What would you have done?

Read this story and see how ridiculous it is that this mom is on trial for child endangerment.

I know I've done things like this with my kids and would be totally shocked if I were arrested for it. I frequently leave Eli in the buckled in his carseat, locked van in the preschool parking lot while I go inside to drop off/pick up Jacob and the two boys I babysit. In my opinion, he's much safer inside the locked van than he would be if I took him inside and let him run around unattended (while trying to get coats, hats and backpacks hung up for 3 children) while the door to the preschool stands open where he could just run out.

I can also think of one time when I left both of them locked in the van while I ran in to the gas station to pay for my gas (because I was in desperate need of gas and the place didn't have pay-at-the-pump...). But seriously, I was only 10-15 yards away and could see them the entire time.

Let me just say that I am VERY leary about leaving my kids unattended, even in the locked vehicle, but sometimes there are circumstances where I think it's ok for several reasons.... I would NEVER do it in a "shady" place, or if I were going to be gone more than just a few minutes, or leave the van unlocked, or on a hot day, etc. But, in reality, it snows a ton here, can be extremely cold, there can be icy walking conditions in parking lots, I always lock the doors and leave them buckled in their seats, am never far away and watch the van like-a-hawk. So, I think if someone were going to break into my van which does NOT have automatic locks, so this would require breaking in the front door and manually unlocking the back sliding door - then opening the sliding door, unbuckle my toddler from the 5 point thing and get him out while he's crying because of the stranger - I'm pretty sure I would be alerted to something fishy going on and this process would take more than just a few seconds to accomplish....

I am aware there are laws against leaving small children unattended in vehicles. But I am also aware that these laws were created for stupid parents who leave their kids in hot cars on summer days where the temp. inside the car can reach over 100 degrees in less than 10 minutes and kill the child. And parents that run in the grocery store to get "a few items" while their kid is screaming in the car. Or parents who's kids are old enough to get out of their seatbelts and seats and unlock the car door and get out of the car and be taken by someone, lost or worse, get run over or something. These laws were created to protect children from their dumb parents, not to incarcerate good parents who make an educated decision regarding leaving the child in the car.

Please say a prayer for this mom and what she's facing. I know that you can't really tell what kind of parent she is from just this article, but to me it seems she made the right choice for the right reasons. I probably would have done the same thing.

Home building...

We own a brand new home that we closed on in October. When we moved in, we knew that there were yet to be any neighbors on the left (that house is still for sale now) and that our house was the last on our side of the street at that point. So, we were fortunate enough to not have any neighbors (and still don't 5 months later!!). There also aren't any houses on the other side of the street past the one that's diagonal to ours either (the houses on the other side of the street are more expensive because they have full basements). However, we did know that it probably wouldn't be long before they started building more houses. And it wasn't.

Building a house next door is not nearly as noisy and bothersome as I thought it would be. The only complaint I have about the building process of the house next door is that I was constantly encountering a blocked driveway. Apparently, construction workers and delivery men think it's ok to block the neighbor's driveway while they are working/delivering goods..... I had to go find someone several times to move a vehicle so I could get in or out of my driveway at various times during the day. However, once I lodged a complaint with the sales office down the street, all that stopped!! That house is finished now and I suspect we'll have neighbors fairly soon.

This past Friday morning was interesting though, you see, Friday is my off day. I do not babysit and there is no one to take to school and I try not to schedule anything that morning. I am usually fortunate enough to get to sleep until 7:00 when the kids get up and we just putter around, then eat breakfast and then we go to the gym. So, when I was awakened at 5:55 Friday morning to some strange, loud rumbling noise - seemingly right outside my window - I was none too happy. Do you know what it was......... the waste removal company vacuuming out the two port-a-potties a little way down the street! UGH. Like that's what I wanted to wake up to on my morning off. Oh, and why so EARLY? Seriously, trash and waste removal trucks are loud, there should be some rule/law that they can't pick up until at least 7am.

POOP ----- in the bathtub!

Tonight was, well, interesting.... We went to dinner at Red Robin - YUMMY! That went ok, not great, but sometimes that's just how it is with a 4 year old and a 21 month old. (I don't think we'll be going out to eat much after we have #3.... too tough). Jacob was very well behaved and ate his dinner very nicely. Eli, on the other hand has a completely different view on full service restaurants than the rest of the world - they are not for sitting or eating or even coloring with the crayons provided, apparently, they are for complaining and whining and asking to get down repeatedly! This, my friends, is why our weekly eating out event usually occurs at a fast food restaurant.....

Anywho, we came home and it was time to get ready for baths. I started the water and sat Eli on the potty - he is not actively potty training because, he's just not ready yet, but he will occasionally sit there and go after a few minutes. Not so today, he sat there and hadn't gone yet when the water was ready so I let him get down and get in the tub. The bath part went normally, you know, wash the hair, was the body, then on to the other kid and then they get to play for a while. I was getting pj's out and Michael was in the bathroom with them and Eli grabbed his stomach and said he needed to go peepee, so Michael picked him up and .... yep, you guessed it, it's too late, he had already started pooping but Michael didn't notice it until he'd already sat him on the toilet. By this time there was poop in the tub and on the floor...... FUN! Quick, get Jacob out, too! ICK.

Most of us moms have had this happen at least once. I can say, very thankfully, that I've probably had it happen less than 5 times and even though I've cleaned it up before, I still sat there for a minute perplexed as to what to do and where to begin..... Who really wants to clean THAT out of their tub and off their bathroom floor. ICK again. So, I cleaned Eli first and then went off to get the cleaning supplies - thankfully years ago someone decided that they'd make rubber gloves for cleaning nasty places like toilets (and I have a pair for that purpose) cause I would have seriously been too grossed out to handle that. Needless to say, I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning the entire bathroom and washing all the toys that had been in the tub, then put on a load of every single towel in the vicinity of that bathroom - you know, just in case....

What was your most interesting kid-related moment today?

Exciting news!!

We're having another baby!!! Yipee!! I will be 10 weeks tomorrow and the due date is September 20.

I haven't seen the dr. yet (next Friday) so keep me in your prayers that everything is ok and that this will be a healthy pregnancy. I have a good track record with easy pregnancies so far, so I'd like to keep it that way!!

Here's something fun, too... the age difference between Jacob and Eli is 28 months and the age difference between Eli and this one will be 27 months!! It's great how God works things out, isn't it?

Goodbye crib, hello big boy bed

We have taken the leap and moved Eli into a "big boy bed" and he loves it!!! He is almost 21 months old and we weren't quite sure how he would take to the new bed, but it's been great! We moved him into a twin bed because that's what we did with Jacob. However, since he's not as tall as Jacob was at this age, we just put the box spring and mattress on the floor rather than putting the frame under it. He can climb in and out of it perfectly, it's just the right height for him.

The first night (Tuesday) was wonderful, he loved the idea of having his own big bed like Jacob's and went straight to sleep and never got up. He didn't even get out of bed when he woke up in the morning, he just sat there singing until I came and got him!! Since then, he still hasn't gotten out of bed! We do have a gate at the top of the stairs in case he decides to make any nighttime treks thru the house, he would only be able to come to our room because the other upstairs doors are closed. I think he feels like a big boy now - like Jacob!!

Notice the rails spanning the entire length of the bed (yes, I'm aware they're different, they were bought at different times for Jacob a couple of years ago). We discovered with Jacob that if we just had the one rail on the bed starting a little way from the head of the bed and then only going about 3/4 of the way to the foot of the bed, Jacob could still manage to fall out of the bed most nights..... So, we ended up with 2 rails all the way down the side and only an opening at the foot of the bed to prevent him from falling out. So, instead of having Eli falling out, we just decided to put both rails on again.

So sad when you realize they are growing up, but it's also so heart-warming!!

Jacob is FOUR.

I know it's a little late for me to be freaking out about it since he's been 4 for a whole month now, but it really hit home when I took him for his 4 year physical yesterday. He comes in at 44" tall. He is so tall it's incredible. He's off the chart (above 100%) for his height. And his weight is finally catching up. For the last 2 years he's been in about 50% because he's so skinny. But yesterday he weighed in at 42.5 lbs. which gets him up to 85%!! Maybe he won't be skin and bones when he grows up after all.





Jacob and Rodney Copperbottom from "Robots" at a mall in Australia!

Spending a night away from my kids!!!

WOW! One of the few perks the military gives is to let you keep the points for flights and hotel stays when you're on TDY's/deployments, etc. Michael has earned a free night through one of his hotel programs and we are going to use it!! I'm so excited I had to tell you about it even though it's not happening until the 23rd of February!

Let me just give you a little background info. so you have an idea of how huge this is for me! I have spent a total of 12 nights away from Jacob - only 2 of those were voluntary. Here are the reasons: 2 nights when Eli was born and I was in the hospital in May, 2006; 2 nights when Eli was in the hospital with a virus in June, 2006; 6 nights when I was readmitted to the hospital for a blood clot in July, 2006; 2 nights when I was in Florida in August, 2006 and my mom kept him because I was exhausted with a newborn and Michael was TDY. Jacob is now four years old and I can remember every time I've been away from him...

I have been away from Eli overnight for a total of 6 nights. Those same 6 nights I spent in the hospital in July, 2006, when he was only 7 weeks old..... He is 20 months old and the only time I've been away was because I was in the hospital.

The reason isn't that don't like to leave them (because I will leave them with the right person - no problem), it's more like we've never had an opportunity to do something that would require spending the night away and be able to have a babysitter at the same time. We live zillions of miles away from family and paying a babysitter gets expensive.

I'm really excited about this because we have a really great babysitter, a $50 gift certificate to a great restaurant downtown (Mackenzie's), a get together with some friends afterward and we don't have to worry about going home afterward and getting in really late. We will go to our hotel room, sleep peacefully and get up and have breakfast and shower at a leisurely pace in the morning. And the only thing we're really paying for is the babysitter!!!!!