Fear, Anyone?

We have fears aplenty around here. I would be more than happy to give some away.

The 1 year old fears: being away from Mommy (and she only exhibits this when she's tired), dogs that approach her (but they're ok, if it's her idea), missing out on anything.

The 5 year old fears: nothing, nothing, and nothing (is that just Rex?).

The older girl fears: their deepest, darkest, innermost secrets revealed; their parents being nerds or worse, dorks.

Then there are the 7 year old fears: thunder, lightning, the dark, stangers, bad men with guns, the house being unlocked, tornados, Sunday School, his teacher, his mom, his dad, getting down from trees, rain that could potentially turn into tornados, wind, mysterious letters, being made fun of, being laughed at, tornados, moonless nights, nights with full moons, vampires, rattlesnakes, tornados. I detect a pattern here.

You name it we've seen it. And we've seen it. And we've seen it.

And then there are those terrible mother fears. You know them, moms. When your son comes to you with carpet burn on his belly because he and his brother have been dragging each other across the living room in fits of giggles, and you just know that his intestines are going to uncoil out of his belly and he'll bleed out in the middle of the kitchen floor before you can even dial 911. You laugh, but I know you know what I'm talking about. It's like when you become a mother you suddenly have the most creative imagination on the planet. It's the imagination you always wished you had when you were playing pretend with your childhood chums. They do say to be careful what you wish for.

But never fear! The rescue squad is here:

And it's even posed strikingly, like a cowboy hero or a white knight or ... or a swimsuit model or something. JSYK, I snapped this pic 3 times, and every time, she threw up her arm. Now that I think about it, she must still be doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider (while trying to maintain her precarious balance, like Godzilla atop a tank). It might be time for a new song.

Future Models?

Ok, so I've decided to do something completely out of character. I want to enter my kids' photos in a contest. I know, totally out of character, but fun. I've spent my afternoon snapping pics of Rex and Sariah (the contest is only for kids up thru age 6). I had planned to feature Hannah in my post today, because she hasn't been in for awhile, but she hasn't been in for awhile because she won't allow herself to be photographed.

The contest rules say: "JUDGING: Visitors to the Contest website will be invited to make one recommendation per day during the Contest period for the entry the visitor feels should be featured on the cover of Parents magazine. Visitor recommendations will not be used as criteria in the judging of entries in any round. There will be three rounds of judging. In the first round, on or about July 1, 2008, twenty (20) semi-finalist entries will be selected from among all eligible entries by qualified judges appointed by Sponsor based on overall appearance of the child as shown in the photo(s) (34%), personality of child as expressed through the photo(s) (33%) and quality of photo(s) (33%)."

So, based on that, what photo of Rex, the King of Character, should I use? Your votes in the comments section, please! I took about 20 photos in 5 minutes and they were all cute, because as always, he just reeks of personality.

#1:
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I took even more pictures of Sariah, who also has tons of personality, but she was too busy trying to micro-manage my picture taking to really get any effective pictures (like I said, technology control issues, have I mentioned Sariah and my phone lately? I have to hide it from her). Plus, she was quite disturbed by the feel of that prickly grass on her little tush and legs and feet. But we did manage to catch this one "Out came the sun" picture that I just love.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Are you ready to sing the Itsy Bisty Spider? Please forgive my mommy's pictures. She was trying really hard to do the movements and take pictures at the same time. It probably wasn't a very bright idea.



The Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the water spout. See my spider crawling up my arm?



Down came the rain and washed the spider out. I usually just throw my arms all over the place for this part because it's so much fun!



Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. Mommy always laughs at this point. She says I look like I'm losing my mind or something, but you have to move with the music or it's just not the same.



And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again. Mommy wanted me to do the spider again, but she didn't consult with me about this first. What I really wanted to do was take pictures of Mommy doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She wouldn't let me, though. I wonder why. Oh well, I'll just pose really pretty because everybody loves me.



Maybe Mommy will figure out how to take a video clip with the camera next time. Or maybe I'll figure it out and show her how.

Slave Driver, Part 1 (Because you know we'll make it to at least Part 500)

Yes, it was another dreadful day. I made the children get up by 8:30. Early, I know. Then they had to do terrible and unnecessary chores like showering and brushing their teeth. And then when they could stand no more, I made them walk all the way to the nearest elementary school for a free lunch. I've measured--it's less than a mile! Oh, there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why didn't I just ask Caleb to cut off his left leg? That surely would have been easier than using our legs, heaven forbid. But on the way, Elisabeth discovered huge fish in a drainage ditch (what do they do when the ditch dries up anyway? seriously, it was like 4 inches of water), and Hannah identified a dead mole (ick!!!!), and Rex observed, "Look, Mom, look! It's a dead water bottle!" Yep, we had us a fine, fine nature walk today. And then we came home--yes, we trudged all the way back, even past the dead water bottle--and got the Slip-n-Slide out. Who knew that it could be so much fun? For 5 minutes. Then I was called upon to negotiate world peace. No Nobel Prizes for me in the near future, by the way. Still working on the pics of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Daddy got to see part of it tonight via webcam, but Sariah was much more interested in playing with the mouse. I still haven't fixed my email from her last hands-on technology exploratory activity. That girl has some serious technology control issues (first the camera, now the computer, what next, do I really want to know?).