Sam's big hair day

Look, Ma, I grew two inches last night

Sam's hair has never laid down flat. Nothing we do seems to matter. Water only works for a short time. Gel doesn't work. Hairspray doesn't work. No matter what we try, Sam's hair always ends up standing up on end. In fact, we tell when Sam needs a haircut by how far his hair stands up. (In case anyone is wondering, Sam's hair as it appears in this photo is about ready for a trim.) When Sam was younger, we spent a lot of time trying to comb his hair down, but amidst all our failures, we noticed that Sam was getting quite a bit of notoriety from his wild hair. So we saw the light and let Sam's hair be Sam's hair. Now we mostly just try to make sure he doesn't have bed head, otherwise he's good to go.

Things we will not buy

Sam sure thought that kid in the mirror was cute

Teressa has been in the process of doing some redecorating in the house. It started with the loft, and like a trail of dominoes, the effects were felt as far away as the living room. Teressa has been considering replacing the living room lamps, so when Cassie Schneider told her she had bought lamps for her house that would look perfect in ours, Teressa borrowed one to check it out. The first thing that we noticed about the lamps was the four mirrored sides. This makes it so that the lamp will match practically any room in the house, but it left me with one basic concern. It wasn't long before Sam proved my concerns well founded (thank goodness I'm not as paranoid as I thought). We found him licking the lamp and giving kisses to the reflection of that cute kid he could see. Now the lamp is covered with fingerprints, nose smudges and tongue marks. Guess we'll be sticking with the old lamps after all.

Spencer on call

Dr. Spencer Scott is seen here taking call with his medical equipment in hand

Spencer must have seen me taking call at work too many times, because he has decided to replicate the experience. He has gathered up the Fisher-Price doctors toys and is keeping it by his bedside tonight, just in case he needs to save a life. I just hope he sleeps better tonight while he is on call than I do sometimes when I am on call.

Green Dragons 2, Dynamos 2

Spencer had his first soccer game of the season tonight. (Actually it was the second, but we were out of town for the first.) Unfortunately, I don't have photos because I was coaching and refereeing at the same time, but everyone seemed to have a blast. Spencer alternated between missing a couple of close shots on goal to rolling around in the grass to scoring his first goal of the season. The rest of the kids did a great job, too. I am starting to realize just how hard it is to hold a 4-year-old's attention for longer than two minutes. I did a lot of redirecting on the field, but the kids seemed to be having a good time.

Animal sanctuary

So I go outside to take the trash to the curb last night. As I'm walking around the house I hear so rustling behind the fence and what sounds like a plastic trash can closing. Oh, I figure, the neighbor must be taking out her trash, too. Then I get a little closer and something jumps up onto the fence. At first I'm thinking cat, but this looks awfully big for a cat. Then I realize this "cat" has a masked face and a ringed tail. Looks like now we need to figure out a way to keep raccoons out of the trash. (Sorry there were no photos for the post. I don't usually take my camera to the trash, and the raccoon wasn't going to stick around for portraits.)

Snakes in the grass

This is the snake after its demise


See if this photo gives you any hints as to which species this snake belongs to

Today Trenton Schneider was over at our house mowing the lawn. As he was using a blower to clear clippings off of the driveway, he noticed a snake and came in to grab me. I went outside and found the snake in the front bushes. At first I thought nothing of it because we had found several garden snakes in the yard in the past. But this one seemed different. The pattern looked somewhat familiar, and as my eyes traced the snake down to its tail, I realized why. We had a rattlesnake in our front yard.

Normally when we have had snakes in the yard, I have tended to be merciful and turn them loose in the greenbelt behind the house. But I had no intentions of letting a poisonous snake free where it could wander back into the yard. So between a shovel and a can of wasp spray I managed to kill the snake. Then the rest of the Schneider clan came back to recover the snake's body so that Ethan Schneider can take it to school. I figure if he wants it he can take it. Teressa was so unnerved that she is reconsidering her decision to postpone getting a dog. We'll be on the lookout for a while to make sure the yard is safe.

When kids dress themselves

Spencer decided he wanted to wear more than one pull-up to bed

One night I walked into the boys' bedroom to find Spencer decked out like this. He decided all on his own that he wanted to wear every pull-up in the house. He even went to bed like this.