Tea Party

This is how the Mommy of small girls spends a Friday morning. Emma and Mary got dressed up in their Halloween costumes, as did their friend Zoe, and we went over to Zoe's house and had a tea party. I had made cookies last night and Trica had cleared her dining room for the event. She also found a table cloth to cover the table and put matching pillow cases on the backs of the chairs to make them all matching. Yes, I knew it would be a good thing to do this with Trica. I have a porcelain tea set that was given to us just for such an occasion and the girls happily used that. We put water in the Tea Pot, and since a lot of the water spent a lot of the time on the dresses, the table, and the floor, it was a Good Thing we did not use tea. Anyhow, don't you just love the color of her Dining Room? Just so Derek knows, it is not orange but Terra Cotta. Orange is a bad mistake, terra cotta is a design choice.

Tonight my parents are taking the kids for a couple of days and we are going to paint Emma's "Big Girl Room", add chair rails (Jim's ambition) and put in a closet organizer. If I have time I will do a Dora Princess Mural. There will be pictures, as always. We are also breaking down the guest room bed, which means my basement pictures will start having classy mattresses leaning against the walls. I just can't wait for that. The new furniture is coming Tuesday, but all of the bedding is back ordered until May. One thing at a time, I suppose! Well, enough chit chat, I have Things To Do while the girls are sleeping.

Just Desserts

To answer Mr. Nemesis, yes, I am feeling better. I went to the Doctor on Tuesday and she gave me a wicked antibiotic that is only a 5 day thing. It's like SUPER antibiotic or something. I was fascinated by the insert, which explained the exact microbiology and target of this fine drug. Who knew the 50s ribosome could be so weak??? Anyhow, today I had a LOT of things to do. I spent the last 5 days doing nothing. Well, 2 parties and a Dora cake nothing. Oh, and a trip downtown to see the musical Chicago. But I digress. I mean to say that all daily chores were shoved aside until Further Notice. That was today. I had laundry from last week that was still to be put away, right next to laundry that needed to be done. Piles of it. Don't ask me what was on the kitchen floor. It couldn't be seen for all of the dirt it had picked up after being smashed there sometime earlier this week. It was awful. So I got up and neglected my normal routine that makes me feel human since I would be spending the day catching up. I soaked my hair over the sink and combed it back, letting it dry any which way it felt like. I did put in my contacts and brushed my teeth, but skipped the daily eye makeup. I donned a workout t-shirt, pulled on yesterday's jeans, and white socks - those are almost always coordinated. That is all relevant information.

So, this afternoon, Emma had an appointment with the Ear, Nose, Throat specialist due to an infection in one of her ear tubes. I begged Jim, who was working from home, to come with me so I wouldn't have to wrestle with 2 small children by myself in the office. He did. When we left we were driving by a restaurant we used to go to for romantic dinners - J. Alexanders - and Jim pulled in. Yes, Reader, I went to a nice restaurant with two toddlers and no makeup. I am officially ashamed of myself. I need to add that Emma, who refuses to wear anything but dresses, was in jeans. And Mary, who was adorable in pigtails before nap time, now had rain soaked mop hair. We looked like we belonged on the couch during Saturday morning cartoons. Jim hasn't shaved since last month some time, and his hair is almost as unwieldly as Mary's. It was a GOOD feeling. After we ate, Jim realized he had left his wallet at home. Well, I had left it at home, since it was I who dumped out the contents of his pants to wash them with the rest of the laundry. So I paid. I understand it is ALL THE SAME MONEY, especially since Jim is the only money maker, but it still felt like an insult. If I had looked good, the man would have paid, I tell you. It was like dating all over again.

4:00 this afternoon

Waiting at the ENT doctor's office. I was taking pictures to entertain Emma. The Doctor was running 40 mintues late, we were told.

Surprise Night Out

Jim took us out to dinner! The restuarant is dark (atmosphere), but Emma was being so sweet giving me hugs and kisses endlessly. Gotta love that girl!

Catching Up

Friday was Emma's 3rd birthday. We had a party for the kids at McDonald's and that was fine. Many Moms came, more children came, all had a good time. Except the one little baby who kept spitting up and his Mom. I don't think they were having too good of a time. We let Emma open her presents from us ONE AT A TIME. I don't mean plowing through them individually but all at once. I mean one every time we felt like sharing. HA! It was great! It worked out to roughly one an hour, not counting nap times or McDonald's parties. But she did get to pick which one to open each time. It was fabulously fun and I think we will always run it like that. Jim and I weren't sure what to do - we each had to wait until our fathers got home and we did the cake at the same time. But Jim was home. And the cake wasn't made yet. I baked a Dora shaped cake during nap times and after the kids went to bed I dragged yellow Duncan Hines Dora over to Trica's house and she helped me decorate it. It took us 3 hours. I kid you not, Reader. There was quite the amount of time to get such vibrant colors mixed, not to mention put on the cake in small, orderly, perfect little stars. Yes, it was a task for the truely ambitious. And I will not be adding cake decorating to my list of hobbies any time soon.


Then Saturday we had the family party. I came down with a terrbile sore throat and lethargy and a bit of a fever. But with some phenomenal help I got the house adequately cleaned and shiney for the party. Emma got an art easel, Dora bed sheets (we are painting her room next week), some Disney stock (OOOOOO DISNEY!), and a foam couch that folds out to a little bed. The couch thing she carries to whatever room she is going to be in (including her bedroom) and her and Mary sit on it to do whatever it is toddlers do all day. She spends a lot of time taking it up to her room, where she and Mary have a "pajama party". This also means she cannot get changed out of her pajamas all day long. It is an unseen twist to the new addition. So far she will now only sleep on this couch thing. She is a little too long for it and her feet hang off the end, but she doesn't care. It also has apeculiar chemical smeel about that Fabreeze won't remove and makes my daughter smell like old plastic chairs. I'm hoping that will go away.

You can click here to see the pictures from the parties.

Sunday I was feeling worse, with no appetite continuing and no willingness to communicate with anyone. So I napped and Jim took care of household things like children and some grocery shopping while the kids slept. I tried to take a relaxing and soothing bubble bath but for some reason our hot water was not working and Jim was at Kroger. So I sat in an underfilled tepid bubble bath for 20 minutes and gave up. That evening we joined Trica and her husband and went to see the musical Chicago. I got through it on throat lozenges, but I was glad to go. I love live theater and this was no exception. Then Monday came and I am slightly better, but still had no tolerance for irritating toddler things today. I even went out for a bit with the girls, only to add to my general frustration.

And so goes our Journey.

The Conspiracy of Pink

Well, it seems my inconsistencies have been outed. Now, to explain to Tinybites why I had to list that I Hate Pink yet happened to be wearing a shirt of the EXACT color in a picture I posted, I must go into the whole story of Pink Hatred. If you are not interested in the reasons behind Pink Hatred, you should click on a favorite on the side of your browser now, or type in something on your address bar IMMEDIATELY, because here begins the pinkness.

I can't say when it was, exactly, when I started hating pink. I know in grade school and junior high I was fairly amenable to the color, and even clearly remember buying clothes in the wonderful soft madras of pink and grey in the mid and late 80's. Karol may recall the outfit that she, Amy, and I all owned that was a wonderful rendition of that exact theme. In my freshman yearbook picture (go ahead, Derek, check it out) I am wearing a pink striped sweater. I am also looking a bit loopy and I still attribute that to the filling I had done the same morning and the resulting migraine, but I digress. I believe it was somewhere around sophomore year that I realized my ultimate goal of no longer being a little girl. Please recall that in the decades past, fashions tended to accent the adult that would be coming rather than the child that was being left behind. There was no cute little character t-shirts that girls wore to school. We were 15 and we wore heels to school and looked like the next corporate cutthroat. So I ditched the pink. It became my idea that pink was infantile and cute. I have spent most of my life trying to get rid of the "cute" factor. And so it began. There was the period of accidental avoidance, where I just ignored the clothes in my closet that were pink. Then the more deliberate not-buying things that were pink. Eventually that led to the active dislike and purging of all things pink. By the time I was 16 and off to Spain, it was widely accepted that I Hated Pink. By the time I got married, there were gag gifts all in pink at my shower (go ahead- think of EVERYTHING). Then I got pregnant and found out I was having a girl. That was the antithesis of Pink Hatred and a sign that the Conspiracy of Pink had won. I persevered, I tell you. I painted the nursery robin egg blue and made it a bunny theme, with flowers to make it more feminine. I bought little dresses in blue and yellow. I stockpiled the cutest red outfits you could find. Then, shortly after Emma was born and I was happily Pink Free, people started buying into the Pink Conspiracy. The fact is that every baby is androgynous until we hear a gender specific name or see gender clues, such as PINK. So even in the most flowery red outfits or the prettiest blue dresses people took to be gender clues of the wrong distinction. They referred to my dearest little girl as a BOY. Since I grew up with a non-gender specific name, this was a sore spot. This is where the Pink Conspiracy had begun the moment I was born, laying the foundation for the day when I had to give in to Pink. I went out and bought the PINKEST dresses, headbands, sweaters and pants I could find and dressed my daughter in nothing but Pink. With daughter number 2 I didn't even put the other clothes on. Just Pink. Then that color began to creep into my thinking. Oh, I would say, that pink sweater is quite pretty. Look at that book cover, I really like the pink and green scheme. Suddenly I was realizing my choices of wardrobe pieces were coming down to blue or pink. The green choice is frequently too garish. The purple is well, purple, and doesn't match many things except, um, pink. So when faced with Kohl's table of sweaters I am sometimes forced to take the Pink. Then, to top it off, it is a color that looks great on me. I glow. I hum with a happiness of pink that most people look for with every thing they put on. In truth, Pink suits me. But I still hate it, just on principal.

Monkey Business

I took Emma and Mary to the movie theater for our first adventure with kids and movies. My friend Trica (pronounced Tricia) brought her 2 year old daughter Zoe and we all went to see Curious George. To begin with, the only time we could go was 5 PM. When we set a date for the movie, I was kind of thinking along the lines of 10 in the morning. But that was not to be. So, after naps and in lieu of dinner, I packed up the girls and headed to Emagine theater. When I got there I inquired about pricing for kids. $5.75 per, I was told. I motioned to my kids.

For them?

Yes, for them.

Even for the little one?

Yes.

But she's only 18 months old!

Every person has to have a ticket, she said, eyeing Mary with a bit of distaste. That ran me $18. Then we got to the concession stand. Seeing as it was right at dinner time, I had already figured that there was no way to avoid buying food. I scanned the menu and found a wonderful little kid's combo, for a mere $5. Well you know my girls are just old enough to want their OWN. So I thought, instead of $10 (and nothing for me), I would work it another way. So I bought a medium popcorn (hey, it was my dinner, too) and 2 kid's drinks. That was $9.25. Thank GOODNESS I thought up that money saving idea. So we went and sat down. Everything was fabulous - Emma and Zoe were LAUGHING and LAUGHING with each other. It was so incredibly cute! And Mary was content to hold her pop and munch on popcorn that I put on her napkin in her lap. Trica and I exchanged happy looks over the heads of our 3 angels. Then the movie started. Well, at once Emma did not like the fact that it got dark and she was sure to talk about at the top of her voice. Then Mary did not really care to look at the screen, but really wanted to get out of her seat. I tried to hold her in my lap. I tried to let her pace in front of the other seats. Nothing worked. What she REALLY wanted to do was run up and down the aisle. So after 1 1/2 hours of juggling Mary and trying to shush Emma, the movie was over at last. Zoe was perfect through the whole thing - she even cheered at the climax! My girls would have been better off at McDonald's play place. So, anyhow, when we were talking about the movie later, I asked Emma if she liked the monkey movie. She said, "No, mama. Zoe liked it. I didn't like it." Well at least I won't have to worry about spending just under $30 anytime soon to go take them to a movie.

My day yesterday.

My MIL scrapbooking with me Saturday.

We went to the park even though it was rather cold.

Offspring Oddities

Today Mary has a cold and Emma has a tooth. She went around all day telling me she has a tooth. I tried asking her which tooth hurt, but she kept pointing in vague directions in her mouth and nothing was really conclusive. I finally figured it out at dinner when she explained that her "tooth" was behind and under her tongue. It seems she has a sore throat, I believe. The tooth reference probably has to do with Mary's continual state of teething that I wander around mumbling about. The other funny thing that Emma said was in regards to the computer. She likes to play the kids games on Nick Jr. And Noggin and she calls them Emma games. Jim has the computer set up so that when she clicks on her account, explorer automatically loads and the homepage is Nick Jr. She has learned how to use the mouse to get to the games/videos/etc she wants and can play a fair amount of them by herself. She calls these Emma games, and usually wanders over to the computer with a very serious, resigned statement that she has to play an Emma game. Today, as usual, she told me she had to play an Emma Game and then turned on the computer and added, "Because I'm Emma". That cracked me up for a good couple of hours.

As for Miss Mary, she is talking more than any other baby I know. I actually wrote down all of the words she said over a few days and have come up with about 150. Now she is putting those all together and is saying 2-6 word sentences. Emma had a vocabulary of 3 words when she was this age. Mary can sing the whole Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star song. She can even place blame, an important thing to learn when you are the younger sibling. When I ask her if she is stinky she always replies, "No, EMMA stinky". I think I should be worried.

Getting to Know Me

I was bumping around on the internet and reading one of the occasional blogs I frequent (fluid pudding) and I found that she had made a list. Now, I am all about making lists. I have no less that 5 lists right now that are occupying some space, detailing all sorts of things to be detailed. Her list is 100 Things to Know about Fluid Pudding. I am not going to do 100 things. But I will do some things because I thought her list was fun to read. If you are reading this blog, you may or may not find this list interesting. Also, I think it would be interesting to know if there is anything on this list that Diane does NOT know.

1. I have blue eyes.
2. My refrigerator has pictures of Emma, Mary, my Mom, my Dad, Diane and her children, all of my nieces and nephews except the one in California and the 2 that are to be born any minute, my babysitter, and my friend Trica and her family.
3. My favorite food is Popcorn.
4. My favorite thing to drink is English Breakfast tea.
5. I prefer regular Pepsi but Diet Coke.
6. My first pet I got all on my own was named Alexandra, or Alley Cat. I named her before I saw her and determined I wanted a grey cat before I knew what was available.
7. I always wanted 3 kids (until I had 2).
8. I count the buttons on people's shirts.
9. I practice square roots in my head when I am trying to go to sleep.
10. I like to laugh too loud.
11. My house is red, my car is red and my winter coat is red and I don't care for red at all.
12. I hate pink.
13. My 2nd daughter is named after my father and his heritage.
14. My first daughter is named after a Jane Austen book.
15. Emma was born on 03/03/03.
16. My dog's initials spell CAT.
17. My dog's middle name is Athelstan.
18. I love sapphires most.
19. I speak French in my sleep but not when I'm awake.
20. I understand written Portuguese and French.
21. I am obsessed with the life of Evita Peron.
22. I wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up.
23. I have a life ambition of playing violin in a professional group at least once.
24. I harbor a dream to sing on stage.
25. I have stood on the stage at Carnegie Hall.
26. I once walked from Central Park to the Statue of Liberty - half the length of Manhattan.
27. I learned to barter in the Middle East.
28. I lived in Spain for a year and didn't know any Spanish when I got there.
29. I always wanted to learn ballet.

Well, that should be enough Ann-trivia for today. I am sure there are many more things that I could divulge, but I think you might get bored after 30 items, so I quit while I was ahead.

How does your garden grow?

I did it. I took this picture with my new cell phone and sent it to my blog. Due to this WONDERFUL discovery and Thanks entirely to Lydia, you can expect MANY pictures of beautiful children doing ordinary, everyday things. Just because I can. If I get too excited, I may start up just a mobile blog, called Moblog, and link that. But for now you must endure the pictures. Like this one! Isn't Mary sweet and pensive? What is she doing on the counter, you may ask. Well, it was the only way I could get her to stop hurtling herself at me when I wanted to take a picture. Anyhow, I swear to you that there could not possibly be any cuter 18 month old Mary out there than mine. Surely you must agree.

She's Come Undone

I am undone by Emma. Completely undone. There was a simple task today: I had a handful of paintchip colors and I wondered if she would pick one or two that she liked. I thought it may even help me with how to do her room. So I laid out the 8 colored squares in a random order and asked her if she liked any of those colors. "No, mama. Not like that, that's messy. Like this." Then she arranged them in 2 perfect rows of 4. Ok, fine. So then I asked her again, moving some of them around to make four choices of pairs of colors that would look nice together. "You have to put them like this, mama." And then she brought to my attention the little Dora figure in the top right corner. All of which had to be, well, in the top right corner. We were not able to pick colors with Dora being all turned around upside down and whatnot. Ok, fine. So then I asked her again. Emma picked up the colors one by one and stacked them neatly, with an extra tap on the edge to make sure they are all lined up. "Here, mama. These are your colors." So I laid them out in a circle, trying to see if she liked one over any others. And I asked again. Emma began to pick up some and rearrange the order of the colors, saying to me, "And this one goes there, and this one goes over here...". I gave up. I absolutely broke into giggles and laughed until I cried, right there on the dining room floor. Not that I am depending on her opinion to decorate this room, it is just that she has expressed opinions about clothes and colors in the past and I thought I would see what she would say. Well, it seems she was a little on the obsessive compulsive side today and as not about to pick a favorite color from such unruly squares of paper. Mary, who got to the pile later, really liked to throw them up in the air and let them rain down on her. If I had asked Emma which one was her favorite then, she may have just gone and picked them up - in correct color order - and handed a tidy stack back to me. I am just completely undone by her!

For the Princess in training

I was looking at beds and kid's furniture online for Emma. We want to make a "Big Girl" room for her (and eventually Mary, too). I feel bad that she is sleeping in the guest room, with all of her clothes and toys in the nursery and Mary, in contrast, is sleeping in the fabulously decorated nursery with murals I painted myself. I'm big on equality and I must say that falls incredibley short of the definition. So we are looking at what it will take to make the guest room into a girl's bedroom. I am in love with Pottery Barn's Madeline twin bed, but the price is downright scarey. So I was browsing around and found something that was purely terrifying: a life sized Cinderella coach handmade with a full or queen size bed inside for a mere $47,000. Click here to see the actual bed. It is on a site called Posh Tots. I should have known by that name. Anyhow, it made Pottery Barn look like pocket fluff. I found a nice set at Art Van that I think we are going to go with. Check out the dresser here. We're going to wait to see if they have some good sale on President's day weekend. Well, the children need to be bathed, so I'm up to bat.

It was Colgate

Well, Readers, it seems that a 2 word post really gets some response. As a matter of fact, it is rivaled by very few posts, excepting that one about my sinus infection where my faithful nemesis got roasted to a smoking crisp. Ah, that was fun. Anyhow, I have a couple of things I have to address. First of all, really good to see you, Karol. For those of you who don't know (which is many, I assume at this point), Karol and I (and Amy) were inseparable during 7th and 8th grade. We spent a lot of time writing notes (coded, as you already know) and taunting a very special group of guys which included my nemesis, Derek. It just seems that some things never change. The coded notes held PRECIOUS and VALUABLE information about liking guys and the whatnot. Oddly, the guys seemed DRIVEN to nuttiness by not knowing what was in these notes. So we made a code. I don't even remember what the code was based on, but all that mattered is the guys were flustered. Junior High was such a good practice for life. And those toothpaste names. That was a funny thing. It came up because Karol said when I smiled I looked like a Colgate toothpaste add. I have a big smile, I think. My little Emma has inherited that from me and when she smiles you can see every tooth in her head. Anyhow, since Amy's name automatically shortened to Aim, and I was the Colgate sponsor, that left Karol. I think she was Crest, since it started with the same sound as her name. I must admit that I bought Colgate for years just because of this.

I can only hope that future posts, especially those meant to incense Derek, produce just as much response as my last one did. The children are screaming and fighting over a toothbrush. I must go and intervene.

A Post for Derek

I win.

Recent Doings

Where the heck have I been? For a moment, I forgot I had a blog. My mom always told me that time gets away from you the older you get (I believe this was supposed to start in my 20's). Well she never said it ran in leaps and bounds. What have I been doing? I started a LOOSE homeschooling unit to give Emma and Mary some introduction to the alphabet. Thanks to my genius brainiac friend (I'm referring to Lydia here), we have embarked on a preschool unit based on learning the alphabet through exposure to a South America theme. So we started with Anacondas. I actually started in the fall and then all of us got stuck, so we restarted the middle of January. Lydia mostly supplies the content, but all of the moms (there are 5 of us crazy women, spread out from Virginia to California) contribute to the website. We just finished up C is for Capybara (with a strong focus on caterpillars) and completed the unit with a Continent Cake that I made in the shape of South America. I also got a brand new gym membership to Lifetime Fitness (thanks to my fairy godparents) - that just happened last week but I felt compelled to provide adequate excuses for my extended absence from blogging. And this past weekend I went to an all day crop (scrapbooking, for those who don't know) and completed a satisfying pile of 13 pages. Usually those take 1-2 hours each so it was a good haul.

I have also been spending my spare (?) time engaging in some new playgroups in the subdivision and searching out preschools for Emma, who turns 3 in March. I have to say, I am an education snob. My eye had been on the local Co-op preschool until I went to their open house this past weekend. The teacher that would be running Emma's class room could not remember how to talk to someone who was not 3. She also couldn't give me a straight answer. And, they have no benchmarks for Kindergarten readiness. Now, I don't want Emma to be sitting at a desk for 2 1/2 hours doing letters, but I want to know when she is done with 2 years of this place that she will be allowed into Kindergarten. And "Miss Susan" wasn't really that reassuring. Then Jim and I had the argument of cost. The Co-op is, of course, VERY reasonable. But the other choices have more structure and allow for readiness to pass onto the next level. So this week we are at a stall. I have sent out for information from mores schools, but think I may be just as annoyed and end up choosing what I think is the lesser of two evils.

For now, we are getting ready of tomorrow's lesson for D. We are doing a drum circle and painting some little Ducks. I haven't figured out what kind of snack to have - nothing really beats the Churros we made for C. If you want to check out Lydia's awesome website, click on the underlined, purple website word. I have some pictures up under each of the kids, but I am working on putting them under the letter tabs. You know, when I get a chance....

Little Nothings

I've not been writing much because we are back to potty training with Emma. That pretty much takes up all of my available patience, leaving me a raving lunatic and unable to sit quietly and write. But now Emma has decided to do it all HERSELF, except for a couple of intermediate steps such as putting her panties back on or putting the towel back on the rack. Now, I did not mistype that - Emma must get completely naked when she uses the toilet. I am not sure where she got that from, since I believe she has never seen Seinfeld. So except for the problem of figuring out solid waste going INTO the toilet, she is progressing along with the training. On a lighter side, the game she invented for the afternoon is running around with her hands clasped, presumably because she has captured my "pretty eyes" and I am supposed to chase her down and get them back.

Mary is quickly becoming the next cutest being on the planet. Nothing specific, mind you, just a bunch of consecutively sweet and endearing actions. Today we made tissue paper butterflies and she loved hers so much that she had to put it in the stroller and take it with us on a walk. Yep, I'm telling you, PURE CUTENESS.

Well the children are clamoring for dinner, so I think that, as the only parent currently in the house, that responsibility falls to me.

From the Front Lines

Today has been a horrible day getting back to normal. I've been peed on, gotten poop on me, been vomited on and slip and fell in a puddle of milk. Despite that, I am not going to moan about it beyond that. I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the "New" dining and living rooms now that we have the furniture all put back in place. I am uploading an Ofoto album right now, so you can check out the the link in case anyone wants to see the whole thing. But, until then, here's a few to whet your appetite:

Requested Pictures

Pictures of the dollhouse, which is currently living under a tarp in the living room that is continuing metamorphisis (pictures of that later).

Christmas Time is here!

I bet you are checking this to see how the whole Christmas thing went with the girls. Well, you will not be disappointed! We had a wonderful time at Jim's sister, Karen's, house the Friday before. It was the inaugural family dinner at her new dining room table. This is the table's 4th incarnation and it begins a happy life in her house. My new dining room table arrives this Friday, assuming the room is ready for it. Christmas Eve we went to Papa Saunders and Grandma Linda's house for nibblies and gifts. The girls had such a good time and enjoyed time with their grandparents. We stayed longer than we anticipated and then it took a lot longer to get to Jeff and Lisa's house than we thought. Party start time was at 3 pm and we arrived at 6. Turns out the turkey was on our side. It wasn't done cooking yet. Dinner was ready around 7 and then the true chaos begins. You have to understand that chaos is part of the requirement for my family Christmas gatherings. There is always this awesome, unrestrained period of ripping paper and squeals, with people trying to pass out other gifts and not beingheard above the commotion. It is a grand and wonderful thing. Then we came home (Emma did not sleep all the way home, but thanks to some ingeniously procured bells, caught glimpses of Santa and his entourage) and set you milk and cookies for Santa - with an extra one for Rudolph - and sent the children packin'. Let me tell you that I am on the verge of never buying anything again that says "Some assembly required". We were tired and crabby and the Dora on Dora's Talking Kitchen is large and scary.

The girls loved Christmas morning. Santa did not wrap the large Dora kitchen or the Cinderella table and chairs (slacker), but he did cover up the ENORMOUS hand ma nde dollhouse that dominated the room. The girls didn't even see it because they were so distracted with the other presents. The kitchen was a hit - Emma and Mary both started moving things around and 'cooking' things on it, and pushing buttons and making noise with it. That toy went immediately to the basement, where it can be enjoyed in brief spurts of sanity. The amazing thing about this toy is the ability of the toddler to climb into it and fold herself up like some sort of Houdini wannabe. Honestly, you wouldn't think she would fit - and within 2 minutes time. This picture should explain it.

The girls are still coming down from their week-long high, although I have put away all of the gifts and decorations in their appropriate spots - with labels, of course. Jim is still working on painting wall frames and hopes to get some help from his father on the living room. Just to throw in a wrench, it seems Emma has all but given up nap time. I can't believe it. If I thought I could get nothing done before this, I will be assured of it now. And I am going to try the potty training thing again. We have promise her a big girl bed and her own big girl room if she can do this. Ugh. I really hate potty training.

The Busy Husband

My busy, busy husband has been, well, busy. He began his vacation last week Friday when, consequently, he also began working. Now he will tell you that I am doing this to him, but understand this is his quest. He has decided to put crown moldings, chair rail moldings, sub moldings, and wall frames in the Dining Room and Living Room all by himself. So much for his vacation. He is really making some wicked progress, all things considered. By that I refer to the whole sleeping and eating thing that gets in the way of so many productive moments for all of us. He is about 3/4 of the way done with all of the wood work in the first of the two rooms. To do this he had to, of course, move all of the furniture out of the way. Emma wasn't too happy with all of this commotion. She saw the living room filled with furniture and random wall decor and said, "WOW. This is a Really Big Mess, Daddy. You better clean ALL up. Mama be very, very angry, Daddy. This is a very, very big mess." Leave it to my daughter to point out the obvious. But once the wall frames started going up, Emma was less concerned about the mess. Today after nap time Emma peeked in there and said, "Mama! Daddy's making squares and rectangles for the wall! I LOVE rectangles, Mama!" She even went in and caressed the top of one special wall frame while repeating her undying affection for the shape. I am just glad she hasn't asked him to put up a triangle or a circle. I can't imagine how that would effect the room in the end. Then again, I never considered a crush on a parallelogram.

The Gingerbread House Fiasco

Mum bought a Gingerbread house kit that she hoped would start a long tradition of joyous bonding time spent meticulously decorating miniature houses with rows of identical candies lovingly placed by her granddaughters while she and I looked on. When we finally unwrapped the prebaked cookies and mixed the frosting it was close to Emma's bedtime and Mary had already given up for the night. I carefully separated the different candies into bowls and lined them up on the counter. Emma was so excited! Look at all of the candy!!!!! I ran the bag-o-frosting, otherwise know as the runny goop. The kit had provided about a pound of powdered sugar with which to make the frosting. Not bad, as I had used the same frosting the day before for cookie decorating, so I felt I would know exactly how to mix the "Royal Frosting" to make the best possible Gingerbread House glue. What I did not count on was that the frosting did not want to stay inside of the flimsy pastry bag the kit provided. Instead, it gushed out of the other end no matter hold I held or rolled the end. It also dripped out of the spout. I tried to put it in the refrigerator between uses, but Emma was too fast and it didn't have any time to harden. Hands were covered in white dripping goop. The counter was speckled with blobs of frosting. My sense of neatness and order was severely challenged. Emma placed candies, randomly, after frosting was placed on the cookie walls and roof. Unfortunately, Emma wanted to use the largest candies in the small areas and the smallest candies on the large expanses of the cookie roof. With foresight that only comes from many cooking experiences with a toddler, we chose to assemble the house after Emma decorated the pieces and went off to bed. After she was tucked in Mum and I used the runny goop to fill the channels where the walls would sit and make the base. The runny goop was very good at filling the channels to create some sort of white lagoon. Then came the roof. The runny goop was piled onto the edges of the walls and the first side was put on. It didn't really stay, so Mum held onto the edge. The second side was carefully balanced on top of the remaining portion of the house. It didn't stick either, so i held it in place. That left the problem of not enough hands to put the remaining frosting on. We held on. The frosting leaked out of the joints and down the house in some awful melting mess that did not really work for cementing cookie walls together. I made more frosting out of Jiffy frosting mix, thinking it would be a lot thicker than the runny goop the kit provided. It held the roof for a little over 2 minutes which was long enough for us to take pictures of the "finished" product. Then the roof began it's slow descent down the sides of the house. So we held onto it again. I added more frosting. The roof would not stay. Mum and I decided that a good stint outside would take care of the frosting being too soft. Seeing as it was 21 degrees outside, we thought it would work nicely. Unfortunately, after some help from Jim, we realized someone would have to hold the roof in place until it hardened a little bit. So I stood, in the snow, in the dark, in the cold and held onto the edges of the precariously balanced roof edges. And I waited. Mom stood in the doorway and tried to make conversation about anything that did not involving frosting or candy. I did ask her why she would buy this for a person she liked. She claims that she thought the kit would be easy! The cookies were already made. I informed THAT was the part I liked doing. I also suggested she might be better off buying such a kit for my sister in law. I think Lisa needs some bonding time with her daughter, just like I had.

Random Thoughts and Diatribes

I have a lot of things to talk about today, but I don't know if I will remember them all. First of all, hot tea, by definition, does not include ice cubes. I just wanted to get that out. Emma wants hot tea every day, thanks to her first experience with it on Thanksgiving. I have hot tea every day at breakfast and during the day, so when Grandma Linda asked if anyone wanted hot tea, Emma piped up. Ever since then, she asks for hot tea at least once an hour. But it is too hot to drink, she tells me, so she wants and ice cube. Let's look at the dialogue that just occurred during dinner - one that drove me to distraction because I couldn't figure out half of it.

Emma: "I want hahtee"

Me: "Happy?"

"No, hahtee"

"Hoppy?"

"Noooooooo, mama, HAHTEE"

"Hot Tea?"

"Yes, mama" (I warm up 1/3 of a cup of iced tea for 30 seconds, making it room temperature tea)

"I want peeping pooting"

"What?"

"peeping pooting"

"Um... Howdy Doody?"

"No, peeping pooting"

I go through 4 or 5 things that aren't really English until I realize she wants her tea in her sleeping beauty mug I just bought her. I clean it out and dump the tepid tea into it.

"Mama, it's too hot. I want icf boob"

"What?"

"Icf boob."

"Ice cube?"

"Yes." I'll skip the explanation I gave her about hot tea versus iced tea and the merits of asking for the one you actually wish to drink and gave her and icf boob anyways. Apparently the tea was warmer than I gave it credit for because the icf boob melted after a while, which precipitated her asking for another one. She rewarded me with, "Thanks, mama. I love iced tea."

The other thing I would like to point out is that dragons are supposed to eat unicorns. On an episode of Dragon Tales today the nearsighted flying unicorn who lost her glasses got stuck between two mountains and Ord the dragon flew up an neatly pulled her out, letting her down gently on the ground. If you are not going to show the dragon eating the unicorn, you should at least keep them far enough apart so that it is believable that the dragon is resisting temptation to devour the fresh mythological meat in front of it. On a happy note, the unicorn found her glasses and the little boy Max found his self worth in the process.

I need to go get the kids into pajamas and change around laundry.

Goodbye, dear friends

Well, patient Reader, I took a little hiatus from my musings to take care of some life. Nothing bad, just the normal holiday blitz. My dearest friends on the whole of this Earth left this evening after 5 wonderful days of visiting. The entire family (the couple, their 2 daughters, and Diane's mother) stayed here. You wouldn't believe that I could put a family of 5 up without moving one person from their normal sleeping vessel, but it was done. I really find that amazing. The only down side to them staying here is the extra laundry. And the leaving, which goes without saying. It is not the chore of doing the laundry, only putting it away, which currently seems to be one of my more difficult tasks to complete. The girls all got along fantastically, despite frequent uses of ice packs for some collision or other. The dog even had one nasty accident involving Derek and Sabrina that I won't begin to describe. Just know that I am calling the groomers first thing tomorrow morning. A pleasant side effect of company is the multitude of leftovers that you can use for the remaining days they last. Thanksgiving paraphanalia, random Chinese dishes, some LaShish middle eastern food and quite a few oranges. Please don't ask about the oranges, it is a sore subject. So tomorrow it is back to the normal routine, and based on this morning when they left briefly and my children turned into Demon Spawn, it looks like a long week ahead of me. Oh, and Jim might go to Phoenix on Wednesday. Just glad I had a nice weekend.

Lunch

I went grocery shopping this morning. I avoided Meijer's, where I will browse every aisle from tires to toys and find more things to buy. So instead I went to Farmer Jack's where I last picked up a huge check for the landscaping we are doing. They have a full service bank right inside, next to the Organic Papaya juice. Odd. But I had to go see if they ever sent the checks out to go with the Home Equity stuff, and they did not. I got to talk to the Superman Impersonator again. I suspect the reason he wears the shield of Kahlal (is that the right spelling?) on his watch is actually because he has been alerted to his amazing likeness to Clark Kent. Anyhow, I went there because they have little car attachments on the front of their carts that include BUCKLES so that two children(namely, mine) cannot randomly get out and run down the aisle. So I strapped the girls in, tight in the small cab. So while Mary tried to push Emma out of the little car and Emma pulled Mary's hair to make her stop (or maybe to other way around, I wasn't paying that much attention), I bought groceries. I know I was hungry because of some of the things that I don't normally buy ended up in my cart, such as Pumpkin Pie, Whipped Cream, Doritos, Cookie Dough (that is for Emma, I swear), and a Caesar Salad kit. The salad kit was the only lettuce on sale and it was actually cheaper than buying a bag of plain lettuce. It was also at the beginning of the shopping trip, when I was not yet hungry, or so I thought. So that leads me to my fabulous lunch:

Doritos
Coca Cola
cookie Dough

I know I said it was for Emma, but that is only AFTER it is cooked. The kids had fish. I'm pretty much a stickler for someone in the house having nutritious food. Once that requirement is satisfied, bring on the Pumpkin Pie.

Mundanity

Hello to everyone who is reading this - faithful Lochmoor Mom, occasional parents and inlaws, Nemesis, Inc., dear friends in Minnesota, traveling husband, close friends and random viewers. See, I checked the counter site stats and it just confused the bottoms off of me. It was a good thing the girls were in bed. It can show me if the people who come are a "direct hit" or if they were recommended from a site. I believe the second one to mean they clicked on some link instead of choosing it from their favorites or typing it in the address bar. So I click on one of the sites, and it was some religious thing. I did not find any reference to my blog in it and cannot figure out how the two can be connected. Anyone out there know this? I was just wondering.

Well, not much to report tonight. A short night's sleep (but a good one) last night on my new 400 count sheets. Emma was up jumping off of her bed and doing various non-sleep inducing things until past 12:30 last night and she was up well before the sun. She and Mary were miserable messes today. I put Mary to bed in the guest room in her playpen and Emma in her room by herself and they are both sound asleep - it is 9:30 and I practiced piano for 1 1/2 hours and they went to sleep. Last night I stayed up WAY too late playing Alchemy, an addictive Yahoo! game. I would have played my usual Jewel Box (I think that is it) but my husband took away my regular computer and replaced it with a new one which does not carry the memories of my current saved game or previous high scores. Heck, it doesn't even have the game on it and I don't feel like paying another $20 to download it. That was another shortsightedness he had when he bought a new computer 4 days before going out of town. But, hey, it sure types fast!

Enough babble - I am off to waste another evening in front of the glowy box playing useless games. I'm just too tired to do anything else. Ciao.

Wakey Wakey Wakey

My children are awake. One is moaning and the other is calling me, "Maaaaaaaa-maaaaaa.... Maaaaaa-maaaaaaaa". This might not seem like a big infraction on your sensibilities, dear Reader, but the truth is I should have another hour of relaxation yet. I cannot imagine why the are both awake (I have them in separate rooms right now). They were up half of the night and awake again before the sun. Now, they have missed a third of naptime and I cannot comprehend WHY they want to be awake. DO they ever go to sleep? EVER? It might be the hum of machinery outside the windows - English Gardens have begun tearing up grass and digging holes where gardens will be as soon as next week. It might be the EXTRA BRIGHT SUN that keeps playing hide and seek with the clouds. It might be my hysteria is causing them to be edgy. It could also be sunspots, as far as I know. Whatever it is I wish it would go away and they would sleep. Now or tonight, preferably both, but SLEEP.

You might wonder what I am planning on doing while they are sleeping. Well, check yesterday's list and you might have an idea. I also need to practice my piano, so add that right on there. And did I mention that I have not eaten lunch yet? I have been sorting clothes and spot cleaning the kitchen floor (which, incredibly, was mopped only 2 days ago). And then my wild imagination thought a brief nap would do me some good. Well, so much for any of that. And I have not yet watched my daily Martha show - tomorrow the kid who plays Harry Potter is on and I'd like to see that. Today, however, is anyone's guess, since I have not seen it.

Well, Reader, my people call.

And Away He Goes, or, Three Sheets to the Wind

So Jim took off again today (literally), on his way to California to see his newest nephew for a brief visit and then he is off to Saudi again. He expects (but cannot guarantee) to be home before Thanksgiving. So, needless to say, I am unhappy. But, always trying to look on the bright side, I can do a lot of things between the time the girls go to bed and I go to bed.... So the real issue is, what should I do first? Here is a list of the things that I considered (after showering, which is ALWAYS the first thing when I get time without the girls):

1. Make cookies or a cake: I don't have to share!
2. Scrapbook: I've been doing that a lot lately, but I always enjoy it
3. Read: just started a new book!!!
4. Clean Master Bathroom: um...
5. Spend time on 3rd floor organizing all of our financial files: well, I am hoping to get that done while Jim is gone
6. Spend time on 3rd floor reshelving books that the girls have pulled down, dust, and put away all things out of place to make it acceptable for company staying there Thanksgiving Weekend: any organizing is FANTASTIC, in my book!
7. Blog: duh
8. Purge bedroom and sitting room of all PILES: see note about organizing, above
9. Work on making Christmas cards
10. Work on making Christmas gifts - more scrapbooking
11. Watch Martha: Behind Bars - this will feed my recent Martha Fascination and Admiration Campaign
12. Watch original The Red Shoes 1948 movie (a favorite story of mine)
13. Surf the net for interesting things

That is pretty much all I thought of for immediate choices. Until now, which is neigh on 10:00, Emma has hampered any time I might have used by being a holy terror and I have to keep going up to their bedroom to see why somebody or other is CRYING or JUMPING OFF OF THINGS or SCREAMING because she has split her head open on something she shouldn't have been near in the first place. Since I took out the changing table, at least she cannot get into Mary's crib. That doesn't keep her from throwing every item in the room into it, but it does help some. So it is 10 now and I have only managed a shower and a cup of tea (for those of you keeping track, that makes a Tea Index of 5 today: that is bad. Very bad.). I will probably either lay in bed and read or sit down here on the computer until is is much later than it should be.

On a side note, I had to go buy new sheets yesterday. Yes, Reader, HAD to. I only keep one good pair of sheets at a time. I hate linen closet clutter, so I just use one set of sheets, wash them and put them back on immediately. This helps keep the linen closet nice and usable. The labeled shelves are another nice thing about my linen closet. So our sheets - our single set of sheets that match our comforter - have been looking a little thread bare. We have had them for a few years now (5? 6?) and they could probably use replacing. I figured it could wait until after Christmas when we didn't have so many financial obligations. Yesterday I was taking them off of the bed to wash them and they ripped, right down the middle. More accurately, the fitted sheet ripped. Huh. No problem - I have an older set of sheets that I usually use for the sofa bed that should work. So I pulled those out (from the shelf appropriately labeled Sheets - Queen, which comes after the alphabetically ordered Sheets - Full) to launder them, when I discovered that they, too, were ripped. This is because the darned sofa bed has those metal parts that catch on the sheets and tear them towards the bottom. This is not an issue when they are on the sofa bed, but certainly would not work for every day wear and every week (or so) washing. So I marched off to Target to investigate the choices. MY GOD sheets are expensive. I suddenly remembered the other reason why I only keep 1 set. And when I told Jim I had found some that would work, he asked what thread count they were. WHAT? I didn't even check that myself. Now, Reader, I have a good friend who will be reading this who will argue for the REALLY high thread counts, based on a bad experience with sheets that chaffed. But I enjoy a *crisp* sheet and do not care for sheets that melt to your form. So 200 or 220 has been fine for me. Well, Jim informed me that he read an article that said a higher thread count would help one sleep better in some stress reducing topic. I really thought he was kidding. I mean, people slept on straw and feathers and even the ground for thousands of years and they achieved some great things, despite a lack of fine thread count sheets. But I am not one to argue just for the sake of arguing, so I bought 400 count sheets. A nice medium between my normal 200 and the skin melding 600 count. I have to say, Reader, those were some mighty nice sheets. And I slept. I slept well. Very well, as a matter of fact. I don't know why I didn't try this earlier. Now I can add Sheet Snob to my list of Attributes of the Spoiled Housewife.

Carbon Days

It's a rare occasion that I actual post something but I had an experience with our dearest Emma yesterday that I never really anticipated. We all have these... You say to yourself, "That will never happen to MY children. I'll (fill in the blank with your wisdom)." To be honest, I thought the same thing before this and so here goes...

I bought a new computer. Yes, I work in IT and my technology was four years minimum out of date. I have been wanting a new computer and we always seem to have some big ticket item we buy at the end of each year so this year it was a computer. I was attempting to avoid complexity in attaching our multifunction printer to it by finishing terminating and connecting the ethernet cable we have on the third floor to the basement where the printer is located. This, versus bringing the printer up to the main floor to load the drivers (a requirement despite wireless access to the printer - apparantly wireless only works after you have installed all the drivers with the printer directly attached). I know this doesn't sound easier but I was thinking of all of the benefits of having that permanent cable in place and functioning...

Anyway, My Darling Wife was preparing for a Stamping event in the basement and Eldest Daughter (ED) said she was going to go see Daddy. So, at 12:15PM my wife calls me down to ask where I am and why I'm not with ED? I honestly didn't even know that ED was supposed to be with me. ED, on the other hand, became side tracked once out of view from Mommy and Daddy and had decided that she was sick. She found and drank 1/2 a bottle of children's Tylenol without either of us knowing. In the process she dribbled some on the medicine on her Mommy's book and got paper towel; moistened with water and cleaned up the mess.

Mommy found her cleaning up the mess... We called the Doctor and I was off to the local ER with my little girl! I arrived at the ER after getting behind every slow driver on the west side. The receptionist eyed me wearily; handed me admission forms and without utter more than a few words directed me to another area to fill out the forms. What do you write when you can't contemplate the fact that your daughter might be in mortal danger? I put down, "ED drank 1/2 bottle of Children's Tylenol" filled in the other personal bio data and returned to the counter. The receptionist took the form, read the problem; sighed in exasperation and called a nurse immediately. I have to admit that this was the first time I was ever admitted immediately to the ER and I have spent way more time there than I think desirable...

The doctor - an kind, older man in his grandfather days - examined ED and determined that, based on her body weight, she had consumed a potentially threshold dose (the point at which it becomes toxic and can cause damage to the liver or worse). He ordered a charcoal drink for ED and he and the nurses warned me it was nasty. They had ED change into scrubs and had me put some on. They had me give it to ED and told me they had mixed it with juice to help reduce the nastiness. ED drank it all! She flashed several big, disturbing carbon smiles and dribbled a little of it on her but she drank it!

I was given a tub in case it came back up and told to stay vigilant (picture it, a charcoal suspension on your carpets, in your car... It's not a pretty thought) . They told me she would need blood drawn in 2 hours to determine effectiveness of the treatment. They allowed me to take her home so she could nap. Two hours later and we were back for blood work. Then sent home for two more hours while they awaited results (and in case more intervention was necessary). Finally, at 7PM we got news back that her blood levels were normal.

I hope that was our last adventure of this type and none of you Readers need to go through this.

The Allure of Awake

Darling Emma has not been sleeping much lately. We have moved to a toddler bed and the idea that she can get out whenever she opens her eyes is just too much for a little kid to handle. So she is UP. She is up until late, late hours of the night (sometimes 1 or 2 AM). She is up when she is supposed to lay down and nap. She is up from her nap before it is halfway over. She is up by 6:30 in the morning. She is, as we called her when she was an infant, WAKEY BABY. So this morning, she toddled into our bedroom at 6:20 and announced, "It's morning.". She says it with a tone that sounds like an answer or explanation. Almost as if I have already said, "Emma, go back to bed," and she has the defense attorney's answer ready to go: "It's Morning". This is the usual procedure, although some days it happens a couple of minutes later. Jim was up, getting ready for work. So he takes her over to the window and says, "Do you see the sun, honey? It's just getting up! Do you see it coming?" "YES!" I should point out here that the main argument until now has been that too early exists when the sun isn't up yet. *AHEM*.

So he takes both girls downstairs (because Emma cannot leave her own bedroom without making sure Mary knows it is time to get UP), and I grudgingly follow, still in my glasses and pajamas. On a good day, I get dressed and make the bed, then go to the girl's bedroom and get them changed and dressed before we go downstairs. Today we will be lucky to be presentable before 9:30, which is odd since we were up before 7. So I come down slightly behind everyone, and my wonderful husband has got the milk for the kids and turned on the TV. I look and notice that Noddy, Emma's current favorite program, is on. I say to Jim, "Noddy's on right now? That was fortuitous." No, it turns out he put on a recording to avoid Barney and Bob the Builder. I told him that my rule is it is too early for Noddy or Dora before 8 AM, because otherwise she is EXCITED about coming downstairs and seeing the TV, making the early morning even more thrilling. It was about then that Jim realized he had made being awake early fun and exciting for Emma. And he wonders why I wake up in a bad mood.

The Princesses and the Pee

You read that right, Internet, another post about bodily functions. That may be
the only mention of it, though, and it is specifically aimed to please one of my
constants, Mr. Nemesis. According to many comments he's left before, the posts
with such content make him turn his head. Now that's an image.

As for the princesses, the girls were Cinderella and Belle for Halloween. What a lovely time we all had! On Saturday our subdivision held the annual Spooky Saturday celebrations, with games, costumes, cider and doughnuts, free hot dogs and pizza, Pumpkin Hunts and Haunted Forest walks. What a fun time! Emma and Mary were a little young to fully enjoy the full extent of it, but Mum and Papa came down to see them in their costumes (also an annual thing, which I truly enjoy) and the girls certainly enjoyed that. The particularly funny thing about that was the Princess-Mobile. That was Cinderella and Belle being pulled around in the little green wagon, much to their enjoyment.

Monday night was Mary's first real experience with the holiday. She got the hang of the candy thing real fast - just like any little kid. What she enjoyed most was picking through the candy while she was chauffeured around, throwing some of it out (apparently the non-acceptable pieces) and chewing on the others, wrappers and all. She was also very interested in people putting things in her bucket. Many times she sat right down on the spot to examine the new booty. It was really a great time. Emma was particularly cute. After we walked away from a house, she would mutter, "say 'trick or treat', get candy." three or four times. It was as if she had discovered some great truth and she was amazed at the power it held. Then she would ask me, "Momma, we go other trick or treat house, get more candy?". It was too precious! After about three houses, she also picked up on our farewell and she began repeating it with her wonderful 2 1/2 year old version: "Hat-ty Hawo-weeeeeen!" By the GODS it was the sweetest thing I ever heard! She also spent a good portion of the evening, when we got back home and let her swim in the candy for a while, saying "Thank You Momma, Thank You Dadda". I could seriously BURST from that much love.

Long Time Gone

Well, Readers, I am rather cowed by the fact that no one has bothered me to continue writing. Sad, I know. It is not like I wait until my public is banging at my door, but it is nice to feel wanted once in a while. But enough whining. I have been terribly busy getting garden plans designed for our yards. We are having English Gardens do our landscaping and we took a ton of time to get the home equity loan and the finalized plans submitted to our subdivision committee for approval (remember, we live in a 'neoclassic' village - we run by rules and regulations similar to historic districts when it comes to decorating and landscaping). Today we got the approval for the designs, so that required some more "foot work" today, getting the ball rolling with the surveyor and the actual labor. They are supposed to begin the 8th of November and hopefully finish by Thanksgiving. It will be beautiful!

As for the kids - we have been having quite the time with Emma Angel Grace McSaint. First, she decided that she really likes to be naked. We thought that was funny if not odd. So, every night after she'd fallen asleep, we would come in to find her in the buff at least from the waist down and we would put her diaper and pajamas back on her. Then, it escalated. She started to pee in her crib - sometimes more than once. I caught her doing just that during one nap and that didn't even phase her. Inevitably, she messed herself during one particularly bothersome naptime. After about two weeks and many failed attempts at making it too difficult to remove her diaper, we discover safety pins. But that just made her other behaviors more intense. So Jim decided to remove the side of her crib and make it into a toddler bed. Now, this might sound like the wrong direction to go, but we are dealing with a toddler, after all. She stopped immediately. In fact, she was never in her bed long enough to realize that she was dressed. Yep, we started the struggle of KEEPING in her bed. We are going on one week with that and we think we have made some progress. Now if she would just stop falling out of bed 3 times a night, we might have something we could call a success. Oh, and please don't ask me why she isn't potty trained yet. We did that. She was there - bought the t-shirt and everything. When she got a bladder infection, we sent back to square one. She won't even go into the bathroom without becoming terrified of the imagined pains she will experience if she sits on the toilet. And so it goes.

Our sweet Little Mary Precious Leona O'Lovey likes to pick on her big sister and start fights, so that she can crrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy and run to Momma or Dada to get sympathy. She loves to push her little dolly stroller around everywhere she goes. She says, very precisely, "Yeh-ssss", as though the word had 2 syllables instead of one. It is her favorite word by far. She LOVES Dora and will respond when the show asks the viewers to participate and call for Map or Backpack. We are still trying to get her down to one nap a day so that the weary Momma can get a couple of hours a day when personal hygiene can be attended to in a solitary manner. Or so that I can watch saved episodes of Martha Stewart television shows - I particularly like The Apprentice.

Well that's about the sum of the parts. It is way past my bed time. Tomorrow we have "Spooky Saturday", which is the subdivision Halloween party. The girls will get all dressed up in their costumes and get to go enjoy some fun Halloween type activities. There will be pictures!

Sick and Sundry

Well, for once it isn't me that is sick. Our poor little Mary is suffering from a pernicious cold that causes her brain to continually leak out of her nose. For a while it was so bad that it was also leaking out of her eyes and was a weird, greenish yellow color. But we got some drops to stop that problem and are left with the oozing nose. She is sniffly and snotty and rather miserable and this is going on a week now. Jim also got the cold, as did I, but I managed to recovered rather quickly while Jim is still dripping about. He complains a lot and I just give him 'That Look', which means to communicate "I went through 4 weeks of Sinus infection HELL while you were gone so don't tell me how worn out you are without any extra rest". It must get the message across very clearly, since he isn't complaining quite as much as in the beginning of the week. So I have been trying, for the entire week, to keep Mary's cold contained. Everything she touches or sneezes on gets thrown immediately into a sink of soapy water and is scrubbed down before being returned to the general play area. I must be doing pretty well, since Emma does not seem to have any of the cold symptoms yet. Yesterday, however, I pulled dinner out of the oven and looked up to see Emma and Mary taking turns drinking from Emma's sippy cup.
Oh, hell and bother.

Eggo Waffle Massacre

Have you seen the commercial for Eggos? It is a man dressed as a waffle, with red arms and legs, strolling along, minding his own waffle business when he is startled by a scraping noise. He 'looks' around, sees nothing, keeps walking. Again with the noise. Suddenly, out of NOWHERE comes a PLATE, which scoops under his feet and causes him to fall on his back, flat on the plate. Then a huge, waffle-man size pat of butter falls out of the sky to land expertly on the poor waffle. Then comes the waterfall of Syrup, and a couple of strawberries that knock him unconscious. Then the poor, beaten eggo waffle is served up to a particularly ravenous teenaged boy. Now, imagine the same commercial with Emma watching intently:

Waffle appears.

Emma: Momma, what's that?

Me: Um, a waffle. (Scraping noise)

Emma (now a little upset): Momma, what that noise?!

(more scraping)

E: Momma! THAT noise????

(waffle falls and get walloped with butter)

E: OH NO!!!

(Waterfall of maple syrup)

E: MOMMA!!!! MESS RIGHT THERE! NO RIGHT THERE!!! (pointing frantically)

(Strawberries, a la anvil skit)

E: Oh no! Momma, BOO BOO!!!

At this point I have collapsed in laughter and cannot comfort my distressed daughter for the LIFE of me. Until now, I have never took the side of the waffle and frankly, it nearly made me pee my pants I laughed so hard. Emma was traumatized and this is why I don't usually let her watch commercials.

Pictures for the Clamoring Masses

Iron Girl Race
Diane, Emma and Fiona riding an Elephant!


Emma and the Llama
Emma, Fiona, Ann and Sabrina on the camel
Fiona and Emma w/sheep - my foot is in the picture!

I'm just doing some pictures here - I will write more later.

Vacation in the Midwest

Emma and I are in Minnesota as I write this. We came out to see my bestest friends in the whole wide world aside from Lochmoor Mom. We are having a blast here! Emma has never laughed so hard in her life that I know of. We have spent some time at the Mall of America - not shopping, mind you. There is an area there called Camp Snoopy which is like a small amusement park - roller coasters and all - right inside the mall. Well, Emma braved the scariest toddler rides and came out beaming. Except for the flume ride. That one didn't go quite as well. After the first hill she slammed her hands over her eyes and kept repeating, "Momma, go home now?" She didn't get upset, she just wanted to go home - NOW. We got to the top of the second hill - the biggest- and I told her we had one more hill to go - was she ready? She squeaked out the saddest, smallest "yes" and we plunged. I normally like these rides, except that holding on to a small child gives the ride a whole new dimension, since that means you are not holding onto anything fixed while plummeting down a 45 degree angle. But we all survived and I will post some pictures to prove it. We have eaten at a restaurant called Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company, which is odd since I don't really like seafood much. They have wonderful food and a great atmosphere - even Emma liked the food, but she loves fish. We went back 2 nights in a row and I liked it so much I bought a cookbook from there. It is hard to believe the things they can make money off of from movies these days - but there I was in line with a Bubba Gump Cookbook, baseball cap, and a plush refrigerator shrimp magnet. I would have bought more, to be honest, but there won't be enough room in the suitcase if I do that.

Today we went to the renaissance Festival, which was a little odd and nostalgic. Diane and I went EVERY year together and had many adventures there all the way through High School and then some. So it was odd to be going together and taking OUR CHILDREN. The girls all had a good time - Emma rode an elephant, a camel, a llama and a pony - in that order. Sabrina tried to throw soft tomatoes at a loudmouth bloke in a stile, and Fiona enjoyed feeding some sheep for a bit. We were all baked to a crisp and grouchy when we left, but very happy underneath the dust and sunburns. I bought Emma a princess hat which she immediately decided she didn't like, so I wore it. No use letting it waste away in a bag.

Well, I'll fill in any details later when I get home tomorrow. I hear Jim is pawning Mary off on his mother more than I would ever dare, so I will have to see how that works out when I get home and hear the whole story.

Trivial and Brief

Well, Husband is home, safe and sound at last. It was a nice day, where he should have been able to nap. Unfortunately for him, I fell asleep on the floor for 2 hours and he didn't have the heart to wake me which meant he didn't get any nap. The floor, by the way, is only a choice because I was trying to keep Emma in her crib at nap time, so I say outside of her door and read a book, which kept her from climbing out of her crib. I eventually fell asleep (before Emma did, I think) right there in the hallway with a book for my pillow. Man I was tired. Husband did go to sleep early, but not early enough. I hope tomorrow will be easier for him in the morning, as I am going out EARLY to meet some people at a faboo sale. The last thing I should be doing is spending more money, since I have been a little lax with the budget these few weeks past, however this is an annual sale and I am saving money by shopping during it. Really, I SWEAR it is to save money. I won't go on - those of you who know the rules of sales understand, and those of you who don't cannot be convinced. That is all I really have to immediately tell. I am sure there will be a lot more tomorrow,when all of us are back to a somewhat normal schedule. I may even get to see Diane, if not Derek tomorrow, as they are in town briefly for a wedding. I am eager to see them, as always! So goodnight, Reader -until better news arrives to post about.

The Cuteness Never Ends

Everyone here is asleep - as I should be but am not. Hubby will be home Friday morning and I could not wait another moment if I had too, I think. I am restless in this house of mine, where I see clutter everywhere and an overwhelming need for organization. When Hubby does get home and I have a chance to show him everything that we need to do, he may just leave again out of fear of the Work to Be Done.

Aside from that, Mary Leona is quickly becoming the cutest, most enchanting little toddler EVER seen by human eyes. She is surpassing Emma mostly because Emma Grace is now 2 1/2 and is trying every method possible to get me riled up and to want to skin her alive. So Mary, who has quite a temper and is very impatient about things, does do the SWEETEST little baby things right now. We had a picnic today in the yard and she thought the little plastic plate with a quartered cheese sandwich was a seat cushion. Every time I moved the plate, Mary leaned forward onto her hands, with her bum cantilevered out, and swung around to firmly place her back end right on the flat, unsuspecting sandwich. HONESTLY. The funny thing was, she would then look at me and smile, as if to say, "I did it!!!". She did not tire of this the entire time there was a sandwich on which to sit. She was dancing a little later in the day, as was Emma, and she decided that she wanted to twirl - just like Emma. Well, little Mary did her baby best and walked in a tight circle, which she thought was the same thing, and then collapsed with excitement and joy with her new accomplishment. That was the cutest thing ever. When I went out to pick up some Chinese food for dinner, I took her along with me (Emma stayed back with Mum, since she was not quite up from a nap yet - Emma, that is). I let her walk from the car to the door instead of carrying her, because she had grabbed a little purse and was carrying it on her arm with an air of authority. This was so incredibly cute that EVERY person that saw her stopped, stepped aside to let the lady pass, and smiled from ear to ear. Mary even greeted them with a little squawk, which was her version of, 'Thank you, my people, you are too kind'. It was too cute to be imagined. I am sad to think she will be in the middle of her terrible two's this time next year.

Emma Grace has had her sweet moments, too - hers just come with a price. I always sing to her - poor thing. And I have always sung Brahms Lullaby to get her to be sleepy. Lately, she has asked me for "Rock bye baby", which is the other lullaby EVERY person knows. She loves to pretend she is a little baby while I sing this and close her eyes ever so gently as she hugs her blankie. So yesterday, when I HATED her because she would not take a nap, I tried laying down on the guest room bed with her until she fell asleep. She watched me intently for a minute, and I watched her back. She told me "Close EYES", and so I did. Then she sang to me.

"rock bye baby, trEEEE-top"

My eyes popped open and I could not help but laugh with tears at my first baby, singing a lullaby to me. This made her smile and tell me to close my eyes again. Then she sang to me again. Well, she never did nap yesterday until she fell asleep at the dinner table around 5:30 pm. But for the afternoon, she spent it rocking her blankie (a blanket/elephant stuffed animal) in her arms and singing to him. It was IMMENSELY adorable. The day would have been better if she had gone down for a nap and also gone to bed before 1 AM.

Well, I will be on my own again tomorrow, so I'd better go and get some semblance of sleep. I would like to take the girls to the library tomorrow and pick up a video or two that I think Emma would like. Also to see if there are any good videos on South America for the girls to learn something from.

Katrina Help

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, here, but my friend Lochmoor Mom and I have been talking about this whole Hurricane thing. I won't bore you with the details, but I have been bumping around places to see who is doing what for whom. Many volunteers are doing great things that I could not even imagine doing for these victims. Even locally, and I cannot help but mention my best friends in the whole wide wonderful sunny world, Diane and Derek, who are receiving a family (or refugees of un-named quantity) into their home this weekend. They live in Minnesota, Reader, and some person drove a bus full of supplies down to New Orleans and is driving a busload of displaced people back up. Talking with Diane this morning, she said she fully expects them to house these people for about 6 months. I hardly have the sanity to house my own children for that long, so I voted on cannonizing my friends and riding on their coat tails. Then I thought about how that will impact them financially. What if the family they took in had 6 people? Sure, they have the space in their finished basement, but what about food? It's not like they can eat dinner and let the refugees fend for themselves. And what if there are kids? THEY are not going to be able to sit in one pair of jeans until February. And even the necessities - think about how much you spend on personal hygiene for a family. or diapers and formula if there is a baby.... So, I wanted to see if there was some way I could help the people who are helping the people directly who need the help. I found this organization: http://www.modestneeds.org/ . Click on the Katrina link - they are helping people like Diane and Derek afford things for these refugees that they have taken in. They are helping the people who managed to get out but will be living in hotels for many months and the costs associated with that. I challenge you, Reader, to look at what help YOU would need if your entire city were devastated by any imaginable force. Then post on comments, so that I can know I have helped spread the word.

This is directly from the web site :

... there are many thousands of people who were able to leave New Orleans,
Gulfport, Biloxi and other cities devastated by Katrina. These people are now
spread throughout the United States and stranded for the duration. In most
cases, they are staying with friends, family or in hotels, often five or six to
a room. Because these people are now out of the disaster areas strictly
speaking, Modest Needs has confirmed that there will be precious little direct
assistance available to these people from larger, more conventional agencies.

Thoughts and Struggles

So, reader, you may or may not know that I was surrounded by a lot of religious teachings as I grew up. My actual denomination is Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. My parents are both Baptists, and that goes quite a ways back in the history of both sides. My husband is Catholic, but not practicing, and of course, his whole family is also Catholic. When we moved to Canton we landed ourselves right in the middle of Baptist country. I even played for a small Baptist church for a while. I found, however, that their services and celebrations are a completely different breed than what I was accustomed to. All of the best things I loved about my religious upbringing were rather lacking in the other churches I have tried. There are no large Missouri Synod churches in or around Canton, and I have struggled (for 12 years now) to find a church that I would like to attend regularly. There are some large ones that are Evangelical, but they seem cultish to my traditional ways and not what I am looking for in a church. I have attended some of the big and wonderful Catholic churches in the area, but struggle with the intrinsic differences between protestant and catholic teachings. So during a long drive home today I was thinking that I am tired of not having a church to belong to. But I cannot figure out where to go. I have now looked into Episcopalian churches in the area - I need something very traditional. There is an enormous congregation in Plymouth that has female rectors. Having grown up in the "women in the church are a bad thing" era, I do not know how I feel about this. I am sure Jim will give me that look when I tell him I am going to try this church out - the one that says 'you know I hate organized religion and really want to not have to do that whole church-y thing' and I will be off on my church finding mission alone, again. I often think of those guys that go to the religious conventions and wonder, for just a moment, what it would be like to have men in my family who are strongly religious. Then I realize I would have been dragging myself to a Catholic Church I didn't like for the last 12 years. So, hopefully, this weekend I will be out and about, "interviewing" the next church candidate for my growing family.

Interesting Blog

I just tripped across this blog: http://dancingwithkatrina.blogspot.com/ . I was amazed at the pictures. For once they were not of people floating by in a river or standing on a raised highway. The are of wreckage in the trenches and are probably the most silently powerful ones I have seen yet. I would recommend it.

Venting Rage

People really piss me off sometimes. Now I know this is a "family" blog - I have kept things pretty PG here for a reason. But I am just so fairly annoyed by multiple people that I cannot help but write about them today.

I took pictures that included the neighbor's kids playing in the yard. I called the neighbor. I said, "Hey, neighbor, I took some pics of our kids playing together, specifically in princess dresses and later in the kiddy pool. They are so unbelievably typical yet endearing that I have printed some off for you and would like you to take your choices before I go and scrapbook them. Tonight." Neighbor says, "Wow, thanks - that is very generous of you. And it is good, too since I never take any pictures, I would love to have some." I say, "great - come on over when you are out picking up toys," ALL of them - before I have to look at them for one more second of the day. Please feel free to read this as Get Your Lazy still-in-pajamas-at-1:00-this-afternoon-too-skinny Bum out there and pick up your toys on your way across the yard to come and get pictures I want to give you - NOW. Readers, it is 10:32 as I type, and skinny lazy neighbor has not been out to pick up her kid's toys yet. I am more than mostly annoyed.

Next culprit of making me pissy tonight - helpful (NOT) people. "Oh," said Helpful Person, "I am sorry we can't have you over for dinner tonight like we said, or last night either, like we said, but if you want I will come over and watch your kids while you have some time to run around and do whatever you want." Aside: Helpful People like to invite me and the girls over for dinner when Jim is traveling - I like that in a person. Well, Reader, surely you are scratching at your hairline right now, wondering, how could this go badly? It certainly went badly, you are probably saying to yourself, because otherwise she would not have written about it. Unfortunately, it went badly enough. Right before Helpful Person showed up, I burned the neurons right out of the pad of my right hand. This was not Helpful Person's fault. It did, however, cause me to use my Precious Time running to Rite Aid to find SOMETHING that would stop the searing pain, and it also caused me to return early from my Precious Time to restock the ice pack I had been using to tolerate the pain. I returned early to find a HUGE dent in my freshly baked peanut butter cookies. 'Oh, Canton Mommy,' you chuckle, 'you are having a bad time of it and over-reacting - you probably don't need to eat all of those anyway'. DON'T VEX ME, READER. Those cookies were specifically made to give to a friend who GAVE BIRTH today. Now, I cannot give her a nice sized tupperware that is a little more than 1/2 full. I swear Helpful Person ate at least 9 cookies out of there. I counted. They were in a sealed tupperware container NEXT to the cookie jar. DOESN'T ANYONE USE A COOKIE JAR??? The cookie jar is full of purchased, yummy cookies that would be fine for snacking but just will not do for a thoughtful treat for a young family. And no, I cannot put them in a smaller container - there just aren't enough there now to look like an appropriate gift amount. Man, I hate it when people force me to use caps so much.

Another neighbor has managed to get my hackles up, too. Having spoken to a couple of the bookclub members, it came to my attention that we would have a few holes in the monthly meeting on Tuesday. This month we are picking books to read for the upcoming discussions, and 3 of the people not coming are the ones that bring the best choices. In addition to this fact, I was feeling particularly low after having found out that my husband's business trip was extended another week. Reader, I called off Helpful People for the weekend based on this wallowing. I haven't put in my contacts since then. In short, I was sad and depressed at the news and did not want to see another Person, let alone clean my house and entertain 8 or them on Tuesday. So I sent out an email. Reader, I have NEVER moved a bookgroup date in the 2 1/2 years we have been meeting here. And only 2 of those months did we meet anywhere else, and that was, predictably, when I was expecting to go to the hospital and have Mary, and the following meeting after that. So I come to find that another neighborhood meeting is scheduled for the following week and we would lose 3 people to that if we moved it. So, Prissy Neighbor writes an email to the whole groups and says, "I think it is counter productive to move a meeting to accommodate some people while losing others. Just my two cents." Two Cents - well, two things, Reader. 1) I did not KNOW there was another meeting, that is why I sent out an email asking if the change of date would be reasonable, and 2) THANKS FOR CARING, PRISSY NEIGHBOR.

I won't even write about the neighbor that came over Friday night and verbally checked me IN MY OWN HOUSE when her 4 year's safety was an issue. And a family issue which would not be appropriate to record here - but the ones who have talked to me KNOW WHO IT IS. I will just say this, Reader, I am not sure when everybody thought they could just say or do anything to me without hurting my feelings or just plane being considered rude. This is why Husband should not leave for long, long trips. I try to make new friends and look where it lands me. I'm going to bed now, so that one more day in the Wifey Solitary Confinement will be gone. Come home quickly, Husband, and save me from these insipid interactions with others.

Cupboard Day

Today I cleaned out the spice cabinet. Emma and Mary were happily playing in the sand box - which means they were dumping sand out as fast as possible. But since I could keep an eye on them while organizing spices, I took my moment. I had purchased a tiered spice rack at www.organizeeverything.com - this type of store should be OUTLAWED for people like me, who really believe that adding one more item into the cupboard will somehow make it more organized. Well, Reader, I could NOT believe how many spices we had - they go like this: Allspice
Apple Pie Spice
Anise seed
Basil leaves
Bay leaves
Caraway seed
Cardamom
Celery seed (2 unopened bottles - huh.)
Cilantro
Cinnamon - sticks and ground
Cloves - both ground and whole
Coriander - seeds and flakes
Cumin
Dill seed
Dill WEED (is that one for smoking?)
Garlic powder
Ginger - ground
Mustard - seeds and ground
Onion powder
Onion salt
Oregano
Paprika
Parsley
Pepper (Black, white, and peppercorns)
Poppy seed
Red pepper flakes
Rosemary
Sage
Sesame seeds
Thyme
Tumeric

It struck me that we had no spices after T. Are there spices that we do not own that start with U, V, W, X, Y or Z? Why is that? There are so many spices that start with "C", can't we share the love with all of the letters? Well, anyhow, I combined open jars and reorganized. It looks nice and neat (and YES, alphabetized, which is how they SHOULD be). But they do not really look any more accessible. The tier idea is a good one, but to get a jar off of the back row one will probably knock off a few of the front ones. I wish I had space for a drawer spice organizer - I really think those are the best idea, especially if you are shooting for the whole alphabet of spice potential - including multiple jars of Celery Seed. I did let Emma "plant" some of the old, OLD seeds, like the Caraway seed which was still in the original, unopened jar from my spice rack I received as a wedding gift - 13 years ago. I really loved that spice rack - thank you Mrs. B for buying it for us - but I apparently had no use for Caraway seeds. So Emma planted them in her sand box. I don't know why. Perhaps they will grow. What do Caraway seeds grow, anyhow?

Well, that is it for the blog tonight. I had some neighbors over (with their kids)and we played Euchre. Emma did not go to bed until waaaaay after 10, so I am hoping there will be sleeping in tomorrow. I had a lot of fun, but my sinus headache is creeping up the back of my ears, so I am well ready for bed. This is good, as it is the earliest I have even thought about bed since Jim left. Maybe I will make it there before 3 AM like last night.

To Walmart We Will Go

I am not an avid Walmart shopper. I have nothing against them, they just don't sell bananas. My girls eat bananas by the gross and I cannot go anywhere that does not sell them unless I am going to try to venture 2 stops in one trip with the girls in tow. So I go to Meijer - ALL OF THE TIME. It is amazing what you can find at Meijer. But, I found today, it is amazing what you can find at Walmart DIRT CHEAP. Honestly, I have never been so excited to look at plastic Dora placemats or any of the other myriad of things I did not know I needed until I saw how cheap they really were. WHO CAN RESIST OREOS WHEN THEY ARE CHEAP AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MAIN AISLE, I ASK YOU?!?! So I also wanted to comment on how it is amazing WHO you can find at Walmart. My dear friend, Lochmoor Mom, recently visited the Walmart in her little town and called me to pontificate on the level of society that seems to congregate there. Now, I am not usually a biased person, Reader, but let me just say in a very vanilla area, Walmart is, well... Local color *AHEM*. And even the vanilla sort is really kind of... Well... Freezer burned? I need to stop with these analogies. I used to call Walmart "The Screaming Child Store", much like I call Mexican Fiesta "The Screaming Child Restaurant" for the very fact that no matter WHAT time of day or night you visit these places there is an inordinate number of screaming children. The first time we shopped at the newest Walmart in Canton it was well past 10:00 PM (this was before children in our little lives) and there were 2 little boys, about 4 and 6 years old that found it to be great fun to roam around the store aimlessly, moaning, "Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama?" and they would take turns crying, too, so that there was a continual stream of lost child mantra occurring. As we shopped (I recall now that I was pregnant, because I was AMAZED at how cheap a body pillow was at Walmart and I had heard it helped you be more comfortable when you slept with your hugely extended belly - and that is not true, by the way), the boys' cries and supplications would fade as they wandered farther away, and then crescendoed as they maddeningly made their way back closer to us. This went on for the entire time we were there. After about 20 minutes I took a vested interest, as I was suddenly feeling the need to eat the children and put them out of my misery, and realized that their Mama was not missing but walking in front of them the whole time this was occurring. They were not lost. They were pleading for a lighter sentence of going home and going to bed instead of wandering around shopping at Walmart after 10 Pm at night.

Well, so as to be in perfect form, today I went and my children were screaming. It was mostly Emma, as she is determined to walk on her own and this means walk on her own wherever the wind currents take her. When I am looking for a particular plastic paper sorter tray that I actually went there to buy, she was forced to be contained in the cart. This resulted in prodigious wailing and pleading, in very good form, I might add, that I completely ignored. Because the one thing about Walmart is that you cannot find one damn thing you are looking for, if you know what I mean. Sure, you can find 100 things you are NOT looking for and realize how much you need to buy, but finding the one thing you know you need is a whole other story, which you just read. So the wailing child mystery is solved. That mother of the two wailing boys was probably looking for the same thing I was, and she knew that if she stood still that her children would be doing pretend snow angels right there on the office supply aisle floor, while holding an American flag, just like mine was, until I corralled her and made her do cart time.