April 22, 2013

10 Reasons why I would want to be stuck on a deserted island with Dave

In honor of Dave's 24th birthday.

If I were going to be stranded on a deserted island and I could pick one person to be stranded with me, I would pick Dave.  Here's why:




10.)  He's intelligent.  Like seriously intelligent.  I mean, he got into Stanford, guys.  Stanford.  The real one-- with Leland, not William.

Let's face it, if you're stuck on a deserted island you're going to want to survive and escape.  With Dave's random knowledge of everything on the planet and my ability to make useful stuff out of crap, well.... we'd be unstoppable.  We'd build a beach mansion and discover a root that cures cancer all before the first sunset.  And, if we're going to be there a while, I want to be with someone that makes interesting and intellectually stimulating conversation.

9.)  He's Kind and Sensitive.

Even though we used to try and kill each other when we were little, I think we make a pretty good team now.  And I know how nice and considerate Dave can be.  He lets his sisters sleep with their feet in his face in his twin bed.  Now that's love.


And because I'm his favorite person (even though there aren't any pictures of us together on his facebook account), not just a responsibility, he would kindly and gladly make sure I was doing okay.  He's very aware of everyone's emotions and he's very quick to make sure everyone is comfortable and taken care of.  

8.)  He's Creative (and can fit into very tiny places).


Evil, perhaps, but creative :)  From torturing the chubby sister to rearranging furniture in his dorm room to torture his OCD roommate.  Dave is creative and resourceful in his methods.  Perhaps we can put his talents to use for good on a deserted island.  

Also, when we need to go searching through the inevitable underground tunnels that we will find, he can do it.


7.)  He has very good hygiene.

Who wants to be stuck with someone that doesn't like to be clean?  He always smells good, and he's very fastidious in brushing his teeth.  If we're going to honest, he might not want to be stuck with me because I'm....uh.... not so fastidious.

6.)  He is a big, strong, MAN... and he's a certified scuba diver.





Which means he would be in charge of hunting, gutting, and cleaning all our protein matter.... while I gathered.  Also, he's not afraid of fish (I am), and that's probably going to be our most plentiful food supply.


5.)  He can drink unnatural amounts of liquid


which leads me to believe that he might function like a camel.  Thus, he'd last longer on an island with little rainfall.  Who wants a companion that dies before them!?

4.)  He knits!

We could sit around the fire every night knitting together and telling tales.  OH the fun we would have, Dave! :)

3.)  He's a master of camouflage and disguise.



So if we happened upon any "others," we could safely hide among them OR hide in plain sight because we are well camouflaged.

2.)  He's a really good digger.


No, seriously.... like really good.




1.)  He is FUN and FUNNY.
This is the most important quality!  I love spending time with him!  It is fun to be around him because he's always coming up with new ways to have fun and make you laugh.  I never stop laughing at his quick wit and dry humor.  I belly laugh with him...  oh man, I'm just chuckling right now thinking about him jumping into the pool at Cabo butt-naked.  And mom running into the glass sliding door (which has nothing to do with this, but the memories are connected and that was hilarious).  Being stuck on an island wouldn't be a bad thing if Dave were with me.

When Vata leads

I am a Vata personality.  In ayurveda there are three doshas (or energies) that govern the body.  Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.  I am a vata-- impulsive, spontaneous.  Either I'm a vata dominant with kapha/pitta qualities, or I'm a pitta with a serious vata imbalance.  Either way, right now I have a lot of vata running through me.

Last monday we were going out for groceries, and somehow we ended up at the beach :)  I tend to do that--- head out toward one destination and then decide upon a different one.  Or I'll just decide that today looks like a great day to go do _________, and we go and do.
Lauren far left, Kate in middle, Nicholas squatting near the shadows of the rocks.

It was kind of awesome.  Sometimes these vata impulses turn out horribly, terribly wrong. (I was going to put down an example, but I can't remember a single one.  I KNOW they happened...I remember the feeling of, "What was I thinking?!?" as I listen to three screaming, starving, tired children in the back of my van.  But I can't remember any details!  Perhaps that's why I keep doing it.)  Thankfully, this one was actually pretty fun.

The kids LOVED running around the loooooong stretches of beach, climbing on the rocks, eating sand, feeling the sand squish between their toes and fingers, and making friends.


Oh, and running around naked.  Did I forget to mention that?

He started out fully clothed:

But then the pants came off:


And finally the underwear.  There were other people on the beach, but they were so few and far between, I figured a naked three year old would probably go unnoticed.  That picture of him is actually him peeing into the ocean, I think.  All of a sudden he said, "I gotta go!" and ran toward the ocean,  freeing his bladder along the way.  I gotta say, running around pant-less all the time would be really nice as a preschool boy.  No more toilet struggles, just go when you want to.  I guess that's why dogs don't wear pants.


The only problem to going pant-less was when two other grade school aged girls (I'm guessing K or 1st grade) started climbing on the rocks.  He immediately ran over, excitedly, and said, "HI! Hi, guys!  Hi, friends!  Mom, look at my friends!"  They started pointing and giggling, and saying, "He doesn't have any pants on!"  So the next time he came down to tell me about his new friends, I told him we needed to put his underwear back on.  After that, they continued to point and laugh and say, "He's wearing UNDERWEAR!!"  But Nicholas seemed oblivious to the fact that they were teasing him, and pretty soon they stopped.  Then their brothers came over, and they started in again, "Hey guys!  GUYS!! Guess what!  He's wearing UNDERWEAR!"  The boys looked over at Nicholas, shrugged their shoulders and said, "Hey, I think that's a cave!"  And then all the boys, Nicholas included ran toward a little hole in the rocks while the girls still stood there laughing and teasing.  

It made me smile.  Oh the differences between boys and girls.  :)  I was a little worried when they first started in on him that Nicholas would get sad or start crying (he's really quite sensitive to stuff like that).  But he couldn't really get why it was such a big deal to them--- he was impatient, if anything, that they wouldn't stop talking about his underwear when there were so many cool rocks around.  He kept trying to show them, "Hey guys, look at this!!"  But they just wanted to giggle and point.



The girls loved the sand, but I could NOT stop Kate from eating it.  Not just tasting it (like Lauren did), but full on eating it.  By the handful, in the mouth, down the gullet.  I let her eat it at first thinking that after a few handfuls she'd learn that it wasn't delicious and stop on her own.  Pretty soon she was shoving down her fourth or fifth handful, and I started to get nervous that it would mess up her insides, or clog her intestines, or cause her to get dehydrated or something.  Is it possible for toddlers to suffer from Pica?!  So I spent the rest of the time trying to keep her from downing any more sand.  Stinker.  Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I can't remember which one was tasting and which one was eating it by the handful.  I'm getting mixed memories.  Maybe they were both eating it?

OH wait... it just runs in the family.

Nicholas eating sand at the same beach, age 7-8 months

Lauren


Kate

Nicholas chasing birds, age 3  and Nicholas chasing birds, age 20 months

Some things never change :)






April 20, 2013

Comfort

Sick Lauren's comfort items of choice-- her binky/bunny and a used diaper. Cannot have one without the other...naturally.