admonishment

Dashiell, April 2014

4 year old perspective

Dash and I were at the library and we ended up taking a bunch of pictures of him outside (to be posted later... sometime) when he announced that he wanted to take a picture of the brick wall. Not something on the wall, not me by the wall, just the wall.
Okay, buddy.

photo credit: DJP, April 2014

I see plain old bricks.

I wonder, what did he see

that this adult can't?

the three amigos

I visited fTM Erin to meet baby #3 today. Caleb Henry was born mid-November and this was the first time since then that schedules synced up for me to spend the afternoon at Casa de Chaos.
Yes, a freak snow storm that was only 10 miles wide hovered right over where i was driving, reducing visibility to 15 ft and nearly killing us all, but that didn't stop me.
Well, it almost stopped me. I pulled over, called Erin and told her it was too dangerous for me to drive (words i haven't uttered in 30 years), but she texted me a radar picture showing that the storm was directly over me (yeah; no kidding) and that if i pushed on for about 2 miles i'd be out of it.
No lie, 15 minutes later there was no trace of snow and i had on my sunglasses.
It was a fun afternoon of romping, eating, rocking, petting and chatting as there were 3 little boys, 2 dogs, 2 cats and an Erin to play with; plus quite a lot of time on Pinterest looking at powder rooms with pedestal sinks.
My camera battery was dead, dead, dead so i've borrowed a picture from Erin for today's haiku:

A trio of boys:

Collin, Caleb, Cameron.

When does Mommy sleep?

panic followed by cuteness

This is NOT how you want to start your morning.

[interior Niki's bedroom, snoring is heard from under purple floral sheets]
TEXT ALERT SOUND
Niki sits up alarmed, reaches for cell phone, flips it open and reads:
Jason: Where are you?
Niki glances at clock groggily - 6:09am (set 8 minutes fast)- and types:
Niki: Its only 6
TEXT ALERT SOUND
Jason: No. It is 7.
Niki looks at the clock. Looks at the phone. Looks at the clock. Looks at the phone. Looks at the clock. Looks at the clock ON the phone - 7:04am.
Realization quickly followed by naked alarm crosses Niki's face; she was supposed to be at Jason and Kate's house at 6:40 cause the normal sitter is on a weird rotation at nursing school and can't take Dash to preschool on Tuesdays.

Crap-on-a-cracker.

And welcome to Tuesday, people. There was an electricity bobble on Friday and i must have set my clock wrong. When i was on a normal schedule i used clock as the primary alarm and set my cell phone as an emergency backup. I didn't even think of it last night since i haven't even been needing the alarm.
 I got to JP's house at 7:14; thank goodness for only living one point zero miles away. He was already in the driveway waiting. After some car seat lessons he was off to battle Beltway traffic and sleepy college students.
There was enough time to go inside, brush my hair and do the toothpaste-on-my-finger-its-better-than-nothing trick before it was time to wake up Dash. It felt weird intentionally waking up a little kid that i'm used to trying to get to sleep. He was not at all interested in getting up, but took it like a champ with no crying.
The rest of the morning -dressing, cartoons, breakfast- went by without incident, probably because both of us were not-so-secretly wishing we were still asleep.
The abrupt wake-up and adrenaline panic was worth it though because when i picked up his glittery Cars backpack he turned right around and stuck out his wee arms for me to put it on him:

Bwahahahahahahaha
Wow.
I bet i could fit him inside that bag.
Honestly, the adorable factor wiped away the last bit of unsettled.

Don't fret, Aunt Niki.

It's time for learning fun, with

my ginormous bag. 

 

how to know there is a toddler in the house

Flashlight on the floor,

shining bright though it is noon.

Only Dash knows why.

getting your money's worth

We were setting up for a chemistry show yesterday morning while some students were finishing their breakfast.
As a rule you don't make eye contact with the kids during set-up because we are a HUGE distraction to whatever they are supposed to be doing.
Still, you can't help but hear the kids talking about you and we do respond to direct questions.
There was a third grade gentleman walking through the cafeteria slowly taking in all of the promised glory of our chemicals. He was talking to himself as he walked, This is gonna be great. This is gonna be so great. I paid 5 dollars and 25 cents; this is gonna be GREAT.
Thanks for that vote of confidence, sir, but do we really need that added pressure?
It was such an odd perspective for a kid to have on the situation, but was so very sincere that i had to laugh after he left the room. An adult would have said that it BETTER be good because they paid for it, but instead he was simply convinced that it HAD to be good because he paid for it.
  smile
I feel he really got his $5.25 worth. It was a great show: the audience was fabulous, TM Amy and I were having a great time and as an added bonus, we set off the fire alarm!
Yep. With an experiment that has never set anything off before.
 Luckily i got to the office fast enough to have them call the alarm company before any fire trucks were dispatched and before too many people had evacuated. It was exciting.
I hope that boy went home and told his parents that it was $5.25 well spent.