Ethan Scissorhands

Wow, 2 posts within the course of 1 week! Of course its all because I jinxed myself last post with a lack of stories to tell -- so, to even things out, here's a doozy for you.

First we need a picture of the scene of the crime:


And of course, the weapon:


And now for the story.

Today has been a rough day. Sophie still has "staying asleep" issues when put down, so the bulk of my morning has been spent rocking and rocking and rocking her to sleep. At lunch time I gave up trying to get her to sleep so that I could make the kids' sandwiches. When they were done, I resumed the rocking while watching Tyler's Ultimate: Sunday Dinner on the Food Network. Ethan and Grace had disappeared off to the laundry room, where they've been ensconcing themselves lately to watch movies that grandma checked out from the library for them on the TV/VCR combo in there.

About 20 minutes later, Sophie was asleep and I attempted to put her down once again. I decided now was a good time to go and put Grace down in her crib for naptime before Sophie woke up again and needed me to rock her some more. As I'm walking down the hall to the laundry room, I hear these "snip, snip" sounds and I think "maybe Ethan's cutting some paper in there." Not a farfetched idea, because one of his favorite "projects" to do is cutting out scraps of paper and glueing them to other scraps of paper.

However, what I found instead was Ethan standing on the folding chair snipping away at Grace's hair while Grace is sitting in the other chair like she's in a hair salon or something, clutching her care bear and a picture that Ethan had colored for her.

Well, I started screaming. And pretty much scared them to death. Evidenced by the fact that Ethan didn't even try to fight me when I told him to go to his room and stay there until I had calmed down.

Here are pictures of Ethan's handiwork:




And I thought growing out her bangs was taking forever. This will take YEARS to grow back out. I kid you not! She has the slowest growing hair ever! And I know it shouldn't be that big a deal, because come on, what parent DOESN'T have a child that has taken a pair of scissors to their hair? But, the thing is -- Grace's hair was finally starting to grow out. And it looked so pretty on Sunday when it was blow dried and round brushed out. Now she looks like a street urchin! Okay, maybe not that bad, but it certainly doesn't help her ragamuffin-look tendencies.

Once I had calmed down, I went back to Ethan's room where he was laying on the bed crying with his blanket and the lights off, and I felt HORRIBLE. Poor little thing. I just need to remember that he's only 3. I told him I was sorry for screaming and that I loved him and made him promise never to cut anyone's hair ever again. I asked him why he cut her hair and his response was that her hair was getting too long. After I hugged him and told him I was sorry again he said he wanted Grace so he "wouldn't be alone." How sad is that? So, of course I went and got her out of her crib for him and managed to get the pictures taken of her hair, and a couple of the two of them together.

At least they love each other:


And from the front you can hardly tell how bad it is, RIGHT?????

Stayin' Alive

The title explains it all. We're doin' okay here. Things have gotten a LITTLE bit easier, and there's only a couple more weeks left till Scott is done with the semester, so there's light at the end of this proverbial tunnel!

Sophie is still not a great sleeper, but we're getting by. For the last month I've been sleeping on the couch with the swing right next to me because its the only thing she'll stay asleep in during the night. Every week or so I've tried moving us back to the bedroom, but she just won't stay asleep in the bassinet and we both get less sleep as a result. So for now, its sofa city, sweetheart (5 points for whoever gets that reference). Anyway, I'm thinking that perhaps she might have a little acid reflux thing going on, seeing as to how she spits up ALL the time and gets a little fussy in the evenings every now and then. She also has eczema which has flared up really bad on her face lately and I think it itches or something because she's always rubbing at it. Anyway, since Scott was allergic to everything when he was a kid I'm just assuming she probably will have problems with it as well. For now I've cut dairy from my diet to see if that helps, and its probably too soon to be scientific about it, but her face is looking MUCH better today.

Sadly I don't have too many other stories to relate. Mostly because my memory is completely shot and I don't really remember if anything entertaining or newsworthy has happened lately!

I'll post some of my favorite pictures from the last month, and maybe that will spark the memories.

Here are the kids sitting in some cute little camp chairs that grandma bought for them. Grace's has a butterfly on the back, and Ethan's has a frog. Notice how talented my son is with remote control usage.

Here's the best shot I've been able to get of Sophie smiling (taken a couple of weeks ago).


Here's Grace with her attitude self this morning.

And finally, here are the gratuitous shots of the kids in their new Easter outfits:

As you can see, its a bit difficult to get a decent shot where all three kids are looking at the camera and smiling. Oh well.

Okay, I'm so mad because I had the funniest picture of Ethan that kept uploading sideways and I couldn't get it to rotate right side up. Has anyone else had problems with that?

Well, I still don't have any stories for you, but I'll close with the following:


For those of you who don't know, Grace is a collector of junk. Every night at bedtime we go through the same bit.

Me (in reference to her crib): Grace, you've got too much junk

Grace (in a wounded puppy voice): I love my junk!

Tonight, after she was asleep, I decided it was finally time to clean it out. The above picture is the result. Here is a list of all that was in there:

4 blankets
8 stuffed animals -- ranging in size from small to large
2 care bears
a couple of pairs of socks
1 naked cabbage patch doll and her outfit
1 hand puppet
Ribbit's Cinderella outfit
1 purse
a baby doll
4 board books
a pair of sunglasses
a princess brush and mirror set
1 fuzzy princess dress-up high heel
an empty crayon box
her princess backpack (containing ANOTHER care bear, "yellow dog," and 3 more books)
1 toy cell phone
a plastic coin from her piggy bank
and the plastic bag she used for an easter egg hunt on Thursday (along with several empty plastic eggs and the few unwanted candy items)

oh and 1 sippy cup.

There you have it. Please don't turn me in to the Child Protection Services.


**UPDATE**

Okay, so I just took Grace's crib mattress out so I could wash her sheets, and I discovered even MORE junk:

crayons
2 baggies of snacks
several more pairs of socks
a plastic comb and lipstick from the princess set she got for her birthday
a bracelet
more loose candy
2 more stuffed animals
and THIRTEEN hair clippies -- which solves the mystery of where they've all disappeared to

And I must add that Grace was VERY upset with me this morning when she discovered I cleaned out her crib.

Have a great day!