7 Quick Takes for InstaFriday

1.  Now that summer is here, we are here: 

I think my parents like having a swimming pool because it allows them to have a house FILLED with kids and grandkids and nieces and nephews every weekend.  And telling myself that helps me feel better about loitering there all summer long. 

2.  I purposefully chose a filter that would make my golden, tanned legs look ghostly in this photo.  Honestly...

But the cat seems not to mind the perpetualwhiteness.  He circles my feet and trips me up no matter the pale.  (What IS that with cats?  The way they make you step all over them because they can't stand to be more than a whisker's-width away from your ankles?  I love the boy, but gah.  I need SPACE!)

3.  See?  Here again.  This day, Landon was the only boy in a pool full of 7 ladies.  He splashed them as little brothers should.  They adored it as big sisters of beautiful babies should.  But give it another two years, and I think his adorable splashing won't be quite so well-received. 

4.  There's a new ice cream parlor south of town on a winding, narrow highway.  It's attached to a family-owned chocolate shop.  They also bake sweet cinnamon rolls.  And sell fresh milk from a local dairy.  In short, I'd like my ashes scattered there when I die, because it stands for everything delicious in this cruel, cruel world. 

Oh, and their bubble-gum ice cream is like pink heaven on a spoon.

5.  The girls simply cannot get enough of Landon right now.  He's 8 months old, starting  to crawl, learning how to make us laugh, and smells like babies mixed with utopia smothered in perfection.  Really, we're all having trouble keeping our hands offa him. 

6.  When the sisters are naughty, I make them stand over a hot, soapy sink until they can either admit how wonderful their mother is for accomplishing this task daily, or they promise never to argue again. 

Just kidding.  (Although the arguing thing isn't a bad idea...)  Mia has started pleading with me to let her help wash the dishes.  Something about bubbles and splashing and boredom makes this a desirable task.  I really can't say no, right?  It's like a dream come true!

7.  Somehow, Mia ended up with a scratched cornea this week.  The eye doctor explained it as something closer to a divot, really -- a scoop of cornea damaged by...we don't know what.  But it was excruciating for my sweet girl, who screamed for me to make the pain stop.  She's better now after time and rest -- which is really the only thing to do for corneal abrasions -- but we're left with antibiotic eye drops.

And that's another struggle entirely.

Before I could get her into the doctor's office, I had no idea what was wrong and tried everything I could to help her.  Pain relief medicine, cold compresses, and finally eye drops.  I promised her that eye drops don't hurt, they only lubricate they eye and help flush out whatever's making her uncomfortable. 

Wouldn't you know it, as soon as the drops hit her eye she began screaming that they were burning.  I told her to keep crying and let her tears wash the burn away -- but it must have come out more like "Keep crying, child, let it buuuuurn!"   Because she shoved away from me and hid in her blankie.

Later, as she was sniffling, she looked at me reproachfully.  "You lied to me!  You told me it wouldn't hurt, but it did...why did you say that?  I trusted you!" 

And that's when I decided to go running face-first into a brick wall.  Because honestly, it would have hurt less.

It's been a weird week: swimming and ice cream and corneal abrasions.  One of these things is not like the other...but oh, well!  Because the weekend is here again, and we're ready to loiter at the pool!  Yay, swimming!  Yay, healed eyeballs!  Yay, summer! 

Linking up today with 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary and InstaFriday at Life Rearranged.