Lots and lots of blood...and some saltines for me.

Those of you who have kids, or work with kids, or just know kids, know that they all come with their own little personalities and tendencies.  Its a funny thing to observe your own children and see that just because you all share DNA, the individuals in your family tend to be, well, individuals.

There are many personality traits I could discuss here, but for the purposes of this post, I will focus on coordination and accident attraction.

My oldest, while a bit knock knee'd, is rather coordinated and athletic. He rarely gets hurt, and if he does its because he is trying some daring trick or diving catch.

My second oldest does not sit still and is constantly moving and somehow manages to never get hurt, although those around her within arm's length tend to end up 'accidentally' wounded.  Spinning, leg kicking, and other rather abrupt gymnastically motivated movements tend to pose threats to innocent bystanders.

My baby, who is almost 4 now, tends to be age appropriately coordinated.  She often catches herself if she trips while running too fast though, and any 'accidents' she has been involved in have either been the result of her older sister being oblivious, or her mother displaying large amounts of grace as she slips on the ice and sends her flying through the air to the asphalt or cement below.  Yes that happened twice.

I guess it is inevitable that one out of four would inherit my coordination and tendency to attract accidents.  That child is my third. She is 6 years old, and if she continues on the path her mother took, she will end up a fine upstanding young lady. If she makes it past age 10.

When I was a kid, if it was going to cause lots of pain or blood, I was the one that got it.  I got attacked by a feral cat, took off many layers of skin on my elbow in a bike accident (I still have a significant scar), had an emergency appendectomy, got my thumb closed in the hinge side of a bedroom door during hide and seek (yes it was broken, and yes it hurt...a lot),  stepped into snow boots that were filled with staples, got 'bounced' into a salamander cage that split my head open and bled profusely (actually a very funny story for another blog someday), got thrown off the top bunk and got my ear ripped part way off as I landed on the sharp ear of a piggy bank below, and got a pick up stick shoved into my left eardrum...which has never really worked right ever since.  Those are just off the top of my head, and I am sure I could think of more. Despite my propensity for attracting accidents and scars, I was a fairly successful athlete in school....after I outgrew my knock knee'd skinny legs.

Anna, being only 6 years old, is well on her way to carrying on my legacy.  Though there is hope for her in her teenage years, she will still not be completely out of the woods as, like I mentioned before, I tend to be involved in very embarrassing clumsy accidents even still.

Though she has not yet topped my list, so far in her short life Anna has: Crashed head first into the corner of the kitchen cabinets, creating a 'dent' in her forehead that can still be identified if you look closely because anytime she hits her head, she hits it in the same exact spot.  She has multiple unexplained bruises on her legs, has to get spacers for her mouth because her thumb has made the palate misshapen, is ALWAYS falling down, can NOT do jumping jacks (I really must get that on video, it never fails to produce laughter for spectators), is almost ALWAYS the brunt of my second child's flailing extremities, managed to break a snow globe with her head while dusting, and today, severely cut her foot on a stray shard of glass from said snow globe while attempting to get dressed for school.  We aren't talking about a tiny little flesh wound.  No. This severed some horrible little major vein on the ball of her foot that bled exceedingly great amounts of blood all over the jacket on the floor beneath her and all over her blue jeans. And her hands. And some emergency toilet paper. And about 5 paper towels.

Thankfully it stopped bleeding with painful pressure, and I was able to bandage it with Neosporin and large band aids, but I have a feeling too much jumping around will cause it to reopen and be a problem.  I am now going to the school to check on her and see if there is any cause for further alarm.  Too bad my stomach just settled from the first round of bandaging....

Mother's Day

My cute kids were killin' me this morning. We went on a big trip to Yellowstone National Park yesterday. That place never fails to deliver for me. I LOVE that park.  In case you were wondering, we saw 2 wolves, a grizzly bear, a black bear, a coyote pouncing in the snow, lots of fluffy white elk, and lots of skinny buffalo...long winter, they are starving.  Anyway, we got back around 7:00pm last night, and I was tired so went to bed shortly after we got back and cleaned up.  I am thankful I did, because my sweet babies bounced in one by one starting at around 7am.

Anna was the first. She came in with her arms stretched out and said, while walking toward me like a Mode magazine executive, "HAPPY Mother's Day!" in her best sophistocated accent.  Then she ran out of the room and did it again....like ten times, giggling hysterically in between takes. It was a very amusing show.

Lily, who was oblivious to the fact that it was Mother's Day, or what that meant, came in to snuggle into my bed with me. :) As she is the baby, I can not resist a good snuggle.

Jada, who went to bed sick, came in to have her fever checked and to also snuggle onto my bed.  Jada is a naturally good hugger and snuggler, so also a welcome visitor.

Dallen came in  but sort of stood by the door waiting to see if the masses of girls would allow a break for him to sneak in.

Once they were all in there the big kids told me I had to stay in bed and could not get up. Jada was to take my order, and they would make me breakfast in bed. They made 8 grain wheat toast with butter, a glass of milk, and a bowl of peaches.  It was adorable to see my oldest and only boy beaming with pride as he brought me their handiwork. He was so sweet and nice. Pleasant and fun...he made me a special book that he gave me and I will always treasure it.

Gregory stayed home from church because he somehow got pink eye...very odd.  I came home to a plate of salmon and asper-grass with rice for lunch. :) Brownie points to the big man. It has been a great Mother's Day weekend.

Pre school...education...

The high school just around the corner from my house has a child development class that opens its doors to real, live, actual three and four year olds for teaching purposes. The high school girls get to practice teaching pre-school aged kids, and learn all sorts of things in their interactions. It is free to anyone who wants to enroll their child, and is about an hour and a half of free time for mom, so I decided to sign the girls up to participate. They get to go to 'school', and I get 90 minutes of quiet time.  Its a win win win all around.

SO, yesterday, I got to pick up two boys that are also enrolled in the class. One of them was The Boy Wonder (previously nicknamed Charisma, but this one fits too...he's like a super hero happy guy, and it sounds more masculine). The other was a new personality that we don't interact with as much. I think we shall call him...The Whirlwind.  He has ample amounts of energy, and hops from one subject to the next...super-fast.  I think all three and four year olds have these attributes, he just seems to pick up momentum as he goes. I love this kid.

Mixing three and four year olds in a group is always a treat. You never know what they will say to surprise you, and they often catch you off guard.  Many times they say things that make you choke on your own spit until you realize that you were clearly thinking like a grown up and that is where you went wrong.  The ride to the school was particularly entertaining as the two boys sat in the second row, closest to my driver's seat.

Whirlwind started off the conversation:  "Whooooaaaaahhh!!! Did you saw dat?? There was a cat out there.  I have a car.  Boy Wonder, did you see the cat?  He was like (motion of what cat was doing). Heeheehee.  I'm going to sit by Boy Wonder at school...Oooh did you saw dat!!??? Holy cow you guys! Did you saw dat car?? It was PINK!"

Boy Wonder: "Haha...yeeeeaaah! It was SUPER pink! You are the cat and I am a super alien bug and I chase you!"

(Insert cat and chasing noises)

Daredevil: "You guys are CRAzeeeeee!"

Boy Wonder: "I am hard! I am Suuuuper hard."

My brain: "???"

Whirlwind: "Hee hee yeeeahhhh!"

Boy Wonder: "I am really super hard!"

Me: "Umm...are you hard like...a...rock?"

Boy Wonder: "No I am a Scorpion....they are really super hard"

My brain: "OOOooooh...okay. whew."
Me: "Heh heh, yes...they are indeed."

Whirlwind:  "I like dolphins. And Sperm Whales....cuz Sperm Whales are really big and make cool sounds like Oooooah! OOoooah."

Boy Wonder:  "Yeah and I like ORkas. Orkas are reeeally cool."

Whirlwind: "Sometimes Killer whales."

Boy Wonder:  "Yeah Orkas are those. They're types of dolphins. And they say Ooorrrr ooooorrr Ooooooor!"

My brain: "Holy crap how do these kids KNOW this stuff?? They are 3!!!"

Whirlwind: "WILD KRATS!"

My brain:  "OOOooooh...okay. whew."  ( For those of you who don't know, Wild Kratz is a nature cartoon where they teach kids about animals. It makes sense that they got their facts from this show.)

Boy Wonder: "I like the Wild Kratz."

Diva: "Boy Wonder is going to sit by me at school....no, Whirlwind is."

Daredevil: "No I am!"

Diva: "No I am!"

Me: "OOooookaayy! We're at school, now everyone wait for me to come and get you out and we will hold hands in the parking lot.

I then walked them to class and got them all checked in and returned to my perfectly quiet car.  It was warm and quiet...so I closed my eyes and did a little giggle. Then I took myself out to lunch and went shopping.  I even had time to read some of my book....and ponder what a great blog entry that trip to pre-school was going to be. . .