Wordless Wednesday: Drool

Fair Well

Ah yes, that time of year again. Time to smash all the piggy banks and spend every last coin at the Fair. We did have a good time, but I was appalled at how pricey everything was. So I went back and read my fair post from two years ago, and apparently I was appalled back then as well. Not much has changed. I'll break it down for you.

High: I entered something in the fair this year and it was fun to hunt and find it. It was in the last aisle we tried. A nice lady looked at my girls and said, "Can you find the fairies and the mermaids?"

"We are looking for the mermaids, " they all eagerly replied. That threw her off for a minute until she realized I had stitched them. She was telling all the little girls to find the mermaids. I won a first place ribbon, which I think is six bucks prize winnings. That almost pays for one person's admission.

Low: Not much to hunt through really.There were some excellent pieces there, but I wish more people would participate. I sorta wish they would combine the 'creative arts' with the 'home arts' but perhaps they don't have a building large enough for both. Just a thought.

High: The girls LOVED the rides. June has finally reached the glorious height of 48" which allowed her free reign of the thrill options. She took up the torch and braved some whoppers, by herself mind you. Here is the flying ride. She looks so tiny on it.





She also rode the Gravitron thingy. (You know, the one where it spins you inside until you are lifted off the ground.) You couldn't pay me to go on that thing anymore, but she thought it was cool. I can't wait for the other girls to get taller, so she has some company.

Tyler took the job of chaperone for any children who still needed adult supervision.



And some rides they can do themselves.



Daisy went on one ride and only because we had some leftover tickets. She didn't seem to mind watching the majority of the time.

Lows: Ivory really wanted to ride the bigger rides, but she is just so tiny. She got turned away at the first height stick and she cried. I tried to explain that I felt her pain and had to wait many years myself to go on the good rides. We walked through the kiddie-ride section, but she was not fooled. She finally opted for the Tilt-a-Whirl, and I think she got her money's worth.



During the ride festivities I did manage to lose Daisy once. There is no describing the panic that grips you, when you turn around and can't find a child in that first sweeping glance. And the longer it takes to find the child, the faster the hysteria builds. It probably only took me a minute and a half to find her, but that is plenty long in my book.

High: I was such a smart mom this time around. I brought food to the fair. Genius I tell you. I fed the kids dinner and no one was telling me they were hungry.

We did buy some treats because that is half the fun of the fair. June ate almost an entire funnel cake by herself. She probably could have eaten the whole thing if her mom had stopped snitching.



Low: Some of the girls lost their privilege to have a treat. (Yep, I am that mean mom who follows through on punishments.) We bought them pity fries, but hopefully they learned their lesson.

Low: I don't think Pearl loved the fair. She likes to be held and she doesn't like sleeping on the go. So she cranked in the stroller and fussed until she finally passed out.

Poor kiddo. Maybe she will like it better next year. If there is a next year. Luckily for her, between now and then, I will forget how expensive it is and probably just remember those happy smiles.

Boy Will be Boy

I think boys have this inherent need to tease. It doesn't have to be often or even cruel, but there is an embedded desire to play pranks on friends and family. Usually these antics come out at work. Excellent examples can be found on The Office. However, it is only natural that we women, married to men, are going to have to accept our fair share of baiting and taunting now and again.

My husband is no exception. When he sees an opportunity to have a little fun at the expense of my sanity, he can't help himself. Read on.

I was hanging with the girls in the loft. Tyler had just gotten out of the tub with Pearl. She was a clean, happy, warm baby chilling in her diaper. She is old enough now that Tyler has started tossing her into the air. And like all the others, she loves it. Tyler was giving her big air. He would toss her up and then catch her low, just out of my line of sight. I wasn't really even paying attention. Up, down. Up, down. And then he stepped out a little too far and threw her down the stairs.

I SCREAMED!!

But even as the adrenaline pumped into my system, I was already figuring out the true story. See, I think Tyler has been watching too much television, particularly too much Burn Notice. (Although, that show rocks, and I love it as much as he does.) These wise words were given by Micheal Weston just a few episodes ago. Spys and magicians use many of the same techniques. They both know people trust their eyes more than they should. If they think they know what they are looking at, they don't look too closely.

Therefore, when Daisy's baby-doll happened to be in the optimal position, he took full advantage. On the last toss, Tyler gently set Pearl down, switched babies and chucked the doll down the stairs. On close inspection, you will notice that this baby looks nothing like Pearl.

Daisy has helped accentuate the differences by drawing on her with marker. However, when flying through the air, they can look remarkably similar, especially when they are wearing the same color scheme; white and peach.

Before I even finished screaming, I realized that it was a doll sailing down the stairway and not my baby, but the damage was already done. My heart was racing and I was trying to catch my breath. Tyler of course, was laughing his head off, and truth be told, it was pretty funny.

He totally got me.

Dream Weaver

I have very vivid, disturbing, frustrating dreams. Almost every night. For instance, just last night I tried to set up a pack-n-play for about half an hour to no avail. (Frustrating.) Later in my dream I was at an amusement park on a ship. June went down a port hole and when I went to follow, I realized the hole was filled to the top with water. I was torn between my aversion of going down under the water in an enclosed space and knowing that my daughter must be down there. Guilt wracked me as I tried to convince myself that it was just part of the ride and she couldn't actually be hurt down there. (Disturbing, see?)

And that is just one night. I could get up almost any morning and tell you my dream and you would furrow your eyebrows and ask if there is something wrong with me. (Most likely.) For this very reason, I tend to hold to the theory that dreams don't mean much; that there isn't some hidden agenda that your sub-conscience is trying to send. That said, I think some people have very profound, moving dreams. My friend Kristen had one such recently. Her blog is private so I asked if I could share. She said yes. I think it is truly fantastic:

Every so often I have a dream that feels profound. Last night, I dreamed this:

I was riding a bike down a crazy busy downtown-New-York-City-type street. Narrow and lined with skyscrapers. I was riding with a zillion other people, like the Boston marathon of bike rides. I knew a lot of the people I was riding with and didn't know all the rest. It was a nice day, and a nice ride. Then abruptly, the road ended, just literally dropped right off and we all rode, before we could realize it, over the edge and into an enormous, dark abyss. I began free-falling through the blackness, aware that other people were falling too, but unable to see or hear them. It was pitch dark and absolutely terrifying. I knew I was dying and I was overwhelmed with fear. Still falling, I finally stopped flailing, and closed my eyes. I said this prayer: "I guess this is the end. I did the best I could. It doesn't seem to make sense to try to do some sort of last-minute repenting....I tried to do my best...I hope it's enough."

As soon as the words of that prayer were spoken in my mind, I landed at the bottom of the pit. But, to my shock and relief, I instantly realized that the entire floor of the immense pit was covered in an eternity's worth of human beings, arms stretching upward, and catching each of us that had been falling. As I landed in a stranger's arms, a thought came powerfully into my consciousness: We are saved by love.

The stranger placed me gently on my feet and I instinctively reached my arms up, prepared to catch the next person falling.

And then I woke up.


Awesome huh? Sweet dreams everyone.

.5

Pearl is six months now. She's a keeper. For the record, she is gaining weight like a champ. After bringing in the big guns (formula), she was 14.1 lbs at her last check-up. Not too shabby in my book. We are still trying to find the best formula, but she is patient and will drink most anything we put in her bottle.

She is a momma's girl. I can handle that. She blows tons of raspberries and sits in her bouncer and kicks until the cows come home. Man that girl can kick. Happily, those strong little legs have not figured out how to crawl yet, and I would like her to wait for another month or so. Daisy is enough trouble without another little mobile body in the house.

Other things to note: Her eyes are brown now. So goes the last hope of my ever having a blue eyed child. (Guess I have to wait for the grand kids.) She loves the outdoors and bath time. If you ever need to calm her down, those will do the trick. When winter really gets here, I guess we will have to use the tub method more often.

Homework

June got her first 'big' assignment last week. Her class is supposed to do book report projects each month. This month, they are assigned to read a picture book, or short chapter book and make a puppet of the main character.

Our house is plenty stocked with books, so I sent June upstairs to pick one. I was pleasantly surprised by her choice, and we had a lot of fun making her puppet. Let's see how many of you can guess the main character or the book.

I obviously helped with this project, but most of it was gluing, since I don't trust June with a glue gun. (Since I, the adult, still managed to burn myself three times.) She did all the painting and managed much of the building. I think she is fairly proud of her finished product.

TomBoy?

When I was in third grade there was a boy named Jake Hansen (names changed to protect the innocent) who sat a few desks away from me. He had a crush on me, but that isn't what I want to talk about today.

He spent all day drawing fighting pictures. War, guns, ninjas, swords, you name it, he probably drew it. They were very complicated pictures and I would be impressed by the detail; not so much by the subject matter. I actually wondered why one would spend all day involved in such endeavors, but he was a BOY. Nuf sed.

Today, June asked me for a paper. This is a normal occurrence around here. We probably are not doing our part to save the trees, but we do get some very interesting drawings. Like this:

I am amazed at her creativity. She asked me what some weapons were, but wouldn't show me the end result until she had her twelve 'creepy-weapon' creatures. She plans on cutting them out and having a war with them. She isn't sure who is going to win yet;  she needs to put them on teams. They all have unique abilities. Bom Pack drops bombs from his head and as they count down, he runs away giggling. (He is said to have the advantage over Gun Shot, if he is careful.) Ice Cone has the exclusive talent of shooting his arms out as projectiles and then growing new dangerous limbs.

I don't know all their special talents, but I think my favorite is Firey Death. I have a soft spot for his three eyes. Maybe I should have been paying more attention to Jake in school, because this war stuff is more stellar than I thought.