In Which Tanner Wields a Knife and Jake Calls 911

I Bet I hooked ya with that title, huh? In reality the knife and 911 stories are totally unrelated, but pretty funny nonetheless.

A few months ago Auntie Sue sent the boys a book that teaches you how to call 911. It has a little keypad attached and you can actually dial the numbers and it tells you under what circumstances you should call. We had read it quite a few times, then one day as I was trying to juggle all three kids (feeding Faith, reading to Tanner, playing basketball with Jake- yes, all at the same time!) Tanner fell off the couch and hit his head. He immediately started screaming, so I detached Faith which set HER into screaming. At this point Jake ran out of the room. I was too busy to worry about what he was doing, so I tended to the littler ones (priorities, you know?). As I was calming both kids down Jake returned to the living room holding my cell phone. He said, "Don't worry, Mom, I called 911!". Sure enough- when he handed me my phone I could see that he had dialed the numbers but thankfully had not yet sent the call. Since we don't have a home phone he had run and found my cell and dialed for help. Although I was pleasantly surprised to know that he could handle the task, a conversation about what constitues "an emergency" followed.(Perhaps I should be less dramatic?) Don't worry... I also showed him how to send a call in case a real emergency ever occurs.

You'll have to keep reading to get to the knife story...


Tanner continues to be a crack up. He is so much more expressive and verbal than a few months ago. We call him "Our Little Russian Boy".

"Tanner, do you want some applesauce?"
"NO!" (accompanied by vigerous head shaking)
"Tanner, do you want a cookie?"
"DA!" (rhymes with "bra" and said with great gusto and a huge smile). "DA!" is his word of choice these days.

He charms us and charms us with his giggles and grins, bringing us books to read to him, balls to throw to him, and toys to play with him. But when this kid is done, he is DONE. He knows his limits. Around 6:30-7:00 each evening he begins to get a little sensitve and cry easily. We know it is time for us to ask the question: "Tanner, do you want to go night-night?"
"DA!" is his usual response. When we tell him to say night night to Grandma or Jake or Faith he waves vaguely in their direction while muttering "nigh nigh" with his eyes trained on his bedroom door. We put him in his crib and he rolls over and goes to sleep, often times not to be heard from again until 7:30 the next morning.

His new skill is climbing ladders. He figured out how to get to the top of Jake's bunkbed ...and boy does he think it is cool. He climbs up there and then just giggles and giggles. He can climb the ladder to the slide outside, too, and then scares me to death trying to go back down the ladder with clearly no idea how to do so safely. He climbs any stool or ladder he sees and takes the stairs like he has has been doing it forever. This brings us to the knife story...

Being the older brother Jake sometimes wants to micromanage his brother's behavior. So, we had just been telling Jake that we are Tanner's parents,not him, and letting him know that we would worry about Tanner- he just needed to take care of himself. Not 60 seconds later I was at the sink washing dishes and Jake was at the table. I hear Jake yell, "Mom, Tanner has a knife!". I turn around and, sure enough, there's my boy, standing on his stool at the counter behind me weilding a Henkles paring knife that I had left on the counter after cutting up roast beef. So much for us taking care of Tanner without Jake's help. Needless to say we are all much more careful about what we leave on the counter these days!

Faith is growing by leaps and bounds. She is sleeping better, although she is still pretty high maintenance. I guess she doesn't understand that mommy went back to work and needs her rest! I am enjoying dressing her way too much! Tanner and Jake both adore their baby sister. They shower her with kisses and hugs and bring her things they think she might want: a blanket, a binky,or a bottle. First thing in the morning and when he gets home from school one of the first questions out of Tanner's mouth is, "Baby?" (That's after demanding juice and a snack, of course).
For an 18 month old he really is quite good with her. My greatest hope is that her brothers will be her biggest fans for many years to come- and vice versa :)