LIttle boys say gross things.

A few days ago I caught Ike singing a song of his own composition:

"Poop, poop, poop, pa poop, poop, POOP!"

I told him, "Ike we don't sing about poop.  Okay?"

He smiled and said, "Okay Mom!"

Ten seconds later he made up a new song:

"Pee, pee, pa pee, pee, peeee!!!!

I don't do craft stores very well.

My sister invited me to pinterest.  So I joined.  I decided I should make some of the cute, crafty things I saw on the site

In my excitement to start making things for my kids, I piled all three of them in the van and took off for JoAnn's.  I found cute things, put them in my cart, and continued looking for more cute things.

Then it happened.  My kids didn't behave.  Can you believe it?  My three kids didn't like being in the craft store for over an hour.

And then another terrible thing happened.  I went to the fabric section.  

I needed fabric for this magnet board and I got overwhelmed.  Very overwhelmed.

There I was, with a few crafty things in my cart, surrounded by thousands of bolts of fabric, my two older kids running up and down the aisles, and my baby crying.

I did what any normal, scared-of-the-fabric-store-and-haven't-been-there-for-a-year person would do.

I gathered my kids, left the loaded cart in the middle of the store, and walked out.  Driving home I took several deep breaths and decided I would never, ever return.

But I did, a few days later.  The desire to make those cute magnet boards trumped my craft store phobia.

That time, however, I went by myself.

One of my favorite quotes.  I'm on a bit of a pinterest kick, so I decided to make something pinable (is that a word?).

Christmas

This Christmas Marco and I decided we wanted to try something a little different.

You know all the delicious goodies your neighbors give you during the holidays?  Yes, the ones you know you shouldn't eat, but you put them on your counter and ingest them instead of the fruits and veggies your brain says you should be eating?  The ones that you make as well and then share with your neighbors (as well as yourself....I mean, you have to make sure they taste okay!)?

Yeah, those are the treats I'm talking about.

Anyhow, we were thinking of those treats and how we didn't actually really need them.  I mean, we don't need the goodies like we need a roof over our heads, food for our family, and clothes on our backs.  

So we decided to do our neighbor Christmas treats differently.  Rather than spending hours making delectable goodies we gave cards to our neighbors telling them that this year, instead of spending money making them treats, we gave food to our local food pantry.  We also asked them to consider giving a can of food to the pantry in lieu of giving us a treat. 

I think everyone accepted our 'gifts' in the manner in which they were given.  People understood that we were trying to help those less fortunate than ourselves.  In the meantime, we were able to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas.

I think we'll do it again next year.

Ike

Ike had a birthday.

In November.

You know what happens when you decide to try to cram an upper-division history class in during winter break?  

You fall behind on things.  Like your blog.  

Anyhow, Ike turned 4 in November.

After much thought, I decided that the one thing he [I] did not need was more little toys underfoot.  So I decided to get him one of those dandy rugs, the ones with roads and buildings printed on them.  In my mind I thought that this way he could have a toy for his birthday, but it wouldn't add to the mess.  It would be a nice rug on the floor of his room.

I was wrong.

I am now continually tripping over the rolled up, smashed together, giant lump of a rug everywhere.  For some reason Isaac doesn't understand that the thing is supposed to stay unrolled on his bedroom floor.

Well, I guess you're only four once.