The Greatest Show On Earth!

The last time I remember going to the circus was somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty years ago. I still remember my parents giving me and all of my siblings a choice to see either the circus or “Saturday’s Warrior.” I was still young enough that the circus was still way more cool that a musical. I don't remember many details from that particular circus, but I do remember that it was fun. I especially loved the trapeze artists.

Last night we took the boys to their very first circus. They were terribly eager to go. Daniel and Nathan were so excited that when I told them everyone was going to take a rest in the afternoon since we would be staying up late, neither one complained. Matthew was so excited that the only way I could get him to take a rest in the afternoon was to tell him that the elephants were resting to so they would be ready for us. Unfortunately, the same tactic didn’t help at dinner time and Matthew ate about two bites and then got down and proceeded to prance around and around the table. So I packed fruit snacks and granola bars into my purse knowing I would need to feed him once we got there.

This picture pretty well sums up how the boys felt about the circus:



Daniel kept exclaiming, "How do they DO that?!!" Matthew was leaning so far over the railing that I was afraid he was going to launch himself onto the arena floor. And Nathan was so transfixed that he was oblivious to everything else. The only downer for the evening was when we got out of the car and Nathan turned to us, looking all confused, and asked where the big top was. Then we had to explain that they don't actually use the big tent anymore. Besides that, they really enjoyed themselves.

Daniel’s favorite part was “The dog that jump roped on two legs!” Nathan loved “The whole thing! Especially the magic!” And Matthew’s favorite part was “Ephants! More ephants!! More ephants!!!” There were eleven elephants. He has never seen that many in one place before. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many in one place before.

One nice discovery was that in the nearly three decades since I last saw the circus, they have eliminated the peanuts. When I was a kid you could still buy a paper bag full of roasted peanuts. They fed peanuts to the elephants. Peanuts, peanuts everywhere. That is gone now and as the mother of a kid with a peanut allergy, I was somewhat relieved. It meant Matthew could have the whole circus experience without me being a total spaz case about it. In fact, I was nearly as mesmerized as the kids. I guess the circus really is for kids of all ages.

Bliss

An hour in the tub with peace and quiet, bubbles and a book. Ahhh!

I Am The Champion!

Let me begin by showing you what the shower in my wonderful red bathroom looked like when we bought our house.

Gross, huh? Of course I cleaned the thing before we moved in, but in spite of the fact that it was germ free, the hard water marks seemed a permanent fixture. You couldn't even see through the glass. And no, it is not frosted glass. So I scrubbed. And I scrubbed. And then I scrubbed some more. I used every cleaner I could think of. I tried Soft Scrub, Tilex, Lime-A-Way, Scrub Free, Kaboom, baking soda, vinegar, baking soda and vinegar . . . nothing was even making a dent in the nastiness. So finally, in my desperation, I turned to the internet for ideas. Most of what I found raved about the charms of all the many things I had already tried. But after sifting through about fifteen message boards dedicated to the topic of cleaning glass showers, I happened upon a small miracle cure for hard water deposits. The solution? Glass stovetop cleaner and delicate duty scotchbrite pads. On the chat board where I read about the stove cleaner, one lady commented that she attached her scotebrite pads to her rotating sander and went to town. At first I thought that was a bit of overkill but many, many arm aching hours later I must admit that if I had a rotating sander it definitely would have been called into active bathroom duty. Nevertheless, after many months of weekly (if not daily) assaults on the thing, I have finally emerged from the bathroom, tired but victorious. Here's the proof:

There is still some work to be done on the grout in the floor and the aluminum frame, but that is nothing compared to what I had to deal with on the glass. So now, I intend to sit back and admire my work from the supreme comfort of my bubble bath. And for those who may be wondering, I did in fact buy a squeegee. One minute a day of squeegeeing the glass is a small price to pay if I never, ever have to scrub it again.

20/20!

Nathan's eye is now 20/20! From here we begin decreasing his patching time and hopefully his eye will stay strong as we do so. He is thrilled! In fact, we are all ecstatic!

$2 Tuesdays

Tuesdays in August were $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point, so we took advantage of the rockin' price and took the boys to the Museum of Ancient Life. For those who have never been, this museum is actually very kid friendly. Here are a few of my favorite pics of the boys doing their stuff.

Proof

You'll have to listen closely, but Matthew was kind enough to cooperate with the camera so he could tell everyone about the lightsaber.

Can't We Just Skip Two?

In the midst of my bliss concerning the fact that school has started again is the thorn of a two year old who gets so very bored without his two older brothers here to entertain him. And at two, bored=naughty. And to add to the fun, two is also the age at which most children catch a serious case of I-Want-To-Do-It-Myself-Itis. Matthew has been no exception. So I have spent the past three weeks attempting to keep him entertained enough to prevent too much serious damage to himself or the house. Just to highlight a few of his finer moments:

One morning while I was getting dressed, Matthew decided to pour himself a second bowl of cereal instead of asking for help. The good thing about Kix is that they roll so instead of having a mountain of cereal on the counter, we had Kix all over the kitchen.

Matthew has learned about time outs due to his enormous propensity to play with the DVD's, T.V. and computer. One day he actually got a new movie in for himself and I didn't notice until I took a moment to survey the cases because he had switched one Thomas DVD for another. The fact that he can now run the DVD player by himself is not a good thing. And not only did I have to put the child latches on the computer cabinet, but I have to do them up tight or Matthew can still get them open.

One afternoon last week Matthew got ahold of a bottle of Windex that the big boys had left out. He didn't spray it into his mouth like Nathan did when he was two, but he did repeatedly spray the back of his head giving himself a fabulous new hairdo.

Matthew frequently gets in the fridge (because he can't get in the pantry) to get himself a snack. On numerous occasions I've come back from the bathroom to find him sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor having a picnic. I guess he really is serious about second breakfast.

No matter what spoon I give him, it is the wrong one. And he can't use the same spoon for two different foods at the same time. If he has cereal and applesauce, he has to have a separate spoon for each. And his favorite spoon? My blue measuring spoon, the tablespoon. It can't be easy to eat out of that thing, but he does.

Yesterday Matthew got his milk out of the fridge. It comes in a 2-quart carton with a lid and a spout on one side of the top. He tried to put it up on the counter (ummm, way too short), getting just the bottom balanced on the edge, and then while the carton was still vertical with the spout on the bottom, he decided to take the lid off. By the time I realized what was going on and took the two steps necessary to get to him, he was spluttering through the milk pouring down into his face looking completely surprised. He was pretty upset when I made him take off his Lightning McQueen shirt because it was soaked.

But along with all the eye rolling behavior, two has been pretty entertaining as well. Matthew has had a language explosion and has started saying some pretty funny stuff. He helped me make his oatmeal for breakfast and after tasting it, instead of saying "Yum!" like a normal two year old, he exclaimed, "It's tasty!" When we got in the car after being out in a slightly chilly day, he told us it was "cozy." He knows what a lightsaber is (He's the third boy. There was absolutely no hope of him not knowing about stuff like that at an early age.) but he doesn't call it a lightsaber. It is a "Lightsaver, ffft, ffft." The only thing I can figure out is that perhaps the "fffft, fffft" is the sound the lightsabers make. And for this last one, you'll need to know that 1) Matthew is a gasmaster and 2) around here we call passing gas toots. Yesterday Kev came to find me, smirking, and informed me that Matthew had just announced, "My toots go uphill!"

When I Grow Up . . .

On the way home from my parents' house this evening, we drove past a jeep. Nathan informed us that when he grows up he wants to get a jeep, the kind where the doors come off. He then proceeded to tell us what he wants to be when he grows up. He wants to be a doctor, a firefighter, a cop, a helicopter pilot, an ambulance driver, a person who works at the theater handing our snacks, a bug sprayer (we told him these guys are called exterminators but he still calls them bug sprayers), a pizza maker, a taxi driver, a teacher, a semi driver, a store manager at Lowe's, a bishop, a person who helps people in the temple, a Sunday teacher, and a paleontologist like Daniel. Keep in mind that this is a partial list.

I think he might need to live until he's nine hundred to fit it all in. But at least he has ambition.