Tag: the lass

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Family

How Does She Do That?

Picked up the lass from the bus today and she has a substitute sucker bus driver. As the lass is climbing down off the bus, the driver turns to me and says (roughly):

“She was a huge help today. She was telling me where all the other kids stops were, what way to go, who got off at each stop. She’s just adorable. I love her!!“

She said all this with a huge pleasant smile on her face making it clear that the lass had probably made at least her morning, probably her day and likely her week. It wouldn’t have surprised me if her bus driver had said she couldn’t wait to be on the bus with the lass again tomorrow!

All of this just left me in slack-jawed amazement at the powers of the lass. It’s one thing when the Grandparent’s are duped. I expect that because, well, they’re the Grandparents- they spoil the kids and then go home at the end of the day with a smile on their face knowing they can go home at the end of the day. As opposed to the Wife and I, who are stuck at home … with her. All the time.

… Sigh …

But I digress…

It’s one thing for family, but she regularly does this with complete strangers. She smiles at them, chirps a happily little tune and before you know it the stranger is dancing like a serpent in front of a charmer. She’s particularly effective with women (No idea why). It could be the teller at the bank, the bagger at the grocery store, the cashier at a store, an army drill instructor, the Grinch…

When they comment about how sweet/lovable she is, I used to retort “Live with her for a day and then tell me what you think.” It was always good for a laugh. But I don’t say that much anymore. The world is her roller coaster and I’m just along for the ride.

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Family

The New England Aquarium

That’s where we spent our last day of vacation. It was a surprise for the kids, though they did their level best to get us to spill the beans ahead of time. After realizing the brute force approach wasn’t working (“Where are we going?” Answer: “You’ll see” or “To where we’re going.”) they started using more elaborate strategies. For instance, they’d ask if we were going to place ‘X’ in an attempt to narrow down the field of possibilities. They’d ask what city it was in. Or they’d ask if we’d been “there” before. Regardless of the tactic, we maintained our cone of silence right until our arrival.

The penguins were the big attraction. They were center stage around a massive center-column aquarium with all kinds of fish swimming around, including what looked like a couple of sand sharks. There were also some groupers and a couple of massive sea turtles. I’d say that aquarium was roughly 4 stories tall and about 50-60 feet in diameter. As big as it was, many of the fish in it looked cramped for space- especially the sharks and groupers.

Around the center-aquarium were a variety of smaller aquariums stuffed to the gills (ahem) with fish. A few of the tanks had some good sized fish, but mostly they were of the smaller variety. The high lite was when the kids got to see some Cuttle Fish eat shrimp. Let’s face it, Nature at her rawest is pretty cool in general.

We ended the day watching a 3-D Imax movie about fish of the sea. It was a little disappointing, in truth, because it spent a disproportionate amount of time on just a few types of fish, the Cuttle fish in particular. It was also narrated by Jim Carrey, whom made sure to take the time to lecture us about how evil we all are and how we’re destroying our oceans but “we’re starting to learn we can do things better” blah blah blah. Too bad a shark couldn’t take a bite out of his ass.

The fun thing about the 3-D was the lass, who repeatedly would put her hand out to “pet” or touch the fish. The end featured a section where seals were coming right up to the camera and that was when she was at her most frantic in attempts to pet the seals. It was amusing to watch. When everything was done, I asked her what the seals felt like. She replied “Dad, I couldn’t actually touch them! It was just a movie.”

Well, the 3-D hadn’t fooled me. But she certainly did.

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Family

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Never underestimate the ability of kids to turn something simple into something not so simple. Perhaps it’s a superpower. Parent’s insert themselves into a situation and kids immediately begin deploying their “Obfuscation” ability by making their eyes wide and using the words “But she…” or “But he…”

The boy was supposed to take a shower. But when the Wife made the request to him, he just stood there and stared at her, rooted to the spot. Since the lass also needed a shower, and the boy seemed to be in some kind of temporary state of paralysis, she asked the lass instead to go.

Which was all the boy needed to snap him out of his self-imposed stroke. He took off like a shot to be the “first” in the shower. The lass, not to be outdone, also took off. Unfortunately for her, she is not a physical match to her brother and he beat her there easily. So she now launches into a frustrated, tearful “Heeeee butted in front of meeeee….”

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Family

The Hits Keep Coming

Well, last night the lass broke out with a rash and complained about being itchy all over. She also yakked shortly after lunch and her first dose of the new medication (For those counting, that’s 5 straight days with puke. Awesome sauce.) The Wife did some research and determined there was a decent chance she was allergic to the meds. There is good news in that the meds are helping with her other symptoms.

Too bad she’s gained the others.

So back to the doctor today. He agreed that circumstances were suspicious and switched her to another medication. Part of the rash is normal for strep throat, if I understand everything correctly, but the doctor didn’t want to take chances with the New Year holiday coming up in a couple of days.

So another trip to the pharmacy and we’ll see what comes next.

Christmas vacation just doesn’t get any better than this.

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Family

Stupid

Rare form for the lass this morning. She couldn’t get her coat on, so when she climbed into the car she was screaming at the top of her lungs about the “stupid coat.” She started slamming it against her brother, who curled up on his side to defend himself from the hurricane on the other side of the car. I yelled at her to knock it off and she yelled right back that she wasn’t doing anything.

Happy Monday!

She couldn’t get her coat on because whoever had previously worn the item last (ahem), had turned the sleeves inside out in the process of taking it off. After pointing that fact out, she fixed it and then resumed operation “Put On My Coat.” Which again ended in failure and her screaming about the stupid coat. I glanced over my shoulder: she had both arms in the sleeves this time, but couldn’t pull the coat down behind her because of the seatbelt she was wearing. When I point out, she pulled the coat off again and with a outsized “harumph” crumpled it into a ball in her lap.

I’m glad the school gets her for the rest of the morning.

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Family

The Lass’ Morning

The lass was … in a mood from the moment her feet hit the floor this morning. She came down stairs and groused about being hungry. When the Wife asked her to go get dressed, she defiantly replied “No.” When she was asked thereafter, she stated she hated getting dressed because she “hates the shirt with buttons because they are too hard to button.” She hated the pants to, because of the “button” as well. Charmingly consistent. Unfortunately for her the pants have a snap, not a button. Regardless, she still didn’t like them.

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