Maybe it was the beautiful day... .

I broke my strict "no gum" rule for Crash and Princess. It was Friday, it was a gorgeous day,I was happy, the kids were behaving... . Yeah. I messed up.

So I let them all have a piece of gum. Goober does great with gum. He understands "keep it in your mouth or it goes in the trash"- no problem.

About half an hour after I let them have the gum, I'm standing at the stove making dinner. Goober comes tearing into the kitchen in a total panic yelling, "LOOK WHAT SHE DID!!!! She stuck gum in my hair!". He had practice in an hour. I grabbed his head and dragged him to the window so I could see better. She got him good, alright. He had a big wad smack on the top of his head, and it was strung across to two other spots on his head. I panicked and had visions of having to shave his head, or at least give him a severe buzz cut. I calmed down a little and grabbed the Sunbutter ( our version of peanut butter- tastier and doesn't carry salmonella ;) out of the fridge and smeared a huge glop of it on his head. I rubbed it in with my fingers and tried pulling some out. I got a huge "ow!!" out of Goober and a few hairs. Not much gum, though. I started to panic again and tried tweezing it out with my nails. I guess the oil in the Sunbutter had started to work because it began coming out easier. It really didn't take too long at all to get it out. I stuck him in the shower and lathered his hair up really well. We actually managed to get it all! I was feeling pretty triumphant when I walked into my bedroom and Crash goes, "I don't want my gum anymore, it's all stickyyyy". Whuuuut? Sure enough, he'd strung his gum all over the computer desk and onto the keyboard. Let's just say Goober made practice on time smelling cherry blossom fresh and Crash and Princess are doing time in their room until dinner.

Random Quotes

"Mommy, how come everything fun is also illegal?"- Goober,my then 7 year-old.
"Mommy, this lunch is like love in my heart"- Crash
"Aw, Mommy, I'm happy at you!" - Princess
"Cheese, I command you to get on my fork!" ( Princess eating salad and getting frustrated).
Princess after her cousin asked her what she was doing, "Tortilla!!!"
Crash to his cousin, staring at her arm: "You have a lot of meat on you. I'm going to eat you. I'm a Macannibal!!"
Goober to his cousin as she was walking into their room at bedtime: "Uh, you might want to leave, we strut naked here".
Princess at Thanksgiving, watching me roll out cookie dough: "I'm thankful for COOKIES!!!" Goober to Crash in a commanding voice: "you are getting sleeeeepy. You are no longer Crash, you are MOMMY!"
Goober to Crash in normal voice: "can I have a snack?"
Crash: "No!"
Goober: "It worked!!!!"

Sunday night before church, a little girl gave Evan and Caroline some Canadian nickles. On the way home, Caroline was fiddling with hers and asking what she could buy. Josh said, "well, they're not really worth anything here, you can't spend them- I thought you were going to put them in the offering plate". She spread her hands out and said, "well, that wouldn't work either because then God would have to go to Canada!".

Goober to his little league coach last night, "I can't come to practice on Wed. night because I have church, and church is more important than baseball." Out of the mouths of babes...

Crash's trip down the stairs, March 7, 2008

Okay, a little background, my kids know-know they're not to go down the basement stairs. It was that way at our house in Indiana, and it's that way here. Both places, painted wooden stairs lead to a concrete floor. I'm afraid if they're wearing shoes, they won't be able to judge where their foot is and mis-step. If they're wearing socks or slippers, I'm afraid they'll just slip. If they absolutely have to go down the stairs, I prefer that they go barefoot so they'll have a better grip and feel. Anyway, they know they're not to go down the stairs, it's just storage and laundry- nothing for them. I always keep the basement door shut and locked with a chain- they know how to un-do it, of course, but I hope it'll be enough of a visual deterrent that they just won't bother ( yeah, right.).

Yesterday, I put in a movie, tucked Crash and Princess in on the couch with blankets and pillows and set cups of water on the table- all my bases covered, and went to take a shower. They were totally engrossed in the movie. I figured that'd buy me a good ten minutes. Wrong. I came out of the bathroom and Crash is on the couch looking guilty and just not... well. He looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, I did something bad". I said, "What did you do?" He scrunched up his face and whimpered like he knew it was so bad that when he told me, I'd come unglued. I said, "Crash, tell me, what did you do?" He didn't answer, so I gave up and went to finish getting ready. When I came out and looked at him, he said, "I'm ready to tell you now. I fell down the stairs and hit my head." Then, he squeezed his eyes shut and braced for the explosion. WHAT?! (Dear God, give me patience). I went over and said, "where? show me." He pointed to the side of his head, right above his ear. His ear was bright red, but there wasn't a bump. I checked his pupils, 'cause that's what my dad always did and it made me feel better to do something. His pupils reacted normally, but his eyes just looked really sleepy and his lids were at half-mast. It freaked me out a bit. I went and got him an ice pack for his head while biting my tongue. I knew if I got mad, he'd clam up and I wouldn't get any more information out of him.
I said, "were you at the top, or were you partway down the stairs when you fell?" He said, "I was halfway down." I said, " Did you land on your arm, your leg... what part of your body hit?" He said, "I landed on my head".
AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had to go pick up Goober from school just then, so I had them get up to get their shoes and coats on. Crash stood up and said, "whoa, I'm dizzy!". Fabulous.
After we got Goober, I had to go to the bank. I looked back in my rearview mirror to check on him and he'd fallen asleep. I said, "CRASH!" and reached back and shook his leg and he just turned a little. We were on a country road, so I hit my brakes hard. He jerked forward, woke up, gave me a dirty look, stuck his fingers in his mouth. When we got to the bank, though, he was back to normal, pressing his face agains the window to make pig faces at the teller and make Princess laugh.
He seemed okay by evening- a little more subdued than normal, but okay.
This morning, I was downstairs doing laundry ( after SPECIFICALLY telling them to stay upstairs). After I started the dryer, I turned around and there was Crash standing there with his fingers in his mouth, just watching me. I gasped ( he scared the daylights out of me) and he laughed and said, "Mommy, you're silly". I was about to really let him have it when it occurred to me that I might be able to get some more information out of him. I walked him to the stairs and casually said, "so, where were you yesterday when you fell?" He walked up to about the sixth step and said, "here". Okay, not soo bad. I said, "and how did you fall? Did you slip? Did you miss a step?" He said, "well, I got here and thought the next step was the bottom because..."
WAIT FOR IT....



"I COULDN'T SEE WITH THE BLANKET ON MY HEAD".

Oh. My. Word. Seriously!!!! All I could say at that point was, "oh." Thinking about it, though, the blanket and his ear probably kept him from cracking his head open- though neither he nor the blanket should have been anywhere near the stairs- let alone together. *Sigh* The child's determined not to make it to his sixth birthday.
The night before, they were supposed to be getting ready for bed in their room. I kept hearing uncontrollable giggling followed by BOOM followed by more giggling. They were jumping off the top bunk onto my little trampoline using a blanket for a parachute.
I'm letting them keep the trampoline and I'm just going to block it out. If they're determined to break something, I'd rather it be an arm or a leg instead of a head or neck. See? I can compromise... .

I guess I'll begin at the beginning

People ( well, really, my sister-in-law and mom) have been telling me I should write about or blog about parenting my three very busy kids. I've been using my Facebook account lately to chronicle our days, but finally broke down and decided to give this blog thing a shot. So, here goes. As I get time, I'll recount older stories ( boy, do I have a lot of them) and add new ones as they unfold. My kids are pretty unique, so it shouldn't take long to get a pretty good collection of stories going ;).
mandie