Sweet Shrimp

I used to eat sushi a lot.  That was before I got married and had children.  The children are part of the reason, but the other part is the husband half.  He's not a fan of sushi. 

Today I had a solicitation meeting and the person I was meeting suggested sushi.  Would it be wrong of me to respond in the email with a great big, "HELL YES"?  I didn't go that far, but I assured her it was one of the best options for lunch she could have choosen.

We met and had a very lovely lunch.  I ate lots of sushi, but the one piece I savored the most was the Sweet Shrimp.

Sweet shrimp is different from the normal shrimp you get.  First, the shrimp part isn't cooked.  You're eating raw shrimp.  And it is good.  But the part that's the best is that they then take the head of that shrimp, dip it in some batter and fry the whole thing (tentacles and all) and serve it up to you as a side to the shrimp body.

It's crunchy.  It's shrimpy.  It's scrumptious.  It was a delightful lunch with great company.

The Bit Boy Update:  He told daddy, "my butt is hurting on the inside."  Was he constipated or was he just getting the message that he needed to go to the potty?  We're not sure, but when he got there, things happened.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "I want sel-dur-real."  My daughter told me this for two days.  I didn't know if she wanted "cereal" or "celery" so I offered her celery.  She liked celery.

Suddenly Sinus Surgery

Remember that tooth that I had all those root canals and root-ectomy and ultimately extraction procedures on?  That tooth is back.  Well, it's not back, it's still in play.

I want to get an implant there, but to do so I had to wait four months for the extraction to heal and bone to fill in.   That time has passed, the endodontist is ready to implant the screw and wait, hold on, the maxillary sinus above the jaw looks filled.  It shouldn't be filled.  "You need to go see an ENT", he told me.   Blast.

My upper left side is now two molars down (plus the third wisdom tooth I didn't have room for when I was eighteen) and I have a lower left molar that may migrate north if it's not opposed by an upper tooth at some point.  Also, I'm tired of doing most of the major chewing on the right side.

Off I go to the ENT and one CT scan later reveals the left maxillary sinus is, yes, full.   So fourteen days of antibiotics in the hopes of avoiding surgery (he thinks I'm going to need it but this is what the insurance company is going to require) and then we'll do another CT scan. 

Fourteen days later and it's a wee bit better, but not clear and not good enough for my endodontist to insert two screws into the sinus space, gently moving the sinus membrane out of the way in the process.  That would be fine, well and good, provided the sinus could adequately drain and heal as designed.  A blocked sinus doesn't do that well and if things went truly, badly wrong, I suppose I could lose my head and that's really not the outcome I was looking for.

So we scheduled surgery.  Monday it is.  I was on his schedule as fast as he could get me in.  Monday morning very early, let's do this thing and get that sinus open and cleared out.   Friday afternoon I get a call from his office.  Insurance hasn't given approval.  Monday is cancelled.  But not to worry, he can see me Tuesday if the approval comes in on Monday.  I'll get a phone call on Monday and we'll go from there.

This morning (today is Tuesday if you're reading this at some future point) the phone rings at six-thirty.  It's the hospital.  Where am I?  I have surgery in an hour.  "I do?  I didn't hear insurance had approved it.  No one has called me.  What do you want me to do?"

And this is where I'm going to spare you the details about how the ENT's office did some amazing things, making calls to the insurance company, giving them the doctor's personal cell phone number (while he's in surgery) so that they could get me in at some point today. 

Back up to that phone call at six-thirty the nurse said, "have you eaten anything?  You haven't?  Good, then don't!  We're going to try to get you in.  We'll call you back."

It was eleven-fifty-five, my husband and I were in line to pick up the children and I was hungry when I found out I was approved.  Could I get there in no time flat?  Yes, I could!  I was already in the car and only ten minutes away.

Now my sinus has been opened up and soon, yes soon, the endodontist will be able to get me one step closer to being able to chew on the left side of my mouth again.  But for now, I wish my nose would stop bleeding because I look silly with a gauze bandage taped to my face.

The Big Boy Update:  Doozers.  There is a show Uncle Jonathan showed my son.  In one viewing, my son obsessed.  He asked about the show multiple times today.  Before bed my husband let him watch it and through unrelated thing, showed my son the binoculars Gramps had brought over earlier.  I heard my son say, "oh wow, that's better."  Then he said, "it's smaller than ever."   My husband laughed.  He said the Doozers show had two characters holding binoculars.  One of the characters was using them correctly and said, "oh wow, that's better."  The other character was looking through them backwards.  He said my son had turned the binoculars around, looked through them backwards and said the same comment the character did, "it's smaller than ever."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Another update from her visit with Mimi yesterday: We went outside to play, and her hand found some mud. I wiped off as much of the mud as I could with a tissue, but she still had a dirty hand. I told her I would clean her dirty hand when we went inside. We played outside some more and most of the mud rubbed off. When we went inside she looked at her hand and said, “Where did the dirty go?”

Split Lip

Have you ever gotten chapped lips so badly that your lip split right down the middle and bled?   It's happened to me before and I always make sure to put lots of chap stick-type stuff on whenever I get even the hint that there's some sort of dermal-based instability in one of my lips.  I really, really, really don't want to have my lip split open and bleed, and that's because it happened to me once...a long time ago...when I was a child.

I'm not sure how old I was, but I'd guess somewhere between eight and eleven.  I don't know why I'm guessing that age, but I'm synthesizing many things from my brain that's telling me how high I was in relation to counter tops (indicating how tall I was), who my friends were (giving insight into what grade I was in) and how my parents treated me (showing how mature I was).

This lip crack was not minor.  It was big.  It was on my lower lip and it was so large that it would bleed.  It was puffy on either side and try as it might, it just couldn't heal.  I'm not sure how long it lasted, but from what I remember, it was a fixture on my face for quire some time.

I don't know what caused this particular lip split to be so bad, but it went on and on and on.  Were there no good healing medications at that time that I could have put on it to help in the repairing process?  Did I pick at it and make it worse?  Did I go around smiling great big lip-stretching smiles at babies and puppies, re-cracking the healed part again and again?  Or did I just not care?  I don't know.  I don't remember.

I know it was bad and it lasted for some time, but I only have one specific memory of that time.  I was at McDonalds waiting in line with my father to order some food.  The person behind the counter asked me if I knew my lip was split open or something equally obvious like, "did you know your lip looks terrible?"  I told him I knew and then he continued to take our order, looking a bit embarrassed about the whole thing.

Wait, wait, wait...hold on.  I think I remember what he said now.  I think my lip had just cracked back open again and it was bleeding.  He must have said something along the lines of, "did you know your lip is bleeding?"  That makes more sense.  Anyway, I assured him I did and we went on to enjoy our meal, mine somewhat more bloody than my father's.

The Big Boy Update:  "I like doing the burpees."   My son said this while he was working on the iPad.  I said, "do you mean you like doing the Barbie app?"   Ah, yes, that's what he meant.  Am I upset that "burpee" (a type of pushup) is a more common term in our house than Barbie?  No, not really. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter spent the afternoon at Mimi's.  They spent three hours together doing all sorts of fun things only a grandmother and granddaughter can do.  When I arrived to pick her up, she came to me, grabbed my hand and told me she wanted to take me to see Mimi.  Mom sent me an email of all the "blog worthy" things she said today.   Hooray for Mimi.  I'm always looking for blog-worthy items.   Here's one of the blog updates from Mimi:  She ate some cheese, followed by drinking a small glass of orange juice. She ate some more cheese and reached for the glass. She looked inside and said ”there’s no nothing in here.”

Fitness Update:  An hour in the gym this morning and then an hour in the fitness room with Uncle Jonathan this afternoon.  I hope I'm going to be sore tomorrow, because if I'm not, it means I didn't work hard enough.

It's Like It's Summer

Today was such a nice day.  We were out in the back yard and my children got naked (don't even ask, because I've stopped asking at this point.)  

You had to ask...  Okay, we were outside and I got the water table out and the kids decided to take the umbrella off the top and then, well, I suppose it just looked like a little pool to them and that meant they needed to take their clothes off because you don't go swimming in your clothes we said.  So there was toddler nudity.

Then, my neighbor said he was getting their slip and slide out and would we like to come over and oh, could you put some clothes on your kids because they didn't want their kids getting any naked ideas.  So we found suits for everyone and then we hung out in their back yard.

My running buddy and two of her children came over (because we wanted to run but it wasn't looking like that was going to happen) and Walter made some sort of fruity alcoholic drink for us.   We drank that while the kids knocked back juice boxes and slipped and slid and splashed in the pool.

It really felt like summer today.  I even have the sun burn to prove it. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got stuck behind a chair this morning.  He got stuck and he wanted some help.  He yelled out from behind the chair, "if no one helps me, I'm going to be so disappointed."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "I want carrots"  (she told me this morning for breakfast).  And apparently she did.  She ate carrots and when her brother woke up and saw her eating carrots he wanted some too.

Astounding, Amazing, Unbelieveable, Very Advanced and Other Inaccurate Superlatives

I have cute kids...to me.  Okay, I have cute kids to me, my parents, my in-laws, and several other people who are fond of them.  They're in that very active time in their physical and mental development where they learn things in leaps and bounds.  Leave for a week and when you come back my children will be doing something you've never seen before.   It's a truly remarkable time of development.

I don't know much about children.  I didn't baby sit a lot and I didn't have friends with young children I spent time around.  So when I see my offspring do something unexpected, it does seem pretty darned amazing.  That same experience has been happening around the world for eons, as parents and loved ones look at little Harpo and say, "did you see him do that?  He's so advanced!"

I'm a skeptic and a realist and so I wondered, is my kid really that truly exceptional offspring known as a "genius"?  Or, is it just a basic instinct to think our children are far superior to the children all those other people have?

I watch the other parents.  I watch the other children.  I mentally compare to see if my son and daughter (who are finishing up their second semester of calculus tonight while they sleep) are really that much more advanced than the other kids.

For the most part, my kids are about par.  In some cases, my kids are mental and physical rock stars.  In other cases, my children have a thing or twenty to learn in order to catch up.   Either way, as a parent I'm happy that my children are thriving, have friends and are happy.

The Big Boy Update:  Rough and Rumble.  My son likes to be physical sometimes.  I hear it's a boy thing and not just my son being aggressive.  I was skeptical, but since hearing that I've been watching other boys and boys just like to play rough.  We're still working on when it's appropriate to play rough and how to recognize when someone doesn't like you playing rough with them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: I want to go to sleep.  She's told me that several times recently at the end of the night.  Even with the excitement of movie night and an upcoming birthday cake song to be sung, she wanted to go to bed.   When she asks to go to bed, she falls straight to sleep.

The Buzzert Deferral

I saw something happen when I substituted at school and I was so impressed, I said to myself, "some day I'll be able to do that with my children."  I watched some children ask for something they wanted.  It might have been as simple as, "can we go outside to play?"  The teacher said to them, "you can when you clean up your work." 

So the children, with some reminders to keep them on track, cleaned up their work.  Then, she said, "okay, you need to go to the potty before you go outside."  The children each took a turn going to the bathroom by themselves.  Then, when they asked if they could go outside, the teacher said, "you need to have our outside shoes and jacket on to go outside."  So the children got ready with their shoes and jackets. 

During all of this, the teacher was doing other things and helping other children.  She didn't put up their work, she didn't help them go to the bathroom and she didn't assist them in getting dressed for outdoors.  These children did it all by themselves and they were three or four-years-old. 

The children didn't complain or balk at the instructions and they weren't overly upset that it took them a half of an hour to finally be able to go outside.  It was wonderful to watch.

This afternoon my children wanted "buzzert" after lunch; only they hadn't eaten their lunch.  They did several things with toys, still asking for buzzert and eventually they came back and ate their lunches, all without me having to do anything other than remind them the requirements for dessert. 

When they were done, they had to put their plates and cups on the counter, go to the bathroom and put on their shoes.  Then, I told them if they went outside to the playground, I would bring them buzzert, gah, I mean dessert (they have me saying it wrong now.)

It was two-o'clock when they finally got dessert from lunch, but I didn't have to cajole them or do anything other than let them know the requirements for getting for having dessert.  It felt like all the perseverance in parenting and not giving in with all the toddler testing finally paid off.

The Big Boy Update:  He had a good first day back at school from vacation this week.  Some days he has a hard time focusing on his work and we were worried he would have a difficult time getting back into the groove of school.  I'm glad he remembered his friends and the routine of school.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She did not have a good first day back at school after vacation.  There was an underpants issue while we were on vacation and she got stuck in diapers for some of the trip.  On her first day back in the three hours that she was in school, she wet five pair of underpants.   The good news is, she remembered how to use the potty on her second day back, although she's still working on remembering at home.

Fitness Update:  Workout at the gym this morning and seven miles this afternoon.  After all the Easter food and candy, it's about dang time I got back on the exercising.

Twenty Steps to Trash

We live in a disposable environment.  It wasn't always like this and we're working to make corrections to our habits.  But habits die hard some times. 

My husband and I met my mother for lunch yesterday after picking up the children from school.  We decided to go to Subway because they have food that works for each of us well.   We met there at about the same time, all stood in line and our food was piled up at the cash register for us to purchase it. 

This was a complicated procedure, not for the people behind the counter, but for the adults who were trying to get two hungry children to wait and not touch everything and not run everywhere and not yell and not hit each other and not do, well, I forget because right about that time it was time to pay for the order.

I grab the food, walk over to the table and start to serve things to my children.  But in order to be able to do that, I have to unwrap and unload the food from the packaging it's been contained in.  Each sub was in a bag.  Inside the bag was a big wrapper and then there was a smaller piece of paper on which the sandwich was crafted.  Plastic bag...trash, big wrapper...trash.  I had to go to the trash can to throw away things just to clear off space at the table so the five of us could start eating. 

I had taken twenty steps from the counter to where we were going to eat, and we had generated trash just from that short trip.  It made me a little sad to think about how much went into making those items, just so we could instantly discard them.

We are getting better and more mindful as a society.  There are some fast food restaurants who serve your meal to you on reusable plates, but we have a long way to go to rethink our throw-away society into one of sustainability.

The Big Boy Update:  "Daddy, there's a rock in my pants...I didn't put it there."  (It was poop.)

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has figured out how to climb up the shelves in the closets.  I was surprised to see her three feet up the other day, looking at daddy's change container.  I asked her to show me how she got up there.  She climbed down and back up with ease.  I called daddy in, showed him her new trick and told him if his change was missing, his daughter might be off buying candy or juice boxes with it. 

The Safety Video

When was the last time you actually watched the safety video on an airplane before takeoff?  It depends on the airline, some will do the demonstration in person and some have a video that does it for them.  I've been flying for most of my life and I've seen countless demonstrations and videos.

Only, I don't remember them because I never pay attention to them.  I know how to put on my seat belt and when to stay seated.  I know how to work the emergency exit (in theory) and what to do in the case of a water landing.  I know to put the oxygen mask on me first and then help children afterwards and to not be concerned if the bag isn't full, that air is still flowing to the mask.  

I just never pay attention any more.  Then, when I wasn't paying attention but my ears were still picking up sounds on the way to our vacation, I heard the stewardess say something about, "our '80's inspired safety video..." and I looked up to pay attention.

This safety video was great.  It was funny.  It had all the information you needed, but you didn't realize you were paying attention because you were too busy remembering the 1980's with all the references, clothing, hairstyles and gadgets from that time frame.  

The best was the ending, when Kareem Abdul Jabar turns around as co-pilot to end the video...straight out of time from the 1980's and the movie Airplane.    The video was so fun I made sure to watch it on the flight home.

The Big Boy Update:  On the way home my son and I got on the plane together.  He sat in his seat, put his seat belt on, pulled out the safety placard in the chair back and said, "I need to look at the safety information."  "Okay, that was impressive", I thought.  He had recognized the card from when he and my husband had gone over it on the flight the week before.  He spent close to thirty minutes asking me to tell him what all of the diagrams meant and what was happening.  A lot of the information is about "rescuing" people which he loves to talk about.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Where's Greyson go?"  This is my daughter's query grammar right now.  She's stuck in the present tense, although she's getting the contraction correct.  That is unless she's asking, "Where is Greyson" which is basically what she wants to know.  Either way, we understand her and answer her.  (Sometimes multiple times as she likes to ask the same question more than once.)

All Good Things

...must come to the end.  Vacation is almost over.  We're on the way home in a few hours.  The packing is done, the children are saying good bye and we're off to the airport with hopes for short lines and no delays.

It was a fantastic vacation.  I am fortunate to be part of a great family.  There aren't any parents, siblings or children no one speaks to because of some disagreement in the past.  There aren't any "black sheep" that no one talks about because they're in jail or an embarrassment to the family.   In our family, I think everyone truly likes each other. 

During our vacation, our niece and nephew spent lots of time with our children, even though they're both teens and little kids might not have been "cool enough" for them to hang out with.  My children loved spending time with them.  It made me smile every time my giggling daughter ran up to her cousin Kyle wanting to be picked up. 

My children had fun with their aunt and uncle too.  There was a lot of time in the pool and with my son's new found freedom swimming with an inner tube, he made the rounds visiting everyone, being thrown up in the air to splash back down into the pool.  He had particular fun waking up Aunt Kelly as she tried to "sleep" in the little pool.

And of course, Nana and Papa are always a hit with my children.  There were adventures and scooters and new toys and stickers and Easer baskets and special chairs where they ate their meals and about eleventy-twelve other things I can't remember right now that made their vacation a special one.

From our perspective as the middle generation in the family, we are very fortunate.  My husband has wonderful parents, great siblings (we missed those of you who weren't with us this weekend) and mature and intelligent cousins to our children.  Family vacations in our family are something we always look forward to.

Thanks Nana and Papa for being such gracious hosts.  We love you.

The Big Boy Update:  Balsa wood planes.  Papa got some balsa wood planes on their vacation out west recently.  Today he and my son went out to fly them.  They've been gone for close to an hour, which must mean they're logging lots of balsa wood plane flying "hours". 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Puzzle helper.  My daughter helped grandpa put together his puzzle that he'd been working on.  She loves puzzles and wasn't intimidated at all by the thousand pieces that all looked alike.  I don't know if she placed any pieces correctly, but I have high confidence she believes she put lots of the puzzle together successfully.

Tacking Venture Nastics

Children have special ways of saying things.  For instance, my son called a motorcycle a "mackamuck" for a period of time.  We don't know why he did then and now that he says the word correctly, he can't tell us why either.

My children have mispronounced words consistently, like "a-bay-duh-vuhl" instead of "available" and some words they just say with a cute little child-lisp.  But the thing that makes me laugh the most is the words they say by leaving off one of the syllables. 

For some reason, my children like to leave off the first syllable of some longer words.  My son started going to gymnastics, but insisted on calling it, "nastics".  He can say the syllable, "gym" and if pressed, he can even say the whole word correctly.  But he prefers to drop the first syllable.

This week on vacation they have been doing a lot of fun things.  In the pool there have been teams and my son likes to be on one of those teams.  There were also squirt guns.  My son and daughter both delighted in, "tacking" the other team while they attacked back.

And then there were the "ventures".  Papa would take the children out towards the pond (where the alligators are) and have a fantastic adventure.  There were several "ventures" papa took them on, including one that ended in twilight just before bed tonight.  My son found a golf ball.  He was thrilled.

The Big Boy Update:  Children don't have filters like we do.  Last night my son asked, "Papa, why is that clock missing some numbers?"  Note that my son doesn't read or tell time at three, but he did notice missing numbers that I hadn't seen, even though I'd been looking at that clock for an entire week and reading the time without needing to see numbers to do so.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wants to be in the pool all day long.  This morning after breakfast she told me I needed to put my swimming suit on so that I could get in the pool and that she wanted to get on her swim suit so she could get in to.  When that didn't get results, she went over to Aunt Kelly, who was reading a book pool-side and said to her, "Aunt Kelly, you can get your swimming suit on and get in the pool."  We gave in to her request and eventually all of us got in the pool in short order.

Follow Me, Lightning MacQueen

This post is about what my children were just doing out at the pool before birthday cake and ice cream after Easter dinner.

The Mater Update & The Lightning MacQueen Chronicles:
I was in the upper, small pool (otherwise known as the hot tub) with my children when they started a game together.  My son, who is the older and more imaginative one, decided his sister was Lightning MacQueen and he was Mater.  He told her they needed to go rescue people and she said, "okay."

Rescuing people (or was it cars?), involved getting out of the top pool, getting into the main pool and swimming from one set of steps to the other.  Once that was done, they would come back to the hot tub and jump back in. 

My daughter was happy to play with her brother and had no trouble following his lead, even when he insisted that she get in the pool first, (because Lightning Macqueen goes first, he said).  But she started disliking it after the third round because he kept grabbing her inner tube, even when she told him not to and that she didn't like it.

The game changed to the children trying to "tow" me from one side of the hot tub to the other.  We were having a good time but my son (being the over-zealous kind of guy that he is) kept grabbing his sister's tube.   She was telling him he was hurting her (he wasn't, he was annoying her) but after another warning I took away his inner tube.

Now mind you, neither of them know how to swim, so this was partially a punishment and partially because they need to understand their limitations in the pool without a flotation device.  My son was okay without it as soon as he realized he had a little more mobility without having to hold on to the ring.

He was having fun jumping to me, going under water, blowing bubbles and kicking to the other side (with assistance).  He was having so much fun that his sister decided to abandon her inner tube too and work on her swimming and jumping.

We spent the rest of the time going under water and moving from one side of the hot tub to the other.  My son realized by the end that he could stand up on the bottom and still keep his head above water if he was on his tip toes. 

They both were having such a good time they didn't want to get out for cake and ice cream.

At The Pool

My in-laws have a pool in their back yard.  They have a pool with an attached hot tub that's several feet higher.  When the water is in flow across both the hot tub and the pool the hot tub overflows into the main pool with a waterfall effect.  When the hot tub is in use, heated, for hot tub-like purposes, the flow stops and you have two different temperatures of water to have fun in.

We've spent a lot of the time this week on vacation at and in the pool.  My children liked water and the pool last year, but this trip, they love it.  Getting them out of the water has been the hard part, not getting them in. 

My in-laws got small inflatable inner tubes for each child for the bargain price of $1.49.  There were other flotation devices for the kids, but those inner tubes were all they wanted.  They have been swimming around and kicking and playing, while holding onto those inner tubes for days now.  They have no fear of being out in the middle of the pool alone (and for that matter, we're not overly worried either). 

Tomorrow we'll spend time at a water park, but I don't know if it's going to top Nana and Papa's pool for my two kids.

The Big Boy Update:  I was out by the pool with my son in my lap trimming his nails before dinner.  Nana walked out to the grill with a plate of hamburgers to start grilling.  Out of the blue my son looked over and said, "Nana, I'm so glad you came out."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Curly hair.  It's wavy at home with a hint of curly if it air dries.  Down here in the humidity it turns out to be curly.

Vacation Vacation

We went to visit my in-laws in Florida.  It was our vacation.  But the morning after we got here we took a second-tier vacation, leaving my in-laws with our children and my niece and nephew to head to Key West with my brother- and sister-in-law.  We had a great time on our vacation vacation, but we're glad we're back to see all four of the children we left behind and our parents who worked to hard to keep everyone entertained.

While all this was happening, our children were busy being terribly funny and cute.  So the rest of this post is dedicated to them.

The Big Boy & Tiny Girl Escapades:
The Lost Shoe and the new shoe - while at the beach, my daughter lost a shoe.  There were extenuating circumstances including a big downpour that everyone had to take shelter from.  When it was determined that the second shoe was gone for good, my in-laws went to the Crocs store to get her a new pair.  My son got a new pair too.  And just like her old pair, she is exceptionally fond of her new pair.

Croc obsessed - My daughter loves her Crocs.  She has decided she loves her brother's Crocs too.  This afternoon she was lining up three pair, counting them out loud, moving them to where her brother was, telling him his shoes were available, (he didn't care), lining them up and counting them again and finally selecting her brother's pair to put on and clop around in.

Doubloon - We brought my children a gold doubloon from Key West.  There is a television show that features pirates and doubloons so we expected they would like them.  They loved them.  They started throwing them up in the air and letting them land on the ground and I didn't understand what they were doing until I remembered the doubloons on the cartoon floating in the air and bouncing up and down as they were counted.  My daughter then decided she wanted to hold the doubloon between her toes and walk around.  I remember putting things between my toes when I was a child.

'Scuse Me Monster - My children were playing in the pool with their cousin Kyle, who was pretending to be a monster.  They were giggling and laughing in the big pool after moving over from the little hot tub.  Suddenly my son then turned to Kyle and said, "''scuse me monster, could you go in the other pool?" 

Nakie Nakie - My children were dressed in clothes after dinner but some of our family decided to get their suits on and get back in the pool.  My two sat on the edge, hanging their feet in and laughing while squirting their water guns and, "waking up" their Aunt Kelly.  Then my daughter leaned over and fell in, getting wet.  So her clothes came off and she ended up in the pool in her underwear.  A few minutes later, my son decided he wanted to get back in too so he took his clothes off, getting "nakie nakie" as my daughter likes to call it, and got back in.  They were in the pool until just before bedtime.  They are now sleeping soundly.

Make Good Choices

So we're leaving to drive down to Key West yesterday from our in-law's house in Florida.  We're about to get into the car when my niece (who is thirteen) comes out and says to her mother, "make good choices." 

We all laughed.  This is the same advice her mother gives to her daughter (as well as son) and it was priceless to hear her daughter repeat it back to her.  It was also funny.

The Big Boy Update:  The wee wee bushes.  My son is finally getting it.  He didn't want to go inside while playing at the pool.  When I suggested he pull down his bathing suit and pee on the wee wee bushes, he did just that--right through the fence.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The wee wee bushes.  My daughter saw her brother peeing on the, "wee wee bushes" and didn't want to be left out.  I watched her pull down her pants, lean into the fence...and pee straight down onto her pants and underpants.  It was so cute though, it was worth the laundry toll.

Tropical Bourbon Street

We drove to Key West today.  I'd never been before but my sister-in-law did a good job of describing what it was like to us.  She said it was like a Caribbean Bourbon Street.  She's right, it does have that feel.

We walked around after checking into our hotel, looking at stores and getting a drink or appetizer along the way as the afternoon and evening progressed.  We ended up the night back at the pier bar at our hotel.

Tomorrow we're going to go on an afternoon island and snorkel trip, ending in a sunset cruise back to the pier.  I also plan on sleeping late in the morning--something I haven't done since the children were born.  That is, if I can.

The Big Boy Update:  Last night was our first night out of town.  My children slept on mattresses on the floor in our room,  My son woke up this morning as I was heading to the bathroom and asked me, "what are you doing in Nana's bed?"  When I explained that Nana was in another room, he grabbed his blanket and pacifier and headed out the door to find Nana. 
 
The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My niece asked my daughter if she wanted to do one of the foam puzzles in a stack today.  My daughter had already completed the school bus one, but when asked if she wanted to do the bunny rabbit one, she said, "No, it's too pretty,

The Plane Dash

We went to visit family today and that meant taking two airplane flights to get there.  We had prepared in advance with appropriately packed bags and well-prepared children for the trip.  Also, we had iPads.  My father drove us to the airport and we got checked in well before the flight departed.

The children were great on the first flight, but we had a delay before takeoff due to a signal button.  That made our connection tight to the next flight.  And I mean tight.  We had to run through two concourses and take a train.  My daughter melted down right at the end and I barely got in the gate as my husband was telling the man, "she's right behind me."

That meant we didn't get to stop at the bathroom or even get our children or us lunch.  We had a little snack left and got some pretzels on the flight.  We made it and got some food when we got here.  Overall, it was a good trip other than the mad plane connection dash.

The Big Boy Update:  When we landed at our final destination and were taxing to the ground my son said something he's never said before and he said it quite loudly, so loudly that people laughed all around us.  He exclaimed in just the right intonation, "oh my god!"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter liked the man sitting beside her on the flight today.  I'm not sure if it was him or his brown corduroy jacket but she kept touching his arm and leaning over on him.  I don't think he minded, even when she woke him up. 

The Solid Surface Segment

I don't know if you remember back when "solid surface" counter tops became popular.  They were revolutionary in that the material was very hard yet durable and totally solid, so that you wouldn't scratch or chip through it like you would a veneer counter top.  I was young, and by that I mean I was far too young to be living on my own from my parents, but some day, I thought, I'd have those great solid surface counter tops.

Times change and while solid surface is still just as durable as it was years ago, granite counter tops are the new, "must have" for your kitchen or bathroom.  My husband and I liked many of the granite stones and we have granite in more areas of our house than other surfaces, but the one place we decided had to be solid surface was our office desks. 

To be honest, I'm not sure why we decided there was no other option, but I can tell you after three years of working at a desk with warm-to-the-touch surface that won't wear off when I run my mouse over it fifty-thousand times, I am still completely satisfied and glad we made the choice we did. 

As an aside and as a total member of the "feature creature" society, I have to tell you about another interesting aspect of the solid surface counter tops.  It's an acrylic-related product, but what's neat is that to connect segments, the installer does a type of, "melt and fuse" process.  We have an L-shaped office area and I know there's a seam somewhere and I *think* I know where that seam is, but I question myself when I look for it because it could be there, or it could be that spot three inches over and, well, I'm not altogether sure.   I mention this because we had to do some special tricks with colored caulking material to disguise the seam in our kitchen's granite counter tops.

All this is preamble to the topic of this blog post which is, "The Solid Surface Segment."  And for that, we have to go back in time.  I don't know where, nor do I know when, but at some point there was a house around me that was having construction work done.  One day as I was walking the dog or otherwise wandering around I noticed a piece of solid surface counter top in the trash bin for the project.  

I grabbed it (it was trash after all) and I kept it.  I think I had it on my desk for a while and every so often I'd look at it and think how I'd have those counter tops some day.  Eventually the little 18"x1/2" segment went into a box and got stored in the attic...until recently.  When I found it cleaning up some things I decided to bring it downstairs where we had installed our solid surface desk area.  

And here's the interesting thing...that piece from so many years ago is almost a perfect match for what we decided to buy.  Coincidence or had I forgotten but my mind remembered when my husband and I picked our color out?

The Big Boy Update:  Naked nap.  I don't know why and I didn't ask but my son wanted to have a nap naked today.  All went very well until just at the end when he lost his bladder...everywhere.   The washing machine is running as we speak.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "I want to be nakie nakie too."   If her brother was naked, then she wanted to be naked too.  She did a good job, until she got her arm stuck in her shirt, Tarzan/Jane style and needed some help.

Fitness Update:  We were successful in our half marathon yesterday.  Apparently after we finished (because we would have most likely noticed it) two people died during the race.  They were young men, 31 and 35 years in age.   Our thoughts are with their families.

Rock and Roll Marathon

My neighbor, Uncle Jonathan and I ran in the Rock and Roll marathon today.  The three of us ran the half marathon, mostly because it sounded like an exciting and fun event.   

The course was downtown and all on roads.  I'm not a big fan of road races, mostly because it makes my feet unhappy.  When I started to run I thought I hated trails because it made my feet feel like rocks poking up into the shoes the whole time.  But I realized now that that inconsistent terrain is just one long foot massage and I miss it on road races. 

The start of the race was challenging for me because my shin splints suddenly resurfaced.  It only lasts for three miles, but it's a frustrating three miles.  I slowed down my running mates as I ran along and hoped the distance would go by quickly.

Uncle Jonathan had the worst time of us all.  He had something going on with a knee that became more painful as time and distance wore on.  He isn't sure if it's damage, inflammation or something like IT band pain.  He's going to do some cross-training to see if he can work it out.   Still, we felt badly he was in pain during the race.

We finished the race, had a crazy time finding the car (we knew exactly where it was, just couldn't get there) and ultimately got home before lunch. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son told my mother yesterday, "I want you to get a pair of tweezers and pull out my tooth and put it back here."  We don't know why he wanted to reposition a front tooth to the back of his mouth.  He was non-specific.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter told Uncle Jonathan at the table tonight, "I want to cry like a little baby."

Fitness Update:  13.1 at the Rock and Roll Marathon.  Twelve-thousand participants make for busy streets.

From Den to Sun room

I grew up in a house with a den.  It was the thing in the 1970's to have a den.  It was cozy and dark, warm and comforting and you watched television in there on your small screened CRT with a knob to change the channels and the antenna on the top for good reception.  That was our den.

It's no longer the 1970's and since dens aren't popular any more, my parents decided to update their den.  My father worked for weeks to paint the walls, get the carpet cleaned and have the hard wood floors redone so that the den would have a brighter feel.

We went over to see the transformation of the den last night.  It's fairly dramatic.  They had a den, now they have a sun room.

The Big Boy Update:  The dust pile at the top of the stairs.  We had just had the house cleaned, and I mean just, when I walked up the stairs to find a strange pile at the top of the steps.  It turns out my son had come in from outside and realized there was a fair load of debris in his shoe.  He took it off and dumped it right in the middle of the hall.  I'm not sure why the other shoe (which was equally full) wasn't bothering his just as much.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Silent follower.  My daughter was having fun with our neighbor, Shane, who was sitting for her.  Shane's grandmother came over to see my daughter, but my daughter didn't remember her from some months ago when she met her before.  She suddenly became shy and clingy.  I did a little test, walking away, only to watch my daughter sidle up beside me again and lean against my leg.  All the adults in the room were watching and laughing at the cute behavior that I'm not sure my daughter realized we were all watching.

The Tag Realization

You know when you have one of those forehead slapping moments where you think, "why didn't I think of that before?"  I had one of those today.

When the bathroom gets cleaned, the floor mats are moved into the closed until the mopped floor dries.  Every time this happens, for the past three-and-a-half years, I put the floor mats back and have to orient the mats so that the tags (which seem to like to flip out from the mats) so that the tags are up against the vanity or tub. 

Today as I was putting them back I suddenly thought, "I don't need those tags.  I don't want those tags.  WHY haven't I cut those tags?"  And so I did. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son just came to the window from playing outside and looked into the basement (where the adults were watching a movie) and realized the movie was Planes.  He said loudly enough through the glass, "that's my favorite movie" and then went back to playing.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The Purple Bear.  My father got a very small purple bear, about two inches in height, that has movable arms and legs and is furry purple.  He gave it to my daughter last night.  It's her new best friend.  She went to sleep with it and the first thing I heard this morning when I went to get them was, "mommy, where is my purple bear?"  I helped her find her bear in the blanket and she brought him down for breakfast.

Fitness Update:  One mile.  I know, right?  We had an issue this morning and only one mile was run.  I wasn't overly upset because I could get back in bed for another hour.

The Pizza Bone Inheritance

We had dinner with my parents tonight.  Our two children had a wonderful time playing with both Mimi and Gramps.  My father had found a beautiful see saw of industrial playground quality and completely refurbished it including seats, sealing and painting the metal and generally making it look brand new.  My kids loved it.

They had a fun time doing many things over the course of the evening and we ultimately didn't go home until a half hour past the children's bedtime.  They were both asking to go to bed as soon as we got home, which is a truly wonderful thing to behold as parents.

We had pizza tonight, ordered from one of our favorite local pizza places.  My husband likes this place in particular because their pizza reminds him of the pizza he had when he lived in New York.  We all enjoyed the pizza, my children coming back and asking for more just before we left.  As I ate my pizza I noticed something though--my father and I eat our pizza's the same way.

Some people like to fold their pizza.  Some people like to cut it with a knife and fork.  Some people think the best part of the pizza is the crusts.  I like the toppings personally.  I'll eat from the corner of the pizza slice until I get relatively close to the crust and then I'll use my teeth to either pull or scrape off the toppings.  I don't dislike the crust, but it's the least interesting part of the pizza, so I end up leaving the crust (or "bones" as someone told me years ago) on the plate.  Those bones usually have a portion of the crust from the pizza slice attached as well.

If I were to eat three slices of pizza, there's a good chance there will be at least one full slice of pizza crust in square inches left on the plate when I'm done.  And apparently my father does the same thing.

That's one of the interesting things about genetics.  What made me want to eat my pizza that way?  My father never told me how to eat pizza, it's a personal preference that I can't explain, but apparently I inherited that preference from him.

The Big Boy Update:  "That was a nice bridge."  On the way home from dinner in the dark tonight we drove under a bridge that we drive under many times each week.  For some reason tonight the bridge must have looked very friendly because as we drove past my son said, "that was a nice bridge."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Thank you for dinner."  As we left Mimi and Gramp's house tonight my daughter said, without any prompting, "thank you for dinner" as we walked out the front door.

The Fastest Doctor

I had an appointment with an ENT today to have a risk assessment evaluation prior to some dental work.  I was a new patient but they took my insurance type and gave me an appointment time.  When I asked how long the appointment would take she said, "about thirty minutes".   I asked her if I would have a diagnosis by then and she said, "oh yes, you'll have everything you need before you leave."

Then I asked if they were going to do a CT scan of my sinuses to verify everything was okay.  She said, "yes, they will most likely do that to confirm you have no sinus issues."   I hung up and was pleased at the plan.

This morning I was thinking about this doctor.  He came highly recommended by my endodontist and I had no concerns about getting the evaluation I needed from him.  But that thirty minutes, could that be possible?  I further got to thinking about how I was a new patient.  They didn't ask me to come in fifteen minutes early or the appointment would be cancelled.  They also didn't ask me to come in early to fill out new patient paperwork.  Nor did they send me to their website to print out information to fill out before I arrived.   Thirty minutes, really?

So I get there today, highly skeptical, and they checked me right in.  They did give me two pages to fill out of questions, but it was quick to do and I was called back before I got to page two.  While I was in the technician's room, answering questions, and older gentleman came in and lo, he was the doctor.  He gave me an examination, asked some questions, and clearly knew what he was doing by the questions he asked and the observations he made.  (For instance, he knew from my neck scar I had had surgery and guessed it was a fusion verses a thyroid issue.)

He said I'd have a CT next and he'd come in and review the results with me.  We went immediately to the CT machine, took a forty-second scan and he came in within two minutes to review the results with me.  We made a plan to recheck things in three weeks to ensure all was still well, shook hands and he left.

I would have been out of there in thirty minutes too if the technician and I didn't get involved talking about the National Pharmaceutical Online Database.  We were trying to remember a medication I took last month and had a very interesting time looking at how the database worked and discussing how it was a valuable tool for physicians. 

At any rate, it was one of those great experiences all around.  

The Big Boy Update:  Rainbow.  There was a brief but heavy shower this evening that resulted in a rainbow.  I think it's the first one my son has seen that he really understood.  He grinned and pointed.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Rainbow not so much.  My daughter didn't really understand the rainbow way up in the sky.  My husband said it could be that the rainbows on television or their books or in any other form of media they see are so bright, big and bold that a real rainbow in it's diaphanous state off in the sky didn't click with her.

Fitness Update:  No no, we don't have to do the running.  We told that to our trainer this morning when he wanted to send us back to the treadmill to do more eight percent incline/eight pace runs.  Our excuse was that we were saving ourselves for the Rock & Roll half marathon this weekend.  He said, "but I thought you two loved to do the running." 

The Scary Squirrel

My husband typically comes to bed later than I do.  I get up early to work out and he likes to stay up late and work or watch a movie to relax.   Last night after I was asleep I heard him making this big commotion near the door to the room.  I sat bolt upright in bed.

"What?  What's going on?" I ask.
My husband says nothing but is clearly distressed in the dark.

"What are you doing?!" I ask him in a louder voice.  He's always nice and qquiet when he comes to bed.  He tries not to wake me up, but this time it's like he's doing some sort of distressed dance near the dresser...in the dark...and not answering me.


"Okay, this is the third time I'm asking you--can you hear the frustration in my voice--what is going on?"

Then he tells me, "I was asleep and I dreamed there was a squirrel in the bed."

Oh...oh!  He was already in the bed and asleep (I told you he could get in quietly and not wake me up) and dreaming.  He had leaped out of bed to get away from the squirrel and wasn't awake enough to answer me when I was talking to him.

I felt bad for being annoyed at him.   Then, we started to laugh.  He said he'd never dreamed anything like that before and that it was a very strange experience.

Today in the car on the way to pick up the children we started talking about it again and we started laughing so hard it brought tears to my eyes.  I'd look at him and he'd laugh.  He'd look at me and I'd laugh more.

The Big Boy Update:  Pee in the potty.  He goes a lot now without you asking him to.  You usually know this because he leaves the little potty full.  He's starting to dump it and flush it on his own now.  Maybe we'll tackle wiping next.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: She also leaves pee in the potty.  But she is much more likely to dump it and flush it.  Maybe her brother learned it from her.  I know she didn't learn it from him.

The Voice

This isn't about that show, it's about my voice and how it's gone missing.  I talk a lot and my voice has always been supportive of my need to blab on about all sorts of things all the time.  Only it must have gotten tired and wanted a vacation at the end of last week. 

I went out for a long run in the morning and then after lunch, suddenly and with no explanation, my voice started to fade, get squeaky and peter out all together.   It got to be a game, trying to speak in different registers, seeing what would produce sound and what would result in laughable silence. Sneezing was particularly funny because although I'm a normally loud sneezer, instead there would be a squeaking noise instead.

I've only lost my voice three times in my life I believe.  I remember the first time because I was a cheerleader in high school and part of that job is to cheer--loudly.  It's hard to do that when nothing but silence comes out of your mouth.  I remember being interested by how little sound I could make.  I had a "boom box" that was white and ultra cool.  (This was during the time that you just had to have a boom box in the eighties.)  I remember sitting in front of it and trying to talk into the microphone while recording my squeaks.  

As far as today goes, my voice is on the way back.

The Big Boy Update:  "I want Reese to go into the forest." (Otherwise known as, "I want my sister to go away and leave me alone.")

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Kazoo.  My neighbors gave the children a kazoo.  My son, at three, got it immediately and proceeded to do a rendition of the happy birthday song.  My daughter was confounded by the kazoo until the next morning when suddenly she got it.  She was so happy running around making noise

Fitness Update:  I saw my trainer today for the first time in close to six weeks.  It was great to see him and get back to the gym (which they completely rearranged while I was gone).

The Cook and the Cleaner

I am my father-in-law.  And yes, I'm okay with that.  My husband is his mother.  And by these comparison, what I'm talking about is meal time.  My husband loves to cook.  He enjoys making a lovely dinner and the rest of us—our children and anyone else in town that we can wrangle into eating dinner with us—enjoys eating his dinners.

He cooks and does a relatively good job of cleaning as he cooks.  And by that I mean that every dish and plate in the kitchen isn't covered in cooking mess by the time he serves dinner to the rest of us.  Still, dishes, pots and pans, utensils and other items remain to be cleaned once the meal is over.   And that's where I come in.

I noticed some years ago that my father-in-law didn't go into the kitchen during the preparation process, but that after the meal was finished he seemed to spend a lot of time cleaning up all the dishes and cooking items from the meal and its preparation.   I always thought this was a nice division of labor.  He didn't have to worry about what was made or how much was needed.  He just cleaned and put everything away, a job that's mostly the same no matter what the meal is.

I've discovered that in our household, I have that role.  My husband doesn't want my help in the cooking—that's his job.  He doesn't want me to mess with his recipe or give him advice, he just wants me out of the way so he can make a meal.   Afterwards, I just want the house cleaned and reset to the pre-meal state of tidyness. 

It works out very nicely.  I am happy to have the role in our family that my father-in-law has and I am most certain that my husband loves his role as well.

The Big Boy Update:  Where is the other Captain America?  My son doesn't really get adult movies yet (heck, he's only three) but he seemed to like the Captain America movie that was on that daddy was watching.  He was particularly interested in how many Captain Americas there were though and I'm not sure he believed us when we told him there was only one.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Up chuck.  She threw up last night.  We're not sure why, because she didn't seem ill before bed and today she seems fine, but last night we changed her sheets three times within a two hour period. 

Bone-in Catfish

I remember as a child that there was one time my parents had fresh catfish from some source.  I don't know what that source was, but it wasn't from the grocery store I'm fairly sure.  It could have been from a relative or a friend but either way, we had this fish one day and my parents were going to cook it up that night for dinner.

They told me all about it, (I think I was fairly young), and I remember them doing some breading or seasoning or something and then putting the fish in the pan and cooking it.  It smelled so good.  And when I got to eat it, it tasted even better than it smelled, something I wasn't sure was possible.

I also remember the bones.  Today the fish you get is almost always de-boned.  I haven't had bone-in fish in a long time.  My father gave me the typical lecture he always gave me about how if you don't do such-and-such or if you do do this thing, then you're going to die.  DIE!  Only for most of my life he'd done these severe lectures so frequently that they rarely conveyed the dire level of fear that he most likely wanted me to feel.  At any rate, the message that night was to not swallow fish bones.

I had fun picking out the bones, although most of the skeletal system of the fish held together on it's own.  I don't remember left overs of the meal, but I sure remember that meal.

Tonight, after visiting a farm, we went to a buffet dinner with our friends.  We've been to that buffet before, but this time they had, "bone-in catfish" available.  It look just like the fish I remembered from my childhood.  I got a piece and it tasted just like what I remembered.  We had six children with three adults and it was chaos for most of the meal, but I was going to get a second catfish, no matter what.

About that time my son had an unexpected allergic reaction to something unknown.  He was a sight.  I took him to the car, slathered Caladryl gel all over him and gave him Benadryl, hoping it would abate quickly.  It didn't.  I asked him to tell me if he was getting more itchy or if he was okay, but his incessant scratching of all exposed dermis gave me the answer I feared--that we needed to get him home to a bath, stat.

During all this, I had snagged a piece of that bone-in catfish that was just out of the fryer and too hot to handle easily.  I was trying to cram pieces into my mouth while looking for a tip for the waitress, getting our things together and looking for our friend to tell her we had to leave unexpectedly.

I finished that catfish and my son got home to his bath.  But I'm still thinking about that catfish that flashed me back to my childhood in my parent's kitchen.

The Big Boy Update:  Peeing on the American flag.  We were at a farm today that had many activities.  In the middle of playing on one of the play structures, my son said, "I need to go to the potty."  As we hurriedly headed him in the direction of the bathrooms, he looked at a wooden painting of the American flag and said, "I want to pee on that."  We laughed and kept walking.  When we turned around to see if he was following us, we saw him with his pants down in the middle of the path (which was thankfully out of range of the flag), preparing to go.  My husband grabbed him and placed him in the leaves so that he could pee without defacing a national emblem.  The funny thing about all this is that we've been trying to get him to pee both standing up and in a natural setting for some time now and he's had no interest. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The pillow jumping (and the jumping jacks). At the farm we visited today, they had a huge, "jumping pillow".  This is an inverted, inflated trampoline that's twenty feet wide by forty feet long.  My daughter kept wanting to go back to the, "pillow jumping" to do "jumping jacks". 

Fitness Update:  Five miles.  I'm not sore (much) from the eleven miles yesterday, which is a good thing.  We did five miles today and had a nice run in the park.  It was an especially nice time to run as we were running in the opposite direction of runners who were competing in a one-hundred mile race in our park this weekend.  They were all in good spirits and chatting, mostly because they were on the first ten miles of the race.  We wished many, many runners the best of luck in their long day of running.

Children are Funny

It's another post about the children and their shenanigans.  I had no idea how to spell shenanigans.  Thanks, Spell Checker.

The Big Boy Update:
The Onion Cruncher - My son isn't the most adventurous with food, but he is willing to try different things sometimes.  Still, we were both surprised when just before bed he wanted to try raw onion.  Okay, we thought and handed him a small slice.  He crunched and chewed and we waited.   He made it longer than we expected (about ten seconds) before spitting it out. 

The Unmatching Pair of Shoes - Of late, the only shoes that are the "right" shoes are two different crocks (one Batman and one Camo) that are each on the opposite feet.  He gets it rightly wrong each and every time he picks out and puts on his shoes.

iPap - Did I mention before that my son thinks an iPad is an iPap?  He persists in this name, even though we've told him how to pronounce it. 

No Pushing - My son was overly excited two days ago and ended up pushing his sister one too many times as he ran around with lots of energy.  In the afternoon, I got down beside him and talked very quietly to him about how it wasn't nice to push people over and that I expected him to not push his sister or our friends any more.  I asked him if he understood me and he nodded.  Then, when he didn't expect it, I shoved him hard enough for him to fall down.  He was so upset.  He started crying.  I asked him if he liked being pushed so that he fell down (in the same quiet voice) and he said, "Noooo.  I want to go take a nap."  I told him that's what it felt like when he pushed other people down and that he could certainly go take a nap, which he immediately did.

I'm Going to be a Nice Guy -  The talk about not pushing people must have made an impact on him because the next morning when we were in the car on the way to a play date, I told him that I expected him to be nice today and not push anyone.  He said, "I'm going to be a good guy today."  And he was; he was very polite the entire morning at our friend's house.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:
Practical Life Laundry Helper - My daughter likes to help you.  She is very social.  She delights in feeding the dog her food (and making sure the dog eats it all) and she loves to help with the laundry.  The other day she diligently moved all the laundry from the washing machine into the dryer, including climbing almost all the way in to get the last few pieces from the back.

Drying Lucy - After giving the dog a bath, I dry her with a towel.  She only tolerates this, as she'd much rather run around and shake all the water off on the furniture and walls.  My daughter wanted to help dry the dog so she chased after, laughing, trying to get the towel on her.  She never even got close. 

The First Barbie - I got my son a toy yesterday that I knew he'd love.  I wasn't sure what to get my daughter that she would be interested in, so I settled on a Barbie with two small dogs she could put in a little pool.  I wondered what my daughter would think of this Barbie thing.  She loved the small dogs.  I'm not sure she even noticed Barbie.  I never had Barbie dolls myself, so I didn't really blame her.

What color is this? - I asked my daughter today, holding up a new warm-weather shirt.  "It's turkle!", she immediately replied. 

About those colors - She had no clue what color was what several months ago.  We tested her today and suddenly, unexpectedly, she knew the answers to all our color questions.  Except for that mystery, "turkle" color, I think we're past the color hurdle.

Fitness Update:  Finally!  My backside is much better.  I have a half-marathon in less than two weeks so I ran 11.5 miles today.  It was nice to be back out running.

The Wing Off

Our neighbor's had a, "wing off" tonight.  It was their son, Blake, and his friend Micah, who was visiting from out of town who decided to wrestle it out in the kitchen.  We were invited as judges. 

There were three types of wings, each of theirs and a grocery store comparison as a basis.  It was clear which one was the grocery store version.  It was fine, but not nearly as good as theirs.  We weren't sure which of the remaining two choices belonged to which chef, so we voted on variety A, B or C. 

It was close, but Micha won in the wings category.  Then, had dessert.  They each had made a special dessert, Micah's was brownie ice cream bars and Blake made baked Alaska.   Again, a tough decision but ultimately Blake won out due to sheer difficulty and complexity of the recipe.  Both desserts were great. 

My family loved it all and we had a truly delightful night with our neighbors.  My children stayed until they were so tired my son said we needed to go home because he was about to fall asleep.

The Big Boy Update:  Chuck.  There is this dump truck named Chuck.  He has a cartoon show.  My son discovered it and it is his new obsession.  Today I saw a plastic Chuck truck at the store and got it for him.  He is in love. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My Jacob.  My daughter has a best friend at school, Jacob.  We have heard so much about Jacob that today we finally got them together out of school.  It was darling to see them play together.  They're almost the same age and they just seemed to mentally sync in a lot of ways.  I also learned that my daughter knew some words in Mandarin that Jacob would say and she would repeat. 

Defying Gravity

We had a busy day.  At the start of the morning we had nothing planned, but by the end of the day we had gone to the trampoline gym with the kids, had a picnic lunch with friends at a park, played outside with neighbors, and had an impromptu party with both friends and neighbors.  I trust that my children will sleep well tonight. 

The morning was going in its normal, spring vacation, kids are out of school kind of way with the television on and all four of us in our pajamas when my husband said, "let's go to the trampoline place for toddler hour at nine o'clock."  I looked at the clock and it was already past eight, showers hadn't been had and my husband said he had to do some emails before we left. 

But no problem, we could make this work.  I scrambled to get online tickets, grabbed clothing for my children and packed a snack while my husband got his work done.   We left on time and even arrived a few minutes early to the location. 

This place is exciting to both children and adults.  There are forty-two trampolines connected together on a large floor.  There is a dodge ball area with soft, squishy balls my children loved playing with.  There's a basketball court that my children could care less about and there is a foam pit area with two trampolines for jumping in that they both loved.

We had both an exciting and tiring morning.  Next time we're going to take some friends with us.

The Big Boy Update:  At the trampoline place my son loved the foam pit the best--only not for the reason you might think.  He liked the, "rescue rope" you could throw in to help people pull themselves out of the pit once they'd jumped in.  He would throw you the rope and would usually miss, then, he would jump in after the rope to help you out.   Only you usually ended up helping him out just as much. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Foam collector.  My daughter liked the foam blocks in the foam pit at the trampoline place more than the pit itself.  She wanted to stack them and make a pyramid or just run around holding a foam block.  We told her the rules said she had to leave the blocks in the pit, but that she could hold one and jump in with it.  That seemed to be an all right alternative.

The Door Lock Endeavor

We discovered something recently at our house...we have a bathroom that you can't lock.   We had a guest tell us this because someone walked in on him while he was washing his hands.  We were all glad it was only his hands.   I told him he just didn't see the locking pin and that yes, the doors could be locked.  But he was right, you couldn't lock the doors.

The inner door to the shower and toilet room could be locked, only, oh dear, the locking pin was missing.   And for some reason the person who helped us with the two outer doors (one to enter from the hall and one to enter from the bedroom) didn't think we needed locking doors. 

We decided we needed to fix the situation.   I called the hardware store and they told me to bring in the door lock itself so that they made sure to get the right parts.   Today, I went in with a deconstructed door knob assembly and they got me the parts I needed to change out the innards to make the doors lockable.  All I had to do was change the parts out when I got home. 

Easy squeezie ice pop freezie, right?  Not so fast.   I don't have a problem with mechanical things, but this wasn't just a mechanical issue--there was a whole tolerance issue.  Screws fit, but when you screw things in, they have to line up just right.  For instance, when you shut a door, the tab that sticks out from the door has to fit into the hole in the door frame.  You can have the door shut nicely, but if it's too tight in the door frame, you can't lock the door once it's shut.   Four-letter words were used.


That tab that goes into the hole in the frame has to be facing the right direction.  If it's curving in, the tab pushes in and the door clicks shut.  If it's the other direction, the door slams into the frame and bounces back.  I was convinced he'd given me lock chambers for left-swinging instead of right-swinging doors until I stumbled upon an adjustment feature after another several rounds of swearing.

There were about six other things that were more on the level of "lock installation finessing" as opposed to basic installation steps that caused the entire process of updating three doors  to take far longer than I would have ever thought it would have.  But it's done, and I'm a wiser person.

After I cleaned up my tools, I made a phone call to our trim carpenter who did our entire house.  I don't call him often, but I think about him frequently because so many things in our house were hand crafted by him.  I told him, "Wayne, I have been humbled by three little door knobs today.  Can I just tell you again how amazing you are?"  

The Big Boy Update:  What does Donald say?  My husband asked my son this earlier today and my son replied, (more than once), "aw, fooey."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Toddler Tea Party.  I got an app on the iPad that I thought my daughter would like.  It's a tea party in which you serve drinks and pieces of cake to three people (real or imaginary).  It turns out my daughter does not like this app, she loves it.  She plays it all the time and asks you if you want to have some birthday cake, or some more chocolate milk (she thinks the coffee is chocolate milk).