What Are [My] Little Boys Made of?

My little boys could have a bit of "snips and snails and puppy dog tails" in their doing but that doesn't describe any of the excitement that makes up these little Edwards men. The poem, for my boys, should read:

What are my little boys made of?
Gasoline and paintballs
And dirty, burned feet
And a touch of love for their mama.

Hand in hand they're teamed up for trouble! They are the best of buddies sharing hugs, kisses, snot, and mischief.

Gasoline

While Derek was mowing the lawn, Nathan played the part of Derek's shadow. He followed him everywhere. When the job was done Derek came walking through the door covered in grass and sweat. Not even two minutes later Nathan came sobbing and gagging through the door reeking of gasoline and covered in slobber and tears. He was screaming and gagging and choking and sobbing. Knowing this is not normal for Nathan and hearing a different hysterical cry than I have ever heard come from him, I ran to see what was wrong, dropping the phone on the kitchen floor which left LeRoy to hear the whole incident while he was driving.

As soon as I picked Nathan up I could smell gasoline. After a quick sniff inspection I could tell that he had it on his hands and mouth. By the way he was gagging and choking I couldn't tell if he had swallowed gas or just put his mouth on the hose of the can but I could tell from his bright red burning lips that he at least had gas on his mouth. I tried to ask him questions for details and he denied everything, or he was just a bit delirious from lack of oxygen from holding his breath between sobs.

I quickly called poison control and was told "people swallow gasoline all the time when they are syphoning from cars". SO!!!! This is a three year old and he was not trying to steal gas. He saw his brother stick a big fat straw into a bright red container, was interested and tried to drink from the fat straw! Who cares what adults are stupid enough to do?!

I had to take a breath and calm down and not yell at the lady on the phone.

I was told that he might vomit once and that would be normal (vomiting is normal?) but if he kept doing it that I would need to call back.

To shorten the drama. He is fine. LeRoy ran through the back door in a panic because he had only heard bits of the scene through the phone that had been dropped on the floor. We figured out that Nathan didn't actually drink the gas - he wouldn't have been strong enough to lift the can. We knew he hadn't sucked any through the "straw" because he doesn't have enough sucking capacity to accomplish that. We knew that he had stuck his mouth on it because of the red burn markings on his lips. I brushed his lips and teeth with toothpaste, gave him a drink of milk (at his dad's suggestion since that is what he "used to do when he got gas in his mouth" . . . don't ask) and he was ready for dinner. No harm done. Hopefully a lesson learned.


Paintballs

As we were getting ready for our Memorial Day paintball adventure Nathan noticed a gallon size bag full of paintballs (which we later found out that he thought were red gum balls). He ate one. Or tried to. He at least bit through rubbery ball to the liquid and had it all over his mouth and shirt. He wasn't crying at all just spitting it out all over the garage. Since there were no hysterics involved I took the time to look up the toxic/non-toxic information that I needed on the computer. I found out that the brand of paintballs we were using is non-toxic just nasty to the taste. They are made from cod liver oil. And the paint is washable.

Hyrum wanted to be cool like his big brother. While we were getting ready for our 4th of July camping trip Nathan was hauling around the bag of paintballs. He had learned not to eat them and the bag was sealed to I figured we were safe, and he felt important packing them around. I went into the house for a few minutes and when I returned Hyrum was spitting on the floor, had actually thrown up, and was giving me a pretty nasty look. I'm not sure how that played out while I wasn't there so it could have been some brotherly prank or sharing. Nathan must have given it to him since he wouldn't have been able to open the bag on his own. Either way, they have both learned not to eat paintballs.

Sharing . . . at least it's edible this time.

Dirty Feet

My nephew Matt stayed with us for a week and during that week I think Nathan and Matt spent most of it in the garage. I haven't parked in there for most of the summer because the little boys think it is their fort and it is the perfect place for 3 year old bike rides. However, just a day before Matt came I had been painting and sanding in the garage so there was a thin layer of black paint dust on the garage floor. Before I could get it all swept up the black dust became a work of art scattered with little grey footprints. As cute as it was I didn't want all that paint dust in my carpets so I captured both boys at the same time (acting like I was a monster coming to catch them, which worked so much better than just telling them to come in) and I set them on the sink vanity in the mudroom bathroom.

They thought it was the greatest prison ever! Though it only took a couple of minutes to soap up and wash their feet they stayed there playing in the water for almost 30 minutes. And this became a daily ritual, even if they had worn shoes all day.

Burned Feet

Hyrum stepped on Erika's hair straightener. She likes to do her hair on her bedroom floor, he likes to be in there with her. He had a thin white, blistery burn all the way from the tip of his 4th toe to the heel of his foot. When he finally settled into bed that night I thought walking was going to be pretty tough on him for a couple of days but when I went to get him the next morning he was standing on it and didn't seem to notice anything different. I followed our morning routine, not drawing any attention to it, and he hasn't seemed to remember it at all.

Mommy Luvin'

I promised Nathan that I would take him into town to get a watch at the dollar store. He has been coveting the one that Derek got there so the easiest thing to do was to give in and get him one. I'll pay $1 any day to stop the whining.

First,we needed to get ready for the day. Nathan's getting ready only takes about 3 minutes. All he needed was a potty break, clean clothes and his flip flops.

My getting ready takes a little longer. When really pressed for time I have it all down to a 20 minute science but when I'm not in a big hurry I can drag it out with shaving, weighing myself, a morning flossing, emptying the garbage, changing shirts three times because I don't really like any of them, all the while chatting it up with my one year old. Without a set appointment to make it to I chose to take my time.

Nathan was ever so patient. I could almost see a halo on that little boy as he sat on the end of my bed asking calmly "are you ready now?". He had to ask more times than I can remember. And he never lost his temper once.

As I was using the straightener to tame the frizz he walked over to the bathroom door, gazed up at me in the mirror and said "your so pretty, mommy". Now that's worth getting dressed up for!

This is what my boys look like when they are not getting into some kind of mischief . . . or maybe this is when they think it all up.