The Drain Blaster

Since it was Friday night, John and I decided it was high time we do something fun and entertaining. Also, our kitchen sink was very, very clogged. Our handy man wasn't able to fix it. John was hoping he could do it himself. His optimism is endearing.

Behold, The Drain Blaster.....

This was after using maximum strength draino and a sink auger. I also endured having a plunger used in the sink by the handy man earlier today. The floor has flooded, grossness is everywhere. Sigh.....

Bubble Bath

John David wanted nothing more than to take advantage of the brand new bath tub at his grandparents' house. A few facts to note:

The bathtub had jets.

I left him alone - he is almost 10, afterall.

There were bottles of bubble bath beside the tub.

Two year old little brothers love bubbles too.

The pictures do the amount of bubbles absolutely NO justice!

A small video I took before I was discovered. I had a funnier one but it would require some blurred areas and I don't know how to do that. =)

They're in Cahoots!

Aulora recently clogged our bathroom sink drain with toilet paper. (Just suffice it to say that she has since been banned from wiping her own bottom after going big potty, which in turn means I spend half of my days cleaning baby bottoms. I suppose it's better than spending half my days unclogging toilets and sinks though.)

Anyway, the sink is very, very clogged. We have told all the kids it's off limits and we've just been using the other bathroom until we can have a plumber fix it (or until John finishes school and is able to figure it out - I'm not holding my breath).

This afternoon I kept hearing water running. I checked outside and inside before realizing that Joshua was not where I thought he was and the water sound was coming from the bathroom with the off limits sink. The door was closed (not a good sign!) and when I opened it I found him on the stool in front of the sink splishing and splashing, having the time of his life. He was soaking wet as was the bathroom since the water couldn't drain out of the sink and it was just flowing onto the floor.

Moments like these make me wish I carried my camera around my neck. A picture would have been so great.

(shhhhh.....you know what? I still haven't even cleaned it up. I wonder if it will just all dry up on it's own before Daddy goes in for a shower in the morning?)

When Buying Furniture....

....keep in mind that removable pillows and children are not a good mix. I find the above scene in my den multiple times a day.

You Know How Some People Get New TVs Just In Time For the Superbowl?

We prefer to have little kids throw toys at ours and break it just in time.

In honor of Lost, that's one of the first scenes showing on our flatscreen in the basement. Our beautiful, six month old, biggest tv we've ever owned, watch it while sitting on our amazing Lazyboy leather reclining sofa we scored off of craigslist, want to grow up and marry it and have its babies kind of flatscreen.

The only other tv we have is an old 19" tv in our den that has constant rolling lines on it and every 6 or 7 seconds totally messes up. It's a sad little thing, really. I already had plans to replace it with a better tv I saw at Salvation Army the other day.

I feel sick about it. And I feel bad that I feel this bad, but other than our cars and our house, it's the nicest thing we own. I guess that'll teach us to own nice things!

I guess I'm just very glad we decided to not host a superbowl party.......

Sadly, this isn't uncommon in our house.....

And just so you know, I did NOT overreact when I hollered, "It touched me! It touched me!" My husband and son laughed hysterically when they heard me shrieking as I fished it out carefully (not carefully enough though) out of the potty with plastic bags over my hands. Gross!

Good Mom, Bad Mom

Yesterday evening, all the kids were playing in the den while I did some housework. John David was suddenly hollering my name in a slight panic, so I ran to where they were, my mind busily running through a multitude of scenarios.

I had not considered what awaited me. At all.

There was Joshua, sitting on the hearth of the big fireplace, covered from head to toe in soot and ashes. Oh, for a picture!

I think he was very content, playing with this new found medium, until he tried tasting it. That's apparently where he drew the line.

I was frozen just staring at him trying to figure out what to do next. He was filthy! Currently, the only bathtub we have is out of commission (it's the next remodeling project! yea!), so baths have been happening in the big kitchen sink for the babies. BUT, the big kitchen sink was still filled with the crusty pot from dinner last night (hey, back off - it was soaking) and all the dishes from the dinner the kids has just eaten.

So with one hand I held him (getting my own clothes filthy in the process) and with the other hand I cleared out the sink. After a good, long scrubbing, he was finally kissable and squeezable again.

My question to you.....

Was I a bad mom for letting that happen in the first place?

or.....

Was I a good mom for handling it so cool?

I'm definitely leaning towards good mom. Don't you agree???

Two All The Way

I love the age two. I think it's my favorite.

Even with all of the messes and fits and "I do it by myself" moments, it's just so wonderfully precious and sweet.

That's the age they are big enough to say "I love you" and to give you big hugs and kisses, but they're still a baby. Snuggling a two year old is the best.

They use the potty now and boy do their little bobos look cute while they're doing it!

They run, but their run is not perfected yet. It's still kind of wobbly and awkward. Adorable.

Their little hands seem to hold all the potential in the world. What will they be one day?


But, lest I forget some of the less than precious moments, I present to you some recent moments in our house......

First there's the artwork on the dresser.
(Her five year old sister joined in the fun on this one!)

Bedtime has become a little more of an issue. It doesn't help that she likes to change pajamas sometimes and of course she wants to do it by herself.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before she married her love of diaper cream with her love of coloring on the walls. She did this masterpiece in Joshua's room - this is just a small sample of the whole work.

Another medium my budding artist likes to use is toothpaste.

The best part is that there's only 9 more months before Joshua is two! I can't wait! ;)

A Moment of Horror

I was soooo tired today, so when it was time to feed Joshua and Aulora was still finishing her nap, I laid down on my bed. If you're a mom then you know how it's possible to half sleep and half watch your children. Granted, you're not doing either one of those things very well but whatever.

I was aware that Julia was in my bathroom and I woke up enough to tell her to get out of my make-up. She stopped so I was satisfied. The next time I woke up a little I looked over to see the toilet lid open. That can spell trouble so I immediately got up and went in the bathroom. Julia's pants and panties were on the floor, the potty is clogged, and there was no Julia. This is good news and bad news. The pants aren't wet and the potty is used so there's no mess for me to clean up somewhere. However, it's bad news that Julia is not around. That can mean a multitude of things, especially since she's probably naked from the waist down.

I set out to find her. I only got to the bedroom door when I see her coming across the balcony with a big black plunger in her hands. She was holding it down by the actual plunging part! EWWWWW! (This would be the moment of horror to which the title refers in case you weren't sure.) And then she put it between her naked legs and started galloping and saying yee-haw like she was riding on a horse. I almost passed out right then and there. Have you seen the new Indiana Jones movie yet? You know the part where they're scrubbing him down after the bomb? Or maybe you've seen Monsters Inc. where a child's sock is discovered on one of the monsters and it's sheer panic as the detox team rushes in?

Yeah.

Gotta Love That Girl

This is a collection of mischievous things Julia has done. I used to keep a sidebar updated daily here on my blog. It turns out that God does love me and has finally allowed this child to grow out of her mess-making stage (mostly). For posterity, I am posting all of these in my archives. Enjoy. =)

She used a red rubber stamper she won at Chuck E. Cheese's to stamp the window sills and the pictures on the walls. So artistic.

She emptied the whole bottle of bubble bath into the tub in order to wash her stuffed toy ducky. Daddy told her no and to leave the bathroom. She was quite determined to blow dry that wet duck though so she snuck back in and used the blow dryer. Not a good choice.

She wanted Fruity Pebbles. All adults were busy. She climbed the shelves of the pantry and got the box & carried it to the table, leaving a huge trail of cereal behind her. The milk soon followed.

Put both big kids to bed tonight. Went in later to put Aulora down only to find baby dolls and toys everywhere and Julia in the crib snoring.

She decided she wanted to wash Strawberry Shortcake's hair. She put herself and her doll into the bathtub and got the doll wet. She soaped SS up in the sink and then rinsed and styled. Yea for water all over the floor, counter, and her clothes.

Well, today she was an artist. We had some glitter glue left over from a school project and I thought to myself, "Self, you better hide those from you know who." So I hid them way up in a pretty glass bowl where she would never find them. But find them she did. And today she decorated the grapes that were sitting out to snack on. Somehow, the glitter just didn't make them look more appealing.

I caught her hiding out in her bedroom wearing only her panties and going wild on a dum dum spree. She tried to cram the sucker sticks in her mouth really quick when I walked in so I wouldn't know. hahahaha. Serves her right. =)

I went in tonight to make sure she was covered up and asleep. I found white goopy stuff all over the soap bottle, the towel, in the sink and on the counter. My nose is stopped up so I couldn't really smell it to know what it was. I started looking around to find the source and finally found my tub of body butter open on the floor with big empty spots where she had scooped it out. Lovely. Absolutely lovely.

This is a gross one.....we were looking through old pictures together on the computer today. We came across one that I took solely for the purpose of one day proving to her what a horrible child she was to potty train. It was a picture of a perfect little poopoo log sitting on my bookshelf. I still have no idea how she did it, but she did. I have the picture to prove it. Anyway, a couple hours after looking at pictures I found her naked in my room. Naked+Julia=Trouble. Every time. Before I could even get an explanation I could smell it. Oh yes. "WHERE'S THE POOPOO? TELL ME NOW!" That child pooped another perfect little poopoo right on my floor beside my dresser. She tried to hide it by putting my purse and a basket in front of it. Man I was mad. She got a spanking for that one. I have no doubt that if my bookshelf wasn't in storage she would have pooped on it, just like in the picture. Gross......

Poor little Alex, the elephant webkin that lives in our house, got a bath today. He didn't want one, but he got one anyway. The bathroom looked so lovely afterwards. There were dirty footprints in the tub, water all over the floor, wet towels strewn about, and of course, the soggy wet elephant himself sitting on my bathroom counter. All because she wanted him to smell so nice and pretty. Gotta love it.

The mess of choice last night after she was supposed to be in bed was getting up and putting toothpaste on all the toothbrushes. She doesn't have very good aim though so there was toothpaste on the counter and the drawers too. A big goopey sticky blue mess I got to find the next morning. Maybe I should chain her to her bed at night. Or at least put a big cowbell around her neck.

Oh my word. All I can say is lipstick, nail polish and lip gloss. I was RIGHT there in the room and she still managed to be destructo girl. I need a nap.

She was hiding out in my closet tonight when it was bedtime. What was she doing? She had taken the bulletin board off the wall I use to hang my jewelry (yeah, I know I'm fancy) and she was playing with all of it. She "just wanted to wear a pretty pink necklace". So now there's necklaces and bracelets ALL over my closet floor. Ughhhhhh.....

She wanted some Frosted Flakes because she was "starving" and I wasn't RIGHT THERE so she took matters in her own hands. I came running when I heard a big crash. She had gone into the pantry, closed the door behind her, climbed on top of the trashcan, grabbed the cereal box and then fell off the trashcan. This caused cereal and trash to go everywhere and knocked over lots of bottles and kid cups. Arghhhh.......

Sunday morning I dressed the girls in beautiful new (to us) matching dresses that were very expensive. (Not that I myself paid lots for them. I'm a bargain shopper!) They both looked so pretty and I was a happy mommy. We got to church and I looked down to discover that Julia's beaded flower that went on the front of the dress was gone. GONE! She had taken it apart, petal by petal, and left nothing but the silver backing in its place. I still haven't found the petals. Arghhhhh.

We got out of the van a few days ago to hand the girls over to a babysitter and the babysitter's mom looked down and noticed that Julia's panties were hanging from the cuff of her blue jeans!?! That was a funny moment. They must have gotten misplaced when she went potty. =)

It never fails - when we're at Chuck E. Cheese's, as soon as I say we're leaving Julia runs and gets inside the playplace equipment. At least she's now old enough to understand when I use mommy sign language to tell her to get her booty down NOW.!

Yesterday Julia was rubbing lotion on my legs. She was having a great time while I watched tv so I wasn't paying too much attention. When it was time for me to get up she said,"hehehehe! You have sticky legs! hehehehe!" She just kept giggling like that and proudly told me that she had rubbed apple juice on my legs. "hehehehehe!"

Playdough on my bed. On my bedspread. Do I need to elaborate?

Oh What Fun It Is To Plunge.....

I don't know if we had extra big pipes in SA or if there are extra small pipes here, but I've plunged more toilets in the last couple of months than I had in all the years we lived in our house. Julia especially has the gift of clogging the potty. She uses soooo much toilet paper and just doesn't understand when to stop. I've tried explaining it to her, but it's just not getting through.

Tonight, she came upstairs to go potty. I came up to check on her and to see if she needed help. If only I had come sooner.....

I opened the door to find her standing mostly naked on the water covered floor. She pointed at the toilet which was filled to the brim with water. Aulora was at my heels trying to go in and it was already close to bedtime. We were supposed to be getting a bath and getting right in bed. But no.

I plunged and plunged. My arm hurt and my feet were getting wet. Gross. Even for a non-germo like me. No matter how hard I tried, I could not undo the damage. I called for John's dad to help me since John wasn't here. He came up and like any man he plunged away so hard that water was flying everywhere. I know it had to be done, but ohhhhhh. It was almost more than I could handle. My only consolation was that it was not yucky water at this point.

We had to use a bucket to empty some water out of the potty. The water was poured into my clean bathtub. Cringe. The clog was finally cleared. We got mops and cleaner and scoured the floor. Of course then the potty had to be cleaned and the bathtub too since it was the draining spot and also where the mops were squeezed.

I think it was only about 15 minutes past bedtime when the mess was finally done. Julia was sitting on the bathroom counter with her dirty feet in the sink during all of this. I washed her feet, ran the bath water and put the girls in. Then it was John David's turn. Poor guy - he got to use the girls' water since we were short on time. He didn't seem to mind.

I was exhausted when the last one was finally in bed. Whew. Who in the world installed the teeny tiny pipes for this house??? That's all I want to know......