Free Donkey Rides At The Essary Zoo

My kids played together most of the day today.  This was really exciting for us, because they don't always play together and sometimes when they do it leads to bloodshed.  I remember when we enrolled Korban in his special needs preschool at age 3, I had just found out I was pregnant with Selah.  I remember talking to his teachers about it, and being worried about how Korban would handle a sibling.  They told me that almost every kid they taught had siblings (which was reassuring--I figured that if other parents could do it maybe I could too) and that they all did fine.  They said that most of the parents biggest complaint was the child with autism didn't interact much with their siblings.  Fast forward several months later to Selah arriving on the scene, and let's just say Korban noticed her all right.  Noticed, and cried incessantly when he saw her for the first time and even more when we actually brought her home from the hospital.  He was very jealous of me holding her and nursing her and it was a tough time.  But we made it.  And sometimes, he even acts like he loves her.  ;)  No really, he has come a long way.  He does interact with her, but he is sadly lacking in age appropriate play.  Simply put, she wants him to play with her, he wants to play with her, but he just doesn't always know how.  And when they do play together, somebody better be close by keeping an eye on them because he is rough with her and could hurt her.  Also, she is a typical little sister is the fact that she knows how to push his buttons and is usually brave enough to do that, even if she knows it won't end well for her.  But today, my kids played together.  They both played rough but no one got hurt.  We got home from church this morning and I was in a rush, putting some sandwiches together for a bridal shower at church this afternoon.  I was at the kitchen table making sandwiches when I hear Selah say "Look Mommy, I'm riding an animal!" And I look up and see Korban on all-fours crawling by with Selah perched atop his back.  They were both laughing and it was very cute.  They chased each other, and she rode his back, and he pulled her around by her sweater on the floor.  That last one worried me, but she thought it was hilarious and my floor is cleaner now.  Korban riding Selah around on his back was their favorite thing.  I asked Korban what kind of animal he was and he said "a donkey."  Selah said he was an elephant but he insisted that he was a donkey.  He kept saying "ride the donkey!" and she would hop on his back and off he would go.  It looks so funny because she's tall and her feet nearly drag the ground.  When they got done with that, he would sit on her.  Seriously.  He has a poor sense of space, and he doesn't always understand how hard he is grabbing at someone.  Basically he isn't able to tell exactly where he's at in relation to other people and he spends a lot of time trying to orient himself by running up and bouncing off of us and doing things like that.  I have to be vigilant in watching him with Selah because she is small, and he will quite literally sit on her, lay on her, push her down on the couch, etc.  He doesn't have to be mad to do this, he does it when they are getting along and trying to pay together.  I always explain to him that he can't do that because he will squish her.  Actually, my exact words to him are usually "Korban, don't squish her guts out!"  I don't know why I chose those words, but today it came back to haunt me.  He was squeezing Selah and trying to sit on her and she yelled "Stop it, Toe-ban.  You squishing my nuts out!"  Oh my.  And she said it repeatedly.  Apparently she can't say "guts" but "nuts" comes out loud and clear.  Of course it does.

This evening I was getting ready to give the kids a bath and put them to bed when Korban ran to his daddy crying and saying "Change clothes! Change clothes!"  This is nothing out of the ordinary.  He absolutely freaks if he gets a drop of food or liquid on his clothes.  He can't stand the sensation and immediately wants to change.  Before I finish this story, let me further illustrate this point by telling another story.  I left Korban at the kitchen table eating applesauce the other day and went to the laundry room to grab some clothes out of the dryer.  In a few minutes he came in there crying and wanting to change clothes because he dropped a little applesauce on his shorts.  Korban is very dependent on me, and I'm trying to help him be more independent.  Since it was only a small splotch, I explained to him that Mommy's hands were busy and that if he wanted his clothes changed he would have to go do it himself.  He is just now learning to dress himself.  He whined for a few more minutes, but I just kept on folding clothes and he eventually went on his way.  When I finished in the laundry room I found him at the table, calmly finishing his applesauce.  I thought to myself that I had handled that well and that he had obviously decided that if he was actually going to have to change his clothes himself, the applesauce on his shorts wasn't such a big deal.  I sat down beside him and told him good job.  He finished off his applesauce and asked for some more.  Still on a high from handling the clothes situation so well, I told him to go get more applesauce out of the fridge himself and I would help him open it.  He hopped up to do my bidding, and my jaw dropped.  He was butt naked from the waist down. Oh, he had solved the problem alright!  He had just taken off the clothes that were bothering him.  Now a small splotch of applesauce is enough to trigger a meltdown, but naked, he's totally fine with.  *Sigh*  That's gotta count for a little bit of problem solving skills, though, right?

Back to tonight.  Korban left Selah and ran to his dad crying to change clothes.  I heard Brad ask him how his shirt got wet.  He didn't have a drink or anything.  I was in the next room and I asked Brad if they spilled something on the floor and Korban rolled over in it.  Brad said no, that they didn't have anything to spill.  He kept asking Korban where he got the water from and Korban wasn't answering.  I asked Brad if Korban wet his pants, and he said no and told me that Korban's pants were fine and the back of his shirt was the only thing that was wet.  I started to have a sinking suspicion.  "Check Selah!" I told him.  He did, and found our culprit.  Our potty-training little sis had peed on her big bro during a piggyback (donkeyback?) ride.  Korban was not impressed.  Good thing I was planning on putting them in the bath soon anyway.  We got all the mess taken care of.  I told them I was proud they had played together and had fun today.  I was worried our donkey would retire after that whole incident, but he didn't.  He does have a new rule though:  all passengers must wear Pull-Ups.

Holy Toddlers In Tiaras, Batman! (Why I may not be cut out to be a dance mom)

We signed Selah up for a little dance class last year.  It was technically supposed to be for two-year-olds, and she was still one but they let her come anyway.  A family member told us about it, since her little girl was taking the class, so we signed Selah up.  I thought it would be good for her for several reasons.  First of all, we are always taking Korban to therapy and stuff, and while it's necessary, they do try to make it fun for him.  Selah used to always cry because she couldn't go back and "play" with the therapists too.  So I wanted her to have something just for her.  Also, most of our friends are boys so I wanted her to get to spend some time with little girls too.  And lastly, I was hoping that if we started early enough Selah might actually be graceful enough to walk across the floor without tripping over her own two feet, despite having a good deal of my genetic material.  :)  She has loved the dance class and I've loved watching her.  She has gotten to be BFFs with her sweet cousin Abbie, and she always looks forward to going to dance each week.  They are taking the summer off, and our end of the year recital is tonight.  Exciting!  She has a sweet little yellow costume and they are performing along with the other dance groups at the high school auditorium.  This morning they had practice at 9:?30 at the auditorium to prep them for tonight.  When we got there, the older group was practicing and there were some delays, so we didn't actually start practice until closer to 11:00.  Brad was helping his mother at the Green Market this morning, so it was just me and the kids.  The kids really did better than I expected having to wait all that time, but it wasn't exactly a picnic.  Korban behaved better than Selah.  She stood up in one of the auditorium seats, and it closed up, trapping her foot and leaving me to get her unstuck while she screamed at the top of her lungs.  I know it hurt.  She has a bruise and a scrape to prove it.  Only my monkey. Then the other dance teacher, the one I don't know, got up to make announcements.  It was then that I started feeling really nervous.  She was telling us what time to be there tonight, and the routine to follow.  She said not to let the girls wear their costumes to the auditorium, which made sense to me because I wouldn't want it to get messed up in the car.  But according to her it is "bad luck, and tasteless and tacky," to already be wearing your costume when you arrive.  I am practical, but NOT superstitious. Which is funny, because my family sort of is.  Growing up, it made me nervous to think that you had to do some weird thing like toss salt over your shoulder just to keep bad stuff from happening.  When I grew up, I read in the Bible where it says "Have nothing to do with godless superstitions," and that was enough for me.  But I understand that the dancing/arts community has little superstitions like that, and I'm not judging.  I just hope I can get through the night without inadvertently doing anything tasteless or tacky myself.  Then she moved on to the subject of panties.  Or the lack thereof.  She talked about how tacky it is for underwear to be hanging out from underneath the leotard, and that NONE of the dancers should have panties on underneath their costumes.  And I see how panties hanging out from a leotard is tacky, really I do.  But considering that 95% of Selah's class isn't potty trained, I think a puddle of pee (or worse!) onstage would be even more tacky.  Right?!?  So Selah and all the other children who's moms feel the same way I do will be wearing Pull-Ups.  I rather have the Fashion Police called than Haz-Mat.  Just saying.  Then she moved on to the topic of makeup.  She explained how the lights wash everyone out and that they would need to wear more than "everyday" make-up for their faces to show up, etc.  Again, I know this makes sense but the thought of putting make-up on my two-year-old makes me slightly queasy.  She's TWO!!!  I was having mental images of Toddlers in Tiaras, and Selah with a bunch of glitzy make-up on and us making her practice walking in high heels and buying her little false teeth and eyelashes.  Arrrgh!!!  But it's just one night, and I'm pretending it's like Halloween.  I wouldn't object to painting her face to go with her Halloween costume, and this is a similar occasion I guess.  It's not like we're going to do it everyday.  And Selah's already a little diva, I'm sure she will enjoy it.  Since I can barely do my own make-up, our friend graciously offered to help me out in this area.  I'm such a nerd!  I never did anything like this when I was growing up.  But let me just say that while I'm still not down with the whole toddler make-up routine, I do want her to have opportunities like tonight.  I did stuff growing up, but I mainly took piano lessons, played in the band,  and read books, and stuff like that because it was what my parents were comfortable with.  I never did sports or dance or anything like that because it was out of their comfort zone.  I want my kids to have a choice.  Now certain things are non-negotiable. We WILL go to church, they will be kind to others, and things such as that.  But as far as the extra-curricular stuff, if it's music, or dance, or sports, or some combination of all of the above or something totally different than that, I want them to have the opportunity to choose.  Stepping off the soapbox now.    It was finally their time to practice.  They have what they call a "baby parade" in which the little girls walk across the stage to the song "I Hope You Dance," while the announcer calls their names out and they blow kisses to the audience.  Very sweet. Then they do their little routine, which is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."   When they danced their routine, Selah completely ignored the dance teacher standing in the wings reminding them of their movements, and all of her little friends which were copying said movements.  She moved to the front center of the stage and jumped and twirled and did her own little dance.  And when the music ended, she bowed.  I'm not even kidding.  So she marches to the beat of her own drum.  And you know what?  I love that about her.  I'm thankful she's healthy enough to do something like this.  She's my "neurotypical" child.  Meaning she doesn't have autism.  But sometimes I think there isn't much typical about her either, and I'm totally okay with that.  So tonight I'm thinking I need to get a seat on the front row.  Not because I think it will provide a much better view, but because I want to be there to catch her in the event that my monkey dances completely off the stage.   So tell Selah to break a leg, and then say a prayer that she doesn't actually do that!  :)

My Kids Can't Take Me Anywhere

I was feeling adventurous today after I picked Korban up from school, so I decided to run some errands with the kids. My kids were actually well behaved, but I had a Day. First I decided to go into Goodwill, just for fun.  (I love that place!)  When we pulled in, Korban pointed at their sign and said "The letter O!"  We've been working on letters/words, so I was very proud of him. I told him what a good job he did, and then asked him what the other letters were.  "Don't ask me!" he responded.  Ha!  I'm pretty sure he has no idea how funny he is.  I love it. So we poked around the store for a while, and I found a book I wanted to read and a couple of other small items, so we went on to check out.  The cashier was really friendly and sweet.  She complimented my kids, and asked Selah's name.  I told her, and she said she liked it.  She told me that if she ever has a little girl, she plans on naming her Luna.  "Oh, like in Harry Potter!" I said, immediately thinking of Luna Lovegood.  "Um, no.  As in, like, the moon," she said, looking at me strangely.  Oops.  Sometimes I forget not everybody is as big of nerd as I am!  Books are always in my head, and I tend to spout out weird facts at inopportune times. (Maybe it's those autistic traits that I'm sure I have!)  My husband would testify to this.  I drive him nuts sometimes, but only with certain things.  Harry Potter he liked, Twilight not nearly so much.  When he was driving home from Chattanooga this past weekend, the kids were wild, and I was doing animal flash cards with them to calm them down so they wouldn't distract him as he drove.  I held up a grizzly bear flash card and idly remarked "Grizzly bears are Emmett's favorite."  "Huh?  Emmett who?" Brad asked.  "Emmett Cullen.  Edward's brother," I said, like he should already know.  I seriously thought he was going to put me out and make me walk home.  But I disgress...Back to this afternoon.  Next we headed to Dollar Tree.  Did you know they have their own brand of Swiffer pads?  I didn't either until I saw their sales paper, but they do.  Eight pads compatible with the Swiffer mop for a buck.  I haven't used my Swiffer mop in forever, partly because I like my steam mop better and partly because I didn't want to keep spending all that money on replacement pads.  So I went to get some of those to see if I liked them.  The kids did well in the store, and so did I until we got back to the parking lot.  I am always nervous because both my kids are bolters and I'm so afraid they will get away from me.  I am even more nervous when I'm by myself because they have me outnumbered and I can't turn loose of them for a second.  So I opened the door, tossed my purse and keys into the driver's seat and then strapped my kids into their carseats right away.  Then I went to get in and discovered that my keys were nowhere to be found.  I vaguely remembered hearing a small clunking sound when I tossed the keys in, so I figured they fell into the floor.  So I spend a considerable amount of time with my head between the seats of my van and my rear end stuck up in the air, probably much to the dismay of the elderly couple parked next to me.  The keys were still hiding.  I righted myself and debated on calling my husband to tell him that I couldn't get home because I had lost my keys but were sure they were somewhere in the van.  Decided against that and prayed instead. Looked inside the part that my seat belt comes out of, and sure enough, I could see something shiny.  I had to lift up the driver's seat with one hand while shoving the other hand into that small area to wedge the keys out.  It took some maneuvering but I finally got it.  And right after that, a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a while pulled up next to me, so if I hadn't have spent so much time digging around for my keys, I wouldn't have seen her.  So it all worked out!  I really needed some shredded cheese, and by that point I wasn't willing to go into Wal-Mart, so I drove to a small local grocery store that I thought I could get in and out of quickly.  When we went in, I noticed they had strawberries on sale.  Korban just finished off a pint of strawberries yesterday, so I bought two more. While I was doing that,  Korban noticed that they had watermelon, already cut into wedges and wrapped tightly with clear wrap.  It looked really good.  They even had a spork wrapped in with it!  Very convenient.  "Get you watermelon?"  he asked hopefully.  I went to check them them out.  "Pop brought us watermelon," he told me.  Now how do you say no to that?  Of course I bought him the watermelon.  Then I grabbed a couple bags of cheese and we checked out.  As we were leaving the store, I noticed a young man who worked there was following me.  I didn't think much of it, but he followed me out the door.  As I crossed the parking lot, he stayed several steps behind me.  I wasn't scared at all, but I did find his behavior curious.  I tossed several furtive glances over my shoulder, and he was staying with me.  I was shocked when I got to the van and he stopped behind me.  So I turned around to look at him and he was holding my groceries!  (Duh!)  I really thought they had put them in my buggy, but the only thing my buggy was full of was my children.  I'm not used to that kind of service.  I will definitely shop there again.  If they let me...I may have freaked out that poor bag boy.  ;)

Melissa Needs An Entourage

Today's Korban's school called and said he had thrown up in his classroom.  So I went to pick him up.  I called his dr's office on the way to make him an appointment.  He had only thrown up the one time, but he was acting really out of sorts.  I was worried because the flu has hit our area pretty hard, and most cases seem to be starting out with upset stomachs.  I picked him up and we went straight to the dr's.  Now let me mention that I used to always try to find some sort of help, like asking my mom to go with me or to keep whichever child wasn't sick in situations like this.  But I've tried to cut that out.  I don't want to be dependent on others and then freak out if they aren't able to help me.  So even though Selah wasn't sick I didn't ask for any help and just showed up at the dr with one possibly sick child and one non-sick child.  We didn't have to wait in the waiting room long, which was awesome, and the dr came in our room right away.  She looked in Korban's ears and throat and listened to him.  His throat was a little red, but nothing major.  (I'm beginning to think red is his throat's normal color.)  He had perked up some since we were at the dr's--he really loves her--but we decided to do some tests just to make sure.  It's hard to know with Korban, because he doesn't really tell us how he feels, and also with the immune stuff you can't be too careful.  So she decided to do a strep test, flu and RSV, and to check his blood count.  He is very strong, and usually fights any procedure like that, painful or not.  We did strep first, and he fought some, but no big deal.  Flu and RSV were next, and they are both nasal swabs.  The nurse got them really fast, but then his nose started bleeding.  He is very easy to get nosebleeds, and the combination of crying and the swab put him over the top.  So his nose was dripping blood and the nurse ran to grab me a towel.  I was wiping his face and he was crying and crying.  The blood freaks him out.  The more he screamed, the more his nose bled, and the more his nose bled, the more he screamed.  Do you see what a vicious cycle this was?  So I was trying to calm him down and wipe blood and not being terribly successful at either one.  In the meantime, Selah had climbed up on the dr's stool and stood up to get a better view of the whole spectacle.  Thankfully, the dr's husband came along, saw my predicament and held and played with Selah while I tried to calm Korban down. (He actually helped throughout the rest of the ordeal and this was the ONLY thing that kept Selah from climbing up on something to see if she could fall off of it or sticking her finger in an electrical outlet.)  Just when I thought the blood might be slowing down a little, Korban peed everywhere.  So then we had enough blood to look like a crime scene AND a giant pee puddle.  *sigh*  The receptionist walked out to my car for me and got Korban a change of clothes.  While she was doing that, his nosebleed stopped and we were able to do the fingerstick real fast.  He did okay with that, except he screamed for his daddy the whole time.  Or that might've been me screaming for Brad, my memory is fuzzy.  They also moved us next door to a clean room and the nurse was very gracious and cleaned up our first room.  (Which totally looked like it needed a combination team from CSI and HazMat.)  Thankfully, Korban was negative for flu, RSV, and strep and his white blood count was perfect.  Didn't even look viral.  She said he could possibly have a stomach virus, just to keep an eye on him.  But he hasn't thrown up anymore, or had any other symptoms, so I'm wondering if he was just nervous/excited because they had their Valentine party at school today?  I wouldn't really think so, but he threw up during children's church a couple of weeks ago, the first time he went without one of us...So I'm wondering if nervous puking is a new phenomenon he is adding to his roster of Very Weird Things To Do To Freak Parents Out.  Hmmm...We see the child development pediatrician next week so I guess I need to get her opinion on it.  Since there doesn't seem to be any underlying physical cause at this point.  I guess time will tell.  But I'm praying this passes quickly.  Because I think we've all seen about all the bodily fluids we care to see for one day.  After the appointment was over with, the dr even helped me out to the car.  Because at this point I had two kids, my purse, Selah's diaper bag, Korban's backpack (which came in full of clean clothes andleft full of pee clothes) and a stuffed monkey.  And I'm not even sure how all that happened.  Oh, and Korban had thrown up on the sweatshirt he was wearing, so he had no coat, wouldn't wear my coat, and refused to let us wrap him in a blanket. And I was covered in dried blood and also pee from where I had held him before I changed his clothes.  This brings to mind a story my family always teased me about.  Apparently when I was really little, I peed all over my dad while he was holding me at a dr's visit.  If Daddy were here now, we would've had a big laugh about how I got my payback and then some!

 After we left there, I went to happy hour and bought myself a stiff drink and some juice for the kiddos.  Just so you know, Happy Hour was at Sonic and a "stiff drink" in my book constitutes a Rt. 44 Coke.  What did you think I meant?  ;)


Did I mention we go to church with his dr and pretty much all of her staff and that they are saints all the time and not just when I'm drowning like I was today?  They are awesome.  Korban's insurance changed a year ago and we lost the dr he had seen since he was a baby because that office wasn't able to take his new insurance.  I was very upset about that because we all love her so much, but God has helped us through the transition, and this story is a testament to that fact!

But we are basically a walking disaster and I think I need an entourage to accompany me everywhere I go.  Any volunteers?  Squeamish and/or the faint of heart need not apply.  Or maybe I just need a pit crew.  They might be more efficient and faster at cleanup...Happy Valentine's Day ya'll!  (And don't worry--this didn't ruin our Valentine's Day.  We didn't have any plans, and we are hoping to watch a movie and chill out after the kids are snug in their beds.  We do have fun family plans for next weekend, so please pray that all puking/screaming/bleeding etc. disappears from the Essary household by then!

And this is why I'm mostly always late for everything...

Last week Korban had a bacterial infection and pinkeye, so I kept him home from school today just to make sure all was well before sending him back.  He seemed much better, so I thought it might be okay for us to get out and run a couple of errands.  Getting ready to go anywhere with my crew is always a challenge, but I was feeling energetic and the stuff needed to be done, so we started getting ready.  First of all, I decided to put in Korban's eye drops.  That is normally a two-person job and if there were any other adults around that were strong enough and brave enough we would accept their help too.  I had Brad to help me over the weekend, but he was at work, so I was on my own.  I sort of knew what I was up against, because I tried it once without Brad's help over the weekend.  It did not go well.  Even when both of us are working together, we literally have to pretty much sit on Korban and Brad holds his eye open while I squirt the drop in.  Korban vacillates between screaming and laughing during this time.  I think he really does think we are funny, but man is he strong.  So the one time I tried it without Brad, Korban bucked me right off like an angry bull.  I'm pretty strong too, though.  I may have even held on for eight seconds.  Maybe I should try for a career in bull-riding.  I knew that same approach wouldn't work today, so I tried a modified leg-lock.  That worked pretty well.  If things don't pan out for me on the PBR circuit, maybe I could go with the WWE.  Hmmm...

After that drama, I decided to hop in the shower.  Selah tagged along to the bathroom with me.  Our bathroom has a stand-alone shower and a tub in the corner.  As I was getting in the shower, she was climbing into the bathtub.  I told her not to get in the bathtub and get her clothes wet (she's learning how to turn on the water.)  She was already dressed for the day, and I told her that if she got her clothes wet she would be In Trouble.  Because of previous experiences with my children, I have perfected the art of Rapid Showering.  Imagine my surprise when I hopped out of the shower a few minutes later to find her sitting in the tub with the water trickling, naked.  NAKED!  But, hey, her clothes didn't get wet, so she couldn't get in trouble, right?  She found the loophole.  Maybe she will be an attorney one day.  So I hurried and got dressed and then re-dressed Selah.  Korban was still in his pajamas, so I got ready to put his clothes on.  He didn't want to get dressed, so he started fighting me.  (Yes, I mean that literally.  When he doesn't want to do something like that, he slaps our hands away, scratches, pinches, etc.)  While I was wrestling his clothes on, I somehow managed to crack my pinky finger on the edge of the bathroom counter.  Had to waste more time jumping up and down and howling about that, but it's okay now.  I finished dressing Korban and turned back to Selah.  She had climbed up onto the handwashing stool, gotten the toothpaste, and smeared it across her cheeks like warpaint.  That took some scrubbing to get rid of, but at least she smelled minty fresh afterwards!  

After gathering up sippy cups and assorted paraphernalia, it was finally time to head out the door.  I opened the door to the van and noticed there was no car seat for Selah.  My mom had baby-sat her last Thursday while we took Korban to the dr, and we never got the seat back.  Selah hadn't been anywhere since then, and I had not even realized we didn't have it.  Fortunately, my mom lives close by.  I strapped Selah into Korban's booster, which has a five point harness, and tightened the straps to fit her.  Put his extra booster seat (which does NOT have a five point harness, meaning I don't like to use it) into the empty spot and belted Korban into it.  We drove down the road to my mom's house where we then played musical car seats.  I took Korban out, took out the spare booster, installed Selah's car seat, moved her from Korban's good car seat into her seat, and then strapped Korban into his seat after readjusting the straps to fit him again.  Whew!  And then we were off.  And I was exhausted.  So if you have ever wondered why we have trouble being on time for stuff, well, here's why!

Selah-Speak

Selah talks--a lot.  At least, it seems like a whole lot to us, probably because Korban didn't really talk at all until he was three, and he still struggles with communication.  So it seems amazing and miraculous to us to have a little one who talks so much.  She is pretty easy to understand, but she has a habit of just saying the first syllable of a world twice instead of the whole word.  It's pretty cute.  Here's a list of some  of the things she says:

Tor-tor=Korban
Pig-Pig=Piglet
Bank-bank=Blanket
Chick chick nug nug=Chicken nuggets
Fish fish=Fish sticks
Bean beans=Green beans
Pop Pop=Pop-Tart
Ronicheese=Macaroni and cheese
Dine-in-a-soar=Dinosaur
Kang-in-a-roo=Kangaroo
Ah-nen-oh-me-me-me= Anemone (Seriously--it's in one of her Baby Einstein books.  Has six syllables when she says it.  Hilarious!)
Cha-Cha=Her dear friend Charlie

Lately she has gotten in the habit of telling Korban "Stop dat!  Hear me?"  Oh my.  I don't even realize I say something so much until I hear it from the kids.  She also tells Korban to "go play" when he is aggravating her.  He says "Alright kiddos," at random intervals and it's funny to me.  Guess he hears that one a lot.  I call him "little man" sometimes. He has picked up on this and the other day he told my mom "Sit down, little man."  Boy was she surprised!

Also, Selah likes to compliment people.  It's sweet.  Her favorite thing to "like" is someone's shirt.  No matter what I'm wearing, she says "I yike dat shirt, Mama."  The other day we were outside, and she was playing with our dog Pat.  She told him "I yike dat tail, Pat-Pat."  I would've never thought to give the dog a compliment on his tail, but she is right.  He does have a very nice tail.  It's fuzzy and curls over his back right nicely.  And he doesn't wear shirts, so she needed to find something to compliment him on.

Tonight when we had our "dee-ocean" as she calls our devotion, she said prayers.  She wants to be like Korban.  She repeated whatever he said, and it was so sweet.  We helped her out with some things to say.  For example, we said "Bless Korban," and she said "Bless Tor-Tor."  (He pretty much thinks that's his name now.  When they are playing and it is his turn with a toy, he tells me "It's Tor-Tor's turn."  Maybe he just wants to make sure she understands.  Because heaven forbid there be any miscommunication with the turn-taking business.)  But back to Selah's prayers.  She said "Bless Mama," without us prompting her and I thought my heart would burst.  She also said "Bless baby, bless hairbow, bless duck park."  So that was her first "on her own" prayers and I don't ever want to forget it.  I also need to take her to the "duck park" really soon.  Tor-Tor too.

Speaking of being proud, Korban said out of the clear blue "I like the Rebels.  Ha-wee Ta-wee!" (Hotty Toddy!)  He is his father's son!  And tonight during prayers, the very last thing he said was "Bless sitting at the table eating Push-Ups."  Ha!  He is very fond of Popsicles.

Korban had a little stomach bug on Saturday.  By that night he didn't really have any symptoms except for a low-grade temp and he was kind of dragging around.  I was asking him questions like "Does your stomach still hurt?  Does your head hurt? Does your throat hurt?"  Finally he said to me very patiently "No more belly still hurt.  No more head hurt.  No more throat hurt.  I just sick."  That cleared it up.  I think that might be the longest thing he's ever said.  He was probably tired of me asking questions!  And today when we left school, he told his teachers good-bye.  When we got to the door, he turned back around and said "Bye friends."  So much cuteness.

Well, the kids have been asleep for a while now and for some reason I am still awake.  Considering that,  what with the sickness and all Saturday, I didn't even lay down until 5:30 Sunday morning, there is really no good reason for my eyes to still be open right now.  Good night all!

Organizational Skills

If you know me at all, you know that I am not an organized person.  But I want to be.  Somewhere inside me, there is an organized woman.  She just can't find her way out through all my clutter.  My household needs structure, organization, and my life in general needs less clutter.  It would be easier on all of us.  And I would like that.  So I have had a real brainstorm about meal planning and I thought I would share it.  I love to cook.  Really, I do.  But I hate it when I am scrambling at the last minute trying to throw something together and I am lacking an ingredient or I forgot to defrost the meat.  Also, we are trying to pinch pennies any way we can.  Our church recently had a couponing class and it was awesome.  So I have been collecting coupons and trying to wrap my head around all of that business.  I have an iPhone.  Those are powerful tools in the hands of organized people.  Mine mainly just confuses me.  But I am learning!  I like that little calendar feature.  I mainly use it to keep up with appointments, but my bright idea consisted of using it to streamline my meal planning.  Brad just got paid, which means I get to go grocery shopping.  (Yay!)  I planned out meals for the next two weeks and plugged the meals into my handy-dandy calendar as events.  So if I opened my calendar for September 2nd, it would say "Jambalaya."  Every event you enter has a spot for location, and in that box I put the name of the cookbook that the particular recipe is in.  I even set alerts to go off a couple of days in advance for all of the recipes that require defrosting meat so that I will remember to lay the meat in the refrigerator in time.  Additionally, I used the little note feature in my phone to make my grocery list.  I am forever making really great grocery lists and then leaving them at home, so this is pretty awesome for me.  I always have my phone with me; therefore, I always have my list.  I have my coupons ready to go, and I am ready to tackle the groceries stores tomorrow morning.  I'm hoping this works out well and is a system I can keep up with.  I know it sounds crazy, but I was pretty excited about it.  Anything to help us along.  Actually I was really excited about it.  I called my mom and said "Pick any date between now and September the 16th, and I'll tell you what we're having for supper that night."  "September 7th," she replied.  "Meatloaf!" I proclaimed.  She said "Wow!" like I had just done a really cool magic trick or something.  She was probably humoring me, but it made me feel good.  Also, she is going to help me shop tomorrow, which I really appreciate.  I bribed her with coupons for chocolate and Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  :)

In case anyone is wondering how family devotions are going, we read about Moses' staff turning into a snake tonight.  Both kids got excited and said "Nake, nake."  Hope they don't go looking for one.  Also, they had a short-lived but very lively brawl in the middle of the story and after that, Selah inserted a finger up each one of my nostrils.  But we made it through and afterwards they sat and looked at the Veggie Tales book together, so I think maybe they are getting into it.  Also, when we prayed Korban said "Bless coupons."  He knows about the coupons because he saw my stack of them and tried to scatter them, and I explained to him that I needed them for grocery shopping.  He does like the groceries, so maybe that is why he thought the coupons needed blessing.  Hope it helps me out tomorrow!