Haiti Earthquake through the eyes of a 4 year old

We have been pretty careful not to let JJ see much of the footage from Haiti. But he hears everything, and wants to know everything, so he asked about what an earthquake was last week one day. I told him in very basic terms.

Last night at the dinner table, he was imparting his new found knowledge on his little sister:

JJ: Cari - know what an earthquake is?
Cari: No - Mommy I have more milk?
JJ: An earthquake is when there is an island in the middle of the ocean, see, and the ground shakes so much that all the buildings fall down. There was an island "Halo" - is that right mommy?
Me: You mean Haiti?
JJ: Yes, Cari, there is an island called Haiti, see, and they had an earthquake and the ground shook so hard it made lots of the buildings fall down, and the people are very sad.
Are earthquakes always on islands mommy?
Me: No, not always, they can be anywhere, really.
JJ: Mommy, can we have earthquakes here?
Daddy: There was an earthquake in Minnesota when mommy and daddy were younger, but it only knocked things off shelves
JJ: That's good, because I don't want our buildings to fall down.

I don't want him to worry that everything that happens in the world can happen to him, but at the same time, don't want him to be too sheltered from real life either. Still, for now, I think we will try to keep the images from Haiti from being too promenant in his little mind....that mind that works overtime so much!

Enough with the cougars already!

JJ recently heard a news story on tv.....most of the time I don't think he is paying attention to it, but in this case, he must have been because for a week now, he has been talking about, no obsessing about, cougars.

You see, there has been cougar sitings all over the northern suburbs where we live. No one knows if it is really a cougar for sure...although the video footage is pretty convincing. Over the last month, it has apparently wandered over the course of 100 miles or so.

Anyway, JJ is now convinced that it is around every dark corner....in.our.house. He refuses to go into his dark room without one of us. At bedtime, he stalls us by discussing, no arguing, all of our disputes about the cougar not being able to get into our house. He is convinced we might, in some lapse of judgement, hear a 'knock' at the door and open it, letting the cougar in the house. Never mind us telling him cougars can't knock on doors.

I pray that the cougar news stops soon.....so far he hasn't actually been dreaming about it....just telling us he has ("Mommy I had a bad dream" five minutes after we leave his room, when in no way could he have bene asleep yet). But it is getting really really old....this arguement......it was cute at first...now it just wears on me.

Hopefully he has as new obsession soon!

Rescue Heros.....

I love watching JJ dream up stuff to play, and then letting his little sister play along with him! Right now, I have 2 rescue heros, running around my house......running the circle through the family room, kitchen, living room, hallway, back to the family room again. They have blankets as capes, and for good measure, safety goggles (toys from JJ's tool bench). And Cari even has one mitten on. They run around the house yelling "to the rescue!" They battle any number of rescue scenarios - apparently cougars are the order of the day.....but that is another post!

Sometimes they fight fires, especially in Washington State for some reason....maybe because of the volcanos? :oD They rescue all manner of JJ's imaginary friends... mostly stranded in the snow on mountains. With 2 of the best rescue heros in my house, how can I go wrong????

But now, it is time to sign off, as even rescue heros need a bath!

Adventures in present wrapping....

I have no idea why I thought it was a good idea to save wrapping all the presents for our family Christmas weekend until the morning we were supposed to leave for my mom's. But....I did, in fact, I promised I would....

And I don't know why I didn't think about the fact that if one of the kids helps the other helps. Or why I thought the help of either of them would be truely 'helpful'.

So, I started by pulling out all the gifts we had left to wrap....let the fighting begin as I picked one roll of paper over the other. Then I tried to let JJ help by tearing off tape for me.....which of course resorted in a 2 foot long twisted piece of tape of which I was able to salvedge about 2 inches. And he got upset because he thought I was upset, when really I just wanted him to stop pulling the tape out so I could show him a better way to do it. They have to learn somehow....

So, once we had an understanding about how to do the tape, and gave Cari a job, so she wasn't trying to pull the tape out like a mad child, we got going on the packages. I had the first present wrapped, when Cari, now aptly nicknamed 'disaster girl' was climbing on me and fell on said package, tearing open the just wrapped package and ripping the paper beyond repair. So, we started over. That happened 3 times, before I banned her from the room, to 3 different packages. The 3rd one I was able to repair the paper enough to use it. She was busy in the other room and we made some headway for a couple of minutes, but then she came back...and JJ was not mastering the tape as we had both hoped he would. He so desperately wanted to help and do it 'right' but it was just not working well. I finally decided I would tear off the tape for him, and he could put it on the package.....that worked a bit better....but over all, it took about 2 hours to wrap all the presents....after which I still had to pack my clothes, and clothes for both of the kids for our 2 day stay at Grandmas house, as well as sleeping gear, toiletries and medicines. Then finally I got a shower.....we finally got on the road (to McDonalds for lunch before we REALLY got on the road) at 1:30.....I was hoping to be well on our way by then.

Did I learn my lesson? Maybe....will I let them help again next year? Probably....after all, they will be a year older right.... ;oD