Rex meets the iguana October 9, 2008

Several months back (at least a month before we adopted Rex, the mischievous beagle) I was working one day when I noticed a rather large bright green spot moving about in the grass in front of my office window.  Closer inspection revealed an iguana between 2 and 3 feet long.  This was the start of numerous and frequent iguana sightings in the yard.  He was kind of cool to observe and it made it easy to get the boys outside to run off some energy.  “Hey, guys, I think I saw the iguana over by the mango tree – go see if you can find it”.  They’d run off to look, get distracted in about 45 seconds and spend an hour or two playing outside.  This worked especially well since they’d never actually seen it till a week or two ago -I just showed them the picture I’d taken of it the first day.  I mean, really, if you’re a five or eight year old boy, what could possibly be more fun than hunting down a giant lizard rumored to be squatting on your land?  They did finally see it when DH came across it while doing some yardwork.  They all watched it for awhile and much excited discussion ensued.

Now, Rex came along somewhere in there.  He’s a 1.5 y.o. beagle we adopted (which I may or may not have neglected to blog about) and, just like the other boys in this house, is much easier to live with when he spends significant time outside running off some energy.  Being a beagle, Rex has to smell pretty much everything also, which, thankfully, the other boys do not.  One afternoon, when Rex was having some lovely hunting dreams in his bed in my office (I know he was, because he was barking and yelping in his sleep)  I noticed the iguana climbing up the tree in front of my window.  It occurred to me that given the amount of time Rex spends exploring the yard, he must’ve had an iguana encounter at some point.  So I assumed that they could peacefully coexist.  This weekend’s showdown, though, leads me to believe they had both somehow managed to avoid that up till now.

I was heading out to run errands Saturday when I find DH and the boys standing in the driveway watching Rex barking like a maniac at something in the grass.  Yup. He’s met the iguana and they’re having a little canine/reptile showdown.  This carries on for a few minutes with Rex barking his fool head off at the iguana, periodically making a move in or past the iguana causing the iguana to spin to face him, move again, spin… so for several minutes the dog ran circles around the iguana who spun the other direction to keep facing him.

The boys, of course, think this is about the funniest thing they ever saw.  I’m not sure which was more amusing – watching the antics of Rex who just clearly doesn’t know what to make of this or listening to the boys giggling hysterically watching the show.  I did sort of feel sorry for the iguana who, I’m sure was just heading out to check out the lunch menu over at the post in the bushes where the boys throw out all the unused fruit / veggies / bread etc.  I’m sure that spot is like the all you can eat buffet for Mr. Iguana (and the rest of the critters).

Anyway, Rex was getting braver and braver (I’m sure he was just trying to make friends – he kind of desperately wants some friends with more than 2 legs but no, I’m not up to another 4 legged child just now) and the iguana is flicking his tail at him as he spins.  So, I figure that is his defense but don’t know whether he can actually, you know, *hurt* the dog.  I’m starting to get concerned about this and seeing no evidence that DH is thinking of breaking up this little game of Here We go Round the Mulberry Bush Iguana, I decide I’m going to risk life and limb and get Rex.  Just as I make my move the iguana makes his and bolts for the nearest pine tree and scampers up it in a split second.  That sucker is FAST!  I realized he was inching his way over to it with each spin ’round while Rex was tormenting him.

The pines we have are very tall and thin with only a few branches near the top.  The iguana was obviously taking no chances as he scampered up the trunk of the tree and didn’t stop till he was right at the top – at least 25 feet up.  And we was not coming back down by the look of it.  Rex, for his part went a bit nutso making a thorough inspection with his nose of every square inch the iguana had covered.

I went off to do my errands.  When I came home later, DH informed me that the iguana was still up there an hour later when they went inside.  Later they’d gone back outside and witnessed the sequel when the iguana was still in the vicinity.  He got chased up another tree.

I think the iguana might may be pondering whether it’s time to seek out a new home which is pet-free.  He’d probably thought he had it made before Rex was on the scene.  Now he’s having beagle nightmares.  And poor Rex still doesn’t have any 4-legged friends to play with.

“Did you write ‘Sugarlump’?” September 24, 2008

I have this thing I do with the boys when I’m snuggling with them. I say “who’s my sugar lump?” and they smile big and say “ME!” and I say “Right!”

Of course, DS2 has developed his own variation on this because, of course, nothing is more fun than teasing. So, his version now goes like this:  Me, “Who’s my sugar lump?” DS with the trademark twinkling eyes, makes a face like he’s thinking hard, “ummmmm…” then he’ll go into a string of guesses that is usually in an order something like this

a skunk? (this is almost always first, he thinks it’s hilarious),

thunder?

random object he sees in the room 1 / 2/ 3 /etc.

Rex? (the dog)

DS3?

DS1?

Daddy?

then a long pause, a big grin and “ME?”.

At this point I say “YES!!” and give him a big shaking hug and he giggles like we haven’t done the routine 400 times before.

So, a week or so ago there was an informational forum at the school in the evening where you meet the teacher and they give you the lowdown on how they do things and run their classroom, etc. It’s parents only. Before this night, they have the kids make a folder and other cute little projects for you that they put all the paperwork (with which they love to inundate me) into. Usually, they also have the kids write you a note to say thanks for coming and whatever else. Then you write them one back and leave it on their desk for them to read in the morning. It’s kind of sweet and the kids get a huge kick out of it.

So, a couple days later I asked DS2 if he got the note I wrote for him. He looked confused so I figured he obviously hadn’t gotten the note. So I asked if he remembered writing a note to us for that night and he did. So I told him that his teacher told us we could write one back and leave it for him on his desk. He grinned at me and said “did you write Sugarlump in the note?” I hadn’t thought of it at the time but when he asked I wished I had. Luckily, I get another chance. And another and another …

Bad day for the itsy bitsy spider August 4, 2008

It’s summer in Florida which means plenty of rain and thunderstorms in between blazing hot and steamy weather.  it’s also the season when daddy-long-leg spiders tend to invade the bathtubs after said rain.

Today was the second and final day of the great toy purge (which was sold to the resident toy users as a toy “sorting and organizing” project) which I’ve been procrastinating, successfully, for quite some time now.   During the course of it, we came across some great little spinning tops and the launcher they work with (the ones you sent, Mom – they are still a big hit).  These had been long forgotten, no doubt buried at the bottom of a bin filled with toy and gamepiece shrapnel for who-knows-how-many months, so it was like a new toy again.  Sometime later, I was done enlisting their help with the sorting phase and off they went to play (thus enabling me to engage in the purging phase without the customary weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth).

Before long, I hear them in the bathroom that is just off the bedroom turned tv/playroom/toy warehouse where I’m restoring order.  Since eavesdropping on their play is some of the best entertainment available to me, I’m listening as I go about my wanton discarding of stuff.  I figure out from their chatter that they are launching the top into the bathtub.  I foolishly assume this is because they are heeding my 17 warnings (and that’s only today’s count) that they are all big enough to keep track of their own toys and put them back etc. and *I* won’t be doing this all-weekend job again (i.e. “you keep it sorted and put away because the next time I had to do it I’ll just be putting it all in the garbage”).  Obviously, they’ve taken my words to heart and so are launching the tops in tub where they can’t possibly get lost, right?

Um, no.  Turns out they’re shooting spiders, so to speak. Or a spider – I’m not sure.  This game went on for some time, though, with much discussion as to how each new launch should or should not be recalibrated to increase the probability of a hit.  Apparently, “aiming” a spinning top is more a matter of luck than skill.  Fortunately for them, a spider in a tub isn’t exactly going to make a getaway so they could take all the practice shots they needed.

A little later my presence was requested in the bathroom to “demonstrate our top secret mission”.  Who knew that spiders in tubs were such a security threat?  It’s a shame the spiders don’t have a better intelligence network – they could get the word out to the rest of the arachnid kingdom that the inside of my house is a combat zone and they’d be best to avoid it.  I’d be fine with them passing the word along to the whole of the insect world, actually.

The next post July 25, 2008

has a link to some pics.  It will be password protected.  To view use DH’s first initial + my first initial + our last name, all lowercase.

“Kids these days” June 20, 2008

In my local yahoogroups-based mom’s group, we’d had a (tongue-in-cheek) discussion about how, if the telemarketers and spammers are to be believed, I must the luckiest person on the planet since several times a week I win fabulous prizes and large sums of money in draws and lotteries which I’ve never even heard of, much less entered.  Then I get another one of these emails claiming I won another meeeelllion dollars.  Even more remarkably, this was for the 2010 FIFA world cup or some such nonsense.  So, turns out I’m so incredibly lucky, I even win lotteries in the future.  The bottom line in the email was “just reply with all your personal information so we can send you a big fat check”.

I mocked this ploy again in email to the mom’s group.  Here’s a reply that made me laugh.

Just makes me lose all regard for these id thieves when they’ve gotten so lazy they’re not even willing to dig through the trash like the stand-up thieves of the past. This next generation is just getting lazy!!

Observation June 14, 2008

Going through stuff in my bathroom closet, it occurs to me that impulse buying @ Costco in combination with a bad memory can result in a 43 y.o.  having a supply of Q-tips that will be more than adequate for her and her family for the rest of her natural life.  Even assuming she lives to a ripe old age.

What tickles their funny bones June 14, 2008

DS2 just comes into my office “mommy you have to come see something on the computer”.

So I go with him and DS3 is playing this game where there is a word with a missing letter and then a blank in a sentence that the word fits into. There are falling letters that you have to catch and put in the missing space to spell the word right.

Anyway… we go out and DS2 says to DS3 “OK, do it again, do it again”. Dutifully, DS3 clicks on something and the computer reads the sentence “Do you think mommy dinosaurs _____ (knit)__ baby brontosaurus booties”. Right on cue, all 3 of them collapse in loud, hysterical laughter. Then he clicks it again, and they do it again.

Like their mother, they are easily amused.

Amusing misheard kid stuff June 14, 2008

An old one I came across in cleaning up my gazillions of email folders which I am attempting to clean up… (from 05/05)

Driving home from preschool we drive past a park that, while it’s a perfectly lovely park, as far as I can tell it was designed by a planning committe which did not include any parents! It’s a very narrow park between two busy roads with no fences and walkways (or paved escape routes) from all the play areas.

So DS1 asks if we can please stop at the park. I say no, he cranks it up a notch to pestering so I explain that I just can’t go to that park by myself with the 3 of them because it’s not very safe for 2 year olds prone to bolting. I told him could go to *Kidscape* instead (which we also refer to as “the close park” since it’s by us.)

So he’s quiet for a bit and then he says, “You know what, Mommy?” (What?) I think they should call *this* park Kid Escape instead of the close park”. I just agreed and saved the explanation that it’s “Kidscape” not Kid *Escape* for another day.

A more recent one…

We were in Toronto and finally made it up the CN Tower after having plans to do so be foiled by weather on two previous trips. Of course, the boys were suitably impressed with the spectacular view. On the way down, DS2 says “Mommy, I know why they call it the CN Tower”. Me: Really? Why? Because you are so high up you can see everything. It took me a minute to realize that he thinks it is the “Seeing Tower”. Again, he was feeling so clever I just let him continue to think that.

You might not want to read this, Mom April 16, 2008

At a minimum of once a week for the entire time I lived at home, my mom (or, less frequently, Dad) would have to remind me to “not leave my shoes lay wherever I take them off”.  When I got home this afternoon and went to sit down at my desk I noticed that this habit of mine has stuck with me through the intervening 27 years.  There, where my feet go under my desk, was 5 pairs of shoes.  Which is pretty much all the shoes I’ve worn this week other than my gym shoes.

So not only do I still need to work on putting shoes where they belong, it’s possible I spend a little too much time in front of the computer, as well.

Well, now, there’s some poor planning April 11, 2008

Turns out my accountant’s daughter, husband, office manager and receptionist all have birthdays within 2 days of the tax deadline of April 15.  Methinks there aren’t a lot of fancy homemade cakes happening there.