Monday, December 14

Friday, December 11

Ta Da!

Dan and I have never hung Christmas lights outside. We have lots of excuses, but, truthfully, we couldn't be bothered. This year, Dan decided that the kids needed lights. One Sunday morning about 3 weeks ago, the five of us went to Canadian Tire and loaded up on lights. Dan came home and put them up. Two days later when the lights all fell down because the duct tape didn't hold (not even to the tree! Seriously, he cracks me up!), Dan put them up again. Here are the results:



P.S. Please ignore the ladder that's propped up to the left of the front door...Dan did!

Wednesday, December 9

Name Calling

Our girls have lovely, strong names. We named them Elizabeth, Katherine, and Sarah. However, we seldom call them by their names. Elizabeth becomes Bethie Bear, Bethie, and Beth. Katherine is known as Katie Cat, Katie, or Kate. Sarah has the worst luck. We call her Sarahburrah, Haboo, Newt, and Nu Nu. We throw in other names here and there just to keep everybody on their toes. Names like Grub-a-lub, Bella and Peanut Butter come out of my mouth. We've even numbered them...but not in birth order (I can't tell you how much this cracks me up!). They know their number, and that's all that counts.

When the twins were a bit younger, they thought their names were Bethie Bear and Katie Cat. For the longest time, Sarah would respond to Nu Nu but not to her own name. With Sarah, Dan and I had to make a conscious effort to refer to her as "Sarah". We've also spent a lot of time teaching the twins that their names are, in fact, Elizabeth and Katherine. When they finally learned their names, we asked them what name they prefer their kindergarten teacher to call them. Katie preferred to be call "Katie" and Bethie preferred to be called "Beth". That was fine with me.

The other day, Bethie came up to me and said that she preferred for her teacher to call her by her "nickname". I needed her to specify which nickname she preferred. She said, "Cute Bottom!". Then she added that since she doesn't start kindergarten until next year, I was to tell Emilie (at daycare) that she was to refer to Bethie as "Cute Bottom" effective immediately. She wasn't kidding, and it only made her angry when I bursted out laughing! So, hence forth, Bethie is to be known as Cute Bottom. I'm not kidding.

Tuesday, December 8

Little Treasures

I live with four people that have strange, yet powerful, attachments to random objects. Each of them have their own little "treasures" that must be lovingly cared for and protected. I don't understand their devotions, but I accept them as a part of life.

One morning, we were getting ready to go to daycare. Bethie was using the washroom. I was in the kitchen trying to encourage everybody to hurry up. Bethie let out  a terrific cry. I ran into the bathroom and saw her standing over the toilet pointing and crying. She had dropped her "magical fluff" (a tiny, wee make-up brush) in the toilet. Katie and Sarah raced in and discovered this prized item in the toilet. They both freaked out, too! All three children were yelling at me to retrieve the make-up brush. I looked into the toilet and discovered that it was full of poop!

I wanted to say, "Bad luck!" and flush the toilet. However, this would have devastated the twins. They were desperate for me to reach in with my hand and rescue the brush. Not bloody likely. As a mother, I have had many, many encounters with poop. Often, I have had poop on my hand. I have not, however, had poop on my hand intentionally.

I raced into the kitchen frantically looking for something to scoop up the make-up brush. The kids were panicking and crying. My heart was racing. I couldn't find any "tool" that would do the intended job! Then, the clouds parted and a beam of light shone on the perfect item. The tongs. These aren't just any tongs. These are Dan's tongs. It is no exaggeration to say that Dan loves these tongs. Far too often for my liking, he tells me how wonderful these tongs are. He uses them every time he cooks. He can twirl these tongs, as well as throw them up in the air and catch them (please ooh and aah now, I have to!). When Dan is cooking, these tongs become an extension of his hand.

It turns out that they are also great for picking up a tiny, wee brush in a toilet full of poop! The kids were pleased, and the crisis was over (or at least delayed because I ended up throwing the brush in the garbage while they were at daycare!). I debated whether or not to tell Dan. Normally, I wouldn't. There's a lot that I don't tell Dan, and he is better off not knowing. However, Dan would be cooking dinner that night and I really didn't want him to use the tongs until they had gone through the dishwasher.

Dan was horrified! He couldn't believe that I had stuck his sacred tongs in the poop-filled toilet. He immediately began to pull out all the utensils that I could have used instead. I tired of the conversation rather quickly. To distract him, I told him that Mum had wanted to buy us a large, flat screen TV for Christmas but I told her that our chunky 19" screen was fine. It worked. Dan couldn't believe that I turned down a free TV that he had coveted since I met him 13 years ago! I explained to him that we had just spent $300 on new glasses for him. Why did he need a large screen TV?