I'm ready

Above our kitchen table is a set of five pictures from a trip to the UK Hubby and I took with some friends in 2003.

One of them is this picture I took of St. Paul's Cathedral:
Mess 1 was looking at it tonight at dinner and asked me where it was. I told him it was in London, and that it was a really big church. Then a few minutes later he asked if I wanted to know what he was thinking; I told him yes, I did.

After a moment of serious contemplation, he said "I am thinking about you being there," and he pointed to the picture.

I asked him if we were all going, or just me. He responded, with a very sweet smile "How about just you and me?"

"Would you like to go to London with me?"

"Yes Mommy."

"OK, when would you like to go?"

"How about we go next weekend?"

"Next weekend, really?"

He thought about it then asked how long it takes to get there. I told him it would take about 15 or 16 hours by plane.

"Wow!"

"So how long should we stay?" I asked him.

After some more thought, he responded with "Sixty nights!"

"Sixty nights?"

"Yep!"

Sounds good to me kiddo. I'm ready.

Grace

Mess 1 said grace tonight before dinner:

"Dear God, thank you for today, and for our hearts, and for loving us. Thank you for trespassing against us, and those that trespass against us. Thank you for our minds, and our hearts, and our strength. Amen."

"Sweetheart, what does trespassing mean?"

"Giving money to the poor."

We should probably explain more of the words as we are teaching him the Lord's prayer.

Not brave

Last Friday Hubby took the messes to the local mass flu clinic for their flu shots.

All by himself.

He’s such a brave Daddy.

We talked about the shots with the kids before they went, telling them that yes it will hurt for a second, but getting the shot was important since it would help them stay well this winter. Mess 1 told me that getting his vaccination was very important (thanks Sid) and that he would be very brave and not cry.

Friday evening I was fixing dinner while Mess 1 was coloring and telling me about his day. “Mommy, I went to the doctor (check up with the ENT) and then I went to get my vaccination.”

“How was it; were you brave?”

“No, Mommy, I wasn’t brave.”

“Oh, did you cry? It’s OK if you cried a little, shots hurt.”

“No, Mommy. My sister cried but I didn’t cry and I wasn’t brave.”

I was totally confused by that statement so I just looked at him blankly. Then, just as proud as he could be, he told me:

“I got to sniff mine.”

The child cracks me up. Although I think we now have to have a chat about not sniffing anything unless it’s given to us by a doctor or nurse. Thank you big pharma.

Big girl bed

Last weekend my parents came for the Labor Day holiday. They brought with them the toddler bed that has been in the family for generations. I used it as a little girl and and now Mess 2 will get to use it for her first big girl bed.

My mom made the quilt for me and there's a blanket she made just for Mess 2 under it. My mom also had to cut down the fitted sheet so it would fit the narrow mattress, so the bedding is almost all handmade.

She was so excited to be able to get in it by herself.

And of course her brother wanted to get in it with her. I shudder to think of the trouble they can now get into.

And this is how I found her last night. Whether she crawled out onto the chair, or fell out and didn't wake up, I have no idea. She didn't really wake up when I put her back in the bed, so I guess she was comfortable.

Bits of my weekend

We had a wonderful, quiet weekend at home.

We rescued a frog from our frog sandbox/pool.

We made yummy lemon muffins for breakfast.

We made jerk chicken, coconut rice and black beans, and friend plantains for dinner.

We had some success with potty training (thus the chocolate mouth) and then danced in the kitchen.

Hubby and I used all of dominos (double 15s) and it ended in a draw.

And we spent lots of time running up the water bill: Daddy washed the cars while the rest of us played in the frog.

Little boys like to put buckets on their heads. I don't know why.

Punkin Chocolate

First you take some punkin and add some chocolate and stir it all up.

Den you add some oil and stir that up.

Den you add some crackers that you smashed up with the smasher and stir it up really well for a long time.

Den you add one more chocolate chip.

Den you bake it in the oven so it all squishes together.

That's how you make punkin chocolate.

Recipe by Mess 1 age 3

Improving

Hubby took Mess 2 to Children's a few days ago to see the ophthalmologist for her six month checkup. It was a long appointment for them since they dilated her eyes and did a number of tests. Plus my poor girl was very sick; she and I had been in the ER the night before because she was having such a hard time breathing (thankfully her O2 levels were good), so she was low on sleep.

But the good news is her eyes are improving and the odds of her vision correcting by the time she is a tween/teen keep getting better. We also found out the lazy eye part is not due to weak muscles (so not patching her was the right thing to do), but a result of her trying so hard to focus. Her vision is still as bad as mine is so I have some idea of what it's like for her without her glasses, and I can see how she'd go cross eyed trying to focus. I don't even try, it just gives me a headache.

So the optometrist here in town is getting her new glasses, which is good since her old ones aren't working well at all. They are way too small, and the earpieces broke during the move (yes eight weeks ago). They were replaced once with earpieces from a pair that didn't quite match or fit, but one broke again within a week. We tried various types of tape, but then finally gave up and let the half earpiece do its best. They really are pretty pathetic.

Once we get the new ones in I'll post pictures, both of her current pitiful pair, and her fun new, purple, pair.