Wednesday, November 16, 2005

(Mostly) Funny Stories

Lost at the Zoo

About two months ago I took Katie, Owen, Lissa, Abby, Ivan, and Jesse to the zoo. When we finished seeing the animals we decided to get some drinks (sodas!) and ice cream at the playground area. Katie immediately headed for the slide and the other kids got out money and went inside the building to get food.

I dragged a chair over to where I always sit, pushing the stroller as I went. In that short amount of time, Katie had looked back to where I had been standing with the kids, didn't see me, and circled around to the building behind me. I was looking for her on the playground and didn't see her. It was literally seconds, and just as I got that panic-feeling in my stomach, I heard her WAIL "No thank you!" behind me. Some nice lady with a church group saw her wandering around and was trying to get her to come to her. Katie would have NONE OF IT, which is a good thing!

I can't believe how fast she did that. God was gracious to protect her by having her run to the building instead of back out the area where we had come...otherwise, she would have been open to the whole zoo! Just thinking about it makes me shaky again.

Meltdown at Picture Time

We tried twice to get pictures of the kids made. The first time, we took family pictures first and they both did fine with that. Then Katie started getting nasty with the photographer, fussing and whining. Owen was okay until she tried to get him on his stomach. He wasn't really good at that yet and even bashed his head on the prop! So that trip was pretty much wasted. We got a decent family picture, one of Katie crying, and one of Owen looking like a deer caught in headlights. When we left, Kevin actually said he needed to just "let it go" because she had frustrated him so much! He usually never gets ruffled, so you know it was bad.

The second time, the (other) photographer was pretty smart and started by putting out pumpkins, apples, scarecrow, etc. on the platform. Katie was so excited, saying "I want to get up there!" We put her up and she headed for a log to sit on. The manager was in the room with us trying to help, and told Katie that she needed to sit in FRONT of the log. Instead of waiting for her to comply, she picked Katie up and tried to sit her down on the platform. Katie became a stiff board and wouldn't bend in the middle, wailing all the while. (Have I mentioned that she does NOT like strangers?) So we got a few good ones of Owen and later a couple of quick shots of Katie.

That is an awkward situation, because Katie needed to be spanked. But you can't just take her out and spank her and tell her to smile! LOL! And you don't really have time to spank and then wait for her to calm down and be a happy child again, because other people are waiting for their turn. Bribing does nothing for that girl, and threts are useless. So we just do what we can and remember that she is unregenerate. LOL!

Leg Hair and Cold Sores

This week has been exciting. For one, I ended my long leg-shaving ban. It was getting pretty bad, I will admit. Since the hair was so long, I decided to try some wax. HA! Kevin was offended that I said a cuss, but no other word was appropriate for the pain I felt while pulling off that first strip. I tried to talk myself into doing more, but it would have taken some major alcohol, I am guessing.

After that, I thought about just leaving the three waxed parts and let the rest keep growing. My husband didn't seem to find this alluring. So the next day I shaved. The end.

As for Katie, first she had some kind of rash on her, ahem, bottom. We got that cleared up, and a few days later she woke up at 5:00 with fever and puked. Just once, mind you. Later that morning she seemed okay. The next day she got cold/flu symptoms, which lasted a day or two. Then the cold sores came. They were definitely the worst part. She had about four on her top lip, one on the inside of her bottom lip, and later we found that the roof of her mouth was covered! Poor baby couldn't eat much at all. We finally got some food down her by coating the inside with this new stuff by Colgate...and the outside with Abreva twice a day and Herpacin-L (thanks, Michelle!) before meals. She is better now but hates the scabs on her lips.

Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Bad Diaper

We took Katie to see the Were Rabbit movie. It started with a short starring the Madagascar Penguins. Just about the time the penguins showed up, I felt the earth move. Okay, so it was just Owen having a blowout. No problem, I'll just run to the restroom and change him. As I stood up I felt something warm and wet on my hand....NASTY! I scooted as fast as I could to the bathroom.

It had gone out the back of the diaper. His shirt was saved and his pants just had a little spot. But I was COVERED. I had a six-inch spot on each of my thighs, with drips going down to both knees. It was that beautiful mustard color all over my khakkis. I prayed that it would come out because I don't have many pants that fit right now (and it did, thanks to some sun-bleaching).

I had a cardigan on that was great to throw around my waist, but I had not really prepared to be taking it off...underneath I was wearing a white tee-shirt that was rather tight thanks to the fact that I am a supplier of lactose right now. And you could see the two big circles of nursing pads, just like a couple of bulls-eyes. It was great fun, I tell you. But we did make it back to our seat before the show started.

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