Leashes and Tazmanian Devils and Why These Go Together...

You know, it's a nice perk when the town in conjunction with the school district offers free lunches during the summer! It's a chance to get the kids out of the house, it's free (not for adults - but that's okay), and it keeps us Moms from having to make anything. I like that, because I like a clean kitchen.

That said, if they're holding district wide summer school at the elementary school where you can also go for lunch (well, at least for K-8 Summer classes...I don't know about High School), your toddler poses a risk to the well being and peaceful learning environment. 


I'm in the cafeteria Thursday with the boys (Mikelle is in Idaho and Wyoming having bonding time with her Grammy, Aunts, Uncle and 5 younger cousins...) and X-man grabs a pencil out of my purse and started running. Well, that's a sharp object and if he fell, that can be bad news. However, the more you pursue him, the more he runs. 

Yeah, look at that face. You know he knows better!

It's such a game for that little turd - I mean, sweetheart.

So I casually started to follow him hoping to cut him off at one of his turns. That technique works most of the time. However, this time he ran out of the cafeteria instead of turning and took off down the hallway where the classrooms were. I picked up my pace, but not before he darted into a classroom with 7th Graders, takes a football that's sitting by the door, and takes off again down the hall.

I'm sure the 7th graders just loved the interruption and baby drama, but I doubt the teacher did. I apologized and returned the football promptly despite X-man's loud objections to the contrary.

So the following day, instead of going for the free lunch, the boys and I went to McDonalds. The play area was more contained! 

Similar to this Monkey

It looks like I may have to use the cute Monkey backpack "leash" for X-man next time we're at the school. 

Sure, there's the arrogant and holier-than-thou "leash haters" and those that judge and look down their noses at us "leash parents". These people equate the use of leashes as the same as dog leashes. They call parents who use them stupid and even abusive.  They claim leashes are because parents are too lazy to hold the kids' hand. 

They clearly don't get it.

They also never had children that did what Christian did at age 2, and what Alexander now does. And anyone that has seen first hand my boys in action in their toddlerhood knows exactly what I'm talking about!

If these holier-than-thous did experience the toddlers that I have been blessed with, they would change their tune real quick! 


A lot of arguments I also hear are: "My kid never needed one of those."

Well, good for you! Is your kid the symbol of all kids? No. They're all different. We didn't need one for Mikelle either! But we did with her brothers.  To say, "My kid never needed one of those," is as stupid as saying to a parent, "Why is your kid wearing glasses? My kid doesn't need them." 

 Sounds stupid, doesn't it?

We purchased a leash for Christian when he was two years old the same day we lost him at the Renaissance Festival for a few minutes (more than five, I think).  It was terrifying. Earlier that day when he bolted, we nearly lost him but he ran smack into a older child and that stopped his momentum.  (I was grateful the other kid was there to get in Christian's way. The other kid wasn't hurt, but his mother must have eaten too much Meow Mix that morning). 

However, later, Christian did it again and it was really scary until we found him! 

What? You weren't watching him?  
Yes. And we were watching him as he took off, as we went after him and as he disappeared into a crowd. 

May 2006 - when Christian was 2. Just a few months younger than X-man is now.

And the leash turned out to be a behavior changer for Christian, because he hated that thing so much, we only had to use it about 4 or 5 times after that. Just the mere threat of bringing out the leash shifted Christian's behavior. 

Take that, leash criticizers! It helped him make better behavior choices. 

Leash Boy 1 - Age 2

Leash Boy 2 - Age 2

Alexander is even more dramatic with the leash. He flops down, plays dead and refuses to move because of the leash (and when I say refuse to move, it  includes "walking"). Well, too bad. If he's going to play games like he did in the cafeteria Thursday, he's wearing the Monkey! 

Sure, what happened Thursday wasn't exactly a safety concern in the technical sense (except for the pencil in his hand) compared to when Christian terrified us at the Renaissance Festival. But Alexander is constantly running around. When we were sitting and eating, he wants to jump on the table, or forget that it's time to eat and just run. This leash inclusion will hopefully be a similar behavior modification as it was with his brother, because I know Alexander knows better. Like I said above, it's all a game to him. 

Wish me luck! And those that want to criticize me for using a leash, I invite you along one of my outings with Alexander that includes trying to sit and eat.

Where Did May Go?

May is now gone along with our double digit temperatures. So far, I'm enduring it. But I think July is where I start to lose it. However, I won't think about that right now. 

My Owl Go Round was listed along with my whimsical USA Blocks!

I have a lot of "end of school year" tidbits to catch up on, but I am going to do that on the next posting. Mikelle had a Triple Threat/Crew show, Christian made High Honors and received a medal for keeping that High Honors average for the whole year, and Alexander is amazing us every day with added skills and knowledge. Seriously, he is on turbo mode with his abilities. 

I am thrilled he is a smart kid, but a smart kid is a double edged sword at this age. He has fantastic drawing abilities, but it means he wants to draw on everything. He has a thirst for knowledge, but it means he's all over the place wanting to get into and discover new things. 

Check out this YouTube from last week of Alexander displaying his snowman skills. It is rather advanced for his age. Also, even though he didn't want to do an A in the video, I have an A he drew the following day. And now he draws a lot of As and then connects them with lines.

And yes, Chris committed the Taboo of the Vertical Videos. To understand the evils of the Vertical Videos, click here. These guys are genius and I love when new videos by them are uploaded. Of course their videos aren't Vertical Videos.

This is an abbreviated posting this time. Next week I start my first session of Summer Art Lessons and of course the blog entries will have cool projects we'll be doing. However, before that, I am going to update the fun from the end of the school year with Christian and Mikelle's various activities and accomplishments! 

Mothers Day, Spoons, and Commandeered Sandwiches

Mothers Day was last weekend. We tried to get a couple of snapshots, but Chris was recovering from the same stomach bug that went through us all last week. Therefore, we're lucky we got this Mothers Day picture.

And as usual, don't let that face fool you. The fact that it's Mothers Day means nothing to a 2 1/2 year old. Trying to get through dinner that evening was "interesting".  I believe the word I've used to describe X-man's behavior as of late is "Turdwagon". 

However, you wouldn't know from this shot of him with the chocolately goodness that was the most amazing cupcakes I've ever had! 

A little bit of the Mothers Day 'attitude' from earlier that day!

And while we're on the subject of Mothers Day, here is the scanned artwork of the Mothers Day present that was commissioned by a return customer. It has the grand-kids listed and some of the grandmother's favorite things such as roosters, lilies of the valley, and lilacs. 

I threw a couple owls in there because the customer (the grandmother's daughter in law) loves owls. I will use this artwork as the example for a separate custom art listing on my shop for Mother/Grandmother gifts. Hopefully that'll bring in more traffic for this kind of custom piece! 

Fathers Day custom piece, anyone?

I know I left off my last entry without finishing the part about Christian's art show and my birthday.  I will get to that, but I have to get to the spoon part. Monday night, Alexander showed off his spoon talent. The smile is priceless. There is a video, but that'll have to wait as there are more technical difficulties.

May 2013 - Age 2 1/2

And Chris took it a step further.  Back story: In 2007, on the way to drop Chris off in Vegas for business and then Mikelle, Christian and I were to head on to Cedar City Utah to visit a friend and meet up with my mom and sister, we had lunch in Seligman (along Route 66) at the Roadkill Cafe! That is where the picture of Chris and Christian (then age 3) with the spoons was taken. 

Monday's Alexander spoon shot has been added. This is the desktop image on Chris's computer at work. 

The June 2007 Spoon Pic with Alexander Photoshopped in to join the fun!

Incidentally, while at the Roadkill Cafe, there were quite a few French tourists sitting nearby. We locals looked looney.

Anyway, back to present day. Well, sort of. Here is Christian showing his artwork at the school's art show almost 2 weeks ago.

One of the attempts to get Christian to enthusiastically point at his artwork.

The photo booth! Cool concept!

 

As shown in the previous entry, Christian and I in the photobooth.

 And a few days earlier...brothers doing what brothers do! I love my boys!
 

 

Okay, the birthday. There's some cute pictures of the kids, but I look like I added on about 25 extra birthdays. Anyway, it was on a Monday and we went to Joe's BBQ in Gilbert. I didn't know it, but Chris arranged for our friends' Bruce and Liz and Sholee and Tev to be there too! That was a neat surprise and was happy to see them. We didn't have cake at dinner (I wanted to grab an ice cream cake on teh way home and eat it later), so Bruce commandeered my sandwich with the candles. I really wanted to keep eating my sandwich.

I'm running into Technical Difficulties again with uploading pictures! I don't know what the deal is with this batch of pictures! We'll try again next time!

May Days

There have been quite a few custom orders in the last couple of weeks. As "teased" in my previous entry, these two are from the return customer who lives Toronto. I hope they enjoy them!

This one below is a Mothers Day gift from a return customer in Mississippi! I do have the scan, but I just sent it out to her, so I'll wait to include the full scan, though the snapshot isn't exactly obstructing much!  It's for the grandmother and it includes the grandchildrens' names on there. What a special gift! I just may make a separate listing on Etsy for something like that!

And this one below (with the clock inside the moon), has a special story behind it. I am truly honored I was part of this gift, but at the same time I'm really nervous and hoped I captured it the way they were hoping!  This was for a lady whose birthday was earlier this month -she was adopted and the adoption was closed so she never knew anything about her birth. Only recently was she was granted info about the time of birth. Her friend wanted to rush order this and make sure the time of her birth was emphasized. I hope they liked it!

Some personal details have been blurred.

As for the fun on the home front, besides Alexander and I getting hit with a stomach bug this week, it's just been end of the school year stuff. 

This entry will focus mostly on Christian as his events that involved pictures seemed to hit one after another. (Mikelle has a Triple Threat/Crew performance coming up, so she'll get her spot light soon enough!...insert maniacal laugh!)

Today was Civil War Dress Up Day for Christian's class. He was one of four proud Lincolns!

Why aren't they smiling? Did anyone smile in those primitive 1860s pictures? Nope.

That's Christian on the far right next to who else? John Wilkes Booth!

The Big Cowboy in the picture is the parent of the Little Cowboy on the far left.

And this has both the Cowboy's parents!

An encore of the four Lincolns!

We did send Christian with a black blazer, but he said it was too big and didn't wear it. I wanted to do a beard for him, but yesterday was the day that I was out of commission with the stomach bug, so that beard just wasn't happening.

Going back in time, last night was Christian's performance for the "Recorder Karate". Let me tell you, if you're trying to recover from a stomach bug and your husband is still at work, going to the performance is quite the feat. However, someone I managed it, and even bugged Christian from the audience by trying to catch a glimpse of him before he ducked back behind the podium. Too bad I didn't have my ultra-zoom lens!

 And going back in time even further, was Christian's art show! They had a fun "photo booth" set up there, so we had to have our fun with that! Plus, that big mouth covers the part of my face that I'm mostly self conscious about! Sweet!

Well, due to technical difficulties with uploading photos, the rest of the art show pictures will have to wait until the next entry. That's okay, I have to go back in time to earlier that week for when we all went out with some friends for my birthday, so it will fit in nicely. 

Until then...toodles!

Three Eyes, Ferrets and Reptiles...

Since the last couple of entries had some heaviness in it that I don't like to do too much to clog my blog, it's time for some funnies. 

But first, housekeeping. 

I just finished two more custom orders for that gem of a customer who lives near Toronto. I won't show the work in their entirety until I've shipped them off.

This one is for a woman. And of course there are my blingy purple toes.

This is for young man about Mikelle's age.

X-Man found a googly eye and brought it to me. We were goofing off and I put it on my tongue trying to say "tongue has eyeball" (  but in the voice it would make when your tongue has an eyeball stuck to it and your tongue is sticking out) and he would laugh.

I laughed and it kind of spit the eye off my tongue and I'm not kidding - it hit him close range and landed right between his eyes! It was funny watching him look for it for a second not knowing where it landed. I had to take a picture. 

As for some of his other skills, at least when he keeps drawing on the walls (that are just cleaned and/or painted over), his scribbles are in a more pre-schematic stage now.

 

Speaking of the house, it is tough trying to figure out what to do. We need to be in Wickenburg in ONE YEAR. That way, Mikelle can start high school there and Christian can start fifth grade there. We are still upside down in our house and of course to even rent it out (and sell it someday) there is so much to do. I feel like Atlas again with the world on my shoulders.  However, I'm cranky and overwhelmed and I don't have the strength Atlas had. 

But I said this post wasn't going to be heavy (unlike the house stuff).  Therefore, here we go with some of my favorites:

Not funny, but TRUE!

 

Back to funny....

I really need a life-size Velocaraptor. 

Not cheese, but I have jumped on top of a stack of mattresses at Costco in just the last couple of months...

I don't know why, but this one below just cracks me up. Plus, it reminds me of a LOT of teachers' meetings. I have to admit, when I was pregnant with Alexander and knew I was going on maternity leave soon, it was nice to be able to say whatever I wanted at these meetings because first, I wasn't going to be there soon, and two, who is going to get mad at a big pregnant hormonal woman?

And I probably posted this here before. It's a classic. I just don't feel like going back in blog history to check.  Plus, it's a funny one to end on. 

The song is in your head now too, huh?