Miss Kind Heart

My daughter is a very sensitive young lady. Today, as we were driving to the store, she saw a man on a street corner holding a sign. It said, "Will work for food."

"Awww," she said. "Look at that homeless man. He looks so sad. Can we help him?"

"I don't have any cash," I told her. (This was true. I'm one of those moms who runs around with a few pennies in my purse. I definitely have to do something about that!)

"Can we buy him some food?"

I thought about that. We were going to Target. I could buy him something there.

"All right," I said. "We'll get him a Lunchable."

Then it started raining.

"We better get him an umbrella too."

So that's what we did. We bought a Lunchable and one very large umbrella for the man.

What a thoughtful daughter I have!

Croaky

We have a pet frog named Croaky. He has had quite a history in his short three years on the planet. He miraculously survived a fall from the balcony in our house to the first floor. (My son decided to take him out of his aquarium to play with him, but the slippery creature jumped right out of his hands and hopped over the balcony.)

Today Croaky had yet another adventure. It was cleaning day. Usually Croaky is very cooperative about getting into the net so he can be transferred to the smaller fish bowl. Not today. He had other ideas. He jumped right out of the aquarium into the sink. I thought for sure that he was going to go down the garbage disposal. I tried grabbing him. That didn't work. I tried using the net to corner him. After a while, I finally got the little frog and plopped him back into the water.

I think Croaky definitely has nine lives!

Watering the Kids

It's hot here in Cincinnati. The hydrangeas are not liking it one bit. This evening they were looking a bit droopy, so I decided to give them some relief. I went out and started watering.

It didn't take long for my kids to notice. Soon they were both running outside with their bathing suites on.

"Water us!" they yelled.

So I did.

Where's the Giraffe?

Today I took my kids to an old farm. It was one of those historical places that gives you an idea of what life was like in ancient times. The kids marvelled at the beds, and the old tools. My son thought the outhouse was pretty cool too.

The barn was one of the most fascinating places. There was a huge tower with a wind mill on top. My son asked what was in that tower.

"A giraffe," one of the workers said.

"No there isn't!" said my son.

"Sure there is. It's so tall to fit the giraffe's long neck."

My son looked at the guy kind of funny. I don't think he bought that one.

Job Please

My eight-year old daughter loves animals. She has been begging for a dog since she was four years old. Lately she has been on a mission to convince her father and me to let her have a dog. I tried explaining that dogs are a lot of work. I tried explaining that dogs ruin hard wood floors (which we just had refinished). I tried explaining that dogs are expensive, and that when they get sick, the doctor bills aren't covered by health insurance. She didn't care about any of that. Finally I had a brilliant idea.

"Let's go to the animal shelter and see if you can volunteer there. Then you can take care of all kinds of dogs," I said.

She was very excited about that. So we hopped in the car and drove to the nearest animal shelter.

"I want to volunteer," she announced to the man behind the desk.

"Well now," the man said, "How old are you?"

"Eight."

"Sorry. You have to be at least sixteen."

She was heartbroken. She still wanted to see the dogs. There were a lot of them - all yapping and smelling up the place. She wanted to take every single one of them home.

On the way home, she spotted another sign: Kennel. "I want to check that place out!" she said.

I guess we'll be asking for a job at that place tomorrow.

Messy Man

My five-year-old son decided to make cupcakes today. He wanted to do it all by himself. He poured the cake mix into the bowl. I'd say at least three quarters of the flour landed in the bowl. The rest was all over his shirt. "Good job!" I said. "You got a lot on your shirt, though."

"That's part of being a chef," was his reply.

Then he added the oil, water, and eggs. I had to help with the eggs.

He mixed it all up with a spoon, managing to keep most of it in the bowl.

Then it was time to fill the cupcake holders.

Wow, was that a mess! He insisted on doing it himself, though, so I let him. When he was finished, he had batter all over his face, arms and hands. He was a sight to behold!

Eighteen minutes later, the cupcakes were ready. They weren't pretty, but they sure tasted good!

Father's Day Fun

Today's bit of craziness took place at a local park. At first everything went pretty much as planned: The kids played on the swingsets and then went down to the river and splashed in the water. They found several fossils, a crayfish, and a snail.

When it was time to go home, the craziness started. First, my daughter spied a baby toad hopping around in the grass. Of course she had to catch it. Then my son wanted to hold it.

"Put the toad back in the grass, and let's go!" I said.

Did they listen? No, of course not. "I want to keep it!" my son said.

"I want ice cream!" my daughter said.

"What?" I exclaimed.

To make a long story short, we ended up walking to the ice cream store, with my son holding the toad. I carried out the chocolate gelatos melting all over my hands. It was 94 degrees, so you can just picture that one.

"I think the toad pooped on me, " my son announced.

"Great. You certainly deserved that one!" I responded.

My son put the toad in his cup holder in his booster seat. Then we sat on the grass and ate our melting gelatos.

After eating those, we made our way back home, sticky hands and all. (I had forgotten to get napkins!) We took out the car seat and opened the cup holder. No toad! The search began. I certainly did not want to smell dead toad in my car!

Fortunately we did find the toad. We put him in the woods behind our house. I hope the poor creature wasn't too traumatized!