Parenting dilemma #573

Q. What do you do when you kid sticks a chocolate chip up his nose?

A. Wait. It melts into easily wipeable chocolate snot.

Tall"er" for 60 minutes...

Last week I had my annual physical. Not usually a noteworthy experience, but this time was different for a few reasons.

1) My weight on the doctor's scale was lower than the weight on my home scale. Woohoo!
2) I had the best blood pressure ever! (120 over 60)
3) I grew an inch and a half.

Yes...according to the doctor's nurse, I am now 64 1/2 inches tall (5'4 1/2"). Considering that I've been 5'3" (ok...5' 2/3") since I've been about 13, this was quite a revelation to me. I did point this out to the nurse, that maybe her chart was a bit off. But, she just responded, "Well, you're 64 1/2 here." (This leaves me in some doubt about the first two items in my above list.)

On the plus side, I had a great BMI when the doctor came in to look at the chart. And, I could fantasize for just a little while that I actually was taller. What could I reach now in my kitchen cupboards? Mmmmmm...

But, when I got home, I whipped out the tape measure and sure enough, the extra inch and a half was gone. Sigh.

Car conversations - part 2

I took Faith for an x-ray on her left hip yesterday. She's been complaining about it off and on for quite awhile, and given the fact she was born with a dislocated left hip, and that my family history is fairly poor in the joint department, the doctor figured an x-ray would be a good precaution.

Anyway, on the way to the x-ray, we had another interesting car conversation, completely out of the blue.

"If God or Jesus was the president, the world would be better."

Mmmmmm. I'll bite. "How?"

"Well, they wouldn't allow smoking."

"Anything else?"

"Oh...no killing anyone either I guess."

Car conversations - part 1

I always find that Faith and I have the most interesting conversations in the car. Like for instance, the one over March Break we had on the way to her cousin's house. It was THE conversation, and it started something like, "----- said you have to have sex to have a baby? Is that true?"

Yes...the "how are babies made" one, but this time with details that I glossed over when she was four. Well, she's almost eight now, and she loves non-fiction, so details is what she wants. Like where is this egg? What is sperm? How does the sperm get to the egg?

It actually wasn't bad at all. I tried to explain things simply, with the correct terminology, and I thought I did a pretty good job, until the end of the conversation.

"Mom, I just don't get it."

And, you know, I'm OK with that...for now.

BTW...when I told George about this is reaction? He laughed and said, "Glad it was you and not me." He's totally taking the hit when it's Blake's turn. Blake should be easier anyway. He was sitting in the carseat next to Faith just taking it all in.

Solving the housework problem?

I had a very surreal experience this evening. After supper, Faith asked to do some crafts out of a book she got for Christmas. I said, yes, but that we had to clean up the kitchen from supper beforehand. Normally, this elicits one of two reactions: "Aww mom!" or "I'm going up to my room."

Tonight, she cleared off the dishes from the kitchen table, WIPED the table down, SWEPT the floor (the whole floor, not just under the table), tidied up all the newspapers in the living room, picked up all the toys and put them away (her brother's toys...not hers!), and VACUUMED the living room rug. She ran out of steam before washing the floor but she did have the mop out.

I felt like I'd entered the Twilight Zone, and spent most of this time trying not to stare. I can only hope and pray that this will somehow happen again and have been frantically trying to figure out what key circumstances led to this housework frenzy in the first place.

The Boulder Room

We started out the March break with a road trip up the 401 to visit my brother. Faith has been talking about climbing with her Uncle for about 6 months now, so we picked this weekend to try an indoor climbing gym. Duncan is an excellent climber, and has the muscles to prove it. (Faith still talks about him picking her up with his little fingers.)

So, on Saturday afternoon we headed out to The Boulder Room with Duncan, his girlfriend Michelle (who is fantastic, btw), Faith, and Blake. We all got strapped into our climbing harnesses, which requires that you have no issues with personal space as it's a puzzle to figure out how to do it the first time unless someone helps you strap in.

We started out with some little climbs. Faith went up the wall first and got about 10 feet up before deciding down was better. Then it was my turn. I'm not sure how far I got up before it hit me that I was clinging to the side of a wall, and that no matter what I logically knew about safety equipment, it felt like I could really fall. So, down I went.

Blake went next but lasted about 5 seconds as he didn't like the whole slipping and swinging on the rope. But, his harness was extremely useful for grabbing him when he took off around the gym.


Eventually, after trying some cave climbing, Faith worked her way up the wall to this (and then a little higher):
She decided that coming down on the rapel line was much more fun that doing the work of climbing up. But she had a great time!

It took me until my third try to get all the way to the top of the wall (about 30 feet). It actually felt fantastic! Michelle and Duncan were coaching me all the way along, or I wouldn't have gotten up the route. But apparently the secret is that it's all in the legs. Don't pull with your arms, push with your legs. Easy to say on the ground, harder to do 25 feet off the ground when you're looking for a stupid little hold to put your foot on. I was happy to say that I made it to the top twice! I even got to "stem"...which essentially means putting out your leg/hand to a side wall to get yourself up. I can see why climbing can be addictive because it's a big adrenaline rush.

It was also very cool seeing Duncan and Michelle show us "how it's done". Here are one of Duncan's climbs (and yes, he has his toes and fingers on these very little purple handholds that most of us wouldn't even be able to stub our toes on walking down the street):

After an afternoon of climbing, we headed back to Duncan's for a yummy supper (including homemade bread!), and a great dessert from Michelle...pumpkin pie!

Now we just have to plan our next climbing trip.

Hazardous housework

I have just spent the last 60 minutes confirming why I have a cleaning lady, and why I don't clean when Blake is awake. (Faith, on the other hand, can now do things like wash the windows.)

We have a small picnic table in our great room, on top of a rug, where Blake has snacks and eats breakfast every morning. The rug is basically to capture the food bits and pieces that fall on the floor as we don't have a handy dog to clean them up for us, and we have hard wood that allows dirt to travel everywhere. After a couple of days, we could feed a German Shepherd with the rice krispies. So I try to shake the rug out into the sink and sweep up.

Today, Blake decided that playing crash-up derby with this big truck into the broom and piles of dirt was a "fun" game. My ankles barely survived the experience, and I now have several blue streaks on the floor that used to be blueberries. Humph!

Then, I just got all the playdough toys picked up, for the second time, when he walked up beside me and dumped the whole bucket on the floor again! Gah!

Finally, he spilled his milk at dinner and, while I was getting a towel, decided that splashing in the white puddle with is fork would be fun. Blah!

My cleaning lady just called and she's coming early next week.