The Contract

Rob better read the fine print on this one before he signs his name 9 times.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Pets

Tonight in the sauna, Rob was visited by this little guy:

He promptly christened him "Walter", and Reagan was estatic.

"Mom, can we keep him?" cries she.

"Keep who?" asks I.

"WALTER!"

"You know Walter is a weasel, right?  Not a ferret?"

"So?  He's just like a ferret!  Can we keep him?"

"NO." says I.

"You never like to try anything new and fun."

"Weasels are not pets.  They will eat our cat."

"No they won't.  We can at least feed him, so he makes it through the winter."

"What are you going to feed a weasel?  They eat chickens and mice and rabbits, and they'll eat our cat if they get a chance."

"No he won't!  We need to feed him!"

"Then you find out what to feed him."

Reagan googled... and look dismayed.  Then her eyes lit up, and she typed in another search.

"No what are you looking for?" asks I.

"What to feed a vegetarian weasel!"  

HAHAHAHAHAHHA.  Good luck with that, little girl!

They grow up so fast!!

11 Year Old Stats

Little miss is growing like a weed.  At age 11, she got straight A's for her first quarter of 5th grade.  Weight is 60.2 pounds (4th% - she's gained just over 3 pounds this past year). Height is 56.75" (50th% - gained 3 inches this past year!).  BMI has taken a severe plummet south, as little girl has grown substantially up, without the accompanying growing out.  It's now 13.14, which puts her in the .38th%.  That's POINT 38.  Not 38.  But, she eats well, and is healthy, and has never been much in terms of BMI anyway, so I'm not concerned.  It will catch up to her, I am assured.  I was built just like her as a kid, and look at my robust BMI now ;).

We were thinking this would be just a standard well-child visit, going to the doctor yesterday, but when I mentioned that she happened to have a fever on Monday, and a sore throat today, the doctor took a look-see, and found... dum dum DUM.... Hand/Foot/Mouth disease.  YUCK.  Sure enough. Bright red throat filled with blisters, and if I would've looked more carefully before the appointment, I would've noticed the rash on her hands, feet, and chin.  Yuck yuck yuck.  Poor thing.  So, good thing we had a well-child scheduled for this day anyway.  I kept her home from school, and maybe it stopped the spread of the gunk just a bit at Houghton Elementary (I doubt it, but maybe).

Overall, though, little girl is healthy, growing, and taking on age 11 by storm!!

YAY REAGAN!!

More Reagan!

Inept Tooth Fairies

Reagan, this morning after breakfast: "Mom, I lost another tooth this morning."
Mom: "Oh wow!  It came out with the pancakes, eh?"
Reagan: "I would put it under my pillow, but there's still a tooth under there from the last time."
Mom: "Last time?  When did you lose your last tooth?"
Reagan: "When I went to Mackinac Island last month."
Mom: "You need to announce these things out-loud so the tooth fairy can hear you."
Reagan: "I did.  Several times.  The tooth fairy didn't come when I lost my tooth last tooth in Wyoming either.  That's three teeth it's not showed up for."

(in the tooth fairy's defense, Reagan lost THREE teeth on that trip, and the tooth fairy simply could not keep up.  Why did I pay for braces when she didn't have any permanent teeth at the time, apparently????).

Mom: "Well, we just have to admit it.  Your tooth fairy is inept."
Reagan: "What?"
Mom: "Inept.  Meaning she's bad at her job."
Reagan: "Oh yes.  Definitely."

The Tale of the Blue Skittle, and a playdate with friends.

Cold Lunch

I used to make the kids their lunches when they were little, and found that they never ate what I packed, and it all ended in the trash.  Plus, I hated making lunches, having done it for myself as a kid.  It's just one of those chores that I CAN'T STAND for some reason.  Thus, my children have, for the last several years, eaten hot lunch at school every day.

This might be a form of reverse psychology, but you know what Reagan wants now?  Cold lunch!  And she's packing it herself, because I don't want to.  Today, she packed herself roast beef, spaghetti squash, fresh plums, and cucumbers (plus some fruit gushers for snack time).  I would never think to pack such a lunch for her, but it's what she wants, and I am positive it's healthier than whatever she could get at school.  So YAY!!

We'll see how long it lasts.

A Project With Grandpa

Reagan, from the moment we became cat owners, has been begging to make either a cat tower or a cat house for Senia.  While Rob and I were in Nashville, and the boys in Marquette for a cross country meet, Grandpa and Reagan finally did just that.  Behold.  The two-story cat condo.  The bottom one was supposed to be for Gunnar, but he's too fat to fit, and the cat moved into it anyway.

The Designer

Reagan's attempt #2 at a full-length gown for her trip next month to the Grand Hotel with Dad.  This was a wrap-around, empire waist number with a side rosette and an organza overlay over the bodice.  She designed and sewed it herself.  She's getting pretty good, that girl!

More Crafty Craftiness

Reagan went all Julie Andrews in the "Sound of Music" and made herself a dress out of an old curtain we had in the basement.  Good job, little girl.  Good job!

Crafty Craftiness

Reagan has a long list of projects that she wants to do over the summer:  sew herself a dress, make galaxy slime, grow her own crystal jewelry, make a cat tower.  I have a hard time keeping up with it all, because she'll often start one thing and then get stuck and insist on moving on to another.  This slime thing, though... I can do that.  That's easy and quick, and checks one thing off the list easily.  Let's make some slime.

Thoughtful Girl

Reagan found out, a few days before we were going to leave on our big vacation, that her teacher (whom she LOVES) is retiring.  She immediately began plotting an appropriate gift to make her.  She came up with the idea of a quilt, which was a lovely idea, but... hello.  Quilts take time.  "I know!" says she.  "I'll ask my art teacher if the whole class can do it, AT SCHOOL!"  Brilliant!  Do THAT!  Good job, little girl!  So Reagan asked Mrs. Hronkin if the class could make quilt squares in art class for a quilt, and Mrs. Hronkin was all about it.  YAY!!!  But then, Mrs. Hronkin asked innocently "but who will sew it all together?"  Uhhhhhh…..

SO, while trying to pack for 2-4 weeks, prepare food for 3 weeks, plan a 50th anniversary celebration, and getting two high-schoolers through finals week, I spent my last weekend at home sewing, swearing at two different sewing machines that didn't work well, breaking three needles, and re-doing the whole thing from scratch at one point.  

TADA!  

A little (lot) warped.  But DONE.  In record time.  And thoughtful, and adorable, from a fourth grade class that REALLY loved their teacher.  Happy Retirement, Mrs. Hall!

Note to the Teacher

Was going through Reagan's homework, and saw this little note that she wrote to her teacher.  "In a perfect world, it's even".  HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh, she makes me laugh

Found this in my bathroom today.

Technological Reliance

Getting ready for school today.

Reagan: "Mom, is it supposed to be warm today?"

Mom (looking outside the window at blue skies and sun): "Yes, I think so."

Reagan: "Uhhhhhh, can you please look that up on your phone and not just look at the sky???"

HOW did humans determine whether to wear a coat for the first 100,000 years of our existence until smart phones????

Entertaining the Cat

Reagan loves this cat beyond all reasonable levels.  Today, I found her "entertaining" the cat with a video of varmints.  Like there aren't enough real ones right outside the window!

The Dig Out

After the Great Blizzard of 2019, I told Reagan to go out and shovel in front of the mail box, in the hopes that the mailman might deliver us some mail, now that the plow had come through.  She was out there for 45 minutes before coming back in, discouraged.

Mom: "I thought I told you to go shovel out the mailbox!"
Reagan: "MOM!  I can't FIND the mailbox!  I've looked and looked!"
Mom: "Just look where there's a bump, and start shoveling there."
Reagan: "EVERYTHING is a big bump, Mom!"

SIGH.

I eventually went out to find the thing myself, and she was right.  Just mounds and mounds of snow.  A little excavating, though, and we located the thing!

Going For A Walk

This winter is getting to me.  The cold.  The storms.  The clouds.  The trapped inside a messy house with children that have had too many snow days.  Funks are inevitable.  So, when there was actual SUN on a free Saturday, I told Reagan that we needed to soak up as much vitamin D as we could.  Little girls and sun were the only cures for a deep mid-winter funk.   If we walked the trails, the sun would be obscured by trees and shadows.  We needed WIDE OPEN spaces.  And we just happen to live near a frozen lake.  Perfect!

The plan was to walk from the local park to my in-laws place on the lake, a distance of about a 1/4 mile.  There were plenty of snowmobilers and ice fishermen on the lake - we were hardly the only people with the same idea.  Reagan and I parked at Chassell park, and  started following a snowmobile trail towards Al and LaVerne's house.  The little girl weighs the same as my left arm - she floated on top of the snow like it was nothing.  At first, I did, too.  Enough to get about half the way there.  But then, once we got off the snowmobile trail, I began sinking.  ALOT.  The snow on top of the lake was at least 3 feet deep, and with every step I was sinking up to my waist.  And there was SLUSH under all that snow!  I was wearing snow boots, but only jeans with holes in them.  Each step got my boots stuck in water, and it would take several minutes to extricate myself.   I would take one more step, just to sink down again.  Good grief.  This was getting ugly quick.

Reagan ran ahead, barely leaving a foot print in the snow with her big feet and 48 pound stick-body.  I got on my knees to spread my weight, and crawled that way for a full 1/8th of a mile, soppy wet.  It took my 45 minutes.

I wanted sun and exercise and time with my daughter, and I definitely got all three things!  May have taken me another hour to warm up and dry out by the fire, but it was worth it.  I learned a valuable lesson about the value of snow shoes!

 

The Things that Annoy Her

Lost Tooth

Reagan has only lost four teeth thus far in her little life.  Which seems kind of sparse to me, but I don't remember much about the quantity and frequency of tooth loss when the boys were little, so maybe it's perfectly normal.  Regardless.  She's lost no teeth since those four when she was about six years old... several years back.  And apparently, after those previous four losses -- which again I have no recollection of -- the tooth fairy was pretty incompetent.  Like forgetting to come.  Or giving only a quarter because the tooth fairy was broke.  That kind of thing.  Reagan is pretty convinced that  her tooth fairy is a total screw up, as compared to her friends' tooth fairies, who apparently shell out $10 for the first lost tooth.  Shouldn't there be some kind of tooth fairy compensation STANDARD??  I should remind her that her particular teeth have been the recipient of several thousand dollars worth of braces, and that probably goes against the "under the pillow" receivable rate.

She finally lost another tooth yesterday, after wiggling it around for WEEKS ("It's my fidget toy at school!  I can play with it in my mouth using my tongue, and no one even knows!").   She immediately put it in a plastic bag, and put it on the counter to show her father the next time she saw him.  Directly after that, she began to lament loudly about the quality of her tooth fairy, or lack thereof.   I told her not to have too high of expectations.  This tooth fairy had a bad track record, and it's freezing cold outside.  Maybe they didn't work in this kind of weather.  It wouldn't really be safe for their little wings and all.

Bed time came (way too late... another snow day demolished bed time), and Reagan went looking for her tooth to put under her pillow.  She couldn't find it anywhere.

"It was right here!  On the table at dinner so I could show dad!  In a little baggie!"  OH.  Yeah. Right.  And then I cleared the table and did the dishes after dinner.  UGH.

We checked the garbage, but there was burnt oatmeal on top (see the boys' blog for that story) and we didn't want to dig too far in the muck.

"I give up," I said.  "Just write the tooth fairy a note.  It works.  That's what the boys always used to do when they lost their teeth.  It's fine."

Reagan was agreeable to this idea.  And even came up with a scheme about putting the note under her pillow, getting the money, then finding her tooth and getting MORE money.  Nope, sistah.  Doesn't work that way.  Quinn tried the same thing at six years old.  Teeth fairy are too smart for that nonsense.  They may be incompetent, but they're not stupid.

So, for this round anyway, the tooth fairy came through, but it was the MAMA who messed up.  We've got enough ineptitude on both sides of the equation that this whole charade really needs to end about now anyway.

Her Secret Mark

Reagan came out of the chute with a SECRET MARK.  I don't think I've ever blogged about it before... or at least not for a long time.  It was really evident the other day while she was reading a book, so I had to snap a picture.  Reagan has the BEST birthmark ever.  For a long time, when she was a bitty thing, she would say that the mark was a special kiss from her twin sister, who died in utero.  Who am I to say that's not true?  Because it's certainly a birthmark filled with love.

Artwork

Reagan is learning about drawing people and shading in art these days.  I thought this picture of a figure skater was particularly good!  She's an artsy one, that girl.