We had a wonderful Christmas and lots of family time. Now we're settling into routine life again. You know, things like school, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, baking, cleaning, unpacking, cleaning, playing, and did I mention cleaning? It seems to be a never-ending activity here. But I know that one day I'll look at my clean house and wonder where all the little finger prints disappeared to and why there aren't piles of dirty shoes and socks in my entryway. I may even use my vacuum and wonder why it doesn't bubble, smoke and sizzle. Yes, you read correctly, bubble, smoke and sizzle. "Why?" You might ask (or might not but I'll tell you anyway). Because my son, the Blue Bird was too enthralled with the pulley system we'd arranged to send a basket from one end of the dining room to the other for the two older kids to send messages and toys and treats back and forth. Too amazed by this contraption to realize that he needed to relieve himself in the bathroom and not on the chair which he was standing...which was above the central vac plug-in in the floor. Yes, he peed in the high voltage plug-in. And before I knew what had happened, the Big Bird tells me he's peed and I'm trying to figure out what that odd sound is. Quickly enough I see the sizzling smoke coming from the floor and run to turn off the circuit breaker just in case. I send him to the bathroom to clean up, too. After a call to my dad to figure out which circuit the vac is run through, I was able to clean it out and get it mostly dry with rolled up pieces of paper towels. Then when I used the vacuum later, I told the Big Bird, "If I get shocked, don't touch me, just call Dad." She thought it was funny at first but was a little worried just before I turned it on. Anyway, I might miss that one day. I might also miss the "adventure" we experienced the following day of mopping up the bathroom floor when the same Blue Bird DID remember to get to the bathroom (the pulley system was taken down now, so nothing major to distract him again) but DIDN'T remember to use only 3 squares to flush. No, he used the entire roll. And it was new. So I tenderly got down next to him when I saw the roll missing and said, "Honey, you can't put the whole roll in the toilet, it will break the toilet." "No, Mommy, see? I can flush it." *flush* "Ahhhhh! Honey," I screamed for my husband,"the bathroom.....glub glub glub." Too late. But we got it mopped up and it was funny in hindsight, especially the part where the bird looks at us and says, "I go sit in time out." Then he comes back to see how we're doing and throws more towels on the floor as we're putting them away to wash and I say, "No, we don't need anymore." and he say, "I go back to time-out." And he did. Cute, he's learning the ropes. Even if it's one-strand at a time.
So, all that being said, here are some pictures of our recent history, the beginning of 2012 in the Bird Nest.
Enjoy!

january 2012