Dead.

Children really do not have a concept of death. I observe them playing all the time: someone "dies" and moments later miracle of miracles the dead person rises to their normal playtime capacity. It is probably for the best and all. Death is a pretty gray subject. I mean as gray as it gets knowing that the person gets to rest from the trials of this temporal existence. However, today I decided to test a theory. I was curious to see what my kids (the ones I nanny) would do if I played real dead instead of the fake kind. After they killed me in a rousing game of Evil Witch, I became a helpless, dead weight, eyes-closed observer. Looking back on the experience I tried to imagine the series of events playing out from their points of view. In their innocent minds it must have gone something like this:
*imagine all this playing out with the mad giggles that only a 5 year old girl can produce.

The evil old witch has locked us up for the last time. We will use her poison candy to kill her! Eat this!

Ha ha! It has worked perfectly and she is dead. Now we will just continue the process 5 more times after she wakes back up.
...

She is still not moving. My hyperactivity cannot handle this much anticipation. Must hurry the waking-up process.

Lift her head up! Pull her arms out! She is a Bouncy! Jump on her! Oh golly, that has only moved her to the floor instead of the chair. She still hasn't woken up yet. Does she even know how to play dead?

Yell louder! Pull harder! Oh, lets poke her. Still nothing...punch her!

Witch wake up! Wake up or I will spank your bottom! I am going to do it. Slap! No reaction. Slap more! Still nothing.

Witch, we don't want to play with you anymore. We are going inside. We are going to do it. You better wake up and stop us.

Wake up! Stretch it farther that will work. Nothing.

--- and then they pulled out the big guns and I could no longer play along ---

Bella! Come lick the witch!

--- Bella, one of the family dogs, is one of the dirtiest creatures. She lives in a paradise and manages to get into everything. No more than 20 minutes prior to playing Evil Witch I saw the wretched beast gnawing on something that was beyond succeeding at playing dead. The smell wafted along the canyon breezes and made my nose hair curl. ---

That threat did the trick and I was up. Even though I was a little battle torn from the 5 minute experience, it still makes me chuckle. Oh the logic of children.

summertime means...

I love summer, not as much as late spring, but it is as close as it gets. There are so many exciting things that come along with the "summer package." Things that bring smiles, tans, sweat, road trips, and most of all dying brain cells from lack of use. This summer has come to me after a two year dry-spell. Studying year-round had left me in a desert of fun. I'm not saying that my "Endless Summer of '09" wasn't enjoyable; it just lacked some of the typical elements of summer and included an unusual element: studying and tests. That being said, this year opened the flood gates and allowed summer activities to come pouring back into my day-to-day. Here is what my binge summer-ing has included:

Puerto Rico

Nursing
*spending time with mom after her surgery

Nanny-ing

Dinosaur Day

The desire to accomplish still unfinished tasks
*painting and blogging

Nerves about an upcoming year of teaching

Costa Rica

Sun bleached hair

Lake Pineview

Replaced a car

Skydiving

Fantastic toes

And yet to come: St. George, Classroom set-up, and Washington DC