The children and i have made our annual road trip to florida, to visit the grandparents. This year's trip was a 'do or die' , as my grandmother was also visiting. I haven't seen my grandmother in many years, as her health didn't allow her to travel much, and i lacked the funds to go all the way to NY by car with two kids. The two kids are also her first Great-grandchildren, and they have never met each other. This trip was going to happen if we had to walk... and it almost came to that.
Our drive was 10 hours, which wasn;t horrible with the kids, who are well travelled. Of course, there are tales to come of it.
My kids refer to their grandparents as Nana and Pappy, solely because when my daughter was born my mother announced she would NOT be a 'mawmaw' or a 'mammy' ... she wanted to be "grandma."
for anyone who knows my parents, "grandma" is just too plain for my mother. She earned Nana, and though she wasn't thrilled with it at first, she has learned its a special title.
As history has shown, the children reflect the parents. I have been told repeatedly I am insane. ok, but those who have met my folks, truly have understanding of WHY i am this way. My parent's home was the original Asylum. In speaking I refer to my home as the asylum, because it goes nicely with our last name- BUT, my folks hold the honor of having the higher Asylum ranking over the Nuthouse.
I am explaining this, because there are several blog entries to come regarding our trip this year, and all of them have a touch of madness to them. I am sure you will get at least a few giggles from our raving hysterical insanity tales.
Please note- we were there for two weeks. there are ALOT of crazies to be posted. some are already typed out and ready to be copied and pasted here, ( ok, so i admit to a cheat now and then) and some will flow out as I go. These will be titled Tales from the south- along with a mini title. some of these tales occured before we even left, but are related to the trip itself, so, you'll get all that fun too.
This post in itself is an introduction to the "tales from the south. " a few details you may need before we begin our trip together through the Asylum.
The "cast" is simple- mostly of my immediate family, though there were some of my parent's or sister's pals that made appearances, and will be noted as we go.
the folks : my mom, and dad- fun ,crazy, life loving folk. they do thier thing and if you don't like it, you can leave. ( see where i get it yet? possibly not, but you'll have a better idea soon) my mother believes strongly in dance like no one's watching, and she does. My father is notorious for his stories. again, this is an obvious trait i inherited, and without his crazy narrations in my youth, you probably wouldn't be getting this blog today.
my sister : several years younger than i, lives with the folks, in a mutual arrangement that seems to work. my sister and i spent most of our childhood trying to kill each other, and as adults now, instead of physical attacks, we test each other's patience and sanity levels. ... severely. i'm not sure about her, but its actually fun for me :)
the dog: my sister's "baby". he;s a bichon mix, a tiny yappy dog that seems to think my sister need ferocious protection. ok, in my case, he's onto something. you can't get too close to sis when the dog is nearby, forget going into her bedroom... but when she was gone to work, this dog was my buddy. we also had a few events that made us think the dog was confused between myself and sis, as if he was seeing double, and couldn''t tell who was who.
"the Mother" is my grandmother. she is called such because she raised more than enough kids to be THE mother. she is no nonsense, yet quiet and observing of everything, even when it seems she is not even there. when she has something to say, be ready. She spent many week long babysitting stints with us, during which we tested HER patience and sanity to no end, and, Bless her, she somehow came through in one piece.
so, with all of these wonderful personalities , plus my own little clan of residents from the nuthouse, my folks' Asylum certainly stayed true to its name, and we, kept our end up by enhancing our own nuthouse qualities. after all, we were on VACATION. left alot of open ended behaviors to induce upon the unwary.
enjoy!! we sure did!!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
"Mama!! my mouth is bleeding! "
First, let me surprise you all by saying this line was very oddly enough, NOT proclaimed in terror, as it usually is. This was announced happily!
My daughter becomes a shivery mess when she sees blood. must clean it, must have a bandage, must not see it herself. I am much the same way when it comes to any amount that qualifies as more than a scrape.
So occasionally , when my daughter brushes her teeth and spits blood with her rinse, she'll come running, convinced her tounge is falling off or something. She brushes hard, and does her gums very well for a child of her age. so yes, from time to time they bleed a little. Her dentist has told her its nothing to freak out about, yet, being blood, she can't help it.
The other night, I sent her to brush, and she cam running down the hall, very excited and ... happy. "Mama!!! Mama!! I was spitting blood !!! "
I had to ask why ,suddenly she sees this as a positive.
"because it means my teeth will finally fall out!! getting SO close now!"
I couldn't help but laugh a little. This is the last child on earth i ever expected to be excited about spitting blood, for ANY reason.
Its also somewhat understandable. Daughter has waited ever so patiently to loose her baby teeth, while her friends are all filling in thier numerous gaps.
Last year, she had to have her first loose tooth pulled out by the dentist, the thing was rooted so strongly that the adult tooth came out behind it. The one next to it came out on easter , a week later, when she bit into a boiled egg, (the dentist had loosened it up) she had thought it was an egg shell in her mouth.
Almost a year later, she has finally gotten those two front teeth loose. but they will not budge. she has tried everything to get one out, eating the hardest foods she can find.( Mother, on the other hand is torturing the child with palate checks- to make sure we don't have any more coming in where they shouldn't)
The excitment she shows about the spot of blood, because her teeth are loose , is due to the fact that she hasn't lost any without some kind of dental help at this point. She looks forward to the day she can gross me out by simply handing me her tooth, rather than the dentist taking it out, or mistaking it for food.
The day following her excited announcement, she fell in the yard and scraped her leg. This was the end of the world. I somewhat used the thrill of the previous night to calm her by telling the poor hysterical girl that she had more blood from her teeth the night before than from this scrape that had just the tiniest dot of blood. ( It had clotted before she got to the house)
go figure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While I'm at it, I'll share another odd dental story with you.
My kids are exactly 2 years and 6 months apart. Our insurance requires the children get thier checkups every 6 months. This works out great for me, because, evry time one of them has a birthday, we make the doctor rounds. physicals, eyes ,and teeth.
The last dental checkup was a surprise.
My son, who is 6 years old, had two of his 6yr molars in. the dentist capped them, because these are the ones most kids have problems brushing, waaay in the back. He tells me by the next visit the other two molars should be ready to cap as well, they were just beginning to break the gumline.
okie dokie.
Moving onto my daughter, who was 8 1/2 at the time- she hadn't gotten her 6yr molars YET. The dentist thought it a bit odd, but said he could see they were going to start soon.
She'll be 9 next month.
She's been complaining of some pain in the back of her mouth, so I think these molars may be attempting an appearance, just in time for another visit.
This is odd to us- along with the loosing of her baby teeth, becasue she got her baby teeth early. I mean surprisingly early. At 4 months old, she started popping teeth out 3 and 4 at a time, all over the place. Let me tell you, the kid was a true drool bucket. Bibs did no good for this one, we used dish towels. Those stupid chewing cookies, also no relief, she got T-bones to gnaw on.
The dentist we took her to at the time, and ourselves, all assumed this was a good thing- it meant she'd loose her baby teeth early, and most likely in pairs of 3 or 4... Everyone we talked to with kids had said the same if thier babies had teethed early. " oh yes! lil so-n-so had all his teeth in by a year and a half, and by 6 he was loosing pairs of baby teeth while his molars were still coming in"
Like I said above though, this is not the case. Those babies are hanging on tight,and for some strange reason her 6 yr molars are taking thier sweet time breaking the surface. Leaves us wondering if our daughter will be the only child in the high school still waiting for her two front teeth to fall out !
My daughter becomes a shivery mess when she sees blood. must clean it, must have a bandage, must not see it herself. I am much the same way when it comes to any amount that qualifies as more than a scrape.
So occasionally , when my daughter brushes her teeth and spits blood with her rinse, she'll come running, convinced her tounge is falling off or something. She brushes hard, and does her gums very well for a child of her age. so yes, from time to time they bleed a little. Her dentist has told her its nothing to freak out about, yet, being blood, she can't help it.
The other night, I sent her to brush, and she cam running down the hall, very excited and ... happy. "Mama!!! Mama!! I was spitting blood !!! "
I had to ask why ,suddenly she sees this as a positive.
"because it means my teeth will finally fall out!! getting SO close now!"
I couldn't help but laugh a little. This is the last child on earth i ever expected to be excited about spitting blood, for ANY reason.
Its also somewhat understandable. Daughter has waited ever so patiently to loose her baby teeth, while her friends are all filling in thier numerous gaps.
Last year, she had to have her first loose tooth pulled out by the dentist, the thing was rooted so strongly that the adult tooth came out behind it. The one next to it came out on easter , a week later, when she bit into a boiled egg, (the dentist had loosened it up) she had thought it was an egg shell in her mouth.
Almost a year later, she has finally gotten those two front teeth loose. but they will not budge. she has tried everything to get one out, eating the hardest foods she can find.( Mother, on the other hand is torturing the child with palate checks- to make sure we don't have any more coming in where they shouldn't)
The excitment she shows about the spot of blood, because her teeth are loose , is due to the fact that she hasn't lost any without some kind of dental help at this point. She looks forward to the day she can gross me out by simply handing me her tooth, rather than the dentist taking it out, or mistaking it for food.
The day following her excited announcement, she fell in the yard and scraped her leg. This was the end of the world. I somewhat used the thrill of the previous night to calm her by telling the poor hysterical girl that she had more blood from her teeth the night before than from this scrape that had just the tiniest dot of blood. ( It had clotted before she got to the house)
go figure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While I'm at it, I'll share another odd dental story with you.
My kids are exactly 2 years and 6 months apart. Our insurance requires the children get thier checkups every 6 months. This works out great for me, because, evry time one of them has a birthday, we make the doctor rounds. physicals, eyes ,and teeth.
The last dental checkup was a surprise.
My son, who is 6 years old, had two of his 6yr molars in. the dentist capped them, because these are the ones most kids have problems brushing, waaay in the back. He tells me by the next visit the other two molars should be ready to cap as well, they were just beginning to break the gumline.
okie dokie.
Moving onto my daughter, who was 8 1/2 at the time- she hadn't gotten her 6yr molars YET. The dentist thought it a bit odd, but said he could see they were going to start soon.
She'll be 9 next month.
She's been complaining of some pain in the back of her mouth, so I think these molars may be attempting an appearance, just in time for another visit.
This is odd to us- along with the loosing of her baby teeth, becasue she got her baby teeth early. I mean surprisingly early. At 4 months old, she started popping teeth out 3 and 4 at a time, all over the place. Let me tell you, the kid was a true drool bucket. Bibs did no good for this one, we used dish towels. Those stupid chewing cookies, also no relief, she got T-bones to gnaw on.
The dentist we took her to at the time, and ourselves, all assumed this was a good thing- it meant she'd loose her baby teeth early, and most likely in pairs of 3 or 4... Everyone we talked to with kids had said the same if thier babies had teethed early. " oh yes! lil so-n-so had all his teeth in by a year and a half, and by 6 he was loosing pairs of baby teeth while his molars were still coming in"
Like I said above though, this is not the case. Those babies are hanging on tight,and for some strange reason her 6 yr molars are taking thier sweet time breaking the surface. Leaves us wondering if our daughter will be the only child in the high school still waiting for her two front teeth to fall out !
Friday, May 21, 2010
Catching up !
Again, I must apologize for neglecting my poor lil blog. There has been so much happening at the Nuthouse ( obviously why we call it that , haha) , I honestly forgot about it.
Since my last post was written during a cabin fever episode, I am happy to announce, we have indeed found spring. Our temps went from 32 to 80 almost overnight. NOW we have been gearing into our storm season. The infamous "pop-up showers and storms" have officially started.
The children have graduated school this week, lil man heading for 1st grade, girly to 4th, and stepson is graduating high school. . . where does the time go? I'll be attending a HS graduation at a school I myself attended. Kind of weird. I must say, I'm proud of all of them. they have all worked so hard.
The two lil ones and I plan to blast off the summer ( in only a week now) with a trip to Nana & Pappy's. There, not only will we be visiting the Grandparents, but my children will be meeting thier Great-Grandmother for the first time. They are also the first Great-Grandchildren. My Mother and I find it somewhat amusing that we will have 4 generations of girls in the house. Not so amused, however, are my Father and lil man. "all those GIRLS?!" . sorry boys, you're going to have to suck it up!
Also planned is stepson's graduation, as I mentioned. We are very proud of him, he's had a rough ride through school, and he's come out the other side of our 'fine educational establishment" in one piece. Way to go TD !!
Road trips are a thing I look forward to, I love a nice long drive.. . My children, thankfully, are excellent travellers as well. Through the 10 to 12 hour drive "over the river and through the woods" , my kids have very few major catasrophic problems. After about the first 2 hours they settle in, and amuse themselves. Very rarely do I have to distract them with a silly song or license plate game. my Daughter is content with trying to get truckers to honk at her- Son just happy to see trucks. Even so, I may just have some amusing blog entries born of this trip.
The rest of the summer ? Thats up in the air of course. one day at a time. My children seem to think they will re-enact episodes of Pheneas & Ferb. "theres 104 days of summer vacation and school comes around just to end them- so the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend them" .... I don't mind creativity. But, if they try to turn my truck into a time portal, I may indeed have a problem.
so, some "cutsie" stuff...
**Sitting w lil man, I tell him, " wow. you're going to 1st grade. no more naps at school, you'll get homework, wow... you're getting so big !! pretty soon you won't need your silly ol mama anymore"
Son looks at me sincerely and says " oh no mama, I'll still need you !!"
"really ? what are you going to need me for?"
Son pauses for just a moment, looks me in the eye and says " well, you make my oatmeal in the morning."
oatmeal?
"is that all you'll need me for ?"
"oh no Mama- i'll still need you for lotsa things too. "
He wasn't willing to go into detail at the time, but throughout the evenning he added to his list. When he brought his laundry out, he let me know he needed me for washing his clothes. When I gave him his dinner, he told me he'd need me to cook and clean up.
yeah. ok boy, I get the picture.
At bedtime, I tucked him in, gave him a hug and kiss as always, and he said " oh yeah! I will always need your hugs Mama. "
all together now : Aaaaaaaaw.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Mother's day, Husband and the kids picked out my present together.
It is beautiful- a necklace with a charm - a heart that says "mom".
I love it.
Daughter wants to know if I like it.
"Of course I do !! but, you know what this means right ?"
"no mama , what ?" ( child was a little concerned. )
" Well, on days that I wear a necklace, you'll have to help me pick one, because now I have four that say "Mom" !
Daughter replies " ok Mama, I'll help you match them , just like you help me match clothes ! "
fair 'nuff.
Since my last post was written during a cabin fever episode, I am happy to announce, we have indeed found spring. Our temps went from 32 to 80 almost overnight. NOW we have been gearing into our storm season. The infamous "pop-up showers and storms" have officially started.
The children have graduated school this week, lil man heading for 1st grade, girly to 4th, and stepson is graduating high school. . . where does the time go? I'll be attending a HS graduation at a school I myself attended. Kind of weird. I must say, I'm proud of all of them. they have all worked so hard.
The two lil ones and I plan to blast off the summer ( in only a week now) with a trip to Nana & Pappy's. There, not only will we be visiting the Grandparents, but my children will be meeting thier Great-Grandmother for the first time. They are also the first Great-Grandchildren. My Mother and I find it somewhat amusing that we will have 4 generations of girls in the house. Not so amused, however, are my Father and lil man. "all those GIRLS?!" . sorry boys, you're going to have to suck it up!
Also planned is stepson's graduation, as I mentioned. We are very proud of him, he's had a rough ride through school, and he's come out the other side of our 'fine educational establishment" in one piece. Way to go TD !!
Road trips are a thing I look forward to, I love a nice long drive.. . My children, thankfully, are excellent travellers as well. Through the 10 to 12 hour drive "over the river and through the woods" , my kids have very few major catasrophic problems. After about the first 2 hours they settle in, and amuse themselves. Very rarely do I have to distract them with a silly song or license plate game. my Daughter is content with trying to get truckers to honk at her- Son just happy to see trucks. Even so, I may just have some amusing blog entries born of this trip.
The rest of the summer ? Thats up in the air of course. one day at a time. My children seem to think they will re-enact episodes of Pheneas & Ferb. "theres 104 days of summer vacation and school comes around just to end them- so the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend them" .... I don't mind creativity. But, if they try to turn my truck into a time portal, I may indeed have a problem.
so, some "cutsie" stuff...
**Sitting w lil man, I tell him, " wow. you're going to 1st grade. no more naps at school, you'll get homework, wow... you're getting so big !! pretty soon you won't need your silly ol mama anymore"
Son looks at me sincerely and says " oh no mama, I'll still need you !!"
"really ? what are you going to need me for?"
Son pauses for just a moment, looks me in the eye and says " well, you make my oatmeal in the morning."
oatmeal?
"is that all you'll need me for ?"
"oh no Mama- i'll still need you for lotsa things too. "
He wasn't willing to go into detail at the time, but throughout the evenning he added to his list. When he brought his laundry out, he let me know he needed me for washing his clothes. When I gave him his dinner, he told me he'd need me to cook and clean up.
yeah. ok boy, I get the picture.
At bedtime, I tucked him in, gave him a hug and kiss as always, and he said " oh yeah! I will always need your hugs Mama. "
all together now : Aaaaaaaaw.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Mother's day, Husband and the kids picked out my present together.
It is beautiful- a necklace with a charm - a heart that says "mom".
I love it.
Daughter wants to know if I like it.
"Of course I do !! but, you know what this means right ?"
"no mama , what ?" ( child was a little concerned. )
" Well, on days that I wear a necklace, you'll have to help me pick one, because now I have four that say "Mom" !
Daughter replies " ok Mama, I'll help you match them , just like you help me match clothes ! "
fair 'nuff.
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