Kid's Logic is Precious

I spent the entire day (most of it) laughing yesterday. I babysat again (ages 4 and 2) and usually, when I babysit, I find it hard to let loose and just be a kid with them. I'm the parent type and I would rather watch them play than play with them. But this week I had no homework to do, and therefore nothing important to do, and playing seemed like a pretty good idea.

I usually refrain from allowing them to make big forts all over the house, or "tents" or "trains" (string the kitchen chairs together), because it makes a mess. But yesterday I was like.....I am with these kids til 4. Thats 8 hours. We can clean up in the last hour. Lets make a mess now! woot! So it was a fun day with the kids.

I just want to share some exceedingly precious moments that occurred :-)

1) We were playing with playdough, all three of us. They usually split it up by color between the two of them and give me the remnants (how kind) so I can "make it into a ball" because apparently, I do this really well. The 2 year old girl is growing to be smarter and smarter every time I see her. This is the time of very fast intellectual growth for children and It is fascinating to see it happen first-hand. Every week she becomes more confident in what she learned last week, and her speech becomes more and more articulate and her vocabulary is growing so fast. Anyway, yesterday she is rolling together some pieces of clay and I was rolling together a random ball and she turns to me, extends her arm and says, "Look! I made a hotdog!"  I started laughing, and she knew it. I don't know where she got hotdog from, but it was so funny.

Maybe you had to be there. But it was still funny. Here's a picture of the artistic hot dog:

Use your imagination. :-)

2) Meanwhile, I briefly heard in the background the four year old tell me he was working on a brain but It didn't really register in my thoughts, I sort of just heard it. A couple of minutes later, he dropped some playdough on the floor to "feed the monkeys" ( I don't know), and I asked him to please pick it up. (so much for allowing them to make messes lol. But in this case- I didn't want the dog to eat it).   When he got back up to the table, he said triumphantly, "Okay. Now where's my brain????"

I forgot that he was making one for a split second, and just him saying that made me start cracking up laughing. Then I remembered he was making one and I showed him where it actually was. But he wasn't fooled, he asked, "Why are you laughing???" So to come up with an explanation as to why this made me laugh, I played dumb and said,

"your brain is in your head!"

him: "No, its not! "

"Yes it is. *I pointed to his forehead* It's right behind here!"

He looks upward and pushes away his bangs and said, "I can't see it!"   *I'm laughing so much*

"You can't see it. Its inside of your head. It helps you to think."

"it is NOT inside my head!"

"Okay."


3) Later on in the day, when it was time for the epic occurrence of watching Cailou on TV, I decided it was a good time to straighten my hair in order to get ready for my big nursing formal that night. So here I am in the back of the kitchen, where I can still see them just to be safe, minding my own business, pretty quiet...and he comes over, randomly, and asks, "What are you doing?"

So how do I explain I am frying my hair so that it is straight and not curly? My best explanation was, "I am fixing my hair."

"Oh. Well you look like a bird."
Me: "Thank you."
"Crows wear their hair like that."
Me: "okay."
"I liked your old hair."
Me: "Well I am sorry I am fixing it then. " *Sad face*
*he is thinking....* "Why are you fixing your hair?
Me: I have to make it look really pretty for a special dance I have to go to tonight."
*he squints his eyes, tilts his head and looks really confused, and is thinking* "Oh. Well when I look pretty I just go see Thomas."   (thomas is a tank engine).

I laughed pretty hard at that one too. I think he gets confused when I laugh at what he says because in his mind, he is totally legitimate. So cute.

4)  It is part my responsibility to aid in the event of potty training these children. Although the four year old is an expert on peeing in the big boy toilet, he is having some poo-ing issues. Although he "promises" to TELL me when he has to go so we can run to the potty, he never does. Ever. It is up to me to see weird signs that he is doing, like hiding behind a couch, laying on the ground, or picking at his butt to let me know he has to go (or IS going)...or I start to smell it if I'm close by.

So in the morning, I completely missed it. They were playing, I was making them breakfast, and when he came to the table to eat I noticed he completely let loose in his diaper. The mom of course doesn't like to see messy diapers at the end of the day because she wants her kids to be completely potty trained....yay. So I was pretty determined to not let it happen again. So a couple hours later, in the afternoon, I noticed him picking and it started to smell. So I took him right away and sure enough, there was already a (minor) accident. There was still time! So I told him, "lets try for some more" So we sat on the potty for like TWENTY minutes and read about 9 story books.

FInally, I gave up. There was just no more poo coming out of that behind for me.
So I asked, "Why don't you go poop on the potty?"
him: "I only poop for mommy and daddy. And sometimes for Aunt Debbie."
"Why don't you poop for me?"
"Because you're the babysitter."
"So?"
"Babysitters are supposed to PLAY with me not make me POOP."


so funny. I can't wait to be a mommy =]

~WNB

That Crazy Food Girl.....

A typical possible hypothetical scenario I am probably headed for and deserve in this country:

(Future Date with a guy- Picnic- He packs food for us, thinking it will be romantic)

Guy: "First, for our beverage, I brought a lovely blahblahblah wine for us to enjoy."
Me: Oh! Thats amazing! Really....except I can't have wine. *Slanty I'm sorry face*
Guy: Why not?
Me: It has nitrites....they are wine preservatives. It would make me squirm in extremely unfathomable pain in the form of a migraine.
guy: Oh. Ok, No wine.
Me: I'm so sorry. Please, you enjoy the wine for yourself, please. It looks lovely, there is no reason you can't enjoy it.
Guy: Okay. Well, for an appetizer, I bought us some cute Ritz crackers with peanut butter on them, it is so good. My favorite.
Me: Actually, I'm highly allergic to peanuts. *Slanty I'm sorry face-again*
Guy: oh gosh!! Thats horrible! I'm so sorry. No more peanuts or peanut butter. Will you be ok if I eat it?
Me: of course! Please, go ahead! I just can't eat it.
Guy: Okay. Well....please, have some crackers at least.
Me: Well I would except they have milk in them, and are loaded with corn syrup.
Guy: *vacant confusing stare*
Me: I'm lactose intolerant. And I'm trying to avoid corn syrups or corn products from my diet. Not entirely possible, but I'm trying. 
Guy: Oh. . . Okay...So you can't have the cheese I bought for our sandwiches?
Me: Um...nope. And I can't have ham, either. More nitrates. Anything from a pig, really. *sorry face*
Guy: *sighs*....okay.
Me: I'm so sorry.
Guy: No, no worries. How bout our entree....I bought pasta! oh! It has no cheese! Its just tomato sauce and pasta. Simple. *Smile*
Me: I can't have tomatoes.
Guy: You're kidding.
Me: no, I'm so sorry. No ketchup, tomatoes, or tomato sauce or BBQ sauce....its really acidic for my stomach.
Guy: Oh....well, Okay. Hmmm...well, who needs an entree when you can just have dessert?? Lets have some chocolate cake! I brought Fudge!
Me: I can't have chocolate. Another trigger for migraines.
Guy: OK I'm done. *Walks away*.




I'm going to be a lonely person until the end of time, at this rate.

Let me make this clear, right now. I do not want to be "that crazy food girl". But, I also want to make educated food choices. I want my body to be as healthy as it can be. But that is near impossible in this country today. As I read these health books, I learn more and more about how much *crap* goes into processed foods and it makes me want to eat nothing. But I have to eat something. So, I'm left with organic fruits and vegetables, and home made bread...if I really want to do it completely right.

I don't want to be the girl that people are afraid to be friends with or date because she has too many food stipulations. I don't want friends/romantic interests to be afraid to eat in front of me because they think I will look down on them for eating a cheeseburger. I have met many people like that and even as healthy as I do eat, I even feel inferior eating with them. Like they are criticizing my every bite in their head. I don't ever want to be "that girl". I want to be realistic and down to earth about it (no pun intended).

I have to be honest. In high school I ate Burger King at *least* two times a week and even McDonalds in there a couple times. I am not sure how I managed to finish childhood and high school without gaining 300 pounds, but I somehow did it. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have eaten like that. I would re-do it any day. I just simply wasn't educated about any of this then, and my only "allergy" then was peanuts (since birth).

My "no foods list" is primarily composed of allergies. Only one is anaphylactic. The rest produce undesirable symptoms (migraine or GI issues). The rest, (corn products, meat, sugar products) are the three new things I am trying to stay away from after watching "Food, Inc" and reading "Fast Food Nation"....

I think 95% of this country thinks of people like me like we are in some sort of delusional conspiracy. THey are so engrained into thinking there is nothing wrong with fast food, nothing wrong with foods at the supermarket, nothing wrong with foods that have "healthy" claims written on the box (lies), and think that people like me are just "over the top" crazy about it. I am in a nursing program. Most of my friends (not all) are nurses-to-be and lead healthy lives and exercise a lot. Even they would think most of my food choices are a little crazy.

But how far down the "healthy rabbit hole" am I willing to go? Putting aside the set list of allergies I have (that will not change), lets think about making "food no-no choices". Let's say you choose not to eat foods with corn syrup, or high fructose corn syrup, or non-hydrogenated soybean oil, etc. Okay, well that cuts out 97% of your supermarket choices. Even in the products you thought were healthy. Okay, so then...you re feeling optimistic still. You still have fruit and vegetables and meat in the supermarket, right? And bread?  Well, then you remember that the fruits and veggies you see in your supermarket have been trucked across the nation and are not grown seasonally. They have pesticides on them. They are grown on soil that was not given a chance to rest. They lost a lot of their nutrients. So then.....you decide to buy your fruits and veggies at the local farmers market. Ok, great.  Meat, what to say about meat? Personally, chicken is a big part of whats left for me. I have no symptoms associated with eating chicken or steak (occasionally). However, after watching that video I am tempted to stop eating meat. But.....You can see I'm already far enough down on "what I can eat" to stop eating meat. However, I might try baby steps such as "Meatless Mondays" and go from there.

Then that takes care of food. But then...you realize there are horrible chemicals in the toothpaste you use. You have to go buy organic now. And special mouthwash. And then, you see that the cleaning chemicals you use are going to give you cancer and are bad for the earth so you decide you want to buy cleaning products that are made by the earth and are good for the earth and you.

You can see how it can easily get out of hand. You have to draw lines somewhere and make some educated decisions. But who knows whats really the right thing to do? I know people that are so far down the rabbit hole that they think driving cars is bad for your health, or touching plastic will kill you, or sleeping in a bed, or whatever. People like that can move to the middle of the jungle, if you ask me. I'm trying to never come across as that person. But its such a fine line and still draws a lot of negative attention from most of the "American" people. Americans are slowly starting to catch on, thanks to documentaries like "food Inc" and "fast food nation", but not catching on fast enough.

Side note: I wish there was a way to shut down the huge players in the fast food industry. I just wish. But that would probably start the next American Revolution. . . Also, in one of my "food" books I am reading ( I think its FFN) , one of the authors mentioned that the American/Western culture would never do that because the fast food culture is booming the economy. Sadly, thats where people are spending a lot of their money. The "food industry" would not make any money if people grew their own gardens or went to farmers markets...farmers would be making the money again....woah. Imagine that. Also, The Western healthcare system needs fast food. The health care system treats the major "American" diseases : Obesity, Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc... I am going to be a nurse. Hands down I would rather be paid less than watch us continue to take patients like this "because its booming the healthcare system".

It's one thing to make these choices for myself. I can hold my own. It doesnt bother me. It bothers other people more than it bothers me. But having children and getting married is going to be the tricky part. Moving out into my own place soon is going to be the best part of this...I can (hopefully) grow my own garden or buy from a farmers market, and I can COOK, with ingredients I buy. I have to learn how to actually cook, and fast. Really fast. Like, now.  However, once I can meet a guy that can get past the initial disaster "picnic date" or awkward conversation we have on all this, and STILL wants to date me, and marry me, then its time to have kids. Let me say this now: I have no interest in changing the way my future boyfriend/husband eats. I am doing this for my own body. Of course, if he wanted help and wanted to make these choices, I would gladly assist. But I am sure as hell not going to be "that wife" that criticizes her husband when he eats Burger King or whatever. That would be a very short marriage.

But then the kids. I can't control my (future) husbands food choices. He is a fully grown adult that has a RIGHT to make whatever decisions he wants to make. But is it moral to control my children's? If I had complete say, I make these rules: No dairy, no high fructose corn syrup, no corn products, not too much meat, and no fast food (maybe like once a month *maybe!*).  Is that so wrong? Is it unethical to keep your child away from food you know is bad? Thats good, right?  If you start the child off with these dietary habits from birth, they won't even know the difference until they enter the school system. And I am sure as hell not going to keep my kids home from school just so I can control what they eat. Again, I dont want to be that person. But what happens when little Benny goes to eat at a friends house, and they are having McDonalds for dinner? And Benny likes it? And Benny gets mad at me when I say we are not having that in this household?

I don't want to be the "annoying mom on the block"...where other moms dont want to have my kid over because they don't know what to feed the kid. I don't want to have to panic when I send my kids to other houses. I want my kids to have friends. I dont want my kid to be the poor kid at the lunch table with the "weird organic food".   It makes me sad. I suppose if I want to be realistic about it, the best thing I can do is feed my children "good" food when I am with them, and hope for the best when I am not (at school and at other houses, etc).

I wish there were "healthy food communities- neighborhoods" where realistic (future) mom's like me could live in with their kids (and husband of course!) where everyone made healthy choices like this. Where you could send kids to other houses to play with no problem. The whole neighborhood is dairy free. You could have block parties and not have to worry about whats in the food......just imagine. Maybe one day.

Ok this is really long. I have a little bit more to say, but also have to get to bed. Early Riser tomorrow morning, I am following a Nurse Supervisor as a school assignment for my leadership/management course and I am super excited!!! I'll let ya'll know If i learn any thing awesome.

Again, thank you so much for reading another long post. This is really getting to be a huge passion and focus of mine. Thanks for bearing with me....-


WIth love,

~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

New York Times....and Babies.

That's right.

I read the New York Times.

For an explanation on what the flying duck I am talking about, Read This Post .

I swear, I am not an idiot. But this is an accomplishment, for me. Sadly. Very, very, sadly.

Okay, truth is...I had a two hour time span to read the entire paper. I'm just a beginner.

I made it through ~10 pages (with advertisments), and I read about 10 articles.

But I learned a lot! I learned a lot (enough) about Egypt to keep up with the discussions in my classroom, and I learned that Greece is having a terrible time keeping immigrants out of their borders (who knew?) and Afganistan is having a lot of problems with the Taliban (thats nothing new, I guess?), I learned a lot about Mubarak, and a couple more things. I *even* watched Obama's address to our country about the situation in Egypt. But that has nothing to do with the NYT- That's only because he posted it on twitter. Figures. But, I did watch the video while sitting in the library, with the NYT in front of me, open, so I probably looked smart. Anyway, my goal is to finish yesterdays paper. I want to read it all. And then I'll start todays, and then tomorrows, etc.

The teacher I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, whom I respect greatly and think is very smart, was chatting with me and a fellow classmate the other day after class. My friend asked, "How do you find all these articles? (That she talked about in class). You are so smart" (Ok, it wasnt said exactly like that, but that was the general gist of the message). And my teacher responded solely with "Well, I read the New York Times, religiously."

So, is this phase of mine to read the NYT and be smarter completely ridiculous, fake and pathetic? Maybe...probably...but, It can't hurt to try. :-(

ANYWAY, on to a happier topic....BABIES!

Yesterday was my FIRST community health clinical! I was SO NERVOUS, and my partner was amazing (she did her assignment first), and then it was my turn and I was definitely nervous. We both had to do a home visit to a mother and a newborn, to assess how both of them were doing. In addition, both of these visits were either going to be in Trenton/Ewing/Hamilton/Lawrence... so, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the aspect of having to lock my doors and always be on guard when going to visit a newborn. But thats another blog post. BUT, the families we both met were FABULOUS, and so nice! And the babies were adorable. "My baby" aka my assignment, was a doll. I did my assessment of her, played with her a little bit (she was 3 1/2 months) and then I had to re-dress her and that caused her to start crying (apparantly babies don't like to be dressed because this happened on my partner's "baby" too), so I picked her up. I'm not entirely sure if the mom wanted me to pick her up, but I sensed a mutual sense of trust vibes. And, I have baby-withdrawal. I love babies. And I never get to see any. My cousins are all grown up, and I babysit no babies (they are all grown up), so I miss taking care and holding babies. So, I really couldn't help myself from picking this adorable baby up. So I held her for about 15 minutes while talking to the mom, it was so nice. She kept looking at my face and playing with my glasses, ah, I LOVE BABIES. Can you tell? Did I mention that?

Then....oh, then... My stream of consciousness as I held this baby:

This baby is so cute. Wow, this baby is getting heavy. My arm is hurting. Ouch. How do mom's do this ALL day? They must have buff arms. Hmm...Holy crap, this baby is getting heavier by the second. I'm going to sit down, and put the baby on my lap. Oh, crap, the baby doesn't like that. Lets stand back up. Maybe I'll switch arms. Ah, the mom can tell I think she's heavy. She's probably laughing inside of her and probably thinks I am a wimp because its been like 15 minutes and this baby is only about 20 pounds, but it is heavy, really.

Then, we started talking about how much the baby sleeps, and the mom was saying how she was lucky the baby slept until 4 am.

I literally froze in my steps. With the baby in my hand. 4 am? thats lucky?

I clearly will not be ready for motherhood, ever, until I can get over the fact that sleep will be nonexistent and I can throw my incessant need to sleep in or I get cranky every morning notion out the window. I'll work on that after I graduate.

Well I have clearly rambled on long enough. But its okay, because I cannot think of any foreseeable blog posts that I have in mind to write about (usually I have a couple ideas), so...you can have a break of reading my retarded ramblings. I should take a class in "Not-writing-like-I-think" and therefore not-rambling. I'll work on that.

Au revior~

~ A Rambling Writer in a Nurse's Body

P.S.= My hands smell like playdough. What the flying duck....?

You're Going to be SO EXCITED! (Well, I am).

Because I have not one, but like....three or four pictures of the week. I'll regret this next week, when I'm like....crap, I need a picture of the week, but in the here and now- I'm pretty excited. So here goes: Enjoy. :)




This picture was taken a couple of nights ago, when I was walking home from watching the movie on campus. This font is really small so I will continue in non-caption format.  



So I'm walking home, and looking at all the messy piles of dirty snow around me. I hate dirty snow, and muddy snow, and yuck in general. And then.....a squirrel jumped out in front of me (our campus has CRAZY squirrels), and I watched where it went, and it went onto our football field. I was amazed as it glided across the perfect ice- snow. It was the only area of snow that hadn't been foot-printed....it was beautiful. And perfect. I had the overwhelming desire to sneak through that fence and jump around in it and...make a snow angel. :-)

This was funny. I was in a rush to leave my townhouse one morning, but I happened to look down at the bench outside my house and found this seashell.

At first I was like, "Oh, nice seashell.." and kept walking. But then I thought about it and I was thinking, what is a sea shell doing on a bench, outside my townhouse, in the middle of winter, in my area? (Not near the beach. Like...2+hours from the beach.) Did I mention in the middle of winter? Outside my townhouse? So after all this thinking, I was like-Oh my goodness that would be a good picture. So I looked around to see if anyone was watching because I always feel funny taking pictures with my cell phone when people are watching, and I took it. I wonder who put the seashell there? I like it :)



Adorable lovebug and her doggie.



This is the gorgeous, amazing, and fascinatingly smart little girl I babysit every so often. She called me on rather short notice today and needed me to babysit because her husband still had not returned home from plowing  from our recent snow storm  and she needed to go to work. So, pretty much as soon as I got there, she was already on her way out of the house and the kids were already in their snow suits and were playing outside. All I got was, "They will show you where to sled! Just keep them warm!" So we started to sled. It was a lot of fun! Despite "sledding"=me pulling them down a hill with a string, turning around and pulling them up the hill with the string. Sledding.



Another sepia-version of the girl and her sled.



I really liked this because some snow flakes got on my iphone camera (AH! WATER!) but it was ok and it made for a really good picture. This little boy (girl's older brother), asked me if he could make a snow angel.....me: "Um, of course you can?" So we made at least 50 snow angels. Their back yard is very angelic right now. But it was a lot of fun and this picture sort of reminded me of the movie cover "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (GREAT MOVIE), and I had to take it.

This past summer, when I started watching these kids, it was more of a "I need money so I guess I'll do it even though I'm always tired/busy and I don't really know how to interact with kids" kind of thing. But now, I really look forward to everytime I get to see them. They are growing so fast every time I see them. They trust me now. They give me kisses and hugs when I see them. They ask me questions and like my answers. They eat food I give them! So weird! I know I am just babysitting, but It makes me feel like a mom and I love it. When I first started babysitting, the little girl did not speak at all (she was 17 months). Now she is speaking in full sentences! Short sentences, but meaningful and with purpose. So amazing!!

And I felt really special when the mom came home and I helped her put the kids in her car after we had been playing in the snow for about 30 minutes, and I picked them both up, put them in the car seats, and then noticed the girl's gloves were wet so I asked her for them and I told her I needed to dry them off because they were so wet and I didn't want her hands to be cold. And then the mom asked her son, (who is 3 1/2) , "Aww, Julie is going to be such a good mommy, isn't she?" And the boy was like, "Yeah!" It was so cute. I can't wait to be a mommy, one day.

So for special/funny moment of the day:
I had just gotten the kids all suited up in their snow suits but since I got them ready first I told them they needed to wait for me to get ready to go (go pee, get my coat on, boots on, etc.) So I'm in the bathroom peeing with the door slightly open so I can hear what they are doing, and I hear the boy say "No! You can NOT make snow angels in the house! There is NO snow!" And I leaned forward and found the little girl lying on the wood floor making (well, trying) to make snow angels and her brother leaning over her trying to tell her not too. It made me giggle :)

YAY for good days :)

~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

Related Posts:

Unsurpassable Amounts of Snow

Babysitting and Lego Lessons

Picture of the Week-Parenting

Picture of the Week

A little late again, but I'd rather wait for an awesome picture that comes Sunday or whenever, than find an iffy one on Friday. :-) So this one I took today, because I these two made me smile so much. They sat at the table next to me in Barnes and Noble and this was the best dad ever. I aged him to be pretty young (20-25) and the little boy in the chair is approximately 3. Well, this dad was so devoted. I first saw them making laps around the store, the dad following the little boy around making conversation, as they passed me I heard from the dad, "It's just like a maze, Isn't it??" (commenting on the store layout)...and he had the sippy cup in hand, ready to go, and multiple children's books in hand. Later is when I realized that the same two had sat down next to me. Obviously within ear shot, I was able to hear the lovely sound of this dad reading 8 ( I kid you not!) Thomas the Tank Engine books. The boy was paying close attention, and was making remarks and asking questions. The dad was like, genuinely interested and cared. It was so adorable to watch. I know one too many parents that would find a stack of children's books and sit them down to read by them selves so that the parent can do his own thing. But anyway, here is the picture:

I made it so that you couldn't see either of their faces and therefore they are unrecognizeable and it is OK to put on the internet! Right? Lol. o_O

Not much to say recently...(blogwise)...life has been rather unexclamatory (new word?). And I'd rather not bore you with minor and silly things just for the sake of writing a daily blog entry. And, finals are coming (blech) this week, so I may not have much to say at all this week. Or maybe I'll procrastinate and i'll coincidentally have a LOT to say, who knows? ;)
So hopefully new, interesting, topics will come to mind soon...otherwise, happy reading and have a nice evening :)


~WNB

Disclaimer: I am not a creeper! I swear.