Cringing

Three separate items made me cringe this weekend:

1) Subtitled, "Why E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E should be required to take a Local Flora/Fauna Natural History Class" -- I was browsing the Travel section in this weekend's paper, daydreaming about taking a trip to an exotic destination.  The front page article was on the gorgeous fall colors in the mountains of some nearby state.  To be honest I couldn't read the article because I couldn't take my eyes off the picture, which was captioned something like, "So-and-so basking in the brilliant fall colors."  There was a picture of a nice young woman, fortunately clad in a jacket, with her arm around a tree.  Even in black and white, I could tell the tree was some kind of maple with either light orange or yellow leaves, and there was some other bushy tree with a different, more darkly colored leaves all over the trunk below the canopy.  Even in black and white, grainy newspaper photo, I could tell that the woman had her arm around a giant poison ivy vine in the photo.  Aaaaahh!  So, here's today's natural history lesson -- leaves on poison ivy vines turn a beautiful scarlet red or bright orange in the fall.  Please, plan to enjoy it from a distance.

2) Oh Ben. You know how kids love to smash their faces into windows to get a laugh?  Sometimes it's even kind of funny.  Ben thought it would be fun to smoosh himself against the sliding glass door to entertain Scott and I this weekend while we were sitting on the deck outside.  Only, this time he wasn't wearing any pants. 

3) On a related note, could someone please tell me when children start feeling modest?  Not that I don't want my children to have a positive body image, but a little discretion around guests would be nice.  Or, at least we could skip the post-bath streaking/dancing when we have guests....Ummmm.....sorry about that Andy and Trish....  (But, at least I remembered to warn you to shut your eyes)