Soap Doesn't Taste as Good as Strawberry Cake

Kate ate dirt today.

Yep, dirt.

And I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it.

Yep, she enjoyed it.

Since she was old enough to grab things and put them in her mouth, regardless of my efforts to prevent it she's found ways to put all sorts of insane things in her mouth (rocks, sticks, crayons, playdoh, stickers, bugs, jewelry, etc), but until today I've always been able to swish out the non-food item before it was ingested.

She was playing outside at a friend's house this afternoon. I noticed her chewing. I walked over to see what she was chewing on and there was a brown, earthy-like residue on her lips and covering one of her front teeth in a classically hillbilly-esk fashion. I tried as calmly as possible to ask her to let me see inside her mouth. When she opened it up, I could see the dirt down in the crevices of all her bottom teeth, smeared across her tongue, and her spit was tinted a nice beige hue.

Good times.

Once I figured out it was ONLY DIRT (by making her open her mouth and smelling the "dirt" repeatedly), I got over the need to call her pediatrician. But what was more strange than catching her with dirt in her mouth, was the fact that after she knew I was distressed about it she still happily chomped away on her dirt chunk as I stood there with my mouth hanging open trying to recover from my shock so I could figure out what to do with her.

I took her over to the shrubs and asked her to spit - which was totally ineffectual since she's fortunately not perfected the craft of spitting like a ballplayer yet.

To figure out what happened so I could find the way to how best handle the situation, I asked her how she got dirt in her mouth. She looked me directly in the eyes and said with complete seriousness: "It's not dirt, Momma. It's strawberry birthday cake forever."

Definite points given for an active imagination, but then those points must be deducted for the insanity of lacking the common sense to know that no matter how much you want dirt to taste like strawberry cake you shouldn't put it in your mouth because your imagination didn't really make the dirt turn into cake.

Then I decided to take her inside to the bathroom. No spankings necessary because I really didn't think she was trying to act poorly - she just got carried away with her imagination. But what should I do with this crazy girl who is constantly eating things she shouldn't and literally LICKS random nasty public surfaces daily?!? I thought I might be able to teach her a lesson about how she shouldn't put germy things in her mouth if I tried to "clean" the dirt out.

I reached for the liquid handsoap on the bathroom sink. Gross I know, but I really need to find a way to teach her to stop doing things like this before she eats something really dangerous. I asked her to stick her tongue out. I squirted a generous portion onto her dirt stained tongue and asked her to keep her mouth open so I could clean the dirt out with the soap.

Are you cringing yet? I was. I couldn't believe I was actually about to wash my baby's mouth out with soap - but desperate times call for desperate measures. I thought there would be the inevitable tears, gnashing of teeth, and/or some sort of struggle so she would remember this experience and learn her lesson so neither of us had to go through this again.

No such luck.

She just sat there patiently waiting for me to finish. WHAT?!? I scrubbed on her tongue. I got the remaining dirt particles out of the spaces under her tongue and between her gums and cheeks. I even spent a little time trying to get some of the dirt off her teeth. She looked rabid because of the soapy lather I'd worked up coming out of the corners of her mouth. All this with absolutely no negative reaction from the girl. She actually laughed after she sneezed and a huge soap bubble sprang out of her mouth.

So I finished up, wiped the outside of her mouth, and she asked if we could go back outside. I was still dumbfounded by the girl who had no reaction to dirt or liquid handsoap in her mouth, so I agreed. On our way back outside to rejoin our friends she looked up at me and said: "Soap doesn't taste as good as strawberry cake. I want strawberry cake for my birthday."

In Case You're Wondering...

This week I:

made Cody proud when I cleaned chicken and disinfected my sink/counter area without getting bleach on my pants and having to color them with a Sharpie marker... which is good since I was wearing plaid pajama pants this time. (explanation)

encouraged Kate to color with her orange crayon as much as she wanted. (explanation)

heard Kate pray the sweetest prayer for her BeeBee. (explanation)

allowed Kate to go to Target dressed as Minnie Mouse (with gloves) and to sleep in a tu-tu. (explanation)

already broke and recommitted myself to my New Year's resolution. (explanation)

listened to Kate tell me about her BSF lesson - and this time it made sense and was accurate info on how Moses went up on a mountain and came down with a shiny face. (explanation)

finished off another box of yummy garlic club crackers. (explanation)

saw Claire spill, Luke wiggled Kate, and ordered Kate an orange juice smush - but at least I wasn't told I smelled like an animal. (explanation)

finalized the details for Kate's birthday party on January 24th. (explanation)

burned a kids cd for Kate because listening to her sing her current favorite songs (Joy To The World, Rise Up Shepherd and Follow, and other Christmas songs) over the non-Christmas songs in the car is starting to wear me down. (explanation)

Icicle Appreciation

It's hard to believe that the day after the 84 degree weather we enjoyed at Six Flags our high temperature was 40 degrees lower, but it's true! And the day after that we had icicles hanging from everything. This is the first cold precipitation Kate has seen this season so she stared at it in incredible wonder through the window all morning.

After lunch I let her bundle up and go outside to look at the icicles up close. The spikey chunks of crystal looking ice seemed to totally mystify her up close. When I stepped away from her to grab a pic of her, she instantly pulled one off and stuck it in her mouth before I had a chance to stop her. And then the icicles became "popsicles" to her!

It was very difficult to convince her to turn loose of her precious popsicles so we could get in the car to run a few errands, but as we were driving she continued to enjoy them because she was able to see them all over town. She kept shouting - "Look, Momma, there are popsicles on the stop sign! Look, Momma, there are popsicles on the library! Look, Momma, there are popsicles on..." And last night when we were praying she thanked God for the popsicles He'd put on everything for her.

I confessed in my last post that I'm an excitable sort of person, but I wish that there were more moments in my day that are filled with the sort of childlike wonder I saw in Kate's eyes yesterday each time she saw an icicle. I imagine it's inevitable that as you get older and see more of the world there will be less and less to be in awe of - but there's something to be said for being able to better appreciate the miracles all around us on a daily basis and for the ability to be thankful for the little things in life that are so easily ignored.

I'm going to start intentionally hunting for ways to turn the icicles in my life into popsicles - I guess my first step is just to simply follow Kate's lead! A lot can be learned from a two year old...

Holiday in the Park in January

I'm easily excited... or at least that's what Cody says. I've been fortunate enough to go to Six Flags many times over the course of my life, but when the first peak of a roller coaster peeks over the horizon as we're driving towards the park, an uncontrollably childish excitement overwhelms my system. I have major opportunities to practice the skill of self control because in my excitement I become extremely impatient with traffic and red lights and everything else that prevents us from getting on that first ride!

Holiday in the Park is definitely my favorite time of year at Six Flags. There's just something magical about all the lights twinkling around the park, the Christmas music playing over the speakers, and not having to sweat to death waiting in line to ride. Our December was packed with events and so much sickness we didn't have a chance to get to Holiday in the Park before Christmas and I sadly thought we'd missed it for the year.

But this weekend the weather was so nice we were looking for something fun to do outside and I found out that Six Flags still hadn't shut their doors for the season yet! So we put on our t-shirts and headed out there to enjoy the 84 degree day in January. I was THRILLED when we saw the park from the freeway and Kate started shrieking SIX FLAGS - I SEE SIX FLAGS! In addition to my normal level of excitement, I was struck with an awesome amount of pride as we sat at a red light and she said, "Let's go - hurry up light - I want Six Flags!" I definitely want Kate to get most of Cody's personality traits rather than mine, but a zest for life and an excitement for the exciting are traits of mine that I'm so glad to see developing in her!!

Kate LOVED riding some rides, sharing a funnel cake with her Daddy, driving a car all by herself, singing with the Christmas music that was still playing over the speakers, and everything else Six Flags had to offer a girl of two years old and a mere 37 inches in height. Here's about a minute of a video of her fun:

Turtles for Toddlers

For the last several months Kate has been obsessed with singing a song about a turtle named Tiny Tim that she learned at church. She sings it every time she sees a turtle or any sort of shape that might look a little like a turtle. We made a trip to the zoo this weekend and Kate got the chance to see two tiny turtles swimming in the water, one big turtle in another area, and several huge turtles walking around in a grassy area. Here's a 30 sec video of her with the precious tiny swimming turtles followed by her singing her little turtle song:

While we were there we also saw a white tiger who was very attracted to Kate and her friend Avery. I'm not sure if he thought they'd be fun to play with or if he was hoped he was looking at his dinner - but regardless he was cute in a oddly gentle yet dangerous beast sort of way with them. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I imagine a video is worth at least a million or two, so here's another 30 second video of the "playful" white tiger who was trying to lick their hands as well as a couple other highlights of our trip: