7 Quick Takes Friday, #67

1. Toddlers are full of incongruous thought processes, you know?  Here's what I mean:

Lauren does not, will not, can not eat a raw carrot.  She's grown plenty of strong, sharp teeth, but she still spits out the carrot after a few seconds of half-hearted chewing, pronouncing it to be 'too cwunchy!'  And I believe her, for the most part.  Carrots are crunchy.  And hard.  I don't push it.

But earlier this week, Mia was pretending to cook with some dried rotini pasta, and apparently Lauren decided they looked snackable.  In they went, a few hard spirals of pasta, and I dashed over to do some mouth excavation before the situation escalated towards emergency.  Before I could get there, though, Lauren knew what was headed her way: a finger-sweep.  Instead, she opted for another way out: she chewed up AND SWALLOWED the rotini.  Uncooked, hard as nails, and sharp when broken pasta. 

Even I can't chew up a dried piece of rotini without flinching and spitting it out again.  (Never mind how I know for sure.  It's not important.  And I'll deny it.)

But if she can chew and swallow a piece of hard pasta, why can't she do the same with a carrot?  Am I such an adult that I'm wrong about the deliciosity of carrots?

(Deliciosity was for you, Annie!)



2.  Mia has morphed into a child from another era, this week.  She's taken to calling me 'Mother' almost exclusively, and it's sort of unsettling.  'Mother, will you please wipe me?'  'Mother, where are my golden shoes?'  'Mother, I think you're having a baby, your belly is BIG!'

(Although, come to think of it, there are things more unsettling than being called 'Mother.'  Being called pregnant when you're not, is high on the list, nomesayn?)



3.  If you've hung around my blog at all this week, you'll know that I've been participating in Maegan's Creativity Boot Camp.  The medium I chose to work with was fiction writing.  It's a strange beast, fiction.  I've never tackled it before, so it's taking me by surprise.  I'm having trouble separating myself from a story at the end of it, and I find myself feeling things with whatever mindset my character was feeling things.  Like I'm 'in character' for my writing, and can't disengage.  It's left me dizzy this week! 

But I'm still enjoying it -- the process of discovering unknown depths of creativity.  If you'd like to do some of the exercises Maegan's put together, you can play along without anybody knowing, just to feel your creative juices flowing.  It tickles when that happens...you might like it.



4.  Perhaps it's because of this boost in creative energy lately, or perhaps it's because I finally just threw in the towel and decided to try, but I did something new this week.  Are you ready?  It's big...

I french braided Mia's hair.
 

I know!  Amazing, right?! I was pretty pleased with the outcome, never having worn one myself, nor having ever braided one for anybody else.  I just flew by the seat of my pants, tugged at some Mia's wispy hair, and hoped for the best.  While I didn't get THE BEST, I did get, HEY! IT KIND OF WORKED!  It held for about 9 minutes before loosening and falling away. 

Oh, and Mia loved it.  I have a feeling I'll be getting plenty of practice this summer. 



5.  Random question of the week:

How do you feel about spray-on sunscreen?

I thought it was really a great idea until I tried it.  I don't feel like it gets a very good layer of protection on my kids' skin, and it chokes them with fumes in the process.  Mia hated it, twisting away and whining about the vapor-y spray. But she can have something of a whiny attitude in general, so it may not have been too bad after all.  I just don't think it's as good as a thick dollop of lotion, you know? 

Do you like it?


6.  Bonus question of the week:

What's your favorite kind of cereal?  And if you tell me you don't like cereal....I'll shed a tear for you.  We can still be friends, though, even if you think I'm strange for wishing cereal could be eaten for every meal.  I love it so much that I don't even have a favorite kind -- though we do have 7 (7!) boxes of cereal in our cupboard right now.  And only one of them is unopened.  It's ridiculous.



7. Monday will be a special day in the Heavenly household -- it'll mark 7 years since Justin and I have been married!  I love him.  I truly do.



Have a fantastic summer weekend, friends!  Be sure to visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!