For Halloween tonight my son was a silver ninja. My husband was a black ninja and my daughter was a candy fairy. I was a not-quite-yet zombie. I had been bitten, or blood spatter got in my mouth, or I got blood from another zombie in an open wound or any countless other ways it’s propertied you can become infected. Regardless, my time was short.
Because I knew I was going to turn, I dedicated my remaining hours to creating an “antidote” for our neighbors in the hopes the neighborhood could be saved. I put the antidote (along with some alcohol) in centrifuge test tubes and shared them with all the adults who stopped by our house tonight to trick-or-treat.
I was friendly. I was convivial. I was downright happy. I told people I was doomed—that any moment I might turn and try to eat their brains, but for now, I’d never felt better. Oh, and they’d better have one (or two) of these antidotes.
I also had some contact lenses to make my eyes red. I’ve never worn cosmetic contacts before, but they were comfortable and I forgot they were in shortly after inserting them. They were fun to wear because the look was so unexpected. I had a lot of people comment on them, particularly my son wh said, “mom, don’t look at me with your red eyes!”
The Big Boy Update: Nana and Papa were going to wear surprise costumes tonight for Halloween. Last evening my son was bothering Nana, saying he wanted to know what they were going to be. She said she wouldn’t tell him but she would give him one small hint. She said, “I’m going to jingle.” He immediately said, “ah, you’re going to be a jester.” She never mentioned to any of us their costumes. How did he know? What connection did he make? Nana was amazed.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter said to me the other day, “if you say that one more time…” I was in the middle of being firm with her but when she said that I couldn’t help but laugh.
Fitness Update: We ran a half-marathon distance run today with sprints every so often. There was some sort of snafu with the interval training app I use in my phone that caused the intervals of low and high-intensity to not be announced out loud. We gave up on the app and decided just to call out sprints of varying times/distances when we thought it was time for one. We ran the half-marathon distance at 10:30 minute miles, which is a significant improvement for us. If we keep up the pace running for a few more weeks before the marathon, hopefully we’ll have no troubles meeting the time cutoff for the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
Cow Girl
We went to “Movie Night” at a friend’s house tonight. My children, husband and I had a great time. We left early because both children were tired and we had plans to go to a costume party once they were asleep.
On the way home I tried to figure out what I was going to go as. I had a costume for Halloween proper, but that costume involved a set up at our front door and wouldn’t make sense alone. I fretted and then I figured out I could go as a cow girl.
I had boots a friend had given me. I had a hat I wore once each year. I could put on jeans and a leather belt and I could tuck in a button-down shirt. I could also affect an attitude and a swagger. I was going to be a cow girl.
I’m glad we went to the party. We saw some of our neighbors and had fun conversations about the holiday tomorrow and the costumes we were wearing. Tomorrow, I’m going to be infected. Don’t worry though, I’ll be handing out “antidotes” in alcohol form to the adults during trick or treat time.
The Big Boy Update: My son was struggling with control issues this morning. He didn’t want the vitamin on his plate. He wanted it back in the pantry and then brought out to him. My husband picked up the vitamin and did an “invisible” returning of the vitamin to the pantry and back to my son’s plate. He was having none of it though. He grabbed the vitamin and said angrily, “I’m gonna do it the old fashioned way” and headed to the pantry to return his vitamin to the bottle.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The corners of my daughter’s lips are cracked. This afternoon she said to me, “mom, can you give me the chop sticks?” It took a bit to figure out she was asking for ‘Chapstick’.
Fitness Update: I ran two miles today in a fun way. I was substituting at school and I’d heard it was eighteen laps around the school yard for one mile of distance. I turned on the running app and told the after school children to join me if they wanted to run a mile. We had fun counting laps and figuring out how close we were to a mile. I had several students make the mile with me. I had two other students ask if we could run again a short while later. The three of us ran a second mile. It turns out my watch and phone think fifteen laps is a mile instead of eighteen.
On the way home I tried to figure out what I was going to go as. I had a costume for Halloween proper, but that costume involved a set up at our front door and wouldn’t make sense alone. I fretted and then I figured out I could go as a cow girl.
I had boots a friend had given me. I had a hat I wore once each year. I could put on jeans and a leather belt and I could tuck in a button-down shirt. I could also affect an attitude and a swagger. I was going to be a cow girl.
I’m glad we went to the party. We saw some of our neighbors and had fun conversations about the holiday tomorrow and the costumes we were wearing. Tomorrow, I’m going to be infected. Don’t worry though, I’ll be handing out “antidotes” in alcohol form to the adults during trick or treat time.
The Big Boy Update: My son was struggling with control issues this morning. He didn’t want the vitamin on his plate. He wanted it back in the pantry and then brought out to him. My husband picked up the vitamin and did an “invisible” returning of the vitamin to the pantry and back to my son’s plate. He was having none of it though. He grabbed the vitamin and said angrily, “I’m gonna do it the old fashioned way” and headed to the pantry to return his vitamin to the bottle.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The corners of my daughter’s lips are cracked. This afternoon she said to me, “mom, can you give me the chop sticks?” It took a bit to figure out she was asking for ‘Chapstick’.
Fitness Update: I ran two miles today in a fun way. I was substituting at school and I’d heard it was eighteen laps around the school yard for one mile of distance. I turned on the running app and told the after school children to join me if they wanted to run a mile. We had fun counting laps and figuring out how close we were to a mile. I had several students make the mile with me. I had two other students ask if we could run again a short while later. The three of us ran a second mile. It turns out my watch and phone think fifteen laps is a mile instead of eighteen.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
First Sleepover
My children had their first sleepover this past weekend. It was with their good friend, Gavin, who was in town visiting with his family. His one sister had a birthday party sleepover to attend and his other sister and parents were going to a wedding. He, however, was available and we were all very excited to have him stay over.
We had fun during the day and sushi for dinner and all three children were excited about the new 3D Mario World and Mario Maker games on the Wii U. Conveniently enough, the Wii U was in the bonus room where the three of them were going to sleep. Gavin has his sleeping bag with him but my children didn’t have one themselves…only they did, because I had gotten them “indoor sleeping bags” for lack of a better name because they’re just glorified blankets that zip up.
They were both pretty darned excited about those sleeping bags. We got them into the room at a reasonably late hour, hoping they would settle down quickly (they did not) and that they would then sleep late (of course they did not.)
But they had a great time. They weren’t worried in the least that the room was different or they weren’t in their own beds. In fact, they loved the sleeping bags so much they slept on the floor in their room the next night so they could sleep in them again.
Thanks to Mimi for letting me give an early present to them as those sleeping bags were from her and Gramps.
The Big Boy Update: My son carved a pumpkin tonight. He had selected his own, small pumpkin at the patch we buy them from each year and when he saw my husband carving his, he wanted to be involved. He described what he wanted the face to look like and my husband drew some samples on a scrap of paper until he understood what my son was looking for (angry with fangs). Then, my son used the mini saws to help cut out the triangle eyes, nose and help with the jagged mouth and fangs. The pumpkin is lit now on the porch and looks pretty good for a four-year-old’s work.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The prednisone is at a quarter of what it was initially, but the IV solumedrol steroid and small dose of oral is still having an impact on her weight. She’s not raging hungry anymore, but she eats well. She’s gained over four pounds since her eye situation started. That’s four pounds onto her not quite thirty-pound body in two months. It’s a lot of weight for her size, but we’re hoping her eyes will benefit from the medication and the weight won’t matter long-term.
Fitness Update: I did four miles of run/walk/weight running today. I wonder if I’ll be as sore tomorrow as I was last time I ran with weights?
We had fun during the day and sushi for dinner and all three children were excited about the new 3D Mario World and Mario Maker games on the Wii U. Conveniently enough, the Wii U was in the bonus room where the three of them were going to sleep. Gavin has his sleeping bag with him but my children didn’t have one themselves…only they did, because I had gotten them “indoor sleeping bags” for lack of a better name because they’re just glorified blankets that zip up.
They were both pretty darned excited about those sleeping bags. We got them into the room at a reasonably late hour, hoping they would settle down quickly (they did not) and that they would then sleep late (of course they did not.)
But they had a great time. They weren’t worried in the least that the room was different or they weren’t in their own beds. In fact, they loved the sleeping bags so much they slept on the floor in their room the next night so they could sleep in them again.
Thanks to Mimi for letting me give an early present to them as those sleeping bags were from her and Gramps.
The Big Boy Update: My son carved a pumpkin tonight. He had selected his own, small pumpkin at the patch we buy them from each year and when he saw my husband carving his, he wanted to be involved. He described what he wanted the face to look like and my husband drew some samples on a scrap of paper until he understood what my son was looking for (angry with fangs). Then, my son used the mini saws to help cut out the triangle eyes, nose and help with the jagged mouth and fangs. The pumpkin is lit now on the porch and looks pretty good for a four-year-old’s work.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The prednisone is at a quarter of what it was initially, but the IV solumedrol steroid and small dose of oral is still having an impact on her weight. She’s not raging hungry anymore, but she eats well. She’s gained over four pounds since her eye situation started. That’s four pounds onto her not quite thirty-pound body in two months. It’s a lot of weight for her size, but we’re hoping her eyes will benefit from the medication and the weight won’t matter long-term.
Fitness Update: I did four miles of run/walk/weight running today. I wonder if I’ll be as sore tomorrow as I was last time I ran with weights?
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
The “Other People’s Children” Quote
I was at a parenting support group meeting tonight. This is done a few times during the school year at our school. It’s hosted by one of the parent families and attended by one or more staff/teachers. Tonight’s event was hosted by friends of ours who live in our neighborhood. The event was well-attended and our hosts were gracious, as always in their food, wine and hospitality.
I had failed though. I hadn’t read the book. I got there to find out there was no book this time, but a TED talk instead. And as a bonus, we were going to watch the TED video after some social time before we had our group discussion. Score!
The video was appropriate to our group in many ways and our discussion was robust. But one of the comments from a teacher has been present in my mind all night. She tells the story and says as a preamble that this particular story she’s told countless times.
She was at one of the first teacher support meetings after being hired by our school. She had made the comment—one I’ve said myself many times—that it’s easy to remain calm when dealing with children in the classroom and yet it’s so challenging to keep your calm when dealing with your own child. It was at this point a teacher who had been teaching for many years said something she’ll never forget. She said, “other people’s children aren’t a reflection of you.”
That just about sums it up, explains it all and helps makes me understand in one short sentence.
The Big Boy Update: He was the bad guy. At the parenting book club meeting tonight I talked to another mother and mentioned my son talked about her child. She said her son talks about my son too and how he’s “the bad guy.” For the longest time my son insisted on other people being the bad guy but apparently he’s not the self-appointed bad guy on the playground—or so her son tells it.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter’s appetite has abated and is back to a relatively normal amount, even though she’s still taking oral steroids daily. She has gained over four pounds though, which for a thirty-pound child is not a small amount of weight. She doesn’t seem to mind weighing more though.
I had failed though. I hadn’t read the book. I got there to find out there was no book this time, but a TED talk instead. And as a bonus, we were going to watch the TED video after some social time before we had our group discussion. Score!
The video was appropriate to our group in many ways and our discussion was robust. But one of the comments from a teacher has been present in my mind all night. She tells the story and says as a preamble that this particular story she’s told countless times.
She was at one of the first teacher support meetings after being hired by our school. She had made the comment—one I’ve said myself many times—that it’s easy to remain calm when dealing with children in the classroom and yet it’s so challenging to keep your calm when dealing with your own child. It was at this point a teacher who had been teaching for many years said something she’ll never forget. She said, “other people’s children aren’t a reflection of you.”
That just about sums it up, explains it all and helps makes me understand in one short sentence.
The Big Boy Update: He was the bad guy. At the parenting book club meeting tonight I talked to another mother and mentioned my son talked about her child. She said her son talks about my son too and how he’s “the bad guy.” For the longest time my son insisted on other people being the bad guy but apparently he’s not the self-appointed bad guy on the playground—or so her son tells it.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter’s appetite has abated and is back to a relatively normal amount, even though she’s still taking oral steroids daily. She has gained over four pounds though, which for a thirty-pound child is not a small amount of weight. She doesn’t seem to mind weighing more though.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Blocked
I had a swallowing problem I talked about a few times here in the past six months. I noticed over the past year that things were getting stuck when I swallowed. I had some imaging and a swallow test done and the resulting diagnosis was, “the hardware from your spinal fusions has caused your esophagus to move forward, try not to get things stuck.”
That was pretty much it. Apparently, esophagus’s don’t have to be straight. It’s okay that there is extra tissue in this pill-catching spot in the middle of my neck. Have you thought about calling it a “feature?” That’s what they do in the world of software when something is broken but they don’t want to fix it.
After all of this evaluation work—which was useful in that I found out it wasn’t tumorous or cancerous and there wasn’t a constriction—I discovered my father-in-law had had a similar thing going for years. Apparently I’m in good company when it comes to throats and swallowing.
Today was the first time I’ve ever had a real issue with it. I was at our state museum of art. I was eating in the posh little cafe near the gift shop. I had a white cloth napkin in my lap and I was eating a very meaty pot pie. I swallowed a piece of beef and it got stuck.
It didn’t get stuck mildly, it got stuck badly. This spot where things get stuck is lower than you can make the retching noise and kick it up from the back of your throat. I swallowed and the food just bounced in my throat. I hard swallowed (I just made that phrase up) and the food bounced again. I tried multiple times but the food was just not going to go down. Bt them my eyes were watering and I was starting to gag. I began to cough (which only made it worse since my trachea was the unobstructed channel) I grabbed the white napkin and held it to my mouth. Food came up. Food came out.
It was all contained within the napkin and thankfully, I didn’t vomit, but it wasn’t pretty I’m sure (I didn’t check.) Food had gone up into my sinuses, which was fun for about another half-hour. Other than that, it was a great lunch.
The Big Boy Update: Peanut oil! My son is allergic to peanuts. My husband had heard that he would likely be fine with peanut oil, so he fried some french fries in partial peanut oil tonight. My son ate every one on his plate and had no idea he was eating had anything related to peanuts on it. That’s great news because it’s one less thing to worry about from an allergy standpoint.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: I played a game called Zingo with my daughter tonight. It’s bingo with pictures. She was having a bad vision day. I took some videos of her picking up the chip and then putting her eye one inch from the card and scanning the sixteen pictures on it to see if she had the shoe or the book or the sun. She never complained about not being able to see.
Fitness Update: I went to the fitness room with my friend this morning. She had a deposition to go to and we spent time lifting free weights and talking about questions she might be asked at the deposition. She was there a long time today, I’m sure it was more exhausting than the workout we did this morning.
That was pretty much it. Apparently, esophagus’s don’t have to be straight. It’s okay that there is extra tissue in this pill-catching spot in the middle of my neck. Have you thought about calling it a “feature?” That’s what they do in the world of software when something is broken but they don’t want to fix it.
After all of this evaluation work—which was useful in that I found out it wasn’t tumorous or cancerous and there wasn’t a constriction—I discovered my father-in-law had had a similar thing going for years. Apparently I’m in good company when it comes to throats and swallowing.
Today was the first time I’ve ever had a real issue with it. I was at our state museum of art. I was eating in the posh little cafe near the gift shop. I had a white cloth napkin in my lap and I was eating a very meaty pot pie. I swallowed a piece of beef and it got stuck.
It didn’t get stuck mildly, it got stuck badly. This spot where things get stuck is lower than you can make the retching noise and kick it up from the back of your throat. I swallowed and the food just bounced in my throat. I hard swallowed (I just made that phrase up) and the food bounced again. I tried multiple times but the food was just not going to go down. Bt them my eyes were watering and I was starting to gag. I began to cough (which only made it worse since my trachea was the unobstructed channel) I grabbed the white napkin and held it to my mouth. Food came up. Food came out.
It was all contained within the napkin and thankfully, I didn’t vomit, but it wasn’t pretty I’m sure (I didn’t check.) Food had gone up into my sinuses, which was fun for about another half-hour. Other than that, it was a great lunch.
The Big Boy Update: Peanut oil! My son is allergic to peanuts. My husband had heard that he would likely be fine with peanut oil, so he fried some french fries in partial peanut oil tonight. My son ate every one on his plate and had no idea he was eating had anything related to peanuts on it. That’s great news because it’s one less thing to worry about from an allergy standpoint.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: I played a game called Zingo with my daughter tonight. It’s bingo with pictures. She was having a bad vision day. I took some videos of her picking up the chip and then putting her eye one inch from the card and scanning the sixteen pictures on it to see if she had the shoe or the book or the sun. She never complained about not being able to see.
Fitness Update: I went to the fitness room with my friend this morning. She had a deposition to go to and we spent time lifting free weights and talking about questions she might be asked at the deposition. She was there a long time today, I’m sure it was more exhausting than the workout we did this morning.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Stress Related Behavior
Today we have our first session with Dhruti, a play therapist who has a skill set and experience that seems to be a perfect match to help with what our daughter is going through with her eyes. Before my daughter met with her, she did a half-hour intake session with my husband and me (with my daughter not there yet) to understand her background. I learned more in that half-hour than I expected to.
Through our conversation she helped us understand that children are born with three types of temperaments. These are nature, not nurture temperaments and we have the temperaments throughout our lives. Our personality is our temperaments modified by our experiences. The three types of personalities are (in general terms): Easy Going, Fearful and Feisty. These are broad generalizations of detailed, well-defined types, but we immediately answered that my daughter was Easy Going and oh, yes, without a doubt my son was Feisty. (It may be notable at this point to mention my husband and I agreed that I was Feisty and he was Easy Going.)
She said that a trauma or significant change in life situation can cause a child’s temperament to change as they cope with what’s happening in their lives. The easy going child will have fearful behavior surface as they cope. As we mentioned things we’ve seen her doing since her vision loss, she said they’re all fearful-based behaviors. Some of what we mentioned included:
- Making faces, including tongue sticking out
- Licking people
- Hitting people when upset
- Making animal or non-verbal sounds
- Acting like an animal
- Becoming more shy in situations she normally would be outgoing
- Focusing on memory, “Mom, do you remember when…” and telling stories
- Becoming angry more easily and remaining upset for longer
- Attempting to be even more independent than she was before, to prove she’s not dependent
The last one in that list we spent some time talking about. I had told a story of how my daughter had gotten up, dressed herself, asked what she could have for breakfast, had gotten the plate and cup down by herself and selected the granola bar she wanted. She brought the granola bar to me (I was still asleep in the bed) to ask me if that was the one she liked? Dhruti said that that last step, the one where she realizes she’s lost something because she can’t tell which granola bar it is, will cause her to work even harder to be more independent.
With that comment, I told a follow-up story of how she suddenly decided to make our bed, throw pillows and all, the other day. We were impressed (I really was) and I’m sure we told her how happy we were and proud we were she had done it all by herself. What Dhruti said was that in these cases, it may sound counter-intuitive, but you don’t want to over-praise. You want to tell her thank you and acknowledge her work, but you don’t want to make it sound like it was anything other than a job well done. She said you don’t want to encourage her to overcompensate for what she’s lost. This will help keep her in better balance.
At about that time my daughter had arrived with Uncle Jonathan and after about two minutes of shy introductions, happily went back to play with her, “new friend, Dhruti who wanted to have a play date with her.” She apparently had a great time. We have an appointment next week in which we will learn more. While my daughter was going to the bathroom Dhruti quietly said, “I see what you’re talking about with the stress. We’ll talk more when we meet again.” And because we didn’t want to talk about it in front of my daughter, that’s how we left it for today.
The Big Boy Update: My son had the best time playing with the toys at Dhruti’s office today. He isn’t in particular need of help from her, but I think he’d be glad to go and play with her toys any time.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter had her first appointment with a play therapist today. Read above for more details. She quite liked Dhruti from what I can tell. She told me all about the toys they played with in the play room. We heard a lot of laughter through the walls as well while they were playing together.
Through our conversation she helped us understand that children are born with three types of temperaments. These are nature, not nurture temperaments and we have the temperaments throughout our lives. Our personality is our temperaments modified by our experiences. The three types of personalities are (in general terms): Easy Going, Fearful and Feisty. These are broad generalizations of detailed, well-defined types, but we immediately answered that my daughter was Easy Going and oh, yes, without a doubt my son was Feisty. (It may be notable at this point to mention my husband and I agreed that I was Feisty and he was Easy Going.)
She said that a trauma or significant change in life situation can cause a child’s temperament to change as they cope with what’s happening in their lives. The easy going child will have fearful behavior surface as they cope. As we mentioned things we’ve seen her doing since her vision loss, she said they’re all fearful-based behaviors. Some of what we mentioned included:
- Making faces, including tongue sticking out
- Licking people
- Hitting people when upset
- Making animal or non-verbal sounds
- Acting like an animal
- Becoming more shy in situations she normally would be outgoing
- Focusing on memory, “Mom, do you remember when…” and telling stories
- Becoming angry more easily and remaining upset for longer
- Attempting to be even more independent than she was before, to prove she’s not dependent
The last one in that list we spent some time talking about. I had told a story of how my daughter had gotten up, dressed herself, asked what she could have for breakfast, had gotten the plate and cup down by herself and selected the granola bar she wanted. She brought the granola bar to me (I was still asleep in the bed) to ask me if that was the one she liked? Dhruti said that that last step, the one where she realizes she’s lost something because she can’t tell which granola bar it is, will cause her to work even harder to be more independent.
With that comment, I told a follow-up story of how she suddenly decided to make our bed, throw pillows and all, the other day. We were impressed (I really was) and I’m sure we told her how happy we were and proud we were she had done it all by herself. What Dhruti said was that in these cases, it may sound counter-intuitive, but you don’t want to over-praise. You want to tell her thank you and acknowledge her work, but you don’t want to make it sound like it was anything other than a job well done. She said you don’t want to encourage her to overcompensate for what she’s lost. This will help keep her in better balance.
At about that time my daughter had arrived with Uncle Jonathan and after about two minutes of shy introductions, happily went back to play with her, “new friend, Dhruti who wanted to have a play date with her.” She apparently had a great time. We have an appointment next week in which we will learn more. While my daughter was going to the bathroom Dhruti quietly said, “I see what you’re talking about with the stress. We’ll talk more when we meet again.” And because we didn’t want to talk about it in front of my daughter, that’s how we left it for today.
The Big Boy Update: My son had the best time playing with the toys at Dhruti’s office today. He isn’t in particular need of help from her, but I think he’d be glad to go and play with her toys any time.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter had her first appointment with a play therapist today. Read above for more details. She quite liked Dhruti from what I can tell. She told me all about the toys they played with in the play room. We heard a lot of laughter through the walls as well while they were playing together.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
The Crippled Exponential Progression
In some things I’m a curmudgeon. For one, I don’t like Valentine’s Day. I don’t have any problem with anyone else liking it. If it’s your thing to make sure your loved one knows you love them in a super special, overly-commercialized and crowded restaurant kind of way, then go for it. I’d just rather do something nice for my husband at a time that makes sense to me, not when society tells me it’s the day to do so.
So there’s this Boo thing that happens in neighborhoods. I don’t know if you’ve experienced it, but it’s cute. But for some reason I can’t get into it. I’m not sure why I can’t, because it’s not at all like Valentine’s day, but it seems like another thing to get people to buy stuff to celebrate a holiday before the holiday has even arrived.
Here’s how it works: you get a piece of paper with a picture of a ghost on it. You have a second piece of paper that says, “You’ve been Boo’d! Copy these pages two times and boo two of your neighbors by tomorrow.” You get some sort of Halloween treat or item and deliver that along with the papers to someone’s doorstep. You knock or ring the doorbell and then you run. You have just successfully Boo’d your neighbor.
If you have children, they love this. They want to know what it is and can they eat it right now, even though it’s past bedtime. If you’re an adult you suddenly have been given a job to do that you didn’t sign up for. Quick though, put that Boo picture up on your front door so you won’t get Boo’d again, because that’s just greedy.
This year the whole boo thing seems to have gotten out of control though. Some time back it was a little plate of three cookies. Now it’s these nice containers with multiple things inside that, again, my kids are super excited about.
I call it a crippled exponential progression though because if everyone followed the next day rules and boo’d two people, a large neighborhood would be fully boo’d by the seventh or eighth day. In practice, some people don’t get around to making their boo baskets quickly or at all and then every house has a ghost on the door.
I’m fundamentally lazy and I don’t like to be told what to do, which I think is where the whole Boo rub comes in for me. I was going to be a little lazy for a day or two and see if maybe we were at the end of the booing craze. But my husband couldn’t manage it; he was compelled to get our boo duty done. And he did do a nice job. I don’t remember who he boo’d, but I liked the packages he made up.
And if you’re reading this, thanks for the Boo stuff. It’s been fun.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been playing Mario Maker and the Mario game. This was a conversation he had with Gavin earlier today. Gavin, “Peach is beautiful when she’s in cat mode.” My son, “I love Peach. Peach is beautiful when she doesn’t have fire power too.” Then, tonight when he was playing and my husband and I were in the room he said, “Peach is beautiful.” Here is a picture of the beautiful Princess Peach:
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: We are running out of driveway. My daughter has covered it all with her drawings. She’s doing stick figures more and more now. She told dad this afternoon that one of them was her brother. I came back and looked at them with here later in the day and she knew exactly which one of her drawings he was.
Fitness Update: We ran eighteen miles today and did sprints for twenty seconds every five minutes. It dropped our pace by over a minute. My legs are tired, but cardio-wise it was a regular run. So fun to be able to add a little speed with a push every five miles.
So there’s this Boo thing that happens in neighborhoods. I don’t know if you’ve experienced it, but it’s cute. But for some reason I can’t get into it. I’m not sure why I can’t, because it’s not at all like Valentine’s day, but it seems like another thing to get people to buy stuff to celebrate a holiday before the holiday has even arrived.
Here’s how it works: you get a piece of paper with a picture of a ghost on it. You have a second piece of paper that says, “You’ve been Boo’d! Copy these pages two times and boo two of your neighbors by tomorrow.” You get some sort of Halloween treat or item and deliver that along with the papers to someone’s doorstep. You knock or ring the doorbell and then you run. You have just successfully Boo’d your neighbor.
If you have children, they love this. They want to know what it is and can they eat it right now, even though it’s past bedtime. If you’re an adult you suddenly have been given a job to do that you didn’t sign up for. Quick though, put that Boo picture up on your front door so you won’t get Boo’d again, because that’s just greedy.
This year the whole boo thing seems to have gotten out of control though. Some time back it was a little plate of three cookies. Now it’s these nice containers with multiple things inside that, again, my kids are super excited about.
I call it a crippled exponential progression though because if everyone followed the next day rules and boo’d two people, a large neighborhood would be fully boo’d by the seventh or eighth day. In practice, some people don’t get around to making their boo baskets quickly or at all and then every house has a ghost on the door.
I’m fundamentally lazy and I don’t like to be told what to do, which I think is where the whole Boo rub comes in for me. I was going to be a little lazy for a day or two and see if maybe we were at the end of the booing craze. But my husband couldn’t manage it; he was compelled to get our boo duty done. And he did do a nice job. I don’t remember who he boo’d, but I liked the packages he made up.
And if you’re reading this, thanks for the Boo stuff. It’s been fun.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been playing Mario Maker and the Mario game. This was a conversation he had with Gavin earlier today. Gavin, “Peach is beautiful when she’s in cat mode.” My son, “I love Peach. Peach is beautiful when she doesn’t have fire power too.” Then, tonight when he was playing and my husband and I were in the room he said, “Peach is beautiful.” Here is a picture of the beautiful Princess Peach:
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: We are running out of driveway. My daughter has covered it all with her drawings. She’s doing stick figures more and more now. She told dad this afternoon that one of them was her brother. I came back and looked at them with here later in the day and she knew exactly which one of her drawings he was.
Fitness Update: We ran eighteen miles today and did sprints for twenty seconds every five minutes. It dropped our pace by over a minute. My legs are tired, but cardio-wise it was a regular run. So fun to be able to add a little speed with a push every five miles.
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