Cowboys and ....

Natalie found a shoelace the other day, and has been tormenting us with it. We couldn't figure out where she found it, then once Jon finally took it away this afternoon, we figured it out. She told us she was going upstairs to get something. Came back down with an impish little grin, looked at me and patted her pocket. I asked her what she had, and she pulled out another shoelace. Then Jon remembered that he had a package in the valet on his dresser. Went upstairs, and sure enough, her stepstool was in front of the dresser - a dead giveaway! This is one of the incidents that prompted the shoelace ban.

Natalie kept tossing the shoelace around Jon this morning.

Jon: "Natalie, stop whipping that around."
Natalie: "I have to. I'm a cowboy."
Jon: "I said stop."
Natalie: "I'm the cowboy and you are the... the.... the.... SUCKER."
Me - "You mean steer."
Natalie - "What's that?"
Me - "Cowboys rope steer. "
Natalie tries to lasso Jon again.
Jon - "Give me that."
Natalie - "But I'm the cowboy and you're the sucker."
Me - "STEER. He's the STEER."
Jon - "Well, I'm the sheriff and I'm going to arrest you."

*sigh*

Airing of grievances

On the way home from school, and on the way to pick up Pinocchio (Natalie was so excited!), Natalie decided to get a few things off her chest. I can't even remember what prompted the conversation, but it went like this:

N - "Oliver shouldn't play with my kitchen"
Me - "He's allowed to play with the kitchen, you need to share it with him"
N - "All he does is chew on things"
Me - "That's what babies do. He just wants to play with you. Why don't you try showing him how to play with your kitchen?"
*from here on out, she channels a tone of "we've been through this already, Mommy", coupled with exhausted aggravation, as only a four year old can..
N - "He won't do what I tell him"
Me - "Well, that's because he's still learning. It takes babies a little longer to learn how to do things".
N - "He always tries to play with my toys. And climb on my chair. And chew on my hot stove"
Me - *trying not to laugh*
N - "And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not gonna.... gonna.... gonna.... HAVE it. I'm not gonna have it. I'm just not gonna HAVE it". This last bit accompanied by a sweeping hand gesture. She channeled me beautifully there!

Happy Birthday, Mitz!

Belated, but we got to celebrate tonight! With Oliver being sick and contagious still on Friday, we postponed until this afternoon. Natalie decorated the cake before Mitz and Pops came over. Once they got here, we did presents (Jon found a Christmas gift for Mitz that I lost before the holidays. LOL), then Mitz, Pops and Natalie played Sorry. Natalie's getting pretty good at the game - once she gets the basics down a little better, we'll teach her the cutthroat version! Had a nice dinner, then cake.

Here's Natalie decorating the cake -

Ace of Cakes has some competition - the finished product :-P

Mitz needed some help with the candles! Happy Birthday, Mom - love you!

Curses, foiled again!

We finally had to break down and gate the stairs - Jon installed it last night. Natalie was always good about staying off the stairs, but Oliver, not so much.

Needless to say, he was not pleased to have his access cut off. I heard him rattling the bars, and Natalie said "Look Daddy, it works!". And Jon installed some kind of cover over the outlet where my PC is plugged in - the little stinker has unplugged my PC on me a couple of times. Oliver's not happy about that either - he hits the cover. LOL

He's going to be even less pleased tomorrow morning when he discovers all the cabinets downstairs are latched. Tee hee!

Just for fun - one of the rare times he isn't cheerful upon awakening. If looks could kill...

While we're on the subject of Skeezers... It's so hard to believe he's going to be one in just over a month! I ordered his invites, birthday outfit, and bought his first present today (Dr. Seuss's Happy Birthday to You book - don't know why I haven't discovered this before - it's wonderful! Now I need to get Natalie one this year), and that really drove it home! I wish this last year had dragged on a little longer. Love you, sweet boy.

Crapsticks. Croup.

Oliver's been sounding funny when he breathes the last couple of days. After his morning nap today, he sounded horrible. Really labored, harsh breathing from deep in his chest. Called the ped, and they wanted him in because RSV is going around. Thankfully he doesn't have RSV, but he does have croup. This is my first experience with it, and I'm a little scared. Kids get it all the time, but I guess I never realized how serious it can be. The poor guy looks so sick, and sounds so awful, but he still rallies and gets into stuff he shouldn't, while laughing. We were told that the first three nights will be the worst, and since it's viral, the only thing we can do is give him Motrin, an oral steroid for two days and of course steam in the bathroom, then cold air outside. Hopefully, if it's possible, he'll just have a mild case.

Natalie doesn't sound so hot either, but not nearly as bad as Oliver. Hopefully she'll be able to fight it off better.

Oh, and Oliver weighs 27 pounds! No wonder my back and neck hurt all the time!

This little piggy, and Where's Mommy gone awry.

The day we went to the Renaissance Festival, we saw someone hurl a Coke can out the window of the car in front of us. I haven't seen such blatant littering in a long time, and blurted out "That &*^%$#$%^ pig". Of course Natalie wanted to know why I called him a pig, so I explained about littering and why it is bad.

Today, while driving home from school, she asked me to open the sun roof, so I did. At one point I was waving my hand out of it to make her laugh, when she asked me "Mommy, you aren't being a pig, are you?". Then, I took the kids on a walk/bike ride this afternoon. Someone's yard had a piece of trash in it, and she stopped her bike to say "Look Mommy, pigs".

I think I need to teach her the term litterbug!

After dinner, I was playing with the kids while Jon cleaned up. I was on my stomach on the ground, hid my face in a pillow and asked Oliver "Where's Mommy". Yeah. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, and yanked my head off the ground. I'll never do that again.

Good job, Mommy!

Ay yi yi.

Natalie likes watching little clips on YouTube - usually animated characters dancing to songs. About a week ago, I bought her a Safari Animals book that she just loves - lots of photographs of animals in Africa. She latched onto meerkats right away. So she's been watching clips of Meerkat Manor (Animal Planet, I believe) on YouTube.

She asked to see some tonight, but was bored with what they had - she's seen them all. She asked about polar bears, so I searched for polar bear clips. Found one contributor who put up a bunch of silly animated polar bear clips, and she happily started watching them.

I saw one titled "Polar Bear vs. Walrus", and thought it was just an animated short of the animals wrestling or something. Didn't catch that the screenshot they displayed (really small) wasn't animated. I started doing some dinner prep, looked over at Natalie, and she was sitting stock still in my desk chair, and just said "Um, I don't think I should watch this Mommy". Yeah. It was a real polar bear attacking and eating a walrus in graphic detail. Cripes. Fortunately she doesn't seem too tramautized, and even more fortunately, the clip quality was pretty poor. I just explained a little bit about how wild animals eat, and left it at that.

I'll be checking the mail every day for my Mother of the Year award.