Phobias

Dexter has been battling a fear of sun spots for going on four years now.  I can't even BEGIN to wrap my head around it or understand it, but for him it is a real fear that makes his blood run faster and makes him feel like he is on fire.  It has gotten to be difficult to be sympathetic, as his anxiety has morphed in to a fear of any light shining on water.  Even just regular old overhead lights.  We've got the pros working on it now, along with a slew of other fears - movies, assemblies, fire drills.  And as difficult as it is for us to understand what is going on in his little head, I imagine is is a million times more difficult for him, as these are real fears, that cause real physical reactions in his body.  We are all delighted that his swimming championship meet is on a Friday night.  Good, said Dexter.  There won't be any sun spots!

The small one, however.  She's just crazy.  Her current list of phobias include:

1)  Heffalumps.  Goddamn Winnie the Pooh and his ridiculous bad dreams.  I read that story to her one time, long ago, and she was a wreck all night long.  So I've not read it to her since.  But what did John read to her a couple weeks ago, before bed time?  The Heffalump story.  And now she'll go on and on, just at random times during the day, about Pooh's house and how it's just one room so the Heffalump was just looking for food, but Pooh could see it because his kitchen and his bedroom are in the same room, and Mama?  You know what?  I was happy that Pooh made the Heffalump cry.  For the love of God, child.  Heffalumps.  ARE.  MADE.  UP.

2)  Skunks.  One time she smelled a skunk outside, and I told her skunks spray smelly stuff out of their tail.  Now she is petrified of skunks.  Yes, skunks probably come in our yard.  No, skunks don't come in to our yard til late at night, long after you are in bed.  No, skunks will only spray you if you bother them.  No, skunks will not come on our deck and look in our windows.

3)  Monster trucks.  Yes.  MONSTER TRUCKS.  Mama?  I am just a little nervous that a monster truck will come and smoosh our car in the parking lot when we are in Wal-Mart.  Seriously, child?  Monster trucks?  I can't even.

So that's our kids.  So long as there are no sun spots, Heffalumps, skunks, or monster trucks they ought to be mostly normal.  Mostly.  Below is a picture of Erin and Dex at McDonald's on Monday.  A miraculous breakthrough was made in the diet of Erin, who actually ATE HER NUGGETS for the first time ever.  So, yeah.  I'm not so certain about her normalcy.

January Blizzard

It hasn't felt much like winter this winter.  Til today.  We're in the middle of a wicked Nor'Easter, which if forecasts hold true may dump two feet of snow on us.  And bring 50 mph winds.  All of which sounds like a good weekend to stay inside.

Except the children were pretty excited about the snow.  And John needed to shovel out the front and the back doors so the dog could poop somewhere other than the front porch.  And also because we were unable to open the back door.  So I bundled up the kids, tossed the dog outside, and everyone played for a good 20 minutes or so.  Before Erin declared she was "freezing" and needed to come inside.  I'm, honestly, surprised she lasted as long as she did.

Almost deep enough to lose the dog out in the driveway.  Almost.  The wind blew a lot of snow off the driveway, so it's not quite as deep out there as on the back deck.

But it was still pretty deep

Put the children to work doing some shoveling so the dog could actually get off the deck.

Bench is more comfy with a foot and a half of snow on it

15 inches, I suppose, depending on where you measured.  We had 2 feet drifted against the back door.  Thus why we could not open it.

Erin made a seat in the snow, Dex was working on a snow cave.

Somewhere, under all that snow, is a dog

Dex buried in his snow cave.

And then everyone dropped their snowy clothes in the sun room and came inside to get warm.  Aunt Jeanne wondered why everyone always buys milk before a snow storm.  I don't know why everyone else does, but we mostly do it so we have enough milk for hot chocolate:

John is outside snow blowing the driveway, Round 1, to be sure the snow blower can actually make it through the snow.  Our road has not been plowed and I expect it won't be til tomorrow.  We're eating leftover pizza for lunch, and just crossing our fingers that we don't lose power.  Our snow is light and fluffy for now, but I think might turn wet and heavy later.  Good for snowmen, not good for keeping on the lights.  Everyone is at least slightly sick.  Some more so than others.  Dexter and I have both been sick for a solid week, with no signs of improvement.

Welcome, Winter.

The Christmas that was Hot

This Christmas was hot.  And a little wet and rainy.  But mostly hot and steamy.  It was weird, but really lovely, to be putting out luminaries on Christmas Eve in just our pajamas, and in tee shirts.  And then go for a bike ride.  In our tee shirts.

Erin LOVES to help.  She's not fast.  She's not always correct.  But she's enthusiastic.

Luminaries are up, so we headed out for a quick bike ride to see the neighborhood Christmas lights

This was right about the time Erin decided she was tired of riding her bike, and she wanted to walk home.  Guess who got to carry her bike?  And her helmet?

Dex was psyched to give Santa some green milk in our Christmas tree cup.  We decorated seven gingerbread cookies that we made the previous weekend with Grandma and Grandpa with copious amounts of frosting and sprinkles and left those out, along with all of Dexter's notes for Santa on the mantle.

Both children were VERY excited for Santa, although Erin had a bit of Santa anxiety - she wanted to be sure Santa didn't come in to her room.  Dex swore he was going to stay awake all night long.  Eventually everyone settled down.  I'm sure there were visions of sugar plums.  Or at least peanut butter cups.

We were very kind on Christmas morning and didn't make Dexter wait til Erin's normal wake-up time of 7:15.  We just burst right in to her room at 6:30 and woke her little butt right up.  She didn't mind.  Two very excited children zoomed down the stairs to this:

An army of Hex Bugs!  Which was mostly overlooked for an hour or so, because...

Rocket ships!  And trains!  And train tracks!  I was shocked (SHOCKED!) that the trains got more attention than the rockets.  But the rockets did get in to the play - the trains carried them around the tracks.

Erin was pretty delighted that Santa brought her some more "aminyals"

Eventually train play was finished, and some donuts and muffins were consumed for breakfast.  And then Dexter's eyes fell on this enormous hex bug maze, complete with a gazillion little hex bugs.  I loved hearing him say, in the middle of playing with them, "This is so much fun!"  Erin will not touch a hex bug (she's terrified of them), but she enjoyed watching them, and she was so cute to watch.

This is so much fun!

C'mon, hex bug!  You can do it!  Are you going to make it?  Oh, the stress of watching!

Go hex bug!  Go hex bug!

Hooray!!!  You did it, hex bug!  You made it!

Dexter whipped through wrapped presents with glee, tossing aside LEGO sets and weather lab kits and books, in search of the perfect present to play with.  He found it in a set of make-your-own crystals, which he and Daddy immediately spread out all over the kitchen table.

Stirring crystals requires fierce concentration.

They turned out pretty cool, really.  Here's a crystal Christmas tree, only 12 hours or so after being made.  It kept growing for another week.

Erin, too, ripped thru presents.  LEGO was played with.  Clothes were tossed aside, "Christmas Story" style.  Books were read through immediately, which was cool.  We have lots of new Thomas books, and some Dinosaur Train books as well.  And a Froggy book.  Erin cracks up at Froggy books.  And then Erin remembered her stocking, and her second breakfast became Hershey kisses and peanut butter cups.  She didn't really need lunch later.

Giant Hershey kiss, which she took a few nibbles out of and then discarded.  Awesome.  More for Mama.

Dexter asked me a few times in December if I like giving presents or getting presents better.  I told him I liked giving presents, because I enjoyed thinking of a present that someone would really like, and then seeing their face when they open that present.  He, because he is six, said he would rather get presents.  Toys.  He just wants lots and lots of toys.

But in November we went to the Dollar store, and he purchased things.  With his own money.  Some of them for himself.  A couple things for Erin.  And something for Daddy.  And he LOVED opening his presents to Dexter, from Dexter.  But I think he also, just a little bit, enjoyed giving.

I enjoyed the weekly updates I got from Dexter about the gingerbread man he was making in art class.  I swear they started these things in October, to have them ready in time for Christmas.

I heard about, but didn't quite understand, how Dexter got clipped down at school because he lost his mind over having to put a heart on his snowman.  He hates hearts.  I didn't understand til I opened this cute little snowman, made out of a piece of wood and a sock.

And then Erin got to open her gift from Dexter.  He got her a squirt bottle.  He also got one for himself.  Erin unwrapped it and the first words out of her mouth were "Can we put some water in it now?"  Well, yes.  But you can only use it outside.  "Can we go outside?"  Well, yes.  Put some crocs on, kiddo.  Let's go play.

And that's how we ended up in our backyard on Christmas morning, wearing pajamas and crocs and no coats, running around squirting each other with squirt bottles.

Getting the two of them to 1) sit still and 2) actually look at me is near impossible.  Doing that while also trying not get get soaked with water?  Good luck.

They did eventually turn the water on each other.  I was surprised they both remained fairly happy with this.  Usually Erin talks a big game, and then cries because Dexter got her wet.  This time she waited til all water play was done and she was back inside.  THEN she started crying.

I can't get them to sit still and take a good picture.  But run across the yard?  Sure.

Sometimes Erin gets sad because she doesn't run fast enough.  In those instances she needs a little help.

Most of the time Erin seemed to run plenty fast enough to keep up with me and get me wet.  Also, if  I really try running, I am currently just barely faster than Dexter.  This is going to be a problem soon...

Most excellent family Christmas photo.  Blurry flying dog just adds to the excellence.

After a while Dex headed back inside for more candy and toys, but Erin wandered down to the pasture fence to say hi to our neighbors.

She wanted to show Tee her squirt bottle.  Tee, bless his heart, thought it was kinda cool.

And then we went inside, and Erin cried about being wet, and we opened the last of the gifts, and we might have finished up presents before Erin's nap.  Which, for this family, is kind of a Christmas miracle.

We never did, though, end up calling Santa.

Changing Aspirations

On our Christmas card this year I wrote that Dexter wanted to build rockets when he grows up.  This is still true.  In addition to building rockets, he is also going to live in a mansion.  Next to his rocket building place.  Also, he is not going to have to know how to do ANY chores, because his wife is going to do all the chores for him.  Hmmmmm.

Erin, in early December, stated she wanted to be a princess when she grows up.  This week she has changed her tune.  She wants to be an astronaut when she grows up.  And live on a rocket ship.  She might also, perhaps, want to be a brother when she grows up (I kind of crushed that dream - sorry, kiddo, you're always going to be a sister).  And she maybe would like to be a mom.  But she can't decide if she wants to be an astronaut or a mom.  You can be both, I told her.  But I'm not sure she's buying it.

Maybe, just maybe, she will learn how to eat a blue-frosting'd cupcake properly before she poses for her astronaut picture.  Or maybe not.  Astronauts might not use napkins, either.

I do hope that both my little space-dreamers find whatever career they are looking for.  Perhaps they can find it at the end of this double rainbow...

We didn't find any pots of gold.  Nor did we win the 1.5 gazillion dollar Power Ball drawing.  But the kids thought the rainbows were pretty awesome.  :-)