No Choice

Today I woke up with a determination. Finish my housework and get organized. We're going back to school shopping this weekend and I don't want to bring everything home to a mess. By 11am it was a blistering 100 degrees outside and the air conditioner was doing its best, but its best just wasn't good enough. I did what any good mom would do. I dropped my broom, left the unfolded laudry on the floor, and gathered all our swim gear. We did what we had to do in the face of a heat crisis, we spent the day at the pool.

Tough Times for Tea

It seems like the second Tea turned 4 years old she became more aware of the world around her. My once easy going Tea is now more nervous and uneasy. She freaks out when I am not in her line of sight. She has more difficulty falling asleep at night and has been waking with bad dreams. Perception is everything I know, but to my knowledge no specific "event" has triggered the behavioral change. Oddly Chiggie went through a very similar phase at right around the same age. I hope for her sake it's short lived. It bothers me to see her feeling scared or upset. I've reassured her that she's safe and all the normal things you do but still. One of the bummers of growing up.

All Play and no Work...

Ummm yeah, makes for a very dirty and cluttered house. I'm in way over my head here. Barely treading water right now. The upstairs looks like we just moved in. Like just moved in this morning. Nothing is put away and the dressers just now got put in the appropriate rooms. What a disaster that caused. It doesn't help that as I desperately try to put things away the little girls make giant sized messes. Ugh, I'm glad we had a really good time last week because this is gonna get ugly!

Looking Forward

Before I forget, Boo is officially looking forward. In her carseat that is. We bought a new one this weekend and she can now sit forward facing. She seemed to like her new view.

Day at the Beach II

Today was our Church Youth Group's annual trip to the beach. Fun, sun, and food. It doesn't get much better than that! Midge wasn't afraid of the water at all.

Tea spent much of the day floating on her tummy.
Boo ate an obscene amount of sand.
Look how amazingly blue the sky is here. We've had a lot of rain lately.
Tea really looks 4 here.

Chiggie spent the whole day looking for fish. They actually caught one at one point.
Cam was helping fish hunt.
More looking for fish.
Marlee just lounging.

Boo and Midge enjoyed sitting in the cool water.

Attack

Back in May I forgot to mention that Chiggie got a hamster. She named her Nosy and became unusually attached to her. Nosy came to school and met the class and spent many evenings downstairs observing family activities. In the early days Chiggie could handle her without trouble but as time went on Nosy began biting when she became nervous. This didn't change things much. We bought a few toys for her cage and mostly observed rather than held her. My only concern all along was the fact that we have cats.

I always made sure the girls left their door shut to keep the cats out, but I'm not always right there to remind them. A couple of times the door got left open and I would find Little Tuna (the littlest cat) sitting on the cage. I think I always intervened early on in the "attack" and nothing ever really happened. Until today....

We stayed up way too late last night and getting up for church today was not easy. The girls were slow moving as well and we were running behind. By some miracle we all got ready and into the car just a minute or two later than usual. We were about to leave when I had to run back inside to grab the diaper bag. I ran upstairs to check the baby's room when out of the corner of my eye I saw that the older girls door was open. The King had forgotten to shut it when he woke them up. My heart sank. When I looked in the room their was shavings from the litter everywhere. The cage was on the floor and hanging open. The hamster and the cat were missing.

In a panic I ran out to the car and alerted the King to the emergency inside. He ran in to investigate while I waited outside. I have a huge soft spot and don't handle these things well at all. Much to my surprise the King found the hamster, it's a dwarf and only about the size of a large cotton ball, unharmed huddled in a chair the girls have. He grabbed it with a puppet and put it back in the cage.

For now nosy is locked in protective custody aka the upstairs bathroom. I don't know what to do. The cat cannot be trusted, but surely I can't expect the girls door to be shut at all times. This will happen again, with a much more grim result, if I don't think of something....

Horsin' Around