Fred Meyer for the win!

I have to admit that I have a bit of shoe envy. Teague has the most awesome pair of rain boots ever. He is pretty damn fond of them too. Teague is a boy of few words, but he is currently sitting on my lap, looking at the picture to the right and proudly yelling "boots!"

There are two things that Teague absolutely hates: change and things on his feet. When we try putting things on his feet (aside from the dino boots) he will act as if you are tutoring him. We have lost a couple shoes in the grocery store or Target because Teague will throw them and I just want to get the hell out of the store so I don't notice the missing shoe.

When we first bought the dino boots, I knew these were different for him. He slept in them for weeks. That's right, the kid won't wear jammies to bed, but huge rain boots are no problem. I was hoping the excitement of them would wear off so that I could ditch them when they became too small. No such luck. The pair we have now three sizes too small and yet he insists on wearing them. I have been looking all over the internet to find this exact pair in Teague's size. Lord help me if I get a new pair and they aren't a perfect match.

Thankfully, Hailey has a memory like an elephant. That child remembers everything, which usually works against me. Today, however, it saved the day. I was looking for replacement boots and Hailey asked what I was up to. I told her I was looking for boots like Teague's only bigger. She said "Does Fred Meyer still have them?" That wonderful little elephant remembered where we bought the shoes!

On a whim, I called Fred Meyer to see if they still had them. Miraculously, not only does our local Fred Meyer have them in Teague's size, but also in the next two sizes up!  Hooray!

Hailey's garden

A few months back Hailey asked if she could plant a vegetable garden so that she could bring healthy food to the local homeless population. I reluctantly agreed and we set off to the store to buy seeds and soil. She has been the one to plant the seeds, water them and transplant them outside when they are ready. Today she was delighted to see that not only her spinach was ready to be harvested, but also her peas are starting to flower.

 Planting the cucumbers

 Harvesting the spinach

 Hailey is most excited about the peas. 

 The peas are starting to flower

A view of the spinach, onions and carrots.

We harvested the spinach less than an hour ago and already I have been asked if we can deliver salads to the homeless. I think I know what we will be doing this weekend.

One of those days

Do you ever have one of those days where you wish it were socially acceptable to pour beer on your cheerios? That is my day so far and the clock just struck noon. Although I probably wouldn't do beer or cheerios since I hate both.

Our day started with Josie falling off her chair at breakfast. Now had she been monkeying around I would consider it a natural consequence and gone on with my day. However she wasn't monkeying around, but rather sitting nicely waiting for me to get her a spoon for her yogurt. This was a nice slap to the face to remind me that things are just a bit different in our house. Josie falls from her seat at least once a week and every time it is while she is just sitting. I hate to admit it, but this is the one reason we seldom eat at the table anymore. We normally have a picnic in the living room that way if Josie tips over while eating, she can't get hurt. Thankfully she wasn't hurt, just upset that it keeps happening. I am right there with ya kid.

No more than thirty minutes later Teague was eating a Gouda cheese (did you know Gouda cheese makes great window paint? Not only does it turn your window white it is a pain in the ass to get off) and it broke in half. Teague erupted into the best meltdown I have ever had the privilege of seeing. Attempts to swap the cheese or squish it back together were met with slaps to the face and kicks to other body parts. After the longest hour of my life, the dog came to the rescue and ate the cheese. For a brief second I thought "oh fuck! If he gets this upset over a broken cheese, what will he do when the dog eats it?" The answer: Nothing. He jumped up and ran off to play like he was having the best day ever.

Teague's idea of playing lately has been to dump things everywhere. I try not to wish time would pass more quickly, but I would give anything to skip to the point in my life when he wasn't dumping things all day long. So far he has dumped a container of Xanthan Gum (what we use for thickener) in the toilet, kicked a container of oats down the steps, a new thing of almond milk in the play kitchen sink, craisens in the fish tank and the list could go on for days. Today he dumped a half gallon of milk on the steps. I must have given a pretty good mom stare because without saying a word all three kids went quickly and quietly up the steps.

While I am sopping up the milk and the stubborn oats from days earlier I hear a blood curdling scream from upstairs. I go up to find Hailey holding her leg, Teague smiling and Hailey saying Teague bit her. Sure as shit, there is a the bloody outline of his teeth on the inside of her thigh and a bit of blood on the corner of his mouth.

I am not even going to go into the amount of choking at lunch, that would just get depressing. So for now, I am going to make the little two nap and the eldest go to school so I can pretend like this morning never ever happened.