The (insert name of vegetable here) Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree!

I know.....vegetables don't grow on trees. That title fits the post better, though....

I had to drag 5 children to 3 different doctors appointments this week. I used a bag of suckers to convince them to behave each time (because I am NOT above bribery.)

After one of the appointments, they were looking through the bag, trying to decide which delectable flavor to try.

Mikaily: "I want pink!"
Evan: "Me too!"
Kyle: "Mom, aren't these sugar?"
Me: "Yes, they are."
Kyle: "Daddy says sugar isn't good and it doesn't make you strong."
Me: "Sugar tastes good, but it isn't good for you."
Kyle: "Oh, ok. I think I want a green sucker. Green is like a vegetable and so it is better for me."

That's my boy! I have taught him well. :)

Here Sharky, Sharky, Sharky Sharky.......

I. hate. Sharks.

I know hate is a strong word, but I do. I hate them. There are many things on this earth that are annoying, but I can find a reason for them to be here. A purpose to their existence. Bees are annoying, but they help to pollinate flowers and make honey, which is really yummy. See, they have a purpose. The only purpose I can find for sharks is to keep the surfer population under control..and to strike fear in the hearts of all those that are sensible enough to be scared of them.

There is no point in leaving me a comment trying to convince me of a sharks purpose or trying to explain to me that God created all animals for a reason. I won't believe you. I hate sharks.

Yesterday, my family went to the beach. The beach we go to is small. It is never very crowded. There are lifeguards on duty. It is a nice beach.

In the past, we have seen lots of different sea critters. We have seen crabs and clams. We have seen sea slugs and sting rays. There have been tiny fish and BIG fish and star fish and all sorts of fish. We have even seen dolphins swimming just off shore a few times.

Well, yesterday, my worst nightmare came true.

We had been walking along the edge of the water and came to this point where the seaweed was pretty scarce and the water was REALLY clear and decently shallow. I told Jason he should take the little ones out into the water and walk around to see what they could see. My husband was about 30 feet out in the water. He had Evan (my 3 yr old) and Kyle (my 5 year old) with him. My daughter Mikaily (8 yr old) was about halfway out to him. I was on the sand (where anyone with a brain stays), watching Alaina play with the shells. I heard Jason yell....
"HEY! There's a shark!" and he took a couple of quick steps forward.
"HAHA! Very funny!" I said back to him. Knowing full well that he was pulling my leg because I am petrified of sharks.
"No, I'm serious." he said, looking up at me.
I could tell by the look on his face he was serious.
"Well get out of the water. NOW!" I yelled back at him.
Kyle listened. So did Kaily. The two of them came running towards me as fast as they could through the water, yelling "SHARK!!!!!!" I told them to hush, as not to induce panic.
"It's tiny. It's only about this big." He said as he held up his two pointer fingers, about ten inches apart. At that point, Kyle turned around and headed back out. My heart started racing. If there was a shark out there, I didn't want my children in the water...no matter how tiny it was. A ten inch shark could bite off Kyle's toe. Then, that would attract a bigger shark, that would swoop in out of no where and swallow him whole, before we had a chance to do anything about it! I told Kyle and Evan to come to me. They didn't listen. I watched them, wading around in the water that was chest high on them. they were staring down into the water and taking a step this way...then that way...then back again. It was obvious they could see it and were following it around.

Some other guy and his wife came along. He apparently knew a lot about sharks and had heard Jason say he saw one. So, what does a strange man who knows a lot about sharks do when he comes across one on the beach. Well, he herds it up to the shore and then.....picks it up, of course! That's right, I said he picked it up.

So, yesterday at the beach, not only did my children SEE a shark.....they TOUCHED a shark's belly. Seriously creepy. My heart still thumps when I think about it. I was visibly shaking. I don't care how tiny it is. It still has teeth. Tiny, SHARP teeth that could easily slice through flesh if it really wanted to.

A small crowd gathered. The guy let the kids look and touch it until he could tell the baby shark had had enough and he tossed it back out into the water. I looked it up online today. It was a bonnethead shark...a member of the hammerhead family. ICK!!! Makes me nauseous just thinking about it. No wonder I avoid going to the beach! And OF COURSE it would be the one time I forgot to take my camera with me......so here is one I found on google images....


So then today my day didn't get any better. I was straining the noodles for dinner and I looked outside on the lanai and found this:

Geesh!! This was not nearly as scary to me as the baby shark was, though.

Then this evening, Laney's polka dots decided to make a comeback. I am guessing it's just another viral rash, since that is what they told us it was last time. Although, both times now she has also been on antibiotics, so I am slightly worried that she might be having a reaction to the antibiotic. Who knows?? (notice her left eye? It's all swollen from where the infection is now coming out through her eye....ewwww!!)



The spots haven't broken her spirit, though. This is her, "I am cute and I totally know it" face.

Now, I am going to bed and not waking up for at least 3 days.....ok, well at least 3 hours. *sigh*

My Little Fish

This week is Laney's last week at swim lessons. She is doing really well. Yesterday's lesson was water safety. AKA.... "Today is the day we are going to show you that, even though you THINK your baby is doing really well, she will still die if she falls in a pool because you aren't watching her." They had us bring the babies in full clothes...shoes and all. It was interesting. I figured Laney would sink like a rock. She didn't, but she also seemed to forget everything she had learned and just kind of flopped around and bobbed up and down like a buoy.

At one point in the lesson the insructor was like "Ok, all the moms get out of the pool." We were all confused because we hadn't done anything previously that didn't involve us being IN the water with the babies. We all climbed out and then, one by one, watched as they dangled our babies over the water....and dropped them....

The whole time I was sitting on the edge of the pool, waiting for it to be Laney's turn, thinking "I can't believe I actually voluntarily signed up for this...AND PAID MONEY for them to drown my child." She didn't drown, of course. And it was definitely eye opening.

I think it is the closest I have ever come to having a heart attack. Laney couldn't get herself turned around and get a hold of the wall (like she was supposed to and could have if she had been in just a bathing suit) but she did keep kicking her feet and bobbing her head in and out of the water. Which was a step up from the little boy who went right before her who ended up with a big air bubble in the back of his shirt that tipped him forward, FACE DONW, in the water. Where he stayed.....until the instructor scooped him out. I guess we all still have a long ways to go.

My husband and I are planning on taking our older three and throwing them into the pool, fully dressed, to see what they do. You can look forward to those pictures. :)

I know you have already seen pictures of her swimming like this....

Look close and you can see the little, yellow flippers she's been wearing when we go. It's soo cute!

But last night we got back a picture of her and I figured I would share with you what she looks like from a different point of view...



She's a fish!! Tee Hee!

More Than Meets the Eye

I met another celebrity this past week.

It's always so exciting. I hate the fact that I get start struck, though. I always try to play it cool, but I tend to end up looking like a big dork.

I had my children with me. In fact, this particular celebrity was someone that my 5 year old, Kyle, was soooooo excited to see. Of course, he apparently didn't inherit the freak-out gene from me. He was Mr. Cool.

It happened like this:

We pulled up into the parking lot at Target, just like we had every other time we have gone. I wasn't paying much attention to anything but the fact that there was a primo spot, right up front. I pulled in. Parked on the driver's side was a yellow car. I did notice, as I climbed out to open my side door to get my children out, that the car was very shiny and sporty looking.

As I opened the sliding door, Kyle climbed out of his seat and hopped out of the van. I heard him gasp a little. I felt a little tug on my shirt as I looked down at him.

"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Mom! Look!" He said as he pointed to the car.
"Ohhh, yeah. It's really coool, isn't it??" I said, because I am such a cool, hip mom.
He rolled his eyes at me. I continue to unload the other children.
"Nooooo. LOOK!" And he moved his pointed finger to with in an inch of the car.
I grabbed his hand and pulled it back. "Ky! Don't touch other people's cars."
"But mom! It's Bumblebee!!"
"Huh??" I said. I turned around and looked at where he was pointing on the car. I saw something, but it wasn't a bumblebee. What was it.....?? I looked closer. It was the autobot symbol, from Transformers.

DUH!!! It's BUMBLEBEE!!!

I looked closer and it did, in fact, look JUST like Bumblebee...black stripes and all. I was so bummed I didn't have my camera with me. Kyle would have LOVED having his picture taken with the car. I finally got Kyle to walk away by reminding him that Bumblebee was in hiding and probably didn't want anyone to know he was there.

As we walked away, Kyle said "Don't worry Bumblebee, I won't tell anyone it's you."

It was sooooo cute!!

Death By Snot

Currently, I have 4...count them 1.....2.....3.....4....sick children. They all seem to have been struck with one of THOSE colds. The cold that grabs onto the inside of their little noses and never EVER seems to go away. The cold that produces an endless amount of thick, gooey, stick-all-over-everything-it-comes-into-contact-with, green snot......and it's JULY! JULY!!!! They aren't supposed to have these colds in JULY! This is a January cold. July colds are supposed to come and go in a day and a half...TOPS! There is snot ALL OVER THE PLACE. There is snot in hair and on the couch. It's smeared on toys and across walls. There are little dirty, snot-filled tissues spilling out of every garbage can. It's endless!!! If, for some reason, this is the last blog post I do, it's because I have died....drowned....after my house filled up with SNOT!

She'll Always Be My Baby

We have this tiny, toy, baby stroller. Laney has decided it is not actually for baby dolls, but instead, is the perfect size for her cute, little, bottom!

Hazardous To Humans

Hazardous to Humans......that's what I read on the back of the bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles after my baby shot a stream of the stinky, white foam into her mouth.


My husband was brushing my oldest daughter's teeth last night and let Laney into the bathroom with them. I guess he became so enthralled with the whole molar scrubbing ordeal that he forgot about Laney for a few seconds. That's all the longer she needed to open the cabinet door (one of only a couple in the house that haven't had a child lock put on them yet), get out the bottle, take off the cap, insert into mouth and PRESTO.....she looked like she had been bit by a rabid dog and was foaming at the mouth.

Jason hollered for me. I came running because I could tell by the sound of his voice that something was wrong. He had her hanging over the sink already, and I immediately started scooping out the foam that was in her mouth before I even knew exactly what it was. I rinsed her mouth out with water the best I could and grabbed the bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles. I flipped it over and it read:

"Hazardous to Humans. If swallowed, call poison control immediately."

UGH!

So, we did. I was holding Laney is my arms as my husband dialed the number. I kept imagining that she was going to start convulsing in my arms. The guy my husband talked to didn't seem so worried, though. In fact, they talked for a total of about 30 seconds. He told Jason since we got to her so quickly it wasn't anything we needed to worry about. And that we just needed to watch her for the next little while to make sure she didn't get blisters in or around her mouth, because that would mean she was blistering inside as well (I'm sorry, WHAT?!?! Blistering inside!?!! HOW is that something we don't need to worry about??) But.... she didn't. She was fine.

The crappy thing is that I HATE HATE HATE scrubbing bubbles. I don't use it. I can't stand the way it smells. It reminds me of vomit and, therefore, makes me feel the need to hurl every time I smell it. So why in the world do I even have it in my house?!?! I guess I should stop procrastinating and get around to doing my spring cleaning and throwing out all the crap in my house I don't ever use......and put the last baby locks on the doors. That shouldn't be too hard, right?? You know, in all the spare time I have......

Just Keep Swimming.....

Ever wonder what a 12 month old looks like during swim lessons??


She has had 2 lessons so far. Pretty much it's just dunking her over and over and over and over.....getting her used to holding her breath when she goes underwater. I was skeptical, but it's actually working. She isn't swallowing water anymore. They use lots of different and unique ways of dunking her...like, singing songs then dunking her or sitting her on the edge of the pool and then dunking her or sitting her on a big, floating piece of foam and then, you guessed it....dunking her. Although, when I say "dunking her" that makes it sound so harsh and it's really not. This lady is REALLY good at what she does and Laney is actually having a really good time.