Off To Fight the Goblins

Halloween, a holiday every child looks forward to.  There's the costumes, candy, parties, and don't forget the spooky decorations.  What fun!  Fun... 

Maybe not if you're two and you have a sensitive soul.  If you're afraid of the dump truck Grammy and Papa J gave you for your first birthday.  Or the fake vomit your siblings throw at your feet (Oh, the fun they've had!).  Or your Buzz Lightyear costume!  Fun... maybe not so much.

The costumes elicited uncontrollable crying and even the candy couldn't bribe RJ through the frightening decorations to the doors without clawing at my arms.

So how do you convince a sensitive two-year-old to dress up and fight the goblins?  You play to his weakness. 

Football player anyone?  Poor RJ!  

The Wizard of Oz

In our stake there is something truly amazing going on.  Once a year the youth have the opportunity to put on a professional theatrical production, produced by Don Bluth.  Don was a Disney animator back in the day when Walt Disney was around.  He had the opportunity to work on iconic films like Sleeping Beauty and Pete's Dragon.  After leaving Disney he started his own production company and produced other well-known animated films, such as American Tale, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Anastasia.  So he's pretty accomplished, yet, once a year this talented man donates his time to run a production for kids.  The production profits nothing financially, but does reap rewards in the lives of the youth involved.

I'm not sure what got Braden interested in theater.  I would think wearing makeup and tights, singing, dancing, and acting in front of an audience would be enough to send any boy the other way.  But Braden must have a little too much of me in him.  He loves it!  

This year's youth production is The Wizard of Oz and for the first time Braden is old enough to participate.  He's playing a munchkin, a crow, and a winkie (did you know that's the name of the witch's guards?).  He's wearing tights without complaint and becoming an expert at putting on his own makeup.  He's singing "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" with his George Bush turned munchkin puppet, marching in patterns as a winkie, and pestering the scarecrow as a crow.  This boy truly amazes me sometimes!  

Break a leg B!

Fall Break and Small Spaces

It may sound like something a kid would make up... Fall Break... a break from school right after you get back in school, but our new school district actually does have one.

I was a little reluctant to have the kids home for a whole week after just surviving our summer "what are we going to do today" days, but of coarse the kids were thrilled with it.  It didn't take long for me to see the beauty of it either.  The most beautiful thing about fall break is that no one else seems to get one!  

The southern California beaches were all but deserted despite the 80 degree temperatures.  Knott's Berry Farm was completely empty, even though it boasts some great coasters that would make any 38-year-old mother nearly throw up and stay in Camp Snoopy the rest of the day.  And though DreamWorks studio was bustling with employees during our visit, our fun at Griffith Park afterwards was completely undisturbed.  

In fact, I think the most crowded place we went during our entire week had to have been the 1000 foot condo we were staying in!  After six days in a space that was the same size as Ryan's and my first home, our condo in Virginia, we discovered that, well... 

that 1000 square feet is really SMALL!  

 

Happy Fall Break!

The Bravest Girl I Know

As a child there was nothing I feared more than what was outside the basement window of my bedroom.  It was not that I knew what lied at the bottom of that window well.  I was afraid of what could be at the bottom of that window well.  In the event of a fire I worried that I would need to climb out it and face the unknown on the other side.  And what did I fear most was there?  Black widows.

I was sure as a child that at the bottom of that window well lived a black widow.

I never had to climb out of that well.  Never dropped anything in that I had to retrieve.  Never saw a black widow...

That is until now.

My bug-loving, pet-collecting daughter, Hadley, found herself a black widow.

When a child comes to their mother at 5:00 complaining of something, that child does not get the mother's full attention.  More often than not there is no husband around at that time of day and the mother is overseeing homework, practicing, dinner preparations, carpools and sibling squabbles.  A mother can only multi-task so much, so a complaining child gets brushed aside.

It wasn't until Hadley came to me a second time saying that her arm hurt that I stopped what I was doing and took a good look at her arm.  A bee sting?  Not a bee.  Arizona has a plethora of critters and there was only one way to find out.

When I went outside to the lounge chairs where the girls had been playing I was looking for a scorpion.  I figured that must have been it and was seeking confirmation.  I threw pillows from the chairs looking.  I didn't see anything.

Then Hadley shouted, "Spider!"

Curled up in fold of one of the pillows was a large black spider.

My childhood fear right in front of me.  I threw a cup over the top of it.

Was it a black widow?  Was it just a spider?  Hadley began to complain more and more about the pain in her arm. Ryan was unreachable.  Darn that doctor husband!

I began calling physicians we know.  I needed an opinion.  An ER doctor from the neighboring ward returned my call.

"Take a picture of the spider on the top, then flip it over and take a picture on the bottom and text it to me."

Are you kidding me?  Did he not know that the only spider lover currently home just got bitten by one?

Facing my fears I had Braden remove the cup, I snatched one quick photo, and then we threw the cup back over the top.

"The picture's not good enough.  You'll need to get closer."

What?

In the end it was determined that it was a black widow.  Hadley spent several hours at the ER where she was treated for pain.  Anti-venom is not readily available and as long as the pain is treatable, they don't administer it.  So we watched her.  She had a high fever for 24 hours and difficulty breathing.  She ate little and slept the majority of the next four days while the poison worked its way through her little system.

My poor bug-loving Hadley, having none of the same fears I had as a child, was bitten by a black widow.  All I could tell her over those four days was that she is the bravest girl I know!