It's always something

With Christmas over, and the decorations down, Sam has had to find something new to occupy his time. Luckily for him (and for me!), it has snowed a little bit over the past few days. There is only a few inches on the ground, but it's been enough to satisfy all three boys. They have spent hours outside this weekend, sledding and playing in the snow.

Sam has also discovered the joy of shoveling. Honestly. He loves it. My driveway is shoveled, the front walk is shoveled, the back patio is shoveled, and Canterbury Lane is shoveled. Seriously. He did a good chunk of the road. It wasn't deep enough for the plow to come through, so Sam took matters into his own hands.

When he finally came inside, he flopped down in a chair in the Florida room and fell fast asleep. Shoveling is hard work.

Well, there you go

When I got home from work tonight, the sun had set. So I was a little surprised to see Sam outside, standing in the front walk. I got out of the car and asked him what he was doing outside in the dark and the cold. "Just watching," he replied.

He did not tell me exactly what he was watching.

I went inside and he followed me, with a thoughtful look on his face. "Mom", he says. "I don't want to be a person any more. I want to be a platypus."

And now you know.

Up, down, east, west...

The boys love the DVD player in the van.  I don't mind it because it cuts down on the bickering and yelling when we travel.

Today, I had to take the van to the dealership to get a sensor reset and a new key made.  It's a long drive, so Nolan was busy watching "Despicable Me."  He reached the end of the movie and wanted me to start it over.

The DVD player is designed so that the driver cannot see the screen.  This makes sense, because the driver should probably be focused on the road.  But it makes it tricky when a child is trying to guide the driver through the menu operations.  Normally, TJ does the talking.  But today, it was just me and Nolan.  This is what he said:

"Go down."
"Go down."
"Go down."
"Go....west?"

He meant "right".  I laughed.  And managed to get the movie playing again.

Nolan's Nighttime Adventures

Before I can tell you of the latest Baron Saga, there are a few things you need to know:

1. Nolan has "Buddies".  When he was tiny, these were his burp cloths.  Now they are security blankets.  He typically only needs them when he sleeps.  The problem with this is if he takes them out of his bed, they get tossed aside shortly thereafter, and then we can't find them.

2. Nyquil (or the Meijer brand of nighttime cold medicine) works REALLY well on me.  The dosage of the capsules I buy is two at a time.  But I only take one capsule because it totally knocks me out.  I cannot wake up at all if I take the full dose.

3.  Bill was in Detroit when this happened.  He misses all of the fun stuff.

When I went to bed Wednesday night, I took one nighttime cold pill.  At 2:00, I heard a small voice.  "Mom." "Mom."  Nolan was standing by my bed, trying to rouse me from my drug-induced sleep.  I asked him what was wrong and he told me his Buddy was wet and could I please get him a dry one.  A small warning bell went off in my head.  I asked why it was wet and he told me he spilled his water bottle on it.  More warning bells.  Nolan isn't allowed water after dinner time because he soaks the bed.  My foggy mind was also wondering if there were any more clean Buddies to be found.  A few of them had gone missing in the past week.

I struggled out of bed and found my glasses.  As we headed to his room, I asked Nolan if he had spilled the water anywhere else.  He said, "Yeah.  On my pajamas and a little on my bed."

More warning bells.  I walked in his bedroom, flipped on the light and was horrified by what I saw.  It looked like he had poured several cups of water on his bed.  The sheets were soaked, the blanket was soaked, the mattress pad was soaked.  I stripped everything and started from scratch.  The whole time I was working, my mind was in a fog.  This was complicated by the fact that Nolan was chattering away non-stop.  Who has that kind of energy at 2 a.m.?

By the time I had clean, dry bedding on his bed, Nolan in clean pajamas and a dry Pull-up (because he was just about to soak through his current one), a new Buddy tucked into bed with him, and laundry piled up to be dealt with in the morning, it was 2:30 a.m.  It's like being up with the newborn, but without the precious baby to cuddle.

Nolan has strict instructions to never touch his water bottle in the middle of the night again.

Strangest injury to date...

I have not been feeling well the past few days. I feel as though I have been fighting some sort of bug. I've had frequent bad headaches, some nausea and heartburn and I've been very tired. This morning I got up and got the kids through their showers so they could go to rehearsal for tomorrow's Christmas program at church.

Once Bill took the kids to church, I started wrapping some Christmas gifts. But after awhile, my head was pounding so badly that I laid down and fell asleep. After a bit, the boys came home. It doesn't phase them in the least if I'm asleep. They talk to me as though I'm fully conscious.

Sam came in my room, whimpering. He told me his nose hurt. I mumbled some sympathy and asked what was wrong. He said he accidentally stuck his Christmas tree up his nose. A moment later, I heard him gasp. The wound (up his nose, from a Christmas tree!!) was bleeding. I did NOT want to fully wake up. I knew if I did, I'd laugh, and that would just make my pounding head throb even more. I muttered to Sam to get a Kleenex and pinch his nose to stop the bleeding. I then sent him off to find his more-conscious father.

Sam had me look up his nose later in the day. Sure enough, there was a scratch. I'm guessing he was either relocating his miniature tree or re-doing the lights on it when it viciously attacked him. What's next for that child?

Frankly, My Dear...

Last night, as Bill and I were tucking the boys in bed and kissing them good night, I was talking to Sam about an article of clothing that was missing. I said something along the lines of, "Frankly, I have no idea where that went."

Sam looked confused and said, "Wait. Who is Frank Lee?"

One person's trash...

When Sam brought his school bag in from the car tonight, he proudly set a Ziploc bag filled with a half dozen colorful Christmas cookies on the counter. His brothers were impressed and asked where he had gotten them. Sam calmly said, "I'm not ready to tell you yet." But he promised to share, so his brothers didn't really care about the particulars.

After dinner, Sam told us that the cookies came from Papa's church and that no one there wanted to eat them. I laughed. The cookies my boys were so excited about were church cookie rejects. Turns out that rejected cookies are still yummy cookies!

I stand corrected

Saturday morning, I was standing at the kitchen sink washing up the breakfast dishes. Sam was outside, thoroughly enjoying our first measurable snowfall of the year (we only had an inch or two).

Some movement across the street caught my eye and I was surprised to see a large group of deer running from my neighbor's yard across the street and through the yard next to ours. Seeing deer is common around here, but not in groups this large so close to the house. I counted ten does. I pictured them all headed off to the coffee shop or the bathroom. It seems females always travel together, no matter the breed!

A few minutes later Sam wandered in the house. I asked him if he had seen the ten deer. He looked at me very calmly and said, "There were eleven".

Silly Mom.

Water is a privilege!

TJ earns a small allowance every week by washing the breakfast dishes, helping vacuum, and by feeding the cats.

Yesterday, I noticed the cats' water dish was empty and bone dry. I called down the hall to TJ that he needed to give the cats some water. He responded (rather incredulously), "What!? I just gave them water yesterday!"

I feel sorry for his future children.

Glutton for punishment

Sunday morning, when we arrived at church, this tempting sight was sitting at the table by the coat racks:

TJ had a hunch the bowl of candy belonged to Miss Cookie, so he promptly found her and asked if she was sharing her candies.  Of course she was!  TJ grabbed a candy out of the bowl and tucked it in his pocket when I asked him to wait until we got to our seat to eat it.  Sam shook his head when I asked him if he wanted one (Don't look so surprised.  I've mentioned once or twice before that he is unusual).  Nolan was nearly giddy at the thought of candy at 9 a.m.  Of course he wanted one.

As soon as we got upstairs, both TJ and Nolan popped the nougat-y goodness in their mouths.  Mere seconds later, Nolan had green drool running down his chin and on to his Sunday sweater.  "Too hot!  Too hot!"  He was whispering in a frantic shriek, if that's possible.  Brianna (who sits in the pew behind us) handed me a Kleenex so I could mop the drool off Nolan's sweater.  Then TJ took Nolan down to get a drink so the hotness would go away.

I actually was pretty relieved that we got through that crisis as quickly as we did.  Nolan wasn't loud enough to distract anyone else in the balcony, he didn't cry, and he allowed TJ to bring him to the drinking fountain.  I just told Nolan he probably shouldn't eat those candies anymore (which is fine because then there will be more for me).

As we were leaving church after Sunday School, Miss Cookie's grandson Drew, was passing the candies out to kids as they put their coats on.  I mentioned to him that Nolan didn't like them, so he didn't need to share with Nolan.  But Nolan, that little turkey, took one anyway and ate it in the car.  Thankfully, this time there was no shrieking or green drool.

T