My dad punched the lenses out of some old, thick, black glasses for Miller, but Robert has really taken to them and wears them on errands at least once a week. He gets a lot of "Clark Kent" comments, but our family calls him "Buddy Holly". He usually doesn't mind when we call him that, but all bets are off on Sunday rides home from church, when Robert wails about anything and everything. (As opposed to rides TO church, when he wails about having to go to church. BTW - he loves his teachers and all his little friends. I can't figure out what the deal is, though lately he's been asking me to make sure he doesn't have "the grandmothers" instead of his usual teachers. He must have had a substitute one week.) Anyway, last Sunday he had on the glasses and Miller called him Buddy Holly. "DON'T CALL ME BUDDY HOLLY!!", he screamed, sobbing. She laughed and said quietly, "Okay...Buddy Holly."
The kids and I went to the Botanical Gardens to explore this afternoon. I've probably mentioned before that Miller LOVES to collect things, and could and does spend hours in our yard "making collections" in various containers. She collects grass, weeds, sticks, bugs, the occasional flower, acorns, etc., and carefully keeps them all separated until someone pours them out and almost drives her over the edge of insanity. I didn't bring any containers on our outing today, but she began collecting nonetheless, and didn't want to hold her collections.
"Here, mom, hold this", she said about a rotten berry of some kind.
Yuck, Millie, it's rotten and probably has worms crawling in it.
"That's okay. Hold it."
She stumbled onto some pine straw. A lot of pine straw. "This looks VERY mysterious. Hold it."
She then found a leaf. "This is SO beautiful. Look at this beautiful leaf. Hold it."
Robert was next, discovering a damp, yucky pine cone. "Hold it."
Miller interrupted, "I don't want that pine cone with my collection. Robert, put it in your pocket." I told her it could prick him in his pocket. "Robert, here bud, put it in your pocket." Okay, so she was more interested in the great outdoors than in being compassionate today. Sweet Bud didn't seem to mind, but he threw the pine cone to the side after about five seconds.
I've been wanting to compile a short list of things NOT to say to a pregnant women. All of these have been said to me, and in the last few weeks I've developed a system of answering that requires no thought and therefore never leaves me simply giving a dirty look or standing with my mouth hanging open. (Do people think I'm not aware that my belly defies what seems physically possible?) Well, it's not really a system. I just repeat back, verbatim, what the person said to me, but I add, "I FEEL" to the beginning of the sentence. Example: You look tired. "I FEEL tired." You look huge. "I FEEL huge." It's pure genius. Okay...the list:
"Oh my gosh!!! Are you sure you're not having triplets?"
"I don't think you can POSSIBLY get any bigger."
"You look really uncomfortable. I can see it in your face. Do you need to sit down?"
"You look like you're about to pop."
"WOW! You must be due any minute. "
"Are you due any day now? I thought so. You are REALLY big."
My c-section is scheduled for September 10th, and though I truly feel in my heart of hearts that I cannot survive being pregnant until then, I just bet I'll be kissing this precious baby's face on...September 10th. I absolutely cannot WAIT to hold her. Robert has told me several times lately that he has a baby in his tummy that is being born in five minutes.
There are so many wonderful kinds of trees for kids to climb, but my poor kiddos have to make due with this crepe myrtle in our front yard.
