QUESTION: Who’s that coming down the track?
(0 points if you said The Wictor with a beer box on his head)
ANSWER: It’s Thomas!
We are so classy…
But he really does believe he is Thomas.
Now do you see the ressemblance?
I knew you would.
PS The Cranberry Lambic is very nice.
This freaked me out a little the first time I drove into it - in spring and fall our local supermarket becomes a rest stop for migrating birds.
No points for guessing which movie I am always reminded of.
I am hoping that today I will have time - and feel well enough - to write about this weekend’s strange scenes at the local park. We all have some plague-like illness here. Well, not really plague-like although I am sure people with the plague feel much the same way. I don’t want to minimise plague sufferer’s experience or anything, but this is really yucky.
Hope everybody had a great weekend. Things are extra busy around here, so very quickly, a few photos from the last few days:
The T-Bot. Just got his first loose tooth. Very exciting. It can be hard to live with all teeth firmly cemented in place when you have spent the last few years avidly reading this.
There is one burning question to be answered: “How will the tooth fairy find us?”
Gulp, I wasn’t expecting that one. I answered “The same way as Santa Claus” but I should have stopped to think that one out, because I don’t know how Santa finds us either.
Baby Sister is now eagerly anticipating her first Tooth Fairy visit also. The concept of years is still alien to her, so for her sake I hope she is an early shedder. It is difficult being a middle child, everyone else always gets all the attention.
In the meantime, for two glorious minutes on Saturday, she was the Star of the Show (one of 10 stars actually, but details, details…). She loves being on stage, in fact she loves it so much that she always forgets all her dance moves. But that’s OK. She compensates by ambling around the stage in a very endearing fashion.
And here is my Number Three. Also growing up. It is strange, but also a relief, to no longer have a baby in the house. This weekend he took a break from his usual Ewok impressions to become Obi Wan Kenobi.
Obviously he first had to eat his body weight in M&Ms (I don’t know where he finds them, but they sure do keep him quiet while Mommy is trying to work), have a screaming fit, and be rescued by The Daddy.
The Daddy, by the way, is awesome. He is magic, and I wish he could be around to look after my children all the time. He is like a male Mary Poppins, except he doesn’t clean, fly or sing. Also, he doesn’t wear a dress.
In the middle of a horrendously busy week for me, and one not without stress, was an event which I skipped blogging about. It is, however, an event of some historical significance, so here you are:
On Wednesday The Wictor had his first day at Mothers Day Out, or as we like to call it, “school”.
I may have been tempted to write about it right away, except that absolutely nothing happened. He was delighted to be counted among the big kids, and wheeled his little Cars suitcase into his sister’s preschool with such pride. He cried a little when I left, but had stopped before I was out of earshot. On Thursday, as his brother and sister prepared to leave, he ran everywhere looking for his school bag. I felt so sorry for him that I took him to the supermarket, even though I didn’t really need to go. In case you missed it, the supermarket is his absolute favorite place.
Actually, now it is his second favorite place, after school.
I have entered my own private hell.
The Wictor has learned to use the mouse. And now the kids’ computer, strategically placed in a common area so that older children with self-control may use it when they please, has been taken over by the Terrible Two.
Actually, that’s not fair, The Wictor doesn’t seem to have entered the Terrible Twos yet. Except where the computer is concerned. The house now resonates with regular wails of “Ah Wan PBS Ki’ !!!!!!” And if another child should so much as glance towards the computer they will be literally bowled over by the screaming. “No! Mah Coh pooter!
This morning I walked upstairs to find him watching a video commercial for wrinkle cream on Yahoo! and quietly whimpering.
If he is going to have a Metal Mommy I suppose the interaction provided by PBS Kids online is a step above the TV. And if those Dell commercials on the spanish channels are to be believed, he even needs this computer time so that he will not, later, fail horribly in school.
So really, I wouldn’t mind so much, if his new confidence with things digital didn’t extend to the Wii.
Now, the Wii is my domain. It’s bad enough that I have to share it with the T-Bot and Baby Sister. And last night, when I was just points away from getting us to the next level of Elebits, The Wictor arrived and declared “Mah Tur’! Mah Tur’ !!!!!”
“No,” I said firmly, “My turn. You go play PBS Kids on the computer”
Unfortunately he is stronger than I am. Also I have delicate ears.
As he noisily wrestled the controller out of my hands (and a million Elebits sauntered past, arrogant in the knowledge that they had just become untouchable) I asked helplessly,
“And what are you going to do with that controller anyway?”
“Ah,” he declared proudly, “Ah gonna click o’ ”A”!”
…although I think I would be an awesome hairdresser!
(No false modesty here…)
The T-Bot and Baby Sister have been experimenting with “knock-knock” jokes. They are quite frankly not very good at them. At any time I may be called upon to listen to and act impressed at such wonders as
knock knock
who’s there?
lego
lego who?
lego man wearing pajamas and jumping off a couch and kicking a baddy, wow!
See?
Somebody has been taking notes. So, this afternoon in the car I suddenly heard a little voice from the back seat:
“knock knock!”
I answered:
“who’s there?”
and glanced back to see The Wictor all tensed up in his car seat in utter delight! and shock! that he had actually obtained an answer! A short silence. Then:
“Pee!”
“Pee who?”
Another pause. I darted him another look. He was about to explode with joy. He was a big boy! This knock knock thing was working! He got the power! Wow!
“Pee who?” I pressed.
This time, no hesitation:
“L,M,N,O,P!”
Yeah, I know … Not quite. But the best attempt yet.
The Mommy and The Wictor are currently a little spotty.
First we went and got ourselves bit by mosquitoes.
Then we went and got ourselves stung by fire ants.
The mosquitoes came from our yard, where The Daddy has now found and tipped out the full-to-the-brim-with-water spare wheely bin (or as we like to call it, Mosquito Nursery) which was sitting behind the garage. We are waiting patiently for our Mosquito Trap
Not 100% though. The Wictor always gets bitten in that few seconds it takes to fumble the cap off the repellent bottle. So when he ran outdoors yesterday his back magically turned into an artwork of welts before I could get to him. And then last night, while I was sitting confidently in the yard, feet up on the table, surrounded by chemical laden foliage, dripping with DEET and calmly breathing in the smoke of the mosquito coil, a ninja mosquito got me on the sole of my foot.
And the fire ants? They came from the park. We had only been there 2 minutes when The Wictor ran over to me yelling “Ant! Ant!” Luckily he is well schooled in ants and the havoc they can cause, and so I was able to act quickly and wipe the swarm off him before too many had stung his little legs. I got stung too, which on consideration is not actually a bad thing, because if I itch, I will know he is probably itching too. We were near a Walgreens so we loaded up on hydrocortisone cream, but we haven’t really needed to use it. Touch wood.
A couple of years ago we lived in a house backing onto forest, which was great except that it made a great base for fire ant armies, who saw our yard as the front lines. In those days I always carried multiple tubes of Mitigator. Yesterday’s encounter was a reminder that I need to buy more. This stuff really works, and they should totally pay me to say that. Rub it on a fire ant bite right after you get it, and you probably won’t need to think about it again. It works on other itches too, like mosquito bites. Although I have heard that some household products, including cream deodorant, are just as effective, I love that Mitigator is a scrub. They actually encourage you to rub that bite, where those poncy creams and ointments entreat you to gently dab it on and then jump about in frustration until the itch goes away.
Of course the focus should always be on prevention, and for fire ants we pretty much have things other control. The children all know to keep away from the nests, and react immediately if they find any crawling insect on (or in the general vicinity of) them.
Mosquitoes are another story. In these humid days of summer, we can go for days without a bite and then, usually after a storm, little swarms of them will appear in the yard and even make their way into the house and the car. I think we would be talking about big swarms here if it wasn’t for the mosquito trap - we tip out any water mosquitoes can breed in, but our neighbors probably don’t.
As for insect repellents, after going through tube after very expensive bottle of “natural” repellents, which didn’t work very well and left us smelling of random things like geranium, we are back to trusty old DEET, in low percentages as recommended by experts, of course. And we never re-apply. There are newer solutions out there, picaridin jumps to mind, but if I have to be using a chemical that gets absorbed into the body - natural or not - then I would rather be using one that gets released after absorption and that I myself applied in high concentrations and at very regular intervals as a child. That way I feel my children have a better chance of making it to the age of 36 without too many signs of nerve damage. Past 36? Watch this space. I am an experiment in progress.
Joking aside, mosquitoes are an issue this days. The risks are small but I would rather not grapple with West Nile or other types of encephalitis. Staying indoors is not an option. I am just glad I do not live on a farm or in a forest - I would be covered head to toe in bites. If you live on a farm or in a forest, or even if you just have a manicured lawn, I would love to hear from you. What measures do you take to keep the mosquitoes at bay?
A few photos from The Wictor’s birthday tea. Chocolate cake in the still-unfinished dining room. Apologies for the poor photos, we were just so excited.
Blowing Out the Candles:
Sampling The Cake:
Fingers Just Aren’t Fast Enough!:
Oh, and his birthday present from us? A Cars Rolling Trolley Case, of course!
I killed three birds with one stone: Birthday, Travel, School in September. Actually, four. Because now he and Baby Sister can stop fighting over her Hello Kitty case.
Happy Birthday, The Wictor!
For my 2.4 readers holding their breath and waiting for an update - I cancelled our doctors appointment.
After lunch The Wictor had a long nap and The T-Bot and Baby Sister watched a good hour or more of Charlie and Lola, during which they laughed hysterically and did not come downstairs even once, and I - oh bliss! - guiltily engaged in computer based activities which did not involve Nick Jr or Starfall. And when The Wictor finally emerged, he still refused to put weight on his foot. But this time, when I inspected carefully, I discovered a tiny patch of swelling between his toes where an inexpertly cut toenail had been forced into the skin. Once he had finished lunch I tricked him into walking, and although he still trots awkwardly with two toes raised, he is more or less fine.
I cancelled the doctors appointment with 20 minutes to spare, breathed a sigh of relief, and then the fun started again. The T-Bot declared today Earth Day! and instructed us in preparing a celebration mostly involving balloons with continents drawn on them and a reading about Pangea by Yours Truly. Also, South America and Australia cutouts on sticks cuddled up and had a cosy conversation and then cried as they were wrenched from each other. “I’ll miss you!” they shouted, as the Great Continent slowly broke apart.
You couldn’t make it up.
Site content:
Copyright Sophie Morris 2008.
All rights reserved.
