A Little Smoky

Drew is 9 months old today.  This week I decided it was finally time to put some pictures in his first-year frame.  That's the one where you put in a newborn picture and a picture for each month. I had Zach's mostly filled in- everything except the one year picture was in there.  Seeing as how he's 3 and a half now, I thought it was time to finally get that one year picture in there and just be done with it.  Now when I see the frame above his bookcase I don't have to think about how I should get that last picture in.  So I think getting newborn through 9 months in already is pretty good.  It was really amazing to go from zero to 9 months all in one sitting.  It really made me realize how quickly the last 9 months have gone.  It was also fun to compare Zach's first year pictures with Drew's.  As Drew gets older, the two boys are looking more different, though Mike and I can't really put our fingers on what is different.  It seems like Zach's face was chubbier, though that doesn't make much sense since Drew has always (except at birth) been bigger than Zach was.  

I don't have a great comparison to put on here because we got this computer when Zach was older, but here is a picture of Zach a little over 9 months and one of Drew right now:

And here's Drew's standard rocking chair photo:

Today started out a little more "exciting" than I like my days to start.  I had just finished nursing Drew and we were snuggling on the couch (I was snuggling him; he was wiggling around trying to get free) when I realized Foudy was about to throw up.  I got up and set Drew down just in time for her to puke all over the kitchen floor.  At least she got to the hard floor and didn't throw up on the carpet this time.  However, there I found on the floor FOUR baby/kid socks that she had eaten over the last 48 hours, I think.  I caught her Wednesday afternoon at the bottom of the steps with one baby sock on the floor and the the other one nowhere to be found.  I never did find it.  Then last night we folded a ton of laundry, and though I tried to keep the socks on the bottom, at one point I caught her with one in her mouth, so I'm assuming that's where the others that she she vomited came from.  The annoying thing is that because of all the grass and everything else, I can't even tell which socks she has regurgitated, so I don't know which partners to throw away.  Then she threw up again about 15 minutes later.  Ugh.

A few hours later, though, Foudy throwing up seemed like the most boring event of the morning, after I nearly burnt our house down.  I had just put Drew down for his morning nap and decided I wanted some tea, so I came downstairs and put the teapot on the back burner and turned it on.  Then I went into the living room to play a game with Zach while waiting for my water to boil.  All of a sudden the smoke alarm was beeping, and it took me a split second of thinking, "That's weird, is that the fire alarm? Why would that be going off?" before I looked at the stove and noticed the flames.  I yelled to Zach, "Oh my gosh, there's a fire!" as I ran out to the kitchen and grabbed the dishtowel that had caught on fire and threw it to the ground.  I really wasn't sure what to do, so then I grabbed a towel that was by the backdoor (to clean the dogs' feet) and used it to snuff out the rest of the flames.  Poor Zach was in the living room saying, "I don't know what to do!  I don't know what to do!"  Then I grabbed Zach's place mat  to get the smoke detector to go off.  I realized then how smoky the house was, so I sent Zach and the dogs to the basement and I opened all the windows and the backdoor, letting the 18 degree cold air in.  Zach asked me through the basement door if I could please go up and get Puppy (his stuffed dog that he sleeps with) for him, so as I went up, I stopped by Drew's room to give him his pacifier, because with the smoke detector beeping, I'm sure it was hard to sleep.  Then I picked up all the smoldering pieces of dishtowel and put them in the sink to soak with water so I could be sure it was all out.  The house reeked, and so did I.  However, the smell and a few small burn marks are all the damage that was done, thankfully.  I called Mike after that and asked him to pick up a fire extinguisher to keep in the house.  So, here's my PSA- do not leave towels on your stove at any time, and don't even hang them on the stove handle (I actually recently read that in a magazine).  And make sure you have a fire extinguisher in your house and that you know where it is.  Also, if you have a microwave, it's probably best to just use it to heat up water for one cup of tea.  Then you can hopefully avoid a fire.  That also saves energy, according to Mr. Green (of the Sierra Club).  He said that if you're just making one cup of tea, you should heat your water in a microwave rather than any kind of stove (gas or electric).  Now I'm just rambling.  

We're watching The Simpsons Movie right now, and I think I need to pay better attention than I have been.  It seems as if something ominous is about to happen...