Friday, November 09, 2007

Questions

There was a good sale downtown today. One our favorite stores is going out of business. That happens when teh world prefers Walmart. But I digress.

When Joey came home and Andy awakened from his nap (wow... he took a nap!), we (Grandma and I) loaded them both into the car, and headed for the shop. We spent some time explaining about going Christmas shopping and that sort of thing, the usual banter to prepare Joey for an unexpected outing, especially on a Friday (his afternoon off, when he prefers to stretch out on the livingroom floor and watch something preferred, such as Little Bear or Cars.) We've been having some trouble with Joey. He's been eching some phrases that have resulted in us emailing the teachers several times to ask what's happening at school- phreases like, "Stop talking now!" and "Eat your breakfast and leave!" and "You're going to Mrs. T!" [this is a reference to being sent to the principal's office]. This week, he's been parroting these things at the bus aide, who was rather upset this morning, to the point I had to remind Joey to be respectful and behave himself on the bus. Joey loves the bus. What's going on? Anyway, theres been a lot of echoing, a lot of motor-mouth lately, and now we're disturbing his schedule again to get 20% off of a bunch of stuff we don't need and possibly polish off my Christmas shopping list.

From the back seat, a musical little voice wafted:

"Where are we going?"

I automatically replied, "Down to the shop, hon."

Fortunately, we stopped at a stop sign. I looked at Grandma. Grandma looked a me.

Joey asked us a question.

There was no prompts, no cajoling, no setting up. It was a question, like any other five-year-old suddenly whisked from his house into the car and heading down the street. Where are we going? Perfectly natural question, especially if you weren;t really paying attention to teh jabber of your mom, talking about Christmas and stuff. Oh, we're going to the shop. OK. He was satisfied.

We were left to collect our teeth from the floorboards.

The Best-Laid Plans

It was cold and raw outside today, so Andy and I stayed home. My mom had a brilliant idea- we should make Rice Krispie Treats! So out we bundled to get Rice Krispies and marshmallows and butter.

It was going so well. He got the marshmallows- minus one- into the bowl. We watch the marshmallow expand in the microwave. We measured out the Krispies, six cups. We talked about measuring. He liked putting his hands in them, and he decided they tasted good. All systems were go.

Teh marshamllows came out of the microwave, we dumped the Krispies in, and stirred together. We spread them into the pan- my big pan, so they wouldn't be so thick and cut little mouths. So far so good.

Then I cut them. Not so good, as Andy wanted to cut, too, and we had to be told to put th knife down rather sharply. We had to wait a minute so they could cool.

Then Mom tried to hand Andy a Rice Krispie Treat.

No go.

After asking, begging, pleading, modeling, modeling again, more begging, asking, showing... no go. He finally would take one into his hand, but he will not put it in his mouth.

Can I just say, "more for me" and go to bed now?

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Wordless... Thursday?






Pics from the Tuesday Adventure. Sorry, i forgot the camera and bought a toss-away, and had to get the *ack* film developed.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Planning an Adventure

Tomorrow is an exciting day. It's Election Day... which means, in Virginia, kids don't have school. I will have my Joey home all day long! So it is time to plan an Adventure!

So tomorrow I will pack my two guys into a car, and head off into the Great Wide Open, hopefully with Grandma kidnapped and safely stowed in the front seat. The world shall be our oyster. Adventure awaits.

The current plan is to take the boys up to DC to see the dinosaurs again. We usually do something new, but we do have to be back for a 3:30 speech appointment, so i kinda need to have an idea of where we are going and how long it will take to get back. This time, I hope to remember to take the camera. I keep forgetting it. I want a shot of Andy's face looking up at a real T-Rex. I want some footage of Joey watching the little video abotu fish mouth evolution. I want to buy overpriced sodas and cookies and eat them in a little cafe with fossils displayed in the tables. It's just one of those things.

But you never know with Adventures. Perhaps we will find something Completely New. Maybe I can entice them into the botanical gardens, or Air and Space. Maybe we'll take a wrong turn and end up at the zoo. Or the children's farm at Oxon Hill. I'll keep you posted!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Systemic

One of those little irritations in life I have is something called systemic poison ivy. The most common form of systemic poison ivy is when you breathe in smoke from a brush fire, the oil gets into the bloodstream, and you have a major breakout EVERYWHERE. I had a firend when i was little actually get poisin ivy INSIDE his mouth and throat, and they think it was even in his stomach. I don't get this kind. You can also get it from being allergic to the substances your body makes in the reaction. My mom gets this- her poison ivy can get so bad that you can jus sit and watch the patches bubble and ooze before your eyes, like some Martian landscape. I don't get that, either (thank GOD).

I get the kind that once I start seeing it anywhere, it starts to pop up as a bubble here, a bubble there, all over my body for the next few months. It is highly annoying.

My yearly poison ivy has begun. I get it this time of year because I am hacking down the autumn clematis, and invariably the ivy gets in it, and somewhere I have an inch of skin uncovered. Only this year I was particularly stupid, and didn't put on my gloves to take down the clematis. So naturally I got angry red welts across the back of my hand. Now it's startd the spreading stage. Its moving up my fingers, and I have single bubbles here... there... yep. The itching has begun.

Too much of my life is like that. Consequences you can do nothing about now, popping up here. There. It all becomes systemic, in a delicate system. But then, sometimes I think, at least I don't get poison ivy like Steve used to. Or my mom. Just an annoyig bubble or two, here and there. I can live with that. No prednisone required.