Mobile Monday on a Wednesday

 I'm only 2 days behind. Really, that's not so bad. I know this because I work with people who think 3 months behind is totally acceptable.

Last week was dance camp for the princess.  Here she is wearing her tap shoes. The girl loves to dance. This evening she was dancing (which looked more like wild wiggling) and said to me: "Mom, I can't help it. I've got the beat!"

 Sometimes we bribe this one with promises of donuts after a meal... if she eats. No, I'm not proud of that parenting moment.

Mason. Oh, Mason. Steals my heart with that little smile...

Speaking of Mason. Sometimes when Kate isn't trying to get him into trouble or screaming because he's looking at her or is in her room, they share.  Here they are sharing goldfish. Yes, sometimes they eat goldfish at 8:00 in the morning.

 The Pig-Sharky Bank. He's awesome. He's Mason's. Ok, perhaps I bought him because I thought he was awesome. Mason will think so too one day. I'm sure.

 

Kate has discovered the camera on my phone. She's getting better at taking pictures. Here's Mom and Dad's cat, Fred.

Today I was touring a conference room that we will be inheriting furniture from. Found these in a cabinet and was allowed to take them with me. LOVE the scented markers. My grandmother used to buy me little back-to-school pencil boxes and pens and such. One year she included this and I LOVED them. Now I have my own set. Someone commented how much Kate would enjoy them. Um... hello. These are ALL MINE!

And finally my favorite story of the week.

Tuesday night I let the kids take their toothbrushes in the tub.  I'm not at all a fan of toothbrushes in the tub. Ick. But they were happily "brushing" their teeth and they seemed pretty clean to start with.

So they're in the tub and Kate begins to describe to Mason: "You can clean all kinds of things with your toothbrush: the side of the tub, toys, even your bottom."
Me: "Yuck! No! You never clean your bottom with your toothbrush."
Kate: "Why not?"
Me: Because our bottoms are dirty and we don't want germs from our bottom in our mouth.

There is a moment of silence during which she ponders this and is surely about to pose a followup question. Then, as if on cue, M stands up and "plop, plop" poops in the tub.

Kate makes note of this briefly before she goes back to dipping her toothbrush in the tub water. Yuck! I confiscated both toothbrushes promptly, which resulted in much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  I knew that was a terrible idea.

No more toothbrushes in the bathtub.

Photo Shoot

Since my favorite photographer is no longer in the business, I've been trying to decide where to go for Mason's 1 year portrait. In the meantime, I've taken matters into my own hands. I'm clearly no professional, but this will do for now.

What a fantastic little boy!  

Trust God

Do you remember that scene in Alice in Wonderland where she falls down the rabbit hole, and for a short moment of time she is floating with all sorts of things that are upside down and suspended in mid air? That pretty much summarizes the place I'm in lately. Life has gotten bizarre, and not always in a good way.

I'm up at 2 am again, eating cereal. It was stormy and the dog was stepping all over me. Couple that with work stress, an employee who has me at the hairy edge of sanity, and the pending visit of the CDC inspectors tomorrow, and I can't sleep. So I was lying in bed, thoughts running through my head, my chest getting tight, and then I remembered lessons from Kate's Vacation Bible School adventure several weeks ago. Trust God. It's always interesting to me that God delivers messages I need to hear when I need to hear them. Unfortunately it doesn't always mean I listen.  During VBS Kate learned about trusting God. And this is how it went:

No matter who you are...... Trust God.

No matter how you feel..... Trust God.

No matter what people do.. Trust God.

No matter what happens..... Trust God.

No matter where you are..... Trust God. (Hello rabbit hole)

Simple for little kids, but profound for me. And difficult.  Especially #2-#4 right now. So... for the foreseeable future I will be falling down the rabbit hole.

Luckily I have Kate and Mason to distract me.  Here is your Mobile Monday on a Tuesday at 2 am.

Bubbles. You can never ever go wrong with bubbles. Happiness follows wherever they go.

Is it 105 where you live too? Water sprinklers are always a sure hit.

Kate spent a lot of time playing with Mason this weekend. I'm not going to get too excited about this, but it was cute. He is tough, and it's a good thing. If I said it once, I said it 5,674 times this weekend: "Be GENTLE with your brother. He's just a baby." She did have to go to time out for punching him in the stomach.  He fell over backwards and smacked his head. Nevermind that he laughed and thought it was great fun. "But he hit me first" Ah... and so it begins.

 

We drink very few soft drinks around here, but apparently enough that Mason has figured it out.  

Pop the top...

And enjoy.....

 Brunch our our favorite place downtown - the Gourmet Shop.

Here's the $6.75 waffle that Kate ate $1 of (and most of that was in whipped cream).

Mason likes to brush his teeth. Thank goodness.

It's a good thing... since he'll eat just about anything.

Here's hoping that you can stay out of rabbit holes this week. I'm certainly hoping I land safely at the bottom of mine sometime soon. Then I'll be sure to avoid cookies that say "Eat Me" - although I'm fairly sure I'm already at the table with the Mad Hatter.

Fourth of July!

Another fun Fourth of July is in the books.  When I was a kid, and actually up until I was much older than a kid, we spent our Fourth of July at the lake.  It's a little different now, but low key isn't so bad either. 

Here are the kiddos decked out in their red, white and blue, waving their flags, trying their best to poke their eyes out with said flags.  Don't worry. All eyes are in tact.

Too cute, this one.

It is my grandmother's 93rd birthday today. We celebrated on the Fourth. Mason is an analytical little guy. Here he is tinkering with Gramma's chair.

 

Bar-B-Que lunch! Yum!

 

Cake and ice cream. The candles were a hit with a certain little guy.

 

Later that night Nan and Pop came over for fireworks.  Don didn't try to blow anyone up this year (in spite of my Dad bringing some big whopper of a firework). See Kate?

She watched the entire thing with her ears covered.  Not my Dad though, he's just being silly. :)