An Update With Nothing Dead to Report

Our Tom Sawyer, (Peter) caught a squirrel with his live trap within four hours.

It was immediately let go after enjoying its apple.

Peter has had requests to catch some bunnies in a neighbors vegetable path and relocate them.  He is so happy to go over in the evenings and set up his little trap.

I think it is genetic.

Here is the story about his long line of trapping ancestors back to Native American and French fur traders.

The live trap he begged for is working much better that the method I suggested.  My method kept him BUSY for hours.  I like methods that keep little boys busy!

A Mother’s Guide on How to Trap a Rabbit

  1. Box
  2. Twine, Very Long
  3. Stick
  4. Carrot
  5. Patience and the Ability to be Very Quiet
Yes I know they are doing it wrong but it is a process.

A father goes to the hardware store and buys a box trap.  

A mother lets them try for two months in glorious silence with gratitude that the boys are busy.

Here is the story about his long line of trapping ancestors back to Native American and French fur traders.

-Abbie, allthatmakesyou.com

Follow us for…

All that makes you smile, laugh, think, love, cry or cry laughing.

Get Some Pants On

I may not ever understand my three sons.

Get your pants on!

My Boys Put Me on a Dating Website? I’m Married!

Hmmmm…I see a bunch of Match.com emails.

I dismiss thinking it is spam.

Then I see I have people liking me.

Shut the front door!  Seriously?

Do I open and risk it being a virus or do I risk finding out I am SOMEHOW on Match.com?

I open.

They are welcoming me and show me the 18 WOMEN THAT ARE INTERESTED IN ME! I am a MAN who is interested in 18-27 year olds???

My zip code is listed and these are LOCAL WOMEN!!!

Oh…my…word!!!!

These kids must have used my computer and created an account by clicking a Match.com ad?!!!!


Find girls? Why sure if I am a little boy! I will click you and log onto your website via my mom’s accounts because she doesn’t have passwords on HER computer.

I do now AND what bothers me most?

They don’t know my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may also enjoy this story…

Said from a mexican restaurant men’s bathroom, “What did we ever do to you mom?!”

Abbie and I love sharing with you, “All that makes you smile, laugh, think, love, cry or cry laughing.”   allthatmakesyou.com

Why Summer Vacations are Longer for Mother’s of Boys…

Why summer vacations are longer for the mothers of boys…

Little boys find it amusing to go “number 2” and leave it for their brothers to find.

They call it “leaving a deposit?”

What makes this funnier to little boys…

To write the persons name it is intended to be found by on the toilet seat

In permanent maker.

If you have heard screaming coming from my house “am I gonna die?” last night that was the electric cobalt blue model paint all over the new floor in the basement golf cart garage/workshop.

If you heard screaming this morning it was the toilet seat in the new basement bathroom.

I’m running away (again) to work at one of those Caribbean resorts that doesn’t allow children in.

I’ve been preparing them. I taught them to make their favorite meal, linguini with clams, because they will get sick of Jim’ eggs.

This is within 12 hours of each other with a full nights sleep in the middle. Upon texting Jim the antics he replied that one of his coworkers lost a baby to SIDS.

I can live in our colorful graffiti house.

Abbie,  All that makes you smile, laugh, think, love, cry, or cry laughing.

allthatmakesyou.com

We Would Live In A Zoo, Maybe We Do?

“I have decided I do not want a Veiled Chameleon anymore.  I would like a Jesus Christ Lizard instead.”  – Peter

He has been talking about this chameleon for MONTHS.  So I ask him why he changed his mind.  I also added the appendage to the question, “When your wife agrees one day.”  This is how I now answer pet requests.  “Sure, you can buy a ball python, as long as your wife agrees one day.”

Don’t judge. I spend every day making them put things back outside that they “rescued” from the pond.

His reply, “I want  a Jesus Christ Lizard because they walk on water.”

I answer, “That’s cool.”

(Photo courtesy of Strange Animals)

He adds, “Besides, you wouldn’t let me have the chameleon because it is a hundred dollars and if Jesus Christ dies he was only thirty-five bucks.

I don’t need a “wing man” I need an assistant to spend the day reasoning with three little boys why we don’t live in a zoo.  Oh, and to wash their turtle hands and check them for leaches…

Ok folks, this is a boy thing right?  Please tell me this is normal or else I am going to have to buy them a pet store one day with their college money.

– Abbie, All that makes you…  allthatmakesyou.com

Ten Things We Learned This Weekend  (Animal rescue in our backyard recently)

– Video Game That Goes Terribly and Hilariously Wrong (allthatmakesyou.wordpress.com)

Moment You Realize You Have Done Too Much For Your Kids…

One of the downfalls of trying to be good parent is perhaps you have helped them TOO MUCH.

One of the older boys was voicing great frustration while replacing his shoes laces after I washed them.  When I told him to just try again, (I have shown him how to do it right) his reply was, “I have tried it three times!”

I cannot help but laugh.  I could make a tiered red velvet cake at his age, alone.  I remember my mom handing me the keys to her Mazda when I was eleven and her saying, “Go get some bread and milk.” And I did.  Doesn’t mean that it was right, but I could do it.  He genuinely could not get his shoes laced up.  He was mad and he was mad at me for not doing it for him.

Here I am at a much younger age than my son and I guarantee you I laced all of those shoes.  I mean if I was going to go to school with THREE PAIRS OF SHOES, I had to know how to lace them.  Why did I need THREE pairs of shoes for one day of first grade?

So am I a good mom or am I the dreaded, “helicopter parent?”

I show him, again, how to start the laces.

Has anyone else found boys around twelve to be completely exhausting?  I try so hard to make them try and use their brains and figure things out and to learn to look for what they feel inside is the right thing to do.  They are such a funny mix of little boys and big kid.  They seem to have no common sense.  Is it me or does it seem like we had more commons sense when we were our kids age?  

For instance at Christmas they were mad we wouldn’t get them an iPhone, (what planet are they on and if they are telling the truth what planet are ALL of their friends parents on?)  When we explained why and data fees and that twelve year-old kids don’t need one their reaction was, “Fine, then I will ask Santa for one!”

Let me know how that turns out.

Is it because so many things are easier and simple to do that our kids are lacking the daily drive to “make something work?”  What do you think?

– Abbie allthatmakesyou.com

Never a Dull Moment…Even When We Let Him Watch A Rodeo

Image

“Watcha doing Peter?”  So we put on a rodeo and he sees cowboys…poor TV and poor cowboys.

Oh, and the post I wrote before this is pretty funny.  I must have posted it at the wrong time as the reads were low.  It is really a funny story about the older boys and going to the eye doctor a few years back.  “You’re not taking out my eyeballs!”  Anyway, scroll down if you need a good laugh.  Have a good day!

Child Is Missing. The Store is Eating Kids Again.

I have never “lost” a child when we are out and about.  I know it can happen easily and I also know we have been fortunate with three boys and twins to boot that it hasn’t, yet.  it is common knowledge, to parents of twins, that they only run in opposite directions.  If you ever see a set of toddler twins with their ankles tied together, don’t judge.  I knew our youngest wasn’t really, “MISSING!” 

I had taken all three boys to one of those club membership stores.   While my twin eight year-old boys, (at the time) always stay close to me and the cart our mischievous little brother, Peter, needed to sit in the child seat in the cart.  As always, Peter pleaded to “walk like a big boy”   At the end of the trip I decided we needed paper towels AND toilet paper.  Now if you know the size they are at the club stores you know there is now no room for Peter in the cart, and so his wish was granted.  

As the three boys were walking in front of the very erect cart towards the front of the store I looked over to see that Peter had taken off down the furniture aisle.  I kept walking as I saw him turning to the next aisle where I planned foiling his test on freedom.  When the older boys and I reached the next isle we realized Peter wasn’t there!

Avery and Mitchell became completely frantic and I went back again and began calling his name, LOUDLY.  No response from Peter.

I walked straight up to the front of the store, abandoning everything and the cart, and has the manager close off the exits.  All of the store employees are looking for him or at least made aware there was a missing child.  

Now, in our defense, we have never lost a child anywhere.  We have never even lost a twin when they were small.  Never.  I knew he wasn’t lost or kidnapped.  This is Peter after all.  The kid that walks around with his older brothers holding him by the back of his collar.  The kid that has two older brothers not letting him do anything because they don’t want him to get hurt or go missing or have any kind of fun.  

Within three minutes of being “lost” I heard an employee say, “I think I see him!” while looking way up at a couch on the second shelf of the furniture isle.  That little booger had a front row seat high on a shelf, (see picture to the left of him rock climbing) on a micro suede $599 sofa watching all of us run around looking for him…silent and smiling, (see picture above that sums up his personality.)

It took a long time to get Avery and Mitchell calmed down.  They were absolutely beside themselves.  Their sweet little hands were shaking, they were crying and they genuinely thought their baby brother was lost forever.  After paying for the cart of groceries and trying to make eye contact with all of the people who helped us get our happy (beaming with a million-watt grin was more like it) Peter back we finally pulled out of the parking lot. 

Mitchell, says in a completely exasperated tone,  says “That is exactly why we should not go there.” 

Avery answers back and says, “We told you we don’t like to go to that store Mom!” 

Mitchell replies, “It is sooo dangerous!” 

I respond with, “What are you guys talking about?  It is just a store!” 

Avery says, “You know!  All those kids that have gone missing in there!” 

Mitchell, “Yeah, you see them every time we leave.  All those kid’s pictures by the exits.  The sign says “MISSING!” 

And so it was every time we went there they held onto one another.  They were terrified.  They thought all of those children had gone missing in that VERY store.  Gone forever.  A child’s mind is a scary place. 😉

Signs You May Be Raising Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer or a Mark Twain Character

Signs you might be raising Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer a Mark Twain Character..

1. You keep old rusty nails in your pocket and you pretend to find them all over the yard to try to scare him into wearing shoes.

2.  When you pick him up from school he climbs into the backseat and says in his sweet I’m talking to a critter voice, “Oh, there you are!  I have been looking all over for you!” He is NOT talking to YOU.   That has you wondering WHAT you have been driving around with inside of your car, unaware.

This critter he saved from the pool skimmer.

Oh the tears from having to release him back into the wild!

3. You use a potato scrub brush on him AFTER he has showered.  You wait until after he showers so that all the debris falls off and you can easily identify the leaches and remove them before using the firm potato brush.  There is nothing grosser than making “leach jelly.”

4.  You realize you probably don’t have to make him wear a life jacket in the deep end of the pool anymore when you see him swim across the pool holding two plastic cups together with a collection of bees he caught inside.  Little boys will always travel the shortest distance to show their mom something cool.

5. He makes you promise you wont call his teacher before he tells you what is in his pocket that he found at the school playground.  You have to promise you won’t tell her because you NEED to know what is in his pocket.

.

6. You keep an IV antibiotic drip bag on hand because you know the CDC, (Center for Disease Control) is going to have a hard time figuring out if the salmonella came from what he has caught and kept in his pockets or the raw eggs he keeps blowing out all over your house.  I made the mistake of telling him we cannot keep eggs because they will rot.

7.  He gets invited to his older brother’s friends slumber parties as a “special dinner guest”.  He is the only boy and I need to pick him before they go to bed.  When I ask him how it went he replies, “Disgusting.  All they did was carry me around arguing over who was going to marry me.”

8. He has begun his own “Hillbilly Hand Fishing Academy for Kids” in your backyard pond and the “country club kids” have the classes booked.

9. He lobbies for new “pets” by hacking into your FaceBook and Pinterest page and “likes” and “pins” “veiled chameleons” and “alligator snapping turtles” so now your friends think you have lost your mind…and then some repin them?

.

10. You ask him what he did with all the butterflies he caught and he say’s, “Oh, they are in my underwear drawer” and runs off after another one. 

.
.
.
11. Your getting fat because you are trying to keep him in recycled plastic containers to make “habitats.”  No one wants to open a drawer and have something fly out. Also, how much sherbet can one woman eat?  A lot.  I would say enough to house a half a dozen turtles, two dozen tadpoles and something that no one has yet identified but he is sure it will turn into “something.”
.

12. He builds a Robin’s egg incubator in his nightstand.

13.  When you tell him he is going to burn the house down with the nightstand egg incubator he tries to hatch a goose egg with his stuffed animals.  Now you have a leopard that is going to have to raise a goose if he is successful.

14. Another mom calls to tell you she can’t figure out what she is more disturbed about concerning what her daughter told her, (you dread these frequent phone calls.)  One, that her daughter informed her with great delight that she was your sons “number three girlfriend” or that her daughter is four years older than your kindergartener.  When you confront your son to teach him that girls are not objects he replies, “OK, but don’t tell her there are TWO number three girlfriends, alright?”

15. You have your own stash of cereal, cookies and chips because you KNOW where his hands have been.

Look closely.  Do you see him with his net?

16. You ask him to wash the car and when you come out to see how it’s going you find the neighbor kids doing it instead.  When you yell out for your son he answers, “I’m over here in the shade playing the bongos so they have music to work to.” You notice he also has a toad sitting on the top of his bare foot.

What kept him busy during his brothers golf tournament.

There is so much to ask. 
-Abbie (I’m with that kid in the pond over there)

“Keep Your Heads Out of The Toilet!” (best preschool advice ever)

When sending our twin boys off to preschool telling them to “keep your heads out of the toilet” wasn’t a pearl of wisdom I thought necessary.  I was wrong.
While my husband was in residency we had the twins in a preschool program that was run through the public schools. The school system had many requirements that included the children being “bathroom independent”. This means they require no assistance in the restroom.

I walked in the classroom one day to pick up the boys when the teachers suggested that all of the parents of boys to take the boys home and put them right in the bath. The teacher was smiling and could barely say it without laughing. I waited until all the other parents left the room, (my morbid curiosity as both my boys were wet) and approached the teachers. I said something like, “OK, I know mine were part of whatever went down today. What exactly happened?”

The teachers suddenly had a confused look on their faces and one said, “Well, I was in the hall waiting for the boys to finish their bathroom break and they were taking a little longer than usual. I decided it was getting way too loud in there so I opened the boys bathroom and…I don’t understand why…I mean they were laughing and…ALL OF THE BOYS WERE STICKING THEIR HEADS IN THE URINALS AND FLICKING THEIR HAIR AT EACH OTHER AND LAUGHING!”

Whhhhaaaaattttttt????? Then suddenly I figured out what would make them do this and I knew that mine had started it. The night before, to keep them busy, I put a couple inches of water in the bath and dyed it BLUE and gave them toy sailboats and they were pushing them around. I told them we were playing “ocean”.  I was busy changing sheets when I heard them getting loud and when I walked into our bathroom they were leaning over the side of the bathtub and were dipping their hair in the blue “ocean” water (the color of blue urinal thingys) and flicking it at each other and laughing like fraternity boys half way through a keg.

So mine were to blame and since it was pretty funny and since I never really got along with “teachers” 😉 I said, “Oh, that’s my fault. Whenever one of them has an accident in their pants I dunk their head in the toilet to teach them a lesson.” And then I walked away. What are they thinking leaving a bathroom full of boys unattended?!

PS My husband was very concerned the teachers would not get my humor.

I updated our “Us” tab above. 🙂

-Abbie, allthatmakesyou.com

(reprint – Spending time with kids on spring break)