Well That Explains the Smell

This one is for Aunt Meg and Uncle Luke.  This is familiar territory for them.

The other day I put some waffles in the toaster for the boys.  I noticed a burning smell, but we were in a hurry, and I assumed some little piece of the waffle was burning a little.  The next day Ryan had something in the toaster, and I noticed a really bad smell.  I glanced around the toaster, but everything seemed fine.  A few minutes later when Ryan took his toast out, he saw this pen deep down in there.  It had melted to the inside of the toaster, and in order to free it, we had to break all the little metal heating strips in there, thus ruining the toaster. 

Who dunnit?  It's unclear.  Clayton says Eli did it, but he says that with a completely guilty look on his face.  Eli has no comment.  Oh well.  Ryan came home with a new toaster yesterday, and we all had a big talk about not putting anything in the slots.

Dearest Eli,

You have been wronged, and for that I apologize. 

Hello, old friend!

Because I'm sure everyone who reads this blog has been so concerned with the whereabouts of my camera for the last six months, you'll be relieved to know, I found it. 

Yes, we've told everyone who walks into our home that Eli most likely threw away our camera.  It comes up because there's a super inconvenient child lock on the trashcan in our kitchen.  Yes, I have a child lock on my trashcan.  This goes against all my parenting beliefs.  I don't believe in child locks.  I only have them on the one set of cabinet doors under the kitchen sink.  I believe in saying "no."  However, once the camera disappears, it's a whole new ballgame.

In our defense, Eli has thrown away many items that have luckily been retrieved.  Many small toys, important papers, and most recently, a Red Box DVD cover have all been discarded by Eli. 

Yes, we blamed Eli for the camera's disappearance, accused him of throwing it away, and no, there's absolutely no way Eli was responsible for this one.

Today we needed a van clean out.  I'd been a little lax on keeping up with that lately because it's been so bitterly cold here, and it's just not convenient to make sure every last thing makes it out of the van.  I put the boys down for a nap and cleaned out the van (something I've done a thousand times since the disappearance; I usually keep it pretty tidy).  I had the trunk open and noticed that my "emergency baby blanket" had gotten a little dirty and needed to be washed.  I keep it in one of the side storage pockets in the trunk along with a bag of jumper cables, just in case.  As I was repositioning that bag, I was standing at just the right angle to notice a black cord in the bottom of the pocket.  I reached down in there, and sure enough... the camera.

I don't know exactly how it ended up there.  We know we went to the science museum right around that time, and it's possible that as we were folding up the stroller, one of us put it in the pocket and forgot to take it out.  I don't know.

All I do know is that I don't like my new camera, and I am sooooo happy to have my old one back.  It's pink, which makes me happy, and I certainly don't have a lot of pink in my life, and more importantly, it usually takes better pictures than the new one.

All this is to say, "Sorry, Eli.  Will you forgive us?"

PS  I had convinced myself there were only a few newborn Aaron pictures on that camera and that most of the important baby pictures were already on my computer.  Well, I was so happy to see the pictures of Aaron's first bath, several really great pictures of a tiny, tiny Aaron, and lots of pictures of the big boys loving on little Aaron.  I'm so happy to have those pictures back.  I didn't know what I was missing.

Things Heard Around Here

Kids say the most interesting things, and around here, Ryan and I say some interesting things as well.  I always say that I need to do a better job writing these things down, so here's a start. 

Things Heard Round Here

Lately Clayton is into reenacting scenes from movies and TV shows.   His latest obsession is the scene from Cars where Mack falls asleep on the highway, and the "mean cars" come by and wake him up.  Clayton insists I reenact this scene with him at least once a day.

Clayton's most misunderstood words by people outside our home:

door (four)
dude (food)
dork (fork)
diretwuck (firetruck)
wup-wup (ruff-ruff)

Notice the "f" theme?  F's are usually pronounced as "d" or "p."

Anytime something is wrong in the house, Clayton chimes in with "We've got a bad situation here."  I have no idea where that came from.

I do however know where "What were you thinking?" comes from.  He says this to Eli often.  At least I know he's hearing me when I say it to him.  In case you were wondering, this is a completely ineffective parenting question.  It's usually just met with the all too common Clayton blank stare (AKA the "no speakie English" stare).

Eli. Every word he speaks comes out loudly and with such force.  These days he cannot be quiet, EVER, especially in the car.  He refuses to just sit back and enjoy the ride.  He feels he must carry on constant conversation at the top of his lungs, mostly about the apple of his eye, trashcans.  Yes, that's right.  He has an extremely unhealthy obsession with trashcans.  It was funny a long time ago, but now, Mommy is ready for him to develop some new interests.

Our usual car conversation:

Eli: Trashcan.  Trashcan.  Trashcan, Mommy?  Trashcan dump out?  Trashcan dump out, Mommy?  Trashcan.  Nother trashcan.  Nother trashcan, Mommy?  Trashcan gucky?  Trashcan gucky, Mommy?  Repeat a thousand times over with extreme gusto.  No one else says a word.  Mommy usually turns up the radio and tries to tune it out.  Oh, and a big thank you to all my neighbors who store their trashcans on the sides of their houses where we can see them as we drive down our street every day, multiple times a day.  This only fuels the fire.

Lately, Eli is either humpy or tirsey.  Yes, hungry or thirsty.  Every time he tells me he's humpy, I have to chuckle.  He's so serious, and it sounds so funny to me.

DayTON nauTee.  Clayton's naughty.  This is heard anytime Clayton's doing anything Eli doesn't like.  Sometimes it's something naughty.  Usually it's nothing.

Night-night Binkie!  Eli screams this out almost every time he's corrected or disciplined.  He's still completely binkie dependent at night and for naps.  When he's not happy, he thinks maybe he can change the subject, get in bed, and chill out with a binkie for a while.  His plan never works, but he still tries.

Hode on Tie.  Hold on tight.  Eli says this repeatedly every time he's in a shopping cart.  Am I really that crazy of a driver?

KeyKey (Cookie)

WoWum (Yogurt; I cannot explain this one) and it's cousin WoWum Dink (Yogurt drink)

Ah-Do (Apple juice; all juices are apple juice to Eli.  Other than orange juice, we don't typically have juice in our house, so I don't know why he always requests apple juice.)

Anyway, it's a start to a list of things I'd like to remember in the future.  I'm sure one day I'll wake up and no one will be begging me for "WoWum" or telling me they're "Door" but will be "Dive" on their birthday.

Snow Day

Aaron was outside for a few minutes, but he was definitely not happy about the cold.  I pulled the Jumperoo up to the storm door, and he stayed inside watching us from behind the glass.

Also, Clayton hasn't said anything about his ear today, so we may have dodged that ear infection.  He's still really congested, we all are, but he hasn't complained about the ear.  So far, so good.  Ryan got the driveway cleared, so it's back to work tomorrow.

It's That Time Again

Time for some baby food.  Aaron sampled some rice cereal for the first time about two weeks ago.  It went as well as expected (translation: a ton on the face, very little down the hatch), but he stayed happy throughout the meal.

All done.  Two days later we left on our Great Wolf Lodge vacation.  Aaron hadn't had much success with the cereal, so I decided for convenience sake, we'd just put it away and work on it again when we got home three days later.  That was a mistake.  On our trip this baby acted like I'd cut out all his meals.  He acted like he was STARVING the entire trip.  Within about two minutes of arriving home, he was chugging down a bowl of cereal like he'd been doing it his whole life.

Needless to say, we were ready to move onto to something else last week.  I opted for squash.  Before you think I make all my own baby food, I'll confess I don't.  I made some of Clayton's and almost none of Eli's.  I have a little bit of new resolve to make more of Aaron's though.  Baby food is expensive for what it is.  That's true, but to me the bigger issue is all that packaging.  Whether it's the plastic or glass, there's just so much trash.  Baby food is easy to make, so I'm making an effort to make as much as I can without killing myself (or making it at midnight, like I did this batch).

It looks yummy!

It's no blue fruit snack.  That's for sure.

We have had much better luck with the squash in the last few days, and now we've added some applesauce to the mix as well, which Aaron loves.

Eating baby food is not a newborn thing to do.  Sniff, sniff.  Did I mention Aaron was six months old on Saturday?  Where's my baby?

Hello Winter!

We, like a lot of other people in the country, are having a blizzard here today, and that makes me pretty happy.  I'm happy because Ryan didn't have to go into work today, and we kept our power on all day.  Blizzards are fun when those two things work out.  The only downside is the winds were so incredibly strong, and we didn't feel we could get the boys outside today.  Three boys cooped up in a house ALL day makes for a very cranky dinner time, which resulted in a very early bedtime, so maybe that part wasn't all bad.  Final snow count today: 12 inches.

Funny story about this screened window.  Clayton was talking to Aunt Meg on the phone this morning.  He walked over to this window, and I heard him tell Meghan, "A bunch of birds were flying around outside (true, poor birds), and they pooped all over our window (false)."  Nice.

One slight problem will need to be addressed in the morning.  Does Clayton have an ear infection?  It's definitely a possibility.  I'm almost sure our pediatrician won't be open (Ryan's not working either), so there will be the matter of locating a doctor (preferably one who won't flip out about his heart condition) and pharmacy that are open, as well as actually driving to them.  Please pray for a miraculous healing tonight.  If all fails, I could put some garlic in there.  I have a friend who swears by it.  I don't know.  Tylenol seemed to help a little tonight.

Hope you're keeping warm wherever you are.