Fire Alarms, M&Ms, and 15 Months Old

Friday was a minimum day at school. I couldn't be any happier because that meant that I would be getting home at a decent time and could relax before we had to take Aiden for his 15 month pictures. I was winding things down and talking to Mrs. Gee (the teacher I am subbing for), when Andrew said, "Mom, I think that is the fire alarm." To which I replied, "No Andrew, that is just the movie." Only to finally realize that the noise I was hearing was in fact the fire alarm. It took me another second to find where Alexis was playing in the classroom and realized SHE HAD PULLED THE ALARM ON THE WALL!!!!

By this point some of the other teachers had come out of their classrooms and were trying to figure out if it was real or just a false alarm. I immediately called the office to let them know what had happened so they could cancel the fire department coming to check things out (thankfully the station is right next door to the school). The preschool class and the after school program kiddos had already started the evacuation plan and had to be sent back to their rooms since it was just a false alarm.

Alexis went and hid under a table while I talked to the other teachers and the custodian who was trying to reset the alarm. I know she felt sorry for what she had done and she truly did not know what she was doing, but it sure was not fun trying to explain it to everyone else. She is terrified to go into the office on Monday because I told her she would need to apologize to the principal for pulling the alarm.

Fun times with a curious, mischevious, four year old.


Doesn't that look like a yummy pile of M&Ms?? I love chocolate and couldn't be happier when I got my coupon in the mail the other day for a free chocolate purchase from Mars. Then, when we were at Andrew's Kids Connection end of year event last night they had a M&M eating contest. They set plates of different colors out in front of the kids and waited to see which team could eat all of theirs first. They quickly figured out once the first kids got started that they had put way too many on the plate for young kids to be eating (this was thought of by a junior high teacher who obviously didn't change the amount to compensate for the smaller kiddos). So, when Andrew came up for his turn they had eliminated half of the M&Ms on the plate and he started going to town. He had successfully gotten all the M&Ms into his mouth and had moved on to chewing and swallowing this huge mouth full. The kids were all yelling around him and cheering him on when all of the sudden the thing I had feared the most happened.... he started gagging! Once this kid gags it is all over with. I couldn't act fast enough before the inevitable happened... blue M&Ms ALL over the place (sorry for the TMI, maybe I should have given a warning). He was so horrified and embarrassed that he ran to the bathroom to hid. Of course I followed right behind him and helped him get cleaned up and tried to help his bruised ego. He wanted nothing but to leave and head for home. So that is what we did. The whole way home I just kept wondering if that was the right thing to do. The right message to send him? Run away when embarrassed or just go face the people? Selfishly I had wanted to go home since I was tired so this was my opportunity out of there and I didn't look back once. Not so sure he will be eating M&Ms any time soon.

On to a better topic: Aiden turned 15 months old this past Wed. It is hard for me to believe how much he has grown and how he is loosing that baby look. He is now totally a toddler and really showing his personality. He thought this tub was the funniest thing and kept putting it on his head the whole time we were in the car.

We took Aiden to get his 15 month pictures on Friday night (before the whole M&M fiasco). He did a great job. If you would like to check them out, click on this link and then enter JOY HOWSE in the customer name section. He loved the motorcycle and would not get off even after she was done taking his pictures. He had everyone else in the studio giggling while he smiled and worked the camera.

Things he can do now that he is 15 months old:

*Eats anything and everything now. *Still only says mama, uh oh, bubus (brother), and up. *Claps for himself when he is proud of what he has accomplished. *Throws away his own diapers when we are finished changing him. *Throws away anything he gets his hands on, including my tennis shoe I searched for for almost 30 minutes Friday morning until I gave up and started digging through the trash in one last final desperate attempt to find it. *Offers kisses to anyone and EVERYONE by leaning in and making a 'mmmmm' sound. *Plays quietly with his toys for an extended period of time. *Climbs down off the couch by himself by getting turned around and slidding off. *Tries to go fishing in the toilet if someone forgets to close the lid or the door to the bathroom (YUCK). *Can reach the top of the table and pull down full glasses of water on top of his head if not put far enough back. *Loves to pull all of the can goods out of the pantry and scatter them all around the kitchen.

I am sure there are many more things I can not think of right now. He is growing up so fast and althought I love this new big boy phase, I also really miss my baby. I have the baby blues.