Halloween Candy

The Halloween candy began its inflow into our house today. David had a fall party at school today and brought home two big baggies full of all sorts of treats. As I went to empty the candy into our candy bowl (that I keep hidden away from little fingers until it is time for a treat), I realized that we still have candy in the bowl from LAST Halloween and Valentine's day.

Without even thinking, I mentioned to David that it might be time to dump the bowl and start over with this years candy. He got a horrified look on his face and asked me, "Does God like it when we throw away candy?"

"David Goes to School"

David has a new favorite book called David Goes to School by David Shannon. This author has written several "David" books about what he heard from adults when he was a child. I think many of them are very fitting for our David too:

"Pay attention David"

"Shhhhhhhh!"

No David!"

All the "David" books are pretty cute and they do end on a positive note so that no child will be harmed with negative thoughts for life! In addition to this series, we also love David Shannon's The Bad Case of the Stripes.

Since the book is new, we have only read through it twice at home. Yesterday, David took his new favorite book to school to show his teacher. Apparently, she read it to the class, and David was quite proud about that. When he got home, he told me that he wanted to read the book to me. Seeing that David hasn't quite learned how to read a book yet, I thought this would be pretty good. He started out on the first page (that had lots of words) and he said, "I never start reading on this page." He then turned to the second page and began reading the whole book to me. It is funny that it is much easier to read a book when you look at the pictures rather than words!

He "read" us the book twice and then Nathan asked to look at the book. Nathan flipped through the book once and then he decided he was going to read the book to me too. He told me that he didn't ever read the first page and then proceeded to read me the book exactly as David did. David was pretty proud that he taught Nathan how to read in less than an hour.

What can I say...my kids are great memorizers! This is a good thing because they will be able to help me remember where I parked the car when we go to Wal-Mart or that one thing I needed to buy at the store but forgot to write down. On the flip side, they also remember every last thing I say, such as "Maybe we can go to McDonald's next Tuesday" or "We'll talk about buying that for you when it gets a little closer to your birthday." I guess the key is teaching them to use it for good to help me rather than for the evil side of using it against me!

Sticky Kisses

Before Brian or I leave the house, the boys always make sure that they have given us a hug and a kiss. Now, as a realist, I understand that this will not last forever. I don't think there are too many teenage boys who will kiss mom before she leaves for the grocery store or kiss dad before he leaves for work. I wouldn't mind it, but I am not holding my breath. So, I enjoy all the hugs and kisses I can get from these little guys right now....well, usually I really enjoy all the kisses.

When I was leaving to teach class on Thursday, David and Nathan came running to me to offer these precious hugs and kisses. The only problem is that they had been sitting at the table licking on suckers and I knew that their mouths would be all sticky. Nathan gave me a big hug and then kissed me on the cheek. Unfortunately, all the stickiness ended up on my cheek.

So, I got smart with David. I felt the outside of his mouth before he gave me a kiss and realized it was really sticky too. So I washed his mouth off with a wet paper towel. After patting it dry with a dry napkin, he gave me a kiss. I started to turn to leave, and he yelled, "Wait Mommy! That kiss wasn't slobbery enough. I have to do it again." I let him give me another kiss and it was definitely slobbery enough. Wiping my cheek as I walked out of the door, I wondered where that had come from.

Later that night, I was putting the boys to bed. David and Nathan always give each other hugs and kisses before bed (something else I don't expect to last forever). Nathan gave David a kiss, and David said, "Nathan, you have to do it again. That one wasn't slobbery enough." When I asked him why they had to be slobbery, he started laughing really hard and then said, "That makes them more fun to wipe off."

Such a silly kid!

Things I have learned in the past week or so...

I have learned a great many things in the past week. None of them should be new revelations, but for some reason they have been. I will share them with you.

1. Three year olds don't like the process of getting splinters out of their hands.

Nathan got a really big splinter stuck in his hand, and it took us about 30 minutes to get it out. Although I would classify Nathan as a tough kid, he does not take kindly to the use of tweezers or a needle to remove splinters. By the time all was said and done and the splinter was removed, Nathan was no longer friends with Brian or me for a good hour or so. I can't say as I blame him for not liking us, but as a parent, it still makes you sad.

2. If a five year old sees his brother go through the ordeal of getting a splinter removed, he will hide the fact that he also has a splinter.

Can you believe it? Two splinters in one week. After watching his little brother suffer at the hands of his dear parents, David thought the wise thing to do would be to NOT tell us that he got a splinter. At one point, he asked me what would happen if someone got a splinter, to which I replied that the kid's mommy would need to look at it and see what needed to be done to get the splinter out so that the kid's hand would be well. The whole time this conversation was taking place, David had his hand inside of his sleeve. (As if mom wasn't bright enough to figure that one out!) David's splinter came out much easier than Nathan's and everyone was still friends when it was all over.

3. Kidney stones REALLY hurt.

Sounds obvious, huh? I experienced this first hand last week, and NEVER want to experience it again! Thankfully, the stone is gone and I think I am back to normal. Honestly, I am not sure which was worse...the kidney stone or the fact that the pain medication and phenergan administered through my IV lasted for about 3 days. I know that I am sensitive to medicines, but I never realized exactly how something like that would effect me. On our way home from the hospital, Brian stopped at Sonic to get me a sprite (with good ice) to settle my stomach, and two girls from our youth group were there with a bunch of their friends. You can picture how embarrassing that was for Brian as I kept nodding off in the car because of the medicine. I can just imagine the girls saying, "Yeah, there is my youth minister and his wife...wait...ummm...no, I don't know that guy with the woman who is drooling!"

4. Clorox Bleach spray will ruin your paint.

I know...this should be an obvious thing for most people; however, I was just trying to clean up a very nasty mess made by Nathan during naptime and really didn't think it through. Unfortunately, Nathan thought it would be a good idea (or something) to poop in his pull-up during naptime and then spread it around his room. I don't know why he did this, but it was absolutely gross. When he came out of his room when naptime was over, he said, "Mommy, I have a small problem." I didn't realize that this meant I was going to have a big problem. I cleaned up the kid, and then I cleaned up the room ruining the walls in the process. I guess it is a good thing that I've been wanting an excuse to paint Nathan's room. I sure have one now!

5. Life is busy...but it's all good.

Last week was a crazy week. It was tiring, overwhelming and even a bit painful. However, I am thankful for good friends and a great family. Sometimes it takes those bad weeks to remind you of how good life is at other times. I spent a lot of last week shaking my head and thinking "What in the world!" but I also spent time praying...sometimes for peace, sometimes for contentment, sometimes for perseverance, sometimes for patience, a lot of times for no more pain...you get the picture. It was a week of perspective, and that is quite often a very good thing!

Handy Manny

Disney has launched another TV show called Handy Manny and the boys really like to watch it. The show sort of has a "Bob the Builder meets Dora the Explorer" story line. It is about a Spanish speaking handyman and his talking tools who work as a team to help everybody fix their broken stuff.

So far, the boys have learned some new Spanish words including the Spanish word for work and washing machine and have been working on incorporating those into their daily vocabulary. Both boys will act out the show with their play tools, but Nathan has even taken it to a greater extreme. He has started trying to fix everything in the house...regardless of it is really broken or not. He calls his tools by name (the names of the tools on the show, of course) and wanders around the house hammering this and sawing that.

When we first started watching the show, he would go around and say, "OH NO! The chair is broken. Who are we going to call? I know who to call...Handy Manny!" One day we were in the bathroom at Target and there was toilet paper on the floor. Nathan started in with his "OH NO! There is toilet paper on the floor. Who are we going to call?" To which I interjected, "I know who to call...Handy Manny!" Nathan just glared at me and said,"NO...NO....NO! YOU don't say that!" And then he said, "OH NO! There is toilet paper on the floor. Who are we going to call? (looks at me and glares and then says) I know who to call...Handy Manny!"

Yesterday, I realized that his fascination with Handy Manny reached a whole new level. On his way home from Carpenter's Kids, he told us that he had to get home so that he could break the TV. I asked him why in the world he would want to break the TV. He responded, "I will break open the TV so that I can get inside and talk to Handy Manny!" The frightening thing is that I would not put this past Nathan. He is now under 24/7 surveillance and is not allowed alone in the living room, especially when Handy Manny is on TV.