Because I Love Numbers

The kids and I were just out having a lovely picnic lunch this fine and beautiful day, when Carolyn (our 5 year old monkey) walked over and commenced to swing on the branches of a tree. For the 7th or 8th time.

The phone rang so I ran in the house for a minute, and before I made it back out again, I heard lots and lots of Carolyn crying. I dashed out to see what the problem was, and found Carolyn laying on the grass under the tree, a pretty decent scrape on her leg.

I carried her into the house to get a bandaid, and offered her the choice of either Big Bird or the Count. Through all her tears and sadness, one of those moments I wish I had a video camera running, she answered, "The Count, because I love numbers."

Kids rock.

Motor Mouth

So there's this Bill Cosby bit where he's talking about his family. He makes the comment that he and his wife have five kids, then says, "We have five kids because we don't want six." Since we also have five kids in our family, the kids latched right onto that and quote it all the time, thinking they are so very very funny.

Today we were at the library. Carolyn is always looking for new friends, and she attached herself to another little girl and was chatting away with her. They followed the girl's mother while she looked for books in the children's section, Carolyn talking away the whole time. Just as we were gathering to leave I heard her say out of the blue, "We have five kids because we don't want six!" The mom chuckled and to me said, "That's one way to put it!" Of couse I quickly explained how something like that would pop out of my almost 5 year old's mouth.

Later, thinking of my embarrassment, I reminded Carolyn of the situation and tried to explain that we need to be careful about what we tell strangers. "That little girl and her mom were strangers?" "Well kind of, not the bad kind, but..." I knew I was attempting a conversation that would make my brain do cartwheels before she understood, if then. "Oh forget it. They were nice, weren't they?"

We Raise 'em Tough

This is Carolyn's latest favorite outfit. Wants to wear it sleeping, playing, basically as often as I allow. We walk in the house from anywhere, she heads to her room to change back into it. Today she snuck out to grab some snow, and no, it wasn't just an in-and-out venture. She was perfectly happy out there until I went to tell her to come back in. At least she put gloves on, eh?

If I Don't Sound Very Logical...

...hold that thought for a minute. First the story.

I got the two littlest girls in the bath tonight then headed downstairs for a couple minutes, and Melanie followed me down. Suddenly Carolyn yelled, "Mom! I think you better come in here!" Thinking Erin had added unto the bath, I yelled back for confirmation. "Is there a problem?" No answer. I asked Melanie to run up and check on things, still figuring Erin was just trying to 'share' and was ready to run up after getting a confirmation. Then Melanie yelled down, "Come here! Carolyn's whole tooth is out!" When I heard "whole tooth" I was thinking yikes, roots and all, and I sprinted upstairs. Carolyn was sitting there with a grin, holding a little bottom front tooth.

"Did you bonk your mouth on Erin's head?"
"No."
"Then what did you do?"
"I just did this with my teeth (showed me rubbing top front teeth on bottom front teeth) and it came out!"

Tiny bleeding, better even than some I've pulled out for the kids. I checked the other front one, and it's definitely on the loose side too. She doesn't even turn 5 until February!

From there she was ready to jump out of the bath so she could get it ready for the tooth fairy. We had to explain the tooth pillow concept. She thought the tooth stayed in the tooth pillow till you took the tooth out to put it under your pillow, and was very adament about that until I pointed out how tiny the tooth is and how easy it would be to lose it.

Now about the logic. After she was all dressed I took a few pictures then had her call Daddy who was stuck at work. Took me a few seconds to think of taking video of her talking about it. See if you can follow the circles she spins. What a cutie.

So if I don't sound very logical, it's because I get this kind of loopdy-loop stream of consciousness a lot. At least she didn't pull a Grant, but she didn't even warn me it was loose!

Sweetening Up Mom

I was trying to get Carolyn to lay down for a nap with me Saturday. I knew I needed one, and figured it wouldn't hurt her either. She wouldn't have anything to do with it, though. I finally got her to lay down on Jamie's pillow for .0013 seconds, long enough for her to say, "Hey! It smells like dad!" Then she wanted to try my pillow. "Your pillow smells like you!" It was an exciting discovery for her. I asked her, "What do I smell like?" "Chocolate chip cookies!!" I took that as a fine compliment. She said Jamie smells like chocolate.

Jumping into Summer

Summer officially began June 21. Sammy brought that in with a bang... and 7 stitches. He was playing across the street at a neighbor's and took a forehead to the edge of their open truck door. He got the stitches out yesterday, everything is looking good.

Today Erin got bit twice by wasps (they had a nest on the swingset seat she was sitting on), and Carolyn swallowed a penny.

Hooray for summer!