Kids say the darndest things

And mine are no exception.

Today when I picked Tatum up and we were leaving her school, she stopped at the front desk to say, 'Bye' to her director, Ms. Nazneen.  After talking with her for a moment, Tatum asks, 'Are you brown?'

I laughed, put my hand over my mouth, and just looked at Tatum and Nazneen, who is, in fact Indian.

Nazneen just laughed, looked at me, and remarked, "You're going to have to get earmuffs, because that's just the type of child she is!"

My response was a very articulate, "Well...." 

Nazneed turned and answered Tatum laughing, "Yes, Tatum.  I AM brown!"

Everyone in earshot of that particular conversation probably got an ab workout as well.

At least we know she speaks the truth!

Lost a Tooth!

Now, while a picture IS worth a thousand words, I feel that I need to describe my tough-as-nails little boy, determined to lose his first tooth. I have had a slight delay in posting the pictures, because he wanted the experience to be a surprise for Daddy, and the losing of the tooth occured last Thursday night. The tooth started becoming earlier in the week - we noticed the permanent tooth coming in the weekend prior. Yup. You read all of that correctly, as in weekend before last.

So, on to the story. On Wednesday night he asked for some string to tie around his tooth so that he could put the string on a doorknob and slam the door shut to try and get the tooth out. I said, "No." Instead, I suggested that he simply wiggle his tooth using his fingers. So he did.

On Thursday night he again asked for some string. So I relented and gave him special tooth string, AKA dental floss. He asked me to help him wrap it around the tooth so he could pull. I did. He kept pulling up, and the string kept sliding off of the tooth. I reminded him that if he continued to pull up, that the string was going to keep sliding off of the tooth. He had an epiphany, and asked me to put the string UNDER the sides of the tooth, so that he could pull down and pop the tooth out. I did, and he started pulling down in a very determined, controlled fashion.

Sure enough, he popped that tooth right outta' his mouth!

The look of amazement on his face, then horror as he realized he was bleeding was priceless. Had I actually thought he was going to go through with it I would have been capturing the experience on video, but I really thought the pain would be too much for him! Silly mom, he sure proved me wrong!

We cleaned up the gums, rinsed his mouth out repeatedly, cleaned the tooth, then discussed the tooth fairy. He let me know that the tooth fairy brought small toys in exchange for teeth. Who knew? I told him that I thought he had to stay in bed so that the tooth fairy could use her fairy vision to double check that the tooth under the pillow matched the hole in his mouth.

At any rate, Kellen has lost his first tooth, and he did it in a Herculean way! Way to go, Kellen!

Reminder

I don't know about you guys, but I considering that I've been out of commission for almost three weeks now, I certainly need a reminder that I cannot do it all. So, I went through my old posts and am linking this Pursuit of Perfection post as a reminder to myself. I haven't been able to do much lately because of the bronchitis and getting over that...and it's showing, but I have to recognize my limitations, and realize what is REALLY important in life. And it's certainly not whether or not my kids can eat directly off of the floor.

Great ending

I picked Tatum up from school on Friday and headed home. As I pulled into the driveway and hit the garage door opener, Kellen ran out to inform me that I had to stay in the car. After persuading he and Daddy to let Tatum and I come inside to put an end to her screaming to get OUT of the car, and after promising to stay away from whatever surprise they were working on, they acquiesced and let us come inside.

A few moments later, I was shown the surprise.....a print out of a picture Daddy had taken on his phone, indicating that...

Kellen was chosen as the Junior Klub Kid of the Week!!!!

So, we scrapped any ideas we had about making dinner (it was going to be a somewhat 'fend-for-yourself night anyway), and decided to use some coupons we had and treat Kellen to CiCi's as a reward - but as a surprise!

He was thrilled, and even moreso when he was able to 'pay' for the entire family himself!

I'm so over-the-moon proud of him!!!

The best cure for a rough morning

So how sweet is it that when I'm having a rough morning that included a variety of kiddo mishaps and poor choices (although all normal in nature, the combination of them all in one morning makes for one "rough" morning) that as I stop, put my head in my hands and take a deep breath, Kellen remarks, "Mommy, are you having a rough morning?"

To this inquiry I reply, "Yes, Kellen, I just need a minute."

His response, "Mommy, do you want me to pray for you?"

You can melt now. I sure did.

My response, "That would be wonderful Kellen. Why don't you say a prayer."

And he did. It went something along these lines...(and I'll have to paraphrase, but I'll get it pretty close), 'Lord, help Mommy to not have such a rough morning and help me and Tatum not to frustrate her. In Jesus name, Amen.'

And you know what, our morning went much smoother after that prayer was uttered.

Diagnosis: Bronchitis

Well, I'm on Day 8 on my illness, and "IT" was officially diagnosed as bronchitis yesterday morning by the doctor. He also commented that I'm 'very sick'. It was so nice of him to confirm that for me, and I'm truly not being sarcastic at all. You know it's bad when the doctor winces as he's palpating your glands. That's all I'm saying.

So, armed with a myriad of Rx, all of which were of the much stronger variety than the OTC things I had been taking, I went to Kroger to get them filled. It was there I was told that many of them required lots of fluids and water. People, do you not realize that the sole act of swallowing has actually been waking me up for the past week? As in, fall asleep...NOT swallowing for 30-45 minutes, swallow in my sleep, which then would actually wake me up from the act of sleeping. At that point, I would coat my throat with throat spray and repeat this process. It has NOT been a fun week.

And I'll also mention that I just love getting sick at the beginning of an insurance plan year...for those of you who have to meet a prescription plan deductible, you'll know what I'm talking about. I no longer have to worry about meeting mine for the year after this illness. It's just too bad that it's an individual and not a family deductible, you know what I'm saying?

At any rate, with a wide array of new and improved drugs coursing through my veins yesterday, I DID feel much better yesterday afternoon and evening. So much better, in fact, that I put in a few loads of laundry and had the energy burst to make dinner last night and actually ate with the kids! Yay for me, more than one meal in a day, which has been what I've managed to swallow this past week, if that. This morning; however, I woke to the realization that the evenings energy burst and feel-good sensation was, in fact, drug induced. The drugs had worn off throughout the night and this morning I opted to take it easy, continue to stay home and rest, let the drugs kick into my system a little longer, and try to recover today and through the weekend before heading back to work. Luckily, because I haven't run a fever through any of this, the doctor indicated that I haven't been contagious, so the two attempts I've made to go into the office haven't been detrimental to anyone's health.

I will say that the kids have been really sweet through this...Kellen has said quite a few prayers asking for Mommy to get better. Tatum has gotten the doctors kit out and used it on me and has given me lots of hugs and pats to try and make me feel better as well. And I have no idea how many cups of hot tea Matt made for me when he was home with me on Monday. They're just so precious!

Scheduled

Kellen is sufficiently scheduled for the semester.

He's participating in Awana's again through the church, and has been reading his Spark's book and listening to the CD every night. We had the family night Sunday before last and it officially starts up this coming week. He's SO EXCITED!! I'm just amazed at how well he can memorize scripture. It blows my mind and melts my heart.

He'll also be continuing with Tae Kwon Do once a week during Kids Club. He's already moved up two belts, and really enjoys that...it's a little later than it was in previous years, if I remember correctly, finishing up at 5:30 this year. I just have to be sure and not arrive earlier than 5:30 to pick him up on those days.

We'll do Flag Football again this season, and we requested a different night from Tae Kwon Do. We did the same last year, but apparently there weren't enough folks to run those nights, so we got bumped to different days last year. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again this year, because going from Tae Kwon Do to football made for one VERY tired Kellen. We should hear about that sometime next week, I believe...there is a coach's meeting next week.

He wanted to play soccer, but apparently the soccer league runs year-round here, so we'll look at getting him into soccer once football is over and before T-Ball begins. I asked him why he wanted to play soccer this year and he replied something to the effect of, 'I've never played it and I want to try it out.' I couldn't have asked for a better answer than that, now could I?

He's of the age for Cub Scouts now, and we went to the introductory meeting tonight. We're all signed up for that as well, but I'm not sure what the time commitment is on that one...Pack meetings once a month, and there is another meeting next week where they're going to split up the den's and go over that stuff.

Whew. Quite honestly, I'm tired just thinking about all of the stuff that he's into! But he's excited, and we talked about making sure that he got enough rest so that he would be able to make good choices at school and Kids Club and listen to his teachers and counselors, etc...

As for Tatum, we're also looking at Kindertots, a dance and gym program through her daycare. She's already taught herself a front somersault and dances to ANY music that she hears - either for real or in her own mind. I need to call and find out which day it is held, because I don't want it to interfere with her being able to visit Maw Maw and Paw Paw during the week for story time at the library. Considering that she sings when she runs out of things to actually say, it might not be a bad idea to consider some musical things as well, but let's start small, shall we?

A little slice of heaven...

In case you're wondering, a little slice of heaven today includes snuggles with my sweet little girl, who is celebrating her 2 1/2 year birthday today, as I was rocking her and putting her to sleep. It also includes listening to my 6 year old read to himself from down the hallway in the meantime.

It's a good way to make up for not being able to make it to Ladies Night Out tonight...God sure knew what I needed, huh?

The kids were well behaved, finally agreed on a movie, ate their dinner, and didn't even balk when I had them get ready and go to bed before the movie was over. Now I know Wall-E isn't the most interesting movie in the world, but they both enjoy it and neither wanted to be through watching it, so it means that they were really being behaved and obeying tonight. And after the week I've had, I really needed them to behave so I could have that little slice of heaven tonight.

Thank you, Lord.

Evolution

And we wonder why girls have image issues?

Check out these series of Dove videos online at the link below.

http://www.dove.us/?dl=/features/videos/default.aspx%7Ccp-documentid=7049579&source=shareBlogger