Christmas Past

I’m going to share a poem I wrote last year somewhere between the haze of cold and flu medicine and the madness of the holidays last year.
With everyone starting the sniffling and coughing early this year, maybe we will be over it by Christmas! Probably not!

A Turchick Christmas 2008

Twas the night before Christmas and
Daddy was feeling quite ill.
Coughing and complaining that the house had a chill
So off to the zoo for the annual light show
Max rode the carousel yelling “Go Go Go!”
With ooh’s and ahh’s and amazements galore
The boys were much more tired than before.
So home in the blue whale and straight off to bed
With visions of chainsaws and planes in their heads.
Mommy wrapped all the presents while Daddy lay comatose
Hoping that on sudafed he would not overdose.
Then off to bed for Daddy and Mom
Both hoping his cold would soon be gone.
Max soon awakened then Sam with a clatter
At least to little Tyler it just didn’t matter.
Mommy got some juice which Sam drank in such haste
That he puked on the bed and then all over the place.
All back asleep now until again complained Max
That his bed was shaking and falling too fast.
Quarter to five and Tyler’s alarm has rung
Mommy wakes up to see his diaper has sprung.
Unfortunately she says, I have to confess
It’s not a leak, it’s the other kind of mess.
Sam’s now awake and eyeing the gifts
Dad says to wait or mommy will have a big fit.
So breakfast it is, eggs with some cheddar
And cinnamon buns from the sis who no doubt’s doing much better.
After the feeding it’s off to remove all the wrapping
The boys’ joy and delight makes us start clapping.
Unfortunately our happiness cannot last
We soon realize the cold has spread too fast
Mommy’s off to work and hopes to escape the worst.
Daddy’s just wondering who’s going to bed first.
Tyler wakes up a few times that night
But drifts off again much to Daddy’s delight.
Max asks for a bottle at 6am on the dot
Despite the morning before, it’s a battle that’s best not fought.
Tyler’s getting changed when Max asks for some more.
As if in slow motion, he trembles, then pukes on the floor.
Sam’s now screaming and Tyler lays naked on the table
What kind of mind could come up with such a fable?
Mommy’s now home and babysitter to follow,
Maybe things will be better by morrow.
As this story is ongoing and continuing,
I can’t just yet seem to come up with an ending
Just laugh at our few days’ misery
And know that this Christmas will go down in history!

To defeat Spiderman…

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, Tyler is our climber. I think his ability is just natural talent fueled by two older brothers who can get to anything and everything they want in our house.
There’s no good baby-proofing solution for this except hovering over him constantly. And that just isn’t realistic especially with two other troublemakers to keep tabs on. I’ve tried to think of creative ways including tying weights to him (just make him stronger!) and installing a pulley system to the ceiling so I can just give the rope a tug and he’ll be lifted off whatever surface he’s scaled. We even have one of those hospital-style mirrors so we can scan the kitchen/living room area quickly!

One day, in frustration I blurted to my wife that we should grease the countertops! “That’ll keep him from climbing!” Well, she didn’t laugh and I could see the wheels turning…could this be a temporary solution? So we tried it!
A squirt of cooking spray around the counter edges and we stood back to watch the results. Tyler stretched his hands up to the countertop and the minute he touched it, his hands simply slipped off. Then he looked his hands over realizing there was something wrong and tried again! HA! It worked! Every few hours, he’d give it another shot and fail. This lasted for two days and he gradually gave up trying. The only downside of this approach was our occasional memory lapse which resulted in a stripe of oil across our shirts. The third day…he pushed a chair to the counter and was in the sink giving himself a shower. ARRRRRRRRRRGH!

Shark bait

My wife braved taking all three boys to the grocery a few days ago. She came back with a story that frustrated me as much as it did her as it was happening. The incident happened while she was in the checkout line unloading the cart. Tyler (the youngest) was strapped in so he was not able to cause trouble. Max and Sam, on the other hand, were somewhat free to cause mayhem. I don’t have to tell anyone what lines both sides of all checkout lines at the perfect height for preschool kids to get their hands on.

So after all was rung up and bagged and back in the cart, the cashier said in a quite rude tone, “You are going to pay for THAT, aren’t you?” pointing at a piece of candy our 2-1/2 year old Sam had picked up. Krista promptly took the unopened candy back, put it on the shelf and finished paying for the groceries.

She restrained speaking her mind to the cashier and left.

After telling me the story, I couldn’t believe my ears! In a former life, I have been a grocery store cashier, an employee of a major toy store chain and worked at a music store in a mall. I have been in true shoplifting situations where security was called and chased down real thieves. From my time in the grocery store, I have seen the exact situation my wife described countless times.

So the question…how young do children learn not to take things that aren’t theirs? Certainly Sam knew he wasn’t supposed to have it. That he didn’t rip it open and eat it shows his guilt! (as opposed to the animal crackers which he took out of our cart and ate on another trip!) Maybe this particular cashier was having a bad day but there are certainly better ways to handle this kind of situation. Rather than attacking an obviously overwhelmed parent, she could have politely pointed out that Sam had a piece of candy and Krista (or any parent) would have gladly taken care of the situation.

I think the layout of the checkout line is to blame here. Put 2- and 3-year-olds in an aisle full of candy and small toys…it’s like dropping sharks into a chum-filled tank!

Had I been there with Krista, I probably would have asked to speak to the manager BUT then again, two parents against three kids, the odds dramatically improve for us to have completely controlled the madness and it would have been a different situation!

Juggling

I have never been able to juggle. I’ve tried several books and tried to get a few friends to teach me and I still can’t do it. I find this especially frustrating on a number of fronts. But I won’t go into those details. Instead, the real conundrum…

I’m running into the same problems juggling my roles as a father/husband/business owner. I seem to have it going then… whoops! Something falls. I touched on this in the RAK article I wrote for the September issue. It’s pretty annoying and the only thing that keeps coming to mind is “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Everything seemed easier when five days a week, I’d wake up, go to work, come home, hang out with Krista and the kids, then go to bed. Weekends were fun-time for the family.

Now, she has ramped up her schedule a bit and I’m at the mercy of my clients as far as my scheduling goes. It’s just the way things have to be.

I love spending time with the boys but that dwindles away the busier I get. Part of me wants to limit the number of projects and clients I take on so I can enjoy the boy’s growing up (it only happens once!) and the other part wants to fill every waking moment with work as I really enjoy what I do and can add a significant amount of income to the family. This is a throwback to my rant on the “man brings home the bacon” stereotype still lingering in my head! But a business has to grow, right?

With Max in school three days a week (2 hours a day) we now have a routine going for that. Nap time for the boys has yet to be established firmly and is never simultaneous for all three boys. We try to get the boys to the park every day. Tuesday night is “kids night out”, Thursday while Max is in school, we take Sam & Tyler to the Kid’s Club at the mall, etc. I think it was easier as a freshman in college trying to remember my double major, 23 credit hour/semester schedule!

Then there’s “date night”. It seems to happen less often these days and it’s mainly because both Krista and I are so exhausted. It’s easier to watch some of the non-kid’s shows we record on the DVR than getting the babysitter, deciding what to do, then actually doing it. Most of our date nights end in the trip to Walmart or Fry’s to get the essentials…diapers, milk, mac & cheese, and baby wipes! Can’t fit any of those things on the motorcycles we used to explore the Valley on!

Racing dirtbikes, riders always look for the rut that establishes the best way around a track. When bumped out of that rut, it’s hard to get in it again and usually another rut has to be found. OK..”rut” might be a bit harsh for an analogy but the reality is most people don’t like change. I don’t mind change but I feel a bit outside my comfort zone with all that’s happened over the last ten months. One thing is clear…I haven’t found the perfect way around the track yet. Maybe there isn’t one!

OK self-therapy time is over. I promise next blog will be fun!

MY ICE CREAM! MINE!

I have never considered myself a picky eater. And I wouldn’t say my wife is a picky eater either. We have different tastes. That’s it…right? Well, seems our habits have drawn a battle line of sorts in our house.
I was under the impression that Tyler (15 mo) was the only one going through the mimic stage. It’s super cute and distracted Krista and I from Max and Sam’s mimicking which we now realize won’t end any time soon.
A few examples:
Breakfast for me is either plain pancakes or eggs with cheese and ham (cheesey eggs)
Krista prefers blueberry pancakes and eggs with only cheese.
Tyler still pretty much eats what we put on his fork so he doesn’t get a vote yet!
Sam and Max prefer their pancakes plain. WOOOHOOO!
But they prefer their cheesey eggs without the “icky ham”. BOOOOO!
Here’s a few fun ones from the lunch and dinner menu:
My favorite hot dog is the Ballpark All-beef, bun-length type. The boys agree and we found out the one time Krista accidentally bought regular, non bun-length hot dogs. Even though they were Ballpark brand, we didn’t eat them. (Tyler got stuck eating those which he gladly shared with the dogs.)
I am disturbed by the boys love of ketchup. I can’t stand the stuff but Krista and her mother got to the boys first!
Max was dipping hot dogs and fries by the time he was walking. Sam even earlier and Tyler since he was able to eat solid food. ARRRGH!
BUT, I win the burger battle! They must NEVER have pickles! Sam and Max rip open the burgers and search before taking a bite! If they are present, the boys hold them up like they were rotting fish and offer them to Krista who gladly adds them to her burger!
A side note on Sam’s burger habits…he never eats the buns. We joke that he’s on the Atkins diet!
My mother taught the boys that the proper way to eat an Oreo is to break it open and lick the center. Well she forgot to teach me because I prefer leaving Oreos intact.
Beverages scores another for my wife. She uses a straw and therefore the boys must have straws. I can’t stand them and even at the risk of spilling drinks in the car, prefer topless and strawless!

This brings me to the incident that set off the light bulb for this post…
A neighbor recently dropped off some wonderful peaches. I put them in the refrigerator and watched Krista pull a few out and put them on the counter. (apparently she prefers them room temperature) The next day I washed one off and proceeded to slice it and then peel the skin off. I also cut off the reddish part that was next to the pit off each slice. I was left with a plate full of perfect slices which I shared with all three boys. The next day I shared another. This time, Krista grabbed one of hers, broke it in half and bit right in. She watched and scoffed at my routine then, deciding it was taking too long, broke off a couple of pieces of hers and put them in front of Max and Sam. Rotting fish! They wouldn’t touch the pieces and pointed out that the icky red stuff was still there and the fuzzy skin was too! By the time I was done, the argument was still raging and I dropped some of my slices in front of the boys who gobbled them up like candy! Just to drive it home, I then cut off the red part and skinned the pieces Krista put in front of them and like magic, they disappeared! I gloated about the “victory” and then it hit me. We really are shaping their eating habits at this age.

Another chapter has been added to my internal parenting manual and I plan to make full use of this information to keep my boys healthy. BUT I couldn’t resist abusing my new knowledge. I had a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream last night and Sam was literally crawling all over me begging and asking what it was. I told him it was icky green goo with brown junk in it. I even made faces as I took each bite. Then I offered a spoonful to Sam who turned his head away in disgust and ran off to play. Ha Ha! Never again will I have to share my mint chocolate chip ice cream!

5 Seconds

Let me preface this by saying everyone is OK.
We had our first pool incident a few days ago.

To set the scenario, the pool is in our back yard and is surrounded by a fence and also has a net over the top of it.
SO…what happened? One evening, my wife and I decided to take the boys swimming. We are very careful about curbing their excitement to jump in the water until we are in the pool ready to catch them. Krista had Tyler (the youngest) and I was heading down the steps into the pool. I turned to invite Sam (middle child) in when I realized Max was gone. I yelled at Sam to get out of the pool and turned to see Max (oldest ) struggling to get his head above the water a few feet from me. I pulled him up and set him on the side of the pool at which point he started crying. My first instinct is to yell at him for not obeying the rules but he knew exactly what he had done so Krista and I tried to calm him down and explain how much danger he was in. It was no use. He headed inside where we decided to leave him alone for a bit. Sam continued jumping in with me to catch him and Tyler enjoyed his usual horsey-rides around the pool. About 10 minutes later Max came out and just watched. We kept reassuring him it was OK to come back in and that we would hold him. Another 10 minutes went by before he finally asked if he could come back in.

We have been trying to teach Max and Sam how to swim but they would much rather practice jumping in or ride on our shoulders around the pool. Our thought was not to push them but that may change. If we are to continue using the pool, I think they must learn to at least swim to the steps so they can climb out safely. Even with our rules and my wife and I in the pool watching like hawks, we are outnumbered and it’s truly frightening to think of having another incident like this one.
Looking back, Max was out of my sight for about 5 seconds. Had it been much longer than that and I would be writing a very different story.

Even though it’s near the end of the summer and I know this has been beaten into everyone’s heads through PR and news stories, I must say it again….
Please…please…please watch your kids around water!

The funny things we say…

Max, our almost 4 year old, has me worried.

He just started preschool. Knowing what a clown he can be conjures up images of my wife and I sitting in the teacher’s office listening to what he has done or said. After the first day, the teacher told my wife “Max sure is a talkative one!” Uh-Oh!

At home we can shrug off the phrases and laugh but at school, how will other kids (and more importantly his teachers) react when he comes up with new material? I have chosen to collect the funniest phrases in hopes of someday embarrassing him in front of his friends.

A few memorable ones…

“I hit my head into the wall and liked it!”

(at dinner) “Daddy…I’m full of it!”

“I don’t want to eat..I just want to watch TV about eating!” (after watching Man vs. Food)

“Can we buy Sammy a toy so he can share it with me?”

“Can I have Ty-Ty? (Tyler)” …. cringing, we ask “Why?” …..”I want to doctor him.” (as he and Sam have on stethoscopes and fireman hats!)

“I want 5 more brothers so they can pick up my toys”

“I turned up the hose to make the grass a pond”

“I want a raw meat sandwich…and chips…curly chips…yeah…curly chips and raw meat…that’s what I want!”

“I want a chain saw just like mommy’s!”

Collecting these phrases shouldn’t be limited to your children…there’s the ridiculous things that parents say….

(my wife screaming frantically) “Put down the dog poop!”

(my wife) “No vacuuming til you eat your breakfast! “

(me…in public) “Sam, put your pants back on! Put your diaper on first!”

Here’s some quotes I collected from friends on Facebook (some are edited for length)….

(Janice) “Mommy is going to kill two birds with one stone and get the things we need here.” My son replied, lip quivering, “Mommy, why do you want to kill birds?”

(Lori) One day, I saw my fish eating a snail, and it looked like a great science moment for [my son]. So I called him over and showed him the activity. He freaked, and I said, “I thought you would think that was cool.” He said, “Well, I’m sure the snail doesnt think it’s very cool!!!!”

(Amy) Right after my surgery my dad had to pick my son up at his daycare, he told all the kids the reason grandpa was picking him up was because his mom was on drugs!!

(Rick) During one of the formal dinners on a cruise, my 10-year old niece asked if she could have a steak. When the waiter arrived her dad ordered a steak for her and told the waiter make it medium. She ate the whole steak and thought it was great. The next night she asked if she could order another steak. Her dad said “Of course you can.” She asked… “Can I have a large instead of a medium?”

(Susan) My son got in trouble with Daddy the other night for running away from him at the park when told it was time to go. They both came home and I asked my son what happened and he told me. I then asked “what should you do next time?”  he says,”Well, maybe I’ll just eat more and then I’ll get bigger AND faster, and then Daddy won’t be able to catch me!”

(Susan) (after son sees a dead bumblebee on the sidewalk) “Maybe he just needs new batteries!”

(Chuck) (My oldest at age 4, completely exasperated with me, who’s intentionally being silly) “You’re…just…NUTS!” And then walked away.

(Laura) “Mommy, your forehead kind of looks like Squidward’s.”, ”Mommy, you are hard to handle!””, ”Mommy, I love you so much I want to put you in a cage.”, ”Mommy, I can’t hear you. I think I have an ear confection.”

These are the moments we all hope to remember when our kids get old enough to understand how funny they really were. I have started keeping a pen and paper handy and carry my phone which has a decent camera just in case a moment should pop up. I urge everyone with kids to do the same. Make sure you collect, cherish and preserve the wondrous evolution of your child’s mind! Then turn it into a book or sitcom!

Baby-proofing…the third time around!

When it comes to baby-proofing a house, I think it’s impossible to anticipate the skills of the toddler and how quickly they learn to break through defenses. Every few days my wife and I will yell out “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT????”

First time around for my wife and I, we bought locking straps and drawer latches for everything. Watching Max give a hefty tug on a cabinet door and the latch pop right out was a shock. The straps didn’t fare much better. Way too early, Max learned how to push the button or just rip the strap right off! I tried a few other things but nothing worked….except the one we found for the fridge. It requires a bit of dexterity as you have to hold the button down while opening the door. We also put it as high on the fridge as possible. On everything else, I turned to bungee cords and multi-layered clear packing tape. Clear because the initial tries with heavy duty duct tape became a game. He’d search out where the black tape was and know that something off-limits was secured by the black tape! He still hasn’t found all the clear tape spots…yet!

Next up, Sam! By the time we thought we broke Max from getting into everything, Sam was now walking and climbing and learning from his older brother all the ways to get into trouble. We didn’t even bother trying to re-secure the house knowing that Max could show Sam the way through all the systems. Instead, we focused on the really important things like cabinets with cleaning supplies. Max was now able to open every door in the house so we installed hotel-style sliding chain locks on doors to all the rooms he was to never enter and all the exterior doors. We also have dogs so the dog door was a problem as both Sam and Max would dive right through it, laughing at us as we yelled at them. Thankfully our dogs have the bladders of camels as the panel covering the door remains in most of the time!

Now that Tyler is up to speed walking, climbing and engaging in mischief, it’s back to the beginning. But we are losing hope. A few days ago, I caught Tyler wielding a pair of steak knives walking through the house growling like Chucky! He unlocked the dishwasher to acquire the knives! In another recent episode, Tyler handed me a soggy roll of toilet paper. The dog food and dog water are also favorites we have no way of securing!

Here’s my observation as I try to step back and develop a plan:

Our house is flooded. Flooded by toddlers aiming to demolish everything they can get their hands on. Much like a flood, we have resorted to putting things higher and higher which seemingly makes the toddler flood rise to new heights! Max is now tall enough to open the fridge…even with the fancy lock! He can even open the freezer! He’s 3 years old! Sam (2) is a problem solver and will push chairs, boxes, or toys around to build steps. Tyler is simply a monkey. He was featured on the Channel 12 story about toddlers who climb. The video was taken when he was 10 months old. I have seen him “spiderman” up onto our kitchen counter, kitchen table, pool table, and a few other places we thought were safe. He has the upper body and grip strength of an olympic gymnast.

It seems that we are in a losing battle and before long, my wife and I will either have to wear stilts or use screws to lock every door, cabinet and drawer. We could carry around power screwdrivers…right? But where would we hide those when we’re sleeping? Or do we install retinal scanners on everything including the toilets?

I love the smell of Terro at dusk!

For anyone who is deathly afraid of bugs, I have a question…

Was there a single event or moment you remember that installed your fear of insects? Flipping you from the curious child wanting to learn all about living things to the fearful adult you are today?

Well, for me, it’s permanently etched into my memory.

I was maybe 13 or 14 and living in Ohio. It was close to bedtime and as I walked down the hall, I noticed something on the floor near the door to my room. A quick glance told my brain, “It’s a shiny black piece of plastic…probably fell off one of your model airplanes” So without hesitation, I picked it up and headed into my room to see which plane it fell off of. A few seconds later I felt an increasingly painful pinch on my finger and then a sudden jolt as the skin was pierced. I looked at the shiny piece of plastic to find it was a large stag beetle that had just locked itself onto my finger. Well, that was the moment. I went from collecting insects and having a great time learning about them to wanting them all dead…NOW!

My stays in Texas and New Mexico (before Ohio) were relatively uneventful although I do remember sitting on the floor with my sister watching cartoons as a small red scorpion walked in front of us. And then there were the cautionary stories from my uncles about always shake your shoes out before putting them on. There was the tarantula in our sandbox, the vinegaroon on the front doorstep, the black widow and tarantula in the fridge…WAIT A MINUTE!! No wonder I am traumatized by insects!

More on the fridge incident…my grandfather was a fantastic photographer. One of his favorite subjects happened to be insects. The best way to photograph insects is to put them in the fridge for a few minutes to put them into a temporary “hibernation” mode making even the dangerous ones easy to handle. DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

I must have lost weight every time we visited them as I only put my hand in the fridge once…to find two jars with the above-mentioned spiders in them next to the jelly!

So now that I have 3 curious boys and live in a scorpion infested area, imagine my fear as they are all small enough to have serious issues should they get stung by the wrong scorpion. I have had to “man-up” and do whatever necessary to protect my kids!

First off, I researched the scorpion til I reached the “end of the internet.” We have seen both the common and bark scorpions around my house. Not good!

Second, I have seen every Discovery Channel program relating to insects and scorpions and have learned that they, like the cockroach, will outlive humans by a large margin. Did you know they were one of the first creatures to transition from living in the sea to land? And they used to be 5-8 feet long? So… it’s not possible to kill them all!

Third, I have talked to all of my friends who are native Arizonans to gather advice. My favorite was an offer of a few live chickens for a couple of weeks that came with a guarantee of no living insect being left in my yard! I almost did it!

And last, talking to our exterminator a few times who confessed that he couldn’t really do much to help except diminish the food source consisting of crickets, roaches, and other small insects. AND that I should hunt regularly to keep the population down.
Hmmmmm….that sounds interesting!

Back to the internet and here’s what I have learned…

In the type of area my house is in (orange groves) they are too well established. Hunting regularly (about 2-3 times per week) is the only way to diminish the population and therefore the chances of an encounter. To give you an idea of how effective it is, we have been in our house for four years. First year, we were regularly seeing scorpions in the house. We tried diatamaceous earth around the borders and fencing. That kept a bunch out of the house but when a friend offered to come over with a black light and show me how many were outside, I was shocked.

I learned about their lifecycle and that around mid to late June (summer heat), they start having “little ones”. So effective hunting should begin before the brood is born and continue til the temps are regularly below 90 during the day. Since starting the hunts, every year brings fewer and fewer kills. The worst are the first few weeks of summer where we used to see 20 to 30 PER NIGHT, we now see 8-10 per night. Now that we are well into the season, maybe 2-3 per night. Sometimes none at all! 90% reduction? Works for me!

All this said, I still killed a scorpion about two weeks ago in the kitchen which gave me the opportunity to show the boys what they look like and explain the danger and what to do if they see one. The most important is don’t go near it or touch it…BUT…almost as important is don’t stop watching where it goes and yell out to us. The worst feeling in the world is knowing that one is in the house but not being able to find it!

I have also told the boys that picking up their toys and books up off the floor is a must. “Or the big-bad bugs will come!”

My weapons of choice…

XeLED-32UV-R-375 Black Light (not cheap at $280 but spotting them 20 feet away is worth every penny! Available at www.theledlight.com)

and

Terro Scorpion spray (my supplier is Ace Hardware..about $8 per can)

Gather the troops and TAKE NO PRISONERS!

Hello world!

POW! rumble-rumble-rumble. “That was close!” I tell my wife.

And with a mighty flash, mother nature has the whole house awake and in our bed. And I have my first blog idea!

So welcome to my corner of the web!

Around 1:30am, hearing the full-fury monsoon rains, I decide to go unplug everything in the house and grab my flashlight. I almost trip over Max (our oldest) who is sitting in the middle of the hall babbling about how the “thunderboomers” are awake and we should talk to them and tell them we’re trying to sleep. I continue the rounds, collect Max and head back to bed to find there is no room. Sam (middle child) and our 3 dogs are cowering under the covers as the storm continues.

Max and I manage to wrestle enough space on the bed and I chuckle saying “the whole family’s in here now!” My wife mumbles, “Tyler’s still sleeping.” I look at the baby monitor which flickers with every bolt of lightning and sure enough…he’s not phased a bit!

Sam is crying out occasionally and more-so when the thunder arrives, truly scared. Max, however, is fully awake and talking a mile a minute, always a few decibels above the torrent and not bothered at all! Usually Sam will follow Max’s lead…why different now?

As a young boy, I learned a lot about weather…mostly bad weather, while living in Texas. The storms were so bad on occasion that the whole house would shake continuously from the thunder and you had to close your eyes because it was so bright. Don’t get me started on ducking tornados! My parents used to give me a book about weather so I could read about what was going on and not be scared. Well, it must have worked.

And now I realize why Max wasn’t scared. We don’t have any books on the subject but he’s watched several Discovery channel programs on weather with me and I always talk to him about what he’s seeing, explaining what’s going on. He’s in sponge-mode and makes the connections between TV and real life. Uh-oh! Time to take a quick mental inventory of Max’s TV watching!  More on that subject in a future post!

All day today, Max wanted the “thunderboomers” to come back. Sam forgot the whole event the minute “cheesy-eggs” hit his tummy this morning. And Tyler…he never knew it happened!

Oh, the lightning that woke us actually hit the house causing minor damage. I think Max absorbed the rest as he’s been bouncing off the walls since!

Next time….BUGS!