Things that make me go hmmm...

1. Lately, around the baby pool in our neighborhood, I have been finding cigarette butts. Apparently, there is a pair of divorcees who go there late at night to sit in the kiddie pool and smoke. So I am thinking we need to add a "No Smoking in Wading Pool" sign. Weird that we would need to spell that out.

2. I have noticed two new tanning places opened up around us. And I see people going in and out all the time. Who pays to tan in the summer? And why go in the winter? I maybe went a handful of times in high school, but it seems so unhealthy and expensive. I can't believe people are paying for that.

3. Speaking of overpriced, I can never be one of the girls with a really expensive purse. Seems like a big waste of money. My best friend has a fake Louis Vuitton from China that she proudly refers to as her "Huey Wonton." Love it.

Pretend play with animals and hugs

How weird is it that this lady posed in the background of our family picture?! This was on the tram to Animal Kingdom a couple of months ago. Yes, I should post all the pictures or at least develop them in some sort of album. I realized I haven't posted any pictures of us in a long time. So, I will just do this one for now in case you forgot what we look like.

Right now, I have to write about what David said the other day. First of all, he and Drew got real into playing with stuffed animals again. We read a book about stuffed animals getting ready for bed and it spawned this whole making homes for stuffed toys project. Somewhere in the midst of stuffing dogs in shoe boxes, David brought me his beanie baby chameleon. "Mom, I have really sad news. Someone nailed this poor chameleon to a cross." I had no idea how to respond to that, so I just said, "Who would crucify a chameleon?" To which David replied, "I don't know, it's very sad, I took him down from the cross and God blessed him with this little baby." Oh.

It is beyond me what made him think of that. That was mixing up a lot of imagination/Sunday school. He actually posed them and took these two middle pictures a few days ago. I didn't realize they were in my camera until now.

Their little minds just never stop thinking. I said to Drew a couple of days ago, "Drew, are you still going to give me hugs when you are a grown up?" This is the conversation that followed:

Drew: Well, Dad is a grown up, and he never gives you hugs.

Me: (as Keith walked in) Hey, Drew says you don't give me hugs!

Keith: Drew, I hug your mom all the time.

Drew: (not convinced) Well, I know! You must give her all her hugs at nighttime while I am asleep and don't see it!

Me: (smirk)

I get plenty of hugs. Even when Keith falls asleep early. I think Drew is just always off doing something else when they occur. Nevertheless, we have made sure to have some extra embraces in front of Drew.

The Goody Bag Conundrum

Last year, one of my neighbors went off about goody bags. She said she hated them, that most parents that she had talked to despised them, and that if she were president she would send around a petition banning them. I can't stand them either, so at Drew's neighborhood swim party last year, I got tons of animal beach balls from Oriental Trading. As each child left, I let them choose an animal to take home. Clever, right? The balls served as decorations, amusement, and party favors. Wouldn't you know that the "down with treat bags" neighbor's kid, marched right up and asked where her goody bag was?! I felt like a bad hostess as several other pairs of eyes looked at me accusingly. "But, the animals served as..."

Since last year David has been invited to parties of classmates and of course, Drew is not invited. So treat bags have become even more of an issue. It would just rub salt in Drew's wound that not only did David get to go to a party, but he came home with a bag full of treasures. And yes, I know life isn't fair. And we dealt with it, but sheesh.

On the other hand, Drew's class has this dumb, dumb, dumb, tradition of when it is a child's birthday, sending treat bags to leave in the other children's cubbies. Whoever started this should be shot. Preschool was from 9-11:30 so that meant that almost twenty times last year we got a sack stuffed full of candy right before lunch. And, yes, again, I know how to say "no" but it was annoying. Especially because then David, hungry and tired from pre-K, would start bellyaching that he never, ever got bags full of chocolate at his school.

Maybe it's only people with multiple kids that dislike party favors? Because this neighbor has three kids. I can't even imagine hunting for junk toys under car seats times three.

Drew's birthday is coming up. He has brought up treat sacks several times. I wish I could just hand each kid three quarters instead. Teach em' the value of seventy five cents. Maybe I would enclose a note saying, "Buy your own junk. Have fun." But that would probably be even less popular than beach ball animals.

My question is, if I circulated a petition outlawing all baggies full of high fructose corn syrup and plastic, would you sign it?