Reality Me

Immature 13 yr old vs crabby prepubescent 10 yr old

Purchase your tickets here: Cat Fight

My baby is adorable. She woke talkative and happy. I gave her some milk, she hands me her pacifier, and then I sit on the floor. She climbs in my lap with a book and I read it to her once. On the 2nd read she flips the pages. Sometimes I read first, then she reads 2nd choosing what to say and when to flip the pages and whether or not the book is upside down because sometimes it looks better with the pictures the other way. After reading I get her some cereal (I was going to cook eggs but we are out of milk) and she puts down her milk, not just dropping it, but standing correctly on the floor. This is a quick motion and she then grabs for the bowl of cereal. Without spilling it she makes her way to her Little Tykes Climber (not quite the same as the one in this link. Her’s stands to my shoulders and is triangular. She loves to hide in it. It is her “safe place.”) gently puts the cereal bowl on top. Climbs the ladder. I give the milk to her. And she happily eats away.

A New Day!

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This Morning

* woke at midnight to the wife fearing that we had a fire. We did. It was in the wood stove and was rip roaring and the light was dancing out of the vents and casting cool shadows and imagery on the walls. Added wood to the fire.

* woke at 6:30. 7 yr old was up. He and I talked about the other sleeping people in the house. I added wood to the fire. He joined my wife in bed for some more rest and when he couldn’t sleep returned upstairs to play Gameboy SP

* Now dealing with the 13 yr old that is now turning it on because I asked him to get dressed before leaving his room

Too much left undone today but I’m exhausted. Maybe I can get up early and get some work done. My right shoulderblade feels like it has a knife in it. Time to grab zzs.

There is so much I don’t know where to begin. My 7 yr old’s scout troop has 12 or 16 boys in it; perhaps more. They are all great kids! But I tell you what! I sure don’t remember 7 and 8 years old the way these guys live it. “Live!” That’s a good word because I watch these kids and wonder how some of them will “live” to see double digits in their ages. Thank goodness kids bounce!

So, because school is out tomorrow, only 8 boys show up. They are supposed to be sitting down and listening to the den leader while they earn their music badge. I lean over to another dad and say, “It looks like popcorn!” and he replies “and sounds like it too.” Because not a one of these boys can stay planted in their seat for more than a second and if they are seated they are squirming so bad that you want to take the whole group to the restroom.

After learning about different types of music, we play “musical chairs.” The game should be renamed to “last two boys standing wrestle with your butt cheeks until someone hits the floor.” The highlight was when we had 7 boys left 6 chairs. The music stopped and Miles was on the side of the circle of chairs that was blatantly all full. My son takes to the butt check wrestle with a boy that is already sitting down. The only thing is to that boy’s left is an empty chair. All my son had to do was stand up and sit down to stay in the game. Instead he continues to wrestle and Miles runs around the circle, passes my son, and sits down to his left. Hopefully a lesson was learned. It was quite funny!

The den leader wisely chooses to not play musical chairs again and switches to a sing-a-long. The group choses Old McDonald Had a Farm so 7 boys and den leader start singing while the 8th boy starts making snorting, oinking sounds to the rythm of the music. Oink-snort-Oink-snort until they get toward the end of the first verse and the music suddenly stops as the Oinker switches to Oink-oink-oink-snort-BARF. Everyone stares and someone blurts out “Looks like chocolate milk shake!” Life is good at 7!

Overall, quite a fun evening!

On the way home the 7 yr old explains to me that if I let him get run over by a car “Mom would kill you then marry you then go live with someone else and sue you. I don’t know what sue means or where I heard it but I’m pretty sure it means you tattle on someone to the president then they take you to court.” From the mouths of babes!

Back from the pede. Checked 3 things:

1) New rash that is all over the baby’s stomach and back

Diagnosis: Negative on strep. Probably a virus. Should go away in a couple of days. Give plenty of fluids.

2) Lump in left breast

Diagnosis: Unlikely to be cancer (despite proximity to Oak Ridge). Could be an ovary is producing some estrogen (poor thing). Could also disappear. Size noted in charts. If still odd around age 4 then concerns begin. Question posed to doctor: Do we need to quit using milk that was produced from cows fed hormones? Answer: (Politically correct) no research has shown that to be a concern but you can buy special milk at some natural stores.

3) Rash on leg since summer has not gotten better

Diagnosis: Looks like eczema. Not much concern. Non-steriod topical prescribed to be used twice daily. Some samples provided.

The baby and I returned with food from McDonald’s so everyone was thrilled.

I chopped wood then headed to scouts with the 7 yr old.

Off to the pede.

Mind faltering. Too many great ideas to do at once so I find myself in that horrid place called “ambivalence.” I will focus on my coverletter for a few minutes.

The Amber alerts do not work in Mozilla btw, I highly recommend FireFox for development.

The 10 yr old slipped and fell to the floor in the girl’s bathroom. Apparently there was water on the floor. She landed on hit and elbow. The school nurse iced her up and called to inform up. Sarah says “she’s fine” and I explained the definition of “bad fall” to her. I think I need to have her chiropractor uncle chat with her. Going to talk to Mom now to see if she wants her to have a trip (pun intended) to the pede.