7 Quick Takes about Cute Puppies, Googly Monsters, and Hearing Yourself Come Out of Your Kids' Mouths

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

Recently I got a notification that my Google account storage was almost used up, and I thought that was weird because I keep a pretty clean inbox. 

Then I saw that it included Google Drive and immediately knew that was the problem. Because I have never once cleaned it out.

So I spent some time going through all the random sign ups and teacher information sheets I've accumulated over the years, deciding what to keep and what delete. It was weird when I got to the end of the 2019-2020, when school was shut down and went 100% virtual.

Of course there were normal things like worksheets, but there were also complete lesson plans and videos of the gym teacher demonstrating the games at home with her own kids. And let's not forget the "passing of the torch" video that kicked off virtual Field Day, with shots of all the teachers in separate videos handing a handmade torch and spliced together.

At the time it felt like the only thing we could do so we just kind of took it in stride, but looking back it seemed really strange.

—2—

My teenage daughters are pet sitting for a friend. They've got two dogs and two puppies. They stay over there most of the time since the puppies require a lot of attention, but they come over for a few hours at dinner so we don't forget what they look like. 

If they both have work at the same time and the puppies need someone to check on them, I go over there with my little kids (they beg to do this all day long so I don't think they mind.)

The 10-year-old is never without a book in her hand, even when playing with a cute puppy.

The 6-year-old is more interested in their toys, but the puppies are interested in him.

The 8-year-old playing with the dogs.

It's really funny watching how the mother dog watches the puppies. Whenever they're out of their pen, she follows them around and nips them on the neck to discipline them if they do something they're not supposed to do. The family told us she does this but I didn't really believe it until I saw it myself.

One time one of the puppies found a little scrap of paper on the floor and before I could even do anything, her mom came over and grabbed it out of her mouth, then went to the opposite side of the room and dropped it in the corner. It was exactly like a human mom following her toddler around saying, "That's not a toy."

—3—

I have been getting the bizarre feeling lately that our family is shrinking. 

We no longer take up a whole pew at church: the 18-year-old goes to a student ward (a congregation with other young adults in the area), my 16-year-old sits up front doing the Zoom broadcast, and my 14-year-old is usually passing the bread and water to the rest of the congregation. 

Same thing at dinner. The kids have so many activities and camps and work now that at least a few times a week, dinner is just me, Phillip, and two kids at this giant dining room table. (I wish I could say it was quieter but it's usually not.)

It's going to be a real adjustment. Every stage of motherhood is so all-consuming that you just can't believe it would ever change, even though logically you know it will.

—4—

So my 10-year-old scratched my cornea with an Amazon envelope. She was holding it in her hands and gestured with it just as I turned around, and let's just say it wasn't pleasant.

At first, I wasn't planning to go to the optometrist. About 5 years ago, one of my nursing babies reached up and poked me in the eye, and I rushed to the office worried I was going to be blinded for the rest of my life. They said it would heal on its own, which it did.

So I wasn't going to go in, but it got so intense on Day Two that I started to worry. You know how you feel when a piece of sand gets in your eye and every instinct in your body is screaming, This is an emergency! Do something!  It felt like that, but constantly for every second of the day and there was nothing I could do about it. 

Most of that day I alternated between successfully ignoring it and breaking down weeping when I couldn't ignore it anymore. (I mean, weeping even more than normal because my right eye was already watering so much there were literal tears rolling down that side of my face.)

Long story short, I started to worry I'd done permanent damage and went to the doctor. He looked at my chart and saw the last time I'd come in with a corneal scratch and joked, "Looks like your kids are out to get you!"

I was like DUDE, I KNOW.

Anyway, long story short he said he it looked like the scratch was healing up and should feel better in the next few days. Which it did. 

Ordinarily I would've been upset that I'd gone in again for nothing, but he put in some anesthetic eye drops for the exam that gave me an hour of sweet relief and in my opinion, that made the whole thing worth it.

—5—

A neighboring city has a weekly craft-and-a-show event for kids in the summer. I don't think we've been since the start of COVID, but we went this week and it was just like old times.

The craft was designing monsters out of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and a styrofoam ball. 

The show was a juggling act, with humor incorporated throughout. At one point the juggler needed two people to play catch with a ball with each other. First, he ran out into the audience and grabbed a guy, and then it was a like a slow-motion scene horror movie as I watched him run right toward me.

I do not throw balls. And I do not catch balls. And now I had to do both, on stage and in front of everyone. It was basically the worst. 

I concentrated on that ball harder than I've ever concentrated on an object before, willing my uncoordinated hands to catch it as it sailed through the air. And also to not throw it 10 feet over the guy's head because that's how good my aim is.

Luckily, I only dropped it once and did one awkward throw that the guy still managed to catch. And I don't think I mortified my kids too much. I was glad to sit down, though.

—6—

My 6-year-old lost his first tooth! It's my last first lost tooth as a parent. And it just so happened that I remembered to be the Tooth Fairy this time... barely.  

Phillip was out of town so I'd texted him about the lost tooth earlier that day, and he just happened to text me back about it right as I was going to bed which reminded me.

Let's at least let this kid experience the magic a few times before he realizes how things actually work around here.

—7—

In the car, I heard my 10-year-old and her 8-year-old brother arguing in the backseat. I didn't catch the beginning of the argument so who knows what it was about, but he was at that point muttering something snarky at her under his breath.

Crossing her arms over her chest she told him, "If you're embarrassed to say it out loud, then you probably shouldn't be saying it at all." 

He defended his snide comment, to which she responded with another one of my all-purpose lines: "Then say it inside your head, because no one else wants to hear it." Using my exact inflection, everything. 

Seeing yourself reflected so accurately by your own child is both glorious and terrifying to behold.

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