First Camp Fire of the Season

With roasted marshmallows!

(And a first attempt with mobile blogging...)

Bandaids

A couple of weeks ago, Alanna got a long shallow scratch down her forearm, which after some tears and plenty of kisses, required bandaids to feel better. She wore them for the rest of the day, lined up bandaid-to-bandaid, until bath time. I then suggested she get in the bath with all 6 bandaids on and let the water soak them off; my idea was that would be the painless way to go. No. She wanted them off before the bath. She pulled them off one by one, totally dry, and totally in control. No tears, no whining. So brave.

That's my girl.

(I did all the wincing and sympathy aaahing instead.)

Semantics from an Almost 4 Year-Old

Alanna was playing with her new Lego Princess set, an Easter present from Grandma. I asked her to clean up the Legos on the floor because it was time to go to school, and was informed there were no Legos on the floor, only on the chair.

"Regardless of where the Legos are, Alanna, please clean them up so we can get going."

"They're PRINCESS Legos, not GUARDS, Mom."

Um, okay....


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"Mommy, there's a baby in my ear!"

"Huh?"

"There's a baby in my ear!"

"Well, how did it get there?"

"It crawled up my nose! It got stuffed up!"

Oh.... I think she's stuck on the semantics of stuffing something in a small space, and having a stuffed up nose while she's got this cold. I don't know how the baby got involved, though!

"That Stuff Will Kill You, Mom."

Recently, I got a phone call from school that Rhys was suffering from an ear ache, and that I needed to pick him up. Alanna and I were out running errands and were planning to meet Daddy for lunch, and we were hungry. But suddenly, I needed to pick up a sick boy and I had a grumpy girl in the backseat of the car– so I panicked: we went through the drive-thru at McDonald's. Now, I only go through the drive-thru in extreme circumstances: this one afternoon, and when I'm pregnant and don't have enough blood going to my brain. I've been a total of 4 times to a McDonald's in the last 7 years (and to be absolutely honest, once or twice we've gotten coffee inside an establishment). So, after getting three Happy Meals (one for me too) and picking up a sick kid (who had recently eaten lunch, but in my panic I forgot that little detail), I thought it would be good to have lunch when we got home. Instead, I was informed by my 6 year-old that he wasn't going to eat a Happy Meal because, "That stuff will kill you, Mom."

That's my boy.

And my daughter only ate the french fries. So the dog got a lot of treats that day.


As a note, we had to sit in line at the drive-thru so I had a chance to look up home remedies for ear aches because I really did not want to go to the doctor and have an automatic prescription for antibiotics handed to me. We spent some time that afternoon with warm compresses and warm garlic-infused olive oil drops, resting and watching movies. Just a few treatments that afternoon and evening, and another in the morning cleared Rhys's ear ache up, so we avoided antibiotics completely!

Almost Springtime

We had an absolutely beautiful weekend, with highs near 70 degrees. I was missing having a fire going in the wood stove, but being outside and working in the sunshine in the yard was a good solution to that loss. Yesterday and today, however, the high temp has dropped– by a whole 10 degrees!– and it is overcast and windy. Even though it seems like it's a little warm to have a fire going, I've got it blazing! We turned down the thermostat over the winter, knowing that I could keep the fire going most of the time, so on days like today with no solar gain, it only gets up to 62 degrees in the house (with the help of the furnace). It's just a little too chilly to hang out in that temp, so... it's perfect to have a fire! An added bonus is that it will get up to 75 degrees in the living room this evening, so while Aaron and I are watching a movie or tying flies, or reading or talking, we will be very cozy. The ambiance is perfect with a fire, too.

Names

Earlier this afternoon:

Rhys: Mommy, when I grow up, Rhys is going to be my middle name.

Me: Oh? Why is that?

Rhys: Because Dad will be my first name. Anderson will still be my last name, but it will be Dad Rhys Anderson. When I'm a dad and you're Grandma.

Me: Ha! Good thinking.

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Later this afternoon:

Rhys: I'll be King and Alanna is Princess.

Alanna: No! I am not a princess! My name is Rainbow Frosting!

Me: It is?

Alanna: And my middle name is Bird Frosting.

Only 3 Days...

Rhys knows that his Spring Break is coming up in April, and that he gets a week off from school. Tonight as he was going to bed, he had a bit of a meltdown, however, when he found out we were only going to be in Colorado visiting Grammy and Grampy for 3 days. After crying and clarifying to me that he gets a whole week off from school, and crying some more (he was really upset!), he declared that he'd rather not go to Colorado at all than only go for three days.

I explained that we would likely go visit Grammy and Grampy for a whole week this summer (plans that as of earlier this evening had not even been broached, and honestly were really nothing more than an attempt to get Rhys to stop freaking out). He tearfully verified that we would really go for an entire week, expressed his disappointment in only going for 3 days for Spring Break, and finally calmed down.

So, Grammy and Grampy, not only will we be visiting for 3 days over Spring Break with an unhappy grandson, but be prepared for us also to come stay for a week this summer!



Interesting tidbit: This is my 200th post on this blog!