Thursday, March 27, 2008

What time is it, Mr. Fox?




So we use to play this game when I worked in a daycare back in high school with the afore mentioned name, a kind of red light green light but a heckuva lot more fun. One person was the "fox" and the others all lined up down field. They group would ask, "what time is it Mr. Fox?" and the fox would answer "three o'clock, or 7 o'clock, or whatever o'clock"... and then everyone would take that many steps towards the Fox. The goal of the Fox was to get everyone close enough to grab them and the group could control how big or little their steps were depending on how scared of the fox they were. Finally they would ask, "what time is it, Mr. Fox?" and the Fox would scream "MIDNIGHT" and then all the kids would shriek and run back to the starting line. The fox would chase and try to catch someone to be the next fox.

So yesterday was a weird day. Easter had passed, spring had sprung, flowers were blooming, then, snow started falling. Later that evening, we lost power. Now we don't live where it snows buckets and you lose power. Our snow is light, minimal, pretty much uneventful. I'm not even sure the power outage was related to the snow. It was about 9pm and we were sitting in the family room with the three girls when the whole place went pitch black. The 3-year-old froze in her tracks, the almost 2 year old grabbed onto my leg, and the 3 month old in my arms had eyes a big as saucers when hubby lit a candle to shed some light into the room. We lit some more candles and soon it was dim enough to make out other objects and people in the room. It's pretty hard to explain to the little ones what just happened. The almost 2-year-old kept saying "TV broken" and pointed the hapless remote at it repeatedly. We turned on the gas fireplace and read bedtime stories at the table by candlelight. It was quite fun actually. Everyone went to bed early since it was so dark.

Everyone had been sleeping a while when the power eventually came back on. I'm a light sleeper and woke up with a start to the sound of David Letterman's voice coming up loudly from down stairs and the lights in the hall on. I went downstairs to turn everything off and I happened to look at the only battery operated clock and noticed the hands were directly on 12:00am. The funny thing was, when you lose power, the clocks always come back on and blink at 12:00 and count up from there, so usually you can tell how long the power had been out. But since the power came ON exactly at 12:00am, the clocks all were blinking 12:00am and continued to tell the right time. When one of the girls woke us up a few hours later hubby noticed his cell said 2:44 and the blinking clock said 2:44 too. I explained the power went back on precisely at 12:00am. He thought that was pretty cool. Now what are the odds of that??!! I felt like saying, What time is it, Mr. Fox?" Then saying "MIDNIGHT", then screaming aahrrhhrhhhh!!!! It's like one minute off either way and it wouldn't of worked. I just thought it was pretty cool to be so exact like that. Plus all those technologically impared people that have trouble setting their digital clocks would for once be perplexed, confused, and relieved all at the same time.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Snail Nail

 So today's a special day... ok not so much "special" as it is an anniversary of sorts. Now if you ask my hubby he'll tell you it's the one year anniversary of us buying a plasma TV. But in actuality, there is another, more horrendous anniversary. One not for the squeamish. Ok brace yourself but this is the one year anniversary of me ripping off my big toe nail. Ouch, right? You ain't jokin. 

It started as a regular day. I was in the middle of my many domestic goddess duties when it happened. I had both kids napping (back when there was only two of them) and the littlest one sleeping in my room. I started a load of baby laundry and remembered I had a few extra stained things soaking in my bathroom sink. My thought was to run in there, grab them still wet, run them to the already running laundry and wash them together. Well I grabbed them just fine, dashed across the bathroom tiles and in mere seconds had slipped on the wet floor and rammed my foot under the 1 inch opening under the bathroom door. Remembering the sleeping baby I bit my tongue to keep from screaming in pain. I was actually writhing and crawling around on the floor thinking I had just broke my big toe. 

After a few minutes of sheer pain I finally sat down to look at my injury. Much to my surprise there was blood everywhere and upon closer examination, my big toe nail was popped up like a car hood (still hinged in the back). UGH! (Shudder) Now What?? What followed at first was a few painful days of hobbling around not even able to wear shoes. After a while I could cover it with some groovy Jesus band aids (donated by a friend and heck I thought it would speed up the healing process) but still no shoes. After that all I could wear for a while was sandals, even though it was early spring and still a bit cold around here.

So how long does it take an adult toe nail to grow back? Slower than you think. My friend's son ripped off his toe nail and I guess it only took a few months to grow back in... for me it took a couple of months for it even to fall off. All summer I had, what I referred to as, a "freak toe" where all the toes had polish on them but one, which didn't even have a nail. Sometimes I considered painting the skin with the polish just so they'd blend in but always decided against that at the last minute. Sure, I was freakish, but not desperate. To make a long story short it is just NOW that I have a full grown toe nail. That's right, it took one whole YEAR to grow back. Now that's some snail nail. In sort of a victory celebration and a simultaneous nod to my Irish heritage I have opted to paint them green for St. Patrick's day. Hey I'm just thankful to have options. Here's to cute toes this summer though...

Monday, March 03, 2008

The best $2.79 I ever spent

 In an age of battery operated EVERYTHING I am a big fan of classic toys. Things that spark imagination and spurn creative play. Before my first child was born I had a gift certificate to babysrus and one of the things I bought was this terrific stack 'um buckets. Who knew then they would be the greatest toy ever to grace the face of the earth? Out of all the toys we have, this one is the most toted around, most knocked down, most played with. Matter of fact the more I think about it they're almost like the "baking soda" of all childhood playthings see here:

So what's up with baking soda?

It's uses have become somewhat endless. Let me name a few:


You can stack them
You can nest them together
You can knock them down
You can hide things underneath them
You can use them in the bath (they have holes in the bottom)
You can put snacks in them
You can use them to count (they are numbered too)
You can make a pyramid
You can use them in a sand box
You can make them hats for small toys and animals
You can put a toy between two of them and make a maraca
You can beat them with a mallet and they become drums

It seems age has no limit to these buckets either. At 6-8 months we would stack them up and they would crawl towards them and knock them down. They would laugh hilariously if we perched them on our or their heads. Some of the more creative uses we've found are, well my children for one particularly like the fabulously LOUD sound they make when you throw them against a hardwood floor. Also they like to "bounce" them down the steps of the stairs in a mad slinky-type experiment gone awry. All this people AND they are dishwasher safe! Could there BE a more perfect toy?! So next time you're shopping for a new baby, or toddler, don't be tempted with that tacky tickle me Elmo, or a modern battery operated rattle... Go get yourself the amazing Stack 'um buckets. You'll be GLAD you did.
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