Yummy!

After school today we had to stop by the grocery store to pick up some milk. I hate going into a store with all three kids for just one item. Although in this case not getting milk would have been worse because there wasn't a drop left in the house. When we got near the milk case, the boys saw that there were samples being given out so we had to stop. They were sampling some milk that is made in Sterling. We tried the chocolate milk. When Cordelia saw everyone else had something she wanted one too so I gave her a sip of mine. When I let her sip from my water glass at home she just takes little sips. When she got a sip of that chocolate milk she wouldn't stop. She put her face as far as she could into the cup. She had a big milk mustache and it was all over her new jacket. We did buy some of the chocolate milk. It was really good plus I like to support those small businesses.

A nice surprise

This morning while I was at work I heard a little voice outside my door. I thought I heard "mommy", but thought that voice couldn't belong to me and I felt a little sad. Then the door opened and it was Fred, Torii and Cordelia. They rarely stop by my office so it was a really nice treat. Fred said he would go crazy there because it is so quiet. I told him I love it. I used to listen to the radio, but I haven't for a long time now. I love the quiet of my office. I go crazy at home when the TV is on loud, the computer is playing music and the kids are running around. I feel like the Grinch when he says he can't stand the noise, noise, noise. It was good to see them, but Cordelia was mad to go. That short little visit made the rest of the morning go by fast.

Failure to thrive

I was reading something by another mom whose daughter has been sick and they aren't entirely sure why. She wrote about the doctor diagnosing her daughter as "failure to thrive." I really felt for her because we heard those words with Cordelia. It was like a kick in the stomach. It hurt to hear those words. Maybe I'm just so used to living in a P.C. world that I didn't expect to hear something so harsh. Everything else has changed so why not say, "growing challenged" or something. It's just hard to hear the word failure and your child's name in the same sentence. I felt like I should defend her. "It's not her fault!" "She's doing the best she can!" "I'm doing the best I can for her." When failure is connected to your child, you as a parent take part of the blame too. Really, nothing was her fault or mine or Fred's or anybody else's. Still, it hurt to hear failure to thrive. The good news is that she now has no problem "thriving." She's getting round and heavy. She's gotten a few more pounds on her and she looks healthier than ever.

Heavy subject

When we were at Cordelia's doctor's appointment last week, Torii saw a poster on the door about child abuse. He noticed the picture of the little kid on it. On the poster you could only see the kid's back and part of his face. It looked like he was sitting in a corner. Torii started asking me questions about the picture. He asked if the boy had been bad and why he was sitting like that. Wow, that's a pretty big subject for a four year old. I'm not good in these kinds of situations, but I answered it the best I could. Now that I've had time to think about it, I know how I would have answered it better. I did tell him the boy wasn't bad, but I didn't exactly saying anything about someone hurting him. I'm just not ready for my kids to know that sometimes people hurt kids. I know they'll learn about these things someday, but I want to protect them from those kinds of evils for as long as I can. I was totally ready to answer questions about sex, but this one really blindsided me. And really, I know I shouldn't shield them from things. It will do them more harm to put them in a protective bubble. Sometimes it is no fun to be a parent.