In Search of a Hint

I think we've pretty much established that Alexis is bossy  ... annnnnnd ... that's hereditary.

Hi, my name is Michelle. I boss people around.

That's where the blame lies, I believe. On my bossy gene. When we walked through the door for an ultrasound, I very quickly instructed the tech that we don't want to know the sex of the Tiny Human.

A groan fell out of Alexis' mouth when I said it. She wants to know. HOOBOY, DOES SHE WANT TO KNOW. She finds it absolutely baffling that people can prepare for tiny humans when they don't know and MOM, I WANT TO KNOW.

Too bad, so sad. I don't. Considering I'm the one who can't sleep more than two hours without getting out of bed to go to the bathroom, I am getting my way. (See? BOSSY.)

Alexis sat all through the ultrasound with her arms crossed in front of her chest and an annoyed look spread across her face. She was, of course, REALLY interested in the whole thing, but HOOBOY. MAD. BOY OR GIRL. MUST KNOW.

Fortunately for me, the ultrasound tech understood my instructions and took them very seriously. Not only did she not say a word that could be construed as a hint, she went out of her way to make sure we didn't accidentally find out. She even turned off the observation monitor when she measured the Tiny Human's legs just in case there was something near there to see.

For the record, I did tell Alexis she could still look. The tech's monitor was obviously still on and I figured she could look since we would never know if she saw anything or not. It's not like she is experienced at recognizing things on an ultrasound. Alexis didn't move out of her chair, though. She stayed oblivious like the rest of us.

She should have looked. She REALLY wouldn't have known what to look for.

I didn't realize it for a bit, but a few days after the ultrasound, I fully comprehended just how oblivious the poor kid is. She has her own copy of one of the ultrasound pictures. She spends lots of time looking at it and showing it to people. At one point, she sat studying it then reported that she is positive it's a girl because LOOK AT HER FACE, MOM. THAT'S A GIRL.

I pointed out that all babies look pretty much the same at first. There are no "boy" features or "girl" features  that early ... except that one.

The amount of time it took Alexis to figure out what "that one" was is truly indicative of just how innocent she is. And by "innocent" I mean I HAD TO SPELL IT OUT FOR HER.

The good news is that our ultrasound photos are cut off at the Tiny Human's belly. The bad news is that Alexis is now spending a lot of time trying to find a hint of ANYTHING at the edge of that photo.

Butiful Things

I don't know how we managed to get this one thing right, but Alexis is crazy good at entertaining herself. Like, CRAZY GOOD. That means that on days like today when school is cancelled and everybody has to work, one of us can work from home and actually get things done.

No. Really. It's totally possible.

As I sat perched on the couch editing a document, Alexis sat on the living room floor, completely enthralled with her Rainbow Loom. When that grew old, she moved on to knitting for a while, then her Monster High dolls, and then she read for a while.

Not a peep to me. The WHOLE time.

Hour-after-hour she entertained herself, never once uttering that she was bored or anything. Mind you, she won't say she's bored ... EVER. The one and only time she has told me that, she was handed a toilet brush and taught how to scrub a toilet. Like magic she thought of some things she could do and she hasn't said those words to me since.

Still, the kid deserves some credit for being awesome. So, when the day started to grow long and it seemed like a good time to break, we ran to the store and I treated Alexis to a new book of scrapbooking paper. It's a favorite of hers because she can use it to make all sorts of sparkly things.

Including books.

Like this one that she made when I picked up the laptop and went back to work after our return.

She's not perfect, but this kid. MAN.

When she has a good day,

she has a REALLY good day.

It definitely makes up for the days when she's a butthead.

And then some.

1500 Miles and a World of Difference

It's my fault.

The weather. It's my fault.

If you hadn't noticed, the weather changed about ten seconds after a certain 7-year old opened her gift from Santa. Santa instructed an elf to put together a full-size FOR REAL basketball goal for the driveway. It was a genius idea for a gift that came straight from Alexis' list, but there were other choices. There were other choices that wouldn't have caused a cold spell.

So now the basketball goal sits on the patio, covered with snow and on its side because ZOMG THE WIND LATELY. It can't be set upright until water is poured in the base, and that can't happen until it warms up a bit.

See? Totally my fault.

The truly annoying thing about the whole situation is that I want to go out and play. As I was complaining about this very fact to Alexis earlier tonight, I realized that her childhood is SO very different than mine. She replied to my complaining by saying it was too cold to play basketball and HOW DOES A CHILD OF MINE NOT KNOW BETTER?

One thing led to another and before she knew it, Alexis was getting an earful about how it was PERFECT weather to play outside. I'm not kidding. When you grow up in North Dakota, you learn to appreciate windchills above -30 degrees. A little common sense will go a long way in making it perfectly safe to be outside in that sort of weather, so I spent all of my childhood sledding, ice skating, and even playing basketball in the driveway when it was well below zero.

No joke. No exaggeration. We played outside in weather like today's.

Alexis, of course, was completely blown away by this fact. She particularily was interested in the part where we ice skated outside, so I proceeded to tell her about how there was a low spot in our backyard. That low spot collected water, and in the winter, it froze over and stayed frozen. I spent hours and hours and hours skating on that little patch of ice.

I spent even more hours skating on the Mouse River. It freezes over completely and stays frozen in North Dakota, so as kids we would trudge down to it to skate.

The best ice, however, was at the hockey rinks. There were five or six outdoor rinks in the town where I grew up. They got used all through the winter. I spent night after night spinning and weaving Figure Eights. A negative sign before the temperature didn't mean we couldn't go out and skate -- it actually meant the ice would be in better shape. A little hot water and a squeegee could fix any crack, and if it was cold enough, the new water would freeze quickly and fully heal the ice.

Alexis has skated at an outdoor rink exactly once. Every other time we've tried to go, it has been too warm for the ice to be any good.

I do believe my generation will be the last to be able to say that we trudged "uphill both ways through six feet of snow" when we were headed to school. This next generation only knows about cancellations and delays and staying inside when it's a wee bit chilly outside.

But, given that this one likes to throw snow in her own face, there is at least a bit of hope for the future.