Today I learned that going into a store with 2 toddlers that are not confined is a very bad idea.  Being the dutiful mother that I am, I made the trip to the surplus store to buy Peewee his cub scout shirt and necessary badges.  Yes I'm way overdue on this one.  I tell the older boys they can go look at the camping stuff while I go to the boy scouts section.  Silly me thought my dear sweet littles would stay by mom while she looked at the shirts.  Ha!  I was so wrong!  One went one way and the other went the other way.  Uuugghh!  Now I remember why I bought that double stroller.  I am frantically trying to catch 2 tots and yelling for Pumpkin to come help his poor mom all while the clerks are getting a really good laugh.  Princess is running and laughing with great glee as she is free in a store with all kinds of things to touch.  Peanut is dunking and crawling under everything imaginable.  I'm sure he thought he hit the jackpot on "tents".  Pumpkin did show up and help me coral the littles amongst his fits of laughter.  I think I'm probably the only one that wasn't laughing.  All I can say is thankfully there was very few customers in the store and I will never forget the stroller again.  Some days I wonder why I take them out in public. 

Disclaimer - they are usually really well behaved in public but when they act up they do it all the way.

Today is my sweet daughter's 2nd birthday.  In honor of her I've decided to share some of my favorite snapshots of her from birth to recent.  We won't celebrate her birthday until Dec. 3rd when dad will be home too. 

Here she is with her aunt right after birth.  My sister was there for the whole event.

Her first day home.

Taking a snooze with dad

Here she is with proud big brother

Enjoying her first camping adventure

Celebrating her first birthday. Ignore the clothes this was after the cake.

This is at Chuckie Cheese during our summer vacation.

Helping mom with the laundry is one of her favorite things for now anyway.

Dd and ds3 pretending to play playstation.

Ds7 and dd driving cars at the county fair this summer.

Thanksgiving day she just had to get all dolled up.

So that is my little princess.  She was a complete suprise but one I'd never trade.  She brings such smiles and joy to my life.  She keeps my life interesting!  It's been weird having a girl after having 3 boys but I'm adjusting. 

One thing I have noticed to be true is they really do look up to their same sex parent.  I know you read it everywhere but experiencing it really makes it real.  She mimicks everything I do from the hand on the hip when I'm scolding the boys to the way I brush my teeth.  She makes me want to be the kind of mother she deserves.  I thank God for giving me this special little gift.  I will do my best to raise her the way the Lord directs.  

Happy Birthday DD!!

My daughter has an obession with being all natural.  This is usually not a problem around the house.  I just simply put the clothes and diaper back on 50 times a day.  But this has never been a problem outside the house, that is until today.  We are out shopping, I'm pushing the double stroller and the oldest boy is pushing the cart.  For some reason my little people insist on having their sun visors down all the time, no matter what.  This makes it kinda hard to see exactly what they are doing but they are strapped in a stroller right so what could they possibly be doing?  Well after awhile of going through the store I hit a bump and look down.  Dd has kicked off one of her shoes.  I pick it up and throw it in the basket down below.  This is not an unusual occurance and she'll just keep taking it off.  Pretty soon another bump, the other shoe and a sock.  I pick these up and toss them in the basket.  I then decide I'd better get the other sock before it disappears so I go take it off.  Now dd is a very social creature that waves and says hi to everyone she sees so it is not unusual for people to smile at her.  Well people started laughing as they were looking at her.  This is an unusual response so I better go peek at her.  I stand there totally mortified.  Where is that rock so I can crawl under it?  My dd has completely stripped and has stuffed her clothes behind her.  She is sitting there with a big smile and waving hi to me totally unaware that what she is doing is not proper.  I'm thinking I need to start carrying duct tape everywhere I go.  Maybe I should just keep her locked in the house until she outgrows this.  She will outgrow this right?  Boys were so much easier.

Tuesday I took the tots to their first Puddle Jumpers outing.  They had a blast hiking through the woods.  The guide was finding different kinds of bugs for the kids to look at and was explaining a little about them.  Dd was much more interested in the bugs than ds3.  His only interest was in trying to kill them.  He has also hit the wonderful age of "why".  You know the age when every other word out of their mouth is why.  So my conversations with him have gone like this lately.  Mom what's that? A tree. Why?  I do try and be patient and answer his questions but some times  it just gets annoying.  But this was the conversation we had all along our hike.

At the end of the hike the guide read the kids a story, gave them a snack, and then they made catepillars out of toliet paper tubes and yarn.   Let's just say we have some really furry catepillars.  They really enjoyed themselves.  We will definitely be doing this again.  This group meets once a month and each time it's a different activity.  I found out about this program through our local park district.  They offer lots of family activities all for free. 

Today my ds3 comes in to the kitchen and says, Mom get rid of this.  I say get rid of what.  He points to his elbow and says I don't like this anymore get rid of it.  Son I'm sorry but I can't get rid of it.  Son then does the pouty face and leaves the room.  Sometimes I just wonder where do they come up with this stuff.

Dd woke up this morning not feeling well.  She has had a runny nose lately but this morning she was extra clinging.  So I asked dh to call the doctor and take her in.  Well coming to find out dd has an ear infection.  We are getting to be old pros with these.  Ds3 gets one everytime he cuts a tooth.  Thankfully he's past cutting most of them.  Dd has only had 3.  She hardly gets sick.

Our new schoolroom has morphed into a race track.  Well at least as far as my toddlers are concerned.  They have been having a blast riding their toys around and around in there.  It is so funny watching them.  They just laugh and laugh as they ride in circles.  I guess the new setup has met their approval.

I also replaced the table with a round one and they have started pushing their cars around that.  They have such fun together.  And to think I use to worry about them being so close in age.  My younger brother and sister use to fight like cats and dogs because they were so close in age.  But I'm starting to think there must have been other factors there.

Maybe if I can sneak a picture of them doing it I'll post it.  Usually when I pull out the camera everyone stops and poses.  I'm thinking I am taking to many photos.  I've created monsters.

I thought the toddlers would really enjoy helping mom with the bell peppers today.  So out we trodded out and gathered our bell peppers and brought them back in the house.  This part went ok.  It was the next step that turned bad for me, they thoroughly enjoyed it though. 

So now we are in the kitchen washing the peppers and the kids are having a blast playing in the sink.  My kitchen needed a bath anyway, right.  Then I cut them in half so the kids can help clean out the seeds.  See this is where I should have stopped their helping but noooo I let them help.  I now have seeds from 20 peppers all over my kitchen!  Not only did they help take the seeds out, they couldn't tell when to quit.  So the peppers are now in various size chunks instead of nice strips like I had intended.  But on the bright side they did have fun and I did get my peppers done.

And tomorrow I tackle the last of the squash and zucchini with ds7.  He loves helping with the blanching and freezing.  Hopefully it will be a little less messy tomorrow.  I better go and get the kitchen clean before dh comes home from work.  I can just imagine his face if he saw this mess! LOL

Today ds3 is in rare form.  He has been calling me every few seconds for something.  I finally asked him if his goal for today was to drive me insane?  He says yea, and takes off giggling.  Well at least he's honest. 

Dd has taken up mimicking me.  She just follows me around trying to do whatever I'm doing.  Today when I was washing my face she was up at the sink trying too.  It was so funny she kept trying to cup the water in her hands to splash her face but couldn't seem to understand you got to keep your fingers together.  She had them totally spread out. 

If I vacuum the living room she runs and gets her little vacuum and pretends to be vacuuming also.  Which wouldn't be so bad but she stands in front of mine so she can do the same path I'm doing.  She has taught me a lot about slowing down and being patient.  Dh is always telling me to slow down that I don't need to be in hyperdrive all the time.  Well I guess dd is God's answer to dh's request.

And do you know how long it takes ds3 to totally trash his bedroom?  30 minutes.  That's it just 30 minutes till you can not even walk in there and dd is trapped in a corner because she can't manuever the mess.  Screaming I might add.  I know this because I straightened there room today and then went upstairs to work on the rooms up there.  I was only up there 30 minutes before I heard dd screaming.  I guess ds3 prefers the lived in look or he just likes toturing his sister; I haven't decided which one yet.

My dd has discovered the joy of climbing.  She climbs everything.  I feel like I spend most of the day pulling her off of things.  Today she discovered that if she pulls out her dresser drawers some she can then climb to the top of it.  Some of the things I have pulled her off today include: the dresser, the toy cubes, the dining room table, the back of the couch, the kitchen counter, the toliet tank, and the book shelves.  My goodness, I'm praying this is a phase because she is running me ragged.  The only good thing is her 3 yr. old brother loves to come in and tell me she's being bad.  Well at least I have a second set of eyes keeping track of her.

Last night my little guy comes running into the room very excited proclaiming, “It’s raining mom.”  Yep it sure is.  He then takes off running into the other room and returns shortly carrying his Spiderman umbrella.  And there he sat watching his cartoon with umbrella proudly poised on his shoulder.  I try explaining that we don’t need to have the umbrella open in the house because it doesn’t rain in here.  But he just kept pointing saying “it’s raining”.  Three year olds, I tell you sometimes there is just no understanding them.   And it rained all day today also; I’ll give you one guess what he was doing.

   Yesterday after about a year of not doing it, I decided to color my hair.  The decision was brought on after my 2ds said my hair was sparkly when we were outside playing.  Mind you I'm only 33, I think that's a bit young to be sparkling. 

    Well as I was dying my hair my dd just kept staring at me like I had antennae growing out of my head. She refused to let me pick her up.  I guess I looked pretty scary to her. LOL  Today she just keeps giving me this peculiar look.  If I only knew what she was thinking.  All I did was cover up the gray, I didn't switch hair color.  Maybe she just liked mom's sparkly head. LOL

Today I learned a few things from my toddlers.

1. Socks can be stored anywhere, there is a million and one places to hide them. So if your missing a sock go check the toys.

2. Batman will fit in your vacuum cleaner hose.  Getting him out on the other hand proves a bit more difficult.

3. Bananas do not store well tucked in your toy garage.

4. Wiping your runny nose on your sister is preferred to letting your mom use a tissue.

5. There are "treasures" in the trash bag worth having a fit over.

6. And if there is candy anywhere in the house they WILL find it and store the uneaten part in places you'd never think of looking.

7.  Finally throughly cleaning their playroom is scary.

     I tell you, when there are toddlers in the house there is never a dull moment!  Some of the things they do in there attempts to explore their world can be irritating or hilarious I guess it's all in how you look at it.  I often find myself wanting to bust a gut, but I have to be mom and correct the misbehavior, then go to the bathroom and laugh.  So today I thought I share some of the things they've done so far this month.

1.  I send 3ds3 to bathroom to wash his hands while I'm in my office working.  I start hearing laughter from 3ds and dd.  Ok time to go investigate, this is never a good thing.  Well I find they have recreated Nigrara Falls in the bathroom sink.  By closing the plug and turning on the water full force.  They are gleefully splashing and having a good old time and have no idea why mom has a look of complete horror on her face.  So turn off water, unplug sink, and make little ones help clean up mess while trying to tell them this is a no-no. I then leave bathroom shaking my head, where do they come up with this stuff.

2.  The 2 toddlers are in their bedroom playing.  I make sure hall door is locked, bathroom door, and kitchen gate.  Ok, things are secure and they are playing nicely so I should be able to go do some work.   I hear giggling again,  this time I fly in there to see what mischief they are up to.  But they are just playing in their playhouse, everything is fine, back to office.  A few minutes later I hear giggling again, I choose to think they are still just playing, then I hear a clanking noise like wood.  Now I'm running to their room, 3ds has somehow managed to get one of the bars off dd crib and is hitting it on the others.  Grrrr.  3ds gets disciplined for wrecking dd crib.

3.  The toddlers are laughing hysterically while I'm doing lessons with older ones.  Well we established them laughing is never good.  So I go investigate, dd is sitting on floor and 3ds is squirting her with my general cleaner (thank goodness it's a  natural cleaner) she is completely soaked.  So I swoop up dd and take her to the bathroom to flush eyes for 15 minutes per poison controls directions.  Now we are both completely soaked.  She is completely fine, 3ds on the other hand is anther story.  I still don't know how he got it, they are kept on the shelf above washer, which is about 4' above washer. 

4. Today while I'm doing algebra with 1ds, 2ds comes up and starts doing that tapping thing on my arm and saying mom, mom, mom, so I turn and ask him what he needs.  He says nothing, but they do, pointing to the 2 younger ones who are running through the house completely naked.  They are just laughing and running around.  Oh, will it never end!

Through all this I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to toddler proof a house and I should just acept the fact that nothing will get done while they are awake.  Because the minute you turn your back, they are into something.  I pray for patience, humor, and to keep my sanity daily.  My father thinks this stuff is hilarious, he calls 3ds "Dennis the Menace".  I'm glad he finds this funny.  Maybe I should check into getting me a nice padded room.