More Poop Stories

Have you noticed that there tends to be an inordinate amount of poop stories on the Blog? No. Maybe it's been a while. There's this one - Sigh Long Poopy Day . And this - I Don't Know if this Should Be Called Progress. Oh and we certainly can't forget Boys Will Be Boys I Guess

You get the idea....

So here's another wonderful story.

Jeffrey hasn't had an accident in quite a while. Aside from being wet in the mornings he's pretty much completely potty trained. Hooray. Yet yesterday whether he was angry at me (for making him take a nap when he was clearly overtired) or just so overtired he couldn't think straight I'm not sure.

What I do know is that about an hour after he laid down for his nap I heard him playing in the living room. Given how tired he'd seemed to be, I was surprised by his lack of long nap. I went up to check on him. He held his hands out to give me a hug. That's when I noticed.

His hands smelled totally like poop - and they were covered completely in poop. There also seems to be a little poop on his sweat shirt.

"What happened bud?"

"Ummmm...I poopie my undies. (big smile) But it's ok now!!!"

Leading him upstairs to clean his hands and shirt. "Well let's go get cleaned up kiddo."

While removing the soiled shirt I noticed it seemed that his pants had met with some poop along the way as well, and they were on backwards (hard to wear jeans backwards but my kids can do it).

"Lets get these off too"

What met my eyes was quite a nasty sight. Legs, socks, a pair of inside-out undies all covered in poop. Seriously I was in for much more than I bargained for.

"Woah!!!!! What happened?"

"Ummmm. I dunno." (standard response when he knows he's in trouble)

"Where are your other undies?" Asked while stripping him down and running the bathtub.

"Don't worry mommy. I put them in the laundry"

"Oh. Ugh." Toss boy into bathtub. Go reclaim most disgusting pair of undies ever seen. Immediately toss undies into garbage. No salvaging these.

While the little man splashed around in the tub I continued to follow my nose for other signs of Jeffrey's cleaning abilities. The doorknob to his closet was crusty, smears on his wall and a small splotch on the carpet. I've never seen quite a mess as this. Nasty, nasty nasty.

But boys clean, clothes wash, doorknobs can be disinfected and undies thrown away. I'm not sure if I should be proud of his initiative to clean up his mess or severely pissed that he didn't come to me for help. I can assure you that if there's a next time he's been informed that he's to come to mommy for some help before turning my upstairs into Poopville.

Field Trip Fun

Yesterday Erin had her first real big field trip. Back in October they took a short trip to the pumpkin patch. I would have gone along but I needed to pick Jeffrey up from school right in the middle of it. So I decided that Jeff and I would tag along for yesterday's trip. They were heading to a discovery Museum Amazement Square. Although quite a drive away I've always wanted to take the kids. And Museums (in case you all forgot that I used to work in a former life) really are my thing.

So I sent Erin off to school in a driving rain so she could ride the bus down with all her friends. Jeff and I went home, got ready to go made a few stops - including visiting the new Dunkin Donuts - and headed out to meet them. It was probably the worst day for driving we've had in months. The rain was a cold nasty driving rain. It was foggy and windy. No fun. The drive took about 90 minutes (long enough for Jeff to watch all of Meet the Robinsons).

Once we got to the Museum though we had a blast. They had a ton of stuff to do. I was the only non-chaperon parent with Erin's group. The chaperon with them had been recruited from the school that morning as the original one had gotten sick. So while not an official chaperon I certainly helped to corral the kids. They had lots of exploration time. Their favorite areas seemed to be a motion area with chutes/slides and golf balls, a bicycle race thing, a river with running water, and this great big 4-story climbing tower. Yeah try keeping tabs on kids once they get in there. There is also this really cool room with all glass walls. The kids can go in and paint all over the walls. It's messy but they all seem to love it. Jeff did great keeping up with sister, but not getting in her way.

The also got to sit in for a lesson on living on the farm. The kids talked about animals. Counted them. Voted and looked at the result graph. I noted while watching everyone that Jeff fit right in, in the middle of a bunch of Kindergartners. Boy...is he growing up or what?

After our long day I took Erin with me home in the car because I had a meeting in the 'Ville. We were driving through Amherst and I asked the kids if they wanted to see where I used to work. Erin's immediate response was "You work mommy? Really? I didn't know that!!" "Well yes dear, I did have a previous life before you were around." "And YOU worked? Wow!!!" We did a drive-by just so I could prove to her that I wasn't lying. Clearly mommas don't work, and never did. Mommas are just mommas.

The Painting Room

Jumping Around in a Virtual Game

Playing with Lights and Colors

Of Dates and Rules

Erin's school held a Fall Festival last Friday evening. They had snacks and drinks, little games for the kids to play, a photo spot and some entertainment from the Principal (who I swear is like 10 years old....and Daddy in another body.)

Erin was really excited to go so we all went. While walking in we ran into a friend from preschool. Erin went to school with the older daughter and Jeffrey goes now with their younger daughter. They spent much of the evening playing together. Especially Jeffrey and his little friend. They ran around and goofed off. Played ring-around-the-rosie. Her dad mentioned that little did Jeffrey realize but Chloe certainly said that she and Jeffrey were on a date. Hey 3 1/2 why not start off young. I'm just glad they're good friends.

Erin did see a friend from her class. She and Jeff played a bowling game, and a pin-the-tail game. Then Erin decided she wanted to wait in line for the "beauty salon". They had a mom doing face painting, then paint their nails, putting on little tattoos and "gem" stickers. Even Jeff decided it would be fun to get his cheek painted - he picked a turtle.

One of the highlights of the night was the Principal's juggling act. He told a story that involved juggling all different types of objects (balls, clubs, sticks....) He made it interactive for the kids too. They really thought it was super funny. Then they had a big hula hoop contest. Everyone got awards just for playing.

They broke down into age groups. Preschoolers, kindergartners etc.... Jeffrey was off playing something else and missed his group. He showed up as Erin was getting her turn. I figured that he could just join her group - since enough people claim they look like twins anyway. Jeff wandered in, got a hoop and started playing. Erin...my little rule-follower immediately took offense. She walked up to the woman handing out the hoops and said quite loudly...HEY HE'S NOT IN KINDERGARTEN. HE'S IN PRESCHOOL. HE MISSED HIS TURN. HE CAN'T GO NOW. Then she went and took the hoop away from him. The teacher had no real choice but to tell him he missed his turn and couldn't play. Poor kiddo. He was crushed.

After that it was clearly time to call it a night. We said goodbye to friends and headed on home. It was a lot of fun to watch the kids really interact with other friends their own ages in an unstructured environment and just have fun.

Happy Halloween!!!

We certainly had a fun-filled Halloween. We started celebrating on Thursday with Jeff's preschool party and continued all day on Friday. Friday morning Jeff and I headed to the gym which was totally decked out with Halloween stuff and everyone there was in costume. Erin had her school party Friday and wore her Halloween shirt from Grandma (they weren't allowed to wear costumes).

When Erin got home, we took a few sunshiny pictures with their jack-o-lanterns. Then we piled everything and everyone into the car and headed in to town to trick-or-treat on the Lawn. Now this is more than a big deal. This is a huge deal. Generally there are several thousand people on the Lawn. Since the week had been so cold and dreary and Friday was finally a gorgeous and warmer day I decided we'd brave the crowds and head into town. The plan was meet up with Aunt Margaret, Uncle John and Baby JB3, hang out on the Lawn for an hour or so and then meet daddy for dinner.

I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. We were a little late getting set off to the Lawn. By the time we were about 2-3 miles away it became apparent that the Lawn was going to be packed. It took us 45 minutes to travel those 3 miles. But we held out, found a spot in the parking garage and wandered over to meet with our friends. As I expected it was quite crowded with adorably clad individuals and hundreds of college students ready to supply my kiddos with endless supplies of sugar. Aside from a slight trample incident as Jeffrey was trying to get to Mr. Incredible we had a good time.

As I headed to the garage we called Daddy and made plans for dinner. Once we arrived at the garage I knew that was out the window. The line to get out of the garage reached all the way to the top floor. 45 minutes later (and 2 screaming children calling me mean mommy) we made our way through the gate of the parking garage. We headed straight to our friends to meet up for some trick-or-treating.

The trick-or-treating was a blast. The adults put together the "wine wagon" (come on we got to have some fun too) and the kids ran from house to house. Our friend's son was the leader of the pack taking us all around the neighborhood. The kids literally ran from house to house with their candy buckets. For Erin the big deal wasn't really the candy, but more the ringing of the doorbell. She was obsessed with the doorbells. Mr. Jonathan led us around the neighborhood for about 2 hours. By the end, the kids buckets were overflowing with candy and in the "wine wagon". Not only were the buckets in the wagon.....Jeffrey was in the wagon. He was completely exhausted. Not even interested in going to doors any more. Luckily most of the wine had been consumed (4 adults - 2 hours....)

I don't think the kids have ever seen so much candy in one place. They're totally overwhelmed with it. At least there's enough extra that mommy and daddy can steal a piece or two or five and not have it noticed. So we had a busy day but a super fun one.

Happy Halloween every one!!!