Emerald City's Silver Lining

Way to go, Wichita! Normally high on the "fattest," "sweltering hottest" and "meat-eating-est" cities lists, Wichita was named Kiplinger's #8 "Best Value City."


This is the Wichita photo from the Kiplinger website. I'm sorry...we have trolleys?

Anywho, they say it's based on a city's lifestyle amenities (all-you-can-eat buffets), vibrant economy (meth sales), and low cost of living (I have no snark for this...it's shockingly cheap to live here).

And, sure, the list reads a bit like, "Pit stops on your way elsewhere" but it includes some nice little cities:

1. Omaha, NE
2. Charlotte, NC
3. Nashville, TN
4. Colorado Springs, CO
5. Knoxville, TN
6. Lexington, KY
7. Little Rock, AK
8. Wichita, KS!
9. Cedar Rapids, IA
10. Cincinnati, OH 

(More info: http://kiplinger.com/guides/best-cities/index.html?si=1)

So, as much as I like to poke fun at Wichita, today I'll celebrate some of its greatest values: 

• Truly kind people. Who bake things from scratch. And offer to watch your kids 
• Great school choices - and a million of them - for the boys
• Wine Wednesdays 
• Regular wake-ups by chirping birds. What, am I Snow White?!  
• There's always an open treadmill
• "Heavy traffic" means two cars in the left turn lane

It's generally a great little slice of Americana. And, sure, we hope the boys will someday use it as a launching pad to live in other parts of the world, but for now it's a more-than-fine place for raising the kids.

Fittingly, today we wrapped up our swim sessions - maybe Wichita's greatest value - with the wonderful Miss Linda. For 12 weeks, she's worked with the boys on swimming basics and, today, they took their first jump of the diving board:

How Hot Is It?

I'm sure I used to hear about Midwest heat waves and wonder: what's a heat wave? And where's the Midwest?

But here I am, smack in the middle of both.

So, how hot is it, you ask?

First off, it's so hot that all I talk about anymore is the heat. So, yeah, I'm a pretty lively conversationalist.

But just how hot is it?

"Feels like you're in a blast furnace" is how the weatherman described it, but I think it's more: "Feels like you're drinking hot coffee and eating soup while wearing a wool turtleneck sweater and blow drying your hair in a never-ending Bikram Yoga class."

Whatever the case, it's so hot outside today that even the ice cream man had to stop in for a cold one at our local liquor store. (Is it possible they're working on a merger? If not, I may have just discovered my million dollar idea...)

And, back home, it's SO hot that sibling rivalry has been replaced by sweet sibling lethargy:

 
But if you really want to know how hot it is, here's our week's forecast. (Add about 5 "feels like" degrees for humidity):

Here's looking at you, Monday! I anxiously await your promise of one glorious cloud. Happy hot weekend!

Kid Drills

Today, as we left the doctor's office with stitches in Benny's head (he's fine, but more on that later), I had an idea for a hybrid class - parenting and exercise, rolled into one. It could be called Kid Drills and it would be - you guessed it! - a series of fix-it/respond-to-it/clean-it parenting emergencies.

Because anymore, the typical parenting class topics - bathing, swaddling, feeding - just don't apply to us. Most of our days are a series of kid-related drills that get my heart racing as if I was suffering through a spin class.

So, while I'm grossly underqualified to teach a parenting class, I'd at least like to submit a few topic ideas:

• Sweeping up a broken glass before anyone steps on it
• Sunscreening children before they get wet
• Cleaning up barf at (insert retail establishment here) 
• Finding lost, beloved blankies and bears in time for bed
• Covering your lady business when kids barge in on your shower
• All things that follow the comment "there's poop all over the..."
• Dressing kids and getting them out of the house in under two minutes because you forgot a speech therapy appointment
• Navigating air travel

And the final exam:

• Handling medical emergencies

Because, this morning, we went from this:

 To this:

That's Benny on Dr. Kumar's exam table with a gash on the back of his sweet head. He hit his head when he swung into a nearby cabinet edge. And, yes, he's wearing the most ironic shirt ever.

Now, we've had our fair share of ER visits, but it's still a baffling, frightening guessing game. Am I over-reacting? Under-reacting? Where do I take him? ER? Doctor's office? Funny farm for all of us?

Today we settled on the doctor's office (I'll call that middle-reacting), and got out with two stitches and only slight emotional distress. Ben will surely be back on the climbing wall soon, but I'll be putting in a request for bumpers on the sharp edges (duh?).

Thankfully, every drill-filled day (and every exercise class, for that matter) is made better when followed by Chipotle, Ben and Roman's fave. It's a drill we know well. Now, time for Advil and naps...

Al Dente

After mixed results from our first Wichita dentist ("Well, we can do a root canal for a thousand dollars or just pull it out for 20 bucks..."), we've found the fabulous folks at Cambridge Dentistry, where the boys and I spent a surprisingly pleasant two hours today.

Behold, the brave Roman:

We left with prizes (surprises, Ben corrected), new toothbrushes, and 67 clean teeth. That's 20 for Ben, 20 for Roman and 27 for me...yup, I went with the $20 option and am minus one back tooth. Thanks, Former Dentist!