July-August

In April, while we were visiting my parents in Idaho, Antonia went to the ER with a broken arm. In July, while we were in Idaho, Antonia NEARLY went to the ER with a horrific burn on her hand. Some might say that Idaho must be an unlucky place for Antonia, but I say that Idaho is just the place where her mom becomes a little tiny bit negligent.

These are the facts: One morning, according to usual staying-at-grandma's house protocol, I let my children wander about the house unsupervised, assuming one of the other adults would make sure my children weren't doing anything overly dangerous. I commenced my toilette, and plugged in my hair straightener to heat up. I began to apply makeup. The Nia sprite skipped in to see what I was doing, and proceeded to entertain herself with the contents of the vanity drawers. My thoughts drifted to faraway places...and then out of the corner of my eye I saw her reach her little hand up to the counter. The thinking part of my brain knew immediately that she would grab something hot, but the processing-thought-into-action part was moving too slowly to stop her.

(Aside: Since I've been a mom, it feels like either that reacting part of my brain--reflexes, they call it :)--has started to slow down, or the processing part has started to speed up, possibly in response to the increased amount of quick-thinking I'm doing. In any case, I find a shortfall between the two occurs far too often for my liking. Although, sometimes the situation is funny, rather than scary and physically danagerous. Like-such-as the time that I watched Antonia lift my deodorant to her mouth, and I KNEW she was fixing to liberally apply herself some deodorant chapstick. Of course, if I HAD reacted quickly enough to stop her, I wouldn't have that funny story, and Antonia wouldn't have powder-fresh lips...)

But there was nothing funny about what happened next. Like any two-year old reaching to grab whatever she can lock onto, she grabbed the hot part of the flatiron HARD, then looked right into my eyes, inhaled and screamed. It was pretty horrible.  When I saw how badly it was burned I was sure she would need to go to the ER, but between the two nurses in the family, the internet, and a phone call to a doctor, we managed to give her ER care at home. Aunt Lori, with her ER experience, with Baca's help, did a top-notch job re-bandaging her hand every day. I was little or no help, being wracked with guilt every time I saw the hideous burn, I would retreat to the corner and hang my head in shame.

And now Antonia is EXTRA cautious of anything that may or may not be hot, including but not limited to: flatirons, curling irons, candles, the stove, the oven, anything emitting steam, anything on her dinner plate that is slightly more than lukewarm, the dishwasher, water coming out of the faucet, and...you get the idea.

In spite of the burn trauma, we had a lovely time with my family in Idaho, at my parents house and renting a cabin with the whole family in a place of which I can't quite recollect the name. For more about that, read my sister's fabulous account on her her blog, because I'm going to be too busy discussing cheese curds here in a minute.

But first, here is a picture of Antonia and Dorothea during a little jaunt up to Mt. Charleston one afternoon. Mt. Charleston represents the largest drop in temperature for the shortest amount of driving when your point of origin is Las Vegas, which is why we found ourselves partial to a drive up there in Mid-July. It was fun for the kids to run around in the dirt and pine needles, which is mostly what you will find on Mt. Charleston, along with the cooler temperatures. Please direct your attention to Antonia's bandaged hand. It always reminded me of the penguin claw that Danny Devito was sporting in the Michael Keaton version of Batman. Did anyone else have a hard time taking Michael Keaton seriously as the brooding Batman? I think it's his lisp.

This is the toddler version of "I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you."

Don't try to argue with me when I say this: we crammed more travel into the month of July than we did in the entire previous year. But for some reason I can't remember where else we went...

Well, I do remember that the highlight of July was going to Minneapolis with Will, who was going for an Art of Wind Band Teaching Symposium. We left our kids in the capable hands of Grandma Daines. It was sooo much fun. In fact, it was SOOOOO fun. It might have even been SOOOOOOOOOO fun, but let's not get too carried away. While Will learned wonderful, interesting things about teaching band to kids (he did, he really did! He told me some of them! Like, that infants have perfect pitch!) I chose to gad about the lovely town of Minneapolis, and I myself learned some wonderful, interesting things.

First of all, Minneapolis is not even close to Indianapolis, so let's get that straight. Also, Minneapolis is home to a beautiful campus, the University of Minnesota. I know my standards aren't that high, because I attended a university where most of the buildings were built in the 50s and 60s and therefore lack a good bit of charm, in my opinion. But the UofM is beautiful, just one gorgeous old building after another.

And another thing: Minneapolis is very user friendly, particularly if you enjoy bipedal recreation. They have these jogging/biking paths crisscrossing the city so thoroughly that you can get almost anywhere in 20 square miles via bike path. And they have these bikes you can rent for $5/day, ride to your destination, and then deposit at the appropriate receptacle. (see above. this particular bike drop-off was out in front of our hotel, and the bike bath ran right behind it) We crunched the numbers and determined that the cheapest way for Will to get back and forth from campus to the hotel was to grab a bike every morning. At lunch, the symposium guests would grab bikes and bike to lunch somewhere off campus. Is that not fun, economical, environmentally friendly, and health-conscious?

And there's more. Minneapolis has fabulous dining options, which you might actually already know if you've ever seen "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," a show we watch like starved orphans. Some of the delights we sampled included but were not limited to: fried cheese curds with bacon ketchup (bacon ketchup!), sweet tamales, sopes, amazing hot dogs, crepes at the Magic Pan ( do YOU know what puts the "magic" in Magic Pan?) baklava from the Halal market...so basically, really healthy things.

Fried "squeaky cheese"

Just needed proof that there actually is a crepe company called "Magic Pan" (It's a Seinfeld thing)

Did you know that America's mall is in Minneapolis? Well, it is. It is called "The Mall of America." And it is a testament to the fact that Americans love malls. What THIS American loved was looking at doll clothes and doll accessories at the American Girl store for over an hour. Tiny things are so fun!

AUGUST

In August we were busy finishing The Project, because that's what we always do in August. This time around, The Project was building a pergola for the back porch. Will feels really manly when he uses power tools, so I went ahead and let him do most of the heavy lifting, so to speak. I did have to do SOME heavy lifting, though, in the form of holding heavy beams up while Will drilled things, and this I accomplished without any bodily injuries to anyone involved. A couple of near-misses, but no actual injuries.

Charlie kept himself busy helping Dad when possible, and doing little kid things the rest of the time. He colored this picture of his buddy, Buzz Lightyear. I'm glad he's showing some love to Buzz, because for all the times I've heard Buzz say "You, my friend, are one of my favorite life forms. Really! A Space Ranger never lies," I've never heard Charlie say anything back.

What was Antonia up to in August? I think she was most content to spend her days holding Deet-Dee (blankie) and having crazy hair. Oh, look! That's what she's doing in this picture! And that one!

Brotherly love

Deet-Dee Love

At the end of the month, Will and all the other teachers ventured back to the halls of learning to start getting ready for school to start. After six years, the back-to-school routine was getting a little dull, so he was pretty excited to discover this little guy waiting in his room for him.  New friends notwithstanding, I was bummed to have him going back to work, mostly because it meant that I wouldn't be able to sleep in anymore. But also a little bit because I like him and I like having him around. As long as he doesn't eat all the sandwich bread, for heavens sakes!

Join us soon for September and October, featuring awesome Halloween costumes and awesome other stuff, too!