Hmmmm . . .

You know never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would ever cut a seat belt with sciccors. Never crossed my mind. Not even once. I considered the possibility of braking the car window if my kids got locked in the car (which they did in Hawaii, but that is another story), I considered calling a locksmith if I locked my keys inside. I have even considered alternative options of what I would do if I were ever carjacked; scenarios with and without kids. But not once did anything that had to do with scissors ever cross my mind.
It was early evening. One of the first cold nights of the year and we had jut arrived at the Costco in St. George. We were exiting the car when I told Cambria to hurry up a little. She told me she was stuck. Like I haven't heard that before. But what I didn't realize was that she really was stuck. REALLY stuck. I thought she couldn't get her seat belt to release or something. Well, that was partly true. I climbed into the back of the van to help her out and I noticed that the seat belt was around her waist. I told her to stand up so that I could take it off and that is when things got bad. The seat belt was wrapped around her waist. Twice. And when I told her to stand up the seat belt locked into position and began to put a lot of pressure on her belly. I quickly realized that I was not strong enough to pull the seat belt off of her. The more we struggled the tighter the belt constricted as if it were a boa or anaconda tightening around its prey. I called Kai to see if he could help. I thought that maybe I could loosen it enough for him to pull her out through the trunk but that belt wouldn't budge in the slightest. There was a small crowed gathered behind our car when we parked. It looked like a nice little family catching up on new news. They had observed us struggling for awhile and I am sure they heard Cambria and the baby crying and Kiera saying "I want to get out" (over and over and over again). A young man approached us and asked if we needed help. We told him our daughter was stuck in the seat belt. He said he had a knife, but I had already been toying with the idea of grabbing the scissors I had in the dash to cut her loose. I went to get them and right before I made the cut that would rescue or little girl, i looked at Kai and said, "This is going to be a lot of money." To every one's relief she Cambria was free and when she settled down from the drama she told me, "I was trying to trap myself." I said, "Well, you sure did honey, you sure did."

This is Cambria's portrait of me, her beautiful mother. She was very proud These are five lessons she has learned in her 4 years on this earth:

1. I cannot fly like Peter Pan (because if I fall and hit the wall, I will get a fat lip.)

2. I cannot give myself a haircut. It just doesn't look good and Mommy will eventually find all the curls that I tried to hide from her.

3. You really can trap yourself in a seat belt.

4. If you put a sock filled with rice in the microwave for 2o minutes, it will catch on fire. (wish I had pictures of that one.)

Finally, I have learned that art is sometimes about the process and not the product. Kiera learned that finger paint doesn't really taste all that great. This is my daughter who usually hates to have dirty hands. Kiera had a wonderful time finger painting. She and Cambria were covered by the time they were done with this little project. They went straight to the bath when they were done.