I have been something of a hermit for the last few months. I've been swamped with work, or else one or both of the kids are sick, or I am. I've been wasting the summer as an ant, when I should be a little bit more of a grasshopper. Being an ant all the time makes me cranky, stressed, and a bad mother. I need to get out!

So for the past week I've been taking the kids on expeditions again. We went to the Body Worlds 2 exposition, on a long walk along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, and yesterday we went to the Emma Prusch Farm Park. Today we're going to the Palo Alto Baylands to hike along the San Francisco Bay, birdwatch, and check out all the little private planes taking off and landing at the teeny tiny Palo Alto Airport.

I haven't gotten a damn thing done workwise this week, but I feel better. I'm not too worried about it, as I have a nanny/babysitter starting next Monday 3 days a week. I'm going to give her some earplugs so that Adrian's screaming doesn't deafen her when he figures out that SOME NON-MOMMY PERSON WILL BE HOLDING HIM! He's deep in separation anxiety mode, and screams bloody murder when I so much as put him down or leave his line of sight. Two weeks ago he was all about Daddy, this week Daddy is the Horrible Non-Mommy Thing. He might as well be the Anti-Christ.

This phase is HARD. I love him to pieces, but even prisoners get time to eat and sleep. I sleep in 1-2 hour chunks and bolt food down at light speed whenever Adrian isn't on my back or my lap. Table manners? Ha! I'd use a shovel to eat with if I could. Just dump my dinner in a trough and mix it all together for me. It's fine.

While at the Farm Park yesterday we were walking next to a big barn and saw a shed with a big CAUTION: POISON sign on it. And a picture like this:

Julian asked me, "What does THAT say?"
"It says, 'CAUTION: POISON'. It means we should stay away from that shed."
"Oh." (Thinking hard...) "So the *pirates* don't get us?"

I just about died laughing. Because OBVIOUSLY skull and crossbones are a sign of pirates, not poison, for crying out loud. Look, here's the Jolly Roger. The same!

And now I can see why some advocates want to eliminate the skull and crossbones completely as a symbol of poison, and go for something like Mr. Yuk instead.

Julian says, "It means run away, this is icky!"

This symbol is pretty terrifying to me. I just asked Julian what he thought it meant and he said right away, "Poison!"
Well actually it means "ionizing radiation", but I will accept "poison" as a correct answer. That scary image gets the point across. Run the fuck away from that shit or your ass will be vaporized.

I went back to the skull and crossbones and asked him what THAT meant.
"It's a skeleton! It means...no more!"

"Does it mean pirates too?"
"Ummm, yes. And stay out!"