A day in the life of Stinky

With all the swimming we’ve been doing this summer, we have had a lot of tangles and tears when it comes time to comb out Stinky’s hair. She has never had an official haircut, only her bangs. Since Poo-Poo owns her own hair salon, we just take Stinky by there whenever she needs a bang trim. I’ve been reluctant to cut the back of her hair because I was afraid of losing those precious curls. These past few weeks of fighting with Campbell has made me change my mind. So, on Wednesday after school, we had a real appointment with Poo-Poo.

Stinky doing her infamous crossed eyes routine:

Final result:

A few funny stories: Stinky has been taking swimming lessons at the Y all summer. During the lessons, I watch through the glass surrounding the huge pool. This last 4-week session, she had different teachers. At the end of the session, they fill out paperwork marking her progress.  I could see her teachers asking her something before the last lesson. This struck me as a little unusual, because normally there is a lot more swimming going on than talking. She was answering them and I could read their lips saying “What?” and leaning close to try to understand her. I know other people have a hard time understanding most of what she says, especially when she tells people her name, which comes out sounding like “Tay-bo”. I figured they were asking her name so they could fill out the paperwork, and with 10 kids in the class, I’m not surprised they didn’t know everyone’s name. It seems like there is a lot of coming and going in that class. So they asked her name several times, and I could see the two teachers looking at each other and shrugging their shoulders, so I knew they had no clue what Campbell was saying. Then they asked the girl sitting next to Campbell what Campbell’s name was. This other girl can speak clearly, but she sometimes called Campbell “Kendall” because I guess there used to be a girl in the class named Kendall. I wasn’t sure which name she had given. Then another of Campbell’s little girlfriends arrived and they asked her what Campbell’s name was. I guess she confirmed that yes, it was indeed Campbell. So with independent confirmation from 2 other 3-yr-olds, her paperwork was filled out with the right name. The whole thing was so funny to watch through the glass.

We got our paperwork last week for Campbell’s next school year. I don’t know anything about her new teachers except that one of them is severely allergic to bananas (What? never heard of a banana allergy), and a kid in her class in severely allergic to any nuts, so her classroom next year is going to be banana nut free. She normally doesn’t stay for lunch, but I’m hoping on the rare occasions she does, I can remember not to kill anyone in her class. I’ve been telling her that soon she will going to a different class with new teachers. She doesn’t seem fazed by it, but I am very sad to be leaving Miss Nadine and Miss Cheri. I think it will be hard to top those two. They are best friends and have been teaching together for 8 years, so they make a great team. They don’t even have to talk to each other anymore, they can pretty much read each other’s minds. They are also the only 2 people besides myself who can understand most of what Campbell says. I am going to try not to cry on the last day of summer session, but I don’t think I’ll be successful, which will probably give Campbell unnecessary anxiety about her new class.

One of our pool rules is when you’re wrinkly, it’s time to get out. The other day, Campbell got one of her little magazines Grannie Annie gets for her, and the centerfold this month was a sharpei puppy. I showed it to Campbell and said “Look at that puppy – he’s all wrinkly!” She said “Has he been in the pool?” A few weeks ago Aunt Nichole taught Campbell to say “Luke – I am your father”, and that has since evolved into a bedtime game where she holds her bottom lip down with her finger and tries to say it that way. Then she holds my bottom lip down while I try to say it. Then we both giggle and giggle and giggle. The other night, I went to check on her around 10PM just before I went to bed. She woke up when I was kissing her. We said good night and I love you to each other, then just before I closed the door to her room, I hear from her dark bed “Luke – I am your father” in a lip-pulled-down accent. That stinker is either going to be an accountant or a stand-up comedian, I can’t decide which.

Campbell woke up Sunday morning with a fever and an endless river of green snot. Last night, I started to feel a little icky, and woke up this morning with a golf ball in my throat and a fever. I had an appointment for a dental cleaning this morning, which I kept, since it normally takes months to get back in, and I was already a few months overdue. Poor hygenist…I wonder how many people do that to her? I hope the mask and gloves and routine hand washing are enough to protect her. I wonder if she could see the golf ball in my throat as she was torturing cleaning my teeth. I was supposed to host a get-together for the mommies tonight at my house to help rid us of all this wine we have leftover from our party weekend 2 weekends ago, but I had to cancel that. Nothing worse than a mob of mothers coming after you with flaming torches and pitchforks because you gave them and their kids cooties! We are also supposed to have a pool playdate on Thursday with the mommies and kiddies…..we’ll see if we’re on the mend by then. I don’t think Campbell will be going to school again tomorrow since she still had a small fever tonight. She actually asked me to take her temperature rectally……should I be disturbed by that? Tomorrow is her snack day at school, and I totally forgot our last snack day, so I guess I’ll be making a special trip down there to deliver our snacks with tongs at arms’ length and Campbell locked in the car (I can see the door from the parking lot). She also has tons of green eye boogies, so I can’t even sneak her in to school (not that I would do such a thing).

Campbell has been such an angel since we got back from vacation. Chuck says she knows she used up all the punches on her bad card for the year that week we were gone. She has been great at listening, helping, and doing as I ask. I can’t believe I’m writing this, because that means I’ll now wake up to a devil child tomorrow morning.  I promised last time to post pics of all the recent exterior improvements. Unfortunately, I don’t have a before shot. But if you’ve been here, you know……you know. Here is the after:

We’ll see how the lawn looks in a few weeks when our watering variance expires. I have to go now because the fever is making me delirious. Until next time!

I’m not sure where to start….I have lots of little things to talk about. I guess I’ll start with our family reunion in Litchfield Beach, SC a few weeks ago, site of the infamous naked kiteflying adventure. My mom’s family gets together for these reunions every 5 years, and I’ve missed the last 2, so I hadn’t seen a few people in a long time! We stayed in 2 houses: old folks in one, those of us with little kids in another. It was a bit like living in a daycare for a week. Constant chaos – which Campbell loved! She had a grand time playing with all her cousins and disobeying her parents for 6 days straight. Mommy and Daddy drank copious amounts of beer and wine and lounged around all week. We also made it into Charleston for a morning when we sensed Campbell was getting sick of the beach. The naked kite flying incident was at the end of a day that began with stripping on the beach. I guess she just wanted to mix things up that day. She took her bathing suit off that morning and I had to chase her naked butt all over the beach to get her back into the house. Then, that evening, all the kids were given kites and told to hit the beach. Chuck helped launch hers and she flew it fully clothed for awhile. Then she started putting seaweed on the handle:

Then she pulled off her shorts and we decided people might not understand a bottomless child, but they would be OK with a naked child.

Then, of course, she saw what a hit she was and started hamming it up:

We came home from vacation a day early so Chuck could go to his Saturday morning guitar class. We were so exhausted the next day, we both completely forgot about the lesson. I’m glad to see the momnesia doesn’t discriminate when it comes to parents.

When Campbell was born, one of my goals as a mommy was to go as long as possible before Campbell learned the word “McDonald’s”. Oh sure, mommy stops there sometimes, and Campbell has eaten there plenty of times, but I never played it up, or even talked about it beyond “Do you want chicken nuggets or a cheeseburger?” A few months ago, she did learn the word “Wendy’s” because we go there more often and she lives for those little mandarin oranges. One day last week, I told her we were going out to eat, but I couldn’t decide where I wanted to go. We were driving through a fast food corridor and she saw McDonald’s and pointed and said “that one!”. I told her that was McDonald’s, just for the purpose of good communication skills, which I sorely lack. She said “Mickey Donald’s, yes!”. It was so cute the way she said it, I wish we could go there every day just so I can hear her say it.

We had two parties last weekend. The first was a 5th of July 4th of July party. Yes, that’s right. We invited everyone under the sun to show off all the hard work Chuck has done on the exterior of the house these last few months. Crap, I just remembered I wanted to include a picture of said improvements, but have not taken any pics yet and now it’s dark. Stay tuned for pics. Anyway, a bunch of friends and neighbors came over for a swim and a meal and just a few drinks. Campbell was in the pool for about 3 hours straight. Finally, one of Chuck’s young, single co-workers brought me a dripping Campbell and said “She needs to get out of the pool. She’s swallowing too much water.”

The next day, we had another party for my mommies group. We have a monthly Family Fun Day and this month was our turn to host. We had a big crowd and Campbell was in hog heaven swimming with all those kids 2 days in a row. We got hit by 2 different thunderstorms, so at one point there were about 20 kids in Campbell’s room going hog wild (is that even a phrase anymore?). People brought so much food and wine to each party that we’re going to explode like that Monty Python guy. One of my mommy friends, Linda, who is the official photographer for the group, snapped this shot (which is nice because Campbell and I rarely have our pic taken together)

If you ever want to see what your house would look like overrun with kids, enjoy this slide show of the event, also made by Linda:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=653ae79386dc0035f694ec&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

The next day, Campbell went to All Children’s to have ear tubes put in both ears. She has had chronic fluid in her ears since at least January, if not before. She doesn’t have problems with infections, but her speech is not where it should be, so we’re hoping this will help move things along. The procedure was incredibly fast. It took about 5 times as long to do all the paperwork and vital signs as it did for the surgery itself. I was shown to a waiting room and was contemplating asking where the restroom was or reading a magazine. Before I could decide, the doctor was back saying he was done. It was seriously 10 minutes. Campbell did great, which I credit to the prep work we did. One of my mommy friends is a child life therapist at All Children’s and she encouraged us to do some role playing ahead of time. She also advised me what not to say. Dr. J let me borrow an anesthesia mask from the clinic where I used to work and we played doctor several times on Sunday. The nurses there totally know what they are doing and our goodbye was a little rushed. A quick kiss from me, a quick kiss from her, then they were wheeling the bed away. I didn’t look back, and Campbell did great. She woke up nice and calm, scarfed down a popsicle and some crackers then we were out of there! We had a nice snuggly afternoon, and then she was back to her usual self today. Our biggest scare came when we got home from the hospital and I accidentally gave her 1 tablespoon of Motrin instead of 1 teaspoon. Her doc’s office was closed for lunch (of course!), so I called poison control. They said that was nowhere near a toxic dose and just watch out for an upset tummy. I never heard a word from Campbell about that. Have you ever called poison control? Those people are great! The lady was fast, efficient, friendly, and comforting.

That’s all the momnesia is permitting me to remember now. I’m sure I’ll wake up at 3AM with something to add, go back to sleep, and promptly forget what it was in the morning.

Just got back from “vacation”. Too tired to get into detail now, but here’s a teaser photo until I have the energy for a real post:

Last Friday and Saturday, Chuck and I laid sod in the entire front yard. Somehow Chuck still found the strength to go on a Father’s Day walk with Stinky Sunday morning. He told her to go get her shorts and shoes on, and this is what she came out in:

No, we did not have a late spring cold front come through. It was around 90 degrees when this pic was taken. I’m not quite sure why she felt the need for a ski hat but didn’t see the need for a shirt. We have been having nap issues lately. The main issue is she doesn’t take one. She is normally pretty good about staying quietly in her room; she just doesn’t fall asleep 75% of the time. I guess this is the beginning of the end of our precious naptime. Normally during naptime, because of various dog requirements that are way too complicated and annoying to get into here, I have to stay locked up in my room with the door closed so Stinky’s nap is not disturbed. Yesterday, I heard her come out of her room and come into the living room. The doors are all safely locked with a latch she cannot reach, and everything in the living room is Stinky-proof, so I just stayed in my room and ignored her because I was curious what she would do out in the living room. She didn’t call my name, she just walked around for a few minutes. After about 10 minutes, it was very quiet, so I peeked out to see what was up. This is what was up (or down):

And this is what was up 2 hours later:

Stinky has her first ballet lesson this afternoon, so look for new pics tomorrow! Chuck is still busy painting the house and putting the finishing touches on the front yard. I am busy trying to keep my sanity with a newly stubborn independent child who has discovered her mind is her own. Thank God for cousins because that is who she will be spending most of her time with next week!

Welcome to Campbell’s new home on wordpress. I haven’t updated the blog since January because trying to insert photos in between text was a huge PITA on blogger. I’m sure it was mostly user error, but we’ll try this one anyway. Mommy needs a little excitement in her life. In addition to the photos I insert in the posts, you can also check out my photostream on Flickr. Now, let’s see……what have we been up to?

Last month, we went to the Airfest at McDill AFB. We had a grand time (at first). We walked through the huge cargo plane, sat in a Coast Guard helicopter and basket, and strolled under the big planes.

It was all fun and games until they brought the fighter jets out. They were extremely loud, an even with the yellow foam earplugs someone had given us earlier, Campbell was still terrified and screaming bloody murder. We immediately headed to the car, but it was still a 10-min walk away. Poor Campbell was screaming “Run! Run!”. I’m pretty sure she’ll need therapy later on in life. The air show was over a month ago, and still every time an airplane goes over our heads (which happens a lot here in Tampa Bay), she puts her finger in her ears and asks me “Is that going to be a loud airplane?”.

Earlier this week, we hit the zoo for the first time in a long time. Stinky rode a carousel for the first time. She loved it and was ticked when it was over after 2 minutes and did not understand why we could not ride again. I guess $2 is chump change to her.

Later, we went to a part of the zoo I’d never been to before and found a stingray touch tank. You could buy food to feed them, but we didn’t see the need for that since they were so used to looking for food they were not shy at all. Campbell touched many rays and got splashed by a big daddy ray that was three times size of the rest of them.

Daddy has been very busy with exterior home improvement. Next weekend you’ll find us laying down sod in the front yard. Daddy is also in the midst of painting the exterior, which is difficult between work and thunderstorms. But he is in the homestretch and we are all going on vacation to Myrtle Beach in a few weeks for a family reunion. I’m hoping we’ll all have a relaxing time. Campbell will get to meet lots of new cousins.

Campbell has been taking swim lessons at the Y for the last month and has made great strides! We start our second session this week. Next week, she starts a ballet class, so be on the lookout for tutu pics. Until next time! (which hopefully won’t be as long as this time).