Dirty Rats!

As I mentioned in my last post, PopPop & GiGi added 2 "precious" little rats to our home for Christmas this past year. The previously un-named vermin have officially been dubbed; Fright (on the left, because she seems to be scared of everything) & Dora (on the right, because she LOVES to explore).

Though they have only been a part of our home for just over a month now, the boys are still willing to "clean" the cage each day and play with the "girls". In fact, the most interested in the "ratties" is Ben. He loves to stick his chubby little fingers in the cage (which Fright loves to ... taste) and he has become a pro at putting their food in their bowl. He however, does NOT like the feel of their little claws on his skin and will not tolerate them climbing on him. Toby & Seth have discovered that Dora & Fright enjoy hooded sweatshirts, so that is often the standard "cleaning" attire so that have a place to hang out til the cage is ready.

Dora got her name due to her numerous expeditions during the afore mentioned cleaning sessions. Though she wants to check everything out and moves quickly from one side of the room to the other, she is very happy to be "caught". Fright on the other hand will dart out and back in to the cage, always seeming to be measuring the distance and time it would take her to return to the safety of home. However, she has discovered one place she is likes almost as much as the cage...the dresser drawers. She will run under the dresser and climb into the bottom drawer, when you open it to find her she climbs up into the next and the next and then back down. It is nearly impossible to find and catch her (which she really does not like) once she gets in there.

Dora & Fright live on the dresser in Toby & Seth's room, near a rather poorly insulated window. So, being the animal lover that I am (not wanting to deal with 3 young men when they awoke to find a rat-sicle), I sacrificed an older towel to the cause to hopefully provide a little extra wind-breaker over the cage. Though I do not understand it, it came as no surprise when I noticed the ends of the towel had been pulled inside the cage and shredded. However, what was quite ... upsetting, was when I was doing laundry and noticed what they had done to the sleeves on one of the boys shirts--a favorite hand-me-down from BIG cousin J. Patrick.

I was furious. If those dirty rats had been bigger, I would have tried to figure out a way to make coats out of them. Then I thought about my boys letting the rats roam their room and even encouraging them to "hide" in the dresser drawers--which they have been explicitly told not to allow to happen. This thought only made it worse. I had to calm myself down by saying things like; "They're just dumb animals. What did I expect from them? I knew this was what they do."

BUT, I TOTALLY LOST IT! when I caught one of those dirty rats gnawing on the sleeves right in front of me.

3 Fakes and 1 Real Christmases

Living 3 hours from most of our family has provided us with much more visits than the 13-16 hours away that we have lived for all of our boys lives. One of the boys favorite advantages to this is the numerous "Christmases" this provides ... affectionately referred to as "fake Christmas" (a celebration of Christmas on a date, albeit near the actual holiday but on a different date and not the "official" event involving just our immediate family). This year we were able to have 3 "fake Christmases"!

"Christmas" came one week early when Aunty Kristin and Uncle Mike stopped by to spend the night on their way to Gatlinburg to celebrate "real" Christmas with Mike's family and it was a White One. Seth scored real cowboy boots and Toby a Buccaneers helmet and jersey. But the highlight was the snowball fight with Uncle Mike and Zoey.

Toby tooks a cold one right in the face

That week ended with "fake Christmas" #2 with Gamma & Gampa and a (real) Christmas Eve, Eve meal featuring a birthday cake for Jesus' with an assist from Ben.

"Real" Christmas began with our tradition of opening one present of new pjs. "Real" Christmas morning was full of more wonderful things -- though ironically we celebrated it on Dec. 26 (cause Santa knows we are Adventist) -- technically making it "fake Christmas" 2.5. However, the "green thing" from cousins Julia, Henry and Patrick (as well as aunt Kerri & uncle Jonathan) may have been the biggest hit.

Our final "fake Christmas" didn't come until three weeks later when PopPop & GiGi returned from real Christmas in France. Again, it was wonderful, everyone loved playing with Ben's infant toy 'spinny' car track.

However, the biggest hit of the holidays had to be, Thelma & Louise ... Hildy & Gerdy ... Dora/Zippy & Fright/Kitty ... or whatever they end up being called.

Fake Christmas makes us smile (especially when we get to have 3)!

RABBIT RABBIT!!

This post was intended to get back at my brother-n-law who texts me every month with this message (to supposedly "steal" ones luck for the next month if you are the first to say it on the first day the month). Being an ER doc, he is often on duty during the wee-hours of the new month (when I am usually sleeping) and is able to get me before I can get him. However, just over 2 weeks ago he, his wife and 1.5 kids moved to Africa ....

I figured that being the first to do it in January would give me all his luck for the new year!

Apparently, someone beat me to getting him, because I just got word that he has Malaria!

Now, I feel a little guilty ... and slightly worried that because I attempted to get him when he was "suffering" the Rabbit Rabbit is going to back-fire on me and he will end up with all my luck for the new year after all.

I just can't win ... but at least I don't have malaria!

The Tooth Fairy is Not the One that is Sick!

Apparently, Seth decided to catch up to Toby's money haul in one fell swoop....

The SECRET note (this is of course private and none of us have any knowledge of it) was a "request" for, and I quote; "I wont for my tooth 100 one dollar bils".

The Tooth Fairy's nice apology for missing last night was removed by the Tooth Fairy's Boss and replaced by a less nice explanation that it is the Tooth Fairy's job to take lost teeth and that any money left in its place was a token GIFT, therefore not subject to negotiation.

The Tooth Fairy is Sick

So, Seth FINALLY nursed his first loose tooth (bottom left center) out yesterday, much to his surprise I think. I believe he has been anxiously awaiting the day that the Tooth Fairy would finally visit him.

... For clarity, it is important to know that Toby "lost" his first tooth while visiting PopPop and GiGi who pointed out that the Tooth Fairy pays extra when you are with grandparents. He then managed to "lose" his next tooth while they were visiting as well. Long story short, some people make their fortune selling their blood; he has gotten rich "losing" teeth.

Apparently Seth has witnessed Toby's prosperity enough for it to be fact that lost teeth and riches go hand in ... mouth, because there was no fanfare about what to do. However, there was a moment of great wailing and gnashing of teeth when I caught him quickly stuffing something under his pillow -- assuming it was some sort of contraband to be played with after he was supposed to be asleep. After he got his mother involved, it was discovered that in fact it was just a SECRET note to the Tooth Fairy that we were not allowed to see. Disaster (momentarily) averted.

All seemed well until this morning when it was discovered that after all that trouble the Stupid Tooth Fairy did not show up!

I'm pretty sure the Tooth Fairy is leaving an apology tonight for being sick and unable to fulfill its duties previously ... along with some extra cash Apparently, grandparents aren't the only way to make more off of lost teeth!

Birthday Revisited

Though 41 was "not all that special," 41 years and 2 days wasn't all that bad.

PopPop and GiGi showed up about 20 minutes after Ben's nap and took us to lunch. That was followed by indulgent birthday gifts including; "crap cakes," Cracklin' OatBran, cupcakes with sport rings on top (think those might have been intended for someone who's birthday it was not--either way, they have all be confiscated!), a coconut cake, and gift cards to some of my favorite places. After picking the big boys up from school, PopPop "big boy" sat and GiGi took me grocery shopping. This was followed by ordering in pizza from Papa John's (where else?). All-in-all, the "un-birthday" was much better than the real one.

41 years and 3 days ... sucked ... literally. The garage and basement leaked, soaking Charity's grandfathers homemade desk and bookcase in the garage as well as several yet unpacked boxes and a rolled up rug (like 12X8). So I spent a significant amount of time--at least far more than I had wanted to--trying to suck up water, quickly unpack disintegrating boxes and raising wet furniture. On a positive note, apparently the previous renters left a dehumidifier in the basement. But as luck would have it, I did not notice that it was devoid of a basin plug--so all collected water immediately drained back onto the floor! 41 years and 3 days made 41.0 look like a dream day!

41 years and 4 days has been a little bit of a roller-coaster however. For starters, it's Friday. But, no rain, sunny and about 69 degrees all day. Having remembered past frustrations with getting the house clean then bring home 2 more kids, I opted to do laundry instead of clean floors. Good deal, cause I don't like doing floors. Don't like bathrooms either, but with Ben asleep and Charity at work I was able to use REAL cleaners on I hit the bathrooms hard. They fought back, and the "master" tub won. I bleach sprayed and Ajax-ed the think and it still looks like ... well at least it smells clean! While going beyond the 'call of duty' and putting away some of the kids clothes, I heard a thud and Ben start to cry. This is not an unusual occurrence and it look like he had just trip over his own feet, again, so I was in no rush to "baby" him. Then I noticed his unusually red mouth. After having him take several drinks of water I asked him to stick out his tongue for me--which he did without my showing him what I wanted. I had never asked him to do this before and had never seen him do it, so I was shocked when he did it immediately. That shock was quickly surpassed by the shock of seeing a good 1/2 inch puncture hole in his tongue. However, by this time there was no crying so I just went on with the day without fussing over what is really a pretty gnarly self inflicted wound and I have absolutely no idea how he did it! After a good little nap, Ben and I hit the Christian bookstore at the mall and picked up the new Max Lucado book Out Live Your Life and the new Jimmy Needham CD, thanks to a gift card from my little sister that arrived via P&G on 41.2. Lucado has been discussing his book on KLOVE radio during September and they have had his chapters up each day on the website. I was excited about getting to read it for free, but never really got around to doing each day. When I finally did, I realized they don't leave them up forever and got chapter one but couldn't get 2-4. I was hooked and was excited that thanks to my baby sis, I could still get it for "free"--kind of. Jimmy Needham is one of my new favorites. He is the Christian alternative to Jason Mraz, same voice and style, different lyrics. 41.4 is about a 7 out of 10.

Here's hoping 41....gets better with age.

Birthday Review

In the profound words of one birthday well-wisher; "41 is not all that special!"

After over sleeping, my birthday began like a king ... on the throne! (I'm assuming you do not want any details other than that)

With everyone running late, I opted for a breakfast of cold cereal, only to discover we had about 1/2 a cup of milk in the house. So, plan "B" was a quick pot of Cream of Wheat ... wouldn't thicken, turned out more like ... the water in the sink after doing dishes.

Rush the kids off to school ... hold it, they had to go back in to retrieve some crucial piece of paper or something. Unload with 2 minutes to spare as wife text me that she forgot to bring a hat for "Hat Day" and asking if I could bring one from the front closet. Return to the house, leaving toddler in running vehicle as I dash in to find a hat. All hats in front closet are ski caps--if I'm bringing a hat for Hat Day, it's going to be a COOL hat--so quick hunt for one of my two storage containers of unique hats, but how to choose one--grab 5. Back to the school, line up several great options to choose from and wife picks ... plain-ish ski cap.

Back at the house I unload 5 unchosen supremely cool, unique hats and toddler to find front door left open from the retrieval of the useless piece of paper earlier. (Ye, you are wanting to blame me for the open front door, however I entered through the garage to save time when retrieving ultra sweet head gear!)

You might assume (you know what that does right?) this is the point--having gotten wife and two of the three kids off to school--that I begin to enjoy my birthday. If you know anything about me, that would be a good guess because you know that my ultimate birthday would be spent in solitude. However, if that is what you are assuming, you clearly forgot that I still had a toddler with me! I couldn't even get some privacy on a return trip to the throne room! (You are pretty happy right about now that I haven't yet find the battery charger to my camera, aren't you?!?)

To this point in My Day I had not had a shower, time for devotions, a full meal and had received only one solid birthday wish--a text message from youth in Florida. In fairness, my wife did mumble in passing about halfway through the bustle of the morning; "I guess I should say 'Happy Birthday.'" My two oldest sons, my own flesh and blood refused to sing "Happy Birthday" to me when it was suggest by my wife ask she fled from the house! My only gifts were the 2 my youngest son ... made for me (OH to have that camera charger so I could share that 'joy'!). Come to think about it, maybe it was "Happy Birthday" he was 'singing' for over an hour as I was trying to put him to sleep!

Not to dis my youngest sons 'presents,' but the best gift I got may have been the hot shower I was finally able to take at 11:45 AM. Peace and quiet were too shortly lived as my special Joe's Corral lunch was interrupted when the baby woke up early and insisted that he have my immediate and undivided attention. Tranquility was only shoved further into the galaxy when the older two got home with cartoon-level energy that had been pent up for 8 hours.

I know what you are thinking and I would have "gone to the garden and eaten worms," but it was raining!

In honest hindsight, it wasn't all terrible. I did receive a card with a generous gift from my mother-n-law of all people. Ditched my wife with all 3 kids and took myself out to eat. Got the yearly call from my best friend, talked the whole drive home and hung up 2 minutes before Chuck started. The baby "called" my wife to bed about 11:20 PM and I was able to spend the last 30 minutes of my 41 year like I was secretly hoping to spend the whole day -- ALONE!

As Willy Shakespeare would say ... All's Well that Ends Well