Is Ada trying to tell me something?

For the last week it has been quite frustrating because Ada will ditch her diaper whenever she goes to the bathroom. It doesn't matter where she is in the house or what she is doing, but she just takes it off and continues her activities. It's been driving me nuts. She doesn't talk, and so I haven't really wanted to try to potty train her.

Well today I found a diaper on the floor, and was like, "Oh great!" And I started to look for the little two year old without her pants on. And where did I find my little Angel? Sitting on the toilet! I thought, "Oh, that is pretty funny!" And I let her sit for a second, and then I said, "Okay Ada, good job! Let's put your diaper on now." So I kept trying to get her to get off the toilet, but she kept on insisting to sit on it. And then finally . . . yep . . . she did it. She pooped!

So now I have three choices. I can either start:
1. Duck taping her diaper shut
2. Attempt potty training her by teaching her to sign potty . . . or
3. Just let her continue potty training herself . . . and see how she does! :)

"Beans" It's what's for dinner!!

On Tuesday we had my brother John over for dinner. I made some Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti and beans. It wasn't extremely fancy, but it was a good rounded meal. John came over, and I had all the kids sit down as I put all of the food on the table. I set the beans in front of Drews plate, and I turned around to get the Beverage. Suddenly I hear, "Drew!" I turned around and Drew had a big smirk on his face and Lamon said as I put the drink on the table, "Hold on, I think Drew just spit in the beans." What? "Drew, did you just spit in the beans?" Drew said nothing and just kept smiling. "Oh ya, he spit in them." Then Lamon immediately removed Drew from the table and sat him on the stairs for a 5 minute time out.

Meanwhile I was apologizing to John saying, "I'm sorry. Why in the world would he spit in the beans?"John responded, "That's okay. I don't really like beans anyway."

When Lamon got back to the table he suggested, "I have a great idea! What if Drew had beans for dinner?" I agreed that that sounded like a fabulous idea!

Drew returned to the table saying, "Mmmmn, I'm hungry." To which we responded, "Great, because you get to have beans for dinner!" Drew did not so much like that idea. He let us know throughout the entire meal how he didn't want the plate of beans in front of him, he wanted spaghetti! His whines didn't really sway us though, but we decided we would be kind and let him sprinkle cheese on his beans. There were many pleas of, "Mom . . . I'm starving! I don't like beans!" And we continued to tell him that he could have as many beans as he wanted because since he spit in them none of us could eat them and they were all his! They would certainly fill him up. It was a long night of whining for food. Each time Drew said he was hungry, I offered him more beans. And he did reluctantly eat them. It was funny because while this punishment of forcing Drew to just eat beans the entire night was going on, Hayden kept on begging to be able to eat beans like Drew had. Funny little Hayden!

Needless to say, Drew has assured us that his spitting in food days are done! And you know what? . . . I kind of believe him! . . .

Aah! . . . Ada!!!!!

Last night I was downstairs singing some hymns and the children were playing upstairs. They all made their way downstairs eventually and I wasn't really paying much attention to them. They weren't fighting so I thought all was well! Well, all of a sudden I hear Drew say, "Mom! Ada's cutting her hair!" I turned around and sure enough Ada had the scissors to her hair and cut, cut, cut. I grabbed them away from her, but the damage had already been done. I scolded her and stuck her right in bed, and then to my dismay I found hair on the floor in the bathroom (the scene of the initial crime!) It is pretty sad because I just barely took her to get her first professional haircut about three days ago, and that must be the source of her inspiration! The cuts were right to her scalp almost. I think that if I look to some of my past haircuts I might find one the will work for her if I want to fix it









. . . On second thought . . . I think I will just leave it alone until it grows out again. If you stand far enough away . . . you can't even tell . . . Ya . . . it's staying the way it is!

Why I want an Apple . . .

I was looking at old pictures with the kids, and I ran across these pictures from a couple of years ago. Mandy had just gotten a new Mac laptop. And honestly . . . are there many more fun things than playing around with your image on a Macbook? I'm glad I don't have one. I probably would never get anything done! But I am pretty sure that if I had one it would do wonders for my self esteem. How could I not feel beautiful looking in the mirror after seeing these? Although I am pretty hot in these pictures . . . I cannot lie.

Being a "Tard" as I Prime the Carpet?

So . . . anyone who has been to our house in the last let's say . . . year and a half has seen our slow progression in removing all the wallpaper in order to paint our walls. Well, the wall paper is all down, and we decided that we would finally bite the bullet and prime and paint our walls. Well, after a long day we were both tired, and it didn't look as if priming was on the top of Lamon's list of things to do after the kids went down. We invited all of the family over for Hayden and Ada's birthday tomorrow and I really didn't want to push all the furniture back with the walls undone, so I volunteered, "Hey, if you show me how to do it I will prime the walls!"
And Lamon thought that it was a fine idea, and told me he would get me started. So he got everything ready and rolled it on one of the walls, and showed me what to do, and how to be careful so that I wouldn't spill. He said, "Okay, now you can finish doing the walls and I will do the edges. So he handed me the roller, and I got it all covered with primer exactly as he showed me, and turned to attempt my first roll and suddenly I hear, "Mary!!!" I was like, "What?" And as I turned around I saw that I had accidentally let a drop of primer spill. "Oops!" But as I turned around and said oops, I also accidentally dragged the sheet that the primer was sitting on with my foot and the whole tray full of primer fell off the end table and spilled all over the carpet!
At this point, my kind husband called me a "Tard" (mostly joking) and threw the sheet and the primer right out the front door, and just looked at me incrediously and shook his head. "Mary! How do you do it? I thought for sure nothing catastrophic would happen on your very first attempt!!"
And I proceeded to tell him as I always do after a moment like this, "Hey, . . . You married me!" What can I say? I just want to keep people on their toes! "What embarrassing or disastrous thing will Mary do next?" That is something we can all have fun wondering when there is nothing else fun to do. I promise to provide comic relief whenever possible. I do my best to accomodate everyone's need for a good embarrassing story. There is no doubt that I will always have one to share!

Sweet Hayden

My little Hayden is turning four on Saturday. He is such a sweet little boy. It doesn't take much to make him happy. Here is a conversation that happened last night:

Mom: "Hayden, your birthday is in four days!"
Hayden: "I'm going to be four?"
Mom: :"Yes! What do you want to do for your birthday?"
Hayden: (smiling sweetly) "Uh . . . have some cake?"
Mom: "Ya . . . but what do you want to Do? Who do you want to invite to your birthday?"
Hayden: (still smiling sweetly) "Uh . . . candles?"
Mom: (laughing) "No . . . WHO . . . do you want to have COME to your birthday?"
Hayden: "Uh . . . Carter . . . Justin . . .
Drew: (whispering in Hayden's ear) "Avery"
Hayden: "Avery"
Hayden: (quietly) I just love everybody . . .
Drew: "When is my birthday?"
Mom: "Not for about five more months . . . It goes January, Feb., March, April, . . . then May . . ."
Hayden: (putting his arm around Drew) "It's okay Drew . . . I will share my birthday with you . . . !"
Is there any other word but SWEET to describe my almost four year old? I guess hilarious is another adequate word . . . but more sweet than he even is hilarious!

Ouch

About a week ago I came into the living room just in time to hear Hayden say, "Drew, watch! I can go backwards!" And then he jumped off the coffee table and smacked his head really hard on the top of it. I knew that it must have hurt pretty bad, and sure enough after a second or two he started crying. I picked him up and tried to comfort him; and then I looked at his head. I don't know if I could even describe it . . . but it reminded me of one of those cartoons where someone gets hit in the head and then suddenly a bump appears and grows bigger and bigger. Well that is exactly what happened! I watched the bump on his head keep growing and growing, and I kept making comments like, "Wow! . . . Oh my cow!! . . . etc." Really great things to say to a kid who is hurting. Anyway, he finally stopped crying and I said, "Hayden, do you want to go look at your bump?" Not a really bright idea by me. We went upstairs and I had him look at himself in the mirror; and as soon as he saw his head he started to wail!! He kept saying, "Mom! Push it back in! Push it back in!" "Hayden I can't push it back in! It will go down eventually." And he kept crying and ran back into the living room and jumped up on the coffee table again. I said, "Hayden, what are you doing?" "I am going to push it back in!" He said amidst tears. He thought maybe if he smacked his head again it would push it back in. I convinced him that wasn't a good idea, and had him put some ice (aka frozen corn) on his head.
I decided that coffee table is nothing more than a jungle gym for the kids, and I stuck it under the house. It's been rather nice without the kids jumping on it all day, and maybe we will save from having more injuries! :)