He Can Read!

Last week as we were driving, Nathan piped up, 

"Guess what!?  I just read the name of that place!  HOO-TERS!"

Then, in a sing-songy voice, 

"HOOters, HOOters, HOOters, HOOters!

Is that a restaurant?  Can we go there sometime?"

Ummm, no.

Two!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

My  head is just swimming with all the randomness.

I love this time of year, it's my favorite.  The music, lights, celebration, holiness.  I have things I want to share about that, and about Thanksgiving, about my kids, what I'm reading, what I'm trying to figure out right now.

The blogs I read are churning out beautiful, articulate posts; I feel like at best I might be able to come up with a bullet point list.

So I guess I'll start with Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful.  Absolutely better than I could have wished for.  We were guests in the home of some childhood friends, Rachel and Brandon.  We watched our children become reaquainted with one another at lightning speed while we brought one another up to date at a very slightly slower pace.

It was interesting, back then, when one of my very oldest friends married a friend from high school, and is even more interesting now, as adults, to have so. much. history.  It's sort of fascinating to me the turn that conversations take when a person knows who you were.  When very few explanations are needed because they were there.

It was a precious time for me, of remembering why history is so special.  Why being known is important.

Thanksgiving dinner was eaten at the home of Rachel's parents, Lester and Mary.  I've known them as long as I can remember.  In fact, I have no memory of before the LaBour's.  Brandon's parents came as well, and there we were, feeling like family with those who aren't ours, and yet are part of our history.

We had a good laugh when after being sent outside to play, the boys asked for a rope and ladder (the girls were upstairs playing with dolls).  Since none was available, Mary told them to play with the hammock.  The could take it down, do whatever they wished with it.

A while later, Rachel went out to check on them, and came back laughing because Nathan had told her, in all seriousness, "I just don't know how we're going to use a hammock to get on the roof."

It seems they felt the need to check on the girls and were trying to find an alternate route since they were told not to go up the stairs.

Isn't it hysterical how literal children are?  When you're thinking you just communicated that they need to stay downstairs, their understanding is they may not use the stairs.

It was a wonderful time.  And to cap off the weekend perfectly, we made it all the way home on Friday, so we still had a weekend to unwind from the traveling. 

The one thing I wish was different?  I miss the leftovers!

Thank you, Brandon and Rachel, and Lester and Mary, 

for a beautiful holiday.  

We felt loved, and are so grateful.

Oops, Forgot One

Quick Take #8 (how could I have forgotten?)

He was at the table peacefully coloring, or so I thought, when he unscrewed the top of the pepper grinder and dumped it on the floor.  I'll just let you imagine what happens when a full grinder (just refilled it last month) of pepper balls hits a hardwood floor from about three feet in the air.

And by the way, those things are hard to sweep up, because if you use a regular broom, they just keep right on rolling past the pile you're attempting to make. 

So yeah.  Isaac's week.  I'll try to think of something else to write about soon, but I can't make any promises, because chasing him around is pretty much all I think about.

7 Quick Takes, A Day Early

So, I know I've mentioned a time or three how hard Isaac is.  Well, Isaac being hard has been the theme this week.  So in honor of 7 Quick takes Friday, I will list seven thing that Isaac has done with the express intent of giving me a heart attack this week.

1.  I talked with a very lovely woman at Poison Control after Isaac swallowed 6 to 8 (I think) allergy pills.  Apparently, with this particular pill, he would have had to swallow 13 (THIRTEEN!) in order to require an emergency room visit.  Afterwards, he took a four hour nap, which was awesome, except for the expected concern and frequent trips upstairs to make sure he was, you know, breathing and stuff.

2.  He BROKE the cabinet latch.  The one designed to keep HIM out of the cabinet that holds Brian's tools, our art supplies and my camera (consequently, in a fit of frustration, he threw an 18 inch long screwdriver at me when I tried to get it from him).

3.  I've had to put the stool that Brenna uses to wash her hands on top of the kid's hutch to keep Isaac from using it to further endanger himself or our belongings.  I made this decision after he used his fingers to dig into Brian's deoderent and eat it.

4.  He also uses the now out-of-reach stool to flip the light switches, which is fun and usually harmless.  Except when the best light switches are at the top of the stairs.  There's nothing like coming around a corner to find your toddler stretched up on his tip toes on a stool six inches from a flight of stairs.

5.  More about that stool:  earlier this week I found him digging through the caddy with all our toiletries on it (and allergy pills, apparently).  When I told him to get down, he shoved me, pointed out the bathroom door, and in his firmest voice, yelled, "Go-Go!"

6.  On the upside, he's really getting the hang of sorting the silverware!  And un-sorting board games.

7.  This morning, I accidentally grabbed Brian's keys instead of my own.  He keeps a vial of his medication attached to his keyring.  When I turned around to lock the front door, I dropped them. As fast as Brian does it, Isaac screwed the top off the vial and had a pill in his mouth.  You better believe that boy was pinned to the floor before he knew what had hit him.  It hadn't made it past his lips, yet.

So.  On my agenda today is finding some way to lock up every medication in the house (thankfully, there aren't many) and also finding a safe, but convenient place to relocate the keyrings.  Prayer would be very much appreciated.

Happy Halloween!

Look!  This is me being timely.  Usually, I don't even glance at the pictures I take for a couple months, by which time no one else cares anymore.  I think pictures of my garden are perfect for February!


Halloween 2010 from Miranda Stewart on Vimeo.

So, the superheroes were well represented this year, with Batman and Spidey making appearances, and the girl child was Alice (in Wonderland).

The baby found chocolate when we weren't looking.  And stuck his tongue out to show me.

We used a glow stick to light up the pumpkin, because candles are not one of the things I saw fit to ship, or to spend money on.

Candy was eaten, fun was had, parents were worn out!

You'll have to ask the next time you talk to him :)