chocolate... or not

The thought never even crossed my mind to post this story, but the other day a few ladies from church took me and our senior pastors wife out for our birthday's and somehow I ended up sharing this story.  (Thanks Amber.  Big smile.)  They all were dying laughing so I thought I'd share. 

Side note:  Not recommended for weak stomachs.  (Hee!  Hee!)

About a month or so ago Garrison discovered that he could stick his hands down his pants and remove some "treasures".  Something that we aren't a big fan of (duh!) and were working on him stopping.  (He has since kicked the habit and is now going to the bathroom on the toilet.  Yippee!)

One afternoon I happen to be eating a chocolate bar, and if anyone knows Josiah he must have some of whatever you're eating, so I was feeding him small chunks.  I'd hand him a piece.  He'd go off and play and come back when he was ready for another piece.  No big deal.  I didn't think anything of it.  Until I started walking to our front room to check on Garrison.

As I got closer to the room that Garrison was in I saw a chunk of chocolate on the floor.  At least what I thought was chocolate.  It was bigger then the pieces I'd been giving Josiah and my first thought was Josiah must have kept all the pieces I gave him in his cheeks and then spit them out.  (He's known for storing food in his cheeks like a chipmunk.)  Anyway, I picked up the piece and realized this is not chocolate this is poop, but something looked wrong with it.

I immediately started freaking out when I got a smell of it and all my doubts went away.  "GARRISON!  GARRISON!  WHY IS THERE POOP ON THE FLOOR?  DID YOU TAKE POOP OUT OF YOUR DIAPER?"  I wasn't really yelling at Garrison I think my brain was trying to figure out that it wasn't chocolate, but it looked like chocolate and Josiah had been eating chocolate and this looked like chocolate and it was wet and...  Garrison so sweetly says, "Yeah mom.  I gave it to Josiah and he ate it."  Yep, that's what my brain was trying to comprehend.  See I'd noticed that the chunk was wet and had lots of teeth marks in it and I was hoping that I was just seeing things, but Garrison's answer confirmed my biggest fear.

I grabbed Josiah as fast as I could ran to the bathroom and washed his mouth out for about 10 minutes.  Not kidding.  I brushed his teeth.  I squirted toothpaste on my finger and wiped his entire mouth out.  I rinsed his mouth.  I did everything I could think of.  The poor kid.  He must of thought that was the grossest tasting chocolate in the entire world.  And why wouldn't his brother give him chocolate his mom was giving him some.  It still makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it.

Then the other day Garrison came to me with a pull-up on (he'd had a diaper on before).  "Look mom.  I change me all by myself."  "Great job, Garrison.  You even put it on the right way."  Only to see Josiah come up behind him with his hands stretched out and a disgusted look on his face.  "Honey, what do you have?"  After going up to Josiah and looking at his hands I discovered they were full of poop.  Seriously!  I immediately had flash backs to our chocolate episode and I was getting a little freaked.  "Garrison, did you change your diaper because you pooped."  "Yep!"  "Ok next time you need to come tell mom and I'll change you.  You don't change yourself because now Josiah has poop all over his hands and I'm sure there is a huge mess in the front room."  There wasn't a mess hardly at all, but come on.  What else can little boys get into?....  Don't answer that.  I don't want to know.

a few of my favorite photos

I thought I'd post a few of my favorite photos taken of the boys recently.  If you scroll down a few posts to the one entitled "What a stud!" you'll see one of my favorite pictures of Josiah.  Here are a few more that I wanted to share. 

Thomas told Garrison that tomorrow was his birthday and this is how he reacted.  It was amazing that Thomas was able to capture this moment with our slow and annoying camera.  (This is Garrison's actual reaction, not a staged one.)

Garrison and Josiah got "matching" hoodies for Christmas.  When I put these on Garrison immediately wanted his hood up.  He also wanted Josiah to look like him so he started to teach Josiah how to pull his up and put his hands in his pockets.  Garrison loved that it had pockets in the front.  Josiah wasn't understanding Garrison's concept, but still enjoyed having his hood up. 

This is Alex (a kid from our youth group and one of Garrison's buddies) and Garrison on the Sunday that we had the Christmas program at church.  We tried getting a picture of the two of them since they had on "matching" sweaters and ties (Garrison kept taking his tie off.  Hence, why it's not on in this photo)  Garrison was not cooperating at all.  Every time we tried to take a picture with him and Alex posing together he would start crying and pushing Alex away.  This was the best picture we could get out of him and we had to sneak to get this one. 

Stay tuned to hear about our wonderful "chocolate" story...

tmz

In my earlier post from today I mentioned that Caleb Hawley was on the tv show TMZ.  Here is the clip...

American Idol

I normally don't get connected to American Idol.  I enjoy watching the beginning while they audition, but then after that it's hard for me to keep watching.  Although, this year I think I'll be watching the entire thing.  Thomas and I know one of the contestants on this season... Caleb Hawley! 

Thomas and I used to go to a church camp up in the northern part of Minnesota every summer, that's where we met, and one of the families that also attended this camp was the Hawley family.  Thomas and I were better friends with Caleb's older siblings Rachel and Luke because they were more our age.  Caleb is about 4 years younger than me.

Caleb was the second person to appear on the season premier of American Idol.  Steven Tyler absolutely loved him and Jennifer Lopez called him "cute".  Here is a clip from that night... and watch American Idol this year and vote, vote, vote for Caleb Hawley. 

On a side note Caleb is now everywhere.  He's been on TMZ and there are many blogs and articles about him.  One article I saw on msn said, "Caleb looks like he fell out of bed, but sings like he fell out of heaven."  It will be fun to watch how far he goes, if not all the way.  Go Caleb!!

What a stud!

This was taken the morning of Garrison's 3rd birthday and it's one of my favorite pictures of him.  I think he might be stealing some hearts right now.  Right?  Don't you just want to squeeze him and kiss those chubby cheeks?  I know I have a hard time resisting him.  Especially when he comes to me with his hands raised and says, "Momma."  Melts my heart.  Love you tons Josiah Thomas!

The joys of parenting

One of the hardest jobs in the world is...parenting.  I'm sure any parent right now reading this is nodding their head right with me.  Parenting is only easy when you don't have children.  It's so easy to say "I will NOT do that with my child.  My child will always do what I say, will not be mean, hit other children, run away from me when I tell them to stop.   They will not throw fits, have tantrums or escape from timeouts.  I WON'T EVER raise my voice, or take things away, threaten them or tell them to get out of my face right now."  But reality is they WILL do those things and so will you. 

Whoever said the twos are terrible must have not gotten to the threes yet.  Twos were a walk in the park compared to the threes.  All of a sudden his toys are his, not to be shared with ANYONE.  His hands are to be used for slapping, punching and grabbing at his other siblings, for pulling unwanted items from his diaper and for breaking into drawers or cupboards and emptying bottles of vitamins or squeezing the tubes of toothpaste into the sink.  His mouth is used for not calling you "mom" and "dad", by your first name, you tell him to go sit in timeout and he says, "No, you go to timeout."  Or now starts telling his toys that they're stupid. 

You know as a parent they're trying to figure out the boundaries.  You know they're trying to figure out who's in charge.  You know these things, but that doesn't make them any easier. 

Want to know the second hardest job in the world?................. parenting in public!  What do you do when you take your child to a bookstore to play with the Thomas the train set and they push every child that comes over to play too?  Or steals all the trains and won't give them back?  Ah... those moments of "my child will NOT do this."  You grab your child, pull them to the side and lay down the warning- if you cannot play nicely and share we will pack up and go home.  Keep in mind, that all the other parents are now watching you and your child because they've labeled your child the "bully" after their 30 second meeting.  You release your child from the grip, they turn around, walk right up to the table and steal the trains again.  At this point the other parents are now very much tuned in to what your next move is and are ready to jump to their own child's aid.  So you begin to pack up while your child has discovered that you really were serious about packing up and going home if they couldn't play nicely and so starts to cry, while loudly saying "No go home!" 

You are now trying to make no eye contact at all with the other parents for fear you will see the look in their eyes telling you that you are a bad parent.  At the same time you are wanting to jump to your defense and say "I really am a good parent.  He really is a good kid.  We both are trying our hardest here to do the right thing." But you know there's no point in explaining.  That would just keep you in the store longer and allowing more time for your child's tantrums to be heard by the person in the very back corner who would then be thinking that that child needs some discipline.

You have now succeeded in getting your child packed, if you can call any of this success, when one of the parents says to you "It's hard to understand all this when you're little AND those are adorable hats."  At this point you smile, say thank you and realize that maybe all along the other parents did actually understand and have really been in your shoes.  That as parents we are all in this together and should be helping each other by saying something encouraging so that when we reach the car we don't bust out into tears for fear of being bad parents.          

Happy Birthday, Garrison

January 12, 2011

Garrison turns 3!

He's eating his birthday breakfast- McDonald's!

_____________________________

January 12, 2008

Garrison enters the world and becomes the love of our lives.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GARRISON BRIAN!!

We love you sooooooo much!