Toddler trouble

Wednesday was a busy day with Rebecca's birthday, two orthodontic appointments and a visit to the hand specialist for Sarah's piano playing tendonitis woes. I was trying to get up the sign and get the house in shape in the meantime and I had set myself to finally getting the vacuuming done before Will took his nap. That's when I came upon this:

This photo is exactly how I found him.

At first I thought it was some kind of conditioner because I had taken everything out of the kids tub to clean it that day but then I remembered I had shut the bathroom door and put everything up before setting him loose. 
So I knew it could only be one thing. Vaseline:(

It's my own fault for being a Vaseline junky. I keep it everywhere. The bathrooms, the kitchen, my desk, by my bed, on the sewing table, in the cars, my purse, the church bag, and in all my jacket pockets. My lips must have it. The one I keep by the rocker in Will's room is usually kept tucked into the chair cushions but I guess I left it out because that's the one he found.

My toddlers have gotten into the Vaseline lots of times before, just not this throughly. Here he is is after about seven or eight washes:

First I used the baby soap and a fine tooth comb. Then I moved to the Pantene. Then the Palmolive I use in the kitchen. As you can see, nothing was working. 
I had to get Sarah to her appointment and so I had to take him out looking completely disgusting and greasy. As I explained people were like, "So that's what's up with the hair, huh?"
Sarah waited with him in the car for the couple of errands I had to run but when we stopped at the grocery store just before we got home Will was done being in the car so I dug out a hat I remembered I had in the trunk and brought him in. 

As I stood in line he yanked it off and a woman next to us who had been ogling him went, "Oh, no! He's all sweaty under there!"

I reassured her he wasn't hot. It was just Vaseline.

While they were taking x-rays of Sarah I looked up "getting Vaseline out of hair" on my phone. Very popular topic it turns out. There was every suggestion--cornmeal, cornstarch, baby oil, powders, etc. but the one that really seemed to work for more people was Dawn so at the store I picked up some of this:

Washed it a couple more times with the Dawn Ultra and he was almost good as new.

Now his hair is just extra silky-shiny.

John's first derby

Pinewood Derby November 6, 2013

John didn't want to print out a template and insisted on drawing one on the car himself. Then Peter took it to someone in our ward who cut it out for us and John and I got to work sanding and painting. 

Gratefully John isn't the kind of kid who wastes any energy wanting to come in first--he just enjoys being involved. He came in 6th out of 19 boys and I was actually pretty proud of us since, you know, I did most of the work on the car, as usual. I think I know more about building a pinewood derby car your average mom. I had it all weighed out and ready to go-- just needed Peter put the wheels on for me as that part is too frustrating for me. My job is just to help John make the car look how he wants it to look. He was very happy with the shiny paint job.

I don't know why this is but our ward only has a budget to do one pinewood derby during the three years the boys are cubs. I do not agree with this and wish they'd at least let us raise the funds somehow. We'll see.

Rebecca turns 13 on the November 13, 2013.

Recycled the sign from last year and hung it on the front porch. (What this really means is that I am now officially the mother of three teens. Some days I feel this more than others.)

The birthday/Christmas list. Note number 8.

I came in early and brought in donuts to her first period class and left a balloon and crown on her desk. (Can't walk into a junior high class while it is actually going or the kids will never recover.) Her friends at school had decorated her locker so I got a picture.

 Here she is in her new pajamas from Alicia.
She loves musicals and wanted Phantom for her birthday. She also got an iPod, complete with her named engraved on it and all the songs from the movie on there. She also got a small polaroid camera. She's very excited about that. I'm sure it will be getting a lot of use and I'll have to post some of her pics on here.

 

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Cornbelly's 2013 and Nat and Penny visit

Took Peter's parents to our annual Cornbelly's trip.

Was too overwhelmed with Eagle Scout stuff to take very many pictures outside the big event but did get this cute one of Penny and Will.

He could not get enough of the slides!

 Chest-deep in the corn pit.

 I actually went twice with the kids because Rebecca wanted to do the haunted corn maze with her friends for her birthday.They waited two hours in line getting progressively more and more scared:

And here they are after-- all safe and sound and vowing to never do that again. We'll see. I can tell you the last time I went into a haunted forest was on a blind date and all I did was cling to poor Ben Porter and close my eyes. We ended up being great friends at Ricks but I've never had the urge to do anything with the word "haunted" in it again.

Bryce Canyon Part II

This was about the only walking around Will did. People kept passing by him saying how cute he was. One older man said as he walked by, "A last chance Charlie, huh?"

Rebecca and John did their normal bickering the whole time. Here is John trying to be cute with Rebecca right before she freaks out on him "for touching her" wherein he turns around and accuses her of "almost" pushing him off the cliff.

Here I am man-handling the stroller up a rocky trail. We gave up on this one and turned around once we realized it was going to be like this.

Overall great trip. Perfect amount of time in a hotel and couldn't have been more beautiful.