100 Cats

The saga of the desire for a cat colony continues with my twins.  They want so badly to build a barn to house all the feral kitties. 

Reid drew this picture from a book he read in school last year called Millions of Cats.  The book must have made quite an impression on him, since he drew the picture now.  I googled the book and it sounds excellent - I need to read it myself.

If you look very closely, you can see that the person by the house is also holding a cat in his arms.  I just love it!

I'm taking Friday off so I will see you next week!

Shoe Surprise

The boys leave their shoes all over.  I find shoes in the strangest places.  And they frequently are left lying all over the yard. 

One morning there was a big commotion when I was in the shower (because I can never take a five minute shower in peace).  It turns out Reid had gone outside to grab his Crocs and when he put his foot in, something was in there.  At first, he thought it was dog poop.  Luckily, it was something much cuter.

You'd think this would be a good lesson not to leave your shoes lying all over the place.  You know, to put them away where they go.  If only...

Crash Test Dummy

I picked up a costume at a thrift store for $1.99.  It's been quite popular with the boys.  I don't know how they can stand being completely zipped up in the thing.  It's mesh, so they can still see out and breathe, but I think it would creep me out.

I think this is a crash test dummy costume.  What do you all think?  They used to be kind of popular when my middle brother was a kid. 

What Not to Wear When You Meet Your New Neighbors

Recently some neighbors moved.  We were really bummed, because we'd gotten along with them so well.  New neighbors moved in.  Paul wanted to go meet them.  Being the introvert of the family, I skipped out on that, but sent over some cookies with him.  The boys wanted to tag along.  Here is what Reid was wearing:

What's so funny about this is that we aren't a family that hunts or even generally wears camo.  I had gotten the shorts for 'camo day' at school, which they seem to have at least once a year.  The jacket I picked up at a yard sale for the boys' costume drawer.  The hat we got from an outdoors store that was closing down and had everything on 80% clearance.  And he is also sporting knee high Halloween crow socks with water sandals.

I wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure he must have made quite an impression! 

The Wasp Sting

A few weeks ago, Reid got stung by a wasp.  We didn't think much about it.  He's been stung before.  The next morning, his finger where he'd been stung was a little swollen.  I sent him off to school.  When he got home, his hand was extremely swollen and had one blister.  We loaded into the car and headed to Urgent Care.

The doctor we saw at the Urgent Care didn't like the look of it, and sent us on to the ER.  It was a very busy Monday night in the ER.  There was nowhere to sit and they ran out of wheel chairs.  We saw a number of people in handcuffs with police escort.  Must've been a full moon.

They put some gauze on Reid's hand for compression and marked where the swelling was so they could track it.  After a couple of hours, they sent us home with antibiotics and Benadryl (which we already had, but I guess you can never have too much).  The following pictures are a little gruesome, so if you don't want to see them stop reading here!

Here is how his hand looked the next day.  The swelling wasn't as bad, but he had new blisters, and couldn't move his fingers.  We went in for follow up and they were concerned that he could have an infection in the tendons or bones, so they did blood work and x-rays. 

Luckily, there was no infection.  Here is how his hand looked several days later, when the blisters started to pop.  By the fifth day after the sting, his hand looked like this:

Finally, a week after being stung, all the blisters had popped and the swelling had gone down enough that he could move his fingers into a fist again.  One of my nursing students told me that the combination of Zantac and Benadryl was similar to an epipen, because they work on different histamine receptors.  So we now have some Zantac in the medicine cabinet, just in case.  Reid will go see a pediatric allergist in August to find out if he is truly allergic to bee stings, or if it was just a weird one time reaction.

Readers, do bee stings bother you?

Reid's First Lacrosse Game

Reid is in the youngest age group for lacrosse, so his games were short and sweet.  The matches only last 10 minutes.  They call them playdates. So at one game, he might play three other teams, but each one for just 10 minutes or so.  Here he is doing what is called a 'face off' with another player.  There's a ball in the grass between them and they each have to try to get it. 

 

 

Paul and I still don't know much about lacrosse.  We've kind of figured out that there are three types of positions.  They rotate all the kids in and out of them during each game, so Reid gets a chance to play every spot.

However, Reid isn't totally clear on what he's supposed to be doing (and neither are we, so we can't really help him out).  But he seems to have fun running back and forth, even if it's always the older kids who end up getting the goals.

 I think that if he decides to play again next Spring, he'll fare much better because he'll have a season under his belt, not to mention having a little more size and maturity. 

Regardless, you have to admit he looks pretty cute in all his gear.  And he gets plenty of exercise running up and down the field.  That's win/win in my book!

I'm a Lacrosse Mom?

The flyer came home in January in the boys' folders.  Lacrosse.  I knew nothing about lacrosse.  Paul knew nothing about lacrosse.  The boys knew nothing about lacrosse.  But Reid said he wanted to play.  So began the process of finding a bunch of second hand gear - there is padding for every part of the body.  Plus a helmet.  And cleats.  And a mouthguard and protective cup.  I asked a guy in Play it Again Sports how the game is played.  He said, "Basically you put on a bunch of padding and beat on each other."  I thought, "Hmmm.  Reid isn't going to like that".  We are very much a family that emphasizes personal space.  My boys don't wrestle.  They don't play rough. They have never seen a football game on television.  And if you've been reading my blog for a very long time, you might remember the big soccer flop we had several summers ago. 

Lacrosse kids are brutes!  Even when they are just supposed to be listening to the coach, they are constantly pounding on each other with their sticks and elbows and hips.  It's a different world, but they all seem to be having so much fun.  They don't want to quit playing - they beg for more, and they yell in enthusiasm over every game. Even though Reid is the smallest on the team, he endures these pokes and prods from older teammates without complaint.  The practices are long - two hours - and although Reid seems exhausted towards the end, he keeps going out there and trying.

Reid is not at the point of shoving back in all this hardcore playfulness.  But at his first practice he did manage to knock another kid's ball out when playing sharks and minnows.  The other kid laid down and cried.  Reid looked at me in horror.  I gave him a thumbs up, and he looked so surprised.  I'm sure he was expecting me to tell him to go tell the kid he was sorry and give him his ball back.  But this is lacrosse.  No apologies for stolen balls!

It's very different for me.  I never did team sports.  I rode horses.  I did cross country one year in high school, but that's still a solo sort of performance.  I have to say, though, lacrosse seems more interesting to watch than soccer or basketball.  And I know how to say "Great job" or "I'm so proud of you!"  In the long run I think that's all I really need to be a good lacrosse mom.  After all, it seems to be working when I'm dance mom for Cort (because I know nothing about dance either, although I am learning a bit as I go). 

 

 

In the end, all they really need is to know they have your support, right?

 

Readers, do you have any lacrosse tips for me?  I still don't know how a game is played.

Girls are Trouble

When I went in for the twins' kindergarten conference some weeks ago, I was surprised to learn that Reid's best friend was a little girl named Laila.  He had never mentioned her.  He had mentioned plenty of other friends, but never her.  Apparently the times Reid had gotten in to trouble at school, it involved this little girl.  The behavior cards are a complicated system of colors and numbers that would need a whole separate blog post to explain, but just know that the few times Reid was on yellow were Laila-related.  Somehow, when he was around her, he forgot to listen and follow directions.

I wasn't able to go on the twins' field trip this fall due to work, but I sent Paul with instructions to scope out Laila and tell me all about her.  He failed in his mission, and came back with no gossip for me. 

So we are still mystified about Laila.  All I know about her from Reid is that she has hair.  And eyes.  But we don't know what color.  Oh, and she likes Hello Kitty.  Now he hasn't told me - but I'm betting she likes Frozen too.

And every time Reid comes home with yellow on his behavior sheet and I ask him what happened?  Well, somehow, Laila is always involved too.

Girls.  They sure are trouble. 

A Little Kitty Comfort

Animals just know.  They know when you're sad or hurt.  Or when you have a temperature of 102* from a raging ear infection.  When you've been up all night crying, and you finally collapse in exhaustion, after having a traumatic experience forcing down yucky antibiotics.

It'll be okay, Reid.  Baxter's got your back.

In Training

Look at that stride!

 

Kind of wish my own running always felt that good!



Oh Those Socks!

Have you ever......loved a pair of socks so much......that you pulled them up high for all the world to see?

Have you ever...loved a pair of socks so much that you wore them....even when they didn't match a single item of clothes you were wearing?

Have you ever.....loved those socks so dearly that you hid them from your Mom when they were dirty so you could keep wearing them and they wouldn't be delayed in the wash?

Have you ever....loved your socks to such an extent, that if you discovered with horror that they had made it into the wash one day, you sat down and sobbed over having to wear a different pair?

Me neither.

But I know someone who has.

What Happens When You Throw Out the Halloween Candy

After a few weeks of doling out a couple of pieces of candy each evening to little boys who ate their dinner, I decided it was time to get rid of it all.  Besides, I'd already picked out and consumed the good chocolate myself.

 We let the boys each pick out 3 pieces and then say goodbye to the candy.  And then we realized, that somebody was hoarding! 

All we could do was laugh.  Can you blame him for trying?

Getting Burned

Recently Paul lit up the woodstove for the first time since last year.  Previously, we'd always had a fence around it, but the twins are older now and we hadn't put it up.  Paul told the boys it would be hot, and then fired it up.  Not ten minutes later, Reid was walking by on his way to the table, and put his hand out to touch the stove.  He got burned.  And it looked bad.

I felt terrible as I ran his hand under the cold water, and he screamed and sobbed, huge tears swiftly tumbling down his cheeks.  Paul and I snapped at one another in our worry over what to do.  I ended up spraying it with Dermablast, applying triple antibiotic ointment, and bandaging it before calling the doctor for an appointment.  Luckily, they had appointments available that Saturday morning.  I held a shaky Reid on the couch while we watched Caillou and bided our time until the appointment.

At the doctor's office, the nurses applauded our treatment of the burn.  They applied some special burn cream (which would alleviate pain and prevent infection) before rebandaging it.  We were prescribed some of the special cream, and told to keep the burn bandaged for a week.  The key thing at this point was to prevent infection. 

Do you think a 3 year old likes to keep a bandage on for a week?  Not so much.  So I drew a cat on Reid's bandage every single day (his request) so that he would leave it on.

Below is a picture of the burn.  If you don't like graphic pictures, you might not want to scroll down any further.  You can see why I was so horrified after it first happened - you know how painful it must have been! 

Around the 4th day, the blister finally popped, and then Reid's hand was able to start draining.  Of course, once it popped it was more painful to him.  But thankfully he seems to be healing up well.  And while I seem to still be filled with Mom-guilt over the incident, slowly as he heals I am recovering too.  These accidents just seem to happen sometimes, regardless of how hard we try to protect our children.  I'm not the only one who felt horrible over what happened.  Pierce came home from school with this picture in his folder:

It's a picture of Reid by the woodstove, with a bandage on his hand.  On the back it says,
Reid hert his hand and has a blistr.  It hrtes rily bad. I got my frst day (aka first aid) kit.  Mom got her frst day kit.  Mom put a banddage on him.  His blistr is big.  Mom put medesin on it.

And every day Cort and Pierce both say, "Reid, is your owie hand feeling better?"  Nice to see some brotherly concern, in the midst of the daily squabbles.  I sure hope that's the last burn incident that we have in this family! 

Still Sheepish after all these years...

When Reid was six months old, I did a post called A Boy and His Sheep.  I have to say, that Reid is still just as cute as ever with his stuffed sheep.

As for Cort, he has his blankie.  Pierce is a little more fickle with his security items.  When he was 2 1/2, it was a small green squeaky frog.  Then when he was 3 1/2, a stuffed Baby Jaguar.  At 4 1/2, he switched to a small stuffed Mario.  You never know what it'll be next. 

How about you or your kids, reader?  Any special stuffed animals around?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wishing everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day today!  No green beer for these two, but if they're lucky, they may get some green mint cookies...

The Reid is in Da House

You know what I love about 2 year olds?  How egocentric they are.  It's what earns them the 'terrible twos' moniker, and I find it oftentimes hilarious and endearing.

A couple of months ago Reid starting referring to himself in third person.  Nothing warms my heart more than a toddler referring to himself in third person.  Nothing, that is, except for a toddler referring to himself in third person as though he is, in fact, The Only Person On Earth.  That's right folks, The Reid is in da house.  It's not just Reid anymore.  It's The Reid.  He's titled.  Next thing you know, he'll be knighted.

The Reid want cookies!
The Reid NO WANT dinner!
The Reid want play with trains!
The Reid make house!

The Reid is now signing copies of his official, licensed novelty poster for tweens across the nation.  To order yours, just call 1-800-THE-REID.  Viking warrior helmet not included.

All I do is cook. And take pictures of things I cook. But it's all good.

Days on the farm are so busy right now, but full of fun and adventure.  

It feels like I spend much of my time cooking.  There certainly are a lot of meals in a day, and I'm trying to use up as much of the garden as I can.  

This week I made apricot pecan muffins, for Pierce to take to school for breakfast.

A 'use up the garden' style casserole - with layers of potatoes, garlic, green peppers, tomatoes, and cheese. It was really good.

A late bloomer...

I've been scooping out watermelons and putting them into individual containers to make it easy to pack fruit for Pierce's lunches.

I recently saw a recipe for watermelon jam that I'm eager to try.  I just need to pick up some lemons (I don't typically keep lemons around).

Cort and Reid started a Mother's Day out preschool program, 2 mornings a week. 

They needed pictures to hang in their cubbies.  So we went out on the porch to snap a few.

Cort (Note that there's no paci!  He only uses it at night now) -

Reid (yes, I probably should've cleaned the dinner off his face first...)

And it's persimmon season!   We're having a really good year for persimmons - quite the abundance out there.

So far I've done a persimmon cake and persimmon fudge!  The cake recipe I came up with myself, but the fudge recipe I found online.  It turned out super sugary, and it's in a 9x13 pan so I'm not sure we can eat it all before it goes bad.  Anyone know if fudge freezes okay?

DAAAAD!! Mom's Feeding Us Seaweed Again!

You all know I like fruits and vegetables.  Probably more than the average person.  I've always been that way.  Anyhow, I'm laying the foundation here for my new favorite snack.  Because you are really going to think I've lost my marbles over this one.  I can't seem to stop!  I absolutely love Trader Joe's Roasted Seaweed Snack.  You can eat the entire bag (which is 2 servings) in just 60 calories.  I apologize for the smears on my pictures.  Apparently little fingers got ahold of the camera.

 

Cort said, "NO WAY.  Get that green stuff outta here".  Reid, who eats anything, said, "Mmm, tasty"

Huh.  Turned out he liked it.

Uh oh.  He really likes it. And we don't have a Trader Joes anywhere close - it's a 3 hour drive!

I really didn't want to share all of my roasted seaweed.

The only drawback is that it does tend to get stuck in your teeth in funny ways...

Do you have a snack that you love that's a little bit off the beaten path of normal?

Please stop by to enter my giveaway for fun beauty supplies here! 

Hello? Poison Control? It's Me, Lisa. Again.

We consider our house pretty child proof.  We've got gates up over the stairs, our cleaning supplies are protected by child locks, and we keep the bathroom door shut.  Our outlets have covers, and there is a lock on the pantry.

The thing is, you just never know what kids will get into.  And we have one that is very sneaky and very fast.  Can you guess which one of these jokers is giving us trouble?

If you guessed Reid (far left) you'd be right.  It started with the changing table.  Reid is tall, and one day he pulled the A+D ointment off the changing table.  I found him sucking it down like those squeezable yogurts.  Nice.  None of the ingredients were too alarming (castor oil and the like) but it did say to call poison control if ingested.  So I did.  They warned that it might cause loose stools if he ate a good amount.  I countered that at least he'd be well-lubed for the cause.  No harm done, and I moved the ointment.

Not even a month later we had another incident.  Paul was in the bathroom with Cort and Reid.  He was brushing Cort's teeth, and Reid was looking for trouble waiting his turn.  I was putting away cloth diapers and walked out in the hall to see Reid chugging tea tree oil with a dreadful expression on his face.  The tea tree oil is kept in the bathroom (I use it on occasion to strip the cloth diapers), so it never occurred to me that anyone would get it.  But Reid is fast.  In a split second he'd snagged it, run out in the hall, unscrewed the top, and taken a swig - all while Paul was brushing Cort's teeth.  I promptly removed the bottle, but a whiff of Reid's breath almost knocked me over.  Yes, he definitely sampled it.  But how much?  I had to call poison control again.  This time was a little more serious.  It was bedtime, but we had to keep Reid up for observation for an hour.  If he started vomiting or became extremely drowsy, we were to take him to the hospital.  He was also supposed to eat and drink something.

Oh, Reid had a grand old time staying up late without his brothers.  He gorged himself on squash bread and ran giddily all over the house.  Thankfully, he was fine.

I hope I don't have to call a third time.  Because I'm pretty sure if they see just one more call from my number alarms will go off in the building and I'll be declared an unfit mother.  At any rate, moms, have the number on your fridge or programed in your phone - someplace you can find it easy.  Because it only takes a split second for kids to grab something they shouldn't, no matter how child-proof you think you are! We are so thankful our sweet (but sneaky) Reid was okay.

I have a giveaway celebrating 400 followers here for fun beauty supplies, come enter!

And for a wonderful yellow squash recipe, check out my Tex-Mex Squash Casserole, which is featured in a guest post on Recipe Lion.  It was a huge hit with the whole family!

Why My 17 Month Old is in Time Out

The twins are 17 months old now, and they alternate between being the best of friends and driving one another crazy.  Either way, they are typically always side by side. 

Reid is much bigger than Cort.  By almost 5 pounds.  And he uses his size to an advantage.

He gets in moods where he just torments Cort.  He's fast and he goes after whatever Cort has, including his cherished paci.

Worst, though, Reid goes after his snacks.  See, Reid can eat REALLY fast.  I have no doubt that if all else fails career-wise, he can be one of those professional hot dog eating contest winners.  For real, this child can eat and he can eat quickly. 

So I'll put a plate of animal crackers on the floor, and Cort will examine them, take a small nibble off, and rotate them in his hands.

During the time it takes Cort to test the waters with his animal cookie, Reid will have eaten the other twenty.  And then it happens.  Reid notices that while there are no more animal crackers on the floor, Cort has two in his hands.

Cort, not naive, will start trying to run away.

Only Reid is faster and bigger.

Reid comes up from behind, arms wide open, and tackles Cort to the floor.

Cort, completely smushed to the ground, loses possession of both animal crackers as Reid quickly wrenches them from his hands and stuffs them in his mouth, all while Cort is penned down and sceaming.

And so.

Reid has started getting little tiny time outs on the couch.  Yeah, I know you're not supposed to start time out until the age of two.  Nevertheless, I place Reid on the couch and tell him no and that he needs to be nice to Cort.

Somehow, time outs and lectures don't seem to make a dent in Reid.

In fact, I suspect he finds them amusing.

Because this is how he looks in time out:

I may need to reconsider my approach.