$100 underwear

Mason and I just got back from an all-too-exciting trip to the BX. Have you ever looked in your or your children's sock/underwear drawer, and realized it was time to start a new? That there were too many lonely gray socks with no partners, or the tighty whities were just not lookin' too white any more? Or, in Mason's potty training case, a few pairs have been sacrificed for the greater cause and taken a hit (so to speak) and needed to be retired, quickly, to the trash can? Well, today was the start of a new era: all three bigger children were in school, taking the bus, and spending the day in the quality care of Ramstein's finest (I hope). So, Mason and I cleaned a little and hit the underwear and sock aisles to replenish our pathetic supplies. $100 later, we are all the happy owners of pristine white socks, and very clean undies. Here's Mason helping me sort out everyone's new stash on Ella's bed:

And here's what happened to aforementioned child when the fact that he woke up in the middle of the night, crawled into my bed, and wiggled for half an hour caught up with him:

He crashed.
So, how is potty training going, you ask? Well....we have our good days (or minutes) and our bad. Mason finally officially pooped in the toilet on his birthday. We bought him his very own potty chair since the big blue one in the bathroom is a little intimidating at times. Here he is giving it a test drive:

Since his birthday, it's been hit and miss. LITERALLY: Hit his undies and miss the toilet. Oh well. We spent the whole morning in the bathroom, Mason on his little toilet, while I read (or sang) to him from the book "On Top of The Potty". If you don't have your very own copy of this classic, go right now and get one. I'll wait......
Ready to proceed? good. So, we sang about poop and pee all morning in hopes of getting the juices flowing. And it worked, sort of. I don't need to get into more detail, but too much juice and potty training are a tough combo. Enough said.
I need to tell you about my exciting trip to the commissary yesterday. I had both Ella and Mason with me, and needed just about everything, so I knew we were in for a doosy of a trip. We survived, and as I came out to my car, I saw a police car right behind mine, talking to the airman whose car was parked next to me. I am trying not to be too noisy as I help the bagger load my ice cream and milk, but I hear:
"Take you down to the station"
"Back of my car"
"Handcuffs"
By this point, I admit, I'm curious. From what I could make out, the airman (Air force member for all you civilians) told the MP (military police) that he had locked his KEYS in the car. The MP heard "locked my KID in the car". Don't know if maybe the airman was joking, or if he actually said keys, but the MP didn't think it was funny. The airman's wife comes out to see her husband talking to the MP, then sees the MP handcuff her husband and start frisking him down. By now, Ella, Mason and I are steaming up our windows trying to subtly watch what is going on. I turn this of course into a teaching moment:
"See kids. You really need to listen to your Mommy. This guy didn't listen to his, and now look what happened to him. The MP's take listening to Mommies VERY SERIOUSLY."
The police car was blocking my car, and I was having ice cream melting issues. Do I politely ask them to move?
Uh, no. I wait til another car next to me moves, convince the lady in the stall across from us to back up so we can drive through and out of there. Exciting! Never a dull moment on base!! Poor guy: just thought he was going to the commissary for some food and ends up with a rap sheet.
I took some pictures, but then sold them to the tv show COPS. So, sorry, you'll just have to imagine the whole thing. Plus, I couldn't figure out how to black out the guy's eyes like they do on the show so as to protect his privacy. Like being arrested in the commissary parking lot didn't already trash that idea.
Ok, back to Ella. Here she is on her second day of Kindergarten. Today is the first day with all 22 kids. On Tuesday, only half the class went, then yesterday the other half went, and today Mrs. Waldrup gets the whole kit and caboodle. Wow.



I don't think you can really tell, but she is wearing her pink glitter shoes! Love 'em!!
Oh one last thing I gotta tell you. Colton is a mechanical wizard. Jaxon strugged the other night to put together a wheelbarrow for Mason that Sean had sent to him. No dice. Jaxon couldn't get it put together. So, a few nights later, Colton tries: Wah lah:

Then, last night as I'm grabbing plates from my cabinet, I notice a screw popped out. I try to get it back in but can't. I ask Jaxon to help. He can't either. So as I'm talking about this at dinner, Colton says, "Oh, I can get the screw in."
"REALLY?" I reply. "Even though your college graduate mother and your older brother spent 15 minutes trying to get it in? I'll give you $100 if you can do it." Thinking I'm pretty cocky and know more, I give Colton a screwdriver and let him at it. Well, guess what? He did it. Mostly. He got the screw back in, but another part fell off. The part that fell off though was easy to fix. So, did he fix it? Kinda. Not 100%, but he was able to get the naughty screw in that I couldn't. So, besides chicken, I ate my words last night. And the $100? I figured a new Lego set was a good compromise since he did get the screw in, even though the rest of the door started falling off. Gulp.