Dandelion Days

Today, after undressing Wyatt down to his diaper, our doctor's appointment ritual, I met the nurse at scale and as I placed him in it I announced that there was no way Wyatt was less than 10lbs. She smiled at my guess and said "Okay! Let's see!" and sure enough he tipped that scale right to the 10th notch, on the dot. He has also grown from his 20" at birth to 23"! My big boy! He took his second round of Hepatitis B immunizations like a champ, only crying out for about a quarter of a minute and then all was well. Next time might not go over so well as they informed me that he gets a collection of 5 shots at that time. What genius came up with the idea to give a baby 5 shots at once?? Can't they spread them out over a period of time; I'll gladly take Wyatt back to them every week for 5 weeks if necessary to spare him the trauma of getting 5 shots at once. Or better yet, can't they stick, no pun inteded, all the immunizations into one syringe? One of my friends said that she was given the option to have her baby's immunizations spread out or given in chunks, several shots at a time. I received no such offering. Surely there has to be a better way.

On a lighter albeit more digusting note, the fam was house hunting the other day, following our real estate agents dusty red sports car from one house to another and I, who was sitting in the back seat between Ryleigh and Wyatt, look over at Ryleigh. I saw her staring at her thumb and her forefinger as they were playing with something, rolling it around, and clamping down on it, testing its stickiness, no doubt. It took me a minute to figure out what it was and then it hit me...she had apparently dug around into her nose and extracted a huge, yellow booger and was playing with it like it was remnants from an old can of play-doh! As my face scrunched up and my gag reflex kicked in, I grabbed a tissue and wiped her fingers clean, telling her how disgusting that was and not to do it again. She responded with "Can I hold Wyatt's hand" to which I replied, "Absolutely not until you have washed your hands, Boogerfingers!" She thought that was funny and proceeded to touch my arm over and over with them, laughing like crazy. Kids.



I'll close this blog with a revelation I had the other day. When was the last time you picked a dandelion and twirled in a circle with it or simply blew on it like a birthday candle to watch all of its fuzzy white seeds whirl around you? When you were a kid, right? Today, as I walked past a tribe of dandelions lining the walkway in front of my house, after arriving home from having broken down on the side of the road bringing Wyatt back home from his doctor's appointment, I wondered just that. How the innocence and simplicity of childhood are forgotten as we get older and become more absorbed in the daily aspects of life; work, errands, breaking down on the side of the road and wiping boogers off our children's hands. In the midst of our mundane and busy schedules we should strive to regularly take a moment (or two) to rekindle the carefree aura of our childhood. So, stop whatever you're doing, go outside, pick a dandelion, take a deep breath, and release.