The Last 12 Hours....

Here are some things that have occurred in the last 12 hours at casa de phillips:

• I found my almost-potty trained 2 year old attempting to use the facilities while standing up. Yes, he is a boy and, yes, I have taught him how to go sitting down thus far. I have plans to teach the standing version soon...however, he chose today as the perfect time to practice such skills. What he didn't know was that he was about six inches below where he needed to aim. The bathroom has now be bleached and scrubbed.

• In the past few days, Evelyn has begun sucking her thumb. Aware that financing braces will mean relocating casa de phillips to a cardboard box on the side of the road, we have been gently discouraging this behavior. We have managed to get this far with two kids who have never taken pacifiers nor sucked thumbs or fingers, so I hate for such issues to arise now. Today as the children and I were playing in the sandbox, Evelyn decided to pop her thumb into her mouth right after digging around in mounds of sand. I believe this one incident alone might have ended her short-lived thumb sucking career.

• Rather than napping this afternoon, Evelyn spent the majority of the two hours talking and playing in her crib. She was happy as a clam amongst her animals and blankets. All happiness came to a screeching halt around 5pm while I was on an important phone call and her daddy attempted to remove her from my arms. That girl can scream louder than anything I have ever heard and has perfected the back-arching technique.

• Along with our dinner tonight we had peach crumble, which is essentially fresh peaches tossed in cinnamon and topped with an oat/flour/butter combo and then baked in the oven. Sounds difficult, but is quite easy. Isaac wasn't too sure about eating it, but ate some regardless of the initial hesitation. Apparently the rolled oats took him by surprise and he gagged a little bit. He thought this was humorous and then attempted to re-create the gagging.....the re-creation led to him throwing-up. Nothing sets the mood at dinner like someone throwing-up.

• As dinner was coming to an end this evening, I sent Isaac off to the restroom to use his potty (sitting down). He returned a few minutes later, toys in hand and pants still undone (potty training a child who has to wear pants that button due to a slender waist is a chore). As I instructed him to stop doing something so I could fasten his pants, Tobe decided to be funny and said, "Stop! Hammer Time!" Isaac then proceeded to do an excellent version of the Hammer dance across the floor. Hands down, that was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time....especially since we have never taught him the Hammer dance nor has he ever seen the Hammer dance.

• About ten minutes before bath and bedtime, we started having push toy races in the kitchen. Isaac has always had a dump truck ride-on toy and Evelyn just received her very own ride-on toy for her birthday (complete with doll carrier seat...I love girl toys). What started out as innocent ride-on toy fun resulted in parent-initiated drag races in the kitchen. Fun times...except for the fact that it hyped Isaac up beyond measure and he is still moaning around in his room an hour past bedtime.

What has happened in the past 12 hours at your house?