Little by little

Small slept last night! He's been so incredibly itchy, up scratching, crying, rubbing, getting more Zyrtec, more bandages. The poor kid. His poor parents! We are not at a good age to deal with sleep deprivation, there is a reason why it's a form of torture.

We had many days of hot, humid weather and rain. This picture was taken at our annual block party, which the kids loved almost because of the rain and the parents tolerated on front porches despite the rain. Small refuses to wear shorts, even on 90 degree days. The backs of his knees are in such a bad state, he wants them covered so it's not so easy to itch. And I imagine it feels better to have a covering than to have wounds exposed. So, I tried shopping for light weight pants like these seersucker ones. No luck. Shorts and jeans, fall stuff is coming into the stores. I ended up spending $20 on a pattern and fabric to make him four pairs of cute pants in lightweight cotton.

It would be great of Small's face could clear up for the big dance recital this weekend, but I'm not sure it will. All the harmless looking bumps on his arms have turned red and angry. His costume is now leggings and a t-shirt. All the girls will be in white tank leotards and he'll be in black. Very cute little kitties, if we can get the ears to stay on.

In anticipation of Grandma coming, we used the excuse to get the kids to clear out toys from the sun room and a little bit from their rooms. Three huge garbage bags of toys were donated to Goodwill yesterday. This airplane was donated to the top of Aphrodite's cage. She loves the thing, plays with it's wings using her beak to move it and enjoys sitting on it. She's also discovered the guinea pig upstairs and is trying to befriend her. For the first month, she confined herself to the living room. Now she regularly heads upstairs. We have to remember to turn off the ceiling fans in the morning. Yesterday she spent most of the morning with the kids in the sun room and tried to get the rabbits to notice her while they were on their exercise jaunt. The rabbits were far more interested in the crumbs around the dining room table to notice.

Aphrodite has taken her time to warm up to us, but will not occasionally willingly get on our fingers or heads. I think she was probably abused in her former home, she's a little skittish. Lovebirds can be fairly aggressive with other birds and there was an indication that she had pecked out some other birds. She likes being in the thick of things with us. I'm hoping she'll teach Small a thing or two about sleep. We cover her cage and she's almost completely quiet for 12 hours or so. We do hear her sometimes when Small is up and crying, maybe it's a comforting chirp or two.

Car Talk

So, all five of us are in the same vehicle last night, having dropped off the larger vehicle for some maintenance. The air conditioning is not working, despite having been recharged a few short weeks ago. And although the dishwasher is also broken - it won't open and has clean dishes inside - the a/c is more of an emergency.

I'm not very good at relating car conversations to Mark after the fact. They never turn out to be quite so funny or awe inspiring. But, I try. I was trying to relate a conversation about slugs and Medium's dissertation about it's male and female organs. One thing led to another on this short trip and this is what came from the back seat:

Medium: "Daddy, have you ever met a eunuch?"
Large: "Daddy, have you ever met a hermaphrodite?"
Small: "Daddy, have you ever met a dentist?"

Sometimes, there is just no response to these kinds of questions.

Ack!

This picture reminds me of a series of really bad jokes we made in the tent on our camping trip. We were waiting out a rain shower and came up with a lot of jokes based on the Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant, which were abundant at the state park.

What do you call it when the preacher doesn't show up?
Lack-in-the-pulpit.

What's a charcoal in a church?
Black-in-the-pulpit.

What do you call a minister who talks to much?
Yack-in-the-pulpit.

What do you call it when a mosquito lands on the preacher's arm?
Smack-in-the-pulpit.

A preacher with a cough?
Hack-in-the-pulpit.

You get the idea. During the stormy day, Small, started scratching like crazy. Humidity never helps him, always makes him worse. We've had several hot, humid days in a row now, starting right after our doctor's visit. Two nights of little sleep for Mark and I. Soothing Small, restraining him, re-wrapping him, administering more Zyrtec. I just checked the 10 day weather forecast and am completely depressed about our immediate future. Chance of strong storms every day for the next 10 days.

Paradise

First off, I am changing the kids' names for the blog to Small, Medium and Large. The nicknames, while real, seem a bit forced as the children get older and we use them rarely now.

I always look forward to camping wistfully, and look back on it the same way. I keep the memories of the bad stuff - the horrible loading of the car, fighting kids in the car, the torrential rain, the cold, etc. - in the back while all the good stuff stays front and center. My memory is kind to me sometimes.


Here is the view from our campsite. We didn't get our favorite site this year - some interloper was in there. We've had that site for three years running, so it felt like ours. This site was good, too. Private, although it hardly mattered as there was no one else crazy enough to be camping in such conditions and all the other families had to go back to school after Memorial Day. Our first day was warm and damp, but a cold front came through that night with a howling wind that changed everything. By cold front I mean 40 degrees, the kind where if you leave an arm out of the sleeping blanket to, say, snuggle with your four and a half year old to keep him warm, it goes beyond goose bumps. We survived it pretty happily, though my motherly brain had worries about Popsicle children.


We also had some glorious sunshine, although the temperature never reached 68 degrees, the magical beach opening number. We played out on the dock, went for a great bike ride, enjoyed our sunshine and relative warmth. We hiked even when it was cold and explored the untended woods. So much honeysuckle and buck thorn, very few good plants for Mark to marvel at. Much, much poison ivy. With all the rain, everything was lush and green.


It got cold again that night too, so we slept with our pjs under our clothes. Small (Little Man)thought that was hilarious and kept showing us his pjs under his clothes, except when I wanted to take a picture. We had a happy, magical time out there in the wilderness.

We roasted marshmallows before the sun went down on the coldest night so that we could be warm in the tent before the darkness hit. The last day it rained and we went to the great Discovery Museum in Rockford, where we got in on a discount with our Museum of Science and Industry membership. We spent a good part of the day there, came back to camp and had a soggy, standing dinner in the bug screen over the picnic table. Everyone was good natured about the rain, convinced it would blow over and we'd be find the next day. ("Is it still a glorious day, Mommy?")

I'm sure staying the the tent was not the best idea, but our options were limited. Spending a whole night in the bathroom did not seem feasible, especially as most of the kids were sleeping. Medium (Little Missy) has a real fear of storms and was not asleep, but everyone else managed to snore a bit. What started as just a whole lot of wet rain and instructions to keep things off the tent floor where it seeps in, turned into wave after wave of torrential rain with thunder and lightening. We had another one of those storms here last night, it felt much different in the tent.

To call packing up for our departure a challenge is an understatement. I got out of bed during a break in the pouring rain and hopefully put three logs in the fire grate to cheer us up. One of our great improvements this camping trip was the purchase of a cast iron dutch oven at Costco (I kept calling it the best $24 I had spent in a while). We had biscuits every morning but the last and cornbread one night. Fabulous! I thought some hot biscuits would get everyone going happily and we'd be whistling while we worked. The break in the rain didn't last as long as it took me to brush my teeth, but the little fire sputtered on. We ended up feeding the kids crackers and fruit crisps while we loaded the car.

We left Paradise and came home immediately to this: the big, big Pet Parade in La Grange. That, my friends, is an alpaca. There were two in the parade, they didn't look so happy to be there and I'm wondering who got their fleece. Very exciting. Probably the most exciting thing there for this parade grump, it's my least favorite event of the year. The alpacas and the Jesse White Tumblers made it worthwhile for me.

I'm already planning our next camping trip of the summer. Makes me happy.

Yes, We Can

It's so exciting! Difficult days are ahead, fighting bigotry throughout the country. I'm hoping for a better future for my children. You are too.