Spencer glows

Halloween.
Kids.
Candy.
Mayhem.
Oh, and poison.

Halloween night, after dredging through the neighborhood, having our children beg for candy like bums, we went home. Eh can't beat tradition. With all of the candy they got we could eat for days, if only people were handing out coupons for free food. Maybe next year.

While the kids' were busy munching on a chocolate bar or otherwise sweet treat, hubby and I quickly dumped some of their hard earned (they did have to beg) candy into a large bowl to 'redistribute' to other kids. We were spreading the wealth.

Once the sugar rush simmered down we put the kids to bed. Before heading out into the night earlier we gave each child a glow bracelet. We let them sleep with their glow bracelets on the condition they wouldn't play with them. What were we thinking? These are kids.

Minutes later…

Elijah came running down the stairs frantically screaming: "Spencer got poison in his mouth! It's on his face!" Elijah was about in tears. "I'm scared. I don't want Spencer to die!"

Michael raced up the stairs to see what was going on. Apparently when you tell a child of mine to NOT do something they think it means 'go ahead and do that'. Even though we told the kids not to bite their glow bracelets our oldest decided he would be a great example to his siblings by biting into his bracelet.

What happened next may have scarred my middle boy. Green glow juices splashed every where; in Spencer face, his mouth, his pillow, THE CARPET and his blanket. He probably looked all glowy and Green Goblin-ish. Did I mention it got in his mouth? Yeah. I am sure the scene was horrific for Eli to see considering M just told the boys that the green stuff was poisonous and it could kill them if swallowed. Spencer had it coming out of his mouth.

We reassured Elijah that his brother was okay and was not going to die. I don't think he bought it right away.

No one got rushed to the hospital this time.

How was your Halloween? All glowy?

Five years

Five years ago while I was getting ready for bed, my belly protruding from my body like a huge pumpkin, I felt a cramp. Minutes later another cramp, cramp, cramp! Then stillness until a few minutes later the cramping again.

Seven minutes apart.

It was you.

Knocking on my uterus door, telling me: 'It's time to let me out now mommy'.

Daddy was getting your older brother down to sleep. He popped his head into the bedroom for a question. "Where was the bear?"

"It's downstairs, next to the toy bin" I answer then tell him he had better call Dana. It was time to go.

"What? Are you sure? Already? Nah."

"I think I know when I am laboring." Cramp, cramp, craaaaamp! "Really, it's time to go. The contractions are six, seven minutes apart."

"Okay, call Dana, I will get Spencer ready" Rushing away as if it is daddy's first time with this.

Daddy drove us to the hospital in record time. I remember worrying about his speed as it was raining. The hospital was only minutes away. Daddy was nervous. He was smiling and nervous. Giddy maybe.

Me? I was counting minutes in my head and wondering what you would look like. Would you have light hair like your brother or dark hair like mommy and daddy? What would you be like? Would you be the quiet observant type like your mommy or the strong intellectual like your daddy? Perhaps you would be your own person and not resemble any of us. If you had the energy and daring of your older brother, mommy and daddy would have our work cut out for us.


You arrived into our world with your big blue eyes shining at us. We beamed, we held you and kissed you. You were all that we were hoping for; a beautiful baby, a sweet little babe. And now even when you are teasing or mocking your brothers and being a rascal I feel blessed that you are here. Your sweetness and 'I love yous' sometimes get you through those days when you are diligently provoking fights with your brothers. Those sweet blue eyes get you out of much trouble. In your five years, if I was keeping track I would say you have spent a few hours in 'time-outs'.


You are your own person. You most definitely are.


I love how you look up to your big brother
I love how you adore your sister and are the only one that can make her laugh belly laughs
I love that you are smart I love that you don't miss a beat
I love that you only want to wear one particular pair of pants and that you keep trying to wear sandals even when it's cold outside.
I love your sensitivity
I love your blue eyes
I love your deviance, I really do
I love that you are goofy and can make Spencer crack up laughing
I love that you are a good sport
I love that you are athletic and can kick a mean soccer ball
I love that you show no mercy when playing Sorry
I love that you sometimes think that last month was yesterday
I love your smile
I love your silliness
I love you.

Happy birthday Mr. Blue eyes.


Oh, one more thing. Try not to take out anyone's eye with Auntie Megs gift; the giant batman. It shoots 20 feet.

A photo blog

Raising Rocky or is it Evel?

Today was a good day because the kids played so nicely that I was able to price tag garage sale items.......


Today was a great day because the kids amazed me by not going wild at the store during a shopping excursion…..


I was thinking I was lucky because the kids played in the driveway on their bikes and scooters while I tagged more garage sale items (yes I am having a garage sale).


My luck ran out when Spencer runs up crying "Mom! I cracked my head open!" I look up to see a very upset boy with blood running down his face. I yell "Oh my God!" which upsets him more. I tell him to get into the bathroom.


While I gather up Sam and rush the other kids into the house I am thinking about what the six year old said: "Mom! I cracked my head open!" which to me means that part of his brain is showing and that he has an actual fissure in his head, but it only looks bad because the blood has seeped into his eye and stuck to his eyelashes.


I inspect his injury and put a wet cold towel on his head. The wound stops bleeding but looks deep, ugly. Luckily a friend takes the two middle kids while I go to the ER. Could you imagine taking all FOUR monkeys to the ER? Wholly headache Batman!


As I arrive at the ER hubby, who is on duty calls asking what I am up to. I tell him. He tells me that he too is at the ER as he cut his finger open and must get stitches. I laugh, but no. It isn't funny that two members of my family are hurt, but it's odd like seeing a two headed frog. NOT that I have seen a two headed frog but I have seen two frogs stuck together while mating.


Anyway, enough about frogs. And mating, which is what got me into this mess. :)


So I am sitting with Evil Knievel when the doc comes in. He begins asking Evil Knievel questions. How did it happen? Does it hurt? Was he wearing a helmet?


Crap! Oh no! I knew I should have enforced it. I thought about it, but they were only playing in the drive-way).


"No. My mom told me not to". Evil says.


"WHAT?!!" I laugh out loud. A chuckle, nervous. Did he just say what I thought he said? I am about to speak when the doctor looks at me. I have guilty painted all over my face, but not because I told my son he couldn't wear his helmet but because I didn't make him wear it. It doesn't matter the reason, I am wearing guilty.


"He wouldn't have gotten this head injury if he were wearing his helmet". The doc says before leaving. I just know he is running to the phone to call social services on me.


I look at Evil Knievel. "Why did you tell him that? I never told you that you couldn't wear your helmet!"


"Well…."


"Why would you tell him that? You don't tell people that".


"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."


WHAT? Like it's supposed to be a secret!

I think I just got played by a six year old.


PS. Evil (no I am not mis-spelling Evel) got 2 stitches above his eye. He didn't cry once. Not even when they stuck the needle right into his wound. Crazy kid.


Hubby received 7 stitches in his finger. He cut it on a packaging tape dispenser. The jagged edge that cuts the tape. Wow! Right? Who would have thunk it! Geez. Something up in the sky wasn't aligning right or maybe they were.


Lesson learned: Make the kids wear a helmet and never leave a packaging tape dispenser hanging from your pants pocket. It's dangerous.

A peeing he will go, a cleaning I will go, hi ho the dairy....

Today, late in the afternoon, my not-potty trained 3 year old tells me that he has to go pee pee. HUH? I run into the bathroom and get out the seat cover for him and plop him onto the seat.


"Can I have some juice please?" he asks knowing that this is what he will get if he sits on the potty. We have attempted to potty train before and failed, but he wasn't ready. We plied him with juice to get him to pee. He eventually peed. On the carpet.


I race downstairs for the juice and bring it back to him. I then plop my butt on the child foot stool to wait for that pee. Maybe he will pee I think. Maybe I will get lucky and he will miraculously get it.

"Thank you mommy. Can I have the Bernie toy?" He says pointing to the tub.

"It's Eeeernie. Here."

"Where's your guy?"

I reach over and retrieve the Diego bath toy. I hold it up.

"Hi, my name is Diego. See my nice rescue pack?" I say in my best Diego voice.

"Hi! I'm Bernie. I like to swim!" he says again calling Ernie Bernie.

"Do you have to pee?" I ask the boy.

"I don't know how (pronounced haaaow)." he says with a sad little voice. "Show me how mommy"

"Uhh." Crap! How do I explain this to a 3 year old? "You just let the pee come out when you feel it down there." I point to his wee wee.

"Poop falls out of your butt!"

"Yes it does" Trying not to laugh.

"Pee falls out of my pee pee."

"Yes. It does come out your pee pee. You push it out."

"Like this?" He pushes really hard like he is going to poop until a toot comes out. He looks at me and smiles. "I tooted!"

This all transpired just before dinner. He peed 4 times, in his big boy cotton underwear. The fully padded ones that are not plastic so they leak. Cooking dinner, stopping to clean up pee, cooking, cleaning, cooking,cleaning and so it went. He didn't pee in the toilet once and dinner was late.

I have read about this 3 day method of just getting rid of the diapers all together. I know. You are probably thinking that I should know this. I have done it twice now. I am an old pro. The thing is, I forget and each kid is different.

Anyway, I am not going to put any diapers on him. It is going to be a rough few days. I hope this 3 day method works and that he is potty trained in 3 days. I went out and bought 12 more pairs of underwear.

Oh boy. Better put on my patient hat tomorrow.

Wish me luck! I am going in!

No more monkeys jumping OFF the bed!

Or 'Watch out for Elijahs head when jumping off of the bed'.

Is there a bath in the house?

Often and most Saturdays our routine is to get up, eat breakfast and watch cartoons all morning. When we first became parents we knew we would never allow our children to watch lots of tv. HA! Then came the excuse and comments to my husband:

"Okay, so they shouldn't watch a lot of television, BUT ....Well, what did you do on Saturday mornings when you were a kid?"

"Watched cartoons"

I realize that simply because we as children sat on our butts on Saturday mornings watching animated shows does not mean we should allow our children to do just that, BUT I can't just throw tradition out the window with the bath water and not that I throw bath water out the window because quite frankly that would be weird and unnecessary. That's what drains are for. Seriously have you ever met anyone who threw bath water out the window? I haven't.

Okay, so I have changed the expression to fit my situation. Now I wonder where 'throwing out baby with the bath water' came from.

The idea of throwing the baby out with the bath water may be inspired by the relatively few baths taken by people in Europe even before the 16th century. Baths were often thought unhealthy, and they were difficult to prepare, since you had to draw and heat water for everyone to bathe in. This often meant that the same water might be used for a whole family’s bath, and the baby was frequently bathed last. At this point, the bath water might be quite dirty, and might obscure view of the baby. A mother wouldn’t want to mistakenly discard the baby with the dirty, murky water, not that this was likely to occur. Taken From Wisegeek.com

Wholly crap! What a thought!

Those poor babies! Ewwwww!

I think at least one of my children imagines that taking a bath might be unhealthy and would rather bathe outside, in the mud or sand if you will. And then again, one or two of my children thinks taking a bath is the same as swimmin in a pool therefore, giving them reason to splash water everywhere.

Back to my point. I think I had one. Hmmmm...thinking....oh! yes! Cartoons! If only they came on EVERY DAY!! oh wait! I have cable....:)

A Girl and Her Breakfast

Samantha had her first taste of real food Sunday. I don't think she was too impressed.

A Boy Turns Three

Three years ago when we looked upon your beautiful face we knew that Gabriel would be your name. An angel for sure. And although over the past 3 years you have, at times exhibited un-angellike behavior we still think of you as our little angel.

"My birthday's August! My birthday's August!" You say over and over when someone inquires of your birth date. Now it's "My birthday's August! I'm 3!"

I know that in time you will learn to share your toys and get along with your brother Elijah and learn not to tease and 'mock' your brothers until they knock you down. I know that one day you won't ask mommy to "Play mommy! Play!"

I realize that one day I will miss those many moments and I will wish you to be 3 years old again. For now I will play dinosaurs and 'guys' and try to keep you from aggravating your siblings.

Six hours at Busch Gardens - Oh My!

Friday we took the kids to Busch Gardens Europe in Williamsburg. As we headed out the door we didn't let them in on where we were going. They were happily surprised when we pulled off the hwy and made our way to the parking area.

Once inside the park with map in hand Spencer exclaimed how much he wanted to go to the Curse of the Dark Castle. He didn't know anything about the ride, but I will get back to that later.

First stop: The stockade

Can I have one of these installed in my living room? Look at Elijahs face!

Sam and me with big Luke the Clydesdale. Little side note here. The Busch Gardens photographer was going to take a pic but then noticed ol Luke here was sporting a ...uh, let's say he was a hanging low. I laughed my ass off. Michael thinks Luke had a thing for me. HA HA HA! Those things are HUGE!

Elijah and Gabe going for a horse ride. Once the ride started moving Gabe did NOT like this! I had to take him off early.

Elijah loved it though!

Spencer is such a poser!

Going for a train ride. Gabe loved the red train

The cheap..er...adventurous way to eat lunch at an amusement park. A picnic off the parking lot.

Call the dentist!

Posing with Oreo cookie teeth.

Two Kings

Trying on the Kings hat.

Daddy and Spencer on the Escape from Pompei ride. They are the two in the front on the right side. Spencer in the red striped shirt looks like he is trying to bail.

We have arrived in Dragon Land

Monkeys in their habitat

What the heck are we doing here again?

He is such a poser. :)

The Dragon Ride

Elijah and Gabriel go for a ride

Nice Shades!

Spencer and Elijah riding in an egg. Gabriel decided at the last minute that he did not want to ride in an egg. Then of course once it started he wanted to go in the egg then he didn't then he did. He was done for the day.

Once Gabe started getting extra fussy it was time to go. We did however have one more stop to make. The Curse of the Dark Castle. The ride that Spencer insisted that he go on. I decided to go with them on this one. Elijah, Spencer and I stood in line for 45 minutes. I knew nothing of this ride other than it was not a roller coaster and that it was a similator ride. And boy was it ever!

It was our turn. We got in our car, which was more like a box with the front cut out. We sat in our seats, pulled down the bar and put on our 3-D glasses. As the ride began I knew right away this was not going to be an ride for Spencer. Definitely not Elijah.

It was dark. All of a sudden ghostly images appeared right in front of our faces and they looked real. I knew Elijahs eyes were wide open under his 3-D glasses. The whole ride had us going through a haunted castle with skeletons, dark knights throwing things at us and yelling at us. The ride spun around a few times, we went right into a fireplace entering another world all the while flying around in this box car.

At one point it got really dark and the wind picked up almost blowing off my cap. I heard Elijah calling my name. I held onto his arm the whole time trying to reassure him that it was okay. "Close your eyes! Close your eyes!" I couldn't stop laughing. This ride was awesome! Does it make me a bad mother if I find much amusement in scaring my kids? Oh but it was too funny. The look on their faces was priceless.

Spencer said that he did not want to go on that ride again. "I hate that ride!"

All in all it was a very good day. Needless to say we were all exhausted by days end and much to my relief no one woke up with nightmares. Whew!

Today we are off to the beach.

No ghosts there, but it is shark week.