That Naughty Little Leprechaun!

So, there’s Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and now… the Leprechaun.  The boys told us all about him.  Apparently he visits their school and most of their classmates on St. Patrick’s Day. 

Well, what do you know!  He visited us this year!

The gist of the Leprechaun is that he’s a mischief maker.  In his quest for your gold (still figuring out what that means) he upturns furniture, rearranges objects and generally leaves a mess.  Joe says the mess is to distract you while he steals your gold.  (again… what gold?  where does it come from?  what does he do with it when he finds it?)  I guess our Leprechaun had a bit too much green beer before visiting our house.  The boys were rather disappointed when he hadn’t stolen some of their plastic ‘gold’ coins that their teacher gave them.  Oops.  Maybe next year.

It was seriously like Christmas morning when the boys ran around the house trying to discover all of the things the Leprechaun had done.  He forgot to turn our milk green, which I guess is a staple prank of his.  Again, too much beer, probably.

Andrew had recently been hiding a package of wintergreen Tic Tacs in his bed (no comments, please.  This would have never happened with the first kid).  He had dumped a few on the carpet under his bed and I hadn’t noticed.  What a perfect day to make this discovery!  The older boys were convinced that we found Leprechaun poop!  Oh, the joy!  The gig was up when Daddy popped on into his mouth and the boys gasped in horror and disgust.  Mommy and Daddy couldn’t control our laughing.

The best part of the morning was when Patrick yelled with delight “The Leprechaun visited our room!”  Yes, it was indeed a mess, but the Leprechaun most certainly did not visit their room.  They made that mess themselves!

Concussed!

Yesterday was a bad day for our Luke!  He’s earned his nickname once again…Laceration Luke.  This one wasn’t so much of a laceration as it was some blunt force trauma.

On their way to the car for school, Joe had just announced “The last one to the car is a rotten egg”  All of the boys took off running, but Luke caught a patch of ice and went down hard, right on his face.  His little nose was gushing blood.

I ran the rest of the boys to school and Scott stayed with Luke.  He was really unsettled the whole time and kept asking for mommy (which was weird for him).  Scott said he was complaining that his tummy hurt.  About an hour after the incident, he was still just lying around and napping.  Then he threw up.  Nasty.  When he threw up a second time a few hours late, I knew we needed to head to the doctor.  Diagnosis:  Concussion.  He also failed one of the little tests the doctor does to make sure his brain is operating properly.  So, off we went for a CAT scan.

The results were normal, thank goodness, and even showed that his nose wasn’t broken.  Oh, by the way, if you ever want a seat in a crowded waiting room, walk in with a kid carrying a puke bucket.  It was like the parting of the Red Sea.

 

So, this is what he looks like the day after.  He actually looks better than I thought he would.  The goofy smile was on purpose, he’s not still punchy from the concussion!

Andrew’s First Trip to the Dentist

Andrew has seen all of his brothers at the dentist at least three time.  We thought he would be excited that it was his turn.  We were wrong.  Look at the worry in his face!

“I will absolutely NOT open my mouth for you.  Yeah, I know you already gave me my sticker and my toothbrush, but the buttering-up will NOT work on me.”

Good Dr. Jim explains “Mr. Tickle” before he uses it to ‘tickle’ Andrew’s teeth.  Andrew even got to feel it with his finger.  Still, it didn’t help.  Those jaws may as well have been wired shut.

“Well, that stunk.  Thanks for nothing, Dr. Jim.”  That face just says it all about his attitude at the dentist.

Sorry, friend.  It only gets worse from here!

In other dental news, I have to get a root canal.  Perhaps God wasn’t pleased with the Lenten penances I chose for myself and wanted to impose His own.