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Scooter

Catching Up

It took me a full work week worth of days to begin to get back to normal. Most of the presents are put away, the laundry is caught up (but not all put away), we got to the gym with the girls today for the first time in a week, and Emma actually fell asleep before 10 PM. I even managed to vacuum and organize my closet. For all intents and purposes it seems like we are back to normal. Tomorrow we are going to tackle the decorations and take them all down and then the holiday will officially be over. Frankly, I'm quite glad to get the trees down - I've been itching to do it for over a week now. We put them up almost 2 weeks earlier than usual - mid November - and I'm ready for things to be back to normal. I still have 2 packages of gifts to send out to distant family, but if I take down the trees I'll probably get to those sooner.

On other news, Mary's cold remains - awful and unbeatable. She has the worst cough and drainage she has ever had. Even after the pharmacist recommended ventral that was supposed to dry up the mucus, she was coughing endlessly. I've tried the vaporizer, Vicks, extra pillows and lots of concerned hovering over her and none of it seems to work. Even all put together. Tonight she seems to be resting better, but in a few hours it may all be back. That's about all I can tell you.

I have some other things to type up but no time right now, as this will be the first night since last week that I will get in bed before midnight, and that is only if I stop typing now. For a little foreshadowing, I've had a job interview this week to write about, and my grandfather sent me some papers he found that are from the late 1800's - some of them are wonderfully unusual camp songs which I plan on typing here. You won't hear any of these today, I'll tell you! So, stay tuned!

Let the Festivities Begin

Well, Internet, I'm done. All of the baking is baked, all of the presents are wrapped, all of the labels are labeled, the family picture is taken and printed, all of the cards have been made and sent (so if you didn't get one yet, you aren't getting one), and everything that needs to be done for the weekend is DONE. The only things that remain are for Santa himself to do, in the order of inflating 2 Hippity Hops and putting together a small trampoline. Then all of the things that Santa can only do well after children are asleep. Even the library books are not due until the 27th. Friday is school for Emma with a visit from Santa himself (he must be all done, too) and Saturday after gymnastics the family parties start. We go o Papa and Grandma's house on Saturday, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lisa's on Sunday, then over to Aunt Karen and Uncle Rob's before coming home and putting tired little bunnies to bed for the big day on Monday. What's left after that? Tuesday we have a meeting to finish house selections for our house that has not begun to be built yet and hopefully Mum and Papa are taking the girls to their house for a few days, Wednesday I have a job interview and we paint 2 rooms, Thursday we pick up the girls again and then it is a full week later from when I thought I could take a breath. So, that's all folks - Let the Festivities Begin!

Emma's First Christmas Program

Today we gussied everybody up and piled into the Jeep to drive the 4 miles to Emma's preschool, where we dropped her in her classroom and proceeded to the basement to wait 1/2 hour. Down in the basement, Mary, Mum, Jim and I waited (not particularly patiently) for the 3 year old's classroom #2 to make their entrance. They came! They sat in ever so tiny chairs which are so incredibly sweet in meandering rows that it breaks your heart. They fidgeted, and then THEY SANG. Ms. Tonya managed to get 30 3 year olds to sing. Not all at once, sometimes, and not all on the same song, sometimes. But they did it. Of course, I have a video -but a few things should be explained first. I put wonderful Santa-ish dresses on Emma and Mary that came with hats. I was not going to put the hats on, but Emma insisted. Mary followed suit. So there were hats. They were cute! They were very floppy in a Mrs. Claus sort of way. And neither child would leave them alone. That's all fine for Mary, who is out in the audience, bored to pieces while waiting for her older sister to appear, but I cannot begin to explain the horror I felt when I saw what Emma had done to hers. So we have a wonderful video with a red shower cap on Emma's head. I got over that - I mean, what was there to do about it? Get up from the audience and fix her hat? I'm sure SOMEONE would have thought of that, but it was not ME. No, siree, never, EVER crossed my mind. So fine. Poor Emma has had some bloody noses, so that caused her to be fiddling with her nose. A lot. I couldn't help her out there, either. And the hat. Yep, it was ITCHY. There is a whole segment of the video I left in just because she had fits about her itches. Because later, maybe even after next year, it will be endearing. And the part about saying 'hello' to her family between songs. That was endearing the very minute it happened. Enjoy the highlights!



(The last picture is her with her teacher, who is absoloutely wonderful and fabulous)

Potty Training

This is Nemo. Nemo is being potty trained on "the potty". This particular box is an empty flushable wipes container which is oddly reminiscent of a toilet, which Nemo fits neatly on when he's really got the urge. Unfortunately, Nemo "made poops in his diaper" before he got to the potty, so he was changed, cleaned, and sternly dealt with before being set on the potty (see picture) to "make pee-pee". Emma and Mary were co-parenting, with Mary being Nemo's Daddy and Emma playing his Momma. Emma was the one that changed and scolded Nemo and set him on he potty. Mary was the one that praised and hugged Nemo when he was successful. She then put him to bed, which you can see behind the potty there. Every time Nemo cried, "Momma" would jump up and run over while "Daddy" watched. After 5 or 6 messy diapers, where Nemo was told NOT to do that again, "Momma" unceremoniously thrust Nemo in "Daddy's" face and said, "He's stinky, Daddy, you have to change him now". "Daddy" dutifully cleaned Nemo (with a view finder disc, oddly enough) and told "Momma" that Nemo was hungry. Alright, "Momma" conceded, he needs Momma milk. For those who are not familiar with the parlance in our house that is our code for breast feeding. Emma promptly lifted her shirt, attached Nemo, and looked annoyed for what she thought was enough time for Nemo to get his fill. She then rocked him, told him he was loved, and put him to bed. This played out many times and only stopped when I tried to get a movie of it. Before that it was too much to expect me and Jim to get off of the floor and wipe our tears and stop our crazy laughing to pick up a camera and focus on the moment for posterity. That picture may be worth a thousand words, but the video would have been worth a million laughs.

Little Guy and the Miraculous (Daily) Recovery

Some of you may be waiting with baited breath to hear what has become of Little Guy. The very next day he resurfaced, unharmed. My psychologist friend down the street suggested this might happen. To support Emma's game without acknowledging that Little Guy might be real (which he said annoyed Emma because by her actions she KNOWS Little Guy is imaginary and I would be lying to her), I asked her the next day after he reappeared while we were walking in the mall, "How are you doing with Little Guy today?". To which she replied, casually, that he was gone now because he wandered off and got eaten by a monster. On the way home from the mall, she and Mary were BOTH playing with Little Guys, because now there are 2. Emma was rather vexed that Mary wasn't playing the right way with Little Guy, and I found this funny because I have learned that imaginary friends have to do with children wanting a sense of control. Soon after that, Charlie sat on her Little Guy and smashed him. Later, he climbed in the fireplace and got burned. Eventually he came to an awful end involving a dragon. More recently, he has had unfortunate dealings with wild animal puppets at the library. And today he had a tragic accident with the soap on the bathroom mirror. In spite of all of this, Little Guy remains a companion. He is sort of the Mr. Bill of imaginary friends, or the Kenny of Emma's life. Now Emma has developed Little Puppy, who is NOT Little Guy's pet, but EMMA'S pet. I was corrected emphatically. I just hope Little puppy isn't accident prone.

Addedum: I've been told that Little Puppy went to Argentina and he got a boo-bo and then he died. So much for that.

Praises to my Baby

Mary is 2 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 1 day old , as anyone can see by the Lilypie ticker in the header. She is not by most standards, a baby. However, she is my baby, and I am constantly amazed by her. Today was a pure Mary day, with Emma at preschool. It was not remarkable in any way, except that Mary was in it. Maybe there are some things I can tell you about her.

First of all, she is more beautiful than anything else I know. Her endlessly blue eyes, set deep in her face and framed by the delicate brown smudges of eyebrows and lashes against her pale porcelain skin always spark with a slight bend of humor. Her perfect pearl teeth line up between the outlines of her rosy bowtie lips the hold a suggestion of dimples. Her muscular legs bounce her along regularly with enthusiasm usually reserved for special occasions. Her gentle curls bounce with every movement. She is, in a word, beautiful.

She is funny. My Mary can tell a joke. She loves to make a funny little grunt noise to make her family members (especially her sister) laugh. She puts random things on her head and says, "Look at me!" just to share a smile. She laughs at Tom and Jerry cartoons while sympathizing with the injured party. She is pleased with herself if you find something funny in what she did or said.

She is empathetic. When I yell at Emma for something, Mary tears up and says, "Don't be mean to my sweet sister!". When Emma has done something wrong and I am correcting it (more reasonably), she hugs my leg, repeating, "I love you, Mama". When somebody on a show gets hurt, she tells them it's OK. She gives me random hugs when I am just sitting quietly and tells me, "Don't cry, Mama, I love you".

She is smarter than I could ever expect. She draws pictures of jellyfish and self portraits that are recognizable. She correctly identifies letters that I have never taught her. She can play a melody on the piano if you show her how to do it first. She makes up songs constantly about things she is doing and manages to rhyme the words. She peruses picture books and makes up back stories. She sings entire verses to songs that I sing to her. She amazes me at every turn.

Every night after she is asleep I check in on her and kiss her goodnight. Dear Mary! She is now in a regular twin bed (although she refuses to use anything but her crib blanket) and she looks so tiny in the middle of it. I cannot let go of the little infant that nursed and slept in my arms yet, despite all of the indications that she is nearly a kid. She continues to cry over anything (temperamental, that one) and squeal with anger - both things left over from a firey infant life. And I know I'll even miss those when they evaporate, because there will no longer be any remainders of her babyhood.

I don't know where I was going with this. Usually I feel I have a nice, tidy ending to bring it all around. But I just wanted to share some of my overwhelming Mother love for this little creature who I am so blessed to call my daughter.

Guess what's cooking for dinner?

So I just typed this huge post and my computer decided to shut down Explorer. Hooray and here we go again. I think the post went something like this:

Saturday we had my parents over for dinner. It was a nice little affair where I did not have the time or inclination to pull out the Christmas dishes and that was probably the only opportunity I am going to have this year to use them. Anyhow, this story is relevent to today, really. We made a lemon chicken recipe that is a favorite, along with some broccoli. As for the noodle side dish, we had a bit of a disagreement. Jim, it seems, already had a menu in his head that did not include the noodle recipe I really wanted to make. I saw this recipe on Martha Stewart's show and it sounded so fabulous and GOURMET that I had to make it. So, after a brief show of annoyance, Jim conceded to my Fettuccine with Mascarpone and Parmigiano-Reggiano idea. I think he was still a little sore that recently Martha's cakey chocolate chip cookies beat out Alton's puffy chocolate chip cookies. In case you didn't know, these two cooking gurus are constantly battling for face time at our house. Almost every dinner has some mention of one or the other. So, anyhow, we made the Mascarpone noodles. Unfortunately, the day before, I had burned out my taste buds with atomically hot chai tea. All I can tell you about this wonderfully rich and creamy sounding dish is that the broccoli seemd over done and the noodles seemed under done. That was purely by texture. To satisfy Jim's desire for HIS noodle dish, he made it yesterday with the left over chicken.

Today, I went pawing through the refrigerator for the small amount of Saturday's dish that was hidden away, thinking that my taste buds were quite recovered. Knowing that this sauce was a creamy thing, I was gentle about heating it up in the microwave. Unfortunately, the taste was unrecognizable beyond the clumpy egg piles that had cooked into the sauce from my over active microwave oven. So much for Martha.

Nothing Special, but worthy of COMMENTS

Hello? Anyone there? I KNOW you are watching - I can check my statistics to find out how many people have visited every day. I can also track where you are logging in from - city, state, and even country (for a while I had a couple of loyal British readers - huh!). But yet, as I continue to add content, the comments are dropping. Abysmal! Not only dropping, nearly DISAPPEARING! This is a bit of a two way street, Internet. You read my material, then I read yours. Please, I BEG of you - COMMENT!

With that out of the way, I thought I would post another brilliant picture by my resident artist - that would be 2 year old Mary Leona. Check this out, straight from the Magnadoodle:


Now, you think that is a series of dots and circles, don't you? As always, I asked dear little Mary, "What is it?". Mary replied, with enthusiasm, "That's Mary No-na!" (That's Mary's interpretation of her middle name - No-na, which she insists is a part which must be used in conjunction with her first name at all times). So, upon closer inspection, and the context that a 2 year old drew it, I realized I could see eyes, a mouth, and even hair. And, if you think there is no resemblance to the hair, check out the picture at the end of this old post.

I'm telling you - she is an genius.

Have Guitar Will Travel

Today we started going back and examining each letter of the alphabet in grand Lydia fashion, that is with a continent of discovery for the alphabet. We were doing South America, so we started with A is for Anaconda. Fabulous! I think this really started, the first time, last year August. We keep petering out because I am lazy ad find it impossible to keep my children's attention for more than 5 minutes. Well, since Emma has started recognizing and talking about letters, Mary has becoming KEENLY interested in them and I thought this was a good time to jump right back in where we left off - at G. We did G is for gecko as our animal/craft project and listened to guitar music from South America as well as investigated the guitar that Zoe's mom brought with her. I'll tell you, she looked like quite the hippy play group mom, arriving with a guitar. Too bad neither one of us could play any better than the girls.

Housebound and Productive

Today I was very ambitious in the house, especially the kitchen. This is probably explained by my lack of being able to go the gym and run right now, but I am using it to my advantage. Today, while the girls napped, I cleaned out my refrigerator. I found I had a lot of apples and left over cranberry sauce I couldn't bear to part with. So, I thought I would try this with the cranberry sauce (I had some rather frightening bananas, too). Then I set this up in the crock pot. I'll let you know if they are keepers. I also had more laundry than a small country to do and put away, and I am still in the middle of that.

This weekend we bumped around the house and finished juggling furniture between the bedrooms, including the demise of Mary's crib/toddler bed. The nursery used to look like this, a very long time ago (one year ago):



And now it looks like this, as of yesterday:



Emma's room got a bit of a turn around, too, since we moved an entire bed and dresser out of it. it originally looked like this:


And now, like this:


I bought some curtain things that will just have to do for a year until we move, but those are not up yet (obviously). Before, one hardly noticed the curtainless windows. Now, they make the room look like an orphanage. So Jim has some Things To Do this evening when he gets home (after he eats all of the food I made). Well, I must get back to laundry, and I'll post the picture with the curtains later. I will spare you the gory details of the sobbing and weeping that occurred when Mary went to sleep in a regular twin BED instead of a crib

Gaggle of Girls

Diane and Me with our all-female offspring:

Holiday Happenings

We have company in for a week during Thanksgiving and it has been a little crazy around here! We added a family of 6 - 3 adults and 3 children (2 months, nearly 4, and 6 1/2 years old)to our humble abode. Let me just say that there is never a dull (or quiet) moment. The Ruckers are here visiting family as is standard for Thanksgiving and we are having a great time having the families together. The only thing that is not working very well is the sleeping. There's not a whole lot of sleeping situations happening as planned. This was the original plan: Diane and Derek on the 3rd floor sleeper couch with the baby; Mary's bed joined Emma's in the Dora room and the queen sized inflatable mattress on the floor for Sabrina and Fiona; the second twin bed from the Dora room into the nursery for Grandma Mary to sleep in and us in our room. The first morning found Sabrina in Grandma Mary's room sharing a twin bed and Mary in our room on the floor. The next morning found Diane and Baby Brianna on the couch in the living room, Sabrina on the third floor with Derek, Fiona in with Grandma Mary, and Emma on the floor in our room. We've just about given up on any night time order whatsoever. And if you can follow all of that then you are doing better than we are.

Thanksgiving dinner was here, with my parents, my grandfather, Jim's mom and Avis joining us. I really enjoying maiking all of the Thanksgiving Day food. This year we brined the turkey overnight, which gave it a fabulous flavor and texture. I think I will ALWAYS brine fowl from now on. I highly recommend trying this recipe.

We are spending a great amount of time working out with the Ruckers. Today Jim, Derek and Sabrina went to the rock wall at the fitness center and spent a good portion of the afternoon rock climbing. Then Diane and I went back and swam for a while. We also raced down the water slide, but only twice. Whee!!!! The day started out with the girls frosting Christmas cookies, which I made a video of for you to see.

Dora and Swiper

Emma doesn't usually do a Dora role play, and today we found out why. Mary isn't quite the willing accomplice Emma would like her to be, apparently.

The Ultimate and Terrible Demise of Little Guy

Emma has an imaginary friend, who she pulls out occasionally. This is not the constant friend who never leaves her side. This is someone who comes out when she is playing with others and joins in. His name is Little Guy. The other day (Tuesday) I was driving to go do errands and there was a clump of dirt in my tire, clanking around as clumps of dirt tend to do when stuck in the wheel well. I stopped briefly to get out and look at it and announced to the inquisitive girls what it was and drove off. Then Emma broke out in screaming and sobbing fits.

"NO! NO! MAMA! IT'S LITTLE GUY! YOU SMASHED HIM WITH YOUR TIRE! STOP! YOU'RE HURTING HIM! IT'S ****LITTLE GUY****!!!"

And so the car ride went, with Emma convinced I had just killed her imaginary friend. Yep. Ran him over. Much like Grandma and the reindeer in that catchy holiday song. Emma was beside herself for the rest of the ride. At nap time, she had nightmares about Little Guy. After nap time, she moped about and looked wistful, saying the house was an awfully sad place without Little Guy. About every hour she teared up and mourned her loss.

It's amazing to me that I have never come across any parenting articles about how to handle this occasion.

And the Stockings were Hung...

Well, there you have it, the fabulous tree in the living room, with matching decor. Sunday the girls helped me and Grandma decorate the little tree in the foyer with Hallmark ornaments (read: less breakable). They were so excited it was hard to keep up with them, but they enjoyed it so much it was nearly insupportable! Grandma Saunders was a good sport and I think she even enjoyed herself. We all had such a nice, Christmas-y time and now the trees are up, thanks ever so much to Grandma!

12 Days of...

BUSY-NESS! What on Earth have I been doing??? Well, let me tell you, my friend. ***I*** am getting ready for CHRISTMAS! Friday my mother-in-law and my niece came over and we spent all day long making our Christmas cards, with lots of red and green candy and many Christmas music CD's. I made 38 cards out of the 60 I need. That was a very productive day! I worked hard enough on those that I had a cramp in my hand later that evening. Something like carpal tunnel for stampers. Ouch!

Today we took the girls to gymnastics, where both of them proceeded to crumple into small melted toddler piles when they should have been doing donkey kicks or candle sticks or something. Really, Mary was a pile on the floor and kept saying she was tired. Poor girls were just not in the mood to be jumping and flipping about, even if they are unbelievably cute in their little leotards. Then we met Niecey at Sam's Club and found her some new tires for her little car and we got her a few important food items to take home with her. I'm so glad I'm no longer in my 20's and on my own again! The girls continued to be melted messes so we took them home. While Emma neglected her naptime and refused to sleep, we put up the big Christmas tree. IT IS BEAUTIFUL! This is the first year the living room is painted a rich burgundy and it matches the colors of the tree ornaments. It is all so sumptuous and glamorous and makes you want to weep it is all so Better Homes and Gardens. At some point (when the furniture is back in place) I'll take a picture to share with you. Kind of sad this will be the only year it will be in that room. HUH!

After all of that holiday happiness I went and worked out - swimming again. And I did my personal best! I swam 1/2 mile today. You can check out all of the statistics on my Triathlon training blog here. So now we are exhausted, sitting in the family room just listening to the laundry get washed in the washing machine. When I have some energy - tomorrow - I think I will run for 3 miles. I'm serious about getting with the skinny.

I'll keep you posted.

Halloween

Just for those that continue to think about that long past holiday mentioned above, here's a treat. The little girl in the JoJo costume is my good friend's daughter.

Christmas

Well, it is snowing today. Not just lazy, drifting, thought you might not notice flakes - we have full white out conditions over here in southeastern Michigan. Were you expecting a post about Halloween? Well, it is November SECOND, which means we are a full TWO days into the Christmas season. The catalogs are spread out on my kitchen table, with dogeared pages and ink stars all over them. Christmas cards designs are piled on my craft table, waiting to be tried and loved - chosen to be the special one that is duplicated 60 or 70 times over and them sent all over the Earth before the end of December. Even the weather has given up any hope that fall extends one MINUTE past October 31st. There is no time for wallowing and focusing on Halloween any more - that holiday is SO last Tuesday. Time to dig out my holiday CD's and mull the cider - we have cards to make!

Multiple Postings

Well, apparentlyBlogger is having a little case of the hiccoughs. Yes, those videos are all the same. As hard as I have tried, I cannot delete them. As a matter of fact, they are not real. When I check my posts they are not listed. So I ask you - how do you get rid of something that is not really there?

The Making of a Family Photo

We went to Jim's Dad's house to visit Grandma Miller, who is in from Las Vegas. At 93, she is sprightly and has a twinkle in her eye. She has never met Emma or Mary, so the girls got all gussied up to go visit. At some point the inevitable family photo had to happen, so Karen and her kids piled around with Jim and our girls. Poor Grandma probably will be glad to get back to her own house!

Skirts!

These are wonderful skirts that Lydia made for my girls. Hooray for skirts! Nicest thanks to Lydia for clothing my children in such cute clothes. And an extra Hip! Hip! for a little display of sisterly love momentarily shared happily. The only problem is that I didn't have any long sleeve shirts that matched the skirts, so they look a bit summery and knocked kneed. Very knock kneed. I hope that is not permanent, or a side effect of new skirts. Ha!

This is definitely a scrapbook-worthy picture.

Video Attempt

I tried to upload to You Tube. This is from 2 weeks ago when we brought home a baby chick from preschool to keep over night.

I hope it worked!

Halloween Costumes!

Well, the two Tinkerbells did not really work out. I could not find the shoes in Mary's size, nor could I find a second set of wings. So, there, in the middle of Disney Mania, I said to Mary, "You can pick any costume you want instead of Tinkerbell". Or something like that. Then I immediately followed that up with, "AND LOOK AT MINNIE MOUSE!!!!!". And there you have it. We now have 2 complete Halloween costumes, and Mary LOVES the gloves that come with the Minnie Mouse set. She is only slightly jealous of Emma's wings. I let the girls play in their costumes for a while and Emma has already ripped the wings, so no more frolicking in full garb. But honestly, I am just glad to have that done with. I do love the little shoes for both costumes. I think I will let them use them at Christmas, too. It is a good use of $6 shoes and they are wicked cute.

Boo!

My mom bought this CUTE dress for Mary. It is reversible and has Candy Cane appliques on the other side. Thankfully, I had the perfect model to put in it!

Emma is at school today, so after a trip to work out, Mary and I bumped around Meijer for a while, looking at shampoo and what-not. Amazingly, there are no pumpkin pies at Meijer. I may have to make one myself - UGH.

Antebellum Dress

This dress was worn by Leona Denning (Peaslee) in 1863 in Atlanta. It's been in our family (as well as the name) since.

***Addendum: I photoshop edited the girls into one picture, and not very well, I might add. There is only one dress of great antiquity and heritage in that picture!

Musings

I am still plugging away t the Triathlon workout. There is one in May (yes I KNOW that is far away, but you can't really DO a triathlon in Michigan in the winter) nearby that I am contemplating. I have had another person offer to do one with me (that makes 2). Yikes! Who are all of these people who do these things??? And Jim is right there with me, swimming and running and biking as though it were HIS surprise to the world Triathlon training. That is true love, I tell you. You can keep up with all of my training minutiae by clicking the Tri to be Fit link on the right side of this page under Blogs of Interest.

Today is another day of Emma at preschool. Mary and I have settled down to a comfortable routine together. Mostly, the routine involves Mary happily following me to anything at all while she sings about how she loves Mama. Seriously - that is what happens. So last week we went to the mall and bumped around for a while (spending too much money - at Gymboree in particular) and shared a cookie from Mrs. Fields. Later we read books for a VERY long time and she translated them all for her new stuffed Nemo doll. Today we went tot he mall again, this time to get tinkerbell costumes for both of the girls. Yes, they are both going to be the same thing. It was not my idea, but Ithink it is wonderfully cute. The only problem is that they are out of wings. Mary had her heart set on wings. We have tinkerbell shoes and dresses, but no wings. One would just not believe the sadness that descends on a two year old when she was expecting tinkerbell wings and did not get them. She's napping now, so I am hoping she is over that for the moment.

This past weekend I went to an all day crop with my mother-in-law which was wonderful and productive. You would think that 12 hours straight of scrapbooking would satisfy some corner of crafty neediness, but it does not. Much like an addiction, that only makes me want to do it more. I am having a hard time focusing on things like laundry and meals because I only want to scrapbook. That's all there is to say about that - I am trying to avoid a good portion of the draw to craft right now.

One more thing - I am saddened by a recent event. Two of my regular blogs have closed up shop in the last month. One is a good friend of mine (actually, my Nemesis). He closed up with no explanation except that he was done with blogging. Imagine! I cannot believe that he would leave he blogosphere hanging like that. I really did enjoy reading his witty posts. I am hoping this is a temporary thing or he is planning on sending me long, descriptive emails about his daily life. The other blog is Fluid Pudding, which always makes me laugh out loud. *SADNESS*. Just thought I'd share.

It's All About Me

I know this is cheating, but I was reading away on one of my favorite blogs and she referenced this post, which made me laugh out loud in a way that is unfitting.

Other news that is unnecessary and totally about me:

I am reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Amazingly enjoyable!

I have now completed 4 full weeks of training, 2 of them completely swimming. (This means 5 or more days a week of working out). I am almost enjoying swimming. Almost.

I am cooking Lemon Pepper Pork Roast for dinner. YUM. With homemade applesauce. And Caesar Salad (homemade dressing and croutons, and Parmesan we shredded ourselves).

I am aggressively learning how to use Access Database - this week. Anyone have a pile of data sitting around?

We painted the railings on our patio yesterday since snow is supposed to fly by Friday.

I am looking for Halloween costumes for the girls - a white dog and an orange cat. Krypto and Streaky. Any ideas of where I can get those?

Going to work out again tonight, but I may NOT swim. HUH!

I got up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. YAWN.

I'm doing an all day crop this Saturday with my mother-in-law : now THAT'S bonding!



That's all she wrote, folks. I just couldn't think of anything else today!

The Best Quote from Today

Emma: "I'm quite out of little hugs now, it is awfully late. I can only give you big hugs now."

Friday Night

It's Friday night at 9:00 and the girls are in bed (mostly) and Jim is off at a poker tournament (I'm not kidding, but I'm not going into details). I only want to sit and watch TV in my (mostly) quiet house. What to watch? Traditionally, Friday nights are bust for programming, even though we have hundreds of channels. Tonight, I've got 3 Martha Stewart's TiVo'd. Not the right mood.... Let's see... Battlestar Galactica! No, not quite. OOOOOOoooooooo American Idol- Back to the Beginning! Doesn't THAT sound like fun? Hm.... $40 a Day, Larry King, That 70's Show, every CSI ever invented, Law and Order.... and I settle on Most Haunted. THAT should be a good show to watch all by myself and go to bed until somebody creeps home at ungodly hours. Oh- ***TWO*** EPISODES! HOORAY!!!!!!

Triathlon Blog

For any one who CARES to see all of the hours of cold, wet swimming and not so much of the other two sports, you can try this link. I started training the wek of September 11th, so you can go back on the little calendar and see all of the things I have been doing for 4 weeks. If you don't care about the exact numbers, the jist of it goes like this:

I am so bad at swimming I couldn't even swim far enough non-stop to do the fancy drills the book wanted me to push through. So I stopped following the book - a break, if you will -and just swam. That's all. I'm on week 2 of only swimming, 4 or 5 days a week. Things are going well, especially since I figured out how to zone train using heart rate information. Ugh, it all sounds so technical. It's not, really - I swim. I think next week I will try the training book again, I'm feeling a little soggy.

Mary, Genius Artist Extraordinaire

Yesterday, Mary watched a video. It was a nice little work my brother-in-law put together with images from the Monterey Aquarium set to nice, classical music. Jim was bumping around on the computer and she was watching him, so she asked him 100 times what the little creatures on the screen were, and he answered (100 times): jellyfish. Later that evening, she was doodling on her magnadoodle and drew this:

To do this, she had to take the little kitty shaped magnet and turn it upside down, then draw the lines, AND to make a SET of jellyfish. I was thoroughly impressed. If those don't look like a jellyfish, I don't know what 2 year old drawing would. That's it. I've nothing more to display to prove my daughter's genius status. You'll have to take me at my word.

Triathlon Training

I have had a few people ask me for more information about this Triathlon thing, so I'll give a little of the background and the information up to now. First off, know that I have been working out regularly all summer - that's 2 or more time a week. I have 20 pounds remaining from when I was pregnant with Mary and I am trying my best to get rid of it in a healthy manner. For the record, I should list things that I hate, just as background:

1. Being wet
2. Being cold
3. Being cold and wet
4. Sweating (see #1)
5. Running (this used to bring on panic attacks in High School, bad enough to send me the hospital)
6. Being out of breath

That should cover it.

So, I put aside some of these issues and began doing serious yoga/pilates last fall with a friend once a week. While that felt like I was working, it did nothing for my over all physique. So, this summer I got more involved and starting going to Lifetime Fitness regularly. Still nothing. So I decided to get down and dirty and figured if I could do a Triathlon, I would be in shape and forever get rid of the extra weight. So I bought a book . I read the book. I started week 1 of running, biking and swimming. Well, I tried. I didn't have a bathing suit, so I had to get that. My shoes make my toes go numb when I exercise (they are over 8 years old, and pre-pregnancy sized). I found that I can't swim with contacts if I don't have goggles. Bought those. And my hair kept getting in my face, so I got a swimming cap. Then my hair started feeling funny from the chlorine, so I had to find some good conditioner. And my gym bag rebelled from sudden frequent uses, so, after it split open along the seams, I bought a new bag. And then I started.

I got to week 3, which was the first week of moderate training (versus easy, or adaptation to training) and found my lack of enjoyment of swimming was working against me. I can't swim well enough to do the drills that I was supposed to be doing for the training. So I am taking a week off (this past week) and doing nothing but swimming to try and catch up. I have spent every day at the gym swimming. At this point, I think you should return to the list at the beginning of this post and consider what this means. I found a lot of good information on the web on how to swim better and how to train. I really stumbled across some good information on training in different heart rate zones and tried that. This boosted the number of laps I could do in a half an hour to an amazing amount, for me. I have two days left of swimming and then I will try to do the drills for weeks 3 training. If I can do them, I will continue with the training. If I cannot, I will do another week of swimming first.

As for a Triathlon at the end of this, I suppose I will have to. That means I would have to address the bike issue, as the bike I currently own is a 1978 3 speed. Not normally considered competing material. Of course, I do have until the spring, as there are not too many Triathlons in Michigan in the winter. What I hope to gain from this is a truly fit and healthy body that will quit pissing me off (hopefully 20 pounds lighter). At least, I will be able to keep up with Diane once she recovers from having a baby.

Lunch at Olga's - WITH Olga

My Mom has stayed with me this week, since when she came down she decided to break a rib. Yes, you read correctly. She came down to watch Emma while I took Mary to an orthopedic doctor about her knock-kneed stance. 10 minutes before we got home, Mom was climbing on a chair to reach batteries for a new game she got Emma, when she fell off and landed in the space where my kitchen island once stood. Subsequently, the force she required to move the island when she landed broke her rib. So she stayed. That was my fortune, even if it WAS because she broke a bone. So today, she started to get cabin fever. We went out to lunch at Olga's in Westland Mall and to our surprise, Olga herself was there. Ha! I didn't even know there WAS a real Olga! As a matter of fact, I usually don't eat there - we went because it is a favorite spot of my Mom's. Mary wasn't too impressed, although she liked the fries dipped in ranch sauce. You can see she is looking to make a quick escape with her doggy bag. But it was a fun diversion!

All the Attitude in the World

Mary Leona, age 2. The rest is self explanatory.

Family Time isn't what it's Cracked up to Be

Last night, in an effort to appease Emma, we took the girls to the family swim time at the Lifetime Fitness swimming pool. That will be the last time we do that for a LONG time. Let me just tell you, Internet, we needed 2 parents per child at the pool, or maybe 3 just for Emma. She wanted to run. She wanted to swim. She wanted to jump. JUMP WITHOUT ANYBODY CATCHING HER. Then she wanted more running. And she only wanted to do this in the deep end. As if 3 feet isn't the deep end for her. Then we took the girls back to the locker room, where Emma did not want to stay within the confines of the nice shower area provided for the families with kids. While Jim showered, I tried to dress the (wet) kids and dry their hair a little - while Emma played with the reset button on the plug the whole time. And there was whining and gnashing of teeth by both children when we tried to leave.

All in all, there were some brief moments of valuable family time in the water, like when we all played Ring Around the Rosey together, or when Jim took the girls, one at a time, under the giant mushroom waterfall thing and waved from behind the waterfall. But I am not ready to make any more tender pool remembrances any time soon.

I Sure Swam

Well, I swam. I did! I even tripled the distance that I was able to swim from last Tuesday's premiere effort before I hit the point where I surely believed that I could never get enough oxygen. So next week I should be able to make it all the way across the pool. (HA! I was just kidding there, see!)

Swimming Today

I'm trying to get out the door with the kids and get to Lifetime Fitness. Week 2 of Triathlon training and I am already dragging and losing steam. I have 5 more weeks of this!!!! Of course, it could be because today is swimming day and it is COLD out. I'll be inside, but I hate swimming. I also hate being wet. But, I've got my swimsuit on (underneath my sweater) and I'm trying to get the kids dressed and out the door. Ugh.

Porcupine Meatballs

You must, absolutely MUST read about the Porcupine Meatballs here first, and then here. My thoughts precisely.

The Scheduled, the Unscheduled, and the Inbetween

There has been some minor clamoring, so I am posting - I LOVE my public! Emma has been doing just fine in preschool. It is a wonderful, fabulous place where she plays well with other children and learns about God, all between hayrides and feeding the baby chickens. And it is ALL DAY LONG, so what more could a parent hope for? Sometimes I worry about leaving her for all day, and I hang around the Web Cam to see what she is doing most of the morning, but I pick her up right after Mary gets up from her nap and that is about as good as I can do. My poor little baby Mary (ok, she's 2 already) doesn't get a solid nap when Emma is home, as Emma must be Larry Boy and what is Larry Boy without his trusty Alfred? (In the picture, Alfred is the Asparagus guy, the tomato is trying to be a sidekick "Bobbin" and it is not working very well) So after Mary and I run around with other Mommies and their 2 year old children, going to Tea and Tambolas all over the town, we play some hide and seek before she goes down for a nap. Then I sit at the computer and stare at the sleeping children on the web cam. I am hopelessly lost without Emma all day, but I do so that she learns things I do not have the patience to teach her.

Other news: Mary and Emma have started gymnastics. They went today for the first time. They are in the same class together, along with Yours Truly, who is supposed to guide and support them through the first steps of throwing their bodies about with grace and purpose. That is a huge step up from throwing their bodies around the way they do now, which is randomly and without a thought as to what they may land on. Emma LOVES the balance beam. That is all she wants to do. And she doesn't want the little steps they offer her, but the ENORMOUS one that the professionals bounce about on. So it was a little hard to reign her in while teaching Mary how to jump on a block in a straddle. Mary was FABULOUS. My little dear would do everything the teacher told her as well as she could and beamed with pride when she did something. Trampolines! Bars! Beams! Obstacle course! Butterfly sitting! It didn't matter - Mary was in her element. They both enjoyed the floor trampoline and Emma even managed to jump around doing what they told her to. Mary did a funny little gallop jump and said, "Jumpy! Jumpy! Jumpy!", while beaming. I might take her tomorrow for the open gym play while Emma is at school, being watched by other parents with nothing to do but miss their toddlers.

Monday Mary starts swimming lessons. It sounds like my children are suddenly all booked up with events and schedules coming out of their ears. Indeed, they are not! But Mary experienced her first swimming adventure on Labor Day and the whole of her being wants to swim, "by her own". The child would not stay attached to me for anything and spent 2 full hours trying to propel herself around in the water despite the whole sinking thing. So I signed her up the minute I could. I thought it would be some special Mary/Momma time and swimming lessons were something Emma and I enjoyed when she was younger. I didn't anticipate putting her in the gymnastics, but the only class left for Emma was during a time when Mary had to come. She really lucked out on this one! So now, between an aggressive work out schedule (did I mention the triathalon?), preschool twice a week, swimming lessons (still not sure where Emma will be during those) and gymnastics, we are booked to leave the house at least once every day. This is amazing to me, since in the past year I could go the entire week without using the car. And look where we are now!

First Day of Preschool

Wednesday began a new era: the one where Mary gets to be an only child for a period of time twice a week. This picture is Emma's new pose which she busts out every time you tell her you are going to take a picture. There are some others, with Mary and Mama and Daddy, but none are as wonderfully Emma as this one. She started preschool at Real Life Nursery School and Farm , where she goes Wednesdays and Fridays and can stay the WHOLE day! This is mostly because every day they go to the farm and help take care of the animals. Then they also get to go on hayrides and ridehorses and things like that. This would be hard to do with 2 hours a day. Plus, Mary gets some primo Mama only time, which this week has been Mama/Daddy time - a VERY rare thing indeed.

When I called to check on Emma at lunch time, she was doing fine and still wearing her purple hat (and her Larry Boy watch, and her flower multi color necklace - one MUST have accesories). When I checked the web cam at nap times, she was fast asleep with her pink fuzziness blanket and matching pillow. When we came to pick her up, she cried. SOBBED. And told us how she 'missed-ed' us because she loves us. And how she shared her flower necklace with one girl but not another. And how they learned about God who made the Earth. And how they have blue beds to sleep on. And all of the injustices a toddler suffers in one day, and all of the REALLY EXCITING things she did. All told, I think it was a net positive. Today, anyhow, she was happy to go and did not even look back. And I get all of the baby Mary (who is not really all that baby-ish any more) snuggles and love and kisses that I want. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

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At the zoo

More Toddler Crazy Logic

Yesterday we were all headed out to lifetime Fitness and Emma saw a fire truck (the EMS unit) leaving the station. She was excited that they were going to help somebody.

They might be stuck in a tree, she said.

Indeed, they might, I replied.

Or water, she said.

Or water, I agreed.

Or dirt.

Yes.

Or snow.

Yes.

Or quicksand.

You are right.

Or strawberries.

...

Or chocolate.

Nobody said much of anything after that. Jim chimed in that if that person who was just stuck in strawberries and chocolate ran through some whipped cream and ice cream that they would have fallen into Sundae. I'm still trying to figure out how strawberries got into Emma's head.

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Cart buddies

True Love

I am back home (as of Sunday night) and relaxing into the normal routine. I had a fun time, as I always do when spending time with Diane. We went to a bookstore (I already blogged the picture of the stack of books), the scrapbook store (not because I can't go to one near me, only because she has the largest chain practically right next door to her), a massage, and many meals out. All of those things were wonderful. I flew in Sunday night, to a bedraggled Jim and crew. The girls had not napped all weekend and Jim was flustered that he had not been able to catch a 10 minute shower while I was gone. I felt loved and missed, which is what all mothers want to know.

Right now (3:10 PM), Emma is not napping (I am trying to shorten her naps so she will go to bed before 11 PM). She is trying to explain why she cannot go to the bathroom, and apparently it involves a "long, twisty slide and the pee-pee is scared of coming down". I always wondered how that worked.

With that tidbit of toddler wisdom, I will take my leave.

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Karate girl who just won 3 medals!

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Spending!

Travel Travails

I'm going to Minnesota this weekend to visit the Ruckers. Since there are new restrictions for carry on luggage, I tried to clear up all of the confusion. Here's the exhaustive list of things that cannot be taken with you on board. What is not listed either way is lipstick. Now, Internet, I do not wear lipstick all of the time, but I like to keep a bit on me in case I am feeling rather pale. So, I shall go to Minnesota with ghostly aspect. And no mascara. This one is more problematic, as I don't leave my bedroom without mascara and eyeliner, not to mention the state. I know it sounds silly, but it is a habit and I feel really uncomfortable without it. So I will have to buy a tube of it when I get there, I suppose. Sadly, my martial arts weapons are not able to go with me. But, the really FANTASTIC news is that I can take a cigar cutter and a corkscrew. HOORAY!

!@%!#

Today I am not at the top of my game, but I am getting over the worst of this cold. I took the girls to Meijer's to get some milk and bananas and they were angels. They even wanted to ride in the cart as opposed to walk around and touch things on the shelves. After the blissfully easy trip through the produce, we were in line and Emma kept pestering me for candy. As a rule, I never get candy from the shelves in line, since to do it once means we ALWAYS have to do it. So Emma starts with the normal, "Can I get candy?" and I say, "No". Then she repeats it and I say no again. Then Emma says with resignation, "Oh, Dammit." I stopped putting groceries on the conveyer and looked at her face and asked her what she said. She repeats herself. At this moment, I happen to catch the look on the sweet old grandmother's face behind my cart. It is shocked, yet guarded look. So I calmly say, "Emma, we don't say that word." Emma replied, "Well, I am frustrated, Dammit." I explained to Emma that that wasn't a nice word and made her apologize to the lady behind us for using such an ugly word. I felt the need to say something else to the nice looking lady, so I said,"She is just starting preschool - I can't believe the things she is picking up!". Of course, she does't start until September and has only visited once. But I didn't tell her that. About then I realized that Mary, who is in the habit of tunelessly singing random lyrics at the top of her voice has picked up the cause and is standing in the back of the cart, swaying to the beat of "Dammit, daa-a-a-a-a-aaaammit, damiiiiiiiiiiiit, DAMMMMMMMMMMIT!!!!!". Can I just say how HAPPY it made me that my children picked this public forum to share their first cursing experience? And truly, I DON'T know where they got it from, since my downfall word is completely different. If they started taking the Lord's name in vain I would have known where they got it from and would have been a little humbled. At this point, I can only assume that Emma has figured out how to sneak downstairs and watch Howard Stern long after we are asleep. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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(My homemade sinusitis cure)

I am under the influence of a summer cold this week. Monday I had an enormous headache. Today it has evolved to a sneezing fit with a sore, swollen face. Nothing that is bad enough to render me useless, or even to send me to bed, mind you. Just enough to thoroughly annoy me and keep me near the tissue box. So, after Sudafed and Motrin did not make a dent, I got desperate. I wandered out to my garden and cut some lavender and wrapped it up in this tidy little package with 2 tea bags and a few drops of peppermint. Then I moistened it and microwaved it for 30 seconds and laid it on my painful face. Sweet relief! It cleared my nose and soothed my headache. I have found a wonderful new use for my lavender! The little yellow package also removed my makeup, which you can see in the perfect shape of my eyes right in the middle there. Anyhow, I had no right to makeup with the blotchy face I was sporting, so I guess that all worked out.

For Lydia

My friend over at Keep Your Eye on the Kids is taking a nice month long vacation on the beach just like she did last year. The link in this entry will take you right to the adorable picture of her 2 1/2 year old daughter, who is wearing the exact same bathing suit as my dear 3 1/2 year old in this picture. Click on the link on the side over there to read her most current entries. Now, I am not sure whether you think Emma is sun bathing or nearly dead, but she is, in fact, neither. One day last month her cousin Avis came over to watch her and her sister while hubby and I ran around town like crazy childless people. They were happily playing in the little pool when Avis busted out the camera and Emma began to pose. This was her idea of posing. I have a slew of pictures of her reading or plain ignoring the camera, but this one showed the bathing suit the best. So, there you go, Lydia. I hope your sand castle building days are warm and the people downstairs stop being twits. You should report them.

The Devil Wears Strawberry Shortcake

The children are a little tired and sassy this evening. We have 1 hour before we can rightfully put them to bed. So, we decided to take them to the park, since every MINUTE they were in the house they were doing something to potentially cause bodily harm. We figured the best course of action was to strap them into the stroller (instead of letting Emma ride a bike, zipping ahead of us and crossing streets without looking) and wheel them over. Emma informed me that her shoes did not match the stroller, they only matched her bike. In fact, her shoes do match her bike. They do not really match the stroller. Even with an iron clad argument and a screaming toddler, she was just wheeled away in the stroller. Poor girl, what will her friends think of THAT fashion catastrophe?

On a Lazy Summer Day

Summer afternoon on the market's front porch. We walked up there, or I walked and pushed Mary's ride thingy and Emma pedaled away on her bike (that's why she is wearing knee pads) to kill some time. So the girls picked out some Twizzlers and we sat on the front porch of the market and counted cars. Emma got up to 25 and then things got a little screwy and then suddenly there was a game of tag that erupted. In the middle of all of this, they stopped to lean against the wall and Emma threw her arm around Mary. Mary didn't even squeal which, I must tell you, is highly unusual. I love impromptu sisterliness.

Today's Desires

Ok, so yesterday I said I wanted a candy bar. At 4:00 two young girls came to my door selling candy bars for a fundraiser. I kid you not. So, today, I'm going to get a little more demanding in the hopes that some odd coincidence may again drop my desired item on my doorstep.

Just for the record, I want:

3 million dollars

A teaching job

A maid


That should cover it. I'm going to buy a lottery ticket today, just in case.

I just want.....

A candy bar.

A maid.

A teaching job.

Or an obscene amount of money, which would take care of all of the above in one form or another.

Music In the Park

I took the girls to Plymouth today to enjoy the weekly Music in the Park, along with half of southeast Michigan. The picture you see is hardly 1/3 of the people there. I have to tell you, I had no idea this many people existed within driving distance to downtown Plymouth. And all of them with kids! The girls weren't bad, but we left after the program was half over. They had both climbed into the stroller and were getting that 5 mile stare they got when they are awfully tired. So I ran through Jimmy John's and grabbed a sandwich and loaded them up in the car. By the time we got home they were both asleep. Asleep enough, that is, to consider the 15 minute ride home as their entire nap time. You've guessed it, they recharged. Home at 1:15 and both girls ready to roll by 2:00. So here we are at 3, when they are usually still sleeping, and they are up and fighting. So glad we tried a new thing.

The Long and Not So Short of It

I took the girls to their annual well-child appointments. Everything went well, and if you're up for the stats, here they are:

Emma is 39.5 inches tall and weighs 32 pounds. She will be starting preschool in a MONTH!!!

Mary is 37 inches tall and weighs 30 pounds (OUCH! My aching back!). She is 1 1/2 inches taller than Emma was at this age, and most of the size 2 clothes are looking a bit short on her. Looks like she will be catching up to Emma's wardrobe before the end of the year, which will make a lot of things more difficult. It will also cause a lot of clothes to not get worn twice, or handed down as they are now. My friends will suddenly be receiving a lot more clothes when I pass things on, as Mary will no longer be a stop on that hand-me-down chain. This makes me and my pocketbook quite sad.

So, 16 months, 2 1.2 inches, and 2 pounds different. That amazes me.

Last week we went to buy some shoes for the fall weather. I guess you could say it was our first "School Shopping" that begins the long years of new clothes to start the new school year. I choose 2 pairs of shoes that Emma could pick from - a nice, sensible pair of white shoes or a trendy, Strawberry Shortcake pair of zippy brown and pink shoes. Emma obsessed over a fluffy set of Princess slippers. No amount of refocusing even came close to getting her attention. She tried them on. She walked around in them, proclaiming that they fit her and they were very comfortable. She sang their slipper praises and generally ignored the shoes I was trying to get her to pick from. So, we eventually bought the slippers (one pair for each girl, of course) and then she conceded to pick the Strawberry Shortcake shoes. You may think that I should have just picked the shoes for her, but then you would be uninitiated in the Ways of the Toddler, which would cause a fight EVERY time she needed to put on shoes if they were not ones she liked. As it is now, she has decided to have a VERY strict opinion on the outfits I put on her. One less fight on a daily basis makes my life a lot easier. So, we got new shoes for the fall season AND a nice fluffy pair of Princess Slippers to boot. Now she is set to meet her peers.

Bad House Karma

Ok, this is just wrong. So far while Jim has been gone, and more specifically in the last 4 days, more things have gone wrong with this house than usually occur in 4 months.

Remember the dryer? That was the start.

Then the back porch light burned out.

The front porch light followed shortly thereafter.

The kitchen sink faucet is leaking - this is a recurring issue.

The sink is now leaking under the cabinet, too.

The icemaker got jammed - I fixed that easily enough.

The icemaker remained jammed, even after my fabulous fixing.

The phone in the basement (where I spend a lot of time with the girls) wasn't working.

And then, the regular maintenance things are piling up, just making the whole situation seem slightly insurmountable:

The grass needs to be cut
the gardens have a lot of weeds
the trimming needs to be done before we lose sight of the gardens
the kiddie pool needs to be put away
the toilets (all 4 of them) need to be cleaned
the house (all 4 levels) needs to be vacuumed
the garbage needs to be taken up
the laundry needs to be done (whoops, then there's the dryer issue)
grocery shopping needs to be done
bills need to be paid

And I have a killer headache. So far, things are running about par for the course. I'm going to bed now.

Contrariness and Burning Dryers

A random conversation with a contrary Emma:

Emma: How do my eyebrows stay on?

Me: They are hair that grows through your skin, just like the hair on your head. They do not need anything to stay on.

Emma: NO! NO! They have white things underneath them like glue that no one eats and that is how they stay on.

Me: Oh!

Emma: Is the sun going down now?

Me: Yes (it was 8:30 in the evening and we were driving home).

Emma: NO! NO! It is coming up - it is morning time.

Me: Well, actually it is night time and the sun is going down.

Emma: Why aren't we going to a car wash? We have to go to a car wash! The car is saying, "I need a car wash, hurry up and go to a car wash". Mama! THE CAR IS DIRTY!

Me: It is late and I am not going to a car wash. They may be closed at this hour. Why don't you sit back and take a little rest until we get home?

Emma: NO! NO! It is morning, LIKE I TOLD YOU! I cannot take a little rest when it is morning - the sun will get in my eyes and wake me up.

The random conversation, with every opposition possible, continued until we got home at 9:00. The measure of how tired Emma is relies on a scale of contradiction. The more Emma contradicts things, the more tired she is. If we are in the car and she starts complaining that we should be driving the car in a different direction, she is just on the verge of exploding with discomfort or falling asleep. Tonight was no exception.

I've uploaded additional photos of the Rain Mum incident, so if you'd like to see them click here. Good pictures were hard to get, but they are worth their weight in gold. And I really enjoyed getting some comments on the post, since I seem to have dropped off on the average number of comments lately.

Not too much else to tell. Jim is traveling and I am making due. The dryer, as I mentioned, has stopped working and emits some faint burning smell which should concern me. I'm going to ask a neighbor to have a look at it. The wretched thing is only 4 years old. In our last house we had a refurbished Laundromat washer and dryer (that had the coin system disconnected ) and that thing was still working when we left after having used it 8 years. That was about 5 years longer than the predicted lifespan. Somewhere in my mind I am annoyed and concerned about this one, but mostly I'm wondering how much it might cost to get it fixed and what I am going to do with all of the kid's clothes in the meantime.

That's about all that is newsworthy and otherwise.

Dancing in the Streets

My Mom is staying for a few days while Jim is in South America. We were all getting a little cabin fever, I suppose, when the rains came this afternoon. The girls were having a blast in the alley behind the garage, when my Mom jumped in on the action. Too bad she is going back home tomorrow. As an aside, my dryer stopped working while I was trying to recover their clothes from this little foray. Irony!

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Dinner w/ Mum and Papa

The Birthday Fairy

Happy Birthday to my baby, Mary Leona! I can't believe she has reached this milestone and yet seems to be so much older somehow. This morning, we all snuck into her room and woke her up (gently, since she is easily startled, and scaring the bejeesus out of a kid isn't the nicest way to wake her up on her birthday) and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. We had to sing it in Spanish, since Emma wanted to sing a "new" Birthday song, so Mary was a little confused for a stanza or two. She was also a little loopy since I had given her Benadryl in the middle of the night to help her runny nose and watery, itchy eyes. So for the first time through the song, she sat up and wobbled a bit, staring at us and shaking with the effort to understand why her family had waken her up with some sort of singing ritual and they were all speaking another language. In retrospect, maybe we should have done that a little differently. anyhow, once we sang in English and she realized what was going on, she got really excited. Then we let her open her presents from the family, which was difficult, since Emma wanted to "help" her so badly. And the gift that Emma had picked out for her was one the Emma, of course, wanted to play with. so fighting ensued a little earlier on this momentous occasion then any other day. Jim left for work and then fighting over the new toys escalated and finally crested the climax of Mommy Anger Point when Emma cut her hair. That was about 10 AM. I know it seems like a big jump, and the sequence even makes me think of an angry toddler, standing in defiance with scissors in one hand and a hank of hair in the other, saying, "Give me the toy or I SWEAR I'll cut it!!!". That is not what happened at all, although it is a funny image.

Today, Mary decided that she was a Big Girl. That's great, affirmations all around. Except that Big Girls do not wear diapers, and therefore, neither does Mary. I would normally ignore the pleadings, except that Mary has shown an amazing interest in using the toilet. For over a week now she has consistently had a BM success at a time that she asks to "go to the potty". So, I thought we might be able to roll with this and got out some training pants - the cotton ones with plastic outsides, to keep all the nasty stuff inside. That meant that when Mary announced it was time, there was no recourse but to drop everything and go into the bathroom - sitting and waiting for things to work like they should. Meanwhile, Emma, who was frustrated with the idea that it was a day centered around someone else, disappeared into the depths of the house and became quiet. After Mary had finished up her (successful) trip to the potty, Emma reappeared and I asked her what she was doing while I was helping Mary. Riding the rocking horse, she told me. That was a happy relief. And cutting her hair, she added, because it was driving her crazy. Sure enough, a telltale wisp of liberated hair was hanging below the rest of her hair. I followed the trail of hair snips upstairs to my bedroom, where the "childproof" doorhandle had been expertly beaten into submission with a single, well placed blow from a determined toddler. More hair, this path leading right to the bathroom, where a pile of lovely light brown hair lay in the middle of the carpet.


Then Mary had a couple of friends over for cupcakes and she continued to wear the princess dress up skirt she had opened that morning, because she insisted she was a "Birthday Princess" (who is a big girl and does not wear diapers), and the rest of the morning went off without unusual incident, except for the torturous screaming that occurred when I insisted on a diaper for nap time. But that's a normal thing with two toddlers in the house. And don't forget the Birthday Fairy that showed up this morning:

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HippoMary says hello!

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Stopping to talk to a worm.

Back at it

Emma is upstairs screaming her heart out and Mary is sleeping. I'm not sure how well Mary is sleeping, in light of the circumstances, but both of them need a good, hard sleep and some sort of reset button. It's just after 1 PM. About 5 hours ago I was ready for nap time, as Mary had been up since 6:30. Not just awake, mind you, but SCREAMING. About what? Who knows? She spent most of the morning screaming or squealing or making some form of loud, piercing noises meant to wake up her sister and anger me all in one fell swoop. Once everyone was officially awake and calmed down, Zoe came over and we did some crafts. We painted a forest (we are all learning the letter "F") and made flowers out of cupcake papers to glue on the forest floor:

(Mrs. Bailey, Mary, Zoe, and Emma)
We are going to continue with "F", since it is such "fertile" ground! We are going to look for animals we would find in a forest and stick them on the wall as well. I also want to make GIANT flowers, a la Lydia, as I think it would be fun. Just so you get an idea what Mary is like today, you might really enjoy this picture of her:

It's pretty self explanatory. Emma has stopped screaming now (she was upset about nap time) and I think I can sit down for a quiet lunch. After a morning like this, it's popcorn comfort food time and a cold can of Pepsi. I think I'm making shrimp scampi for dinner, since we had pizza night last night instead of today like we usually do. I haven't started the mountain of laundry yet, but I am satisfied that I've made it this far.

Celebrating independence Day

Happy July 4th! Should I say, instead, "Happy Celebration of Separation"? Huh. When you think of it that way, it's like having a big party every year on the day you moved out to be an adult. So we went to the parade, arriving just as the fire engines turned past the corner we went to. The fire engines are the whole reason we dragged the girls to the parade. Closely behind were the congressmen and their faithful constituents, tossing candy into the crowd. This was a good enough reason for the girls to stay. We watched that parade until the end of the suckers and the snack cups full of Kix that I brought. 25 minutes. Then the kids were done. So was Jim, since he was so hot and sweaty from the heavy, humid, air and the blazing sun beating down on us like nobody's business. He only got 4 hours of sleep last night, but I think he would have been crabby just from the heat. Then we headed to the mall to let the girls run around while we basked in the airconditioning. That was fabulous. Ate lunch at the Coney, came home for naps, took the girls to the park, got pizza for dinner, yadda yadda yadda. Pretty much a non-stress, average day at the homestead. Tomorrow should be characterized by towering laundry and frantic cleaning to catch up to the regular pace of things. And I may have to cook something again. Blah.

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Dinner @ Ikea

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Emma's spa day

Hedgehog Love

After reading Emma her nightly bedtime story from a book called "Love Is...", I asked her what things she loved.

Emma: "I love jellybeans."

Me: "I love jelly beans, too."

Emma: "The purple the green the blue and the orange. Not the red. That's for you."

Me: "Oh! I love the red! What else do you love?"

Emma: "Ummmmmm, I love my big girl room'"

Me (preening): "Really? What else do you love?"

Emma: "I love hedgehogs."

"Hedgehogs? What?"

"Hedgehogs, Mama. I love hedgehogs." This was said with a surrender in her voice, a complete statement that could not be argued with once you REALLY knew what a hedgehog was. Kind of like saying, "It was meant to be!" with that particular lilt to your voice.

"Emma, I don't know what you mean." Maybe I misunderstood. Emma put her little hands delicately on either side of my face and leaned in, to the point where my eyes could hardly refocus to see her face clearly.

"HEDGE. HOGS. That's all. Hedgehogs."

"Oh," I said, convincingly, "I see." Emma was totally unconvinced and told me,

"I'll show you." She jumped off of her bed and rummaged through her books until she found a particular book called The Hat by Jan Brett.

"See, Mama? A hedgehog. I LOVE hedgehogs."

After that amazing revelation by my daughter I tucked her in and kissed her goodnight. Then I had a strong glass of wine. Since when do 3 year olds think about hedgehogs and their admirable qualities? It is nearly too much for my heart to bear.

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Hail storm!

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Jumping for joy

Randomness

I tried to post some pictures earlier from my phone, which got a reply from blogger that they were successful but they have not shown up. I am wondering if they ended up on someone else's blog, or else they are floating around in the general aether. It worries me that Mary may be lost somewhere in cyberspace, but I am not dwelling on it.

IKEA Canton opened this Wednesday. My friend Karla and I stopped by Tuesday night after yoga to see people who would camp out for 3 days for ugly chairs IN CANTON NO LESS! You can see pictures if you scroll down. The picture of the IKEA sign has Karla in front, if a bit blurry. The picture of me with two ladies and a strange green floral couch is actually (from left to right) the fourth person in line, the first person in line, and me, who was not in line at all and may wait until September sometime to wander in and see what all of the fuss was about. I really had no right being there. IKEA gave her the ugly green floral couch for being first in line. I have no comment about that.

Husband has been in Ghana all week. The girls have been awful without him and sob at night, calling "DADDY! DADDY". This trip wasn't very much fun over here. My Mom came and stayed most of the week and even with two of us they were nearly too stressful to handle. I was glad I had some help, because by Tuesday morning at 8 I was sobbing on the phone that I could not understand why my children were so difficult. It was generally a bad week for that. But I did get a lot of things done while my Mom was here, including planting the rest of my annual flowers. I searched all of the bushes, just in case my nemesis was stalking me since I knew he was in town, but I did not find him behind the hydrangeas in any case. He didn't call either, so I am thinking he is a REALLY good stalker. He's probably back home now.

There have been a couple of random child related happenings that are not cohesive in any way but should be recorded here.

The other day, Emma made it to the guest bathroom before I did. I have to lock all of the bathrooms, since Emma likes to irritate me by experimenting with water and whatever else she can find in there. I had neglected to lock his one and she was in and out before I could get to her. When I got in there, everything was perfectly in place, but it smelled. This wasn't a bathroom smell; it was a CLEANSER smell. So I asked Emma what she had done with a cleaner. She replied, "I cleaned the toilet". I looked in the toilet and it had evidence of bubbles from a cleaner in it. Then I looked under the sink and saw the Tilex sitting there. No harm done, but a bad precedence. I said to Emma, "Only Mommy cleans toilets." She immediately corrected me in the very specific way she has and said, "No you don't. Mama, the toilet was dirty and *I* had to clean it." Unfortunately, she was right.

Emma has taken to jumping everywhere. It began with a series of jumps to get across a street or a parking lot, which was painstaking but tolerable. Then it escalated to jumping to get off of things. Mostly harmless, but not a good thing to encourage. Finally it pinnacled to climbing up to greater heights to jump off just for the fun of it. This is bad. Sometimes it was a normal sort of jumping, such as off of a chair or a stool. More recently, we have gone to jumping off of the toilet when done using it. Then Emma decided that the bookcase in the nursery was climbable, therefore required jumping off of. She did this a couple of times and quickly learned that bookcase jumping was something best done when Mommy or Daddy were not in sight. Wednesday she ran upstairs after Mary's nap when Mary woke up. Immediately after that, there was a ceiling-shattering bang from the area where the bookcase lives. I walked upstairs calmly and asked Emma what happened. She denied everything, even direct questions (Note to self: old enough to lie). Mary, however, was happy to rat her out when I asked her what Emma had jumped off of. Note to Emma: welcome to siblinghood.

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Pigtails

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People camping out @ IKEA

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The front of the line for IKEA's opening tomorrow.

Update on Free Cell

I now officially HATE Free Cell. Don't try it if you haven't already.

The Good, the Bad, and the Sticky

The first day of a trip of Hubby's is always the worst day with the kids. I guess that one could say, "Well, that means it can only get better!" But that would be like telling George Washington during the depths of the Valley Forge winter that things could only go up from there. So today, as promised from past trips, was awful. I won't even go into details. Just let it be said that I had to bathe the kids and put them to bed at the earliest possible moment. And I try to avoid baths when I am by myself, since the two of them can create quite a bit of havoc when you add water. Tonight, however, Emma had 4 of the 5 mLs of her cold medicine mucking up her hair and causing it to acquire interesting additions that should not normally be found in hair. I should explain. Emma has had a cold and she is on the tail end of it. Right before nap time I wanted to give her some medicine to help her rest a little and clear up some remaining congestion that was bothering her. She is normally great about taking medicine. Today, while I cradled her in my arms to give it to her (this particular flavor is not her favorite and she has to be coaxed to take it), she spit the first bit back out all over me and then the rest she pushed out of her mouth and it ran down he side of her face into her hair. This stuff would not clean off with a wipe, which is my usual way of attacking sticky things from toddlers. I had to wash my arm and face off with soap to get the stickiness off. So you can imagine what Emma's hair looked like by the end of the day. So, that required baths. Now the girls are clean and snuggly and (theoretically) in bed. THANK GOD.

On another note, I have just discovered Free Cell. I think I am probably the last person with a computer who has not played it. So I have just sat down at the computer with the high ambition of playing 2 hours of free cell before I go to bed. I might make some popcorn to go with that.

And, I would like to say I am sad that no one has commented about my new arbor. Please, gush at will!!!

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My new arbor

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The cottage at Sam's Club. For 1687.00 your kids can have a dream house in plastic!