Is this a boy thing, or is it just Monday?

I come from a long line of girls. My mom was the youngest of three girls and I was the oldest of three girls. In fact on my mom's side, there is only one cousin that is a boy. So you can imagine my surprise and fear when my second child was of the male species. I was in shock for some time after I heard those words, "It's a boy!" I remember going to pick up my infant from the crib for months afterward and thinking, "Oh, that's right, I REALLY have a son...but,I don't know how to raise a son!" Now that he is three, those thoughts don't come as often, but they still do come.

...Like a few days ago when he was casting a small rubber fish and it came flying within millimeters of my head. Later I was teaching phonics to my four year old and hadn't seen the fish come past me, but screetched when it was jolted back towards me while being reeled in. The next thing I remember was seeing my son climbing onto the desk and crawling behind the computer to regain this same fish which, due to horizontal velocity, had tangled itself up in the cords behind the tower.

Today was slow to get started it seemed. Mondays tend to be this way. Breakfast is at morning snack time, snack time is at lunch and lunch, well...

I finally got them to go to bed for naps. I was looking forward to doing some sewing when my son, yes the same one, comes running out of his room saying with his mouth part open and without moving his lips, "Mom, Mom, I have black stuff!"

Oh yes he did...black, oozing, disgusting looking innerds of a pen all over the inside and outside of his mouth. I race him to the bathroom wiping out his mouth with a washcloth, then run to get a cup. As I'm saying, "Just put some water in your mouth and SPIT IT OUT, don't swallow it, just SPIT IT OUT!", I notice my almost one-year-old with his hands in the toilet. Aaahhhh! I pick him up and wash off his hands, wishing my children would learn to put the toilet seat down.

When I think I have things under control a bit, I go to call Poison Control, wishing I had taken the time to post the phone number right by the phone last time I called. No, it's not toxic. Whew!

I go back to the bathroom to wipe out his mouth again when I find my youngest in the cupboard chewing on toilet paper rolls. New toy...

I usher my son off to bed again, when my daughter comes out of her room and asks what's all over his face. He said, "I wanted to see if that stuff in there was water, but it wasn't. It was just black!"