Subway jumper?

Ok relax. He din't jump in front of a train.

We were actually on our way out of the subway in London and within sight of the stairs going up from the platform when Aiden spotted some intriguing red buttons spaced at intervals along the wall. All kids love buttons and Aiden is no exception.

Maybe he saw me looking in the same direction too as I was busily reading the large sign nearby which told about the purpose of the device. He must also have seen the neatly drawn picture of someone pressing the button which was right there on the sign. Having read the writing on the wall, I decided to keep my little fireball close to me till we were safely out of the subway. However there were quite a few people on the platform and this hampered our progress. I held his hand tightly, afraid to lose him in the crowd. He was dragging along behind me as we hurried along.

Before I knew what was happening, he had taken calculated control of the whole situation. With perfect timing and grace, he started to run and took a flying leap at one of the buttons as we went by. As I held on tightly, he used my arm like a rope to swing himself around and just close enough to push the button before he landed in front of me and spun the two of us completely around with his momentum. It was a silent alarm he had just triggered. That was what the sign had said.

Trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, we continued walking quietly up the stairs and out of the subway as Aiden curiously watched all the brave security guards hurrying down the stairs in the opposite direction. I hope they weren't too disappointed. It's too bad they missed his smashing aerobatic act!

Have a photo of one of those buttons? Please send me a link.

Superman

Halloween! His nibs dressed as Suuuperman! He said he was going to be super cute. He was. Never mind tripping over his cloak and telling everyone on the block his real name was "Todd". Hey I have no idea where he got that from ok? Anyway, by the end of the second block he was running out of the endless energy Superman, and Aiden, are both famous for.

"Just one more house Mum" oh, ok.

Eight houses later, he was singing the same song as he staggered along fuelled only by the prospect of more candy. Well, we were actually getting closer to home as we were coming back down the block towards our house. One of the adults ended up giving him a piggy back the rest of the way home. By the time the other kids came in with me, he was sound asleep.
Slept in you say? Are you kidding? Remember the time change? He was up at 5:30 am. By tonight I'll be using toothpicks to keep my eyes open.

I'll never sleep again... ever!

Well that's what he had in mind I'm sure. We all run out of steam eventually.

I bet he figured he was just closing his eyes for a few seconds ... but he was sound asleep when we turned on the lights to take the picture.

He never noticed the light, or us, and slept till morning. Thank goodness.

Colourful Character

It's 10:00 pm. Do you know where your children are?

Well you should always know where your children are, for their safety, your safety and the safety of your stuff.

One particular evening though, we only thought we knew. We were all convinced in fact that young Aiden was fast asleep in bed. He sure looked asleep when we checked an hour before. Well....

At 10:01 he strolled into the living room where we were all sitting watching TV with one of those beautiful smiles on his face. He didn't look like a child that just stumbled out of bed for no particular reason. Nope. This was definitely the "I'm so happy to see you." smile that usually follows the "I just did something pretty special, don't you agree?" smile.

A cursory inspection of him revealed marker stains on his hands, face and pyjamas. Once more we dove headlong into the tasks; to locate the problem and begin the cleanup.

The problem turned out to be a box of washable (thank goodness) markers that had been colouring some scrap cardboard and soaked right through the boxboard to kid#3's light blue comforter below. The markers had all been recapped and neatly put back into their packaging. Now if it had all remained on a single piece of paper it would have been framable art. The bright colours blended beautifully together into a truly lovely piece of art that even Monet would have appreciated. Too bad it was in such an inconvenient place... namely the comforter.

In case you find yourself in the same position sometime, don't place the comforter on the carpet to try to scrub away the marker. Trust me, it isn't the smartest idea I've ever had. Thankfully it came off the carpet and the comforter without leaving a trace. (Thank you to whoever invented washable markers.) Only Aiden still had marker stains on him the next day.