You just had to be there

Occasionally, there are things that really make me laugh. . . often they involve my kids. Well, tonight was one of those times. Here is how it unfolded . . . Austin was taking a shower in my bathroom, while I was getting Brooke all tucked in to bed. (John is out of town.) Austin had been in there for quite some time, so I kissed Brooke good night and headed into the bathroom to get Austin out of the shower and into bed as well. He was as happy as ever when I opened the shower door and asked if he was all clean. He looked VERY clean to me, actually. When he saw me, he ceased his singing in the shower, he smiled an enormous smile and said,

"Do you notice anything different about me?"

"Hmmm," I replied, "Did you scrub yourself really clean?"

"No," he said with a smile, "I shaved!"

"Uh . . . what?? Your whole body??" (Duh, that's why he looked so clean!)

"Yep! I didn't like having all that hair all over me."


Sure enough, he lathered up with shaving gel and went to town.
He's a pretty hairy little dude, so I'm sure it was quite an intense project, but he did a darn good job!
(pretty much . . . for an 8 year old)

Suffice it to say, I was not happy at first. I probably made a bigger deal then necessary about it. But, hello! He had cut his elbow and was bleeding (which he hadn't even noticed) and it could have been much worse if he had slipped or something. Not to mention the fact that he's going to have prickly hair growing in all over his arms and legs within the next week. How yucky is that?
It was most definitely not a good idea to leave that temptation in there with him unsupervised. I mean come on, what little kid doesn't want to shave when they see a can of shaving cream and a razor staring them in the face? Especially if you've inherited a generous amount of black body hair! I get it.
What was I thinking? What kind of mother am I????

Boy, oh, boy. I realized quickly that I was doing no good being frustrated at him for something that he could not un-do. Besides, after my reaction, he had moved on from proud of himself to quite tearful and unhappy about his choice. I felt bad about that. . . .much worse than the bald arms and legs. So, I changed my tune and in the end, we had a good laugh together. Several good laughs actually. I'm still laughing. . . .

I reassured him that although it wasn't a good idea to do it, his hair would grow back and wouldn't stay prickly for long. Kids can surprise us with the things they decide to do, and this is one of the best surprises I've experienced so far. I'm confident that I will laugh out loud for years to come when the memory comes back to me of the day Austin shaved himself.

Kids say the cutest things

Undoubtedly, anyone who is a parent has enjoyed an adorable, off the wall or hilarious comment from their kids a time or two. Simple, special interactions with our kids are countless. Sometimes we enjoy them for a moment and then they pass so quickly, but they never fail to bring cheer to our faces and souls. Today my kids said a couple of things that made me instantly smile.

The first one came from Brooke, with her Shirley Temple curls bouncing all over her head. (we did foam rollers last night!) We were at a local park having a picnic this evening and all of the kids were having great time, thrilled to be together as a family. The weather was beautiful and we were all enjoying each others company. It was a simple, yet memorable evening, to be sure. Anyway, Brooke was in a particularly cute mood all afternoon. I think it had something to do with the happy curls, they seemed to make her feel bubbly all over. Anyway, she kept commenting on things that were nice as we played and walked around. She had nothing but good things to say, adorned with her giggles. As the sun was setting and we were walking up a hill back toward our car, we had to climb over a few big rocks. Some of them were bumpy and rough, but there was one at the top that was flat like a ledge, smooth and lined with other rocks around the edges. When Brooke got to that one, she stood up tall, looked out toward the horizon and sighed. With a smile she said, "This one is soo pretty, like a balcony. All it needs is a nice pot of pink flowers and it would be perfect, just like home."
She was so happy to have found perfection in a rock, with the addition of pink flowers, of course. :-) What thing is not made more wonderful by pink flowers???
It was a simple comment, but it was so Brookie. It made me want to scoop her up and keep her little forever. Do they have to grow up?

Later on in the evening, I was putting Austin to bed. He was getting ready to say his prayers and we were discussing a friend that he was including in his prayer. The friend is going to have surgery, to have something removed from inside her body. Austin was wondering what it was and why. In an attempt to simplify, I explained that sometimes things grow inside our body that we don't need and so the doctor takes them out if they hurt. Austin nodded his head in understanding and maturely said,
"Oh, right, like if you swallow a seed of like a fruit or something and then it starts to grow in there, and it bothers you." :-)

Although he was confident with his answer, he was very relieved to hear me say that it was not the case. He smiled a large smile and said, "oh good."
It really caught me off guard to hear that from him. I enjoyed the young childhood innocence that seems to be drifting away from Austin as he grows and matures. Can't we keep them young and innocent forever? They sure are wonderful that way.

We have a walker

Hooray for Cameron!

After many months of being completely uninterested, he walked across the hall today, unassisted! Woohoo!

BOO

So, someone made our day a few days ago, by "BOO" ing us. They left a cute plate of treats for us, a festive poem and a cute picture of a pumpkin that says BOO! on it. My kids thought it was sooooo awesome to get Boo'd and were so excited to pass it along. It's a chain and each of us is supposed to carry on the game by Booing other people.

So, of course we started to make some Halloween cookies yesterday, to spread the cheer. When our cookies came out of the oven hot, the kids were leaning over and sticking a candy corn on top. Well, Brookie leaned too far forward and burned her lip on the cookie sheet. Yikes! Talk about a fright . . . . that it was. She has a scab on her lip now, but it's still very sensitive. Poor little princess.

But hey, we loved being booed and booing in return. It's a fun way to feel festive!

The desert

John just returned from a business trip in Arizona and of course, in his fashion, he always has silly things to tell the kids about where he's been and what he does on his trips.

Well, this time, it's worth sharing. Brooke had a phone conversation with John a couple days ago and it was so cute to listen in. John had told the kids that he was going to the desert, so of course, they pictured sand and camels, the whole bit. And of course, John loves it and totally feeds their imaginations. Brooke was on the phone with him when he first arrived and seriously asked if he had gotten a camel yet and how he was gonna get water in the desert. John played right along and told her all about his camel and how it tried to drink his water when it got really hot and the two humps it had to carry his suitcase on, etc. She really enjoyed the conversation and sat there and talked to him for a good 20 minutes, very maturely, about his travels in the desert. She asked all sorts of cute questions then passed the phone on to me when she was done.

Of course, I was chuckling to John on the other end of the line about how cute she was and the cute story about his adventure in the desert. Well, Brooke over heard me laughing and chimed in to me, "I know, isn't that sooo funny that his camel keeps trying to drink his water??" It was adorable!