What a mess!

Ok, it has been about a week since the incident so I have blown enough steam off my top and can now blog about it. Here it goes….Gavin became very quite one day and that is never a good sign, unless of course, he is sleeping.  I started looking for him and calling his name. No answer so I became increasingly nervous. I then opened the door to Heidi’s room and there he was sitting on the floor with two boxes of food coloring! He had opened the little bottles drank some of it, poured some on himself and some on the carpet. The painful and hopeless task of washing his hands, clothes, carpet etc.. Heidi wanted to help clean the carpet so she started scrubbing instead of blotting the food coloring and so she spread it out instead of cleaning it.  So the carpet and clothing are totally ruined. After washing his hands about 10 times and soaking him in the tub for about half an hour some of the ink came out of his body.
We also bought a dinning set about six months ago. It is big and sits 10. It has a rustic finish which is exactly what I wanted so that it could hide any scratched. I was just not counting on also adding dents by banging on toys, utensils, pencils, etc.. and as of yesterday we now have a cracked chair, thanks to Ethan.
I have become an expert balancer with supersonic reflexes and deep breather. I have learned this because on a any given day I usually trip over toys, shoes, books, rocks and find scribbled, dented walls, furniture, etc.. I have now mastered using my toes as a pick up tool to avoid bending and twisting as I do some of the pick up ( I do require the kids to clean up after themselves). When I clean up after some messes I think about what many older women tell me, that one day I will miss the tantrums, scribbled walls, ruined carpets, dented furniture, etc.. Maybe they really do not remember how bad it was so I decided to take pictures and see if in twenty years I will really miss it.

Don say dat

Less than two months ago we painted our house. As a result we have a lively and colorful (12 colors to be exact) house. Everything looks so clean and new. I have wondered how long it would last. With four kids that range from 6 months to 6 years, I did not expect it to last too long and unfortunately I was right. I did get rid of every colored pencil, marker and crayon that was not washable to minimize any future possible damage.

Today, while I was on the phone I heard crying and screaming coming from Heidi’s room. When I went over to see what was going on, I found Gavin and Heidi on the floor in a wrestling match! I bent down to separate them and calm them down. As I looked up, I saw on the newly painted wall the scribbles from one of the great masters of art! My wall has been once again the canvas his artistic impressions. I was very upset so I scolded Gavin.  However, Gavin has mastered the art of handling me in just the right way, like no one else, particularly when he is in great trouble. This is what he did, he waited for me to breathe deeply and calm down. He then came into my room and approached me. He caressed my face while whispering in a very subdued and sweet voice “don say dat” as he pointed with his finger to the direction of the room with the now scribbled wall and with puppy eyes looked at me and said, “I guv you”.

And the winner is.....

Ethan competed in his first 5 round swiss chess torunament today at Riverton Elementary. In all, 27 schools participated and there were 162 kids. Ethan competed for his former school, Willow Springs because his current school does not have a chess program. It was a very long competition (he left home around 8:20 am and got back around 3 pm) I wondered if he would last the 6 hour the tournament. He really wanted to get a trophy so before he left home I started preparing him by giving him the spill of "we play to have fun not just to win and a ribbon would be nice, maybe a medal would be great and he might not get a trophy, etc... He waited for me to be done and then said, "oh, I signed up for the trophy competition mom". My eyes went wide open and in horror I thought to myself, "oh, no!, trophies are only given to the top 10 competitors and you are a first timer".

Well, he did last the entire competition. He lost the first round, he won the second and third rounds, he lost the fourth round, he tied the fifth round. He had 2.5 points and had no ranking (because it was his first time competing at this tournament). I did not know what his score meant but the moment of truth arrived at around 2 pm. The winners were announced, they started with the "outstanding performers" that would get a medal. They named one after another first grader. I was on the edge of my seat when the announcer said, "and the last competitor is ........ blah, blah, blah. SIGH!!!! whew! he actually made the cut and I could not believe it! He was a top ten competitor! I looked at Dave, who was sitting behind me, and we both had a huge grin on our faces. Then the announcer said, "10th place goes to................Ethaaaaaaan Christenseeeeen!!!!!! the crowd went  crazy, applause, standing ovation, flashing cameras, and loud cheering could be heard and it was all coming from ....... mom! What can I say? after all, he is my first born and this was a first for our entire family.  I was so happy for him, I wanted to cry! He was so excited about his trophy until..................he saw the much larger trophy his friend got for 4th place.

While we waited for the scores to be calculated, Dave had been perusing all the goods being sold and purchased a chess timer, some chess software with all the greatest and latest tactics and who know what else. I reminded Dave that this was just a for fun thing and Ethan would probably soon loose interest.
When we got home Ethan asked his dad to pull the chess board out so he could play!
So I said, "Why do you want to play? you have been playing all day long, aren't you tired?.
In a very stern, serious loud voice he said, "I have to practice mom, I have the state championship in a month!"
I rolled my eyes and resisted the temptation of banging my head against the wall.

A Classic!

I started Kailey on solids on Christmas day. Everything I have read about feeding babies with Down Syndrome indicates that their poor muscle tone in their body, including their mouth and tongue, makes this task very difficult. However, the first day I fed her she ate like a champ! since then, the novelty seems to have slowly worn off and Kailey has become an accomplished food spitter. She loves to spit as far out as possible and has quite the wrestling matches with her bib, both are highly entertaining. She eats in her high chair so she needs to balance her body and eat at the same time. This has proven to be really tiresome for her and here is a cute picture of Kailey after her feeding session.