Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Summertime Rules and Regulations.

Here's to summer...
Last night, well night before last if you really wanna look at it that way... we had an FHE about our summertime rules. We went over lots of information with the girls. Everything from what bugs and spiders are good and we shouldn't run screaming from them, to which ones we should tell mom and dad about and not touch. Swimming rules. Staying in the yard rules. Stranger Danger. What to do if they get lost or separated from us. Chores. Keeping food in the kitchen. The one that I always hate to even bring up because it makes me feel so sad that this world isn't a safe place... good touching and bad touching. We have talked with them about it before, but...
There was an incident this last week in Orem with a mom and her little girl at a Wal-Mart. The mom left her little girl in the shopping cart to go around the corner and get an item. A stranger came up and touched her underneath her shorts. The girl told her mom, the mom saw the guy, and he knew that she had told on him and he ran. So we have to teach our children now, that even when they think that they are safe, it is possible that bad things can still happen. I don't want to teach my kids to fear everyone and every situation, but I think it is important to teach them what isn't acceptable and what they should do about it. I want them to know that I know what goes on and they should tell me if it were to happen.
So tonight we quizzed the girls at dinner.
Me: "Okay Ash, pretend like I am a stranger... 'Hi little girl. What's your name?'"
Ash: "Ashley!"
Mer: "Buzzz!"
Lynn: "She did it wrong! Let me do it!"
Me: "Now remember, I am a stranger...'Hi little girl. Your mom wants me to take you home. I have candy in my car, c'mon.'"
Lynn: "Nope. What's the password?"
Me: "Fartknocker?"
Ash: (giggle)
Lynn: "Nope!"
We have taught them that they can still be friendly, not grumps, but to keep their distance.
We also went to see the hotel. It has a second floor now! It is so amazing to see it is really happening. Every day, something new is going on down there. It's so cool to watch and to know that this is just another part of our future.
Kevin and Randee lost the baby... I feel so bad for him, since this is his first experience at fatherhood... I hope it happens for them soon.
Ally has gotten me in the mood to scrap. Since I am feeling better, but still don't have the energy back, I have been trying to get caught up on housework before I play. Today I was all set out to get all the floors done. I busted my butt to get everything in it's rightful place and clean up trash along the way, got all the vacuuming done and went to use my favorite tool (well, up until today...) the Swiffer. To my horror, it just wouldn't work. I replaced the batteries thinking that was the kink, nope, nothing. Now I do have to say that Ashley has a little kindergarten crush on the Swiffer. She has Swiffer radar and knows when the cleaning closet is open and goes to the Swiffer and presses the button just to hear the sound it makes. I keep the cleaner separate, because I have learned that she likes to do that. So I thought that she wore out the batteries. Apparently it is something far, far worse... my floors aren't as clean as I had hoped they would be.
But I do plan to play tomorrow!
We spent part of the evening at Lagoon... three year old metldowns as we leave the park and five year olds falling off of retaining walls... might just keep us away for a little while. Peyton was the best behaved.
As the girls were going to bed, we had to explain the science of shadows to Ashley. She thinks that they will hurt her. That was interesting. She just couldn't seem to stay in bed after that. She got up to go to the bathroom, again. To get a drink, and then to tell us, "Goodnight, don't let the big bugs bite." And finally, she brought in her blanket to me and asked if I would "decorate it on her". I have no idea how she came up with that word for spread it out... so I "decorated" her, and they were out. And now my post is done, and so is my float!

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