Plenty of newsworthy items for today. Recently we received a surprise phone call from an unexpected caller. It was the police. Bryce apparently learned to dial 911. Unfortunately, the operator was unable to understand why he was calling.

A couple days ago Mason dropped a gigantic Maglite flashlight on his toe. Mason isn't that tall so how far could he possibly drop it? Apparently far enough to crush his toe pretty bad. It's starting to heal pretty well, but it still looks ugly. It left a nasty open wound and I'm sure his toenail is about to check out.

Mom and Dad C. and Mike came over last night for a raging party. Emilie made some phenomenal taco soup. The parents brought some ice cream and the kids ate some even though they didn't eat their dinner. That's messed up.

The twins are severely distressing Emilie with their climbing in and out of bed every day. Nap time, which used to be a necessary respite, is now just another daily challenge. A successful nap time usually requires someone sitting in their room until they go to sleep. To add to this challenge, Chase usually pops in and out of the room. Emilie handles this challenge much better than I do.

Finally, I've got some good news and bad news. First, the bad news. The yellow jacket that I put in my flytrap ended up killing the trap. I thought it was doing well, but then one day it suddenly went black and gave up the ghost. The good news is that the new traps that are growing are developing a very nice red color, which is indicative of a healthy plant. Still no luck on propagation.

The last time we met I mentioned Mason's bizarre decision to flip out of his crib. Learning from this mistake, the twins decided to improve the process. About a week ago I headed upstairs to get Jaxon and Mason out of bed and found that Jaxon was already heading down the stairs. I helped him get situated on the couch and then went up to get Mason only to find that he, too, was already out of bed and headed down the stairs. I thought Emilie might have gotten them out of bed but found that she was still asleep. They finally figured out how to crawl out of their cribs - something Chase never did. The twins are now at the age where we took Chase's crib out of his room completely. We're trying to work out the logistics of this problem.

Mason has only climbed out a couple times. Jaxon, on the other hand, is constantly climbing out of his crib and into Mason's. It is disrupting naps and causing issues. This issue, however, pales in comparison to another issue we're having with Jaxon.

I mentioned in a previous post that Jaxon tends to be a daredevil. Specifically, he likes to climb the stairs on the ledge on the outside of the rail. Of course, as usually happens, this thrill soon wasn't enough and he had to start looking for bigger thrills to get his adrenaline high. So he started climbing up the next section of stairs. I've caught Jaxon on the outside of the rail probably half a dozen times. I'm providing a picture with an arrow pointing to where I usually find him.

I have tried desperately to think of an effective way to keep him from doing this, but I haven't come up with anything yet. I have a couple ideas that may work, but I would love to hear suggestions.

Speaking of climbing up stairs, Bryce has become very proficient at climbing stairs. He still doesn't crawl - he does the army crawl thing. He likes to get up on his hands and knees, so it surprises me that he doesn't want to try crawling. He is still a very good baby and we consider ourselves very lucky to have him.

To add some humor (although this is kind of gross), Chase made a funny comment the other day. While changing diapers I found that Mason had diarrhea. I asked Chase if he knew what diarrhea was and he replied, "that's when it comes out real fast."

The next night I was getting ready to read to Chase and grabbed his Book of Mormon chart off the dresser. For every chapter we read together he gets to put a star on the chart to mark his progress. I found that he had put a star on the chart on his own and I explained to him that he can only put a star on the chart if we read together. I then started to read and he began repeating all the words as I read. He apparently took my words literally when I said we had to read together.

Finally, Emilie and I took all the kids to Idlewild Park on Saturday to participate in the "Walk in Memory, Walk for Hope" suicide prevention walk. It's been a while since I've spent much time at Idlewild, but I had some serious flashbacks while walking around. I had completely forgotten that there used to be a little miniature train that went around the park until we came across the little tracks that are still in place. The giant rocket was gone, as were all the rides. In their place was a regular old park. Boo. I say bring the old Idlewild back.

Before starting yet another week I figured I better get caught up on my list of bloggable stuff. Of course, since I'm blogging that must mean all the kids are sick. Indeed, it is true. The kids suffered from an extended cold, which turned into some kind of eye problem. They would wake up with their eyes caked shut (not with actual cake, mind you). Our pediatrician prescribed Vigamox, but $85 later it didn't seem to help. It would clear up temporarily but then come right back. I then took Mason to Reno's finest ophthalmologist, who then prescribed Neomycin/Polymyxin B and Dexamethasone Ophthalmic Suspension, which only cost $4. It was obvious that our pediatrician did not prescribe this initially because he couldn't say it. After diligently administering this to all four kids for about a week everything finally cleared up.

But then they all got another cold. They've been fighting it for a few days now and I caught it. Emilie seems to be to only one who doesn't have it yet. I think everyone is on the rebound, which is good.

Last Saturday (August 29th) Emilie and I ran the Scheel's Spark-a-Delic 5k Run. There were a few others from the ward who ran. I haven't run 5k competitively since high school, so I my expectations for myself were pretty low. I pushed myself pretty hard and was proud to finish with a time of 28:27. Especially considering that I didn't do anything to prepare myself.

Mason and Jaxon have both done some pretty dumb things lately. I have a couple things about Jaxon to blog, but I need to include pictures. I'll save it for next time. As for Mason, I put him in his bed a few nights ago and he was not happy about it. He decided to fling himself over the rail of his crib, causing him to do a flip and land on his back. I know he didn't want to go to bed, but I'm not sure what made him think it would be a good idea to jump headfirst out of the crib. I think he got the wind knocked out of him, but didn't seem to be hurt otherwise. He calmed down pretty quick. And he hasn't tried it again since.

I'm going to call it a night and I'll shoot for getting the rest of the blogging done tomorrow.