Thanksgiving

for one of us has been spent mostly on the couch, sleeping and eating popsicles.  Naomi has come down with a fever and is down and out.  Poor thing.  She was fine this morning, and sometime between 10:30 and 11:30, whatever this is hit her and she’s been lying down and resting since. 

Cousins are impressed

with Uncle Michael’s knowledge of old cartoons. 

Michael said, “Ruh-roh!” the other day as we were watching our niece and nephew.

“Uncle Michael!  Have you seen Scooby Do?!?” said our nephew.  Uncle Michael gained some points with that one. 

Our niece, who’s three and has some really cute pronunciation  differences (as most three-year-olds do), said, “I like Shooby Do!”

Sim pretends

now as he plays.  It’s totally cute, if I do say so about my own son.  I think you’d agree.  He loves, loves, loves to play with mixing spoons and mixing bowls.  If he’s in the kitchen trying to get underfoot, I can usually distract him from emptying all the reachable cabinets by giving him a wooden spoon and a metal bowl.  He will happily mix for a good long time. 

Yesterday he started a new game.  This also involved cooking.  He’d found the play metal pot and the plastic measuring cup that had been repurposed to be a toy, and he was stirring them with a toy mixing spoon.  He held the spoon up to my mouth, so I made some chewing noises, and then he prompted, “Mmmmmm!”  This repeated many, many, many times, and each time he’d prompt me to say, “Mmmmm!” 

Then he started offering me the pot or cup, so I made a slurping noise and said (of course, with a prompt), “Mmmmmm!” 

Now he also makes the eating – for the spoon –  and slurping – for the cup – noises as he samples his own cooking.  It’s really REALLY cute. 

Julie the Kitty

At some point recently, Naomi wanted to hear a story and I wasn’t ready to tell her a real fairy story in all of its gory glory, so I starting making up a story about Julie the Kitty.  Julie the Kitty has an Owner, who remains nameless, and the Owner has Parents, and together they go on adventures.  Adventures which, one might notice, bear startling resemblances to my own children’s lives.  Julie the Kitty goes to the Dentist, or Julie the Kitty is in a Storm.

Tonight, Naomi requested a Julie the Kitty story.

Michael: Which story?

Naomi: Julie the Kitty goes to the Store that Only Sells Chips.

Ah.  I’m sure I can mine some plot gold from that one.  So, I begin telling her this story.  The store, it turns out, has all kinds of chips, and also chip accessories like salsa and plates.  Naomi announces that Julie will have several more errands after this.

Michael: Where should they go next?

Naomi: The salsa store.

I guess they needed more salsa.  So, off they want to the salsa store, with many different kinds of salsa.

Michael: Where should they go next?  [Wait for it, wait for it …]

Naomi: The plate store.

The plate store has big plates, small plates, square plates, round plates, heavy plates, light plates and so on.

Michael: What kind of plates do you think they bought?

Naomi: Invisible plates.

Crate and Barrel has clearly gotten some new inventory since the last time I’ve been there!  You’ll be relieved to know that after the plate store, they all went home and went to sleep.

I can’t complain – I was trying to create stories that were soothing rather than dramatic.  You want drama, go read Hansel and Gretel -- the unsanitized version.  In Naomi’s version of The Three Pigs, the Wolf comes down the chimney and is boiled in the kettle and is eaten by the pigs afterwards. 

Dental matters

For those of you who don’t like the dentist, please know that this post doesn’t contain any in-depth descriptions of dental work.  It does, however, contain lots of information about kids who love the dentist.  Which might be almost as bad for some of you.

***

Hannah’s lost tooth today has been loose for a long time.  The replacement was growing in behind it, though, so it wasn’t actually booting the primary tooth out the way it should have.  Hannah wasn’t big on helping it along too much, so I made an appointment, just to make sure the process was going okay, and the dentist quickly and painlessly helped it along. 

Hannah was given a tooth locket necklace to put the tooth in, and she proudly wore it all day long.  She couldn’t wait to get to bed tonight.  She has a special pillowcase – on loan from Grandma – that Michael and his sister used for their teeth – it has the tooth fairy (who looks strikingly like Tinker Bell) embroidered on it, and a little pocket to put the tooth in.  She wrote a letter to the tooth fairy.

Naomi, when she heard we were going to the dentist, was excited.  I had to explain that it was just for Hannah’s wiggly tooth. 

N:  But I think she’ll want to look in my mouth, too.

Me:  Not this time, but you’ll have your teeth cleaning soon.

N:  But WHY won’t she look in my mouth?!? [She’s beginning to get weepy about it.]

Me:  It’s just for Hannah’s wiggly tooth.  But don’t worry!  Your turn will be very soon!

We got some books about teeth and dentists from the library recently – since their dental exams and cleanings are coming up – and the girls both really enjoyed them.  Naomi wanted the dentist book for her bedtime book for about a week straight.  Yeah.  I don’t know.  But they both love the dentist. 

After today’s trip to the dentist, Naomi was full of games and stories.

N:  Singing Bird lost a tooth, but it was full of decay.  It was black.  The dentist didn’t want to touch it, because she didn’t want to get decay on her gloves.  But the decay was hurting Singing Bird’s gums, so she had to get the tooth out.  Tooth decay isn’t good for gums.  The tooth fairy doesn’t take black teeth, but Tinker Bell does.  The tooth fairy has a closet full of clean teeth, and Tinker Bell has a closet full of black teeth.  The tooth fairy has a magic machine that takes the black out of the tooth.  You just put it on the tooth and press a button.  But the tooth fairy doesn’t know how to press the button, so I have to press the button for her.

Hannah’s knowledge of the anatomy of teeth has been helpful with losing this tooth.

H:  Mom, I think this must be the crown, because I’ve never seen this part before.  Also, these holes must be where the blood vessels and nerves go.  They’re really small holes, though!  It’s hard to believe all that stuff goes in there! 

I, myself, am not a big fan of the dentist.  But my life is much easier since my children are, so I’m not complaining!

Baby’s firsts

There are so many firsts that parents love to keep track of…first word, first hair cut, first steps, first food – the list is long. 

One that you don’t hear much about is Baby’s First Fire.  Simeon thinks it’s highly important, though, and it was so cute that I can’t help but add it to the list of firsts and show you some pictures.  Of course, I realize that my son could be a pyromaniac in the making, but my husband has distinctive pyromaniac traits, and Fr. Jerome is a self-professed pyromaniac, so I figure he’s in good company. 

Michael had brought up the kindling and firewood.  The kindling was in a box that Michael put to the left side of the fireplace.  Of course, as soon as Daddy’s doing anything, Sim likes to check it out.  He got a piece of kindling out in a flash.  He watched Michael for a moment, then held out the kindling:

Me:  I think he’s trying to give you some more kindling.

Michael: I think he’ll cry if I take it from him.

Me:  Give it a try.

Michael:  Okay.

He  took the piece of kindling.  Sim got another one.  No weeping or complaining.  He knew his job:  hand Dad the kindling. 

Here he’s readying the next piece.

In this next photo, he’s wondering why I’m exclaiming about how cute and funny he is.  He’s just doing his job, man.

Sim is blessed with two older sisters who are very concerned for his welfare.  Hannah was a bit freaked out that we were allowing Sim to handle kindling. 

H:  What if he eats it?!?

Me:  He’s not eating it.  He’s handing it to Dad.

H:  But what if he eats it?

Me:  We’ll take it away from him. 

Once satisfied that he wasn’t eating the kindling, Hannah left the menfolk alone to build fire.  This fire was not going to suffer from too little kindling if Sim had anything to say in the matter.  

Look out Fr. Jerome!  You’ll have a partner in fire-building next camping trip!

1st Lost Tooth!

This morning at the dentist! Hannah is very excited!