This morning's excitement and misc. stuff

After brushing his teeth this morning O came to me all excited with his front tooth in his hand.  His front two teeth have been loose for a good week or so with the one that fell out more loose than the other.  I'm sure the second one is soon to follow and we can start all of the "toofless" jokes.  He'll be in heaven as he has waited for his teeth to fall out for so long.  His bottom two, as you can see, are growing in nicely after falling out last fall.  So, a visit from the tooth fairy is in order.

M received a very cool painting kit from Big Gram M for Christmas.  She has been bugging me to paint for some time and we finally had time last week.  The kit came with brushes, paints and 2 canvas pre-drawn pictures to paint.  They were circus themed pictures but you wouldn't know it to look at them now!  She had so much fun and really enjoys arts and crafts.  Too bad she got me as a mom--one of the least artsy craftsy people on the planet!  I try.  And, thank goodness, family and friends contribute as well.

M was helping me take a few photos for a poster I am doing as part of a group project at school.  After taking the photos that I posed for she wanted to pose too.  This photo was too cute not to share.

In other misc. news, O had a stomach bug over the weekend.  He couldn't keep anything down beginning mid-afternoon on Saturday.  He was much better on Sunday and wanted chips, salsa and sour cream (his favorite meal/snack/food) for lunch which didn't upset him at all.  It was very quick to come on and very quick to leave.  C had the same thing yesterday and stayed home from work.  He did really well laying in bed with his work clothes on (to keep him in the right frame of mind!), talking on his Blackberry, typing on the computer, all with a trash can nearby.  Very functional office if you ask me.  So far M and I have been spared the fun bug.  I'm sure it will hit me tomorrow as I have on my schedule a presentation and a midterm.

I am on day five of a Master Cleanse.  It is the same cleanse I did last October.  This time I timed it for midterms week so I wouldn't stress eat.  However, last time I timed it for the END of my cycle.  This time my cycle started 2 days into it.  I am always starving when I start.  It has been a bit tougher this time around dealing with the hunger.  I only fell off the wagon once on Sunday night.  I ate 7 saltine crackers.  That was what was left in the box so I finished them off.  I've been better since then but still more hungry than I remember last time.  I'll have to definitely keep my cycle in mind next time I do the cleanse. 

I've taught my kids the "F word"

I've tried to parent with the idea that I never want my kids to hesitate to talk to me about anything.  I hope to be able to speak without hesitation to them if they ask me a question about what shoes to wear or if they ask me about sex.  I don't want them to see any flicker of uncertainty in my eye nor do I want to display any discomfort about any topic.

With that in mind, O, M and I were watching the Biggest Loser from this past week.  I had already seen it but O has become quite a fan so I saved the show on the DVR so he could see it too.  I knew in advance that Bob, the trainer, was going to have a bit of a melt down and use some bad language.  In teaching my kids about bad language, I try not to make a big deal out of it.  I use bad language.  Not to an extreme.  But I have cussed in front of the kids.  I feel like if I make it some sort of forbidden thing that they will gravitate towards it as they grow up.  So, if they use bad language we have a chat about how some people see those words as "bad" and they need to be careful about where they use those words and who they say them to.  So far it isn't a huge deal for them.  O is now getting to that concrete stage of development where the rules are the rules period and he is the first to point out if anyone breaks them.

So, as we are watching the show and Bob is screaming at one of the contestants, O says, "Oh, I know what he said.  He said shoot."  I kind of laugh and neither confirm or deny his assumption.  Then he realizes that Bob probably really didn't say shoot.  So he starts pressing me, "what word did he say, mom?"

What was I supposed to do?  So we had a chat about the F word.  How it is a really bad word and the kids need to be careful not to say it.  Then he wants to know what it means and we touch on how it is slang for sex but we also use it in other ways.  The whole time I'm thinking, "how do I get into these conversations with my 6 and 3 year old kids?"  I feel like I explained things to their satisfaction and at their level.  I asked if they had any questions.  We also talked about alternative words to use.  I told them that a lot of people use the word "frick or freak" instead.  He giggled and laughed as we watched Bob have his fit and we all knew what he was saying even though they beeped it out.  

I think it was a good bonding experience for us.  I also took the opportunity to remind them that they can always come and ask me about anything.

Now I wonder if frick and freak will become a regular part of their vocabulary!  I can't wait.

The Beasties

So the animals made the pet sitter (CL) work very hard for his money while we were out of town.  Brody was pretty destructive but we expected it.  I think that CL felt bad about it but he went above and beyond to try to stop him.  The dog mostly just peed on the carpet and had to be exiled from 3/4 of the house.  Luckily most of the downstairs is tile so CL was able to contain him there.  He chewed up a couple of stuffed animals but we made sure that the bulk of the kids' toys were closed off in their bedrooms before we left.  The one thing that he damaged that I could probably fix ( IF I knew how to sew!!)  is my Garfield.  I've had the thing for nearly 25 years.  I guess Brody didn't like the little faces in Garfield's slippers:

He just worked them out yet left them all intact.  Crazy pooch.  It cracks me up.

Before we left we got a tip from C's sister, CF, about these dog toys made from fire hose.  According to C, he said that CF's dogs are big chewers yet it took them several years to break through these things.  Brody had 2 for roughly 3 weeks.  This is what is left of the first one:

The second one succumbed to the same fate just last night.  

Rusty the cat also gave CL a scare.  He somehow acquired an infection in his left eye.  It was very swollen and CL had to take him to the vet the day before we returned.  Jetta, the other cat, was the only one who didn't cause any problems.

Dang critters!  It is a very good thing they are all so lovable.  It saves their hides time and time again.

Oops!

I just realized that I forgot to make O's lunch today.  It sounds worse than it is because he has an account at school so he can always buy lunch.  It is just our ritual every morning to discuss the hot lunch menu options so he can decide if he wants to bring his own lunch or eat hot lunch.  I just wasn't on the ball this morning.  Well, most mornings I'm not all there but at least I have the routine down.  Today I didn't even have that!  

The lunch menu pretty much repeats itself each week so I know what days he will eat school food and what days he will bring his lunch.  Mondays:  chicken nuggets.  Tuesdays and Thursdays:  cheese pizza.  So healthy.  Wednesdays is usually hamburgers and Fridays are usually fish of some kind.  He always brings lunch on those days.  M and I will often go and eat lunch with him on Thursdays and I make sure he knows that I expect him to take at least one veggie (not in potato form) and one fruit from the options that are available.  Oh, and he has to eat them too!  He is getting so much better at trying new foods but he is still his mother's son with his food texture issues.  There are just some textures that make us gag.  We cannot stop it.  It just happens.  He is so much better at just keeping it at the gag stage now instead of barfing everywhere.  

As a baby and way into the toddler years, we couldn't have a meal at all without him barfing.  It became such a source of anxiety for me because there is nothing that I hate more than cleaning up puke.  It makes me gag and usually puke myself.  And I hate puking more than anything too.  Now how did I end up going down this road???

Anyway, because it made me so anxious during each meal that he would lose it, I've just let him choose the foods that he is comfortable with eating so we can get through a meal without incident.  As a result, his diet is limited.  He is just now getting around to enjoying those foods that other kids love.  Like grapes.  He has also recently decided that steamed broccoli and green beans are ok.  He now will ask for mixed veggies and will eat veggie soup but will not eat a raw veggie in any way, shape or form.  It is discouraging.  Especially when I have several friends who have children who are such good eaters.  M used to love exploring new foods.  However, now she likes only what her brother likes because she adores him.

It used to drive C insane that O would lose it at every meal and he thought he was possibly doing it on purpose.  I guess I had never told him about my food texture issues so I explained what I thought was going on and he was really surprised that I had such issues.  It is really quite crazy.  I'll love the taste of a particular food and be eating it then right in the middle of a mouthful, I suddenly want to gag and it takes every bit of energy that I have to swallow it.  Then, of course, I'm done.  It is strange and upsetting because I never know when it will happen.  Of course there are foods that I won't even eat because I've never been able to eat them without gagging:  soggy bread, soggy cereal, tofu/bean curd, seafood (although I am getting a little bit better with this), anything with horseradish in it, anything with brown deli style mustard in it (these last two are more taste than texture but in my mind, it changes the texture of things), honey, eggs (eggs are tricky for me because I like them but the texture has to be just right for me to eat them).... the list could go on I'm sure.

As usual, I am long winded and off on another path when all I really wanted to note was the fact that O had to tough it out eating hot lunch at school today.