It's Wild Here

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.

aw, shucks, no pics for this post?

I guess it was inevitable, with four male children, that I would have the pleasure of that seemingly-universal parental experience: discovering your quiet toddler in the other room playing in his poopy diaper.  I had actually almost avoided that one. Thank you, Kelly, for making my life complete.

lanolin

Ryan hid himself away in the shower yesterday with a tube of lanolin ointment. I can keep this story very short by telling you the ending now:  a new haircut.  Pics coming soon because I have my camera battery now!

some picture catch up and birthday sweetness

Someone's four years old now! We had a very low-key celebration in the midst of pre-moving business and box towers. Ryan created his own birthday hat and enjoyed the singing and cake as much as ever, as always.

tomato sauce mess (and a boy signing "more")

 

Attitude (and a little eyebrow modification)

and smarts.

JJ has been drawing maps and memorizing Canada

Ryan has been doing a lot of drawing.

 

and imaginary play

 

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.

Yes, it's time for another installment of...

My kids don't know the Rules of Child-proofing!

Now that both of my small children can get water out of our child-proofed water cooler spouts, Ryan can open any baby gate, and has been known to literally tear the doorknob covers off the doorknobs, I bring you - the Snack Cup Edition.

Have you seen these cute things ?  The lids are have slits for grabbing snacks out and are flexible to reach in but not flexible enough for the snacks to fall out. The entire lids, however, do come off. This, of course, is the job for the adult, right?

the fun never stops

This is my dining room floor. And white-out.

This is Ryan. And his foot.

toddler painting

Before:

After:

If you just can't get enough of baby painting pictures, I'll email you the in-between stages, so that you can see what he did with his neck and face. It's entertainment, I promise.  It just takes too long to put them all up here.

Did I mention the lip balm?

I don't think I wrote about this. A few days ago, Ryan ate a tube of strawberry smoothie blistex lip balm for breakfast. He smelled delicious. Why do they make that stuff so yummy?

But seriously, this is what kind of toddler he is:  As I went to bed, I saw that lip balm on the table by the sofa, and I thought "Ryan will find that before I do in the morning," so I picked it up and dropped it into my knitting bag, which was in the corner behind the sofa.  And still. He found the lip balm by 8am the next morning.