An odd guy

Lyndon has an odd obsession...

it's the toilet brush.

All I can say is eeeeewwwww, yuck, gross, disgusting.

Since he's taking such a liking to the brush he has swooshed it around in his bath water (yes, I drained it immediately), brushed my hair with it when I wasn't looking (I'm still traumatized by the event), and recently I found him using it as a sword to fight off Maddie.

Who cares about a room full of toys when he can play with a disgusting toilet brush, right?

I heart Valentine's Day

Before I get into why I heart V-Day, I have to share why I heart a certain 20 month old...

It was a dark cold and rainy night...
the lightening was flashing,
the thunder was crashing...

and out of no where I hear a blood piercing scream coming from the upstairs bedroom...

I ran faster than humanly possible only to find Lyndon screaming and pointing in a catatonic state with his eyes staring out Maddie's bedroom window.

Apparently Lyndon is deathly afraid of thunder and lightening.

Who knew.

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Another reason I heart Lyndon AND Maddie is because of this conversation:

(Lyndon just got out of the bathtub and decided to put my scarf around his neck.)

Maddie: (As she is sitting on the toilet.) "Lyndon, I love your scarf. You look like a real rock star!"

Lyndon: (posing) "Tanks!" (thanks)

Here's a visual...

Okay, so Maddie comes downstairs the other morning ALL dressed from head to toe by herself! My favorite part of the outfit....

the chap sitck stuck in her skirt.

To me it's just not Valentines day without heart shaped sugar cookies. The kids helped out. It was mucho fun.

I'm pretty sure Lyndon ate WAY more than is recommended by the pediatric council but oh well.

See his tongue curled up here?

He was licking his lips...complimenting the chef.

Thanks, buddy.

Here he's asking if he can eat this whole dough ball. I said "no", if you were wondering. :)

Here's a good time (in a very sarcastic voice)...

In a matter of 2 minutes I come back into the kitchen/family room to find Lyndon in front of the TV with a red face, red hands and red feet.

What the heck?

So upon some investigation I find this piece of evidence:

Yep, you're right, it's an EMPTY red sprinkles container. Empty. Empty. Empty.

Where are the sprinkles you may ask.

Well, most of them were on Lyndon's face, hands and feet and I'm pretty sure the rest of them were in his stomach.

2 minutes, folks, 2 minutes...

Should I just keep him with me in a backpack everywhere I go?

Despite the sugar catastrophe, here is the final product.

It's not a holiday without attending the library's party! These really are so fun. Anna always joins us for the festivities.

The kids had a great Valentines Day. Lots of sugar, they were thrilled.

Jonathon and I also had a nice V-Day. Nothing says "I love you" like a big slab of meat. We ordered brisket, pork ribs and chicken to go from the Salt Lick and had a a nice, uh sloppy yet delicious dinner downstairs after the kids went to bed. :) It's the little things like licking my fingers and wearing a bib that makes Jonathon love me more and more.

My children and their punk bands

So what happens when you have a Dad who is an alternative rock musician and a Mom who can't stand listening to children's songs in the car?...

You get cries from the backseat of the car when I change Lyndon's favorite cd... Story of the Year...to Maddie's favorite cd...Blink-182.

I can take the crying, just as long as I don't have to listen to Barney as I'm driving around town. Because then I'd be the one crying.

P.S. Blink-182 is back together...we haven't told Maddie the good news yet...she'll be ecstatic.

The Joys of De-Cluttering

I Love de-cluttering. Love it. I love throwing out stuff that has no purpose but for some reason is sitting in my house just taking up space. I love the feeling that I get when the job is finished. I de-cluttered the pantry today and I've opened the door to look in about 10 times just to admire my work.
I love getting rid of stuff so much that I even do it when I spend time at my parents house. My Mom loves it but my Dad is skeptical. He's a self-proclaimed "pack rat" so the thought of getting rid of something that he MIGHT need a week, a month or even 10 years down the road scares him to no end. I cleaned out their front closet a few years ago. Let me just share what I found in there...back packs filled with emergency equipment and clothes just in case we needed to leave the house quickly. This is good, right? Well, it would be except that the back packs were from about 20 years ago and filled with our clothes ALSO about 20 years old. Needless to say the tapered acid washed jeans and tie died shirt wasn't going to to anyone any good. I also found a video camera from 1987, a gold pan (not to be mistaken for a pan made out of gold but it's actually a device used to pan for gold.) Who has this kind of stuff in their front closet? My parents. This is just one of the many reasons I love those two. One of which is because they let me de-clutter their house without MUCH resistance from my Dad.

So go on, clean out a drawer, a shelf or a room today. Or better yet, let ME come and throw a few things out!

After story time at the library today the librarian had all the kids come up who wanted a stamp on their hand. Maddie and Lyndon, of course, ran up. As the librarian stamped each of Maddie's hands she loudly exclaimed,

"I love my tattoos! Daddy will be so proud of me!"

Maddie and Lyndon love to play in the "Fun Zone" at 24 Hour Fitness while I'm working out. Gratefully, the staff members love Maddie and Lyndon equally, if not more. When they walk in the door the staff are always excited to see both of them. They frequently tell me how funny Maddie and Lyndon are and that Maddie says just the cutest things. I oftem wondered just what she was telling them...

As I was dropping them off yesterday one of the staff said, "I just have to tell you what Maddie said last week. I've been laughing about it all week!"

Great.

She went on the say that they asked Maddie if her little brothers name was Lyndon. This was her reply:

"Yes, many people call him Lyndon but at home we call him Little Devil."


Don't LOOK at me, I've never said that!

Our Weekend...

A few days ago the kids and I were downstairs. I needed them to be upstairs while I finished a few things so I asked Maddie to come along with me. Her reply,

"Um, no thanks. Lyndon and I are playing down here."

Me: "Well, you can both come upstairs and CONTINUE playing."

Maddie: "Yeah, I like playing down here right now. I'm a puppy and I don't feel good and Lyndon is taking care of me." (as she pulls her blanket up tighter around her neck.)

I wasn't going to try and rationalize with a 3 year old so I pulled a little trick (invented by Jonathon) out of my back pocket... Without a word I just went upstairs, turned on Dora REALLY loud and just waited...

Before I knew it, Lyndon AND Madaline came bounding up the stairs shouting "DORA, DORA!"

Ahhhh, I love it when they see things my way. As Jack Osbourne once said about the McRib sandwich..."It's the simple things in life that bring us the most pleasure." I agree, Jack, I agree.

I just liked this picture...

I'm so proud of my little budding photographer. Maddie took the next two pictures with my big camera. It's not easy to get the focus right and she nailed it. I also love the dog picture how she positioned the dog slightly to the left. She got an eye for pictures. :) (Yes, you are seeing correct, that is a boogie in Lyndon's nose.)

Oh Lyndon, this kid makes me laugh all day. (well, most of the day) He was eating his lunch. Yes, he still has his PJ's on...no judging... :) I leaned across from him and put my hand under my chin. He immediately imitated me. Luckily my camera was handy.

Lyndon is in love with guitar hero...or maybe just the guitar. He frequently makes his sign for "Guitar" by strumming his arm (as shown). He usually has his guitar propped up on his belly, lightly strumming it while he's watches TV. I think it makes him feel really cool.

Now he's playing a little air guitar.

My parents left on a cruise out of Galveston this weekend. They flew to Houston on Saturday and didn't have to be on the ship until Sunday afternoon, so we drove to Houston to spend some time with them. Most of my aunts, uncles and cousins were also going on the cruise so it was a mini family reunion. We had a great time. Maddie and Lyndon REALLY enjoyed themselves. Lots of interested adults, a pool and too much junk food. They had a blast.

After my parents left for the ship we took the kids to the Children's Museum downtown Houston. We had a great time. There was so much to see and do. The kids (okay, us too.) had so much fun.

They had this pretend supermarket that kept both of them entertained for a long time.

Lyndon took a short break from the supermarket and went to check out the chickens. He's saying "Bird".

Yeah, it's always fun to turn around and find out that YOUR kid is the one licking the plastic food that EVERYONE has touched and handled. He looks like he's enjoying it though.

You'll notice that Madaline has just spotted herself in the mirror. She immediately started to primp.

Lyndon is Mr. Social. He doesn't care who you are, you're gonna be his friend. The rest of us left this area but Lyndon decided he still needed to solidify some friendships so he raced back and continued playing.

Maddie is my little individual player. She's just as content being by herself as Lyndon is joining a new friend circle.