The First Mud of the Year and Potty-tainment

Let me start with the last one, cause it is amusing to me. And short.

Norah has a bit of a weird thing going right now where she likes to come into the bathroom while someone is pooping and offer to sing a song or do a dance for them. Odd, yes, but it does help pass the time on the toilet, I suppose. This morning, she offered to do it for Gabe and I sort of managed to get some video.

Usually there's a dance, too, but I guess she wasn't feeling up to it today. It is kind of weird that she is already singing better than Gabe is at this point. Really, Gabe hasn't shown the least bit of interest or aptitude for singing until the past couple months (and he still hasn't really figured out that he can sing more than one note). Norah, though, is already starting to figure out some pitch.

Last Friday, we had some 70 degree temperatures. Since the kids have been chomping at the bit to get outside as much as possible the last few weeks, I got them outside. They went off about their business and I quickly found something to keep me occupied in our storage shed (sorting through more Star Wars toys to parcel out as bribery for naps and getting a few unopened Episode 1 things that I forgot I had that we're going to give Gabe for his birthday), and kind of let them go about their business.

I forgot, however, that it had rained not too long ago, so the ground was still a bit soggy. This wouldn't have been a big deal, as it wasn't THAT muddy out.

Gabe quickly remedied that, though, but finding a puddle of water somewhere in the yard and using a bucket to haul the water from there to the place where they really wanted to wallow in the mud for awhile.

So this happened.

Keep in mind this is only March. I shouldn't be having to deal with these kinds of messes for at least another month. Damn you, climate change, for making it possible for my kids to play in water and mud during the time when they should still be getting frostbite!

This kid is weird. In the house, she freaks out when she spills two drops of water on her shirt, demanding that a fresh shirt be put on and screaming and crying if we refuse to do it. Then, as soon as she goes outside, this kind of thing is acceptable.

I said, "Do your Rum Tum Tugger!" and this is what I got. Not bad, I guess, but we have to work on her zazz a little.

Clearly, since there's no spot of mud on her nose, this picture was taken before the first two on here. Take that, continuity!

In one of the videos, you'll get to see what's going on here a bit better. I had the camera on photos when she started doing this, so I missed a little of it before I got it switched over to video.

And then I asked them to "be funny and cute" so that I could get a new picture for my wallpaper on my computer (I haven't had a lot of luck getting amusing pictures of both kids together since that one last fall where they were doing their Power Rangers poses and Gabe was wearing his footie PJs that we had to cut the feet out of because his massive stompers wouldn't fit in them). We had a half dozen failed attempts before I got this picture:

Which I thought was amusing enough to make my wallpaper.

And here are the videos.

It took two baths to clean them up afterwards (and I had them strip naked outside, too). The first bath only managed to wash off all the sticking mud, but then the water was dark brown so I had to drain and start over. I think they still ended up with a fine sheen of mud covering their bodies and in their hair, but there you go, just half-assedly done.