Creative Us

Over this past weekend, Michael (my husband) and I have been quite the creative pair. I don't know that anything tops the velcroed sofa.

One of my creative ideas, wasn't exactly mine, but I am still proud of it all the same. We've been preparing for the arrival of my brother-in-law and since he will be here within the week, we've really been knocking out some tasks. In the process of cleaning out and purging, we've acquired extra boxes, mostly diaper boxes (can't figure out how we ended up with extra diaper boxes, can you?) I bought a roll of duck tape last night and combined that with the 5 extra boxes to get a castle of the finest materials.


As you probably already know, I have very mischievious toddlers. Joseph is now one to be reckoned with. He climbs just as well as his older brother. So, not only do we have to keep an eye on John at the kitchen gate but now also Joseph. Joseph is 18 months old and this gate is close to 36 inches high... As you can see Belle is feeling quite left out of the climbing business. Maybe soon, they will start helping each other out, God forbid.

So after the gate climbing started Micheal thought of a great idea. Pam: the great non-stick solution for pans and the great non-climbing solution for gates. It did work, truly, but didn't last long. I'm thinking we will try Crisco next?


This next great invention came to use a couple of weeks ago, but worked like a charm. We could not keep the kids from unplugging the TV. Since the plug cover that is made for this type of thing could not be found with out ordering it and still we weren't sure if it would work; we decided to make our own plug cover... No it's not pretty but it is perfect. If you can't see what it is. It is an outlet box. It is what is used inside the wall. Michael cut some tabs off the side and screwed the box to some boards he had place on either side of the outlet. We love it! We've not had a single problem with them pulling the plug on the TV since.

Oh, the joys of Motherhood

We've had a lot of changes around here lately. My brother-in-law is supposed to be moving in with us soon. So, to prepare for his arrival, we moved Belle into Joseph's room. The transition wasn't too horrible. Within a few days they were both sleeping as usual.

Then we had a dentist appoint for all three little ones the following week. Needless to say the appointment wasn't the best of appointments. John wasn't born with either a baby or a permanent top left lateral tooth. And Belle needs to come off of the pacifier. It is causing the left side of her top and bottom teeth not touch when she bites down.

On the ride home all I could think about was how it was my fault that Belle's teeth were getting messed up and how horrible it will be for John when he gets older and has a huge gap in the front of his teeth. I've calmed down about it now. These are things that happen and there wasn't nothing that I did wrong. Joseph, with his beautiful skin, curly hair, great laugh and pretty eyes, has perfect teeth. Not complaining, mind you!

So, here we are a week later and I have slowly cut the tips of the pacifiers in order to make them less desirable for the twins. Joseph doesn't much care for them any more, but Belle is still using them religiously. Hopefully by the end of the week, she will not want them any longer.

This past Sunday, Joseph woke up that morning and when I went to get him, he was walking around the room. Yup, he climbed out of his crib; with his sleep sack still on. Monkey! Come nap time, I put him down in the usual fashion: sleep sack on. Within a few minutes the monkey was playing with the blocks on the floor. I went back into the room, put him back in his crib and walked out. Again, a few minutes later he had unplugged the sound machine. I repeated the process one more time, putting him back in the crib. And again, the sound machine was cut off. he did not take a nap that day.

That night I converted their cribs to toddler beds. I figured might as well do both cribs at the same time and get what ever crisis it would cause over with. Surprisingly, the night wasn't too bad. After 30 minutes they were both asleep. Belle in Josephs bed and Joseph in Belle's bed. Three nights and two days later, they are doing great. No problems in the sleeping department. However, I did walk into a surprise this morning. Joseph and Belle were both awake and walking around. What caught my attention was the fact that Joseph was naked from the waist down. Thankfully, he hadn't relieved himself in any way before I got to him. Good Morning Mama!

Oh and last night I forgot to put a diaper on John before bed. He is fully potty trained during the day, but wakes up wet every morning. At 1:45 am he climbed into my bed, soaking wet. I felt so horrible. I got him and his bed cleaned up, put him back in his bed and he slept the rest of the night.

This morning, the three of them were in the living room playing. I heard John say, "Aw! Bubba! Mama get mad!" I called back to John, "What did he do?" His reply. "He poo poo!" Again I walk into the room to see my son naked from the waist down. This time, I wasn't so lucky. There was Belle, squatted like babies and toddlers do looking down at a few terds on the floor. Thankfully, no one had decided to play with them. I got that messed cleaned up and thought, "This is my life and I do love it." No, really I do.