I GOT AN INTERVIEW!!!!!

I got a job interview!

It's for a ninth-grade English position!

The interview is next Thursday at 4:30! PLEASE PRAY!!!!!!!!!

Baby Boy Name Delimma Solved!

Noodle came up with a fabulous name!

"I think we should name him Sunshine Rainbow. That sounds like a happy name," she said.

What do you think?

Laugh With Me!

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday. I have a fabulous babysitter, and I had conferenced with her on Monday after being ordered not to work anymore. I told her that I may be needing her from time to time as I have doctor's appointments, and that I would need her Thursday. She said she'd be expecting us.




So yesterday I got everyone ready and off to Babysitter's house. Only . . . Babysitter wasn't there! We knocked at the door . . . knocked again . . . and again . . .





Sometimes Babysitter and the other kids are in the backyard playing, so we checked. The backyard was deserted, and the house was dark. And in a moment of panic, I realized that I was now locked in the backyard. The fence latch can be only opened from the outside.





After a moment of surveying my situation, the first option is this: try the neighbor's fence. Luckily, I know Babysitter's neighbor, who is very nice. So I tried the latch. It was accessible, but I couldn't open it. Tried though I did, I couldn't open the darn thing!



Now, the thing that you have to understand is that I really am a cartoon character. These things are always happening to me in my cartoon character life. Please, read on:





The second option was this: try to climb over the chain link fence. I was trapped; I could see no other way out! I felt a little bit like some kind of tragic character. The trash pickup drove by, and for a moment I considered yelling at them to help, especially since none of the neighbors were home! But that trash pick-up is pretty speedy.





I worked out a procedure:
1)Lift bags over the fence
2)Lift children over the fence
3)Heave myself over the fence.





Mind you, I should not even be moving around, unless I'm getting up to use the bathroom! But I had to get out, right?





I lift the bags over without event. I lift the children over, praying that my water won't break. I take off my shoes and try to climb the fence. Yeah, right! I am also praying that the kids don't run away. Do you remember that riddle about the fox and the cheese and the goat and the boat, or something like that? I felt a little bit like I was in that riddle.





I spotted a red wagon and a lawn chair. I positioned the chair on the other side of the fence and the red wagon on my side. I managed to actually get my leg over the fence, but that chair was WAYYYYY down there! Noodle was clearly concerned, trying to move the chair for me, asking if she could hold my hand. Banana looked grief-stricken and fearful. I was near tears, and the fence was scratching my legs. I took my leg back down, gathered myself, and tried it again. This clearly was not going to work, since I wasn't even straddling the fence. Rather, my leg was just up in the air at some sort of strange angle.





Oooooo, what if I fell?????? This was simply NOT an option!




I decided to try the latch of the neighbor's fence one more time and to PRAY!!! The combination of trying and praying worked! I had tried that dadgum latch fifteen times before my attempt at fence-climbing. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned in all this. Perhaps it's this: Pray BEFORE you try to climb the fence!*




I called my babysitter* last night; her mother has been very ill and I was afraid there had been some emergency. There was no emergency, and she was beside herself at having forgotten. I was laughing the whole time I was recounting the story, but she was appalled. She apologized profusely.




I said, "You have no idea who you are talking to," and explained my cartoon character life.




*by the time I was on the freeway to the doctor's office, I truly began to see the whole episode as a comedy sketch. Maybe I should send it into Saturday Night Live or MadTV.

**my babysitter is an AMAZING woman who has five children. She is so organized and on top of things. She truly amazes me and I wish I could be like her. I was relieved to find out that there was no emergency. I tried hard to make her understand how goofy I am and how I have had many, many experiences that will top any amount of her forgetfulness!

A Post Mostly About Chicken Nuggets' Birthday

Sunday was Chicken Nugget's birthday! She turned nine. I can hardly believe it. I can't believe it! I kept telling her the day before, "At this time nine years ago, you were trying to be born!"

Chicken Nugget is pretty predictable when it comes to her birthday eats. She always wants pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut. But this year, instead of a cake, she wanted brownies! Buffalo Wings was in charge of getting the brownie mix, so he got the one with all the little chocolate pieces mixed right in! They were a hit.

Chicken Nugget is totally into Webkinz, and she ended up getting three of them! She also got more cash than I can count! I imagine it will go toward some more Webkinz.

Because we have been losers lately, we didn't take any pictures of her birthday. So I've had to include all of these old pictures. There wasn't much fanfare on her birthday. We just hung around at home after church, gave her her Webkinz, and had her special birthday food. But she said it was the best birthday ever!

Chicken Nugget is still her sweet self. I told her just before she went to bed on the night of her birthday how glad I was that she was my girl. She told me how glad she was that I was her mom. She has such a sweet and generous spirit. She is always concerned about what is going on with others around her. She wants to make sure that all of us in the family are ok. If the little ones are hurt or upset, she's tries to comfort them.

Chicken Nugget is the best! I'm so glad that she came into the world nine years ago. We are so blessed to have her in our family. She is a wonderful gift from God.

I felt bad about CN's birthday, because I couldn't do as much as usual. I wanted to be more active, but I'm on doctor's orders! I have to rest more.

Yesterday I had my regular doctor's appointment. Before I went, I did my morning monitoring of my contractions. I was surprised when my home health nurse called me to say I'd had ELEVEN contractions in that one hour! I freaked out a bit. OK, I freaked out a lot. My pulse was also a little elevated, but the nurse still had me give myself a demand dose of terbutaline on my pump. When I got to the doctor, I was put on the monitor and had only mild uterine irritation. That was great news, and I felt so relieved!

However, the doctor prescribed me some procardia to go along with the terbutaline. She also told me that I can't go back to work. And that I have to be calm (in reference to my freak-out session) and rest a lot more. Poor BW is really pulling double duty these days with the house and the kids. Our wonderful Sunday school class is helping take up some of the slack by providing meals a few times a week and by sending some ladies to clean the house.

It is a new experience for me to be on almost complete bed rest. I like to be out and about. Baby Boy is the important thing right now, though. I have to stay pregnant! I want him to be big and healthy like my other sweet babies. My doctor said he's just already trying to make his way in the world by fighting for some attention! Bless his heart. I promise him I'll give him just as many hugs and sugars as his sisters and brother. I was thinking yesterday about how happy I will be to hold him for the first time and to know that he is ok.

God the Great Physician is taking care of Baby Boy and me. Please pray for us!

Sending much love to all of you -

I'm Sure I've Had a Worse Five Hours on a Saturday . . .

. . . I just don't remember them!

I took my content test today. Yes, it took me five hours. OK, it took me four hours and forty-five minutes. But who's counting?

I gotta go poke my leg with a needle now!

Pump it Up

I went to the doctor again yesterday, because I was having a few concerns. When I got there, my doctor was concerned as well - because my pump had still not arrived! And I was still contracting and having other signs of preterm labor. My doctor had ordered the pump for me on Monday, and I was supposed to have had it by Monday afternoon! I won't go into all the reasons for the delay, because it is a long story, but it has to do with insurance and contracts and yadda, yadda, yadda.

My doctor checked me again and still didn't like the position of my cervix. She sent me over to the hospital and had me admitted for observation. She came to check on me after a couple of hours and didn't like the pattern of my contractions. Though they were small, they were still noticable. The nurse gave me three shots of terbutaline.

My doctor said, "I called around and stamped my foot a little bit. I told the insurance people and the home health people, 'You can either pay for her pump or pay for her hospital stay, but I'm not going to have a 28-week baby here!'"

I LOVE my doctor!

Within the hour, the home health nurse was in my room showing me how to install and operate my pump, which will give me a constant dose of terbutaline. It looks like this:
The tube coming out of the top is connected to a syringe full of the medicine. The tube goes all the way to my leg. Like so:

The home health nurse made me stick that thing into my leg all by myself. Granted, it is a small needle, and the needle comes out, leaving only the tube. But still - still - I'm a wuss. I did fine with the poking, but then the thought of it sort of came to me.

I just stuck something in my leg. And then I left it there. And it's in my leg . . .

But it was all ok, after a few minutes of me just laying back.

The terbutaline works like a charm for me! A side-effect of the drug is shakiness and rapid heart rate. But after my three super-doses in the hospital, even though I was very, very shaky, my contractions all but stopped - immediately! I have still had a few contractions, but not as many as before.

The pump stays in a little pouch which I hook onto my pants. The kids were all fascinated by mom's new contraption. Banana kissed it, and kissed my arms where I had gotten my shots. Noodle kissed my arms, too, but she only wanted to touch my site (where the tube goes into my leg). She touched it very, very softly. Chicken Nugget said she felt sorry for me.

Buffalo Wings enjoyed going through the manual and figuring out how to change all the equipment. I have to change the syringe about every day, and the site every five days. Yep, I get to poke myself in the leg every five days. Fun, fun. But it keeps Baby Boy cooking, so I'm happy to do it for him!

I also have to monitor my contractions twice a day. I then transmit the data on this wireless contraption. BW really digs all that stuff. I'm glad he is having fun!

Please keep us all and Baby Boy in your prayers. Much love to all of you!

A Glitch in the System

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I have been having some light contractions. I had my regular dr. appointment today and we discussed it. My doctor checked me and she said my cervix is not in the position she would like it to be in at this time (it is anterior rather than posterior). I am concerned about this because my cervix is not the best at doing what it is supposed to do when I am in labor, so to hear that it is already anterior when I am 12 weeks from my due date didn't sound like good news to me.

My doctor is going to put me on a pump that will give me a constant dosage of medicine throughout the day. The medicine will relax my uterus and should slow the contractions. Sometimes the contractions are mildly painful, but mostly they are just accompanied by pressure.

I will also be on a monitor that will alert the home health nurse and my doctor of how many contractions I have had throughout the day.

So . . . please just lift me up in prayer, and baby boy (who still doesn't have a name, poor guy!). Baby boy sounded great this morning and is moving around like a champ. We just need to keep him cooking for at least another 9 weeks.

Love to you all!

Random Ramblings

Resumes and job fairs and tests, Oh My!

I went to a job fair on Saturday and there is another one on Friday night. I never realized how intimidating this would be. I came home from the job fair lamenting:

"Why would anyone hire me? I don't interview well. I've never been a teacher. There were so many people there trying to get the same jobs I was trying to get! I was just another face in that crowd, just another piece of paper with stuff written on it."

Of course, BW was supportive and encouraging. And I know the attack of the enemy when I hear it and feel it. So I am trusting in God. I will glorify in His name when I have a job, and I will say, "God has done this thing!" Please pray for me still; it is nerve-rattling.

((((I take my big content test for English on the 19th. Please pray!!!!))))


Speaking of the enemy, he really is everywhere. One day as I was walking through the halls at school, I think my eyes were really opened to that. The enemy is attacking the students so hard. I tried to pay close attention that day: how is Satan attacking these kids? How are they responding? To what issues are the blinded or apathetic? I learned a lot that day. I know better how to pray. I'm thankful for this mission field. I love these kids.


I think of my dad when I think about the mission field of the public school system. I have always said that my dad is one of the greatest missionaries I have ever known. He was never ashamed to speak the name of Jesus to anyone at school (or anywhere else for that matter). He was never afraid of conversations of spiritual matters, even if it may have gotten him in trouble. I want to be like my dad and speak boldly about the Hope that each and every student can have. That everyone can have.


Today, as I was walking up to school, I noticed about a million caterpillars on the sidewalk. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. Maybe it was more like 500,000. Anyway, I wondered what they were doing on the sidewalk. Sadly, some of them were already . . . smooshed. :o( Why did they crawl onto the sidewalk and into the parking lot? Why didn't they just stay in the safe, safe grass and trees? I guess I will never know.

I think we are centering on Asher as a name for the baby. Nothing definite. But it keeps coming up a lot.

I really am trying to keep my pregnancy complaints to a minimum, but . . . I'm about to let some fly. When I got pregnant with this baby, I just made up my mind to enjoy it. I know it will be my last pregnancy. I thought that might make me a little bit sad, so I wanted to savor every little change and kick. However, it has been hard to enjoy since I've felt so nauseated, couldn't eat much for a long time, had to be on Zofran, and am plagued with heartburn and *ahem* other certain digestive dysfunctions. Not to mention the sciatica, which still bothers me daily. I feel so tired and am about to start taking an iron supplement. By tired, I don't just mean tired - I mean exhausted beyond words. I usually come home from work and go to sleep. It's more than sleepiness, it is absolutely no energy at all. The iron should help. Anyway, this pregnancy has been the hardest of all four, and has solidified for me the knowledge that I do not ever want to put my body through this again. I even had a contraction this morning - a painful one. I'm trying not to worry about it, because it was only one, but I will talk to my doctor about it on Monday when I go for my appointment.

Baby boy is doing great, however! We got some really good pictures of him two weeks ago at our 26 week ultrasound. He looks wonderful, and he is a busy little boy in my belly. I can't wait to meet him in June or July!

I have not had any consistent cravings during this pregnancy. The nausea has been too bad. At first, I was nauseated before I ate. Now, I get nauseated after I eat (and sometimes before). It's not as bad as it was in the beginning of the pregnancy. Not even close. But I did have to take a Zofran or two this week.

Some cravings:
*A-1 Steak Sauce
*potato salad (I craved this hard with Banana! Weird)
*thin-crust Canadian bacon pizza from Pizza Hut (yes, it must be that specific and it must be from Pizza Hut. This is what I am craving right now.)
*Snickers bars
*Coke

Maybe BW can think of some others, but I can't. The cravings have been so weird and sporadic. One week I'll want something and then I will not ever want it again. Strange.

That's about it from our neck of the woods. Hope things are great with all of you! Much love to you all.

The Crescent Hotel

Matt and Lisa have set the date for the wedding - July 15, 2008!
They are getting married at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
It looks beautiful, but it is haunted. Check it out.
I won't be staying in that haunted hotel. You will be able to find me at the Econo Lodge.

Pictures

Our azaleas! Aren't they nice?

Banana lining up his cars for a race.

We were so glad to have some friends of ours visiting from Iowa this weekend! They had spent their Spring Break in Port Aransus. This is Buffalo Wings with Reverend J.

Mrs. J and me. And my largeness.

The Js!!!!

The J kids and the Tasty Names kids.

The lovely MJ!

The handsome JJ!

Good friends, Chicken Nugget and MJ.

Cutie pic of Mrs. J and Noodle!

Easter weekend, coloring Easter eggs.

The finished product! The Easter Bunny was very pleased.

Love and miss you all very much!

And hey, be like the J family! Come see us! We love you and we want you to come visit!!!!!!!!!!

Buffalo Wings' Exhaustive Baby Boy Name List

Buffalo Wings gave me his list. It is WAY shorter than my list. He gave the meanings, but not the origins.

Here goes:

Daniel - God is my judge
Ethan - strong, firm
Ian - God is forgiving
Xavier - new home owner
Eric - eternal ruler
Alec - defending men
Asher - happy
Casey - brve
Alexander - warior
Jason - healer
Andrew - warrior
Kyle - narrow, straight
Devin - poet
Eli - ascend, my God
Benjamin - son of my right hand
Jesse - wealthy, gift
Immanuel - God with us

What do you think?

My Brother Matt

I love my brother Matt! He is a wonderful brother and he always has been. He and I have always been good friends. When I was a teenager, we used to go places together and just hang out. He was never embarrassed to have me hanging around with his friends. He was just the best kind of brother to have.

One time, when I was in probably junior high school, I walked into my bedroom and Matt was talking on the phone. As he talked, I played dress up with him. He talked and I adorned him with ribbons, bows, necklaces, and anything else I could find. We took pictures of it, but I think that my mom has them. Matt never told me to leave him alone. He just talked and let me play dress-up with him. It was hilarious.

All of my friends love my brother Matt. It's because he is so cool! He always talked to my friends when they came to the house. He made them laugh. Matt is very funny! My kids love Uncle Matt. He is their favorite. He plays with them and makes up songs for them and gives them nicknames. He makes up crazy stories to put them to bed by. He's nutty and crazy and fun.

It is really hard not to find Matt charming and likable. About a year and a half ago, he started dating an outstanding lady who also found him charming and likable. They both found each other so charming and likable, in fact, that they've decided to get married!

Matt and Lisa, we couldn't be happier that you two are getting married. We love you both so much. We're thrilled that Lisa will be joining our family.

Exhaustive Baby Boy Name List - Mrs. Donut's List

Yes, I've been working on this - hard!!!! It was easy to name the girls. We had a hard time choosing Banana's name. We're having a much harder time choosing Number Four's real name.

I will list name, meaning, and origin:

Paul - small (Latin)
Patrick - noble (English)
Adrienne - person from Hadria (Latin)
Amil - hopeful (Hebrew) **
Andre - manly (French)
Andrew - manly (Greek)
Asa - born at dawn (Japanese)
Asher - blessed, happy (Hebrew)
Auren - heard; laurel (American)
Aurum - glowing dawn (Latin)
Ayman - holy, righ-handed worker (Arabic)
Avery - elf-ruler (English)***
Azhar - shining, bright (Arabic)
Bennett - little blessed one (Latin)*
Charlie - free man (English)
Devan - poet (English)
Ephraim / Efrem - very fruitful (Hebrew) **
Ethan - expected (Indian - Sanskrit)
firm, strong (Hebrew)
Eli - height (Hebrew)
Elias - the Lord is my God (Hebrew)
Emery / Emory - work ruler (English) **
Emil - strive, excel, or rival (German) (same pronunciation as Amil)**
Evan - God is good (Welsh)
Hosea - salvation (Hebrew)
Ian - God is gracious (Scottish) *
Isaac - he will laugh (Hebrew)
Isaiah - God is salvation (Hebrew)
Israel - wrestled with God (Hebrew)
Jack - God is gracious (Hebrew / English)
Lane - from the lane (English) ***
Lewis - famed warrior (English)
Malachi - my messenger (Hebrew)
Nehemiah - God has comforted (Hebrew)
Oliver - elf army (English) ***
Ren - lotus (Japanese)
Reuben - behold, a son (Hebrew)
Reuel - friend of God (Hebrew)
Rhory / Rory - red king (American / Irish) **
Rian - king (Irish)
Riel - God is my strength (Spanish)
Roan - red color (English) **
Rohan - ascending (Indian, Sanskrit) **
Shae - hawk (Celtic / Gealic)
Simeon - to be heard (Greek)
Silas - man of the forest (Latin)
Wesley - from the west field (English)
William - strong-willed warrior (English)
Xavier - the new house (Spanish)***
Zachariah - God has remembered (Hebrew)

*don't love the name, but love the meaning
**can't decide which spelling
***don't love the meaning, but love the name

I feel kind of like a big nerd publishing this post! I like a lot of names. It's true. But Number Four can only have two of these at the most. And Buffalo Wings has to like the names! There are so many nice names out there. I am obviously very indecisive. I'll post BWs exhaustive list later. His is WAY shorter than mine!

Baby Boy Names

With only 100 days to go before the new little mister arrives, we really don't have much time to pick out a name for this kid! :o)
Help, please????

Buffalo Wings likes these names (this is not an exhaustive list):

Alec
Asher
Ian
Ethan
Daniel
Eli
Devin
Xavier

I'll post more of what he likes later.

I like:

Patrick
Simeon
Isaac
Isaiah
Avery
Devin
Xavier

I like the name Avery a lot, but I don't like the meaning of it: "leader of elves."

Do you like any of the above-mentioned names? Do you have anything to add to the list? Our poor kid. We may end up calling him Number Four.

Spring Break = Fun!

We are having Spring Break! RIGHT NOW!

We didn't travel anywhere. Gas is too expensive (wish we could have gone to Arkansas.). We're not doing any big projects. But we are still having FUN!

Here's how:

I can get up and make a REAL made breakfast in the mornings! Like blueberry muffins or scrambled eggs and bacon or whatever sounds breakfasty good.

We can have friends over any night of the week! One of our friends came over for supper last night, and we have another friend coming over tonight.

We can clean the house slowly. Very slowly. No, cleaning house is NOT fun, but it's more fun cleaning slowly day by day than trying to cram it all into a Saturday. Laundry included.

We don't have to get up early!

We don't have to go to bed early (even though I still have been)!

Even if the kids get up early, we don't have to get out of our p.j.s for hours!

We can hang out as a family all day - watch a movie, go play outside, go to the library, or whatever.

I can take a nap EVERY DAY!!!!

And many, many other fun and relaxing things. I heart Spring Break!

Buffalo Wings is All Abuzz

I've been neglecting to put up people's new sites, sites that they've changed, etc. I just got around to it today. Check out the new one that Buffalo Wings has - you'll see the link to it under "family" to the right. Leave him comments! He will love it.

Because I Don't Want Them to Be Like Me

I wasn't a great student in high school. I wish I'd had a better grasp of how not applying myself and not being a better student would affect me later. I could have gotten better scholarships. I could have cultivated self-discipline. To an extent, I didn't care. Another part of it was that I thought I wasn't smart. I must have driven my teachers crazy.

I hear it all the time now:
"That kid is really smart, he could really understand, if only he would apply himself."

But how do you teach that? How do make a kid want to learn? How do you make it matter to the student that education is important? How do you make the student care that he has such an advantage in the world, by being offered a free education through the age of 18?

I don't know. I don't know if you can. No one could teach me. I had to learn it much later.

I went to college. Even had some small scholarships. And I had a dear professor who recognized something when he saw me: That I was capable, but didn't know how to study. After five minutes of talking to him, and about two or three tips, I got it. I knew how to make things stick in my mind. And I made the Dean's list and the President's list. Things I'd never accomplished in high school, though all that time I could have, yet it took me till then to start. Why? Sometimes I still don't know.

I'm sure there are kids at school that are a lot like me, who start out thinking they are stupid (mine was mainly because of math, and it started in the fourth grade), and then an attitude of, "Well, things will just work out." And then you have these great kids, who could be superb students, that have their teachers pulling their hair out.

I don't want my students to be like me. So many times when I could have studied, I didn't. Even though I didn't have (what I later learned) the best study skills, I could read and understand the English language. I had teachers who were always willing to help me. I had friends who did great in school, and parents who wanted me to do well. I could have graduated with a much higher GPA. And I'm sure I could unpack it all and get down to the psychology of it all, the whys and the whats and etc., but when it comes right down to it . . . it was all my fault that I didn't do better than I did.

And every time I think that I am about to become a teacher, I feel so disappointed in myself. And I feel a little bit like a hypocrite. Maybe a lot like one.

Once in seminary, during a very hard class, I was pulling a C. Granted, it was a strong C! But it was a C. I was looking over my grades and my friend was standing nearby. She could see that I was crestfallen and asked me what was the matter. I showed her. Trying to cheer me up, she said, "Hey, just remember, C stands for Commencement!"

But I just didn't feel that way. All those years after high school . . . thinking back on high school, I just laugh at the way I feel now! I certainly didn't feel that way in high school!

And I know that high school is about becoming who you are, discovering things about yourself, turmoil, angst, etc. etc. . . . and I wasn't a bad kid or anything . . . I just . . . could have done better. And I wish I had.

And what am I going to say to my students? How am I going to make it matter to them? How am I going to encourage them? What will I do? How will I invest in them? How will I make it real, articulate to them that it is important, what they do right now? How will I reach the ones that were like me, that could just do better?

I won't be able to help caring about it. I care about it now when I see the students and watch them, and I'm only a substitute.

I'm scared, I'm unsure, I'm hopeful, I'm not going to live like I did in high school. And I'm not going to let who I was in high school make me who I am now. I've learned from it. I hope I'll remember what I've learned. I hope I can make an impact.

Poor Kids

I have lots of things running around in my head, things of social importance. I should write about some of these things here on this blog. And one day I will. But for now, I just like writing about the funny things my kids say! Sorry. I'm sure ya'll are getting bored. But this morning's funny was too funny NOT to post:

I "made" breakfast this morning. As in, I actually turned on the oven. And popped in the French toast sticks. Yep. I'm a regular gourmet chef.

Chicken Nugget sat down to her outstandingly prepared breakfast. She usually gets some very healthy and filling . . . cold cereal (ahem). She looked at the French toast sticks and said:

"Wow! We haven't had a made breakfast since Grandma was here!"

Unattended Children

I shared this with some of you via e-mail, but I just HAD to put it on the blog! I thought it was too funny. Hope you enjoy! And don't leave your children unattended. You'll be sorry! :o)

Kindergartners

I subbed in a kindergarten class today. Here are a couple of funnies:

This week, the class is learning about dinosaurs. So I read them a couple of books on dinosaurs. After I read the non-fiction dinosaur book, I was amazed by the children's stories of how they had been finding dinosaur bones in their very backyards! It was a real little class of archeologists. Most amazing was the story told by little A, who said that he'd not only found one or two dinosaur bones, but a whole set! After he dug up all the bones, he put them all back together to look like, as he said, "the real dinosaur!"
I thought for a moment, and then asked him, ever so sweetly, "Hm . . . I wonder if I asked your mom and dad about you putting that dinosaur back together, if they would tell me if that was true or not."
He promptly shook his head, never missed a beat, and said, "Nope! Big, fat lie."
Then many of the other dinosaur-bone-finders said they thought theirs had really been chicken bones.

While I was reading the non-fiction dinosaur book called My Dinosaur, we got to a part where the girl and her dinosaur get a drink from the river. Sweet little C said, "I don't think that's real because I don't think a girl would drink from water like that because it probably has a lot of germs in it."
Most of the boys agreed. I guess boys don't mind germy water.