Too Close to Home

On Saturday around midnight a house five doors west of my mom's house exploded. This is crazy and super scary. Police are still trying to determine what happened. Unfortunately, there was one fatality. Here is a link to the 9News website where my mom is quoted.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=68081

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Yesterday, was a wonderful Colorado spring day. Probably not in the sense most of you imagine with bright sunshine, but with blustery winds, great for kite flying. I went to the dentist in the morning and when I got home, I packed up Carson and Creighton (and Anthony, too) and we went to the neighborhood park and flew our kites. It was chilly and the boys had their coats on but they loved seeing how high their kite would fly. Carson has a Super Grover (Sesame Street) and Creighton has a Transformers kite. The winds were just right and up, up, and up they went. We only had one major malfunction with a tree and Grover lost his tail. The boy flew their kites like pros. I loved their smiles and giggles. This is one of my joys! It was a magical day!

PS. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures.

Death in the Family

I am sad to say that Carson's beloved goldfish, Lucky passed away on Tuesday, April 10th. He died of natural causes at the age of 10 months. He is survived by the Woodhouse Family, and fellow tank mates Tiger and Dark-siden. Burial services were in the back yard which include the humming of Taps and a few loving words. He will be missed everyday until he is replaced. In lieu of flowers, please post a comment on the post with thoughts and prayers.

The manner of discovering his death played out like this:

Creighton: Carson, I think Lucky is dead.

Carson: What?

Creighton: Lucky is dead.

Carson: Maybe he is sleeping?

Creighton: I don't fink so.

Carson: Why?

Creighton: He is not moving a fing and his back is down! He NOT moving a FING!!!

Carson: Oh no...he isn't moving a FING. He is DEAD! Crying, Crying, Crying......

Audrey Back to Old Self

She is back! Running, jumping, going to school and of coarse fighting with her brothers. She can breathing out of her nose in the morning, but the congestion returns by the afternoon. This will hopefully be completely healed in 6 weeks. Her classmates were happy to see her return. They all had made cards for her to get well soon. Thank you again to everyone who helped in her recovery.

Making a Baby

I got this on an eMail from Anthony's Aunt Nana. It is seriously funny!

MAKING A BABY...
There is not one dirty word in it, and it is funny.
The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family.
On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, "Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon."
Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.
Good morning, Ma'am", he said, "I've come to...''
Oh, no need to explain," Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, "I've been expecting you."
"Have you really?" said the photographer. "Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?"
"Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat"
After a moment she asked, blushing, "Well, where do we start?"
"Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there."
"Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!"
"Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results."
"My, that's a lot!" gasped Mrs. Smith.
"Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be in and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed w ith that."
"Don't I know it," said Mrs. Smith quietly.
The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. "This was done on the top of a bus," he said.
"Oh my God!" Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.
"And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with."
"She was difficult?" asked Mrs. Smith.
"Yes, I'm afraid so I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look."
"Four and five deep?" said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement.
"Yes", the photographer replied. "And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally! , when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in."
Mrs. Smith leaned forward. "Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?"
"It's true, Ma'am, yes. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away."
"Tripod?"
"Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big to be held in the hand very long."
Mrs. Smith fainted.........

Carson's Addiction

My son Carson is a pistol. In fact, my Dad gave me a book on raising a strong-willed child when Carson was only about 18 months old. Bad sign! As you can see from his photos, he is a wee-bit of a kid with his daddy's auburn hair, and eyes, in particular, eyelashes to die for. All of this is a disaster...he can flirt his way out of every jam and yes, it even works on me!

Well a few months ago, he has developed a new skill (don't think he will want this on his resume). He is stealing! Had he been born in the Middle East both his hands and possibly his feet would have been cut off by now. It all started when we were doing our cookie sales for Audrey. We were at a school friend's house getting an order and when we got home, we discovered Carson had stuffed his pockets will all kinds of stuff; marbles, puzzle pieces, a plastic bird and some other little items. I took this opportunity to lecture Carson about not taking our friend's things when we go home and returned the items back to the rightful owners the next morning. I quickly chucked this one to him being 4 and not realizing that they were in his pocket and so on. Then the following week he loaded his pockets with matchbox cars at preschool, and I mean loaded, 11 little cars in all. I don't know how he even keep his pants up. After I discovered his thievery, I marched him straight back to his classroom. I thought that would be embarrassing enough to end this behavior. But NO! The next incident, we are having brunch at our friend's, Leah and Adrian and Audrey tells us that Carson has packed his pockets full of marbles...you know the ones that you use in floral arrangement or to decorate candles. UGH!!! So we quickly had him empty his pockets and had him put them back. As a result, Carson is now frisked upon leaving the Herrera's house.

And then it continues, this morning I caught Carson removing all the cash from Audrey wallet (her tooth-fairy money) and stuffed it in his piggy bank. I can't remove the money without breaking his bank. And then, I got a call from my Mom this morning about him taking a skull and crossbones key chain from the thrift store after she said she wouldn't buy it for him.

I am at wits end. I spoke with one of my friends who I get together with weekly for play dates and she said that she just read an article about this very thing in one of her parenting mags. She promises me that it is phase but that it needs to be resolved before it becomes a habit. Okay, so I have tried all the love and logic ways to no avail. I am thinking that I am going make him wear pants that have no pockets. But also, why is he doing this? She says stress or maybe a change in his life. I can't figure out what is so stressful in this 4 year-old and yes, over-privileged life. How will he handle real adversity? Rob Banks! Okay, so that discussion is a whole other blog.

Do you have any stealing wisdom to share? Or any stories of your own?

Audrey Update

This healing process has been long and hard on Audrey. The first few days weren't quite as bad. She was seriously doped up and all was manageable. However, after that everything has been awful. She is really, really, really bored, lethargic, and starving. She hasn't eaten ANYTHING in days. She doesn't want Popsicles, ice cream, or yogurt. We have managed to have her drink some fluids but very minimal. Her ears hurt which the doctor says in displaced pain from the adenoids. She can't breathe out of her nose, so she is mouth breathing with all the sores in her mouth. Her breathe is awful, no ummmm deadly. And to make matters worse, last night she was outside with the boys while they were playing and Creighton threw a rock and it hit Audrey in the hand. As a result, she now has a large cut in her hand that possibly needed stitches, but it looks ok today. Poor Little Sweetpea! Keep her in your thoughts.

PS. Do you know where we can sell a little boy? Just kidding!!!! (Um, maybe)