Clive the Builder

Clive's little 2 1/2 year old voice is so scrumptiously cute I pretty much kiss and hug him all day long. Scratch that, I try to kiss and hug him all day long. He adeptly avoids my loving attempts by scampering away fast on his short little toothpick legs.

If there's anything cuter than Clive's voice, it's hearing that voice sing. Hear for yourself and prepare to be bombarded with adorableness!

I think Clive is a Bob the Builder's biggest fan. And I really don't mind. I like that Bob (like how I refer to a cartoon character as though I know him?) displays the process involved in construction. Since watching Bob dvds, Chloe often "makes a plan" as she plays. I also appreciate that Bob and his team work hard, work cooperatively and clean up their messes.

Another nice perk to watching Bob the Builder is that Chloe truly enjoys it right alongside Clive but at a different level. Not many dvds cross the gender and age lines that easily. I'm curious . . . does Bob the Builder mania infect your boys and/or girls?

Unbroken bones

Ever feel like you're the worst mommy in the world?

I've succumbed to mommy guilt countless times but this experience takes the cake in terms of guilt-dom. As many of us newbie moms would attest to, many valuable parenting lessons are learned the hard way. Learning-by-making-mistakes is my most frequent, not to mention effective, mode of parenting.

Rewind to last Saturday afternoon. A nearby town was hosting an afternoon sidewalk chalk drawing contest and festival. A perfect mommy-Chloe afternoon outing. The festival was a small affair complete with every 21st century child's favorite activity -- inflatables. Chloe jumped 'til she was red in the face and then proceeded to her designated sidewalk block.

Chloe scribbled and scratched out a typical rainbow and balloons picture complete with the sweet chalky message pictured at left. (No, I did NOT coerce her to write that!) Then some friends joined us and the girls did more bouncing in the inflatables. (Seriously, Chloe NEVER tires of inflatable fun.) After that we all walked together to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. And that's when the craziness began.

The ice cream parlor has a beautiful old marble counter and spinny bar stools. I, like the oft-times casual mom that I am, let Chloe sit and spin on the stools without thinking twice. I continued visiting with my mom-friend clueless to Chloe's danger. AND my wise friend didn't let her daughter spin on the stools. Let THAT be a lesson to you, Alicia!

Anyhow, the girls were happily licking their ice cream cones when Chloe spun too fast and went flying to the floor. She landed squarely on her elbow. Because was holding her ice cream cone, she didn't try to slow her fall with her hands. Instead all her 60 pounds came crashing down onto her elbow. Her elbow immediately swelled up in a strange place -- just below the joint.

We rushed Chloe outside and at this point I was utterly reliant on my friend, Shannon. She has nursing experience and took charge of the situation. I was like an ameba -- unable to think or move on my own without outside intervention. I was thoroughly scared and emotional realizing that if Chloe had broken her arm it was ALL MY FAULT. Cue mommy guilt and LOTS of mommy tears!

After a long ordeal at the ER, it seemed that Chloe was fine and dandy. Since Chloe as in zero pain the NP on duty diagnosed Chloe's injury as a hematoma in the soft tissue. Kind of like a bruise inside Chloe's arm. We were cheerful and all set to go home when the ER staff delayed our paperwork. We waited and waited and WAITED. Then the NP came in with a new diagnosis. They had found a "disruption" on the bone near the site of the injury on Chloe's xray. So, the NP casually said, "I think we'll splint her just to be safe."

In my mind I imagined a splint as two balsa-wood-type sticks used to hold the arm in place and then taped. Boy was I wrong! The splint turned out to be almost a cast just not quite so heavy. The ER nurse came in and started taping Chloe's arm without so much as a hello or explanation. And try as I might, I could NOT get the nurse to explain the process to us. Hence, I couldn't in turn explain things well to Chloe and she had a major meltdown.

Again, my mommy tears flowed this time in sadness at my utter inability to comfort my girl. She freaked out. Big time. It was almost as though Chloe became a completely different little girl in those moments of trauma and terror. She screamed, kicked (she had to be held down for the taping), and loudly cried her displeasure.

Chloe finally calmed down on when we arrived home. She did super well with her splint and eventually became proud of all the things she was able to do one-handed. (It helped that I often tote Solly around and could show Chloe all the things I do with only one hand.)

3 days later at the orthopedic specialists' office the splint came off and Chloe was proclaimed healthy. No break, fracture or "disruption" to speak of!

Overall the ordeal was a good one. Hopefully we won't have to endure any breaks in the future but if we do now I'll know what to expect! And I'll be much more careful the next time Chloe is lured by spinning stools.

By far the worst part was Chloe's unexpected reaction during the splinting. I've been told this is a common occurrence though.

Have you or your kids ever broken any bones? If so, how did they deal?

Thrift Store Phenomenon

When purchasing shoes at the thrift store, make sure you have two shoes of the same size. And it would be helpful to have a left shoe and not just two righties.

DUH! Good thing my mistake only cost 90 cents.

In my defense I must note that boys' sandals have a deceptive way about them. Don't they look matching from the photos below?

Can you tell I'm trying to justify the wasting of 90 cents?

Seriously though, in all my years of resale shopping this is the first time I've seen this. A pair of shoes exactly the same brand, style and color only a 1/2 size apart. I'm wondering what other customer went home with our matching right sandals!

In general I whole-heartedly LOVE thrift store shopping. It's like a treasure hunt with precious (and cheap) jewels just waiting to be discovered.

Anything like this ever happened to you? Happy thrifting!

Our glorious garden

This year we have a truly glorious garden! Since the natural soil in our backyard is junky, Matt built raised garden beds. I've always dreamed of having a big garden and since this spring I've been busy caring for baby Solomon, I was thrilled Matt volunteered to tackle the garden project.

Little did I know the crazy plans my ingenious husband had. Thanks to Matt's industriousness and vision we now have 9 garden beds, 5 pot stands, and a potted herb garden.

Our jungle garden is thriving and doing well! While most of what Matt planted was an "experiment" almost all of the seedlings have sprouted and taken root. (Spinach and the root veggies didn't take). Thus far we've harvested 3 zucchini, several sugar snap peas and green beans, lots of strawberries, one banana pepper, loads of leaf lettuce, and some herbs.

Having a garden has been incredibly fun and educational. It's exciting to go out every night and check on the progress of our veggies. And it's so amazing to see the intricacy and variety of God's creation expressed in plants! Who knew that sweet potatoes and tomatoes were in the same plant family? Or that squash family plants have male and female flowers? Or that root vegetables needed added phosphorous in order to thrive?

Veggies picked fresh from the garden taste much yummier than those bought from the store. And it's incredibly rewarding to be able to eat what we've actually watered, tended and reaped.

Do you garden? If so, what have you planted this year?

(Warning: Excessive amount of garden photos below.)



My potted herb stand containing basil, mint, oregano, lemon thyme and cilantro






















Zuicchini

Eggplants in pots

Homemade topsy-turvy-like tomato planters

















Pumpkin plants!






















Butternut squash plants





















Our first broccoli!






















Sugar snap peas





















The fuzzy things in the middle are asparagus. Four small blueberry bushes in the corners.

















Our first green bell pepper! Isn't it cute?























Yellow banana pepper






















Brussel sproutlings





















Gigantic tomato plants























Strawberries!

















Leaf lettuce

Family resemblance

My Solomon is SUCH a Horn baby. Countless people comment on how much Solomon looks like Chloe & Clive when they were in baby form. Even the cashiers at our local Drug Mart make a point of stopping me and remarking to the Horn family resemblance.

And I concur.

Looking at some old pictures of Clive and Chloe I was taken aback by the uncanny resemblance between our bambinos. I showed several of the photos below to Matt to see if he could guess who was who. Surprisingly, Matt guessed wrong about 25% of the time. That's how stinking alike these kids look!

Let's see how well you fare. Think you know your Horn babies? Check out the photos below and see if you can tell who's who.





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Happy Independence Day!

This year 4th of July weekend sneaked up on me! The month of June went by way too quickly in my humble estimation.

To kick off the weekend, Chloe and I drove to a nearby town for their annual fireworks display. This is our 3rd year going to Hudson for fireworks and I finally figured out the secret to avoiding post-fireworks gridlock. Bliss.

Chloe always cracks me up with her fireworks watching mentality. She enjoys it for about the first 10 minutes and she's complete with unfettered oohing and aahing. (So much so, that I had to start shooshing her because I was afraid she was disturbing other onlookers.) Then, she gets bored and distracted. Weird, eh? For a kid who can zone out for hours in front of a Bob the Builder dvd, I expected more from her attention span.

At least this year she asked some good questions about fireworks. None of which I was prepared to answer in depth. :) I'll be doing some good ole-fashioned wikipedia research on fireworks today (i.e. how do they work, and when did we as a nation start this whole crazy lighting up the sky tradition).

This year's display was spectacular! Even saw some new beauties this year. The golden waterfall fireworks were my fave.

This morning I'm taking the kids to a local Independence Day parade. This parade is full of firetrucks and people throwing candy. Clive will be in little boy heaven!

How are you celebrating this Independence Day weekend?