Turn Down Your Sound!

Just a warning. This is light for Addie, but it may not be pleasant to the un-initiated.

Words can't describe pick-up time at daycare. Every day is an adventure.

Detour

Construction has caused us to detour on our way to campus, and this caught our interest.

Maybe your not seeing it, look a little closer.

Maybe it's afraid of floods or marauding cows.

My Back Has Silly Things on It

This is what Elspeth has been saying to us this week, "My Back has silly things on it". I do not know what this means. I think she has sore spots because she is sick.

I collected my daughter from school on Wednesday and Miss Lindsey gave me the run down of her terrible day. She didn't have sun glasses, she didn't have a water bottle. They wear their bathing suits at nap time, because they get up and leave for the pool immediately, but Elspeth had an accident at nap time so she didn't get to swim today. On the playground one of her "friends" hit her in the head.

I half listened. Elspeth had a large red scrape down her face from the "friend." She was complaining of great thirst and drinking from the water fountain for a long time. My alarm bells started to go off as she sucked more and more water. This is not like her. She turned and put her arms around me and I saw her eyes. Elspeth's eyes always give her away when she is sick.

Miss Sarah came in to continue the litany. Elspeth didn't use her listening ears, she made sad choices, I had enough. "Sarah, She is sick." The teacher paused, she is a confirmed germaphobe. Last week she stayed hours after she was off the clock to sanitize the room when one child got pink eye. She cocked her head, she mentioned that there was no fever (yet).

"She is sick." That is all I could say, Elspeth wore it on her face plainly to me, but maybe its a Mom thing. We were having company for dinner, her best friend. His father joined us in the classroom at that moment.

"She is sick." I explained, and he immediately agreed dinner was out. We asked if Ethan should come for dinner, she could only shake her head no. She ALWAYS wants Ethan, this confirmed that she was sick.

By the time we got home, she was on fire in my arms. She lay limp and feverish and mostly refused dinner, only taking fluids. I know this is not life threatening, I know it is part of life, but I wish just once that a bug would pass her by. We had plans to travel this weekend, we have had to cancel for health reasons before, but really, in JUNE?!?! Jeremy and I were going to spend our first night away from our children. We haven't been consciously seeking this goal, but opportunity had presented it and we were looking forward to seeing family AND getting a night out together (sort of like having our cake and eating too).

She must ache from the fever, and she thinks this gives her back "silly things" the searching of a 3-year old vocab to describe something she has not experienced before.

We are still waiting for her fever to break, but I wanted to let you know where we have been this week. No pictures have been taken and we are just trying to get these silly things off Elspeth's back.

Correction

After a day be being know as "Dude," Elspeth's left foot has formally requested that it be called "Town" going forward.

Elspeth still considers it silly to name your right foot.

I am afraid to ask about other body parts lest I have to call them all to get the whole . . .

Things named "Dude" at Subaru House

Elspeth's Indoor turtle (thank you Aunt Dana)

Elspeth's Outdoor turtle sandbox (thank you Grandma)

Mommy's Garden turtle (that Elspeth thinks is hers)

Elspeth's left foot (maybe it looks like a turtle)

Apparently, Dude is to turtles what Emma/Emily is to girls.

Coming and Going

We recently went through a stormy period, as one was moving out another was moving in. For the record, children do not like be dragged into the bathroom in the middle of the night just because the sirens went off, again.

There is something beautiful about the midwest, and I captured this shot between waves of storms.

Blog of Consciousness

I had to look up how to spell consciousness.

Today, while dressing in the gym locker room after a workout, I realized it is time to pay closer attention when packing my gym bag. Previously "clean" was my criteria, but now I need to add, "undies not covered with bull dogs and hearts that Mother gave me years ago" if I expect to not feel self-conscious while dressing.

My chronological age is 34, according to my gym (and several tests), my body age is 29. I told Jeremy he is lucky to have such a young woman.

My gym says my body age COULD BE 19 if I take age evasive action. I said 19 wasn't a good year for me, no thanks. They didn't get the humor.

Friday Haiku:

How dare you
let go
I need your hands to walk
(mad props to Addie for melting down every time I stopped helping her walk this morning)

Your carrot slices
are not like Daddy's
Please try again
(that's a leftover from dinner last night)

I never thought I would see a day that I would wake at 5:57 am and think "Oh, good, I got to sleep in today."

I never thought I would see a day that I would say "We do NOT suck on our toes." to my older child (Addie has been a bad influence on her in this regard).

Trying to save the earth by using cloth grocery sacks doesn't do any good if the sacks are always at home when you are at the grocery.

Body age - 29; muscles feel like (after my strength training regimen this morning) - 82
I better call Jeremy and tell him how lucky I am to have a much younger man . . .

Survival

Jeremy and I love our kids. We expected to love them before they came along, but I think the shear force of the emotion took us by surprise. Seeing my husband interact with our children has strengthened our relationship.

Here it is, the "but"

sometimes you really have to survive parenthood. I am not saying the reverse isn't true (I have considered starting a fund to pay for our daughter's future psychologist needs), but parenthood is the new one for me.

There is no one thing in this world more unreasonable than a 3-year-old, just as there is no one thing sweeter than a 3-year-old who has "spent the night making you a new hug."

So when she tells us her shorts are too tight but won't change them, and that her tummys hungry, but won't eat, sometimes Jeremy and I have to find ways to remind ourselves that we are NOT 3 and can't act equally unreasonable. So we invented parenthood haiku. We really don't pay close attention to the actual 5-7-5 syllabic break down, it is the tone that we seek. To quietly recite verse to one another, we can somewhat tune out the hysterics of our children. We usually get sillier and sillier until one of us comes up with:

You are wrong
wrong wrong wrong wrong
You could not be more wrong

to express the sentiment of our daughter towards us. I am glad that her school helps her express her emotions, it seems to be helping the unreasonable days to wane, but today she was not having anything of logic or reason.

So here are my Thursday morning haiku:

The Shorts were too tight
but I WANT them
leave me alone

I am hungry
but no food
will work today

Life with Elspeth is always an adventure.

Life on Campus

Addie Cam

No matter how many times she rounds the table, she is always excited to find me on the other side, and I am always excited to be there.

Go Fish

After a great weekend in Ohio (for which I did not take a single picture), we often return home with children quite spoiled. This weekend was no different. We have attempted to stave off the usual post-grandparent funk by planning a family BBQ (Elspeth's favorite). Thunder transformed that into a pizza party. Elspeth made it better by declaring an Ocean pizza party (she has been learning about Jonah).

Mommy Fish
Daddy Fish
Ella Fish (the one that swallowed Jonah).
"Mommy come in the Ocean!" I guess I get to be the creature of the deep. . .