My Valentine

MJ. FEB 14th 2010 Happy Valentines Day! We are home from church…sick!
The beginning of this week started with a round of potty training. I was feeling very determined. Hey I was washing Hunters cloth diapers out in the toilet what makes underwear different right? Well after 3 days of setting Hunter on the Toilet every 20 minutes only to have him pee all over 2 minutes after getting off of the toilet and having 0% success of ever making anything go into the toilet we threw up the white flag and said no more! (Jon wants me to try with William…yeh right!)
Hunter did turn the ripe old age of 3 this last week. We had cake and ice cream. When it came time for presents he opened a kid size snow shovel from Aunt Nanette. He giggled with glee then immediately took the shovel to the back door, opened the door, threw the shovel out into the snow, then slammed the door, and came back to his party. I was laughing so hard. He then proceeded to put everything else AWAY as he opened it up -socks, clothes, toys, they were all carefully put away before the next gift was opened. Apparently he had heard my threats to throw away toys that were not put away. And did not want that to happen to HIS new things. We told him that his shovel could be inside hanging up by his coat. He had much fun with the shovel on Saturday helping mom shovel the walk. And as soon as he came inside he hung up his shovel before he did anything else. I wish he would rub off on his siblings a bit more. Maybe because he has seen what treasures Mom throws out when the big kids are off to school…Who knows.
William has stepped up and is currently filling the shoes of his older brothers. If it can fit inside a toilet He is usually found throwing it in. Jon and I have spent much time this week dipping into the porcelain thrones around the house and fishing out what Will has thrown in. multiple times a day, even multiple times an hour! The worst thing I found this week was my table cloth! But it would take too much time to list all items. Will has also dumped out Jon’s file cabinet -while Jon was in the room- Whew I lucked out on that one. Pulled books off of the book shelf , no make that pulled ALL books off ALL book shelves. Done science experiments with gravity and threw everything he could get his hands on down each and every flight of stairs. And even launched himself out of his highchair and found that gravity does indeed work on little boys as well. Threw every DVD he could get his hands on into my shower. And Sits on top of Wyatt when ever he gets the chance. I think he is timing himself on how fast he can get Wyatt to cry loud enough to get mom’s attention. Wyatt is catching on quick. William is turning into quite the menace and Jon and I are just scratching our heads wondering how our perfect easy going baby turned into a Tasmanian devil over night! In the mean time we continue to gather great writing material.
Hunter is not be left out in the cold when it comes to a bit of a mess. In Erica’s room is a very large and deep closet. I keep my extra bedding in this closet. Sheets, pillows, blankets ect. Hunter has found that he can climb into the topmost shelf and then he becomes almost invisible, since I usually do not look for my children in my linen closet. It has become his favorite hideout this week. I have not been to concerned he really wasn’t messing things up and frankly I was too busy chasing after William’s messes. Well last night Hunter pulled out ALL of the items in that closet and then threw them onto the floor of the other closet in that room. Then to make matters worse. He got into the fish food and it was sprinkled all throughout. And then to top off his mess, HIS DIAPER LEAKED! That sometimes happens with cloth diapers. (it might have been Wills he was in on the mess at the end) So now all my nicely folded sheets and bedding are now unfolded and sprinkled with foul smelling fish food and urine! Needless to say my washer and dryer will get quite the workout this week catching up on all that bedding.
Stiles woke up this Friday morning and came into the kitchen and complained that he had red bumps all over his arms and legs. I took one look at him and could see that the bumps were all over his face as well. I thought for a moment that he must be having a severe allergic reaction. But then he said. “Mom some of the Kids at school have something called Fifths disease?, or something like that.” And as soon as he said that I knew that I was looking at a child with fifths disease as well. So he got out of school on Friday. He was most disappointed to miss his Valentines’ Party. But I went to the school and retrieved his Valentines and passed out his. Since then was have quarantined ourselves hoping not to spread it around. The hardest part is that you are contagious before you break out but you have no symptoms other than vague flu-like symptoms. And When you do break out well lets just say that Stiles is a good looking kids and he looks AWEFUL! He is being tough about not scratching but he looks pretty miserable.
So because We decided that we had better lay low for the next few days in case one of our other children was in the contagious stage of the disease, we skipped out on church and other activities that were planned for the Valentines Day weekend. One was a date that Jon had planned for us to celebrate the 11th anniversary of Jon and I deciding that we should get married. We were going to go to Idaho Falls and go to a movie and dinner at olive garden. I was so excited. And then well pretty bummed that life got in the way. Jon came through though and surprised me with a dozen red roses and some sparkling cider in tall glasses out in the hot tub. I guess dates at home can be fun too.
Normally we would have spent Saturday at the pool or theater or up at the riding arena with our kids. But since we were stuck at home we had to come up with a few things to entertain ourselves for the weekend. We decided that the Garage could really use a good cleaning out. Nothing too intense. But it has been accumulating items for quite some time. Well in the midst of cleaning it out Jon picked up the cooler that he had used last to go hunting. -HE had not cleaned it out even after I reminded (nagged) him about it for 2 months. The cooler needed an intense rescue effort. Jon just opened the top and said I’ll just leave it here to “air out” I told Him that wouldn’t work Seeing how he put it right in the way to the freezer and since the Cat would get into it. He still couldn’t see the problem. He was sure He couldn’t hose it out outside because, well it was outside and winter in Idaho. So I suggested he take it inside and clean it out in the tub. (not gently and loving like, more demanding and letting him know that I think he is an incompetent idiot) In the end I got all puffy and upset and drug the cooler inside myself and cleaned it out, muttering many choice words and letting Jon know that his lack of responsibility for the things we spend hard earned money was just not cool! HE is so sweet. Instead of pointing out all of the things I do to make him crazy and drive him up the wall he gives me a kiss and reminds me that he got me flowers and that he loves me. I still cleaned out the cooler without his help. But he did change 3 diapers this weekend. I must say that he is the perfect guy for me.
Until next week, Let me just say that I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well I guess I would like to be 20 pounds lighter but that is just vanity. And I’m okay with being VAIN.
Love you all tons. We hope that we can come to Dallan’s report next Sunday but we might still be in quarantine mode. If that is the truth, you can all laugh at me behind my back and I will never know.
Monica and the Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads.