August 27

Oh, Saturday. I love you.

We had nothing on our agenda at all today, which turned out to be a good thing. After taking the kids to the donut shop for the first time ever this morning, Chris decided to take our vacuum cleaner down into the basement and clean up all of the wood shavings from the electrical work we did a few weeks ago. (Yes, a few weeks ago. Don't judge the lack of cleaning.)

When he plugged in the vacuum, something happened with the electricity in part of the house, and Chris spent the rest of the morning trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out the issue and correct it.  It was frustrating on so many levels!

While Chris changed out outlets, checked GFIs, replaced a circuit in the breaker... the kids and I played.

OK, goofy iPhone picture and the lighting is terrible, but Babies in Sunglasses? 

Cutest thing ever.

At some point, Lily was fussy, fussy, fussy, so I popped her up in our borrowed carrier and that made everything better.

Sweet girl. She asked to be on my front, not my back, so she could snuggle better.

At one point there was an episode where the kids were happily playing back in the bedrooms and Lily came running out, yelling, "MOMMY! ELI HAS A BLOODY FACE!" and then poor Eli came wandering into the kitchen, looking like a zombie.

He had a bloody nose. 

I asked Lily what happened, and she told me that Daisy put a toy up Eli's nose.

That's right. DAISY PUT A TOY UP ELI'S NOSE.

You know I called Daisy out to ask what was going on, and she just stared at me, stone-faced. She wouldn't explain anything. I was blown away. Why on earth would she put a toy up her baby brother's nose, so aggressively that it caused him to bleed? Why did he let her? Why didn't I hear any crying? WAS DAISY SOME SORT OF SOCIOPATH?!?!?!

Daisy would shed no light on the situation. She wouldn't show me the toy, tell me what happened, nothing.

I dealt with the situation and sent Daisy to be alone in her room for a while. 10 or 15 minutes later, I went in to talk to her. Finally, she told me that she put the "snot sucker" in Eli's nose, and that was why it was bleeding.

Not a toy.

The NoseFrida, which is missing a key part and is therefore useless and potentially able to cause a bloody nose on a child whose mucous membranes are already sensitive because of a cold.

She was trying to take care of his runny nose with the snot sucker, and instead it started bleeding.

Praise the Lord. 

My daughter is not a sociopath. 

We had a good long talk about how important it is to explain things like this to Mommy, and hopefully next time she won't clam up like she did. Goodness, Daisy is an interesting child.

Then I fed them all lunch and put the little ones down for naps, and I took the big kids grocery shopping with me so that Chris could mow our neighbors' lawn. Caleb and Daisy are great shoppers.

We got home right after Chris finished mowing, and before the little ones woke up. Caleb and Daisy played MarioKart while I unloaded groceries and started dinner.

At dinner time, I asked the kids to help me set the table. The only one who was willing to help?

Sweet Baby Eli.

I grabbed the silverware and handed him one piece at a time, telling him where to put it. Then he did his best to get it in the right place.

Oh my goodness. Look at him trying his hardest to help!

He was so proud of himself for helping me set the table!

I love this little boy.