Saturday, October 07, 2006

In which I desperately try to catch up...

Good heavens! Has it really been almost a month since I posted? (Thank you, Lindsay! I really didn't realize it have been that long!) My perfectionism is rearing it's ugly head! (If I can't do it "right", then I won't post at all!). Well, here you go. There are no photos to share right now. Maybe later.

Okay - the bean incident. Once upon a time, Mitchell shoved a [cooked] bean up his nose. That's how all good stories start, right? It was a Tuesday night. What to do? Well, I didn't know if that warranted a trip to the urgent care, or not. I hoped not, because, to our insurance company urgent care = E.R. = $100 copay. So, I called my doctor friend and she said it could probably wait until tomorrow. The next morning, promptly at 8:00:01, I began that frantic dial, hang up, redial process (that all mothers have done) in order to get Mitchell in for a "beanectomy" ASAP. Or, "Stat!" should I say.

The doctor poked around in his nose and removed the bean, a little mushy bit at a time. It was pretty gross to watch. So, I'm betting his nose was a bit sore for a couple of days, but he really didn't seem any worse for the wear. By Friday we had pretty much forgotten all about it. But then. I can hardly bear to type it. On Saturday he came walking through the living room with something hanging out of his nose. Now, as a mother, it's pretty common to see stuff hanging out of your kids' noses. However, this was brown and looked rather nasty. Oh, holy schnikes, it's half of a snot-covered bean. I'm telling you, this was Gross. Here's what I'm ashamed of. I grabbed a tissue and swished it across his face because I was most worried that the thing was going to fall onto my RUG!!!

Garden (and accidental garden) update: The cute little watermelons are not going to make it. They reached the size of ping-pong balls and mostly started to turn yellow and fall off the vine. Then John poisoned the vine so that he could get the yard ready to plant winter rye. Bummer. On a positive note, our fall garden is flourishing. The kids and John and I have been harvesting beans off our bean pole and the ocra is doing really well (it's amazing what regular watering can do!). Good thing John put that drip system in! Our strawberry plants (3) have sent out runners, which put down roots. We cut the runners and now we have more than a dozen strawberry plants. Yum! We also harvested a ginormous zuchinni and 5 cucumbers this year. Good times.

John, Charlotte and I traveled to Colorado Springs last weekend for John's 10-year college reunion. The other three kids stayed with my parents at their house and they all went to their cabin. We had a great time, but my, we are getting old. We were in bed at 10 p.m. the first night we were there.

Mitchell will be two tomorrow. And, my, he is certainly alternating between perfection and terrible these days. He's in the process of making the move to the "big bed", which is really a misnomer because it's no bigger than the crib. It's a toddler bed, so the mattress is actually a crib mattress ... it just doesn't have high sides to make it a "baby jail" like the crib. He loves the "big bed", but if he gets out of bed, his punishment is to go back into the crib. Followed by our punishment of 5 minutes of bloodcurdling screams. Again, good times. We keep finding him asleep on the floor of his room, though, which is heartbreaking. Especially because of the abundance of sleeping options in the room (queen-sized bed, toddler bed, crib ... um, no thanks, I'm good here on the floor). Whatever.

I took him to Target (along with the three other children ... what am I, on crack?) the other night to pick out Halloween costumes. Jack promptly picked Darth Vader, Holly Grace picked Snow White, and then there was Mitchell. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Oh, Mitchell, look here's the aisle with costumes your size!

Mitchell: Elbo!!!

Me: Oh, do you want to be Elmo for Halloween? Here, let's try on the Elmo costume!

Mitchell: NOOOOO! Tractor!

Me: No, honey, they don't have a tractor costume. Look how fun Elmo is!

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Me: Yes, I know, you want to be a tractor, but they don't have one. Do you want to be Elmo?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Holly Grace: Mom, he wants to be a tractor.

Me: Um hum. I know.

Jack: Look, Mitchell, you can be puppy!

Me: Do you want to be a puppy for Halloween, Mitchell?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Me: How about a duck? Do you want to be a duck?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

(Are you seeing the trend? And don't bother telling me that they have Cars character costumes and that Mitchell could be "Mater" from the movie. Because while Mater was my favorite character, I think it's lame to "wear" a car. I hate those costumes. I apologize if your child is going to wear a vehicle for Halloween. I'm sure he/she will be the cutest vehicle ever.)

Me: How about a chicken? or a princess? or a devil (seems fitting)? or anything but a tractor?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

(Seriously, he's got to be thinking, "What is it with you, lady? Are you deaf? I want to be a T-R-A-C-T-O-R!!!")

Me: Okay, here are your choices. You can be Elmo, or you can be a chicken. Look at them closely. Evaluate the pros and cons. The choices is yours. Elmo? or chicken?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Me: Fine. You will be Elmo. Let's go.

So we pay for the costumes and head home. Once we get home, I try to get Mitchell to try on the costume. I can't even get him to stand still for two seconds. What is with this kid?

We head upstairs for bed. I am changing his diaper when he looks up at me, big brown eyes open wide and says, "I a chicken! Bock, bock."Are you freaking kidding me?

The costume has been exchanged and tried on. We know how to make chicken noises and flap our wings. Now we're working on saying "Trick or Treat". I'm not holding my breath. I'm thinking we will be knocking on doors and saying to those who answer them, "NO! Tractor!"