another first

This past Friday night, we took Hunter (and girls) to her first movie (moO-e, as she says).  I realize this isn’t the best photo, taken with my phone, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to catch this moment forever.  If you could have seen her slippery, buttery, dimpled little hands ... greasy little face ... the way she was absolutely mesmerized by Horton and the little village of Whoville.  She laughed on cue and said “oh-oh” at just the right times.  What does this mean?  My baby is growing up.  I’m actually tearing as I write this.

I suppose I’m emotional after reading about Audrey Caroline’s story (click here).  And realizing we only have these children, we have been given these children for as long, or short as the Lord chooses.  We need to make the most of these moments, every moment.  Every butter-filled, spaghetti-faced, milk-spilled moment!  These are gifts we have been given and we need to serve them well.

Some cute happenings this past week ... well actually, first is not so cute ... Let’s just say tick season is in FULL bloom!  Now if the trees would take note!  Okay, so the other night I’m getting Hunter undressed (Curt was at a late meeting, so no help there) and whoa ... a tick!!  In my best ‘don’t freak out mode’ I do my best to recall the lessons that Curt has taught me about pulling ticks off our children.  Yes ... there have been lessons!  The secret is to make sure you get the head of it, and unfortunately the head is where it starts to bury first.  So I grab it’s wiggly little body and pull ever so gently.  Not freaking out, not freaking baby out ... so far, so good.  Another firm tug and yep! I’ve got it.  It’s even got a little piece of Hunter’s skin in it’s grip, so I can chalk this one up to success.  I go tell the girls ... they want to see it and we all celebrate as we flush it down the toilet.

Next day, Hunter has another tick.  Fortunately, I’m not home for this one and Curt has the honors.  Next person is Wynter ... I get the honors.  Spike (dog) was next and I think Curt had a couple in there too.  Then last night, Curt and I were out ... when we got home, the babysitter told me a story of how she was playing a game with the girls and they started whispering to each other (afraid the babysitter would freak out) that she had a tick.  Theresa thought they were joking, they assured her they weren’t and that it was crawling up her arm.  Yep! there it was.  Fortunately, it hadn’t lodged itself yet and Theresa didn’t freak out.  This morning I was combing Piper’s hair for church and just by chance decided to do a side pony tail, so I parted it on the side and started brushing ... what’s hidden in there?  A tick!  I call Curt in, he gets the honors and Piper’s left with a small hole where the tick took part of her scalp!

Now how are they getting these ticks?  They are blessed to have a father that loves to take them on adventures.  He has taught them a true appreciation of the outdoors and creepy crawly things.  No ... they don’t seek out the ticks, the ticks are just a by product of the adventure.  You get the good with the bad, I guess.

This has gotten incredibly long, but I wanted to mention two other things that I’ve been meaning to jot down in a notebook and just haven’t.  The whole primary school at Prairie went on a field trip this past week.  Wynter and Piper are both part of the primary school.  They went to the Golden Rondelle in Racine to learn about sustainability.  When I picked them up from school, I asked how the field trip was and what they learned.

Wynter blurts out “we learned that with (she hasn’t learned to say ‘if’ yet) you eat a cheesebooger (yes, booger) you get big feet.”  Say what?!?  Um yeah, she was pretty confident in what she learned and was sticking to it.  I talked to the teacher the next day joking about what Wynter learned and she looked at Wynter amazed and said she was right!  She couldn’t believe that Wynter took that away.  The translation is, that eating a cheeseburger leaves a larger footprint on the earth.  Humbly I admit that I needed to ask Curt what this meant.  Second translation ... because of all the processes involved in getting a burger, you take away more of the natural parts of the earth, therefore leaving a larger footprint then say if you would have eaten fruit or fresh vegetables.  Whew ... a lesson for us all ... but a deeper lesson for me to realize my children “get it.”

Two more things I want to note ... yesterday I finished with baths late afternoon and I’m getting Wynter’s pj’s on or helping her with something and we’re sitting there and she randomly says “dude, let’s get the band back together.”  Did that make you chuckle?  It sure gave me a laugh!  She heard it on a cartoon, but still ... so random to hear a sentence like that come out of your four year olds mouth!

Lastly ... Curt and I had our school’s annual fundraiser/auction to go to last night.  I wore a full-length, green, strapless dress.  When I was all ready and came out of my bedroom ... the girls thought I was a beautiful princess.  I glowed all night!  And let me mention that my husband teases that this function is like “Racine’s prom” ... so what does he do?  He gets me a big bouquet of flowers, a corsage, and rents a lamborghini!!  It was a great night!

I am blessed!