Dyed and Gone

Well, it finally happened.  I knew that day was coming.  For 10 years I knew it was coming.  It arrived last week, quietly, sneaking in when I wasn’t looking.

“Hey guys, are you ready to color some eggs?” I asked the kids just before Easter weekend.

“Yay!” chimed the princess.  She loves doing stuff like that.

My son was silent. 

“Hon?  Are you in for coloring eggs?” I asked again.

“Um … mom?”

Boom.  There it was.  A decade in the making and you know it’s coming and it still catches you off guard.  You keep thinking, “just one more year … .” 

“It’s okay hon,” I told him.  “I get it.  I do.”

“Do you?  I just … I just feel like such a baby coloring eggs.  I mean, I don’t want to hurt your feelings and if it means a lot to you, I’ll color them with you guys.”

“Oh don’t be silly!” I told him.  “Kids grow out of things all the time!  I knew it was coming!  You keep playing your game, your sister and I will do them.” 

“Thanks mom, for understanding.” 

He hugged me and I kissed him to let him know it really was okay. 

And it is.  Still, you miss the baby days when they’re gone, despite how much you cherish the big kid days when they arrive. 

My other egg coloring buddy remains for a few more years yet so I still have some time.  After that, I’m on my own, I guess. 

I might have to hunt the eggs by myself too, after I hide them. 

 

Whensday

I cracked up when I first saw this picture, and posted it on FaceBook.  It brings up a very special family memory for me.  The story behind the giggle is kind of cute though but first I wanted to give some background.

I don’t do horror very well.  As a little kid, my sister would terrorize me by making me watch Dark Shadows, after which I could be found cowering under the bed.

As a teen, I came of age in the Halloween, and Friday the 13th era, which became popular date films.  I almost walked out of The Boogeyman but my date convinced me not to.  I remember perhaps 1 scene from each of those, the rest of the time spent hiding behind my hands.  I would have walked out on My Bloody Valentine but was a guest at someone else’s home and didn’t want to look childish.  So you can see, horror and I never mixed well. 

And then, then I married a horror writer.  Proof that the Lord does indeed have an interesting sense of humor! 

To his credit, the only horror movie Darc ever really strongly encouraged me to watch was The Exorcist.  We caught the 30th anniversary release.  Afterward, I could only wonder what all the fuss was about.

Eventually I realized that what I really loathe is what I’ve come to call “gorror,” that cross between horror and outright, gratuitous gore.  I hate the gory stuff, the bloody, slashing, stabbing, gooey, icky, red yuck.  But suspense I can handle okay.

So when the MiniNess was about 4, Darc picked up a copy of Alien, one of his all time favorite horror movies, and wanted to watch it during family movie time.  I was a bit dubious.  The kids were kind of little for that, I thought.  But we put it in figuring we could stop it if they seemed like they were getting scared.  During the first “facehugger” scene, the scene where the creature leaps onto John Hurt’s face and attaches itself, which startled me since it was the first time I’d ever seen it myself, I heard the little gasps come out of the kids.  Oh here we go! I thought, they’re going to freak out and have nightmares and I shouldn’t have let them see this and …

“Can we watch it again, Daddy?  Can you back up so we can see it again?  That was so cool!”

This is my 4 year old?  My sweet, precious, baby girl?  She wants to see it again?!

“That’s my girl!” exclaimed the proud daddy. 

She couldn’t handle the sight of the vacuum at the time, that sent her screaming to her bed to hide under the covers, but the facehugger in Alien was definitely not a problem.

Yep, that’s not thunder you hear, those are heavenly guffaws. 

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Thankfulness

I went through the kid’s closet today, pulling out the stuff that’s too small so I can give it to goodwill.  As I was straightening and sorting, I realized that not a single one of my son’s shirts fit on the little kid hangers anymore.  I was so glad we’d recently bought him adult hangers!

At the same time, there’s a sadness to that.  As much as you love seeing the people your kids become, you also miss the little children they were.  Those little hangers are precious!  They’ve held a lot of baby clothes over the years, and thus, a lot of memories. 

One more kid still to go on the baby hangers and then … .  I’ll cross that bridge when I get there, I still have some time left.  Thankfully!

What are you thankful for today?

Wall Stuff

I had to go through a few years of old checkbook entries before I finally found the place I’d bought some stuff at a few years ago.  I couldn’t remember the name.  My search paid off though, and I was able to pick up a few decorations for the kids room.  They came today and the kids are thrilled.    That makes mom happy. 

My son is into space now.  It’s his latest passion.  Tomorrow I’ll hang the planets from the ceiling on his half.

My daughter is into green.  She finally decided to go with the jungle thing, and some bugs and flowers. 

I’ve had a fish thing going in the kids bathroom for a few years now, but I thought I’d spruce that up a bit, so I added an extra touch to surprise them.  Heheheheh. 

They thought that was hysterical. 

So if you want some cheap decorations, I can highly recommend PartyCheap.  For a few dollars and some Scotch tape, you can do some big things.

Breakfast at night

Ever have an “attack headache”?  That’s what I call them, lots of things really, that seem to just pop up out of the blue with no warning?  You’re just going about your day and all of a sudden BAM!  It might be a headache, a muscle cramp, an itch, etc.  There’s no buildup to let you know something’s coming, it just hits.  I hate attack itches!  I had a headache like that today.  I’ve never actually been shot in the head but sometimes I imagine that pain like I felt today might feel like getting shot. 

Why do we do that?  “It felt like getting stabbed! … It felt like getting run over by a truck! … It felt like my head exploded!”  Hmmm. 

Anyway, I took some meds which knocked me out – who knew Ibuprofen could be so powerful?  And the kids, bless them, came in and sat on the bed next to me and quietly did their schoolwork while I dozed. 

Seriously. Proud.

They put all their books on my desk for me to check when I came to so everything was right there, waiting for me. 

After that, I made pancakes for dinner since Darc had something special going on with work, and I had the kids watch the original Star Trek episode that enthralled me so much when I was little.  They actually liked it!  My daughter liked seeing Kirk kick some alien butt best.  That’s my girl, loving the rough and tumble of it all, lol.  It was fun, sharing that with them. 

 

Thankful

We had to make an emergency trip to the dentist today for MiniNess. 

She’s had this weird tooth since she was a baby.  Actually, it was 2 teeth that came in together and then split apart as she grew.  We called it her little snaggletooth.  Neither one of us worried about it because it was a baby tooth and we knew it would come out when she was 5 or 6.

A couple of years ago, she developed a little cyst type of thing on her gum, above the weird tooth.  It didn’t swell or cause her any pain, it didn’t interfere with her eating or talking.  Eh, well, kids get bumps and stuff and cysts aren’t uncommon.

Around her birthday this year, the cyst grew and swelled dramatically and her gums grew inflamed.  She wasn’t in pain though, and I could see that the tooth was loose.  I was confident that once the tooth came out, she’d be fine.  In the meantime, I popped the cyst thing, got it cleaned out and all was well.  The swelling and inflammation went down and everything went back to normal.

A couple of days ago, the swelling and inflammation came back.  Okay, now I need to have someone else address this.  Trying to find a dentist who could see us on such short notice, when we weren’t even patients – well.  Not to mention the fact that I did so much research on many names that came up on our insurance search.  There were a few dentists on there who got very negative reviews from patients.  So I have this limited list, location-wise, and half of those won’t even see me on such short notice, several I won’t even call because “their office was very dirty” reviews turn me away, and I’m left with very few choices now.  I was banging my head against a wall when I finally got around to the next place on my list.  The receptionist was actually very encouraging and told me of an opening the following day, if I wanted to take it.  After a quick phone call to see if Darc would be able to leave work early, I called the dentist’s office back and scheduled. 

Well that’s one hurdle.

Our main concern was that there might be a problem with her adult teeth behind these baby teeth.

We got to the office and did the paperwork thing, then the MiniNess and I went to the exam room. 

The hygienist was so nice and sweet.  She was really friendly with the MN and chatted with her.  Good with kids, that’s so comforting.  I knew my baby was scared, this was her first time in a dentist’s chair.

After some x-rays, the dentist came in and took a look.  I gave him the explanation of what had happened.  He told me that fortunately there was absolutely no problem with her adult teeth, as he could see in the x-ray, and they should come in just fine when they were ready.  He told me her baby tooth did need to come and did I want to make an appointment or do it today?  I told him I was willing to do it right then if his schedule permitted, so he got his tool-kit ready. 

While we were waiting for the “sleepy drug” to numb her gums before the shot, he was asking her about school.  The MiniNess glanced up at me.  Uh, school?  I could see it in her eyes she wasn’t quite sure how to answer – is he talking about regular school?  So I explained that we homeschooled so she really didn’t know if she liked regular school or not.  All of a sudden, he got really enthusiastic.  Homeschool!  Well, what’s your favorite subject, he asked. 

“Well, I want to be an entomologist when I grow up, but they have to study spiders and spiders are creepy so I’m not sure now.” 

He was so impressed with her using that word, LOL.    The dentist turned to his assistant and said, “I’m telling you, homeschooled kids are smart!” 

He had so many questions and seemed so interested.  And of course, they commented on how smiley my baby girl is and how pretty she is and that popping sound you heard earlier was my mama-heart exploding in pride.    She did so well, was so brave, didn’t cry once.  In fact, after her tooth had been pulled she said to the dentist, “Thank you for the shot so the tooth pulling wouldn’t hurt.” 

I think she stole his heart right then.  “I’ve never had a patient say that to me!  Thank you!  I’m so happy it didn’t hurt you one little bit.” 

He was so great with her.  Really gentle and soft-spoken, explained all that he was doing so she wouldn’t be afraid.  He was quite charming and friendly – the good kind – and I could tell she was comfortable with both him and the hygienist too. 

They gave me a little box for her tooth.  It’s like a conjoined-twin tooth.  It’s so weird looking.  But my baby’s teeth are fine, her adult teeth will be normal and lovely, the abscess is healing quickly, and in the meantime, she’s got that awesome gap-toothed smile. 

And we have a new family dentist.  Woo! 

 

Minions

 

“Mommy?  Are we your minions?”

I sat there staring blankly at her for a second or 2.  Images of myself controlling my children while casting hypnotic spells and cackling gleefully over a steaming cauldron of eye of newt and tail of bat swirled through my brain.  Look deep into my eyes while I perform my magic!

I’m not even sure where she heard the word, but she did have a general idea of its meaning. 

I confess, I pounced on the notion.  “Yes.  Yes you are,” I answered her.  Hey, whatever it takes to manage a kid’s obedience, you take it!  If it helps avoid a fit at bedtime, I’m all over it.  Minions must obey!  It’s kind of a game now, and little miss bossy loves to lord it over her big brother by saying things like, “We’re mommy’s minions and you have to obey her, so quit putting your stinky feet in my face!”  Apparently she was looking for an edge too, heh. 

I’m good with it, even if it does make me sound like an evil sorceress.  It sort of fits with the whole Darc theme of the place, right? 

Eventually she’ll learn that an alternate meaning of minion is "a favorite, darling," from Middle French mignon .  (As in filet minion!)    It also means a favored or highly regarded person, and both her and my boy are definitely that. 

How was your weekend?  Can you believe that next Monday is Labor Day already?  Yikes!

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