Sustainable Child Safety

If you would like to practice sustainable child safety, I would highly recommend what I discovered in my kitchen yesterday.

In lieu of purchasing child safety locks . . .you know, those annoying clips that screw into the inside of your cabinets . . .  that make you grit your teeth every time you go to open a drawer when you need something quickly? 

Like I said, in lieu of child safety locks, consider using extra or not even extra utensils from your drawers.

Spatulas make effective locks against sweet babies that enjoy cleaning out cabinets.

Apparently, Asher has gotten tired of cleaning up after his sister.

(Though not the best picture of Naomi, you can see all of the objects she has pulled out of the cabinet.)

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Mr. Smiley . . . my dear Gabe . . .

You with all your curls. 

I think your smiles are contagious . . . your hair is copying what your mouth does.

  Happy birthday, my not so little one.

Nearly surpassing your older brother in weight.

I love you. I’m so glad you are mine.

 

You are so silly.

Like when I found the cheese you had hidden.

Your insistence on wearing fireman boots.

You always want me to take your picture.  And when I do, you act so surprised, “There’s Gabe-ee!”

So many big things this year . . . really the past 5 months . . .

• Tot School
• a serious fall
• surgery to remove a tooth
• combining words to make big sentences
• a big boy bed
• moving into big brothers’ bedroom 
• mastering the Strider Prebike

And this summer . . . who knows what else you will learn . . . hopefully how to use the potty . . . because then you can go to Awana. 

And get your own vest.

Wordless Wednesday: Big Boy Bed

If you don’t want the words, just skip them and look at the pictures.

As I was reading this during our morning Quiet Time,

I saw this,

And I realized that something was different . . . hmm . . . .

Could it be the overabundance of Dr. Suess books in his bed in honor of Dr. Suess’ birthday?

Nooooo . . . . . hmmm. . . . could it be his brothers are getting along?

Though nice, nope. 

Oh, I know . . . Gabe’s in a big boy bed!  (Finally!) 

Mr. Smiley would have been content to remain in his crib . . . but I figured we should bump up his status since his 3rd birthday is drawing close. 

Congrats, Gabe!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

(Special thanks to Kristen for loaning me her camera while mine is in the shop!)

Wordless Wednesday: First Time

This was Gabe’s inaugural holding of his baby sister.

I think he likes her.  Don’t you?

I’d love to bottle moments like this up. 

“B” is for Boat and Birthday

I’ve always heard that having a boat was more work than it was worth.  Everyone ends up selling their boat.

But I suppose they were talking about motor boats.

Not canoes.

Last week, the Hottie Hubby received an early birthday gift from my MIL and FIL.  The granola boys have kind of claimed it for themselves.  On this past holiday weekend Brian decided that we needed to take it out for a spin. 

Teach the boys some navigation skills. 

Actually, we needed to know if he (the Hottie) could be alone in the boat with two little boys and not capsize. 

I was surprised at how easy the endeavor was.  (Not that I had to lift a finger, though.)

There was a little bit of trepidation on this maiden voyage that soon disappeared after a few paddle strokes.

 

Meanwhile, Smiley, Mussie, Sweet Pea and I walked.

Enjoyed flowers.

 

Swam. (Kind of.)

And enjoyed the Hottie teaching his boys some new manly activities.

And to think that all of this was accomplished in 1.5 hours and only a short distance from home (hence the scenic power lines).  And right before bed time. 

Crazy. 

I love where we live.

Thanks for the boat, John and Kathy!

Wordless Wednesday: Making Work Fun

Want to see other Wordless Wednesday photos?  Head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

Mr. Smackdown Turns 6

Yesterday was Mr. Smackdown’s 6th birthday.  It is hard to believe that we have a child that old! 

It has become tradition to go to the fair either on his birthday or near his birthday, and this year was no exception. 

However, the bonus this year was that the Hottie Hubby stayed home for the day and we met some dear friends at the very hot Indiana State Fair.

He had a lot of fun climbing tractors,

watching dogs jump into the water,

and riding the fair tractor (that Honey treated us to).

However, the highlight of the trip was probably using his birthday money to purchase a ticket to experience a carnival ride.

I was a bit nervous . . . but I am a mom.  The Hottie was tickled to pieces to be given a dose of adrenaline. 

The festivities didn’t end here.  Later that evening, both sets of grandparents arrived bearing love and well . . . let’s be honest, some gifts, that Mr. Smackdown was VERY excited about.

The meal, chosen by the birthday boy, was pesto pasta, garlic bread, Caesar salad, and carrot cake.   

To my dear 6 year old . . .

I am so thankful that you were born.  You were a miracle to your dad and me.  And we love you dearly.  You provide instant and continuously delightful conversation.  Your questions and insights are both intelligent and often interesting to us.    God has blessed you with a heart to serve and bless people.  You truly live up to your birth name in how you make things for others and enjoy creating things in the kitchen.  I am blessed by the young boy that you have become and look forward to being your mother in the future years, should the Lord tarry.  Thank you for your sensitive spirit, your willingness to apologize, and your desire to make things right.  You have such great talent.  I love you, buddy (even though you wake up early in the morning).

Happy 6th Birthday!

Wordless Wednesday: Blue Eyes

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom for other Wordless Wednesday posts.

A Tribute to the Boys

Actually, I mean a tribute to the men. 

Who I didn’t mean to slight.  After all, I wouldn’t have any furniture to sit on if it weren’t for them.

At the slight risk of starting a tiff, I simply couldn’t resist posting a rebuttal blog post to a little email that the Hottie sent out to his fellow testosterone producing friends. 

The Hottie thought my moving day post was a little biased towards the ladies who helped us this weekend.  Though completely unintentional, I would hate for anyone to feel slighted.

Of course the men worked.  They didn’t just play Wii.

See?

To all of the men who produced copious amounts of sweat, burned calories, and had sore muscles after this past weekend . . . thank you soooooo much.  I appreciated your hard work . . . and that many of sacrificed precious time with your family or simply relaxing to help us. 

Thank you.  I didn’t mean to ignore you.  I’m pregnant, remember?  And I’m a girl—I was working with the girls.

My Doghter is Home

I called the Hottie this morning to tell him that our daughter was ready to be picked up.

I confused him slightly.  I might have even set off a surge of adrenaline through his veins.  “Isn’t it a little early to be going into labor?”

No, your dog!  Who else would I be talking about?

“Ummm . . . how about my daughter that is growing in your belly?”

Right . . . gotta get used to that!   

Many of you who follow me on Twitter know that our dog had surgery yesterday.  

 

It turns out our faithful, vacuum-like dog who was also our training specimen to prepare us for parenthood, had a mast cell tumor growing on her thigh.  The options were to leave it alone, only to have it multiply in size quite rapidly, or remove the tumor while it remained somewhat local. 

Wanting to be good stewards of God’s creation and appreciating the unique qualities that Mussoorie brings to our family life, we felt that it was only right to give it a shot and go ahead with the surgery.

Poor thing.  She is home now, after a lonely night’s stay at the doggy hospital.  I have never seen her so anxious to get somewhere when I picked her up – that somewhere was anywhere but the hospital. 

Now, she is snoring soundly -- resting on her blue head pillow that is gentler than the plastic Elizabethan collar she was dressed in when I picked her up.

I know.  She’s a dog.  But she is our dog.

Somehow I am supposed to keep her calm.  Right.  She lives with three boys. She’s a lion hunter.  She is ALWAYS searching for food.

I think we will change her name from Rhodesian Ridgeback to Rhodesian Ridgeleg.

Poor thing.

Technorati Tags: Rhodesian Ridgeback,dog surgery,mast cell tumor

Goodbye Dryer

Tonight we are saying goodbye to the very first appliance that we bought as a married couple.

Somebody else wants our piece of junk.  We just want it hauled away.  I’m sure the boys will love every minute of the departure moment after dinner. 

Like anything with the Hottie, the replacement of our dryer was every bit of a(n) saga adventure (mainly because of my laziness) and a learning experience. 

Yet another reason why I love this man. 

He taught me to use Craig’s List.  So far we have bought and sold multiple things on this great list of everyone’s junk treasures.  Including the dryer that we will only be using for two weeks.

For the past, oh, two months we have been listening and falling asleep to the sound of screeching eels coming from the general direction of our laundry room.  The cause of this horrendous sound that has also been guilty of putting holes in our clothes was a loose bearing and some other issues.  In short, the cost to repair this seven year old dryer was approximately $150. 

Hmmm . . . no.

Enter Craig’s List.

We found a toddler aged dryer for $40 . . . that actually contained a small green gift that had seen many drying cycles in its day. 

So let me amend that . . . we found a dryer for $20.  It works and most importantly, it is quiet.

The boys still can’t figure out how the dryer managed to climb up our stairs while they were sleeping.  The old dryer is mysteriously resting in our garage waiting for its new home. 

I know how it happened.  It was due to yet another adventure with my Hottie.  I am married to a brawny man. 

I am sure that Princess Buttercup appreciates that – the noise being gone, that is. 

And the newly married couple moving into our house.  I wonder if it will be a magic moment for them when they do their first load of clothes in their brand new house?  If only they knew the story attached to their dryer. 

Technorati Tags: Craig's List,dryer

The Last Party: Sir Honey Is 4

Lord willing, what we have referred to as “the last party” in our house went out with a bang. 

Literally.  (Thanks, Nicole!)

Sir Honey turned 4 on the 4th this year.  (Well, he always has a birthday on the 4th of July.) 

We didn’t do a party for Smiley this year. . . and after the fact it just felt . . . wrong.  Something was missing. 

Like the cakes that Hottie creates for his sons. 

Yes, Hottie Hubby makes the birthday cakes in our family. (Except mine.  I don’t ever get a special engineering feat cake.)

 

I like to look at our children’s birthday parties kind of like when King David walked through the streets praising God (2 Samuel 6).  We have the large party to do a very similar thing (minus the dancing), praise the Lord for the miracle of our children (remember – we weren’t supposed to HAVE biological children) and to make them feel extra special one day out of the year. 

It is a great opportunity to live life with not only our family but our home fellowship (Bible study group). 

On the day of the party, Mr. Smackdown was what you might say, slightly excited, even though it wasn’t his own party.  I asked him why he liked our parties.  His reply,

“When you don’t see your friends very often, it is just really good to spend time with them.”

I said, “Do the parties make you feel special?”

“Oh yea, really special.”

It’s worth it then.  That is the goal we have in mind for them -- and for us to have the opportunity to thank God plus bless our family and friends.  Now don’t go thinking our children are the center of our universe.  They aren’t, the Lord is.  But it is a great reason to host a party in honor of someone God has created and is still finishing a work in (Philippians 1:6).

And so . . . we had a party. 

Sir Honey, I am so thankful that God made you.  What do I love about you?

• you are a good snugger
• how you always say, “riiiiiiiiightttt?”
• the stories you tell about your imaginary friend, Jack
• the kisses you give Sweet Pea via my belly
• how adventurous you are on your bike
• your love of dark chocolate
• the delight you have over simple things
• how you remind me to slow down and enjoy things
• your passion
• the way that I can see how God will use your personality for big Kingdom things

Happy Birthday, my precious boy. 

And to the last party . . . it was great. 

You’ve been a good house.  Thanks for providing so well, Lord.  And thanks for the temporary swing set, God.

Technorati Tags: 4th Birthday party,dinosaur cake