Guest Post - Daniel, Again

*** Please enjoy this new guest post from my husband, Daniel. Apparently, he had a very different experience on vacation than I did. ***


THE STUPIDEST ANIMAL EVER CREATED!!

Hello,

Although my anger has subsided a bit since I’ve first came across the Tawny Frogmouth Owl, I am still somewhat bewildered, as I’m still trying to understand the reason for its existence. Give me a minute to retell the tale of this asinine experience, as it represents just a couple minutes of one day of our grand vacation to Nashville.

We stopped at a little zoo in southern Kentucky that specializes in animals from Australia. Kangaroos, dingoes, and lorikeets were all very popular animals to visit. However, when we meandered to the aviary to see the laughing Kookaburra, the most unsuspecting thing happened to me! I saw it! I wondered, “Is that just a head of a hawk? This must be a mistake! Someone must have forgotten to clean the cage when they were cutting the heads from the bodies of the owls. Wait? They don’t do that at zoos!!!”

Dumbfounded I stared. But then it looked at me and that’s when I got scared. I screamed, “Sara, it’s alive! Where’s the bird’s body? Where’s his wing?! Where’s his feet?!!” As he stared at me, I felt as if he was thinking, “not this again.” I felt as if he went through this day after day and was resentful not only to me but the entire human population (or at least Kentucky’s). I felt him hating me as our eyes locked momentarily. I could have felt pity, but I didn’t. My bemusement turned quickly to anger because of his ill-will toward me.

I did not want to ever see this creature again. I wanted rid of him from the earth. Predators, poachers, hunters, bored teenagers, global warming do your worst to this bodiless thing! But as I’ve said before, I am less upset now that I’ve had time to adjust.

If you know of any other animals that are equally heinous, please share because I do not want to go through that ever again. You know, things like wiener dogs without legs (they just look like a hot dog that barks), a turtle without a shell, people with eleven fingers (and the eleventh isn’t necessarily on either hand), cats with no ears (they exist!).

Big Kid Beds

So, about three months ago, we bought "big kid beds" for Abby and Avery. Since Abby was five years old, we figured it was weird for her to still sleep in a toddler bed (even though she fit just fine). Also, her friend came over one day and said, "Wow, Abby. You have a small bed." Like in a monotone "wow" voice, not in a mocking voice, but still....

And so we headed out to Ikea, because I love that place, and found ourselves some new beds. We ended up finding two identical twin beds, but in white for Abby and in black for Avery. Avery's was on sale, but Abby's was not. Apparently they weren't identical after all. But they are cute, and they are big kid beds.

Now I'm slowly, slowly decorating the rooms and trying to make one of them sporty (my choice) and the other one fancy (Abby's choice). The fancy room is also supposed to be a princess room, but I'm not into themes such as that and we're compromising. Compromising as in, "I'm doing what I want, because I have the money in my wallet."

So here are a few pictures to let you know what I'm going for:


This is the color scheme, but my camera is hard to adjust to get a true picture. I think they look much prettier in person. They've got the colors right and the theme, so I love them. I got these signs clearanced at Michael's, so the thrifty side of me is happy as well.


This is the big girl bed. The comforter is a leftover from the toddler bed, but it sort of fits into the color scheme, though not the princess theme. For now, it works, but I hope to make her another quilt eventually. But you can ask my mom, Abby shouldn't hold her breath on that one.


And this is another sign that I made for Abby's room. I found all the wood picture cut-out thingies clearanced at Michael's, and the white board was in the "Handyman" section of Ikea. Another thrifty decoration! You can also see the pretty lavendar color we painted the walls in this picture.

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Has anyone else been decorating lately? I would love to get links to your blog and see the pictures if so!

I Shouldn't Be Surprised

I don't know why I wasn't expecting it this morning when Avery woke me up at 6:36. I don't know why I was surprised. After all, this is the same kid who stuck one of these (the little ball thingies) up his nose just two months ago:


This is the same kid who broke his little pinkie when he was only one year old. He had a yeast infection in his eye once. I found him across the street, playing with garbage cans when he was 15 months old (and supposedly playing in his room). He was almost born in the car, for goodness sakes!

Yet, when Avery woke me up at 6:36 this morning to tell me that something was still in his ear, I was surprised. He informed me that "the thing from his dresser was in his ear," but "it doesn't hurt anymore!"

I was alarmed. I asked him what it was, exactly, in his ear, and how it had gotten there. All he knew was that it had come from inside his dresser, was circle-shaped, and white. Oh yeah, and still in his ear because he had stuck it in there.

So, instead of really trying to remove it myself, I called the doctor when the office opened. I've learned that the doctor is best at these things. We went to the doctor's office later in the morning, and he used big tweezers (forceps, as he calls them) to remove the object. Turns out it was a rubber drawer-stop thing that prevents the drawers from getting slammed. Apparently, these things are the exact same size as Avery's ear canal.

Maybe I should have expected something like this from Avery, since he did this and this. But no, I was still surprised. Even though he tried to pick up a smashed tampon in the CVS parking lot the other day, while screaming "clouds!" Yup, he continues to surprise me daily. Sometimes even hourly.

Presenting... Tulips in the Snow!

Well, we woke up this morning to snow. Snow - in April? Yes, it's supposed to be Spring, but Ohio doesn't understand this. Fortunately, we did have a couple weeks of actual Springy weather before this snow got here.

Last weekend we were able to play in the yard, go to the kite festival, and fly a few kites of our own. Daniel decided to try something new, and took the training wheels off of Abby's bike for a few minutes.


Just look at the joy on her face! She went up the driveway once with Daniel, crying the whole time. She then went up the driveway with me, semi-crying, and then down the driveway with no tears. Of course, we didn't actually let go of the bike, but she then decided that she had had enough of this.


And the training wheels went back on! On the bright side, the lack of training wheels for ten minutes made her much braver on the bike once the wheels went back on. She raced me up and down the driveway a few times, winning every time.


And so it is back into the winter coats the kids go. Hopefully I can pack these away for the Spring and Summer, eventually.

If you're the type that tears up thinking about how big your kids are getting, try this:

1. Do the laundry.
2. Fold 5 pairs of your underwear.
3. Fold 5 pairs of your kid's underwear.

See? They are still small.

You Know the Feeling... Right?

You know how your kids like to ruin everything you like to do? I mean, in most ways kids make your life better. But sometimes, they just make things so hard to do. And other times, they just completely ruin things.

Like when my favorite song finally comes on the radio. I turn it up a bit to enjoy it, and inevitably, the kids either start fighting or really, really need to tell me something at that exact moment.

After I hear "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" I finally turn down the music and ask what they want. The answer is usually something like, "I really like candy!" or "I can wear my shoe on my hand!"

And very often, as soon as Daniel or I sit down to watch our favorite TV show at night, the kids need to potty or are "tirsty." Sometimes Ethan comes in the room just to tell me that he found a different color pacifier, and has decided to use that one instead of the one he went to bed with.

The kids also know how to really ruin a love of reading. They can wrinkle a page, tear it up altogether, or simply lose a book just before you decide to read. Of course, this actually has happened a couple hours in advance, but you don't realize it until you finally have 30 minutes of overlapping nap time and Abby entertaining herself time.

But what really makes these moments worse - or maybe better, I don't know - is when people who no longer have little kids tell you that you will miss these moments when the kids grow. Sure I will. I will definitely open up a book and think, "where are the crayon scribbles, wrinkles, and torn pages?" I will sit to watch a TV show and wonder what that loud sound is, and then realize that it is actually the TV show, which I can now hear. I will turn on my favorite CD and think, "I never heard that verse before!"

And then I will miss the noise, and the annoyance, and the pain in my butt.

But, alas, right now I am at still at an early first phase of parenting, where the kids drive me nuts and I cannot even imagine what my life would be like if they were not 2 and 3 and 5. But for now, I have to end this post early because the inevitable fight over whether Ethan's shirt should be zipped up or not is occurring right now, and I have to break it up.

Oh! Hey! Another Big Idea!

So, I was reading this blog. Not this blog, but this blog. And you know what? I really, really like her ideas. I have this crazy 2 year old and this crazy 3 year old, and all they seem to want to do in the morning is make messes and fight. The mom that writes the blog actually home schools her kids, but the idea is very similar to what I did with Abby when she was about 18 months - 3 years old.

Okay, if you didn't check out the blog, then I'll tell you what it is about. Sheesh. You're lazy! (Just kidding!) The mom has a 2 year old as well, and she basically teaches him in a Montessori-style every day, for like an hour. Montessori-style is more play-based than lesson-based, and it works better with some kids. So, the mom has these trays that she sets up, with different objects on them each day. The kid is free to pick a tray and work on it. The trays have things like pasta and bowls to sort them into on one, then the next tray has beads and things to string them onto. I can definately see my kids loving this.

The mom on the blog says that "Tot School" is actually a great way to teach her older son (a six year old) that he is not "the center of the universe." Hmm... Now is there anyone in my house that I can see acting that way? Yes. Yes, there is. (No, it's not Daniel) And when that certain someone is out of school for the summer, I can also use Tot School to teach her - err, I mean non-gendered them - the same thing!

So, I'm going to be compiling a small stock of things like beads and votive holders, pipe cleaner and pitchers, tweezers and tongs, etc. over the weekend. Then, hopefully, on Monday the boys and I can begin Tot School!

** As a side note, the "tot" on the blog looks suspiciously like my tot.**

1+1+1=1's tot:



My tot:



Weird, huh??

Get a Job!

You know the economy is bad when two year olds have to get dangerous carpentry jobs....

Family Size-ism

Have you ever noticed how biased our country is towards families with two parents and two kids? I notice because I have three kids, but I wonder if this ticks off people with one kid, or more than three kids too....

• You know how restaurants have nights where kids eat free? You'd be surprised at how many of those places specify "one child eats free per paying adult." So the third kid always has to share with the other two, cause I'm sure not buying a kid's meal when the other two are free!

• Frozen Waffles pretty much only come in packs of 10. That means we always have one extra waffle per box. Every three weeks or so, after we've gone through three boxes, the kids all get "variety waffle day." A different waffle for each kid.

• Hot Dogs and hot dog buns (at least the brand we buy) only come in packs of 8. This time there are two wasted. That means we have two "hot dog variety nights" after we've finished three packs.

• Minivans are designed for families with 2 kids. Why else would they make the back have only 5 seats? That means that if we ever go anywhere and take the kid's friends with us, one kid gets left out.

• Hotel packages are rarely even designed for families at all, but if they are, it's a four-person family they have in mind. Some hotels actually charge extra if you want to keep three kids and two adults in a room. Like my 2 year old really takes up that much room. If the package includes tickets to the zoo or anything like that, I can guarantee you that it will only include two adult tickets and two child tickets.

• Even the human body is designed only for two kids. Two hands, two arms to carry them, two legs to sit them on, two eyes to watch the little guys. Maybe God is trying to tell us all something...

What's Happening

All kids are different, right? I mean, there is no way you can have three kids and have them all be exactly the same, is there?

My kids are no exception. Of course they are never exactly the same - but they sure are identical in a few areas. For instance, at the exact age of two, they all start having what Daniel calls a "hot foot." They get strapped in the car seat, and immediately have to take off their left shoe and sock. The right one can stay on, no problem. But that left one? It must not be on once the car door closes. No exceptions. All three of my kids did this from the moment they turned two until the moment they turned three.

Now for differences. Ethan has suddenly become "the dressy one." He stands at the closet door when I tell him that I'm going to get a shirt for him to wear. If I even touch a t-shirt, he cries, "No! Shirt!" Lately he hates to wear t-shirts, and prefers button-up shirts. Apparently, t-shirts are not really shirts to him. He also insists on having his shoes put on when I dress him, even if we won't be leaving the house. This is very different from my other two kids. The second they come in the house, their shoes and socks are off. They hate shoes, Ethan loves them. He also insists on wearing a reversible wind-breaker/fleece jacket, while the other two are happy with hoodies. I hope he's not becoming metrosexual.

Another difference - Avery is still noticing that skin colors vary, while Abby seems to be oblivious to this. The other night, as we were waiting for a table in a restaurant, an older black lady sat next to us, and started talking to the kids. Abby politely talked to her about movies and food. Avery took one look at her and announced rather loudly, "You're brown!"

What is the proper response in such a situation? I'm sure the lady knows that she is, in fact, brown. But does she understand that this is purely Avery's own observation? He's never said such a thing before, and we've never said anything like this to him either. He's actually been around people of color before, and said nothing. The kids are just different.

Abby is also learning that other people are not exactly alike, even if she doesn't seem to notice skin color. Generally, Abby makes friends very easily. This is just how kids are, I think. Everyone near Abby's age that she talks to seems to also like her. There are 13 kids in Abby's class, and they all seem to like her. At least up until about two weeks ago.

All of a sudden, there is this one boy in the class who would rather sit and do nothing at his desk than play with Abby during playtime. When Abby told him that we were going away for a weekend trip last week, he said, "I wouldn't want to go anywhere with you." Abby has actually spent at least one playtime crying because this kid wouldn't play with her. The poor girl has never been around a kid her age that didn't like her enough to play.

So, it seems that differences are making things a little tough in our household. You hear so much about celebrating differences these days, that I don't know how to perceive situations such as the boy who dislikes Abby. So, for now I'm just letting her handle it.

I guess that way I'll eventually learn how my kids handle difference on their own.

The Future

We went out to a Chinese restaurant the other night, since my kids adore Ni Hao Kai-Lan
(who told them that Chinese dumplings are delicious). Of course, we all got a fortune cookie at the end, and of course they were completely accurate.

Daniel's fortune:
"Utilize what you have been given." Translation: Stop buying so many tools and materials just to finish up the home improvement jobs you started last year.

Sara's fortune:
"To learn without thinking is effort in vain." Translation: Pay attention in class!

Abby's fortune:
"What's that in your eye? Oh... It's a sparkle." Translation: You have sparkly eyes.

Avery's fortune:
"The thing in us that we fear just wants our love." Translation: Dogs, train whistles, pieces of fuzz on the floor, monsters, and Ethan going "Rarr!" just want your love.

Ethan's fortune:
"Suppose you can get what you want..." Translation: You can never really get what you want, because you are only a baby and all you want is candy.

The backs of the fortunes also accurately predicted our family's health for the following week 3 out of 5 of times:

Ethan: "Learn Chinese - To have a fever (shao)." Ethan woke up Sunday morning with a very high fever.

Avery: "Learn Chinese - Cold (leng)." Avery caught a cold last week.

Sara: " Learn Chinese - Headache (tong)." I have three kids - of course I had a headache this week.

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These odds are almost as good as the odds that the Chinese Gender Chart will be right - and it has been for all my kids. So, next time you're unsure about your future, you might want to head to a Chinese food restaurant!

It All Adds Up

I thought I owed you all (or... one) an explanation. I haven't been blogging regularly for... quite a while. But the truth is, I feel too busy right now to blog. Something had to give, and for now it's this blog.

So, until I either graduate college (yeah right!) or at least take a semester off, blog posts will no longer be regular. I will still blog, but not that often for a while.

Will you miss me?

I Now Take Requests

As requested by a friend, I present to you The Story of Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the kids and I stopped by a friend's house to see if we could take them to lunch. We decided to head over to the always elegant Burger King (please see Fancy Nancy
for an explanation). This particular Burger King also had a playplace inside, so it was the perfect and most logical choice for our group of 6 kids and 2 adults.

Now, I can see why a person might assume and look at us in awe with our six children if, say, one of us was a man and the other a woman. Maybe then it would appear that we were a couple, and had a whole bunch of children. That would be insane, of course, but people may assume this if the children are with a man and a woman.

However, we were two women with six children. Yet a woman still came up to my friend and asked if all those kids were "ours." *ahem* True, I am majoring in Women's Studies at my college, and I am a feminist, but... "Our" kids?

So, after this woman left the restaurant, my friend and I had a good laugh at her question. Then a new person showed up with a kid, and sat in that woman's seat. This time it was a "Nana," and her grandson.

Avery immediately began to bond with the grandson. The two played on the playplace, danced on the mat in front of the slide, and took turns blowing into the boy's cherry Icee to make red bubbles. Now that last thing I mentioned - how do you stop your son from blowing into a stranger's straw when the stranger's own grandmother thinks it is funny and cute? How do you not appear rude in that situation, yet also not allow your son to soak up every germ that kid may have?

Back to Avery. Now, as I have mentioned before (here, here, and here), Avery has blonde hair and everyone else in our family has brown hair. This friend of mine that joined me at Burger King also has brown hair, as well as her three kids. In fact, we often joke that her three kids and Abby and Ethan are all her kids, while Avery is mine because the other five look somewhat alike.

And so Avery spent a large portion of the day with these seven people with brown hair. Guess what color hair that little boy he bonded with had? Blonde! Finally, it seems, Avery had found one of his own! This other blonde boy even had a Nana, just like him!

Now I feel the need to seek out friends with blonde hair, or at least blonde children. My poor little Avery - it seems he'll always be a minority in our house.

Examples

You know, I've blogged quite a few times about the things people say to me about my three small kids. Things like, "You sure have your hands full!" But really, no matter how I make it seem, there are a handful of people who say these things in a polite way. I think it's all in your tone, facial expression, and the other words you add (or fail to add) to your comment.

For instance, the example I gave above can be received as quite rude if the person walks up to me, says it in a "Gee-your-life-sucks" tone of voice, and then walks away. Multiply this by ten if my kids are misbehaving at the time.

On the other hand, the kids and I were at the grocery store the other day (the same one where this happened), and an older lady said the dreaded sentence - but it was not at all rude. She also said that she had three kids just as close together - a girl and two boys - and she just wanted me to know that she is 72 years old. In other words, she knows how hard it is, but she survived!

Maybe the difference is comradery. If they've been through what they see you going through, it seems less rude to comment. I'm not quite sure. However, if I'm out without the kids, I do try to let other mothers know that I have the same problems with my kids as I see them having with their kids. They might not care at all, but I feel like empathizing with them is the right thing to do. Like I totally understand that their kids are not brats all the time. My kids are exactly the same!

Yeah, I know it probably is perceived as rude after all. But I feel like I would appreciate the degree of sisterhood that parenting small kids can provide, if I was in their shoes.

So, the next time you see someone at the store with the same amount of kids you have, crying, fighting, yelling, or peeing on themselves - tell her that your kids are just like hers. It will either make her relieved or depressed.

Finally!

You see this cute little boy? This is not just any cute little boy - he's now a potty trained cute little boy! Actually, according to him he is a cute "little big boy."

Since Avery is now 40 months old (3 years, 4 months), and I started potty training him at 26 months (2 years, 2 months), we had to throw the kid a party. Really, we give each of the kids a potty train party once they can go two full weeks without having an accident. The thing is, we thought we would be having this party about a year ago. Abby was potty trained earlier than this, so we just assumed that all the kids would be the same. I guess that's one of the first lessons you learn in parenting - no two kids are exactly alike. So, here is over a year later and he is finally potty trained!

We had the party last weekend. Even though Avery had said for a very long time that he wanted a potty "train" party (Thomas), we couldn't think of any games that went along with Thomas. Instead, Avery got a Cars potty train party. He had to drive up mountains and learn to handle the turns on a bumpy racetrack, all while racing to California for the Piston Cup.

When Abby had her party, we did a Dora the Potty-er party. She had to follow Map and climb the tallest mountain (a pile of pillows), answer a riddle and get over the Grumpy Old Troll's bridge (I was the Grumpy Old Troll), and walk through the spooky forest (green and brown steamers hung from the ceiling).

Now the pressure is on for Ethan. We haven't even started potty training him yet, but if he's anything like Avery, it will be a while before he needs a potty train party.

How Rude!

Please tell me it's not just me. Strangers seem to come up to me regularly, and say rude things about my kids. Is this an epidemic of rudeness, or is it just me and my kids that experience this?

Just today, a lady in Kroger came up to me as Abby was talking about... everything... and made the international hand symbol for "she talks too much." She then told me that my daughter does, in fact, talk too much. She tried to soften it up a bit, though, by telling me that her daughters are all grown and she only hears silence at her house these days. Poor lady.

I've also been told by other parents (whom I do not know) that my child (whoever is a baby at the time) has huge feet/hands/entire body. Now really, could you say such a thing about an adult? Then why say it about an adult's baby?

Abby has apparently always been loud, because strangers would stop me if they heard her crying as a small baby. They would say, "she cries louder than any baby I've ever heard!" Also, I've often been told that she is, "such a princess!" And that Abby "certainly is spoiled!" Hmm...

With the boys, I've been told that they don't look like Daniel "at all!" Nice. Why don't you just flat out tell my husband that you suspect his wife is sleeping around on him?

So, strangers, next time you see a baby at the grocery store, either smile and say nothing, or think really hard about something nice that you can say. Chances are, the mom dragging those kids through the store has had a really rough day and can't handle your boldness at that very moment.

Growing Up

This past Sunday I finally got a chance to visit a friend of mine that had just had her first baby. Just, as in 4 months ago.

Yeah, I know I'm a lousy friend, but at least I did finally see that sweet little baby! There are other people I know that have just had their third and fourth babies (three years ago and six months ago, respectively), and I have yet to visit them. Of course, the mother of these two babies is actually my cousin, and not just a friend. For some reason, I feel like that is explanation enough...

And so I was able to hold this little guy on Sunday, and watch him do all those sweet little baby things, like babbling and laughing and hitting himself in the face with a toy. I watched my friend nurse him (well, it's not like I just sat and watched her, but I was there), I watched her play with him on the floor, change him into cute little jammies with puppies on each foot... Every possible thing that a "maybe-I'm-done-having-babies" person could ask for.

But you know what's really strange? None of it made me wish for another little one, or even made me completely nostalgic about my own little ones that are now big ones (uhh... I mean my kids).

I'm usually pretty predictable about desperately wanting another baby after I've been around a new one. But, even though this little guy was definitely the cutest little Stephen I have ever seen, I was perfectly content knowing I am past that stage with my own kids.

Does this mean that I am finally ready to accept that I have three kids - and will always have just three kids? No. After all, I may change my mind tomorrow, or even later today. I think this just simply means that I am learning to enjoy my own kids as they grow. It seems that every new age and stage they reach is more fun than the last. I can actually picture Daniel and myself with three older kids - and there is no baby carrier next to us in that picture.

Of course, all this came at the same time that Abby became an adult (or rather a b-dult, according to Abby). Today, after I asked her to stop banging her feet against the floor while she was coloring, she simply responded, "Sorry! I'm just so used to doing my own thing." You know, like paying rent and cooking dinner and heading off to work every morning...?

She then followed me around the house for the next 50 minutes while I cleaned and she rambled - I mean talked to me. She talked to me about ice skates, and how her doll needs some, and how she likes to pretend her knee-high socks are ice skates. She explained to me what a stranger is, and how to react if I come across one. I promise to run, and tell my mom or my teacher right away. "Umm, Dr. Wilson? Some stranger just talked to me in the hallway. What should I do?"

And Abby has also grown socially. She has lots of friends - best friends, even. She is invited to birthday parties a lot. While I sit in the van waiting to pick her up from school, she stands outside with her friends, their arms around each other's shoulders and laughing. Abby thinks about what would be the perfect Christmas present for her friends, or what would make the perfect tea party to which she could invite her friends. She has, on several occasions, asked for a nice couch of her own to place in her bedroom, so she could have friends over and offer them a place to sit.

But with all the growing up that Abby seems to be doing, I don't feel that same apprehension about her leaving babyhood behind that I used to feel. I'm sort of excited about this growing. Every day I'm reminded of just how little she knows about life. I get to literally teach her something new about life every day. Just today, for instance, I taught her what a tongue-twister is. A tongue-twister. When is the last time you had to be taught such a thing?

So we've spent part of the day coming up with tongue-twisters for Abby to try to say. This was all started, of course, by Punxsutawney Phil. You know, the groundhog? We heard a DJ on the radio ponder the relationship between groundhogs and woodchucks, and then proceed to do the "How much wood can a woodchuck chuck..." thing. That brought on a whole slew of other tongue twisters between Abby and me, and the rest is history.

I will tell you that Abby is not so good at creating her own tongue twisters just yet. But I leave you with a good one that the radio DJ came up with:

"How much hog can a groundhog ground, if a groundhog could ground hog?"

Guest Post - Daniel's Innermost Personal Thoughts

After much *ahem* persuasion, I offer to you a guest post written by my own husband, Daniel.

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At 6 o’ clock Sara nudged me to get up for work. Immediately, a table just like the one below popped in my head:

Things to do	Start Time	End Time
Stretch	6:00 a.m.	6:36 a.m.
Stretch	6:36 a.m.	6:37 a.m.
Take a shower	6:37 a.m.	6:53 a.m.

What struck me as odd was not the fact that I had instantly wanted to stretch for 36 minutes, but that there was a totally different type of stretching that I would do for one minute after the initial stretch. I am not even sure what would the two styles would entail, but I knew they were unique and needed to classified as such. Could the first set be preparation for a mighty “power-stretch” or a deep transidental meditation followed by “benediction” stretch? I do not know.