My children are allowed iPad time from time to time. There is a drawer we put the iPad in when it's not in use. The drawer is a high one so that my children can't get to it. Only they're children and they are resourceful, so recently they figured out how to stack stools and get the iPad.
My son got to the iPad a few times recently and I was pondering a new storage location and then, suddenly, the iPad wasn't where it was suppose to be. It wasn't in the drawer, although my son told me that's where it was (he was incorrect). He didn't remember putting it anywhere and he said he hadn't used it. In short, it was lost.
My husband and I weren't thrilled. We were decidedly unthrilled. We looked everywhere. We looked in places we thought there was no reason an iPad should be, but that a small child might have thought it was an interesting place to store an expensive electronic device nonetheless. We asked both children where they might put an iPad in the hopes of some insight, but we got no useful information back.
We tried the, "find my iPad" feature, but either the iPad's battery was dead or something else had happened to it that was causing it not to report. We fretted. We searched. We found nothing.
It had to be in the master suite somewhere, because that's where we let them use the iPad and that's where they liked to play on it. I was trying to come to terms with a forever lost iPad when my husband showed up at the door holding the iPad with a wild grin on his face. I screamed.
It was in our closet, right beside an area we had looked through several times, disguised under a small piece of blue material that deceptively didn't look like it was large enough to hide an iPad. My son has no recollection of putting it there, but then again, the day we lost it he was ill.
Lectures on proper iPad usage and management have been given. I wonder if they listened?
The Big Boy Update: My son was sitting on the potty for a long time this afternoon. I went in and asked him if he was ready for me to wipe him. He pretended he didn't hear me and kept playing with the toys he had brought in. I told him when he was ready to call me because I had other things to do. A few minutes later he came into the living room, bent over into the down dog position, putting his butt in the air and said rather loudly, "will somebody wipe me?"
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter was sitting on our bed, playing on the iPad while I got ready for our dinner out this evening. I turned on the hair dryer and my daughter looked over to the bathroom, put the iPad down, got off the bed and shut the door to the bathroom. She couldn't hear her stories.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Well, That Hurt
I fell rather dramatically late this afternoon onto my bottom. The reaction I always have when I fall is that of protecting my head and neck. I've had far too much damage in that region for me to think of anything other than protecting that area above all others. So when I fell, I saved my head, but wounded my backside.
I yelled for my husband, who came running to me. He asked if I was okay and I said reports were still coming in from various body parts but that I could tell him I was okay in general. I told him I needed a minute and I'd give him an update.
He told me my shoe hit the wall and I noticed an unattractive black streak down the side of the wall from the sole of my shoe. He left to finish making dinner and I slowly got up and got a cloth to clean the wall, because hey, I don't like a messy house. And yes, that was a silly thing to do next when I wasn't sure if everything was okay or not, but it helped me focus, scrubbing that wall.
And yes, I hurt myself. I had landed right on the coccyx portion of my backside and I had heard some sort of crunching sound. This was 4:45 PM. I decided I'd better schedule an appointment at the orthopedist's office in the morning so I called to schedule something at 5:03 PM. Their office closed at five o'clock. Well, it would have to wait until morning. I texted my neighbor and told her I was out for the gym in the morning and to not freak out but I hurt my backside.
She immediately calls, asks questions and tells me to go to the doctor. I said, "I will, but they're closed." She told me the new office (recently opened) had an urgent care orthopedic clinic open until nine o'clock.
I grabbed my purse, told my husband I would be back (he knew at this point it wasn't good) and drove the three miles to the new office. They got me right in, took x-rays and told me congratulations, I'd broken my coccyx. The prize was weeks of pain and discomfort while it heals.
The doctor gave me some prescriptions to help with the inflammation and pain and I left the office. After filling the prescriptions I came home and ate dinner that was still on the stove.
From fall to doctor's office to diagnosis and filled medications, the entire process took less than three hours. I am thankful to their office for being open. I am also thankful to my husband because he never once told me I was clumsy or that I should have been more careful. He's the best.
Now. to find that doughnut pillow...
The Big Boy Update: Measuring tape. My son has a keyring measuring tape. He hadn't seen it in some time, but he apparently remembered it was in the garage and went to get it to measure something this afternoon. What he didn't remember was that there was a tape that did the measuring. I watched him measure several things by stretching out the two-inch key chain part alone. I asked him if he'd like some help using the measuring tape and when I showed him how it pulled out, he was very happy. So happy that I think he'd still be measuring things now if it weren't past bedtime.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Mickeys. Did I mention she has an obsession with the Mickey Mouse stuffed animals we have? There's a Mickey, a Saint's Mickey, a Mini-Minnie, and a tiny Mickey. She has been carrying around two a lot of the time and if she could figure out how to hold all four at once, I think she'd have a Disney entourage with her at all times.
I yelled for my husband, who came running to me. He asked if I was okay and I said reports were still coming in from various body parts but that I could tell him I was okay in general. I told him I needed a minute and I'd give him an update.
He told me my shoe hit the wall and I noticed an unattractive black streak down the side of the wall from the sole of my shoe. He left to finish making dinner and I slowly got up and got a cloth to clean the wall, because hey, I don't like a messy house. And yes, that was a silly thing to do next when I wasn't sure if everything was okay or not, but it helped me focus, scrubbing that wall.
And yes, I hurt myself. I had landed right on the coccyx portion of my backside and I had heard some sort of crunching sound. This was 4:45 PM. I decided I'd better schedule an appointment at the orthopedist's office in the morning so I called to schedule something at 5:03 PM. Their office closed at five o'clock. Well, it would have to wait until morning. I texted my neighbor and told her I was out for the gym in the morning and to not freak out but I hurt my backside.
She immediately calls, asks questions and tells me to go to the doctor. I said, "I will, but they're closed." She told me the new office (recently opened) had an urgent care orthopedic clinic open until nine o'clock.
I grabbed my purse, told my husband I would be back (he knew at this point it wasn't good) and drove the three miles to the new office. They got me right in, took x-rays and told me congratulations, I'd broken my coccyx. The prize was weeks of pain and discomfort while it heals.
The doctor gave me some prescriptions to help with the inflammation and pain and I left the office. After filling the prescriptions I came home and ate dinner that was still on the stove.
From fall to doctor's office to diagnosis and filled medications, the entire process took less than three hours. I am thankful to their office for being open. I am also thankful to my husband because he never once told me I was clumsy or that I should have been more careful. He's the best.
Now. to find that doughnut pillow...
The Big Boy Update: Measuring tape. My son has a keyring measuring tape. He hadn't seen it in some time, but he apparently remembered it was in the garage and went to get it to measure something this afternoon. What he didn't remember was that there was a tape that did the measuring. I watched him measure several things by stretching out the two-inch key chain part alone. I asked him if he'd like some help using the measuring tape and when I showed him how it pulled out, he was very happy. So happy that I think he'd still be measuring things now if it weren't past bedtime.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Mickeys. Did I mention she has an obsession with the Mickey Mouse stuffed animals we have? There's a Mickey, a Saint's Mickey, a Mini-Minnie, and a tiny Mickey. She has been carrying around two a lot of the time and if she could figure out how to hold all four at once, I think she'd have a Disney entourage with her at all times.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
The Happy Sad Dinner
We had dinner plans with friends this evening. We were going to take our children over to their house early and play on their trampoline and in their back yard. About an hour before we were planning on leaving I got a text message from my friend saying, "I have something to tell you, but you have to promise you'll still come over."
I told her I'd already bought the dessert, so we were in. She said their cat had taken a turn for the worse and she had to leave to put the cat to sleep shortly after we arrived. This cat they had gotten the week after their daughter, now thirteen, was born. So this was a sad day for their family. It was also the second cat they'd lost in a very short time, the one today going downhill quickly after the last cat he'd known all his life wasn't in the house any more.
But if they wanted us to come, we would come. I told my husband I didn't know how to act, because it was a sad time, but they wanted us to come over. So...we came and we acted like we normally would have.
We played on their swing set and jumped on their trampoline. My son loved the toys in their son's room and my daughter found a barbie car but insisted Barbie wasn't Barbie when my friend's daughter showed her one.
We had dinner and then headed out. I spoke with my friend briefly about it afterwards and she said that yes, they needed a day with some cheer in it and she was glad we came and had fun with them.
I told her I'd already bought the dessert, so we were in. She said their cat had taken a turn for the worse and she had to leave to put the cat to sleep shortly after we arrived. This cat they had gotten the week after their daughter, now thirteen, was born. So this was a sad day for their family. It was also the second cat they'd lost in a very short time, the one today going downhill quickly after the last cat he'd known all his life wasn't in the house any more.
But if they wanted us to come, we would come. I told my husband I didn't know how to act, because it was a sad time, but they wanted us to come over. So...we came and we acted like we normally would have.
We played on their swing set and jumped on their trampoline. My son loved the toys in their son's room and my daughter found a barbie car but insisted Barbie wasn't Barbie when my friend's daughter showed her one.
We had dinner and then headed out. I spoke with my friend briefly about it afterwards and she said that yes, they needed a day with some cheer in it and she was glad we came and had fun with them.
The Big Boy Update: Tying my shoes under the table. My son decided to untie my shoes under the table today. And what does my son like to do with ropes and strings? That's right, he likes to tie them. He didn't realize how funny we thought it was as we watched him try and tie all four lace ends together at once.
The Tiny Girl Updates: "I don't need it." This is a new phrase my daughter has been using. At dinner tonight when she was done eating she told us she didn't need it. When I stuck her painting on the refrigerator after school she got a stool, drug it to the refrigerator and pulled the artwork off saying, "we don't need it."
Fitness Update: Gym again. I finally made it back. Good times.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
The Den, The Walls and The Naugahyde Coffee Table
I grew up in the seventies. My parents still live in the house I was raised in. There was a den in which I watched cartoons on Saturday mornings and kids shows after school. I watched the original Star Trek and the Dukes of Hazard. I never missed an episode of The Love Boat or Fantasy Island and I'm fairly certain I kissed more than one boy on the couch in there when I was a teen.
There were decorations befitting the 1970's in that room. There was a strange piece that my father's friend made with thick layers of paint and various found objects. I remember looking at the cigarette filters imbedded in the painting and wondering why anyone ever thought that was art.
There was a coffee table too in the den. My father and his friend got a large cable spool and put some two-by-four planks on the bottom covered in felt for feet. They put a lovely orange Naugahyde cover on the top and held it down with heavy-duty staples. This coffee table was annoying. It was also useful. It was annoying because you couldn't get your legs under it or around it or in any way that made drawing or reading or painting comfortable. But it was there for years and somehow I made do and got lots of things done on it.
I don't know what happened to the coffee table, but it had long outlived it's stylishness by the time my parents got rid of it. That den was a beautiful wood. It had hardwood floors and pine walls and pine bookshelves. It was dark and warm and welcoming. Today, that color wood and that dark a room isn't in style either. Recently, my father decided to paint the room a more neutral color.
I asked him to send me pictures of the room in-progress. It's the last I'll see of the den I grew up in, the way I remember it, with the brown Levelour blinds and floor to ceiling wood. But the new den may look even nicer with the spritzing up my father has planned.
I still get to see that strange painting his friend made, because he has it high up on one of the walls in their mountain home. Even though it's far away, I can still see those cigarette filters, and I still think, "why would someone think that's art?"
The Big Boy Update: Fever and Tired. My son was tired all day and had a mild fever. He was so lethargic he didn't really care if the television was on or not, but he didn't really want to go to sleep either. His sister went through this a few days ago, so I'm guessing it's a one-day thing.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Clothing opinionated. She either likes something or she doesn't. Hello Kitty pink rain boots? Wonderful! Warm and fuzzy pink boots? Dreadful! We shall see if she has good fashion sense when she gets older.
There were decorations befitting the 1970's in that room. There was a strange piece that my father's friend made with thick layers of paint and various found objects. I remember looking at the cigarette filters imbedded in the painting and wondering why anyone ever thought that was art.
There was a coffee table too in the den. My father and his friend got a large cable spool and put some two-by-four planks on the bottom covered in felt for feet. They put a lovely orange Naugahyde cover on the top and held it down with heavy-duty staples. This coffee table was annoying. It was also useful. It was annoying because you couldn't get your legs under it or around it or in any way that made drawing or reading or painting comfortable. But it was there for years and somehow I made do and got lots of things done on it.
I don't know what happened to the coffee table, but it had long outlived it's stylishness by the time my parents got rid of it. That den was a beautiful wood. It had hardwood floors and pine walls and pine bookshelves. It was dark and warm and welcoming. Today, that color wood and that dark a room isn't in style either. Recently, my father decided to paint the room a more neutral color.
I asked him to send me pictures of the room in-progress. It's the last I'll see of the den I grew up in, the way I remember it, with the brown Levelour blinds and floor to ceiling wood. But the new den may look even nicer with the spritzing up my father has planned.
I still get to see that strange painting his friend made, because he has it high up on one of the walls in their mountain home. Even though it's far away, I can still see those cigarette filters, and I still think, "why would someone think that's art?"
The Big Boy Update: Fever and Tired. My son was tired all day and had a mild fever. He was so lethargic he didn't really care if the television was on or not, but he didn't really want to go to sleep either. His sister went through this a few days ago, so I'm guessing it's a one-day thing.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Clothing opinionated. She either likes something or she doesn't. Hello Kitty pink rain boots? Wonderful! Warm and fuzzy pink boots? Dreadful! We shall see if she has good fashion sense when she gets older.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Have You Noticed...
...there haven't been any "Fitness Update" entries for two weeks. It's not because I've forgotten, it's because I've been completely lazy. I haven't run, I haven't been to the gym and I haven't done anything remotely fitness-ish that I could report here.
I'd sort of like to run, but it's so cold. (Well, except for yesterday, which was an anomaly, but I had kids all day.) And I could have gone to the gym, only my neighbor who loves to go has been out of town and I haven't been motivated enough to get up in the dark and drive there by myself. I could have gone to the fitness room, but for some reason, I just haven't felt like doing anything.
I might be worried, but then I look at the date. We're in the middle of the month otherwise known as, "in like a lion, out like a lamb", which means spring is right around the corner. And there is nothing like spring for making me want to get outside, get in shape and get some sun on my terribly pale winter skin.
So for now, I'm going to finish my winter mental hibernation and look forward to spring.
The Big Boy Update: "I'm the real Spiderman." My son wanted to put on his Halloween costume the other day. He was making webs with his hands (and adding in sound effects) and he was in the middle of taking care of some, "bad guys" in our bathroom when he turned to me and told me he was the real Spiderman. I guess he thought I doubted his authenticity.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: "doh doh" At dinner tonight my daughter looked up at us and started repeating, "doh doh" again and again. We asked her for clarification, but we got nothing other than more rounds of doh doh. She stopped for a while but started back in a few minutes. I don't know that the mystery of the doh doh will ever be solved.
I'd sort of like to run, but it's so cold. (Well, except for yesterday, which was an anomaly, but I had kids all day.) And I could have gone to the gym, only my neighbor who loves to go has been out of town and I haven't been motivated enough to get up in the dark and drive there by myself. I could have gone to the fitness room, but for some reason, I just haven't felt like doing anything.
I might be worried, but then I look at the date. We're in the middle of the month otherwise known as, "in like a lion, out like a lamb", which means spring is right around the corner. And there is nothing like spring for making me want to get outside, get in shape and get some sun on my terribly pale winter skin.
So for now, I'm going to finish my winter mental hibernation and look forward to spring.
The Big Boy Update: "I'm the real Spiderman." My son wanted to put on his Halloween costume the other day. He was making webs with his hands (and adding in sound effects) and he was in the middle of taking care of some, "bad guys" in our bathroom when he turned to me and told me he was the real Spiderman. I guess he thought I doubted his authenticity.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: "doh doh" At dinner tonight my daughter looked up at us and started repeating, "doh doh" again and again. We asked her for clarification, but we got nothing other than more rounds of doh doh. She stopped for a while but started back in a few minutes. I don't know that the mystery of the doh doh will ever be solved.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Hot Now, Cold Tomorrow
Today was a great day. It was sunny and for March 2nd, unseasonably warm at seventy degrees. We spent a lot of the day outside. My husband had several things he was doing, so I packed up the children and took them to a large park near us. This park is fun because it has a big castle-like, wooden play structure with tunnels, slides and towers. It looks like fun to me, and I'm an adult.
My mother joined us an hour after we arrived and at that point we decided to, "go on an adventure," as my son called it. We went down to the pond and saw a turtle. We were talking about the turtle when my son told us to be quiet because, "I'm singing a song to the turtle." (By that time the turtle had swum off, but that didn't bother my son one bit.
We walked on the wooden pathway into the woods and then followed dirt paths between trees. We passed a soccer field and my children were interested in how they played with the ball using only their head and feet--unless you're the goalie, but at that point explanations got more involved than I realized and I suggested we move along.
As we went down a paved part of the path, a woman in an orange jacket on an orange bicycle came pedaling around. My son said, "could you please move out of the way?" She and I laughed at his rude and yet polite question as she was moving out of the way anyway. Then, we were all distracted by the fallen pine tree.
My children wanted to sit on the trunk and my son decided it was a race car (or was it a rocket ship?) We headed out, picking small flowers out of the grass on the way to the water fountains (which were all our of service).
This afternoon we played outside and I brought down the water table for the occasion. Water was everywhere, but it was warm outside so no one seemed to mind. As it got dark, we all went in for dinner and a change into dry clothes.
Shortly before we came inside, I got a weather alert on my phone. We were out in shorts and the warning was for a "winter advisory" for the next three days. Apparently tomorrow night it's going to be down to seventeen degrees.
I'm missing spring already.
The Big Boy Update: He got to the pancakes. He loves pancakes. It's his favorite food. I didn't realize he knew where they were until I came upstairs to hear him holding a crinkling bag under the dining room table. He had gotten a bag of frozen pancakes out of the freezer and was trying to figure out how to open it. It's a good thing he doesn't know how to work the microwave yet.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: She has been telling us her tummy hurts for two days now. Today, she proved it with very messy pants three times. Her fever has abated, but whatever this is is still working through her innards.
My mother joined us an hour after we arrived and at that point we decided to, "go on an adventure," as my son called it. We went down to the pond and saw a turtle. We were talking about the turtle when my son told us to be quiet because, "I'm singing a song to the turtle." (By that time the turtle had swum off, but that didn't bother my son one bit.
We walked on the wooden pathway into the woods and then followed dirt paths between trees. We passed a soccer field and my children were interested in how they played with the ball using only their head and feet--unless you're the goalie, but at that point explanations got more involved than I realized and I suggested we move along.
As we went down a paved part of the path, a woman in an orange jacket on an orange bicycle came pedaling around. My son said, "could you please move out of the way?" She and I laughed at his rude and yet polite question as she was moving out of the way anyway. Then, we were all distracted by the fallen pine tree.
My children wanted to sit on the trunk and my son decided it was a race car (or was it a rocket ship?) We headed out, picking small flowers out of the grass on the way to the water fountains (which were all our of service).
This afternoon we played outside and I brought down the water table for the occasion. Water was everywhere, but it was warm outside so no one seemed to mind. As it got dark, we all went in for dinner and a change into dry clothes.
Shortly before we came inside, I got a weather alert on my phone. We were out in shorts and the warning was for a "winter advisory" for the next three days. Apparently tomorrow night it's going to be down to seventeen degrees.
I'm missing spring already.
The Big Boy Update: He got to the pancakes. He loves pancakes. It's his favorite food. I didn't realize he knew where they were until I came upstairs to hear him holding a crinkling bag under the dining room table. He had gotten a bag of frozen pancakes out of the freezer and was trying to figure out how to open it. It's a good thing he doesn't know how to work the microwave yet.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: She has been telling us her tummy hurts for two days now. Today, she proved it with very messy pants three times. Her fever has abated, but whatever this is is still working through her innards.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
What's the Temperature?
I think I've written about this before, but I find my interest in temperature has been growing over time. Without children, I never cared what the temperature was. I would put on a jacket or coat or I wouldn't. If it was really cold, I might bring gloves or select an even heavier coat. If it's warm, I go the opposite direction with less or lighter clothes.
With children, my interest in what the temperature is now and what the temperature will be in the next five hours has increased dramatically. Putting the proper amount of clothing on them for the upcoming school day, which involves play time outside unless it's raining, means you have to know what the temperature is now and what it's going to be mid-day.
I've also never paid attention to the amount of fluctuation the temperature makes during the day. I know it usually starts cooler, heats up and then cools down later, but by how much in general and how quickly, I never paid much attention to because I was reasonably comfortable and since I can dress myself, changes in temperature were something I could adapt to. My children haven't learned this yet.
Do we go to the park? It's thirty-three degrees now so maybe not this morning. But look, by ten o'clock it will be forty-five degrees. Okay, park it is.
We can't leave these decisions up to my children yet. Only yesterday, my son wanted to go swim in the neighborhood swimming pool. He said he was, "berry warm" and it would be fine, regardless of how cold I told him the pool would be. Finally I said, "the pool is closed."
The Big Boy Update: Gassy. My son (and daughter too) have had terribly gas lately. They are little tiny people but the sounds that come out of their bottoms are impressive. They're eating the same things my husband and I are, aside from snack at school, and we don't have the same issue. What in the world are they having for snack?
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Sick and sleepy. My daughter fell asleep on our bed this morning about nine o'clock, which was strange. She was working on the iPad and just fell asleep in the middle. I couldn't wake her up easily, so we checked her temperature. She had a reasonably high fever so she's been on fever-reducing medication all day. She's not been particularly unhappy, just tired. We'll see if the rest of us catch whatever this is she has. (I say that like there's a chance we won't...of course we will.)
With children, my interest in what the temperature is now and what the temperature will be in the next five hours has increased dramatically. Putting the proper amount of clothing on them for the upcoming school day, which involves play time outside unless it's raining, means you have to know what the temperature is now and what it's going to be mid-day.
I've also never paid attention to the amount of fluctuation the temperature makes during the day. I know it usually starts cooler, heats up and then cools down later, but by how much in general and how quickly, I never paid much attention to because I was reasonably comfortable and since I can dress myself, changes in temperature were something I could adapt to. My children haven't learned this yet.
Do we go to the park? It's thirty-three degrees now so maybe not this morning. But look, by ten o'clock it will be forty-five degrees. Okay, park it is.
We can't leave these decisions up to my children yet. Only yesterday, my son wanted to go swim in the neighborhood swimming pool. He said he was, "berry warm" and it would be fine, regardless of how cold I told him the pool would be. Finally I said, "the pool is closed."
The Big Boy Update: Gassy. My son (and daughter too) have had terribly gas lately. They are little tiny people but the sounds that come out of their bottoms are impressive. They're eating the same things my husband and I are, aside from snack at school, and we don't have the same issue. What in the world are they having for snack?
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Sick and sleepy. My daughter fell asleep on our bed this morning about nine o'clock, which was strange. She was working on the iPad and just fell asleep in the middle. I couldn't wake her up easily, so we checked her temperature. She had a reasonably high fever so she's been on fever-reducing medication all day. She's not been particularly unhappy, just tired. We'll see if the rest of us catch whatever this is she has. (I say that like there's a chance we won't...of course we will.)
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