Sarah the great

Sarah is in a research study for allergies.  Yesterday we had to spend the entire day at the allergy place and had to spend the night too.  Having been with her constantly for the last 36 hours, I have compiled this list. 

Reasons why Sarah is a great kid:

1.      She is incredibly generous.  She’s always making things and giving them to people.  If she has something, she loves to share it with other people.  The nurses had a lot of trouble finding her veins, and they stuck her and dug around in her arms and hands repeatedly.  Not once did the kid cry.  Because of all the extra misery she went through, the research director gave her an extra $20 to buy whatever she wants.  She gave $2 to the church, spent $10 on a paintable piggy bank (which she wants to give away), and wants to give the other $8 to tsunami victims in Japan.  I didn't teach her that; it's just who she is.

2.      She’s brave, and she’s one tough cookie.  (See #1)

3.      She’s honest.   She told the nurses angrily, “You are hurting me.”

4.      She’s confident in who she is.  She is who she is with no apologies.

5.      She trusts God.  During the worst of her torment, she said to me, “Will you pray, Mom?”

6.      She’s cheerful if you wake her up in the middle of the night.  The nurses woke her up at midnight for a torture session, and she chatted pleasantly with them. 

7.      If she hears music, you can bet she will be dancing.  If there’s no music, she will make her own and dance to it.  And she doesn’t care who’s watching.  When we were at Walmart this morning, she was dancing down the main aisle and yelled back to me, “Mom! Do what I do!”  When she wasn’t looking, I walked like a normal person. When she turned around to make sure I was doing what she was doing, I would step it up a little.  Not enough, though, because she yelled, “Come on, Mom!  Get those hips swingin’!”

8.      She’s friendly.  There’s no one she doesn’t know.

Things change

I saw on the news that my little junior high boyfriend received a military honor for his pilot work in Afghanistan.  There was a picture of him in his uniform, doing a stiff salute, but all I could see was the kid who used to write me sweet notes about meeting on the swings at recess to hold hands.

Summer evening

Mike scratching like an orangutan, sitting in his long-dead great-aunt's chair with the flowing threads, reading a book to the children, because it's due tomorrow at the library.  Cats wandering around being curious.  Sarah dancing.  Noah working on various messy projects, wearing his only good pair of shorts.

Dolls' day at the torture spa

Sarah decided to give a couple of her dolls a spa day.  When I walked by the bathroom/spa, she was holding Barbie by her hair and dunking her upside down into a sink full of water.  I kept walking.  Later, I discovered this scene in Sarah's room:

The poor little Asian doll used to have beautiful long braids.  Barbie just got a wash and trim and apparently some "styling".  I personally enjoy seeing Barbie have a bad hair day.  :)
The best part was later, when Mike tried to fool me.   I was in the shower (of course, people MUST talk to me when I'm in the shower), and he said, "Sarah cut her hair.  Look behind you."  So I turned around and saw this:

If I hadn't seen it earlier, I might have freaked out, but since I had already seen it, and since I had just washed Sarah's hair two minutes earlier, I wasn't fooled a bit. 

War in the tub

This is the scene that greeted me when I got in the shower after Noah had been playing in the tub for hours.

Someday soon I'll have a regular old, boring, peaceful tub, and I'll miss the soldiers. 

Hope for the future

I was in the middle of a nightmare this morning when Sarah woke me up demanding breakfast.  I grabbed her and held her tight, and she noticed that I was sweaty and terrified and confused.  I told her I had a bad dream, and she said, "What was it about?"  She was actually more concerned about me than herself!  It was one of those rare glimpses of her growing up to be a decent person, the ones that give me hope and keep me going when I feel like giving up on her. So I told her all about it, and she listened!  She didn't even interrupt!  In the nightmare, I was being chased by a lunatic who was trying to stab me to death with scissors.  I told my friend, but she was too busy to help me.  I told my husband I needed help, but he said he had to go to work.  I called 911 and got an answering machine.  After I told Sarah all this, she said, "Sounds like everyone abandoned you."  The perfect empathetic statement!  A trained counselor couldn't have done it better. 

Chocolate cake for breakfast

We watched the above video with the kids, about Bill Cosby feeding his kids chocolate cake for breakfast.  It's almost impossible to get Noah to eat breakfast before 9:30 a.m.  This week they have VBS every morning at 9:00.  I try to get Noah to eat something before he has to go.  So this morning I said to him, "Noah, what can I get you to eat?"  Even though it's been several days since we watched the Bill Cosby video, Noah immediately said, "Chocolate cake" with a smirk on his face, knowing I wouldn't do it. 
I like to surprise them once in awhile.