Um - Um -

Every morning I go in and wake Holly for school.  She's usually snuggled up under a big blanket and not very eager to get up.  If she doesn't talk to me while I'm in the room, she's not going to get out of the bed.  And every morning she comes up with some question to ask.  "Um, Mom, just a minute.  What's for breakfast?"  or once it was "Mom - do you think I'll make an A on my science test tomorrow?"

Sometimes she makes me stand in the doorway while she thinks up something to ask me.

I really don't think she realizes that she's doing it.

And this morning it was, "Mom, did you buy any more flour?" with this look on her face that said - you know I told you to get flour.

No, I'm not out of flour and no, we haven't talked about flour in any way lately.

Sweet girl.

Speechless

This afternoon the kids and I met some different kids who live on our block.  Julia had gone with a friend to Ulta, probably her new favorite store since she's discovered the world of makeup, and Holly and Alan had gone outside to play.  Holly and Alan met some kids about their ages out front and played a little basketball with them before moving to the backyard. 

There were 4 boys.  Two brothers, one who was Alan's age and was playing with Alan and the other was Julia's age and was playing with Holly.  The other two boys were a little older and weren't related.

Everyone seemed to be getting along, being polite, sharing, following the rules of the yard... I was talking with one of the older boys who was amazed and interested in the garden and what grew there.  The other boys and Holly were swinging on the tire swing and climbing the rope and playing tug-o-war with another rope in the yard. 

I was slightly prying into the one boy while talking about the garden to find out where these boys lived and to try to get a handle on how old they were.

Then Alan came out from inside the house with some toilet paper in his hands.  He said his friend had to use the bathroom and hadn't made it in time.  And he said the boy was out front with poop in his pants.

So I went to investigate.  (Jillian was safely swinging and I left Holly watching her swing.)

I found the boy in the front of the house, with his pants semi-down.  I told him to come in, showed him the bathroom, gave him a grocery sack to put his dirty stuff in, and gave him some wipes.  I told him to put his pants in the bag, to finish on the toilet, to use toilet paper and clean himself with wipes - which he should put in the trash - and I gave him a pair of Alan's old pants I'd been contemplating putting in the Goodwill box.

And I left him.

He cleaned himself.  I guess.  And came outside.  Then I sent him back inside to wash his hands. And he went and washed.

Then he came back out and went back to playing.  The other boys didn't give him a hard time at all.  They did eventually want him to get off the swing because he smelled bad, but they didn't tease him. 

And they didn't take him home.

Shortly afterward, I sent them all home anyway.  It was getting to be dinner time.

I think even Alan was amazed at the boy going to the front yard to do his business.

After they left I cleaned up some toilet paper from the front flowerbed - which is basically empty at the moment.

I was left kind of speechless.  Aside from being amazed that the events even took place the way they did, I was kind of amazed that the boy didn't want to go home, embarrassed. 

As they ran off toward home after I sent them on their way, I called after the last one "Nice to meet you!", and he called back with a "Thanks." 

And I guess that's that.

 Jillian's a climber.

And last night I made my first trip ever to the emergency room.

Luckily for me, Sean was along for the ride.  Jillian fell off a dining room chair.  She cried out at first and then went limp and her eyes rolled in her head.  I handed her to Sean saying she hit her head and her eyes look funny.  And she slumped in his arms. My mom was over to have dinner with us, and she stayed with the three big kids.  We got in the car to go to the hospital and Jillian started waking up.  She cried the whole way and then she was pretty calm and quiet.  In the waiting area she seemed alert and could walk fine.  We decided to take her back home and watch her.  So we left.

As we were back home for a few minutes getting dinner on the table when she threw up.  So we went back to the hospital. 

The CT scan was normal, and Jillian cried through the whole thing.  She was swaddled in the lead blanket thing with Sean beside her.  He got the job of staying in the room with her - but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

Today she's acting completely normal.  And still climbing. 

Scouting Outing

Saturday morning, Alan and I went to his cub scout derby.  He won 2nd place in his den with his car, Master Blaster.

You know his favorite part of the day?  Aside from buying a soda and nachos from the concessions stand, he loved racing his car against whomever else wanted to race it after the official racing was over.  The cubmaster let the boys just run their cars while some of the adults took down the decorations around the room.  They'd hand over their cars and run down to the finish line, then run back up to the start to do it again. 

He finished 2nd in every race against his den.  They ran once for each lane on the track.  The trophy is really nice - but he was more excited to watch his car beat 5 other random cars in one race at the end of the day than he was to finish 2nd and get a trophy for it. 

A Little Crafting Reminder

Sometimes I have to remember to do this.

Part of my Happiness Project is reading books on parenting and marriage.  I like the Screamfree books, by Hal Runkel.  I think he even used the word 'unflappable' in the parenting one.  And I strive to be unflappable.  Which means I need to just pause and breathe a little every now and then.

Getting Big

I would swear that the other day as we got out of the car I said to Jillian, "It's time to go take a nap." And she said, "Ooo-kay."

And I would swear that this morning when I went in to the bedroom after she woke up, she said, "Wake up," as I picked her up.

Swear.

Day Trip.

The kids were home from school Friday and we took the time to go see my grandma in Charlotte.  Alan - all of his own doing - brought along the photobook I'd made for him in 2010 of his life so far.  Then as soon as we got to Grandma's, he sat down with her to look through it, pointing out his favorite memories and funny things he saw.

 My cousin's littlest girls were there while she was working, and Jillian was fascinated by Allison.  She mostly wanted to touch her head - or eyes.  See the little raw spot on her thumb?  I thought it was from a fall she took, but my mom pointed out it lines up with her teeth when she sucks her thumb.  Wonder if her thumb was in her mouth when she fell...

 We chatted for awhile and Julia took Jillian outside to walk around a little with Holly following as photographer.

 Julia also did a lot of drawing with Ansley, who is three.  I never knew what an attentive babysitter Julia could be.  They drew pictures and played hide and seek (including Holly and Alan) and played with some play food. 

 She - and Holly - surprised me.  And they both seemed to enjoy it.

While the girls colored and whatnot, Alan had brought his golf set and putted in the hallway. He took the clubs outside and knocked a ball around the backyard, too.  He really wanted Grandma to go with him outside and either play or watch.  But it was a little chilly for her.

 I think my Aunt Linda is hiding down the hall, so I missed documenting seeing her and Stephanie.  It was a fun day for us, and not a bad drive although Jillian was kind of done with riding before we got halfway home.

We always forgive her for being cranky in the car when she follows it up with cute things like climbing in the basket of shoes just to hang out for awhile.