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.