Autumn In Colorado
Two days in a row of snow. Late openings and closures – including Philip’s office. And today the troops headed out sledding at the park across the street. Much fun was had by all.
A Word to the Wise
If you are going to secretly stay up reading a book past your bedtime…don’t read out loud.
Just sayin’.
A Bit of Excitement
So there I was, minding my own business, wrapping up some last minute things before putting Bip down for his nap. He and Boo were playing Wii Fit and it was Boo’s turn. Bip was sitting in a little chair in front of the fireplace. What I didn’t see was that he was actually tipping his chair back.
Oh yes, he did indeed fall back and hit his head right on the edge of the brick hearth.
You know, with all my children, I have never had to deal with a head wound. I’ve heard that they can bleed a lot and you know what? It’s true. I ran to poor Bip, scooped him up and carried him to the kitchen, dripping blood as we went.
I put a clean wash cloth to his head and then instructed Boo to clean up Bip’s hands which were quite bloody and was scaring him. Seriously, there was a lot of blood. I had Pumpkin Girl call Philip so he could start on his way home in case we needed to visit the ER. By the time he arrived, we had Bip, me, and the floor all cleaned up. Bip had on a nice clean shirt (at a clean chest, which had also gotten covered in blood!) and was settling down.
It was hard to look at his wound since it is in his hair, but as far as we can tell, it doesn’t need any further care. Philip helped me settle him down for his nap and then returned to work.
Later in the day, Pumpkin Girl and I got in the car to go to ballet class. Can you believe it – the car wouldn’t start! Last night it had been snowing on our parked car and when we got home, the passenger door was stiff and snow was caked on the window, so I had trouble closing it. I guess it didn’t close completely and the overhead light stayed on and drained the battery. Thank God we didn’t need to take Bip to the ER!
Bip seems to be fine now, other than the bump and his matted hair. When we got home from ballet, I asked him how he was doing. He said, “Bad hair day,” and pointed sadly to the back of his head.
I Think I’ll Wash Them Anyway
“Mama,” Bip said to me during lunch. “I have someting to tell you, but I didn’t want to get in trouble.”
“Okaaay…,” says I, wondering what sort of mess I was about to be cleaning up.
“I had a little accident in my underwear and pants.”
“Oh, Ok, well, that happens. Did you change your underwear?” I asked.
“No.”
Of course he didn’t. But at least this was minor and well within the scope of my parenting abilities. “Well, you need to get clean underwear when you have an accident.”
“No, no, no, mama! Listen – you just leave them alone and leave them alone and leave them alone. And then…you have…”
“Clean underwear.”
I Remember…
Four years ago today, I had lunch, took a nap and ate half a bag of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Philip came home from a softball game and asked me what I’d been doing. I told him about the peanut butter cups and he said, “uh oh” because he knows that they are my preferred method to bring on labor.
At 6:00 PM my water broke. A little after 7:00 PM, Bip was born. We’ve been laughing ever since.
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5
Happy Birthday, little Bip. You are truly our joy in the morning.
I’d Rather Be Blogging
I would much rather be blogging than unpacking. At first, unpacking is fun – it’s like Christmas, opening boxes, unwrapping paper and discovering the treasures inside. Then a few days into it and you can’t find the brackets to hang the towel rack and you can’t figure out why the down comforter was packed in with shoes and stuff from the shed. Weeks later and while the boxes are decreasing, the house is a big mess. Ah, the joys of moving.
The realities of civilian life are starting to creep up on us. Already, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are booked and we haven’t even signed anyone up for scouts yet. I’m a little worried about trying to get the children where they need to be each day and I’m hoping I’m not going to have scheduling conflicts. Living on base, we were 3 -5 minutes away from the soccer field, chapel and scout meeting facilities. Ballet was farther away, but we had a carpool set up. It all worked out very nicely and we didn’t need to venture far from our safe little world.
But we are enjoying it here in Colorado. We’ve already had friends visit and the wildlife we’ve spied in our neighborhood alone now includes a bobcat. It was jaywalking across the street, just minding its own busines, then jumped the fence into a neighbor’s backyard.
I have pictures to share of our recent adventures, I just have to get them uploaded and resized. I also have to tell you about how a recent trip to Mc Donald’s almost resulted in needing body work done on the car…
A Message for the General
Boo’s buddy from DC is known far and wide on his mom’s blog as the General. He reads my blog because he thinks I’m funny. Smart boy. I like him alot.
When he and his family moved in April, he accidentally left a shovel behind in the HQ. Since his family is planning on visiting us in August, the boys decided to have the shovel packed up with our household goods so the General could retrieve it when they visit. I, being the totally involved parent that I am, knew nothing about this arrangement until the shovel showed up at our Colorado house.
So, General, we have some good news.
The shovel made it to our house.
The bad news is…
… it lost its head.
The good news is…
… you can always use it as a gun!
And the best news…
…the shovel head finally showed up!
Off We Go!
We’re off to Colorado today to go house hunting. It’s all very exciting and if I can get all the little people to stop saying, “uh…Mama?” every three minutes, I might actually be able to get us packed, deal with the moving guy coming to take inventory of our junk household goods and explain to Boo once again how I want him to pack five shirts, one of which needs to have a collar, not five shirts plus a collared shirt.
And remember to pack the checkbook.
What’s That Smell?
Our house developed an odor a few days ago. With a houseful of children and living downstream from what we affectionately refer to as the “poo poo plant”, unpleasant smells are not unusual. But they usually disappear after several minutes, so we ignore them and carry on.
This smell however, lingered.
I could best describe it as smelling like a litter box. Sort of like urine and plastic mixed together. It was confined to the upstairs, specifically the hallway.
We attempted to sniff out the culprit, with no luck. The likely suspect was the bathroom even though it is cleaned regularly.
Around bedtime, my husband finally decided that it was the children’s laundry. Nobody would admit to having an accident and throwing the soiled clothing into the hamper. We brought the hamper downstairs to be sorted and washed the next morning.
The smell was fainter upstairs but still there.
After breakfast the next morning, Boo got to work on the laundry. He called out, “Mama, I figured out what the smell is! It’s my socks!”
Now Boo is only 10 and he does not have smelly feet. I couldn’t imagine that his socks could possibly be the cause of the stink.
He dove back into the hamper and declared, “Oh yeah, it’s my socks!”
Now by this time it was no longer an unpleasant odor but an offensive stench.
“Dude,” I said. (I have found that boys respond best when addressed as “Dude”.) “Dude, what in the world did you do to your socks to make that smell?”
He knew exactly what he did – last weekend he’d had a water gun fight with his friends and had gotten soaked, his socks particularly. When he changed his clothes, he threw them all into the hamper where they fermented under more dirty clothes for a week.
I have to give the boy credit. He didn’t leave his wet socks on the floor of his room. No, he put them into the hamper like he’s supposed to. Sadly, had they ended up on the floor, they would have dried instead of stinking up the place.
You’ll be glad to know that all of the laundry is now clean and sweet smelling.
Life with boys – never a dull moment!
Post Performance Wrap Up
So yes, we all survived the folklorico performance. And wow! What an experience. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth repeating – Boo and Pumpkin Girl had 5 costumes each, to include hats, hair pieces and various accessories like rebozos, machetes and paliacates (bandannas).
I had a list, of course I had a list. I had a print out of the entire show, in order, with the list of needed costume pieces running down each side. Pumpkin’s costumes on the left, Boo’s on the right. We had a full dress rehearsal the night before and I realized how unprepared I actually was.  I developed a new game plan for performance night, which was derailed when the children had to change dressing areas 10 minutes before taking the stage. I was not amused.
Nonetheless, all went well. The costume changes were fast and furious and all the children danced their hearts out. Pumpkin was beautiful, if I do say so myself, and Boo did me proud. He danced 3 dances in a row, stopping only to get or discard props backstage as needed.
From the state of Guerrero, they opened the show with “Son de Costa.”
That’s Boo on the right and Pumpkin on the left, in the turquoise skirt.
The adults danced 3 dances while the children raced to ready for their polka, “El Jaral.” This is the one they danced for the America’s Got Talent auditions.
Their next costume change was difficult. The polka hairpieces are held in place with hair pins and have to be removed carefully so as not to ruin their real hair. The next two dances also had props, but different props for each dance.
From the state of Jalisco, they first danced “La Jota Tapatia.”
Followed quickly by “Los Machetes”, the children’s specialty.
Boo totally rocks the machetes.
A little skirt work from Pumpkin Girl.
Boo’s too cool for a sombrero.
Is it the French or Mexican blood in Boo that makes him look like he’s ready to lead a revolution?That’s Pumpkin on the right, wearing turquoise again.
The intermediate class took a break while Boo handed me his machetes and popped back on stage to dance “Alazanas” with the advanced class.
The adults danced, and then the children came back to dance “La Culebra.”
Here come the boys to rescue the girls from the snake!
After intermission were 2 pre-Hispanic dances.
The boys spent about half of the dance jumping in circles while in a squatting position. Boo was the only one who made it through the whole dance. Just watching them made our leg muscles burn. Boo is the middle boy in the first row.
Pumpkin is the small one in yellow.
And finally, from the state of Veracruz, “Contradanza” and “El Colas.”
At the curtain call they were given streamers to throw.
Here, the girls look to see where they went.
“Bye!”