Mom Life

There are some things that you really only understand once you become a parent. Intentionally catching another person's vomit in your own hands comes to mind. Or hiding in a bathroom while you eat an Oreo in peace. Tonight's story is a whopper... 

I sent Charlotte upstairs to start brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed while I finished up loading the dishwasher. A couple of minutes later I hear a terrible shriek of horror, followed by the most distraught panicked sobs. Rushing upstairs, fearing the absolute worst (severed limb, maybe?), I see Charlotte standing above the open toilet, gasping and completely beside herself. 

"I tried to get a ladybug to crawl onto my fingers, but she fell into the t-t-t-t-TOILET!!!" 

Yup, there she was, swimming around in the (unclean) water. 

"Save her, mommy! Get her out of there!"

Now I've flushed many an insect and many an arachnid down the toilet before - not caring one iota if they were alive or dead. But when your 4 year old thinks she's responsible for this poor ladybug's disgusting predicament... suddenly you have two options instead of just a simple flush. 

That's right, I dabbed Maddam Ladybug with a clean clump of toilet paper and rescued her out of the potty. 

But i didn't stop there. Oh no. I filled the bathroom sink with a nice warm bath for that ladybug and swished her around until we were all satisfied that she was squeaky clean. Then I patted her dry, ever so gently, and returned her to her BFF. 

Please share your crazy only-because-it-was-important-to-my-kid stories!! 

Budding Artist

Charlotte watched the episode of Blue's Clues where Steve (the original host) goes away to college and leaves all of his friends with his brother Joe. The sweet girl cried about it for 15 minutes. 

She asked to watch the episode again today, and then drew this picture of Steve, Joe, Blue, Magenta, and Periwinkle while I was putting Natalie down for a nap. The details of her drawing blew me away! 

Field Museum

In November, I took the girls to Chicago for the day. My friend Khristy was in town for business and had a free day, so we went to the Field Museum to see Sue the T-Rex and then we walked over to check out Lake Michigan. The girls did great on the drive (even the silly traffic at 5pm on a Friday evening), loved Khristy, the museum, and the lake!

Charlotte chose to wear her skeleton pj shirt to check out the fossils

One of Sue's teeth

they loved riding this trilobite

lounging in a footprint

rock candy

digging for fossils with Khristy

first time to the "beach" 

Khristy took them in to dip their feet in the water - brrrr!