Showing posts with label SQT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SQT. Show all posts

Friday, September 13, 2013

Seven Quick Takes: Upward Mobility, Flies and Contraband Pictures

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Our biggest news around these parts is that the baby is officially on the move.  This video is from a couple of weeks ago--whereas Henry would only be enticed to crawl with the promise of Cheerios, this little angel will only crawl towards paper and not just any paper either:

Random paper from the printer?  No.  
Unused construction  paper?  No.  
Junk mail?  No.  

David's most prized piece of artwork?  Now we're talking.  
Mom's latest book?  That's more like it.  
That invitation we needed to RSVP for?  Delicious.  

You could lay out something unimportant and something precious to you next to each other on the floor and he would sprint like the little frog crawler that he is over to that important document in a heartbeat, flinging aside the unimportant pages like the recycling they are.  His instincts are impeccable.   And also terrifying.




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As if this crawling weren't bad enough, quickly after his first foray into forward motion, John Michael decided to outdo himself and showed us that not only is he able to get into untold mischief on ground level, he can also reach anything in his baby-height range as well.  



That's right, along with crawling he can also pull himself up on/walk around the furniture.  Awesome.

Chris says it's his survival instincts kicking in.  Apparently you've got to grow up fast to survive in this house.   Bob and weave John Michael, bob and weave!


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With all of the new challenges involved in having an ambulatory baby the last thing I need is surprise dinner-time fly-swarm attacks.  And yet, I seem to be getting one per week.

It goes something like this--I'm standing in the kitchen stirring the pan sauce for my current favorite dinner (with brown rice and roasted broccoli) when all of a sudden a fly whizzes by my face, then another, then another....then....they are everywhere.  At least twenty.  The children are screaming.  I'm running around like a crazy lady with my spatula killing them left and right.   It's a fly massacre.

It has happened twice now, both times I was making the same meal and I'm pretty sure they are coming in through the vent fan thing over the stove.  My hypothesis is that it's the smell of the roasting broccoli that is calling them down from their hiding place in the vent.  That begs the question though, does roasted broccoli smell like a dead animal to flies?  Maybe I shouldn't be so upset that David gags on it.  

And why are giant fly swarms living in my stove vent?  

And how do I get rid of them?


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In other non-fly related news, we had our first week of doing Kindergarten at home and it went much better than I imagined it would.  David loves "doing school" as he puts it so hopefully that excitement isn't just because it's something new and different to do and will last past these first few weeks.

I'm loving the All About Reading program so far--we've done the first five lessons and he's read two stories in the first reader all by himself and he is beyond proud!   The pace is great and he loves the little lessons and magnet letters.  I think the activities in the activity book provide the perfect amount of cutting and pasting for his Kindergarten experience--goodness knows I wouldn't be thinking up things for him to cut, paste and glue just so I could throw them away later on my own :)  
 

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And speaking of David's education, I broke down and asked the librarian for a book on "lady parts" as per his request.  I ended up going with this one because it had the most appropriate inappropriate pictures for little eyes, but I didn't love the text so we didn't read it.

   

And by "we" I mean Chris, because clearly this was a talk that daddy should give.  If there are any daughters in our future I'll be sure to handle any awkward conversations but for now......sorry honey, it's all you  :)

The day after "the talk" David tried to smuggle the book over to the printer to make copies of it so that he could show all his friends at the playground and was very upset that I didn't think that that was a good idea.  He seemed to let it go, but I don' think he's really given up the idea so now the book is on the top shelf waiting it's return to the library.  I can't believe it's my son that wants to show dirty pictures to the neighborhood children--I thought I had at least another eight years or so before I had to worry about that kind of thing.

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Now let's segue into actual inappropriate pictures of my kids..........wait no, not inappropriate, precious!

Last night I heard Chris calling from the bathroom, "Honey, get the camera!  The kids are being so cute!"  I'm sure you can imagine how much arm twisting I needed to come charging in, camera waiving.

Here are some highlights:

"Smile for mamma!"

 (this one's definitely got his daddy's ears)
  
"No, no.....just, um......everyone, arms down.......and one.....two......three......smile for.......NO MONSTERS!"



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"I said no monst................oh, just.......never mind."


They're precious, my little monster darlings even if they do want to spread contraband pictures around the neighborhood.


Well, I hope you all have a lovely weekend but first go check out Jen for more quick takes!

Friday, August 2, 2013

Seven Quick Takes: The First Edition

Since I have several random stories buzzing around in my head, and one of them involves a dangerous and seriously creepy critter, I thought I would join in on the fun and make an effort at my very first seven quick takes post.  Well, here goes.....she begins lamely........

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Jen has regaled us all with her hilarious scorpion wrangling adventures and I admit that I (along with many others I'm sure) laughed aloud on more than one occasion.  Well, this week I realized that scorpion infestations are only funny when they are happening in someone else's house.

No mom wants to hear her children delightedly shrieking, "Mom! Mom!  We found a scorpion in our room!" first thing in the morning....or ever really......



At least it was already dead when they discovered it.....but it must have been alive at some point to crawl inside.......and thanks to Mrs. Fulwiler I'm now having nightmares about the potential of awakening to scorpions in the bed stinging me repeatedly.

On the upside I think I can settle the age-old alligator/scorpion debate and say that the answer is both, it is worse to have both the threat of alligators outside and scorpions inside and apparently here in Florida that is a distinct possibility.  I'm imagining telling the children to RUN! run outside to save yourselves from the scorpions! only to find a giant alligator staring you down, daring you to try to pass him.......

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In other not sleeping news, I lost John Michael's last paci this week at the vet--the other one disappearing the week before at the zoo.  Smug mother that I am I decided that in lieu of purchasing pacis (as these first two came as free gifts from Motherhood Maternity and also--I am cheap) I would just end the paci use now.  After all he's six months and that's when I took the pacifiers from Henry--albeit not cold turkey.....

John Michael was not amused.

The first night was fine.  The second night he refused sleep and screamed as if he has a scorpion in his footie pajamas.  The third night.....he slept like a baby.....a baby with a brand new store-bought paci in his mouth.....



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Speaking of overtired children, this is what we walked in to when checking on a certain little boy who was sent to our room for throwing a fit about how dinner wasn't "good to" him and also "not nutritious" for him.  Apparently he thinks a diet consisting solely of PB&J sandwiches with an occasional side of cheese is the most nutritious one for cranky four year olds.....


He pulled down daddy's (stinky) PT shirt and made a sort of calm down cocoon in order to--I'm not sure--show us who's boss?  He promptly fell asleep.  I promptly had Chris remove him from the shirt partly because I was afraid he couldn't breathe, but mostly because he looked really creepy......

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Creepy cocoon children drove me to the pantry, but instead of eating secret handfuls of chocolate chips as per usual, I decided to make these homemade peanut butter cups but I used dark chocolate because dark chocolate is what I love.  Mine ended up looking slightly deformed--but I can assure you they were delicious and I can also assure you that I did not share them with the children.


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I'm sorry, here I am blathering on and you probably just wanted some more baby cuteness.  

Here's John Michael emptying his toy basket....clearly he is learning from the best.......

Undecorated

Decorated




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I'm thinking this weekend will be the weekend of baby-proofing--cabinet locks to keep him out of the chemicals and a baby gate to keep him out of the big boys' room and consequently the legos/marbles?  Chris is a little upset that we got rid of our gates when we moved here and (he claims) I said we didn't need them anymore since we no longer had stairs.  I maintain that he threw them out in a fit of garage decluttering.  I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.  And also buy a new gate.


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My mom gave me several boxes of slides from my grandparents' house to go through and convert into digital files using this bad boy that we bought for the job.  Here are a few favorites so far:

A twenty-something mom with an unknown dog and glorious hair.

A very handsome grandpa wearing a spiffy suit in the formal living room.

A young aunt also in the formal living room with the sweetest outfit....and apparently my grandparents used to have a piano?

And this is one of my most favorites--for as long as I can remember my grandpa fed the squirrels outside his house.  He constructed a whole system of ramps that they could run down to different feeding platforms where piles of corn were waiting and we could also feed them pecans off of straightened out wire hangers.   Apparently the squirrel feeding wasn't just for the benefit of the grandchildren, because this picture is old and I'm pretty sure by the time we arrived on the scene, slides weren't exactly the fashion anymore :)


I'm sure I'll keep you posted on any more gems I uncover along the way...and by "I," I mean of course Chris because he's the one who always ends up carrying out all of my best ideas.

And if I were you I'd pop over to Jen's to see many, many, many more quick takes!
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