Too Creative for His Own Good

Solomon and I had a difficult bedtime last night. He pushed all the wrong buttons and by the time I turned out the light, I was too tense to tuck him in nicely. So I did what I do in that situation and told him that I'd be back in a few minutes to tuck him in.

I left the room to straighten up a few things and cool myself off. As I was organizing my desk, Solomon came out of the room and stood by my elbow. I ignored him for a few seconds, thinking that he might think better of it and go back to bed. He didn't so I turned to look at him.

I heard a sound.

A deep sigh. Go. Back. To. Bed.

He turned, stomped into the bedroom and threw himself on to the bed. It was a very hard landing and I heard creaking from the bunk bed. The kids have had drilled into their heads "Do Not Jump On The Beds" since I made that purchase more than two years ago. It's an automatic time out. I can't believe I am putting a child into time out after bed time, but so be it.

He goes to the spot in the hallway and I start his timer. He was appropriately meek and served his time well.

When the timer beeped, we had the very brief discussion about why he had a time out and why it's not okay to jump on the bed or throw oneself on to the bed. I don't feel the need to belabor this point because it's not a matter of him not understanding by now. But whatever.

I should know better than to ask, but I asked him why he had done it. He thought carefully before responding, "It's because I want to be in the Olympics and I need to practice so I can jump over those hurdles."

Yeah, I laughed, too.

Random Stuff

My post yesterday was the 100th post to be published on my blog. I have a total of 105 posts but 4 of those are in the editing process. Some of them might never be posted if I can't get them right.

It has rained almost non-stop since 7:00 pm on Thursday night. I've loved every minute. Most of it has been a very light rain but some was heavier. This is one of the only times I wish I was on the third floor of this building; then I could hear rain instead of Bigfoot. We had an amazing round of thunder and lightning this afternoon. One thunder roll lasted a full minute. It went on so long I actually became concerned that it wasn't thunder. Here is what the kids splashed in once the rain let up. Sorry for the bad quality -- it's a cell phone picture.



I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had seen 4 rainbows in one week. We've seen 3 or 4 more since then. The summer weather in Denver is perfect for rainbows. There is a brief, light rain shower almost every afternoon about 2 hours before sunset. This makes for the perfect angle of sunlight against clouds and dissipating rain. I captured one on my phone.



I think I might be developing a latex allergy. I've been at this job for over 4 months and I use latex gloves at least half a dozen times per day. Latex allergies can show up after repeated exposure and I think it's happening to me. My hands itch a lot at work. I put two and two together on Wednesday last week and started carrying nitrile gloves in my pocket. I noticed a little difference so I'll keep it up and see what happens.

We see quite a bit of wildlife around here. Rabbits are every where. Prairie dogs are every where and then some. There is a stretch of empty road near here with barren fields on both sides. Cresting the hill there can be a bit surreal because occasionally the prairie dogs seem as if they have taken over the road as well as the fields. I haven't hit one yet but I have a bad feeling that it's only a matter of time. Speaking of wildlife, here's a snake we saw one afternoon at Jennifer and Caleb's apartment. Can you see it?



Dinner is an interesting affair here some nights. We discuss our favorite and least favorite parts of the day. Sometimes we talk about the funniest parts of our day, which inevitably includes someone's experience with a fart. Kids. Sometimes we find funny things in our food. These conjoined carrots, for example.



We've been enjoying the Olympics as a family almost every night since the opening ceremonies. I get such a kick out of watching the kids cheer for the athletes. This is the first time they are really big enough to get anything out of the Games. And still, they don't grasp the enormity of it. Solomon asked me tonight if Uncle Jonathan has been in the Olympics. (According to Solomon, Uncle Jonathan hung the moon.)

Their favorite event is 'gernastics' and they keep asking me where the next 'Ulumpics' will be. I've tried correcting the pronunciation but it's not sticking. It's okay, though; by the time the next Olympics rolls around they'll be saying it correctly and I'll miss these mispronunciations. I tried to explain to the kids that the Summer Olympics are every 4 years and the Winter Olympics are every 4 years and that they are evenly spaced. That was a little too much to comprehend, though.

I feel as if there was something else I wanted to say here but I'm drawing a blank now. I guess that means I should wrap this up and go scrub a toilet. Don't you wish you were here?