What's Next....

Many of you like to say..."what's next" when it comes to the life around the Richardson household.  So in honor of you guys that is the title of today's message! 
It hasn't been a bad week, just funny, crazy, weird and just a smidge stressful!  So let me get busy and catch everyone up!

Monday:  Well it was just a Monday and nothing really happened until Monday afternoon when the boys got home from school.  I was sitting at the kitchen table reading the mail when I see Eli walk in from outside with his underwear in one hand and pants in the other.  Some have said I shouldn't post this because it might embarrass Eli in the future, but after this week it's all fair game!  So....

"Eli, what are you doing and why are your pants off?"

"Because"

"Because why Eli?"
"Because I poopy"
"Eli, why did you poopy in your pants?"
"Because I didn't make it in time"
"Eli, tell mommy the truth"
"Because I went the wrong way"
"Eli"
"Because I got lost"
"Eli, this is your last chance....tell me the truth right now"
"WELL BELLE AND GUS POOP OUTSIDE ALL THE TIME?"

So he didn't poop in his pants....he just pulled his pants down in the front yard and pooped like a dog in front of all our neighbors.....GREAT!

Tuesday:  I guess you could say that Eli was really feeling like the middle child and needed some extra attention.  At least this is what I told myself when  on Tuesday afternoon he called for me to come and look at something.  He sounded almost excited and couldn't wait for me to come see what he had done.  So I went to find him sitting about halfway down the stairs with something in his hands.  I said "Eli, what is that?" and at that moment I recognized what "that" was.  It was my rice container that I had just filled up a few days prior, only now it wasn't full anymore.  There was rice all down the stairs....in the basement...and on the pool table.  Logical question: "Eli, why did you do that?".  Logical answer:  "because".  I didn't even bother with the back and forth game....I just got the vacuum out and got busy cleaning.

Right about the time I finished vacuuming up the rice I hear a deafening scream coming from the back porch.  I ran outside to find Andrew in shambles screaming, crying and holding his foot.  Uncle Steve was visiting us so he had Andrew in his arms and told me that Andrew had a splinter.  I'm thinking...a splinter...Andrew is crying this hard over a splinter...geez!  As you all know Andrew is that kid that if something weird is going to happen it will be to him.  He also is very tough and doesn't ever cry when he gets hurt....unless he is really hurt.  So when I turned his foot over and saw the splinter I knew why he was screaming.  The splinter was in a wedge shape and had gone in one side on the pad of his foot and came out about an inch down.  The top part of the splinter was the largest part and it was embedded under the skin so deep that you couldn't reach it with tweezers.  The bottom end was like a needle poking out and it was in there deep.  Try as I might the thing wouldn't budge so I made the decision to take him to the doctor and have them remove it.  May I remind everyone that he had not stopped screaming yet and didn't stop until we arrived at the doctor....and he was still whimpering then.  This picture does not even do it justice and the darker spot at the top is way under the skin so even though it looks like I could just yank it out, I couldn't.

We got into the doctor's office and the doctor could not get it to budge and Andrew was screaming and finally the doctor stopped.  He looks at me and says "well, that is quite a splinter and it looks like it has barbed and splintered down inside the foot.  I'm going to send you down to Kosair's ER(our children's hospital) to get it removed."  I'm thinking...you've got to be kidding me...it's just a splinter!  So off we go to Kosair's and when we arrived they take us right back.  The doctor comes in and takes a look and says the same thing as the last doctor, "wow, that's a big splinter"!  So the game plan was to put numbing gel on it for an hour and then remove it.  Normally they only leave the numbing gel on for 30 mins, but the pad of your foot is really difficult to get numb so they left it on for over an hour.  After the hour was up we went to the procedure room where they wrapped Andrew like a mummy in sheets and strapped him to the bed.  Andrew looks at me and says "mommy, is it going to hurt again?" and I say "no baby, they put the special medicine on it so it won't hurt".......I will live to regret those words!  I should have known when the doctor didn't offer any words of comfort after I had said this that it was still going to hurt.  So the doctor is at the foot, the nurse is hovering over his legs and I am at his head talking to him when all of a sudden the screaming begins.  The foot was already sore from the other doctor poking at it and now this doctor is trying to cut the skin and dig the splinter out.  I have never heard my son scream and cry like he did that night.  Shear pain and he screamed so hard that he busted every blood vessel in his face an neck.  By the time it was over...probably 10 min.....there were three nurses on top of him and I was lying across his chest.  He was breaking out of the restraints and it took all of us to hold him down.  The doctor said "he has got to be one of the strongest kids I've ever met".  Everyone felt so sorry for him and knew how bad it hurt.  The doctor felt 50/50 that he had gotten it all and sent us to x-ray to make sure.  If there was some left in there we would have had to have surgery to get it removed.  I joked and said "no big deal, we'll be up here tomorrow morning at 6 am with my daughter for surgery...we can just run from room to room".  Thankfully the x-ray came back clean and we left with a big box of toys that they gave him for being so brave!  At this point it is just a wait and see game to make sure nothing is still in there.  If it starts swelling then we will have to do the surgery thing.  He said the x-ray might not have picked up on the small foreign objects, aka "splinter". 

Wednesday:  Payton had a lingual hernia that needed to be fixed so we were scheduled for surgery.  We left the house at 5:30 to arrive at the hospital at 6:00. 

Everything went great and she came through the surgery and recovery without a hitch! As we were sitting in the waiting room I leaned over to Jesse and said: "I think we need to be done having kids...I can't deal with much more of this stuff!"  I can handle most anything but when it comes to my kids health.....well I think you can all understand!

We arrived home around 10:30 and she slept for most of the day!

After I had got her to sleep that evening I decided that I would go and plant the plants that I had ordered.  They had arrived that day and I wanted to get them in the ground asap!  I had planted 3 of 9 when I went to fill up my bucket with water.  I was planting in the back yard and the faucet is on the back side of the house.  I put my bucket up there and cut on the water and just happened to look down and see this:

Needless to say I threw my bucket and ran screaming like a little girl!  Jesse came out and decided to be the crocodile hunter.  He wanted a picture with it so he spent the next 30 minutes chasing the snake down and trying to pick it up. 

 Yes...he is crazy...but I love him!
So that's it...poop, rice, splinter, hernia surgery and snake.....SO WHAT'S NEXT?  It's just Thursday after all! BRING IT!

Life Lessons

As we sat down for dinner the phone rang.  Jesse's brother had called to let us know that their beloved wiener dog wobbles had died.  Jesse thought this would be a great opportunity to teach the boys a "life" lesson.  So Jesse says: "boys, do you remember Uncle Mike and Aunt Melissa's dog wobbles?"  They both said yes and nodded in between taking bites out of their hot dog.  "Well, wobbles died today", Immediately their little ears perked up and you could see the questions swarming their brains.  Eli started in first: "what happened to him daddy?  Did he eat a lot of food and die?".  Andrew: "did his belly hurt and make him die?".  I don't think Jesse was expecting all these questions so fast and they were zipping them at him as quick as they could take breaths.  So finally Jesse interrupts them and tries to get on with his lesson.  "Andrew, do you want to call Uncle Mike and tell him that you are sorry?".  With this Andrew gets this panic stricken face and yells out "WHY?  I DIDN'T DIE HIM!".
Lesson over....
He thought we were saying that he did it and he was having to call and say he was sorry. :o)

Andrew's Night!

The Kindergartner's and the 1st graders at Andrew's school performed a musical the other night and it was fantastic!  Each class had a different theme to dress up as and Andrew's was the 50's!  We glued his hair down rolled up his blue jeans and his sleeves on his white t-shirt and threw a leather jacket on him. He looked so cute:

He sang and danced his heart out and made his mama proud! 

Okay...I tried all day to get the video loaded up on here and failed.  Sorry, it was so cute though!

Lord, please help me!

Last night after I finished bathing Payton I put the boys in the shower and took Payton back to her room to get her ready for bed.  I dressed her in her jammie's and put her in the floor to play.  She immediately got busy playing with her toys. I quickly walked to our bathroom to check on the boys in the shower and walked straight back to Payton.  When I left her she was in the floor playing...when I returned this is what I found:

This is Payton on the top bunk of the boys bunk beds.  Let me clarify that I did not leave her up there to go and get my camera to take this picture.......I took her down first and then rein acted!  What I actually found was her crawling back and forth on the mattress.  As you can imagine my heart leapt out of my chest!  I had just walked down the hall and then right back, not even a minute!  She crawled over to the boys room which is directly across the hall from hers and climbed right up the bunk bed stairs.  Here's a picture of the stairs:

Needless to say I felt like Mother of the year!  The first words out of my mouth were: "Thank you Lord for keeping her safe"....the next sentence "Lord, please HELP me deal with this child!".  All at the age of 10 months....seriously another dare devil...that's all I needed!  Gray hairs here you come!

Daddy's Care

This weekend I was singing at church and when I do this it is Jesse's responsibility to care for the kids.  He has to get them ready himself and get them to church, taking them each to their classes.  I always...Always, pick out their clothes ahead of time and lay them out for him.  If I don't do this there is no telling what my kids will walk in looking like (been there and done that...lesson learned).  This time being no different, I laid their clothes out and headed out the door.  I assumed that he would know who's was who's depending on the sizes. 
When church was over I went to the nursery to get Payton.  As I was walking out I noticed a small bow on the back of her dress.  I also noticed that her shoes were missing, but assumed that she had kicked them off in the nursery and they were in her bag.  As I looked closer at her dress I pulled back the front only to notice the tag was in the front...he had put the dress on her backward!  Laughing I walked in to find him and tell everyone I knew.  Jesse had gone to get the boys so when he walked up I was showing him and the boys came running up. Immediately I noticed that Andrew was wearing Eli's clothes and Eli was wearing Andrew's...this is including the shoes.  Eli looked like he had boats on his feet...they were so big on him.  When I told Jesse his response was...huh, I thought they looked big!  When we arrived at the car I saw Payton's shoes lying in the seat.  They never even made it on her poor feet!  Next time I think I will use labels and step by step directions for him!

Rantings of a Mad Woman

Last night I had rehearsal at church so I was not at home and left the care of our children in the hands of my wonderful husband.  When I arrived home all kids were tucked snugly into bed and I was so happy!  I just happened to notice on my way to the bedroom that the middle cushion on the couch was pulled off and leaning against the couch.  As I came closer I could see a huge wet area all over the cushion.  So I asked, "honey, what happened?".  Jesse said that Payton had dumped her bottle out on the couch and he didn't know what to do with the cushion.  So this morning I pulled the cushion cover off (which is not easy by the way) and threw it in the wash.  We all jumped in the car to take Andrew to school and when we returned I pulled Payton from her car seat only to find out that her diaper did not do it's job!  There was poop all over her and her seat.  So I spent the next 30 minutes unhooking the car seat, pulling the straps off and pulling the cushion off of it......and into the wash it went along with outfit #1.  It was about time to feed Payton again so I put her in her bouncy with her bottle.  A few minutes later she was out of her bouncy and had joined me in the kitchen.  She immediately got busy dumping the dog's water out all over the floor and dragging her body through it.  So #1 towel to dry her and the floor and #2 outfit off .....into the wash.  I walked into the living room and noticed something dripping from Payton's bouncy seat......it was her bottle, turned upside down and leaking through the cushion and dripping on the rug.....my nice rug!  So I unhooked and pulled off that cushion and used #2 towel to soak up the milk out of the rug and into the wash they went!
I had received an important phone call so I let Eli play with his pixo's while I took care of some business.  For those of you who do not know what pixo's are.....be happy...be very happy!  They are tiny little balls that you can glue together with water and make pictures out of and solely created to make parent's miserable!  When I finished with my stuff I walked into the kitchen to find Eli sitting at the table with a glass full of water and all of his pixo's floating in a bowl......plus all the water he had managed to spill on the table and floor. Towel #3 full of water and pixo's....into the wash!  Since I had the cushion cover pulled off the cushion still I had left the cushion off the couch.  So the middle section was much lower and easy for Miss. P to climb up onto the couch.  After a few times of pulling her off I thought she would stay away....wrong!  I was in the kitchen getting Eli's lunch ready and I come to the couch to tell him it's ready and I find Payton on the couch drinking Eli's tea......It was in a cup and he had it on the end table beside the couch and she decided she wanted it.  Except, she didn't end up drinking it...she just ended up wearing it and covering another cushion in a liquid!  So couch cushion #2 and outfit #3 into the wash!  When I went to transfer the wash load to the dryer I find pez candy that someone had left in their pocket now all over the clothes that were washed....now into the wash to rewash....geez.
I wished I could say it all ends there...but while I was sitting here typing I hear a loud crash with something spilling on the floor.....I go to the kitchen and Eli has climbed up the shelves in the pantry and pulled down the storage container of (Costco sized) pretzels and they are now all over my floor.  Can you guess what Payton was doing?  She was not eating pretzels...she was in the boys room pulling their underwear out of their drawer!
Hopefully this day will end soon and I can get the 3 loads of laundry I have washed today folded and put away for the next attack....tomorrow!
By the way, Jesse came home and took Belle to the pond to train.  When he returned the first words out of his mouth were: "Hey honey, can you get me a towel"..........

Yogurt Parfait

You know those days when you go to the grocery store and you find something that taste and looks so good you can't wait for the opportunity to eat it. 
This morning I found myself at the local Kroger just picking up a few odds and ends.  I was starving and hadn't had the chance to eat breakfast.  Out of nowhere,  like an angel descending, comes a lady with a tray full of delicious looking parfaits.  Normally I'm not that big of a fan of parfait's, but today I just couldn't resist trying.  With one bite I was in love!  The cinnamon flavor of the granola, the fresh strawberries and the creamy sweet yogurt were in harmony and dancing on my taste buds.  I immediately went to the shelf and snatched two up...one strawberry and one blueberry.  I thought these would make a perfect snack for my new diet.  I was so excited to have my afternoon snack today and was getting ready to go dive into my heaven when I was startled by a loud crash.  I was in the other room gathering laundry (daily task around here) when I hear this crash and a sound I can only relate to as a box of cereal being dumped out on the floor.  So the logical thing for me to ask was: "what was that?".  In return I received no answer....so again I asked "what was that?", but instead of waiting on a response I was on my way toward the crash.  What I found was this:  The refrigerator door wide open, Eli standing inside the fridge not moving and Payton on the floor.  Eli wanted cereal and decided that he would get it himself.  He had the bowl and the cereal poured and was now working on retrieving the milk from the fridge.  Right in front of the milk sat my lovely parfait's.  He had climbed into the fridge and was up on his toes pulling the milk from the shelf and slid my Parfait's right onto the floor...MY PARFAIT'S!!  My floor and refrigerator were covered in yogurt, granola, strawberries and blueberries.  He had managed to knock them both out of the fridge and the containers did not survive the crash.  Payton was scurrying around the floor trying as fast as she could to shove the granola in her mouth and Eli....well he was still frozen in the fridge.  I wish I could say that I shrugged it off and laughed...but I have been starving myself for a few days trying to eat right and shed just a few pounds and now my snack..MY snack the one I have wanted to eat all day was now spread across my floor like a cleaner.  So I cleaned up the mess (with Eli's help) and scrapped the little bit of Parfait that was remaining in the container, put it in a bowl and retreated to my blog to vent...I have to say I was feeling a little silly by getting upset about a parfait!
So there I was sitting at the computer fully intending to eat the very little that survived.  As I was typing Payton (sensing that I had something to eat) crawls over and pulls herself up on my chair.  She was now on her tiptoes and had her hands on the desks trying her hardest to see where the bowl of food was.  As I was distracted and into my typing she reaches up, grabs the bowl and dumps the remaining parfait that I had rescued all over her and all over the floor.  So much for my parfait :/

Ducks???

Driving home on the way back from picking Andrew up from school the subject of talking to Santa Claus came up and lead to a really weird discussion.

It all started so innocent with the simple question of: "Mom, can I talk to Santa Claus like I pray to God".

"Um, NO....we just pray to God Andrew".
"But why, I want to talk to Santa Claus.....can he hear me if I just talk to him"
"sure"  (I couldn't think of another response).

  I am driving three kids and all three seem to be having their own conversations so it's a little tough for me to really zone into defense.

Andrew: "well, I want to talk to him about bringing me a spider, scorpion and snake...all with different cages for each of them".

Eli: "I want a duck"

Andrew: "you want a duck brother?"

Eli: "yes, I want a duck"
Andrew: "mom, I want a duck too......can we bring the ducks inside"
Me: "no"
Andrew: "but if they are outside they will fly away", "can I put them in my bath tub?"
Me: "No"
Andrew: "Why not?"
Me: "Because Andrew, they will poop in the water and get the tub really dirty"
Andrew: "well, I will just hold mine over the potty so he won't poop in the tub"

To that I had no response......

This is a picture of the 10 ducks that we did raise when we lived on the lake in Alabama......and they did live inside after an owl picked off 5 of them.....it was not so nice!   Gus didn't think so either...they would break out of their cage and head right toward his dog dish.  There we would find them swimming in his dog water and eating his dog food!  They were so little and you would see this huge lump in their throat where the dog food was....really funny.  They only lived inside until they were strong enough to survive the owl!