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At the zoo

More Toddler Crazy Logic

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

They might be stuck in a tree, she said.

Indeed, they might, I replied.

Or water, she said.

Or water, I agreed.

Or dirt.

Yes.

Or snow.

Yes.

Or quicksand.

You are right.

Or strawberries.

...

Or chocolate.

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

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Cart buddies

True Love

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

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

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

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Karate girl who just won 3 medals!

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Spending!

Travel Travails

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

!@%!#

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

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(My homemade sinusitis cure)

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

For Lydia

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

The Devil Wears Strawberry Shortcake

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

On a Lazy Summer Day

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

Today's Desires

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

Just for the record, I want:

3 million dollars

A teaching job

A maid


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

I just want.....

A candy bar.

A maid.

A teaching job.

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

Music In the Park

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

The Long and Not So Short of It

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

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

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

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

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

Bad House Karma

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

Remember the dryer? That was the start.

Then the back porch light burned out.

The front porch light followed shortly thereafter.

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

The sink is now leaking under the cabinet, too.

The icemaker got jammed - I fixed that easily enough.

The icemaker remained jammed, even after my fabulous fixing.

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

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

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

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

Contrariness and Burning Dryers

A random conversation with a contrary Emma:

Emma: How do my eyebrows stay on?

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

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

Me: Oh!

Emma: Is the sun going down now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's about all that is newsworthy and otherwise.

Dancing in the Streets

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

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Dinner w/ Mum and Papa