Wishing everyone love and happiness today.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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Our day – as heard by the downstairs neighbors.
I don’t know how much the downstairs neighbors really hear, but I have a feeling that this is what it may have sounded like down there for the first part of today…
5am
Waaaaaaahhhh! MaaaaMaaaa! (Addie’s wake-up call.)
Stomp, stomp, stomp. (Me – begrudgingly going in to figure out what the problem is.)
Milk? Miiilk? Miiilllkk! (Obviously, what the problem was.)
5:30am
Creak, creeeeak, creak. (Me – returning Addie to her crib for some more zzzz’s. There is a very creaky floorboard right in front of their room that I step on, no matter how I try to avoid it.)
5:40am
Scratch, scratch, scratch. Scratch…..scratch. (Apparently Tiger thought if she continued to scratch in the litterbox it would miraculously produce more litter and properly cover her poop. They really did need new litter, so that one is my fault.)
5:55am
Sigh. Creeping and a little more sighing. (After listening to Tiger for 15 minutes, I decided it really wasn’t even worth going back to sleep, and I went out to check email and finish our taxes.)
7:00am
Running water, pitter patter, “Good morning, Mama. I need juice, please.” (J. – shower, Em getting up and requiring her shot of morning juice – she is almost as bad as a coffee addict with her apple juice.)
7:01am
Whining….”but I need some!” (Was not able to replenish our juice supply yesterday, apple juice addict…NOT happy!)
7:30am
More crying. (Addie didn’t wake up very happy today.)
Tromp, tromp, tromp. (J. going downstairs to work.)
Tap, tap, TAP! (My happy dance – my project is finally completed!!)
8:00am
A little whining. (Nobody is happy with the slightly sparse breakfast options. Really, really need to grocery shop.)
8:10am
Crash! Thud. (Addie shows displeasure with breakfast option and “moves” it to the floor.)
8:15am
Vacuuuuummmm. (Breakfast leavings and cat hair – maybe a few dust bunnies, too.)
8:20-9:30am
Stomp, stomp, stomp….screech. Stomp, stomp, stomp. Then repeat. (Girls chasing each other, Me chasing girls trying to get them dressed. Girls chasing cats.)
9:45am
STOMP, stomp, stomp…also repeated – thirteen more times. (Moving the chaos down the stairs so we can run errands – YES, grocery shopping is one of them.)
10:00-11:30am
Blissful peace and quiet. (We were still gone on the errands.)
11:30am-12pm
STOMP, stomp, stomp…thirteen more times. And then times four. (We are back home, going back upstairs – and I did 4 trips to get all of the groceries – and cat litter! – up into the house.)
Running, shrieking. (More playing, more chasing them trying to get them fed and clothed and back out the door.)
Sizzling and boiling. (Also prepared lasagna to throw in oven for dinner.)
Vacuuming. (Again. Another dissatisfied customer. This time it was lunch.)
12:00pm
Stomping…yet again. (Back downstairs for dance class)
1:00pm
Stomping….(Weeee’re baaack!)
1:30pm
Ding dong. (Denise! Sweet, sweet Denise is here!)
1:45pm
Joyful fleeing. No stomping…only light steps on the staircase. (Me. Escaping for the afternoon. Really I shouldn’t feel this happy to go work, drop dry cleaning, house hunt, and go to the gym – right??)
Our poor neighbors. We keep plying them with cookies on every occasion. But I really don’t think it is enough.
And that was only the first half of the day. The afternoon and evenings are SO much more fun!
Photos of the Day
How can this much sweetness (times 2!) create so much chaos in one household??
I didn’t forget…
Yes, I remembered that it was A.’s 17-month “birthday” a few days ago. And I have been trying, like I do monthly for her, to put together the little birthday letter. I’ve been trying for the past three days. But truth be told, I am completely exhausted by our little A-kins lately. You know when your Momma always said, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all…”
…Well, I am feeling very hard-pressed these past few days to find “nice” things to write about A.
So, I am going to skip this month and just write on her 18-month birthday. That is a much more important month anyhow – and I’m praying that her crankiness will have passed by then. Yeah, I know it is probably wishful thinking – but at least her ear infections, colds, and teething might have passed.
Then we can just try to deal with the “nearly 2-year old” attitude.
I’m an official “soccer mom”
I am now a station-wagon driving, stay-at-home, soon-to-be carpooling, soccer mom.
We spent the better part of the weekend buying a new car. Our beloved Durango is/was making some crazy “suspension-like” problem sounds. So instead of putting yet more cash into the truck, we decided to call it quits. It has been a good vehicle, but it is starting to get to the point that stuff is going to start going on it and we’ll just be pouring more money put into it. Since we had already put over $3K into it in the last 6 months (and that was just air conditioning problems!) we decided to get out while we were still (kind of) ahead.
So we shopped online and Jamie negotioated a killer deal on a new Volvo stationwagon. I’m so very excited about it. We pick it up tomorrow. Emma still doesn’t quite understand what is happening even though we keep telling her that we are getting a new car. J. said it is kind of weird to be sentimental over a car, but it really is the only car that E. and A. have known.
I’m sure as long as the DVD player and Nemo (Me-mo, Mee-mo, MEEE-MO!) make it into the new car the girls will be happy in the new car, too.
Reason #33 To Keep A Change of Clothing in the Car…
…Because your daughter might go head-first into a fountain and soak every inch of her clothing (and yours – as you fish her out).
Soaked!
When you ask her if she fell into the fountain, she laughs and says “Wet!”
And Emma keeps saying “Mom, remember when Addie fell in the water? That was so funny.”
It was I guess…after the fact. But still, not one of my finest parenting moments. In my defense, I was right there next to her. It was just the inertia from her top half toppled her in before I could grab any part of her and stop it from happening.
I will say the swimming lessons are paying off, she barely even skipped a beat or seemed too bothered by it.
Shop, shop, shopping
Ordinarily, shopping would bring me great joy and happiness. However, I am not only in the midst of preschool shopping, but it appears that we are now home shopping, as well.
Our first preschool visit this morning went very well. Emma is going to be a stellar student, I can tell already. She jumped right into the classroom like she had been going to school for years. I really loved the school, but it made me very antsy. There is so much depending on if they like us well enough to move us to the top of the waitlist – and I really, really want her to go there. So we need to register and hope for the best. We have a few more schools to tour also, but I am holding out hope for this one.
The home shopping is going to be much more difficult, I am afraid. Due to our situation here (with the new neighbor dog) we are planning on moving out. It breaks my heart, really it does. I love our place. I love our neighborhood and location. And I love most of our neighbors. Just quickly looking through the real estate ads was very depressing this afternoon. There just aren’t many places available that compare to ours.
To think last week Kimmer and I were shopping for cute little girl sundresses and flip flops, that was so much more fun.
Meet Temper Tantrum Sally
Yes, in case you haven’t met Temper Tantrum Sally…allow me to introduce you to her. It seems our little Addie has a temper. I guess you can call it a “terrible 2’s-type” temper. She hates to be told no, she is very vocal, and completely relentless. Why tell me “no, thank you” when you can throw yourself down on the floor and wail, “NO, NO, NO” at the top of your lungs?
It is just a phase. This too shall pass, right? It was only 2 years ago…how come I cannot remember Emma’s? Must be that “Mommy amnesia thing.”
At any rate, here is a pic of us enjoying our sunshine yesterday…happier times.
And a shot of us with Kimmer! We had so much fun having her here. I was especially sad to see her go. We escaped for a lovely “Mommy night away” on Saturday. It was so much fun.
But all good things have to come to an end. Today it was back to the grind. A few more days til J. comes back, I am counting the minutes. It looks like we may be looking for a new place to live this weekend on top of everything else. Our management team doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the dog moving in…and doesn’t seem to care that we are threatening to move out. Maybe it is a ploy to get us (and the noisy kids!) out of the apartment? Hmmm….
Small Change
My friend Kimmer has been here since Thursday and we have been having so much fun…I haven’t been able to post. But I’m back and I have a challenge for all of you…so, listen up!
I had been trying to figure out a way to do some sort of volunteering or becoming involved in something that would set a good example for Emma and help her on the road to becoming a charitable and concerned citizen of the world. A favorite blogger of mine, Beth, offered up this challenge to all of her readers and it was exactly what I had been looking for, so I accepted the challenge. I hope you will as well.
Beth is calling it “Small Change” and it is essentially just doing one thing a month for a child other than your own. Our task this month (before the 14th of February) is below. I will post our contribution by the end of the week, we are still working on which child (or children!) we are going to send something to.
Monthly Challenge
This month’s challenge is to send a get-well card to a sick kid. You can buy a card, make a card, sit your kids down with a pile of construction paper and crayons and glitter glue and put them to work, whatever. You can do this really easily through Make a Child Smile. Think you can do a little more? Send a gift instead of a card. Or, check out your local Children’s Hospital (you can search by state and get links to websites here) and find out if they take cards or gifts for the kids. (This was was “borrowed” Beth’s site. Click to read the whole blog about Small Change.)
What a cool way to make a difference, huh? And you know, it is for kids!
Hop to it…and send me an email or pictures of anything you might do if you accept the challenge so I can post them!
Window Gazing
I was trying to eavesdrop this morning to hear what the girls were talking about while they were lying on the floor looking out the window. I didn’t catch any of it really except when one of Addie’s toys started mysteriously making noise from the living room. Then I heard Emma tell Addie that our house is “a-haunted!”
But here they are just chillin’…
Apparently they found what they were looking for…
