- Out of the mouth of babes: VOL XLI -

Juli is still a liiiiittle too little to start providing her own content for "Out of the mouth of babes" posts, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't already looking forward to some very entertaining years of Juliette-isms that are sure to come! Meanwhile today, this gal wasn't about to find herself on the sidelines for the 1.3 minutes of fame behind the lens that her big sisters had!  We like to call this little game the "six snap sesh" -- AKA how many faces/poses can you make in ~1 minute for six quick pics?! 

 Long story short? ...We're in big trouble with this girl!!! *all the heart-eye emojisss*

- Out of the mouth of babes: VOL XL -

While driving through the country in December:
"Look, Mommy!  That tree is naked!"

While driving past a very bundled up human walking her dog on a very cold morning:
Scarlett:  "How does God bundle you up to go on a walk if it's cold in Heaven?"
Harper:  "Well once you stop breathing and your heart and brain stops working, then your soul goes to Heaven and God makes you healthy again. And Scarlett, souls don't get cold."
Me: .....

While observing the GMC logo:
"Mommy, that is not how you write a 'G' OR a 'C!'"

After visiting Santa:
Scarlett:  "Mommy, is Santa a Fleming?"
Me:  "No..."
Scarlett:  "What is he?"
Me:  "...A Claus?"

Randomly:
Scarlett:  "I telled 'da elf that Hawpa [Harper] did something wrong!"
Me:  "Oh, yeah?  Do you think he's gonna tell Santa?"
Scarlett:  "Mmmmmmmmmhm."

On Christmas Eve, as we're driving home from Brian's family Christmas:
"Oh, what a crazy day!  First we went to church, then we went to a party, now we're going home to bed so we can wake up the next day and see if Santa came! PHEW!"

On same said drive^^:
"I thought I saw Santa in the sky but it's just a white star..."

On same said drive ^^:
Scarlett, excitedly, looking for Santa in the sky and talking 10 miles per minute: "Santaaaa Claus is coming to town, oh yeah!  I see 4 red lights!  I think it's Rudolph!!!  Because he pob-ee [probably] has 4 lights... Well, I KNOW he has one bright nose!  And one light on his back!  Actually, I think I see Santa about to land his sleigh!!!"
Harper, matter-of-fact-ly, also looking for Santa in the sky but talking 1/10 of a mile per minute:  ".....Scarlett, that's a police car."

Pulling into the garage from said Christmas Eve drive home ^^:
"Everybody get in bed so Santa can come!  No movies!  NO MISCHIEF!  Santa Claus is coming to town, oh yeah!  ...Maybe he already came because it was so quiet in the house and the lights were off?  Wait, is that him in the sky?  I think he's in 'da subba-vision [subdivision]!!!"

Randomly:
Scarlett:  "I NEVA wanna be a teenage-a [teenager]."
Harper:  "....Well, Scarlett, you ARE gonna be one unless you die before then."
Me: .....

While singing to some tunes:
Scarlett:  "....shut up and dance with me!"
Harper:  "Scarlett, when you go to reconciliation you're gonna have to say sorry for saying all those bad words."
Scarlett:  "No, I imment [am not]."
Harper:  "Yes, you are."
Scarlett:  "No, I imment.  I'm singing a SONG, Hawpa [Harper], so it doesn't count."

On the drive home from her birthday bash:
Me:  "Scarlett, what was the best part about your birthday?"
Scarlett: "Going to the play place!"
Me: "What was the worst part about your birthday?"
Scarlett:  "Ummmmm...that I had to leave the play place!"

The day after her birthday/birthday bash:
Scarlett:  "When can we celebrate my birthday at home?"
Me:  "What do you mean?"
Scarlett: "Like clean up everything and start over.......but get the same cake."
Me: .....

While driving home from school one day:
Scarlett: "How does Coach Brad even make any money? Because you don't make money doing P.E."
Harper:  "Well, Scarlett, the principal gets money from the priest. And the priest gets money from the president. And so all these people in the world that pay for stuff, it goes to the president. And that is how they pay for P.E."

Randomly:
"Hey mom, you know Jesus is in Heaven, right?"

- Out of the mouth of babes: VOL XXXIX -

While driving somewhere:
Harper:  "Mom, when you started driving, did you use a map?"
Me:  "Yeah, and I still do, because I don't always know where I'm going!  But when I started driving, there were no maps on phones, just papers that you had to get out and read..."
Harper:  "That sounds complicated!"

 

On the way to the airport at 3:30am for a 6:15am flight:
"I think we woke up a little too early..."

While watching an episode of The Chosen:
Harper:  "Does that guy have leper-cy?"
Me:  "I don't think so..."
Harper:  "Oh.  Well I know what it means!"
Me:  "Oh really?  What?"
Harper:  "It means your skin gets all rawl [raw] and it smells gross."
Me:  .....

Randomly:
Me:  "I'm so glad you and Jules have each other! A big sister and a little sister!"
Harper:  "Yeah, but next in line there MIGHT be a boy... Because you can have babies 'til you're 40, so you  have a LONG way to go!"
Me: .....

While watching Juliette play with her monkey stuffy:
Me:  "I wonder what monkeys think about all day?"
Harper, matter-of-factly, without skipping a beat:  "They probably think about bananas."

While getting ready for bed:
"Mom, why don't you have any real pajamas like Scarlett and me?  You just have like...junk clothes!"

While doing homework:
Harper:  "Mom!!! I finished all my minute math before the timer ticked off!"
Me:  "Wow! You must be SUPER smart."
Harper: "Yeah. I am. Well, I thunk realllly hard..."

Randomly:
Harper:  "I don't want kids.  Have you ever thought of how sloppy they are?  They draw on the walls... They throw food on the floor... They throw up sometimes... I just want to have dogs instead."
Me, silently, thinking it actually isn't a bad plan: .....

Randomly:
"If I had to marry someone out of my class, it would be _____!  He is such a nice, funny, cute, little boy!"

 

 

 

After driving past 3 police SUVs parked in the subdivision:
Harper:  "What are they doing here?"
Me: "Not sure... Maybe looking around for a weirdo."
Harper, after a long silence: "Well, maybe they're not here to catch a weirdo, maybe they're just here to see if everyone is doing good in the snow!"
Me: .....

While looking at her birth book:
"Awww, this is so cute!  When I get dogs, I'm going to make them books like these!"

Randomly:
"I know what people who don't eat meat are called! ...A veterinarian [vegetarian]!"

While driving through a hazard zone:
"MOM!  Slow down for the instruction [construction]!"

 

After coming out of bed one evening and observing a few minutes of a Netflix documentary we were watching about FLDS/polygamy:
Harper:  "..........Well, all I can say is, if Dad ever has 23 wives, I will, like, run away when I'm 12 or something."
Me:  .....

 

While driving home from school one day:
Me:  "Who do you play with a recess?"
Harper:  "Anyone who doesn't have a friend." <3

- HI, SUMMER! -

The first week of "summer" was a litttttle bit of a drag...

...but after Scarlett fully recovered from her tonsil and adenoidectomy, we hit up Texas Roadhouse to celebrate the conclusion of a very strict 2-week soft diet. YAY!

Then! We ventured off to the Little Mermaid at AMC in town to celebrate good report cards!  It was both girls' first time ever at a movie theater [I know, we're basically raising uncultured swine under this roof], and of course, they loved it!

 

 

^^ Scarlett fell asleep on Brian's lap right before all the scary/violent Ursula business at the end of the show. Phew! 

Then! The Bubble Bus and lots of other fun booths came to Library Park to start summer off in style!

Then! It was time for a Memorial Day weekend BBQ at Brian's parents'...

 

Then! MEMORIAL DAY was here, and we considered that the "official OFFICIAL" kick-off to summer!!!  I read this somewhere online and shared it with the kids that Monday morning as we sewed and baked and played and got ready for a pool party:

"Memorial Day is the most expensive holiday on the calendar.  Every hot dog, every burger, every spin around the lake, or drink with friends and family...is a debt...purchased by others.  This is not about all who have served...that day comes in the fall.  This one is in honor of those who paid in life and blood; whose moms never saw them again, whose dads wept in private, whose wives raised kids alone, and whose kids only remembered them from pictures.  This isn't simply a day off.  This is a day to remember that others paid for every free breath you ever get to take.  Freedom."

 

 

^^ Harper got RULL FAR on her to-do list for the holiday... :P

We don't know them all, but we owe them all. Forever indebted to the men and women who fought for our freedom. Happy Memorial Day!  

And in conclusion:  HI, SUMMER. We can't wait to play in your sweet sunshine.


 

- Toodaloo, TONSILS! -

Thanks to some VERY VERY loud snoring [like old obese man type snoring that disrupted the sleep of the remaining 4/5 of our household most nights], our sweet Scarlett girl earned herself a referral to an ENT in March...

...which revealed a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea...

...which landed her a spot on the doc's surgery schedule for tonsil and adenoidectomy in May! We learned so much over those short months about obstructive sleep apnea in children and learning and behavior-related issues associated with lack of normal sleep thanks to v. v. large tonsils -- even decreased I.Q. in children with untreated sleep apnea! So! To the O.R. it was!

I only cry/sobbed for about 10 minutes after she walked back to the O.R. in her little puppy hospital gown, hand in hand with the RN and CRNA; wahhhh! There's something about being a nurse AND a mom that allows you to be stronger and tougher in some situations but so much more vulnerable and nervous in other situations..... Sometimes I'd just rather NOT KNOW so many details of the way medical treatments and things go down, ya know?!  But about 45 minutes after the surgery began, we were called to the PACU area and happy to see she was alive and well! She wasn't in any mood for photos as she didn't wake up from anesthesia in much of a chipper mood, but I snapped this one behind her back as she got to pick a toy from the nurses' treasure box...

...and then this one as we snuggled in the back seat of the van on the way home!

Arabella knew immediately that something was "off" and rarely left Scarlett's side [or, the floor by wherever Scarlett was sleeping] for the next several days!

Recovery went MUCH SMOOTHER than expected, a lot in thanks to administering around-the-clock meds for the first 4 days!  The nurse-mom in the house stayed quite busy passing meds at the 3am hour and keeping a fully detailed MAR for every other non-medical person in the house to reference. ;) :)

By POD #3, our strong girl was coloring, FaceTiming anyone who would answer, watering all the house plants with her empty med syringes, entertaining visitors, and running circles around her primary caregiver [ME]! Surgery can't keep a determined girl down! 

 Finally after dinner, she took a little break!

POD #4 and #5 were completely uneventful; I often found myself wondering if she'd really just had surgery or if the ENT lied to us and in fact didn't take anything out at all? LOL.  We painted "thank you" papers for the school staff and delivered them to the office on the last day of school [for the big school]!  

Scarlett continued accepting treats from classmates and her sweet cousins ^^. Thank you so much to all who remembered her; I am truly touched by your thoughtfulness, and I know she loved seeing a few familiar faces while she was supposed to be home and laying low!!! 

By POD #6, there was a noticeable setback in the recovery as she had lots of ear pain. Apparently this is a very normal part of recovery and the timeline seemed to follow suit with what the PACU nurse had warned us about.  The recommendation was to hold a warm towel over both ears; however, after having our dryer constantly running to keep a towel warm, we decided to whip up some heated rice packs. Scarlett was so attached to these a) because she sewed them herself, and b) because they really really helped the ear pain! 

She used the rice packs frequently on POD #6 and #7 ...

 

...and by POD #9 when I thought to look at her throat, the scabs were completely gone and she was feeling SO much better!  We continued the STRICT soft diet x 2 weeks as the doctor instructed, and then started eating everything crunchy in sight! [Although, I have a feeling someone will be petitioning hard to keep the "ice cream for every meal" portion of the diet going strong!]

SO PROUD of this strong, brave girl for handling surgery and recovery like a champ! She is also pretty proud of herself for being inducted into the tonsil-free club with her momma; we're the only ones in the house in this very cool club!

 Cheers to sounder sleeping, quieter nighttimes, and maybe even a higher I.Q.!!! ;) :)