A tub and spells

It doesn’t take long for a mother to learn one cry from another and to pay attention to the most urgent ones. When a child screams in pain or terror a mother comes running.  Lydia was outside my bedroom door screaming “No, No, don’t!” in such a way that I knew she needed immediate help.  There at the top of the stair she sat in a large plastic tub.  John was with her explaining how he was going to push her down the stairs.  If she hadn’t been terrified I might not have gotten there in time.  When I tried convincing him of how dangerous what he wanted to do was, he started into his ever ready explanation of his “safety measures”. Yes, he was planning on sending her down the stairs, but he was going to stay in front of her to make sure she didn’t go too fast.

Lydia was walking around the house with a pencil.  When I asked her what she was doing she pointed the eraser end at me and said “sshhhhooooooo, you’re a baby duck”.  I decided play along.  I started to walk towards her waddling and quacking.  She began to run and several laps around the house later she pointed it at me again and said “shhhooo  you’re a froggy”.  By the time I was too winded to play anymore I had been a cat, snake, lion, monkey, tiger, rabbit and water. Judging by her reactions each was as fearsome as the one before. I think the fairy godmother costume at Halloween went to her head.

Up to his belly button

Years ago I came up with some catch phrases to explain distances, size and amounts to my children.  When we are shopping they are to stay in high-five range (close enough to give me a high-five).  You need to try as many bites of a new food as you are old and so forth. When my two youngest boys asked if they could take a bubble bath I agreed, but reminded them that the water should be no higher than Peter's belly button, since he is the younger and smaller of the two. My back was turned during this conversation so I missed John measuring to see where Peter's belly button was.  I am grateful Melissa saw and quickly added "When he is sitting down!" Emma chimed in "Sitting on his bottom!"  We wanted no misunderstandings or floods in the bathroom. You can never be too careful, especially with those two.

My Ivory Tower

I have enjoyed living my life in an ivory tower, cut off from most of the negative influences of the world.  My viewing habits, and associations are arranged to avoid foul language, graphic violence  and obscenities. The entire family lives by these standards. It was unavoidable today.  We had a critique of our film editing project.  I was expecting to hear things I wouldn't appreciate.  I wasn't ready for this.  In 3 hours I heard and saw more garbage that in all my adult life before this class. What was the most disturbing thing was the reactions of the other class members.  If it was violent or crude it was funny or wonderful.  If it was clean it wasn't worth commenting on. I want my tower back!

My life is changing and then again it's not.

The phone rang and I picked it up.  The person on the other end said they were looking for people to participate is a study involving children’s immunizations, was I the parent or guardian of a child between the ages of 2 months and 24 months?  Ummm, no!  Weird, how could that be?  I’ve been able to answer yes to that question for 25 years.

 John is not the only scientist in the house.  What do they say about Thomas Edison?  He failed how many times before getting anything right?  There must be something in the name.  I popped microwave popcorn for the kids as an afterschool snack.  Willard got the idea to put the unpopped kernels back in the microwave to see if more heat would pop them. Obviously a few kernels are not enough to absorb the rays.  The microwave overheated and stopped.  We figured he had killed it. I unplugged it to let it rest in peace. With little hope in my heart I plugged it back in to make sure it was really truly dead.  Surprise, it sprang to life. It smelled funny for a few days, but it worked fine.  No one was more relieved than Willard. If he handed over every cent that came into his hands it would take him until he was at least 13 to get out of debt to us.

Roy is ownstairs trying to convince Peter that the nap he took lasted all night and now it is Monday morning.  He’s not buying it. They learn young in this house. Now he is trying it on Melissa.  It took her a little longer. I think it worked on Tyler years ago and he is just hoping he can get it to work again.

 

Peter is really starting to read.  It is fun to watch. Lydia is great at encouraging him.  She asks him to read to her.  Actually she asks everyone and she has learned that bringing a book to Dad will get bedtime delayed.  It is not unusual to see the kids from Willard on down on our bed with Roy reading to them when everyone is supposed to be in bed.

We may be done parenting babies, but we are a long way from being done.