Holy Hot Dog!!!

I set up with Andie some time back to watch Miss Bailey on Monday, March 1st while she took Hayden on an all morning field trip with his pre-school to a play. Claude and I planned to leave after I got home Sunday and drive to LaGrange to spend the night. This is a lot better on older bodies than getting up at 'O-dark-30 to head somewhere. We got to the Marx home about 5:30 or 6pm. In time to play with Hayden and Bailey before time for bed. One of the things Bailey wanted to do was go play in the basement. One of the gifts Claude gave to Michael and Andie over the past 2 years they have lived in their home was to paint their basement floors and put up sheetrock on the walls. For now, this makes a perfectly wonderful extra playroom for the mini-Marx's. They have riding toys and a slide and a plastic pool full of balls. Andie has taken a down comforter she purchased many, many years ago and folded it in half and made a reading center. It is just a great place to use all those muscle that need to be moved on little kids. Especially when it has been a cold winter and the times to get to a park are nil. So, it didn't surprise me that Bailey thought a trip to the basement playground was a great idea. Bailey busily engaged herself in emptying the food storage items and playing some type of kitchen/grocery store game. I was sitting on the futon and found myself being laden with tuna and vegetables. Hayden, our space enthusiast, found a ring that goes around a ball. I believe you are to stand on it and try to balance and/or jump. At any rate, the ring was separated from the ball at that time and Hayden turned himself into Saturn!!

It was great basement fun and filled that time before bedtime quite nicely. Before bedtime I told Andie I thought Hayden was running a fever. Bailey was finishing a cold and Andie was finishing her version of what Bailey had, so it made sense Hayden would get it next. Andie took his temperature and sure enough our little man had a fever. The room Claude and I sleep in is next to Hayden's. During the night, I heard him talking for a bit. It sounded like he was maybe pretending and playing some kind of game. No distress, just awake for a bit. Monday morning he woke up and started to call for mom. I quickly got dressed and hurried in to be with this cuddly wonder. He scooched over and I climbed into bed with him and we had a great chat. He was still really warm to me. When Andie got there we determined there was still some fever in him and that meant no field trip for Hayden and Andie. Claude and I determined to stay the day anyway and enjoy these little guys. We had a fun time playing and watching a few shows to keep Hayden quieter. It is amazing to me the endurance of "The Magic School Bus" show. They love them and all the books about the Magic School Bus stories they have around are great to read. At one point we determined we were headed back to the basement to play. Andie had taken the opportunity to run some errands without kids in tow. If you have been a mom and had little ones, you know this is such a blessing. We also found a tape measure and Hayden was measuring all kinds of things. The basement made a great extension of amazing things to measure. We even measured how many inches it was from the top of the slide to where you landed after coming down the slide. It was time to go back upstairs, and we found Pa (Claude) laying on the love seat taking a nap. My, that was a inviting set of measurements just resting there waiting for the measuring tape. At one point Hayden was measuring Claude's face from side to side and top to bottom. He suddenly said, "Holy Hot Dog!!" Claude and I just looked at each other and started laughing. Neither of us had ever heard that expression. Add a new one to the list. When Andie came home we told her about him saying "Holy Hot Dog!!" Then we asked Hayden where it came from. He said it was in his library book. I read that book to him on that visit and didn't remember that phrase in there at all. But I don't doubt for a minute it was in there. So now we have a new expression to add to our vocabulary, "Holy Hot Dog!!" And a fine one it is too.