Friday, October 26, 2007

The beauty of autumn in Ohio to help block out the horrors of the Cali wildfires

BabyGirl has been f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g out about the SoCal wildfires. After every newscast, she tosses a bazillion questions at me like: Why did that happen? Where will those people live? Are their cats and dogs alive? Where would we go if our house was on fire? Would we get our kitty out? etc... etc... It has gotten so bad, that Weds morning, she crawls into our bed around 3 am and keeps poking me until I say w/ great irritation a hushed yet very firm "WHAT???" I was grumpy because I had just gotten the baby back to sleep around 2 am.. and no, I did not sit him in one of these --an item that we happen to own and love, and apparently use very differently from other parents. Why? Fragile and very wiggly babies have apparently been put into their Bumbo seat... and then like a potted plant on a table, or counter, or toilet, or bookshelf, or stove, or car roof, or whatever else highly inappropriate place morons have stupidly dared to place their fragile and very wiggly babies upon... said babies have been allowed to fall off and sustain skull fractures. I guess all common sense, parental responsibility and reading the warning sticker that is stuck onto the chair gets to be tossed aside, and now we need a recall, huh? ... sigh... shaking head... Anyhoo... back to BabyGirl's first urgent question... she asks: "Mommy, will the paint on our house stop a fire?" Me: "We don't have paint on our house. Our house is made out of brick like the 3rd Little Pig's. Her: "Oh."... long silence... then: "Does that mean that no wolves with sharp teeth and claws can blow our house down?" Me: "Yep." Her: "What if a wolf has fire?" Me: (exasperated sigh while thinking damn this kid and her intelligent mind) "It means our house is very strong. It means we don't live in California, where they have wildfires. It is too wet and cold here to have those right now." Her: "Could we have them in the summer?" OMFG... I just had to eat a ton of omelets while pregnant with her because I read eggs were great brain food for fetuses, didn't I?? Me: "It means our house is pretty safe from wildfires because they don't usually happen in Ohio. It means that daddy makes sure we have lots of fire alarms and we've practiced what to do if you hear one of those go off." Her: "But what if the fire alarm's batteries don't work like my SpongeBob toy?"(yes.. we lied to our child when we took the batteries out of a very loud SpongeBob toy. This toy is very beloved, but if you squeeze him, his eyes bulge out and he exclaims very loudly: "I have 200/200 vision!" and she adored putting it in the face of her sleeping baby brother and scaring him to death.) Me: "The fire alarm batteries work. Daddy changes them every fall." Her: "Well, why doesn't he fix the batteries in my SpongeBob?" Me... lying yet again: "Because he just can't find those type of batteries... ANYWHERE. Daddy even thinks they stopped making those batteries." Silence... followed finally and very surprisingly by Hubby sleepily announcing: "Great job, honey. Just slap all the blame on me." Yes. I have zero qualms about passing the buck on that one. Anyhoo... try to forget the horrors of the wildfires and enjoy the loveliness of autumn in N.E. Ohio. My mom, and the kids and I walked around our neighborhoods and surrounding farm areas and took pix.
Posted by Tina :: 3:00 PM :: 10 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------