The Briny Deep

I finally had time to download my pictures from the Seattle Aquarium. Here are a few of my favorites. We had such a good time! I was disappointed to find out that my favorite exhibit, the sea dragons, had not survived the aquariums recent remodel though. Hopefully they will be able to bring them back. I had been looking forward to taking pictures of them for over a year.

a six year old upgrade

I have been meaning to post this for some time and just keep forgetting.

My mother-in-law was making my son lunch along with their Dad. When given his lunch options he decided on a BB&J. While sitting at the dining room table, waiting to be served, he casually asked if he could upgrade his lunch.

"What?" they asked not quite understanding.

"I want to upgrade my sandwich to include a pop and chips!"

The Scarcrow Learns To Roller Blade

Ever watch The Wizard of Oz? Remember the scene where we meet the scarecrow and he is dancing his little number while arms and legs are flailing around in the wind. He is so light and fluffy that his limbs seem to have lives of their own, moving at odd angles and rhythms with no cohesiveness. Have the picture in your head? That is what my son just looked like out in the big cement circle trying to learn to roller blade. His arms and legs flailing around. Legs running in place a hundred miles an hour going NO WHERE yet amazingly he didn't fall down. He defied Einsteins theory's. He should have been on the ground repeatedly. Amazingly, mid air twists and one legged spins (like a drunken ice champion) kept him upright. It must be the fact that he barely weighs fifty pounds. What he was doing was not humanly possible. It was not graceful. It was not even very good but it was AMAZING. "Good Job Boo! It's your first time, keep at it. " I have to go inside now for a cold compress because I feel faint and I think I will need to find our insurance card very soon.

"Knock Knock" "Whoes There" A plastic Cup

If you are contemplating your first year of T-ball next season and you have a boy, let me fill you in on a really important piece of information. Buy the child the required "CUP" well before your first scheduled practice. I had no idea that boys would find this little plastic apparatus quite as amazing as they seem too. Did you know that you can play "knock, knock" jokes on it? Do you have any idea just how funny it can be? Do you have any idea, as a parent, how embarrassing it is to have your child on the pitchers mound "knocking" on his cup to kill the time? I keep thinking, "Yes T, It is still there! PLEASE STOP!" It's a little league requirement this year that you cant attend practice or games with out one (which is a great idea) so out we went and bought two. When we got home I mentioned that they should try them on so that they new if they fit and "how" to put them on. T says, yelling to Boo from the living room to the bedroom "Come on Bro, we have to try on our plastic weenie protectors." GOOD GRIEF! WHY did I want boy's? I guess it's my turn to be embarrassed.

"How Boy's Kiss Girls" by my six year old son

Let me preface this little tid bit with the fact that my children are moderately sheltered. They watch PG movies. They are not allowed to watch prime time television. They are not street wise about the world of the opposite sex. They are six and eight and what kind of mother would I be if I did not embarrass them every once in a while....

We are going to be laughing about this the rest of T's life. Sorry Bud, it's just one of those things.

So were sitting at the dinner table, a friend of mine is joining us. Doesn't everything embarrassing or hysterical happen when there is company over for dinner? and as we are all chatting about our days T suddenly (and excitedly) informs us that he learned something today.

"oh yea Bud? what is that?" as I take another bite of my salad.

"We'll when we were walking home from school one of Boo's classmates told us that his older brother kisses girls with his tongue sticking out like this!" (he is now excitedly leaning across the table, squinting his eyes closed, mouth open, tongue stuck out as far as it will go, wagging it around like a little wet worm while rotating his head back and forth in lazy circles.)

Salad flew out of my mouth. I thought we were all going to die laughing. I was momentarily speechless. Then we got all kinds of questions from him like "Do boy's really kiss girls like that?" "Does Dad kiss you like that?" Then, with that thought in their beanie little heads, the boys started cracking up so bad they were falling out of their chairs in a fit of giggles. (There go my delusions of table manners) My friend is trying very hard to conceal her giggles behind her dinner napkin. Nice try babe. Shad is shaking his head and chuckling. I look around the table. No one is even going to help me out. Thanks a lot!!! I turn to my children.

"OK, SOMETIMES, yes, sometimes ADULTS WHO ARE MARRIED TO EACH OTHER kiss like that."

Good Grief, in a moment of panic I turned into my parents. Just that fast I took the easier and let's face it, less embarrassing road out of town. I realize I may have to come back to this conversation some day (my girlfriend, I am sure, will make me relive it often) but for now I am going to happily tell myself that they needed no other explanations than that. I still have a couple of years to come up with a game plan! I was caught off guard. He's six, girls still have cooties. What would you have said?

The Poor Car Is Struck Again

The sweet six year old from across the street decided to take a rock to the entire back end of my car the other day. Swirls and x's and big circles and such. He even managed to gouge the window! I may have never known who did it except for the fact that he wrote his name across the bumper. (Yep, he really did) I am frustrated and angry but mostly I am just aghast. I went easy on the poor kid because you could tell by the faces of his parents that he was "IN FOR IT". All the repairs are going to be covered by the hooligans family, so its all good. It was one of those rare moments that I thought about what I wanted to accomplish before I reacted to the situation and I actually kept my cool. Don't kid yourself, I saw myself red cheeked and screaming in my head. If nothing else my children learned a valuable lesson about other peoples property and the consequences of vandalism AND maintaining your cool! . It was just a weird thing to have happen.

March Madness At the Circus

OK, so I am not exactly a basketball fan but if you took a look at the family calender tacked up on the wall over there you would see one wickedly crazy month of appointments. And, as far as the first day of spring goes, it is snowing at my house! Yes, snowing. March 20th and it is lightly snowing in the pacific northwest. Weird.

My sister came down from Anchorage Alaska and spent a week with me. We had a great time. Or, should I say we had a FABULOUS TIME playing with her new iMac photo booth. For those of you who are not familiar with the program, you can pretty much take pictures with the built in camera that look like your standing in front of a fun house wall of mirrors. Add a couple of friends and a few glasses of wine to that opportunity as well as no fear of making a fool out of yourself and you have the makings of a pretty fun and interesting evening. Should I share? No, I shouldn't. The pictures are just wrong. REALLY REALLY WRONG! But then again, I have never been very smart and self humiliations build character. Please, if some day, I am out there on some life changing opportunity of a career interview please don't hold this against me. I am generally a mild mannered housewife with class and pa nosh.

How Can you not possibly laugh?

I am not lost. I am just in the outfield.

I know it's been a long time since I have posted and I have so much to share but it's going to have to wait just a little bit longer. My schedule is flooded for another week or so. Then I should be able to sit down and share some great pictures, funny stories, my sister's visit and the wonderful world of little league baseball. I have to go now... my concoction of tide, spray and wash (liquid and stick) and baking soda needs to be rinsed off of the knees of several pairs of grass stained baseball pants!