Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A good morning chuckle...

Benaiah gave me a good chuckle this morning...he doesn't always just give me mini heart attacks.  After Gloria said she thought the room was too bright for Evelyn with the sun pouring in the window,  I replied that Evelyn was fine.  Gloria asked me "how do you know?" For lack of a better answer, I said, "Mother's instinct."  Benaiah apparently was listening in the background and exclaimed "I'm not stinky!" I guess the defensive potty-training (with two older siblings) side of him came out. 

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Benaiah gets skunked...literally

Benaiah makes life interesting and sometimes takes days, weeks, or years off of my life.  Those are usually made up for though when he flashes his chipped-tooth smile or talks to me in his gruff toddler voice about "bulldoshers" and "dump twucks."

In Alabama, he and Zephyr would tag-team to go down to the steam in the valley about 1/2 mile from our house through a thick wood.  Also in our year in Alabama, he got second degree burns on his left leg afterventuring into a fire pit that still had hot coals.  That terrible incident had us going to the emergency room in Montgomery and the wound clinic twice a week for a while.

Here in Oklahoma, our little Benny decided to take a walk down our long driveway and onto "Racetrack Rd" which has cars that fly down it at 60 mph.  He went about a 1/4 of a mile before a nice neighbor picked him up and brought him to her house.  After 20-30 minutes of desperation and calling the Sheriff and thinking of "what would life be like without Benaiah" (which brought on many tears), I saw a man in a 4-wheeler came up our driveway who had seen me running around the property with Gloria and JB following not-to-far behind.  He asked me if I had lost a little boy in a helmet (he had been wearing a bike helmet so that he could ride with Gloria on her battery-powered 4-wheeler).  My heart settled back into my chest and my stomach un-knotted a bit when he mentioned who I knew was Benaiah.  Upon being returned to our house, still in helmet, he immediately asked if he could ride on Gloria's 4-wheeler.  I just took him inside and held him close.

 This same adventurous boy does not aim to please (so-to-speak) when it comes to potty training...nothing seems to motivate him or threaten him into going on the potty.

Anyway, today he added to the list of adventures when he chased a skunk in our backyard and got sprayed after backing the skunk into a corner while trying to pet it or pick it up.  JB came running into the house saying "Benaiah is playing with a skunk."  My first thought was "a dead or a live one?"  I confirmed that it was very much alive after bolting out of the sliding doors to the back yard to see Benaiah almost hovering over the skunk as the skunk had its tail at a 90 degree angle and the hairs sticking straight out perpendicular to the tail.  The skunk stench that originated only 20 feet from where I was standing wafted into the house and stuck.  I had Benaiah come inside which added to the stench.

I smelled him and noticed that the concentration of the skunk spray smelled to me like nail polish remover.  Max told me that was probably the alcohol in the skunks defense weapon (I'll have to look up the "ingredients" in skunk spray).  I had called Max telling him what happened and he looked up (probably on his Blackberry) how to take skunk smell out of skin and clothes and whatnot.  I was glad he didn't tell me to bathe him in tomato juice because I think I only had a 6oz can of V8, which would have only de-stunkified his big toe.  Instead, Max advised me to make a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and a little dish soap.  I took this mixture and Benaiah to the bath tub and scrubbed it everywhere on his body including his hair.  After this was done, my ears were ringing from the high-pitched screams of a little boy who does not like being in the bath in the first place unless it is purely for playing purposes, and who had a cold, white substance rubbed over his body.  I placed his stinky clothing in whatever I had left over of this solution.

I allowed Benaiah to play in a warm bath after torturing him with de-stinkifying solution and washing him as well as pouring water over his head (his absolute least favorite thing).  I figured he deserved just to play and enjoy the warm water after being tortured with cleanliness.  After being sprayed, he did not seem traumatized at all, go figure.  While I was talking to Max, Benaiah got his play shotgun and with a big grin on his face said he was going to shoot the skunk (he wants to do whatever Daddy does lately).

Needless to say, I closed all doors and made sure everyone stayed in the house for a while.  Max came back after just leaving for an evening flight to make sure the skunk was gone and it was safe for us to walk out to the van to go to swim lessons.  Thankfully, when we got back from swim lessons, the stink in the house was mostly gone because Max had left a few doors open with screens locked to air it out.



So if anyone reading this gets skunked or has a kid or a dog that gets skunked, please learn from my experience!

As I have praised God that Benaiah didn't get hit by a speeding car or didn't get burned worse by the hot coals,  I also praise God that I have such a wonderful husband and that, Lord willing, the skunk didn't pass on rabies (which is one reason we shoot skunks that show up during the day).  I am also glad that Benaiah didn't get sprayed in the eyes...that surely would have added to the torture for both of us!!