Family Tradition

I often have wondered if the boys will follow in their father's footsteps and be musically inclined. After our party on Saturday night, I have a little better idea of the answer to that question. Tank found himself right at home behind the drum set. I'd have to say that for never touching a drum before, he did pretty darn good. We'll see what instrument Bubby chooses and see if we will have the makings of a family band. Thanks to all who came out and partied with us this weekend. We had a good time and hope you did too. We'll have to see about making it an annual event.

The Victim...For Once!

For once in his life, Tank is now the victim and not the culprit. It seems there's a little biter at daycare that seeks Tank's blood. All little boys go thru phases like this and I'm sure it won't last long. But if you see a few marks on Tank lately, I promise it wasn't me! As I have told his daycare provider, also my best friend, I'm just glad that he's not the one doing the biting! I'd feel much worse if that was the case. Daddy seems to think now is a good time to teach him to fight back. I hope for the biter's sake, that Tank isn't listening to Daddy much during those little lessons. Daycare could get awful exciting if that starts up. I'm seeing a horrible reality show...Ultimate Fighting: Toddler Edition!

Another little event of the evening...as I was laying on the living room floor playing with Bubby, Tank saw the opprotunity to attack. Usually it involves Daddy and I just sit back and laugh. But tonight, it was me. I rolled over, just in time to see Tank take a leap off the loveseat right towards my stomach. Luckily with my "cat like speed and reflexes" I was able to halfway catch/halfway divert him away from me. Obviously Bubby is 7 months old by now but I'm sure a 38 pound child jumping 2 feet in the air off a loveseat onto my gut couldn't possibly help a c-section incision.

On a side note, I have added several more songs to the playlist if you get a chance to flip through them. We can relate to every one of them and I love listening to songs about real life. Enjoy!

Camping!

Camping fun! We camped this weekend with daddy's sister and her family. The boys had a blast and Haley enjoyed her first camping trip.

Tank is being held up by his cousin in a water gun war. Actually they spent most of the time shooting water in each others' mouths. Apparently a drink was more important than target practice.

Another drink from the water gun. We had quite a few pants changes after the afternoon fun.

Tank's 1st sparkler! He did very well. No burns at all!

Tank got a buzz again once we got home to help with the summer messes. He can get dirty in a heartbeat. A couple of the messes from camping this weekend include a headfull of pancake syrup from putting his breakfast plate on his head when he was done. And sweet & sour sauce in the hair after a trip to the local Asian restaurant. I'm not sure what drives him to mess his hair like that but hopefully it passes soon.

Grass anyone???

For some reason, Tank thinks that dogs only eat grass. I'm not sure where he picked this up but last night he kept following Haley around with a fist full of grass while screaming..."Dog! Here, eat!" This morning I found that he had put grass in her food bowl and there was more in it again tonight. His chore in the morning has always been to feed the cat before we leave for daycare. So apparently he took it upon himself to handle feeding the dog as well and decided to chose her diet on his own. I'll try to slip her a little puppy chow once in a while too. :)

Meet Haley!

We welcomed our newest member of the family tonight. Haley came to her new home to play with her new buds. Tank was very excited to chase her around the yard. Actually I'm not sure who was chasing who but they were both busy and quite tired afterwards so that's a good deal for me! She is a Chow/Shih Tzu mix. I didn't know that was possible but apparently this is what you get when you mix those breeds. She pretty much looks like a small Chow. Hopefully she fits in perfect. And she survives a little longer than the last pup. If you haven't heard that story, you probably don't want to.

After we got home from picking up Haley, we finished putting in the garden tonight. A little late, I know, but probably ok since we had a good frost on Sunday. Bubby got to play in the dirt for the first time tonight. Tank was entertaining him during the garden planting. I walked over to check on them, only to find Bubby playing with a pumpkin plant. Apparently that looked like something he should play with so Tank helped him out and handed it to him. I'm sure he had fun with that for the short amount of time that he had it.

It's off to bed for me soon. Hopefully Haley does well for her first night and we don't hear her barking all night. Wish us sweet dreams!

Escapee!

Those of you that know me well know that I'm obsessed with saving money. On one grocery shopping trip alone, I took over $75 off of my total with coupons and rebate checks. I was on a natural high from that for 3 days. So when we found some used chain link fence for a mere $40 on craigslist, I was all over it. It had to be removed from the sellers yard but hey...I have a willing and able husband right? Ok able, maybe not so willing. Willing or not, he spent the next day tearing this fencing out of the ground and transporting it back to its new home in our yard. I have been reviling in the thought of a fenced in play area since the day Tank first walked his first steps outside. What a glory that would be to have an area that the boys could play in outside while I got some things done! After a little elbow grease and maybe a few profanities, we had a completed play area! Yippee!!!

Does anyone want to guess how many times Tank played in the play area before he figured out how to escape? Well...the first answer is 1 time. Obviously a simple swinging latch gate isn't too sophisticated for a 2 1/2 year old. So, we resorted to using a lynch pin in the latch of each gate. Ok, so our happy little play area was now a locked in cage. 2nd chance at guessing...how many times did it take Tank to figure another way out? Answer...3. He had to think a little harder this time. But give a young child a problem and some alone time and he'll figure it out faster than one might think. This particular evening, hubby put Tank in the play area so he could play while I prepared dinner. It wasn't long before I heard a little tapping at the front door and saw the top of a little head peering in the window. WHAT!?! Who let him out?! Uhhh, he did. Remember how I've mentioned in past posts that he can scale a flat wall with no assistance? Yeah, that means he can climb a 4 foot chain link fence in a heartbeat. Partner that with the complete lack of fear and you have a quick get-a-way. So...my blissfully sweet fenced in play area has proven to be less than sufficient in containing our little monster.

Does anyone know if DHS frowns upon the use of razor wire on play areas??? Our fun filled activity center is going to turn into Alcatraz real soon. I wonder if there are any zoning restrictions on moats?

Check Out Those Baby Blues

Who could resist posting this pic? I realize I'm a bit biased but what a doll!

Ok, on to the events of the weekend. To be honest, there weren't many. It was nice to have a weekend at home for once, with not much to get done. I took Friday off to spend the day at the hospital since my father in law was having surgery. Surgery went well and he's recovering nicely. He was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and had surgery to remove the tumors. So prayers for him would be appreciated!

Saturday the boys and I spent a quiet day at home. Dad went back to see his dad and then on to play a show that night. Today we mowed the lawn and cleaned out the van. Both were highly needed. Then a nap for all of us to counter act the productive morning. That's about it for our weekend. Nothing exciting, which is good sometimes. Hope everyone had a good one! Monday here we come!

Close Calls, Near Misses

Today I witnessed a miracle. When it first happened, I thought I had witnessed an accident. Then after thinking about it for the majority of my day, I decided that I did not see an accident, I saw a miracle straight from the man upstairs himself. As I was riding with a co-worker this morning on the way to do an install at a customer's location, a motorcycle right in front of us lost control and spun out, throwing the driver onto the road. As his bike skid out of control, the driver tumbled just as wildly down the pavement, over into the lane of a semi that he was driving parallel to. The semi driver slid over not more than a foot out of his lane to miss the motorcyclist by mere centimeters. After all the motion came to a stop, the driver stood to his feet and pulled his bike off the road. Walking away with quite minor, although bloody road rash. After speaking with him, and the policeman that came up on the scene, we continued on our way. Tonight I pray for that man and his family that gets to see him another day. And I thank God that I will be able to sleep tonight after witnessing a spectacular miracle...not a horrific death.

SMILE!

SMILE!

Or maybe not...

Random Acts of Fun

As I was driving down the road on Saturday, I do my usual peek in the "kid view" mirror and I see this reusable Wal-Mart bag with arms. Apparently it was a boring ride that led to inventive fun for a certain little boy.

Although I would have to say that using this type of bag is much more safe than what I saw while shopping at the big box store the other night. As I was making my way through my bi-weekly grocery trip, I saw a family gathering their groceries as well. Now, you may ask, what was odd about this specific family that made me notice them. Well, they never would have stuck out to me if it weren't for their approximately 7 year old son walking around with a plastic produce sack on his head, secured tightly around his neck with a tied knot, while his mother continued about her business without acknowledging for 1 second that she was being accompanied by the poster child for suffocation. I would agree that ignoring the child is an acceptable remedy for several disobedient acts, however...I wouldn't say this is one of them. As I always say, if you are ever feeling down about yourself or your life, take a trip to Wal-Mart...you'll undoubtedly find someone worse off than you the minute you step in the door.

Pants Off!

For some unknown reason, whenever Tank wears a certain pair of pants to daycare, he finds the need to take them off repeatedly. His daycare provider reports that he quickly strips and then holds them up and proclaims "UH OH!" As if the pants miraculously jumped off of him. This practice is also being copied by his little friend at daycare who is now also randomly stripping, much to the horror of her mother I'm sure. Oh boy I hope this doesn't continue in his future!

History Lesson

This posting is more for our family memories than anything else. Some of you may find it interesting but I'm mostly posting it to document it as a memory for our family.

Some of you may know that our home has been in our family for almost 100 years. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am close with my family and my roots. When I have left home, it wasn't for all that long. When I "moved" to college, I came home every weekend except 1 during my entire college education. Then when I moved to be with my future husband at the time, it was less than 2 years before we moved back to my homestead. Although I love to travel and see new places, I love to come home! Call me a home body if you want but it's my comfort space.

Anyway, on to the history lesson. The home that we live in, first came into my family in 1915 when my Great Grandpa & Grandma bought the house. My Grandpa was 1 year old at the time so he grew up in the very house that we live in today. Then in 1940 my Grandpa & Grandma bought the house and raised their growing family here. Which means my father also grew up in this house. In 1983 my Mom & Dad bought the house and raised their family here. Thus, I grew up in this house. Most recently, my husband and I bought the house in 2007 and are raising our family here. Which means that Tank & Bubby are the 5th generation in my family to live in our home. I'm sure there aren't many families that can say that and I'm proud to be one of the few. I wish I had a picture of the house as each generation purchased it to see how it changed through the years. But since we don't have that, all I can do it start that tradition and hope one of my children want to call this house their home in years to come.

A Few Firsts...

The past few days have brought a few new firsts in our household. Bubby is working on his first tooth. It is just barely starting to poke thru but you can clearly see it coming. He also enjoyed his first camping weekend. He did great. He enjoyed staring at the camp fire each night and keeping nice and toasty warm sitting by it.

Tank discovered a new favorite food at supper tonight. I'm still in shock actually. Tonight we had soft tacos. Due to the mess factor, whenever we have tacos I make Tank a meat & cheese quesadilla since it's much easier for him to eat. Tonight as he watched his dad and I tear up lettuce for our tacos, he expressed his usual "I want!" line. Figuring he wouldn't like it at all, I have him a small piece. Turns out, he loved it! And proceeded to eat about 1/4th of the head of lettuce. Where did this kid come from?! I usually have to hide all his veggies in something else just to get him to eat it. Hopefully he continues this healthy fave!

Remember the toilet paper incident last week? I remember thinking, as I was re-rolling the TP, "at least it's all on the floor and he didn't put it in the toilet". Well....that happened last night. I thought he was being awful quiet so went to see what kind of mess I was going to find. He was quickly rolling the TP into the toilet as fast as he could to make a nice big wet pile in the bowl. UGH. So how else are you going to get that much TP taken care of? Yep, I had to reach in and grab a good chunk while I flushed some of the mess. Wait...flush some more...wait...flush the rest. Needless to say, that was followed by a time out. In Tank's words..."Yuck!"