Jeremiah

I was going through pictures from our Webelos Camp-Out and found these of Jeremiah. I'd forgotten I'd taken them. These show his personality so perfectly. He never sits still and is often in his own make-believe dream world. It's one of the things I love about Jeremiah.









I'd like to be that kid again. The one who has many adventures and lives life to the fullest.

Razor Head

Jeremiah is my kid who is always dressed up. Nothing phases me with this kid and clothes. Monday he had on a navy turtleneck and a green hoodie jacket. But he was only wearing the hoodie on his head. Sort of like a cape. Since this is normal Jeremiah behavior I didn't question him.

When it was time to get ready for scouts he quickly donned his Tiger hat and went out the door with Daddy. He had to take off his hat in the building and that's when Leon saw it...



Those are skid marks for an attempt to shave his head with his mama's razor.



Notice the "gun" in his hands. *major eye roll here*


Also take note of the vest over his shirt with the "hoodie" from the beginning of this tale. It's 80deg outside.



Kid likes clothes and lots of them. ;)

Spring Snakes

We found this big black racer in the woods yesterday.



Today we found this baby.

Staple Boy - How it happened

So when the fog cleared, or rather when the bleeding stopped. I found out how it happened. The boys were watching a movie in Kelsea's room. They were supposed to be sitting on the floor.

Joshua was climbing the ladder on her bunkbed. He and Jeremiah started arguing. So Jeremiah pulled him off the ladder. Joshua fell backwards and hit his head on the door of the video cabinet.

When Joshua came into the livingroom Jeremiah was crying and saying, "I'm sorry Joshua, I'm so so sorry." When we got home he was a very doting little brother and took excellent care of his brother.

I think he learned a valuable lesson. But they are boys and it's not our first brother related trip to the ER....sadly I don't think it will be our last...

Staple Boy

So I was minding my own business, cleaning the house, packing away last years school books, when all of a sudden Joshua comes running in the living room, blood poring onto the floor. It was one of those moments where your heart is in your throat and you don't think clearly. I know head wounds are heavy bleeders. That doesn't matter when it's your child's blood all over the place.

Since there was so much blood we couldn't see how bad the wound was. It looked really bad. Much worse than it was. I put a towel on his head, applied pressure, slid my feet into shoes, picked Joshua up, and ran to the truck. All while yelling out orders. I didn't even stop to find out how it happened. I sat in the backseat with Joshua while Leon drove us to the ER. We left the older two in charge until Leon got back. He dropped us off. I was never more thankful to live 2 minutes from the nearest hospital in all my life.

Let me tell you: A mother walking into the ER carrying an 8yo boy with blood all over the two of them, certainly gets everyones attention. Really though, in the car, the bleeding stopped and I realized Joshua didn't have any shoes on so I didn't want him to walk into the nasty ER. Thankfully, the triage nurse was very understanding of the "no-shoes" thing.

So the wound was small but it did require staples. With only two staples the PA explained that we had a choice to give 2 shots to numb the area, or we could just give the two staples. She said in reality it would probably hurt the same. So we opted to go without the shots. Joshua was a true champ. He only cried initially and when it was over he was VERY glad he didn't have to have a shot.




Okay, here's a shot of his staples. If you are a sensitiveperson you might want to close your tab now.









Okay so it's not really all that bad. I have a closer shot. Wanna see it?












What can I say? I have 4 boys. They LIVE for pictures like this. I'm here to please.

Now, who's going to come and help me take those suckers out on Thursday? blech

The Baker Boys vs The Yellow Jackets

The boys found a yellow jacket nest at the neighbors house. They decided to investigate it. Well, that required poking sticks down the hole and seeing what would happen. Having never seen yellow jackets before and not being familiar with how aggressive they are...well this happened:





Ishmael was stung on the eyelid. Joshua came through the doors first to tell us what happened to his brother. Then he went back outside to play....



only to find out the yellow jackets followed them home.



Both of the boys had some swelling. With Ishmael's sting being so close to the eye we couldn't do much more than ice it and give him benedryl. Joshua fared much better and we applied a meat tenderizer paste to his sting. Both boys were fine withing 48 hours.

AND THEY WILL NEVER EVER POKE STICKS DOWN A YELLOW JACKET HOLE AGAIN. EVER. AMEN.

Sprinkler Fun

Living Room Arena

Beating the Heatwave

Still in a major heatwave here. It is hot and miserable (over 100deg again today).







Apple Break

Zerrick

Z is 14 and almost never says, "Come see what I can do!" So when he does I have to grab the camera.








He did land on his feet but he was too fast for my camera.

Playground Superstars

I forget how important it is to a kid to just dangle.





Jeremiah is feeling so accomplished these days because he can make it all the way around.



Here are some cool shots of the kids jumping off the swings.





Jeremiah still needs a push to get started. Ishmael is such a good big brother.








Joshua mostly climbed stuff. It's what he does. He'd much rather climb than dangle or jump
from swings.



Here's a rare species for you. I present to you the teenagers who were dragged to the park against their will. They're too cool to pay any attention to us. If they had seen I was taking a picture they would have quickly sheilded their faces and ran for cover.



Now I have one really big question to ask you:



Should I tell Ishmael that he's dressed like a Harlem Globe Trotter?

School Picnic

Our co-op decided to meet at Sarah P. Duke Gardens for class. It was a beautiful spring day. Not too hot, not too cool. Gorgeous!









The kids especially loved discovering the animals.




The water kept drawing them in. They couldn't get enough discovering "what's down there?"