Popcorn/Chicken Potpourri

Josh's foot is healing nicely and is finally cast.

Home Health came in Park City to change Josh's bandages.  She turned out being one of my mom's old friend's sister.  Catch all that?

The Monday after we got back in town we had another appointment.  Josh finally felt it time to look at his foot.  He was okay with how it looked.  Since he felt like he could look at it I felt like it was time to post it on my blog.

It looks so much better than it did.  I hope this isn't TMI.

Josh's worst nightmare of the day came to pass.  Dr. C. said it was time to take the stitches out.  They hadn't even touched him yet and he began to sort of freak out.  I went to his side and tried to distract him by having him tell me all about the game he was playing.  Every now and then he would say "ouch!" but overall he did great!

They're out!

 

 

Josh was excited to try out a glow in the dark cast.  He'll still be in the cast when school starts...but not for too long.

I took this picture for one reason but am posting it for another.  I've always known Ben lines his toys up but this picture shows just how much he does it...animals, beads, trains...he does it with just about every toy he plays with.

Here's the popcorn part of the title.  I was so thrilled to see that Ben could eat one of his favorite treats on the diet.  I had kept popcorn from him for 2 1/2 months thinking he wouldn't be able to have it.  I was sad to realize I did that unnecessarily but excited to find out I could give it to him again.  Here Andy is feeding him popcorn with a fork so as to not lose any of the butter on his fingers.

 This next part is silly and frivolous but I was pretty excited about it.  I ran to Staples the other day for a couple of things and got sucked in. All the back to school things are out in full force.  I just can't resist all the nice, new pencils, binders, folders, notebooks, crayons etc. etc...

On the same trip into town I also stopped by JoAnn Fabrics and found a fun little display.  Have you heard of Smash Books?  They're pretty nifty looking but I've never been able to justify buying all the stuff and indulging in them.  Well, JoAnn's had a Smash Book display and all the stuff was 40% off.  I grabbed a bunch...not for a book but to use in other crafts and things.

Smash Book stuff

The Martha Stewart organization/labeling stuff was dangerous.  My goodness I got carried away.  All the different kinds of labels were my favorite.

One of my favorites...cute colored, shaped sticky tabs.

A shot of most of my loot.

I told you it was silly :)

When Josh had this second surgery, Grandma Bryan brought four little white boards for the kids to play with.  They were such a hit...they used up the ink in their markers.  I never let Ben use his though because I was afraid of where the marker would be used :)

While on this excursion mentioned above, I found the perfect solution.

Crayola, washable dry erase markers AND...dry erase crayons!

How fun is that?

I waited for one of the kids to tell me they were bored before I broke them out.  It didn't take long.

They had a bunch of fun using them.

This is the chicken part of the title.

Weighed an measured to the tenth of a gram, I was relieved to be done preparing one of Ben's meals yesterday.  I grabbed the stuff to put back into the refrigerator and accidentally knocked the precious, perfectly weighed chicken and mayo to the ground.  I wanted to cry but took a picture instead.  At least the bowl didn't break.  Back to square one:)

As Andy was about to take Ben into the bathroom to brush his teeth he realized what he was doing with his toys.  (He wasn't lining them up for once :)  He was putting the people on the backs of the cows and horses as if they were riding them.  He's never done that before.  It was pretty cute.

Notice the tongue.  He often sticks it out from the corner of his mouth while he plays.  Notice also Michael Phelps (and his mom :)  in the background receiving his 21st medal.  We've been loving the olympics at our house and have them on kind of constantly...I'm embarrassed to admit our t.v. has been on that much lately.

 This last thing is kind of silly too but it's a rather ironic story.

Each of the boys owns a little wooden train that spells out their name that I painted for them.

Ben's has been missing the "N" for months now.  It's been driving me crazy!  I'm the kind of person that counts all the pieces in a bag of toys as I put them away to make sure they're all there.

Ben was playing with his train in his high chair a while ago and when I went to put it away, the "N" was nowhere to be found.  I figured it would turn up somewhere soon...but it didn't.

I've been thinking of actually buying another "N" and painting it to have a whole name again.

This morning I looked up at his shelf where the train sat and was irked again at the sight of the engine, "B", "E",...caboose.  "Where could that be!?!" I asked myself.

(I know I'm making this a ridiculously long story about something that's not really that important...forgive me...I just have to write it down...)

Anyway, this afternoon as I was putting the high chair away after Ben sat in it for approximately four hours because he was so stubborn and refused to eat his breakfast, I tipped it forward and just guess what fell out! (along with a few goldfish crackers).  I've checked that high chair multiple times! I was floored and thrilled at the same time.  I eagerly took it to Ben's room to place it in it's rightful spot.  I stood back, reveled in the feeling of completion and then went on with my day.

Well, as luck would have it, Ben requested to play with said train later that day.  He hasn't asked for it for as long as the "N" has been missing.  I thought as I was taking it down from the shelf that we would probably loose another one of the pieces by the end of the day.

He played with it, among his many other toys, on the floor of the living room throughout the evening.

When it was time to clean up, the caboose was gone.  I searched everywhere but didn't come up with anything.  I regretfully placed the remains back on the shelf and am resigned to the fact that it might be months before we find that little, red caboose.

I'm newly amazed each time I look at Ben's baby pictures at how tiny he was.