When a Good Idea Goes Bad

Abby is in her experimenting phase. She loves to try everything she can. She is starting to babble more and learning more words as the days go by. She tries, with all her might, to do everything that Alex does. For the most part, she is generally successful. Right now, one of the things she enjoys doing...or at least trying to do...is putting on hats. I got quite a few random hats from garage sales for the kiddos. Police hat, fireman hat, pirate hat, etc. She does enjoy them. (she also enjoys attempting to smash them while yelling 'hi-yah!', but that's a story for another day) So when she sees a hat, she plops it on her head and parades around the house with a goofy grin on her little face. Well...little Miss Thing decided this weekend that pots and pans could fit on her head as well. Oh the amazing things to discover when you are a toddler. As you may well know, pots and pans were not originally intended for use as head wear. Unfortunately, Abby was not aware of such an obvious rule. She decided to put an angel-food cake pan on her head. You know the pan, right? Has a nice convenient hole built right into the bottom? (see image on right)

Well, that pan fit every so neatly over her head and slipped right down to sit on her shoulders. Well, there was a little lesson to be learned for even the adults in this kind of crazy situation. Apparently, what goes on, doesn't necessarily come off as easy. Actually, it may not come off at all. I'm sure Abby thought it was a fun idea to wear it as a hat. But...

...it was not a good idea in the end. As you can see, Her head came through just fine. We pulled and buttered her up and even tried to put tape around the inside of the hole to ease her head through. It wouldn't budge for love nor money. She was screaming bloody murder by this time and something had to be done. I've had this cake pan for many a year and was sad to have to do it but in the end, Josh got his tin snips out and...

...we had to destroy the pan. Every time we tried to pull it off, it would nearly slice her forehead open. We had no choice in the matter, but she is safely now without a cake pan on her head and much happier. Did she learn her lesson? Well...we won't know because it was the only angel-food cake pan we had. I'm sure if given the opportunity, she would gladly go for round two.

Gene Splicing

Since Alex first gained his mobility, I've noticed a trend with both the kids over the 2 1/2 years. You know that the name of this blog is called Little Monkeys, right? Well, my general thinking was that the kiddos had some sort of monkey genes that they developed the older they got. Seriously, folks...they would swing from vines (yes, both of them) if I had them hanging from the drop ceiling. Some days, it is all I can do to keep them from literally climbing the walls. So, yeah...there you have it. My kids are part monkey, part human. Well, up until two days ago, I would never have been able to accurately compare them to another animal. Abby decided to climb one of the slides outside because she dearly loves to be as high up as she can possibly go. Before I could get to her, due to attending to Alex's needs at the time, she had attempted this fateful climb with a cellphone in one hand. Once at the top, as I was bookin' it for her, she tipped over backwards and went tumbling down the slide landing with one arm awkwardly behind her back. I'm sure you can picture it. She just laid on the ground screaming as I got to her a split second too late. At first, I was convinced it was broke or dislocated because it drooped at her side like a little limp noodle. Finally, after an hour, she started regaining use in it. She still is favoring it because it is a little sore. What I realized after this was that she, along with her brother, have been consistent about climbing to the highest point they can (i.e. tables, chairs, beds, counter-tops, air-conditioner units...you know, the usual). Do you know an animal that fits this description of needing to be on top of the highest point? Well, goats are like that. So it is now obvious that Alex and Abby are 1/3 human, 1/3 monkey, and 1/3 mountain goat*. There was some serious gene splicing going on here. Anyhow, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

Here is Logan with one of Alex's monkey stuffed animals. Alex shares with him. :0)

*Please note that I do not actually believe that my children have monkey or goat genes. That would be impossible, folks. It is a joke for all intents and purposes.

Sometimes You Gotta Laugh

This may be a bit strange to some of you, but I found it really funny and cute. If you are a follower of the blog, then you'll know that Alex has to have quite a bit of medicine to control his Asthma. One of the medicines that he has to have twice a day, is called Pulmicort. It's a medication that he has to breathe in with the use of a nebulizer. The best way for a kid his age to inhale it properly, is to use a mask. So this is what he looks like when he is using his mask.


Not funny, right? It actually makes me feel bad that he has to do his at such a young age. And it's even sadder that he is incredibly used to it. But, honestly, he doesn't mind it too much because he gets to watch YouTube videos for the 6 or 7 minutes it takes to do it. He enjoys watching the monster truck, tractor and firetruck videos. He even knows how to put the mask on and turn the nebulizer on himself. He's a little pro. So everytime I see him do this, it reminds me of a sci-fi movie. Anyone out there able to guess which movie I'm talking about? No? Well, it reminds me of Star Wars. Big surprise, eh? So I couldn't find an image from the movie on google, but I did find a picture of one of the action figures of Han Solo when he is hunting mynocks inside the space slug during Empire Strikes Back and when you put the two images together, this is what you get...

It makes me laugh. It was a my way of putting a good spin on a poopy situation. And sometimes, you just gotta laugh.

Say hello to my little friends!

This weekend, we had a very unexpected experience. We were all outside enjoying the lovely weather when we saw a very cool, and maybe rare, thing. There, on one of the kids riding toys, was a newly hatched batch of praying mantis babies. It was truly fascinating! There were probably 40 or 50 or these little guys frantically running amok. Josh was absolutely in awe of the tiny critters. The kids didn't really know what to think of them. We let them run around our hands and Alex got to hold a couple of them. Abby just wanted us to move so she could play with the car. Now, the car that the mama mantis decided to lay her eggs on is bright yellow and red, so we decided to give the hatchlings a helping hand and moved them, one by one, onto the nearest tree. I got the camera out and tried to take some pictures of the little buggers, but they were just so tiny that the close up pictures weren't in focus. So here is a picture I found of what exactly it was we saw.

But I did get a few pictures of them that came out. This shows the top part of the car with all the little dudes running around. I kept the image full size, so you can can click on it for a bigger version to see them better.



I also got a video of them. They were all over the car and the ground around the car, but you could see them best on the yellow part.



So it was a pretty cool thing, all in all. The best part of the whole thing actually happened today though. Seeing as how we have plenty of birds, I figured the majority of the babies were doomed to a fate of bird chow. But today, I was sitting on the bench by the tree and three little babies crawled up onto my arm and sat there for awhile. I looked around, and sure enough! Those tiny babies were still hanging around. They even made it through the crazy hailstorm we had last night. They are a tad bit bigger and turning more green. Maybe they will stick around and we can watch them grow up to be big guys. They are helpful bugs and would keep the other bugs in check. So we welcome them and hope they stick around.

It's gonna be a B-E-A-utiful week (sarcasm noted)

Dont go Daddy!

Yesterday, Josh headed back out to his out-of-state work for the week....again. It's becoming old hat for me now. I am rather used to his absence lately. This will make for the third week in a row where he is gone. I believe that the kids are starting to get confused with his random weeks away. When he gets home on the weekend, the kids turn into absolute disasters! They cry, whine, fight, and throw more tempers than during the days that Josh is actually gone. Then again, they are also kids. It could be purely coincidental, right? The worse part about Josh being gone is the lack of company for me. I don't mind doing all the work around here or the constant, never-ending need of attention from the kids. That part, I can handle. I miss the little chit-chatting and my warm body to share a bed with (thought I don't miss the snoring...sorry Josh). Heck, I even miss the constant clickety-clackety of the keyboard when he is playing World of Warcraft. At least there is someone in the house with me. *sigh* But, alas...I am alone again this week and am biding my time until he gets home. It does make for a long week. The other bit of annoyance is the food. The kids are super-picky and so making normal meals is almost pointless when the only one who eats it is me. Why bother, right? It just makes more dishes. So it's the constant blah of chicken nuggets, fishsticks, and spaghetti. Ugh...heartburn central. But, to top the wondrousness of the week, Abby caught croup. What the flippin' monkeys?!? It's spring! Croup with a side of snotty nose is not exactly how I wanted to spend my week. What's worse, is that croup and asthma can be a very nasty combination and can easily land us with a midnight trip to the ER. We are just praying that the massive amount of meds Alex is on, will prevent this from happening. Here's hoping, eh? So I hope you all have a spendid week...I hope we do.

Alex & Abby saying bye to Daddy again for the week.

So here is that video that I promised y'all this week. I think it's pretty cute. Too bad he couldn't wear his firefighter helmet that I got for him at a garage sale last weekend. Would have been the icing on the cake. Enjoy!


FIREFIGHTER ALEX

Big Truck Day

What a fun day this was! My mom called me on Friday night and informed me that at the town's high school parking lot, they were holding an event called, "Big Truck Day." One of the local organizations put together a super fun event for kiddos of all ages (big kids like me included). They get a whole ton of big vehicles to park in the parking lot and they open their doors and all the glories inside for all the world to experience. Okay. So maybe it would be boring for someone without wee kiddos. But seriously, unless you are an ex-convict or someone who regularly breaks the law, how many times can you say that you get to check out the inside of a police car. Wow, folks. I tell you, I had no idea, whatsoever, that these things come equipped with laptops and more bells and whistles than I could ever have imagined. It was truly fascinating. So, in case you weren't aware, Alex is beyond obsessed with trucks, tractors, and emergency vehicles. More boy, the kid could not be. Abby, of course, plays right along side him and drives her Hot Wheels around just as much as he does. All in all, I don't think she was nearly as thrilled as he was. When we got there, it was a bit of a struggle to get him interested. He needs the average 5 minute warm up time to realize just how cool the situation is. But once he got started, he was all over that stifling hot parking lot, darting from big truck to tractor and back again. They had firetrucks (got to sound the siren on one of those bad boys), tractors, a skid steer, police car, ambulance, an excavator, a fed-ex big rig, and various other odds and ends. I tell you what, the local law enforcement around here is really friendly and I tip my hat to them (if I were to wear a hat, that is). So I will leave you with a mass overload of pictures of the eventful evening. I have a video of Alex putting out the 'fire' at a play fire house with a big fire hose. It was adorable and I'll try to post it this week sometime. Until then, enjoy your second hand experience of the Big Truck Day.