Messing around with Photos

Here are a few more pictures from our walk in the woods. I got a lot of really good pictures and I have had a lot of fun messing around with them on picassa. It is fun what you can do with pictures these days.

Our Little Explore

The sun shone and it was warm and breezy. I knew we needed to go down to the park for a picnic and a little explore. We went to walmart and got a rotisserie chicken, fresh mozzarella, orange juice, rolls, and lolly pops and headed for the "prickly park" (really known as Swansons Park, but anything with thorns that grows in Kansas is there. Thus the "Prickly Park").

This park is not a play park. It is a walking park. There are lots of dogs and dog poo, a river and some bridges. Side walks take you around about a 2 1/2 mile walk, but people, dogs, and horses have formed their own paths through the woods. Ruth, Kate, and Johnny always want to go through the woods. I never want to because I never want to push the stroller through the woods. But today I thought maybe we could take one of these paths to find an open grassy spot for our picnic. We did find a nice solitary grassy spot. The kids complained that the grass was too prickly to be good for picnicking, but I vetoed their objections based on the fact that all the grass in Kansas on March first is prickly and we would not find a soft spot that was dry. Thus we took off our jackets, sat down in the dead grass and enjoyed a meal in the beautiful sunshine. After cleaning up all of our trash and all of our hands and faces we began our explore. Because the woodsy path we were at seemed open and wide and not too difficult to push a stroller through I gave in to the kids pleas and we began our journey through the woods. We were on the north side of the river with some smaller cliffs than the usual sidewalk (south side) of the river so the kids got to wander down and play by the water. Ruth, Kate, Johnny, Adam, and Rachel joyously climbed trees, ran through woods, and walked around the waters edge. They were having such a good time that I decided we should stay on the path. As a child, I loved the woods and was fortunate enough to always live next to woods. I explored in the woods daily until I was 11. I 'm sorry that my own children have not had that pleasure. So I decided to stay on the rough wooded path rather than turning around to find the paved path. At first our path was wide and well trodden. I felt certain that eventually it would lead us to the paved path. But the path got narrower, hillier, and harder to push the stroller through. The kids kept asking me if we were lost. Technically I knew we were definitely not lost and that it would be easy to retrace our steps, but when our path ended at a rusty barbed wire fence I declared that we were lost. (I really had no idea what our direction in the park was, and which way to turn to get us out. But I knew that the area was small enough that we weren't really lost.) Ruth, Kate, and Johnny exclaimed gleefully that it is scary to be lost and how they would never forget this explore. Ruth even thanked me for the memory. Well we ended up turning around and walking east. By the time we got to the barbed wire there was no clear path and it took us a while and some awkward pushing, pulling, and lifted of the stroller to get through the woods. We did find our original trail and made it back to pavement without much trouble. Kate and Johnny ran and shouted how wonderful it was not be lost when we approached the sidewalk. (I thought how wonderful it was to be pushing a large stroller on pavement rather than mud and sticks). We had a great explore. The kids were excited to come home and tell Dad about their adventure and they all talked about how we must do this again soon. It was really fun to be out in nature with my kids. We will definitely go exploring again. But next time-- No Stroller!!

Rachel Sets the Table

Rachel set the table one night while we were preparing dinner. Since silverware is all she has access too that is what she set. Rachel also neglected to clear the dirty plates and wash the table, but hey, Thanks for your help Rachel. We love you.

I Did It

Well, I finally did it. I bought a kid leash for Rachel. We went to the Temple on Friday and after the second time Rachel ran as fast as she could out into parking lots with moving cars I decided that it was better to have a healthy living dog girl than a maimed or dead daughter. In fact, I think Rachel truly would have been hit if it was not for Ruth's watchful eye. We have often called Ruth our Shepard because she has always watched over the younger children.
Now about the leash. I never really needed them with Ruth, Kate, and Johnny. Kate ran away like Rachel does, but with only three kids, it wasn't so hard to keep a watch over her. Adam never needed anything like that because he has always stayed very close to me, both at home and in public. But Rachel I have often called "Runaway Sal" because she has run away as soon as she could walk. Now that I have the baby plus four other children and Rachel it has just been too much. My hands are full. So I broke down and bought the kid leash. It is actually a cute little monkey and the tale is the leash. Rachel seems to like it okay. All the other kids like to walk Rachel. But we have had the problem of them just dragging Rachel and pulling her over. Anyway, it is done. I swore I would never use one. But actually, I really quite appreciate it. Rachel has been much safer since I bought this two days ago. Plus it works fine to leave it on her while she is in her car seat. That is really good since parking lots seem to be our biggest problem.

A Few Misinterpertations

Here are a few Funny things Adam has mistaken:

1. Adam brought me a picture of President Hinckley and asked me who it was. I told him it was President Hinckley. Adam said, "Oh, he died. Did he die for me?" "No, he just died because he was old, but Jesus died for you."
2. After saying his prayers Adam asked, "Did Jesus die for me." "Yes, Adam, Jesus did die for you, " I replied. "Was Jesus resurrected in water?" Adam asked. "No Adam, But he was baptized in water.
3. Another night after saying his prayers Adam asked, "Will my be resurrected?" I answered, "Yes, Adam after you die you will be resurrected." Adam, replied, "My not die because my go into water." "Are you going to get baptized?" I asked. "Yes my will and my not die."

A Simple Answer

As we walked outside I groaned, "When will it ever get warm." Johnny simply relied, "It will in March, Mom. March 21st." Thanks Johnny.

Oh the Messes

Okay, I have two toddlers and they are driving me CRAZY!!!!! Adam is 3 and Rachel is 22 months. They get into everything all of the time. They break everything and they make huge messes. Here are just a few from the last couple of days. Adam got a screw driver opened a can of paint and knocked it over onto my bathroom floor. Luckily we caught it quickly enough and avoided a real expensive disaster. Rachel and Adam got onto the table before dinner, squished a bunch of tater tots and threw them all over the dining room floor. (We made them pick those up and wash the floor). Adam and Rachel dumped out all of the crayons on the living room carpet and began stepping on them and breaking them into the carpet. Rachel took three boxes of cereal out of the pantry closet and dumped them out onto the dining room floor. Adam threw his egg onto the floor. When we told him to pick it up he began stomping on it and grinding it into the floor. Rachel threw a whole plate of sticky rice onto the floor and we had to pick it up grain by sticky grain. That has been only in the past three days.

On a regular basis Rachel plays in the toilet. Since she can open the doors and lift up the toilet seats now, we don't have many other solutions. We are officially potty training her because of this. We thought that it she spent a lot of appropriate time with the toilet she might lose interest for improper use. So far so good.

On a regular basis Rachel gets into the food pantry and dumps out food. (Today I am buying a lock for that closet.) On a regular basis Rachel gets scissors and stabs the bread which I like to keep on the counter because it keeps best. She will also stab any other food that sits out of the refrigerator.

On a regular basis Adam throws his toys at things and people. Adam and Johnny also throw big things like the Toy kitchen, doll house and little people sets at each other for a game. Luckily the rocking horse is too heavy for them. They will also throw chairs around at each other. Today they tried throwing a large speaker until John caught them.

I know it sounds like I need to play with them more. I think that is the case, too. I cannot wait for the weather to warm up so that I can take Adam and Rachel out more, or just send them out to destroy nature instead. I have been playing with them some everyday. Most of these things happen when I am helping the older kids with their homework, sleeping, writing a blog :) (something terrible might be happening at this moment), or bathing. I am buying locks for my bedroom, Ruth and Kate's bedroom, and the pantry today. We already have a lock on the storage/laundry room and that has made a difference.

I would like to say that I am a very patient mom-- that I just adore and laugh at the funny things my cute babies do. I would like to say that I never yell. But I won't lie. Often I think Adam and Rachel are the enemies and if I could only defeat them. But I have a feeling that they are undefeatable foes. The only way to escape the mess and distress is wait patiently and love them no matter how big or how constant the disaster. Maybe Adam and Rachel are just training and refining my patience for things to come. I always say that I am never going to yell or say mean things to my children ever again. Maybe Adam and Rachel are helping me to get there faster by giving me ample opportunity to learn control. I hope that is true. I want to do better and be better as much as I want my kids to do better and be better