Natural Selection

Posted March 25th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

B and I are in the mist of choosing what kind and what color hardwood to put in our home.  B went to our local home improvement store and brought home 8 or 10 samples.  For awhile, they were sitting on our kitchen counter awaiting discussion.  Since we have been too busy to discuss them, I put the samples in a box and put the box on B’s workbench in the garage.  I knew that this would get his attention since he likes his garage as cluttered as I like my kitchen - not much!

When the boys, B and I were outside recently, the boys enjoyed B being home since they were allowed to play with selective tools - at B’s discretion.  To let the boys play constructively, B gave the hardwood selections to the them and let them go at them - with hammers, screwdrivers, and a variety of other items.  B said, “this way, we will know which hardwood will survive inside with the boys!”

What’s a splinter?

Posted March 24th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

After rest time yesterday (the boys and I both took good naps after such a busy day at the park and bike riding), the boys wanted to play out front, C on his bicycle and J on his tricycle. J also enjoyed hitting the limbs on the pear tree with a toy light saber. It made the blooms fly off as with a strong wind and you should have heard him laugh and giggle. It was contagious .

C decided to check out what his brother was doing to the pear tree and walked in the grass. Before he had gone 3 steps, he stepped on something and got a splinter in the bottom of his foot. Major crying.

I got C sitting down in the lawn chair that I was occupying and looked at his foot. I could see something, but with such a dirty foot, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. It could have been a blood blister or just a clump of dirt. Anyway, to be safe, I got the tweezers and fingernail clippers. I needed the clippers to snip off the piece of skin that had been dislodged so I could get a better look. C got hysterical. I said everything I could to get him to calm down - explanation about infection, getting his foot to feel better after the splinter was out, explaining what a splinter was, etc. I even offered him a sucker (very unusual considering I had a roast in the crock pot and was eminently anticipating his Daddy to be home for dinner. C held on to the sucker, still wrapped. (Meanwhile J ate at least 4 suckers while I was dealing with C…)

In the end, Daddy got home while I was still pleading and arguing with C. Daddy held C’s arms and I held C’s foot and I pulled out a 1/2 inch long splinter. C was busy kicking me with his other foot in my shoulder. We are watching his foot for signs of infection.

C wanted to put the splinter in a ziplock baggy so “no one else will step on it and get hurt.” He even took it to bed and placed it on his night stand.

C looked so sad - bandaids on the backs of both feet/heels where he had blisters, a bandaid on the bottom of his foot from the splinter, and walking on his toes on the foot that had had the splinter in it. What a fun day and yet what an icky day physically for the little guy!

That night as I was putting him in bed, he asked me numerous questions - What’s a splinter? Why did it make my foot bleed? What is blood? Why does my foot hurt? When will it feel better? Why was there a splinter in the yard? What does blood do? How do I get the blood back in me?

He also stated the obvious - “I think I’ll wear shoes so I don’t get another splinter.”

This is something that his Mommy still hasn’t learned. I got a splinter out of my foot just a couple of months ago. I have and always will be barefoot as often as possible!

Tired little legs

Posted March 23rd, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

I set up a play-date with one of my girlfriends for this morning at the park. The kids were really excited about the slides and playtime. This morning as we were preparing to go, C told me that he wanted to ride his bike to the park.

I was very hesitant to let him ride his bike all the way to the park. On the way there, we go through a neighborhood that doesn’t have sidewalks. C isn’t supposed to ride in the street. An alternate route to the park involves a paved walking trail, but I wasn’t sure where to connect to it from our house.

I decided that it would be okay for C to ride his bike to the park. I rode my bike with J in the trailer (along with the blanket, peanut butter crackers and goldfish, sippy cups, and a few miscellaneous necessities). When we were leaving the house, I asked C several times if he wanted me to drive my car instead of riding bikes since it was quite a ways (maybe 2 miles). C insisted in his bike which was good exercise and I knew would tire him out for rest time.

C obeyed me really well and stayed near the curb. He had to get off his bike once to push it up the hill and another time a little house dog started to chase us, but it didn’t scare C. C just screamed at the dog. C and I got thirsty on the ride and C really like getting my water bottle off of my bike for me and him to share. J did really well, too. But, I would have too if I had been pulled in a trailer.

The park was full of kids (I counted at least 8 other moms) and C and J did really good playing nicely (I was amazed at how C was really good physically and verbally. J only acted up 1 time, was disciplined and then played well the rest of the time). When we first got there and I got the blanket down on the ground, C brought me the rest of our stuff from the trailer. He was tired from the ride and wanted to sit and snack a little. J immediately went off to play.

For the ride home, we took the alternate route of paved walking trails. It was very tiring for little C’s legs. At one point, he told me that he wanted to get into the trailer. I explained to him that he needed to ride his bike since we had no other way to get it home. C wanted to ride around the park on the park’s walking trail, so we did and then headed home. We would have stopped by the fire department, but the doors were closed and the fire truck wasn’t there. Major disappointment for the boys. Almost home and C finds that he has blisters on the backs of both heels. Ouch! Against my better judgment, I let him ride shoe-less the rest of the way. I couldn’t let his heels get bloody, but without shoes, he could have easily hurt himself more.

The boys have both had baths and are eating a late lunch now. I’m sure they are eagerly anticipating their beds. Good thing I made up their beds before we left. Smooth sheets always are inviting. I think I might take a nap on the couch as well. A 4 mile round trip is tiring this early into the spring. However, I can envision how we will be spending the summer! Life is good.

Comments from the peanut gallery

Posted March 21st, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

J: “I’m serious about that!”

J (a few minutes later): “What’s ’serious’?”

——————–

Nana: “Your mommy was once in my tummy when she was a baby. Then I went to the hospital for the doctor to get her out of my tummy and then I brought her home.”

C: “Nana, why did you bring mommy home?”

———————

Mommy: “I still can’t find C’s blue blanket!”

J: “Daddy found it.”

Mommy: “Where was it?”

J: “It was in the garage in the (toy) truck.”

Mommy (later to Daddy): “I’m glad you found C’s blue blanket!”

Daddy: “I didn’t find it.”

Mommy: “J said you did and that it was in the garage.”

Daddy just has a befuddled look on his face. Mommy states that J must have quite an imagination (or knows something we don’t….)

———————

Yesterday I woke J up singing to him “Happy Birthday”  and told him that he was now 3.

J:  “I not 3.  I’m 2!”  (Sorry, no you’re not.  I thought worries with age started a lot later!)

Updates

Posted March 16th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (1)

B got most, if not all, of the data off his broken hard drive.

The bird (pidgeon?) is still living in our front flower bed. I saw him yesterday.

C is still dressed daily in his Mr. Incredible outfit. He is currently protecting our backyard and fort from bad guys.

J is getting over his cold. Benadryl seems to be working the best. However, both shoulders of my t-shirt are dirty from me picking J up and J choosing that opportunity to wipe his nose on my shirt.

J just brought scissors inside from where he told me he “was cutting the white stuff (blooms) off the (pear) tree.” Scissors are now very much so out of his reach and locked up!

Pizza is in the oven for lunch (Thanks Grandma B for the ham and pineapple 1/2 pizza! It has been in our freezer - oops I had forgotten about it!).

As for me, I went out to lunch with my mom yesterday. What a blast. (No kids - I had a babysitter with the intention of going to work. I did go to work for an hour to get the pressing stuff wrapped up.) Sorry mom for telling you that the pepper that was in the Olive Garden salad wasn’t hot. I really don’t remember it being that hot. But your reactions was priceless! It was hot to you! However, you did get me back with the icky breath freshener gum. Yuck! Lots of laughs and good times. Thanks for the wonderful time. I needed it.

If you would like to make a call…

Posted March 14th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

I went upstairs to change light bulbs and used the step ladder. While I had the ladder upstairs, I went ahead and changed the clock for daylight savings time. C came up and saw the ladder. The wall telephone happens to be under the clock. C climbed up the ladder to “talk on the phone.” Since this is one of the few wall phones we have, he was curious about the noise (dial tone) that the phone made. We discussed about making phone calls and what the dial tone was all about. After awhile, the operator’s recording came on, “If you would like to make a call, hang up and dial the number or call your operator.” C softly, hesitantly answered, “Okay.” He then hung up the phone and looked at me to find out what that was all about. More discussion followed about the phone especially after the beep-beep-beep of the tone to alert someone that the phone is off the hook.