The Sand Man

On Friday I took Scott and Kate to a sprinkler park. Like with water shooting out of the ground in all sorts of fun configurations. It was a lot of work too to take them too - sunscreening, packing lunch and what have you.

At least Kate seemed to enjoy it, so I suppose that made it worth it.

I'm not sure what's broken in the minds of my two older children, but neither of them have ever really liked sprinkler parks. They LOVE swimming. But sprinkler parks, what with their lack of potential for fatal drownings, just don't make the grade apparently.

The whole time we were there, Scott just wanted to play in the sand instead. I think he's crazy to pick sand over sprinkler park, but I should have known. He does this any time we are at a park. He lives for sand volleyball courts. When I try to track him down at a park, usually I see this:

Which is really fabulous when Kate is exhausted and crying and it's time to go RIGHT. NOW. (Scott still can't/won't put on his own sock and shoes.)

*sigh* I guess it's not that bad. On the up side, it kept him busy during Claire's soccer practices. Plus, he's my little boy and he's all cute to watch and stuff:

Should I Have Seen This Coming?

We've learned over the years that parenthood is in large part having some new thing you never worried about before come around a blind corner and bite you in the face.

Sometimes it's literal. Kids get teeth eventually and you feel like an idiot for not thinking through the consequences of the "trick your kid into biting the end of your nose when they were trying to give you a kiss" game.

Sometimes it's more figurative. Like when your child learns to crawl and you forget you can't just plop them down somewhere and walk off only to find them a few minutes later banging glass baby food jars on the tile floor. (If you've never tried this, it does make a cool, unique, dink dink sound and after your child ventures into the pantry one or two times you will recognize it instantly.)

Sometimes you really should have seen it coming. Like when your four year old decides that as far as he is concerned, dinosaurs STILL rule the earth. And when he gets a toy tyrannosaurus figurine for his birthday he carts it around everywhere for over a month. And reminds you that T Rex needs to watch TV (when you have decided your son can't), needs to go to bed or take naps, and really really likes melted cheese on top of his hot dog. You'd think you would expect Rex to be around but occasionally he'll just show up somewhere and take you by surprise (you see, figuratively biting you in the face). Like this.



But then sometimes you really just had no reason to predict what would come your way next. You've read the parenting books. You spend time with your kids. In retrospect it seems obvious but you just weren't prepared for...













Xenosaurus Rex - Space Faring Meat Eating Parent Rule Evading Dinosaur Who Takes Off His Helmet When He Is On Mars (and really likes melted cheese)

See, didn't see that coming, did you?

They Don't Pay Those Chinese Workers Enough

Having a little crawler in the house has really made things extra crazy around here. I never realized before how spoiled I was by being able to just leave Kate to entertain herself while I went to another part of the house to do something. Now she doesn't stay where I leave her! Imagine that! She is finding all kinds of choking hazards to play with. Really though, it's getting bad. She may be following in her brother's footsteps.

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In light of Kate's exploits, I've decided to support the green movement in packing materials. When Kate eats styrofoam, I have to have a wrestling smackdown where I extricate tiny white balls from her mouth. When she eats the starch based packing peanuts, I can pretend I didn't see anything and run off to get one more thing done!

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The other day I went to change a poopy diaper for Kate. Mingled with the poop I found a little plastic sticker that said, "Made in China." Hmm... Who knew even THAT could be outsourced?!?!?

Oh, the Humanity!

Scott is fond of his vehicles. Particularly his Tonka vehicles. And he likes to crash them.

Frequently he excitedly summons me to witness his latest creation - a staging of a particularly horrific crash.






Sometimes the vehicles vary...







...but always the feasibility given either typical traffic patterns or the laws of physics as I understand them is called into serious question.







And I am left to ponder doomsday scenarios: Who will respond to an emergency if the fire truck, police car, AND ambulance are all lodged into the bed of an enormous dump truck?






All I can say is, "Man, I HATE when that happens!!!"

The End of the World As We Know It

Did I Mention We ALSO Got a New Roof Installed Today?

We've had a lot going on. My sister, her husband, and their baby moved in with us about a week ago. So helping them get settled is pretty much taking up all my spare time lately.

Fortunately, we've had our minivan to help cart most of their stuff over to their storage locker. And speaking of my love/hate relationship with my Toyota Sienna, if you haven't already seen this one, you definitely should watch the "Swagger Wagon" music video from Toyota: