I wish balloons didn't pop either, buddy.

Notes from our Saturday:

My girl learned how to climb up our alp-like chairs.
You Go Girl! 

 The tall ones that are easily toppled, especially when a toddler is atop.   
....No, wait, Sit down!  Where did you find that knife?  Put down mommy's coffee! SIT DOWN!  Don't push back! Nooo.... Ahhh! 

I think it's only a matter of time before we visit the ER. 
Though our table will clearly stay clutter free going forward. 

In other news, we were woken by the tornado sirens at 4:30 this morning, and dutiful parents that we are we shuffled everyone down to the basement. Which was a wild 'n crazy adventure for them, less so for the rapidly-nearing-40 crowd.  My sister had given me this book a while back, feeding my fascination with the one-off disaster and our reactions thereto.  Some of it was spent on the folks that ignore the fire alarm or tornado siren and end up burned /squished, respectively.  Some because they didn't want to embarrass themselves by panicking.  Or some, who just can't be bothered (me, ten years ago).  Now I don't want to be the twit who stays in her comfy bed, despite the siren, and ends up squished under the bathtub because even though one of us already had our tornado of the year and it would be statistically impossible for it to happen twice (you know that's a joke, right?).  I am QUITE SURE the one alarm I ignore will herald the Actual Emergency (as in "had this been an Actual Emergency...") - because my life IS the one off.  Such were my thoughts at 4:30am.

We went to the company picnic today and we DID have a great time.  Everyone else was busy wrangling their kids - I don't know why I thought we'd be on display.  My fabulous friends were there & one kid short for the day so bonus equal kid:adult ratio!  Also, bonus was the unexpectedly diverse crowd - lots of beautiful saris, a couple wheelchairs, and one kid with a cochlear implant.  Who was sitting next to the deepest puddle my girl could find & insisted on splashing in.  Not that her splashes could have reached his head, but I don't think Julia would approve if we took out a CI system. 

She LOVED the bass & was dancing on stage.  Which I have no pictures of because I suck.



HOW CUTE IS THIS KID!?!?



Whee!!! 

Also, thanks to the 4:30 wake up call, and the jumpy things, and four hours of repeat sugar highs, my son was exhausted.  We were at the last ice cream stop of the day and his balloon thingy popped, resulting in great heaving sobs.  I was going to hustle him off to the car (I mean it was a balloon) but he hardly ever cries like that and it was supposed to be a fun day so I caved and we headed back to the balloon lady.  Managing to hit 3 of the top 5 Poor Parenting Tips in the process.  There was a long line and she was muttering darkly about getting to her next job but we persevered, got a new damn balloon thingy and ... not a full two minutes later it popped too.  GREATER HEAVING SOBS.  The timing would have been funny if he hadn't been so crushed.  We were well past closing time and they'd already broken down most of the equipment and tables so I grabbed the mylar balloons left at what had been the pretzel stand and we dashed casually sauntered to the car.  The first step on a slippery slope to a life of crime.

Also, something about teaching him to handle adversity and disappointment... Clearly not the right moment today in his post-carnival state of exhaustion & crashing blood sugars (Today was a lesson in Mommy will try to make it right, even if it is just a balloon) but this is when it starts, isn't it?  More to come on that, maybe. 

Contraband.