the other day, carter complained that his nose was bleeding. we have had this issue in the past a few times, and so i was ready to see the evidence--but there was none. so i said, "honey, your nose is not bleeding..."

"yes it is! it huurrrrrrrrts!" he wailed.

"ok, well, let's get a tissue...ok, here...blow...............what is that??? carter, look! you had a carrot in your nose!"

it was a chewed up (large) piece of carrot that he must have inhaled into his nasal cavity at some point.

i cannot explain the hilarity that ensued. both ava and carter thought that the fact that you could put something in your mouth and have it come out your nose was just the funniest thing ever.

we have had a lot of beach time this week. ava inserted herself into a group of 10-year-old boys who were digging a very deep (up to her shoulders) hole, and bless their souls, they welcomed her graciously. she was THRILLED to be allowed to help. and then they were being silly in a way that only 10-year-olds can be, and she was laughing and laughing and laughing her head off. not sure how much i will appreciate this trend when she is 15, but now it was pretty cute to watch her join in.

i helped carter with another set of holes and castles, and i now have blisters on my fingertips from all the sand digging that i have done. apparently this causes a bit of commotion, as 2 mothers have approached me in the store to comment on my involvement in the sand construction--and both have said "i am so over all that..." which, i suppose is something you might feel after 10 years of castle-building, but right now, it is fun to see their ideas get going with just a little prompting. the way i look at it is that i am not coming home sand-free, no matter what i do, so why not build a castle? really, it's fun.

however, i have to say that as much as i admire them, i am getting a bit tired of the ironmen and women. the ironman is this weekend, and they are everywhere (as they should be). problem is, they seem to forget that we are here too. one woman basically jumped on ava today as she was demonstrating a swim start for her buddies--and had i not been completely flabbergasted as well as totally unable to catch her, i would have said something. unfortunately i will never be able to identify her without goggles and a swim cap. another swerved right in front of my car tonight--now i LOVE road biking, and i am super duper conscious of bikers, but there is not a lot i can do if you suddenly veer off the shoulder into the middle of my lane when i am oh, 40 feet away from you and traveling 20 more mph than you are. it was really bizarre, but no one was hurt and she eventually (after a minute or so of creating a huge line of crawling traffic) moved back over.

finally, tonight ava and carter got in a huge squabble over some toy. i came in to intervene and when i calmly tried to talk about it, ava pulled out some of her most impressive impersonations of a teenager that she could find. it got to a point that was unacceptable as far as i was concerned, so i walked away. she needed something, and when she could not get it, she became more and more frantic, and making worse and worse choices regarding the words she used. i stayed calm (very difficult), and just repeated that this was not ok. finally she stormed off. a few minutes later, she reappeared and asked me what the words to "that mary prayer" were. previously, i had suggested to ava that since nothing i say to comfort her works to calm her down, she should try talking to mary and asking her for help--and i taught her the hail mary. i have no idea why (well, besides the obvious saintliness/mother of god/all around holy lady bit), but mary is ava's heroine. so, i repeated the prayer for her, and then she sat quietly--i went into the other room, and about 3 minutes later, she came in and said "mommy, i'm sorry..." and crawled in my lap and talked it all over with me. you could not have had a more abrupt change in attitude.

i asked her if mary helped, and she said "yes, but the first time i did not pray long enough, and nothing happened. but the second time it worked..."

all i can say is thank you, yet again, mary.