behind closed door

Does anyone else have experience trying to keep an adventurous two-and-a-half year-old inside her room at bedtime????

Believe me, she's come up with every excuse in the book to escape from her room, and it's too bad that she's so cute at the delivery. Case in point, I'm trying to lay her back down in bed (for the third time in one night) and she's squeezing me in the biggest hug of the century,

"I wuv you SO MUCH!!!!"

What a time for affection. She pulled out all the stops.


A couple of nights ago, I'd had it and decided she was better off locked in her room than at the mercy of my growing temper. So, I admit, I took a cue from my friend Diana and used a chair to block the lever from releasing, essentially barricading her in her room until she was asleep. It was one of the biggest toddler fits I've ever witnessed! Even better, Nolan actually slept through it! Amazing.

Some might call this cruel and unusual punishment....I prefer to call it responsible parenting. :-)

Oh, and Diana, she hasn't yet figured out that if she pulls up on the handle, it will still open. We'll see just how long that lasts!

recent outtakes

...by Nolan

-Mom, I know why Heavenly Father gave us ants! He didn't want the whole world to be covered with crumbs!

-Did you know fireman aren't allowed to go camping??? It's because they put out too many fires, so they'd put out the campfire!

-I asked Macy if she showed Nolan her painted fingernails. Before she could respond, Nolan said, disgusted,"Yeah...when I walk behind her all I smell is walking fingernail polish!"

disappearing spoons

Does anyone else have a mischievous fairy that wonders their house and steals things? That's the only way to explain the missing spoons that have disappeared silently over the last several months. I think we only have two, maybe three, left! We just can't figure out where they could have gone! So if we invite any of you over for dinner, I'm sorry, you'll have to BYOS!

monsters

Nolan has been having trouble going to sleep; he says he dreams about monsters. We've had several conversations about the fact that monsters aren't real, dreams aren't real, etc.

He usually listens to primary songs in his room at night, but one night he chose the Jack Johnson CD instead. Later he came in our room, practically crying! He told us he couldn't sleep because he was afraid of dreaming about monsters. Once again, we explained monsters aren't real - to which he replied emphatically,

"But Jack Johnson said, 'DREAMS are made out of REAL THINGS!' "

(from Jack Johnson's Better Together song)

And of course, Jack Johnson knows more than Mom and Dad!

Any ideas for dealing with monsters?

wormins

Nolan & Macy had a great time camping last weekend.

They stayed busy with their shovels digging for "wormins".

Nolan handed them off to Macy.

And she quickly found a great place to keep them.....

in her shirt pocket!


She was quite proud of her collection.

And I had to throw this one in -

We took some paints for the kids to paint pet rocks.

Macy decided to paint more than rocks.

What can we say?

She loves playing with worms, but still loves her fingernails painted!

I just didn't know she could do it herself!

nummy nummy in my tummy tummy tummy

This is one of Macy's favorite lines (see title above), but I thought is was appropriate for today. I picked and ate the first strawberry and the first pod of peas today. I ate them all by myself and didn't even share them! And, my kids didn't even see me! Greedy, I know. What can I say?

To admit the truth, I'm afraid to let Macy see the fresh strawberries, because I don't think any of them will E V E R make it in the house after she discovers them.

dirt

We were getting ready to come inside after working in the yard and playing in the sandbox. Nolan was absolutely covered in sand, because he and Macy were trying to bury his entire body. He thought it was great to be so dirty, and started dancing around, then started singing at the top of his lungs, "I'm the dirtiest dancer! I'm the dirtiest dancer!" over and over again. Macy thought it looked like so much fun, so of course she joined in. So there were two of them yelling in our backyard,

"WE ARE THE DIRTIEST DANCERS! WE ARE THE DIRTIEST DANCERS!" over and over.

I'm sure all the neighbors must have been wondering if we were having an x-rated party or something!