Anklejan

Last night after dinner Aaron needed to mow. I hate it when he mows because the kids have to be out of the yard and it's usually at a time when they are tired, grouchy, out-of-control, and I'm exhausted. I gave them baths then Ethan feel asleep. Caden, Addison, and I came up with an impromptu art project. We looked for face parts in magazines, glued them on, and drew the face and hair.

Caden started writing "Mask" on the back of his picture . . . he loves Jim Carey so much. Then I said who is your picture of and he said "Anklejan". He can be tough to understand especially if you have no context to go with it. He kept repeating it, starting to get mad at me for not getting it. Finally he said Anklejan . . . you know, Cael's dad. So this is a stunning likeness of Uncle John. Sorry, Uncle John.

Maybe he was thinking of this photo.

Uncle John consider yourself flattered!

What the heck is a sub woofer for anyway?

My husband, like a lot of men, is obsessed with all things electronic. Bigger and louder are better is his motto in that department. I could care less about hearing a movie in stereo or seeing a show in HDTV. I can barely operate our DVD/VHS player. We own lots of ugly man equipment that according to me does nothing but take up valuable space in our home, attract dust, and have lots of appealing buttons and lights for little hands. Apparently we own a sub woofer (a space taker upper), I found this out on Sunday.

On Sunday Aaron was on a mission, well it was more like a rampage about picking up the house. He expected three 4 year olds to suddenly have the ability and more importantly, the will to help clean up. There was a lot of yelling and crying and the baby was following everyone undoing what had just been done. For some reason when the cleaning was done and we were finishing up Caden thought it would be helpful to mention that there was trash in the sub woofer that sits next to the playroom TV. It has a nice round hole on the front, sort of looks like the top of trash receptacle you might see outside a mall or movie theater. Aaron's hand wouldn't fit in there and neither would mine. But Caden's hand fit perfectly . . . hmmmmm.

At first he extracted a small pile of cracker wrappers, empty fruit snack bags, an old lifesaver, and a dried up baby wipe.

Then it grew to this.

And this is the ending result.

Let's just say Daddy wasn't happy and is surprised we don't have large rats sleeping in bed with us. Caden denied doing it but most of the items found are from things he eats as snacks. Addison throws her stuff away and Ethan stuffs his trash behind the playroom coach or just randomly tosses trash on the floor and Caden was the one who knew it was in there. So guilty as charged is our verdict. Aaron unscrewed the back just to make sure we got everything . . .

besides a rock, yes, a rock, it was basically just an empty box. I say why not throw trash in there, what wasted space . . . I keep saying we need more storage place in this house . . . something should go in there!

BASB "First" Challenge

I found another challenge blog -- I think I need to get off the computer. Anyway, I like new ones because everyone is starting fresh. I think it's hard to join in when challenges sites have been going a while and everyone "knows" everyone else. Anyway this one from BASB is about a first. I went to my photo holder and found photos of Caden when he got his stitches and that was a first for him and our family. I even hand sewn some "stitches" on the chipboard letters. (Click on the photo to see it larger and read the journaling).

I am so glad I have this blog. I didn't remember much about this until I looked back and I totally forgot all about the alligator story. Yeah, for my blog and start one if you haven't yet, Monica, Cathi, Ashley!

Summer Vacation Leaving Us in Stitches

So this was officially the last day of summer vacation for the kids since Preschool starts tomorrow. I kind of thought I should have planned some extra special fun time for this day but we had to go to school to drop off all their supplies and see their rooms and the kids have not been behaving very well in the last week and I didn't feel up to treating them to fun stuff when they don't deserve it. So we went to Ethan's school and dropped off his stuff first. There's no way we could have done all 3 of them because we used our Choo Choo wagon. Reese sat in one car and another one was full of school supplies and Ethan carried his backpack which was full too.
We came back home I was feeding the baby lunch and the boys were outside in the backyard. Caden came in crying (which is nothing out of the ordinary). I looked at him and there was blood all over his mouth so I didn't panic just cleaned him up and realized there was a big gash above his upper lip. It wasn't bleeding so much but it looked really deep. I don't know much about cuts and stitches so I called Aaron and he said call our doctor. Of course it was lunch time no one there but the receptionist and she said they don't put in stitches at the office and I was to go to Prompt care or Emergency Room. I got in touch with Aaron's mom and she was going to meet me at Prompt Care. I grabbed everyone, had to dress the baby who who naked because she had spilled the cat's water all over her earlier and we headed to Galesburg. I called Prompt Care on the way to ask if they do stitches and she said not on someone that little when it has to do with the face. So we headed to the Emergency room. By the time we got there it looked like it was scabbing up and I thought I'm totally overreacting. But when the nurse looked at him she thought he needed some glue to hold it together. Then the nurse practitioner came in and she said that we were going to need stitches as the glue was just going to keep opening when he talked and ate. So he got some numbing med on his lip for about 20 minutes. Then they had to give him a few shots of numbing meds right in the wound which was the worst part and he cried. He got TWO stitches. He was fine after the whole ordeal. It took about 2-1/2 hours from the time we walked in the ER and the kids hadn't eaten lunch -- it was 3pm. So they all got Happy Meals. He was so brave and such a big boy! I can't believe we've gotten this far (3-1/2 years) and only 2 stitches. Now the cause of it is still a little ambiguous since it was just the boys outside. My first thought was a stick because I saw them playing with some earlier. But Caden said Ethan hit him with his glasses which made me think Ethan had his glasses off (metal frames) and was swinging them around but Ethan's was still wearing his glasses and he can't put them on by himself. So I think they bumped heads just right and that's how it happened. Or theory number 2 is the alligator. When we got back home I asked Caden again what happened and he said an alligator bit him in our yard -- look out if you visit us!

Then we had to go back to school to take Addison's and Caden's supplies to their classroom. What a day! I'm exhausted and I haven't gotten a thing done! Tomorrow I'll have some time and I'm excited. I'm a little nervous for the kids and hope their day goes well. I have tons of photos of everything but for some reason I can't get the photos off the camera and on to the computer which is driving me nuts! I'll post some as soon as I get it figured out!

My Little Man: Caden

1. He's a superhero ADDICT: Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and especially THE HULK are big with him.

2. He is still working on potty training. He's got the potty part down --it's the pooping that he seems to pick and choose when he's going to use the potty. Right now his incentive is if he poops on the potty 8 times he gets some Spiderman Guys from Walmart that he REALLY wants. He needs 3 more stickers and has been working on this for a week and half.

3. He says "tool" for cool and "teetees" for cookies. He favorite phrase is "alright".

4. He is all boy! Loves to play rough and wrestle. He is all energy. He does like to play with Addison's dollhouse though (when she lets him).

5. He loves Reese so much. He is super sweet with her. He always asks me "like me, Mama?" I think he is referring that I have said to a lot of people that she looks like Caden when he was a baby.

6. He has some ESP thing going on with me. I swear it doesn't matter what time I get up in the morning he always gets up about 15 minutes ahead of me whether it be 5 or 8. I can't catch a break to shower and dress without children wanting 100 different things. He can't seem to understand that I can't put in a DVD while I'm in the shower.

7. He is the first to crawl into our bed in the morning.

8. If he gets hurt, he must have me kiss his "owie" and it's all better.

9. He loves bandaids, goldfish crackers, TV, football, monster truck shows, Mr. Monkers (his little stuffed monkey that he sleeps with, and Donalds (McDonalds) and tells me to order chickens, french fries, lemon (lemonade), and ketchup.

10. He is constantly changing his clothes especially his underwear. He changes them because he likes the different characters on them. By the time Daddy comes home, he is usually only wearing underwear (on backwards) and nothing else. He's on his third pair today and it's only 9am.

11. He is so much taller than Addison and Ethan that most people think he's the oldest and the other two are twins. People are super surprised when I say he is the youngest of the triplets, born one minute later than the other two. I guess bigger means you were born first even if it's just one minute more.

12. He gets shy when there's a new people. It takes a little while to warm up to people.

13. Lately he has begun to tell me "I don't feel good" which is his favorite justification to anything like why he didn't want sprinkles on a cupcake but he still wanted the cupcake.

14. He is the King of Stalling when it comes time to sleep. He needs new clothes, he wants a drink, his button is undone, he has an owie, he wants to wear his slippers, he wants a kiss, he forgot a toy, his book is ripped, and about a million other things I can't remember!

15. He loves to go "bye-bye" and in stores. He is good about staying with us when we are out. He can spot anything Spiderman a mile away -- he must have Spidey-sense.

16. He calls me "Mama".