Love/Hate Relationship With Mud
March 24, 2010
Loves the mud until the fall, then hates the mud...
Archive for March, 2010
Mini “Monk”
March 18, 2010
Ever since Xander could express his opinions, we’ve had occasions where we refer to him as Monk. From things like insisting on having a wipe in the car when his hands are dirty to insisting on having two completed puzzles on the floor perfectly aligned together.
Last week he told us he didn’t want to wear his new shoes outside because they would get dirty. When he feels like he is dirty, he asks to take a bath.
This morning, I coaxed him out of bed with the promise that if we got up and out quickly, we could drive to school a different way. This is something he has been requesting the past several mornings. It had the desired effect – he was up, and agreed to get dressed quickly. Downstairs he drank some milk, and noticed his sticker chart on the refrigerator. He asked if he could put a sticker on it for the good night sleep he had last night and I told him yes.
Shortly after that , Zach walked downstairs with Parker, and started to get the boy’s shoes on. We often use a race between the boys as a motivator for Xander. At 3, he loves to be first at everything. Since Parker doesn’t really care yet, it’s a nice way to get Xander moving quickly. With one shoe already on, Zach told Xander that Parker was going to get his shoes on first this morning and win.
Xander, already excited about driving a “different way” immediately started hopping up and down, and wanting to get to his shoes quickly so he could win the “race”. Unfortunately, Xander’s stickers are hung on the fridge with colored magnets, and Xander likes to match the magnet color with the smiley face sticker color – and he can’t do just one, he needs to put one in each of the 4 corners. And it has to be flat and perfectly squared on the fridge. All of this took time this morning, and he was rushing to finish it.
For the first time I watch my son’s compulsive nature prevent him from moving onto the next task because the task he was working on wasn’t perfect. I could feel my face cringe, and my mind started to wonder “What if referring to him as Monk isn’t a joke? What if this sort of behavior does indeed hinder his life somehow?”
Xander eventually got to his shoes and slipped them on just in time (of course) to “win”.
So now I question my tiny collection of readers. Do any of you have perfectionist-type children? Kids who don’t like to be dirty, who freak out over a spot of water on their pants and insist on changing? Who find the one pine needle on the floor the morning after you swept and insist that you didn’t really clean the house? Or, should I really start to worry?
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Where Did He Come Up With That One?
March 15, 2010Does your kid ever come up with strange rituals? Mine has lots of them. I could go on and on about the rituals and “traditions” in our house, from insisting on having music playing while he falls asleep to the “naked baby march” (the march from Parker’s bedroom to the bath tub he insists on doing every time they get ready for a bath, and since it’s still so darn cute – and no one has peed on the carpet yet, we let them).
Last night’s attempt at a new ritual definitely goes down as one of the strangest so far. Xander usually manages to stay up 20-30 minutes after we put Parker to sleep. It’s his quiet one-on-one time, and he looks forward to it every day. Most days, he chooses to do a puzzle with either Zach or me. Last night, he had time for 2 puzzles. He did one with Zach, and then I helped him with the second (these were both floor puzzles). As we finished up the second puzzle, Xander asked us to sit on the puzzle with our legs crossed. He and I sat on one, Zach on the other. Then Xander asked us to lean forward in a huddle of sorts. Once we were all in position, the boy rips out the loudest fart possible.
Zach and I immediately pick up our heads, stared at Xander in a mild state of shock, and then burst out laughing (I’m pretty sure the tears in our eyes were from laughing so hard, not from the smell). I have no idea what was running through that boy’s head, but that was easily the wackiest stunt he’s pulled with us in a while. His antics further solidified my fear that I am completely surrounded by boys – loud, rowdy, entertained-by-bodily-functions, boys…
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Who Needs Water?
March 11, 2010Our well pump died last night. But, since the Universe is apparently completely pissed off at us lately, it waited until we had already started dinner (friends on their way to visit) and Xander had a head full of shampoo before it went ca-put.
And the Universe wasn’t done at just breaking the water pump, oh no… Zach managed to blister his hand on some hot oil while I was outside gathering snow to melt (so we could flush the toilet).
Then when it was his turn to go out and gather snow, Xander forgot to put down the toilet seat after he used it, which we didn’t realize until we heard Parker splashing in it (yuck!) And of course, we didn’t have any good way to clean up anyone without any water…
Our evening just turned into a series of unfortunate events, culminating in a half dead mouse on our carpet this morning that we couldn’t flush down the toilet with the rest because there wasn’t enough melted snow left, so he sort of floated in a little pee bath while we hurriedly melted more snow to get him to go away.
The good news? We have running water again! It’s amazing how easy it is to take things like electricity and running water for granted, and how much you rely on those sorts of things. Between the 4 day power outage and now water failure, it feels like moving out of town moved us back into the 1800′s.
The bad news? “Phase 1″ alone cost us $1,970.00. At $180/hour those well guys aren’t cheap, and our pump was apparently difficult to get at. We’re still waiting on a quote for “Phase 2″ and in a matter of hours all of those exciting plans we had for the house (including a nice, new fancy generator to prevent problems like 4 day power outages) fly out of our bank accounts in the blink of an eye.
So welcome to Sara’s pity party – table for one please. I know someday it’ll get better. Someday we won’t have something breaking on our house or car every week. Someday we’ll go a whole day without finding a dead mouse in the trap in our silverware drawer (don’t worry – the silverware is safely stored elsewhere for now). Someday I won’t find little pockets of seeds stored by mice in my clean laundry baskets or t-shirt drawers (clean laundry that I can’t re-wash yet because there is still too much sediment in my water…). Someday the Universe will cut us a break. Someday the stress will go away and we’ll actually be able to enjoy this house that we fell in love with (I love you, but I don’t really like you right now kind of love).
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Oh, it’s on
March 4, 2010Sometime last year (probably about the time Xander decided he could leave the house on his own, and hearing cars honk horns as our escapee darted out the door) Zach and I decided that we needed to move. We needed to get off our busy mostly-college-student-populated street and go somewhere that our kids could truly run and play and be boys without the fear of broken beer bottles, speeding cars and late-night parties.
So, we put our house on the market at the end of the summer. Much to our surprise, it sold in November. So, in three weeks we packed up all of our earthly belongings and moved into a rental house for the winter. We lived out of boxes and desperately missed our carefully collected possessions as we searched for the perfect home for our children.
Despite our realtor’s concerns, we insisted on looking at this house way out in the middle of nowhere. The town population doesn’t even come close to 100 people. Despite that, it’s still only 15 minutes from work, and we knew some people with kids the same age just down the street.
We fell in love. Sure, the house needs some love and some updating, but it’s in pretty good shape, and it’s huge. It’s got a brook running through the property (perfect for throwing rock into, and getting completely wet and muddy in) and it’s got a Harry Potter closet under the stairs.
So, we bought it. It took lots of super-human effort, and begging and pleading with numerous local and state officials to get the paperwork completed, but we finally did it.
And we moved. Good God we moved. Our beloved (and exhausted) friends all turned out one sunny Saturday in February and packed all of our belongings from a storage unit and the rental house into a U-haul and a few trucks and poured it all into this new (and now not-so-spacious-because-it’s-filled-with-all-our-crap) home.
And then we started to settle in. We sorted toys and washed clothes. We rearranged furniture and learned how our house worked. And then we lost power for 3 days (gotta love living in the sticks…). And we worried about pipes freezing, and our children became nomadic, shifting from home to home staying warm, fed and occupied while we prayed for the electric company to fix all those downed lines in record time.
During this move and settle period, I knew there were mice in the house. I had seen evidence of their existence when we first looked at the house. That first week I could hear them rustling somewhere as I lay in bed, and I actually saw one running around under a couch and behind some boxes.
Now, the mice have gotten used to us. I actually think they like the company. We brought in two not-so-neat children who love to leave discarded food on the floor. We keep the place warmer than they’re used to, and we’ve given them lots and lots of new things to chew through.
They are so comfortable in fact, that they don’t run when they see Zach walk into the basement anymore. Last night I found mouse poo in our silverware drawer (is there anything in the world ickier? It certainly gave me the heebie jeebies for the night). So, I spent the evening sanitizing everything I could get my hands on. The glue traps have been out for three days now, but not a single mouse has fallen for that trick yet (we have smart mice people!)
So, creepy, icky, pooping, scratching, chewing, dirty mice it. is. on. We paid good money for this house. We own it. We aren’t moving (and couldn’t afford to even if we wanted to). We will not cohabitate with you. The snap traps are coming in tonight. Spray foam for every crack and cranny will be added this weekend. We will continue to unpack boxes and place things in plastic bins where you can’t get them. We will win because we are bigger, smarter and stronger than you (unless you are Pinky or Brain, in which case, we’re doomed).
If anyone has any good suggestions for a) getting rid of mice; b) keeping them away; or c) cleaning and sanitizing things that clearly have had a mouse visit, I’m all ears (no pun intended)
