Problems.... inside and out

I have a mole problem, I noticed A tell-tale tunnel in the front yard last fall. It was confined to a relatively small area and I figured winter would freeze those suckers out. No such luck, the snow has finally melted, with the exception of the mounds around the mudpit that was the driveway. It revealed my entire front lawn covered in mole tunnels :(

Rylan loves bathes, he even likes them despite having to wear his earplugs. At least he did. Sunday he was eager to get up there, Sunday is daddy night to give the baths. I heard him crying and didn't think much of it, because it doesn't take much to make Rylan cry, tell him no, look at him funny, just breath weird..... I have not been able to get him near the tub since. He drops to the floor in hysterics screaming NO. I thought maybe he was having a fit over the earplugs since he wouldn't let me put them in, usually he loves that part. I set him in the tub without them. He just stood there crying begging me to pick him up.

So I asked Saige why he was crying in the tub, what happened. She tells me daddy showered him???? So I asked daddy what the hell does you showered him mean? He says "oh I told Saige to dump the cup on his head, I didn't think she would dump the whole thing".

Ummm what did he think a 4 year old was going to do? Not to mention dumping large quantities of water of his head is a bad idea for his ears. I think there is more to it, but no one is talking and I can't get the boy in the tub. I don't want to force him and make it worse, but the soapy washcloth is not going to be good enough forever. I really don't know what he is thinking when he does things like this. Saige happily ate her entire sandwich before daddy helpfully volunteered that you don't want crust, it's yucky. When you tell your kid that letting the water out of the bathtub is okay when the bath is over, you do not want your husband to offer, but hurry out so the monster doesn't suck you down too. Saige also slept peacefully in the dark until daddy suggested maybe she should leave a a light on so the boogeyman doesn't get her. ugh She is back to sleeping in the dark for the most part after months of being traumatized by the boogeyman. I swear I am raising three kids, at least I semi- understand the little ones.

I have no idea what could possibly go through his head when he says these things. he really just doesn't think things through. It doesn't occur to him on any level that what he takes as a joke- is taken quite seriously by these short people who worship him. Thank God for Santa. Santa fixes everything. Saige finally went back to lights out, (well she starts with them on and gets up and shuts them off when she is ready to fall asleep) because she thought maybe Santa would not come to see if she was being good if he saw that light and thought she was awake. Santa also works well for keeping the room clean, we wouldn't want him to trip when he stops by to be sure she is being a good girl and a quick mention of his name is usually all it takes to turn around a situation. I KNOW why parents love Santa almost as much as the kids do, at least why I do. Perhaps it is wrong to use Santa, but I am okay with that- because it works :)

On a good note, we replaced our water heater about 7 weeks ago. Rob wanted to just replace the filament (again, I relented last time) but the thing is as old as I am and I wanted something newer and hopefully cheaper in the long run. I got my way. Last months NiMo bill was $187, that only included about 13 days of the new water heater, and it was up 20 bucks from the previous month. It was COLD this month, the local news keeps doing stories on how National Grid bills are doubling and tripling for the month because of the heat. This is scary, not only do we have to bend over for Nimo month after month, we have fuel oil- I wont even get into what that costs for this tiny 140 year old house.

Anyway, after all the stories and the cold snap I was prepared for the worst. I opened the bill, holding my breath, full of dread and..... it went DOWN $80!!!!!!!!! woohooo!