Can you hear me now?

I'm so full of short little posts today.

Evan and Kendra are sitting behind me playing with their LeapFrog Tag. It's Kendra's turn with the pen. She didn't hear what one of the questions was. Here's the conversation that ensued:

Kendra: What'd it say?
Evan: I don't know. I didn't hear it.
Kendra: (yelling) What'd it say?
Evan: I don't know.
Mommy: (giggling) Kendra, he heard what you said. He said he didn't hear what the pen said.
Kendra: Oh. Evan, I didn't hear it either.

Thou shall not

Evan and Kendra are playing. I just heard Evan say "now listen to my commandments". Apparently he's paying attention in children's church.

What to do with a stick and a half of butter...

I very rarely have problems in the kitchen. It's even more rare that I would have multiple problems with the same meal. How do you have multiple problems with the same meal? Well, let me share a little story with you about today's dinner.

I was going to make little cheesy meatballs and sweet cornbread. It made the most sense to make the cornbread first. I put a stick and a half of butter in the microwave to melt. I get out the cornmeal. We only have 2 tablespoons left, not the 1 cup needed for this recipe. Scrap the cornbread idea.

I grab the hamburger to start on the meatballs. It's not thawed all the way and is therefore not meatball-able. Scrap the meatball idea.

I decide to make a hamburger and biscuit casserole. I put the hamburger on the stove to start browning and grab the recipe. It calls for a pound and a half of hamburger. I have a pound on the stove to brown. The "filling" for the casserole is not easily converted by 2/3 to use a pound of hambuger. Scrap the casserole idea.

The hamburger becomes taco meat (yes, I checked to make sure we had tortillas). Everyone's happy! Evan even does his "taco dance" when he hears we're having tacos. Kendra answered his dance with her own "hamburger dance" (she doesn't like tacos, but loves hamburger). All is well!

Or almost all is well. Have you been paying attention? What problem do I still have? I'll wait while you read back through the post ... [Jeopardy! song plays in background] ... Alex, I'll take Melted Butter for 1000. Ding ding ding! I have still have a stick and a half of melted butter to use!

What do you recommend making with a stick and a half of melted butter?

Newborn twins

From 12:22 this morning until 12:55, I was wondering if I was experiencing a night similar to a night experienced by those with newborn twins. When I got back in bed at 12:55, I had not yet been allowed to sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time. My "newborn twins" were Kendra and Laura. If there's any of you reading this who don't know me, Kendra and Laura are not newborn twins. Kendra will be 3 at the end of March. Laura was 14 months old yesterday. And until 12:55 this morning, I had been up with one or the other of them every few minutes. As a clarification, Laura is being lumped in here rather unfairly. She was the one up from 12:22 to 12:55, but that was the only time she was up. Every single stinkin' time before that had been Kendra. But, quite thankfully, after getting back to bed at 12:55, everyone slept until 6:44 this morning. And I'm sure that's not something that happens with newborn twins.

Not the good samaritan

Tonight while I was upstairs grabbing jammies for Evan and Kendra, I could hear all 3 kids chasing each other (normal). I heard Evan yell "sorry Laura!" (not normal) and Laura start her someone-pushed-me-down-while-we-were-chasing cry (normal). She only cried for a couple seconds, probably at the injustice of being pushed down instead of because of pain. I took Evan and Kendra's jammies into Laura's room since that's where all 3 of them were and decided to have a learning moment with Evan. Last week in preschool, their Bible story was about the Good Samaritan. Our conversation went like this...

Mommy: Evan, why did I hear you holler "sorry Laura" and keep running?
Evan: Well, I pushed her down, but I said I was sorry.
Mommy: And you kept running?
Evan: Well, yeah.
Mommy: In preschool last week, did you learn about a story where there was a guy hurt on the road and there were some bad guys who didn't help him and a good guy who did help him?
Evan: Yeah.
Mommy: Just now Laura was the hurt guy. Who were you?
Evan: I was the church people who kept going. (Side note: They acted the story out in preschool, and this was the part he played. So I tried again with my lesson.)
Mommy: But, just now, when you pushed Laura down, she was the one hurt on the road. Were you the good samaritan who stopped to help her, or who were you?
Evan: No, I was the robbers that hurt her in the road.
End of lesson.

Evan's final statement was said with zero remorse. No concern at all about having pushed down his littlest sister. Did I get upset with him? Nope. Why? Because 1) at least he said he was sorry this time, which is a big improvement over how the chasing game usually goes, and 2) I was proud of him because he really understands the Good Samaritan story and could apply it to the somewhat-abstract concept of what just happened in our house. Even if he wasn't being the good guy.

Not Me! Monday

It's Monday again! Or it will be in about an hour and a half. And that means it's time for this week's Not Me! Monday post.

I did not let my pushing-on-3-year-old daughter who has always had problems sleeping at night snuggle up on my shoulder to take a late afternoon nap while I was working. I also didn't try to take a picture of us while keeping on my "work face".

I did not spend a large amount of time drawing on MagnaDoodles (and other similar products by different toy companies) this week.
And, since I didn't do that, I certainly didn't take a photo of my drawing. But, if I had done any of that, then I'd be happy to post a picture of my drawing of my wonderful chiropractor husband standing in his adjusting room, with me on the table, his 3 tractor pictures on the wall, and his "bunky" (the kids' name for his doctor spinny stools) in the foreground. But I didn't, not me!
I did not continue giving in to Laura's screaming fits about wanting her teeth brushed at the exact same time that Evan and Kendra get their teeth brushed. I do not encourage Chad to give in to this behavior also. And, I don't have a 1-year-old who will wiggle her way in between the legs of the adult at the sink and onto the stepstool just so she can be closer to the toothbrushes.

I do not continue to be enamored with watching my children play when they're in small, confined spaces.
When Laura woke up wet the other morning and was therefore cold, I most certainly did not think a good solution would be to tie her blankie around her neck and let her run around in just a diaper and blanket for a few minutes simply so I could be amused and take pictures of her being Super Cute!
I am not encouraging my youngest child's love affair with her bunny and her lamb. I already have enough "bed stuff" to pack for the first two when we go somewhere overnight, so there's no way I'd be dumb enough to cause this problem with a third child. Not me!

I did not find my husband irresistably snuggly when he was in jammie pants and a sweatshirt discovering the game of Suduko on his new cell phone.

I do not have scads of pictures of each and every one of my children after they've crammed themselves into these little toy bins. And I'm sure I don't have a 4-year-old who can still fit in one and use it as a boat to ride around the house.

I did not make a mug of Malt-O-Meal for Evan for his 4th course of supper tonight. And I did not make it a little too thin to be easy for him to eat with a spoon. So I did not tell him he could drink it out of my mug that's nearly as big as his head. (And this is absolutely not the same cup that I used for hot chocolate and whipped cream nearly every afternoon for a week recently.)

I do not continue to allow Laura to play in the little potty. And I for sure did not continue taking pictures of her inside the little potty. That would be yucky and not teach her that playing in potties is gross.

And, one more ... I absolutely, in no way did a Not Me! Monday post last week that didn't feature my firstborn child a single time other than sprinting through in a video. That wouldn't have been nice of me.

Transformation

How does a little girl whose first word was "backhoe" and only played with tractors and other farm and construction machinery go to being a little girl whose favorite color is pink, eats off a pink plate, sleeps with a pink bear under a pink blanket, only drinks pink milk which must be out of a pink cup with a pink lid, and insists her eyes are pink?

Lunchables trays

Do any of you buy Lunchables (or similar products)? Do you throw away/recycle they trays when you're done? Do you live near me? If the answer to all of those questions is "yes", then I wondered if I could have your Lunchables trays? I only need a few, so don't feel bad if you tell me that you only have one I can have. Thank you!