Christmas is Coming!

I love this time of year. People seem to be a little nicer, and you can actually talk about Christ and Christmas. He is, afterall, the reason that we have Christmas. The Spanish word for more is mas. So Christmas could mean more Christ. What a neat concept. When we put Him first, we can put things in perspective.
That said... Can you believe Christmas will be here in 2 weeks? How does time go by so fast? I still have so much to do! I finished my shopping, but I need to wrap the gifts. That's always the hard part. Natalie and Drew would open them if I put anything under the tree at this point, so I have to keep everything hidden. I have my cards, and all I need to do is stuff them in the envelopes and mail them. I will try to get that done today so that they'll go out in tomorrow's mail. I still need to make the treats that I'm taking to my neighbors, but I have all of the ingredients. That's a start! I will make tags to go with the treats tonight.

Mom, I telling da troof...

So here's Natalie's new thing. She likes to fib. It's usually just small things, but still.. she does it, and she does it frequently. It's the age so I try to not get too upset, but sometimes it gets frustrating. Her usual thing is getting a snack from the fridge or freezer- sometimes the pantry- and then she brings it to me and expects me to give it to her. Even if she's just had one she'll say "I didn't get one wast night. I need to have one for my belly can feel better." And, of course, Drew wants whatever she has. And if she doesn't get one then she pitches a royal fit. But she's my third child so I'm used to it. It's not a big deal.

So last night I'm sitting downstairs watching a show with Kent. I had tucked her in about 20 minutes before and things are relatively quiet. She really likes to sneak down at least 2 or 3 times a night to spend more time with me. One Tuesday night she came downstairs and told us that there was "something nasty, really nasty" on the stairs. Usually when she says that it's a diaper that didn't make it to the trash can (or that Drew took out to carry something around), and we pick it up and throw it away. Sometimes it's a bug that is so small we have to get down on the floor to see it. Well we didn't really think much of it, but it was past her bedtime so we finally went to look. It was a pile of something kind of coarse. It looked like sand or something... We really couldn't figure out what it was. We just knew it started at the top of the landing and came down to the bottom of the stairs, most of it in a pile on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stair. We tried to get her to tell us what it was. It wasn't there when we put her to bed, and all of the other kids were in bed. She just kept saying that it was something really nasty and she didn't know what it was. Kent got the vacuum and cleaned it up. I interrogated her and asked her to tell me what it was or at least show me where it came from. She said that it was nasty so she threw it in the trash. That wasn't possible because she didn't come to the kitchen to throw anything away, but she took me to that trash can to show it to me. So Kent finishes, and as he get to the top of the stairs he sees the source of the mess. An empty salt and an empty pepper shaker. They had just been refilled, so were quite full. I'm not sure why she did it, but she adamantly denied making the mess, and didn't know where it came from. But when I said she shouldn't tell Mom and Dad lies, that she should tell us what really happened, she simply replied, "Mom, I telling da troof..."

Then on Wednesday night we put her to bed. After a few minutes we knew that we had heard her moving around upstairs, but she didn't come down. We were just going to ignore it, but Kent needed something so he ran upstairs to grab it. Then he started yelling. Natalie got some toothpaste, lip moisturizer and ointment and put them all over the floor. Again, we questioned her as we cleaned it up and I said she should tell Mom what really happened, she simply replied, "Mom, I telling da troof..."

Face of an angel... mind of a stinker...

So here's my cute baby Drew. He looks so cute, so innocent. You might have a hard time believing that this kid has caused so many problems lately.

We'll start with the small things. First off, he started coloring. He uses pencils, pens, crayons and markers to paint the walls, floors, furniture and toilet lid. Most of those things come off with my handy, dandy Mr. Clean Eraser. However, Drew just found a new medium that doesn't come off so easily... my lipstick. He colored as much as he could color with a brand new tube of lipstick. Then he got mad at me when I discovered him coloring.

So I think I can deal with this. He's only 1. He won't be 2 until next month. Right? Of course. Well he decided to start eating the dog food. And when Justin caught him and told him to stop, he started yelling (baby words), I mean really yelling, at Justin. Justin went to move the dog food and Drew tried to tackle him as he punched and yelled at Justin. Justin comes in to tell me so that I can take care of it, and I get about the same reaction from Drew. However, I have Justin get the food while I'm talking to Drew and he moves it. Drew is pretty perturbed, but he no longer has access to the food.

Now, I've dealt with my kids trying to push the limits before, but Drew is having a little too much fun with this next item. (He really is his father's son...) His new favorite thing to do is to have me hold him. Well, really it's always been one of his favorite things, but especially lately. And if Natalie or Trevor tries to get near me while I'm holding him watch out. He gets so angry! Well now when I hold him and he has no competition, he looks up at me and smiles, then "innocently" moves his hand onto my breast. Then he looks back up- innocently, of course, and smiles. When I move his hand he tries to do this again. Real funny. NOT! Well to him it's a game. He loves to play it in front of Kent. He usually just likes me to hold him and then give me kisses, but this is a new game that he thinks is so entertaining. I have go to get control of this kid!!!

The final bit tonight is about his obsession with toilet paper. He has a great time pulling off the toilet paper. Okay, all kids do it... nothing new here... right? Well, he started with the TP coming off the roll. He found the most enjoyment from pulling it off a new roll and letting it all come down to his feet. After a few days that got boring, so he started opening the lid to the toilet and putting it all in there. Over the weekend he did that with 3 rolls in a 24-hour span. (We've had to start locking the door to the bathroom.) Well, he got in on Monday night and did his little trick with the TP. This time, however, after we cleaned it up, he went back in and put the toilet paper holder down the toilet. And he flushed. And Natalie said it went down. We didn't really think it was possible so we ignored her. So the toilet doesn't flush very well. We think that someone has used a little too much TP and we need to just help it on its way. So on Tuesday Kent spent 30 minutes plunging the toilet. It didn't fix it. On Wednesday I spent 5 minutes plunging the toilet. It didn't fix it. Today, Thursday, Trevor thought we had fixed it so he sat down and used it... really used it. Only it didn't flush. And there was a HUGE mess in the toilet now... Well, Kent and I thought that we needed to pull the toilet up to see what was causing the blockage, and so he went to Home Depot, got a new seal. Then tonight he and the 2 older boys went to work. They cleaned it out, and pulled the toilet up. Guess what they found? The toilet paper roll holder. Stuck down at the bottom of the toilet. Natalie was telling the truth. Needless to say, we are going to buy a new toilet paper holder.

If you hear any strange noises coming from my house it's probably him. I'm sure he will find something else to do. It's only a matter of time.