U2

Last week at this time we were driving home from Minnesota.  It was an insane whirlwind of a trip, not something that we normally plan.  A while ago we had purchased U2 tickets and we were still determined to go even though Ryan's work schedule changed.  U2 is one of Ryan's all-time favorite bands.  When we were in a long-distance relationship, he in Germany and I in Korea, I wandered around Seoul listening to U2 feeling close to Ryan.  After I moved to Kansas, Ryan and I were able to go to our first U2 concert in Kansas City.  We had such a good time.  To me U2 is a reminder of the earlier days of our relationship when life was simpler.  We had only faced time,distance, parents (I say that in a lovingly way) and curfews and had no inkling of what was to come; heartbreak, house payments, more separation and kids.

We left for the concert six hours ahead of time because we were told we would need to just to be able to find a parking space.  It was three hours too early.  We wandered around for awhile, sat in McDonald's playing on our Blackberries, took tried to take a nap in the car in the parking garage, ate dinner in the worst Chipotle ever, bought our concert t-shirts early, bought the kids souvenirs, and walked around the stadium for hours.

We had such a good time together watching the concert even though it poured cold, hard rain on us and we knew we had to leave early by 10:30 to go pick up the kids, pack up the car and head back to Kansas. 

Given all that we had to go through last week because of the concert and driving all night long, I had a great time with my husband and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Things Heard Around Here

Mommy, the time machine is broken and can't be fixed.

Translation: The time machine is broken.  Doom! We can't ever go back now. 
The dial on the egg timer fell off and I can't put it back on.  Will you please put it back on for me?

Our Weekend Trip

Why did we run off for the weekend and leave our garden in the hands of a black-thumbed individual?  We went to Minnesota to visit family.  It was somewhat of a whirlwind trip, but I think we all had a good time.

While we were there the kids went on their first boat ride.  My uncle arranged the boat ride for us on the river behind their home.  It was a beautiful morning and the vegetation was lush and green, not burnt and brown like it is at home.

Aric was a bit scared at first, but quickly got over his fear and by the end of the ride had driven the boat.  Kellyn was not nervous at all.  She was peering over the sides from the beginning, walking around and even tried to toss her little Mermaid doll into the river.  Thankfully her aim is pretty lousy and the doll landed on the lip of the boat.

Note to Self...

**When going away for the weekend and enlisting someone to house sit during that time, make sure they don't have a black thumb.

The cucumbers, corn and green beans that I have babied during the past hot, dry month have succumbed to the heat and lack of water.  Now all that is left are some assorted pepper plants and tomatoes.  Hopefully they hang on.

...And, sadly, yesterday I had to buy cucumbers at the store for the kids to eat.  It was quite painful.

Things Heard Around Here

But I looooove you!

Translation: I don't want to do what you just asked so I'm stalling and using love as my method.

Examples:

Me: Aric, you need to go potty so we can go to the store.
Aric: But I looooove you!

Me: Aric, you need to quit bouncing on my stomach.  I think you just ruptured my spleen.
Aric: But I looooove you!

Last Photos

These were some of the last photos I took last weekend before my Nikon died.

I zoomed out and the camera never zoomed all the way back in.  Lately, I had noticed that it was having some focusing problems and have been a bit frustrated, but didn't want to give up my camera for repairs.  Now I have no choice since it won't work at all.  I took my camera in hoping for a quick fix, but now have to wait two to four weeks to get it back.  In the meantime, I'm using a point and shoot that is slowly giving up the ghost making that two to four weeks seem like an awful long time.

Death of a Figurine

One night last week I came home from VBS with Aric and this was waiting for me on the table:

It had been sitting on Kellyn's dresser, but she apparently decided to climb up and play with it.  Somehow in the process this poor shepherd was decapitated.  I wasn't upset about it for three reasons.  The first being, a little superglue will attach that head back on like new.  The second being, I am not a huge fan of figurines.  And the third, that decapitated shepherd boy reminds me of my brother.

All of my life, especially when I was younger I have been bestowed with a large number of figurines.  I haven't been particularly attached to any of them and only a few Precious Moments figurines have survived into my adulthood.  There are two reasons figurines met their demise while I was growing up: my younger brother and my older brother.

The first test of a figurine was if it could make it through my younger brother's toddlerhood.  He's eight years younger than I am and would frequently enter my room and break things.  Not on purpose, but because he was young and inquisitive like Kellyn with grabby fingers.  (But then I think grabby fingers are a toddler prerequisite.)  If any of the figurines made it through this trial, whether in one piece or hanging on with super glue then they transitioned into the second phase.  None of them made it through the second phase.

The second test involved two delinquent teenagers whose mother was in nursing school.  My older brother and I were often bored and seeking ways to entertain ourselves.  One of our favorite pastimes was to take whatever figurine, vase or knickknack that I really didn't like and throw it out the window.  If it broke then we would move on to the next victim.  If it didn't break then one of us, usually me because I was smaller, would climb out of the window to retrieve the item only to throw it back out the window until it broke.  We spent many afternoons entertaining ourselves like this.

That is why I wasn't upset about a decapitated figurine.  In a perverse way, that decapitated shepherd boy reminds me of some good times with my brother.

Things Heard Around Here

Stop it. Calm down.

Translation: Said by Kellyn anytime we are bothering her.  Such as when we say "bless you" after she sneezes, or decide to randomly dance or sing the ABC's to her. 

I didn't realize this stage could start so young.

Indoor Entertainment

With the recent sweltering heat, we don't make it outside too often anymore.  That means the kids have to find other ways to entertain themselves indoors.  We have colored with crayons, chalk, played hide and seek, played with Legos, Lincoln Logs, Aric's train set and all of their other toys.  Sometimes, though, the toys just get boring and the kids move on to other things for entertainment.

Oftentimes our house looks like this:

I'm glad that when I was buying a new couch six years ago I found one that ended up being pretty durable.  I know I was not thinking about the destructive powers of my future children when I was out shopping for that couch.

Fashionista

Kellyn is becoming a budding fashionista.  Every morning she likes to help pick out her clothes.  It wouldn't be so bad, but she is starting to become insistent that what she picks out is what she wears, even if the clothing isn't appropriate for the season.

For example yesterday morning she chose a pink cupcake print long-sleeve footed pajama to wear along with her Lightning McQueen shirt.  When I wouldn't put the pajamas on her because it's 100 degrees outside she became quite upset.  We compromised:

She was quite content to wear the pajamas tied around her waist.  When it was time to run errands, she refused to leave the pajamas home.  She wore them to the post office, to Target and the mall.  We're becoming those people, the ones whose children leave the house in Batman capes, tutus and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes.  But if she can't freely wear whatever she wants now when is she ever going to?

Note: Daddy's shoes were not worn to the store.

Things Heard Around Here

Don't put cheerios up your nose.

Translation: Don't put cheerios up your nose.

Yes, I have that child.  The one who likes to stick anything and everything in her mouth and up her nose.  A few weeks ago I had to retrieve cheerios out of her nose with a pair of tweezers.  You would think she had learned her lesson last time.  Nevertheless this morning she stuck cheerios up her nose again.  Some days I don't know what to do with her.

Speaking of Growing...

...Has anyone noticed the amount of white blonde hair this little girl is growing right now?

It has been coming in thick.  Her hair is so light it doesn't look like she has that much of it, but she does.  I can't wait until it's long enough to put in barrettes, pigtails, braids... you get the point.

My Helper

My garden has done surprisingly well this summer.  It has been fun to go out each morning and water the plants, watching them grow and become fruitful.  One other person in this house has had as much fun as I have had: 

Even though he doesn't eat many vegetables, Aric has had so much fun gardening with me.  Everyday he wants to go outside and look at the vegetables, water them and help pick those that are ripe and ready for eating.  Even if we don't get much out of the garden, the time spent with Aric has been well worth it.

The garden is overall still doing well.  It's that time of the year when it's hot, dry and some of the plants have succumbed to the conditions.

My zucchini plant wilted and is currently dying.  I have yet to see how prolific a zucchini plant actually is since we've only maybe had five of them to harvest.

Our tomatoes are taking off and getting ready to ripen.  We had to throw a couple of the earlier tomatoes out because they were rotten on the bottom.  Ryan did some research and discovered the problem.  I placed crushed up egg shells underneath the plants and they seem to be doing better now.

Something found my pepper plant the other day and devoured the leaves.  Too bad it didn't taste the peppers, that might have scared it away forever.

The cucumbers have been our best crop so far.  I think the garden has paid for itself just in cucumber production.  The kids love cucumbers and haven't minded eating them almost daily.

Ryan and I have already discussed an expansion for next year.  We've picked a spot that has more shade in the afternoon and would be perfect for some of the more delicate plants that aren't thriving as well right now.  We are also liking the Square Foot Gardening method and will definitely use that method again next year.

Things Heard Around Here

You better get some round the circles.
(Said with big sweeping, circular hand motions as Aric watched me put salad on my plate.)

Translation:
You should put some dressing on your salad.

Payback

Everyone always comments on how different personalities of siblings can be.  How it doesn't matter that they came from the same set of parents, raised in the same house with the same rules, the kids will respond differently in life, because they are wired differently. We're seeing evidence of this in our own home.

We knew Kellyn would be different when she was in the womb.  Aric was a snuggler and Kellyn wanted out.  My suspicions that she was completely different from Aric were only confirmed that first night in the hospital when she was a drama queen all night long.  My little girl is a handful- a pull your hair out I don't know what to do with her on some days handful. I can't help but love her.

 

I spend my days chasing her out of rooms she shouldn't be in, keeping her away from the cat food, from monkey climbing book shelves, out of cabinets with child latches secured on them, from pushing the glass out of our coffee table.  The list could go on and on.  Some days my head spins from the sheer amount of energy and inquisitiveness housed in one little girl.  I wish I had a fraction of that energy just to be able to keep up with her.

Two nights ago Ryan woke me up as he returned to bed after putting Kellyn back in her bed.  Apparently she had been up for awhile playing in the living room in cabinets of the entertainment center where Ryan eventually found her.  After returning to our room he realized his work phone was missing.  We searched our room from top to bottom and called the phone a few times when Ryan discovered the missing Blackberry in Kellyn's bed.  She had stolen Ryan's phone during her midnight escapades. 

From stories my parents tell she sounds an awful lot like me when I was that age.  I can only shake my head in defeat and cry and whine and apologize for all that I put them through.  In the meantime, I'll be shipping Kellyn off to military school to be whipped into shape I believe I will speed read through some books on strong willed children that have been collecting dust on my nightstand and pray for wisdom on how best to deal with my little inquisitive child.

 

Kansas Rectangle

My husband e-mailed me this article today from The Onion.  I had to laugh.  I've been in Kansas 10 years now and sometimes I wonder how that happened and where did the time go.  I never thought I would ever live in Kansas and I never expected to live here as long as I have when I first moved.  I always thought moving to Kansas would be a temporary stepping stone onto somewhere else.  I guess it's true what they say about best laid plans...

Things Heard Around Here

I wuv you cheese.
Said while hugging a bag of string cheese through Sam's.  Subsequently the "loved" bag of cheese was left in the truck and discovered two days later by Daddy and Mommy who apparently don't love cheese as much as Kellyn.

I wuv you pants.
Said while tugging on my shorts pocket.

I wuv you Hagwid Go Away.
Yes, my love or lack thereof for the dog has been uncovered by my youngest who thinks the dog's name is Hagrid Go Away.

The Closet

We have a closet in our downstairs bedroom.  It's rather large and a good catchall for the odds and ends around the house with no other place to go.  The closet also houses assorted toys.  Toys that are too young for the kids and need to be garage-saled next spring, like the millions of assorted baby rattles and squeaking stuffed animals.  Toys that are too old for the kids, like the set of golf clubs that every time we think Aric might be old enough to finally play with them he takes a swing at someone's head.  The closet also holds toys that drive Mommy nuts, like the penguin with the hard plastic bottom that they pick up and throw repeatedly onto the tile floor.

This doll high chair has been relegated to the closet for now:

At first Kellyn wouldn't let me pull her out of it, she wasn't ready to be released from her plastic prison.  When she finally decided she was done it took me a good five minutes and removing her diaper to wiggle her chubby little legs out of the high chair.

I put it in the closet.  I know my daughter and she will climb into that thing the next chance she gets.  Maybe when she's older, more mature and too big to climb back in we'll pull it out and let her play with it again.  Right now, though, I fear she'll climb in again and be permanently stuck growing up in a high chair.  Which leads to a valid concern of the difficulty of someday being able to find a man who is able to look past the pink plastic and see Kellyn's true beauty.

Slip 'N Slide

On Sunday during church while someone was reciting the entire book of Philippians from memory Ryan was letting his mind wander and concluded that what our children needed to beat the heat was a slip 'n slide.  This epiphany would never have come to me, because I didn't grow up with a slip 'n slide and didn't know what we were missing out on.  After church we headed over to Toys R Us to wander through the toy aisles and see what they had to offer.  Their outdoor summer water offerings were pretty sparse but lo and behold they had a Cars slip 'n slide.  Perfect since both of our kids like Cars.

I went out for the afternoon, while Ryan set it up after nap time and took the kids out for their first taste of slip 'n slide fun.

At first they weren't really sure what to do with it.

Aric tried to slide down it, but doesn't quite weigh enough to propel himself down the entire length.

Kellyn just wanted to play with the pool of water at the end.

Ryan set up the slide at the beginning hoping to give them a better chance to slide down it.

It didn't work out that much better for Kellyn.

Then I came home and changed into my swimsuit as fast as humanly possible.  Never mind that we had a dinner guest who was about to show up, I wasn't going to miss out on my first chance down a slip 'n slide.

I, apparently, made a rookie mistake and didn't completely wet myself before going down the slide.  I scraped up my knees from the friction.

It didn't stop me from going down again with the kids.

Poor Aric still never made it down the entire length. We decided next weekend that we'll take it outside the fence to the small hill we have that way we can allow gravity to take over.

Things Heard Around Here

I polka the pwincess.

Translation: I just poked the Princess Band-Aid on my toe because I like to poke things and then inform everyone I have poked something.

Not Mundane Today

I have come to realize that motherhood is full of the mundane.  I make the same three beds everyday, my kids wear the same couple of outfits (which is the hazard of letting them pick out their clothes because A. those shirts always seem to be on top and B. they have an unnatural obsession with those shirts.  Sometimes I mix up the clothes in their drawers to see if they'll wear something else.  But I digress...), we play with the same toys, read the same books, you get the point.  Sometimes I get stuck in the monotony and can not think of anything to blog about. 

Does anyone really want to know that Aric decided he should quit taking naps when he hit the magically, mature age of three?  One of the few ways I can trick him into taking a nap is by allowing him to nap on our couch while watching the Looney Tunes, which for some reason is his three year old version of a sleeping pill.

Or that Kellyn still runs around stealing hats, playing under tables and generally just getting into everything she shouldn't be touching?

Every once in awhile, though, your day heads in a different direction than expected.  Today was one of those days.  I slept in until 7, which for me is an amazing, almost impossible fete.  I opened the bedroom door to Ryan and Kellyn in the hall bathroom.  Kellyn was screaming.  My first thought was that Kellyn was getting her diaper changed and was unhappy and vocal about not being able to play.  It is a normal occurrence around here.  I quickly realized that wasn't the case after I saw her toe.

Excuse the grainy I-took-this-with-my-cell-phone-look-of-this-photo.

I gave Kellyn Tylenol, called the insurance company, and quickly got ready to take her to the urgent care center.  Thankfully this occurred early enough in the day that we made it as the clinic opened and did not have a wait.  One painful exam/cleaning, a horribly squirmy x-ray session, a princess band-aid make that three princess band aids, a mickey mouse pez dispenser, and a pink frosted donut later and Kellyn was back home and back to her normal, happy self.

Her toe isn't broken, just pretty nasty looking.  She ripped/tore/destroyed her toenail, but they left it in place because they fear she'll do worse damage to the nail bed if the toenail is removed.  We just have to keep it clean and attempt to keep a band aid on her, which is much harder than you would think.

I decided that next time it is Ryan's turn to take the injured party to the urgent care clinic.  I am getting kind of tired of having my hand x-rayed in an attempt to hold the squirmy child still on the table.

It's hard work smashing your toe with a cat tower.

From Aric's View Point: Part 2

Our White Trash 4th of July

We never intended on having a White Trash 4th of July, but we should have seen it coming.  You know you are headed in that direction when the fireworks stand where you buy your fireworks is, first of all, within walking distance of your home and, secondly, most importantly, is the fireworks stand chosen by the kids because of the big inflatable gorilla.

Is now the time to mention that we walked there after mowing the grass and before showering for the day?  It's a good thing the gorilla was so large and we were so tiny.

Our day took a turn towards white trash when I announced to Ryan that the kids were dressed and ready to go outside for the festivities.  He dubiously looked at me after glancing at the kids.  So, maybe I didn't exactly dress them in swimsuits.  I didn't see the problem.  We were just going out into our backyard with a nice privacy fence installed around it.  Isn't that the purpose of a privacy fence?

The kids really enjoyed the Pop, Pop fireworks.  You know the ones that look like little spit wads that explode when they hit the ground.  (Excuse my firework ignorance- I grew up on military bases where fireworks weren't exactly allowed.)

Those three photos are the sole photos I have of our firework escapades.  When Ryan pulled out the stuff that really crackled, whizzed around and sent sparks shooting Kellyn flipped out.  She attached herself to me in such a way that I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to extricate myself from her again much less actually take anymore photos.  I don't think this was meant to be her year to appreciate fireworks.  After the boys had some fun watching things explode, Ryan put the real fireworks away and pulled out more Pops for Kellyn.  It calmed her down a bit and we were then able to turn our attention to the sprinkler.

Kellyn has always been scared of the sprinkler, but seemed to overcome the fear after Ryan and I ran through it with her.  The kids had a good time and I know Ryan and I enjoyed it much more than we would have if we had gone somewhere with crowds of people out in the hot sun.

Ryan and I finished off our celebration standing out in the driveway in our pajamas watching the firework shows that the neighbors put on.  It was the perfect ending to our white trash day.