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October 30, 2008

Little Bunny Foo Foo, you're next!

On Wednesdays, Jamie buys her lunch. Wednesdays are pizza day, and before she leaves for school, I go over the menu with her so I can impose my will and make her pick healthy side items. It usually comes down to fresh fruit, animal crackers, and either applesauce or "fruit cottontail."

Posted by me at 9:04 PM | Comments (0)

Jamie was working her ass off to keep him from yanking off the hood

Posted by me at 9:02 PM | Comments (0)

Poor me

NaBloPoMo starts on Saturday, and I'm totally unprepared. I haven't been posting as much lately, not because I don't have anything to say, but because I have other things to do. Sure, most of those other things involve TV, but dammit, I wanna watch my shows, now that they finally have new episodes again. This lack o' laptop is seriously cutting into my blogging time. And also my picture posting. And pretty much all the mindless things I used to do while I watched TV.

Maybe I could get just a wee flat screen for in my office? Ooh, and a little comfy couch! I could stay in here all day!

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October 29, 2008

Is my crown on straight?

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October 28, 2008

Moving up the ladder

I'm recovering from hosting Jamie's Daisy troop tonight. I'm ever amazed at how instantly comfortable kids you've never met before are with other people's things. It's like they truly believe that the whole world just belongs to them.

That said, the meeting went well. Jamie threw one little fit, and Katie lost it when she was left out of an activity, (but quickly recovered. Color me impressed.) but otherwise there were no tears, no blood, what needed to be accomplished was, and it only took me ten minutes to get the house back in order. Success, in my book.

And that success is somehow a little more important, now that I've been "promoted" to co-leader. Last Tuesday afternoon, the now-former co-leader called me to ask if I could step up. She was just too busy, and just couldn't get help with her younger two kids often enough to get things accomplished for the troop.

I feel her pain.

All of a sudden, what was going to be an hour or so every other week, plus some outings on the side, has become much more. And yet, I'm not all that upset about it. I had already sort of stuck my finger in the pie on my own. Besides, I like the leader, our daughters like each other, and friends are always welcome.

Someone remind me of all that before the next meeting, since it's going to be at my house again.

Posted by me at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

Gig 'em!

Posted by me at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2008

Saying goodbye to an old friend

I would have sworn I had a ton of pictures of him. In fact, I didn't bother to take more pictures of him the last time we visited because it felt like I had a million pictures of the same thing. Now I'm wishing I had gotten just one more good picture of my old friend.

He taught me how to ride. How to stand up for myself. How to be free.

He was stubborn and lazy and he followed my dad around like a dog. He liked beer and hated being alone in his pasture, no matter how short the time. Just when you were starting to think riding him was boring, he'd throw in a little buck to wake you up.

I trusted him with my babies.

There are a lot of people who think that a horse just can't live without a barn and a fancy bedded stall and twice a day meals. Loot lived in a pasture with nothing more than a shed to block the weather, hay in the winter if the pasture was bare, and grain to put some weight on him when he got older, for the last 23 years of his life. He wasn't exactly free, but he had an easy, relaxed life, at least while he was ours.

I knew he could go at any time. He was old. And not just approaching the end of your average horse's lifespan old. Really old. Dad and I can never agree if he was my age or a year younger. We've had him since I was 10.

I thought he was going to live forever.

Posted by me at 9:46 PM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2008

Good grief, I'm getting sappy

Today was pumpkin day. Seriously, pretty much all day.

First, Jamie had her first field trip. The entire Kindergarten went to a pumpkin patch/petting zoo nearby. It about melted my cold, dead heart when she told me her favorite part of today was me going along. And I have to say, I pretty much love everything about her being in school, and not just because it gives me a break. Her teacher says nothing but wonderful things about her, she's ahead of the curriculum but still learning more every day, she seems to be a friend of and friends with just about every girl in the class (and even some boys!), and she's picking up a lot of good (and naturally some bad) habits and skills from the other kids. It's such a wonder to me to see a couple of the other girls in her class jockeying to sit next to her.

I left Jamie's trip a little bit early so that I could swing by the house and have lunch with Rex and feed the boy before I headed to Katie's pumpkin-patch-that-wasn't. Oddly, Owen was asleep when I got home, and was still sleeping when I left. In fact, he didn't wake up until a couple minutes before Katie and I got home. I'm hoping he's growing and not saving up to make tonight a living hell.

Anyway, last year the church that runs the preschool had a huge pile of pumpkins that they sold to the public. One day, they took the kids out for a "field trip" that included a story, talking about where pumpkins come from, what's inside, etc. and then they got to pick out a pumpkin. I went to help out with that, and of course had Katie with me. This year, apparently the church decided not to have the big patch, but the activity was still written in on Katie's calendar. Assuming they had something biggish planned, we hyped it a bit to Katie, and one of us planned to show up to watch or whatever.

Turns out, the big deal was sitting outside and talking for five minutes about pumpkins, then they each got to pick out a tiny little gourd. I was the only parent there, but Katie loved that I was with her, I took pictures and helped out a little, and I got to see a little bit of her day. In spite of the "pumpkin patch" activity being pretty much a bust, Katie was just as happy about the whole thing as if she had gone on a real field trip. In fact, the favorite part of her day was me visiting her at school.

The favorite part of my day?

Being the favorite part of theirs.

Posted by me at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

The only reason I keep most of the Tupperware around

Posted by me at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2008

Ready for his close up

Posted by me at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

I'm going to smell like curdled milk forever

We went out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory on Saturday, and I got this chicken dish that was totally the YUM. It came with mashed potatoes, and I'm trying to get Owen a little more used to doing more than hoovering down pureed foods, so gave him a few nibbles of mashed potatoes (yes, I know that's close to the same thing. But these had flavor.) He kept opening his mouth and taking them in, so I thought he's eaten a fair amount until I got him out of the chair and found half a potato under his butt.

I also made the mistake of giving him a taste of the whipped cream off the piece of cheesecake we all shared. He got absolutely frantic if I didn't shove more in fast enough, and didn't let a bit of it escape. Well, not until he barfed some of it up later.

Posted by me at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)

They DO hear me!

Katie's blowing raspberries.

"You should only fart in the bathroom, mouth!"

Posted by me at 9:40 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Before lunch, Katie wanted to spray her hand with some "Hand santatizer" Exactly what do Santa hands look like, anyway?

Posted by me at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2008

Eew

If I were anyone else, I'd be required to wear a HAZMAT suit to handle all the biologicals I deal with in just one morning. As it is, I can't believe I haven't been asked to leave Target and escorted out by men in rubber suits.

Posted by me at 9:21 PM | Comments (0)

Grin

Posted by me at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2008

Take that!

I took Jamie to her second Daisy meeting tonight, and on our way home (30 minutes later than planned!) I passed by my husband and the other two kids standing around in the cul-de-sac talking to the neighbors. Jamie and I hadn't had dinner yet, but I'm more starved for adult conversation these days than food, so I whipped a 180 and got out to talk.

I'm finding so many families around us that I am actually enjoying. They have kids the same age as mine. The parents think my baby is cute. They share in the angst and fun of parenting. I'm starting to feel like I belong. Also, one of the neighbors is a councilman, and he confirmed the coming of a Taco Bell. Warm fuzzies all over.

Also, they corroborated my neighbor stories to the T in front of Rex, and now he can't escape the fact the it's not just me. Vindication!

Posted by me at 9:52 PM | Comments (0)

Princess

Posted by me at 1:23 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2008

A long one

Saturday night, Owen slept for eight hours straight for the first time since the night we attended our street's block party.

That was in May.

After I fed him at 4am, he went back to sleep and then was up for a little around 6, then slept until 8. I haven't had that much sleep since he was born. In fact, I was so not exhausted when I went to bed last night I was wondering if I would be able to fall asleep.

I wasn't, but it wasn't because I was overrested, it was because Owen was up at least half a dozen times between 11 and 6. I'm back to being irritable and grouchy and unproductive. Go me.

The day wasn't a total bust. I taught the girls The Name Game this morning at breakfast, and managed to get some great shots of all three kids together.

Still, I could go for a nap.

Posted by me at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)

I finally got a threefer

Posted by me at 9:51 PM | Comments (1)

Lost in translation

Every now and then when I'm feeling rich, I buy one of the Simply juices. The lemonade is fantastic, but nothing beats the apple. I commented to Rex within hearing range of the girls that that it tastes like the apple cider that my dad used to bring home when I was a kid.

Katie and I were cruising through WalMart the other day, and I picked up another jug. After all, the stock market had only dropped a thousand or so points that morning, we must be rolling in dough. Katie got all excited, telling me about how much she loves the "apple slicers." It was too cute to correct her.

Posted by me at 9:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 8, 2008

STOP! It's too soon!

Posted by me at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)

October 6, 2008

Looking younger than his years

Posted by me at 9:11 PM | Comments (0)

Last firsts

Owen decided that yesterday would be a good day to show off.

He started off by showing up with his very first tooth. Strangely, it caught me completely by surprise. There was no "Ahh, that's why he's been so cranky" moment, no bumps or blisters or signs. Saturday, there was no tooth, Sunday, a tooth. Hopefully all his teeth will come in with so little fanfare. (Unless his mouthing and gnawing everything under the sun was a sign of teeth, in which case we had four months of crappy teething, which is unlikely to stop anytime soon. I like the easy teether version better, even if it's all a beautiful lie.)

Next, he decided to cross rolling back to front off his list. Finally. Considering how active and coordinated he is, I can't believe he took this long. Frankly, I think it was all my fault, because when he would get stuck on his back and fuss, I'd roll him back over to his belly. I'm sure he really didn't see the point of taking care of it on his own. Does that mean I can chalk his lack of motivation up to genius? Why work when Mama can take care of it for you? He rolled three times over the afternoon, so I know this wasn't a one time fluke, although I think he would still prefer I take care of it for him. I mean, after all, I wipe his ass, I should be happy to just have to give him a little shove every now and then, right?

The most worrisome thing he did yesterday was push up onto his hands and knees and get his belly off the floor. That happened sort of suddenly, too, like the sitting, where one day you could kind of prop him in the position, and the next day he's just all taking care of it on his own. The difference is that sitting is a nice thing, it means I can put him down to do stuff, like, say, pee, and not have to wonder what I just set his face in. This pushing up thing, though, that means I have to start wondering where he's going and what he's eating while I pee. Hell, I'm going to have to start cleaning under the kitchen table. That right there is a full time job.

All in all, I'm fairly excited to see Owen grow and develop. Sure, I get a little teary to think that these are the last firsts I'm going to see, but there's so much to look forward to. I can't wait til next year when he and I will be able to participate in trips to the pool and the beach and not just be sitting on the sidelines, nursing and metabolizing.

Now someone just needs to tell Owen that it doesn't all have to be done in one day. After a day full of firsts, Owen kept me up half of last night practicing his new skills.

Posted by me at 8:50 PM | Comments (0)

October 5, 2008

The last of the gummy grins

Posted by me at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2008

Or both

Rex and I took Katie out to lunch today, and let her choose the restaurant. It was no big shocker that she wanted to eat at Chick-fil-A, although I was expecting her to say McDonald's. According to her, though, McDonald's is Jamie's favorite, she prefers the Chick.

Sadly, neither of those choices is a hardship for Rex or I. Neither one of us has outgrown our love of fast food, although we've matured enough to prefer certain foods at certain places. You know, the fries at McDonalds, the chicken sandwich at CFA, the vanilla Coke at Sonic. Rex has been known to make multiple stops to pick up our late night snack.

So anyway, we're sitting at a booth watching Katie have a little chicken with her mayo and shoving Cheerios down Owen's gullet, and Rex comments that if he had to make a list of five meals that if he had to, he could eat for the rest of his life, the Chicken Sandwich/Waffle Fry/Coke combo would totally be on his list.

That's right, folks. We don't have a sex list, a la Friends, we apparently have a food list. It's a wonder Rex and I aren't 500 pounds apiece. He qualified that the meals had to come from restaurants so he wouldn't get in trouble for not wanting anything I cook, and then he mostly picked fast food stuff. I thought that was kinda sad, until I realized that we don't really eat at nice places, even when we have the time and a dearth of children.

So his were the CFA meal, Alice Springs Chicken from Outback, something from Sonic with a vanilla Coke, Peproni Rolls (no, that isn't a typo) from Double Dave's and the Chimichanga that ironically he almost never orders from Chili Gordos. I pretty much froze like a deer in headlights when he put me on the spot, but I did come up with BLT/vanilla Coke at Sonic (see a theme here?), a nice filet meal from Outback or Saltgrass, the giant fondue extravaganza from The Melting Pot, and pretty much any good cheeseburger/chicken sandwich with mayo, lettuce and tomato. Like I told Rex, I like me some meat on a bun.

So, what would be on your list? Food, or sex?

Posted by me at 9:35 PM | Comments (3)

"Finger" painting

Posted by me at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)