Top 10 reasons why three year olds should not have sleep overs.

Last night Mark had his first sleep over with his cousin Savannah, who is three like Mark. Krista, Savannah’s mom, was staying with us for the night before she left for Arizona to help Jenni with her new baby. Since Mark has two beds in his room and he only sleeps in one of the beds, we decided to put Savannah in the other bed. Now you have to understand Mark LOVES to have company in his room. When Matt, Courtney, or Lauren have slept in his room with him he has been known to “chat” them up all night, usually with stories of Thomas the Tank Engine. So I knew that Savannah would be no exception. I stood outside the door and listened to their conversation. They were talking about toys, birthdays, Christmas, Mark’s love of trains, and at one point Mark told Savannah to make sure the bed bugs did not bite her. Eventually they had to be separated and sleep in separate bedrooms so they would actually quit talking and sleep. I don't think I will be agreeing to another sleep over anytime soon.

Here are my top ten reasons why three years olds should not have sleep overs:

10. Three years olds do not stay in bed.
9. Someone eventually gets injured.
8. Screaming
7. Giggling
6. Endless opening of the door with one or both three year olds saying “I want my mommy!”
5. Crying about not liking the dark
4. Fighting over whether the light is on or off
3. Monster and /or bug stories
2. Potty talk, as in pee and poop
1. No one, especially the parents, gets any sleep!

Like a dog who marks its territory.

Potty training has recently taken a setback, and we were doing so well. Mark has recently taken to wetting his pants. To his credit he is at least going poop in the potty. Someone, whether its me, Rick, Grandma or Grandpa will ask Mark to use the potty and he will refuse. Shortly thereafter he will wet his pants. Or if he is forced to go, he will still wet his pants shortly thereafter. Its clearly a power struggle issue, because he knows how to use the potty, knows how to tell us if he needs to use the potty, but he is just refusing. Needless to say he is back in pull-ups.

Now you may be wondering where does Mark like to take care of business when not using the bathroom. His room of choice, his bedroom.

As you can tell from prior posts Mark’s bedroom is quite a hub of boorish behavior. In the last month Mark has peed on the carpet in his room a total of six times, with the most recent being Saturday. I have relocated the carpet steam cleaner from the closet on the main floor to the bathroom adjacent to Mark’s room for easy and convenient access. (FYI, Hoover carpet steam cleaner one of the best investments I have every made. It’s pricey but if you have children prone to creating incidents on your carpet, soooo worth it!) I believe that Mark is trying to make a statement by defacing the carpet in his room. He wants it to be known to all it is his room and none shall posses this room unless taken by force. Then again with what he is doing to his room who would want it?

Then there is the dog, who is actually marking his territory. On Saturday Jake was acting peculiar and went in and out about 10 times in the course of 45 minutes. As soon as he came inside he would want out again. He would stay out for about 3 minutes and want back in. We all noticed his unusual behavior. Everyone once and a while Jake gets a hunkering for grass, as in he goes outside and eats grass, doesn’t every dog do that? Well you can imagine that does not sit well in his stomach. So shortly after getting his fill of grass he came inside and promptly regurgitated the grass. He too has rooms of choice. When Jake wants to engage in any type of dog conduct inside that should take place outside his first choice is the rug in the office. The good news is the rug in the office is primarily forest green and has a very busy pattern so the evidence of Jake’s activities can be well hidden, which is also the bad news because on more than one occasion members of the family have stepped in Jake’s deposits because they blend in so well. Jake’s second choice is the living room/organ room. There is no rug in that room so his conduct is very evident.

On Saturday Jake decided that he would leave a gift of grass regurgitation in both rooms.

(Be glad these pictures are a bit blurry!)

Its been a rough weekend for my carpet.

Still on Patrol

For those of you concerned that Mark has shirked his responsibilities as the new third counselor in Primary, never fear he was actively on patrol today, silencing those in Primary who dared to be loud, noisy, or irreverent. The Bishop stopped by Primary today and was speaking to the children. Mark, who sits on the front row by virtue of the fact he is a Sunbeam, stood up while the Bishop was speaking and told the Bishop, "Its not a good idea to be loud, that would be bad." Too bad Mark can't live by his own advice.

Sweet Sisters

Lauren & Katie had matching outfits for church today. They looked really cute, unfortunately you really can't see the skirts in the picture. They are sweet, with layers of green, yellow and pink. It's a good thing I took this picture before church because Katie & mommy for that matter, had enough of church by about half way through Sacrament meeting, and Sacrament meeting is the first meeting in our three hour block. Katie was very "wiggly" today and would not sit still nor would anything comfort her. Rick took her out into the foyer, and after about 15 minutes I heard her wailing when someone opened the door to the chapel. I went out to relieve Rick and discovered that she had fallen which was causing her to cry. She continued on and was very "edgy" during the rest of church. I had to take her to Relief Society because last week Rick tried taking her to Elders quorum and she screamed the entire time so he ended up walking the hall with her. Apparently she prefers chick action to dude action. While in Relief Society she proceeded to empty the contents of the first counselor's purse while I was attending to some Relief Society business. What can I say it was pink and had cool girl stuff in it, including an ice cream scoop which she really liked. (I must place a disclaimer here, normally Sue does not carry an ice cream scoop in her purse, but we served ice cream today as a treat in RS.)

Mysterious Injury

When Mark went to bed last night he showed no visible signs of trauma. Something happened during the night, but what exactly happened remains a mystery.

This morning when it was time for a bath I was taking Mark's t-shirt off and he told me he had a sore ear. I assumed that maybe he was getting an ear infection. Once he was in the tub I noticed that his right ear was swollen and black and blue, showing signs of a significant trauma. I asked Mark what happened and he told me that he fell out of bed. I asked if it was last night and he said "yes I fell out of my train bed last night." (His bed has sheet with trains, I know big surprise!)

I am not surprised that he fell out of his bed because he sleeps on the edge of his bed. When I go into his room each night after he is asleep to check on him he is always near the edge of his bed, practically falling out. I move him over but he immediately he returns to the edge of the bed. What really surprises me is that he did not come into my room crying after it happened, because it is one nasty bruise. The picture really does not do it justice. He has a night stand next to his bed so I am assuming that he was in a really deep sleep, rolled over, fell and hit the edge of the night stand with his ear, then climbed back into bed, only to have the injury discovered this morning. This is one tough kid!

Do you know what this is?

Several weeks ago I began to notice small greenish/brownish objects stuck to the wall in Mark’s room, right by where he sits to watch movies. The number and volume of those greenish/brownish objects began to grow, until there were quite a few stuck to the wall. At first I really did not pay too much attention to these small objects, but it soon became evident that attention was needed. What was this mysterious substance? Was something growing on my walls? Did I need professional help to deal with said substance? Upon closer inspection it became clear that it was not growing on my walls, my house was not infected with an unknown biological substance, and I probably did not need professional help to deal with said substance. The origin of said substance: Mark’s nose. Yes, it is sick and it is true, said substance is snot. While watching movies in his room Mark likes to engage in a favorite pass time of young and old alike, he picks his nose and then wipes it on the wall. As you can see he is not discriminating in placement of his snot, any free wall space will do. Believe it or not this photograph only captures a portion of the snot on the wall, further down the wall are some very long snot masterpieces he has removed from his nose.


Have you ever tried to remove snot from a wall? I thought I could just flake it off with my fingernail, but noooooo, it is not that easy. I don’t know if you are aware of this but snot has amazing adhesive properties, and cannot be easily chipped away once dried. For successful snot removal one must re-hydrate the snot. This involves taking a wet rag to the snot until said snot has reabsorbed enough moisture to be successfully removed, and transferred to the wet rag. It is not an activity for the faint of heart. I would ask Mark not to pick his nose or at a very minimum if he does, not to put it on the wall, but that would be like asking him not to breath, an impossible task. I will be washing a lot of wet rags.

Cookie Monster

Once upon a time (BTC, before three children) I used to make cookies from scratch. Now the kids are lucky if I even make cookies at all. On that rare occasion that I can be talked into it I use the Betty Crocker cookie mixes. You simply add butter, an egg and a table spoon of water. One minute later you have cookie dough. It usually takes longer to heat the oven than to make the cookie dough. Albertson's usually has the mixes on sale 4 times a year and I can pick them up for a dollar a piece and they make 24 good sized cookies, and they taste amazingly delicious. It is so worth my time to use the mix and not have to clean cookie mess from my kitchen!

On Wednesday night we had an hour before American Idol and the kids talked me into making cookies. I think they like the dough more than the actual cookie. I have no idea where the get that from?!!!

Mark wanted to use a gingerbread mix. He has had a thing for gingerbread cookies since Christmas. At Christmas I did actually make gingerbread cookies from scratch, and I think he was so fascinated with the fact you measured ingredients out he now wants to make gingerbread cookies every time we make cookies. Although he did really like using the cookie cutters to make shapes. (Christmas is my one exception to the only make cookies from a mix rule. I am superstitious and believe that if I do not make homemade gingerbread men at Christmas I will be cursed by my mother for the next 12 months. I have enough disasters in my life, I try to avoid those that are foreseeable)

When I make gingerbread using the mix I don't roll them out and use the cookie cutters, much to Mark's dismay. I roll the cookie dough into balls, coat the cookie dough balls in white sugar, and bake the cookies. I made 24 cookies and left them on the kitchen counter to cool while Rick and I and the kids watched the results show for American Idol. Through out the show Mark kept coming into the family room with a cookie and I kept sending him back into the kitchen to eat his cookie, so as to avoid the inevitable cookie crumbs all over the carpet in the family room. I thought he had eaten about two cookies. After the show was over I went into the kitchen to put the cookies away only to discover that each time I sent Mark back into the kitchen to eat his cookie he put the partially eaten cookie down and began to munch on a new cookie. I found six cookies in various states of being eaten.

It's official Cookie Monster resides at my house!

Meet Lauren's Room

Lauren has learned from the best. In our house Courtney is known for her less than organized room, and Courtney is Lauren's idol, so what has Lauren done, followed her example!

You will finds all Lauren's valued treasures on the floor, including books, rocks, candy and wrappers, clothes, toys, pencils, etc. Because of all the cool stuff on the floor, as you can imagine it is one of Katie's favorite rooms in the entire house. She LOVES to play in there because there are endless things within her reach to get her clammy little paws on, and put in her mouth.


If it were not for mommy picking up the clothes on a daily basis it really would look like Courtney's room. I try to make Lauren clean it once a week, I have provided all sorts of cool organization things, but still the room seems to stay in a perpetual state of disorder.

Trash is a Wonderful Thing.

Congratulations to Katie she is officially 11 months old today! Her newest and latest thing to do is to empty the trash cans. She finds the things we discard very entertaining. It begins by tipping the trash can over. She is not discriminating in her trash cans, any trash can with objects inside will do, the the more full the trash can the better.

After tipping the trash can over she then begins to methodically remove the trash, stopping at any object that seems interesting. Frequently found items include paper, bags from stores, clothing tags and stickers, plastic, and empty boxes. Today she tipped over the trash can in my closet and found empty shampoo bottles, which was a real find.

Favorite items to find include candy wrappers, because they have bright colors and make cool noises. Gold medal finds are used bandaids or used gum, because they are small enough to go in the mouth, and quite unusual. We expect the trash can tipping to continue for quite some time, and she is available for hire if you need your garbage sorted through. Smells don't seem to bother her.

These are the a few of the objects fished out of Katie's mouth in the last week.

You will notice that the letter "e" is similar to the letter "g" from last week. For Lauren's birthday party in February she and her friends decorated gift bags with foam letters. I was under the impression that I had picked up all the foam letters however in the the last two weeks Katie has managed to locate two letters I missed. The purple object below the letter and to the right is a Skittle. She was most upset when I removed that item. Notice the money, a perennial favorite in the mouth, although this was a plastic play coin as opposed to the normal metal coin I remove on a regular basis. The object to the left of the money is a piece of bark, found in the mud room.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Please join me in congratulating Mark on his new Church calling as the 3rd counselor in Primary responsible for being the "reverence" police. Since the Bishop was out of town on Sunday Mark decided to extend the call to himself and of course he accepted. Mark skipped the formality of being sustained, because after all no one ever objects. His first assignment was Sunday during sharing time when Mark decided the children in Primary were being entirely too noisy and he needed to take matters into his own hands, he is after all a self sufficient man. He began by saying "Everyone be quiet." When that was less than effective he raised his voice and said "I'm yelling at you, everyone be quiet!" This continued on during the entire sharing time, however the children were really not being noisy but Mark was! He is taking his new responsibility very seriously, he feels it will be good preparation for being an assistant to the President when he is a future missionary. After all if you can keep Primary children quiet during sharing time, then certainly keeping a few hundred 19 and 20 year olds in line is easy. Mark is looking forward to being invited to Primary presidency meeting where he can share other ideas for keeping the children quiet in order to ensure he is the best "reverence" police the Sherwood Hills ward has ever seen.

Also of note this week with Mark:

On Sunday Mark had two accidents. First he fell while going upstairs and hit the bridge of his nose. No visible damage, but a lot of crying. Later that afternoon he was running full speed into the family room and misjudged the placement of the couch. After all that brown leather couch is so small it is easy to overlook while running full bore. He hit the back side of the couch with the right side of his body, resulting in him falling backwards, with a loud thump on the floor. Crying ensued and the next day a bruise appeared. (See right cheek in picture)

On Tuesday morning I did not give him a bath because he had taken a bath the night before with Rick. I put his clothes on, however he had a serious case of "bed head" so while he was standing by the sink I turned the water on and began to put water on his hair to contain his "bed head" I said "Mark let me fix your hair" He became upset and said "I don't want my hair fixed, I want it broken. Get the water off!" I decided the battle was not worth fighting and let him have "broken" hair for the rest of the day.

Sharing our things is hard to do, hard to do, hard to do, sharing our things is hard to do, to do, to do, to do.

Meet the offending Popsicles

On Wednesday Linda/Grandma purchased this box of Popsicles for a friend whose son had his tonsils out. Since he had his surgery on Wednesday Linda/Grandma was not planning on taking them to him until Thursday, when he would really be in pain. The Popsicles were placed in the freezer for safe keeping. On Wednesday night Mark found the Popsicles, and wanted one. I explained to him that Grandma was going to give them to a friend of hers that was sick. He said "I don't want grandma to give them to her friend." I again explained that Grandma had a sick friend who needed a Popsicle, and closed the freezer. Shortly thereafter Grandma returned home and Mark told Grandma that "I don't want you to give the Popsicles to your friend." Grandma told Mark they were for her friend Steven, but she would buy some more Popsicles for him. I instructed Mark to give Grandma hugs and kisses because it was bed time, and he refused, but did agree to tell Grandma he loved her while covering his face. As we were heading up the stairs he whispered to me "I don't want Grandma to give the Popsicles to her friend." I told him that Grandma was going to give the Popsicles to Steven but she had promised Mark that she would buy him more Popsicles. He said "No, No, I don't want Steven to have the Popsicles." I told Mark that perhaps he could go with Grandma to the store and he could pick out the Popsicles, which resulted in a complete emotional break down on the stairs. The good news by the next morning he had forgotten about the Popsicles, the bad news, his property rights issues continue.

Its good to be the mommy.

On Monday night around bed time Mark was in Lauren's room. For whatever reason she did not want him in there and made him leave. I was on the main floor watching TV when I heard Mark crying, and I could tell he was very upset. I went upstairs and Mark said "Lauren hurt my feelings. She will not let me play in her room." I tried explaining to him that is how Katie feels when he yells at her for touching, looking or thinking about his Thomas trains. My attempt at logic was lost on the emotional three year old. I gave him a big hug, but he was still quite upset. We brushed teeth, and said prayers. I kissed him good night and said "Mark, mommy loves you." I left his room and closed the door, and he began to cry again. I did not want to leave him so upset so I went back into his room. I looked directly into his eyes, took his head in my hands and said "I love you Mark." His anxiety left, he calmed down and said "Thank you mommy" and was ready to go to sleep. My heart melted.

How to Eat an Apple. By Mark Vincent

Apples are delightful, but the way I chose to eat an apple is very, very frightful.

They are sweet, they are delicious, and my mother says she is glad I am eating something quite nutritious.

I start with one round apple, my goal; to turn it into Snapple.

I bite off little bites, sucking out the juices, spitting out the peel and flesh for which I have no uses.

I leave a little trail of bits and pieces, my mother says, my mess it never ceases.

When I am finished, sticky I've become, from the top of my head, right down to my bum.

A mean, soon to be lean, crawling machine.

While I was in New York City, Katie decided it would be a fine time to start crawling. I knew before I left that she was close. Two days before I left she took one crawling step and then realized what she did and fell on her stomach. The day I left for New York, she was home in the evening with Rick and wanted a toy that was outside her grasp. She got brave and took three crawling steps to reach said object. By then it was off to the races, and there was no stopping her, especially in pursuit of a coveted Thomas train, track, or any other part associated with Thomas that has fallen on the floor. The next thing she wanted to master, and has done, is pulling herself up. And what might you ask is the perfect object to pull one's 10 month old self up on? The Thomas table of course. This in no way endears her to Mark, who is still bitter about me bringing her home last May.


If she even looks like she is headed toward Thomas land, also formally known as the office, he freaks out. He asks me to move Katie, hold Katie, have Katie take a nap, make Katie put his trains down, take her into another room, etc. I see Valium in the future, not for Mark, but for me! I have decided the battle to keep Katie out of the office is a loosing one, and the easier battle to fight is to convince Mark to share his trains, or a least not freak out when she comes near the office. Thus far, Mark is kicking my butt. I have not given into him but a minimum of once a day he has a complete breakdown about Katie touching his "shiz."

The other issues that has accompanied Katie's new found mobility is the ability to find all sorts of interesting stuff on the floor that can be put into her mouth.

This is a sampling of the things I have pulled out of Katie's mouth in the last day or two. The object in the middle that looks like a ball is actually a marble. When I removed that object she really protested. She liked the feel of the marble. I try really hard to keep small objects off the floor in order to prevent chocking, after all I have spent enough time in the ER lately, however I have a theory. My theory is that small objects are planted on the floor by Mark with the suppressed or secret desire to have his sister chock and die. Did I mention he is still bitter about me bringing her home? With the exception of the hair clip, which is mine, I left it on the coffee table, which she pulled herself up to and grabbed it, all other objects are directly attributable to Mark. I hope my mother is looking out for Katie, because she is going to need it.

Count your many freckles, count them one by one, and it will surprise you what the sun has done.

Lauren has three, count them three, recesses at school. The natural consequence of spending more time outside is more freckles. Everyday it seems like a new one appears. She told me this morning that she counted and has 200 freckles, I think the number is closer to 400 very cute freckles.

On a side note: Last week Rick and I went to parent-teacher conferences and was informed by Lauren's first grade teacher that Lauren has a second grade brain.