Classic

It was one of those classic toddler moments.

As dinner was winding down tonight, my little one scampered off to play in the family room while the rest of us finished up. A few minutes later she came back to me with her finger up her nose saying, "Something's in my nose."

"So blow it out!" I said with my usual motherly compassion.

"I can't!" tears are starting now. "Wah!!!!!"

So I hoisted her up on my lap, laid her down so I could get a good look up her nose. Oh, no. There is something shiny up there. Way up there.

I had to hold her arms as she commenced to cry harder, so she wouldn't push it up even farther. Joe headed off to find a flashlight and tweezers. I decided the middle of the kitchen floor might be more conducive for the operation. As I'm manuevered Marie on my lap she was screaming,

"No poking! Nooooo pooooking!!!!!" because she saw the tweezers and remembered the last time they came out ( it involved pus and poking ).

So there we are; me on the floor spread legged, with Marie on her back between my legs, with her arms pinned under my legs. I am holding her head with both hands. Richard lays on top of her legs to keep her from kicking Joe. Rose holds the flashlight. Joe picks. And picks.

We are all traumatized because the baby is being traumatized. Her blood curdling screams are bringing tears to our eyes, but we know the alternative to this procedure is a trip to the emergency room.

Joe has to bend the tweezers to get a grip on the thing. After what seems like ten minutes, but was probably only two, he gets it right to the edge of her nostril.

"Blow! Blow! Like a rocket!" I say.

Out it comes. A bead. A shiny, multifaceted orange plastic bead. You know, the kind that look like jewels. I hold my baby to my chest as she cries out her trauma. I empathize and assure her that "It's all over now." Whew!

To understand the thought processes of a toddler would be an amazing thing. Why did she put the darn thing up there? I asked her. She didn't know. "Did you just want to see what would happen?" I querried. She nodded and cried some more.

Classic toddler moment. Sigh.

My floor

I am a floor person. You wouldn't know it by looking at my house, but I am most content when my floors are picked up and clean. The more stuff on the floor, the more discombobulated I get.

I've been vowing to blog about my floor for some time. To give you a glimpse into my mental well (not!) being, here is a brief tour of our floors. I'll start in the kitchen, go round the school/office area, into the family room, the foyer and then to the music room. Here goes:

sippy cups, rubber bands, wrappers, apple slices, lettuce, pens, flashlight, paper clips, construction paper, flight simulator game box, dress-up hat, cd case, chalk, puzzle pieces, duplos, doll, old baby toy, beads, slippers, sweatshirt, tricycle, clothes, hamper, books, string, shoes, cardboard box, 1 playing card, stuffed animal, hair clip, child's bike helmet, empty halloween candy box.....

....and those are just the public areas of my house. I decided not to even look in my room.

One would think that, being a floor person, I would spend time each day picking up the miscellaneaous stuff left on the floor. But no, I usually wait until I am about to lose it completely, then I madly dash around the house muttering to myself as I pick up. Most of my family has learned to stay quiet and out of my way in these moments. Marie just follows me around undoing any good I've done.

Who leaves this mess on the floor? Gee...who could it be.....? let's see.....I think I'll use my messometer to scientifically display the culprits:

Marie 3 yrs old 75%
Rose 8 yrs old 15%
Richard 11 yrs old 9%
Joe unknown yrs old 1%

Needless to say, I do not leave things on the floor.

BTW - the list of objects has changed as I've been writing. I need to add: pillow, balloon, ballet bag......

It never ends.

Paulite, Paulian, Paulbot...whatever

My husband thinks my sense of humor is a bit too subtle. My sarcasm doesn't quite come through. He can't tell when I'm joking or serious in my blog; which will make him very worried when he reads this one:

I confess. I have a huge crush on a 72 year old republican man. I suppose I haven't even tried to resist falling in adoration with the most right on, humble, smart, straight talking, honest, hard working white haired guy I've ever (almost) met. I stood about 3 feet away from him once.

My day wouldn't be comlete without checking http://dailypaul.com/ to get the latest scuttlebut on the campaign. Aside from watching YouTube clips of Dr. Paul making lots of sense, I really enjoy the way regular folks are coming up with creative ideas for the campaign. This one earned over $4 mil for Dr. No in one day! http://www.thisnovember5th.com/ - very cool.

It is wierd. The media laughs at Ron Paul to his face. But now that he is raised bookoo dolores they are starting to pay attention. Hey, at least he is getting his message out there more and more. But sadly, the first set of TV ads created by the campaign were embarrassingly unprofessional. Cringe.

The truth is that the strength of this campaign is Dr. Paul's steadfastness and eloquence and the support of "the people" or "il popolo" (say that 10 times fast!) The national campaign itself is not much to speak of. Hopefully they won't do too much damage.

Anyhoo - it looks like my guy is in the campaign until the first primaries. Then it will probably be brutal. But, till then, I'm going to enjoy it all I can.

Liberty!

Bragging

I am coming to realize how deeply satisfying bragging about one's offspring can be. Oh, never mind that it is annoying and slightly rude - it's FUN!

OK. OK. Guess who won the GOLD MEDAL in his age group at the Regional Youth Curcuit Fencing Tournament in San Francisco (which, I might add has fencers from Sonoma to Fresno to Sacto)? Who beat the #1 ranked fencer in the nation to take the gold? Who could it be you ask?

MY SON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooo!

He got a medal, a trophy and a cool sword (which is neat for him, but concerning for me as he likes to play with it). Sigh......

It is nice to think that I somehow, someway play a little part in it all. Though I couldn't tell a flunge from a riposte.....well, he got my genes - and that's something! I carried, birthed and raised him. That gives me the right to take credit for his achievements - right?

Hopefully, getting this bragging out of my system will keep me from annoying all of my friends and acquaintances (those I haven't already bored with the story).

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! (me jumping up and down)

BTW: Ron Paul raised over $3.5 million today! yeah!

Halloween

It's not my favorite holiday. And I bet when my kids are out of the house, I'll turn all the lights off and hide upstairs. I'm just not into the glorification of death, dead people and the macabre in general. What I DO like is kids (and adults) getting to dress up as something/one totally different.

Since I have three kids who have been looking forward to Halloween for about.... a year, I had to do the trick or treat thing again this year. My daughter Rose had the best costume: Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Marie came in 2nd with a dragon costume. My son Richard was true to character. He created his costume exactly one hour before we went out. He was........a letter. It was sort of lame, but sort of funny. He may be getting too old for costumes altogether. We'll see what happens next year.

In our town, Halloween is a big deal. There are several houses that do major decorations, dress ups and ...well....mixed drinks. Some of the more noteworthy stops include: The Witches House, The Margarita House and The Pirate House. Hundreds (possibly thousands!) of people swarm throught the streets of central Montara. About every fifth house offers beer, shots of tequila or some other alcoholic beverage. So, you can imagine, it is quite a night out for the parents as well as the kiddies. One guy even took pics of everyone who came by his place to plug his business:

http://montarafog.smugmug.com/gallery/3753739/1/215920241#215934680

I did not partake in the adult goodies this year as I had plans to be functional the next day. My kids managed to bag about 3 pounds of candy in about 2 hours. They had a blast. And my son even stayed with us! What a guy. Poor Marie was always toddling along behind everyone else and Joe and I were yelling, "Wait! Wait!" to the big kids. But we managed to stay together.

Now comes the hard part. The candy. Yuck. I can't STAND all that crappy candy in the house. And the kids asking for it before and after every meal. More candy now? huh? huh?

I laid down the law this morning. "Go through your candy, pick out your top 30 candies, and give the rest to me. We're sending it with a friend to a Russian orphanage." They were not happy. They seemed to believe it was theirs. That I was somehow acting as an arbitrary dictator in confiscating their hard earned goods.

Well, too bad dearies. I just listened to a show on NPR about how sugar increases insulin which not only makes you fat, it gives you heart disease. There is NO way I'm giving children under my jurisdiction free reign with 3 pound bag of candy.

Rose separated her candy right away and brought me the extra. Andrew crept upstairs with his bag and I haven't seen or heard of it since. I got busy and forgot. Gotta remember to snag it back tomorrow.....