Call It What You Want...

For those of you with weak stomachs, skip today's post. Read again when we feel better.

Yeah. for some reason Little Guy didn't have much of an appetite at supper. He ate about half of a piece of pizza, compared to the three full pieces he ate at the same establishment's buffet a couple weeks ago. I was holding him while Tim went to pay for the meal. Suddenly I had an armful of, um, warmth.

There were two tables, one on either side of us, with moms who came to the rescue (and one dad, too) with all of their extra napkins. The waitress brought more napkins, wiped up the mess from the table. I removed my sweatshirt. Adam seemed to feel fine.

We came home. Adam continued to act fine. Tim gave him some Pedialyte, then his bath and put him to bed. I was happily sorting outgrown clothes when the little boy started screaming from his bed. I went in to check on him. Oops. Guess he didn't feel so fine. As I picked him up, I got to experience projectile -- um, you guys might not want to rhyme with "comet" -- for the first time, too.

So he is cleaned up, all of his bedding is in the washing machine, has new pajamas on, and is back in bed. Somehow Blankey Bear missed the excitement, so he does have his favorite friend. And his wonderful Daddy (who was also working hard at cleaning up) borrowed Mark's Blankey Bear "just in case" need should arise later tonight.

And we can't even blame Jonathan and Andrew -- they stayed home.

(I guess after three years and three months of being a mother, having this be the first time of the true excitement and only the second vomiting-sick is pretty good.)

For all of my true blog fans, you may go now to see our Christmas letter for 2007.

It has a lot of pictures, so it takes a while to load.

Merry Christmas, late, and when are you coming over?

My sister-in-law, Mrs. Dunce, always knows just the right thing for the holidays.

So come Mer, come Mel, come Laura and Jenna, come Alaina, come ... well, all you history nerds, gather 'round for...

Mrs. Beeton Traditional Housekeeping Trivia Board Game.

What does this game include?

From the website:

Where should silks be dried? Which fruit was used in Bachelor’s Pudding? This charming board game tests your knowledge of life in Victorian England, all according to the domestic goddess of the era, Mrs Beeton. Share her pearls of wisdom about manners, etiquette and the running of an orderly household! The first player to work their way around the board and correctly answer a question from all 6 categories is the winner.

Presented in a tin to keep it dust-free and pristine, just how Mrs Beeton would have liked it.

We went out to dinner this evening, and on the way back, Mark asked if we could go see the lights at Reynolds Farm Equipment. That's what he asked for -- to go to "Reynolds Farm Equipment".

For those who don't wander the State Road 37 in Fishers area, this wonderful John Deere dealer (exciting enough throughout the year) has a huge field that every Christmas they fill with a massive Christmas Light display. It's free. There are lines of traffic waiting to see it. And it's fun.

So as we were driving through, we noticed crowds inside, and it turned out to be an evening that Santa Claus was visiting the store. So we took the boys in. Mark and Daddy wandered the toy selection while Adam and I waited in a not-too-long line. During the wait, Adam excitedly pointed out the ride-on tractor toys around him: "Tac-tor!" (Words have gotten more clear even this week.)

Both boys sat on Santa's lap together -- the one who doesn't always like going to other people happily went to Santa (Daddy points out that Santa is, after all, a grandpa).

(Mark shows Santa something he'd like.)

Both boys look up at Daddy. Things would have been perfect if we'd had a camera with us, but at least Tim's phone has one.

After we visited Santa, each boy got a little John Deere tractor toy, and we wandered the store some more, seeing all the toys, and the equipment -- it is Reynolds Farm Equipment, after all. There were lots of kids trying out the tractors and mowers and "tractor loaders" and such, and both boys wanted to sit in the seats, too. (I was with Adam when he sat in the very big mower seat for a long time -- it was after bedtime -- but didn't have the camera, so no photo of that.)

Here's Mark inside a B-I-G tractor.

It was very fun, and a nice surprise for a fun little trip.

(Oh, yeah, and I got Red Lobster for supper. Mmmmmm. Happy tummy.)

Yeah, that's the front page.

(my advice would be, "see Dictionary, 'daze'", but, hey, who really cares?)

Today Adam got to go visit the doctor for his month-late 15-month appointment. It didn't necessarily start out well when he screamed as if his head was being crushed when the nurse measured it with a brutal measuring band (he tried to pull it off). Such agony. Later he got four shots and cried less over that. Whatever.

The doctor asked if he has about 15 words in his vocabulary so I thought I would list them, having not really given any thought to how many words he has until she asked...

Dog
Horse
(Animal sounds: Baaaa, Woof, and Raaaah)
Mommy, Daddy
Mark, Brother
Grandpa (sounds a lot like "Dump truck")
Dump Truck (see "Grandpa"; this word applies to most trucks)
Tractor (also sounds a lot like "Dump truck" but is different)
Diaper
Zebra
Book, Read
This, That
Sentence: "I do it."

Yup. That adds up to about 15 words. And one sentence. Guess we're doing okay.

what to get me for my birthday or Christmas, Mark has an idea.

"I made a poopy just for YOU, Mommy!"

Gee. I don't know where to put it. (oh. maybe I do.)

The big boy and his dad came in from shoveling snow and building a topply snowman, and the big boy got to have his first "hot" chocolate (lukewarm, eeeew, but he doesn't even like his food hot). He sat at the table utterly savoring its deliciousness, when he spounted this piece of wisdom, which also, incidentally, shows the hierarchy of his life:

"When I drink slowly, it makes Mommy and Daddy happy.
And Doggy happy.
And Jesus happy."

Yup. Everyone's happy.

Perhaps you didn't even notice I was gone, but I was... and now I'm back.

We had an extended visit to Laryy's Chicking Wranch while the Tim was off galavanting around Europe, and we had a few adventures, which means I have a few pictures to share...

So. We went to The Children's Museum of Evansville (cMoe), which was okay but didn't really appeal to my boys a lot. There were a bunch of nice activities for rather older kids, and a few fun little kid activities. And the scoop you see here. There was also a terrifying water activity room and a climbing structure that the decision-making boy wouldn't even look at. Oops. Maybe in a few years.

Mark helped Grandma make special cookies to measure how many days until we would go home and until Daddy comes home. Apparently someone forgot to tell him that three-year-olds are lacking very fine motor skills as he is completely adept at removing the cap from a bottle of food coloring, squeezing the right number of drops into the dough, and then putting the cap back on and turning on the mixer.

Oh yeah. And washing dishes.

And rinsing. Clearly Grandma was in charge of this activity. Actually, Mark was. Grandma was just doing what she was told. :)

The other news of note (no pictures included) was that we only had ONE bathroom accident the whole time we were there, and he only slept in a Pull-Up one night (clean). The only accident was when we didn't put him on the toilet one night in time. But. Wow. He's wearing big boy underwear to bed right now as we speak, AND in the car all the way home. Wow. I hate to make definitive statements about success or failure, but I'm pretty sure he'll start junior high completely toilet-skilled.

The other boy had a blast having Grandpa (also known as "DUM-pa", not to be confused with "DUM-pa", dump truck) around to play with. He walked around talking up a storm, playing with everything, trying everything out, not eating well (mm, shocker...), sleeping better thanks to the crib Grandpa found at a garage sale and paid for with real money... He had a lot of fun, too, and even gave Grandma some cuddles. Adam is nowhere the cuddler that Mark has always been, but he found a few big hugs for everyone while we were there.

And just in case you thought you'd seen enough cuteness...

Hey Ma, look at ME!