Chinese New Year Eve

We're not actually Chinese, so we skipped the silly tradition of cleaning the house for New Years and just moved on to the good traditions. Like money gifts in little red envelopes...

 Wahoo! We're RICH!

 ...and the FOOD.

It's going to be a good year.

It's the year of the horse, you know.

We're all about the horse around here.

MLK Day

Also to be remembered as the day that Jaws learned how to suck from a straw!

Cute, right?

 

 Pops took the kids and I out to lunch at our favorite spot. 

We dropped Tadpole off at his buddy's house for a play date. 

He was bummed to miss-out, but we promised we'd be back.

Besides, we've got to practice our new trick!

Pranksters

One of my all time favorite childhood movies has to be Parent Trap. I adore Haley Mills. Can you imagine the talent you must have to be both twins?! And the pranks. How I loved the pranks! I remember my accomadating grandmother sweetly vacuuming through webs of thread that my brothers and I hung all over the house after watching the movie.

Pops and I showed the movie to our kiddos and Abizella felt even more compelled to carry out out pranks. Her first victim was her slumbering room mate.

He was not amused.

The next night Superkid and Tadpole said they were afraid to go to sleep. And it turned out to be for good reason. Superkid woke up with sticky hands and toothpaste all over his face.

Guess who is afraid to sleep now?

Lost That Bet

We had our twice-yearly family dentist appointment last week. It is quite the event. We all go together and get it all done at the same time, always leaving one parent in the waiting room to man the scene. This is the second visit where Little Chief was old enough to participate in the event. After the scene last year, I was dead sure he wasn't going to let anyone near his mouth. I cleverly positioned myself to be "in the chair" when it was LC's turn so I didn't have to look like the crappy parent who can't get her kid into the hot seat. What I wasn't counting on is the power of jealousy. After seeing Superkid, Abizella and Tadpole come from the chair with bags brimming with toothbrushes, and goody-box toys, LC knew what he had to do. 

I still cant' believe it. He willingly, cheerfully climbed aboard...

And even got a full check-up.

He was handsomely rewarded.

Superkid and I were the big losers. He came out with a cavity and I need a crown. I was happy to push that off another 6 months until yesterday when I could no longer chew without pain. I called and secured an appointment at the same time as Superkid's filling. I really wished I didn't give him a hard time over his lack of oral hygiene. He challenged me, "What's the big deal? Getting a cavity drilled doesn't even hurt. They numb your tooth." I should have left it there. He'd find out, right? Instead I may have mentioned having to take a shot in the jaw. Not my best parenting moment in retrospect. But this is Superkid we're talking about. Surely he would sit back and take it because he's just an awesome kid, right?

We both entered the hot seat with sweaty palms. Superkid clutched his dinosaur stuffed animal for comfort. I just wrung my hands. I forgot to tell him not to look at the dentist. He got a glimpse of the needle and refused, a luxury you can take when your mom is tied down in the chair down the hall.
Now I've got to make it good for Superkid so he'll go back in 3 weeks.

Maybe I'll just send Pops. He rocks at this stuff. I clearly don't.

Snow Day

We got more of this last week.
This is turning out to be an excellent winter.
Abizella, Tadpole and Little Chief spent hours playing in the snow 

(Abz and LC shown here).

Jaws spent hours pining to join them...

And Superkid and I spent the morning snuggled up together reading. 

I love winter.

Toad Pad

 We are pretty excited around here. We actually found a house in our dream town. Excellent schools and not too bad of a commute. But that is not all. It is large enough to accommodate our entire bustling family. After years of nightmares of living in an actual chicken coop this is a big deal. We will have some updates in our near future, but there is one room that is absolutely perfect.

 

Abizella's bedroom. It's pink. She is thrilled. I'm not sure what came first, her love of pink (good-bye blue and purple), or the pink bedroom. Either way we are happy that she is happy. 

We don't close until March 13th, but until then we are having fun dreaming about our life in our new house and all the fun things we will do to make the space "ours". Abizella and I were talking about it the other day. I asked her what she wants to do with her bedroom. Top of her list, a potter's bench. You know, so she can grow her own snacks, like Brussels sprouts. Seriously. Then she talked for a solid hour detailing the reading nook, painting station, and every pink thing under the sun: a pink book case, dresser, bed, rug, pillows, desk, pencils, chairs, curtains, doll furniture, lamp, etc. The only not pink thing in there will be her Brussels sprouts.

Just 6 more weeks and we'll be living the dream!

The New Family Verb

This is the Toad family 3 yr. old. To say he is "busy" is a euphemism at best. As I write this he is watching something on Netflix while spitting Monopoly houses and hotels across the room. I'd go and stop him if he was a different kid, but this is a benign activity for him. This kid takes mischief to a new level. In fact, the English language doesn't have a word for the act of destruction that this little character can create. So Abz came up with one. After finding the family home evening assignment chart in shambles and scattered throughout the house, Abizella shrugged her shoulders and said that it had been "Joed".

Pops heard pounding and heart wrenching sobs coming from the basement. He unlatched the lock that was latched high up on the door and released a sobbing frightened Tad from his confinement. Assuming that only a tall kid could lock the door, Pops laid into Superkid and Abizella to force a confession. The big kids were at the verge of tears when Little Chief shuffled around the corner and said, "Oh! Tad! How'd you get out of the basement?" Joed.

I spent an hour of my post-kids-in-bed time folding 3 weeks of socks and organizing them neatly on the couch for the kids to retrieve in the morning. LC wandered into the bathroom as I was getting out of the shower the next day. With a mischievous smile he said, "Mo-mmy.... I put all of the socks with the shoes!" and then raced away. Joed.

Superkid found all of his blankets, pillows and stuffed animals pulled off of his bed. Joed. All of the cushions off the couch. Joed. Drowned plant. Joed. Clogged flooded sink. Joed. Yogurt smeared across the counter. Joed. Lego creations smashed to smithereens. Joed.

We don't get upset or freak out. We expect it. After a recent attack, Superkid just heaved a sigh under his breath and weakly said, "Joed".

Some day he will turn 4... or maybe 7 or 8 and things will quiet down, but for now he has distinguished himself as the new family verb.

This Happened Today

5 Matching Toads at Church!

They brought down the house. Thank-you Grandma Sandi for the fancy threads.

Also, due to back-to-back Sunday puke-a-thons, this was our first week of church for the year and Little Chief's first week as a Sunbeam. 

It went off as can be expected. 

"I hate this chair. I hate this class. I hate this song..." 

Little Chief is not big on change. Pops stayed through Sharing Time as the "Enforcer". But it probably wasn't necessary because his teacher is Sister Olson. She's a pro. She had him eating out of her hand by the time I picked him up. How can you not love drawing Jesus on the chalk board?! And he brought home his very own Jesus tongue depressor puzzle, the envy of the household.

All's well that ends well, right? 

He's been assigned to give the prayer next week, we'll see.

We came home and celebrated with sugar cookies! It was Little Chief's turn to choose treat, although he may have been heavily lobbied by Abz.

Who am I kidding, we all love them!

Fresh Meat

This morning as I was preparing the Sunday dinner etc. I told Superkid to come over and take note. I explained that when he is at the BYU he'll want to go buy a nice roast on Sunday  to throw in the crock pot before church. Then I explained that he just then needed to scout out a cute girl at church and invite her over for dinner. Ladies love a man who can cook a good meal. He started to perk up as I was buttering the roll dough to rise. When Pops came around the corner to start the roast Superkid eagerly popped up and said, "Dad, can you teach me how to prepare a roast?"

This, after a lengthy discussion about how to catch a girl at recess. I asked the kids to come up with a talent that we could video and post for the family Christmas party. Superkid said that he could do a "How-To-Catch-A-Girl" instructional video (e-mail me for the link). Hillarious. He said he knew how to find, "a good piece of meat". Then he went on to detail his strategy of dispersing a pack of girls by charging and then chasing them down. Don't think I haven't seriously considered staking out the playground to spy on recess.

I love this kid. I'm just happy he is all mine for now!

Fort Toad

 We busted out Aunt Mindurs Christmas gift to our family today. Fort Toad, complete with rope, clips, a giant tent and flashlights. Just what this family needed to convalesce.

 Did I say how much we love flashlights? 

LC insisted on being under the bed where it is dark and  he could get the full effect. 

. We spent the day climbing mountains, outfitting the fort, and hunting.

For the most part, we have played nicely together. Of course there have been a few exceptions. At one point Little Chief came downstairs and asked very sweetly, "Mom, please you come upstairs with me?" I met him on the stairs where he had me lean over so he could whisper in my ear, "I just love flashlights!" He was double fisting them. He then led me to the door of the fort and said, "Please you say 'I'm sorry everybody'?" Oh I get it. This kid got the boot and he needed an ambassador.

The kids have elected to sleep in Fort Toad tonight. It's a school night. Let's see if this thing gets busted up. Thank-you for the super fun fort and gear Aunt Mindurs!

The Great Barf Fest of 2014

It all started last Sunday, 7 days ago. Tadpole didn't eat his french toast. He said his stomach hurt. He curled up in a ball on our bed. We told him to get in the van to go to church. We explained that both Mom and Dad had to teach Sunday school so we all had to go. About 2 minutes after Pops settled Tadpole down in the pew, Tad erupted. I was down in the primary room with Little Chief showing him where he would sit now that he was a big boy Sunbeam when Pops came ripping around the corner and placed a garbage can and a puking Tad at my feet while he rushed back to the pew to commence operation clean-up. The 3 little kids and I headed straight back home. Looks like I didn't "have" to teach after all.

Tad looked like he was pulling out of it Monday, but had a relapse in the weeeee hours of Monday night/Tuesday morning. Around here, Pops is the parent who rushes in when  child barfs while I stand paralyzed in the background. While Pops mainly dealt with situation, I felt completely sick. I played tough guy and got up for work and got the kids off to school while Pops took Superkid to a well-child Dr. appt. By the time they got home it was pretty clear I wasn't moving from the couch. My little guys took good care of me and I even got a nap! A REAL NAP (that is why I am smiling!)!

Little Jaws has been sick all week. He doesn't say much but he is all around pathetic.

Superkid and Little Chief were the next to fall. 

Little Chief informed Pops, "My tummy's ready for barfing now."

The ugly thing about this bug is that just when you think that you are better, maybe a day or 2 later it strikes again. After a day and night of puking LC had had enough and was looking to bust out. 

Pops caught him outside in the January freeze. 

I got this pic at work with the accompanying text, "I come outside to play."

The next text said, "Joe is puking got to go". 

The one ofter that said, "Well to LC's credit he grabbed the bowl and barfed in that. But because he's LC he then ran with the bowl from the dining room into the bedroom sloshing and spilling as he went and dumped it on the bed where the clothes were being folded!" 

He then slept for 15 hours. When he woke up the next morning he asked for, "Gatorpond". It took me a second, then I realized he wanted Gatorade.
You've got to be feeling better if you want to drink from a gator pond.

And then it was Abz and Pops. Not to slight Pops' misery, this little lady had it bad. Still does. She easily threw up 15 times. She and I sat up until about 2:00 a.m. watching movies with intermittent puking.

Now we are just waiting for the second wave for Pops and Abz. 

They are both terrified to eat. Can't blame them. This is ugly.

We're almost there...

Skate Guards

Oh! Okay, I get it. Skate guards are for lazy parents who like to stay inside. Just fasten up the hockey skates and push the kids out the door to the neighbor's house and snap pictures of the kids through the window. This picture is brought to you by our wonderful neighbors on both sides of the house; the Nielsen's, who gave Abz the skate guards and the Kirk's who invite her over to skate every night. How can we move away from all this?!

Snow Day!

With both school and work canceled on January 3rd we were all feeling mighty gidddy!

These kids suited up and spent 3 solid days outside in the white stuff. 

Seriously, outside for hours at a time. 

Then they came in, shed their drenched shells, downed a couple of mugs of hot chocolate while their clothes toasted on the radiant heat floor (the best invention of all time) and then headed out for more!

Until we were were spent!

Happy New Year!

Nothing says New Years like the Curhan's New Year's party! Sadly their guinea pigs have past, but we still were able to busy ourselves with building blocks and wrecking balls!

And we introduced this little guy to our New Year's tradition too!

Then the Zeller's came to play! We are glad that we could steal them away from their grandparents! The perfect friends to start the year with! I can tell it is going to be a good one!

The Best Gift

This year my work added days to the holiday calendar, starting this year we get the time between Christmas Eve and New Year's as paid holiday leave. This is the best gift EVER. I have never enjoyed time away from work or the holidays more. Usually I use vacation time to travel with the family which is super fun, but not very restful. The first few days were crazy getting ready for Christmas but then it was just R&R. We played games together and made it to the Energy Center and pool at the gym many times. We met some friends for bowling!

We went and blew our Christmas cash at the Lego store!

We cleaned up Christmas and torched the Christmas tree 

while we read the new joke book Grandma sent!

We made lots and lots of treats!

And we took up ice skating! This was our first attempt. 

Our awesome neighbors built the rink and supplied the skates and lessons. 

A little wobbly at first, but the kids caught one quick!

Dad's going to have to build us a rink when we move!

We played and played games, watched movies, went to see the Movie Frozen, memorized and performed our favorite songs from the movie and just really enjoyed being together as a family. 

It just can't get any better. These are the days we'll remember!

Monopoly and Matrimony

Our first Christmas in Boston will forever go down in the annals of Toad history as the epic moment of marital unity. Pops and I had just moved here the previous August. He had just finished his first semester of law school. I had miraculously landed a job at Genzyme the very moment we ran out of savings, about 2 months previous to Christmas. We bought a Christmas tree (our first ever), decorated it with big old fashioned lights, stringed popcorn, little handmade bell ornaments and tinsel. We bought a copy of Dickens Christmas Carol and read it aloud every night leading up to Christmas and we splurged on a Monopoly game. It cost us $8 at Walmart but afforded us hours and hours of entertainment. We hadn't made friends yet, so we just played each other, and if you have ever played 2-man Monopoly you know that after your second time around the board there is a clear winner. I recall the out come being pretty equal. Pops won half the time, I won half the time. 

Love and happiness for all.

This year we decided it was time to re-kindle this first Boston Christmas tradition. The kids took an instant liking to the game- even though Pops was unstoppable. 

He seriously has won every stinking time.

Some of us got tired of loosing and suggested we pull out another pre-kids fav., Settlers of Catan. Now there is a game I can win! Well, except for this time. I helped Abizella get out of the gates, but soon left her to work out her own fortune as I could see she was in direct competition with me. 

She won. 

All Hail Lord of Catan!

Determined to win something, I relied on the odds of Monopoly. One night when the kids were cleverly distracted with a movie, I challenged Pops. I coaxed him into it assuring him that although it was late, when you play 2-man the game is short and the winnings are huge.

Except for this time. Wouldn't you know it that neither of us secured a monopoly. The game staggered on as we passed back and forth $20 as we landed on each other's property both of us refusing to exchange so we could build a monopoly. 

Finally I caved and traded Connecticut Ave for Baltic. Let's just say I got creamed. But not before I laughed so hard I had an ugly cry.

You will have to excuse the blurry picture, I had to snap it fast before the cocky Mr. Monopoly and his piles of cold cash shut me down. 

While that first Boston Christmas holds a tender place in our relationship, I have to say there is nothing like  proving your marriage in the pressure cooker of gaming. I wouldn't recommend it to newly weds. But once you have a pile of kids, love handles and gray hair, the stakes are too high to walk away. Turns out I actually love Pops more after a bitter defeat (and a really good laugh). 

The monopoly game will survive another Christmas season.