Our Weekend

I took Callie and Delaney out to lunch on Friday.  We went to Chevy's, mostly because I love their Floutas, and partly because Callie said she was interested in "Chips and Dips".  I also had a free kids meal coupon, which included a drink and an ice cream cone.  The girls were unenthusiastic about the meal, but you can see here how they felt about the ice cream!  I love these kids!

On Saturday, we took them to the pool.

It took a while and much effort to get Delaney into the water.  Dan finally parked her in this floaty, and she spent over an hour in it, just chillin.  She did not want to get out once she decided it was fun!

Joshua had a marvelous time.  He had a large collection of floatation devices and enjoyed trying them all out.

Marian also had a great time trying different things.  The pool had a ton of stuff and you could just borrow it.  This was Marian's favorite item.  It seemed to give her confidence, although I'm not sure how much float it offered.  I just like this picture because you can see how much fun she was having.

Daddy with his little girls.  Callie saw Delaney in a float and felt the need to try one herself.  She also enjoyed it quite a bit.  Later she got braver and was doing a great job putting her face in.... something that astonished me, given her temerity  when we first arrived.

There were a bunch of rowdy boys when we first got there, but they thinned out and left and it was nicer after that.  The pool was small and had no shallow end.  The shallowest was 3 1/2 feet.  Barely enough for Marian to stand.  They had some "tot-docks" in, so that Callie could touch, but those didn't give much room to play in, and when there were lots of kids, they got pretty crowded.

All 4 kids were feeling comfortable in the water by the end.   Check out Marian and her back float!  Yeah, she's totally cheating with her floaty!

Life in Pictures

This was the super-scary bug in the kids room today. I put the Uno card there so you could see that it really was super-huge! My cousin Catherine's son informed me it is a hornet and it can sting. Yikes! A turbo-charged stinging thing! I did overwhelm, overpower, and overcome the terrifying hornet though and it is currently a crumpled mess in the garbage.

This is Joshua in his favorite place. He likes to spend time on Lego sites and some other things I don't like so much.... like Sponge Bob. Thank you Robert for making the computer functional and accessible! You are the best!

This is Marian, in the tree in front. There was a baby bird in one of the bird houses. I'm not sure who saw it, but it was enticed or frightened out of its safe haven and ended up on a branch nearby. The kids spent all afternoon torturing the poor thing. They were fascinated by it. It was more of an adolescent bird, actually. Not so much a baby.

Here is Callie with the cute little bird. He perched on the tree branch and didn't move till the kids swept him into a box. I made them put the poor guy back. He was right here when we all went in for the night, and this morning he was gone. I really hope his parents rescued him and he didn't become dinner.

Its Fabulous Callie!

This is Delaney, on her second outfit of the day. Yes, she put this on all by herself once she noticed it. I had to make her change before we left for the day. I had another picture of her, but Dan didn't like that it showed her nakey-ness. See, yesterday morning Delaney waddled into my room, pants around her ankles, crying about poopy "beenders". Yes, she did have poop on her fingers and her bottom. I had to hunt down the missing diaper (conveniently left in the bathroom.) This kid is killing me!

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.