Our funny and talented (and sometimes easily distracted) June-Bug

Juneau regularly amazes us. She is extremely brave and always wanting to try anything (especially in the food department) This weekend, she displayed her talents on the new bike we got for $5 from our garage sale outing. I got that thing home, pumped up the tires, took off the training wheels and thanks to the wonderful Good Family providing us with a balance bike for her to practice the last couple weeks, once she got on the pedal bike she nailed it on her first try.

Within a few minutes she had figured out how to start and stop herself and I was having a hard time keeping up running alongside. She is still working on turning but in a straight line she is a pro.

Juneau cracks me up pretty much on a daily basis, even though sometimes it is more in retrospect. I need to preface week's prime example by explaining that while we were in Seattle, the girls went out with Aunt Becky and Uncle Kyle while Emilie and I went out for dinner for our anniversary. Somehow, Juneau was exposed to and became fascinated with zombies. Obviously, anyone who knows me well would know that this made me very proud as there is nothing I'd rather watch than a good movie about the zombie apocalypse.

Back to this week: Every night we have been reading "Little House on the Prairie" prior to bedtime. A few nights ago we were reading the chapter about the big prairie fire that swept across the plain and threatened to consume the Ingalls' house and farm. Now Juneau is good at a lot of things but having a long attention span often is not one of them. Her mind easily wanders at times when she isn't really being engaged. So, after a minute or two, I stopped the reading and asked her what the chapter was about.

She replied: "The indian came to their house."

Me: "No, that was just at the very beginning of the chapter. Alot has happened since then. Nova, what is the story about?"

Nova: "There is a big fire coming toward their house" (Nova is always engrossed in the story and dying to please with a correct answer)

Me: "That's right. Juneau, you need to concentrate and work hard on paying attention"

I continue reading. The fire sweeps across the plain and Ma and Pa dig a trench around the farm to save it. The fire passes them by and leaves nothing but burnt, black prairie all around them. But the prairie dogs and squirrels all survived, even though they were outside of the trench dug around the farm and the book describes why they survived.

Me: "Juneau, how did the prairie dogs and squirrels all manage to survive the fire even though they were outside the plowed circle around the farm?"

Juneau: (pausing to think about it)..."By turning into zombies."

Yes, of course, because any of us who read "Little House on the Prairie" when we were kids clearly remembers the part when the prairie dogs turned into zombies to avoid the prairie fire.  And how can we forget the T.V. episode based on this chapter when Mr. Edwards was bitten by one of the zombified prairie dogs and wandered through Walnut Grove looking for human brains to devour until Mr. Oleson whacked him on the head with a shovel.

Nova: (providing the correct answer) "No, they went down in their holes until the fire went past".

All I could do was hold back the laughter long enough to say "Okay, that's enough story for tonight." Apparently we still need to work on the attention span...or choose "The Walking Dead" for our next bedtime reading...