Baby wipes, Turtlenecks and the Banana of Doom?

It's Sunday evening and we had a loverly British dinner. Roast Pork with sage stuffing and some garlicky green beans. No dessert since I had made a giant-sized fabulous coffee cake for breakfast this morning and I left it on the counter all afternoon only to find 3 SMALL pieces left when I went in the kitchen to start dinner.
This morning we made it to church late again. This has been an ongoing problem for my family and we have come so far lately but today we dragged our feet again. Pray for us. I really dislike being late and disruptive. The church family is so graceful about it and try to encourage us, but oh, we fail. Nevertheless, we shall pick ourselves up and start over again. Thank God for new beginnings!
So our Sunday afternoon moved along with a quick trip to the bazaar to look for Christmas gifts.
This evening was a bit of a ruckus with the oldest and youngest hosting a sing along for the other children while Mr decided to clean out a kitchen cabinet that was driving him crazy. Every time HE opened it, there was an avalanche of cereal, marshmallows and cake mixes. Every time WE opened it, there wasn't. Seeing this as a conspiracy which should go no further, Mr took it into his own hands to tame this beast. And tame it, he did.
After all this excitement died down, Baby Dear decided that it was bedtime and if it's HER bedtime then Chloe needed to go too. We moseyed upstairs and since it was "that" time of the night, Chloe wanted to take a bath. I didn't feel like bathing her so she decided to lose her mind a nd have a fit. She moaned and groaned, whining all the way until April came upstairs to see what was the deal. I gave her a quick splanation and she did what she does best- calm little people down. Well, this time, she grabbed a plastic toy banana and shoved it in the back of Chloes turtleneck which sent her into a fit of laughter! Baby dear is on the floor watching the proceedings with great joy since her sister is such a source of happiness to her.With Chloe wrestling this banana out of her shirt, all the while twirling and whirling in circles, she manages to get her hand on the banana. She sends it flying through the air at a rapid speed and aimed at an innocent victim, Baby Dear! And do you know what? It hit her right in her plump tummy looking like the stem off the top of a cherry!She had this look on her face as if she was saying, "What was that for?". After calming her down, Chloe decided to get her pajamas on. Her shirt was the first thing to come off of her and since it was a turtleneck there was a bit of wrestling involved. Most of it was nearly off except for her head and when that part snapped off, it went flying through the air. Who was the victim of this clothes whacking? Baby Dear, who was just starting to fall asleep in my lap on the floor! My, my, this was not her night, but she calmed down quickly and fell asleep on the floor where this insane picture was taken.
Baby wipes? Hmmm, now I've forgotten what they had to do with this!

A crazy night!

It's Sunday evening and school starts again tomorrow after a 2 week hiatus.
The first few days, they children were moaning about being bored. I gave them graham cracker houses to build, party bags to stuff, a puzzle to work on and various house projects to do. I also told them that they could not live on the computer or the television. Hmmm, "in one ear and out the other", was the phrase I first thought of. After 24hrs of vegetative screen watching, I had enough and had to pull the plug. Then they HEARD what I said," If you have any homework that needs to be turned in, get it done. I don't want you working on it on the last day. That's procrastination and I won't have it!" Wow! Suddenly there was action!

We did have a party scheduled for the 22nd and then Christmas was a couple of days later so we had to get in gear. We had a few travel plans, but were thrown off by the snow and ice for several days, but the children had fun and had the chance to experience COLD, BELOW FREEZING weather. This was the first experience Chloe had with snow. She tried to eat it-hey, it looked like ice cream, her favorite!

Hey, I was talking about something completely different. How did I get here?
Anywhoo, The littlest person requires a pacifier when she goes to bed and for some confounded reason, we couldn't find ANY of them tonight. I was holding her, consoling her and trying to distract her from the hysterical crying she was kicking out. Meanwhile the other folks were looking for one of them, ANY one of them.
Oh, the howling she gave and right then and there I decided she needed to come off of this addiction. So I proceed to rock her back and forth with the hopes of letting her drift to laa-laa land.(Giggles are okay now.)I prayed with her,and she calmed down a little bit. Occasionally a voice from another room would shout,"Chloe, CALM DOWN!". Then it happened. Dad appeared and with him came the distinguishing "Click" of the pacifier. Oh, too late, she heard it and started to sit up saying, patitoo, patitoo. It was coming and I didn't get to tell him that maybe it's time to give it up! Oh well, she got it and then it started. She sat up and moved around on the bed. Then it came out of her mouth so she could tell Daddy "Thank you". There was silence for a moment and she hopped out of the bed. "Click, click" and that was the last we heard of the patitoo. She climbed back in the bed and lied down. Then she asked for the patitoo again. Dad ran his hands through the covers, under the covers, under the pillows and on the sides of the mattress. By this time, she was hysterical again. "Where was that thing? She just had it?" Teen sister lifted her up, kicked out the 8 yr old sister from the bed and dad tore through the sheets looking for the object of her desires. He lifted the mattress and even looked behind the bed. He frisked 8 yr old sis and looked on the floor around the bed. The brother and I were really laughing. Dad was beginning to look angry and teen sis was starting to giggle while holding the crying toddler. "OKAY, WHERE IS IT???", Dad says. By now I could see the frustration on Dads face and was laughing like a maniac over this silly piece of silicon and plastic. Maybe now was not the right time to give up the addiction that was ruling over this family's bedtime. Uh, I had better not say anything or else I am next in the frisking department. WHAT? Someone says check around mom, she looks guilty and all that laughing is giving her away. I am scrambling to get off the floor when hands from all directions reach out to help me get up and WHOOSH!, I am standing up and being frisked by dad! By then my laughing would have put me in any insane asylum and I am knocking dads hands off me shouting, "If you don't let me go to the bathroom, they'll be more problems!" I run off holding my stomach from all of the laughing and made it where I needed to be.
When I came out, everyone had disappeared and only 8 yr old and I remained in the room. I asked her to move her back pack from in front of the bed and I heard a "click". She opened it and guess what was there? Patitoo!!
The parental torture device!


Have a wonderful night and try not to laugh so hard that you nearly use half a roll of tissue to wipe away the tears!!