The Tumble Bus

The Tumble Bus visits Ray's school once a week -- its basically an old school bus that a woman bought and reconfigured it into a gymnastics area of sorts. Ray loves it and she's learned a ton of acrobatic moves that I could never dream of doing even when I was as flexible as she is now. Every once in awhile she wants to show Chay what she's learned so we pull the cushions off the couch and they tumble around pretty safely for awhile. But then there are times where the (dare)devil comes out and they do this:

Chay gets his brave suit on.

What's that on the TV? I have no idea.

Like this Chay:

Ray takes a flying leap.

Chay, you are supposed to jump out, not straight down.

Ouch!

Now you've got it!

Ooh. What's Emeril making?

Let's try again...

Wheee!

Fun!

A Random Quote and An Observation from Busch Gardens

First, the random quote:

While blow drying my hair in the hotel bathroom on Sunday, Ray bolted into the room holding her bum and announced, "Mommy, my poopies are falling out!"

And, now, my observation from Busch Gardens:

Short, chubby and middle aged women should not wear micro-mini denim skirts. Especially when their skirts are so short that you can see their underwear, which happen to be white granny panties.

Of Attitudes and Unicorns

At the last minute, as it seems we always do, we decided to go to Tampa and play at Busch Gardens for the weekend. We have that year long pass and all, so why not?

I think I've said before, but it needs to be repeated; Ray calls tattoos "attitudes." We are not clear as to why, but she says it and we've accepted it. Saturday was a rough day, for a variety of reasons that I will not get into. But, she was promised an attitude if she was good in the final hours of the day, which she was:

It's purple, of course, as well as a unicorn.

Chay liked his cotton candy.

Our next stop was Jungala, where they decided that they were not scared of snakes:

Yet, they were scared of weird looking blue things:

And, maybe really large tree frogs...

THEN:

We saw this...

And an elephant came (slowly) bounding through it...

And, here he kept eating that popcorn...

Finally, they fell asleep...

Then there's the face painting:

And we finally got the Unicorn.

Advice for the New Bank Teller:

When meeting a customer for the first time, do not ask her how far along she is. Unless someone is obviously eight or nine months pregnant -- DO NOT ASK. That woman may just be fat and carry her weight in her stomach. That woman may work full time, may be closing a business, may be trying to figure out how not to go broke, may be raising two children under three, and may not be able to figure out how to fit in working out when all she wants to do is sleep between the hours of midnight and 6 am. She also may have had an eating disorder in her prior life and be very uncomfortable in her skin right now.

Just maybe.

Daredevil

This is a picture of my nightstand and bed (please ignore the fact that we have no sheets on the bed -- I was doing laundry. I do housework every once and awhile, geez):

What you can't see in this picture is the 5 inch gap between the table and the mattress. Or that the table is a few inches taller than the bed.

What you also can't see is the almost 2 year old boy standing on that same table one second then diving head first onto the bed the next.

That is what I saw several times yesterday morning. And he wouldn't stop no matter how many times we put him in time out or yelled at him or punished him. He would get out of time out, run into the room, climb right back onto that table, and dive onto the bed. Did I tell you he was stubborn too?

Don't be fooled by this innocent face. He has the (dare)devil in him.

I'm Invisible

I've often felt this way. Now its been confirmed.

Saucy

I'll do anything to win a contest! Check out the girls at The Secret is in the Sauce. They're saucy!

He's a Holy Terror

Chay was in time out 6 times yesterday all within the span of about three hours. The kid just will not listen to "no" no matter how many times, how sternly, or how loudly I say it (trust me, I tried every approach possible). He thinks that when I say "no" I mean that I want him to grin at me devilishly and do it anyway. I am also tired of playing chase. When I say come here I need to change your diaper/put your clothes on/wipe your face I do not mean run away from me to the other end of the house while shrieking. Really. I would love it if he would stop throwing food on the floor for the dog to eat later. And, the hitting? That needs to stop. NOW.

Ray wasn't like this. I officially like little girls better. Okay, not really, but last night I missed my sweet little boy. The one I have now is defective.

Crabs: Redux

We met one of our neighbors, Joe the Plumber*, awhile back and found out he's from Baltimore. Which means he's an expert at crab cooking, while we're just ameteurs (although E would disagree). Joe the Plumber and another neighbor came over yesterday with their kids and we had an old-fashioned crab feast. We started around 1:30 and picked crabs until sundown. That's after 8:00 here in Florida.

Loading them into the pot:

(Yes, that's Ray in princess garb in the background)

Post-cooking:

Chay liked the pounding and destruction part:

This is just after he tried his first piece of crab:

He didn't like it much.