Thursday, June 28, 2007

My dad reminded me

of something I forgot to put in the last post. (Hi, Dad!) That day I spent with my Grandmother? She told him about one thing that I omitted.

While we were at the library we decided to ride the elevator on our way out. Because it's one of Mitchell's favorite things to do and it's free. :)

We always let Mitchell push the buttons because, well, he's two. That's what two-year-olds do. So, we got on and let him push the button for the second floor. Then he looks at me and says "I push this one?"

"No," I respond as the elevator door opens. It was like slow-motion. He never took his eyes off of me and pressed the button anyway. I couldn't reach him to stop him because the stroller was between us. In the blink of an eye, he'd pushed the "HELP" button and called 911!!! Meanwhile, the older two kids had gotten off the elevator on the second floor (which is the ADULT/QUIET area of the library) and were calling to me "We're going to go down the stairs, Mommy!" Mitchell ran out after them, screaming, "I go too!"

Back at the ranch (in the elevator) I heard, "911, what's your emergency?"

Um, hello, I have a two-year-old who likes to push the buttons in the elevator ... that's my emergency!

The elevator doors were open. My grandma was trying to corral the three older kids. I hade Charlotte in the stroller half-way out of the elevator and I was leaning down to talk into the built-in speaker on the wall.

"There's no emergency," I hissed, but I was interrupted by an automatic recording that comes on to respond to the operator:

"Please send help to ..." and proceeded to give the address of the library to the 911 operator. I was pretty sure I was going to die of embarrassment. I wanted to strangle robot-man talking to the operator and tell him that there was, in fact, NO EMERGENCY and to quit talking for me.

Finally, the librarian sitting nearby hung up her phone and said, "I've already let them know it was a false alarm ... it's okay". Meaning, I could now leave the elevator and not try to talk to an operator who couldn't hear me. I just didn't think it was right to leave the operator hanging, you know?

So, I retrieved Mitchell, we had a talk about being quiet in the library and obeying Mommy, and I made him apologize to the librarian. Then we got the heck out of dodge before he could find a fire alarm to pull.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Lovely Saturday

John's Grandfather died on Thursday. He was 95 years old. Wow. He was a lovely man - I wish I'd picked his brain about gardening, but the last time I spent any time with him was before I knew I enjoyed gardening!

John flew home to be with his family this morning and after the kids an I dropped him off at the airport, we decided to go by my Grandma's house to visit. So we called when we were about five minutes away and said, "Can we come by?" Of course, the answer was, "Of course!" She only lives about 15 minutes from us, but we don't seem to be in her neck of the woods too terribly often. We got there and piled out of the car. The kids played (and fought over) her mega blocks and Barbie car for a while, then they headed out to the HUGE backyard where they played until their faces were pink and they had little beads of sweat all over their foreheads.

So, then we invited Nani Dot (that's what we call her) to lunch with us. We picked up tacos at Taco Bell and brought them to our house to eat. Again, the kids played outside and she and I walked through our garden. After that, we packed up the kids again and went to the library. I hadn't been to the newly remodeled library in her town, and it was GREAT! We got lots of books, DVDs and books with tapes/CDs for Holly Grace to listen to. She can't read yet, but enjoys those, "When you hear this sound {DING}, turn the page" books. It was interesting that Nani Dot (80 years old) showed US how to use the self-checkout computer. What a lady! We had a great time with her and we were thankful to get to spend part of the day with her.

The whole reason for our trip to the library was Jack's current obsession with geology. We got five juvenile non-fiction books on geology. We worked on his geology beltloop for Cub Scouts a while back and he took quite an interest in it. Then, this week at Cub Scout Twilight Camp, they had a geologist come and talk to the boys. They earned their geology pin and got samples of all different kinds of rocks. So Jack officially has a rock collection now. Before it was just an unofficial rock collection - two gallon-sized ziploc bags that he had collected on his last trip to Grammy and PawPaw's house. John's excited because the geologist at Twilight Camp said that Geologists are in the 4th highest-paid profession in the U.S. (behind doctors, lawyers, and something else that John couldn't remember).

Anyway, after the library, I thought about how this is how learning should be! Jack is fascinated with Geology right now. Well, we'll go to the library and help him pick out some books and then we'll capitalize on that interest. Even if it's just a passing interest, that's fine. This is why I love [partially] homeschooling our kids. Summer seems so much more "doable" now.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Party till 2 a.m.

Last night we partied till 2 a.m. With all four kids. In our downstairs hall bathroom. It was quite crowded, really too crowded to even dance but the music was great. It went something like this ... "Woooooooooahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, woooooooooahhhhhhhhhhhh."

The party started at 1:40 a.m. when the tornado sirens sounded. I was actually awake watching the lightning flashes all around, which I love, but I do NOT love dragging my husband and four kids out of bed to join me in the smallest room in our house for a late-night soiree.

Of course, Holly Grace complained that Jack was touching her and making her "itchy". It's hard not to touch you, sweetheart, when you've staked your claim on the entire floor so you can lay down. Jack had some real fear in his eyes; I assured him that this was just like the tornado drills they had at school. (Only this time, there really was a tornado, which I omitted.) He wanted to know why we had to have a tornado drill in the middle of the night. I sat on the floor with the kids, while lucky John got the potty. But, both Mitchell and Charlotte wanted me to hold them; Daddy just wouldn't suffice; and then Charlotte was grabbing Mitchell's hair and he was crying about that and the fact that Jack was trying to lay his head on my knee, which was clearly Mitchell's territory. Ugh.

Miraculously, all four kids went RIGHT BACK to sleep when we closed the party down. With no complaints.

Although, today Jack stated that he hopes we don't have another "tornado drill" tonight.

Oh, and I couldn't even find anything on the news this morning about this alleged tornado.

Augmentin = Chocolate!

Really, it's true! Augmentin tends to give kids diarrhea, so our doctor recommends a Hershey's kiss after every dose. It works! Even Charlotte gets 3.5 mL of chocolate syrup after every 3.5 mL dose of augmentin. Genius! And the kids NEVER complain about taking their medicine.

Speaking of which, have you ever tasted this medicine? It's nasty, really. When Jack was about three years old, he was taking augmentin (and complaining about it - I didn't know the chocolate trick at the time). My parents were in town and my dad was really talking it up: "Jack, you're really going to like it; it's yummy white medicine!" (Jack called it "white medicine"). Jack looked at him with a really straight face and out of the mouth of my babe came, "PawPaw, have you ever HAD white medicine?"

My dad, realizing that he really couldn't actually attest to the tastiness of augmentin, wisely said, "Well, you know, Jack, I haven't ever had white medicine. But you still have to take it."

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Things to pick up ...

off the living room floor before you let the baby roam free.

* 5 year-old's flip-flops (one of these you will have to physically take away from said baby)
* small plastic make-up brush
* Thomas the Tank Engine DVD case
* one single, solitary square of toilet paper (???)
* wrapper from one red crayon
* piano sheet music "Theme from Cheers" (don't ask)

My life in numbers

6 - the number of people in our family
6 - the number of people in our family who went on vacation
5 - the number of people in our family who came home sick
5 - the number of doctor appointments our family had yesterday
3 - the number of ear infections diagnosed (well, Charlotte's isn't technically an infection ... yet)
4 - the number of breathing treatments Jack has had since then
3-5 - the number of minutes it takes to administer a breathing treatment with the new "fast" cup
20 - the number of minutes I spent LOOKING for the nebulizer
370 - the number of tissues I've used on my own and other's noses
1 - the number of sinus infections diagnosed (my own)
2 - the number of times I was up during the night hacking up a lung
37 - the number of minutes I was up during the four-o'clock hour
14 - the number of items I "googled" while awake in the middle of the night (killin' time - ya know?)
3 - the number of people on antibiotics in this house
2 - the number of yeast infections I predict we will be dealing with in less than two weeks
6 - the number of prescriptions I picked up at Target yesterday
4586 - the combined number of mine and Jack's coughs through the night
8 - the number of times I predict narcolepsy will overtake me today