A Few More Reasons Why I Love My Kids

Tom and Troy just left for Lusaka. Originally only Tom was going to go down to collect our visitors from the airport, but after watching Life of Pi, I felt it would be a treat for Troy to watch it. Since he'd love to have a future in movies and/or graphic design, I felt he could benefit from the amazing artistry of the movie.

This does mean that I am once again alone in the bush. Since I'm missing my kids a little, I'll share some stories with you:

One evening a couple weeks ago, Jasmine and I were discussing the disappearance of my favorite tweezers. 

We’re fairly certain she was the last one with them, but I didn’t want her to feel too badly, so I told her that perhaps I had lost them. 

She looked pointedly at my eyebrows and said, “Mom, you don’t use them much”. 

“Sure I do,” I replied. “You see, I get these hairs on my chin….”

“Oh, Mom! You’re so gross!”

I firmly believe if you’re not thoroughly disgusting your teenager daughter from time to time, you’re not doing the parenting thing right.

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Another night I was just drifting off to sleep, when I heard a rustling, crunching, crinkling, creeping sound. I was instantly awake, and just as instantly terrified. Tom was still in Lusaka, so I was alone in my bedroom. 

Flipping on my bedside lamp, I picked up my cell phone and dialed for Troy. “Quick, come to my room”.

(Please tell me you also use your cell phone as an intercom system.....)

He came right away and looked around the place where I heard the noise. He moved my trash can, my shoes, looked under the little bookshelf. “There’s nothing there, Mom”.

He left, and I tried to get back to sleep. It wasn’t but a few moments before I heard it again. It sounded like it was crawling through plastic bags or papers. Perhaps it was a mouse making use of the winter wonderland that was stashed at the end of my bedroom. All the gifts for the little kids, all the wrapping paper and stockings were in boxes and heaps just 3 feet from my bed. I shuddered to think what could have made its home in there.

Troy came back quickly when I called him again on the phone. 

As soon as he came in he spied a frog on the floor near the foot of my bed. 

“It’s just a frog, Mom. A really weird, ugly one”.

I told him he’d have to get rid of it. It might be ‘just a frog’, but with my luck, it would be directly under my foot when I got up in the middle of the night (during a power cut, of course) for a bathroom break.

However I still wasn’t sure that that frog—no matter how ugly-- could have been responsible for all the noise.  I asked Troy to look harder, so he sat at the end of my bed watching and listening.  We sat quietly in the semi-darkness waiting. 

Suddenly….the crackling, creeping, scratching sound was back!

“There! Did you hear it??”

“Mom, that was the frog. I was watching it. It hopped just then”.

Who knew that frogs were so noisy?

It took Troy several minutes of chasing the frog around the room—it was surprisingly quick—before he managed to finally trap it inside an old, empty jar.

As Troy began to leave my room, I told him how thankful I was that he was so brave, and that he was my hero.

He turned slowly in the doorway, still holding the sticky peanut butter jar with the captured amphibian in it.

“It was just a toad, Mom. A toad.”

I still say he’s a hero…..

P.S. Almost immediately after Troy left my room, I was attacked by mosquitoes. Perhaps that frog was one of the good guys.

(Almost) Exactly Three Years Ago: Invited to a Ball
(Almost) Exactly One Year Ago: Honey, Honey