A Rite of Passage

There's this unspoken rule, that all little girls shall own an Easybake Oven at some point in their lives.  That day was yesterday for Reagan, who found her dream toy at the consignment shop.  And she fell in love.  She HAD to have it.  But it was $10, and she only had $3, if she used her gold coin from the tooth-fairy and a whole lot of nickels.  The lady at the checkout counter remembered the unspoken rule, though.  "Oh, how I loved my Easybake Oven growing up", and charged a whopping $3 for the thing, because that's what Reagan had.  She even calculated tax (actually ringing up $2.82 cents, so it would come out to exactly $3).  That was very kind, and Reagan was so excited (and still is) that she cannot stop talking about her oven and all the things she will make.  Her inaugural recipe was blueberry turn-overs for her and Colby.  And they turned out pretty dang good!

Underwater

Reagan does not yet know how to swim.  At six years of age.  That is ridiculous.  We've put her in lessons, and tried to teach her ourselves, but she has been deathly afraid of putting her head under water, and so swimming just hasn't happened.  She mentioned yesterday that this fear was because her brother pushed her underwater when she was little.  OK.  That makes sense.  Her brothers are gone for the week, though, and Reagan has been spending LOTS of time in the hot tub.  And she finally DID it!  She went under!!  And stayed under, for a good long time!  Now, I told her, all she had to do was move her arms and legs, and she'd totally swim.  Her hand is busy plugging her nose at the moment, but eventually, she will gain enough confidence to use both hands to propel instead of nose-plug, and then watch out.  Girl swimming.

Now... about that two-wheeled bike and tying those shoes.

A New Microwave

Lucky us.  We got a new microwave.  The OLD microwave was not really so old - maybe two years or so.  It's just, well, we have this daughter, see.....

Reagan got some candy from her Aunt the Chocolatier, as a gift for graduating from Kindergarten.  Candy in a little metal container.  And for some unfathomable reason, she wanted to MELT the candy, so little miss put it in the microwave, container and all. 

The sparks and flames were far more punishment than anything we could've said.  She crawled into her bed at 7 pm without being asked, and didn't surface until the next morning. 

Valuable lesson learned, though.

NEVER put metal in a microwave.

 She won't make that mistake twice, I am sure.

Nightmare

Little girl had crawled into my bed last night.  When she woke up this morning, first words out of her mouth were "I had a nightmare".  Oh no.  About what?
"A fire."  She has recurring nightmares about our house catching on fire.  I don't know why.
"Well, maybe we should practice what to do in case of a fire, so you won't be scared.  Would you hide in a closet if there's a fire?"
"No".
"Would you hide under the bed?"
"No".
"What would you do?"
"Go outside," little miss said.
That's right.  You go outside and meet the rest of us at the mailbox.
"But Mom," she insisted.  "What happens if there's a bear at the door when I try to go outside?"
Like there's a fire in the house AND a bear at the door?  That's a really bad day.
"Well, you'd go out the front door then," I said.
"What if there's a bear at the back door, and a wolf at the front door?"  And.... a fire in the house.
"Then you'd go out the window".
"And drop to the ground and die," she finished.

Glad we got our fire plan all worked out this early in the morning.