Zoo Tots

The Blank Park Zoo offers mini-camps for toddlers ages 2 - 4 through-out the year.  They are 1 hour sessions planned around a theme.  Harrison went to 3 this spring and last Saturday was his last.  He let me take him this time (Dad had done the previous two) because Dad was taking him to baseball practice after Zoo Tots.  What is it with dad's???

Anyway, he had fun at Zoo Tots.  This is him with a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.  And the same teacher he had last winter/spring when he went.  I remember her thong and butt crack well.  She spends a lot of time bent over...  The dad's don't seem to mind, but I saw quite a few of the same dirty stares from the mom's.  Comical and inappropriate all in one.  

Speaking of Bennett - Harrison had his first baseball practice and Chris said it went great!  Harrison came home with a great big smile on his face and told me all about hitting the ball and meeting his team mates, one who is named Bennett.  "My brother's name is Bennett!"  He has one more practice this Saturday and then his first game on the 18th!  Can't wait!

Crap, I mean Croup

So the boys are sick.  Sunday night they both went to bed with mild, low grade fevers and they woke up with a nice cough.  I had been looking for this as it had been going around so I had Chris take them in right away Monday morning.  The doctor diagnosed both of them with the croup.  I was pretty sure that was what Harrison had, but I really only sent Bennett as a precaution.  But, they both had steroid treatments and thankfully their coughs stayed away from the classic seal-bark croup cough.

But, the fevers and the colds decided to come full steam.  Both boys fought a fever Monday and Tuesday.  Luckily, drugged on ibuprofen, they act almost completely normal!  Harrison had a horrible night last night.  He woke up saying that he felt like he was going to throw-up and he wanted his dad.  Thank goodness for that!  Chris and Harrison spent the night in the office!  I got the whole bed to myself!  YEAH!!  But, I guess, more importantly Harrison is feeling better today.

Bennett on the other hand came down with a horrible runny nose.  How anyone can have that much green ooze in their little 22 lb body is beyond me.  It is the worst right away in the morning and after nap, but still.  GROSS!  

I guess the bright side of this is that Bennett birthday is coming up and since they were sick this week, they should be healthy next week.  Maybe...

A Poem

Most of you know that my feelings for Ian, the boy I watch after school, are complicated.  Yesterday he almost made me cry.  Here is a copy of the poem he wrote in school.

Harrison and Bennett

by Ian Marron

Harrison and Bennett

Those reacals are my favorite

I go to their house every day

And play, play, play

Harrison and Bennett

I love to play with them every day

I go there 

I know a surprise awaits

Dedicated to Harrison, Bennett, Beth, Chris

He really is a sweet loving boy.  Sometimes he just refuses to show it!

Right now...

Right now...

Harrison loves mixing colors.  We have painted 3 or 4 times in the past week and each time he didn't want to 'paint' anything, he just wanted to mix colors.  He made green, brown, purple and lots of blue tones.  Each time he would just say how cool it was.   

Bennett loves make-up.  Bennett has been waking up at about the same time I put on my make-up in the morning.  So while I am putting on foundation, Bennett is putting on powder.  When he is all done he looks at me and say 'Pretty.'  What a great little girl!!!  And then when he is all done with that he says "Brush (pause) teeth!"  He is also into shutting doors all around the house.  And if you happen to be on the other side of said door, he waves at you and blows kisses at you while he shuts the door saying "Bye.  Bye."  Way cute.

Miles loves hugs and Maddie.  And sometimes both at the same time!  Maddie is his favorite.  She lets him do anything to her.  She has always been great with the kids but Miles is the first to really take to her.  And he hugs her and pets her and points at her and calls her 'dog.'  He also loves Harrison.  He gives Harrison hugs all of the time and his favorite part of the day is right after his nap when no one but he and Harrison are awake.  Harrison teases him, tickles him and generally just plays with him.  And Miles laughs and laughs and laughs!

Will loves drinking from a cup.  He gets so excited when I bring him a cup instead of a sippy cup.  And then his excitement causes him to drink to fast and choke on his water.  He then spills it all down his shirt and then looks up and smiles and does it all over again.  It is very cute!  He also loves to play 'Ready, Set, Go!'  He starts in the kitchen with his back to the wall and waits for me to say 'Ready, Set, Go!' and then he sprints into the living room, laughing and screaming all the way.  This always gets the other boys involved and soon we are having races in which no one wins because no one leaves at the same time!  Although Harrison is quick to say that he is the winner!

Right now, all my boys are just about perfect.  They make me laugh, they fascinate me with new things they learn and irritate me with their stubbornness!

Ear Drop Hell

I have never given my children ear drops.  And as I found out it is not very fun to do.  

We went home to Davenport this past weekend and on Saturday night we put the boys to bed and then remembered that Bennett needed his antibiotics and ear drops.  We got his stuff together and went to administer the pain!  They were surprised to see us walk through the door.  We told Bennett what we were there for and then he surprised us.  He rolled over onto his side and kind of arched his back and closed his eyes.  Then he just laid there real still.  I looked at Chris and smiled.  Then I said "Bennett, are  you asleep?"  About 3 or 4 seconds went by before he whispered "Yes."  It was hysterical!  And then he kept his eyes closed and just laid there like we were going to leave!  So funny!

We gave him his medicine, put the ear drops in and he cried the whole time.  Then when it was all over he smiled and rolled back over.  Time for sleep I guess!

Bye Bye Binky

He did it to himself.  We have rules in this house that we try and live by.  Douglas can be out and about in the house but binky has to stay in the bedroom.  Preferably on the bed, but whatever.  Bennett doesn't always follow these rules and I usually enforce them, unless it has been a long day and I am trying to look for a way to escape the children in my own house for a few minutes before Chris gets home.  Then I might just overlook that fact that he is sitting on the couch, watching tv with Harrison, with Douglas and his pacifier.  Peaceful...

Well, last Wednesday he lost binky.  He either hid it or dropped it.  In either case I didn't look hard and decided to give bedtime a try without a pacifier.  I went through the explanations, there were a couple of tears, but overall, it went great!  Until 9:00 pm.  That was when he woke up the first time.  It took me laying down next to him to get him to sleep.  15 minutes later he was up again.  This time we ended up on the couch.  He was up for about an hour until he finally fell asleep.  Again, 15 minutes later he was up again.  Into my bed we went.  He cried and rolled around but finally he was out.  Chris put him to bed when he got home from work.

Not what I really wanted, but not that bad either.  I was a little surprised he woke up as much as he did.  I was expecting the falling asleep thing to be the hardest.  He 'loses' his binky in the night all the time and he never wakes up crying.  But one night down, how many more to go?  I didn't know.

But then I noticed something strange.  We were in the bathroom Thursday morning, getting ready to take Harrison to preschool.  It was about 8:30 am.  I was brushing Bennett's hair and noticed dried ear wax all over his left ear.  And it was gross.  It looked like at one point it had been really wet and had dried in and around his ear.  I was in a hurry and cleaned him up and we got in the van for school.  

As most of you know, I am a little too laid back when it comes to certain  things.  This didn't really have me worried, after all, he was acting fine, it was just in the back of my mind - what happened?  On the way to preschool Bennett was sticking his finger in his left ear.  Hmmm...  O.K. I'll call the pediatrician just to see what that could have been.

In a gross back story, Bennett has incredibly waxy ears.  Every time he has his ears checked, the doctor has to get our her little tool to remove wax so that she can see down the canal.  Strange, I know.

The nurse calls me back and I explain what I found.  She immediately say - 'Oh, well he needs to be seen.'  Well, what the hell does that mean?  Should I rush to the ER?  We set an appointment and head to the doctor.  We get there and sure enough she has to did enough ear wax out of his ear to build a full sized Tyra Banks for the Madame Tussaud museum.  Gross!!!!  Then she lets me know the shocking news that Bennett has ruptured his ear drum.

Luckily this is not completely serious.  He had an ear infection that was severe enough to cause his ear drum to rupture.  The rupture will heal with ear drops and time and unless he has multiple ruptures, which is unlikely, there is no danger of hearing loss.  

So I kind of feel like I did with Chris when he had the serious concussion that I ignored!  I didn't really ignore him Wednesday night, but I could have given him some tylenol or something.  And I totally would not have chosen to take his binky away at a time when he was sick.  I would have searched harder or even gone out and gotten a new one.  Granted, I wanted him to be done with it.  It was time,  but... I felt like a bad mom.  There really were no other symptoms.  No fever, complaining, nothing.  Very strange.

In the end - bye bye binky!!!

Let's test

Harrison continues to be the words-worth of the family.  He likes words and is always trying to say them correctly or even make his own words up.    The last couple of days he has been testing me with phrases.  Today, with a hint of attitude, he told me "It doesn't matter."  This was in response to me telling him to read books during quiet time.  Just from the hint of attitude and the quizzing look I was receiving told me that he was wondering if this was an appropriate way to argue his case.  He found out that it was not.  But, that didn't prepare me for the next phrase he was going to try on me.

"Well, thanks A LOT!"  Harrison, age 4

Harrison started to complain that he had a tummy ache and I told him to go to the bathroom and see if that made him feel better.  Usually this works and usually I don't have to specify - sit down and try to poop!  Today he came back from the bathroom and said "Well, thanks A LOT!" with all kinds of attitude.  I responded "Excuse ME?" to which he responded "Well,  (pause) thanks a lot?" in the meekest, most inquisitive voice you can think of.  It was very comical.  I asked him what he was thanking me for and he went on to explain that pottying didn't help his tummy.  I didn't have to explain that wasn't how we talk to our mothers. :)

What a child...

Paint with balls

They boys love to paint and I was getting bored with paint brushes (and we weren't doing finger painting again, for awhile!) so we decided to use balls to paint.  It was a fun time that ended with paint brushes and finger painting.   Oh well...

Concentration...

Beth didn't have enough energy to let me paint since she had to make sure Bennett and Will didn't play "catch" with the paint covered balls!  So I color with crayons... and a little slobber!

Balls were fun, but where is the brush?

Hmm, it doesn't taste as good as I thought.

My balls are stuck!!!!  ~ No inappropriate thoughts, please! :~)

New toys

We went up to my parents a couple of weeks ago and a house that was 3 or 4 doors down from them had some play equipment in the front yard by the curb.  It looked kind of junky and had a FREE sign on it.  I wondered why my mom hadn't been down to scope it out yet.  When we got in the house, I asked my mom if she had been sleeping on the job.  About two minutes later, her and Chris were on their way down the street.  Next, dad was firing up the truck and heading down the street.  Back they came with a sandbox and a play structure.  They looked horrible!

Dad took them to through the car wash later in the week and then brought them down to our house.  I can't believe they actually turned out to be pretty nice!

No sand in the sandbox, yet.  Bennett likes to drive though!  Should we tell him to keep his eyes open?!?!
Harrison wanted to pose for the camera.  This is one of about 8 shots I have of him.  Some with hood up, some with hood down.  Some standing, some sitting.  You get the picture.  It was hysterical.  "Now take one where I am smiling with my head tilted..."

Will really enjoyed the slide, but getting there was another story.  He had a little trouble at first with the ladder but quickly figured it out.  Then he left to go play basketball.  When he came back he had a tennis ball in one hand and a baseball in the other.  First he was puzzled and then VERY frustrated because he couldn't figure out how to get up the ladder with the balls in his hands.  Poor guy!

Take Note - This is a rant

I realize that it is not my place to judge other parents.  I mean, really, we all make mistakes and we all have our own way of doing things.  But I might be on board for an aptitude test regulating who can be a parent and who can not.  Does procreation have to be a legal, God given right?  I suppose that it does, but that doesn't mean I can't judge those who I think are too stupid and inept to be parents.

Case in point - library story time.

Here is a group of parents that theoretically stay at home with their children instead of working a 9 - 5 job.  They work a 24 hour job instead.  I am part off this work force and have full respect for how difficult it is.  But do you think that maybe some people stay at home with their children because they are too dumb to get work outside of the home?  I am beginning to think this.

I think I could give you 6 examples of reasons for forced sterility but I will only grace you with two.  Also - This is a story hour for 18 month olds - 3 year olds.  I always feel a little guilty taking Harrison and we always talk about being careful of the littler kids and waiting his turn, etc.  

Case number one:  Failure to mother and mom who brings too many children to story time.

First there was a mom there with 4 children.  All hers.  The oldest are twins and if they are 3, they are 3 years and 11 months old.  The middle child is probably 2, if not 3 and the littlest is crawling.  In my opinion this is too many kids.  I have only brought all 4 boys to story time once and Miles was in a stroller at the time AND he was sleeping.  I think story time is a time to do something together.  Which is why Will is usually on one knee and Bennett is on the other and Harrison is right next to us and we share in the experience.  Calm and together.  (I'm perfect, aren't I?!!!)  Anyway, the boys, all boys, must have sat down and started off fairly well, because I didn't notice them right away.  But, by the time I did notice them the twins were handing out hand puppets to everyone else while the librarian was trying to read her first story.  Where was mom?  Not sure.  But after story hour she did put on a production about her kids helping her be a zoo keeper while they ran around and ignored her being the zoo keeper picking up all the puppets.  After the puppet sharing episode their next adventure was 'helping' the librarian gather the egg shakers she had given everyone while we sang a song.  Their way of helping was by going around and snatching the egg shakers out of poor kids hands.  Luckily I saw this coming and had gathered our shakers and gave them to Harrison to return to the bucket.  Again, mom?  Still not sure.  The 2 year old spent most of the time right in front of all the books so that no other children could see and the crawler spent most of the time either with mom or over by the basket where the puppets used to be stuffing books into his mouth and tearing pages.  But the thing that really sent me over the edge (and the librarian too as she finally spoke up) was the bead necklaces that they were wearing.  At the end of story time, the librarian put on a song and got out bubbles for the kids.  The twins were running around swinging their beads at the bubbles to pop them.  I saw 3 kids narrowly miss a nice smack in the face, but yet I never saw their mother intervene.    

On a side note, as we are getting into the van in the parking garage, this family is walking to their van as well.  I over hear the mom say to the twins: "I know you two think you are super heros, but you are really not.  Now please try and behave."  Great wishy-washy advice, right?  She said this just as one of the boys knocked the other one over (just playing around, but still!).  Did I mention that he knocked him over almost right into the path of an oncoming van?  Right.  Traffic.  Oh, and did I mention she was pregnant.  Yeah...

Case number two:  Embarrassed to discipline child in public mom.

So this mom has one 2 year old who is WILD!  Opposite of my children in public.  This child is not shy and very friendly and likes to play up for the crowd.  All of which would be fairly acceptable if he had some limits.  He does not.  At least not in public.  There were several instances in which the child should have been disciplined, removed, etc in which mom tried to intervene.  When this happened the child would start to protest or even scream and mom would back off right away.  Eventually she just stopped trying.  He just ran from child to child smiling at them (right in their poor little faces) or shaking their hand or even rolling on the floor from child to child.  All of this went on while the librarian was trying to read books and tell stories.  The straw that broke the camels back for this one was the stool.  There are stools at the back of the room for parents to sit on if they choose.  I guess this child decided he wanted one and picked it up to carry to the front.  He narrowly missed the head of a 3 - 4 week old baby with the leg of the stool.  Thank goodness for narrow misses today.  That one could have been bad.  Even then t he mom didn't take the child and leave.  She just tried to stay a little closer to him as he roamed the room.  The parent of the newborn took her well behaved 2 year old and newborn sibling and left though.

I really don't know what to add to my little rant here.  I honestly only take 3 children to story time because I know that I won't be embarrassed by their behavior.  This is a horrible reason.  I should take them because it is enriching and a good experience and I suppose that is part of the reason I  take them, but still.  If I thought I couldn't 'control' their behavior in public you wouldn't see me in public.  I would venture out with one difficult child, by myself, but never four!  And that one difficult child would get a lot of attention from me on how to behave in public!

We did have a relatively good time at story time today.  Harrison was really the only one put off with the crazy children.  Bennett and Will were just enthralled that there are that many children!

Anyway, please parents.  And non-parents.  Call me before  you decide to get pregnant again or for the first time.  I will let you know if I think it is a good idea!  And if it is not, I know the name of a great pet store that sells fish.