A Day in the Life...

Today I had both little Chus at home with me and as usual, we spent most of our day running errands. After getting gas and buying our neighborhood pool pass, we stopped at JoAnn Fabric to buy material for Amanda's Pocahontas oral report. I had prepared for this journey by packing my purse full of snacks. Unfortunately, they had scarfed them down by the time we got to the cutting counter. With no more food to stuff in her mouth, Lex began to scream "out! OUT!" meaning she wanted out of the shopping cart. Thinking we were almost done, I let Alexa out. This was to be my downfall.

Two minutes later, she had tripped and fallen and hit her face against the corner of a metal shelf. The good news, she just barely missed her eye. The bad news, it was a bad cut, oozing blood and I wasn't sure if she would need stitches. So what is a good mom to do? Taking Kleenex from my purse, I staunch the flow of blood, while paying for my fabric and then head out to the parking lot to further assess the situation. Luckily, it didn't need stitches...but here is Lex after her losing battle with the shelf:

Disordered Eating

My little Lex is my tiniest peanut, and that's saying a lot since all three of my girls have just now barely made it onto the growth chart. Alexa, however, was actually characterized as "failure to thrive". This of course, made me feel like the world's worst mother. What was I doing wrong that my child was not growing? Was I not feeding her enough or the right things?

Eventually, we were sent to a pediatric nutritionist who gave us all sorts of helpful advice, like "add fat to whatever she eats". Uh, duh. I was already smearing her cheerios with cream cheese, adding Carnation instant breakfast to her milk, and letting her eat butter plain.

Now that's she's older and can express herself more clearly, I understand that in all probability, it had nothing to do with me. The kid just doesn't like to eat (unlike me, who lives for eating!) Case in point: at breakfast this morning she held the same bite of frittata in her mouth for, I kid you not, 30 minutes! Seriously, what am I supposed to do when she just holds it in her mouth forever? It would actually be easier if she just spit it out. Unfortunately, she was quite happy just sucking on the frittata like chewing tobacco and even posed for this fabulous pic.

How Best to Torture Your Child

Have you ever seen a pigostat device? If you have, I'm sorry. If not, I hope you never will. Today, unfortunately, I did have to see one and had to put my child in one. Alexa has had a lingering cough for weeks now and after antibiotics, inhalers, and a fever that lasted for over four days they decided to give her a chest x ray. Because toddlers tend to be stubborn, wiggly people they invented the pigostat...

Poor Lex was stripped, strapped, and stuck in this machine. It reminds me of some medieval torture device. If having pneumonia isn't bad enough...being stuck in this thing so they can diagnose it is.

Congratulations!....It's an Elephant!

Recently, my sister phoned with some very exciting news. I gathered Amanda and Alison to the phone where Annie proceeded to tell them that she had a baby in her tummy. She then asked the girls what they thought the baby would be. Amanda responded that she thought it would be another girl. Alison, however, was not about to be constrained by conventional (and scientific) reason. "Maybe it's a puppy, or a kitty, or an....ELEPHANT!!!!" Well, I hate to break it to you, kid, but your new cousin will probably be the same species as the rest of us. Regardless, though, we are super excited about the newest Puska. Congratulations!!!

Magical Moments

My little niece, Haley, is another crazy little peanut. Case in point:

My sister and brother in law recently took Haley for her first walk in the rain. Being the good mommy she is, Annie made sure Haley was prepared and dressed her in a rain jacket and rain boots. When they approached their first puddle, Annie excitedly explained to Haley that her jacket and boots were "magic" and that she could splash in the puddle without getting wet. Upon hearing this, Haley cautiously walked up to the puddle and crouched down to contemplate it. The next thing my sister and Matt knew, Haley had thrown herself face first, belly down, into the puddle.

Five minutes after their walk had begun, it was over. Annie and Matt carried a soaking wet Haley back and I'm sure Haley was thinking, "magic? yeah right, mom!"

My Name is Mud (aka M-O-M)

On her last report card, Amanda recieved all VGs, or Very Goods (the politically correct way to give an A in elementary school). To reward her, I purchased some cool chalkboard wall decals to put up in her room. While she was at school, I applied them and then lovingly wrote, "I love you -Mom" in one of the clouds.

When she got home, she was pretty excited about being able to write on her walls. She was not as excited about my little message, however. She asked if she could erase it and when I asked why she replied, "It's sooooo humiliating!" I asked her what was so humiliating about "I love you -Mom" and she clarified that by saying, "the MOM part, can I just erase the MOM part?". So here is a picture of her new wall decals....minus the humiliating MOM.

Southern Delicacies

Since Dave was born and raised in the deep South (Covington, LA and Selma, AL) he has eaten a variety of weird animal products. I believe some of those delicacies include gator and squirrel. So, when Alison got a new Leapster game about the new Disney princess Tiana she was super excited that she was able to "cook" daddy's favorite dish....Dumbo!

We were a little confused at first, knowing that elephants, specifically small, flying ones, are not typically eaten anywhere. Then we realized that she was referring to gumbo, a regional treat that does not involve eating any large mammals.