The Dingbat Diaries, Boy Version, vol.3

I mentioned last week that the twins and I are reading the Percy Jackson series in which Percy (Perseus) Jackson finds out that he's no ordinary 12 year old kid. He's actually a son of the god of the sea, Poseidon. These books are really interesting, and the boys have been known to argue heatedly over who gets to read ahead in the book during afternoon "room time."

And they're actually delving into Greek Mythology on their own.

Quatro had the book to himself one day this week and came to share the results of Percy's lastest battle with me. I asked him a few questions about other characters...

"Who was the god of the sky again??"

Zeus!

"And the war god? What was his name?"

Ares! (In the book he rides a motorcycle and carries weapons.)

"And the god of the underworld? The one who hates Percy's dad?"

HAZ-MAT!

Haz-Mat? Possibly he's been hanging around his dad and older brother too much this summer? I'm pretty sure Haz-Mat has more to do with dangerous materials and their recovery. Not Hades and the underworld.

Celebrating the Fourth

The grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins came over to our house on Saturday.

Even one of the great-grandaddy's was present. (He loves any kind of family get-together, especially when there's food involved.)

The cousins hung out in the pool for the afternoon...and Lucy was very well behaved while we had nothing but big kids...she didn't so much as bark at anyone as long as there were teens and preteens around...in fact, she pretty much minded her own business...until the little ones arrived. Then she tried to eat a perfectly innocent three-year-old, so she had to go to her room for the rest of the evening. I'm thinking she needs to be branded a "No Small Children" type of dog. Because the baby didn't even look at her before she went for a leg.

Darling Daughter coaxed the five yr old into the water and then saved the baby when he fell in minutes later. He was wearing some kind of Spiderman life-jacket suit thingie, so he wasn't in any danger...but he wasn't too thrilled at being soaking wet, either.

The above photo is the result of a life-long cheerleader with no little sisters. She forced her brothers to practice stunting with her. Quatro has gotten pretty darn good at it!

Then the exhausted kids came inside whining about being hungry...but it wasn't quite time to eat yet. So...what to do? Stick a huge tray of veggies in front of them. Have you ever seen 11-19 year olds on a feeding frenzy?? It really doesn't matter what you give them...when they're starving, they'll devour anything in their path. They finished off cucumbers, red & green bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower in about 10 minutes.

Then it was on to the "real" food. BBQ chicken, ribs, hash, rice, potato salad, rolls, pineapple upside down cake, strawberry pie and ummm...

ice cold, juicy, sweet watermelon!!




Did you notice? One twin used a fork and a plate for his watermelon? The other dug in face first and gobbled it down! Then stuck his face in the pool to clean it off.

The girls had stayed up until about 5 am the night before so I'm not really sure how they were STILL up at dark...

but they were ready for some fireworks!

We were treated to quite a show between Oldest and Quatro and our neighbors who usually spend a fortune on the things!

Darling Daughter even held a sparkler...without burning her fingers!!



We felt quite safe with three firemen on board. The Oldest did most of the firework-lighting, but this year Quatro convinced his dad that he was old enough to help. He actually did well and had fun, but let me just say...Pip Squeak...no fireworks. Ever. That boy is scary! Oldest handed him a Roman Candle and he proceeded to point it straight into the woods. Then turned around and aimed it at the truck! Then he went to light another one and LEANED DOWN over it while trying to light the fuse...no...not good. He'll be on the sidelines watching for a while yet!

It's a good thing we celebrated the Fourth of July on the Fourth and not the Fifth! We had great weather...a little warm, but not humid and a nice breeze. But the FIFTH! Storms, lightning, thunder, wind, torrential rain, limbs down, power out! Whew!

Well...I'm off to pack. Beach this weekend!

Which reminds me...anyone want to Lucy-sit next week??

Disclaimer from a kid?

The other day the kids were swimming...or well, not so much swimming as diving for sticks, playing keep-away with a soccer ball, leaping off the diving board and causing general chaos in the water.



Anyway.



So Quatro had the soccer ball and was about to toss it at the Pip Squeak (whom he had already nailed right in the face many times...accidentally of course...and who had whined every time he had gotten hit.) He held the ball back over his head preparing to throw and shouted:



"I will NOT be held responsible for any phyiscal injuries or emotional trauma resulting from the outcome of this throw!"



Come again?



Whatever happened to "Heads up!" ???

The Dingbat Diaries, Mom Edition

It's pretty bad when you have to jot down your grocery list on your hand while driving just so that you can remember what you need to buy as go across the highway from one store to the next. (I know it's dangerous to make notes while driving, shut up!)

It's even worse when get into the store and discover that you can't read your own writing on your own stinkin' hand!!

I could make out the BBQ sauce, strawberries, pie crust, and Sprite.

But Darling Daughter and I stood there in Kroger forever trying to figure out what in the heck that last thing was! We could NOT read it. Still don't know what I supposed to get.

Probably it was ADD meds! Cause not only could I not read it, I couldn't remember what I wrote 3 minutes ago, either.

Dementia?? Hormones? Old age?? Or just Dingbat Syndrome? You decide.

Fight like a girl!

That would be Darling Daughter in the photo below. The blurry one trying to get to the top. The one wearing a zebra-striped hair bow and sporting pink toenails with flowers on them. Just because you fight like a girl doesn't mean you can't look like one, too.

The other girl is the instructors daughter, a purple belt with 6 years experience.

DD has been WAITING for the gym to start a ladies class because she really wanted to participate but she's too old for the kids class. And no self-respecting 16 yr old girl wants to roll around on the floor with sweating, hairy, middle-aged men. She would have gladly joined the class full of teenaged boys except that:

A. They're all twice her size and

B. Mommy and Daddy don't want her rolling around in weird positions with teenaged boys! and

C. Teenaged boys tend to be hairy and sweaty, too.

Next on the agenda...ordering a pink gi for her to wear while practicing. Ugh.

She starts training for Cross Country tomorrow morning.

And next week will be her last week of volunteering at the Children's Hospital. She's hoping to be selected for their Teen Board so that she can stay involved over there. She's had a blast delivering presents to the kids and cheering them up, as well as meeting all sorts of folks in the gift shop.

A Revelation

I have come to the conclusion that most of the foods that I don't like are pink. I don't like things that taste pink. I don't care for my food to be the color pink. I don't like to eat salmon, strawberry flavored cake, pink icing, pink grapefruit, pink lemonade, hamburgers that still have pink in the middle, shrimp, pink yogurt, pink champagne, pink cotton candy, pink bubble gum, pink popsicles or pink jelly beans. In fact, the only pink food I can think of that I DO like is strawberry cream cheese.

But I'd really prefer the blueberry.

Wednesday Prayer Meetin'

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.~Proverbs 3:5-6

This charming little man with the Mohawk hairdo is Seth!

Seth is Landen's four year old big brother. ( I know...the cuteness factor is off the charts at their house. I don't know how their parents can stand it! Their six year old brother Ethan is a charmer, too. If I was a better photographer and you could see the eyelashes on these kids, you wouldn't even believe it!)

Seth has Cerebral Palsy (like my Pip Squeak) and has been getting physical therapy and other forms of treatment to help him learn to use his muscles. Seth has a form of CP known as Spastic Diplegia which basically means that his brains sends an overload of signals through his nerves down to his leg muscles, making them overreact. This means that Seth's legs are much tighter than most four year old boys and the tightness makes getting around extremely difficult. At this point, Seth can crawl around a little, but is unable to walk, stand or sit on his bottom to play.

However, there is a surgery that can change all that.

Seth has been evaluated by specialists at St. Louis Children's Hospital for a surgery called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. The surgery involves cutting some of the nerve rootlets in the spinal cord that give too strong a signal, and recovery includes intensive physical therapy...four to six days a week to begin with. The results can be absolutely amazing!

This procedure is the same one that Pip Squeak had at four years old. This is the surgery that allowed him to progress from sitting in a wheelchair to using a walker to walking independently...and running, swimming, playing basketball and fighting in Jiu Jitsu like any other kid. Pip still has a slight limp, but the difference that this procedure made in his life was nothing short of a miracle. Before surgery, he was unable to sit unassisted and play with other kids. His legs were too tight for him to learn to dress himself because he couldn't bend enough to reach his knees...much less his feet. He had minimal use of his right arm and his stomach muscles were too weak to hold him up. Fast forward to age 11 and this kid has the abs of a professional football player and his arms? Guns of steel! He can do anything any other middle schooler can do...except ride a bike...not enough balance for that, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to all that he CAN do!

We were very blessed that a neurosurgeon here at our local Children's Medical Center was able to perform Pip's surgery almost 8 years ago. She's no longer here, though, so in order to get this life-changing operation, Seth and his family will have to travel to St. Louis and stay there through the first few weeks of his recovery. The surgeon in St. Louis has perfected this procedure and does SDR on many, many kids each year. He's exactly what Seth needs!

Our community is holding a fundraiser on July 25 that involves a motorcycle ride/scavenger hunt as well as bake sale, yard sale, entertainment, lunch, blow-up bouncy things for the kids, a raffle, and too many other things to list! If you live around here (and you know if you do) then PLEASE stop by the Belvedere Fire Department on July 25 and show your support for this darling little guy! If you want some raffle tickets ($1 each) give me a yell on facebook and I'll bring them to you! If you don't live here...would you please pray that the fundraiser and the surgery will go well for Seth? He deserves a chance to be able to get off the sidelines and play hard with all the other little boys!

And now...on to Landen. There's really no update on his status yet since his family is just waiting and praying for his surgery on July 13. In the meantime, how about a photo of Landen enjoying his toes? For some reason he likes to look at me upside down...maybe I look better that way? So here he is backwards in my lap as Darling Daughter holds him and he munches on his feet.

And here's Darling Daughter hogging the baby again while we attended a meeting about Seth's fundraiser. He really wanted ME to hold him, you can see it in his eyes. But my daughter is a baby thief and she snatches him up as soon as she sees him. I guess that's OK cause she's got way more energy than I do and that baby boy likes to bounce and wiggle!

Please continue to keep Landen and the rest of his family in your prayers. As the date of surgery approaches, they are understandable anxious. Please pray for peace.

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