I am Super Evan!

I found out this afternoon how amazing of a helper Evan can be when necessary. I am SO proud of him!

Let's set the scene. Kendra is in the corner trying to dirty and being unsuccessful. She is finally laying on her tummy screaming in pain. I don't go to her because I know that she wants to be left alone. Finally she comes to me and wants up. I sit down on the couch, and she sits on my lap facing me, straddling my legs. And proceeds to throw up. Repeatedly. Being experienced with her doing this, I catch it in my hands. Then I realize the following things:
1. My hands are full, and I can't catch any more vomit.
2. I can't just have her slide off my lap because she'll have to slide backwards and will probably fall on her head as upset as she is.
3. My husband only works half a block from home!
4. But I don't have a phone beside me, I can't move to get one, and even if I could, my hands are still full of vomit.

So, I hollered for Evan to grab the phone and call Daddy. I learned how quickly he can dial a phone and how well he can follow directions that were hollered at him one time.

Then I asked him to go to the dishwasher that was full of clean dishes and find something like a tub, bucket, or glass for Kendra. He ran to kitchen at full speed and was back with a glass in a matter of seconds.

Now, we'll brag about Kendra for just a bit. Evan had to hand the glass to her because, well, had I mentioned my hands were full of vomit? So, she takes the glass from Evan and promptly holds it out to me saying, "here, Mommy, put it in here." And she held the glass so I could dump my hands into it. Yay, Kendra!

This allowed me to put my arms in her armpits and pick up her up off my lap so we could both walk to the bathroom.

Evan, upon request, ran to Laura's room and got a baby rag for us so I could work on cleaning up Kendra. And then asked what else he could do to help. See, I told you he was an amazing helper!

A while later, Chad got home to see what he could do. (He had been with a patient when Evan called. Oops.) There wasn't much left to do at that point, so he headed back for the office. I asked Evan if he could do one more thing as my good helper. "Yeah! What?" I asked him to go upstairs to Kendra's dresser and bring her a short-sleeved shirt so she wouldn't get any colder (I didn't want a long-sleeved shirt in case I was going to be scrubbing another round of clothes). He quickly and happily ran up to her dresser and came back with one of her favorite t-shirts (pink with butterflies, of course).

I was SO proud of him today!

Argh ... sigh...

Must. Cherish. Days. Must.

Whle you were sleeping

This morning my alarm came on. In my early morning coma, I snoozed it. Twice. Then I heard little feet on the stairs, so I got up and headed for the shower quickly (don't worry, Chad was still home to care for children. I wasn't just hiding.) When I got out of the shower, I went to the kitchen and asked Chad who all is up.
Chad: Laura
Lynnette: Laura? Not Kendra?
Chad: No, Kendra's sleeping in the stairs.

Yep, that's right. Kendra was asleep on the stairs. Apparently she woke up and headed downstairs and realized she was too sleepy. So she went to sleep up-and-down of the stairs on her tummy.

The image you convey

In our house, we have a lot of RC2 Brands products, including those by The First Years. I've thought in the past that their logo is kind of neat. You know, the brand is The First Years, and in the first year of a kid's life, they go from laying down to sitting to standing. Well, apparently children do not see this logo the same way as adults.

The other day, Evan is sitting on our potty seat on the big potty and is looking at the logo on the potty seat. And he asks, "why is that boy sitting on and that boy jumping on that baby?"

How exactly do you answer this? I tried to explain the logo to him.

What happens then? Kendra wants to know what we're talking about, so I show her the logo on her sippy cup. And? She asks essentially the same question: "Why is that boy standing on that boy?" Granted, she may have heard Evan's original question, but still. I now have 2 children who think that a majority of the baby/toddler products in our house are endorsing jumping on and sitting on babies. Great.

I considered briefly whether I should contact RC2 Brands to tell them that children may be perceiving their logo this way. But, instead, I decided to blog about it.
Step 1 in blogging about it: find the logo to put in the post. Know what I found? The First Years has changed their logo! No more baby abuse endorsed on their products.
Step 2: Do the blog post anyway. Because, really, how often do you hear a 4-year-old ask "why is that boy sitting on and that boy jumping on that baby?"

Aye aye, see ya later

This weekend we set up Evan and Kendra's little tent in the living room since it hasn't been out for a few months. They're in there now playing firetruck. Apparently Evan is the captain. He must have said "aye aye, Captain" because now Kendra keeps telling him "bye bye, Captain!"

Not Me! Monday

Happy Monday! Or, rather, Sunday since I post early. It's time for that wonderful Not Me! Monday idea of MckMama's again where we all get to admit the things we most certainly did not do during the week.

I did not ask Chad to feed Laura her dinner right as he was ready to head downstairs to work on the bathroom. I did not find it hilarious that he kept on his basement-working rubber gloves while he fed her.
I do not have yet another person in my house who concentrates with their mouth.
I did not let Kendra play in our bedroom closet in the dark with the door shut with a glow-in-the-dark spoon. And I certainly did not take a picture with the flash on. That would be mean and could cause her to see spots for a long, long time, so I'm sure I didn't do that.

I did not find Kendra to be absolutely adorable with her Cindy Brady piggytails and her backwards jeans. I am not the kind of parent who allows my children to wear their jeans backwards, and helps them put them on that way if they're having problems. And I'm certainly not someone who would photograph it and post it to my blog.

I am not posting this picture purely for the joy of telling you that Kendra looked at the picture on the camera screen and said, "that's Kendra loving Mommy!". That would be gloating about her constantly saying "Mommy's my girl" and "You're my favorite mommy" and "You're my best girl!". So I won't do that.

I did not let Laura climb up through the neck of my sweatshirt, find it very snuggly, and keep her there long enough to take pictures.

And I did not start to panic when she started panicking about wanting out. I always think things through completely, and therefore had not forgotten to consider how I would get her out of the neck of my sweatshirt once she was done in there. (And as a side note, I do not use the word "panic" so much that my 4-year-old asked me this week, "are you starting to panic?" while I was rushing to get him to preschool on time. Nope, I am always in control and always on time.)

I also have not been finding it very funny and cute that Laura likes holding onto a disposable nursing pad before she nurses. And that she wads it up and sticks in the hole in my bra (you know, the little triangle shaped spot in the middle). And I certainly did not go to the attic today to pull out my old washable nursing pads so she'd have something more durable to chew on and play with. There's no way I would encourage her to use nursing pads as lovey toys.

I did not enjoy every minute of the time my mom spent at our house one afternoon this week so I could get some much needed work done on the computer. And I did not try to sneak a picture of this crew on the couch all the way from my desk. If I had done that, the picture would have turned out dark and less cute than it should have been.

It did not take me a month to figure out that one of Laura's reasons for eating less food lately was simply because she wants to sit at the big table and have a plate and fork like everyone else. This is my third kid, I know things like this.

I have certainly not deprived Laura of going outside this winter to the point that she promptly does this every time anyone starts getting ready to go anywhere.

I also did not allow Laura to empty all of the baggies out of their boxes in the cupboard while I was getting dinner ready. And I did not allow Chad to clean it up for me when he came home for lunch instead of doing it myself.

And there's absolutely no way that Laura got to bed late because Chad and I were taking turns giving her rides in a little tub after Evan and Kendra were in bed. Nope, we're way more strict about bedtimes in this house.

Hope you all have a great week! For my regular (4) blog readers, see you soon. For those of you who stop by to read my Not Me! Mondays, see you next week!

Oh, and I absolutely did not start my Not Me! Monday post at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon. And I sure did not do that just because I was hoping all 3 kids would nap and I could watch an episode of Psych on hulu with my sweetie.