More fun with Delaney

My cousin Robert was in the area and stopped by for a visit yesterday.  We love Robert.  He's so neat and fun and smart.  He graciously reconfigured the wireless Internet for me.  Then he showed me a ton of cool things I can do with the computer (most of which I've already forgotten). While he did all that, he also played with Callie, who thought he was there for her own personal entertainment.  

It was nice to visit with Robert, but the computer, unfortunately, was located in the basement.  Delaney, all too frequently, was not.  There were several times when I assumed she was in the play area of the basement, and I was wrong.  I also thought she'd only been unattended for 5 minutes and couldn't have gotten into that much trouble.  Wrong again.

The little stinkpot climbed up on the kitchen counters.  She removed all the vitamin lids, looking for her kiddie "bites".  She got into my baking cupboard and opened my unsweetened baking chocolate and unwrapped each square of chocolate.  I did catch her before she got the crisco bars open.  Whew!  She discovered the can I had put the bacon fat into (and had forgotten to put in the fridge, although I had hidden it from her behind the toaster.)  She noticed the paintbrushes drying on the counter and proceeded to "paint" with the bacon fat on the counter and window.  Ick!

I dashed upstairs to the distinct aroma of my essential oils.  She had emptied 2 of them into the sink.  Well, I thought she'd dumped them into the sink.  Nope, she'd "watered" the basil plant Marian gave me for Mother's Day.  Apparently heavy doses of clove oil will kill those things!   And the smell doesn't blend well with Lemon.

Not to be outdone, the next time she was out of sight, she found an erasable marker and colored all over the refrigerator, and everything on it.  She also decorated the tablecloth with her artistic talents. I think she changed clothes 3 times, but she did leave her diaper on!  She also managed to clock her eye on the wooden frame of the futon, and then added another red bonk after she bashed heads with Callie.   I was exhausted by lunchtime!  

I love this face.  She wanted a picture taken when she noticed the camera in the diaper bag.  She is such a ham!

This was Marian's favorite blanket until a month or so ago.  That's when I borrowed it for Delaney one night after she'd peed through her diaper on her usual one.  Now Delaney has claimed this blanket as hers, and Marian has graciously allowed it.

Here, Delaney is teasing Callie with Callie's second favorite blanket.  Callie has 2 blankets and Delaney is trying to steal this one.  It's giving her great delight, but Callie was not so thrilled.

Silly pickle has put on her sisters PJs and pulled out her ponytails, and its nowhere near bedtime!

Early this morning, at 5:30, something thumped.  No one cried, so I ignored it.  I heard someone in the bathroom and assumed it was Callie.  Then there were more noises, so I got up to make sure all was well.  Callie was sound asleep.  Joshua was sound asleep.  Marian was sound asleep.  As I headed toward the bathroom, Delaney traipsed out, wearing a big grin, and something other than what I'd put her to bed in.  What?!   I do not know how long she'd been up, but it was long enough to go through Callie's drawer and put on her clothes, then to play in the bathroom.  I rocked her and sang her 2 songs and tucked her back in and locked her door behind me.  She slept till almost 8:30.  I did not.

Delaney is also still in the potty-training mindset.  Kind-of.  She wants to do it, but isn't really ready.  Today I was exercising on my lovely elliptical machine.  I had a movie on for Callie upstairs, and when Delaney came downstairs, I kept my eye on her, in case she decided to remove her diaper.  Nope, she was fully dressed.  I watched her, and no clothes came off.  She started to fuss and eventually it was distressed enough that I got off my elliptical machine 8 minutes early to see what was the matter.  

She was very concerned and kept pointing and saying "poopy". Upon inspection, it did look like a tiny poop nugget on the carpet. I asked if she'd pulled it out of her diaper and she seemed to indicate yes.  I plopped her down to change her diaper and discovered she WASN'T WEARING ONE!  She had removed it upstairs and then put on Callie's underpants and shorts!  Eeek!  Thank goodness the single nugget was all she'd produced!

Why I love kids!

Conversations you do not want to be having while in the shower with one leg half shaved:

Callie:  Mom, Delaney did something!

Me: What did she do?

Callie:  She's in the downstairs bathroom.  

Me:Did she pee on the floor?

Callie:  No, she pooped in her diaper and took it off.  She has a poopy bottom.

We may need an Ark!

First, let me post a picture of my fabulous new van!  I feel like that guy in the commercials, who would look for any excuse to drive his new car.  I love this van!

Here it is, sitting in the rain.  I had to take Dan's car to the commissary today since I don't have a sticker yet to get on base.  Sigh.

Now the real news is that this is the 10th consecutive day that it has rained.  It may not have rained all day all those 10 days, but there was precipitation every one of those days.  I'm getting a bit tired of it.  The children don't seem bothered by it at all!

Today they all went out and played in the rain with the neighbor kids.  It sprinkled, it poured, it sprinkled again, and it dumped for a while.  They stayed out and had a blast!  Marian and Callie had an especially wonderful time.  Long after all the other kids went home, my 4 were still going strong.

They had a lot of fun drawing with saturated sidewalk chalk on the drive and road.  Callie was so cute racing towards me when I called her in for dinner.

Delaney had enough and was undressing at the front door.  Once her pants were off, she changed her mind and ran around some more in her shirt and diaper.  Hey, I believe in exercise!

My 2 girls, jumping up and down in the rain.  They are so saturated! (I seriously could wring out their clothes when they came in.)

I don't think I mentioned that Marian lost her first tooth on Tuesday.  You can see it here, along with her joy at playing out in the rain.  What fun to be a kid.

Joshua and Marian worked at making a dam to keep the water from rushing down the gutter and into the drain.  I think they had a pretty good pond going there behind the van.   Joshua is racing in for dinner.  Marian is not.

I had all 4 kids strip down just inside the door, (where there is tile rather than carpet), and all of them got to come to the table and ate dinner wrapped in nothing but towels.  Even Delaney, that stinker, removed her diaper so she could be just like her siblings!  As soon as they were done eating, they all got baths.

Whoohoo!

My 2 littlest girls and I went on a road trip.  It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing.  On Friday evening, Dan and I (or mostly I) decided we (or again, perhaps just I) wanted a particular Toyota Sienna which was located in NJ.  Now, time might not have been a constraint, but this happened to be an Ebay find and we needed to get hopping on it if we really wanted it.  And I really wanted it. So, Monday morning, I packed Callie and Delaney into the car.  I want to mention that we purchased the Mazda MPV off Ebay and we have loved it.  It has been a really great van for us.  But as it was nearing the 10 year mark and the 100,000 mile mark, Dan wanted to get something more worry free.

Here are my girls on the drive out.  They were pretty good.  It was suppose to take about 4 hours according to Google Maps.  Apparently they do not take into consideration that all the roads around DC suck and the navigation of those roads is rotten difficult, even with their lovely (and not always helpful) directions.

Did I mention that it also poured rain the entire day?  The whole drive was in the rain, and I am grateful that we had no real delays or issues from it. 

We got to the dealership about 2:45pm.  The girls had a snack.

Then Callie proceeded to get her wiggles out by doing a very funny Butt Dance.

Delaney preferred to mess with the water dispenser and she filled 4 cups and spilled a bit.  When I took a break from paperwork, I discovered she had gotten soap out of the bathroom so she could wash her hands in it.  Sigh.

Anyway, I LOVE this van!  It is a 2007 Toyota Sienna, with more room and fun stuff than the Mazda.  Yes, we got it, and I was sad to say goodbye to my traded-in Mazda.  I would have taken pictures, but again, it was pouring down rain.  (And if you happen to be interested in a car and are near NJ, I can recommend a good place!)

Once the negotiations were over and titles transferred, it was dinnertime and we lucked out with a McDonald's with a Play Area.  So the girls had a good day.

We stayed the night there, rather than make the drive back.  I don't like driving that much and I was already tired out.  The girls had a marvelous time at the hotel.  I must now mention that I took them to the room, and Delaney decided she needed to pee on the potty.  So she sat on the potty.  Then I realized I had no more diapers with me, but they were in the car in a bag.  So I went out to get the bag.  Delaney followed me out- bare bummed and all!  Silly pickle!

She also didn't want to go to sleep, and once asleep, decided that 3am was wake up time.  She woke me up by opening the door!  Eek!  Thank goodness for the chain latches!  Delaney then spent the next 2+ hours chattering like a magpie while I tried to get us both to sleep. Not my best night, but since it didn't involve vomit, it was still a good night!

This morning we were on the road shortly after 8:30 and we were home before 12:30.  A good day of driving and mostly rain free.  I love this van!  It is so sweet and it drives so nice.  It is quiet and smooth, and I'm really excited about it!

Here are my 2 co-pilots in front of my new, fabulous van!  Aren't they cute in their matching shirts?  (Delaney kept talking about this shirt at 4am- "Strawbee shirt?"  "Cupcake shirt?"  She likes the "strawbees" on it.)

So, I had a good trip, all went very well, I love this van, and now I need a nap!

Highlights

Life is never dull around here.  I try to make it photo-worthy, but I slacked and I did not take a lot of pictures this week, so I have fewer to share.  I will deliver some of the highlights, and low-lights of the week though.....

* A certain child in the house neglected to get to the bathroom on time and his father told him to put the soiled undergarment into the sink in the basement.  The problem with that is that the washing machine drains into the sink and the underwear covered the drain and I ended up with water all over the basement floor.  Bad enough.  The girls had left a ton of toys all over the basement floor (because, well, that's where they play!) and I had to clean up wet toys and a wet floor.  Not a happy me.  Not a highlight.   (The next time he had an accident, he tossed the thickly skid-marked underwear directly into the washer..... onto my freshly washed whites.)

*  We are trying to purchase a Toyota Sienna.  I spent the afternoon cleaning out our Mazda MPV in preparation for a trade-in.  I'm so glad my dad makes me thoroughly clean out the inside every time I visit!  It sure looks good right now!

*  I have an ultrasound scheduled for May 20.  So those of you who want to know, we hope to inform you if we're having a boy or a girl that day.  To be honest, I don't even care which it is now.  I've had so many girls, it might be nice to not have to worry about something different.  But another boy might be nice.  Either way, I'll be thrilled!

*  Marian read her entire book to Dan. That meant we had to take her to Chuck E Cheese as a reward.  Even better than that, the next morning, before she saw me, I saw her reading a book, all by herself!  It was at her level and she was sounding out the words. I was so thrilled to see it!

*  Joshua had 2 projects for school.  He had to make a mask out of a brown paper bag, and he had to make a costume or puppet of an animal and give an oral report on it.  I was worried these would be tough, but he was excited about both and got right to work on them!  Both came out looking great.  He decided on a Scorpion for his puppet and we managed to make a pretty cool sock puppet!  Okay, I got to do most of the work, but it involved a lot of glue-gunning, and I wasn't confident enough that Joshua could do it without burning his fingers.  Which is exactly what he did when given the chance.  His oral report went really well and he was quite pleased with his puppet.  He told me he got lots of compliments on it.

*  I think I killed most of my seedlings.  I had sprouts of everything, but after letting them sit in the hot 90+ degree weather last week, I seem to have lost all my cucumbers and this week I'm losing my corn.  1 is down, 1 is on the way and I'm worried about the rest.  I did get the very healthy and LARGE zuke plants into the garden.  Everything else is still in the house being pampered.... or not.

*  Mice nibbled into 2 of my flour bags in the basement.  My food storage is no longer safe and I'm a bit freaked out by it.  Small furry animals are in my basement eating my food and pooping on my shelves.  The ick factor is pretty high on that for me.  I have put all the non-canned stuff into a tupperware bin.  If the wee beasties make it upstairs to the kitchen I don't know what I'll do.  Cry, I'm sure.

*  Our block had its annual garage sale day today!  We walked around and had a marvelous time this morning.  I acquired a super-cool new stroller.  I'm really excited about that.  Joshua is more excited about the 2 sleds we found.  He was quite upset when it snowed this year and I refused to buy him one.  Today I was willing to pay $3 for 2 of them!

*  Delaney wants to sit on the potty.  She likes to sit like the big kids and she wants to wipe like the big kids.  However, her wiping consists of grabbing great wads of toilet paper and stuffing it behind her into the toilet. Totally a good news/bad news thing here!

And I think that is enough.  I have pumpkin pie in the oven that needs to be checked (because I LIKE pumpkin pie!) and then I'm going to channel surf and go to bed.  Fun times for me!