My Child, The Leprachaun Expert

I managed to make it through seven years of parenting without building a leprachaun trap. Until today, when I remembered that Zip is supposed to bring one to school tomorrow. The realization triggered an oh $*#@ moment because we already had a jam-packed day and when the heck was there time to build a leprachaun trap? I also quickly realized that, in this family, building a leprachaun trap would be no small project. Of course not!

Zip: Momma, how tall is a leprachaun?

Me: I'm not sure. Let me look it up. Ummm...the internet says 5 inches tall.

Zip: Okay, well, we need a box big enough for that. And we can't do the stick-and-box trap. Leprachauns already know all about that. It won't fool them.

Me: What if we make a trap door on top of the box? 

Zip: Yeah! But we need something to close on top so the leprachaun doesn't climb out.

Me: Of course.

Zip: What if we have a flap held up by a stick and it has a coin attached by a clear string. Like one of those invisible strings. And when the leprachaun grabs the coin, it will pull the stick and the flap will fall over the opening! That is my idea.

Me: Okay, that is a....great idea. (Secretly thinking: That is a very complicated idea that sounds like a lot of work.)

Hubby: What about a spinning trap door? We can use rubberbands and stretch them across, so the door flips closed after the leprachaun falls in. 

Me: Ummm..what? 

Bee chiming in: I want to make a leprachaun trap too! I'm going to dig a hole by a big tree. I'll need some string and a net and some rocks. Then when the leprachaun presses the gold button, the rocks will fall on it!

Zip: Bee, you can't do that. You'll kill the leprachaun. (Wisely said the big brother.) Momma, that hole isn't big enough! The leprachaun is 5 inches tall. It can just reach over and grab the coin. We need it to step on the trap door.

Me: I guess I'll cut it bigger then. 

Bee: Leprachauns are animals! 

Me: I think leprachauns are little people, Bee.

Bee: Did you know we're talking animals? Because people are animals and we're talking.

Zip: Hey, leprachauns are magic, aren't they? What if it uses magic to get the coin and it doesn't step on the trap. (He's worried. Clearly the kid is a bonafide believer.)

Me: I think that's a chance we have to take. Or we can glue the coin down so that the magic doesn't work and the leprachaun has to pick it up.

Zip: Yeah! That is a GREAT idea! Hmmm, is the leprachaun going to get hurt when it falls in the box? Maybe we should make a pillow for it to land on.

....

One $20 trip to the store later and waaaay past bedtime, we finally have a leprachaun trap fit for a...well...leprachaun? I'm pretty sure we're going to catch one. But don't worry, it won't get hurt. We made it a pillow.

Have you ever made a leprachaun trap? Tell me about it! 

Parenting Win: Overcoming My Preschooler's Bedtime Stall Tactics

Bee and I have a little ritual at bedtime. It involves me rubbing his foot on my nose over and over, but his toes are soft and clean and it helps my preschooler to go bed without a fight, so I don't mind.

"How many hugs, kisses, and nuzzles do you want tonight?" I ask him.

The limit is nine. "Nine," he (almost) always says. Sometimes a stuffed animal tells him what to say.

I hug him nine times.

I kiss him nine times.

"No extra kisses!" he squeals. Then I mis-count and sneak in an extra kiss or two.

He pulls off a sock and holds his foot in the air. "Nuzzles!" he instructs, and I nuzzle into his foot, nine times of course.

Home Really Is Where The Heart Is

In just a few more weeks we will finally - and I mean fi-na-lly!!!!! - move into our new house. It has been a long time coming. Almost a whole year in the works, if I go all the way back to my first visit to the development where we will soon live. (Obviously our decision to wait until this spring - i.e., now - to start the whole moving process was thrown to the wind when we put our house on the market last summer!)

I won't hesitate to admit that I am beyond excited.

What I Could Write About Colon Cancer

Friday is Dress In Blue Day, as part of Colon Cancer Awareness Month. I'll be wearing blue...and tweeting and Facebooking and generally social media-ing all month long (hey, new verbs!), because this year Colon Cancer Awareness Month has definitely taken on new meaning for me and I find myself wanting to help spread the word.

I haven't written much about my sister's diagnosis since "the shoe dropped" last summer. I have thought about it many times, crafting posts in my head, and yet when I sit down at my computer I just never manage to get the words from my head onto the screen. I'm not sure what holds me back. Avoidance, maybe? It seems I can easily write "half posts" in my head, but I can't bring myself to really think them through to completion.

I could write about how the initial shock and numbness, that sick-to-my-stomach feeling at the beginning, eventually gave way to a new reality where the emotion comes in waves, sometimes when I least expect it. At first I felt like a zombie, unable to believe that this is happening, and wondered if things would ever be normal again - I would ever feel normal again. And then somehow life returned to something like normal, but a new normal and underneath the surface fear and worry and sadness is there, waiting to release if I let myself stop and touch it.

5 Reasons to Play Hooky & Take Your Kids Skiing

My husband and I highly value education. Really, we do. And we have set firm limits for staying home from school. You'd better have a fever or be puking. Or diarrhea. I guess we'd let our boys stay home if they had diarrhea, which they haven't had (and clearly I just jinxed us by writing that).

But once in a while, for the sake of memory-making, we set all that aside and take a "family vacation day." Last year we pulled Zip out of school for a couple of days to go to Great Wolf Lodge. I went a little overboard filling out the Educational Field Trip form, not sure how difficult it would be to convince school that this was in fact going to be educational and should therefore be an excused absence. Educational value: map-reading (gotta navigate around that waterpark!), water safety, swimming as physical education, and I think about 10 other things I threw on the form. I'm sure the office staff at school got a good chuckle at the overzealous kindergarten momma.