Dogs, Dogs Tripawd Dogs
Y’all know I am a big ole softy when it comes to dogs, so for my dear friend, Karen, who had to make a heart-wrenching decision last week to have her puppy dog Polly’s leg amputated to save her life from the horrible, rotten, crummy, no-good disease that is cancer, today is all about dogs.
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For any of you who have had to make a similar decision, here is a link to a fabulous Web site with lots of information and support:
Tripawds.com
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And a special thank you to the wonderful folks who run Otto’s Outfits who are providing Polly with a custom-made sweater to keep her warm as her fur grows back following the surgery. If you have a smaller dog, live in a colder climate or have a three-legged dog, check them out here. {Or click on Ott’s picture.}
Kids Say the Darndest Things
I’ve shared before some of the silly things my girls have said. Since I am not feeling very motivated right now, I’ll share some more.
This morning, the Little One was jibber jabbering in her crib as she does most mornings. Usually she talks about her “bear bears” or her blankets. Sometimes she responds to the Big One’s singing or talking. Today I was drying off after my shower and listening to her. She was babbling and then says, “Daddy I love you… Daddy I love you.” Great sweet, huh? Then quickly she changed her tune to “Mommy w’are you? Mommy, w’are you?” What in the heck? Why does daddy get the sweetness and I get the beckoning call? Little turkey.
We have an ongoing battle with the Big One about washing her hands after she goes potty. I don’t know why this is such a huge fight. We’ve tried foamy soap, kids soap, antibacterial soaps with little blue crystals and even the “magic soap” (waterless antibacterials). It doesn’t seem to matter, she still fights about washing her hands.
Usually she tells me it’s not “fun” to wash her hands. But yesterday she said this to me:
“Sometimes I like to use magic soap. I am just bored with soap and water, so I like the magic.”
So there’s the problem. If only I could find soap that talked or lit up, maybe she would be so bored it.
“Those Kids” Were All Mine Today
You know what I am talking about. You’ve been out at the park or play area or anywhere in public and you’ve seen “those kids.” The ones who are screaming, whining, fussing, temper tantrumming, hitting and generally being unruly.
I am very fortunate in that my kids are not usually “those kids.” In fact the reason I take them in public is they usually act better out in the world than they do at home! But today was a different story. We went to an indoor play place on base called The Jungle Zone. It’s just been remodeled and is free for this first month that it’s open. They’ve got stuff to climb on, mats to jump on, a huge barrel to roll in, you know the kind of place.
There were probably 12 kids in there playing. There really wasn’t a lot of screaming or whining. The Big One and Little One did great for the first hour. I don’t know if they got tired or what was going on. They were doing great taking turns in this giant inflatable wheel thing. They were sitting in it and I was rolling them back and forth.
I guess they just hit their wall. They started pushing each other, hitting each other, screaming and causing a scene. Okay, I am self-conscious enough about the size of my butt, I do NOT need fighting children to draw any more attention to us.
After giving the Big One three warnings that if she didn’t knock it off we were going home. She continued to push the Little One out of the wheel. So I said fine, that’s it, we are going home. Then the real drama started.
The Big One started screaming and kicking and freaking out. Now everyone was watching us. It really took everything I had to remain calm. I was so mad that she was being so naughty. I was embarrassed that everyone was watching us and I was sad that their fun was coming to a very abrupt end.
I told her to get up and go get her shoes on. She refused. Then I had to help her up. Thank God she complied with a little help. I did not want to have to carry her kicking and screaming across the whole play area to where our shoes were. I got her shoes on and then went to gather the Little One. Following her sister’s lead, she screamed, kicked and freaked out. Of course she is little enough, I just carried her. I put her shoes on.
Now I still need to put my shoes on – note to self: wear slip-on shoes next time- As I was getting my shoes on, the Big One was still screaming and the Little One kept getting up to go back and play. Yes everyone was still watching us.
Okay, y’all when I see “those kids” I do not gawk. I try to catch the mom’s eye and then give her the sympathetic nod that says “I am sorry. I’ve been there too.” No such luck today, they all just stared at us and I think were wanting us to leave as quickly as possible. There is something about one kid crying that leads to another that leads to another.
The only person who was sympathetic was the young girl working there. She smiled and said she hoped to see us again. Fat chance that will happen.
Hmmmm, Proud or Horrified?
I’m not sure if I should be proud or horrified. The Big One can complete the entire process of starting a DVD by herself. Well, actually that’s not entirely true I do have to switch the “Input” to the right mode, but she does the rest… turns the DVD player on, picks which DVD she wants, switches the player to DVD mode (it defaults to VCR when you first fire it up.)
Then she opens the door, puts the DVD in and shuts the door properly She’s better at it than I am. I admit I am lame and sometimes just give the DVD door a little push. But she always pushes the open/close button to close it properly.
Apparently she has watched me do it one too many times. And since y’all know how independent my children are, she has decided she really no longer needs me for anything. She can get her own water to drink. She gets her own snacks. She gets dressed. I guess the only thing I am good for is to {still} wipe her butt when she poops. Lucky me.
Further Proof Has Been Uncovered…
That proves the Little One is the sweetest child on the face of the Earth. Now recently she has taken to some nasty temper tantrums, but I can forgive them.
I’ve discussed perspective { PartI and Part II } before with regard to kids and birth order, Since the Little One is my last baby, she is by default the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful second child a person could ask for.
This morning she proved it. When I got her up this morning, she greeted me with a “Top o’ the morning” poop. {Just a shout out to my friend Deb who coined that term back when the Big One was just a wee one. She probably doesn’t even remember saying it, but it stuck with me and yes, I think of Deb every morning when I am greeted with the poopy diaper smell as I open the Little One’s door}
Anyway, after I got the Little One all cleaned up and smelling like cucumber melon or whatever scent the Huggies wipes from Costco are. She looked me straight in the eye and said. “Mank you, Mommy.”
What kids says thank you after a diaper change? The Big One has never said thank you for wiping my butt and Lord knows I still wipe her butt a few times a week, so I’ve certainly wiped her butt more than the Little One’s.
So today, I’d like to say for all the world to see, thank you God for the Little One. She rocks.
Don’t be getting all psycho-babbly on me about favoring a child. I love the Big One just the same. And every day I thank the good Lord above for both of my healthy-developmentally on-track, smart, beautiful, wonderful girls. I know that I am truly blessed.
Is There a 12-Step Program for Toddlers?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have an addict. The Little One has discovered the joys ChapStick. I know we went through this with the Big One and it got ugly. It got to the point where she put it on so often that her lips ended up cracked and gross because I think they forgot how to hydrate themselves!
So now the cycle has begun with the Little One. This morning when I went in her room to get her up, the first words she said were “Lip… On.” In Little One speak that means she wants to put ChapStick on her lips.
It used to be that when we opened the door, she would say, “Mowning, {Big One}, mowning, Mommy.” Now she asks for ChapStick. We need an intervention!!
I guess I am going to have to be the bad guy and start rationing the ChapStick application to once or twice a day. The problem of course is that I put it on at least 20 times a day. So I am going to have to be more sly about it when I apply it. What? You thought I was going to schedule an intervention for myself, too. Heck no, but I can regulate when the Little One gets it.
Okay, so I did a quick Google search and came up with the real reason the dryness occurs, at least according to one dermatologist.
“The dryness is rarely part of some “disease.” Instead, a person starts licking their lips for no particular reason, then moisturizes, and then the cycle continues indefinitely, as saliva dries out the lips along with the act of thinking about it, and so on.” Information stolen from here.
Is It Really Bad To…
Plot revenge against your three-year-old? I don’t understand why this kid won’t sleep. She is killing me. She was up at 6:30 this morning screaming about the hall light being off.
Okay, when she goes to bed, we leave the hall light on. And then when we go to bed, we turn the light off. We’ve followed the same procedure for months now {trust me, making any changes to her routine is a huge ordeal so we try not to rock the boat too much!}
I cannot figure out why today, she started freaking out about it. The only thing I can come up with is that she was in one of those really deep sleeps where you have no real idea how long you’ve been asleep. You know sometimes you wake up feeling like you just went to be and are shocked to see it’s been 5 hours or so.
I am thinking maybe that’s what happened to her. But no matter, I am making a list and when she is 13 and all she wants to do it sleep, I’ll be the one flipping lights on and waking up the whole house!
Revenge… nice and grown up of me, huh?
Truthfully, I should have been awake and doing some Wii by 6:30 a.m., but I was being lazy. Okay are you happy now, I admit it. Actually what made me the most angry this morning was she woke the Little One up with her little scream-fest.
The Musical Highway
So we finally got a new video camera. The first thing we did with it? Get your minds out of the gutter! We filmed the Musical Highway. It’s about 10 miles from our house and lots of fun to drive over. See for yourself.
Just disregard the Little One laughing in the background, she didn’t get the whole concept of being quiet. {And yes, I am aware that I *GASP* revealed the Little One’s name at the end! Actually I first revealed her name here, in case you weren’t paying attention.}
Shopping With the Prisoners
Have you ever been shopping with prisoners? No I am not referring to your children and their potential futures. I am speaking about bright orange jumpsuit-wearing prisoners, with “CDCR Prisoner” emblazoned on their backs in black block letter {CDRC= California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations}.
Well let me tell you, prisoners in orange jumpsuits and a very curious three-year-old make for an interesting trip to Smart & Final. We arrived at the same time in parking lot. I saw the inmates and their correctional officer and knew it would be an adventure. Knowing the Big One and knowing how often we see grown men in orange jumpsuits, I knew she was going to be interested in them.
We were in the syrup aisle (the Husband’s co-workers wanted sno-cones for some social event tomorrow at work so we were on a mission to get sno-cone making supplies). Apparently inmates at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County drink a lot of Coca Cola. No Pepsi products on their cart, but lots of Coke. Of course the soda and syrup are in the same aisle.
As soon as they made their way down the aisle they caught the Big One’s eye. And the rapid fire questions began: “Mommy, who is that man? Why is he wearing that? Is that a police man? Who is that? What’s his name?” I was trying to quietly answer her questions, while not drawing even more attention to these men.
I honestly felt bad for them. I saw the other shoppers watching them and no matter what their offenses, it’s uncomfortable when everyone is staring at you. {No I don’t have personal experience being in a prison jumpsuit while shopping, but I do have experience with very loud children while shopping}.
While this is going on, the one inmate caught my eye, said hello and asked how I was doing. I responded with some idle chit chat while trying to squelch the Big One’s questions. Seriously what do you say to the guy?
So as I answered her final question about not knowing what his name is, the one inmate couldn’t take it any longer.
“My name is Kevin,” he said to the Big One.
“OH,” she replied, “What’s his name?” she asked while pointing to the other inmate.
“His name is Stephen,” Kevin told us.
To which the Big One’s eyes got really big and she got really excited and exclaimed, “His name is Stephen just like at grandma and grandpa’s house!”
You see grandma and grandpa’s next door neighbor is Stephen. Really Stephen is more like the older brother I never had. He’s at my parents a lot and keeps and eye on the old folk for us (just kidding, grandma!)
Anyway, so as the Big One fortunately moved on to talking about grandma and grandpa’s house, the men were able to continue on their shopping trip.
As luck would have it we checked out at the same time. So as we were standing in line next to the prisoners, the Big One exclaimed, “Look mommy, it’s Kevin and Stephen!”
Now we were the objects of everyone in the store’s unwanted stares.
Oh the joys of my life!
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