Mommin' It Up!

July 28, 2008July 28, 2008

A Belated Thanks to Mister Rogers

A few months ago I noticed that one of our PBS stations, the one we don’t watch as much, still airs Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I had fond memories of the show so I set our TiVo to record it and introduced it to Joshua a few days later.

He loved it immediately. I mean he looooves it. He hearts Mister Rogers! And over the past few months, I’ve fallen in love with good ol’ Fred again myself! I love the way he talks to his “television neighbor” – in this case my son. He speaks so gently and earnestly to the children who watch the show. Joshua hangs on his every word. I love the way he talks to and asks questions of his guests on the show – he speaks as if he is a child, asking questions that may seem dumb and obvious to us Smarty McSmartypants adults, but are exactly what our kids want to know. Some of the guests crack me up, they just cannot get into the act. On one episode, when Mister Rogers was visiting a film-processing plant (which prompted Joshua to ask me where the film is in my digital camera! Ha! He’s getting a history lesson!), the plant manager looked at Mister R. like he was coo-coo when he motioned to the camera and said, “I’d like you to meet my television neighbor.” I don’t know if this guy was just shy, or didn’t have kids, or had never seen the show, but he was NOT playing along. I wanted to smack him!

A couple of weeks after Joshua really started to love the show (his favorite part is of course, the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segments), I started to do a little research on Fred McFeely Rogers. I knew he had passed away fairly recently but could not quite remember when. A quick Google search told me it was February 27, 2003.

Exactly one year to the day before Joshua was born.

I got a little misty. Ok, I cried. What are the odds?

So, Mister Rogers, I know you are up in Jesus’ neighborhood now, and it is more wonderful than anything you could have imagined in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. But down here, there are those of us who are still very appreciative of you and all you did for children, and are still very privileged to be your Television Neighbor. Thank you, sir. Now please do me another solid and go take Trolley for a spin on the ol’ Streets of Gold for Joshua!

July 27, 2008

Weekly Winners July 20-26 (sort of!)

Hosted By Sarcastic Mom

I’m cheating a little this week on WW by showing just a couple of photos I took last weekend. After being with our family at Kiser Lake all Satuday, I didn’t have time to go through all of the over 200 pictures I took and so these three are from last week!

Heres Sophie climbing out of the concrete basin of water they play in. She was looking at me for moral support or permission, I’m not sure which!

I caught the sun playing peek-a-boo. It was a beautiful day!

Joshua felt the need to water the already extremely wet ground – but he looked so cute doing it!

Now, on to the correct week! This week I did something that I hate doing, and that was painfully, disgustingly overdue. I CLEANED. I am the world’s worst housekeeper and well, you could really tell. Things were getting bad. So, I cleaned. Starting Tuesday I picked a room or rooms and each day and worked hard. So Friday afternoon, when the kids were napping, I got isnspired to take some pictures. My house is pretty when it’s clean!

Here’s my living room. Notice you can still see some toys under the couch and coffee table. Now, if ONLY I could get my kids to stop playing with toys…hmm…

Here’s our antique organ. My mother-in-law gave it to us. It was in my hubby’s childhood home. It still has the price tag on the inside that says 1899.

Candles on my dining room table…

And a happy little engine on the train table!

That’s as good as it gets for me this week! Go see Lotus at Sarcastic Mom for more Weekly Winners!

July 22, 2008July 22, 2008

Nancy Drew and the Case of the Mysterious Turd

The last couple of weeks my kids have been sick, and I have been dee-esperate to get out of the house. So I was thrilled last Wednesday when they were well enough to have a re-scheduled playdate with my friend Bethany and her boys Eban, 3, and Benji, 20 months. (Benji and Sophie are only 13 days apart in age! Aww.)

Bethany was kind enough to make lunch for us and after we got the kids settled in the living room with their food, we finally sat down at the kitchen table to eat. After about thirty seconds of adult conversation, Eban entered the room and said four words no mother ever wants to hear.

“Mommy, smell my hand.”

Bethany and I exchanged a “yikes” look. “Why? What’s it smell like?” she asked warily.

“Poop!” Eban replied. (Poop. Of course poop. What else would it be? I think we both knew he wasn’t going to say “lemons” or “roses”.)

With Beth’s next question, “Why does your hand smell like poop?” our quest to solve The Case of the Mysterious Turd began.

“Baby Sophie throw poop at me!” Eban answered cheerfully. Beth and I both jumped up and ran into the living room. I grabbed Sophie and gave her bum a good sniff. Nothing. I peeked inside her diaper. Also nothing. No clues there! “She’s clean!” I exclaimed. Beth did a similar check of Benji’s diaper, which was also turd-negative. Then we noticed a hard, round, black, thing on the floor. Beth moved in for a closer look. “It’s poop!” was her assessment.

Sophie had by this time began rubbing her face all over my chest so I went ahead and nursed her. After Beth’s turd sighting, I lifted Sophie’s hand to my nose. And screamed.

‘Cause it smelled like POOP!!!!!!!!

“She really did throw the poop!” I gasped, horrified. I put an end to our nursing session and ran her to the bathroom to thoroughly wash her hands.

Then Beth and I began re-enacting the Spanish Inquisition on our older boys.

“Where did Sophie get the poop?”
“Joshua did you poop your pants?”
“Eban did you poop your pants?”
“How did Sophie get the poop?”
“Where did the poop come from?”
“WHERE WAS THE POOP?”

After many, many, many “no” and “I don’t know”‘s from both boys, Eban told us that Sophie got the poop from his and Benji’s bedroom. Beth was, of course, mortified. “I swear I don’t just have random poop laying around my house!” she said anxiously.

By this time I was well past being horrified and was just cracking up. None of my playdates ever turn out normal! I was just glad Sophie didn’t friggin’ EAT the Turd of Mysterious Origins!!

So, we still have no idea where the turd came from. One of our kids’ rear-ends? Very probable! But Beth did have friends over the night before who changed their son’s diaper in her boys’ bedroom. So the theory we are most comfortable with is that it fell out of his diaper, unnoticed under the dresser or bed and that Eagle-Eye (or Dog-Nose) Sophie found it (like she finds everythings she shouldn’t have everywhere we go.) Because that’s the theory that makes both Beth and I less culpable in the Great Turd-Throwing Incident of 2008.

But who knows? Nancy Drew and her sleluthy pal Bess we aren’t.

We are way, way, hotter than they are though. And funnier. And our set of novels and subsequent movie are gonna rock so hard, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie will probably become BFF just to play us! Just wait!!