A Child with No Fear

My little miss is a child with absolutely no fear of anything. She has no concept of danger and is as curious as that famous little monkey. I know it's all a part of discovering her world but I am terrified that she's going to do something that will cause herself great pain because it take 75 times at least for her to respond to me. While my little man makes me feel like the best mom ever, my little miss makes me feel far from it.

This summer for instance we went swimming a lot. If I put Little Miss on the ground she immediately ran into the pool. Straight off the edge into the water with no one there. After the entire summer of trying to teach her not to run into the pool she learned only to pause long enough for me to anxiously rush to the pool's edge to save catch her.

A couple of days ago I was getting Little Man some water and I walked back into my room where my husband was sitting on the bed and Little Miss was three rungs up a six foot ladder. My heart dropped and when I helped her get down she just laughed and giggled like "wow that was fun!"

I am struggling with how to reign her in or even if I should. I don't want to put out the fire that is her personality but I have to keep her safe.

Teenage TV Shows

So I have always been a sucker for teenage tv shows. My favorite episodes of Full House are when DJ entered high school. I loved 7th Heaven and am currently captivated by the Secret Life of the American Teenager!

I feel like a complete dork but it's a confession I had to make. I think maybe it's because high school was mostly consumed by depression for me...with the exception of my extreme love for marching band...yes I was that dork. When I was younger I watched these shows because I wanted to be one of the characters and now I say I watch them to stay up with teenage culture. I really just think it's because I'm still just a dork!

Black bean and corn salsa

This is my brother's favorite recipe that I make I think although he loves my lasagna as well. I like to use this as salsa one night and a couple nights later use the leftovers as enchilada filling.

1 can drained and rinsed black beans
1 can of corn niblets
2 tbsp lime juice
6 tsp fresh minced garlic
1/2 cup chopped sweet peppers
1 jar of your favorite salsa (I use pace usually)
1 cup shredded Colby jack cheese

Mix ingredients. You may chill and serve cold or serve at room temperature. This keeps for a long time!

I also blend my salsa in a food blender because I like the smoother texture. I hope you enjoy!

Lego-Lacker

So if you read my about me line at the top of this page you will notice that it states I am a perfectionist. Really that is a polite way of saying obsessive compulsive. Keep that mind while reading this blog or might finish with the mindset of my husband which is, "she's crazy!"

My son has become a Lego maniac and so any time he gets paid for doing his chores he buys legos. Usually I help him put them together straight from the package because I know all of the pieces are there and it will be quick and easy. A few weeks ago when the Lego fetish began my husband said that we should just store the legos in one giant tub so that we didn't block the little man's creativity by having separate tubs for each set that he bought. I agreed having never been too interested in legos as a child, thus not having much experience in storing them.

Last night my son asked me to build legos with him and he wanted me to build all of the vehicles from the kits he had purchased. I agreed thinking it couldn't take longer than an hour to build seven Lego cars with instructions. Let me tell you, I was naive to the complicated nature of finding tiny pieces in a giant tub. After an hour and 15 minutes this is what I had.

So I continued working not able to accept defeat by a toy marked for 5-7 year olds. It took forever and caused a tremendous amount of frustration for someone of my perfectionist character. There were times when I would rather having been pulling weeds or scraping gum off the bottom of school desks than building with legos. After two and a half hours and some reinforcement by Mr. Man I accomplished a truck, an ATV, five men, an ATM, and two dogs (the men and dogs were already built).

Since this evening of pure fun, I have decided that the legos must be organized by either color or Lego shape or I will ban myself from Lego playing for eternity because I clearly lack the Lego talent, or patience!