The Hair Whisperer

I apologize to my neighbors. We had much screaming at our house tonight. Clearly, it was my fault. I was being abusive again.  Yes, it's true, poor Jenna, I was brushing her hair, which apparently she thinks is me chopping off her head.  And she was screaming.  LOUD.  And tears, oh my, were there tears.  So, in the sweetest voice I could possibly muster, I asked,

Jenna, do you want Bubby to brush your hair?

And the skies opened up, and the angels sang, and Sybil's head spun around and in her sweetest and most pathetic voice, she said,

Yes.  I want Bubby do it.  Bubby brush Jenna's Jenna's Jenna's hair.

She's stuttering a lot. They tell me it's normal for about 6 months. She has 2 months left.

And so I handed Cale the brush, and the angels kept singing.  And I sat down and stared in complete aggravation awe of the Hair Whisperer that is my son.  And there were no more tears.

Hair Whisperer working his magic

Sybil smiling while getting her hair brushed, after her head spun and she dried her tears



Lesson learned -Cale is awesome at brushing hair.  For tonight, at least. And there are no more tears in my house.  For tonight, at least.

***And no, I was not really abusive.  I was literally brushing her hair, and she was screaming.  Just  little disclaimer :) ***

My First Miscellany Monday: Thunder, Tornadoes, Bugs and Woofy

Miscellany Monday = my random thoughts.

And anyone who knows me knows that there are lots and lots of random thoughts floating around up in my head.  This might just be my favorite blog day...random thoughts that don't have to go together to make a coherent story.  GREAT!!  It's like permission to be incoherent! I love it!!!

Thunder:  Cale is playing on a machine pitch baseball team, and their name is The Thunder.  And they are so. stinking. cute!!!  I sadly have no pictures from the games yet because I have no camera except for the terrible one on my phone, but these kids are A-DORABLE.  They struggled with their first game.  Struggle is code for we score 2, they scored A LOT more.  But the second game, this game was more competitive and evenly matched and so much fun. They won, not by a land slide, but a good margin, and it was so wonderful to see them playing together, happy and proud of themselves.  Cale is playing mostly short stop and 2nd base, but he got to play one inning at catcher. He really has the stance.  Here's a picture from practice....

Tornadoes:  First of all, is it tornadoes or tornados?  Well, I am only talking about one today, so I guess I could've just said tornado!!!  I saw one, is the point of all this.  For the 1st time ever.  Did you know I have lived in Kansas for 35 years a long time?    It was far enough away that we were not in danger.  It was really really spectacular, but only because it was far away and did ZERO damage.  It was out in the country near us, several miles from us, but I had a clear shot of it. I was watching the news, then went to look out the back door.  I thought, hmmm, that cloud looks like the one they have on TV.  And I looked back at the news, and holy moly!  It WAS the same cloud. I watched it form from a wall cloud to a funnel cloud and then dissipate.  They said this morning that it did briefly touch down, which is how it graduated from funnel cloud to tornado, but we couldn't see that from where we were, nor did the Storm Tracker helicopter.  Anywho, I was really happy that I had the meteorologist explaining it all to me while I was watching it in real life. It was like having my own tornado lesson.  Thank God no one was hurt or nothing was damaged during my class.

Bugs:  Santa brought the kids some nano bugs for Christmas, and Cale got some more for his birthday.  Jenna used to be TERRIFIED of these tiny things, but now she thinks they are hilarious. 

This picture exhibits how terrible my camera on my phone is.  I would let you buy me a nice new one with a super zoom if you wanted.

These bugs have quite the set up. They can use the spiral ramp which reminds me of the spiral walking ramp at the Royal's games, or go through obstacle courses on the lower level of the bug garage, or climb to the upper level for a view of the skyline, aka my dusty ceilings. 

Woofy:  Apparently, Jenna has a dog.  His (or Her, I have no idea) name is Woofy.  Usually she just pretends to be Woofy, and we have to pet her, scratch behind her ears, or rub her belly.  She also begs.  But tonight, Woofy was at dinner.  She fed him some tortillas.  She told him, "Get down Woofy!"   She even let him out the back door to do his bizness, yelled at him for something, and let him back in.  Woofy is the best kind of dog, by the way.  Woofy doesn't slobber everywhere, doesn't shed or stink, is gone when we aren't thinking about him, and is obviously already house broke.  Wish I could say the same for Woofy's owner!

NOT a Wordless Wednesday

You are looking at spontaneous love and adoration by a certain 6 year old boy who loves his little sister more than words.  We were on our way home from Eric's parents after spring break (And St. Patrick's Day, hence the green fingernails). Jenna was asleep and Mr.Cale just reached over to hold her hand.  OH. MY. GOODNESS!! My heart just melted.  Can I get a collective AMEN that this is absolutely adorable!!

Some other adorableness that I can't let go unsaid, lest I forget....

WELL apparently this is where "wordless" kicks in because I can't think of ANY of the cute things they've said and done recently.  And there have been a lot. Too bad y'all couldn't read (and I can't recreate!) the post that was in my head a couple nights ago when I couldn't sleep!!  

Stay tuned for more adorableness when I finally remember something!  

It's been that long??

Yes, yes it has. It's been 2 stinking long and short at the same time years since we sat in the waiting room while they remade my daughter's forehead, so so thankful for family and friends who distracted us.

Two years since we kissed the great canyons that were her temples and felt the bony ridge running up from her nose.

Two years since she was a swollen mess. 

Two years since she was broken, then healed. 

Two years since I was a total wreck until I felt the total relief of unexplainable peace sweep over me and knock me off my feet and into His arms.  Two years since the helmet. Two years...seems like a lifetime ago though! 

BUT check her out now!!! 

Perfectly perfect mostly round head!

No bony ridge!!  The little dips in her temples are growing deeper though. We are not sure if this is normal or of concern. We go for a follow up soon.

Another view of this adorable forehead....and her perfect teeth!!  Can you hear the contagious and wonderful laugh??

Nothin wrong with this kid....except a little sas! Is there surgery for that??? 

I am confident she is the most beautiful girl in the world!! 

Thank you Jeus for blessing us with her and for putting her in a place she could get help! 

For by YOUR stripes, she was healed!! 

Wanna win something?

Yes, you!  You can win a lovely necklace made from Ethiopian beads!  My friend Tamara is giving away a necklace in honor MB.  It took a long time to get MB home, and my sweet friend Captain Murdock is a little less crazy now that he's home.  You can go see pics of the cutie at her website. 

BUT if you want to WIN a NECKLACE, you need to go read Tamara's blog and leave her a comment.  ALSO, while you are there, you can buy some necklaces and really cool baskets.  Your money will get you these great products, and help widows and children in Ethiopia.  So, go there, look around, comment and maybe have some retail therapy too.   

To sum it up, in honor of this guy (the one in the middle)

go here and comment to win one of these

Then go shopping while you are there, you know, just in case you don't win. 

Beware of the Dot

Yes, that's right, I said it.  Beware of the Dot.

.

Did you see it, that dot. It is SCARY!  I mean, scream in terror scary.  What?  No, the dot is not scary?  Hmmm, tell that to JENNA!!!

Yes, my daughter, the fearless one, the one who jumped off a diving board last summer, the one that jumps off of anything, the one that tries any act, eats anything, the one that squishes bugs on Ant Smasher on my phone (and even got up to 804 points!), the one who's forehead was removed, reconstructed and put back again, yes, that normally fearless daughter is afraid of a dot.

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It started a couple of weeks ago.  There was this fuzzy dot in the bathtub, like a piece of lint from her washcloth, and she started SCREAMING. Terror, pure terror, like Santa was there or someone was poking her with a fire stick.  Terror.  Sheer fear.  Over a dot.  A piece of lint.  Next to nothing.

I thought, hmmm, weird, toughie is having a hard day. Whatever.  Then 2 nights later, same thing in the bathtub.  Over a small dot in the fish bath mat we've had since Cale was born.  She was FREAKING out.  Even out of the bath, water is gone, we were touching the dot on the bath mat, and she started crying, it hurt me, it hurt me.  Oh. My. Gosh. The inanimate bath mat dot hurt her.   

The next bath was with Cale, and while she didn't cry in terror the whole time, she was still afraid of any dots, pieces of lints, or bubbles that would go by. She sat the whole time in the far corner of the tub, all wadded up, much like an unborn baby.  It was quite ridiculous.  Since then, she's had 2 baths, both of which she took standing up and crying the whole time.  Tonight, she even stood on ONE FOOT so that it was even less of her to be near the dot.  Oh, and tonight the dot that was going to kill her was a scratch in the bathtub.  Nothing I could remove, that's for sure. I did put a wash cloth over it, but when the wash cloth floated away, watch out, BAD NEWS!!   It's back, the dot is back!!!  aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!

I know I cannot make my 2.6 year old daughter realize that this is totally IRRATIONAL behavior and a completely irrational fear. I try to help her see that these things, real or imagined, will not hurt her, that she is safe, that she is fine, that it's just a bath, but she's not hearing any of it!!  And I am thinking that yelling won't help, although my patience is wearing quite thin. And laughing out loud just seems cruel, even though I'd kinda like to. I want to validate her fear and feelings, yet encourage her to be brave. Blah blah blah. Not. Working!

.

So, dear friends, this momma needs help!  Anybody out there have any tips, besides letting her get filthy and develop a rotten stench from not bathing?  And if you are going to say, it's just a phase, forget it, don't even comment! 

And of course, beware of the dot!

.

Big Girl Bed!!

Have you heard that my Jenna is a monkey?  Well, if you hadn’t, now you have. She’s a climber.  Climbs up the cabinets, climbs up on beds, climbs up on the table, climbs up the rock wall on the playset, climbs into her crib, climb, climb, climb.  We were afraid she was getting a BIT to efficient at climbing to be able to stay safely in her bed, so a few weeks ago, we made the leap ourselves to take our baby out of the crib.  Daddy, of course, had no problems.  It’s time, he says.  Mommy, of course, got all emotional. My baby is too tiny for a big girl bed (i.e. her crib with the side taken down).  She’s too little; she’s just a 2 ½ year old baby, IT’S JUST TOO SOON!!!  But one night shopping at Target with the kids, I finally picked up the Minnie Mouse bedding I’d been eyeing for weeks and said to Jenna, do you want a new blanket for a big girl bed??  And so it began. 

Turns out Jenna loves her big girl bed. Loves to jump on it, loves to sneak out of it after nap time to climb on the bathroom counters, loves to sneak out of it during the night to come sleep with us, loves to go try to wake up Bubby in the night to play, loves to come to the living room 294 times after we put in her bed to tell us she needs a drink, to go potty, a snack, to brush teeth, to read books, to see Cale, to snuggle, to watch a show…..you get the picture.  No really, she does fine it her big girl bed for a wired, hyper, active, happy 2 year old.  And I guess really not too tiny for it either.

Jenna’s Big Girl Bed….Daddy took the gate off and made it all nice and pretty for her while Cale and I distracted her in the living room

Climbing in her bed

So happy!!!  She loves her bed!!

She’s snuggled in with Dolly and is ready for sleep!

Ni-night Sissy!!