This afternoon I took London shopping with me. She was good and I wasn’t mean. In the store she told me that maybe I should take a class that would help me be a better parent. You know, so I won’t be so mean. She wondered if they have classes for that.
I checked the weather last night when we got home. The forecast said 79 degrees in La Jolla. I threw all plans of unpacking from our trip and packing up Christmas out the window and we went to the beach. We had a grand time. It was the best decision I’ve made all day. The weather was gorgeous. Sunny and no breeze. The tide was low. I played in the sand with the kids while Taylor surfed. Then we checked out the tide pools and enjoyed the small bit of wildlife we found.
Before we left, I tried an old pair of London’s flip-flops on Ashton. They fit! So what if he couldn’t walk in them, the kid was going to wear them. Now he’s in his bed wearing his “new twip-twops”. Yeah, they’re a hit. Here’s to another great day tomorrow.
We went to the pumpkin patch today. I’m not going to give you a rundown. I already did that here, but I am going to let you see this series of photos I took. Why can’t they both just look at the camera AT THE SAME TIME?!! Is that too much to ask? Apparently.
And for more entertainment, here are some recent quotes:
While drying off after a bath this morning, London said, “I wish I was in front of myself. Then I could do everything!” Um, okay.
Singing himself to sleep tonight, I heard this coming from Ashton’s room (sung to We are a Happy Family), “I love Goofy so you see, we are a happy family . . . Lightening McQueen loves us so you se, we are a happy family.”
And because I’m on a roll of funny stuff, I want to mention a few more things that have been cracking me up lately. Ashton thinks that saying “boogers” is just funny. So he’ll look at me totally straight-faced and say, “boogers,” and then get a big ole grin on his face. I try not to laugh, but I think it’s hilarious. He also has Mickey Mouse Clubhouse seek and find book. One of the things to find is a dog. I don’t know the dog’s name, but Ashton named him. Poop. That’s what he calls him. And every time I tell him to find the dog, he says, “Where’s the dog? Poop. That’s what I call him.” Where he comes up with these things, I’ll never know.
Sometimes I feel bad that Ashton is the second child and that London has a box full of dress-up clothes. That means we have a box full of princess and ballerina clothes. (He even made me paint his fingernails today because London was doing it.)
I think it’s time to start expanding. I’m now accepting donations in the form of superhero costumes and other boy attire. Ashton will thank you later, I’m sure.
On another Ashton note, he peed in the potty today! After the horrible time we had potty training London, I was completely shocked. I have vowed to Taylor never to potty train again, but just yesterday I was contemplating a blog post on what to do when your two-year-old’s rear is too big for the biggest size of diapers. Depends? Anyway, tonight I took his diaper off to put his night-time diaper on and his diaper was dry. He asked to sit on the “bear chair” and he sat down and peed! I was so shocked and excited! A few minutes later he sat down and tried to pee more. Then he told me about a million times that he’ll put more pee in the potty tomorrow. Fine with me. But if it doesn’t happen, I’m not going to stress about it because, if you remember what I just said, I’m never potty training again.
Somehow a blog I wrote back on June 5 didn’t end up getting published. I was working on a video to add to it, but the video was never completed and then London broker her elbow and I thought I might be judged. And then I forgot about it. Until today. So go read it and you’ll get a background story of our little rollercoaster game.
Yesterday Gwyn and Murray came over and I let all 4 kids pile into the wagon and play rollercoaster together.
They had the time of their lives.
And just so you know, no arms were broken in the playing of this game. I’m sure Gwyn and Murray are begging to come back. Okay, maybe not, but my kids are begging to play again.
On another note, London had her final orthopedic appointment today. She’s good to go! She still can’t straighten her arm out completely, but it’s getting better and we don’t have to worry about it anymore! Let the summer begin!
For the past three hours, London has been whining. And whining and whining and whining. You see, she has a loose tooth. She has already lost two teeth. You would think she would be a pro and actually be excited about the prospect of losing another and gaining another dollar. But not so. I guess she has forgotten that they don’t actually hurt when they fall out (her first tooth fell out without her knowledge while she was drinking water from a sippy cup). Now she’s whining because she’s “dying of thirst” but she can’t drink anything because maybe her tooth will fall out. It’s been almost a year since she lost her first tooth, so maybe she really did forget. Good luck sleeping little one. Maybe that tooth will magically get pulled in the middle of the night.
Now for the other kid. As I write this, he stands at the baby gate in his doorway, yelling for me. Until last night, we had been sitting in his room until he fell asleep. He liked to lay on the floor and would slowly and methodically inch over to whoever was in his room until he was snuggling. Before we knew what was happening, he was snuggled up on our lap. Then during the night when he would wake up, he couldn’t get himself back to sleep and would come crawl into bed with us. Or try. We would walk him back to his bed and let him go back to sleep. A couple of nights ago that happened four times. Four. And London was up twice. What is with these kids? Well, enough is enough and last night I laid down the law. Ashton goes to bed on his own. He wasn’t so happy about it. He cried. He screamed. But finally he fell asleep. By himself. Then he slept all night. By himself. Without waking me up. He’s not screaming right now. But he’s asking for something. Earlier it was a book. And in desperation, he starts saying things like, “Please. Mommy,” in a gruff voice. It’s too funny to ignore. Oh, these kids. It’s 9:48 and they’re both still awake. Me too. Barely. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever not be sleep deprived again.
Since Taylor is now working Monday evenings, we have switched our family home evenings to Sundays. Tonight for our activity we played a fun game of iHide and Seek. I got the idea from this month’s Family Fun magazine. Ashton and I were on a team and Taylor and London were on a team. They hid (with Taylor’s iPhone) while Ashton and I counted. Then we started looking. After a minute or so, we Facetimed them from my iPod touch for a video clue. They showed us the bike trailer and we were off to the garage to find them. Then it was our turn to hide while they counted. The kids LOVED it! It was a lot of fun. With kids so small, our clues were pretty obvious, but with older kids, you could just give less obvious clues. My kids love to hide and I don’t think we’ve ever played hide-and-seek with them. Sure, they hide and yell for us to find them, but we’ve never played a real game of it before. Ashton was so funny. I told him to close his eyes so he would squint them up closed really tight while we both counted to 20 (yes, he can count to 20 on his own). Then when it was our turn to hide, I would tell him that he had to be quiet so he would whisper quietly while trying to stay hidden. We had a great time. We’ll have to try it outside next time.
P.S. If you want to read about our mini vacation, I blogged about it on my San Diego blog so go check it out. And while you’re there, you might as well just subscribe because I know you’re not already subscribed to enough blogs.
Today I had an argument with my 5-year-old about solfege. If you’re not a music nerd, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. She was solfeging Mary Had a Little Lamb singing, “ti, la, sol, la, ti, ti, ti . . .” and so on. I tried to tell her that it’s really “mi, re, do, re, mi, mi, mi . . .” But she didn’t believe me. Don’t ask me how she knows solfege. But she’s right. I’m just more right.
Post edit: I just checked her little computer that she was using to make the music and realized that it has the solfege syllables written on the keyboard. Those were the ones that she was playing. Still, it was a funny argument to have with my 5-year-old.
Some things were said today that I don’t want to forget:
by the x-ray tech:
I’m really good at this. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I just did you a big favor because I convinced the Dr. that we don’t need to take 9 pictures. Only 5.
This one’s really important so don’t forget to smile! I’ll smile with you.
by an old man waiting for an x-ray after watching me with London:
I’m no expert, but I think you’re doing a great job as a mother.
(That was especially nice for me to hear as I have heard so often from old people that I’m a bad mom.)
by London:
Don’t take a picture. I don’t want to remember this!
I wish I was you!
I’m sorry to say that I was being disobedient.
Today Ashton opened up the shower and wondered aloud why there was not a ball inside. Last week I stepped into the shower and wondered why there was a ball inside.