The Killer Bee and Bella

Today's lesson - head wounds truly do bleed profusely. It started to rain today for a little while and the kids love running around in the rain. So I put on their rain coats and boots and sent them out while I folded laundry inside by the back door so I could watch them. Benjamin's raincoat has a bumblebee pattern on it, as do his boots, so he loves to pretend he's a bee when he's wearing them. He grabbed a stick and preceded to chase Bella around the yard trying to "sting" her. At one point they ended up on the concrete patio and Benjamin decided something that I still haven't fully deciphered. For some reason he needed to get his stinger under her boot. Whether he was trying to sting her foot or he wanted her to fight the bee and stomp on his stinger, I'm not sure. The end result was that he grabbed her leg, yanked it up, stuck the stick under her boot and promptly knocked her off balance and straight backwards onto her head.

Bella has two cries. One is the cry of injustice - Benjamin has stolen my toy, I don't want to wear the outfit you've chosen, etc - and the other is the cry of true pain. She let out an ear piercing version of the latter. I immediately dashed out and carried her inside and away from the killer bee. I sat her down and took off her wet rain coat and gave her a hug. She immediately calmed down and stopped crying and I assumed all was well, until I pulled back from the hug and saw that my hands were covered in blood! I looked and saw that so was the inside of her coat. I turned her around and it was running down her hair! She is such a trooper! She was no longer crying and seemed comforted and yet she's gushing blood from her head! I called Benjamin inside to see what his action had caused and then I took her to the sink to try to wash some of the blood away and find the source. She was so sweet. She didn't even cry at all until I found the source and some water hit it. And then it was just, "Hurts mommy! Hurts!" I got some hair clips and pulled her hair away from the wound and then dabbed it with a dry, clean cloth. It was no larger than a pen tip! I couldn't believe it. It was merely the tiniest little cut and yet it took 5 minutes to clot! Crazy girl - after her hair was clipped away and the wound had stopped bleeding, she immediately wanted to go back outside! Benjamin was too distressed over what he'd done to Bella that he was in no mood to return, so I put his coat on her and sent her back out. The fun was gone, though, without Benjamin, and she quickly came inside again too.

I'm just so amazed how resilient Bella has become. Having Benjamin as a brother has really toughened her up. What an amazing little girl. And to Benjamin's credit - he felt so bad that she was hurt, he spent several minutes sitting by her as I cleaned her hair, just hugging her legs and resting his head on her lap telling her how sorry he was.

Happy Earth Day

Last week (the 22nd) was Earth Day and I didn't want to let this day pass unnoticed. When I was younger, this was one of my favorite days of the year. I was an environmentalist, animal-rights activist (PETA member even - gasp!), and vegan and I never missed a chance to clean up a creek or park, or to do whatever eco-friendly thing I could, especially on this day. So, I decided to pass this on to my kids and planned a special day for them now that they're old enough to understand somewhat. Benjamin had preschool in the morning and surprisingly, they totally missed the boat and did a clown theme that day! What?!? They didn't even mention it. I thought that was kind of sad.

So, after he got home and Bella woke up from her nap, we got the party started. My favorite kids' craft website, www.notimeforflashcards.com, that's linked on the right side, was a great resource for many of these ideas. The first I copied was earth day muffins. We talked about what earth would look like if you were up in space looking down at it and what colors you would see. I googled pictures of earth from space so they could see what I meant and then we made muffins that kind of looked like that. The kids and I mixed up blueberry muffins, in which we colored the dough green, so they baked up like blue and green balls. They had a lot of fun making them - especially pouring in the green food coloring - and loved eating them. They tasted really good too!



While they baked, we read the book "Ms. Fox's Class Goes Green" and talked about the various things we can do to help the earth. The book is great for little kids and Benjamin still, this many days later, points out things we can do to "go green" like turn out lights when we leave the room or take shorter showers.

After snack, we went outside for a fun craft outdoors - in the beauty of nature and the earth. :) This also came from the website. She called it Magic Writing. Her son was so cute and focused with this craft, practicing his letters and such, so it gave me hope. I wasn't naive enough to do it inside, though, like she did. And I'm sooo glad I didn't! This involved cutting a cereal box in half, letting each child color the inside with window crayons and then covering the drawing with corn starch. Then they were to draw with their finger in the corn starch, easily shaking the drawings away and starting over, each time revealing the bright colors underneath.



My kids did super well with the coloring part and even each did one drawing in the corn starch, but then Bella thought, "What happens if I shake this box?"


That's when I lost control of the situation. :)




Once they'd thrown it on each other, I couldn't get away fast enough before I was their next victim.


That's when the camera had to be put aside and a "corn fight" (as Benjamin called it) was declared. It was a bad day to wear my new black maternity shirt. We ran all over the yard smearing each other with corn starch, throwing it in each other's hair, and even knocking each other down to get better shots. I have to admit it was pretty shocking to go sprawling on the grass as a 3 year old, with a fist full of corn starch, tripped me and then landed on top of me. All in a day's work as a mom, I guess.



Finally we'd exhausted ourselves and our supply of corn starch - so much for my educational craft! ;) So, we went on to the next stage of the day - the reuse/recycle portion. We headed to the salvation army to buy Benjamin some Sunday pants - his famous cargo pants are becoming floods - and to play with the used toys. We talked about how we can reuse old things and don't always need new stuff and we found some pretty great deals there. In addition to two new pants and two new shirts for Benjamin, I got a large, unscratched, teflon coated pot with lid for $4 and a bike helmet for Bella for this coming summer for $1. Not too shabby!

Then we decided we needed to enjoy the outdoors some more, so we went to a nearby playground and talked about the grass, the trees, the seasons, etc, and all that God has created, as they played until dinner/bed time.


All in all, it was a great day. We didn't do any garbage clean-up in local parks or anything like that, but we can do that when they're a little older. I want them to start out liking Earth Day! :) It's fun to share these kinds of things with my kids and I hope it continues.

The Downside to Cargo Pants

Cute Benjamin story I forgot to post earlier:
Benjamin's khakis that he wears to church a lot have cargo pockets on both legs. He's never noticed them before this past Sunday. Then, shortly before church, he came to me doubled over, with his hands in them, saying, "Mommy, these pockets are broken. I always have to lean over so far to get my hands in them." I explained that they weren't for your hands, they're for "cargo" ie. things you want to put in them. That opened up a world of possibilities for these previously useless accessories. He insisted I offer him some cargo immediately and I handed him the only thing nearby that would fit - two paper clips. Obviously unsatisfied, he went off in search of more. I was too busy getting ready for church to care much about what he decided to stick in there.

Fast forward to Monday morning around 4am. "Mommy! I need help!" I stumble into his bedroom and notice that his voice isn't coming from his bed, but rather from the floor in front of his dresser. "I keep falling out of bed," he wails, miserably. I assume he's delirious and attempt to lift him into bed. It's too dark for me to see it before hand, but when I try to place him in it, I discover that his bed has fallen apart and his mattress is hanging down at an odd angle, having lost one of its supports. "What happened to your bed?" I ask. "It's in my church pocket," he whines. I, of course, again assume delirium, ignore his answer, pull the mattress onto the floor and situate him comfortably on top of it before stumbling back to my room. The next morning as I attempt to repair the broken bed, I notice that one of the necessary bolts is missing. "Where did the bolt go?" I ask him. Once again he answers, "It's in my church pocket." In the light and clarity of day, I realize what I hadn't before - the cargo pocket! What a perfect item for such a pocket - a bolt. He had removed it from his bed in order to fill his pocket and in his rolling over during the night, had shaken the frame enough that what remained for the support had given way. I got his pants from the laundry, pulled out the bolt and fixed the bed. I was so relieved that it was the only bolt I found in there, or who knows what might have given way next?? I thought it was funny, though, that he knew exactly why his bed had broken - because he'd removed the bolt - but it didn't occur to him not to remove it.

The Land of Make-Believe

It's been fun to see the recent things the kids have been pretending. I'm such a left-brained nerd that I rarely remember doing much make believe. I loved to color or build with blocks, but most of what I did were geometric shapes. It's fun to see the things my kids come up with. It also forces me out of my own mental box. We're still doing our picnics on nice days and those are fertile ground for imagination games. Today we were in a large box a friend dropped off after her bathroom remodel (it had contained her bathtub) and they decided it was our dog sled on the ice in the North Pole. So one of us had to be the vicious polar bear, while the other drove the sled, and the third was the dog pulling it. No pictures of that one, unfortunately.


A few days ago we were fairies and each one of us got to put wild flowers in our hair and "dance like princesses" as Benjamin instructed us. "Higher on your toes, Bella! Princesses dance on their toes!" he commanded. I'm sure our neighbors loved watching that display.


Then today while Bella took an unusually long nap, Benjamin decided to play with the Jenga blocks and what does he do? A very typical thing for a child of mine - build a parking lot. He lined each block up just so (on a book for added stability) and then pulled his cars in one by one and lined them up in each of their spots. Not one after the other, mind you! He assigned each one a different location in various places throughout the lot, until all the spots were filled. Future valet parking attendant?


However, after this very left brain behavior, Bella woke up and the creative juices flowed. He collected his Diego doll and built him a "tomb" in which he could "sleep." He gave him a cardboard roof, using the Jenga box, and then put a "large stone" on the side, using a few more blocks. Then he decided that he needed an "angel to come roll away the stone." So he retrieved his Spiderman doll. Spiderman was naked, though, as are all dolls in our house for some reason that I've long since stopped trying to discover. We were unable to locate his real outfit, so he decided to remove his sock and clothe Spiderman in his sock, since that was a more appropriate color anyway. In the end, Angel Spiderman, clothed in a white Hanes robe, saved Diego from his Jenga tomb saying, "Lazarus, come forth!" and smashing the tomb to rubble using only his head. It was so successful we had to do it 3 more times.



My favorite of all though, was during our game of hide-and-seek (thankfully outside, as you'll understand in a minute). Benjamin was hiding and Bella and I were seeking, which involves walking around and pretending not to see him blatantly sticking out from under a bush. When I finally "found" him, he jumped up and I noticed his pants had a large wet spot in a very obvious place. "Benjamin, did you pee your pants while you were hiding?" "I didn't want you to see me, so I just pretended there was a toilet in my pants." Now that's an imagination!


Just had to throw in the pj picture. It never ceases to amaze me how crazy Benjamin's hair looks in the morning! I'm convinced he must sleep in a head-stand to make it look like that.

This Kid Needs a Leash

I used to wonder about parents who put their children on leashes. Were they so inept that they had to tether themselves to their child? Couldn't they just keep an eye on them?? Today I take back all those judgemental thoughts. I need a leash.

It's spring break this week, so Benjamin spent most of the morning asking, "Where are we going today? Where can we go today?" Of course, it was cold and yucky outside, so my hope of going to a playground was dashed. We decided to go to the Detroit Science Center (a children's museum) instead. We played happily at the museum from 1:15 until 2:40 at which point I lost Benjamin.

Since every mother in the city had had the same thought I had - it's spring break and raining, let's go to museum! - the place was a madhouse!! I've never seen it so crowded in all my 3 years of being a member there. It was Ikea on opening day. It had been hard on me to keep an eye on both kids while we were there because they are both such independant creatures and so different in their interests. Neither was willing to stay by me or with each other, so I was trying to always find a spot between the two from which I could monitor them both. However, things went well for nearly 90 minutes until at 2:40 I was watching them both like hawks when Benjamin went behind a crowd of people and out of sight. I quickly grabbed Bella and went after him. It was only a matter of seconds, but by the time I'd made it around the crowd, he was gone. I scanned the area frantically, but couldn't locate him. I went all over the entire floor - a HUGE expanse - looking for him, but he was gone. The place is a runaway child's dream (and a mother's nightmare). Several different staircases, 4 floors, lots of little display rooms, a million nooks and crannies where a small child can hide without realizing he's hiding.

I searched for 15 minutes before becoming frantic. I couldn't believe he would go upstairs without me. He knows better than that, right? But he was no where to be seen! I said a silent prayer for help and went upstairs and over to the entrance to ask for assistance from the staff. As I walked up there I lost my cool and my pregnancy hormones got to me and I began crying. I had to stand to the side for a few seconds and take some deep breaths in an effort to calm myself down and contain my emotions before talking to anyone. I asked one of the staff who I should contact to help me find my child and she radioed someone over. A few seconds later a short, black woman about 60 years old, in a rent-a-cop uniform came over. "I need help finding my son," I told her and then burst into tears again. "How old is he?" she asked. "He's 3," I wailed. "Don't worry, honey, we'll help you find your baby. He's in the building. We'll find him."

I slowly contained myself again and wondered how she could be so sure that he's in the building. Then I expected her to get on her radio and start contacting others in the building or to ask me what he looks like and what he's wearing, but she did none of those obvious things. She didn't even ask me where I'd last seen him! So I offered that information and she said, "Then let's go to the elevator and head downstairs." I thought she would tell the people at the front doors to keep an eye out for him, but she didn't do that either. Evidently she was going to walk around with me looking for a child she knew nothing about, without additional back-up. Was her role simply to help me calm down while I searched??? These people clearly needed some additional training. This is a children's museum - this can't the first time this has happened!

We stood at the elevator for a moment while she looked over the railing "for little people" and I looked out over the floor we were on because I was pretty sure he wasn't on the lower floor anymore, although I was still so shocked that he'd just go up without me. We hadn't been standing there 5 seconds when I saw a child in a pair of jeans and a green shirt standing behind a display of planets 10 feet away. His head and shoulders were hidden, but I was pretty sure it was Benjamin. I ran to him and sure enough, it was him! He was interestedly admiring the display, completely unconcerned and unaware that he was alone. He saw me grab him and start sobbing and he got tears in his eyes over my emotion, but not out of any fear or concern of his own. I asked him if he realized I'd been looking for him for the last 20 minutes and he said he hadn't. I carried him over to the Bella, the stroller, and the security guard and continued to talk to him about how frightened he'd made me and how wrong it was of him to simply go upstairs alone without telling me!

I made quite a spectacle of myself with all my sobbing and hugging. I noticed several people stop and stare. The only thing the guard said was, "Wow, he's big for a three year old! That's one big kid!" "If you'd asked, I could have told you that!" I thought. In any case, she meant well and it had been nice to have a friend by my side during my ordeal. She then said she had 5 kids and the same thing had happened to her a few times. At that point, all we did was put our coats on and go home. I wasn't up for anything else, and despite Benjamin's lack of concern, he did seem quite sorry that he'd caused me such worry. He apologized several times on our way back to the car - something he rarely does without prompting from me.

I hesitated to put this up here because it may make me seem like a bad parent, but hopefully my friends who read this blog know that I honestly did my absolute best and in no way (that I can see) did negligence contribute to this event. What I want to know is how to drill it into this head that he can't just wander off (or up the stairs) like that?!?! What is it going to take? I don't want to scare him terribly with images of child molesters, but is this what's required? This isn't the first time he's done something like this! I've always found him much faster, but he's wandered off a dozen times in public places (grocery store, toy store, parks, playgrounds, etc.) not to mention the times he's gone out of the house and wandered down the street! No matter what punishment or lecture I give him, nothing seems to make any difference. I still remember when we were Christmas shopping and as I turned to take something off a shelf, he walked off and down 8 isles of Walmart to watch the TVs. Christmas rush at Walmart and my kid is gone!! Luckily my mom instinct sent me to the TVs first, but again, there he was unconcerned, staring at the screens. Alas, I love his independent spirit and free nature, but he's going to be leashed to my belt soon if he keeps this up. He needs to understand this before I have a third kid to keep track of. Sometimes it really makes me miss these days:

Easter At Home

This "long" weekend flew by! With General Conference, Easter, and Kelly's birthday (Happy Birthday Sweetie!), there was so much going on that it was over in a flash. It all went great, but I think the kids loved the egg hunt the best. Last year I thought I would make things easy and take the kids to a community run easter egg hunt. That turned out to be more work than anything and was a huge disappointment. This year I decided 'if you want something done right, you do it yourself' and took matters in my own hands. I got all the usual Easter trappings - baskets, eggs, fake grass, egg fillers, etc. at the dollar store while Benjamin was in school and did all the prep in the evenings. Then I hid the eggs in the backyard during the last few minutes of Saturday morning's conference session. It was so fun to get ready and imagine the kids' excitement during the hunt. Despite the windy, cloudy weather, it was a lot of fun. They were running around so fast and furiously that I had trouble getting a single good photo. Even on my fastest setting, all my action shots are blurred. Benjamin was so fast that we had to make him re-hide a few of his eggs so Bella stood a greater chance. And we were still finding eggs the next day too! Ooops! Guess I hid some a bit too well. :)



Bella has started allowing me to put barretts in her hair from time to time. Her hair is still short and fine, but it's fun to do what I can. I wanted to take a picture of just her with them in, but Benjamin was unwilling to be left out. I'm amazed at how fast she's growing up. She'll be two next month!