"A wonderful pair of Gitch."

My children have a favourite book, "Something from Nothing" by Phoebe Gilman. She is also responsible for the amazing Jillian Jiggs books. It is a wonderful story of a Grandfather that continually recreates a little boys blanket as it ages into something new.

One day his mother said to him, "Joseph, look at your blanket. It's frazzled, it's torn, it's unsightly, it's torn. It's time to throw it out."
"Grandpa can fix it," Joseph said.
Joseph's grandfather took the blanket and turned it round and round.
"Hmmm," he said as his scissors went snip, snip, snip and his needle flew in and out and in and out, "There's just enough material her to make..."
... a wonderful jacket.


and so on.

Little known fact about my husband, he is amazing at taking a perfectly wonderful, and completely normal song/story/poem and turn it into a gut splitting "Weird Al"-esque example of potty humour. You know he gets 2 year old boys mentality when he can simply read a story with a few words changed and your child can not breath for an hour. Oh the hysterics at our house!

"There's just enough material here to make..."
... a wonderful pair of gitch.
Joseph put on the wonderful pair of gitch and went outside to play.
But as Joseph grew older, the wonderful pair of gitch grew older too.
One day his mother said to him, "Joseph, look at your gitch. It's shrunken and small, doesn't fit you at all. It is time to throw it out!"


Now at this point, you would think Grandpa would make something else. But no. The gitch live on. Through the whole story, somehow, Grandpa makes a new pair of gitch every time. Here some of the highlights from our new story. Honestly, only the red words have been changed.

Joseph wore the wonderful gitch to school the very next day.


"Joseph, look at your gitch! It's spotted with poop and there's pee on it too. It is time to throw it out!"


"Joseph, look at your gitch! This big stain of poop makes the back of it droop. It's time to throw it out!"


Joseph wore the wonderful gitch on his suspenders to hold his pants up.

and my personal favourite:

Joseph used the wonderful gitch to keep his pebble collection safe.


Now, before you judge, we DO have rules about the time and place that this type of humour is appropriate. And let's face it, when my children are asked, "Were you raised in a barn?!" They can answer "YES!" regardless, and I am proud of that fact. Just try and read the above lines without cracking a smile. I dare you!

I think we could all use a little more "barn" humour. Have a good giggle. Go on.....

(By the way.... this book is not at all about gitch. It is actually a beautiful book with an inspiring ending. I recommend it.)

The great flood.

With the weather getting so very beautiful, my desire for all things summer has begun! Problem?.....

It's not nice enough for ANYTHING summer, and we can't even watch TV. Can you say GOING SQUIRRELY?

I had an idea. I still think it's brilliant.

Put the kiddie pool on the new kitchen floor (It promised to be waterproof) and fill er up!

Luckily I noticed the leak after only two mop buckets of water.

We enjoyed the water as it leaked slowly out the bottom of the pool and then mopped up the remains. Hey, it filled an afternoon.

"Are you bringing more water?"

Just cute.

Resigned to the fact that Mom won't bring more water as the wet spot seeps ever larger......

....and larger.

Trying to "rescue" the floor.

and then there was one...

In what can only be described as a valiant effort, my Dear Husband decided to take my two oldest toddlers out of the house for an errand, leaving me with a one-year-old with a serious third child complex. Honestly! This kid has no idea how to be by himself!

At first, I was more stressed than ever, thinking, "How am I going to entertain this adorable little boy?" I needed to do a century's worth of dishes and had no idea how this was going to happen. But wait... Didn't I always do dishes with one. There is unfortunate photographic evidence to prove that I managed to do dishes without a dishwasher, WITH a nine-month-belly, and a one-year-old. I pulled up a chair, plunked him up there and got to work.

The poor boy had no idea what to make of this seemingly terrifying experience. You have to understand, putting a third child at an elevated height that is still low enough to be reached by his/her siblings is like putting a sign on his back that reads, "Free candy to the first one to knock him to the floor!"

After assuring him that there was no such sign, and continuing with my scrubbing, he relaxed. Almost to the point of enjoyment.

Then I realized something.

I am missing out on relaxed time with my son. We have lots of great time together. (Mainly because he is an adorable little Momma's boy-cuddler supreme) But I can count on one hand the number of times where I have enjoyed his company without my eyes darting around to locate the kamikaze warriors sneaking in for the kill. I managed to spend ten minutes doing dishes with my son without my heart rate launching to Jillian Micheals' levels.

Finally comfortable.

It is my goal to find moments like this more often.

Construction and no TV

So....The idea that I cannot get anything done without TV has now extended to the tradespeople of the world!

A vastly talented friend of ours is diligently working in our home to put the finishing touches on our flooring/paint/vanity project. Until today, I have taken the kids from the house, even driving through our lovely Manitoba winter days, to allow him the space he needs. Today, there were no such options available. (Aside from maybe driving around the countryside in search of something interesting, which in the prairies would constitute a grass fire, or maybe a pay loader pushing snow.)

So, here we are, underfoot. They idolize him. Oliver will only answer to "Mr. Hiebert". They need to SEE everything, and TALK ABOUT everything, and touch, smell, and lick........EVERYTHING! I get two of them doing something else only to find the little one pulling tools out of the tool box and "helping". This project is going to take twice as long. Oh dear! Nap time cannot come soon enough!

Oli needed a hard hat. 

So did everyone else!

Hard hats for everyone!

Which turned into hard hat races.

So much fun!

I would feel bad for the guy, but I just realized: We are paying him by the hour.

Potty time!

I decided that a month+ with no TV was probably the perfect time to potty train my almost-3-year-old. Without the distraction of TV, he should be able to focus more on what's going on "down there".

For the record, this is no ordinary boy. Today, he only answers to the name Superhero. Now I know all boys do that but his super power is that he can say "long words without stopping". He has been speaking in sentences since he was 18 months old, and apparently I have spoken about this a lot in his presence. Guess he figures he's pretty special.

He has also informed me that he likes having poop in his pants. "It's warm." How do I argue with that?

He is well aware that not wearing diapers is going to be more work. I believe his words were something like, "Well,....I think I will just wear diapers. Then I can just poop in the living room." Can't really argue with that either.

Some would say that I have already waited too long. He's too smart. It won't work well now. Problem: He couldn't physically STOP peeing when started no matter how hard he tried till recently. Nevermind trying to hold it and get to the bathroom. We have discovered a few areas in his life where his advanced communication skills have directly conflicted with his slower physical development.

Before he could get off the couch himself he would call me, not to help him down but.......
"Mom! Get me that toy!"
"What do you say?"
"Peeeaaaass."

I guess we'll see how this goes!

More later. His activity of choice was making pie. So I am off to make pie with a very naked little boy. You may not want to come for coffee for the next few days......Might be serving "naked pie".

I can't get stuff done!!?

They have completely forgotten about the TV! I can't believe it either. They have not asked to watch TV in two days. Not even a longing side glance at our blanket-clad old friend. It has been rather wonderful!

Here's the rub. 

I can't get anything done!!!

I used to place them in front of the TV when I needed to mop the floors or clean up an area real quick. It was so easy.

Now I find myself interrupted at every turn by,

"MOM! Naya's not sharing!"

"MOM! He's licking me!"

"MOM! Ephraim's stuck in the laundry hamper again!"

By letting their imaginations run free, I have successfully created problems I didn't know we had! They find their way into the strangest places. (That small gap behind the toilet bowl, below the tank) They create the strangest games. ("AHHHHHH! Restaurant fire!! Run and get in your boats!") There is a lot more yelling (happy and sad) and a lot more hands-on parenting. I know this is what I was hoping to achieve when I set out. The whole I-want-to-raise-my-kids-without-the-help-of-Caillou thing, but I am getting tired of going to bed in a house that could best be described by a Habitat for Humanity disaster bulletin.

My new goal?

Go to bed with the house in the same (or better) shape as when I woke up.

Today that shouldn't be too hard, since I had a hard time finding the stairs this morning for the laundry and barbie accoutrements. Here's hoping that everyday, I can improve a little. Maybe by the time Easter rolls around, we can have an Easter egg hunt and not lose the children in the process.

It takes teamwork.

So......When I made this no-TV-till-Easter-and-maybe-even-longer decision for my family, I thought it important to consult the other half of the child-rearing team. He was all for it. I believe the words, "It's your funeral!" may have been uttered. He is realizing, however, that it is not quite so simple.

See, his logic was as follows.....

No TV?!
That's hard!
All day?
Wait, DAY!
SHE'S home all day!
Ok, this COULD be good for the kids.
Sure, Honey!

He's starting to realize that the evenings are the hardest time and that's when he's around......

Oh! And did I mention that I am out of the house a minimum of 3 evenings a week? And he has to keep them entertained as their brains spiral quickly down the whirlpool of exhaustion. Not to mention, they seem to tire themselves out far more with no TV. (See previous blog regarding symptoms of withdrawal)

Teamwork is important. He sees the benefits of a no TV break, but actually begged me to allow him TV yesterday while I was out. So, though we are a team, sometimes one of us still needs to be the captain.

He made it through the evening, by the way.