Water Hose Welt

While I was out canoeing with the Relief Society Dad was home watching the kids. Avery and Emily were playing in the back yard with the new green water hose we bought. It expands when you turn on the water and then coils back up after you turn the water off. It's a pretty neat invention. However, it is not intended for people to stretch it out as far as it can go and then let to let go of it. It will spring back like a whip. Avery just happened to be in the path of said, "whip". Poor thing got a welt around her eye. She handled it better than I would have though.

Tinker-Toy Trauma

Something horrible happened to these, (our) Tinker-toys. You can't tell by looking at them, but they were physically, and I have to say most importantly, emotionally traumatized by none other then our OWN flesh and blood. That's right.


Avery.
Avery might have scarred our Tinker -toys for life. We are hoping they make a full recovery however, but as we speak they are still in a traumatic state of mind. They are currently in a clean and friendly environment where they can rest and recover until they can return back to their bucket.


What did Avery do to these poor, helpless Tinker-toys??


Madi: Mom, Avery peed.
Me: Ok. Well can you tell her to come here.
Madi: No, Avery peed on the Tinker-Toys.
Me: What? She did WHAT?!


Ryan and I find that Avery was upstairs playing and apparently she couldn't make it down the stairs fast enough to go potty, so she pulled down her pants and sat over the Tinker-toy bucket and peed.

We took Avery into custody just minutes after the incident happened to talk with her about the allegations brought against her. We have filed a restraining order against Avery, that she must stay at least 20 feet away from the Tinker-toys. As this is her first offense, no jail time is required. Nevertheless, she will be doing a few hours of community service for her repulsive actions she committed against the Toys.


Don't let this innocent face fool you...


Poor, poor Tinker-Toys.

Surrounded by Poop

*Warning: This post contains graphic details and images about bowel movements. It also contains words such as: Poop, poo-poo, "loaf" and diarrhea. If you have a weak stomach I strongly suggest you do not read.

Madisen will probably be embarrassed in the future for me telling this story, but really what our parents for, other than embarrassing their kids?! (I know I had my share of embarrassing moments that my parents so lovingly bestowed upon me and I got over it, sort of). Madisen has always had trouble doing the "deed". I am not really sure when it all started, between the ages of one to fourteen months I believe. Around that time she had a solid loaf come out of her and I think from that one bad experience she has somehow got it in her head that holding it in will be better and not hurt as much as pushing it out will. So from that time on she has resolved to holding it in- literary. I don't know how she does this! It's crazy. She has the strongest bum muscles ever. When she is flexing to hold it in, you could grab her by the arms and hold her up and she would be parallel with the floor. It's really sad actually to see her like this, but I don't know what else to do. I have talked to three different doctors about this, and they have all said similar things, that she will, "grow out of it", "there shouldn't be any long term effects", "give her plenty of fiber in her diet", we have tried it all! Even buying Miralax for over a year, which is a powdered substance we added to her drinks and it dissolves, making her bowels softer. Yet, no matter how soft, or even runny her poop is, she still holds it in!

Back in December our poor child had a bowel moment that was so big from holding it in for over two days that it clogged the toilet. It was bad enough, that we had to borrow a snake tool to push it out. After several hours Ryan finally released the "beast" and our toilet was restored again to working order. Well, Wednesday the same thing happened again. Madisen clogged the toilet! It's hard to imagine a three-almost four year old can produce something so large. I worked on the toilet all moring, plunging but got nowhere, and gave up hoping Ryan could again restore our toilet.

However, later that afternoon my parents(bless their hearts) stopped in for a visit, and my dad, the awesome dad he is, got right to work on the"problem". Yet, as my dad was plunging away, the worse thing could have happened at that moment. From all the fiber I had given Madi over the last 24 hours, it had FINALLY caught up with her and she had some serious diarrhea which of course got everywhere! Since the toilet was not working, and I didn't want to take her all the way downstairs to the other bathroom as it was leaking everywhere and with her crying and me freaking out, I grabbed her and put her on Avery's little potty so she could do the rest there. I tried calming her down(which really didn't work) and started cleaning up the horrible mess. I had to take her pants, her socks and of course her underwear full of poo-poo off, as it was dripping down to the floor. I threw her socks in the sink and started rinsing off her underwear in the tub.

As I was doing all this, I stopped and looked around frustrated and overwhelmed by all the poop surrounding me that all of a sudden it hit me so hard, I started laughing like I have never laughed before!!! I realized how bizarre and horrible it all was at the same time, that I couldn't do anything but LAUGH!!! It was one of those moments when you just have no control over anything and all you can do to relieve the stress and the tension is to just laugh. So that's what I did...for over three minutes straight! My insides were rolling and I am sure the twins were thinking the same thing Madi was, "What's going on? Mom, are you going insane?!" My parents out in the other room didn't know what was going on either, as one minute I am trying to calm Madi down by yelling at her to "calm down!" (haha!) and the next, laughing so hard my insides felt like they were on fire! It was just a smelly, nasty situation to be in. One that I would never wish on anyone, but everyone knows with kids it's impossible to escape!

To make a long story short, I was surrounded by poop and it somehow became funny. :)

The Band-Aid Bandit

With every little stumble, trip and fall there is always a need for a band aid no matter how much it actually hurt or if in fact it caused any bleeding. It’s funny how a band aid can solve these types of problems so easily…they trip and fall, (or bang their nose in this case) cry for a band aid, you put a band aid on the scratch or boo-boo and then they are off before you know it, practically running to the next adventure where they soon find themselves in line for the next band aid. Soon they are so covered in band aids, you can’t tell if they are your kid or the kid across the street… ;) Yet it’s too bad band aids can’t solve everything. Like for instance; when it’s time to go bed, time to go inside or go home, saying no to more candy, cookies or ice cream, a band aid just doesn’t fix those problems and sometimes just doesn’t cover up all the boo-boos of parenting.

Packing up Madi!

"Where's Madi....Where did she go?" Madi opens the lid on the box, pokes her head out and gives mom a cheesy smile as she shouts "I hiding!" This picture really surprised me because she rarely smiles! It's not often I get a picture of her and a cute smile to go along with it!

Ryan and I, along with our family, have been praying to find a house with a yard for Madisen to be able to explore, grow and learn new things. We really wanted this for her mostly and also for a place for Mom to do her crafts and keep her sanity. Going on 6 years of apartment living and moving 9 times since we have been married, we really felt like it was time to get a modest home (to rent) for all of our needs. Well after a few months with no success, Ryan and I kind of gave up on the wish to get a house we could afford with the things we needed. Just a few weeks later we heard of this home, went and looked at it and it is perfect for us! We were so excited about it! It's just the thing we had been praying for. Ryan and I just needed to have more faith that Heavenly Father is watching out for us and always has. We have been humbled and we truly feel blessed and grateful for so many things in our lives!

Elbow Injury!

So last night Ryan and Madi were playing around in a maze of boxes that has grown out into our living room. Ryan made sort of a fort with a path leading to the bookcase. Madi really enjoys hiding like every toddler, but it was time for bedtime. We gave Madi a few more minutes to play then it was bedtime. As time was up she threw a fit and didn't want to stop playing. Ryan went over to hold her hand to help her out of the small area around the boxes, when all of a sudden Madi started crying really hard, and screaming, "I hurt, I hurt!" Ryan and I looked at each other puzzled wondering what had happened. Madi was holding her elbow in her other hand. We still weren't sure what had happened. Just thought she hit it on the bookcase or a box, but she was crying way to much for that. Then we noticed she didn't want to use her arm. As she was crying she kept telling us, "I need a bandaid...I need a bandaid..." (over and over again).

She had popped her elbow out of the joint a little over a year ago and we realized that's what had happened again. Ryan tried to pop it back in himself, getting trained how to do it the last time it happened to her. (I guess it happens a lot to kids). But after just 10 minutes or so, which seemed a lot longer, he realized he wouldn't be able to do himself and would have to take her to the ER. She was so brave Ryan said, as the doctor popped her elbow back into place. The nurse there brought her a little bear and Ryan had blown up a doctor's glove into a ballon for her. And the one thing she wanted most was a bandaid for her hurt...lol, which the doctor so happily put on her elbow! This is a picture of her wrist band from the ER....but her bandaid fell off before I could get a picture of it! Anyway the story turns out that she survived! Phew! ;)