The Puddles

Last Sunday was . . . well, it was a day of preparation for Easter.  And I don’t just mean biblical.

1.  The Youth Campers had a bake sale.  I did manage to bake and I did manage to bring my entire crew there by the end of early service to sell.  I think Ainsley did a better job of selling than Ben.  She had gumption. We made over $700.  I think we have made our ultimate goal, but we are still crunching the numbers.

2.  During Sunday school, my class had decided early in Lent to do a Lenten project as a way to give to the church during the season.  They decided to host a scavenger hunt with the entire Sunday school and then have popsicle and play time on the playground.  All of which they would be the responsible adults for.  They did great.  And everyone had a lot of fun looking for all of the items on the list.  My class came up with a great list.  Things that I would never have thought off. And we all got to know the world of Tree of Life a little better.  I love the picture of Madie’s group. Ainsley was having a hard time keeping up with everyone.  I told them they needed to make sure that they didn’t leave her behind. You can see that Ainsley has convinced Madie that they only way to do that is for Madie to carry her.  Smart girl.

3.  The kids played in the bell choir today.  They did a great job.  We are taking a short break from bells and that will do all of us some good!  We need a day at home.

4.  Lastly, Ainlsey finally gave Shantell (her church BFF) a best friend necklace. Madie has been into this whole thing for awhile and Ainsley has been begging me to get her one to give to Shantell.  I finally find one at Children’s Place.  Ainsley was so excited to give it to her.  Ainsley told me that Shantell now has a piece of her heart. Too cute.   

Today was Ben’s first grade field day.  Since can’t run and play outside if it is over 85 degrees, I went with him to hang out, make sure he kept cool, and tried to let him participate with as many activities as possible.

Since the day started at 8:30am with an egg hunt, we were able to participate.  It was really overcast and only 77.  But by 9:30, the clouds had left and it was a scorcher.  By that time, Ben got to the egg hunt, spoon relay, hula hoop relay, and dress up relay.  You can tell he had a lot of fun.  He was  a little disappointed by the egg hunt.  Out of 500 eggs, he picked up three eggs that I had stuffed and donated the prizes for.  Go figure!  (Yes, I took home and stuffed over 200 eggs myself.  It was fun and I got to watch an hour of tv that I had recorded. Yeah!) He wasn’t happy.  Of course, he had seen all of these prizes already.  He wanted different.  Oh, well.

We went inside once it got hot and he played the ipad for awhile.  That was a lot of fun.  We got to see both Madie and Ainsley as they went to and fro in school.  They were even a tad jealous of the ipad time.  That’s ok. Ben needed something fun to do.

Once his class got to the bubbles station, I thought, “that should be harmless.  He can just stand and wave the bubble wand.”  That’s what I get for thinking.  Of course, Ben didn’t sit still.  He kept running after the bubbles and popping them.  This is why I can’t trust him to sit and chill out at recess.  All he ever wants to do is run!!  All boy.

I left right before lunch to get back home.  He was worn out by the time we got home, but he somehow found enough energy to play outside in the water!   

Chris was upset when we brought home some cherry tomato plants.  He is tired of me killing things. But I am determined this time.  I have had some success in the past, but my years of failure have yet to outweigh my years of success.  Hopefully, the first fruits of the season will ripen and will be enjoyed by us all.

I say that this was a hot day.  The problem is that I know that it will only get hotter.  This will probably be a scorcher this summer.  Yuck!

I told the kids that we would put the pool out and let them have fun with the water.  First I couldn’t get the hose hooked up to the faucet.  Then I couldn’t find the pool plugs.  And finally, (after finding the plugs and getting the hose hooked up) we couldn’t find the pool.  I don’t have a clue where it is.  Somewhere in the garage.  Possibly in the attic.  It has been months since we pulled it out.

But the kids made the best of it.  They pulled out toys and buckets from the garage and made up relay games.  “There are no winners because there are no prizes,” says Madie. The kids had a great time in the backyard today.  You can tell by their smiles.

“Mommy, come here.  I have a secret to tell you!” says Ainsley.

“Did you know that Daddy is your brother and that God is your father?” whispers Ainsley.

“Yes.”

“So you married your brother!!! Isn’t that cool?!!” declares Ainsley loudly in a public place.

We met for a consultation with our pediatrician for Ainsley’s tummy problem.  Although she still has salmonella, it is not in high enough numbers to cause symptoms.  It is not good that she still has salmonella.  She has had two rounds of antibiotics that should have treated the illness, but it has not.  Plus, she is still having major stomach cramping and other issues.  Not every day, but enough that it causing lifestyle challenges.  We know a lot tummy issues that she doesn’t have (no food allergies, no celiac disease, etc.).  She has been tested for a ton.  The doctor feels like she might have irritable bowel syndrome.  But because it is a diagnosis of exclusions we have a few more diseases to rule out before we can rule IBS in. We are going for a third round of testing for Ainsley next week.  They will test again for Salmonella and other diseases.    The doctor also decided to put her on Bentyl (half hour before meals), a different probiotic, and fiber.  Hopefully these three will help.  So far, the hardest part is getting use to giving her medicine before meals.  I have to really retrain myself.  So now she takes Bentyl half hour before a meal and lactaid before the first bite.  The new routine is hard, but manageable.  I just hate change.

She is going to see the same GI doctor that Ben just saw.  I really liked him, so I am looking forward to having him help Ainsley.   I just want her to not hurt so much.  We are on our way to finding some answers.  And our pediatrician told us that this is something that Ainsley can outgrow.  Yeah!  A short lived illness.  I like that.

Thanks to Grandma Lake for taking this picture.  I think it truly captures Ben’s character.  He is a riot on most days!  His program was adorable and we went to the program again this morning and it was just as cute today.  Ben insisted that his ear point straight up even though they were suppose to be floppy ears.  He added the gloves himself.  He thought the made him look like he has paws.  I think he is right!  They look great.

I love that boy!  He can make anyone smile on the gloomiest days.

Grandma and Papa Lake joined Madie and I last night for the evening program.  Then Aunt Debra, Gordon, Gracie, and Daddy joined us this morning for the morning program.  It was a lot of fun!  The entire first grade was adorable and great.

“Mom. Look I learned to hot tangle,” declares Ben.

“What?”

“You know hot tangle.”  He then proceeds to show me this baby car with a steering wheel that honks, and then takes out these two wires from the broken wheels and flick them together which causes the horn to honk.

Yes. My son “hot wired” a car and was proud.

The other part of this story was that when I told Chris, he beamed with pride.  The sun was dim compared to that smile that radiated off of his face. I think we may be in for a repeat of Christopher.  As a boy he would always take things apart and then “attempted” to put them back together.  I think I am going to need more sleep to prepare me for more episodes like this.

I know that Madie is special.  She is brillant.  In Chris’s words, “She is scary smart.” And of course, with every fiber of her being, she declared to me yesterday that, “I get my smarts from Daddy” (when she’s right, she’s right.) She has so many gifts and talents.  One of her “gifts” (or curse) is that she wants to be so perfect at everything.  She becomes extremely agitated if she is not perfect at everything she tries to do.  (My mother would say that both the agitation and perfectionism unfortunately can be genetically linked to her mother.)  One of her gifts is not athleticism.  And soccer is not her forte . . . yet.  She is really trying though.  Tonight as we are walking to the car she pulls back from the rest of the pack of puddles and asks to speak to me. She wants to know why she is not very good at running especially in soccer. We talk about how every body has gifts on her soccer team and that she may not be the fastest runner but she has other gifts that she brings to the team.  And most importantly . . . you can’t be good at everything.  “Yea. I guess you are right,” says Madie, but not with much conviction.  I don’t think I won her over with that argument.  Soon we were at the car and the time for the rest of this conversation was over.

I wish I could convince her.  We have talked about this before. How she is really great at her school work and always makes straight A’s.  How she is a great big sister to both Ben and Ainsley.  How she has a wonderful understanding of her faith and loves to share with others. How she is a great helper to all adults.  How she is respectful of others. How when she wants something she works really hard until she accomplishes it.  How she is so dependable at home and at school.  How she has such a vivid imagination and is so creative.  She has such a beautiful soul.

So tonight after the littlest puddles had gone to bed, I wanted to talk to her some more.  I wanted to make sure that her self-esteem was intact. That she feels good about herself. We crawled into bed to read some stories.  And as she is crawling up beside me she says, “Mom.  I’ve been meaning to tell you something. When I am 12, you are going to need to drive me to Los Angeles because I am going to try out for this singing contest called . . . I just wanted you to know so that you won’t be surprised when I ask you to take me.”

I was stunned and thrilled at the same time.  I want my daughter at the age of 9 to have hopes and dreams like that. I want her to do everything that she ever wants to do.  I want her to be the first pastor/vet/librarian/singer/emt/teacher/mother that there ever was.  I worry so much about her future.  I worry about how her zeal for perfectionism will affect her self-esteem.  I also worry about other people in this world taking out chunks of her self-esteem one comment at a time.  I thought my job used to be to just protect her fragile soul from the world outside. But now I realize that my job is that and to make sure that I keep building her up so that when those chunks come out we can glue it back together.  So she is ready to face the world again tomorrow.

I think I have done good for today.  She is going to bed ready to deal with the world tomorrow.  The hard part is that I can only really deal with the here and now.  I can’t protect her forever.  I can’t “take out” every person who would do her harm. Having children is hard. Having girls is really hard. What I want to do is send them both to a cloistered convent in rural Canada.  Far from everything bad. But I can’t do that.  So we try every day to be good parents.  To not just teach her right from wrong, but to teach her just how special she is.  Only time will tell if we succeeded in this endeavor.  With prayer and hope . . . I think we will.

“I am going to try kissing him one more time to figure out whether I know him or not,” declares Ainsley.

A new boy came over with our neighbors to play with the kids.  He swears he met Ainsley last year and Ainsley is not so sure. Apparently this is her way of figuring out whether she knows someone or  not?  Oh, boy.