Pancake Goddess in the House of Boys

long weekend

E took vacation days - one before the weekend of the 4th, and one after. We went to Cincinnati on Sun/Mon to stay at a big indoor water park. We'd gone to one of these about 4 years ago and the time was right to try it again. Also, because it was near, a dinner with family.

K and Nana enjoyed some books. All the boys, big and small, enjoyed video games.

He was so nervous about the slide, and so proud when he finally did it. K, otoh, was not nervous, and also took a few face-first trips into the water, which he did not enjoy.

 

he's not itchy now

I thought he was resting quietly while watching Land Before Time. In fact, he was busily smearing an entire bottle over himself, including the head and face.  Poison control (yes, it's programmed into my cell) recommends a 15-minute bath, and the nurse had a tone as though this was one she'd actually never heard. Congrats, R, you broke a new record again.

photo catch up

First, two current updates:

1. Ryan is using the toilet consistently as long as he is bare from the waist down. It's a start. Unfortunately, he got a bit sidetracked today in the bathroom and when Evan went in to look after him, he had gobbled half a travel-sized tube of toothpaste. Mint. With flouride. I have no idea what goes on in that fluffy head, but  his sweet little self sat on the couch for about 2 hours, miserably, before vomiting up the freshest smelling puke you could ever meet. It was minty. He fell asleep after that, for about 2o minutes, woke up, and proclaimed "mama! I'm normal now."  Is that so?

2. Since the last post 2 weeks ago, Kellen has started saying more words than I can count. Off the top of my head, he says everyone's names (Meemee, Mimah, Ryee, mama and daddy), water (watee), ball, bowl, banana, apple, socks...  He is also signing more and more - he love the signing video and asks for music to be played every day. He is also obsessed with playing at the sink or in the bath.

Now, this is going so far back, that I'm not even going to try to guess (ahem, November) how behind I am.

I have actually still been knitting, although not a lot. Also crocheting. Jamie has been enjoying taking photos of small objects at close up range, and he got this very nice shot of me in the act of crocheting a Christmas stocking. I didn't get a photo of the FO, but check back next December and it will turn up.

Well, it's taking forever for photos to load tonight so I'm already tired of this. I'll add two more before I go, though, for the grandparental units who are away.

overheard at the bathroom sink

3 year-old, watching 10 year-old bleed from the nose into the sink:
"eeew, that's gross."

10 year-old, through a wad of toilet paper:
"well, you better get used to it if you're gonna keep kicking people in the face."

addendum

Somehow I failed to mention that that was a REAL razor with an actual blade in it. Can you say guardian angel?

so, you may have noticed I added some new categories for my posts

First, I have to start off by saying a few things about mischievous kids. A couple of years ago, there was a blogger I read often who posted about the huge messes her kids were constantly making, giant disasters of terrifying proportion, danger and chaos on a weekly basis. I enjoyed her humorous writing but for the most part, I was judging her. I wondered "what are you DOING while your kid smears poop all over the table?  Why aren't you WATCHING him???" And you can all think those same things about me now, and I will deserve it. All I can say is, if you have never had This Type of child, you just can't know. There is no way to live a functional life and catch every act of disaster before it happens. He will sense any window of opportunity, and it takes only a very small one - 2, 3 minutes will do. I don't mean to imply that he's naughty or ornery - he's just so intensely curious. He's just gotta know what will happen when he tries xyz, regardless of whether it makes his mother weep.

So, the new categories are "messes" and "dangerous behavior," and I can honestly say I hope they are neglected in the coming months, but, a girl has to be practical and history tells me they'll see some action.

Shall we?

Starting off with a bang, today's post which will qualify for BOTH dangerous and messy:

did you know we have a staircase in our bathroom?

Yes, I did make him hold still for this picture. He pulled this in the morning, when my reserves are high, so I truly wasn't upset. 

He looks kind of guilty, but it's a fluke. In reality, he wiped himself off, climbed down, and galloped out of the bathroom, exclaiming "I was a MAN this morning!" and "Mom, I also took daddy's green medicine! I was SICK!! And I was a MAN!"

Foreseeing another call to poison control (so, so many times over the past 12 years), we went back to look at that green medicine. Thankfully, it was a Halls cough drop.

Love this boy.

All About Ryan

We cut out this book from Nick Jr Magazine and Ryan enjoyed stapling it together. We drew pictures and answered all the autobiographical questions. I won't put all the pictures in, but here are a couple, including the, eh, exciting part.

So far, so good.

OK, wait for it... This is the part that was - I pinky-swear - dictated word-for-word.

(the question originally said "things I want to know about school" but I just omitted the last two words)