Shoes!

I almost forgot!
Doug managed to get his shoes on his own feet this weekend. It is the first time he has put his own shoes on. Very exciting.
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Of course they were on the wrong feet but I let him wear them that way anyway...at least this time it wasn't MY fault they were on the wrong feet.

Balloons!

You get pictures today because I am taking a (very) short break to blog. To give you an idea of how my day has been it is now after 11pm, I still have several things that really, really need to get done tonight, I have Jo's blood on my shirt (she's fine...but boy do lips bleed an awful lot), I'm listening to Jim watch a movie in the other room that I have in fact seen before but I would rather be watching it with him, and I am tired and should go to bed. Not really down...just matter a fact about it all. Such is life. Thank goodness the semester is over soon.

Car Seats

We were down visiting my in-laws this past weekend. Had a fabulous time but it is good to be home. After a trip I decided it was time to wash all of the car seat covers...a very serious job by the time you are pulling out three car seats, undoing three covers, having to clean out three seats...and all that is in addition to cleaning up the car around the actual seats. I have decided however that if I should ever be stranded and need food I should just start searching the car seats for stale french fries and lost fruit snacks.

Fraternal Twin Opera

We are riding along in the car to church and Andy and Doug are singing in the back seat. Andy is singing "No, no, no, no, nooooooo!" So Doug starts singing "Yes, yes, yeeeeessss."
Then Andy switches to a song that goes "Don't take my tooooyyssss, Don't take my toooyyysss." So of course Doug starts singing "I take toys! I take toys!"

Jinxed

I just jinxed myself. I was working on my post and having a good discussion with my mother-in-law. I made a comment how it had been quiet for 30 minutes and we must have hit nap-time just right when not two seconds from the end of my comment I heard a door click. Doug's head pops out around the corner and then suddenly I have not just one, but two boys who are not only NOT napping...they are up and they are poopy. Curses!

End of an era...

I was going to try to make it to one year, but Jo is officially weaned. The boys nursed until a week after their first birthday and then I couldn't keep them attached and that was the end of it. With Jo it is earlier because she is busier trying to keep up with her older brothers. With the boys the last nursing we got rid of was the one we would do when I would pick them up after work. But that one turned out to be more about connecting with me because as soon as we hit summer and I was no longer working they didn't need that reconnection. I have to admit that I did the "bad mommy" thing with the current food recommendations and introduced Jo to milk early....but she was already eating yogurt, ice cream, and cheese with no problem. As soon as Jo started drinking milk she started sleeping through the night more regularly.

It has opened up a new world for me...one that I haven't thought about for awhile. I had nine months of pregnancy with the boys, then one year of breastfeeding, three months of freedom, and then I discovered that I was pregnant with Jo so another nine months of pregnancy and almost a year of breastfeeding. Suddenly I have the possibility of getting sloshed if I wanted to (though that is not really in my personality). I can take serious medicines if I get sick. I can drink multiple caffeine loaded drinks if I want to without thinking. I can finally remove the tattoos from my breasts that say "on loan."

Miracle!

Yesterday as I was writing the check for the cell phone bill I said a small prayer that either the money would somehow be there from a good thing (I don't want to come into money because someone died) or that the check would not clear until payday next week.

Miracle of miracles....our Federal Tax refund showed up this morning. Prayer does work!

Burrowing Creatures

I woke up this morning and discovered that I had small, giggling burrowing creatures in my bed who kept yelling "I hiding, mommy, I hiding." I tried to beat the lumps out of my bed but that just caused more giggling.

Sleep Math (follow-up to our napless weekend)

I am like Jill, I just don't get the math behind sleep patterns. Monday Doug was a no napper and went to bed at normal time (with whining at dinner). Then Tuesday he was normal and yesterday he had a really late nap. So of course after a really late nap he had trouble falling asleep. He stayed in his room until Jo was going to bed (she complains for a couple minutes and then passes out...but that gives Doug the opening to say that her crying woke him up or to say that I need to check on her because she is crying). So about ten minutes after Jo quit crying and went to sleep I walk down the hallway to discover Doug on the floor hanging out of the door of the boys' room. So he got to "help" me with evening activities. He put all the silverware in the basket in the dishwasher. He helped me get the laundry going and pull the dry stuff out of the dryer. He helped carry trash bags and was like a little shadow.
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You would think that going to bed so late (it was 10:30ish) would make him tired the next morning...but no, Andy and Doug burst out of their room as happy as can be, and earlier than normal, before the clock hit the 6am mark.

Magic!

The boys were entranced last night. They are very enthusiastic about having guests anyway, but Mr. Chuck Sonenshein is staying with us because he is going to do an inservice at Jim's school today. Mr. Chuck likes magic and uses it to help teach his students Math.
When he first arrived he did some magic tricks for the boys and they were suitably wowed. He made coins appear from behind their ears, multiplying balls appear in their hands, random things squeak, and he even gave the boys a magic slider thing to make a coin appear and disappear. I was impressed but I already liked the man because he brought me chocolate.

Belated Easter

So I actually just packed up the Easter Eggs and Baskets and we just ate the last of the kids' Easter candy yesterday (mostly because I wanted to pack up the plastic eggs...though mommy and daddy have some candy still stashed away). I also finally got around to getting the pictures off the camera. We went to a church Easter Egg Hunt so that is where these pictures are from. The boys were actually more interested in hunting the eggs in the older kids' area rather than the area that was intended for them. Jo found a few with help and a little girl gave Jo one from her basket (which Jo had a death grip on for the rest of the time we were there). They got to paint pictures and the picture of Andy at the table is where they were decorating cookies.

Night Visitors

Last night Doug was having trouble falling asleep. I had him hanging out on the bed while I brushed my teeth when suddenly Jim called us to the den. It seems that the reason that the bird seed was tipped over and had a hole ripped in the bag was because we have a raccoon. The raccoon was lounging on the railing. He sauntered over and was trying to help himself out of the bird feeder hanging off the corner of the deck. He was not scared of the light being on the deck (though I did turn off my flash so it would reflect in the glass). He obviously got very close the the door and you can see Hogan's, one of our cats, head in the corner of one of the pictures. I could see him reaching his paw in around the cup I had used to scoop the bird seed out of the bag. He hung around for a long time. So this morning I found an old ice cream bucket for the bird seed so I will be interested to see if that deters him...he did not seem afraid at all.
Then tonight as we were closing things up for bed Jim spotted a swallow-tail moth on the screen. He was about as big as my hand and wasn't scared off when my camera flashed.

Fun and Games

Josie is at a fun, fun age. She is walking, climbing and definitely playing with her brothers. I think we are in for trouble with her. She is as physical as Andy was (or more so...she already shows signs of thinking about climbing out of her crib, she is walking earlier than Andy did, and she is a climber). She claps and "cheers" for herself when she is proud of something. She can be as silly (or sillier) than Doug. She leans on her brothers and flirts with them. Yesterday (after her brothers were both in bed and she had us to herself) she was "beeping" her own nose (only half the time her finger was up her nose). Doug will "interpret" for her by saying "Josie wants up," "Josie wants down," "Josie happy," etc. Some people think that Jo is quiet...but that is not the case. She will sing along with "Bob the Builder" and some days I think I am raising a Pterodactyl because she shrieks.

I just looking....

I am getting really good and changing diapers and putting to bed almost asleep or already sleeping children. We can do the occasional

\ day without a nap but too many in a row and it takes its toll.
Friday the kids and I (Jim was on a field trip) were going to a Sunday School party. I told the boys they needed to take a nap and we tried and tried to get them asleep. Late in the day I was successful with Doug but not with Andy. Usually Andy is the one who needs more sleep.
So Friday night we went to the party and I was one of the first to leave because Andy was fading. He fell asleep in the car on the way home amid crying because he was strapped in a car seat. I managed to change his diaper and get him in his pajamas all while he slept on the changing table.
I got to see a different side of Doug...the side that might have occurred had he been an only child. Jo was still asleep in her car seat and Andy was already in bed. Doug adored the attention of having both mommy and daddy to himself. He willingly said every word of our bedtime prayer and brushed his teeth and was just delightfully cooperative through and through.

Saturday neither child really napped. This time Andy was ok (perhaps it was the incentive of having an ice cream cone after dinner...though he wanted to "save" the last few bites of it for the next day). Doug faded enough that he was more interested in going to bed than having dessert. So he went straight from the table to new diaper, pjs and bed.

So today, even though we were in the car at prime nap time with boys rubbing their eyes prior to getting in the car, and then we tried for a nap when we got home...no one slept (or at least no one in the under three set). The boys were warned that no nap meant an earlier bed time. So we reached dinner and Andy ate some but kept leaning his forehead up against the edge of the table. He was clearly not completely awake. He finally crawled into my lap and didn't want me to do anything to him that prevented him from leaning on me. Jim and I kept asking if he wanted to eat anything more but he would say "I just looking." He clearly meant...stop asking me questions I am trying to fall asleep.
Sure enough I ended up changing a sleeping boy into his pj's and putting him in bed. Doug was not far behind.

Noses

This morning as I got out of the shower I could hear what sounded like Andy saying "Give me back my nose!"
I don't know what was going on exactly or even if I heard what he was saying correctly, but it took me back many, many years.

You see, many years ago I went to visit my brother and his family. Now, Bill and Carol have 4 children...Cody, Allison, Ben and Steve. Cody is about 7 years older than Allison and Ben and Steve are just around 2 years younger than Allison....Ben and Steve are twins (their last three are the reverse of my three...one and then two instead of two and then one).

Anyway, I went to visit them and we were riding somewhere in the car. Allison at the time was only around 3 years old and Cody was messing with her. He "stole" her nose and wouldn't give it back. No amount of showing or trying to make her feel that her nose was really still there would convince the three-year-old Allison that her nose really WAS still there. Then, in the immortal words that no person would ever imagine saying until they become a parent, Carol hollered from the front of the car "Cody! You give your sister back her nose!"
He did and that was the end of it.

Hmmmm...

In the things that make you go "hmmmm" category is the question....

If you go the the US post office website to look up a zip code, why does it have a space for you to put the zip code for the address that you are trying to find the zip code for? If I knew it why would I need to look it up?

Going out...

Shopping carts are interesting with three. For some reason there are very few places here that have carts that hold multiple children. At some places I can find carts with the "car" attached and if I am lucky enough it is a place where the car is on the front of the cart so that Jo has a place to sit facing me while the boys sit in the car. Up until recently if we had a car cart where the kids sit up-top the boys would sit in the car and Jo would be in her car seat in the basket. Well, yesterday I put Jo in the "car" section and my boys, who usually want to walk rather than be contained in a cart, fought over who got to sit next to Jo. Jo was absolutely thrilled to be "driving." At one point Doug was sitting on Andy's lap in their quest to be in the cart.

Then we went to another store that has lousy carts for multiple children so Jo rode and the boys walked. Here is the typical dialogue going through the store...
Me: Boys, usual rules....if you get too far from the cart I am going to put you in the basket
Doug (to a random person): Hi
Andy: Here mommy
Me: No, we are not getting Dora yogurt
Jo: Boboboboboboooobobob
Doug: (to a different random person) Hi, we have big machines
Me: No Andy, we are not getting Diego yogurt either...put it back
Me: boys too far...that's one...that's two...
Andy: I coming! I coming

and on and on it goes...These conversations are interspersed with random people asking about and talking with the kids. I have turned around from saying something to the boys only to find an old lady talking to Jo. This morning we went and had donuts for breakfast and the kids made friends with the lady behind the counter and some random older gentleman. We don't go any where quietly....people know when we have arrived.

Help Wanted

Doug & Andy are turning three soon. Jim and I sing in the choir at church and it is a small choir (especially without college students) so our help will be needed during the summer. So I put up a "Help Wanted" sign I thought I would share with you because I have received several comments that it was funny....
Wanted: Willing victims volunteers to sit on with Andy and/or Doug during the church service. They would need corralling guidance from the beginning of the service until the Children’s Moment and then they can escape leave to go to Children’s Church.
· Doug and Andy will be 3 on May 19.
· Jim and Susan are needed (and would like) to keep singing in the choir if possible.

If you are willing to help please let Jim or Susan know. We would not inflict bestow both boys on you at one time unless you were insane willing.

Fast Fingers

66 words

Speedtest

Ok, so I have taken this typing test before and in a sense I cheated because I waited until I had time to do it on a full-size key board where, even after months of using my laptop, I type faster on the full size keyboard. My top score has been 71 words.

In the whole world...

Andy is an interesting kid. He has ideas and tries to make them happen. This morning he had his cereal with a straw to drink the milk...I had to demand that he actually EAT some of the cereal rather than just milk that had been poured over it.

He has decided, based off a comment I made once, that hugging people makes them happy so therefore if he notices that someone is not happy (which he does appear to have some interpersonal skills) he has started to give hugs to cheer people up.

And finally...
His favorite phrase is currently "in the whole world." Keep in mind that the word "world" comes out with at least two syllables...something like "wuurld."
Everything is "Its my favorite is the whole wuurld," "I never had that in the whole wuurld," "Its the biggest in the wuurld," or "Its the best in the wuurld."

Sleeping Beauty and Bigfoot (2 tales)

Story One
Once upon a time there was a woman who went off to her college class. When she came home she found that her three children were sporting new shoes.
Some evil witch (probably the mother's alter ego) had hidden her children's previous pair of shoes from the kind father and when the father had attempted to take the children for some nourishment he could not find the shoes. Thus he tried to cram her children's feet into their dress shoes and decided that the time had come to make a trip to the shoe store. Lo and behold the shoemakers (or at least shoe measurers in this story) discovered that the children's feet had grown a full two sizes since their last shoes. Oh my! Thus the children in this story are sporting shiny new silver sneakers for the boys and the little princess gained some adorable pink with pink flowers (flexible for her newly walking feet) shoes to adorn her feet (perhaps daddy was a bit indulgent for his little princess....).

Story Two
Once upon a time there was a little princess who went to sleep just after her brother's bedtime. She slept and slept and slept so much that her mommy even peeked in to make sure she was still breathing. It was not the first time the little princess had slept through the night, but it was certainly the longest she had slept.
The mommy came home to discover that the little princess's benevolent care taker reported that the little princess had not only slept late, but grazed on food all morning and then had an extra nap and was in fact asleep at the time that the mommy came home from work.
Perhaps the little princess has been put under a "sudden growth spurt" spell!

Small Glimpse

Here is a small (random) glimpse of my day (Mostly what sticks out as I go over it):
Took train cake to Sarah, one of the baby-sitters, at church because it was her birthday today.
Took balloons also which was fun to watch the kids enjoy them in the nursery while we were waiting for Sarah to arrive.
Even though we were really early getting to church I was still late to Sunday School by the time I changed a diaper before I exited the nursery (plus I talk too much).
Got to watch the kids during the children's minute because they had special animals (our church gave enough to donate two of every animal Heifer Project has....makes us an Ark Church). Andy picked his nose the entire time, I was glad Jo didn't pick up the goat's bottle and drink out of it, and Doug kept petting the goat that was near them and alternately looking at the bees that were also close by.
Doug was "No Nap Doug" today.
Andy passed out in the middle of the den at 4:30 this afternoon....he had a rough time waking up but I didn't want him to sleep too late.
"Pete" also cooked some dinner and ate with us (somewhere just off the table as far as I can tell).
Jo loves to be in the thick of things...she was up and waving her arms as her brothers spun around, ran around, and sang songs after dinner.
Showering was delayed because the boys kept asking for daddy to hide and jump out at them.
Andy always wants me to toss him into bed.
Doug is getting better about saying our prayer but he is saying it in a gruff monster voice (think slightly demonic sounding of all things) which is a bit disconcerting.
It cracks me up when your child is telling you he is not sleepy and yet can barely keep his eyes open.
Next week it all starts again and hopefully I have done enough to get through the next week.

Color Flower

Oh the lies we tell our children to convince them to do things.
I remember when I was in elementary school that I started eating peas because my sister said the rhyme "I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life. They do taste rather funny...but it keeps them on my knife." I know it is corny but it worked for me.

So tonight Jim had smoked a pork (yum) and made some vegetables on the side. Now Doug could eat his weight in broccoli. He has been known to choose broccoli over sweet things at restaurants. Andy is not far behind in his love of broccoli. Occasionally we can convince the kids to eat cooked carrots. I admit that as much as I liked raw carrots I don't think I ate cooked carrots until I was in middle school.

Well, tonight the boys happily ate cauliflower. Did you know that "color flower" turns you blue or red, or maybe even orange.

Absent

Wow it's been busy around here and then on top of it all I succumbed to whatever Doug and Jo had earlier in the week. Mild fever and killer sore throat. Hopefully I am over the worst of it now and can get back to my normal hectic schedule.

Surprise!

We found out yesterday that one of our friends was having a birthday. I know where she works on campus so this morning I managed to bake cupcakes (well...technically mini-train cakes and some traditional cupcakes). I quickly frosted them when I got home.
Then we all loaded up and parked on campus. We got to ride the bus again and we went to Julia's office and surprised her with some cupcakes. Since she wasn't expecting us she was surprised to see us and the boys had a blast riding the bus.

Confession

Can a rake make you happy?
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I have a confession to make...I have been sweeping our yard. I don't mean that I have been using one of those things that attaches behind a riding lawn mower...I mean that I have been using a broom to "sweep" up the leaves in our yard.

It is probably pathetic but at our last house we were in a fairly new subdivision and there were hardly any trees to speak of and the ones that were there were pretty small, didn't drop many leaves, and there were hardly any fences or anything to really catch leaves. So we never owned a lawn rake.
The house we are in now has large well established trees that drop lots of leaves and we have fences and bushes and such that catch leaves. We definitely need a lawn rake.
I did purchase one shortly after we moved into the house. It even had some sort of warranty on it. I think I used it once and then Jim used it for something (I can't remember what) and apparently it was something you should not use that kind of a rake for... because it broke.
We had the receipt and returned it...but it was one of those days where I sat with sleeping children in the car and Jim ran in and did the return. He somehow didn't end up replacing the rake...he just returned it.
So it has taken from Dec/Jan until now for us to get around to getting another rake. I got to use it yesterday and it was fabulous. A rake can be a happy thing if you didn't have one before and it truly is the thing that you need to make your life easier because it is THE tool for the job. So, if you were wondering...a rake CAN make you happy.

Yellow....

This morning Doug informed me that Andy's diaper rash is "yellow."

Hmmm...perhaps I should ask him what color Jo's diaper rash feels....

Breakfast!

You Are Danishes

Indulgent and a bit greedy, you eat whatever you feel like eating... nutrition be damned. You have a total sweet tooth, and you pretty much give into it whenever you feel like it. While it treating yourself is nice occasionally, try eating a vegetable every once and a while. Lay off the donuts and muffins, unless you want to be sporting a "muffin top" of your own!

What Kind of Breakfast Are You?

Lost in Translation

For the past couple of mornings I have sat a little bit with Andy as he was waking up and then had to get up to get ready to go to work. He hasn't wanted me to get up so to try and get me to stay put he tells me "Freeze Out."

I suppose I do tell the kids to "chill out" sometimes....at least he appears to know that chill and freeze are synonyms.

Peck'o dirt

There is a saying that you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die. A friend of ours commented once when he was little he had heard this saying and at one point started to worry that he was close to having eaten his peck'o dirt.

I think my kids are working on eating at least two pecks. We try to get outside when it is nice outside and Lord knows I have plenty of yard work I can do while we are out there. The only catch is what to do with Jo. She is getting close to 20 pounds so it is no light matter to haul her on my back these days but just the last weekend we turned the tide to walking more than we are crawling (though not exclusively walking). So we have a little play house thing we got second hand that I will put out on the yard for her to play on, but now she is getting more confident and doesn't just stay at the designated area anymore. She has taken to wandering and sampling various things around the yard...sticks, acorns, dirt....ewwwww. I turned around yesterday and Doug has his little plastic shovel in Jo's mouth shoveling dirt in....yuck! So let's just hope that it is clean dirt and the whole "God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt" saying is true...because my kids are sure testing it.

Interesting

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Dragon Name

It's been a quiet day for the most part. Not much exciting going on...so time for another name generator....

My dragon name is Gramzon the Ice Breather (Black Dragon).
Take Dragon Name Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Diaper Rash

I was changing Doug's diaper to get him ready for bed and he commented that it was stinging.
Doug: It stings mommy
Mommy: Well you are a little red
Doug: I not red, I blue
Mommy: You're blue? Is that how it feels when it stings?
Doug: Yep

Good to know that diaper rash feels blue....

Excavator Ice Cream

We had ice cream with whip cream, chocolate sauce, Carmel sauce, and sprinkles on top for dessert after dinner tonight. I wish I could have had a movie of Andy's face when Jim dumped the sprinkles on the ice cream...he was in hog heaven.
His bowl was heaping so Jim started helping him shovel up the ice cream. Jim started making big machine sounds and Andy, who is just enthralled with big construction machines, was so excited. So then of course this spurred Jim into making it even more like a big machine spooning up ice cream. They decided that Andy was having "excavator ice cream."

Out of the mouths of babes....

This morning Andy came out and was rounding up "his tools" and asked me about finding his saw...
Andy: Mommy where is my cutter
Mommy: I don't know off the top of my head
Andy: It's on top of your head!

Timing

I have decided that it is all in the timing.

Wednesday I was bemoaning that I bathed the kids in the morning and then went to change the headlight in my car. Doug and Andy of course had to help and by the time we got the headlight changed we all had dirty hands....I started thinking about halfway through the process of changing the headlight that I should have done the bath after changing the headlight.

Then this morning we did a bath and then went out to play. Again I was thinking that I should have bathed them after playing outside...we even ended up showering off after we came back in (mostly because I was concerned about the amount of dirt down Jo's front due to the fact that she was eating the dirt....ewwwww). By the time we got cleaned up, however, it was raining. While it didn't rain for a long amount of time after that of course it was wet and muddy outside. Therefore it turned out to be a good thing that we went outside when we did.

Smart Boy

I don't know what exact fears we have, but Andy has decided that leaving a (stuffed) dinosaur to sleep under your bed at night is a good way to protect you. I personally think that sounds pretty smart to me.

Dance'n the night away

We went to a street celebration at a local bakery tonight. The kids got free cookies, there was cake tasting., and there was a blues band playing. Andy and Doug each picked out dinosaur cookies. Jo had a musical note cookie and ate every little bit of it until she just had a little mushy glob left in her hand. Andy tripped over Jim's foot within minutes of taking possession of his cookie and when he fell he dropped his cookie and of course it shattered. Much moaning and wailing ensued and the bakery really sweetly gave him another cookie...but I think he was more upset because he was impatient to get out where the band was. The place serves gelato so of course the boys wanted some (it probably didn't hurt that they had gotten samples before). Andy ended up with chocolate and Doug...well....Doug ended up with pistachio flavored. Jo charmed several people and even showed off her walking (I would say that today she probably walked more than she crawled). Doug was hesitant to dance at first, but Andy was totally into it. He was right out there dancing the way only a two year old can dance.

Potty Party!

When we got home this evening I started on changing diapers and Andy was not poopy but declared that he needed to sit on the potty to poop! Of course then Doug wanted to do it too. Fortunately we have a little potty seat that goes on the big toilet and a little potty chair. So Andy and Doug both sat on the potty tonight...at the same time...and I lost track of how many times they switched where they were sitting.
We did end up with poop in the potty (from Andy) and probably (not sure) a bit of pee also (from Doug). So hopefully we are starting a good trend.

Course later Jo sort of freaked Jim and I out. I remember when Doug was this age he might get a bit fussy when he was poopy and I remember when Andy was about 14 months he went through a stage where he would bring you a diaper and lay down...but he was usually playing and not poopy. Well, I had already changed a poopy diaper on her when I was getting the boys ready for bed. She started pulling wipes out of the container but was across the room from me. So Jim and I told her to bring mommy the wipe. She walked (yep...walked) across the room and handed me the wipe. Near by was a diaper and she picked that up and handed it to me. So I picked her up and sure enough...she was poopy. I'll be interested to see if she does it again

"I buy it"

It has been interesting to watch how quickly Doug & Andy have caught onto wanting things and having to buy things.
Doug loves looking at catalogs with train items (videos, toys, etc.). Andy looks at things and notices things also. Doug usually says "mommy I need XXX." I try to say "do you need or do you want?" so that hopefully we understand the difference. Andy sometimes will say the "I need/I want" but often he will say "I never had that before."

Sometimes it seems to be the strangest thing that they want. For instance we often see an add for this pancake puff pan that makes both boys really want pancakes and in particular pancake puffs.

So this morning when Andy was getting into the cooking utensils which are in a pot on the counter I told him that he would need to ask daddy.

Andy: Daddy, can I play with your cooking tools.
Me: Daddy is at work and can't answer you right now, but I don't think he wants you playing with them.
Andy: I buy them

Then he proceeded to hand me pretend money and select his cooking tool.

Perspective

I was thinking today about perspective.
First, you know how sometimes if you are sitting at a stop light and the person next to you starts moving you feel as if you are moving? I had sort of a similar experience with a textbook. I have to admit that I am tired and slightly distracted these days, but when I was reading my textbook I had to look twice...then a third time...then even closer. I even pulled out the really bright light on my key chain to look at it. I thought I was developing blurred vision.
It turned out that for some reason the text on the outside column of several pages has a shadow...kind of a double print effect where the printing press must have been out of alignment. The inside column is fine...but the outside column looked blurry.

Secondly, normally I would be impatient if I had to wait for a train, but now that I have little boys and in particular a little boy who likes trains I was actually excited to be stopped by a train. We counted two engines and 104 hopper cars. If you ask the boys though...there were a whole bunch of "happy" cars.

Off Line

Yesterday I got home and discovered that I didn't have Internet access. I also discovered that we didn't have a dial tone on any of our phones. Since we have DSL the two are related and hence I didn't post yesterday.

So this morning the guy came. He climbed a really huge ladder and worked up on it for a couple hours and now our phones are working again. He told me that there was something wrong in the box and that he put up a new phone line because ours was really old. Well...if you have a house that is 40 years old then it sort of makes sense that even the stuff outside it would be old also.