Coffee Mornings....Dr Pepper Afternoons

January 27, 2007

2012-01-27T13:50:00.002-06:00

Five years ago today.... I woke up well before six in the morning. I hurried to eat breakfast and to go get my hair done. I spent literally hours getting ready. Ken woke up between nine and ten in the morning and went to breakfast with all his friends:) he came back to the apartment and threw on his tux and went to hang out at the church. I got my make up done, and had one last bathroom break before putting on my dress. I talked to mom on the phone to find that all of the food was ready and the cake had been delivered. Ken and I had our pictures taken separately. ..... And it was time!

We got married:)

2012-01-24T19:54:00.002-06:00

We got snowmen sunglasses from Granna for Christmas.... Here is how Clare likes to wear hers:

And here is how Lucy likes to wear hers:)

I love these girls:)

Goals Week three:

2012-01-23T14:10:00.003-06:00

I didn't even touch my crafting goals this week:P I just didn't feel like it. OOPS :)

Crafting Goals:

Cut out patterns for the girl’s Easter dresses.

Make some hair bows out of the Valentines’ Day ribbon I got from the Target dollar bin.

Spiritual Life Goals:

~~Finish Genesis, read 1-23 of Exodus.~~
~~List something I am thankful for every day.~~
~~Memorize Colossians 1:5-6, review 1-4~~

Clare and Lucy

~~Use printable packs to work on number and letters~~
Start a bible verse song from abcjesuslovesme.com
~~Go to the library for story time on Wednesday~~

Personal Goals:

~~Fill out my daily planner.~~
~~Have quiet time at 9:30 each night.~~
~~Blog at least once!~~
Make homemade sour cream (I changed my mind and made cream cheese instead!)

Goals For Week Four:

Crafting:

Cut out half of Easter dress pattern.

Spiritual Goals:

Read Matt. 1-21
List something I am thankful for everyday
Memorize Colossians 1:7-8, review 1-6

Clare and Lucy

Provide lots of outside time (weather permitting)

Personal Goals

Blog at least once!
Have quiet time every night
Fill out my daily planner, I'm not loving ym planner as much as I did at first, I may need to find a different one... hmmm.
Exercise twice.

I baked Apple Muffins this week, they weren't that great. :P

I heart food

2012-01-20T20:29:00.003-06:00

I hardly ever post twice in the same day.... but I just had to post this picture:

Yes, I just had a cup of hot chocolate (the white dot in the middle is my peppermint) :) don't worry, I don't plan to start posting pictures of everything I eat. This is just another of the exciting things that I am FINALLY healthy enough to eat/drink!!!!

2012-01-20T19:33:00.002-06:00

Beautiful weather the last two days:) Sidewalk chalk. Slide. Bare feet. *happy sigh*

Week 2, Goal Update

2012-01-15T15:15:00.004-06:00

Crafting goals

~~Get the girl's measurements for their Easter dresses.~~

Spiritual Goals:

~~Review verses 1&2 of Colossians and learn verses 3&4.~~
Read chapters 25-50 of Genesis… I made it to chapter 47
List something I am thankful for everyday. I listed something I am thankful for in my daily planner…. I missed Wednesday and Sunday.

Goals with Clare and Lucy:

Learn a new Bible Verse Song from abcjesuslovesme.com, we aren’t getting to these as fast as I thought, but they are finally getting “Every word of God proves true.” Proverbs 30:5. I’m happy with this, we will keep plugging along and hopefully we will get a new song this week.
Work on counting 1-20… ongoing, I wasn’t 100% sure that Lucy knew 1-9 but I think she does, so we’ll keep working on that. I’ve been using some printable packs from here.
Continue Letters… ongoing
Go to the library 2x per month, this wasn’t library week so we will be going on Wednesday

Personal goals:

~~Have quiet time each night at 9:30.~~ Hooray!
~~Make homemade mayo.~~ Tried it, hated it, maybe I’ll try again.
~~Blog at least once per week~~ :) Check!

Fill out my daily planner…. missed Wed and Sun.

Next weeks goals:

Crafting Goals:

Cut out patterns for the girl’s Easter dresses.

Make some hair bows out of the Valentines’ Day ribbon I got from the Target dollar bin.

Spiritual Life Goals:

Finish Genesis, read 1-23 of Exodus.
List something I am thankful for every day.
Memorize Colossians 1:5-6, review 1-4

Clare and Lucy

Use printable packs to work on number and letters
Start a bible verse song from abcjesuslovesme.com
Go to the library for story time on Wednesday

Personal Goals:

Fill out my daily planner.
Have quiet time at 9:30 each night.
Blog at least once!
Make homemade sour cream.

Sauerkraut= Pass, Mayo= FAIL!!!!

2012-01-14T17:42:00.003-06:00

Since one of my goals is to replace household products with homemade products, this week's experiment was homemade mayonnaise. Doesn't that sound yummy?! Can't you just imagine the creamy goodness of homemade mayo on a homemade bread sandwich? Well I am still (sadly) only imagining it:P
I'm not quite sure what happened in my mayo experiment to make it go SO awry, but it turned out so gross looking that I couldn't even bring myself to take pictures to post! I put it in the fridge to see if it would improve when chilled... nope. I will probably try again since no one else I know who has tried it has failed at it, but for now, yuck!
I am also trying to introduce more fermented foods into my diet, just google 'benefits of fermented foods' to read some reasons to eat yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir etc. I don't really have a plan broken down into little goals for this, so I am just trying things as I feel like making new recipes. Fermented food number one: Sauerkraut!
One of the reasons I chose this first is because it is so CHEAP, Cabbage is something like 44 cents per pound. I used one giant head of cabbage to make three pints of sauerkraut. You can see the recipe I tried here.

My huge bowl of shredded cabbage

Pounding out the juices
Packing the jars... how do you like my old school canning funnel:)
And because its sad to spend an afternoon in the kitchen with only a condiment to show for it, I also made some chocolate chip peanut butter granola bars!

I had actually never tasted sauerkraut before this and I have to say that, while it will never be my favorite, it is not as bad as I imagined. I try to eat one tablespoon each day by rolling it up in a piece of lunch meat and its getting tastier the more I eat it:)

Baking Soda + H2O= ....

2012-01-10T14:27:00.003-06:00

I have now tried homemade shampoo. I mixed 1 Tablespoon baking soda with 8oz water in a spray bottle. First I spray the baking soda solution on my scalp, rinse it out, and then follow with a vinegar rinse and rinse out the vinegar. The vinegar is kind of stinky while my hair is still wet, but the smell disappears once I dry it.
I was pretty surprised at how clean my hair felt even while I was rinsing it out, I knew that there was no way I would keep doing this if I felt gross all the time. Also my hair was so much easier to brush out than it usually is after I use conditioner. Here I am mid getting ready last Sunday morning:

Week One, Goal Update

2012-01-08T20:22:00.005-06:00

See my full list of goals for 2012 here.

Crafting goals

In the area of crafting goals I only worked on one goal; make the girl's Easter dresses. I purchased a pattern and fabric for the dresses.

Obviously I won't have time to work on all of my crafting goals each week, so I'm going to go in the order I feel like. My goal for the coming week is to get the girl's measurements for their dresses.

For my spiritual goals I made progress on each of them:

Memorize Colossians: I memorized 1:1-2 and this coming week I will review them and learn verses 3-4.
Read through the Bible with my church: this week's assignment was to read Genesis 1-27, I made it through chapter 25. This coming week is to finish out the book of Genesis so I should be able to catch up on the two chapters I didn't get to.
List something I am thankful for everyday. I listed something I am thankful for in my daily planner:)

Goals with Clare and Lucy:

Learn Bible Verse Songs from abcjesuslovesme.com: we were already working on a verse that doesn't have a song with it and they didn't quite get it down so I don't want to start a new one yet. Hopefully we will be able to work on one this week.
Work on counting 1-20. We actually did this in the car today, we still have a ways to go before they can consistently get it.
Continue Letters: Clare spontaneously started spelling the word 'toy' last week, and after a couple of prompts could spell 'mom' so we will continue with a couple of three letter words for fun, using caps or lowercase on paper to reinforce letters and sounds.
Go the library 2x a month: we went to story time on wednesday:)

Personal goals:

Get up early to have qt and make breakfast: I am revising this goal somewhat, I did get up early this week. Lucy got up early with me almost everyday :( also, I am SO not a morning person, and on the day that she didn't get up with me I was fighting to stay awake while reading. Revised goal?.... Make breakfast for the girls at 7am, have qt at 9:30 at night. This should still help me to be more consistent/less frustrated with trying to have a qt. I have tried to have in the morning with the girls distracting me and I have tried having it at some point in the day when 'I have a moment' and now I have tried having it by getting up early in the morning. So the plan is to set my phone alarm for 9:30 and get ready for bed and have my qt. I'm so much more alert in the evening, and I really enjoyed it tonight.
Replace one household product per month with a homemade alternative. I made Baking Soda shampoo and have used it all week, I'll post later on how that has gone. Next I'd like to try homemade mayo:)
Blog at least once per week :) Check!

Fill out my daily planner: I filled out my planner every day except today, I LOVE this planner.

Sorry this post is a little disorganized , I will try to format it better next week:P

So Many Christmas Pictures...

2012-01-07T19:53:00.007-06:00

Too many pictures:)
Making coffee creamer snowmen with Granna...

Love Daddy so much...

New pink tricycles...

Uncle Joshua...

Ride in PaPaw's pick-up...

Stocking stuffer toenail polish...

Family photo attempt #1... Dad's eyes are closed, Joshua's eyes are closed.

Photo attempt #2... Mom's eyes are closed.

We did some of this too:)

2012-01-04T20:14:00.004-06:00

I like setting goals for myself no matter what time of year, but since the new year I have had the vague goal on my mind of being more organized/disciplined in my life and so I have made a list broken down into smaller, measurable parts.

Crafting goals:

Make girls Easter Dresses
Make table runner for my piano top
Paint/refinish piano
Finish Christmas tree skirt I began in 2011
Make girls scarves and hats for next birthday
Catch up girls scrapbooks to present

Spiritual goals:

Memorize Colossians
Read through the Bible with my church
List something I am thankful for everyday

Goals to do with Clare and Lucy:

Learn Bible Verse Songs from www.abcjesuslovesme.com
Work on counting 1-20
Continue letters –lowercase, uppercase and sounds
Go to library twice per month to check out books

Personal Goals:

Get up before the girls in the morning to have my quiet time and make breakfast
Replace one household product per month with a homemade alternative
Blog at least once per week
Organize photos and make sure all photos are backed up
Fill out my daily planner

A Few Happy Accidents....

2011-12-31T08:53:00.003-06:00

After I had been living with my allergies for about nine months I inadvertently began to do a few things that made me feel better... I think these are the reasons I feel better. Most of these accidents were a result of my friends suggesting I try something for a reason other than my allergies.

Last winter I made a change from disposable to a partial use of cloth diapers. Apparently just regular old detergent means death for Bum Genius diapers so I also began to make my own detergent so I wouldn't have to buy expensive 'safe' for cloth diapers detergent. My good friend Lindsey had been telling me to make my own detergent forever. I resisted partly because I am stubborn, and partly because I didn't want to be the stay at home mom who makes her own soap. Yes, I hear how ridiculous that sounds now.

I found I could make 180 loads of liquid detergent for around 2$. Thank you Lindsey for telling me about this recipe! I still had to use up some commercial detergent from SAMS so around August I finally ran out of store detergent and switched our household fully to homemade detergent. I began to show slow improvements in what I could eat in August... Crazy. I didn't even make the connection at first.

Also somewhere around August-September I ran out of my old soap (which my allergy Dr. had recommended to me because of my allergies), I had never been able to tell a difference between any soap I had used so I went to my stockpile cabinet instead of the store to replace it. I found a random bar that I had received somewhere YEARS ago. The wrapper said 'unscented' and 'goats milk' so I picked it thinking I might as well use unscented for a while longer. I wish I had kept the wrapper to this soap, I can't remember what it looked like, just that it had natural ingredients.

Sometime in last summer our friends Diana and Andrew visited us and we had a sushi day. They taught us to make sushi rice and rolls. The rice tasted SO GOOD to me. Especially on the limited diet I'd been eating. By this fall I was having it several times a week. A key ingredient? Rice vinegar- a fermented food. I just found out this past week that fermented food has healing properties for stomach and gut lining.

Really I have no idea if these things actually added up to better health for me, but since August I have been able to start adding soy back into my diet, I have less 'accidents' where I inadvertently eat something that makes me sick for several days. (I think I am just less sensitive to accidents) I have had small amounts of peppers, pork, turkey and a few other foods. I have gone slow for the most part... nothing is scary in quite the same way as watching your own face swell, so it has been easier than I would have thought to go slow with adding food back in.

So now what is the plan??? I want more chemicals out of my life!!! and out of my family's life. If I don't want them absorbed into my own skin why am I putting them on my children's skin?! So here is the list of homemade items I want to add to our household in 2012:

homemade shampoo replacement
homemade soap- tons of recipes online, but I think I'm going to search out a library book to show the steps.
homemade face wash
homemade deodorant (I gotta be honest, this one sounds a little weird to me-how do I apply it??)
homemade cleaners (want to replace store-bought cleaners with homemade ones as I run out)
homemade eczema lotion (for Clare)

My goal will be to add a new homemade item each month. This will give me time to track down unusual ingredients and find time to make them. If only half of these recipes actually work I will be ecstatic!

Back Again

2011-12-30T00:38:00.003-06:00

What a year. I haven't felt like blogging (obviously) so I waited until I missed it.... and here I am. I have two three year-olds, how in the world did three years pass?

I miss those tiny babies, but I am oh so thankful for the big girls I've got now:)

I love to see the world through their eyes, I love the excitement over simple everyday matters. A new year is about to start and I can't wait to see what it will hold.

2011-07-06T13:31:00.004-05:00

We went to the splash park today, Clare had a long night last night:P

Eating cookies with dad and Grandpa.

Had so much fun playing with Amber...

A Few of My Favorite Things

2011-06-23T21:06:00.002-05:00

Lucy's favorite fruit is a 'bo-nanna'
When both girls lay in front of the TV to watch a show and they want me to come watch and hold hands.
That Clare can be wearing fairy wings, a skirt and sequined dress-up shoes, but when she puts on a construction hat with it she 'is a boy'
That the girls can't wait to get their hair brushed by Daddy after their bath
When the girls pretend to be Diego or Dora, their stuffed animals cry for help by saying 'ayudanos'
That the girls regularly call Santa on their toy phone
Sometimes Santa isn't there.
Trying on clothes to see if they fit and Clare shouts 'I feel so pretty!'
Everyone wearing a dress is a 'princess' (Every Sunday I repeatedly hear the words 'Mommy's a princess':)
At least once a week one of the girls turns to me and tells me 'Daddy's a boy'
Clare puts the empty Lego box on her head and says 'I'm married!'.... I'm not sure what is going on in her head here to be honest.
Today I asked Clare if she wanted some carrots and she said 'no Mommy, that's gross'

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T15:09:00.002-05:00

My dad has taught me a lot of things. Some I wanted to learn, like how to peek inside your Christmas gifts without compromising the wrapping paper, or that an excellent midnight snack is Vanilla Wafers with butter for icing. Some I did NOT want to learn, like how to clean a fish:) Some I was glad he made me learn later, like how to change a tire, and how to check my oil.

I will never forget the day I came home from High School, I think it was my junior year, and he asked me about my day. We had voted for all the yearbook titles that day, most popular, most handsome, class clown. He was asking me who I voted for for most beautiful, I can't remember who I chose, but I remember he made a face and said 'Really you voted for her?' This was not a subject I had expected my dad to have a very strong opinion on so I said ' well who would you vote for?' His immediate answer was 'You!' I was stunned speechless. That day my dad taught me that I am beautiful.

When I was fourteen I had my heart set on going on a summer mission trip. I had heard of an organization called Teen Missions Intl., that took groups of teenagers on trips and I wanted so badly to sign up. My parents had convinced me to wait a year (I had wanted to go at thirteen) and I was never so excited as when we got the brochure with all the trips listed. After much deliberation I chose the Haiti trip. I filled out the application with my top choices of trips and sent off the form, never once comprehending what my parents must feel about sending their baby girl to the poorest nation in the western hemisphere for six weeks. When we received the letter that I could go to Haiti, dad brought it up to the school at lunchtime for me to read. My friends faces were priceless as I hugged my dad in excitement and told them the news. I'm sure a summer in Haiti did not sound like a reason to get excited:) Many parents might say no to their teenager who was itching to travel the world, purely for their own comfort of keeping their kids safe. I can't imagine sending Clare on such a trip. But my Dad taught me that when God tells you to do something, you better do it. What a priceless summer I had, seeing for the first time hunger and poverty like I had never imagined. God broke my heart for people that summer. I was the first time that I KNEW I would adopt someday. It filled my heart with a passion to pray for the nations in a way that I could not imagine having without that experience.

I learned from my dad what kind of spouse to marry... by watching his devotion to my mom.
I learned from my dad that if someone is feeling down a great way to take their mind off their troubles is with a wet willie.
I learned from my dad that I also have a heavenly father who wants nothing but the best for me.

Thanks Dad!

Saturday

2011-06-18T17:33:00.002-05:00

Clare: Daddy you are wonderful.
Ken: Thanks Clare! You're wonderful too!
Clare: No, I'm not wonderful, I'm a girl.

At least the conversation about who is a girl and who is a boy is finally sinking in.

Hairbows

2011-06-14T21:49:00.002-05:00

Follow me to the Mammoths

2011-06-04T18:36:00.004-05:00

I had no idea that there is a mammoth park withing forty minutes drive from our house. Friday we met two of Ken's Aunts to visit the site where several mammoths have been uncovered. Then we had a picnic lunch with Aunt Debbie and Aunt Metta :)

Clare is happy to pose for pictures right now, she wanted her picture taken with one of the 'elephants' :)

potty zen

2011-05-31T18:52:00.002-05:00

This past week of potty training...

Hasn't been the greatest.

In order to stop all of this:

I needed to find my potty zen.

The girls are no more concerned today about being wet or poopy than they were a week ago. BUT
I have seen the signs of readiness. They can hold it. They can go on the potty if they want to.
so...
For now, they can choose. Every forty five minutes, we will sit on the potty.
They can go in the potty at each opportunity.
or..
They can go in their pull up.
No more poop on the floor.
My world is now rainbows and kittens.

potty 2 the fast and the furious

2011-05-30T13:46:00.003-05:00

The potty races.

How we all feel about potty training this week.

"Potty? What Potty?"

The potty saga continues. In some ways I think we have made a little progress, in other ways I want to pull out all my hair. Also if you are a person reading this and you have a funny little cute story about how you

potty trained your child in one day,
your child potty trained themselves because they hated diapers so much,
your child potty trained at an insanely early age never to have an accident again....

feel free to tell that story to someone besides me.

Just to show how things are going, on Saturday I decided that a calculated retreat might be necessary. So I put Lucy in pull ups and Clare in panties with the goal on focusing on Clare all day. Clare, who has peed in the potty maybe a total of five time up to this point, proceeded to pee on the linoleum in front of the piano, poop in front of her closet, and pee on the carpet in the living room. In the space of an hour.

Later she poops in her panties and while I am in the process of cleaning her up Lucy begins to says 'I pee pee int the potty?' I order Clare to lay where she is an I sprint to get Lucy. We race to the potty and I pull off her pull up and put her on. Clare and I go to flush her poo and Lucy runs into the nursery. By the time we are done she has pooped on the carpet.

This has been the worst parenting thing we have had to do so far.

On the up side Clare has figured out how to sit side ways on her potty and wiggle her but to make her potty make a farting sound.

potty

2011-05-25T13:19:00.003-05:00

So...... I decided to start working on the potty again with the girls. I basically have no clue how to do this. I have read and read and read. And still, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. It is so simple to list readiness signs and the say put the kids on the potty every ___ minutes. It is another to have to weigh being enthusiastic about the potty versus taking it too far and risking complete potty rejection. The last thing I need is another year of diapers because a kid decides she wants nothing to do with the potty.

Yesterday after Ken's dad left from spending the weekend with us, I stripped Clare of her diaper and smiled and talked about the potty as though it were the most magical thing in the world. Talked about putting her pee pee in the potty as though it is the most magical experience in the world that only big girls do and we don't need our diapers any more. My plan was to start Clare and when it seemed like she was getting the hang of it start Lucy who would naturally want to join in getting attention like Clare. Lucy lasted about three and a half minutes before she wanted her diaper off.

So now I have two 2.5 year old girls running around with no diapers. I am carrying two frog potties everywhere we go and making sure that we all play in the same room. Both girls pee on the carpet.

Etc. the day goes on and I put pull ups on them. They start telling me each time they pee even one drop because the pull ups let them feel the wetness. I am confused about the helpfulness of the pull up. I am less certain of the viability of letting them go without anything on their rear because... do I really have to explain why that idea seems a little shady to a mom of twins?

Anyway Day one ends and the total amount of pee in the potty:
1. Lucy is between pull ups and pees near the potty while I run to put her on it.... the last two drops go in.
2. Clare tells me that she just peed in her pull up and I make her sit on the potty while I get her a new one. She pees two more drops.

Not the best first day, but pee did actually make it into the potty which has not occurred during a previous potty day attempt so I am HAPPY. Tomorrow things are sure to take off.

Day two-Today:
Pull ups still not making sense to me, I keep missing the actual event of peeing. So we put on panties and head out to the backyard. Both girls immediately want to sit on the potty because of the novelty of being outdoors. I realize I forgot tp, just in case we need it so I run to get it. I get back and Clare has gotten OFF THE POTTY, WALKED TO THE EDGE OF THE PORCH AND PEED ON THE PORCH. She was on the blasted potty! Why did she get off? Okay, this is just a temporary set back. Still I feel like she was holding it in until I turned my head and then peed next to the toilet.... I shove aside thoughts that my two year old daughter might be a double agent for some kind of militant anti-potty group and we move on.

When we go back inside I ditch the panties, barricade myself and two stark naked girls into the kitchen with the frog potties and let them play with toys that can be rinsed off. Lucy has not peed since Ken went to work this morning and it is after eleven. I mentally rub my hands together Hee Hee, I've got her! She's sure to pee soon. Twelve o Clock, Ken comes home for lunch and Lucy still has not peed. I decide to give the girls juice and milk.... to get the creative juices flowing. Clare pees in her chair at the dinner table. I try to put her on the potty and she arches her back screaming NO!

Ken leaves after lunch and Lucy gets down from her chair at the table, I grab a pull up, because I just need a few minutes break. Lucy pees on the floor and excitedly informs me that she went pee pee on the floor. I put on the pull up. Clare refuses the pull up and I tell her that she can either sit on the toilet or wear a pull up. She chooses the potty, and promptly pees in it. Apparently the trick is to make sure she thinks I want her in a pull up, then she will happily pee in the potty. I cheer, take Clare to the bathroom where she receives the highest honor of the Steffen house; permission to flush. We go back to the living room and she sits back on the potty and lets loose. We flush again and she asks for her pull up. Lucy informs me that she has pooped in her pull up.

I decide that I should probably write a blog entry so that I will have some light reading to pass out at their sixteenth birthday party.

Not so Terrible

2011-05-16T14:09:00.002-05:00

We are having so much fun with age two! however much fun it was to seem them and 12 and 18 months as they tried out new experiences and saw new things it is ten times as great now:) We went to a birthday party on Saturday and when they got home they were excitedly telling (with me filling in the blanks) Ken all about the kittens they played with, the horse they rode on, and the birthday cake they ate. I miss naps more than ever since it seems like our days get busier and busier all the time!

Clare (to Silly Bear): Hi Silly Bear.
Clare (as Silly Bear): Hi Clare!
Me: Clare you a re being so silly today:)
Clare (to Silly Bear): I'm silly too Bear!!

I just can't get enough:)

Zoo

2011-05-06T14:51:00.002-05:00

This morning we had a playdate with one of the moms from my MOPS group and her precious sweetie Abigail. We had so much fun that I really didn't take pictures. Except I had to take a picture of the slide the girls went down over and over. Do you see my baby girls climbing the stairs to that giant slide? Lucy came down the slide SO fast that I had to catch her at the bottom so she wouldn't fly off and land on her back every time... so no picture of the actual sliding:)
Hmmm not interested in have our picture taken with mommy!

2011-05-05T18:05:00.002-05:00

Clare: What's dat mommy?
Me: That's a vacuum cleaner.
Clare: Dat's a bery nice bacuum mommy.
Me: Thank you Clare:)

I found a jewel in Lucy's diaper from the fairy wings that she got for Christmas. Then I walked into the nursery just in time for her to exclaim in delight and pick up an object off the floor. Thinking it was another jewel and being unsure of the non-harmful jewel to poo ratio I run over to get it from her. I pry open her fingers, and as only a seasoned mom would SCREAM ... she is holding a dead fly and does NOT want to give it up. Again I am a mom, nothing phases me. This girl has thrown up on me. Repeatedly. I will not be beaten by a mere fly. So what do I do? I hold her wrist and frantically shake her hand up and down until she drops the fly. Then I run for a tissue to pick it up and throw it away.