Pet praying manti are not for the faint of heart.

Yesterday, Alex noticed a praying mantis clinging to the outside of one of our windows. She got all excited and asked if we could catch it and keep it. We've caught them before but we have never kept one because I wasn't ready for the responsibility of feeding it. We had one as a pet when I was growing up named Mr. Green Jeans. My Dad would catch live flies for him to eat or take him outside to catch his own. That's right, praying mantis are carnivorous little critters. So I make a home for it in a jar and tell the kids to go looking for rolly pollies or something to feed it. Alex comes running back into the house after just a few seconds with another large praying mantis in her cup, "they can be friends!" she exclaims. For a brief second it occurred to me that they would probably not be friends but for some reason I brushed it aside and found them some little bugs crawling on my roses for their supper. Alex claimed the bigger, brighter green one as her's and named it "Julie" at first and then finally for whatever reason, decided "Sarah" was a much better fit. Johnny wanted to name his "Green Guy" but since the name triggered Alex's memory of me telling her about my pet praying mantis she convinced Johnny to go with "Green Jeans" instead. And since it still had his favorite color "Green" in the name, he was satisfied.
It was just about dinner time so I put Sarah and Green Jeans away on the far end of the kitchen so the kids wouldn't be distracted while eating. During dinner though I noticed they were awfully close to each other so I took a peek and realized Sarah was missing her head and Green Jeans was happily nibbling away on what he figured was his dinner. I was so appalled. I quickly put the jar out in the garage so the kids wouldn't have to see the carnage happening between their new found friends. About an hour later Green Jean's tummy was quite full. When I finally told Alex what had happened she first got a very sad, hurt look on her face and wanted to know why. Then she became quite angry with Green Jeans and drew pictures of him titled "bad green jeans praying mantis". Then she entered denial and made up her mind that actually, it was Sarah who ate Green Jeans so her praying mantis was still the one pet left. Then she accepted it and decided to name the last standing praying mantis "Sarah Jean" so that she and Johnny could share it. This cracks me up because my very good friend who moved so far away to Florida also has the name Sarah Jean, subconsciously Alex must be telling you to MOVE BACK ALREADY! So anyway, I was out later that night with Alex, trying to teach her how to ride a 2-wheeler when we came across a grasshopper. Alex catches it, puts it in her bag on the front of her bike and takes it home for Sarah Jean's next meal. Maybe we should name it "Audrey II" because I feel like Seymour from the Little Shop of Horrors, I don't know how much more of this I can take. Last night Alex had nightmares about the whole thing and I told her I was letting it go. She woke up this morning, ran downstairs and out to the garage to make sure her precious pet was still around begging me to let her keep it. This morning the grasshopper was "smaller" according to Alex. The greedy green devil bit part of it's head off and left it for dead. I cleaned out the large square glass vase it is living in for now but decided I should probably let Alex be the one to let it go so he can find his next meal on his own. No more pet praying manti in this house.

Hay Rides & Cow Trains

Yesterday Johnny had his first field trip. His class went to "The Maize" where he got to ride on the "cow train", jump on the huge "bouncing pillow", pet the animals, ride the go carts, and take a hay ride out to pick his very own pumpkin. He loved every bit of it and is in love with his new pumpkin. This place is much better than any pumpkin patch we've been to in the past few years out here. And it will be the only one we go to for now on. We might just have to go back there this year and bring Alex with us.

Are you kidding me?!!!

As if to prove that Friday night's slip up and trip to the ER was a fluke, Johnny has been pushing his luck more than ever. Every time I turn around he's saying "look, I not fall!" and he's balancing in some odd position. So far he's said it while standing on top of the steering wheel part of the "Sit and Spin", doing the splits between two chairs, hanging upside down from the bar, on top of a tower of laundry hampers and jumping down the stairs. Does this kid have a death wish? He must be Brad's offspring. I feel like he should be wearing a helmet all day long. Make that all night too because he has fallen out of bed a couple times this past week. I want to bop him on the head myself, he's driving me crazy!

By the way...

By the way...Johnny is fine.

By the way...Johnny is fearless and makes Adults nervous with his climbing and crazy stunts.
By the way...Johnny likes to do something he's told not to do just to prove that he CAN do it.
Johnny: "no see look, my not fall!"
By the way...Johnny sits in time out a lot for not doing what he's told.
By the way...a toddler chair that sits a foot off of the ground is still a dangerous height for a child to fall out of if it is sitting on a tile floor.
By the way...Children's cries are very specific and parents can tell by the specific sound, exactly what kind of attention it's going to need. You can tell if it can wait until they come to you or if you need to rush to their side.
By the way..."Head wounds bleed a lot" this is what Brad tells me so I won't panic and think it's worse than it really is.
By the way...according to Alex it isn't fair that Johnny doesn't have to sit in his car seat on the way to hospital. Apparently she'd rather be the one bleeding with no car seat.
By the way...when you rush into the ER with your precious child bleeding from his head, trying to keep the pressure on with one hand and holding him up with the other, be prepared to have one hand free to fill out forms first.
By the way...(this one is for the husbands) don't come up behind your wife while she's watching the staff not rush to her son's aid and tell her to "knock it off" because she's welling up a little and you don't want her to make a scene. You'll probably just make her start crying and turn it into a scene.
By the way..."Head wounds bleed a lot" this is what the nurse tells me as I'm checking in meaning "don't panic, it's probably not as bad as you think it is".
By the way...if you ever run out of the house on the way to the ER and forget your wallet with your insurance card in it, you don't have to run home and grab it, they can just give you a form to fill out and mail back to them later. We found this out after Brad arrived back to the hospital with his wallet.
By the way...it was just a little wound and it only took one staple to close it back up. Johnny was ready to go as soon as they applied the numbing gel.
By the way...hospitals have shirts donated to them to use in the case that a patient's shirt is just too dirty for them to ride back home in.
By the way...it's not fair that big sisters don't get a free shirt too. They don't see the fact that it isn't fair to their little brother that his shirt is too dirty to wear back home.
By the way...Johnny is fine, but we will have to push our swim day that we planned for this week out another week until the staple is removed.

Favorites

The other day I was upstairs on the computer and I heard a knock at the door. I headed downstairs to find the stairs roped off and obstacles in my way but no one at the door. After I closed the door I heard giggling from around the corner. The kids had been watching Scooby Doo and decided to set a trap to catch me (apparently I'm a bad guy?). Then Alex knocked on the door and they hid around the corner. It made me start thinking about how it's so funny that they watch and like shows that I watched growing up. Then I started thinking about how their favorite things change so quickly and if I wanted to remember them at this stage I had better write some of them down. So here it goes.
ALEX'S FAVORITES:


Color: Red

Shows: Scooby Doo, Trasformers, Ben 10, Tom & Jerry, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Breakfast: Waffles

Lunch/Dinner: "Curly pasta", meat (of any kind), Pepperoni pizza

Song: "Called to Serve" (learning in Primary this year) and "Rock and Roll" (by Eric Hutchinson)

Phrase: "Can I play with a friend?"

Toy: Games, puzzles or whatever Johnny is playing with

Misc: Wearing mismatch shoes or PJs, all things related to art, dancing, all things pink and sparkly and girly, being tickled.


JOHNNY'S FAVORITES:

Color: Green

Shows: Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, Word World

Breakfast: Pancakes or Oatmeal

Lunch/Dinner: Taquitos and french fries, Any vegetable I put on his plate

Song: "Popcorn Popping"

Phrase: "Huh?" (After every thing I tell him) or "Like this!" (Usually accompanied by actions)

Toy: Ropes, Transformers, or whatever Alex is playing with

Misc: Shooting fire out of his hands like the Avatar, playing with ropes (for fishing or lassoing), Playing with his cousin Ethan, or proving that he "really is big enough".