Pink and Blue

Oh, goodness, no, we're not having twins.  I think you know me better than that, no?

We're having a stay-at-home day today, and the agenda as such usually runs (1) colored pancakes; (2) play outside; (3) Play-Doh; (4) paint...right now we're on the painting part, and I crept quietly away to relate a story of gender identity that made me laugh.

First - during the #2 phase, I realized that both sets of snow pants were unavailable to us (daycare and back of car at VCSU), so we made do with a nice blue Columbia 4T snowsuit from a friend that I'm saving for Adam and a pair of 18 mo. blue snow pants that have escaped my consignment frenzy.  Anyway, Adam saw the blue 4T snowsuit and insisted it was "Adam's!  Adam's!"  He had a very hard time watching Abby zip up into a boy color.

Now - during painting, I smooshed gobs of pink, yellow, and blue paint onto Superman plates.  I asked Adam what color the yellow was.  "Geen!"  The pink?  "Abby!"  The blue?  "Adam!"  Should I count that as a 67%?

Merry Christmas!

We spent today at Nana and Papa's house for most of the day.  We did all kinds of fun things - dominoes, Ranger rides, Play-Doh Dora episodes...when it was time for a cleaning break, I asked Abby to get the broom and dustpan from Nana's stairwell.

"Well-well," she said, "well - I - I'm not a part of this family."

We had a good laugh at that one, considering I'm pretty sure she'll want to rejoin later tonight around the Christmas tree.

Santa, Wrestling, & Hugs

Today we got to see Santa at Cenex!  Yes, Cenex.  :)  We came five minutes to close by accident and got to walk right in.  After the photo op Abby picked a snake and Adam picked a duck out of Santa's toybox.  Then they carried them around the wrestling tournament we stopped by, up and down the bleachers ... up and down the bleachers!  Adam has started wearing a baseball hat and I just love it on him!  After the fifth trip by with the duck and snake, they probably weren't so cute to most of the fans anymore...but they are cute to me.  I'm praying for a better attitude toward motherhood, because I was asked if I needed a hug by someone who read my Christmas letter.  But, yes, as a matter of fact, I'll take one!

Lack of Posts

I am sorry for the lack of posts lately!  Every spare minute I have in the evening (all twenty of them) is used for stressing out about the next day's AP English class. 

Furthermore, Adam is two.  I believe this sentence works as a topic sentence and also includes all necessary implied supporting details.

I also think the fact that I have an unrelenting cold so unpleasant I used my stashed supply of codeine from giving birth is contributing to my lack of cheerful anecdotes about raising two preschoolers.

And now I'm going to spend my twenty minutes all in one place:  Thursday night's Office episode online.  Good night!

Server, Dishwasher, and Babysitter

Tonight Abby set the table, cleared the table, served dessert, and dried the dishes.  For real!  As she was drying, she told me that when she grows up and lives in a different house, I can call her to babysit Adam anytime.  "Anytime, Mama.  You - you - you just call me and I will come.  'kay, Mama?  You just call and I will - will babysit him."

Call Times

Parents with babies who are holding out for a more rested future:  don't read this.

These were my call-times last night:

11:30, 1:00, 4:00, 4:30, 5:00, 5:30, 7:00, 7:20

There.  Thanks for letting me tell someone.

Kristi

Adam's Cars Birthday

Happy Birthday to Adam!

Things I didn't have in my house yesterday that I do today:  a Wal-Mart guitar, a Cars trike, a race track, a basketball hoop, a half-eaten car cake, and a two-year-old!  It was a good day and I can't wait to share it with you in photos.  But right now I'm exhausted.  Good night.

A Grandma Visit

Today is [was] Adam's due date two years ago, a fact which he was oblivious to.

We just enjoyed a nice two days with my mom and grandma, Grandma Sandra and Grandma Louise.  We carved pumpkins, shopped in Fargo, made cut-out cookies, and threw a low-key Superman bday party for the little guy.

Here are some photos Mom just emailed:

In this second picture, Adam reminds me of someone...not Eric.  Who do you see in him?

Football, Scooby Doo, and Pronunciations

Well, it happened this weekend.  Adam stopped calling his sister Ad'n and started calling her Apbee.  We coached him for so long and...now the victory seems hollow for some reason I can't explain.

We've been to a lot of football and volleyball games lately, the three of us, while Eric has been faithfully logging time in his bow stand.  Here are some pictures from playing near the field.

Abby's new interest is Scooby Doo books checked out from the library.  I dislike them very much; they interest me not at all.  In each one - and they are L  O  N  G - the Mystery, Inc. gang has to solve a mystery in a formulaic way and it must involve haunted puppets, the Loch Ness monster, or some other villain that I'm suspicious will interrupt my sleep by causing nightmares in little people. 

Worse than the plot, however, is that however I read the book the first time is the way I must read it every time thereafter, or be subject to correction:  "Mama, it - it doesn't SAY that."  It's a Catch-22, you see.  If I read it correctly the first time I must then read the book in its entirety every time after, with no hope for skipping lines to speed up the process.  Tonight Abby got up from the bed and went hunting under her craft table for a piece of paper.  I slyly skipped two paragraphs, seamlessly blending the storyline, much like I used to do when I read Eric his British novels in college.  Abby, however, immediately interrupted from her position on hands and knees and corrected, "Mama, you - you - did not say - say the part about the rolling cart." 

Now the alternative to roping oneself into the book in its entirety is to read a shortened version in the first place, but the trick here is that then you must remember exactly how you improvised or withstand correction each time you read the words as they are actually written - until you return the book to the library. 

At some point I resign myself to reading Scooby Doo in its haunted-puppet, drawn-out, scripted entirety as long as it contributes to my children reading under the covers someday with flashlights and beating hearts.  There is no substitute for a love of books!

- My English Teacher Self

Useful 3-Word Combos

Abby finally talked me into letting her have a lemonade stand today!  She had been asking all summer, and finally today while Adam napped our entrepreneur (as Eric termed her from his seat in the semi hauling beans) set up shop, calling, "Free lemonade!" for a good two hours.  Despite the advertising, she stacked up $4!  I have a video of that I'll post, along with a photo of Adam's new bed.

In the meantime, here are some useful 3-word phrases that Adam has been using:

"Goosh, peez, Mama."  (Juice, please, Mama).

"Oppe handee, Mama."  (Open candy, Mama).

"No, Ad'n, no!" (No, Abby, no).

"Hun moe hime."  (One more time).

"Dada geen cah" (Daddy's green car)

Big Boy Bed

We said farewell to the crib yesterday!  Adam is in his big boy bed, and it looks SO BIG for a little guy.  Pictures to follow as soon as the new bedding set arrives in the mail. Right now it's decked out in....pink.

Perfect Day for the Zoo!

First Day of Preschool

Abby has now been to two days of preschool!  She goes three afternoons a week and has to catch a bus from daycare.  Monday Eric rode with her one way; he meant to ride back the other way but the bus came early and Abby climbed on by herself!  Today she rode both ways alone.  It's so strange to think about my little girl taking care of herself...walking out of daycare, riding a bus, going to school...just handling things on her own.  It fills me with wonder.

Here was her first day, yesterday.  Little Brother had to climb up to be in the photo.

Butterfly Collection

Just got some photos off my camera finally...

My Grandpa Jim entrusted his butterfly collection, a life's work, to NDSU the week before school started here, so I had the chance to drive west and be there when it was collected from his home.  It was a pretty neat feeling to watch four men load a trailer full of his work.  There were trays upon trays, typed and labeled with their scientific names...enough trays and enough cabinets to fill a trailer!  I was so proud to be there!  Here are a few photos:

The Tootie Pop

The school year is off to a good start with three workshop days and two student contact days already behind me!  I like being back in the middle of it all.  Abby starts preschool on Monday, which she'll attend three days a week.  She'll have to bus about five blocks from her daycare each day.  On Monday Eric is going to ride both ways with her!

Eric is out goose hunting and then plans to help with harvest all day, so we're having a lazy waffle (umm, frozen) and eggs (yeah, I made those) morning with some Silly Songs on the TV.  Adam just came and pulled me away from my flat iron and led me to the kitchen cupboard where he pointed up:  "Nak!"

"You want a snack?" I can't resist asking this in return, because then he'll bounce, pump his arm, and shout, "YAHHHHHHH!"

I pulled down a bag of suckers and Laffy Taffy, and he reached in carefully and pulled out a lemonade-flavored sucker by the stick.  His automatic reflex upon getting one snack is to say, "Ad'n," which means, "Abby needs a nak, too."  He reached in again and this time drew out a Tootsie pop by its stick. 

He stood looking at both for awhile, noting the differences, and I watched to see what would happen.  I know he has a special place in his tummy for Tootsie Pops.

After some thought he slyly crooked the Tootsie Pop behind his back, elbow bent, and toddled down the hall to offer the other, visible sucker to his sister.  Coming back, his elbow uncrooked and he made his way back to the Silly Songs.

The Cold Chicken Nugget

We made one of our favorite Saturday trips with my mom-in-law over to Jamestown today while Eric had the entire day, 6 AM to close, to himself as a birthday present.  He insisted he wanted this in lieu of any money toward hunting equipment, a seemingly selfless request until, oh, about half past eight.

Anyway, we returned with several McD's chicken nuggets that just would not be eaten:  "Buhger King's are better, Mama."  I agree.  They went into the fridge. 

The aforementioned friends that are a staple in our home now appeared on cue and Abby and Adam went out to move sand from the sandbox into nooks and crevices around our yard and deck with them.  Half an hour later I decided they must be thirsty, so I gathered four sugary drinks with straws and stepped onto the deck, also deviously holding a refrigerated second-rate chicken nugget.

"Juice!" said the friends. 

"Goo!" said Adam. 

"You're the best Mama!" said Abby, before she noticed the nugget.  Then, "Okay, Mama, I'll eat it."

I looked around triumphantly to see if I could use the teachable moment on the other three and was about to launch into a choices and consequences admonishment when I was stopped by the four-year-old friend, asking, "Hey, whewre is my chicken nugget?"

Adventure and Praise

So Abby and I got up early and went on an adventure downtown to get the school van so I can leave for yearbook camp in an hour.  We parked in the driveway and I went in to finish my hair while Abby blew bubbles in the backyard.  I took my bowl of Cheerios outside just to be near her, and I perched on a wet patio chair to eat.  She was sitting on the cement, smearing bubble soap here and there, and then she said suddenly, "I think we should say a little prayer before we blow more bubbles."  I put my spoon back in my bowl and bowed my head.

May this be your prayer today:

"Dear God and Father, we - we just want to - to thank you for this beautiful earth.  We thank you for - for the green trees and the blue sky.  We just thank you because it's fun.  An - An - an thank you for making the garden grow.  I - jus' - jus' love you.  In your ho-wee name we pray.  Amen."

"Okay, Mama, now we can blow more bubbles."

Stay-At-Home Momhood and Other Tests

We are gearing up (get it?) for a family fishing day today on Spiritwood Lake.  Eric took the day off and left bright and early to snag someone else's boat before they got up and noticed it was missing.  He'll be back soon, and I'm to be packing sandwiches in his absence.  I will.

It's been a summer full of mini-trips here and there for training workshops and visits.  I will get behind the wheel of a van on Sunday to take my yearbook staff to camp for a few days.  Then Eric and I are going to a Twins game for our get-away (no, no kids) next weekend.  THEN it will be the looming arrival of school, which I confess I am looking forward to.  I LIKE being at work for part of the day and then scooping up my darlings and being at home for the rest.  This is balance to me.  It is hard to keep scooping up my darlings with loving adoration and plans from 6 AM throught to 9 PM.  Full-time moms out there, you rock!  I do not have your strength of arm, wit, nerve, or character.

Abby has made neighborhood friends.  A young family is staying next door with parents while they close on a house, and Abby plays nonstop outside with their 6-year-old and 4-year-old boys.  She races in dirty, sweaty, and mosquito-bitten with glowing eyes only to use the bathroom and race out again, yelling, "I'm playing with my friends, Mama!"  She no longer takes an afternoon nap.  She still loves drawing, cutting, painting, gluing, etc.  This morning she stood disapprovingly in the bathroom doorway and said, "Mama.  We can't hear our cartoons with the noise of that blower [blowdryer]."

Adam spends a good portion of the day leading adults to the fridge and pointing up to the basket where the parade candy is stored:  "Handy, handy.  Mama?  Handy.  Dada?  Handy."  He doesn't leave home without his blankie "gmm-gmm" (?) and a tractor "tauck."  We took away his Nuk this past week and it went well!  The first night he woke up every couple of hours, shouting, "Nuk!" and then I would have to go in and try to help him cope.  I felt sorry I had helped to make him so dependent on a piece of rubber and plastic.  At one particular 2:30 call he was inconsolable, and I was desperate, so I climbed in the crib with him.  He was so surprised he stopped mid-yell and just stared at me for the next half an hour, until he drifted off.  There has been a lot more crying this week at sleeping times, so I think he's still adjusting.  He also has a cold and is mosquito-bitten to resemble a high-scoring domino.  Poor baby.

Someone is coming down the stairs to retrieve me.  I will soon be asked for permission to play with friends or for parade candy.  When do they start asking for money?

Summertime Pics

The Multiplying Cereal Bowls

Many photos are soon to follow from our week-plus excursion into the badlands and south to see family...but I just had to relate what we found upon our return:

All eight regular cereal bowls had been used and were lined up on the counter, each with an assigned spoon resting inside.  Following this, our larger serving bowls had been used, spoons resting.  Finally, my Pyrex measuring dishes had been used, with spoons to follow suit.  It reminded me of a multiplication table, about which you might ask your childish listener, "Do you see four cereal bowls with spoons on this side of the square?  What about on this side?  And if you multiply four by four, what do you get?  That's right!  Sixteen dishes and spoons to wash."

Oh, and the cereal cupboard was empty.  :)

Have Kids; Must Travel

(to the tune of Leaving on a Jet Plane)

All our bags are packed and we're ready to go;
Diapers and wipes and wedding clothes,
Er can't wait to try out bachelorhood!

We're leav-ing for nine whole days
"Out west" because it's fair time
And because I left that place in 2001...

We're leav-ing - in a Grand Prix
With a bag of tricks beside me...
Old Burger King toys and push-pops
Stickers and crayons and candycorn
We'll start off in the early morn
And see how far we go 'til someone cries...

Adam Doesn't Sleep

Help!  I'm so tired.  In the last few weeks, Adam stopped sleeping.  In his twenty months of life, he has slept through the night a few times.  Most commonly he is up once or twice.  For the last week or so, he has averaged five times per night, ranging up to SEVEN times a few nights ago.  Tonight he has already been up four times, and it's 1:30.  He sits up and calls out at the top of his lungs, "Mama!  Mama!"  He keeps calling until you go in and tuck the covers around him again.  It's horrible.  It jolts you out of bed, and there is no restorative sleep.  Just napping until the next scream.  My head hurts.  I'm exhausted.  Why wouldn't you sleep yet at twenty months?  How many months until we sleep again?  After the fourth time per night, you start making bargains...I would double our mortgage if I could just sleep at night. 

Parade Take Two

Well, I did it!  I survived five full days away from home and only cried three times.  I drove through Minneapolis twice, once at 5:00 p.m.  And I took in 30 hours of instruction in how to teach AP Language and Composition.  I told many of you that this week was the week I was dreading.  Now the rest of the summer is...wide open!  Kind of!

So Adam just got up and I retrieved for him his two favorite foods:  chocolate milk or "kok-laht" and cheetos or "nak."  Then I turned on a replay of the parade we watched in real time on Saturday.  He's enthralled.  He's standing by the TV annotating each float as it comes by the camera ("tock!" "vroom vroom!" "cah!" "hi!" "uh-oh!"), shouting, stamping, waving his arms, and wiping his hand across the screen.  This is great.  How do I record this thing for a rainy day?

Parade Etiquette

1. Arrive early and stake out a spot without other children.  Do not arrive late with three kids and squeeze in between two families who are are appropriately spaced.

2. Before the firetrucks roll, line your children up on the curb and explain that eyes should point forward throughout the parade.  Candy in one's peripheral vision belongs to other children.

3.  Do not allow your child to dart diagnally in front of smaller children for the entire parade and then offer the candy to them:  "Here you go."  This is not a favor.  The whole point of a parade is to PICK UP YOUR OWN CANDY.

Sigh.  Despite a grievous breach in etiquette this morning, what will we do with fifty-two Tootsie Rolls, forty-seven Fruities, seventeen suckers, and one white chocolate Kit Kat?  Never mind - scratch the Kit Kat.  It's been removed from the inventory.

Love Is More

Love is saying at 5:30 AM on a weekend, "No, you sleep in today.  I will do cereal and juice duty."

Love is saying, "I'm going to take the kids for a drive so you can have a few minutes to yourself.  No, no arguments.  Just enjoy it."

Love is saying, "You look tired.  I'll finish scraping the peas off the floor and off the dishes.  You get ready for bed now."

How much easier it would be to buy chocolates and send roses!  They're empty wrappers.  Love is more.

The Voices

"Mama, Adam is eating Play-Doh."

"Mama?  Do God and Jesus live on a cloud together?"

"Mama!  Go!  Go!"  [tugging at hand to go outside]

"Mama, Adam gots a scissors."

"Mama, can I have juice for a special treat?"

"Goo!" [alternate pronunciation of juice, used to second his sister's request]

"Mama!  Cahk-uh!" [tugging at hand to get snack]

"Mama, what day is it?"

"Mama, Adam just drawed on the wall."

"Mama, why did you and Daddy buy me a  scooter for my birthday?"

"Mama!  Up!" [wrapping arms around leg and pulling]

"Mama, can I have a fruit snack?"

"Nak!  Nak!"

"Mama, how old are you?"

"Boos!"  [alternate way of requesting that shoes be put on feet to go outside]

"Mama, I don't like THIS kind of mac 'n cheese."

"Cohcaht." [I want chocolate milk].

"I wish we could have hot dogs at every meal."

"Mama, Adam just spilled his milk."

The Flip Flop Party

Photos

All of my photo efforts have been going to the yearbook lately!  That should be finalized in about two weeks.  Then I will be able to concentrate my efforts on my OWN kids!

I-Love-You Duck

Thank you for your prayers for Adam on Friday!  He came through perfectly and has been acting 100% like himself since surgery.  Our biggest battle is figuring out how not to get any water in his ears.  I bought earplugs, but he plucks them out and looks at me, quizzically, while dipping them in the bath water or trying to taste them.  I frantically shout, "No!" so he tries to put them back in, which makes me shout louder.  It's an escalating cycle, because then he stops trying to reinsert them and dips them in the water again...!

Abby and I are busy planning a flip-flop birthday party for June 4th - a total copy of the theme her friend at daycare had and talked about for weeks.  We counted out the days on the calendar and found it was still seven days away yesterday, but I was awakened nevertheless this morning by a warm body next to the bed, standing over me patiently.  I stirred, and she said politely, "Excuse me, Mama.  Excuse me, but how old am I today?"

"Still three, honey," I mumbled.

"Oh."  She turned and went away.

And one last favorite from last night:

We were playing Duck, Duck, Goose with our good friends Garrett and Linda and their two kids, hoping some of their active parenting will rub off on us, and Abby went around the circle:  "Duck, duck, blue duck, red duck, I-love-you duck (to Eric)."  I think I was the goose.  Thanks for such a great time and dinner last night, Garrett and Linda!

New Ears

Adam's surgery for ear tubes is today at 9:30 AM in Fargo.  I can't sleep!  It's the last day of school but the only day we could get him in unless we wanted to wait until late June, so Eric and his mom are taking him.  I SO appreciate all you have done this week for us while I've lived at the school, Jean!

We had a pre-op in early May and the doctors found fluid in his ears that won't go away, causing him to fail a hearing test.  Now that strikes fear in parents' hearts when you are told your child is not hearing normally.

I know this is a really common surgery for kids, but still....  Prayers are appreciated!

Thanks.

All That Glitters

And the quest for an award continues!

Sunday was called Awards Sunday, because it was the last Sunday School until fall, and some children would be promoted to a new level.  Abby's Sunday School teacher wisely prepped the three and four-year-olds, saying, "Your name is going to be called for an award, and then you'll need to walk to the front of the church to accept it."

Abby ran to me after her class, eyes wide and shining:  "Mama, mama!  I - I - I - I'm gonna get an AWARD!"

"Great," I thought.  "We'll finally have fulfillment of this goal."

True to her teacher's word, the awards began with Abby's class, and she walked forward hesitantly, loopingly, until she was the last child to shake the teacher's hand.  She was given a Bible tied with a ribbon.  She took it doubtfully and looped back to her seat.  I hugged her, and church went on.

It wasn't until the closing hymn had ended that I noticed big tears falling from a crumpled face.  "Mama," she choked, "I didn't get an award."

Awards, you see, are still gold and shiny and glittery...and elusive to my little girl. 

All Girl

Last night I had to present yearbook awards at a fine arts night in our gym.  It was at 7:30, and I said Abby could come.  She disappeared into her room and matched her outfit to a T:  brown and pink striped dress, brown lace leggings, a brown necklace, brown socks, brown shoes, and a brown belt!  She came out and showed me how everything matched and she was, thus, ready for the meeting.  I put a pink flower in her hair and convinced her to take off the socks, and we were off. 

What she really wanted as we sat through the many awards was to be called for one.  It hurt a little bit in a part of me I didn't have before I became a mother.  She would lean over and whisper periodically, "I hope we get called for a shiny gold award."  Once the presenter called an Abby and her eyes grew wide with hope for a moment.

Later I set her up at a table with cake and punch and her bear, who had also been dressed for the occasion.  Everything was going swimmingly until one of the mothers present found the bear's toddler-size Tinkerbell underpants left carelessly on the lobby floor near the cake-eater.  She cracked up, but having raised four children of her own, took the wardrobe malfunction in stride. 

It's Spring!

Yes!  It's spring.  When we get home now at five, the kids run around the yard while I make dinner.  As long as the deck door is cracked so they can run in every few minutes and ask a question or request a snack, they're happy.  Here's a list of Adam's very practical vocabulary:

Ah-um = Both Adam and Abby
Nak = Snack
Frantically Waving Arms = Open the Nak
Nuh = Nuk
Baw = Ball
Cuh = Cup
Woof = Dog
Yah = Yes
Bmm-Bmm = Blankie
Coo-Coo = Cookie
Cah-Cah = Cracker

Mama, Dada, Hi, Bye, Up, Down, Out, Done all equal themselves.  Oh, and so does No!

Last night Eric lined up a sitter (thanks, Nana) and took me out to dinner and a night of one-acts at the college.  Then he gave me the whole morning off to work on yearbook!  Happy Mother's Day, indeed!

Bunked!

Flood, Snow, and Cold(s)

Hello, all -

We had three outdoor picnics a couple of weeks ago, mud welcome, and we strollered there.  The kids were not sneezing or warm, their eyes were bright and cheerful, and I was delighted.

Um.

Then it continued to flood.  We have only one bridge in town yet above water.  Then it piled snow on our flood so insistently and deep that school closed.  At this point both kids developed another cold and Adam is now hot, crying, and pulling on his ears.

I am really, really trying to be okay with all of this, but I'm having a very hard time.  Maybe you could visit?  I'll draw you a map of how to cross our one bridge and get here without being broadsided by a sand truck.  If you would visit, it would help all of us to cope a little bit with losing spring!

Abby yesterday, "Mama?  When - when will spring come?"

Silence.

"And-and-Mama?  Why are the trees not having leaves yet?"

Silence. Depression. 

Daddy:  "Abby, that is a very good question."

Thanks, Grandma Sandra!

Thank you, Grandma Sandra, for the homemade food, the games, the housekeeping, the night out, the laughs, and all of your time!  We were so thankful you were able to stay with us for a week!

Don't Just Play With Your Food...

tickle it!

Development of a 3.75-year-old

Susceptibility to Advertising

[from living room during Saturday morning cartoons] "Mama!  You - you - got to get me that sing [thing] that - that has a board and - and it floats, Mama!  Kay, Mama?  For my birfday.  I really like that.  [pause 30 seconds] Mama!  I - I - I really like that doggie that talks, Mama!  It's - it's a chihauha and it - it sings, Mama!  For my birfday, I want that.  [pause 30 seconds] Mama!  I really hope that we - we can eat at Space Aliens, Mama."

Ethics

[anytime, anywhere] "I - I - I had this first, Mama, and Adam's trying to take it away!"

Rational Thought

[in car from backseat] "Does everyone start out little, Mama?  As - as a baby?"

"Yep - everyone."

"Did you start as a baby, Mama?"

"I did."

"Oh."

[pause]

"Because God puts babies in tummies."

"Yeah...Mama?"

"Yes?"

"Doesn't it - it - hurt when the baby comes out of your tummy?"

"It sure does."

A Good Sis

I have been so impressed with how good Abby is to Adam.  She has been good to him from birth.  I know a lot of people say it's ideal to have a big brother to protect a little sister, but there's a lot to be said for a big sister and a little brother.

Abby and Adam are old enough now to venture into the local pizza joint's play area together, with frequent checks. 

"Please watch your brother, Abs," I say.

"I will, Mommy."

When I check in, she's right behind him, hand resting on his back, guiding him around.

"And - and - I letted him climb ALL the way up for - for a special treat, Mommy!"

"Okay, Abby.  Thanks for taking care of him."

"You're welcome, Mommy!  It is [with a bow] my pleasure!"

She picked up the "my pleasure" bit from TV, I think, and got such a reaction from me the first time that she does it just to see my face.  Now I won't tell you about the tantrum before bedtime;  I'll just leave it right here and go off to get some rest.  Sick children don't sleep, and I'm exhausted!

Nashville Getaway

Abby was sent home from daycare today with a temp and cannot go tomorrow.  She says her head, throat, ear, and tummy all hurt.  Both kids are already on antibiotics for ear infections.  Strep is going around daycare, our provider says.  SO...let's set all of that aside for now so I can relive Nashville in photos...

Over spring break from high school (two whole days + a weekend!), Eric and I flew to Nashville to spend time with "old" friends!  A big thank you goes out to Tim, Carissa, and Alia for spoiling us with good company, good food, and good weather; a second big thank you goes out to Nana and Papa for watching our progeny while we enjoyed all of those things!

Eric got to try out some backyard paintball into the river and trees below.

We enjoyed 70-degree weather and a gorgeous 100-acre park & sightseeing!

Yes, THIS was how warm and sunny it was there!  For real!

A new scarf I found while down there...had to try it out right away!  Tee-hee!

Friends we miss very much!  "So move here," they said.

Right after this Eric pretended to try to push me off the wall and broke my camera.  Long story.

Stranded on the Counter

Our kitchen table has a bench one one side of it and two chairs on the other.  One chair hosts a blue booster 24/7, so that leaves only one movable chair total.  And move it does!  It's a good thing we superglued felt protectors on its legs, because it hourly moves from the work counter to the snack cupboard to the stove (supervised!) to the hallway storage closet to a bedroom closet and, with my exertion, back where it belongs.  This chair means the difference between my constantly getting up to reach things for Abby vs. telling her to carefully get things herself!

Anyway, last night I had given Abby permission to reach the snack cupboard for a crackers/cheese snack. Eric and I were in the living room, and we suddenly heard frantic shouting for help.  When I rushed into the kitchen, I found Adam, grinning around his Nuk and pointing up at his big sis.  When she'd climbed up and onto the counter to reach the crackers, he'd pushed the chair back to the table!

Adam "says" so many words now:  Nuk, apple, go, up, done, open, book, eat...it's so fun!  This is the age where I want to freeze the cute stuff in time and keep it.  He sleeps through the night most nights when he is not sick, so life is right-side-up again after 16 months!  He is still babyish, but he can communicate and relate and love you.  I can still put Baby Magic on him after bath and enjoy it the next morning.  He's still chubby.  Sigh...why can't we save a few days here and there and get to come back to them later in life?

A Mommy Paycheck At Last

The appeal of the quarter machines around town have prompted me to say on several occasions, "Abby, we need to have a money lesson."

Yesterday we made the time to actually do it.

Wielding a screw driver, we broke into Abby's pig that sits on her dresser and sorted out quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.  I tried to do the whole this equals that lesson, but Abby didn't have the attention span.  So we just took turns making up games with the money instead.

At the end Abby put all of the coins back into the pig and said dismissively of the dollars, "You-you can have all of these.  'Cause 'cause - 'cause you are a good mommy."

Yes!  I took them straight to the BK drive-thru and drank them up.

Just Life

It's not really that I've been too busy to post; it's just been...one day at a time, one day after another, with snow every other day and school and church and bathtime and bedtime - and rest; repeat. 

Abby alternates between living in a make-believe world (lucky girl!) and directing games.  "Let's play Minnet Winnet.  Kay?  Kay.  Now - now you stand here, Mama, and then you have - you have to - you have to TOSS the ball!  Like this.  Kay?  Kay.  Now let's play.  Let's play, Mama.  Kay.  Now - now - you have to sit on the couch.  Like this.  And then I'll say go - and - and when I say go, Mama, you - you GO.  Fast.  Watch.  Like this.  Kay?  Kay."

Adam bounces off the fringes of these games, stealing the ball, putting the hoop (laundry basket) on his head, dozing into his sister, running away, tumbling, and chuckling.  He loves to sit for books and make what his sister calls "baby noises."  A few words, like "crack-kuh" and "dad" are clear.  Some other words are starting to get a distinct number of syllables though the letter sounds are all wrong!  For example, "tractor" this morning was "tmm-tmm."  "No" is a dramatic shaking of the head accompanied by a whole body whiplash and an unpleasant "Oh!" sound.

Below are some pictures of...just life!

Where there's a ball, there's a sister who will make up a game to play with it!

It's just another manic Monday...with spaghetti, though!

I'm full, Sis!



All right, Mom.  You always said you hoped my daughter someday would keep her room like I kept my room.  You got your wish!



Adam loves books, and Mommy loves it that Adam loves books!



Bear in Underpants

Abby spent the night out at Nana's, and when I went in her room this morning I found a stuffed bear wearing Snow White underpants, sitting at her art table and waiting for a project.

Adam's Words

"Kuh-kuh" [Cracker]: Make accessible the cookie, animal cracker, regular cracker, or toast in sight.

"AAAA-hmm" [Adam]:  Make accessible the object in sight that is not a cracker.

"Bahh" [Ball]

"Mama" [Mama]:  I am not happy; do something.

"Dah!" [Dad]:  Mama is not responding appropriately to me.

"Dintee" [Cindy]:  I am cheerful because I'm going to Cindy's and she gets my vocab better.

When My Glasses Fog Up...

Abby takes them from me and cleans them off with her shirt.  Then she gives them back and says, "Here, Mama."

Bedtime Prayer

"I'll - I'll pray.  Okay.  Dear God, we-we pray for Cindy's mom [daycare provider's mother who passed away from cancer in December] an - an - an for Grandma's Sandra's ducks [sly fox!] and we - we pray that I will have a good rest and that I - I will not bump into things when I'm walking and - and - in your ho-wee [holy] name we pray - amen."

"You Are Da Mudder"

There comes a time in every child's life when the counting begins:

"[Child's name], [insert command].  One.  Two.  Three."  On three, if [command] has not been followed, the consequence is given.  It's pretty black and white.

What's gray is deciding whether the child is ready for the counting.  Adam is walking that line right now.  His favorite time of day is when he's naked after his bath.  He tours from room to room, teases me by coming close, and then dashes away or crawls under his crib to chortle.

Tonight I lay out the towel, Baby Magic, diaper, and pajamas in his bedroom and called, "Adam!"

 He appeared around the corner immediately, tucked, and rolled himself out on the towel, perfectly centered.  I was so shocked that I marveled for a a few seconds, giving him time to roll and disappear, shrieking with laughter. 

Abby watched his gleeful exit and then lifted a finger to instruct.  Her eyes were solemn, advice-laden:  "Now...now...YOU are da mudder."

Max is Here!

Abby and I baked cupcakes in honor of the arrival of Max Kenneth, our friend Katie's (oh, and her husband's, too) new baby!  Welcome to the world, Max!  (The parents are Twins fans!)