Poop Happens--Especially when potty-training!

I have a pre-schooler whose teachers come and do a home visit before classes begin. Our turn was this week. I was babysitting a neighbor up until the visit, and to help keep the house clean took the kids to play in the water. We rushed home to make it in time for the neighbor to get picked up and the teachers' visit. They all came at once, so I put my potty-trainer in my room to watch a movie and hopefully take a nap. She has been potty training for about two weeks now since my niece came to visit and she decided she wanted to be "bid like Dola". She was quiet and I was filling out papers with one teacher while the other was doing some evaluation activities with my son. Then we heard a little crying in my room and struggling to open the door. We figured she had woken up and wondered where we were.

I went to open the door for her, but as I approached, the odor seeping out from under the door told me one little girl had not been asleep. Behind the closed door I found a gloved little girl still in her swimsuit which hung a bit lower in the back now. Her brown mud-like gloves were about 1/4 inch thick,carefully molded around each finger. Little bits of dry fragrant "mud" covered her yellow sponge chair in front of the TV. I quickly made an apology to our guests, turned on the shower and carefully took off the swimsuit to not spill any more of the contents. I plopped it in the toilet, threw her in the shower, swished and flushed a few times, scrubbed a bit, then tried to scrub off the gloves while my daughter screamed "Nooo!!!" in protest. (How thoughtless of me after she worked so hard.) I turned on the fan, scrubbed my hands and then rushed back to finish signing papers. In my hurry I forgot and grabbed the doorknob also caked thickly...AHhh back to the sink, scrub, rag scrub door knob, wash hands, run to grab disinfectant spray, spray knob and anything else in reach and run back to finish signing papers--but where's the teacher's pen?..."Don't worry, she assures me, "I'm sure I put it in my bag." (What she really was saying was, "Honey I don't want it back") Pretty soon a soggy cleaner smelling girl appeared in her "puppy towel" and we said goodbye to the teachers. I went back to the scene of the accident, removed the chair cover, washed it, the sides of the coffee table, a DVD case, and anything else I could find that looked dirty, vacuumed, and went to make lunch. Yummy!

Later that day during their afternoon swim in my bath tub big brother informed me that she "pooped in the tub". I am not exactly sure what happened, because all I could see was a nicely formed wet nugget on the step in front of the tub--was she trying to get out? Did she just hang her tail overboard, or did someone fish it out? I'm still not sure, just surprised she still had something left inside of her! I have heard of similar stories, but I just didn't expect it to happen to me--luckily it happened on an otherwise good day!

Kids say the darndest things

I just have to write a few funny things my kids have said as they are starting to use new phrases and terminology. The one that sparked this entry was just after I had had the talk with my 4 year old, the one that I wish I didn't have to have until he was 10 or more, but alas, this is the world we live in... anyway, I was walking by and heard him from the bathtub say, "Don't!... that's my favorite part!" spoken like a true man. On the subject of bathtubs (or our indoor pool as we like to call it) my son asked me to get him some "gobbles" for his bath. When I asked him what he needed them for he said so that he could see under the water while he swims.
We were riding a public bus last week and he turned around and noticed the man sitting behind us covered in tatoos. "Mommy, what did he do?" he asked rather loudly. The man sort of chuckled as I searched for something to say. Then embarrassed he said to me, "Mommy he heard me!" which seemed to shock him almost as much.
After a little roadrash from sliding on the loose gravel on the road in front of our house, my kids and I decided it was time to sweep it up. I filled the dust pan and my daughter emptied it into a bucket, my son found a stick that was frayed and worked hard scraping away at the pavement. At one point he stopped and said, "We are working really hard." I agreed. Then he continued, "We are learning lots of money!" I was hoping to teach other things, but we'll work with what we get!

When I grow up I want to be a Pilot

One night this summer we were at an outdoor movie and it was getting late, and as a plane flew over my son started talking about how he wants to be a pilot when he grows up. There is not much to see, but I tried to capture his voice because I love the way he says things.

Dancing queen

We just found a few dress up things that we forgot we had and so the latest thing to play is dress up! She has had a blast changing outfits 10 times a day. I turned on some music for her to dance to in the pink dress, but when this song came on she recognized it as the one from our wedding video and insisted on getting the veil on. Her brother quickly wanted to join in. Moments like this are so fun!

4th of July parade

We missed the flag ceremony this 4th of July, but we decided at the last minute to try and make the children's parade. Our kids have never watched a parade, so I wasn't sure how long they would last. When we told them to get ready, they wanted to ride in the parade .

Thank goodness Grandma Honey is always prepared we were able to decorate their little bikes in about 5 minutes and get down to the parade. We were just in time for the beginning of the real parade. They were so excited to be in the parade though, so we let them ride a little before the actual parade got to us.

The crowd was a little intimidating, so we didn't see any tricks on the bike. This was one of our favorite floats.

It is always the highlight of the parade to see the family in the band

(and be glad it isn't us walking in the heat)!

Home-made Clothes line

I draped a few sheets over chairs on the back patio to dry one day, and about an hour later my kids called me into my room to see what they had done.