Phases of the Moon

If Pius is a lunar eclipse (moon being completely shadowed),

and Laine is a crescent moon (showing about 1/3 moon),



I guess that would make Forrest a full moon!


Further….if Forrest had 2 full moons within a one month time period, would you consider that a blue moon? Just curious.

I really don’t usually let my kids run around buck-naked, even if it is just in the back yard (oh, what am I saying?!?! Yes I do! But I digress.) This particular day, Forrest had a diaper rash and I prescribed him some fresh air to help it heal up quickly. He loved his newfound freedom and probably peed about 20 times while we were outside. It seemed that to him, each time was more fascinating than the last. He'd stop what he was doing to check out his stream. What a BOY!

I have no excuses for Laine's plumber pants. That boy is ALWAYS pulling his pants and diapers down below his crack! He’ll probably be the one we have to put suspenders on as a punishment for sagging his pants in the 7th grade.


Danna, of course, is ALL sunshine!


Except here.


And here.


Oh, and here too.



THERE’S my sweet, silly Banana!

We’ve been enjoying our time outdoors recently. I swear, the kiddie pool was the best $10 I’ve ever spent. Laine and Danna especially love the water. Forrest and Pius prefer to splash from the OUTSIDE of the pool most days (like when I’ve just refilled it and the water is still cold). Danna doesn't seem to mind if the water is uber-cold. As revealed in the above picture, she'd MUCH rather be in the water than on the stinkin' grass! Talk about particular.....that little girl acts personally offended if you even consider setting her in the grass. We've responded with some tough love. I tell her, "Get up and walk, then, little girl!" She still is refusing to walk and she's had a hard time adjusting to the idea that we will no longer carry her everywhere. She rode that gravy train for as long as she could milk our gullibility (is that a word?), but it's been on her lately to come to the kitchen to eat, get out of the grass, get to her books, etc. If there is one thing we've learned from this, it's that it is hard to break "spoiled"!

Laine: "Can you believe the cheeks on that guy in the background?! Crack kills, people!"

Hope you all have a GREAT Tuesday! And FYI, the next REAL full moon should appear on July 7th.

Love,

Moni

Sick Family Member

Hey all....
Due to the recent illness of one of our family members, posting has been S-L-O-W. Our dear laptop must have contracted a virus somehow because it won't even turn on. I don't have the slightest idea how to repair it, and I'd rather not spend lots of money trying to fix it when it's already several years old. We're looking into computer deals now and hope to bring home a bouncing baby pc in the near future. Any suggestions on laptops? I'm thinking at least 4GB memory and 320GB whatchmacallits....I've heard it makes the computer speed much better, but really have no idea about all that computer lingo. Currently, I'm balancing my checkbook on Bucko's computer, and while I'm enjoying the change of scenery, I'd really like to be able to post at home again.

In the meantime, here are a few pics I already had uploaded to blogger. I'm thinking they were from about a month ago on Mother's Day. Sheesh! Where has the time gone?

Yes, that's a sled. No, that's not green snow. We did want we needed to do to keep the kids entertained....in this case, cousin Jake "got" to pull the babies around the yard in a sled!










MONI

Forrest did WHAT?!?!

Disclaimer: This post may contain graphic depictions of daily life at the Graf house, which may not be suitable for some viewers/readers.....or anybody else in their right mind. Viewer discretion is advised! Don't say I didn't warn you.

I began working on the post before leaving for the QuadMommas 2009 trip. It's a bit outdated, but so entertaining that I decided to go ahead and post it anyway. Enjoy!

So, a couple of Fridays ago while Aunt Lainie was over, we were busy getting the kids dressed and ready to go to the Wichita Riverfest Sundown Parade (yep, that time of year has come and gone again). I had everyone's clothes/shoes/accessories sitting out. Aunt Lainie grabbed one of the kids to dress and I snagged Forrest. While I was dressing him, I noticed he put something small in his mouth. I remember thinking, "Oh, he probably just found a stale Cheerio under the couch that he's been hoarding in his chubby little fingers until now." I decided to do a quick finger sweep of his mouth to make sure.....which must have triggered him to do the "hurry up and swallow it or it'll get taken away" response. Bad move on my part. I should know to NEVER do a blind finger sweep on a child! Well, his eyes got wide and he started choking. Then his face turned red and I realized that the criss-crossed barrettes I had laid out for Danna's hair were no where to be found. Insert minor freak-out here.

This is only an example of the barrettes that were laid out for Danna. The actual ones were pink! But they were criss-crossed just like this.

Forrest was able to painfully swallow them down and then started crying. Ahhhhhh great. I've seen enough "foreign body" ingestions in the ER to know it was just a waiting game now. No magnets, no batteries, no problems. I broke it to Billy that we'd be needing to do some dumpster diving with Forrest's diapers until he passed Danna's hair pretties. Let's just say he was less than thrilled. Thank goodness for latex gloves!





To make a long story short, the barrettes finally made a reappearance after about 4 days (I was starting to sweat a little by the 3rd day of digging without finding the hidden treasures). Now if you know me at all, you would not be surprised in the least that I felt the need to take a picture....for the simple fact of being able to hold this over Forrest's head when he turns 16. It's just who I am.





I debated back and forth whether or not this was blog-suitable. Then I realized that this is OUR blog and OUR babies' book and I HAVE to record all this for posterity's sake! So, THIS is what barrettes look like after spending 4 days in an 18 months old's digestive tract.





Fortunately for Forrest, they un-crossed themselves somewhere on the ride down and out. Needless to say, Danna is now 2 pink barrettes short of a full arsenal.

And Forrest is (blue) BERRY happy about that! Have a great day!

Moni