Thoughts on Babysitters

• What are the qualities of a good babysitter? One that will help your kids clean up their messes while you finish getting ready for your date. It also helps if the house is cleaner when you get home than it was when you left. Although, maybe it's kind of insulting that the babysitter can keep my house cleaner than I can!

• The boys' 5th birthday is in a few days. They're very excited to be 5 years old (Trevin has mentioned several times that he's "almost a grown up, now"). We have a wonderful babysitter and the boys love her, but they were VERY insulted at the thought of 'baby' sitter. "We're not babies, mommy." So we decided that instead of a babysitter, they having an 'Almost 5 year-old' sitter!

• On one hand it's reassuring when your kids are so excited about the babysitter that they are not sad when you leave. On the other hand, it's really sad.

Mannequins

Meet the newest Old Navy Mannequins!

All packed!

The boys were getting ready for an overnight trip to Auntie's house. I didn't even ask them to get packed, but they appeared in my bedroom looking like this:

I'm so glad they remembered the essentials (like swim goggles in the winter!)

Stitches?

So, the very army men that made me laugh in my last post caused us an emergency trip to the pediatrician 5 days later! We weren't in the room when it all happened, but here's what we've figured out:

1. Mekhi had a shortage of army men.
2. Trevin had an abundance of army men.
3. Mekhi wanted more army men.
4. Trevin didn't want to lose army men.
5. There was a fight.
6. There was a lot of blood & tears.
7. There was a bloody nose and a bloody mouth.

We're still not sure exactly what happened, but it boiled down to the fact that Mekhi ripped the frenulum on his upper lip. This is the skin that connects the lip to the gums on the inside of the mouth. Let me tell you, this is a GROSS injury! When we lifted up his upper lip, it looked like his lip was going to fall off his face. Ewwwww....

It turns out that doctors try not to do stitches in the mouth because of an increased risk of infection. Surprisingly it is healing nicely (milkshakes help, of course!).

Now, that's a swollen lip!

Ewwww....

He was trying to smile, must not have been too bad!

Safe

A very special thanks to my Little Men who protected me from the bad guys while putting on my makeup today!

P-I-Z-Z-A

So, we moved. That's fun. It's been a few months and I still have unopened boxes. Yikes! Our move was really drawn out. The house was on the market for 8 months. After we finally sold, we moved in with my Sis-in-Law. We had offered on a Short Sale home but were waiting to hear from the bank. Of course the boys loved living with Auntie (nothing to do with the fact that she has a Wii, of course!). In fact they were determined that the bank was going to tell us that we couldn't have the house we wanted and that we were going to just get to live with Auntie forever!

Needless to say, during the transition our life was pretty unorganized. We ate out a lot. I mean, A LOT. I don't know if I've ever eaten out so often in a short period of time. If you've checked out a kids menu lately, you know there aren't a ton of healthy options for the kiddos. I was attempting to keep it a little healthier (you know, plain hot dog instead of the fried corn dog). I read the menu to Mekhi (4 years old) and conveniently left off the pizza. He had probably had pizza several times already that week! When I thought I was done reading the menu Mekhi quickly pointed out that I had missed something. He pointed to the pizza and said "See Mom, it says P-I-Z-Z-A. That's how you spell pizza. They have pizza here. I'll have that."

So much for my healthy attempts! Now that I think about it, why did I even bother to read the menu? It seems as though he can do it himself! He's getting too smart!

Mac-n-Cheese

Last night I didn't go to bed until about 11:30. Unfortunately, neither did Trevin. He can have a bit of a stubborn streak (I'm sure he gets it from his Daddy...wink, wink). For some strange reason he decided that he no longer likes Mac-n-Cheese. It's a kid standard and has always been the go-to meal in our house. Mac-n-Cheese is a food group, right? Anyway, Trevin has always claimed to dislike cheese. "Trevin's don't like cheese" is a common phrase. But this distaste has never caused a problem with the orange, cheesy goodness. Last night, however, was different. Well, not SO different, but different.

You see, Trevin often chooses not to eat his dinner. Although I always expect him to eat it at some point, I've never forced him to stay up all night to eat it. In the past I've let him go to bed and then he has whatever disgusting meal he refused to eat last night for breakfast. And lunch. And so it goes until he actually eats it. Usually it's gone by breakfast and at minimum he's so hungry by the next lunch that it disappears quickly. I changed my strategy.

I had actually read Matthew 5:37 the day before and it resonated with the mommy in me.

Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No';

anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

As Trevin sat at the dinner table refusing to eat, it hit me. If I let him eat his food the next day then I really wasn't following through with my expectations. By saving his food for breakfast, I was letting him finish the meal on his terms. I expect dinner to be eaten at dinner. I said eat your dinner, so eat it now. Not after a restful night's sleep, not after running errands with me, not only once you're so hungry you have no other choice. Yes, you'll eat dinner and yes, you'll eat it now. My yes means yes!

All that to say, it took him 5 1/2 hours at the table but he finally finished his processed cheese pasta. It wasn't fun (for ANYONE!) and he was exhausted today. BUT tonight he ate every bite of his dinner and even tasted a new food without any whining! Stay tuned to hear how long his good attitude lasts!

Who's Next?

It's an age old story. Mom takes shower. Mom leaves rugrats watching a movie. Mom prays/pleads that the rugrats will stay seated peacefully for her whole shower. Mom enjoys every second of peace and quiet. Rugrats seem so quiet. Mom feels victory. Meahwhile, back in the living room, Rugrats are quiet. But Mom does not have victory. Rugrats are bored with the movie. Rugrats find scissors. Rugrats need a haricut (or so they think!). Mom emerges from the bathroom. Mom finds:

(Yep. That's hair... And it's not the remnants of their first haircut.) Mom has now lost all the calm and quiet she enjoyed in the shower and her muscles are just as tense as before!

You see, the boys really love going to the barber with daddy. They get to sit in cool chairs, they get popcorn while they wait, they even get to play a little pool. Whey their cuts are done, they get to shoot a basket and win $1.00 off the cut.

You can imagine how furious I was when I saw the hair on the table (I later found another huge chunk in the bathroom). I asked (calmly, of course) why there was hair on the table. But I didn't have to dig too deeply to figure it out.

Trevin explained it all to me: "Mom, Mekhi needed a hair cut. He sat in the chair and I gave him a towel (around his neck to keep the hair off) and cut his hair. When we were all done, I let him shoot a basket and he made it! His haircut was only $5.00". Surely he stood with scissors in his hand wondering who his next client/victim would be!

To tell you the truth, it's amazing that there was no blood! He had used really long scissors and it could have been really bad. On the up side, I learned how to use the clippers. And, Trevin did put the towel away in the hamper when he was done. At least he cleans up after himself (mostly!).

Just for fun, here's a picture from Mekhi's first real hair cut.