The "V" Word

Em was very confused by the political ads on TV tonight...

"John Kasich sat on Invacare's board as a director and signed off on jobs being outsourced and sent to China and Mexico...."

Apparently, "China" and "Va-gina" sound very similar to my 4-year old!

"Mom!  They used that 'quiet word' (then whispers the "V" word to me) on that 'mercial!"

"Oh My Gosh"

Sorry... have to share another one tonight...

It's almost 7pm and Emily was just telling me that she hoped her Daddy would get here soon.

I had to break the bad news to her and let her know that Daddy's car broke down on his way home tonight and he's going to have to stay at Aunt Shell and Aunt Laura's tonight and come home tomorrow.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but given the experiences of the day, I was predicting some tears and a potential meltdown.

Instead, she put her hands up to her cheeks and said, "Oh my gosh.  I don't know what he's gonna do, I sure his car doesn't get broke down again!  I have to go make my dad a card."

And off she ran to her room where I could hear her telling "her kids" (the imaginary friends in her room) that her Daddy's car broke down and he would be back tomorrow but not to worry.  She told them she was going to make him a card so he would feel better.

Here's her letter:

It says:

Dear Daddy,

Your car not broke down again.  Dear Daddy

And just for kicks... this is what I saw in my rear view mirror on the way home tonight...

Apparently she found her bike helmet in the seat beside her and felt my driving wasn't safe enough...  Or, maybe she was thinking of Grandma's driving styles....

Would You Please Stop Singing?

 
On the way to Grandma's this morning, Em and I were singing our homemade "Days of the Week Song".  Partway through the song she asked,

"Would you please stop singing?  You're making me REALLY sick."

Thankfully, I know a secret... she meant to ask me to stop singing because she was singing loudly and it was making her throat hurt since she has a cold!

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

 
Last week Em, Grandma and I were riding towards a yellow light on the highway and from the carseat in the back I hear, "Hurry, hurry, hurry -- before it turns red!"

I looked in bewilderment toward the passenger seat and asked my mom, "Where in the world did that come from?"

Grandma confessed that the darling kid in the backseat just might have overheard her tell Grandpa that a time or two!

I'm a hottie!

While out to eat last night, Emily crawled across my chair to get out.
"Mommy your seat's hot!"

Without thinking, I said, "Well, I must have a hot butt then."

Before I knew it, there were 2 little hands grabbing my royal rumpous saying, "Can I feel it?!"


Note to self #421: Think before I speak, but especially when we're out in public!

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Braveheart

Over the course of the last couple of years, Em has garnered a fear of quite a few things:

• Loud noises
• Automatic flushing toilets
• Car washes
• Flies
• Spiders
• Dirt
• Hot water  (great combination, huh?)
• Automatic hand dryers (blowers... she loves the automatic towel dispensers!)
• ...feel free to add to the list if you're remembering something I'm not! 

And, over the last couple of weeks, Em has tackled a few of her fears.  When we went camping and visited the Cincinnati Zoo, she had a complete meltdown in one of the restrooms because she had to go potty, but was terrified of the automatic toilets.  She would NOT even trust me enough to hold my hand over the sensor while she went. 

However, a couple of weeks ago, Em faced that fear and has used at least 2 "scary" potties since then... and then comes out victorious and tells everyone she meets how brave she was.  That was a fun story to explain to all my colleagues at the local high school homecoming game!

Sunday, Emily tackled another fear.  For about a year and a half, she has built up a fear of car washes.  Whenever I've needed to run through one, I've always asked her (without pressuring her) if she wants to give it a shot and then answer has always been "No, they're scary."  Imagine my surprise when I asked her again on Sunday and out of the blue she said she wanted to try it! 

Enjoy!

Leaf Angels!

Due to the lack of a rake, we found an old broom in the garage this afternoon and swept some leaves from the back yard into a big pile.... yeehaw!

 

 

But we also learned in the process that you have to watch out for scary critters in the leaf piles.  Look out!

 

Em's First "Camping" Trip

Last week was our 10-year wedding anniversary.  We planned an inexpensive week-long visit to the Lake Hill Campground.  We packed up my kayak, our bikes, a tent and our miscellaneous camping gear... propane tanks, pie irons, fishing poles, DVDs, laptops... (what?)

The beginning of the week was a little rainy, but we love sitting on porches and watching and listening to the rain.  It was a perfect beginning to our week.

Emily lost Tooth #2 on Sunday night.  We predicted this might happen and made arrangements for the Tooth Fairy to visit our cabin.  Sorry... for the life of me I could NOT get a picture of her new smile.  She would not cooperate and kept making all kinds of goofy faces.  I managed a couple of good pictures of her tonsils though!

A few days in, we decided to take a road trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.  Our membership to the Columbus Zoo gave us 50% off admission and we enjoyed a great afternoon of walking through the botanical gardens and experiencing "The Cat House" where the big cats are kept.  (The only down-side is that the big cat house smells like a big cat house.)

Emily's favorite part of the zoo was the playground.  There was evidence of some giant creatures on that playground...

The Giant Tortoise

Giant Spiders

...that captured a giant Emily.

Later, back at the campground, Emily got to spend several days playing outside.  She had a little trouble adapting to the uneven ground and unfamiliar territory.  Em hasn't had much opportunity to roam free and trip over tree roots and fall off of porches.  She made up lost time last week.  On day 1, she tripped into the fire ring (empty and unlit!) but still managed to bruise her thighs and scuff up her hands a little.  (It's a wonder she didn't lose more teeth on this fall!)  On day 2, Emily fell off the front edge of porch and landed in the hostas.  She ended up with a little road rash mark on her side and gained a healthy fear of the front edge of the porch.  Other than that, she learned fairly quickly to watch where she was going instead of walking into and tripping over things.

Initially, I thought the cabins were going to be further apart.  They were fairly close, but didn't bother us a bit because we were the only ones there all week except for a few random people at the back of the campground and our friends that joined us on Saturday night and they got to stay right next door to us.

There was a "rail to trail" path just across the road from the campground.  I had good intentions of riding this with Emily but we just went exploring and took a walk on it early in the week.  Because of the hills, I would have had to load our bikes on the SUV and haul them down the hill to the level bike path and then haul them back up the big hill to the cabin afterwards.  It was a little too much work for the timeframe we had... but next time, we WILL do this!

Em loved playing on the playground at Lake Hill.  We met the owners' 7-year old grandson and played with him toward the middle of the week and then didn't see him again after that.  Emily wanted to play on the playground rain or shine, but we agreed on "shine".  I wish she'd have had a playmate most of the time because I just didn't have it in me to chase her all over.  Swinging is my cup of tea.  She climbed a fairly high rock wall all by herself and the only thing I didn't let her do by herself was the rope wall/ladder in the picture below... maybe when she's a bit more coordinated and won't end up hanging by her ankles if left to her own devices.

The campground has its own 5 acre lake which was perfect for kayaking.  I was able to take the kayak out 2 different afternoons while Em napped and Tom stayed back enjoyed catching up on a few TV series on DVD.. rustic style (on his laptop).  On my first kayak trip, I just explored the lake and enjoyed the peace and quiet.  I took my fishing pole with me the second time and though I got a few nibbles, I didn't catch anything.  I did find a couple of downed trees in the water that had become good sunning spots for about a dozen turtles and I found quite a few shells along the beach and some really large ones that I brought back for Emily.

Since the weather has been cool for a while, there weren't too many bugs around the campground except for a few daddy long legs.  While Em was playing on the playground one day, I noticed this little booger.  Not sure what he was, but he was bashful.  It took me about 6 tries to get this picture, he kept walking away from me and scooting around the backside of the playset when the camera would focus on him.  Anybody know what this is?

The cabins were quaint, but comfy and had everything we needed.  We had a full-size bed, bunk beds, and a foldout sofa if we needed it.  We had a bathroom, complete with shower and a small kitchenette with microwave and small fridge.  There was a grill and comfy chairs on the front porch and we brought our own camp chairs for in the cabin and around the fire.

There was even a loft above our bedroom with a mattress up there, but I was afraid I wouldn't be awake enough to climb down from there in the middle of the night without ending up hanging from MY ankles.

 Here's our kitchen.  Isn't it lovely?  Don't judge our eating habits... remember we were on vacation!

Here's a quick pict of our tent which Emily loved playing and napping in, but it was too cold at night to hang out there.

Here's a prize picture... my little princess who doesn't like to get dirty was totally digging in the dirt and burying her hands.  The previous day, she did the same thing... in pants that were on backwards.  She also crawled around on her hands and knees and cleaned the slide off with those backwards pants.  I had to laugh when I did post-vacation laundry the other day and had to work on grass stain on the "back" of her knees and the "front" of her pants.  I loved playing in the dirt as a kid and am happy this kid had a chance to do the same. We might just have to weed out dirt pile out back again so she can play in the dirt this spring!

On Saturday afternoon, our friends came down and joined us for the night.  It was great watching the girls play together and catching up with each other again.  We explored the campground together and had to wind up the weekend when the rain started up.

It was nice to be able to get away and celebrate the last 10 years together.  We have been blessed with a happy, healthy marriage and a great family.  As our friend, Matt, said... "Congratulations.  That's longer than most prison sentences!"   Yes.  Yes, it is.  Congratulations, honey... don't call the parole officer just yet, I'm enjoying this prison sentence.

Spam

Hey gang... just want to let you know that due to some uninvited spam, I'm having to turn on comment moderating.

I've been getting some junk thrown in on our comments over the last couple of weeks and the number of comments in very poor taste are starting to outnumber the family-friendly comments that are normally left on our site.  I'm convinced these aren't attacks on our site by real people, but by automated bots.  No worries.

Please feel free to continue to post comments on our site... we actually love to hear your feedback!  The only difference you'll see if that I'll be "approving" the comments before the automatically appear on the blog.

Speaking of spam... why is it that every now and then I get a hankering for some real, edible spam?