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March 24, 2003
03.24.03:
A cup of sand with your SANDwich?
We used to have a boring, adult back yard with your basic, run-of-the-mill patio furniture: a table and chairs with umbrella, a grill, a bird feeder. We have a mix of flowers, trees, bushes & shrubs, the names of which I could not tell you. Ever so slowly (or was it overnight?) our back yard has been taken over by the kids and their toys: bikes, wagons, sand box, pool, play house, sliding board, toys, trucks, Lego’s, sidewalk chalk, where did we get all this stuff? The kids love to play outside. The fine weather we’ve been having in Texas has drawn us outside. I call it Goldilocks weather. Not too hot, not too cold, just right. One thing is certain. It won’t last long. Jerry and Rachel brought a new load of sand home from Home Depot. We poured it in the sandbox. It seems like a sensible place to keep sand. The kids have other ideas. Rachel likes to fill up small containers with sand. She lines up a set of little cups and fills each one with sand. She will carry them around and pour them on the bushes or flowers pretending to feed them or water them. She pours buckets of sand on our sidewalk. This is supposed to be the beach. Mitch is invited to the beach, but he must take off his shoes. She pours sand over his bare feet and then makes him sit still while she buries his feet in the sand. She likes to serve lunch and dinner on her plastic tea set dishes. She pours sand onto the plates and fill the cups with sand. She invites Mitch into the playhouse for lunch, and he is so gullible, so willing, so eager to join in the fun. When I caught up with them, Mitch was sitting at the table in the playhouse. Rachel had just served him a plate of sand and a cup of sand. He was spooning sand into his mouth and she was instructing him to take a drink of more sand. He is so good at following directions. I got out the hose and rinsed out his mouth, while reminding Rachel that the sand is not to be eaten. Sand is sand. It is not food. She argued that they were pretending it was blueberry pie, so it was okay to eat it. I asked her why she wasn’t eating the sand? Why was Mitch the only one eating sand? She said, (and I wonder where she heard this one?) “because I’m the mommy and he’s the baby, and it’s time for him to eat his lunch!” Jerry keeps reminding her that the sand stays in the sandbox. Oh no it doesn’t. At least not in our yard. Our sandbox is more of a holding bin, a place to store the sand until they play with it, until they move it around to the rest of the yard, until it disappears and it’s time to get another load delivered.
Why should I be surprised that Rachel is feeding sand to her little brother? And why is Mitch so naïve and gullible that he is, without question, following orders and eating it? Maybe Rachel has inherited her instincts from her dad? (This story has made its rounds among the family through the years, but…) Something similar happened when Jerry was a toddler. Now, this was back in the 60’s. Back in those days, when company came over to visit, they were served coffee and cake. They sat around the kitchen table talking and laughing. Jerry was about 3 years old. As the only son (with 4 sisters!) he was the apple of his Uncle’s eye. Jerry walked in the kitchen and saw all the adults drinking their coffee and eating cake. He decided to join in. He brought in his sister’s tea set, and proceeded to pour water from the tea pot into the miniature tea cups. Well, his Uncle thought this was so cute, he thought he’d humor Jerry. He’d take a sip of the water and then smack his lips, pretending it was the best coffee he ever tasted. Jerry would beam with joy and pour another small cup. Uncle would drink, Jerry would smile, Uncle would drink, Jerry would pour more. Eventually, Jerry disappeared with the tray and returned with a fresh pot of tea. Jerry’s mom finally noticed and asked Jerry where he was getting the water. Well, the source of the water supply was none other than the toilet bowl. Jerry’s Uncle nearly croaked, and everyone got a good laugh. And, 40 years later, the story still makes it rounds.
Disney on Ice or March Madness Tournament?
I’m really enjoying this age where the kids are both old enough for all of us to go out, minus all of the baby gear crap that is so burdensome and often the reason we wouldn’t venture out as much. On Saturday morning, we took the kids to Einstein’s for a relaxing breakfast. Rachel likes to get her drink out of the cooler, usually a chocolate milk or some kind of juice box. While waiting in line, Mitch keeps his eye on the fruit basket near the cash register. He knows he will find his banana there. Rachel gets a cinnamon bagel which is basically a plain bagel toasted with a ton of cinnamon sugar sprinkled all over it. It’s such a mess to cut up in small pieces. I end up with cinnamon sugar and butter all over my hands. Mitch will eat a banana, along with half of his dad’s cinnamon roll, and pieces of my bagel. We ate breakfast with Garrett & Tina and their kids Courtney & Ben. Their kids are the same ages as ours with Courtney a few months older than Rachel and Ben 2 months older than Mitch. They live fairly close and I hope we can get together more often. They were there as a pre-pep rally for the Disney on Ice Princess show scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. All 4 of them were going. Rachel & I were going together and Jerry & Mitch were going to do some things together and then head over to Reid & Tina’s house for a day of viewing basketball games. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden Mitch has no clothes to wear, not one pair of shorts fits him. The weather is getting warmer with each day, and Mitch needs a new wardrobe. Jerry said he would take Mitch clothes shopping, while Rachel & I went to the ice show.
I wanted Rachel to see where I work, so she could have a better idea of where I am and what I do while she is at school. We stopped at my office on the way to the Compaq Center. It’s only a block or two away. She was delighted with the elevators. We had to take 3 sets of elevators to get up to my office, and she really enjoyed the ride. I showed her my office and she recognized her artwork and pictures on the walls. She pointed at all the pictures of her cousins and other family members and then it was time to use the potty before we left for the ice show. She wore her princess tiara and fit right in with plenty of other little girls who were dressed in princess dresses and costumes. We bought a program and some popcorn and headed to our seats. The first half of the show was devoted to: Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Snow White, Belle, Mulan, and Ariel. The second half was the full story of Cinderella with a grand finale. Rachel sat on the edge of her seat and sang along with many of the songs. She was very good and used the potty before we left. The bathrooms were clean, unlike the bathroom seat at Einstein’s where Rachel sat on the seat before I could check it. It had pee spattered all over it, and I was highly ticked. I try to wipe the seat with a baby wipe and dry it off before she uses it, but she was too fast for me. I had to get her off the seat and totally sanitize her bottom to my satisfaction before allowing her to use it.
After the ice show, Rachel and I went to the library to pick out some books for her bedtime story time. We got a stack of 11 books and then went to McDonald’s. We went to Rattle Tattle which is a children’s boutique that I just love. It is mostly devoted to girls, but they do have some formal clothes for boys, like little business suits and clothes for special occasions like christenings. We needed to buy some ballet shoes, tights and leotards for her dance classes that start next week. What a great boutique. I had not been there in a long while, but it really is a nice place to find special occasion clothing or just to pamper a girl with darling clothing. What I liked most is that we were just spending the day as mommy and daughter, while daddy and Mitch were sharing their time together. I tried a few things on Rachel and then let her play with the other girls while I selected more items and drank a glass of wine. The shop is owned by an English woman (accent and all) and she shared a great wine with me. Jerry called us while we were in the dressing room to see if we wanted to come over and watch the games with the group, but I said we were having too much fun and still had more stops to make. I found two dance dresses, some Capri sets, some skorts sets, bows, socks, tights, a purse, and more. They have darling little umbrellas with matching rain slickers and boots. Not that anyone needs that kind of stuff that often in Texas, but it was really sweet. We finished up our shopping at Old Navy, Target, and Beauty Brands and then headed home. I put Rachel in the tub at 8 p.m. She played with her Polly Pockets and I read the newspaper and watched news coverage on the war. Jerry and Mitch came home at 8:30 and I put Mitch in the tub. Rachel and Jerry made a snack and we talked about our day. Jerry and Mitch had gone to Petco to get dog food and treats for Sanders and look at the animals. They went to Target and then came home to play. After Mitch’s nap, they headed over to Reid & Tina’s and Mitch played with Cole, Cody, and Blake. They had a good time playing with Cole’s matchbox toys.
On Sunday we had a breakfast of scrambled eggs and Fruit Loops on the patio. Sanders made out, scarfing up the eggs and cereal from the patio. We raked leaves and cleaned out the gutters over the garage. Jerry mowed the grass and Rachel helped him sweep up the clippings on the sidewalk. Mitch likes to help too. We need to get another broom so each of the kids can sweep instead of fighting over sharing the broom. Mitch took a nap while I did grunt work. Where did the weekend go? It’s Monday!!
No More Highchair:
Other than eating sand, Mitch is doing well. He refuses to get in his high chair, so we have just given in. He sits at the table on his booster seat pushed up against the table and eats his food from the table. It’s nice to have our family of four all eating from the same table. I miss certain aspects of having a younger baby, but in the same breath I have to say I don’t miss each part of babyhood that we wave goodbye to! No more bottles, no more high chair. Mitch just loves eating with a fork. He will fork anything to death if you give him a chance. Actually, he’s pretty good at spearing his food and getting it in his mouth on the first try. I was surprised by this. If I forget to put a fork beside his plate, he will just reach over and take mine. That’ll teach me!
Mom! I Need Help!
Rachel was yelling at me from the back yard asking for help. “What’s the problem?” Well, I need some help,” she said. She said she wanted me to help her catch a bird on her finger. Oh brother! I told her it was very hard to catch a bird, and she reminded me that Belle helped Beast catch birds. I told her birds were very hard to catch outside, so she said we need to open the doors and windows so the birds will fly inside the house. That way they will be easier to catch, just like Mary Poppins did it. Oh man! She just loves her new nursery school, and so do we. We can see so many changes and improvement in her. She had a gymnastics demonstration in school and a Kinderdance lesson. She will start dance lessons this Friday. We signed her up for weekly computer lessons too. We are going to hold off on the gymnastics until she is well into the dance class. She will start swimming lessons this summer. They have lots of fun things planned each week. Tomorrow is “breakfast with parents day,: and next week is “picture day,” when they take class and individual pictures. They have fun things planned each week like “sunglass day,” “wear your PJs day,” “dress backwards day,” and “crazy socks” day.
Boy, Did I feel Dumb!
Well, I’m really enjoying my classes, but I’ll be glad when the semester is over too. I got my midterm exams back last week, and I surprised myself. I did get A’s on both tests and I was not expecting an A on the bio/chem test. I’ve met some great friends at U of H and have managed to take the same classes with some of them. The other night, Rebecca and I were leaving the lecture and I was telling her how D-U-M-B something was about the class. She just looked at me, and then I realized that I had actually SPELLED the word instead of saying it. I explained to her that there are certain words in our house that are considered “no no” words. We are not allowed to say them. If any of these words come up in a movie or conversation, Rachel will say, “that is a no-no word,” and this is how we teach her about bad words. “D-U-M-B and S-T-U-P-I-D are examples of these words. Jerry and I have gotten into the habit of spelling out words that fall into the “no no” word category, so Rebecca got a kick out of my spelling out the word D-U-M-B. Boy, did I feel DUMB!!
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I see that the new message boards are up and running at Moms Today. What do you think? Love them? Hate changing? I’m anxious to hear your opinion, so let me hear from you.
Warmly,
Megan
I put a few new pictures on the web page, and will post more this week. Actually the pictures I posted aren’t that new, they are from December, but they are more recent than the other oldies.
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/m/millimaki/
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