Flopped Stranger Danger Talk

We were driving back from my Mom and Dad's today, and a neighbor of theirs had their house alarm blaring, and a cop car was in the driveway surveying the scene, etc. It made quite the impression on four very big eyes peering out our back window as we drove by, which then led to a discussion with Hannah about why sirens would go off if a person who didn't live there went inside the house, and why the police would have to be called, etc. A rather long, tedious, 45-minute discussion while traveling on I-94! (I'm having a glass of wine while jotting this down now!) ;)

Even though Hannah is almost 5, we haven't really had the Stranger Danger conversation before now. Since 90% of her DNA includes the very same components as Saran Wrap, the chances of her not sticking with me are slim to none, and her death glare is a force to be reckoned with ... I don't care what kind of monsters are out there! However, with Kindergarten coming up, a little introduction of the world we've tried so hard to shield her from is a bit necessary.

So I started off with something like this: "Some people we don't know aren't always so nice. Most of them are, but every once in a while, there's a mean one, so you just need to be careful. Some people are careful by installing a house alarm, so they will know if a stranger comes into their house while they are away. Then they won't be surprised when they come home and find him or her there."

I instantly ate my words, as "surprised" almost certainly made Hannah think of someone bringing balloons and streamers into the house to surprise the homeowner. Who wouldn't open a door to that?!

After a brief clarification, we talked about what we do if someone we don't know tries to take you away from Mommy, or away from your school group, etc..
H: "I SCREAM, and I run to Mom or to my teacher."
Me: "Awesome."
H: "What if that stranger knows me, but I don't know them?"
Me: "You still need to find someone you know, and ask them just to be safe. Some strangers are tricky, and want to make you believe they're your friend but they're really not."
H: "But Mom, what if that stranger has a sword? Maybe we need to run inside super fast and get another sword to scare him away!"
Me: "If that stranger has a sword, you scream even louder so everyone around you can hear you and can come help."
H: "Umm. No, I think I'll just get my own sword."
Me: "Well, since we don't have any swords, not sure that will work. The best thing you can do is kick and scream. Always remember that."
H: "But MOM ... I can't kick him, that would hurt him, and I don't want to hurt him because even if he isn't nice, someone who knows him may love him, and that would hurt their feelings if I kicked him."

Oh for goodness sakes!

H: "Or maybe I can just tickle him and he'd let me go."

AHHH!!

Me: "NO! NO, NO, NO! If someone tries to grab you, I want you to scream the loudest you have ever screamed, kick the hardest you have ever kicked, scratch, bite ... do whatever it takes for you to get free."

Astonished at what her mother has just said, Hannah leans forward in her seat and whispers, "But Mom ... you said we should never, ever, bite. And if I screamed too loud, it could hurt my ears. Or it could hurt the stranger's ears. I don't think I want to do that."

I thought I might have to pull over on this one. Needless to say, our light-hearted introduction to Stranger Danger derailed and became a baptism by fire on what the evil world can hold as I spouted off a number of horrible, monstrous things that could happen if she didn't try her hardest to get away. And yes, that included biting and screaming so loud it hurt everyone's ears.

I was met with dead silence yet again. Hannah stared out the car window for several minutes after that one. I wasn't sure if she understood some of the horrible things that came spouting from my mouth ... and if she did understand them, I wasn't sure I wanted that either. I kept peering back at her in the rear view mirror looking for some sort of sign if I said too much ... needed to say more ... but all was quiet. Maybe she was still stuck on having her ears hurt by screaming so loud.

Finally, she leaned forward and said, "Mom, I have an idea. How about if we see any strangers crossing the road, you can just hit them with the car."

Ack! Well, I think it's safe to say she understood at least some of what I said! Now we'll be working on finding a nice gray area between now and when she turns 16 and gets behind a wheel!

Be safe out there!

Our First Super Bowl

I thought I would share some quotes from the girls in case your team didn't win and you needed a little chuckle. The girls watched their first super bowl tonight, and I'm pretty sure it was anything but a typical football party!

With a card table, fort and a makeshift bench of blocks, the girls didn't know what was in store when we came down to our basement, but thought it had to be fun! However, 10 minutes into the pregame show, and it was apparent that we need to expose the girls to some contact sports ... Or maybe not! ;)

While interviewing a linebacker, Hannah looks up and says, "Whoa. He's really big. I bet he drinks a lot of milk." We hope so at least! ;) While showing a video of a previous game, Hannah gasps at seeing a rather brutal tackle. "Why did he get a hug from those guys after pushing that other guy down? He should get a timeout!" (I obviously didn't quite explain the point of this game very well beforehand! Every tackle was a bit traumatic for Hannah!)

Thanks to PBS, our girls haven't seen a commercial before, so that in and of itself was an experience! Although, we ended up switching channels half the time because ... whoa! But maybe we just need to get out more!

Addi's take on the whole matter was, of course, quite different! Not having to sit at a table to eat was her dream come true, and after watching a completed pass, she jumps up and exclaims, "I can do that! Watch!"

Addi's big finish was interrupted with one of the commentators announcing that a team called a time out, and Hannah thought justice had finally been served. "A 15-second time-out?! FINALLY!"

After watching Madonna's half-time show (how much harm could Madonna do after watching grown men tackle each other and get rewarded?!), we headed off to bed, and Hannah's final comment of the night was, "Mom, can we eat like this every night?"

Here's to this time next year!

Two Peas In A Pod

As Forest Gump would say, Hannah and Adelaide are like peas and carrots. Their quirky personalities (about as opposite as can be) combat each other to make everything they do a remarkable adventure - and each of their adventures are, of course, made together! Their closeness has even come to the point where one won't take a treat or put on a sticker without making sure the other has one first. While this is all well and good as it keeps our chaotic house mostly peaceful, I was beginning to think a little distance from each other to help them grow into their own little beings may be in order. After all, the only times they are really apart is in the wee hours of the morning when Adelaide wakes up before Hannah, and during the afternoons when Addi is taking a nap. These times are filled with each girl's favorite activities to help them cope through their distress (eating for Addi and reading books for Hannah) because they're merely counting the minutes until their other half wakes up.

So a while back I sat down with Hannah after putting Adelaide down for a nap and asked her what she thought about starting up a Mommy Date every once in a while.

"We could do whatever you wanted ... it would be just you and me on a special adventure together!" I explained.

Instead of "Ooh, fun ... let's do THIS!" or some other suitable response, Hannah immediately questioned what Adelaide would be doing while we were gone.

"Well, she would stay with Daddy while we went out and did whatever it is you want!"
Hannah looked skeptical. "But she would miss us!" she finally blurted out.
(sigh)

 "Maybe we can start off slow and just go during Addi's nap and be back before she wakes up."

"But, actually, umm ... I think Adelaide would ... well ... just like to come with us, too," said Hannah.

At this point we hadn't even decided where we were going, much less what we were doing, but apparently nothing mattered other than the fact that in Hannah's mind we were leaving her helpless baby sister behind.

When promises of long hikes where little legs and even smaller bladders wouldn't be able to make it didn't tempt her, I dangled some art options out there. But with every suggestion I threw out, Hannah became more and more appalled that I was even THINKING of ...  well, "just leaving Adelaide!" I didn't dare bring up the fact that this would later be reversed when it was Addi's turn!

As luck would have it, there came a night where two fun events were happening at the same time, and since they were rather late in the evening, the chance of a finale of tears would be high. So as any crazy parental team would do, we divided and conquered! Hannah and I went to a fun back-to-school storytime held by my sister, and Jeff took Addi to a Geiser Race to sponsor Caleb's cross country team. To prove just how often we go in different directions ... we came to the realization the night before that we have but one car the girls can ride in. ;)

It all worked out and by the time we met back at home late that night, both girls had fun stories to tell of their own. Jeff agreed that Adelaide, like Hannah, was a little less spunky than usual, and Hannah's constant chatter that can exhaust a pro athelete was noticeably down when she was sitting in the backseat by herself. But a few smiles slipped out from both of them, and fun was surely had by all.


The picture to the left pretty much sums up their symbiotic relationship. When Hannah first got her bike, she took off like a rocket. However, being that grace is not necessarily her forte, it was only a matter of time until she fell, and when she did ... it wasn't pretty. Seeing that we couldn't let one scraped knee end her entire future on anything with wheels, we got her back on the bike shortly after, but it had been a long, drama-soaked month of me essentially pulling Hannah along the bike trail, as she steered through tears and supplied a constant supply of whimpers and screams if I let go of her arm. On this particular bike ride, I was trying in vain to convince Hannah that my hand on her arm really wasn't doing much, and she could do this all on her own. I was getting nowhere. Addi, undoubtedly heard our arguments from her little trike behind us, and got down, walked over to Hannah and placed her tiny little hand on Hannah's arm. She was my little replacement! I tried to intervene as this didn't look at all safe, but Hannah instantly snapped out of her daze at Addi's touch. "Oh! You want to help too, Addi? OK. Let's go!"

And just like that, Jeff and I were left in their dust ... again! In less than 5 minutes, Addi helped Hannah relearn how to ride her bike when I thought all was certainly lost. A slight set back happened when Addi's little legs just couldn't keep up her full sprint and she stumbled and scraped her knee, but even then she put on a good front and tried her best to keep a comforting hand (albeit one that pulled Hannah's bike at a severe tilt!) on her big sister. By the time we got home, fear of bike riding was replaced with endless chatter about how they BOTH had a scraped knee now. Imagine that! :)

So tomorrow starts another school year for Hannah. She's excited and we're in a much more comfortable place than we were last year at this time. This year, Hannah fully understands that school isn't for mommies, but part of me is worried that she'll have to learn another hard lesson tomorrow: school isn't for baby sisters, either!

First Day photos (surprise, surprise ... silly faces!)

Six Blind Mice

Jeff had a surprise last night when he opened the grill to start dinner. Two little eyes were peering back at him, and little squeaks quickly began to sound the alarm. It turned out a little house mouse had decided to make her nest (for the second time now) in our grill. So Jeff, being the wonderful Dad he is, very carefully scooped up the pink, hairless, blind babies and transferred their nest into an aquarium we've been using for various insects we find in the yard, then began to coax the mom to follow. Dinner wound up being about 45 minutes late, but the girls didn't even seem to mind in all the excitement!

Hannah's mothering insticts kicked into overdrive, and she busily set to work making the Ma Ma mouse and her babies feel safe (even if that meant peering into the cage and singing to them through the screened top!) She is now certain she is an Animal Rescuer just like Diego, and proceeded to sing "Calma" to help calm them down and know that we are here to help them.

So, we now have six babies and one very brave Ma Ma Mouse living on our deck. We figure we'll let the babies get a bit older, then let them go ... somewhere far away from our house so they won't cause any more damage than they already have!

Yes, we have become "THAT" crazy family now! ;)

Sweeping Up

Whoever it was who first switched the phrase to "One step forward, two steps back," had to have been referring to trying to get something done while in the presence of a child. When there are two children present, naturally the phrase morphs again into "One step forward, 10 steps back."

Our house is proof of this 10-step backwards theory. These past couple of months, our house has become rather neglected, really missing that hour and a half a couple of times a week when Hannah was at preschool and Addi was napping. At the time, I never felt like I got that much done, but of course NONE of that is getting done now, and the mess has taken on a life of its own! Add a few construction projects into the mix, and our house resembles a war zone most days.

So, on this fine morning ... I thought a quick sweeping of the outside patio could stop the vast amount of leaves and mud being tracked in through our downstairs, and one small battle could be won.

And so the task began.

The girls were happily digging in the sandbox, so I slipped away and picked up the broom. By the time I had turned around, both of them were already staring back at me.

"Where are you going? Are you getting a snack, Mom?" Hannah asks hopefully.
"No, I was just going to sweep the patio real quick. You keep playing in the sandbox, I'm right here."

Even as the last few words were spilling out of my mouth, Addi was already making her way toward me.

"Oh, good idea, Addi! We can help, too!" exclaims Hannah.
"No, no. As lovely as that sounds, I only have one broom. Why don't you go on the teeter totter? I'll be done in just a minute."

It seemed so simple. They were happily playing. I just needed 5 minutes, a mere 10 feet away!

After having to place them on the teeter totter myself, I make my way back to the patio. Broom in hand, I take my second swipe.

"Can we swing?"
"No. I can't sweep under you while you guys are swinging."

Another five minutes later and after retrieving a snack as a peace offering, I begin again.

"Ma Ma, I just want you to play catch with me. Pllleeeeaaaasssseeeee."

(sigh) Another 10 minutes and 15 arguments later, I set to work ... yet again, only to hear:

"Mom, Addi says she needs to go potty."

#$$#^$%&!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After all of that is taken care of and even more toys are dragged out onto the grass, I find myself back again on the patio, trying in vain to get the last few feet swept before the girls' pleading turns to screaming. So, broom in one hand, T-ball bat in the other, I find I can make progress while the girls chase the ball around the yard. It seems to be going well, I'm even half way done in just 4 hits! Then, as luck would have it, the girls got sidetracked by a bug in the yard, and were crouched down watching it in awe. HA! Peace!

Sweeping like a mad woman while I had the chance, I had a big pile of dirt scooped up in the dust pan, ready to dump when Hannah comes bounding toward me. "MOM! LOOK!" she says as she opens her hand. I had figured it was some sort of beetle, caterpillar or those tiny moths they generally find in the yard. Hannah thrusts her tiny fist in my face and I find myself eye to bazillion-eyes with a spider. A quite large spider at that. I couldn't help myself, I screamed and the dust pan went flying over my head.

After I caught my balance, I could see Hannah and Adelaide's faces through the dust cloud that was settling. Mouths open and eyes wide, they looked as shocked as I did a few seconds earlier.

"Ma Ma?? Why did you scream? Did the spider bite you? What's wrong?"

(groan). I knew I'd been made. And with this fateful step, my 10 negative steps were now complete:

10) Thanks to the sticky sunscreen the girls had on and the dirt I threw 10 feet in the air, the girls are now dirtier than I've seen them in a while (which says a LOT!)
9) The infamous spider has still not been found. While the search may provide a few days of entertainment for the girls, my nights will be heavy with nightmares.
8) I must have swept that patio 3 or 4 times, yet I have nothing to show for it.
7) In my effort to distract the girls for a mere 10 minutes, I spent 20 minutes cleaning up the toys I put out to help.
6) The girls now know the truth I've been hiding for 4 years now - I am deathly afraid of spiders!
5) I have little to no hope that my chances of sweeping the patio tomorrow will be any better.
4) My other battle plan for the day (trying to convince everyone that we can have one big pile of clean laundry that we can dive into each morning and wear whatever sticks to us) is failing, so it doesn't look like there is a light at the end of the tunnel anytime soon.
3) I was actually serious about #4.
2) Another construction project starts tomorrow - it can only get better, right?
1) Hannah has already begun her lessons to help me rid my fear of spiders. "There's nothing scary about them, Mom. Look ... see, even Adelaide likes to hold them!" AAAHHH!

What? No Entomology in Kindergarten?!

Hannah and Adelaide had a little slice of heaven earlier this week. They were able to meet an entomologist and visit her garden, which was specifically designed to attract a variety of insects. The girls couldn't have been more in their element, and it was so wonderful to have a tour guide along for the ride! Between helping Margot the Bug Lady pick up rocks to see what creepy crawlies they could find hiding underneath and running over to see what Margot had spotted under a leaf, the girls couldn't have been happier.

Margot made such an impression on Hannah, that every plant in our yard and garden has since been heavily scrutinized, wondering if this is the perfect plant to attract even more bugs to our yard. Even the purple flowers Hannah picked out this spring (and assured me she could not live without) received a very disapproving look after learning that they may not be a bee's favorite type of flower. "Why do we even have these in our yard?!" she exclaimed! "We need to grow different flowers, Ma Ma!" (I actually thought she was about to yank them up root and all she was so disgusted with the thought of them wasting valuable space!)

When I mentioned that the reason Margot knew so much about insects was because she had gone to school to become an entomologist, Hannah was ecstatic.

"I can't wait until I go to school," she says while jumping up and down. "Then I can know all about bugs, just like Margot!"

"Well, sadly, Kindergarten doesn't really focus on bugs so much. You have to be a little older and go to a different kind of school in order to be an entomologist," I said.

"When can I go to that school? Like when I'm 7? Or when I'm 8?"

"Well, it will be a while. You'll be almost grown up before you can go to this kind of school."

Hannah stared at me blankly, not fully understanding why she had to wait to study the things she loved most ... or maybe she was confused as to why she would still be going to school after the age of 8 - after all, you are practically a grown up at 8! Disheartened, she crouched back down in the grass and continued her search for more insects. After a bit, she popped back up and said in a rather disgusted tone, "If I don't learn about bugs when I go to school, what DO I learn?"

Up until this point, Hannah has been SO excited to go to school, this change of heart kind of caught me off guard. I rattled off things like learning how to read, learning how things work and why and studying different parts of the world ... but I might as well have been talking to all of her treasured beetles and mosquitoes she was lugging around in her bug house. Clearly this was not an impressive list in her view. So I trudged on ...

"You'll also learn lots of fun songs to sing, make new friends ..."

I wasn't making any headway with these items either. It wasn't long before Hannah had turned her full attention back on the grass and all of its tiny inhabitants.

Then it hit me. "Ooh! AND ... you'll do lots of fun art projects!" Surely art had to change her mind and get her back to being excited about going to school! If anything competes with bugs, it's art. Personally, I think it's whatever gets her messy!

But even with the promise of brand new art projects, Hannah remained silent and kept poking a stick in and out of the blades of grass. After a few minutes, she stood up, placed her hands on her hips and said, "How about I go to school to learn how to read so I can read books about bugs all by myself, and then I'll go to school with Margot."

Relieved the education system hadn't disappointed her completely, I agreed that was a very good idea indeed.

Now, if only she were a bit taller so she could reach those spiders on the ceiling for me - that would be my little slice of heaven!

Here's to hoping she learns a few more things along the way, and in another 15+ years, she follows her dream of becoming an entomologist! In the interim, we're trying our hand at raising eight Cecropia caterpillars we got from Margot. They will turn into gigantic, beautiful moths next spring. This now brings our pet list (not including our snails, slugs, ladybugs and other joyous creatures we keep housed outside) up to 13, and Hannah and Addi are plotting for more each and every day. The feeding schedule alone somewhat terrifies me if we go any further! ;)

Happy bug hunting!

Shoe Shopping with a Bunny

Springtime is definitely Hannah's favorite time of the year. All of her most treasured things return to life and her days are spent stalking bugs and talking to mounds of dirt, asking them when the flowers will start blooming.

Our backyard is riddled with tupperware "treasure chests" housing bugs that didn't make it through the winter, yet still have a leg or wing that moves in the wind, which is all it takes to convince Hannah that it's still alive! But the thing Hannah is most fascinated with is the thought of holding a baby bunny, and nothing I say can convince her that it wouldn't be in the bunny's best interest if she were to pick one up. "I'll be SO gentle with it Ma Ma, and I can put lotion on my hands so it wouldn't smell me. That's a good idea, huh?!"

Her fascination with all things small easily passes over into her own life. For the most part, it's a lot of fun. One morning she'll emerge from her room wearing butterfly wings and exclaiming that she broke open her cocoon while she slept! And, sure enough, her bed sheets are thrown all about her room as part of her transformation! The best afternoons are spent fishing for worms in puddles and trying in vain to make mud angels in the muck every time my back is turned.

However, there have been a few times when the animal/insect world has melded with our own in a way that isn't quite so magical. At breakfast the other day, Hannah was trying to convince Adelaide to pretend to be a baby bird. Being that I hadn't quite finished my cup of coffee yet, I didn't see where this was all going until Hannah started to spit out her chewed up toast in front of Adelaide and was instructing her baby sister to eat it. "Come on Baby Bird ... EAT IT! Hee heee hee!!" Ugh.

Well, with all this puddle jumping and mud wallowing, the girls were in need of some new shoes. Hannah has some strange aversion to trying on shoes, but the last few times haven't ended in tears, so I thought we were safe. Things were going swimmingly (mostly because the store had a purple pair of shoes to her liking), when Hannah suddenly stiffened up as the man bent down to try to put the shoe on her foot. She quickly tucked her legs underneath her and told the man that she is like a baby bunny. He looks up at her, smiles and says, "Yeah, I bet you can hop really far in these new shoes - just like a bunny. Should we try them on?"

And it was like I was back at the breakfast table with a gooey wad of ABC toast staring back at me - I was once again two seconds too late in stopping the train wreck that was about to happen.

With her bottom lip sticking out and tears brimming in her eyes, Hannah blurts out, "I don't want you to put those shoes on me - then my mommy won't take care of me because she'll smell you on my shoes!"

Oh boy ... did that lesson ever come out wrong!

Sisters? Twins? Strangers?

Jeff and I constantly find ourselves in awe at how our two girls can be so alike in some ways, yet not even resemble sisters in others! Since day one, our sweet Hannah seems to carry the weight of the world on her tiny little shoulders. Nothing escapes her, and her heart is as big as they come. If she were to hear of an ant being stepped on in the tri-state area, the news would bring her to tears. Addi, on the other hand, well … there's a good chance she was the one who stepped on the ant in the first place! Not to be mean, of course, she's just constantly in four-wheel drive and wouldn't think to stop and look where she's going!

When Hannah was a mere three days old, she had perfected what is best described as The Death Glare. If someone got too close or made any sort of motion as if to say they were thinking of picking her up, her eyes would narrow and she would have them backed in a corner before they even knew what hit them. Adelaide has a look that is equally as dangerous, but she tends to only target little old men. She can make a grown man trip over himself when she decides to turn on the charm and flash one of her smiles. I fear her first full sentence (complete with a southern belle accent) will be, "Sugar … why don't you just come on over here and wrap yourself around my little finger!"

They are rubbing off on each other, however. When we're watching a movie and a perfectly legit, yet somewhat silly, part comes up, Hannah used to be absolutely horrified at the character's actions. "Ma Ma, that's not safe! (gasp!) Why is he doing that? Doesn't he know he could get hurt?!" Meanwhile, her sister would be belly laughing next to her. While I would have thought some of the storyline would have been lost on our 1-year-old, it's our 3-year-old who misses the majority of the plot as it takes her so long to recover after seeing Diego zoom down a zip line, or a frog taunt an alligator. Now, Hannah still informs us that his actions were not in fact safe, but she's learned to let out a giggle or two as well. And while Adelaide can still make a Grandpa swoon, she's learning Hannah's skill at carefully reading people and limits the number of Grandpas blindly following her to one or two a day!

There are many more examples of how our two girls run the gamut in their personalities, but you would think they were twins by looking at their baby pictures! Can you guess who's on the top and who's on the bottom in each of these pairs? Hannah will paint a picture for everyone who guesses right. She'll probably paint one for you if you guess wrong, too, as that girls does love to paint! Good luck! Even I had to double check a couple of these!

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