Charlyn’s Web

Sometimes it’s hard carrying your friends.

One needs to improvise.

Ages ago, when The Boy began to lose his teeth fast and furious, just like they came in, there was a problem. The old ones would not fall out before then new ones came in. The new ones would come in behind the old tooth. Here is an example:

Then he stopped loosing teeth. And we waited for Pixie to start the process.

And we waited.

That picture was taken in March 2007, before The Boy was 7, and was some of the last teeth to come out. Pixie was over 6 and no teeth were wiggling.

She went in to have her teeth cleaned and the hygienist noticed tooth ridges coming up behind a tooth. We encouraged her to wiggle the tooth in front but often it was forgotten. The tooth behind was coming in fast.

Her Father was getting ready to work on it some one evening not too long after this photo was taken when she came running out to tell us that her tooth had come out! She was very excited and we were all glad.

It must be a genetic thing. From The Col. Panic’s side of the family. We’ll see how the rest fall out.

Note: This is a guest post by The Boy.

I built my dam off of the creek hoping to reduce the risk of flooding by taking water off the creek. I was trying to make a ditch to take the water from the creek since I had to get water into the dam I had to shovel water from the creek with the shovel. Which is no fun especially when you have dirt separating the mini reservoir from the creek.

I wasn’t very successful because the creek dried up right after I built it.

The board helped a little to keep the dirt from washing away.

I thought this looked like it was under water.

Self portrait of the author.

Miss Sunshine has name issues. When she likes someone she calls them “My Friend” even when she knows their name. She did that with the boy that they argued about, hardly ever using his name. Then a new “My Friend” came into the picture.

The local homeschool group has a sports time where the older kids learn to play a variety of sports and then we go over to a local gym and have recreation time. It’s just a big free for all open gym time where the kids can run around, play with balls and have a good time. The Moms sit around talking. After one of these days, MIss Sunshine came home talking about “My Friend”. A girl this time. After several times, I managed to get a name out of her but there are two girls with that name. At first I thought it was the younger one but with help from The Boy and Pixie, I figured out it was the older one- she’s probably 10. I don’t really notice them interacting that much but it she seems to have made an impression.

Miss Sunshine thinks “My Friend” is really neat. She gets excited that she might see her, makes her drawings and cards. It’s fun to see.

I suppose, one of these days, “My Friend” will change. I just hope it doesn’t take me weeks to figure out who she is talking about.

Usage:

“Us girls don’t like that!”

“Us girls want to go there.”

A united front of girls.

You will need to click to enlarge the thumbnail to see that the Farmer is wearing her brother’s boots. We found the hats at a thrift store and they’ve been wearing them ever since.

“Well, gee, Miss Pixie, think it might rain?”

Miss Pixie

Farmer Sunshine holding Baby Jonathan.

We ate at McDonald’s after church today because we had another thing going on in town later in the afternoon. We had enough time after we ate for the kids to play a little bit. It’s been awhile since they have been able to play there.

When we were driving off, Pixie announced that she had a new boyfriend.

Oh?

“One of the boys that was at the play area.”

I see, what was his name?

“I don’t remember, he told me once but that was all.”

Uh huh. Well, you’ll have to tell the boy you are going to marry.

She looks at me funny, like she doesn’t really understand why she would have to do this.

“No.”

We may have had a breakdown in communication there- I was thinking of the serious meaning of “boyfriend” and she may have been thinking that he was a boy and is now a friend. But this hadn’t clicked with me yet so I asked Aren’t you going to marry the boy you’ve been saying you were going to marry?

She sighs, “I don’t know who I am going to marry.”

Into this introspective moment Miss Sunshines pops in with:

“I don’t know WHAT I’m going to marry!”

“Has R borned a baby?” asked Sunshine about a month ago.

Umm, no.

“When will she borned a baby?” she persisted.

Honey, as far as I know, there is no baby .

“But she got married!”

Yes, and that was a good first step but, you know, that it takes a long time to make a baby.

“Yes, I know!!!” Miss Know-It-All stated. She is the child that is always saying “I know!” loudly when a person tries to explain something that she obviously doesn’t understand. I’m also not to sure about her listening skills.

I thought the matter was laid to rest. I told R’s mother about it and we got a good chuckle out of it.

R came over for dinner the other day. Before they got here Miss Sunshine asked again-

“When will R borned her baby?”

I told you there is no baby!

“Yes, I know it takes a long time- but when?”

Sigh.

I rolled my eyes as we went round and round again.

Not believing her Mother, who obviously knows nothing about babies, she approached R after dinner.

“When are you borning a baby?”

Luckily, R has a sense of humor and again explained that there is no baby and probably will not be one for awhile. I hope this puts that idea to rest, I’m not holding my breath.

The door knobs in our house have never been stellar and now they are falling by the wayside quickly. They get to the point where they refuse to turn and operate anymore. Stubborn things.

The knob to the Girl’s room was getting worse and worse. It took quite a bit of effort if the door was shut to get it open again. One morning, the door was shut and it took me trying quite awhile before Pixie got it open from the inside. I told them to not shut it completely until their father could look at it.

That advice was followed for an hour or two and then the door was shut. Pixie on the inside of the room. Sunshine decided she wanted in and couldn’t get the knob to turn. I gave it a try, and tried again, and again. I had Pixie try from the inside. No luck, still stuck.

I tried getting a credit card like item to slide in and work the latch back but couldn’t get it in there. The screws for the knob were on the inside as were the door hinges. The door opens in. I called The Col. to get advice as to what to do. He was stumped too. The window is hard to open from the outside and too heavy for Pixie to open from the inside. He asked if she was upset.

No, she was drawing on her bed so no need to hurry.

He finally decided to try slipping a screwdriver under the door to her and coaching her on how to get the screws out. He said to remember that she was opposite of me when telling her which way to turn the screws. He knows my failings.

I slipped the screwdriver under the door to her and chanted to myself “lefty loosey, righty tighty” then remembered to reverse that and told her to turn the screw towards the living room wall. She decided that the screwdriver was too big.

I told her, mainly in jest, not to worry, that we would slip food under the door to her. She seemed pleased with that prospect.

I got another screwdriver and slipped it under to her and repeated my instructions.

She was able to get the screws out. Whew!

Ok so the knob was apart. Now what? I tried pushing on various parts of the mechinisim that was still there. Nothing did anything. So I called The Col back. What do I push on? He couldn’t really tell me but did suggest that I take the knob on my side, that luckily had more of the workings on it, and use it to see how the door worked. I put it in, turned it a few times while I watched it and the latch snapped back!

As I let Pixie out she grumped that she was unhappy as she wanted to get her food pushed under the door to her. Can’t please some people.