Giggles

#1
One year for Christmas, I took our daughter to the dollar store for her to pick out a gift for Dad. I know, big spender. (This was probably the Christmas when she was two.) She chose a small vanilla scented statue of Jesus that had adhesive on the bottom to stick on a dashboard or something similar.

Fast forward a few months and we go visit my husband at his office. I pointed out to her that he had the Jesus statue on his bookshelf. She took a whiff and said, "Ummm. It smells like Jesus in here."

#3
It is a favorite bedtime ritual in our house to read stories. Sometimes I choose the stories, sometimes the kids do. The other night I chose The Peace Book by Todd Parr (if you don't have this book, I highly recommend getting it). Each page begins with the phrase: Peace is . . . followed by some action, ie. . . .sharing a meal, . . .keeping the street clean, . . . being who you are, etc.

The book opens with, Peace is making new friends and #3 says, "Who is Peace?" and starts pointing to each of the five children on the page and asking, "Is that Peace?" The third page reads: Peace is listening to different kinds of music and there's a picture of a person in a turban playing a recorder to a snake coming out of a basket, and he says, "Oh, that's Peace."

I can't wait for the day he sees a snake charmer on the Travel Channel or something like that and yells out, "That's Peace!!!"

Our Sunday Chaos

Yesterday was an especially weird day. #1 and I began the day by cheering on my friend and mother of daughter's friends in a triathalon. I might have been inspired for a new sport, except I'm not such a strong swimmer.

The preschool where #2 & #3 attend is run by a church and yesterday was Preschool Sunday, and the 3 & 4 year olds have been practicing two songs. So we packed up for church early and were guests in the preschool's church, and what do you know, the boys wouldn't sing. We sat in a pew and watched their classmates sing. Okay, no big deal.

Then we proceeded to our church. #3 throws a major tantrum in the middle of Sacrament Meeting and puzzle pieces go flying. Nice. I ask #1 if she'll help pick up the puzzle pieces, to which she agrees because she's that kind of a kid (thank goodness). She's bending down on her heals leaning forward and bumps her elbow and is jolted upright by the pain and then her eyes roll back in her head and she goes over backwards. I look at her and see her eyes rolling around but she's not responding to me, and I freak out. Hubby and I jump up and try to get her out of the chapel, get her some water and he takes her to get some food. After further evaluation, her blood pressure was probably low from being almost horizontal, and then with lack of circulation because she was sitting on her heels, well you get the picture. She was/is fine.

Nothing like having your child pass out to get your heart pumping. Then when we realized she's okay, I was drained.

We enter Primary, and our behavior problems are in full force, and I was off to the adult's classes to retrieve the parents of said children.

Hubby and I came home and looked at each other and said, "What the heck just happened?"

"We give up."

To Play or Not to Play

One of our favorite things to do is go to the park to have a little family baseball game. Hubby or I will pitch, and the kids take turns fielding and hitting. It's usually a pretty enjoyable experience, a few negotiations about "one more pitch" or "one more hit," maybe some tears, but generally, it's fun.

BUT . . .

. . . as is the case with parks in general, there are other people there, which is usually a good thing, except when it comes to the family baseball game (or any ball game we've intended to play at the park). After we've been going for a little while, a kid who doesn't belong to us, will skirt around the fringes, start shagging some balls, and before you know it, they're struggling with #2 over whose turn it is to bat next.

Hubby's point is this, "I came to the park to pitch balls to my kids, not your's. I didn't come to the park to referee 6 kids fighting over the next swing (with the bat, we hope), it's tough enough with 3, so would you kindly butt out."

I get it. Sure I do. But where do you draw the line? Our kids will usually ask to play with other kids in their ball games at parks and other parents are gracious enough to consent. I don't mind so much except when one of our children isn't in the mood for sharing one of his parents. He does so well with one on one attention, especially when it involves Dad and a ball. Maybe it's different for me being with them the majority of every day, that I don't mind mixing it up a little and playing with other kids at the park because we do have a lot of one on one time, so the hour Hubby has to play with the kids at the park on a Sunday afternoon is precious to him. During the week it gives me a chance to speak to other adults at the park during the day, where he's not at the park to make friends, he's there to play with his kids.

Sometimes, we've taken balls and mitts and if other kids don't have a mitt, they usually don't ask to play, but any other sort of ball game seems to be free reign.

I clearly understand both sides of the issue (Economy? War in Iraq? Equality in marriage? BHAA, we're talking real issues here) I'm just not sure how what the protocol for diplomacy is in resolving this one. I'm up for any suggestions you have. Give it to me straight. I don't need it sugar coated, my skin is pretty thick.

I'm serious.

Recent Musings

I took my own advise and finally wrote blog ideas down in my little notebook I carry around in my purse.

~~Recently our sons' preschool had a family dinner with pizza and a puppet show. In principle it was a great activity (. . . here's the BUT), except for the Webkinz raffle. I'm sure the planners had nothing but good intentions when they decided to hold the raffle. The dinner and entertainment was all free, so it's not a big deal to hold a raffle for $1/ticket. No big deal, right?

WRONG!!!!!

My single-minded little 5 year old can't get his mind off the stuffed animals sitting on the table. My sweet husband took him outside for most of the evening to divert his attention. The poor kid was ready for nuclear meltdown well before the raffle was to occur. And then it happens, the raffle and two other kids win. No Kidding!?!? #2 can't even think straight he's so disappointed. After a long day and he's tired, this is not a pretty sight. I think he cried . . . LOUD, all the way home, and then when we got home, and finally just collapsed.

Perhaps I'll suggest further raffles be things for the adults, hopefully we can handle ourselves better when we don't win than #2.

But there's a silver lining to this black, black cloud.

The next morning, I was recounting the events to my dear friend. She suggested her children hadn't discovered the evils of Webkinz yet, (but she has a few on hand for when they do) and she volunteered to make a special delivery from the Webkinz Elf to #2 on Monday afternoon. And "Oh the joy. The joy, joy, joy!" (I think that was supposed to be "noise," but I'll take a little poetic licence with that one.) Thus Alvin joined our family, a quiet beagle, who has brought a smile to one little 5 year old's face that continues to this day.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Webkinz Elf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


~~We live in a city where Tuesdays are free days at some of the museums. The first Tuesday of the month happens to be the favorite of my children . . . Dinosaur Museum (aka Natural History Museum), Science Museum, and the Model Railroad Museum. It's a great way to spend a Tuesday with thousands of your closest friends who also love free things. I love that we live so close to these great museums and we can go once a month, and I can let the kids wander to whatever interests them that day. It happened to be the contraption that shot small balls out of the mouth of a frog, simulating the way a Darwin's Frog belches its babies from its mouth. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture because they loved it! Something else they loved was pushing each other through a conveyor belt intended for produce at the mock grocery store, or shapes in the building department. I love the way they explore things and figure out what works in their brains. I usually sit back and watch, and wait for them to come get me and show me what they did or discovered or built. We spent three and a half hours at the one museum, so we didn't even get to see the dinosaurs. We'll hit that one first next month.

~~Wednesday morning was the preschool trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Heaps of fun!! But we're going through a bit of a heat wave and on the way home we discussed what to do for the rest of the day, and we decided to go swimming. Yep, it's October and we're going to the pool because it's just too hot to sit indoors in our 100 year old house with no air conditioning, and the sun is just too hot if I'm not in the water, but you won't hear me complaining. It was a glorious day! So glorious, in fact, we went back the next day.

I LOVE this town!