The Deaf of the Dandelion

As usual, I sat quietly reading a book in the car waiting for Reed and Douglas to get out of school, and, as usual the silence was broken with an ear-piercing, dog-style whistling, alien torture device scream of one large-lunged Isaac, strapped in his car seat. For some reason, waiting 20 minutes in a car seat for his brothers is not easily done in silence (hiking up to some high mountain peak bare footed and spending a year in silence to attain some benefit like self control, voice healing, or a Jack Handy style deep thought, is definitely not in his future). I have it on good authority, that this is a genetically passed down trait from his dad, who regularly screamed so loud and high pitched next to his pregnant mother that his future little sister Andi jumped. Thank you Chris. I've thought several times, usually too late, that it would be nice if I packed some ear plugs in the car for these sessions. I've even considered picking up some old french-fries from off of the floor and molding them into ear plugging shapes. Oh well, now you know why it is I will be completely deaf in about 5 years. I'd better start listening to those lovely sounds in nature, the harmonies of an orchestra playing Beethoven, and the gentle sound of rain while I still can. I can start to wonder "if a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody around does it make a sound?" Does that apply to these high pitch screams? Though, I suppose the shattered glasses in the room found after the scream would prove otherwise.

Ramble, ramble, ramble…

Anyway, the screaming died once the bell to let school out rang and Reed and Douglas started running for the van. My ears are still ringing and I'll still have a good excuse for the doctor when he sees all the scaring in my ears, "no doctor, I'm not an overly zealous Q-tip user, it's my son’s fault, honest!"

Reed and Douglas came to my rescue and Isaac was so diverted that he forgot all about hurting his mommy's ears. I was blessed with a lovely gift from Douglas as well when he came to the open window with a bouquet of freshly picked dandelions. I thanked him and he got in the car. No wonder he has 3 "girlfriends," quite the ladies man. Once we were all strapped in and happy with our seating arrangements (always an issue as to who has to sit by Isaac, ugh! Poor Reed got the corner of a book in his eye this time) we headed on home.

Once home,we distractedly got out of the car finding it hard to stop looking at a Power Ranger book or having a hard time opening a door or two. I was the last to leave the vehicle as I was in charge of making sure the often-left-open doors were shut. I'd say once a month on average a kind neighbor comes over at around 10 pm to let us know our van door is still open. Sometimes I think they probably don't even bother coming over anymore, but just shut it themselves. Anyway, I closed up the van and carefully carried in my lovely bouquet of Spring flowers. I was looking around for a little vase when Douglas came up to me and said, "if you don't want those dandelions, just let me know and I'll pop their heads off." I couldn’t prevent the kind of joy that comes from this popular in-herbaceous treatment of plants and therefore gave them to him, but not until I'd had a chance to take a picture of the ignorantly happy flowers. Don’t' be surprised when you hear that Douglas grows up to be either a hit man or a lumberjack.

Well, my brain is slowing down as I am sooo tired. I spent the last two nights staying up reading Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host, and it was worth every hour of missed sleep. I loved it!!! That woman can really tell a good tale. I’d recommend it to anyone, so read it!