Spaghetti Solution

One of the most exhausting, life-sucking interesting aspects of my current life revolves around the fact that two of my children are unable (or wildly unwilling) to feed themselves.

I think eating as a family is important, but it means that my duties during dinner time are relatively demanding, and my attention tends to get sucked up by the youngest members of the squib squad...especially when Dad is working late and misses mealtime.

While Pudge is, blessedly, an independent muncher, she is also the only one of my children to actively plot and plan ways to make naughty happen when she realizes she is not under my watchful eye.  This means that...once her plate is clean...and my hands are frantically forking glop at her sister and brother...she knows I'm a sitting duck.

Last night Justin was working late.  Spaghetti was on the menu.  I grabbed the kitchen scissors, ready to mince LC's noodles into spoonable bits, when the question popped into my head.

"If her supper was trickier to eat...wouldn't that make it SLOWER to eat as well?"

Folks?  That plate of spaghetti kept her busy for over an hour.  No exaggeration.

And, as long as you're willing to throw cleanliness and table manners to the wind, I like to think of it as a stroke of desperate parental genius.

I may never cut those noodles again.

Adding to the Kryptonite List

Pudge is, without question, our resident daredevil.

She's the reckless risk-taker.

The girl who wipes out, jumps up, shakes it off, and keeps going...no time for band-aids or tears.

Pudge prefers rough and tumble to rosy and pink and would take monster trucks over a tea party any day of the week.

But we are finding a growing list of items that repeatedly and consistently freak.  her.  out.

And they never fail to take me by surprise when we stumble upon a new one.

My daughter who is obsessed with books about farm animals and only tolerates the movie "Tangled" because of her love for Maximus, the white horse...is COMPLETELY freaked out by horses in the flesh.  (As an added oddity....full grown steers?  No problem.  Quite adores them, in fact.)

Barney and Roobie...our resident Lhasa Apso and Shih-Tzu...are madly adored by Pudge...often to borderline inhumane degrees.  But encounter a dog of any breed while out and about in the neighborhood?  Pudge will climb you like a tree in 2 seconds.

Today, another item was added to LC's "Kryptonite List".  It may have been the most shocking addition yet.

Exhibit A...LC at the playground...participating in her favorite activity.  It's a little game she likes to play called, "Mom, Lift Me So I Can Dangle From the Tallest Bar in the Place and Then You Walk Away and Count How Long I Can Hold On Until I Drop to My Near Toddler Death".  

So, you can imagine our shock when we went to a local carnival this afternoon.  We payed the ridiculous amount for a small handful of tickets and lined up to treat our playground Evel Knievel to a ride on the Jumping Jumbo elephants.

Pudge is seated.  

She is firmly strapped in.

She is less than six inches from the ground.

She is snuggled in safely beside her father.

The ride is not moving.

And the girl is losing.  her.  blessed.  mind.

An especially endearing shot, in which you can see Pudge in full freak out.  Unable to climb her father, due to the secured safety belt, she is resorting to ripping the shirt off his body in an attempt to shame him off the ride.

And, yes.  The elephants are still completely stationary.

Did Pudge warm up to the magical fun once the elephants were in motion?

It is sweet that Justin took the time to wave at the camera.

But, quite honestly, LC spent the majority of the ride below deck.  And I'm pretty sure her dad was trying to make perfectly clear that the thirty-nine year old guy riding alone in the purple elephant actually belonged to a family with children in attendance.

So, we have officially added mundane kiddy rides to LC's list of paralyzing fears.

Making yet another transfer from Pudge's college fund to the one reserved for therapy fees...

We're Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

Courtesy of Pinterest it seems.  :0( 

We're generally happy to have the squibs shared about on one of my favorite websites.

Unfortunately, Pinterest generated enough spam commenting (in the quadruple digits) to crash the ol' blog for a bit. 

So, I'm working to untangle the mess...sorry in advance for the delay...and the upcoming changes in commenting security.  :0(  Hopefully, the changes will be temporary until things get worked out a bit.

The Inevitable Consequence...

...of an unattended box of chocolate-frosted donuts.

Hang in There, Effie

Don't you hate it when your flight instinct kicks in...

...and then you remember nobody's taught you how to run, yet?

Poor little Effbomb...

...if she survives infanthood, remind me to buy her a pony.

Feeling So Thankful...

...for every little squibby sign of Spring.