What is this?

At our house we have wonderful smelling liquid soap in all the bathrooms and the kitchen. The boys know how to pull up the stool or climb up on the toilet to wash their hands. No complaints. Sometimes, being little boys, they forget, but never before have they just stared blankly at a sink. My dad doesn't not have wonderful smelling liquid soap-he has old fashioned bars. Remember those rectangular white bars, where you have to wet your hands, the bar, massage your hands and the bar, put the bar back, rinse off your hands, and finally dry? It turns out that Jack does not remember. I asked him to wash his hands before dinner and after a few minutes I hadn't heard water running and Jack had not reappeared so I went looking for him. My natural inclination was to think he was up to some dastardly deed, but instead I find him just standing in front of the sink staring. He looked as if I had asked him to climb Mt. Everest but had forgotten to tell him what Mt. Everest was, and definitely hadn't given him the appropriate climbing gear. I brought him back to reality by saying his name and reminding him what he was supposed to be doing. He replied, 'But mom there isn't any soap.'  I grab the bar of soap and hold it up to him-here. He looks at me and says, 'That isn't soap, is it? How do you use it?' This may be one of those moments when you realize you have failed as a parent in certain areas- teaching your kids about hygiene and soap (for example). My next thought leads me to wonder how has he been washing his hands at my dad's for the last few years because my dad has only ever had bar soap. Oh well, at least now he knows what soap is.

Crafts, Vomit, and Wolves- that is how we roll

We, I, go through these bursts of energy followed by slumps. I had been in a slump and to get out of it we did some Christmas-y crafts. Luke loves art, coloring, drawing, and etc so I was sure he would be on board with some crafts. He was until I said--' I am going to trace your hand a few times and then cut your hands out.' Nope it was basically over right then. Not too very long ago he had stitches in his finger due to a scissors accident, it was pretty traumatic for him, so when I causally mentioned I was going to cut out his hand he had some intense post traumatic stress. I cut out the hands I had traced and glued them in a circle just so he could see what I meant, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I waited a day or two then moved on to different ideas.

Jack made this countdown chain at school and here is the hand wreath that caused so many problems. 

We made toilet paper roll reindeer, glitter hand ornaments, and after seeing a  Facebook friend do this- we made ice cream cone candy Christmas trees.

For the past month of so we have been dealing with slight sickness in our house-- nothing full blown-- and that was the problem in my eyes. I just wanted someone in the house to get really sick so that this stupid slight sickness would hit us hard and leave. Well, wish granted. Jack woke up in the middle of the night because his blankie was wet, I told him to go back to sleep. He then came back in our room about 5 minutes later to ask why there was gross stuff on him. I finally woke up and saw the child had thrown up everywhere and on everything. Let me just saw it was gross and the most vomit I have seen as a parent. The next day around lunchtime he seemed fine. It was around this time that Luke started not feeling well. He ended up with a 103 temperature for about 3 days and then he was fine. Hopefully, this is the end of sickness here for awhile.

During this time Thomas managed to skip being sick, but when he would cry in the middle of the night I started checking on him because I didn't want to find out I had let my kid sleep in vomit--which I have done before. One night I go to get him and he demands to be put down so he can find his shoes. He loves his shoes and wants to wear them all the time. Fine, it is actually before midnight why not see what happens. I let him down, he gets his shoes, I put them on him and now he goes downstairs to fetch me a diaper. Yes, he goes to the diaper box, finds me a diaper and some wipes and then lays down to be changed. Hmm... ok, he doesn't need a diaper change but apparently has a plan- I go with it. Then he walks into the kitchen and attempts to open the fridge. I get him some milk and a banana. Once this is done he walks to the front door and looks out the small window on the side. It is very dark out so I am not sure what he did or did not see, but he looks back at me and manages to communicate the rest of his plan-- go get daddy. Pete was studying and had the car, so this wasn't really going to happen and when I tried to tell Thomas this he just stood on his tiptoes reached the doorknob and began turning it. Luckily, there is a bolt and he is about half an inch too short to get a really good grip. Still, he kept demanding we go get daddy. At this point I knew he was going to get upset one way or the other so I took him back upstairs and started our normal going to bed routine from the beginning. He was fine with it, but did demand to see Pete when he woke up that morning.

Once everyone was starting to feel better we thought a trip outside would help rejuvenate our spirits. At Wolf Park  they let the community come out and celebrate Christmas with the wolves. You go in and help put food in boxes for the coyotes and bison. Then you go out to one of the wolf enclosures, the wolves aren't there yet in case you were worried, and decorate a Christmas tree with stuff like spray cheese, bologna, twinkies, and hot dogs. Once this is done you sit on the bleachers and they let the wolves out. They narrate what is happening, talk about a wolf pack, tell you about the personalities of the wolves, and my boys love it. Then you get to walk around the park as they take the boxes you filled up earlier and give them to the coyotes and bison. The coyotes are pretty gross with their food-- instead of fighting one another- they just use the bathroom on their food so others won't eat it. Finally, it is back to one of the buildings for hot chocolate, cookies, and to meet Santa. They give the kids gifts, and pretty good ones too, and they let you take a picture with your camera. It was very cold, but Jack didn't mind in the least, he loved it.

Thomas and I walked back to the hot chocolate building before everyone else and on the way this wolf was staring us down

While we were at the Wolf Park there was a lull between feeding the wolves and the coyotes, and during this time Jack started asking Pete some questions about why Ruedi, an underling, had to go run off by the pond after Wotan, the head wolf, growled at him. Pete said it was like at home how Mom is in charge and if you make her mad then to get back in her good graces you better do exactly what she says and lay low. One of the main volunteers was standing nearby and overheard this conversation, told Pete that it was a great explanation. This made Pete's year.

We will be traveling to Kentucky soon and we have gone back and forth on whether or not to celebrate Christmas as a family before we leave or have Santa do all presents once in KY. Luckily, this hasn't really been something our kids have noticed or wondered about so their Santa innocence survives. Last year we did all presents in KY, but this year we thought we could divide them up into Family Christmas and Santa Christmas. This gives us, as a small family, a little memory making time. We did it this weekend so the kids would have a full week to play with gifts before we head out of town. Jack is so much older this year, I can't believe it really, he doesn't get allowance but has been getting some money for behavior at school and from losing teeth :), and he wanted to use it all to buy other people gifts. I absolutely love this. It wasn't prompted at all. One of these gifts was for Pete. At first he was stumped-- what to buy? We then talked about some of the things Pete likes, and then suddenly Jack's eyes lit up and he knew just what he wanted to get Pete. He and Pete spent some alone time together recently and they spent it in a cooking store-they both loved it by the way. Jack knew immediately he wanted to get Pete a knife of some kind-- well that was a bit out of his price range. Then he saw a paring knife with a small cutting board combo. It was still a bit out of his price range so when I asked if he would mind it being a gift from all the boys instead--he agreed because this was the gift for Pete. On the day of our Family Christmas he was so excited but not for the presents he was going to get but because he would finally be able to give Pete his gift. Pete had to open his gift first and as soon as Pete saw it there were tears. Pete knew the idea came from their special time together, he knew Jack really thought about it, and he saw just how excited Jack was to give this gift. It was a really special moment.

To round out our Family Christmas Weekend we went to Purdue to visit the Student Union. They have a 30 foot blue spruce and a huge gingerbread house.

What-- this isn't Friday the 13th?

 Jack has been practicing all week for the Advent program tonight. I was going to be that crazy mom taking loads of pictures and videos as her baby sang his heart out-- or just mouthed the words. We had some time to kill so Pete made a fort for the boys. Before long there was a crash, a scream, crying, and blood. We have a coffee table and it was partially in the fort, what happened next I am not so sure and I was watching. Jack ducked down and when he came back up his lower eye/check was cut, bleeding, and immediately became the size of a goose egg with a nice bluish black tinge. Pete grabbed him and took him upstairs while giving me instructions to get ice, band aids, gauze, and etc. They got it all taken care of but by morning his eye will be nothing but a slit. We called Granny and Pappy to see what we might do to help with the swelling. We were instructed to give ibuprofen and, after hearing the description, super glue it. This is where Jack got pretty upset.We didn't have any peroxide but we had rubbing alcohol so we attempted to clean it this way, but it burned so much that Jack just lost it, started screaming, thrashing around, and cried so much that his cut started bleeding again. Then we diluted the rubbing alcohol and I sat him in my lap while Pete cleaned it and then applied the super glue. He was pretty frantic so we sent him upstairs to relax. He was out in minutes. This meant that his Advent program was a no go. After he woke up from his nap I also noticed he has a pretty nice sized bruise/welt on his forehead too.

 
Once Jack was napping and Thomas was put down for bed it was just me and Squeeze. He was being mopey so I began to load the dishwasher. Luke came in to chat and Tigran came in to help clean the dishes. Tigran leaned over the bottom dishwasher rack to lick up some tasty treat when his collar became attached. He tried to get it off but this just made things worse. Tigran began shaking his head back and forth, running in circles and this made the dishes fly across the kitchen. Luke started screaming and crying. Just when I was about to help him out the rack fell to the floor and Tigran ran upstairs as fast as he could. Here is a small glimpse of what happened.

Later I went to run the disposal and a spoon flew out of the sink and nearly missed my face. So needless to say it was an eventful night. I can't believe that it was Thursday the 13th and not Friday the 13th.

Happy St. Nick's Day

Thanksgiving came and went and now it is St. Nick's Day. Crazy. I kept waiting for something funny or weird to happen before I wrote another entry, but alas only the normal everyday odd has been happening here. The boys got candy in their stocking today and at Jack's school they left out their play shoes because St. Nick was supposed to stop by with some candy. 

I have left grapes in the pantry, sworn up and down I must have left my purse on the porch because I couldn't find it anywhere only to find it where it is supposed to be, I have gone a whole day without my phone thinking it must be gone forever when that evening I find out it was under a dish towel on my kitchen table all day, and of course there are the numerous times I was going to say, write, or do something only to forget in mid-action. I went to the doctor, not for these things, and I was told I was extremely healthy and according to all my blood work I would live a very long time, yes but I fear my mental faculties won't last near as long. Can I blame kids for this one?  Hmmm....

Jack is learning so much in school. He brings home his works (assignments) every day and they look fine but nothing spectacular in the way of learning, but they must be hidden with secret powers because he is able to read quite a few words now, spell most of the words he can read, count by 10s and 2s, and recognize number words he can't sound out. Last Spring I tried and tried to teach that boy to read. It has been his greatest wish for over a year now-to be able to read on his own. I just made him mad, but his kindergarten teacher is doing it no problems. Well, I am glad - this is why I would never homeschool my kids. Kuddos to those who can--my children and I wouldn't survive it. In other Jack news-- he has lost two teeth now and has two teeth about to come out. He went to the dentist and they say his 6-year molars are coming in and when he is 11 braces are a must. He had his first all afternoon play date with non-family friends recently. We were worried because Jack and his friend are apparently--super crazy together-- so says Jack. The whole morning he kept asking when it was time to go--every 15 minutes in fact. Finally, it was time and when he got back that afternoon he was so pumped and talked about for 4 days after. He even got to play Angry Birds on an Ipad and didn't get angry when he had to stop because there was so much fun still to be had. This is a big deal for Jack. 

As it is now December and Luke is still wearing his Incredible Hulk costume almost everyday, I would say we have gotten our money's worth out of it. He wears it just because he is Incredible Hulk, he wears it so that he can run around and smash, and he wears it to bed. I think we are going to have to adjust the car seat straps because his muscles plus a winter coat are making it hard to get him buckled. He is really into tunes, dancing, singing, and rocking out. He appears to like a variety of music and will demand -louder!- when a song he likes is on the radio. If it has a good dance beat it tends to help. He is very excited about Christmas and knows the three main presents he wants the most-- Incredible Hulk, Buzz Lightyear, and Lightning McQueen. Anytime anyone talks about Christmas near him he tells you his wishlist and then thinks he will be getting one of these items right away. It will be a long few weeks till Christmas. His Granny and Pappy got the boys a Tomie de Paola book--Joy to the World. It has a mixture of songs and stories in it. Luke demands I read and sing every page every night. I cannot sing at all so this is more fun for him than me. 

Thomas has finally picked a comfort object- Tiny dog-- a small stuffed Spot dog. We assumed it would be a blanket so we kept trying blanket after blanket but nothing. Then one day on his own he found Tiny Dog and at first he would just growl at it and tackle it, but I guess that was initiation because now it is a must have. Since it is not a blanket I am not sure how often I can get away with washing it and as you will see in a picture below--he demands to have it even at meal times. After that picture was taken I have, mostly, forbidden him from being allowed at the table. Thomas is in this crying stage and he says he wants a drink but he doesn't, he says he wants food but he doesn't, he says he wants to be held but he doesn't, and it is driving me and Pete crazy. Really just crazy. He loves his daddy something fierce and when Pete leaves he cries and goes to the door/window and hits it crying-Daddy Daddy. If we are all in the car and Pete leaves us to run inside to pick up Jack or grab some food or anything like that Thomas just cries but the second he sees Pete, and he usually sees him before the rest of us, he begins to smile, point and say Daddy Daddy. His life just isn't complete unless he knows his daddy is right there with him.

So as far as Pete is concerned he has had a very tough semester and hopefully next semester will be a bit easier. He will be on research next semester so that makes teaching one less thing he has to worry about. He has been working his butt off to get a paper ready to be published, and I am amazed at how long it takes to go through this process. He will start giving talks at conferences next semester. I think he may go someplace in Michigan and California, but nothing is set in stone.

Tree Decorating Night-drinking Hot Chocolate and waiting on the cookies

Jack putting the angel on the tree

the boys hanging out on the couch drinking lemonade and looking at books

Thomas and Tiny Dog enjoying Spaghetti O's.