In honor of Wendy’s auditions and the many cats who are visiting (hello to Zeus and Kukka!), the ducks wanted a place of honor yet again. They begin with the list of 13 reasons that they are loved so dearly, then have to show war wounds…..

Lest you also forget the vegetable oil, here is a reminder…. and the first post that started it all, of course.

Ah yes, and how could we forget, these ducks are so talented *hint-hint* that they hosted the Carnival of the Vanities all on their own….

Thirteen reasons why my little boy loves his duck…

1. He can “share” all his food with the duck.
2. He can “share” all his sippy’s/smoothies/etc with the duck, including loud smacking noises and much laughing on my part.
3. The duck is always there waiting for him no matter how much he kicks him, hits him, throws him, leaves him, and otherwise abuses him.
4. The duck always seems to be clean regardless of the chalk/vegetable oil/marker/food/soy milk that is spilled on him (thank you, mama and the washer).
5. The duck can go everywhere with him, being just big enough to cart along without tripping over or dragging on the ground.
6. The duck makes a great bedtime companion, as he always puts Duck under his belly and sticks his behind up in the air with a sigh of contentment.
7. The duck can play video games (or so he thinks….) – much to the little guy’s delight.
8. The duck is a great playmate who chases him around the house, plays peek-a-boo, and other endless games.
9. The duck doesn’t mind sitting thru endless “readings” of books.
10. The duck never yells at him during his adventures, but rather joins him in sitting up on the kitchen counters, dumping food items all over the floor, or coloring on household items.
11. The duck has his own song, which we all sing joyfully, and which the little guy repeats while dancing around with the duck.
12. The duck is a great dance partner who never gets whiplash.
13. Duck is a forever friend, much loved by the little one!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens (click “more” to see them): Read more

You knew it was just a matter of time, right? Sure enough, he found the second duck (DH hid it no-so-well on a top shelf of our closet, still in plain sight) and demanded to have it. Now he jumps on top of the new one while holding the old one. Oh dear me.

The second (replacement) duck arrived this morning. Now I have to wait for him to go to sleep to get it out and start sleeping with it or something to make it seem like the other one. I’m hoping this won’t be as hard because he is still pretty young – maybe I’m just kidding myself, eh?

In other news, I’m still working on the layout here, please say something if it is entirely crazy, it isn’t perfect yet but I spent the whole day on it, so the rest can be fixed another day, the main stuff is finally done.

Also be sure to check out the brand-new issue of the Carnival of Family Life, featuring one of my articles again and lots of great reading besides!

The little one decided that he needed to express himself through art, and that expression would not be fulfilled with a mere scribbling of sidewalk chalk. Rather, it must be fulfilled by taking said sidewalk chalk, dipping it into a glass of water until it is well soaked, and then using it as paint on the lanai.

As if that wasn’t messy enough, the duck had to get involved. Poor duck. At least he doesn’t just sit around on a bed all day, right?

Vegetable oil.

You know, the stuff in the big bottles that is kept at the top of the pantry in a locked closet so that accidents do not happen?? Well…. I’m putting aloe on my sunburn after a long day at the theme parks, we are all exhausted from this day and my husband is out in the living room, presumably watching the little destroyer. Apparently he wasn’t watching close enough, because five minutes later I come out to find the entire bottle of oil poured all over the beloved duck and the carpet. Oh, horrible day that my child learned how to unlock and open doors and twist off caps!!

Read more

My son has a big stuffed duck that goes EVERYWHERE with him. The duck goes to church, to Grandma’s house, to the park, to the grocery store, to the theme parks, the mall, etc. – he is a well-traveled duck for sure. Yesterday, the duck needed an impromptu bath, and it was a baby tragedy.

You see, all was going well, we were dumping buckets of water on the lanai to wash away all the artwork and start fresh again, along with all the dirt and various other things that accumulated during the storm. Lil’ Duck was happily scrubbing with a rag and cackling his little head off. Then he decided, while I was busy filling up the bucket of water, that the duck needed to help. Yes, into the puddle of dirty water he went, and it wasn’t just a little water either. I tried to rinse him in the sink, but he was still sopping wet. I had some laundry that needed drying anyway, so I figure why not just toss the duck in there for a bit?

That was a mistake. You would have thought I chopped off his arm – horrible wails, red faced, screaming at the top of his lungs, throwing himself against the dryer screaming, “no wa-wa, no dryer, duck-duck, duck-duck, MY duck-duck!!” This went on until I finally got the duck out after about 10 minutes, still damp but at least not sopping wet.

This would have been the end of the drama, except that this morning he decided to pour his sippy of soy milk all over the same poor duck. So, all I have heard all day is, “no bath for duck-duck, no bath, no wa-wa, my duck” as he went thru the washer. The excitement of hearing the washer shut off was quickly replaced by heartbroken screams as the duck went not into his arms, but into the dryer again.

The duck could really use a fluffing on a full drying cycle, the poor thing looks like it’s been through a war now. Of course, as I am writing this, he just poured cinnamon applesauce all over the duck. Poor duck.

One more carnival for the day – Christian Carnival – has been kind enough to include me, so they get the honorable mention at the end of the duck post, hee hee.