Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk

Well, on 2nd thought, at $3.45 cents a gallon, you can cry a little bit.

Stung

The beginning of school is always a time that teeters precariously between a feeling of blossoming excitement and a feeling of distressed unsettlement.

Tell me, how do two such opposite and intense emotions simultaneouly exist within me?

My warring thoughts:

We're starting a new year!
New friends!
New teachers!
They're growing up.
I'm going to miss him.
I can't believe he's in school full day!
Freedom!!!
Freedom!!!
I'm going to get so much done!
He might be miserable.
5th GRADE?????!!!!!
What if she's not placed in the right class?
She'll make new friends.
She'll make her way.
God will work it out.

I'm positive I'm not the only one who does this. I'm just a momma bear watching out for my children. Checking. Double checking. Hurting. Feeling Joy. Praying. Asking. Inquiring. Thinking. Conferencing. Taking note. Praying. Believing.

So, yesterday was the first day of school. Emotions were running high. But the day was great. All was well.

And then came today. Even though he is the Duke of Rough and Tough, he is also the King of High Emotions, so I went by the school at lunch to check on him.

He grabbed me with his grubby, warm hands and said in a tight voice, "momma, take me home. I need to go home with you."

Ow. I felt stung. He doesn't want to go home; he needs to go home!

But I tipped his chin with encouragement and walked away. He can do it, I told myself.

Ten minutes later, I received a call on my cell phone: the school nurse. The news? Luke was on the playground and was stung by a wasp or yellow jacket. Not once. Not twice. Not three times or four. FIVE TIMES he was stung!!!

Your son needs you. Please come and get him. Feeling stung again, I did just that. I found him in the nurse's office, red faced and puffy, a desperate look in his Rough and Tough eyes. He was scared and had big welts on his shoulder, chest, hand and thigh.

But he was OK. It's just hard for a momma bear not to be there to protect her littlest cub.

Subtle

We do the best of our parenting ability to keep our children from tearing each other to shreds. Thus, when one says something mean or spiteful to another, we immediately speak to that child and let him or her know that it is not acceptable in our family to taunt one another. It just isn't nice.

But we seem to have arrived at a new level of taunting. It is called making-fun-of-your-favorite-action-figure. And apparently, it is quite effective. I will leave out the names to protect the not so innocent.

While playing Mario Galaxy on the Wii...

Child E: Have you looked at Mario lately? Mario is fat.

Child L: What? (realizing what was said...) Whaaaaaaaaat? (loudly)

Child E: Yup. He's definitely fat. Look at that belly on him.

Child L: (mad) NO HE'S NOT. HE'S STRONG and HE EATS LOTS OF GOOD FOOD.

Child E: Yeah, lots of spaghetti and other fattening stuff. He's Italian you know. And look at those weird white gloves.

Child L: (getting madder) HE IS NOT FAT OR WEIRD!!!!

Child E: OH YES HE IS!

Child L: (furious) NO HE IS NOT. HE IS MY FAVORITE ACTION FIGURE!! (pronounced FIG-R).

Child E: Ask anyone you know. Mario is definitely weird. And he wears overalls. Those are so out of style.

Child L: (wailing) MOM!!!!!! Tell Ellie to stop!!!!! I love Mario and she is making fun of him!!!!!! (tears running down the face)


Tell me I'm not the only one who is dealing with stuff like this?! What subtle ways do your children dig at each other, or did your brothers and sisters dig at you?

Luke, Lauren, and Lincoln Logs

Some days, it seems that we could take up residence on the top floor of FAO Schwarz and the kids would still be bored. They'd still walk around, shoulders down, sighing, "I dooooooooon't haaaaaaaaaave anything to dooooooooo." GRRRR. As a mom, this goes all through me. But then are those magical moments when the air is just right, no one is tired, and they are feeling creative that they get started on something and just GO. Such was the case when Luke and Lauren got into the Lincoln Logs and became little architects, making a model of..... can you guess? Look really closely and think back a month or so....

It's BIG CEDAR!!! They worked for hours and hours to recreate the cabins, the stables, registration, and even added some creative touches like a shelter (in case of tornado) and a rock climbing wall.

Entrepenuers

These kids learn quickly! I gave the girls a handful of tattoos and a wet rag and told them to have fun. 10 minutes later, they had set up their own tattoo parlor, with 5 handmade signs and their own special tattoo applying station made of 2 water coolers. Cost: 50 cents per tattoo! So, the boys ran inside to.... guess who... and the next thing I know, I'm digging for quarters so my own son can get tattooed by his sister with the tattoos that I bought!! Ellie, Hallie and Brooke each made about 75 cents, after splitting their profits. I should have made them give me a piece of the pie!

Contraption

The Princess of Hearts loves boxes and strings and jump ropes and pocketknives and rocks and paper clips and little bits of nature. It is in her pockets that I discover all sorts of odds and ends that she has collected throughout her day... bottle caps, pieces of string and all sorts of other interesting stuff. On a good day, you could say she's an avid recycler and on a bad day, you could relegate her to a pack rat. Anyway, she also has great, creative ideas about what to do with all of her stuff, and a couple days ago, after school, she set off determined to make a contraption. Using part of her collection (a box, jump ropes, pieces of yarn and an old white plastic parachute from an ORU game) she created a state-of-the-art-box-parachute that was supposed to fly open at the tug on the yarn. I didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't going to work, but just allowed her to experiment over and over and over again. She thought the air by the fence may be a little different than by the fort, so she tried each place several times. She also attempted different ways of jumping. The parachute never quite carried her to the ground the way she imagined, but I couldn't help but get a kick out of her t-shirt that day. The message couldn't have been any more perfect: "Little girl Big dreams"

It's Fair Time

The Tulsa State Fair is in town! Kami and Ellie enjoyed the rides. This first pic is the first ride they went on together, but they soon graduated to more thrilling rides. Ellie even rode "Pharoah's Fury," the big boat in the 2nd picture. I would have loved to capture the look on her face as that boat came roaring down each time. It was not a look of fear - but pure excitement. She loved it. Kami and I rode "Round Up," which I loved when I was young. I have to admit that I was just praying this ride would be over, but Kami, of course, thought it was awesome. And then for the finale, Kami and I rode the Zingo together. She had a blast on it. She said, "I wasn't scared at all!" When Uncle Scott asked her to go on the tall ride that flies straight down to the earth in some-thing like 2.3 seconds (don't know the name of it) she politely declined. Thank goodness she's not that brave yet!!!! Thanks Papa for bringing your camera (as always) to capture these pics.

A Boy and His Boots

The Duke got this idea in his head that he was going to go outside in the rain (it had stopped raining) and that he needed to get prepared for his adventure. So he went upstairs and pulled his rain boots off his door with a big THUD. Then, he found his "rain coat" really a size 2 vest, and grabbed Elle's rainbow umbrella. What followed was a whole hour of running and splashing through puddles. Jumping up and down in them... all to his heart's delight. Oh, the simple pleasures of childhood.