Poison Control and the Photography of a 21 month old

OK, so just to warn you...after reading this post you're going to think I'm a terrible mother. If you already think that then I suggest you stop reading right now. Shew...glad we got that out of the way.

I'm assuming if you're still reading then you're wondering what my latest adventures have been. Well, let's just say this post is dedicated to my beautiful, wonderfully QUICK, little 21 month old boy, Luke. Every morning I take a shower and it so happens to be when the kids are awake. *GASP* I know...I'm a terrible mother. Usually it's only 2 mornings a week that Luke is unattended for less than 5 minutes. (And when I say unattended I mean there's no older sibling present) And now I know you're all gasping and thinking....does she ever shave her legs??? We won't go there. I USUALLY gate things off and make sure Luke is playing real well while I "sneak" in the shower. AND, if one of the other older kids is home they can usually "watch" him for me. (Which basically consists of them running in the bathroom and screaming at the top of their lungs what Luke was getting in to.) Well, this was one of those mornings that Grace was supposed to "watch" him for Mommy while I raced to get my shower in. I really thought things were going well...I mean come on...there was no screaming right? So, I'm drying my hair and all the sudden Luke comes in with my CAMERA! I was so glad he didn't throw it on the floor or in the toilet and immediately felt frustrated that Grace wasn't watching Luke. (I totally know it's not her fault in the least...just what I was thinking at the time). Well, I didn't think anything of this incident until the next day when I was looking at the pictures on my camera and trying to figure out what in the world the pictures were. These are a FEW of the pictures that I saw:

The floor

The ceiling

His feet with the camera strap

The culprit himself.

I recognize this chunk on the wall from our steps. His conscience must have kicked in as he realized he needed to bring the camera to Mommy.

So you would think after this incident that I would learn my lesson right? Well..... yeah.

Here's part 2 of the blog dedicated to this quick little squirt.

Today, almost the same story as far as sneaking in the shower. It's about 8:00-8:30 in the morning and EVERYONE is home. Chris is in his office/closet, Isaac and Grace are watching cartoons. So in my mind this is a perfect opportunity to take a shower. CHRIS is here...the Dad...the Head Honcho. But, none of it mattered. I had just gotten dressed and Luke walks in the bathroom with a completely empty children's medicine bottle (Motrin I think). It's all over him and I discovered it was all over the floor in the kitchen. The little stinker has figured out how to pull the drawers open in the kitchen to make a step stool to climb up on the counter. I guess I hadn't closed the lid very well either the last time I used it. *sigh* Luckily there was only about 5 teaspoons left in the bubble-gum flavored medicine. I grabbed my cell phone to look up the Poison Control number to find out the damage that had been done.  The verdict was that it wasn't any big deal. The very nice man on the other end said it happens all the time and it probably won't affect him at all. He may have a tummy ache but that might be it...oh and to feed him breakfast if I haven't already done so. The amount he could have gotten wasn't significant enough to do much damage. Shew.

As I was calling Poison Control the thought came to me, "I wonder if any one else has this number saved in their phone?" (Granted I've only had to call it a few times in the 6+ years of being a parent.) Nonetheless, I always feel like such a horrible parent calling it and am afraid they are going to turn me into the people that take your kids away. LOL!

Well, that sums it up. I'll try to be better in the future...but I can't guarantee.  My little squirt is quicker than quick and gets messier than messy...but we'll save that post for another day.

Oh and one more thing...sorry if there's lots of typos etc...my son is bawling so I'm not going to proof read this. Happy reading. :-)

Daddy's Girl in Daddy's Hat

So right before Christmas Daddy decided he wanted to start wearing a hat. And not just any hat...it's a fedora (I think).  And no, he's not wearing it to cover up his bald spot (or should I say spots).

(As a side note, there's a funny story there in itself. He had a kid that goes to our church come up to him the other day and say, "Mr. Elliott, I know why you wear that hat now! It's to cover up the bald spot your getting!" Chris said, "If that were the case I would have started wearing a hat a long time ago!")

Anyways, the kids LOVE putting on Daddy's hat. The other night Grace put on Daddy's hat and Chris started snapping pictures. He didn't tell Grace to do a thing and these are the poses she gave him.



When we looked on the camera we got a chuckle out of these pictures. I guess the hat has some special affect on her whereby it makes her more silly and extroverted. (Hey! Maybe it's Frosty the Snowman's old hat!)

Here's a picture from tonight that Grandma took that I fell in love with:

This hat has given us the opportunity to get many cute pictures of the kids. Now that Daddy has this hat Isaac really wants one just like it. So someday if you see a little person who looks just like my husband walking around with this type of hat on...you'll know why. By the way, let us know if you ever see one somewhere!  

Bed Time Adventures

Every now and then my kids will find an old toy or possession that they have forgotten about for a long time and realize they still really like that particular item. They will play with it all day long until the "newness of the old" wears off once again. Well, for two days now that particular item has been their sleeping bags. Go figure. They are all about their sleeping bags!!! So, they asked Daddy the other night if they could sleep on the floor in their room. "Oh please Daddy, can we sleep on the floor of our room. This is soooo comfortable. We just love the floor!" Of course our first thought is, "All they are going to do is play and talk and not go to sleep." We thought we would give them a chance though. Amazingly they did great! When we went to check on them before we went to bed this is what we saw:

Isaac was pretty much sleeping on Gracie's feet. They had their pillows piled high and they were no where near them. You can't even see where Isaac's pillow was on this picture. We got a good chuckle out of it. The next morning Isaac told us he had to move to his bed in the middle of the night because the floor was too hard for him. Go figure.

Well, the adventure doesn't stop there. Last night the kids begged to sleep on the floor again. I guess Isaac forgot just how hard the floor was. Since they did so well the night before we really didn't mind if they wanted to do it again.  So last night when we went to check on them I was quite surprised by what I saw... I just about knocked into Grace when I opened their door.

In case you are like I was and wondering what this is...this is Grace sleeping on top of 4...yes FOUR pillows!!! I don't know how she did it really?

And here's how Isaac ended up. Completely on the other side of the room.

I ended up taking a couple pictures and I guess by the last picture I took there was enough camera flashing in their room to wake up Grace.

At this point we decided it would be best for Grace to move to her bed. She didn't object in the least. I'm pretty sure her neck and back had to be sore. We are not quite sure why she moved to right in front of the door but that's our Gracie for ya!

As I write about our latest bed time adventure I was thinking about another reason why the kids probably like the floor. Every night Daddy reads and prays with the kids before he puts them to bed. Well, their time with Daddy was on the floor those two nights as well and I think that was half the adventure right there. (Except Daddy can't get up off the floor!) If the kids ask to sleep on the floor again tonight we might just say 'yes' again simply for our own entertainment purposes!! HA! Where and how will they end up again? Oh what we won't do for a laugh... :-)

Sun Stand Still

OK so the long anticipated car story!!! (Well, really not that long but it was fun to say anyways). I’m not quite sure to even know where to begin.  Well, we were in need of a different car because Chris’ car has just about 200,000 miles on it and we have been plugging a lot of $ into repairs lately. It’s been a great beast of a car for us but I personally believe it’s on its last leg.

The current car

Now, every year we get a tax return and use the money for whatever our current needs are. 2 years ago we purchased our van, last year we used it for schooling for Chris and Isaac as well as many other needs. Well, this year our main need is that our roof needs to be replaced, and again, as well as many other things. One of the desires of our heart is to be able to send our kids to Morning Son (a private Christian school here in town). However, people with our type of income don’t send their kids to that school. Isaac has had a wonderful experience there and we absolutely LOVE IT! Next year Grace will be in Kindergarten and Isaac will be in 1^st grade. After looking at our tax return it doesn’t seem possible that we’d even be able to send one kid to the school much less two. But we said, “If it’s God’s will for them to go there then they will go there. If not, then He’ll show us exactly how he wants us to educate our children.” OK, moving on. Now upon being in our recent Life Group called “Sun Stand Still,” we are challenging ourselves to believe God for the impossible and have audacious faith. (Obviously, the example this is taken from is Joshua- when he asked God to have the sun stand still for a day) During the previous meeting, (which happened to be the night before) many ladies shared what their “Sun Stand Still” impossible prayer was. So, I shared the desire we have of where to send our children for school, but ultimately that we want what God wants for us whatever that may be. That night we prayed that if it’s God’s will for one or both of the children to attend this private school that God would provide a financial miracle for us.

Yesterday during nap time I hear this LOUD bang on the door. I was a bit irritated because whoever this was obviously didn’t realize it was nap time and that I still had one kid sleeping. The person opens the door and hollers, “DANIELLE ELLIOTT!!! YOU’RE THE WINNER OF AN OLD CAR!!!” I start laughing and see that it is my brother at my door. He is standing there trying to hand me his key as I am trying to grasp what’s going on. He had just bought my dad’s car from him and decided his car wasn’t worth the hassle of selling and that he knew we needed another car. Now, his car is nothing special. Here it is:

OK so you’re going, “Ok Danielle, why are you excited about this? This is no upgrade from the beast?” Well, it is to us. Yes this car is a bit of an eyesore as well…BUT…but, but, but… it has 3 (yes don’t ask me why only 3) new tires on it. AND it has about 90,000 less miles on it. And I THINK it will be better gas mileage too. Yes, it’s FILTHY inside and needs a few minor repairs such as the trunk being fixed. Right now it’s held down by a bungee cord!! LOL! That’s my dear brother for you. But what’s so neat is 1) God provided a car for us that we believe will last us longer than the one we currently have…like hopefully at least a year! LOL!  And 2) We can sell our car and use that money to have part of the tuition that is needed to send 1 of our kids to Morning Son!! YEAH!! And, if for some reason it’s not in God’s plan for our kid/s to go one more year at this school we have plenty of other things to use the $ for…which I’m sure you all can understand. My husband is driving it today to give the real verdict. I’m hoping it’s a good one J

So there you have it people! God is good all the time! And here's a shout out for all my ladies in my life group….SUN STAND STILL BABY!!!

Shiny Hands!

So I am at the computer today and Grace hollers, "MOM!!!! Come look at Luke! He has shiny hands!" I thought, "Oh no! Why in the world would Grace think he has shiny hands?!?!" So I go over to see my beloved son with an almost empty (THANK GOD) container of Vaseline! Luke was taking the Vaseline and rubbing it all over his chest and neck. Apparently he thought this is what you are supposed to do with slimy stuff since Daddy had put Baby Vick's on his chest the night before. Obviously, I immediately took it away and Luke says, "Missss...misss." (Mess...mess) Yeah you better believe your a mess kid! I gave Grace the just about empty container of Vaseline and asked her to go throw it away. I got Luke cleaned up and noticed later on that Grace's bang's looked kind of wet. I couldn't figure out why in the world her bangs would be wet. Then it occurred to me that it wasn't wet. It was GREASE. Yeah... Vaseline grease!!! Come on now...seriously? So I asked her if she put Vaseline in her hair and she said she did. I asked her why. She said, "When I was throwing the Vaseline in the trash some got on my hands so I just rubbed it all over my face like this..." She proceeded to show me how she rubbed Vaseline everywhere on her forehead.  The best part about this is that my kids ALWAYS seem to know that the best time to get "missy" is the first 24 hours after they've been bathed. I am very fortunate it didn't get more in the hair. Moral of the story...well...there's lots I'm sure...but I'm going to have it be...THROW AWAY VASELINE CONTAINERS THAT YOU HAVE TO SCRAPE TO GET SOMETHING OUT OF!!!

YIKES...What am I doing?!?!

Alright, so the thought of blogging freaks me out a bit. First of all, I hardly know what a blog even is! There’s such a stigma in my mind with those who blog. They are people who are very organized and have their act together. They are over the top creative and crafty, and usually it seems that they are experts at something. Oh and not to mention they are wonderful writers. So…now you can see my hesitation with starting a blog. I don’t see myself in the “blogger” category in the least. As you may already know, I tend to ramble on and on and I loathe grammar. So why am I starting this you may ask? Great question! To put it as best as I know how, my desire to share laughter and life with others is greater than the pressure I feel to impress with eloquent words and the latest exquisite projects and gourmet recipes that I should have. Nope, not me. I simply want to share the cute and hilarious moments that we have with our kids as well as the precious things the Lord does in our life.  If I can bring life to you through a chuckle or two here and there then it will bring joy to my heart as well. I have nothing to impress you with and I have nothing to hide. If you are one who needs a bit of laughter and maybe some challenging encouragement every now and then, then this is the blog for you to follow. So there you have it in a nutshell. Now my husband on the other hand, is thinking this blog needs to look really nice and design it super cool. So, someday in the future you’ll see the development of my husband’s first class graphic web design in action. He’s pretty good at it if I do say so myself. J Until then, here’s to the simple communication from my heart to yours as we continue to venture in Laughing Through Life!