Moments of Glory

If you would have asked me 15yrs ago I would have never imagined myself as a pre-school teacher, daycare provider, or children's activity coordinator...alas here I am and am loving most every minute of it. Today had it's typical moments of glory, like when Ben (my 2yr old) decided to poop on the potty by himself. Before I go on I do need to commend my little devil. He has managed to completely potty train himself in less than a week with pretty much NO help from me. I would have chosen a different week to potty train since we have 2 extra toddlers...but hey if he insists more power to him...right? Oh ya, back to that moment of glory when he decided to poop on the potty by himself. I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch, my sister and friend Jen were helping organize chaos when Ben came sprinting out of the bathroom, nude as can be, covered in smeared stinky POOP! YES, THAT'S RIGHT...POOP. To help with things my wonderful sister decided to attempt the uninviting task of cleaning Ben up. She guided Ben back to the bathroom (not touching him of course), opened the door and then very gently said..."it's all yours." With a heavy, not so cheerful walk I managed to make my way to the bathroom only to discover massive amounts of POOP spread from one end of the bathroom to the next. With a loud sigh and quick pinch of my breath I looked at Ben, and wondered...WHAT ON EARTH COULD HE HAVE BEEN THINKING!!! DOES HE HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DISCUSTING AND...WELL DISCUSTING THIS IS? I of course did not say that to him, instead I said "hey buddy, wanna take a tubby?" He was more than happy to submit to my lets get clean request and hopped right into the white fluffy bubbles. Really, that whole incident took a matter of 15 minutes from start to finish and was long gone out of my memory by this afternoon. You would think I had had enough mess for one day, but out of some sheer whim I decided to let all 6 kids paint! It was fun, happy, VERY messy and caused Brant to have a small coronary when he saw a little paint that somehow made it's way to the carpet...but I must say...I have won the most favored aunt and mommy award for the day and probably the year!

Ben and Simon showing off their FINE artwork!
Helen and Soren

The Troops!