Childhood misconceptions

Isn't if funny when children hear a word and come up with what it must mean? Today Abigail and Isaac were chasing each other around and fighting pirates. Then I told them to stop being so loud, they said, "We're just fire fighters. We're not mean guys." Of course I had to ask them what firefighters do. And they said, "They fight and they put out fires." So there you have it if you ever walk into a fire house and interrupt a brawl, they're just doing the fighting part of their job.

Crumb It

It's no secret that my house is often a wreck. The most used appliance is probably my dust buster or as the children have christened it, the crumb sucker. I really like this little vacuum and use it daily to clean up all the little and not so little messes my children manage to make. I also use it for sucking up all the spiders, wasps, and other insects that get into our house. It's also convenient that Isaac and Abigail can both operate it so they can help with the messes they make. Today Abigail was in bed "taking" a nap and she yells, "Mommy there's a spider on the wall." So I went up with the dust buster and she says, "Oh, good Mommy, crumb it. Get it with the crumb sucker. Oh good, you crumbed it."

Smart sneaky kids

When Isaac is misbehaving he has a variety of consequences. Today he got sent to his room. After a few minutes I notice he is being awfully quiet. The sneaky boy stopped by and picked up the Ipad on his way to his room and was even smart enough to mute the games he was playing so I wouldn't hear it. When I went up to check on him he said, "Oh, can I turn the sound up on my games now?"

Yesterday Indiana was over in the corner by herself for a while. As any parent knows that can only mean one thing, so I asked Isaac to go check her. He said, "That baby looks stinky, sniff her mommy."

I wanted to go to the gym last night after Jake got home from work. We were discussing if I was taking any of the kids with me and Jake said he'd rather I take either "the bigs," Isaac and Abigail, or the baby. Isaac, who was in the other room, pipes up, "I think we should stay with you, Daddy. Mommy can take Indiana." Just another reminder that the kids are always listening, even when we can't see them.

Pictures are worth 1000 words and videos are worth?

Indiana Playing and Saying Peekaboo

Isaac was sent to his room to wait for his Daddy. He was very quiet and this is what I found.

Indiana is mechanically inclined

Showing me how she was going to be good in church

Playing with their Care Bears from Aunt Laura

This goes along with the new song of the week. To the tune of "If you're happy and you know it."

If your name is Indiana clap your hands

If your name is Indiana clap your hands

If your name is Indiana and you're cute in your pajamas

If your name is Indiana clap your hands

His sleeping basket. Apparently it wasn't too comfy though.

Isaac's picture of him playing nicely with Abigail. He even labelled them with an "A" and an "I."

A picture before church. This is as close to everyone looking at the camera as it got.

Pretty girl in her dress.

We underestimated her sneakiness

So Jake and I have a pretty standard Saturday routine that consists of taking the trash off, going to the gym, taking the kids out for lunch then back home for the kids to take naps. We decided to rent a movie while we were out today so we could watch it while the kids were napping. They nap upstairs and the dvd player is in the basement so I took the monitors down so we would hear them when they woke up. About an hour and a half into the movie Jake says, "I have to pee." From the back of the couch we hear, "I have to pee too." Abigail has snuck downstairs and we're still not exactly sure how long she was there without us knowing it. That girl can sure be quiet when she wants to be.

What a way to wake up, and other random happenings

This morning Isaac and Abigail had crawled into bed with me as usual and were going back to sleep when Isaac jumps up and yells, "A spider!" Sure enough there was a large black spider crawling up his leg. I swatted at it and missed. By then Abigail had gotten out of bed and was yelling, "Smoosh it Mommy. Now we have to wash the bed." Abigail knows all about this because I killed a spider in her bed last week and had to wash it. Unfortunately for me, and I guess luckily for the spider, it crawled off someplace while we all scurried off the bed and I never located it to "smoosh."

The kids have several stuffed animals they love to play with and lately the animals have been "getting born." This consists of one of the kids laying on top of the animal then when they hop up the animal has "been born." Yesterday Isaac and Abigail were fighting because Abigail's animal wanted to be born but Isaac said, "No, I already borned that one."

A favorite snack in our house is frozen mixed fruit. It has pineapple, peach, strawberry, and mango pieces. Abigail always asks if she can have some "frozen mingos" for snack.

I have been taking the kids with me to the gym in the afternoons so I can work out. This may sound like a positive thing except that afterwards Isaac always thinks I need to take him to a restaurant. The other day I told him before we left home that I did not have money to take him to a restaurant. He looked at me and said, "Well, then just put it on the credit card Mommy. Stevie B's takes credit cards too." So then we got to have the credit cards have to be paid off with money talk.

The Things that are in the Bible

Isaac and I were talking about the fact that some people don't teach their kids about the Bible. He agreed that not knowing about the Bible was sad, then he said to me, "I'm going to tell them that they need to do the things that are in the Bible. I'll be good and they'll see the things that I do and be good too."

It's so nice to see him grasping these concepts.

Seriously? Seriously again?

So I've seen all these articles and chapters in parenting books about babyproofing and childproofing your home, what they don't prepare you for are the creative and sneaky ways four and two year olds think. We've had a rough couple of weeks where it seems I don't have enough eyes to keep tabs on everyone and the kids are taking full advantage of their five minutes alone.

One day while Abigail has me distracted by continually getting out of bed during her nap time, Isaac takes it upon himself to push his little tykes car over to the refrigerator and climbs on the roof to reach the cookies we keep up on top of it. I come downstairs and find him hiding in the corner and say, "What do you have?" To which he replies, "I have cookies, here one is for you."

Later in the week I am downstairs with Isaac and Indiana when I hear Abigail over the baby monitor. She is much sneakier than her brother and has learned to creap out of bed instead of running around which alerts me to the transgression. So I go upstairs and find her in Indiana's room smearing herself with petroleum jelly which she has gotten off the changing table.

Isaac has picked up a few tips from his sister too though. I found him hiding under the bed putting on deoderant.

Yet later in the week Isaac is downstairs playing and when he comes up he is wet. He proceeds to tell me he found a squirter and got water all over. I'm thinking, "Great he climbed up on the kitchen sink in the basement and got the sprayer." So he comes up and Abigail goes down and I hear her yell that the cars are all wet. This is  not consitent with the kitchen sprayer theory so I go to investigate. Isaac had found some bug spray that had been left up in the kitchen and had sprayed the entire basement. So I immediately strip him and Abigail and Indiana, just for good measure, and throw them all in the shower. Jake gets home and takes over bathing while I go to the basement and clean every toy and throw out several puzzles and stuffed animals that have taken on too much bugspray to even salvage. I then shampooed the carpets twice.

And today I'm upstairs with the kids. Indiana is playing in Isaac's room with the other two so I go in there to supervise. Well Isaac and Abigail go to play in Abigail's room and a few min later I notice it is eerily quiet in there so I go to check it out. Unfortunately as soon as I exit Isaac's room I know something is wrong, there is a strong odor in the air that is not normally in the house. I walk the few steps to Abigail's room and see Isaac and Abigail dunking their toys in Vick Vap-O-rub. Great! This shower takes a bit longer, that stuff is hard to get off. And their hair is still a little greasy.

So what is up with my kids? How is it they are finding all this stuff that hasn't been moved in months or years and all of a sudden they are drawn to it and feel like making such messes? Nothing is safe and I can't even figure out what to lock up because they are finding such random stuff. Oh well, I guess this too shall pass.