Remember This? Friday

EMERGENCY! Anyone out there *not* have a crush on Johnny and Kel? Sorry, I thought Roy was a little icky...ok, really icky.

DOD

David talks a lot - and he's really loud. And the more I think about it, he says "What?" an awful lot and doesn't seem to hear me a good part of the time so I scheduled him for an audiology test today. I was preparing him for the appointment earlier in the day. The conversation went like this:

David, I think you might be having trouble hearing. Do you need to go to a hearing doctor?

What?

Do you think you need to go to a hearing doctor?

What?

So you think you can pass a hearing test?

What?....oh....hearing? Ok.

He passed the stupid test with flying colors. Dr. Day (one of my all-time favorite docs - we spend *a lot* of time in her office) finished examining him and looked at me with a straight face and said

There's nothing I can do for David. Unfortunately, his hearing is fine.

Sigh....I always hate when doctors confirm my suspicions that it is my parenting in question and not my child's physical limitations...Thanks, Dr. Day and please let me know when they come up with a cure for Four Year Old Selective Hearitis (because, you see, this is not the first four year old with perfect hearing I've had in her office...).

Could it be....

HAIR?!

Remember This? Friday

Heidi (yes Heidi - I didn't seem to have any of the good toys) had several incarnations of this one. I've never been very good at it but it was fun. This week's memory has the bonus of allowing you to re-experience it right on-line!

Simonmore flash games..

Please don't flush the insects...

I took Ben to jumprope this evening at our local public school (happens to be the one Tad attended as a wee one if that matters any...) and I made a pitstop to the little girls' room. I found this sign posted on the wall inside the stall and became so enthralled with it I just had to take a photo (and, no I did not take my camera to the loo, I utilized my cellphone). In case you can't make out the writing it reads:

Avoid flushing the toilet
unnecessarily. Dispose of
tissues, insects, and other
similar waste in the trash rather
than the toilet.

Then, for emphasis beneath the writing, it sports pictures of a toilet, an insect and a box of tissues.

Now, being a homeschooler and not at all familiar with they ways of public schools perhaps I am missing something tremendously obvious here. But I can't, for the life of me, figure the impetus for this sign. There was not a similar sign in the little boys' room (JT checked) so this must be a peculiarly feminine problem. I can see perhaps someone dumped their dead beetle in the toilet, neglected to flush and along came little Miss. Muffet who screamed her way back to the hallway. But, really, would one such incident create the need for permanent signage? And wouldn't it be better to flush the insects than to toss them in the trashcan where they may very well find their way back out again to continue their insectuous tortures? And how do insects suddenly fall into the same category as tissues?

I also love how the little pictures emphasize the whole message for those kindy kids who haven't quite mastered the sight words "insect" and "tissue", although there should probably be a red circle with a slash through it overlapping the pic of the toilet to properly express the point. I also love how well-written the sign is. Whoever found it necessary to create the sign obviously has a good grasp of the English language - this was not your run-of-the-mill janitorial staff disgusted with the number of half-flushed flies swimming in the tidy bowl. This was someone who really gave this sign a lot of thought and effort (it was laminated too!).

I considered sending this photo to Jay Leno. I figured he could have a great time with it but, then, why give the fun away? So I present it here as my little gift to my faithful blog readership. Feel free to enjoy and please enlighten the rest of us should you have any of your own insights to share about the possible origins of this oddity.

DOD

And one more post before I go to bed. I was walking past JM and David's room this evening as they were supposed to be tidying up. I called in a quick reminder to do more work and less lolly-gagging to which David answered,

"But Moooooo-oooom. We can't do it without a grown-up."

Trying to sound a bit ominous I replied, "The only thing a grown-up gives you is motivation."

JM gave an excited little whelp and said, "Ooh, the grown-ups are giving us mo-ti-va-tion."

Then I heard David respond, "Ooooh...motivation...I wonder what that is. I wonder if it's real shiny!"

Li'l Palindrome

Ok, I admit when Magda congratulated me on my first palindrome I had to look it up. Even then it took me a moment to get it. Then, the whole thing fell into place and I thought, "What a great nickname for little no-name!" Every one of our babies has had an intrauterine knick-name which sticks at least long enough to find out the sex of the baby and apply a real name. Generally Tad comes up with the name but, like I said earlier, his creative juices are drying up in the baby zone. His best suggestion was Baby K - for the 11th letter of the alphabet...yeah, real creative honey. His past names have been a bit more fun. Tali started her life out as Pickles since she was a sour-craving baby and I went through jars and jars of pickles in that first trimester. Betsy was Epsi - short for epsilon (the 5th child at the time she eventually got bumped to number 6 due to an adoption in there somewhere) and the others escape me now. So this little Palindrome will be Pally for short until we can discover a more accurate identity. Thanks for the idea Magda! You win 10,000 name points!

Dead Give Away...

I guess the little baby ticker at the top of the blog is a dead giveaway that we have some news to share. Yes, our 2009 Edition is due out about Aug/Sept-ish and we figure I am about 7 weeks pregnant with number 11. We are all thrilled. Even JT has mustered a wee bit of enthusiasm at the prospect, albeit experiencing a bit of embarrassment as this will be the first baby to come along for which he truly understands from whence said baby came.

By the time you get to Number 11, letting people know just isn't quite the same. For the last few we just handed the phone to one of the kids and said, "Hey, talk to Grammy". I mean, I'm not sure the element of surprise is there anymore, I think it takes most people a bit of time to even build up an element of enthusiasm and, quite frankly, we're plumb out of creative ideas. When I was pregnant with Ben, Tad came up with a very clever little drawing of the plans for a set of bunk cribs which he faxed around to friends and family. Sorry, folks, we just don't have that kind of creativity in us anymore. Tad found out this time around when Tali handed him the pregnancy test while he was sitting at his computer.

We also have this little problem called Fat Mommy. Although only 7 weeks along, I am already bursting out of my jeans and hauling out my maternity wardrobe. I look like I could be rounding the corner to my second trimester and this makes keeping things a secret for very long very difficult. It also brings up all the usual stupid comments for which I simply respond with the same snarky answer...

Wow, are you sure you aren't further along than you thought?!

Nope, just fat.

You must have twins in there! Are you sure there's only one?!

Nope, I'm just fat.

Well, I guess that's what happens by the time you have number 7 pregnancy.

Um, nope, I just get fat. I was fat with number 1, I was fat with number 2, I was fat with numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6. This is how I get, folks - fat....fast. Now, if you could please stop pointing that out to me I can get on with this pregnancy with a little less self-consciousness. Thank you.

The Solution that Caused the Problem

I've been having a run of communication issues between my camera and my computer for many moons now. My dear computer guru husband has been determined to fix the problem so that I can merrily resume my blogging hobby. He began by installing a USB drive for me to dump all those photos onto since they were clogging up my hard drive and slowing things down. My camera, however, refused to talk to it so he got me an external card reader. That card reader was a little cheapie that didn't work too well so he installed another new card reader - a bit fancier version. This one shut down every time I came close to getting a peek at my photos so, in exasperation, he found another one on ebay and installed that. (This is all over a period of many months, mind you, thus the lack of photographic material posted on my blog). This third card reader had the same random hook up issues and so Tad decided to take a good look at the whole system again. He finally decided to pull out the USB drive he'd installed and wa-lah! Success! So now the solution that caused all my problems is gone and hopefully I really will be back in business. Keep your eyes peeled for all those missed birthdays, holidays and daily fun (and be wary of cheap computer parts that come from Hong Kong with free shipping).

How to get an old dog to play (Not)

Tad snapped this shot of Nathan the other day after he had given Pooka a blanket and pillow. He then laid on the floor with her, poked her in the eyeballs and yelled, "Gooka! Get up! Let's play!"

Well, I stand corrected...Tad chimed into the comments to say that Nathan was actually trying to get her to open her eyes - not sure why he thought that would happen once he'd made her so comfy. That is, by the way, his very own "blankie".

Baby-Wan

Two Year Olds....

Up until this point I've never had a two-year-old yet who lived up to the so-called "Terrible Twos". In my mind, two has always gotten a bad rap compared to the dreaded Three. Three is when the tantrums, back-talk and attitude usually start around here in full force and none of it is cute any longer. Well, Nathan is rapidly shooting holes in that theory. He is the quintessential Terrible Two. He throws tantrums about everything. He manipulates, he screams with loud piercing screams and he has the ability to keep it up for long periods of time. In fact, if he closes his eyes, we- the evil grown-ups in his life - suddenly go far, far away from him and the borders of his little fantasy land in which he always gets his way grow exponentially larger the longer his eyes are squeezed shut.

Today JT was playing around with his new lego robotics set. Nathan was two rooms away when he heard the whir of the motor. He suddenly started screaming through the walls with an ear-splitting sound NOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THAT'S MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!! As he was screaming he went running through one room, through a closet, into the next room and to the door to where JT was fiddling around. He poked his head out the door, saw JT with the robot, stopped dead in his tracks and calmly remarked, "Oh, that your's?" Then turned around and resumed whatever he was up to before the incident began.

For once I may have to throw a party for a three-year-old. All my four year-olds have gotten parties because *I* like to celebrate their ascent out of the abyss that is THREE. Nathan just might be starting a new trend.

Conversation with Nathan (the 2 yo)

I was nursing Tali yesterday when Nate busted into my room, approached Tali's nursing face and cried out in astonishment, "What she eatin'...butt?!"

No, boob.

Boob?! Big smile

Yes, there's milk in there.

Noooo....Milk in cup!

With that he ran back out and on to the next thing.

Remember This? Friday

You gotta be from the MD/DC metro area to remember this one but it's a classic from my childhood! Nobody bodder me eeder!

DOD - Milk Flavor

David shared his secret recipe with us this morning for what he calls "Milk Flavor".

You take some chocolate and add rootbeer and add milk and then you stir it up really good. Then you have to pour it in a pan and put it in the oven. And that's what I'm taking to Conner's party.

(Lucky Conner!)

Remember This? Friday

Update on the FAQ

I frequently get asked the question Why do you hold your babies like that? I decided I hear this question so often it deserved a spot on the FAQ post so go here to enjoy a trip down memory lane with me! (The question and answer are at the very bottom of the post)

Bummi Bum

Tali is now a baby au natural. It only took me ten tries to get the cloth diaper thing going on even though the guilt related to dumping so many dirty diapers in the landfills has been getting me down since number 1. I'm not crazy about the cloth diapers but I am very glad I made the switch. They are still messy and yet another thing that needs to be washed but the pros far outweigh the cons. For the cost of about 3 months worth of disposable diapers, I picked the Bummi diapers and got myself a starter kit with 2 dozen pre-folded diapers, 4 Bummi Whisper Wrap diaper covers and a roll of disposable diaper liners. I have found, since I didn't start until well after the poop-a-minute stage of Tali's life was over, that I have more than enough diapers but could use an extra wrap or two. We've all had to get used to the fact that her body shape now resembles an un-ripe pear and if I want to dress her in pants it takes a whole team of baby changers to pull the suckers up over that broadened and padded bum. I also end up changing her more often since the disposables are better at wicking the wet right away from the skin. But I don't mind. Tali and I are quite happy with our new Bummis and hopefully this will be the way to go as successive babies come along.