Just things...

It's been relatively uneventful lately, but we've had a few good laughs. Yesterday, Madison and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up new shoe laces for Steve's dress shoes and more wipes, and for only two things I didn't bother with a cart. Madison was thrilled with the pink flip-flops on display in the shoe department and had no intention of leaving. I even threatened to go home without her (walking out of the aisle and around a center display where she couldn't see me, but I could see her over the edge of it), but she walked out to the end, saw she'd been left in peace, and went back to the flops. At that, I had to go back after her. She took off running bare foot down the aisle and I had to follow with wipes, laces, and now her sandals in hand. As bad as her behavior probably would have looked to anyone else, I just couldn't help laughing at her wild independence as she went happily down the aisle, knowing that I'd follow :)

In the evening, I agreed to watch a friend's two-year-old boy, in exchange for her watching Maddi this Saturday so that Steve and I can take Kellen to see the Spiderwick Chronicles. Garret is a wonderfully well-behaved little boy and, at 3 mos older than Madison, is completely toilet trained and almost always stays dry at night. His mother swears on peer pressure. Leaving your child regularly with another child of a similar age who's already trained makes it easier, she says, but her son just basically decided he didn't want the mess anymore and just about trained himself; she doesn't take any credit for his training :) Anyway, Steve and Kellen went to scouts while I stayed home with the two toddlers playing with puzzles, blowing up a couple of balloons, and watching Signing Time. Madison was thrilled to have someone to bully (I mean play with!) and they both had a really good time. I even finally got a picture of Madison and the q-tips. In case you can't see in the picture, she sticks one in each ear and lets them dangle out there :)

Earlier in the evening, Kellen had been playing with this little gummy man that was really entertaining the toddlers before scouts. You know the kind. You throw it at the wall and it slowly walks down. Well, I thought it would be funny if Kellen tossed it up on the ceiling (ours are vaulted) but one of the times it went up, it didn't come right back down. Steve wasn't impressed, and wanted to know why I would tell Kellen to do that. I hadn't thought it would hurt anything and, worst case scenario, I'd toss a stuffed animal or something at it to get it down later. Well, worst case scenario happened. I was thinking that just a gentle bump from something would do it, but after being hit by a couple of stuffed animals and whatnot, he wasn't wanting to come down. The hilarity of the trouble I'd gotten myself into was hitting me and I made sure to take a picture of the guy hanging up there. Just when I called Mom for any further suggestions, he decided to fall after all.

Today, Kellen finally got a chance to play with the super ball maker he'd gotten for Christmas from Steve and I. It has little silicone beads of some sort that you pour into the provided mold, submerge in water, allow to sit, and then allow to dry. He had a great time designing his bouncy balls, although the only colors that they give you are neon varieties of orange, pink, and purple.

It was a great lead-in to the science night being held at his school tonight. They had dissected animals (bullfrog, squid, very small shark, fetal pig), paper airplanes, furs, antlers, word finds, pig lungs (demonstration of smoker's lungs), alka-seltzer plastic cup rockets, all manner of large insects, and make-your-own ice cream. It was a good chance to be out for a bit this evening, and I'm going to check Kellen's Bear book to see if any of what we learned tonight will count towards arrow points. It sure can't hurt :)

Now Kellen has been tucked in bed, and I'll be ready to send Madison off soon, too. Then I'll have the house to myself until Steve gets home around 1030pm. Late night meetings are so much fun....