Friday, December 26, 2008

He's Going to Be So Mad....


This is the face of a kid watching as his van goes through the car wash. Remember how fun it was, to watch from the inside? It was like your own soapy cocoon.


And this is the face of a kid who's going to be so mad he missed it.
"Can we go to the car wash again, mom? Can we? Can we?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"We only wash cars when they are dirty."
"Can we get it dirty? We can get it dirty, can't we?"
And if we lived in Kid World, I'm sure that's the first thing we'd do.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Dragons in the Morning

One good thing about laying in bed with the flu and having kids, you never lack for entertainment. I don't know how sick people without kids make it.
"Save the castle! Kill the dragon!"
"Arghhhhhhhhhh!"
More screaming, fighting noises, clanging and clashing.

.
And then,
"Sawyer! You can't make gun noises. They didn't have guns back then!"

"Tchooo, tchoooo, tchoooo!" replies Sawyer, expertly aiming his gun. He doesn't care, or know, what they are scolding him for.
.
Sawyer may not be good at medieval sound effects, but I'll show you one thing he is very good at:

Getting his finger stuck. I had to work carefully to remove this wagon wheel, because it was poking the wound on his finger he got only the night before:

This was at bedtime, just after we'd sweetly and carefully tucked him away for the night. Why not get up and search the room in the darkness for the basketball pole? Why not stick your finger in it? It's better than laying in bed.
.
Did he get free?

Ten minutes later. A little sad, but none-the-worse for wear.
'
Oh, and what ever happened to the siege on the castle?

"Old Man Jenkins" came to save the day with his bountiful offering of anti-siege supplies: One loaf of bread, a bucket and ladle, milk jug, and 2 goblets. I wish life still worked out like that. Just around the corner is our own Old Man Jenkins with everything we need to get out of our current scrape. Wouldn't that be great? *

I might not be able to post until Christmas. We'll see how it works out at Grandma's House. If not, have a Merry Christmas! And an Old Man Jenkins New Year!

*Philippians 4:19 is how I really feel about that. In case you were wondering. Just in case you were.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Destined for Failure


Quick, look at this. It only stays standing for 12 seconds at a time.
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Greyson would not give up trying to keep his Gingerbread House together.
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It's falllllllling!
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Sawyer gave up on his. It wasn't a hard thing to do. But he preferred disposing of the wreckage with no hands.
.
"Can I please have a napkin, Mom?"
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In the end, Greyson gave up too. At least it was a fun mess to clean up.

Speaking of Stupid Kids.....




Off the top of my head, I can think of three stupid things I did as a kid. One directly, and two on the peripheral, but I was a participant, nonetheless.
When I was little, everybody played outside all of the time. You didn't even go inside to get a drink, there was a hose for that. We had the perfect kid creek just beyond the houses across the street. It never got deeper than our knees and most of the time was narrow enough to find a skinny place to jump over. The widest places had planks plunked across or a fallen tree to shimmy over. I remember one particular day, it must have been after a thunderstorm or nearby tornado (we were always having those dern tornadoes) my next door neighbor Jill and I (she's the one who's house I used to run over to barefoot in the snow) went down to play at the creek. When we got there we discovered a marvelous sight. It was 10 times it's size and had rapids. So of course the first thing we did was get in it. Jill got in so deep she had to hold on to a tree trunk. I stood a few feet nearer the shore and cheered her on. There she lay, stretched out full length with the current nipping at her ankles and us both laughing gloriously. It never occurred to either of us that she could be swept away never to be seen again. We just thought is was cool she could be parallel with the ground.
The second stupid thing I can remember involved a mysterious sound. On our way down to the creek on another adventure filled day, we heard a baby crying. Or so we thought. We followed the loud bawling and discovered a cat. Fonzie we called him because he was the meany of the neighborhood. Nobody could ever get close to him and none of us kids knew who he belonged to.
But there he sat, bawling like a baby and sitting very still under a bush. This was just too good to be true. I had to haul him home so my sister could hear this. I proceeded to gather him up in my arms, which he submitted to docilely enough. Once cradled he had other ideas however, and promptly twisted out of my grasp, only pausing long enough to bite my leg on the way down. It happened in a flash and I limped home with layers of fat hanging out of my knee. In my wake followed the rest of the neighborhood kids who automatically appeared whenever someone was fabulously wounded. Curiously, it did not bleed that much. The police showed up to scour the neighborhood for the offending animal and I was whisked off to the hospital for bandages and some sort of a shot with a loooong needle. I never knew what happened to Fonzie, but now I know his bawling meant he was in the early stages of giving another unseen cat a good whippin'.

One last stupid thing I did involved a sewer. For civic reasons I still don't understand, there was an access hole to the city sewer at the edge of our backyard. It surely wasn't meant to be accessed as was evident by the Olympic weight of it's thick iron lid and it's cement dome meant to keep out prying fingers. This was no match for my brothers however. Armed with a good idea, they had the lid off in no time, and were crouched over the depths below to see what was what. I watched and cheered them on as they lowered a shoebox on a string into it's abyss. It was so dark, they couldn't see what possibilities lay down there, so they had fixed a candle on the shoebox to light the way. That's about all the trouble we could get into with that one. Mostly because an adult discovered what we were doing and shut the operation down. "Stupid kids.." he muttered as he walked away. Now of course, I realize it was only a matter of fortunate air currents that shifted any sewer gas away from the open flame.
These are just some of the stupid things I did as a kid, I'm sure the list goes on ad infinitum.
I'd like to hear some of the things on your list. Please, share in a comment....

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Why Children Need Mothers.....

"Can we go outside and play, mom?" queried Tristan.
A moment of clarity arises out of my gut wrenching flu-induced stupor and I answer a feeble but attempted enthusiastic 'yes!'
After I hear the door shut it only takes a few moments for me to realize I better go check to see what they put on. Or didn't put on.

It's -3 degrees, and this is how Tristan greets the frigid north. Notice the lack of head attire? Notice the lack of gloved hands?
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Sawyer fared a little better by putting his hat on, but his coat is unzipped and he has no mittens!
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I used to think it was an old wives tale that bundling up prevented a cold. But I think differently now after reading this. True, being in cold air does NOT give you a cold, it only brings to light viruses you are already carrying and gives them a fighting chance to win.
When I was little, I ran barefoot in the snow to my next door neighbor's house on Saturday mornings. It was Saturday, who needed shoes?
And up 'til now, I've been letting the kids dress pretty much how they felt comfortable in all kinds of weather. But considering the fact that kids are stupid*, I'm going to keep a pretty sharp eye out from now on.
.

So I can do this.....
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And this. See what enthusiasm it generates? I remember, being a stupid kid is much more fun than being a swathed kid. They'll thank me when it's their turn to be the swather.
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*and I say stupid in the kindest of ways. Weren't you stupid, when you were little? Ah, kidlife, the only time you can be genuinely, grandly stupid and rejoice in it.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

What's Behind Door Number One?


It was a snappy 1 degree today, or 7 degrees, depending on which thermometer you read. With air that cold, 1 or 7 doesn't make much difference to me. Breathing in hard makes the lining of your nose crinkle like tissue paper. Daisy doesn't mind, she snuffs great snuff-fuls of snow which makes the merriest sound. Just being in the backyard with her is a festive activity.


Sawyer doesn't mind either. He asks if we can move the van into the driveway so the garage is empty. Then he can ride his new-ish bike (new to him, anyway).
There is a curious Canadian peculiarity about garages. You'd think living in 1 degree weather would necessitate a garage so you aren't scraping off the outside AND the inside of your windshield before every sojourn to the grocery store. But most people keep their cars outside in the driveway. We are an oddity keeping ours in it's own little house. I don't know what they keep in their garages... something more expedient than a frost-free car? I'm not sure I'm too keen on knowing what that would be.

It's Here.....



It decided to be winter while I was gone.
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Tristan beckoned me outside to the backyard to see.

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We found a spider's web covered in ice. That's the first time I've seen that!
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This row of icicles was the most enticing. "Can I lick them like a Popsicle, mom?"
I ate Popsicle icicles when I was a kid, but now...I know things I wish I didn't know involving chemicals and roof germs. Sometimes knowledge sucks all the fun out of kidlife.

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This is his offering. The biggest icicle.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Birthday Cake

For weeks Sawyer has been talking about how his birthday cake would be the kind with "'prinkels" on it. I knew what he meant, but alas, I forgot to tell Daddy and he bought this kind while I was gone:

This kind has Rainbow Colored Bits in it, and was a very good guess, just not good enough for a boy that was expecting 'prinkles.
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But we have the kind of Daddy that stops at the bakery on his way home from work, to get the right cake.

Sawyer adored it from afar,


and near.


Because the birthdays of the big kids so closely proceed his, he felt really special to have his own.


When he had finished eating his piece, the entire slice was left intact, minus the sprinkles.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Guess Who's Visiting Our House?


Please welcome....The Stomach Flu! At least it's before Christmas. Being sick over the Holidays is like trying to have Thanksgiving in Canada. Everyone in America is in the holiday moment and you are just trying to pretend you can be. The only other thing that comes close to this kind of misfortune is showing up to a 4th of July parade after it just ended.
By Dec. 25 I expect one and all to be hearty and robust, enjoying America and Christmas in all it's glory.

Consternation


I bought a bundle of 2000 at Costco, because we like straws in our family.

.

Except for the ones that aren't ripe.

What He Built...

Remember this mess? I never got to show you what he built....

And yes, he did finish it that day!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

It's "Would You Rather Wednesday!"

Would you rather .......


Be a Bard on the Scottish moor in a George Macdonald story,

OR
A Lord in Derbyshire in a Jane Austen story?


Please vote on the sidebar------>

It's free and anonymous!
Let the record show: Six to two, Lords over Bards.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

This is What Happens When HandMeDowns Make it Through Three Kids...


The neck grows big enough to resemble off-the-shoulder couture.
Somebody needs some new pajamas.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Rainy Day Games

Snow is fun. Snow is adventuresome and romantic and thrilling, but it has yet to appear in any significance. So the kids are relegated to muddy, soppy ground that sucks their boots into the sodden turf. In lieu of this they are creating inside games that make me cringe because they really belong outside, but, what can we do?
This is their latest invention: Launcho!

This is the launching position. My camera is bossing me and I lost the after shot of Greyson.


But here is the after shot of Tristan. You can go flying across the room and land precariously close to the fireplace....


Unless the launcher grabs your shirt.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Training Camp


I forgot to show you this perfect jumping platform. You'd all stand up there and Greyson would be the first to try it. Then everyone would fly through the air and land on the soft pile of leaves while I took pictures of your Spiderman poses.


There is also this really cool bar that has grown into the tree years ago. It's really sturdy and you could do all kinds of things on it. Like Spiderman's training camp. There's another one twice as high, just like it.


We could go down on the beach at sunset and feed the ducks.


They'd let us build a fire because it's our beach. Perfect for marshmallows.
One more day and I'll get to hug you!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

If You Were Here....


Kiki-Greyson-Sawyer-Tristan, if you were here, you'd say, "Can we go outside and play?"


You'd go racing along this curvy yellow-brick-road path to the side of the building it leads to.


When you got there, Sawyer would find these jumping steps.


And Tristan would hide between these hedges and jump out at y'all.


Then you'd run around the back of the house and over to the other side yard to shoot through this portal.


Next you'd see these Tarzan vines and you'd dare each other to swing on them. Will they come crashing down?


If you looked just to the left, you'd see this perfect climbing branch. Just low enough to shimmy on up.


Around and about one of the outbuildings is this play fort.


With these dizzy makers. You'd go REALLY fast on these. Around and around and AROUND.


And at the very end, Kiki would look up and say, "Mom, look! A bird's nest!"