Our week in review

Here's what happened this week at our house...

The girls broke out the Fuzzoodles. They are really cute, inspire creativity, and are totally reusable. I highly recommend them. Plus, just look how nicely they are playing together...

All of our snow melted, rendering my cute porch decoration pretty irrelevant.

It also made our yard (and everywhere else) an icky, muddy, dead-looking mess.

Again, the snowman mailbox is just kind of mocking me now from it's dead flower bed.

Oooh- but as you can see, we also got fiber-optic internet! And these photos are uploading SO fast now!


Big Sister got her first haircut. Not this year. Ever. Yes, I know, she is five-and-a-half. But she didn't have hair until she was three.


Big Sis also became obsessed with the Wii. And since we have exactly 3 games, she is getting quite good at racing cows.

She also further developed her skill of talking just to talk. In other words, our little actress will say things like, "Did you say cinnamon toast? I mean, do you really mean it? That means you're putting it in the toaster, and then you'll put butter on it and sprinkle it. Are you honestly making cinnamon toast? Oh, I just can't wait for cinnamon toast. I wonder how you ever guessed that I simply love cinnamon toast... it's just amazing. It's kind of magical. Like a miracle."

NO! It's bread and butter and sugar. Not a flying unicorn. And for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy could you please just take a sip of milk?!?! No wonder the television has been on ALL DAY, every day, since Christmas*. At least there's a plot (although even that is in question when watching Imagination Movers...)

On a related note, Big Sister finally started back to school after a month off. She has been exhausted but made the adjustment better than I anticipated.

The verdict is still out for me, although I welcome the return to any routine at this point.

Little Sis also went to school. And decided she is too old to nap there. Ugh.


When not at school, Little Sister stayed in her pajamas way too much.

She also went through extra pairs of pajamas, because she had a couple of nighttime accidents. But really, sleeping without a diaper is going pretty well.

Little Sis did get dressed to go to the bank and grocery store with me one day this week. We came home to find this:


WHAT is that, you ask?

It's a picture of what was left of the bag of candy that was in the bottom of our pantry. (By the way, the bag was some (leftover Halloween) candy our neighbors tied up in a Christmas ribbon and I'm pretty sure gave us out of obligation when we delivered our Christmas gift to them this year. I felt bad that they felt the need to reciprocate at all. The girls thought it was one of the best gifts ever...)

Anyway, Sophie got into the pantry. And then she ate 7 Tootsie Roll pops, a Kit Kat, and a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup. But, to her credit, she left the wrappers.

And, honestly, after I cleaned up the mess, I was a little thankful. No more battles with Little Sis, AKA The Queen of Candy Cravings, over when she can have another piece, why "just smelling it" isn't really accurate, or how "saving it" on her place mat until after dinner never really works.

As for the grown-ups in our house, there's not much new. Hubby and I started the Bourne movies. I know, we're only 9 years behind the rest of the world. But better late than never.

So, there you go. Nothing special, just an update on life in our house. How was your week?




* By the way, starting this week, we're putting limits and setting timers for the television and Wii. Christmas break is over. Time to reclaim our brains. ;)

Let me talk!

Even though a bad case of strep made Little Sister grumpy and pitiful last week, I still got some very sweet cuddle time. She wanted me to hold her all. the. time.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not so good at the whole sitting-still thing. I'm too restless. It's like there is a soundbite looping in my brain of all of the things I could/should be doing instead. Sometimes, I can remind that obnoxious, constant voice that I should be spending time with my girls (even if "spending time" to them means that I sit in the room while they play dolls by themselves and they fuss at me for interrupting when I try to talk to them.) Sometimes I try to come up with more entertaining things we can do together. And sometimes I just make a couple of runs to check the laundry inbetween puzzles or books.

But even the nervous, chore-obsessed voice can't argue with a sick baby. So I sat and cuddled and talked and listened more than usual. I rubbed her little legs and feet and smiled when she said, "That ticklishes me." I held her one afternoon for her entire naptime. I watched countless episodes of Blue's Clues and Dora and Pingu with her planted firmly on my lap.

It was very sweet. And somewhere along the way, Little Sis seemed to find her voice.

Don't get me wrong, Little Sis has never had a hard time talking. She has always had the best intonations, the most oddly appropriate responses, and the funniest facial expressions. But a lot of that comes from her keen observation, and frequently she simply repeats things to be like her big sister or older friends.

For example: A few weeks ago, she started trying to tell secrets in my ear, after Big Sis and a friend tried to teasingly convince her of some Mermaid fairytale with a "secret." Every secret Little Sis told was the same: "There was a mermaid, and she had purple hair." Okay, so the hair color might change, but the premise never did. It was just trying to say the right thing.

The same thing happened over & over at dinner or in the car, when she wanted to contribute to the conversation (which these days, is always about 92% Big Sis, 8% everyone else in our family.) Sometimes Little Sis will get super-frustrated and scream, "NO! LET ME TALK" only to mumble almost the same thing, or her own possibly-not-even-true version of whatever Big Sis or someone else was saying. And bless her heart, that was IF she got a word or two in at all.

Well, something seems to have changed this week. Maybe she grasped a little more about the art of conversation. Maybe I just listened more. Maybe Big Sis is getting more patient and appreciating what she has to contribute. Or maybe Little Sister just has more confidence in what she is going to say and that her own input matters.

All I know is, she is starting to talk more about things SHE saw, or heard or experienced. Like today, in a stolen moment when Big Sis was upstairs and it was just the two of us, she just blurted out, "Today at school, we played with NEW blocks that Miss Meredith made! They were pink and green and gray!" Usually, all she says about school is "yes" when I ask if she had fun, and tell me someone pushed her down. This was different- a glimpse into what she is thinking. I love that she can explain her day, especially a part of it I missed, to me in her own words.

She also has taken it upon herself lately to be the house bloodhound. As if we need another dog. She points out any stinky smell. And sometimes she'll even follow up her "it stinks" with "It wasn't me!" The other day at the mall playground, she told me it smelled funny. A few minutes later, after trying to pry her off of my legs and get her to go play, she told me "but something is stinky out there!" I had to go sniff around and tell her whatever it was (most certainly a dirty diaper on some fellow climber) was indeed gone.

She is telling me more about what she sees and understands in movies or tv shows that we watch. One day she sat on my bed and stroked Keaton, then looked up at me and said, "Mr. Lopart says 'I'm really more of a cat person.'" She'll explain why she doesn't like certain movies ("there's a bad guy in that one").

She takes her leftover dry cereal and doles out each piece, one at a time, into the dogs' bowls, talking to them the whole time. "Sit, Al. Good boy. No, Sophie, eat your other one first and then I'll give you one. Nice job."

She is even beginning to give her tiny princess dolls a little more of a plotline/script than "hello" or "Mommy!" (That one was pretty confusing for me, for a while.)

Of course, there are still lots of other things she is still figuring out. Like when she asked, "Do you know that song the bad guys sing in Pocahontas? It says, "Sandwiches, Sandwiches."

I'm still giggling. I can't help it. I love that little girl and her big brain.

She ticklishes me.

Song for Sunday: Didn't they try?

This song used to play all the time on the "oldies" station in Birmingham. I know it's probably a little cheesy, but I can't get it out of my head this weekend.

Abraham, Martin and John
written by Dick Holler, recorded by Dion

"Didn't you love the things they stood for?

Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?"

Snowed (and "sicked") in

On Sunday night, we got snow, which in itself is sort of unusual in the Southeast.

But we got A LOT of snow. Seven inches overnight. Some places in the mountains had more than a foot of the glorious white stuff. Hubby and I were so excited!

And we still are. Mostly. He is a lot more excited than I am, because when he has a chance to hop on a sled, he pretty much turns into a ten-year-old.

I used to think I was like Lorelai Gilmore, welcoming snow like an old friend with whom she shared some special secret. I love the smell of it in the air and watching it fall. I love the fun of anticipating its arrival and of romping around in it like clumsy children. And I love the cozy feeling of stomping it off of my shoes, coming inside and warming my hands, feet and cheeks by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate.

I bundled up my girls when they were tiny out and took them each out into the cold for the first few flakes of their lives. When there is a chance it might snow here, we take our "snow dance" very seriously. I get jealous when anyone I know gets snow and our yard remains dead and bare.


But this time, something changed. Maybe it was because Big Sister is in school. Or was, since she has YET to go back from Christmas break. She was supposed to start this past Monday, and yet it will be this coming Tuesday before she heads back to the classroom. She was off a whole week. I had grand plans for this week- a gap between when her school and my MMO classes began. It had the potential to be a week of uber-productivity.

Until it snowed.


The whole city basically shut down for three days. Schools, offices, and even roads closed. Hubby got some extra time at home (and with his sled), which was nice. And I adjusted my idea of getting things accomplished by myself to one of being cozily snowed in with my sweet family.


And then Little Sister got sick. She was crabby before the snow, but, of course, she didn't start running a fever until the weekend. And then she had a fever off and on for days. She has been pitiful and snuggly and exhausted. No playing in the snow for her. No doing much of anything for me, except lots of holding and worrying and trying to convince Little Sis that Daddy could, in fact, get her some juice or cover her with a blanket. Nope, only Mommy. The ladies at Rants from Mommyland sum up the whole experience hysterically in this post.

I couldn't get Little Sis to the doctor until Wednesday, because we were confined to our neighborhood. My poor baby has strep (we didn't find out until today when the slow-growth culture came back) and is finally on the mend.


The sun is out today. The snow is slowly melting. And I still haven't built my snowman. Maybe this afternoon...

I also didn't clean out the girls' closet, or finish organizing the Christmas stuff, or finish taking down the @$%^! wallpaper in our bathroom.

But I did have lots of snuggles and stories with my girls. I got to savor the taste of Snow Cream and their excitement at making it. Little Sis and I got to watch my other TWO children race down a hill next to a herd of grazing cows. I was even able to get a few things accomplished while both girls(!) took naps.

And every time I look out my windows and see the sun glinting off of the (mostly still undisturbed) white front yard, it catches me by surprise and makes me smile.

So, yeah, I guess I still love snow.

I just wish it had better timing.


PS It could have been worse. I could be the bird who lives there!

I let my guard down...

Okay mommas, have you ever had things going so well with your kiddos that you just took it for granted? Have you ever thought to yourself, "well, we seem to have (insert any random parenting struggle here) under control, so I can cross that off the list..."

only to have it come back to bite you in the slightly-bigger-because-of-way-too-many-christmas-cookies-in-my-house bottom?

Or is it just me?

Since coming home from all of our Christmas gallivanting around, my girls have been ANGELS at bedtime. They have been nice to each other in the bath, had a relatively small splash radius, fully cooperated while getting lotioned-up and donning pajamas, and even let me floss their teeth with little protest. We've read sweet stories together, and then they have had a few moments to read (or in Little Sister's case, make up) books in bed. Then, I'd deliver kisses and tuck them in tight, they sweetly said "goodnight" and that was that.

The other night, Little Sister even said something like, "I love you Mommy. I wish I had you when you were a tiny little baby." I'm pretty sure she meant that she wanted me to be snuggle-sized, to be able to love me and squeeze me and call me George.

So, yeah, I thought I could check bedtime off of the battle list.

I thought wrong.

Last night, all hello-I'm-your-mother-please listen-to-me-before-I-run-screaming-from-your-room-in-horror broke loose.

It all started when I gave in to a tiny little request: to go ahead and give "bedtime smileys" before they were completely merited.

See, every night, we review our behavior charts. I draw faces for things like respect, helping, getting ready in the morning, etc. All smileys in a day earns a star, and a pick from the goody basket. At the end of the week, they also get a small allowance based on the number of smiley faces.

There is one smiley that always waits until the morning: bedtime cooperation. It entails all of those lovely things I said my children were doing so well just a day ago. sigh. It also entails staying in bed all night long except for emergencies (which, by the way, we are still working to define, ahem.) At night, I've been drawing a circle & two eyes, waiting to draw the mouth in the morning when I've had a chance to see all aspects of "bedtime cooperation."

Last night, Big Sister talked me into drawing the smiley before bed. I made a big deal about how I was trusting that the good behavior they've shown me all week was going to continue, and that this was a test to see if we could do this beyond one time, and all that jazz. I'm pretty sure I sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher to them: "wah-wah-wah-wah, wah- wah..." which they translated: pick from the goodie basket and now you're home free to act like crazies for the rest of the night.

Ugh.

The only positive thing I have to say is that when I left them (which may or may not have involved a storming out of sorts, not my proudest moment), they didn't fuss too long before falling asleep. Even if Little Sis had no pillow and was later found sleeping on wadded up blankies.



This morning, they woke up sweet and rested and with some nice snuggles. At breakfast, I apologized for losing my patience. Big Sister replied, "oh no, Mommy. We're the ones who need to apologize."

What a sweetie. Maybe we're figuring this stuff out after all.

Oh, who am I kidding? I'm not going to assume anything is a done deal in mommydom.

Now, excuse me while I referee between a crawling, meowing Big Sis and the Little Sister Elmyra who is currently laying on top of her.

A mommy's work is never done. ;)

Christmastime through the baby monitor...

One morning shortly after Thanksgiving, the girls woke up waaaaay too early for mom & dad. Because I had just put Christmas decorations in their room, including a soft toy nativity scene, two Christmas music boxes, and a ridiculous number of plush snowmen and reindeer, the possibilities for play were endless.

Would you judge me if I admitted that I got them both pop-tarts and sippy cups of milk and turned them loose in their room while I went back to bed? Would it help if I told you I didn't actually go back to sleep, due in part to the hilarious things I kept hearing over the monitor?

First, the girls played with the music boxes. One of them was an electronic one that required no winding, making it possible to play the dagnabbed thing over and over and over again. Then the girls sang along. "We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!"

Big Sis attempted the second verse. I wondered if she had ever heard of "figgy pudding." Apparently not: "Now bring us some chocolate fudge cake, now bring us some chocolate fudge cake, now bring us some chocolate fudge cake, we want some right now." Ah. My kind of song.

Another time we overheard sweet singing, it was The First Noel. Big Sister knew all of the words. But when she tried to sing it again, Little Sister interrupted. So we heard, "The first Noel, the angel did say... (growling) LET ME FINISH! AAAARRRGH!" No wonder the shepherds were "sore afraid."

Next the girls played with the nativity scene. Or perhaps they just used it as inspiration for dress up. I'm not entirely sure since I was mostly listening in, not wanting to disturb their cute reenactment. Big Sister did a great job telling the Christmas story. Little Sister just tried to play along. At one point, Little Sis said something like, "I'm baby Jesus. How are you?" to which Big Sister replied, "Baby Jesus, I don't think you can talk yet. I'm pretty sure you're too little. You just lay there."

Later, they both asked for boxes to make mangers for their baby dolls.

I'm glad the girls played together so well- a sometimes seemingly impossible thing.

And I'm glad they get what Christmas is all about.

Mostly. ;)

Happy New Year!

2010 was not my favorite year, but it ended well. God is good and has blessed us in many ways.

Here's to a 2011 filled with family and friends. To enjoying the important things and taking the worthwhile risks. To making and reaching goals, but also to going easy on yourself when you fall short. To savoring life- simple, honest, precious life.