Christmas Fun?

It can be tricky trying to get Christmas shopping done with kids in tow. I seem to be a glutton for punishment because I took both boys with me to Target this morning. Granted, it is a store where they usually do okay, but Toby has a cold and needed a tissue every few minutes, and Asher was especially impatient and fussy. I made the mistake of putting a bag of gummy bears for a certain someone in my cart. The boys immediately coveted them. Asher wanted to hold them and them and kept asking, "Mommy, this mine?" Even though I told him several times, "No, they are for Debbie ," he kept begging for them. So, feeling badly that I drug them along on my shopping expedition, I thought I could open the bag and let them have a few as a treat for having to be at the store with mom. Little that I know that Asher would continue to ask for "more please!!" and that to save my sanity and try to plow through everything on my list the boys would end of eating almost the entire bag! Toby kept guiltily asking if I was going to buy another bag for Debbie's stocking, but that didn't stop him from enjoying them. Between my sneezing five-year-old (I kept stashing away used tissues in the diaper bag because I had no where else to put them - he must of gone through at least 10! Then I would bring out the Purell - we went through a lot of that too!) and my two-year-old gorging on gummy bears, I was feeling a bit self-conscious and kept telling myself that at least I would never see any of these people again anyway. In the middle of all this, Toby managed to knock quite a few clothes off of hangers, among other things, and was up to his usual mischievous antics. It was just one of those shopping trips...but we survived! And on the way home we sang silly songs about our shopping trip starring Asher as a fussy bear and Toby as a tiger with a runny nose and it helped lighten the mood. :)

Parenting is a Hazard!

Toby and I were looking at some pictures of children from Peru in a World Vision magazine. We decided to take out our big atlas so that I could show him where Peru was located. We were laying on our tummies, looking at the atlas, when Toby eagerly turned to the next map and the corner of the pages hit me right in the eye! It hurt, but since I was busy with the kids I wasn't able to do much about it until Tim got home a few hours later. By that point I realized that my vision was blurry in my right eye - the injured one. So, after talking to a nurse on the phone, I decided to go to urgent care, where the doctor discovered that sure enough, I had a hairline abrasion across my retina!

The kids were already in bed when I came home, so Toby didn't get to see me looking like a pirate with one eye patched. I wore the patch all night and went to see the opthamologist this morning. Thankfully, the abrasion had already healed so well overnight he didn't think any more medicating or patching was necessary. Phew!

Tim and I had to laugh. He broke his toe running around the house with Toby and I injured my eye looking at a book with him. When he is older we'll tease Toby that being his parent was hazardous to our health!

WHO? ME?

Hair-Raising!

A friend just lent me the book, "The Hair-Raising Joys of Raising Boys" by Dave Meurer, which it supposed to be quite funny. I haven't started it yet, but will need to soon in order to help myself see the humor in the hair-raising stunt Toby pulled today:

I have already mentioned on this blog that he loves to climb...

We were just leaving his gymnastics class at the community center this afternoon. Toby ran ahead of me when Teacher Brian, his instructor, began talking to me about the possibility of moving Toby up to the next level. I was hoping Toby would realize that I had not followed him out of the building and come running back. I continued the conversation, but really should of excused myself to call Toby back. Sure enough, a few moments later a man came in the door and asked if I was the mother of a boy with a green shirt on (I'm surprised he didn't say the boy with the red hair!). Outside of the building there is a brick wall with ledges every few feet all the way up to the top, and apparently Toby had climbed it. I went out to see and passed one mother, who said excitedly, "He is all the way to the top!" Yes, he was as far up as you can go. A nanny with a little girl in a stroller said to me, "He really likes to climb doesn't he?" I responded, "Yes, he does," through clenched teeth. I was not happy.

It was easy to help Toby get down. Hands first, then feet, now hands, now feet. He was down in seconds and was probably never in real danger since he is pretty agile, but it was still disconcerting that he would attempt a climb like that without a parent in sight! The same man that had alerted me of my son's actions came back out and said something about Spiderman, which I told him was Toby's middle name.

When I asked him later why that was a "sad choice" - our term for misbehavior - he knew exactly: because I climbed too high and could of fallen and because my mommy and daddy weren't there. Sigh. Why do I have the feeling there are many more hair-raising days to come?

Eye Drops

Asher usually eats a good breakfast, but if Tim is home, he shares a second breakfast with him. It cracks us up! He will stand beside Tim and wait for every other bite. Tim can't resist giving in to the little beggar and teases me that I must never feed the kid. Then as soon as Asher sees me getting my bag ready for whatever the day's activities are he will start asking for "ack" (snack), since he knows I always pack snacks in the bag. The boy could eat all day!

At 20 months, Asher weighs 26 lbs. 12 oz. I know this because we were at the doctor's office today! Asher had a red, somewhat swollen and crusty eye, so I called this morning and was able to get a 3:30 pm appointment for him. Tobiah tagged along. Eye drops were prescribed and I was able to administer them to Asher a lot better once I started bribing him with jelly beans. :)

By this time I'm noticing that Toby is rubbing his eyes and he finally admits to me that they are itchy. I was able to get a drop in to one of his eyes but he completely lost it after that and wouldn't let me get anything in the other eye. Jelly beans didn't work as well on him...not that he didn't want them, but he really disliked the feeling of the drop going in to his eye - it feels cold and stings a bit. (I know, because after all this my eyes began to feel uncomfortable and I decided I might as well give myself a dose as well!) I finally was able to get Toby to let me put the drops in his eyes right before he went to bed. I told him that I was going to put drops in my eyes as well and he very sweetly told me to "be brave".

I think part of the reason Toby was so sensitive about the drops is that he was just exhausted from his fun day. Tim was home this morning, so Asher stayed home with him and Tobiah and I met a friend and her two boys (ages 4 and 8) at the arboretum. It was SO FUN to do something with just Toby, stroller free! I could really keep up with him instead of constantly having to call him back! My friend and I just followed the boys' lead. It was wonderful! Today was a day that I could fully enjoy Toby's energy - what a gift!

Outside the doctor's office there is a wall that has square holes through it, perfect size for little boys feet. (Architects must not build with a mother's sanity in mind.) Toby, of course, didn't hesitate to scale it. Walls with any kind of a foothold bring out my son's inner Spiderman and I find myself quickly having to run over and spot him. He will climb anything!