go off...or whatever circuit breakers do to break the circuit.

The funny thing is that this isn't the first time that Lily has been playing with the light socket and gotten a shock. No more night lights in the kids' room.

Lily, Lily, Lily. When will you learn your lesson?

Rachel

Rachel the lion we call her, because of her lion's mane of a head of hair. When we say "Rachel the Lion" she says "RROOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!"

I know this just looks like a blur but that's actually Rachel twirling. You can see her blue skirt and redandwhite shirt.

Rachel's are a bit less wordy, but I think she did a pretty good job. She answered well on the ones that count. Like on #4, I make her laugh when I tackle her on the couch and tickle her and rub my head on her belly and blow zerberts and generally act crazy. It was a good answer, very all-encompassing.

1. What is something mom always says to you? "don't touch" (maybe I should emphasize the "obey" part more)
2. What makes your mom happy? food
3. What makes mom sad? monsters
4. How does your mom make you laugh? crazy
5. What was your mom like as a child? mother
6. How old is your mom? 5
7. How tall is your mom? this tall (reaching up above her cute little curly head)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? clean up
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? washing the floor
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? a mother (aahhhhhhh, only for you little Ray)
11. What is your mom really good at? flowers
12. What is your mom not good at? curtains (hmmm...)
13. What does your mom do for a job? digging (she's probably talking about all the gardening we've been doing lately)
14. What is your mom's favorite food? green soup (when I make it for some reason it has a green hue to it. It's good, but once again, not my favorite. Yeah what's with the lack of chocolate answers. They could have at least said coffee or something reasonable like that)
15. What makes you proud of your mom? a ladybug (don't ask, because I don't know)
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? a cardinal (see above comment)
17. What do you and your mom do together? sing
18. How are you and your mom the same? pretty eyelashes
19. How are you and your mom different? pink-pink (uh...okay)
20. How do you know your mom loves you? she gives me a hug (Rachel is the huggingest, snugglingest kid I know. It's fabulous)
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? going to work
22. Where is Mom's favorite place to go? to a store

Sarah

1. What is something mom always says to you? "get dressed" (LOL, that's a good one)
2. What makes your mom happy? clean rooms
3. What makes mom sad? when the flowers are dying
4. How does your mom make you laugh? tickling
5. What was your mom like as a child? she had a mom and dad
6. How old is your mom? ummm...how old are you?
7. How tall is your mom? taller than my sister Anna (well, thanks a lot!)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? work on the computer (doh! she caught me)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? put away dishes
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? selling money (huh?)
11. What is your mom really good at? sewing
12. What is your mom not good at? making messes (ha ha ha, ho ho ho, hee hee hee)
13. What does your mom do for a job? sew
14. What is your mom's favorite food? meat
15. What makes you proud of your mom? saying "yes" to playing on the computer
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Jerry (you know, the mouse)
17. What do you and your mom do together? plant flowers
18. How are you and your mom the same? same hair
19. How are you and your mom different? your peach, I'm tan (she looks just like her daddy)
20. How do you know your mom loves you? by giving me hugs and kisses when its night time
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? he doesn't have a beard (very true, very true)
22. Where is Mom's favorite place to go? Joann's (WOOHOO!)

In Which I Cry With Relief

We've commandeered Lily's crib. Anna needs it. She's outgrown the Moses basket already and she keeps me awake at night with all her grunting and weird noises. Lily is now in the toddler bed; a scary notion to her father and me.

Let me tell you a bit about Lily.

Every kid eats strange stuff. Things an adult would never think to put in their mouths, children taste, put in their mouths or eat. We've had a few problems with this in the past. Ella ate a couple of things we called Poison Control over but we've been pretty darn hardened to what kids eat since then. Until Lily. Lily challenges our sanity with the fear that she will some day kill herself by eating something poisonous or drowning in the toilet. She has an irrational fascination with the toilet and we've found her MANY times playing in the toilet water. Gross. We've also caught her eating things like paint, when we had the house painted, Head and Shoulders shampoo, nails, thumb tacks, dirt (of course), and she does things like: when it rains here the back sliding door tracks fill with water. They are dirty, hard-to-keep-clean tracks and, of course, oiled so that the doors slide smoothly. Lily gets down on all fours and laps the rain water out of the tracks. There is nothing Lily won't put in her mouth.

You can see our fear with putting her in a bed she can get out of. The crib kept her alive while we all slept because she couldn't get out of it...although she did try very hard to get out of the crib, but the climbing is another post entirely. So, we got a gate for her door. I really didn't want to have to do this, but she simply cannot be trusted. It's been a battle to get her to obey us and stay in the bed. The gate just gives us peace of mind that if, in the middle of the night she disobeys, at least she won't eat poison or drown in the toilet.

Last night, Rachel got up and came to our room and then immediately went back to her room. Odd for her; she usually climbs into bed with us. Then I hear the gate opening and closing and feet and more feet and frantic feet and more gate noise. So I drag my tired self out of bed and confront Ella with, "What in the world is going on here???" It was then that panic ensued as Ella informed me that Lily was not in her bed.

We searched the entire house. All the bathrooms, every single room we searched. All the lights were on in the house and Del , Ella and I were calling her name. Can you imagine what was going through our heads??? All the doors were locked so she didn't get out of the house. Why wasn't she answering our calls? And then Del had an epiphany. What's that we see there?

Is that a little butt sticking up in the air?

Let's shed a little more light on the matter.

There she is. Sleeping under Ella's bed.

These aren't the best pictures because I was crying while I was taking them.

And then I hugged her and kissed her and hugged all the kids and kissed them all and thanked God that they were all still safe in their beds.

Anna

Whoa! I look like I just had a baby there! Yikes. Here, here's a better photo.

My grandma; I love it when youth meets wisdom.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and congratulations! I wish I could hug your necks.

We're adjusting quite well. All the girls love Anna, even Lily who says, "BABY!!!" every time she sees Anna. It's cute.

I Love My Ella

My daughter Ella is an artist. She's sort of clumsy and is always hurting herself, but she sure can draw and paint. She loves it, and it comes naturally to her. Here she is with her younger sister Sarah. They got a new sewing machine for Christmas.Here is a sample of her original artwork, now framed and soon to be hanging on the wall in my bedroom. Isn't it pretty.

This is a drawing she did recently. Check out the shading on that apple. She's good. She might need to work on her spelling a bit, though, don't you think?

Um...What's With That?

I think that my kids' ears are tuned in to the sound of my bedroom door opening. It must have a certain pitch that I simply can't detect because I'm an adult or something. If they are all in the back room and I have to go to the bathroom, so I open the door to my bedroom to go to the bathroom, within seconds all four of the little buggers are following me into my bedroom and then standing in front of the bathroom door until I'm done. What's with that? Can't a mom get a little privacy here? What's so exciting about my bedroom that they have to be in there?

We All Knew This Was Coming, Right?

Of course we all knew it would be Rachel, AKA "The Trouble Maker." She likes to pat my belly and say "There's a baby in there." Anywhere she thinks I look a little tubby (can you say love handles) she pats and says, "There's a baby in there."

Today, Del was sitting on the couch about to nod off for a nap when Rachel jumped up on the couch with him and started patting his belly. "Is there a baby in there?" I laughed so hard I snorted. That's my Rachel. Isn't she cute?

I Know We Are So Boring

Barring any huge surprises, it's a....


GIRL!!!

Five little girls in 9 years. Bring on the pink.

It's Quiet

Mom took the older three kids with her to St. Augustine. It's just me and Lily. It's quite around here. It's weird to be mommy to only one kid. Lily keeps trekking to the girls' room and getting upset at them not being there. Apparently I'm not quite entertaining enough for her. She's very distressed.

Lily is now walking full time.

So Happy I Could Cry

Do you know I like to start things but not finish them. Take for instance the laundry. I have no problem whatsoever putting clothes in the washer, transferring to the dryer, folding even ironing. But I abhor putting clothes away.

Then there's the dishes. My most avoided, hated chore is emptying the dishwasher. This is so irrational, I know, but I avoid it terribly. The dishes pile up all day long because every time I go into the kitchen I know that I must empty the dishwasher in order to take care of the new dirty dishes and since I can't stand doing it I just leave the kitchen and ignore it. Isn't that TERRIBLE!!!

Well, all those years of waiting and training have paid off. Ella can now empty the ENTIRE dishwasher all by herself. Even all the dishes in the high shelves. I could seriously cry over this. People have been telling me for years that this period I'm in is the hardest part of being a mother of many young children and that once they get older it'll get easier. I was starting to not believe them. God bless Ella's heart. I can hardly believe it. She's growing up and she really is enjoying taking on more responsibilities in the house. Vacuuming and laundry sometimes and now the dishwasher. She even likes to clean the bathroom.

I'm going to go cry now.

I Promise Not To Get Obsessed With Rachel-isms

Mom, how do you spell "H?"

Mom, how do you spell "L?"

Mom, how do you spell "P?"

Mom, how do you spell "N?"

Mom, how do you spell "towel?"

Mom, how do you spell "X?"

Mom, how do you spell "breakfast?"

Mom, how do you spell "G?"

- You should see the scribbling on the paper she is supposedly writing all this down on.

Raising Them Right

I'm sitting on the floor cuddling with Rachel today. Keep in mind that Rachel is 2 years and 8 months old. She likes to cuddle and snuggle and be a baby. So anyway she looks up at me and says

"Mom, I want to go shopping, I'm sad. Can we go to the store?"

Yikes!

Duplicity

If you haven't seen this already you need to. I am just amazed at the duplicitous nature of our society. Maybe every society is like this. But I am astounded that we can celebrate (and rightfully so) such an amazing, miraculous event and then the same minute this is happening, abort a baby the same age for selfish reasons. Make sure you look at the 6 pictures included, you can see baby's teeny little legs. So precious. I watched the video, too and that was cute. I was leaking tears.

The Single Most Disgusting Thing I Have Ever Found In...

...any of my daughters' mouths.

Breastfeeding. What a miracle in so many ways. That a woman's body produces sweet milk that can and does sustain babies is a miracle. The time spent gazing at your sweet baby as you nurse her is a miracle. The bond that is wrought through the act of giving of yourself to your baby is a miracle.

I love breastfeeding. It has been especially fun with Lily. She likes to cling to my wrist and smoosh my hand against the side of her face while she's nursing. She likes to look up at me and chatter and coo. It is the sweetest thing ever.

Leave it to Lily to burst my bubble.

Today I was nursing her after a particularly tiring afternoon and she was desperate for a bit of comfort. I'm feeling pretty darn good about myself because only I can give her the comfort that she's deriving from nursing. Suddenly she stops and does that thing with her mouth. You know...that thing you do when you get a piece of popcorn stuck on the back of your tongue. That's what Lily is doing. She finally conjures up this thing that's stuck on the back of her tongue and presents it to me on the tip of her tongue. I get this thing out of her mouth for her and I'm thoroughly disgusted because...

...it's the butt-side of a half eaten bug.

Too Cute

Our family says, "I love you" a lot and shows a lot of affection. The boys are even affectionate with each other as far as hugs and helping each other a lot. Even so, today I got a big treat. For the first time ever I heard them say their love to each other. It was so cute! They were just walking toward the table to get a drink in the midst of their play and Ethan said, "I love you, Aaron!" and after he swallowed his water, Aaron enthusiastically replied, "Love you, too!" Now doesn't that just melt you heart?

Toilet Troubles

I know this seems like a really disgusting problem and it really has no solutions except for one.

Lily likes the toilet. I mean *really* likes the toilet. Every time she hears the door open she races to the bathroom so that she can stick her hand in the toilet. Yesterday I didn't catch her in time and when I caught up with her she was playing in the toilet water WHILE Rachel was peeing into the toilet. I have to wash Lily's hands at least half a dozen times a day. The two older girls have learned to KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED AT ALL TIMES but Rachel is still a bit dense about this. She just leaves the door open for Lily to come play. The other girls all had a mild interest in the toilet but I've never seen it this bad. AARRGGHHHHH!

A Bit More Comedy

Ethan is our child who keeps us laughing. Last night at dinner I made these super yummy Chicken Puff Pastry Things (yes, that is the technical name) and Ethan took a bite and said, "Ooh, these are yummy. They taste like dead chicken nuggets!" Aaron, however, was unconvinced and did not want to try this new and very weird food. I asked him, "Aaron, does mommy ever make really gross food like lizard toes? It is good food, just try it!" Jerry, always the helpful husband, said, "Not lizard toes, but I think I saw cat on the menu!" Ethan chimed in, "You can't eat cat! (Whew, glad he knows that!) It would taste hairy!" Yeah, that's the reason I was going to give for not eating cat, too...

A Little Bit of Comic Relief

Man, this blog is so serious. Lighten up, will ya?

So, we are in no way, shape or form studying dinosaurs, bones, archeology or paleontology but this has been Ella and Sarah's HUGE project over the last couple of days. I love homeschooling!

It's getting more and more complex now. They are making the tail longer, adding more ribs and really getting into it. You can see the dinosaur skeleton I printed off for them to use as a reference. Ella is free-hand cutting out all the pieces. She has informed me that, "If we get the house, I want to hang it up on the wall IN THE LIVING ROOM and make more and it'll be like a museum." How exciting! They are going to do a dog next.

And then we have the king of the castle and her royal princess...princess, er Sarah. Ella made the crown.

***UPDATED*** Here is their finished product. Notice the ubiquitous amounts of tape and tacks used to tape it together and hang it up.

***UPDATED AGAIN*** Ella just wanted to make sure that everyone knew what to do in that room...