Diarrhea Worm

Emma's favorite book right now is Diarrhea Worm. Several times a day she asks Mike or me to read Diarrhea Worm. She knows it so well that she reads it by herself, and as she reads it she says Diarrhea Worm throughout the read. I'm curious what her 4-year old mind thinks the plot is about.

ABC gumball

It all started at a slumber party. Abby was at Sarah's house, and her big brother Elijah had a gumball machine. You had to pay a penny to get a gumball. Abby, being the clever girl she is, told Sarah how to break into the gumball machine. They unscrewed the top of the gumball machine and each put 4-5 gumballs in their mouth. After they chewed it a while, they decided it would be cool to make one giant gumball out of ABC (already been chewed) gum. Then they kept chewing more and more gum and added it to the slimy, gooey gumball. They got tired of chewing gum so they took a break and continued the gum art in the morning. Since we've moved from KY, Abby continues to call Sarah and ask about the gumball.

Last week we got the gumball in the mail. You should've seen the excitement on Abby's face. She squealed and jumped and couldn't wait to tear open the package. It was one of the nastiest things I've ever seen, but to Abby it was nothing less than beautiful. Have you ever seen ABC gum that is 6 months old and has travelled over 6000 miles? It gets hot in the mail, and all the saliva juices and sugar juices mix together for a foamy, gooey, incredibly disgusting mess.

Abby will be adding her chewed gum to the gumball, and we will eventually mail it back to Sarah after it has increased in size. For now we are enjoying the gumball as it is proudly displayed on her dresser.

I think every girl has a good slumber party story. When I was in the 7th grade I was at Linda D's slumber party. As I was in a sleeping bag, I began to play with my belly button. It was that night that I discovered that I can turn my belly button from an innie to an outie. It amazed everyone there. I could acutally completely pull out the innie so that I could see the very end of the belly button. It was the hit of the party, and this rare talent has served me well over the years. In college I sent a letter with pictures to David Letterman, and I tried to get on "Stupid People Tricks". I never heard back from him. The letter must've gotten lost in the mail.

post its

To help with language learning I am going to label everything in my house. As I was explaining this learning method to my language tutor, she told me of two methods to get paper to stick to walls without leaving a mark. First, use a dab of toothpaste. If you don't like that method, then you can stick some egg white on the back of the paper. Personally, I was thinking post-its, but the toothpaste is much more economical. Plus, since we have our windows open all the time it may have better cling to it when we get a gust of wind through the house. I'm going to try all three methods: post-its, toothpaste, and egg whites. I'll post the results of the experiment in a few weeks. I never did win a science fair as a kid, but I think this would at least get honorable mention. On the comments, feel free to give your hypothesis on which variable will have the clingiest results.

Mike the Chaperone

Last week I had my first opportunity to go on a field trip with school. The first grade went to a HUGE local park. Why so huge, you ask? Because, as Annie's principal told me, it used to be the local GOLF course. When they saw how few people were playing golf, they turned it into a more profitable use of space for the whole city. (I will refrain from any personal comments at this point for the sake of my daughters who were wih me when I heard this horrifying tidbit of information.)

Anyway, we had a beautiful day as 5 adults tried to keep up with 16 kids. Emma was #16 as she enjoyed being a 7-year-old 1st grader for a day. We rode the train, went horseback riding, walked through a flower garden (hundreds of rose bushes of all colors), and finished at the playground in the picture. Though personally crushed by the horrific news, I was reminded again of how blessed I am to be called "Dad" by the four greatest kids on the planet!

My Missing Tooth!

Last Saturday after my final soccer game, I was sitting on the sofa watching "The Sound of Music". I was wiggling my tooth with my tongue and then...my tooth was still in my mouth but I pushed it out with my tongue!! (By the way, it is the bottom tooth on the right of the picture) That night, I put a note under my pillow telling the tooth fairy that I had lost my tooth in the kitchen. When I woke up the next morning, there was $1 under my pillow from the International Tooth Fairy!

Normal transportation

I looked up "normal" in the dictionary. Some of the definitions include 1) "The usual or expected state" 2) "A city in Illinois" 3) "Free from mental illness". Seeing that #2 does not apply and #3 is debatable, I'll go with #1 to tell you about my experience with "normal" public transportation.

From my apartment I can walk to a mall in about 20 minutes. Since today I was in a hurry and Emma was determined to wear flip flops, I opted for a taxi ride. I went to the base of my apartment and lifted Emma to push the taxi button. Within minutes a taxi was at my side. We hopped on for what should have been a 5-minute drive. In my limited language I mentioned the name of the location. As we approached the mall, the road was under construction and we took a very long way around it, only to come to another construction area where the mall was inaccessible by car. As the taxi driver proceeded to tell me a bunch of stuff in a language I do not understand, I realized I needed to get out and walk. So I paid my taxi fare and walked about 15 minutes to get to the mall.

As I was walking, I thought to myself, "It would be nice to have a normal public transportation experience." Then, I realized that having a routine, mundane, boring transportation experience would NOT be normal. Thus, having excursions and delayed arrivals has become the norm.

Take yesterday for example. I hopped on the mini-bus that I always take to get to the kids' school. For some reason unbeknownst to me, the mini-bus stopped half-way there and the driver said a bunch of foreign words, and all the people on the mini-bus proceeded to get off. Why I do not know. I stayed on the bus. The driver looked at me. I said my key phrase "I do not know good language". So the driver just looked at me and pointed to the door. I got off and walked at least a mile uphill to get to the school.

I had another experience about a week ago on a different mini-bus. I must have gotten on the wrong one because I ended up in a part of town very far away from my neighborhood. We reached the end of the route, and everyone got off. I was able to get back to my neighborhood with the help of a nice 20-yr old guy who spoke limited English. In all it was a 1 1/2 hour delay.

So what is normal for public transportation? As of late it has been unexpected stops before I get to my destination. Fortunately everyone in the country has been kind to this gal who doesn't have a clue.

It's just part of the big adventure.

Annie's friend

Annie's class took a field trip, and Mike snapped this picture of Annie and one of her best friends from school. I thought you might enjoy seeing the kids' friends. Plus, this girl is such a cutie!!!