Fashion Disaster Day

It's Spirit Week at the kids' school -- a time to rally through the final days of the school year with some good ol' fashioned silliness. The kids love it. But as a parent, it drives me bonkers and here is why...

Imagine if you will that your kids have been invited on a Thursday to a costume party on Monday. Oh, and a costume party on Tuesday and on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. You are also told on Thursday that each costume party has a theme, and the costumes must fall within the theme.

• Monday is Hawaiian Day

• Tuesday is Fashion Disaster Day

• Wednesday is Favorite Animal Day

• Thursday is Famous Person Day

• Friday is Twin Day (which means contacting a classmate's mom and trying to dress your kids in matching outfits)

Hawaiian Day is easy. Just go to a party store and buy some plastic leis. Today, however, was even easier -- one might even say "easy peasy lemon squeezy." For Fashion Disaster Day, the kids and I rummaged through their closets and drawers last night, pulling out the worst possible combinations we could find. I love a good fashion disaster.

Wednesday through Friday are the worst. They all involve trying to throw together creative, clever costumes with less than a week's notice. Take Favorite Animal Day for example. My kids want to throw on old Halloween costumes (the warm, full-bodysuit kind), but the forecast for tomorrow is 80° and humid.

Oh, and did I mention that my kids are trying to win prizes for having the best costumes? There's nothing like adding a little pressure into the already stressful mix.

[inhale, hold it for two seconds, then slow exhale]

Okay. I'm done complaining now. Sometimes I just need to hear myself whining, and it helps me to put things in perspective.

Yes, today will be crazy. Today I will balance proofreading a 60-page magazine with lunch duty at school, guitar lessons after school and taking care of the kids alone while Adrian is in Detroit. Today I will try to do all those things in addition to searching the stores for kitty cat ears in May. But that kind of stressful, crazed searching is NOTHING like what the parents in Oklahoma are doing today, following yesterday's storm.

I can't even imagine. My prayers go out to them.

Here's a picture of Oo and T dressed up for today's Fashion Disaster. They are safe, healthy and having fun. Aren't they beautiful?

Crochet

Oo has been learning to crochet in her school elective. She'll admit that she's not very good at it, but that doesn't stop her from doing it. (Usually she wants to quit when something doesn't come easy for her.) She crochets when we're in the car, when she's watching TV, and even when we're out to eat. Most of her creations are a single chain, which she'll make into a necklace. But today she made some real progress in class. Today she made a hat for her toy monkey!

Oo likes keeping her hands busy. I kind of do too. Perhaps this is a hobby that I should take up with her. I think it would be great fun to learn to crochet granny squares together. Then we can make an afghan. She's very sentimental, and I'm sure she'll treasure something we did together. 

Better yet... I think it would be fun to surprise her with granny squares made by family and friends that she can add to the afghan. If any of you out there are interested in contributing, let me know. And will someone please let me know if there is a "standard" size for a granny square? I want to make sure they'll all fit together.

What a great project for her summer vacation! (Only 8 more school days to go!!) Remember, don't mention anything to her yet. I want it to be a surprise.

First Trip to the ER

T is 6 years and nearly 2 months old and has never needed a trip to the ER... until last night. That is an achievement practically unheard of for most boys! Of course, considering T's mild and subdued nature, it's not surprising that there were no prior ER visits. It's not like he's a throw-caution-to-the-wind kid who daily tries to challenge the laws of gravity and inertia.

As a matter of fact, T's visit last night had very little to do with throwing caution to the wind, although there was wind involved.

Adrian had been away most of this week, doing business in Detroit. I had warned the kids that Daddy wouldn't be home until bedtime, and that there would be no time to play with him (or with the games on his phone) last night. When Adrian surprised us by arriving home a wee earlier than expected, the kids were thrilled, and it wasn't long before T was engrossed with Star Wars Angry Birds on Adrian's phone.

I could barely peel T away from the game to put on his PJs — he continued to launch birds after each article of clothing was removed — and he did not heed my instructions to go brush his teeth. Several minutes later, I was sitting on the floor blow-drying Oo's hair, when T walked up and stood next to me, still tapping away on the phone. Over the noise of the hair dryer, I loudly reminded T to brush his teeth. Despite the volume of my voice and his proximity to me, he did not appear to have heard a word I said. To get his attention away from the game. I blasted him with a quick shot of air from the hair dryer. Startled, he jumped away from me, his foot tripping over the hair dryer's cord. He flew head first into the bottom edge of his bedroom door.

Big tears and blood ran down simultaneously. I felt like such a jerk.

He quickly calmed down, and walked to the bathroom with Adrian for a closer look at the damage. Pushing his bloody bangs aside, we saw an inch-long, deep gash in his hair line. The blood bubbled out for a moment or two, but was easily controlled by applying a little pressure. Still, we knew that the cut was too big to try to treat at home.

A few calls to the local urgent care centers revealed that they were all about to close up for the night. There was no choice but to take him to the ER and risk a long wait and exposure to the interesting individuals that populate ERs at night. Despite having just driven 3 hours from Detroit and not having had a bite to eat since lunch, Adrian put his shoes back on and took T to the hospital. I wanted to take T myself, but I was busy fighting back the urge to either puke or pass out. Normally, I'm much cooler in an emergency. I think that if Adrian were not home to help, and I had no choice but to take charge of the situation, I would've been able to keep my emotions from taking control of me.

After they drove off, I finished drying Oo's hair and did my very best to calm her down. She was soooo worried about her little brother, she was in tears. I tucked her in and we concentrated on sending happy, relaxing thoughts to T so that he wouldn't feel scared. Oo's relaxing thoughts were those of taking a nap by the ocean and listening to the sound of the waves. She fell asleep quickly, so I hurried downstairs to wait by my phone for text updates from Adrian.

They had to wait an hour in the waiting room. As per usual, there was an array of unusual characters and high amounts of drama. Adrian distracted T with, what else? Angry Birds. Our local hospital has a special pediatric ER area. So once T was called back to an exam room, he was completely removed from all the drama. There weren't any kid-friendly shows on the TV in the room, so Adrian found a hospital channel called Serenity, which played nothing but relaxing music and video clips of peaceful scenes from nature. T described it to me as "the beautiful show."

The pediatric ER here is staffed with a Child Communicator whose primary function is to explain everything to the young patients in kid-language. Before anything was done to T, and along each step of the way, this person spoke directly to T. She told him about the special medicine that was going to "make the boo-boo go to sleep" (numbing gel) and about how the doctor would fix the boo-boo with either "stringy band-aids" (stitches) or "clicky band-aids" (staples). Adrian said that T was completely at ease with this woman and not at all afraid when the doctor put three staples in his head.

Adrian said the worst part of the ER visit was the wait for the final paperwork. After the staples, the doc told T that he was all done. Unfortunately, Adrian still had to wait an hour for the administrative person to give him a sheet of paper to sign and one sheet of follow-up instructions.

They didn't get back home until after midnight. Despite being rather sleepy, T insisted on going to school today to show off the clicky band-aids to his classmates. This was a little out of character for him — wanting to draw attention to himself — but he seemed fine, so we sent him to school with a note saying that he should sit out of gym class. We also sent an email to his teacher asking her to call us if T got too tired or cranky during the day.

He made it through the whole day without a complaint. And when I asked him if he had shown his clicky band-aids to his friends, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "No, I did not want to have to take them out." I'm not sure what he meant by this, but I didn't ask him to explain. The little guy had been through an ordeal, handled it bravely, and was in a good mood from from having enjoyed his day at school. I marvel at his resilience.

Here's a picture Adrian sent to me from the ER. T is holding his teddy bear (Oatmeal) and some gifts from the nurses (Oreos, Scooby Doo stickers, and a Spiderman puzzle). What a trooper!

Frankenstorm

Frankenstorm really did a number on us. The dark gray gloom and rain, rain, rain started days before the storm hit. We are now on what I think is our 7th straight day of dark daytime skies and almost constant rain. I'll be honest with you, my mood is gloomy and I don't have much energy for the kids. But I just read a dear friend's blog, and she's really inspired me to take advantage of what today is handing me and get down on the floor some serious playtime with the kids. So I'm going to make this post brief... I've got some playing to do!

Even though we don't live along the coast, we were greatly affected by the 1000-mile wide storm that was Sandy (not to mention the nor'easter and artic winds that clashed with Sandy to create the Frankenstorm). The worst part of the storm was Monday night. When the power went out at our house around 10:30 p.m. we saw what we thought was lightening. It only took a moment for us to realize that the odd green flashes we were seeing were not lightening, but the transformers in the neighborhood blowing as trees were toppling over onto them.

On Tuesday the rain and some smaller gusts continued. Most of the schools were closed because they were without power. As I reported our own power outage, the power company's website informed me that 30% of the county's customers were still without power! The storm did minimal damage to our yard. Lots of small branches and almost all of our tree's remaining leaves were now on the ground. It looked almost as if a tree had exploded into a million tiny pieces. Wet leaves were also stuck all over our house, giving it a polka-dotted effect.

(Ugh, I'm getting wordy like I usually do, so I'm going to really pick up the pace here.)

Today is Thursday and we are living at Adrian's mom's house, with about half of our fridge's contents shoved into her extra fridge. Our power has not been restored yet, and we've been told that our neighborhood is a low priority and we should expect to be without power for several days. Even though we have a gas stove and could potentially tough it out at home, the house is WAY too cold (the outside temp is in the low 40s). Trick-or-treating for most of the area has been postponed until Sunday, but the kids were able to go to school yesterday where they enjoyed dressing in costume, a school-wide Halloween parade (indoors b/c it was still raining), and classroom parties. For our Halloween evening, Oo entertained all of us by reading aloud from several Halloween story and poetry books.

Unfortunately, the school roof sustained some damage from the storm, and the principal had to cancel school today b/c the conditions inside the building were "not safe" for the students and staff. The "not safe" part of her email has me concerned. Is she talking about a lot of slippery puddles, or has the old building's asbestos been exposed?

I could worry about the school's roof. I could also worry that we still won't have a porch light to turn on this Sunday. I could worry about how Adrian's going to miss trick-or-treating b/c he's scheduled to work a school fundraiser on Sunday. I could worry that our pumpkins will be rotting by Sunday, especially the one that Adrian spent over an hour carving to look like Luke Skywalker. I could worry about all of the food we had to throw away and need to replace.

I could worry, but I won't. Things could be much worse. So many people lost their homes and all of their possessions in this storm. Some even lost loved ones. We're mildy inconvenienced. That's all, no more. We're staying in a warm house with loving family. The kids have no school today, and, other than a load of laundry, I have no chores. You know what that means? Time to play!

Cul De Sac

There's a comic strip in the newspaper here that my mother-in-law and I have really taken an interest in reading. The strip is called Cul De Sac, by Richard Thompson. The reason we like it is because the main character, a girl named Alice, closely resembles our own little Miss Oo. Here are a few particularly Oo-like strips:

The following strips from last week's paper depict what it's like to run errands with Oo.

That's my Oo, always sparkling full of ideas. Take today, for example. As I write, she is busy drawing pictures that she plans to sell from a table in our front yard. Despite the fact that she's able to complete each drawing in 60 seconds or less, she's priced them at $10.20 a piece. What's motivating her to make some extra cash today? The house three doors down from us is for sale, and she wants to buy it. She doesn't like living with our rules, so she wants to live on her own. She said that if she buys that house, she'll be close enough that I can see her every day and won't miss her, plus I can still make all her meals and drive her to school.

Wouldn't it be nice to be 7 years old again? To truly believe that once you own a house you are no longer subject to rules? Kids feel angst and stress just like grown-ups, but the simple solutions they come up with are so full of promise and bliss. As a parent I'm often torn between teaching the kids about reality vs. just letting them have their dreams.

Through the Eyes of a 5-year-old Boy

I bought a new dress for a wedding we're going to this weekend. (Actually, Adrian bought it for me last night. He took me dress shopping on HIS birthday. If that doesn't qualify him for Husband of the Year, I don't know what would!)

The dress is black with ivory polka dots; it has a thin ribbon around the waist and a bit of poof to the skirt — very girly. When Oo saw the dress this morning, she loved it so much she gave it a kiss. T took a long look at it, then said, "It looks like it has bird poop spots all over it."

Hmmm... I wonder if I'll feel pretty wearing the dress, or if I'll be too busy trying to contain random bursts of the giggles.

Vacation!! (day 8)

We are home safe and sound now. We arrived at midnight on Saturday, after a grueling 14-hour drive for a 12-hour trip (there was a lot of vacation traffic and an accident in a West Virginia tunnel that held us up for almost an hour). Adrian went back to work this morning, the laundry room is full of sandy clothes, and every room in the house is cluttered with all of the kids' toys that they missed (they somehow managed to play with everything yesterday).

Here is the last post from our vacation:

Day Eight

Today is our last day here. Good timing too, because T is officially done with vacation. Adrian, Oo, and I want to enjoy our last day to the fullest, but it took a lot of convincing and the companionship of a toy T. Rex to get T to leave the condo this morning.

Not much of a hot-weather person, T was refusing to outside. He no longer wanted anything to do with the beach or the pool, but it was too nice of a day for us to take turns staying indoors with him. With a little creative thinking, I got him to go outside to take pictures of his plastic T. Rex splashing in the pool and stomping on the beach. T thought this was great fun, and we were able to keep him outside for most of the day.

In the evening we all got dressed up and went out to dinner at the Salt Water Cafe. Adrian and I ate there when we first vacationed in Garden City (before Oo was born). Adrian, Oo and I started with sushi as an appetizer — Oo likes California roll. The kids and I then had simple salads with honey-lime dressing, and Adrian had the She Crab soup (we had it 8 years ago and it was as good as we remembered). For our entrees, the kids ate grilled salmon and rice, I had the lump meat crab cakes, and Adrian had the mahi mahi.

Here we are in a courtyard outside of the restaurant.

The kids had plenty of popsicles and sorbet during the day, so we skipped dessert and headed home, but not without first stopping for a picture in front of a fun souvenir shop.

Back at the condo, it was baths and bedtime for the kids. Adrian and I stayed up later to clean some of the condo and do some initial packing. Tomorrow, we'll rise early, throw everything in bags, run the vacuum and head for home. It's been a wonderful vacation. The weather was great, and I loved how close we were to the beach. But my favorite part... my favorite part was spending so much time with the three loves of my life.

Vacation!! (day 7)

Off to a slow start today. All of the swimming and sunshine is wearing the kids out, so they've been sleeping later and later. This morning, Adrian and I were actually able to enjoy some coffee and conversation before the kids rolled out of bed. The kids have always been early birds, so the quiet morning was much appreciated.

We spent most of the day at the pool. The day was really windy, and the waves were too intense for boogie boarding. Adrian tried to go out there once but got smacked around and beat up by the waves. I had wanted to go out too, but if it was rough on Adrian, there was no way I was going to attempt it. The wind really picked up in the afternoon and a lot of beach umbrellas were blown across the beach.

It grew cloudy and lightly sprinkled briefly while we were in the pool. T grew tired early, so Adrian took him back up to our condo. While Oo and I were practicing our back-floats, we saw a rainbow over us.

Oo would never admit it, but I think she's starting to feel a little homesick. When it was time for us girls to go up for dinner, she showed me a little garden she had found. She said that her feet haven't touched grass all week and that it felt so good to walk in the grass.

Adrian made pasta for dinner. After dinner, there was some play time and lots of snuggling with the kids. While we were putting the kids to bed, various folks on the beach began setting off fireworks. This has gone on every night that we've been here, but tonight's fireworks were more abundant than usual. The night was too windy for fireworks, but that didn't deter anyone. Sure enough, a firework blew into some dunes and caught the tall grass on fire. Idiots! No respect for nature!

Adrian and I watched the commotion from our balcony. It took a long time for the fire department to arrive to put out the blaze. As soon as the fire was out, we went to bed. It was a little early, but we were hoping to have another quiet morning where we'd wake up before the kids.

Vacation!! (day 6)

Day Six

This morning we went to the Ripley's Aquarium. There was a hefty admission price, and in typical Ripley's fashion there were some hokey exhibits (like the lady in a mermaid costume swimming with the manta rays). However, their collection of sea animals was impressive, and the shark tank where the sharks swim over you was really, really cool. T was hoping to see a sawfish (an endangered species that we've only ever seen in books), and the aquarium had FOUR!! T was so excited! There were also nurse sharks, moray eels, jelly fish, and leafy sea dragons. I took a ton of pictures. Here are a just a few of our favorite animals:

After a late lunch, we headed down to the pool and beach. The pool was unusually crowded, so we spent the majority of our afternoon at the beach. Today's sand construction project was a couple of cities divided by a canal system. Oo was City Planner, drawing the outlines for the canals and doing some digging and constructing on the side. Adrian was General Contractor, T was Exterior Designer and Landscape Artist, and I was Excavator and Photographer. Below are a few pictures of the project. I love Oo's canal design, and my favorite piece of T's work was the dead fish he stuck into the top of one of his towers.

For dinner we went to a little restaurant called Hamburger Joe's. We stopped there for lunch our first day in town — Oo loved it and begged to go back. The burgers there are thin and similar to McDonald's, which [sigh] is probably why the kids like the food there. The walls of the place are covered in dollar bills that customers wrote on and stapled to the walls. Neither of our waitresses could tell us how the tradition started.

While we were waiting for our food, T and I played with my phone's camera, and Oo read a book. She's currently reading "The Borrowers," and she takes it every where we go.

Vacation!! (day 5)

Today we went wild and mixed things up a bit. Instead of doing pool, lunch, beach, pool, we did beach, lunch, pool, beach. Whoa! Crazy, I know. The morning started out pretty dark and cloudy, and the weather websites were giving us conflicting information as to whether or not it would rain. We thought we'd better start out at the beach so that if it did rain we wouldn't miss out on any ocean time.

Our objective today was to build a sand castle. T had never built a sand castle before, not even on our beaches back home, so the three of us tried to help him out. Without intending to, we apparently annoyed the crap out of him because he started kicking things over and filling in the moat. He had a little time-out on the beach blanket, where he worked his frustrations out by trying to throw handfuls of sand at us. It wasn't long before he calmed down, and came back to join in the construction.

Adrian and I are so proud of T; no matter how upset he gets, if you leave him alone he can calm himself down. And today, not only did he calm himself down, but he also figured out how to deal with our intrusive coaching. When T returned to the castle, he started making sand molds that would just collapse into heaps. Adrian tried to show T how to pack sand firmly into a mold, but T informed him, "Dad... it doesn't have to be perfect."

T couldn't care less about the castle, he really just wanted to move sand around and make beeping noises like construction trucks. So, the rest of worked on the castle while T added to the hustle and bustle of our construction site. We didn't make much of a castle. It was more like a pyramid surrounded by fort walls and a moat. The morning's clouds disappeared and the day was sunny and hot... weather that's better suited for jumping in the waves rather than digging in the hot sand.

After day full of sunshine and play, we filled up on tacos for dinner and watched part of the Planet Earth series of DVDs (click here for the website) before bed. We started watching these shortly before our vacation. The images in the DVDs are breathtaking — the footage draws our kids in and holds them captive. And Adrian and I love that the videos teach the kids so many amazing things about animals, geology, and geography. It was a nice relaxing way to end a "busy" day.

Vacation!! (days 3 and 4)

Day Three

Today was all about swimming. Swim at the pool right after breakfast, then have lunch. Swim at the beach after lunch, then go to the pool again. For dinner we went to a pizza place. Those of you who know about our new dairy-free diet may be confused as to why we chose pizza for dinner. Well, we've seen some positive results from giving up dairy. But to be sure what we're seeing is really from giving up dairy, we have to reintroduce dairy to see what the effects are. Usually, it takes about 20-30 hours for digested dairy proteins to affect a person. We'll see sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening how cheese affects little Miss Oo.

Below are some pics from the pool.  The swimming lessons have finally paid off for Oo. She loves jumping into the deep end, doing the back stroke for the width of the pool, and trying to do hand stands. T is currently in a phase where he doesn't want his face wet. He was as happy as could be when we put a life vest on him and he could doggie paddle fearlessly through the pool. He even started jumping into the deep end too, but we still had to be there to catch him. His bravery with the water is increasing daily on this trip. Perhaps he'll be dunking his face in by the week's end.

Here are some pics from today's fun:

Day Four

Oo wanted to wake up early to look for sea creatures on the beach. To ensure that she would wake up early, she set her own kind of "alarm." She wrote "Wake at morning light" on a piece of paper and stuck it under her pillow. Lo and behold, her alarm worked! She woke me up at 6:30, and we tiptoed out the door without waking the guys. We didn't see many creatures, but we did find this little guy. Any of you know what it is?

After our morning nature hunt and breakfast, the four of us repeated yesterday's schedule — pool, lunch, beach, then pool. The day was much like yesterday, with two exceptions: dolphins and a shark! During our beach time, as the kids jumped in the waves and Adrian bobbed around in deeper water, the lifeguards started blowing their whistles and telling everyone to get out of the water. Oo and I went up to a lifeguard to find out what was going on. A shark had been spotted! The lifeguards told us not to go any further into the water than knee-deep. Determined to see a shark, I stood there at the water's edge and scanned the water for a dorsal fin. I stood there a long time, and Adrian made fun of me for it, but I didn't care. What else was I going to do while the kids played contently by themselves?

For dinner, Adrian made salmon in a orange basil sauce. Yum! As we were finishing up, I glanced out the condo window at the ocean and saw a dorsal fin! "Shark! I yelled without thinking, and I ran out onto the balcony. Adrian and the kids ran after me to get a look. As I pointed out where I saw the fin, the creature surfaced again. What I thought was a shark was actually two dolphins swimming together. Shark or not, seeing a large sea creature so close to shore was still pretty cool.

After dinner, we went looking for shells on the beach. Oo carried a bucket with her, but T did not want to take anything with him on the walk. Apparently, T regretted his choice because a few minutes into the walk he threw a fit and demanded to go back. Oo and I continued on the walk, while Adrian headed back with T. But not too much later, we bumped into Adrian and T again. Adrian said T ran as fast as he could on sand all the way back to the condo's ground-level storage closet. Then T stood there and begged for Adrian to unlock the closet. When Adrian opened the door, T dashed in, grabbed a small shovel, and started running back to the beach as fast as his little legs would carry him. Adrian locked the closet and ran after T. Together they ran on the beach trying to catch up with me and Oo, but T stopped periodically to dig small, random holes in the sand before breaking into a run again.

Below is a pic of the kids and I on the beach, shortly before T left to get his shovel.

Vacation!! (days 1 and 2)

(Rather than post vacation pics to Facebook, I've decided to blog with them. The blog will serve me better as a travel journal that I can read later with the kids.)

We've arrived in Garden City, SC!! All of us are so happy to be here — Adrian was in desperate need of a vacation, while the kids and I really needed some uninterrupted time with Adrian! In lieu of postcards, I'll try to blog regularly on our trip.

Day One

We left on Friday at 9am sharp — the EXACT time Adrian wanted to leave! Unheard of, I know. (And it'll probably never happen again!)

Before every trip, I always shop for books and activities to occupy the kids in the car. Oo dug into her new stuff right away, riffling through her bag like it was a Christmas stocking. T, on the other hand, had no interest in what was in his bag. He spent much of the long day in the car simply sitting and looking out the window. Such a mellow dude. The kids were so good in the car, and we ended our day's travels in Greensboro, NC, just in time for dinner.

Our plan was to take a dip in the hotel pool after dinner, but a thunderstorm nixed that idea. So instead we got some cookies from the hotel lobby and kept our Friday night "Movie Night" tradition with a pay-per-view movie ("The Lorax") in the room.

Day Two

After enjoying a good breakfast buffet, we left the hotel around 9:30. Thanks to an app that my dad told me about (Super Pages), finding a Starbucks close by was very easy. We only had 4 more hours of driving to do, but the trip felt waaaay longer than that. The kids had given us all of their patience during the first day's drive. If I had a nickel for every time the kids asked "How much longer?"...

Saturday is check-in day for the condo crowd, so traffic was a beast! The last 10 miles of the drive were slow moving, and the excited anticipation of playing in the ocean was making the tension in the car escalate beyond measure.

Even though it felt like we'd never arrive, we pulled in before 3pm. The kids ran around the condo squealing while Adrian unpacked the car and I made up the beds. While Adrian ran to the grocery store (which he reports was as jammed as the road into town), I took the kids to the beach for T's first dip ever in an ocean.

Incidentally, Oo's first dip in the ocean was when she was 19 months old (and we just found out that we were expecting T).  Here's a pic from that trip to Kitty Hawk, NC.

Okay, so back to the current trip... The kids and I played on the beach until 7pm. When we got back up to our condo, Adrian was still unpacking groceries. Poor guy! We decided on a quick dinner of hot dogs and beans and then headed back down so that Adrian could enjoy some beach time.

Adrian and Oo started with a dip in the pool, while T and I went for a sunset walk on the beach. The water had receded, so there were shells everywhere. As T explains it, we didn't walk very far because there were so many shells to stop and look at. We even saw a little crab scurry sideways; he was almost too fast for us to see. T and I took these pictures of each other on the beach, and the last pic was taken when Adrian and Oo came to join us.

 

We stayed on the beach until it was almost too dark to see. Someone way down on the beach was setting off fireworks. Bedtime came late, and the kids were exhausted. I don't think we'll get much relaxing done on this trip. But that's okay. Play and family time together can be just as restorative.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Oo doesn't have school today; it's a Teacher In-service Day. The kids woke up before me and made me breakfast. Oo made me my usual — a bowl of FiberOne cereal with soy milk. The bowl of cereal was just about enough food to feed one of her baby dolls, so I made a second bowl when she wasn't looking. T filled a cup with fruity Cherrios, pretzels, and chocolate cookies. He didn't feel brave enough to pour the heavy carton of milk, so he left it dry. (Whew!) I told him he made a very good choice.

In addition to having a long weekend, we also have the pleasure of pet sitting Oo's class pet, a bearded dragon named Murray. Here's a conversation I had with Oo just moments ago...

Oo:  Can I hold Murray?
Me:  Yes.
Oo:  Wait... can I hold Murray?
Me:  I said, "yes."
Oo:  Okay. It's just that my ears... whenever you're talking, they just automatically turn off.

Play-Doh Slave

They say a mom holds many job titles: Nurse, Short-order Cook, Teacher, Friend, Psychologist, Janitor, Laundress, Dietician, Social Director, Chauffeur, Bodyguard, Personal Shopper, Baker, Law Enforcer, Cheerleader, Hair Stylist, Toy Repairman, Tower and Train Track Engineer, Storyteller, Secretary, Mind Reader, Dishwasher, Referee, Librarian, Comfy Chair, and Pack Mule, just to name a few.

Well, I can now add "Play-Doh Slave" to my résumé.

For the past I-don't-know-how-many months, T has been OBSESSED with Angry Birds, which is interesting because we have a no-video-games policy in our house. His first exposure to the birds was a YouTube video we watched together. ("Wait," you say, "there are YouTube videos of Angry Birds?" Yes, not only are there some promotional videos that were made by the company, there are a SLEW of animated videos made by fans.)

Since gaining interest in Angry Birds, T has begun a collection of Angry Birds items. He has two Angry Birds games (not video games, but the kind where you have to build the pigs' houses with blocks), some figurines, an Angry Birds kite, pencil toppers, stickers, plush toys, and an Angry Birds t-shirt that he wants to wear every... single... day.

One of T's favorite videos to watch is of a little boy named Evan who is showing off his collection of Angry Birds that his dad made out of Sculpey clay. That video inspired T to build his own Angry Birds out of Play-Doh. But when he found that his Play-Doh skills didn't quite produce the quality he was looking for, he pouted, and then he blinked those baby blues at me. Now, I'm his Play-Doh Slave.

Anywhere from once to three times a week, T digs out the Play-Doh and I start taking orders. He usually requests the birds in the same order: red, blue, yellow, black, white, etc. Sometimes he wants me to make the birds from the Angry Birds Seasons or Angry Birds Space games, and every now and then he'll dictate the design for a new type of bird. But he ALWAYS wants me to make the pigs — he loves the pigs. Oo gets in on the act too, she's not a fan of the characters, but she likes making her little brother happy.

After the characters are all created, T usually wants pictures taken of them. Once he even made a video that was almost word-for-word the same as Evan's Sculpey-clay video! (I'd post T's video here but it's way too long.) Here are some of our pictures:

Adrian teases me about being a Play-Doh Slave. He says that T has me wrapped around his little pinkie. And yet, since I first started drafting this blog entry, Adrian downloaded Angry Birds onto his phone so T could play the game— yep, breaking the no-video-games rule. So... who's wrapped around the boy's little pinkie now?

A Practical Approach to Interior Design

We're finally going to paint the upstairs bathroom! I've been wanting to do so ever since we painted it 8 years ago. It's a sunshiny yellow, cheery and light. But I don't like it. The yellow makes everything look dingy, and it makes the beautiful azure tiles on the floor look like teal — I hate teal. We decided to paint it white. GASP!! I know, I know, we said we'd never have more than one white room in the house, but white really is the best choice for that bathroom.

On Monday afternoon, I decided to trek to the paint store to get some paint chips. I told the kids to put their shoes on so we could run a quick errand, and I was met with the expected barrage of questions: Where are we going? Do we HAVE to? Do we hafta go NOW? Why do you hafta to paint the bathroom? Why don't you like yellow? What color are you gonna paint it?

When I told the kids we were going to paint it white, T did not take the news well:

T: (in a loud, panicky voice) But you CAN'T paint it white because then the WHOLE potty will be camouflaged!!!  (a pause, then very quietly...)  I won't be able to find the potty.

Overheard

Yesterday, Oo was reading the Sunday funnies from the newspaper, when she said something that I can honestly say I've never in my life heard anyone express...

Oo: [squeal!!] Mary Worth is getting so exciting!

Halloween Fun

We had a wonderful Halloween season.  Yes, it's become a season at our house — what, with the costume planning, decorating, baking, trip to the pumpkin farm, school parties...  There's far too much to write about, so I'm going to let pictures tell some of the story.

Here we are ready to embark on a hay ride at the pumpkin farm.  You can't see the hay or the ride in this pic, but you can see my stylin' family sporting their cool shades.  Thank goodness it didn't rain that day; it was the last day we were available to get our pumpkins!

This was the first year we felt the kids were up for the challenge of the corn maze — why don't they call it a "maize maze?"  Just a thought.  Anyway... the kids had a blast!  T loves to solve mazes, so the chance to actually be inside a maze was a big thrill for him.

And here's the money shot...

To pass out to our trick-or-treating friends, we baked chocolate cream cheese cut-out cookies with almond icing.  Deee-lish!  This batch was decorated by Miss Oo.  The cookie in the center was her experiment to see what would happen to candy corn in the oven.

This next batch was decorated by T, with a little help.  Notice the ghosts... it was important to T that he make each one say something different.

Costumes! Oo was a black and white kitty, and T went as a little monkey.  Oo originally wanted to be an alligator, but she decided instead to be a cat when the only alligator costumes I could find were for infants.  And T had wanted to be a gorilla, but he was happy when we found a monkey costume.  They went easy on me — they know I can't sew.

 

The kids picked out the designs for their pumpkins from a carving-idea book and the Internet.  Adrian carved his and Oo's pumpkins: R2D2 and a kitty-bat.

I carved "The Scream" for me and a skull face for T.  He doesn't usually like scary things, but he said his pumpkin HAD TO be scary for Halloween.

Adrian took the kids around trick-or-treating while I stayed home and manned the fort... and the candy bowls.  Oo covered four blocks — double the territory she covered last year.  T only lasted for one and a half blocks before calling it quits because he was tired.  After he dumped out his candy bag on the porch to peruse his spoils, we cuddled, passed out candy, and watched a couple of raccoons climb out of and around a hole in our front yard's tree.  Here is a picture of us snuggling.  (He's pretending to be asleep.)

Before the evening was over, T had planned his costume for next year and Oo had managed to squeeze in an impromptu playdate at a neighbor's house and sort half of her major candy haul.  A jam-packed evening of fun, and yet we somehow managed to get the kids tucked in by 8:30.  But that wasn't the end of the excitement..

...by Wednesday morning, the raccoons had eaten R2D2 and kicked Oo's pumpkin off the steps.  After I took this picture I noticed the look of horror on my pumpkin's face.

Even funnier was T's reaction... holy cow!... he was majorly PO'd!!  I tried to get some video of his ranting and stomping, but he caught me doing it and gave me a look that could kill.

Minus One

We lost a member of our little family last week. Pretzel. Her health has been slowly declining for several months now, but things took a turn for the worse when she stopped eating. The vet found tumors on her bladder, but some lab work showed no cancerous cells, only signs of infection. Antibiotics did nothing to help her appetite and had no effect on the tumors. The vet and I talked about our options: more lab work, x-rays, appetite stimulants and possibly chemo, but it felt cruel of me to lay out a plan for more meds and vet visits. Pretzel HATED going to the vet; while there, she would tremble and yowl and pee on the exam table. And after a vet visit, she would be terrified of me for the next two days — fearful that I was going to put her in her carrier and take her back there.

Since I couldn't ask Pretzel about how she felt about the situation, I had to make the call on my own. I wanted to take her home with me, but for what? So she could starve for a few more days?

Oo was at school, but I had T with me at the vet's. I told him to give her a little pat on the head and tell her that we love her. We left the room while the vet put her to sleep, but I went back in alone afterwards to say goodbye. In hind sight, I should've taken T in with me because not seeing her afterwards left him full of the questions and confusion I was trying to spare him.

When we picked Oo up from the car line at school, T blurted out that Pretzel was dead before Oo was fully in the car. I had been preparing Oo by telling her that we didn't have much more time to be with Pretzel and she seemed fine and understanding. But the finality of the situation sent her into sobs, and the three of us spent the following half hour piled up in a mopey heap together on the couch.

After our snuggle time, Oo set to work, cleaning the family room. She picked up the toys and books and even straightened out all the couch pillows and TV remotes. As she proudly displayed her work to me, I couldn't believe all the effort she had gone through to cheer me up. But then she said, "See? Aren't I responsible?" (She knows that we're waiting for her and T to grow up a little more and become "responsible" before we're get a new pet... That girl doesn't waste any time.)

Even though she seemed to have pulled herself together quickly and put her eye on the prize, Oo got weepy a few times over the next couple days. She's feeling better now though, and she's proud that she and Pretzel became friends before the end.

So back to T, and his confusion... During dinner, on the day that Pretzel passed away, T told me:

Mom, I don't want to be dead. Because if I be dead then I wouldn't be able to do all the important stuff... like... watch videos or ride Oo's bike or bounce on Hannah's trampoline. If I be dead, then all I could do is ride in the wagon like...

And then he made a contorted pose and held it as if rigor mortis had set in. Where does he get these ideas?? I should've let him see the cat.

New Cat... sort of

Our cat, Pretzel, is one nervous kitty. Despite that she's been with us for over 11 years, few people know that we have a pet — even fewer have actually seen her. And it's not just visitors that she hides from. Ever since Oo was a toddler, Pretzel hides from us too, during the day, only to surface at night once the children are in bed and no longer a threat to her.

Pretzel wasn't always afraid of our kids. Her fear comes from the days when Oo was nearly a toddler. Whether mad or happily excited, little Oo could unleash a high-pitched shriek that could shatter glass. One day, Oo noticed that Pretzel's ears fold down during these shrieks. (I wish my ears could have performed such a stunt!) Oo was fascinated with this control she had over the cat's ears, and she began to abuse her new-found power. Pretzel's eardrums (and nerves!) couldn't handle all the shrieking, and so Pretzel decided to avoid Oo altogether. T never played tricks on Pretzel, so occasionally she would come out when Oo wasn't around, however, she'd always maintain a safe distance.

The kids have always been frustrated with Pretzel. It stinks having a pet that you can't play with and hardly ever see. They've asked MANY times to get a new kitten to play with, but we've explained to them that a playful kitten might be too much for an old cat like Pretzel to handle. And so the kids wait... for Pretzel to die. It's horrible! They often ask us, "Is Pretzel going to die soon?" And while this is a frequent occurrence, it never ceases to stun Adrian and I. Did they just say that?!?

We don't want the kids to view pets as possessions that can be replaced when old and worn out. So my response to their inquiries is always:

1. Pretzel is part of our family, and we love her no matter what;
2. you can't replace a family member when they die;
3. when you become a pet owner, you promise to take very good care of that pet, forever; and
4. Daddy and I think we should take a break from being pet owners after Pretzel dies, so we probably won't be getting a new kitten for a long, long time.

That last point always ends the discussion, that is until Pretzel shuns them the next day, frustration returns, and the death watch begins anew. This summer, however, Oo's frustration went to a whole new level — and she decided to take action. Oo is always thinking, always problem solving — a trait of hers that one could praise or curse, depending on whether or not she's arguing against you.

We were planning a trip to the library, and she decided that she needed to check out books about cats. She wanted to see if she could train Pretzel to like her. We poured over a few books about cats in the juvenile section and settled on one called "How to Speak Cat." When we returned home, she ignored all the story books and first readers we also picked out for her and focused solely on the cat book. When she was done, she told me that we had to go to the pet store to get some new treats for Pretzel.

At the pet store the next day, we studied the selection of cat treats, discussing which flavors Pretzel likes best and squeezing the bags to see which treats were the softest. We left the store with Oo clutching a bag of salmon-flavored Whisker Lickin's and wearing a look of focused determination on her face.

Later that evening...


... a total transformation in Pretzel! She let Oo pet her for the FIRST time, they played together with a piece of string, and Pretzel rubbed against Oo's legs and face. And it wasn't just when Pretzel was being offered a treat! By the next day Oo even taught T how to hold steady long enough until Pretzel would eat a treat out of his hand, and then he was petting Pretzel and playing with her too!

Our cat, who before would never let the kids get within 3 feet of her, is now hanging out with us during the day — between cat naps, of course. She also meows during our dinner because she's fed and rested and wants someone to play with.

Oo is reading over my shoulder as I write this. (She approves of what I've written and says I should hurry up and post it.) I should add before I sign off that Oo just came downstairs from snuggling with our cat.

Firsts

We have several firsts to celebrate this summer. The first "First" is the first blog of 2011. Holy Toledo, Batman! What have I been doing that I'm too busy to blog?? Fortunately, since my last blog posting, Blogger has added a feature where I can select up to 10 people to be automatically notified whenever I post to my blog!!!! I am so excited about this!

The next two Firsts are milestones we reached this summer. One is a lost tooth for Miss Oo. She is soooo excited about this. She first noticed it was loose when she felt pain biting into an ear of sweet corn. Ouch! I thought perhaps she had bit into the metal corn holder. Once we noticed her tooth was loose, her tears of pain turned into tears of joy and nervousness (I don't think she knew there could be pain involved with loosing a tooth).

Like all kids, she played constantly with her loose tooth — restraining herself only when Adrian was out of town, so that she wouldn't lose it while he was away. About a week later, she wiggled it a little and then plucked it out. Holy cow! You would've thought she had won a jackpot. The jumping up and down and squealing... she looked just like a contestant on The Price Is Right. I was so excited for her — she felt so left out this past school year every time a classmate lost another tooth.


Smaller than Lincoln's head...



I admit I was a wee sad to see that little tooth go. It was the very first tooth she cut as a baby.



The other significant "First" this summer is the kids' first roller coaster ride...


Don't judge their overall reaction to the coaster by their facial expressions. They LOVED it! And they wanted to go on again and again. Coaster-lovers that we are, Adrian and I were thrilled by this, and we eagerly await the days when the kids are tall enough to ride the big coasters and their legs are long enough to keep up with us as we run through the park.