The good, the bad, and the ugly

Since this is our family journal as well as a blog to share with our friends and family, I have decided to share a couple of stories that may not paint the prettiest picture of family life. I was inspired by my friend Emmy's blog where she posted a story of her son (about Allie's age) leaving the house unnoticed (by Dad) and then being spotted (by mom) running across 5 lanes of traffic on a very busy street. Luckily he made it across unharmed and ran right into a police officer on the other side. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories like that one to tell soon enough.

But for now here are some fun ones from several weeks ago.

Story #1
When Lincoln was born we had some friends stay with the kids while we were at the birthing center. When we got back with the new baby, the husband was concerned that Allie and Jack might really hurt the baby because they were being a little too rough with him. He told the kids that if they weren't careful with Lincoln they could kill him. Ever since then Allie has been obsessed with whether or not something might kill a person.

During my mom's stay with us, after Lincoln's birth she came up with the idea to put him in his bouncy seat and then put the seat inside the pack-and-play so that the kids couldn't "accidentally" rough him up too much. It was a great idea until "the incident." I had Lincoln in the pack-and-play asleep in his bouncy chair. I was sitting in front of the pack-and-play on the couch with my back turned to it. Allie was also back there playing. All of a sudden I heard a weird noise and turned around to find that Allie had fallen into the pack-and-play on top of Lincoln. I ran over and pulled her off of him and out of it and then sent her to her room so I could make sure that Lincoln was OK. After all, he did just have over 40 pounds of big sister on him. Interestingly enough Lincoln was still dead asleep and had no idea what had just happened.

Allie on the other hand was in her room screaming "is he killed, is he killed?" I felt bad for her and told her that he was fine but that she needed to be more careful. It turns out that she was climbing on some couch cushions next to the pack-and-play and fell into it. All day she kept checking on Lincoln to make sure he wasn't "killed."

Story #2

Allie has recently learned how to name call, but not very well. A few Saturdays ago I was about to take the kids for a car ride to put the baby to sleep and Allie did something she wasn't supposed to do. At this point, I don't even remember what it was. After I told her that she needed to go for a time out she yelled at me "mommy, you're stinking." She ended up not being able to come for the car ride and had to stay in her room while Jack, Lincoln and I were gone (Adam was home with her, of course). Oh, the joys of now having a four-year-old. They are so mouthy.

What do kids do when mom & dad aren't watching?

Sometimes, when parents aren't watching, kids will have a little fun of their own. Such as...

Create things to stick on the wall.

Dismantle gingerbread houses.

Eat all of the candy from a bowl.

Pull bags of sugar off of the counter and dig in.

Dump a whole bag of Chex mix on the floor (once again, from the counter).

Smear lip gloss all over yourself.

Throw stickers, paint, and bananas in an old box (from the counter, of course).

Drag Race!

This is a little bike ride from last month. I like Jack's choice of a hat.