Wiggledancing!

"Hi!  We're the Wiggles!"  This phrase starts every movie made by The Wiggles, which is a children's singing group from Australia.  A lot of their songs have to do with animals, and the movies are very colorful and fun for the kids.  

The Wiggles are a hit in my household.  In fact, we watch one of their videos every other day, if not every day.  The kids get up and dance around for almost fifty minutes to great music.  Mischief and Mayhem dancing is hysterical to watch.  They dance, twirl, and swing their hips, all the while waving their hands.  It is a great way for them to get off the couch while watching a movie.  

Tonight, when the kids were dancing to The Wiggles, they were dancing to the "Wags the Dog" song.  In the song, the dog chases his tail, so Mischief and Mayhem were on their knees chasing their tails.  Then, they smacked into each other!  Enter mental picture here...

 

Hair Cuts

In an effort to save money, I have picked up the art of cutting hair.  To me, it seems like a giant waste of money to pay $24 for a man's haircut and who knows how much for a boy's haircut.  And, as I am cutting hair, Mayhem had decided the clippers tickle his neck, so he puts his hands around his neck and giggles.  So, when he gets his hair cut, he only gets his hair cut from the top of his hands up!  

Mischief sees me cutting Mayhem and Daddy's hair and has now decided that she would like to have her hair cut like them!  She wants me to use the clippers, but not cut all her hair off.  

This will be quite the hair cut...

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The weather is ok today, not great, but ok.  The wind is blowing quite hard, but at least it is not raining.  When I picked Mischief up from school, she informs me that they are going to play in the mud on Thursday when she goes to school.

As we pulled into our driveway, Mischief asks me, "Can I stay outside and play?  It's a beautiful day!  It's a really beautiful day!"  When I told her she had to go inside and take a nap, her response was, "Look around, Mommy!  It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!"  As far as I know, she has never even seen Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.  

We are looking forward to many more beautiful days.

Potty Training: Day Number 1

I was told that potty training the first time around was going to "Make a new woman out of you."  We went through the potty training, without too many mistakes, and all is well.  I believe I have found out what this wise person meant when she warned me about the perils of potty training.

Who knew a little boy could go potty in the potty, in the bathtub, then on the floor and blame the cat for the mess on the floor?  Oh well, it was day number one.  Stay tuned to watch my sanity come and go.

Happy Easter!

We have had a very eventful couple of days since we had two birthday parties on Saturday and Easter festivities today.  I believe Mischief and Mayhem will be on a sugar high for the next week and a half.  


For their birthdays, Mischief had a Dora theme for her birthday and Mayhem had a Diego theme for his birthday. 

Dora the Explorer cake

Go Diego Go! cake - It is the map of where Diego has to go to rescue the goat stuck in the mud!

We had some friends over for the party, and they are THRILLED with all their toys they got for their birthdays.  However, they were given some Hoppers (giant balls with handles on them made for hopping on) that are rather annoying and getting on my nerves.  The toy themselves are not annoying, it is that Mayhem is still a little too small, and he repeatedly tries, crashes, and yells for me to come and bounce him on his ball.

On to Easter!  The kids had a blast looking for easter eggs!  Mischief's theory is to find the egg, open the egg, and eat everything inside before her brother can come over and eat her eggs.  Mayhem's theory is to eat his and run over to his sister's eggs and fight her for the candy.  

Mischief got a special Easter dress from one Grandma and a bonnet from the other.

As I said, I believe we will have children on a sugar high for some time now...

Master Carpenter

We have recently been doing some house renovations.  I do most of the work after the kids have gone to bed, so they do not offer their help.  So, when Mischief gets up in the morning, she lets me know what she thinks of my work.  Yesterday morning, she gets up and looks at the tile in the kitchen and got mad that I did not let her do the work!  So, last night, as Daddy was trying to finish up the last spot of the tile, our little Master Carpenter had to help.  She is sooo proud of her craftsmanship!

I guess we have a little Master Carpenter! 

To Be or Not to Be Like the Cat

Mayhem has always liked to play in the animal's water.  Why not?  It splashes and makes noise.  It's messy, and a good time all around!  The animals drink it with their tongue... why not?

Really?  That's all I have to say.... Really?

Big Boy Seat

At dinner time, Mischief and Mayhem each have their own seats and they always sit in their respective seats.  However, Mayhem is getting larger and is big enough for a booster seat on a chair, like his sister has.  In fact, he thinks he is hot stuff when he climbs up into her booster seat and does his "work" (i.e. work on his coloring book).  I prefer the highchair because Mayhem cannot get out of it by himself!


Perhaps I need to invest in a big boy booster seat for Mayhem...

The TV War

I am a person who likes my television.  I enjoy picking out my shows, getting addicted to them, and living vicariously through the characters in the show.  I wait all week long to see the new episode, and have my list of shows to watch every day of the week.  Or at least I used to be...

These days, I have to watch a selection of mind numbing (stimulating for the children) kid's shows.  Not occasionally, but every day, by the hour.  I am a believer that children should not watch violence and angry programming, so I give up control of the television.  Shows for children can be very educational and stimulating for the kids, but many of them are violent and actually written for adults.  Therefore, we watch PBS or our movies that we have hand picked and watched previous to the children watching it.

Oh well, one of these days, I will win the television war and get control of my remote!

Spring Breaks rests!

Ah, spring break is finally over, so things can get back to normal.  Mischief went back to school today, and had a blast.  The weather was nice, so they got to go outside too!  

The sad part of the day was when her little brother decided (for the first time) that he needed to go to school.  He started crying saying, "NaNa, go school!" as we were dropping her off.  All afternoon, he keeps crying, "go school."  The poor little man is not happy to find out he has to wait a long time before going to school!

Dinosaur Train

For those of you who are unfamiliar, need to go to pbs and educate yourselves.  There is a show on PBS called Dinosaur Train.  This show is about a pteranadon family who has adopted a t-rex baby.  They travel the world on a dinosaur train learning about different species of dinosaurs.  This is an educational show, as it tells kids about dinosaurs, but I believe the kids are going to be heart broken when the t-rex baby grows up to eat his family.

Anyway, on Dinosaur Train today, they were talking about Einiosaurus.  The Einiosaurus have a strange looking nasal horn, and they were demonstrating/practicing a fight.  Mischief and Mayhem took this as, they can practice fight on me with their nasal horns.  Yes, for the mental image, Mischief AND Mayhem have been headbutting me with their pretend nasal horns.

It has been a long day...

Picture Day

I attempted to get pictures taken of Mischief and Mayhem today, and most of us survived.  The kids actually did really well, except for the sitting still and waiting part.

Mischief allowed the gal to take her hands and place her wherever she wanted her.  Mayhem, however, was a different story.  He could copy his sister and say, "Cheese" then move after two seconds.  Taking the pictures of him went well, but taking pictures of just Mischief was a bit more difficult.  Only because Mayhem continued to run onto the backdrop and yell, "Cheese!" with a giant, goofy, open-mouthed grin on his face.  Even when I was trying to pick out the picture, he ran back into the room, plopped his butt onto the ground and yells, "Cheese!"

All-in-all, we got the pictures taken, and I did not manage to lose either child in JC Penney.  I will post a copy of the pictures once they come back to me.

Heavy Weight

I believe I am raising a heavy weight champion in my household.  As Mayhem gets older, he certainly lives up to his name.  My children fight and argue as most siblings do, but they get along well for the most part.  Today, however, is one of those days.

Today, Mayhem has learned a new trick that works efficiently, and his sister cannot smack him for it.  As he is getting bigger, and weighs within five pounds of what his sister does, Mayhem has learned to squash her.  Not just squash her, but sit on her and lean back, completely pinning her to the ground.  And, if she resists, he puts his feet on her hair.  Yes, her hair.  So much so, I had to take strands of hair out from between his toes.

This is a quite efficient way of controlling his sister if Mischief gets out of line!  You will have to come see Heavy Weight wrestle when he is older.

Salon Day

In an effort to copy his sister, Mayhem requests that he has his hair styled as well.  When I am drying my hair, he wants gel in his and it combed.  When Mischief is getting her hair done, he requests for pretties to be put in his hair.  When she is getting her nails done, he requests his to be done.  

One of these days, Mayhem will realize he does not want EVERYTHING his sister does!

Escape Dog

Mischief has been having issues with accidentally letting the dog out.  If she is at the door, the dog sees the opportunity and escapes.  Yesterday, when the dog escaped, we had a little discussion about how Mischief needs to make sure there is an adult watching Dodger if she opens the door.

So today, when the dog dug under the fence (with help from the neighbor's dog) and escaped, I had to answer questions on how Dodger is able to dig in the dirt.  So, I explained how dogs dig in the dirt, and Mischief "dug in the dirt" and asked if that was how Dodger did it.

When Mayhem saw her doing such a fun thing, I then had two little doggies digging in the "dirt" of the living room floor.