Since Sarahthe was the only one that answered the post about Diffuse a few days ago (you kids are slacking off. If you ever want to pass the GRE....nevermind.) I will go ahead and say it's safe to post an answer and ta-da! You are right. It's concentrate. And I will always have a perfectly simple mental image concerning those two words.
Moving On.
The other day when I said I had a funny story and then I posted about how Juliana was being an absolute terror? Yeah. That was not the funny story. I think initially I had it in my mind that it was part of the funny story and in the end, well, I got a little distracted. Needless to say, I have a funny (now) story.
The day that Juliana threw the tantrums of all tantrums I had specifically noted on my calender that
we had things to do. Most importantly, the Easter Orthodox Christmas Festival was in it's last day and
we were going. Typically when Juliana first wakes up, while she is still in bed, and before she has any concept of spacial awareness she asks one question: "Mommy, where are we going today?" And usually, the answer is "school" which means, to the rest of the world, daycare. And for some unknown reason, the child bounds out of bed while concurrently yelling "Yay! SCHOOL!" and then she stumbles around until she finds a wall (or the bed...or me) that can stabilize her until she can get her bearings.
So when Juliana woke up on Saturday and she asked where we were going and I said (giddily) "A Christmas Festival!" she looked at me like I'd lost my mind and promptly rolled back over and said "No. I want to stay home.
I tried to explain to her that a Christmas Festival was like a Christmas party. There was going to be food and music and people who were all dressed up and maybe even
gifts.
Maybe even dolls! And wouldn't it be
fun! to go see all the food and dresses and
dolls! ?
But she held fast to her opinion that she wanted nothing to do with anything that involved being outside the house.
And so I waffled a bit, thinking, "
Well, maybe it's best if we don't go. If she is already in a cruddy mood about it, just imagine how horrendous it could get once we actually got there." And then my realistic parenting kicked in and said "No! You are going. She needs to learn that she can't always have things her way, and that maybe if she tries something new she might even enjoy it!"
And so the decision was made:
at all costs, we were going to the Christmas festival. It took two acts of Congress to get the child dressed and in the car but we made it, and as I stopped off at our bank to get some cash, I decided to get a little extra, just in case she was really good, in which case, I would buy her a nesting doll.
Well, Juliana was really good. And she did indeed get a nesting doll. And as we set down all of our goodies so they could tally the damage we had done, the priest of the church (who was in full regalia) began to try to converse with Juliana. Here's the rundown:
Priest: "And what is your name little girl?"
Juliana: " . . . "
Me: "Can you tell him your name? . . . . Her name is Juliana"
Priest: "Oh that's a pretty name! Juliana do you like Christmas trees?"
Juliana: "H O W L! howl! H O W L!"
That's right. Juliana howled,
like a wolf, at the priest. And it wasn't a little howl either. It was a howl that reverberated through the entire church. And I wasn't imagining this when I say the
entire church stopped what they were doing to see the little girl at the front
howling at the priest.
As you can imagine, I was more than a little embarrassed and as I tried to just hand over the money and get. out. of . there, the priest continued on...
Priest: "Juliana, do you like Christmas lights?"
And as I was about to say "Juliana loves Christmas lights! Don't you Juliana?!"
But Juliana said: "H O O O W L!"
And I was awestruck.
Really? Again? I quickly paid for our items and shoo'ed JuJu out the door of the church to a chorus of "Please come again!" from the little girls dressed in authentic Easter Orthodox type clothing with little flower crowns adorning their hair.
They might want to check with their priest before they offer to open their doors to just
anyone.
Juliana didn't get in trouble for her little howling episode but she did get a firm talking to about when it's appropriate to howl (at home. but only if you're outside. never at a man dressed in weird clothes.)
And then I handed her the Russian doll and she hasn't put it down since.