Thunder on the Prairie

It was supposed to rain this morning. The sky clouded up, an almost chilly breeze picked up and it certainly looked like it was going to rain. I opened the kitchen window to let the fresh air breeze on in and got down to some baking.

I had half a dozen ripe bananas just begging to be turned into something useful. Failing useful, at least something yummy. I opened the cupboard and was hit by the wall of ripe banana stank. Yep, they were ready. At the late hour of 11:30am, Cailin decided to grace me with her presence and joined me in the kitchen. She devoured half of one of those stank bananas before I even blinked. Um, yum? I eat bananas half green and crunchy and not a second after that. But hey, each to their own.

I pulled her chair up to the counter and let her help pour stuff into the mixer. She promptly ignored what I was doing and played in the sink instead. Then she would put things in and out of the microwave. Occasionally she would peek over the bowl to see if the batter was ready for testing.

I made banana bread with chocolate milk this time. I have no idea how chocolate milk goes sour in this house, what with all the milk guzzling that goes on and all, but I digress. I also added chocolate chips, a real treat in Cailin's eyes. She got a few to sample, and helped taste the batter off the mixer. She said it was delicious. Well, in her own words. Into the oven it went and I focused my attention on using up some more fruit in muffin batter.

While I mixed up strawberry banana muffins, Cailin continued to play in the sink. She knows how to run the faucet and went to town flooding out that portion of the kitchen. I honestly didn't know how bad it was until the muffins were going into the toaster oven and I was able to see the damage. By the way, the toaster oven does work to bake muffins. Not well mind you, but it does work in a pinch when the oven is otherwise occupied.

Cailin then helped me wash baking dishes and helped to load the dishwasher. That went just as well as you think it did. One soaked kitchen cabinet, one soaked toddler, one soaked doggie and one soaked mommy later, we found ourselves on hands and knees towelling up water from under the sink and floor. Cailin thought the whole process was hilarious, especially the part where she stripped down to nothing and sat under the sink while I tried to mop around her.

Outfit #2 for the day was quickly put on. Once I got tired of Cailin chasing Bailey around with the doll stroller, I suggested going outside. Perhaps we could get some playing in before it rained. It didn't end up raining; in fact, the sun came out and heated up our already hot-from-having-the-ovens-on-all-morning house to approximately four billion degrees. I tried to leave the screen door open to get some air moving through the inferno of our house, but guess who would have none of that? The doors must remain closed in her eyes. Also? She wore one single pony tail today, her hair is long enough to fit!

So we played outside until someone started yawning her wee head off and I whisked her off for a nap. Bailey took the opportunity to become a real jackass; barking and jumping on and off furniture and pacing outside Cailin's door. I kicked her outside then thought, meh, why not join her? I sat in my comfy chair and enjoyed the sun and breeze. For all of five minutes. Bailey continued to run about the yard howling her head off. The neighbors across the back were being louder than necessary and were playing annoying tinny music. Then they lit up some pot, or a joint or however you say it and did the proverbial "pass it around" thing.

What kind of freaking neighborhood do we live in exactly? If one neighbor isn't trying to burn the entire place down, another is blatantly smoking the reefer in plain sight and yet more are trying to kill me with sleep deprivation via their devious evil cats or screaming children. And that's if even more neighbors aren't making all the damn racket they possibly can. I can't possibly think of a good reason to fire up the ol' pressure washer to wash rocks off the lawn at 9:00 at night. Or why the little kids three doors up should be screaming bloody murder on the trampoline when it's obviously past bedtime. And I'm talking my bedtime.

You know that old woman in the neighborhood that stands on the front porch waving her cane and yelling at everyone to behave their damn selves? That's going to be me soon. Minus the cane of course. Or... Maybe it could be useful....

At any rate, once the neighbors across the back quieted down for a blessed minute, yet another cat appeared and yowled its way across the front of the fence and settled down for a good yodelling session right in plain view of me. Bailey thought she'd do me a favor and run that 'ugly dog' off, but once she got close enough to see what it was, she tucked tail and ran in the opposite direction. Yeah, real brave, dog. Real brave. Actually, it's a great thing that she runs away from cats; she'll have a hard time getting a cat-related injury that way.

Maybe I'm just a grouchy pregnant woman complaining about all the noise and activity in the neighborhood (I refuse to refer to myself as crotchety or old). But then again, I pretty much felt this way about noise and being courteous long before kids were even thought of. Of course, I don't mind my own obnoxious half-beagle dog baying away in the backyard. Beats the heck out of screaming kids any day in my eyes.

So I phoned my dear grandparents and ranted about noise, fires, ant hills (don't even ask, we're being taken over) and cats. I may have gotten some sadistic advice about cat removal methods, but I sure appreciated it. Like minds and all that. Thanks, Grampa.

When Cailin got up, she devoured two slices of banana bread with a fervour even a pregnant woman couldn't compete with. I know, I tried. I did manage to get some rice and cheese into her as well. We played in the house until the darn doll stroller made its appearance again. After chasing Bailey with it for a while she went to the back door and said, "Peese!" Smart kid.

The wind was actually picking up now, and the clouds were moving in. Bailey had been acting skittish all day, and she took it to the next level now. I listened for thunder, but I couldn't hear any. Bailey swore up and down that she could hear it. I called her stoopid. Cailin played outside for a while, but it was obvious that she was a little chilly in the wind. She climbed the back steps and waited patiently for me to open the door for her.

Once inside, Bailey continued to pace, pant and generally be frantic. She's been like this off and on since Ryan's been gone and it's driving me crazy. Then a bright flash zipped across the sky and lit up the living room. Uh oh, I thought. BOOOOM!!! Yep, turns out Bailey isn't that stoopid after all.

Cailin continued her bath, had a snack, went to bed and didn't care a bit about the thunder. Jellybean doesn't seem all that worried this time either. During the last storm we had, he jumped as high as Bailey did when the thunder would crash and boom. I had it doubly bad; Jellybean was shaking in his boots on the inside and Bailey was swarming me from the outside. Thankfully this time it was just the dog, although really? That's plenty to deal with.

So now I have a very unhappy dog hiding beneath my foot rest. You know, just in case the thunder comes back.

I can't wait to pick Ryan up at the airport tomorrow.