Stick Patrol

We had a short, nasty storm blow through here this afternoon. It blew over a few things in our backyard, including the bench Brian built me for Mother's Day a few years ago. So, when we headed outside once the rain had stopped, we noticed there were a ton of sticks and branches on the ground. Bryton said to Avery, "lets help Mom pick up these sticks!" I thought to myself, "great idea, but I doubt you 2 will stick to this task for very long." A 1/2 hr. later, they had all of the sticks picked up! They kept going, and going, and going 'til all the sticks were picked up. I was just happy that I didn't have to do it...so their treat was dinner out on the patio :) Lets hope they don't grow to dread "stick patrol" like I did in my younger years. Of course, "poop patrol" was a lot worse!

Our Little Jet-Setters

We returned from our fun trip to Virginia, visiting Jerod, Kristen, Isaac, and Samuel. Bryton and Avery traveled well. Our trip out last week was delayed 2 hrs., which pushed us back to a 2 AM arrival time to the Rife residence, but Bryton and Avery weathered all of that just fine. Then we were on the road in the dark this morning ("when it was still night" according to Bryton) so that we could fly out of Richmond by 6 AM. Bryton and Avery did a good job of fitting right in with the business travelers on this morning's flight! They've gotten to be pro's at going thru security...putting their blankets, stuffed animals, and shoes in trays and strutting right on thru to gather their goodies on the other side. On this morning's flight, the stewardess asked me what the kids would like to drink, and Avery replied to her, "Cappuccino," as if it was very normal for a 2 1/2 yr. old to order this beverage! Needless to say, she got water :)

An Unsolved Mystery

I didn't end up taking Avery to the Dr. this afternoon. I had an appt. to get her in at 3:30 pm today, but she acted just fine all day...she slept in 'til 9 a.m. (wow!), and then she went down for a nap from 1:45-5 p.m.! I didn't want to wake her for the Dr.'s appt., since I figured she'd need the sleep. She woke up happy both times, didn't have a temp at all today, and if tonight goes OK...I guess I won't worry about it. Maybe this unsolved mystery is just a figment of my imagination. Lets hope so!

The Ear Infection Mystery

My week had been fairly nicely planned out: work, pack, laundry, errands, pool-time, yard work, clean, soccer, story hr., haircuts, etc... so that we can scoot out the door tomorrow P.M. for our trip, with me feeling comfortable that all is well here on the home front. However, when a kid is out of whack, a Mom's schedule gets thrown a bit out of whack as well. Last night the light bulb went on in my head...wondering, "does Avery have an ear infection?!"
Here are the clues: 1. very slight fever as of this morning 2. she's waking up in the night whining, and then falling back to sleep on her own 3. she's been more irritable than normal the past 3 days, acting tired when she shouldn't be 4. last night when I was cleaning out her ears, she said "Ow!" to her right ear (she never says that when I clean her ears) 5. She isn't eating all that great (this is a mystery in itself, though, so no biggie difference there)
You tell me?! She says her ears don't hurt, and that nothing else hurts. That has been the story before, though, and she's ended up with double ear infections.
Off to the Dr. we go today, if they can squeeze us in.

Radar Ears

Yesterday Bryton asked me, out of the blue, "So, why did Tori break up with Shean?!" (Tori is our dear neighbor, who watches the kids sometimes, and Shean was her boyfriend). I thought to myself...'well, how do I explain this to a 5 yr. old?!' I then went into a very generic explanation of boyfriends and girlfriends and "break-up's." I could see his little wheels a 'turnin...but he didn't ask any more questions about it.
I asked him where he heard that they'd broken up, and he said, "You, Mom. A long time ago."
Yep, it would have been quite a while ago...and this poor kid's mom blabs too much! She tends to forget there are little ears hanging on her every word, and their little minds are like steel traps!

More Summer Smiles...

Yummo!

Tonight at dinner, Bryton proudly proclaimed, "I've had 2 lumps of everything!" I looked at our plates, and sure enough..."lumps" was the appropriate term! We had cheesy potatoes (hash brown casserole) and cowboy beans (hamburger & bacon baked beans) with our hot dogs on the grill :) Martha Stewart would not be proud of my menu!