Happy Birthday to you! Sorry the day was marred by sickness, etc, but I hope it ended up somewhat salvagable. I love you, my dear, and hope for the best for you this next year. You're a wonderful sister and I'm so blessed and lucky to have you in my life. Thanks for always being there for me and our family....and for your moral support through this past year.
May your days be merry and bright, and may none of your hairs be white!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Go for the Gold!
So I've been watching the Winter Olympics a lot for the past few days...maybe not quite as thrilling as the Summer ones, but they certainly have their moments. Like did you catch the men's & women's Mogul skiing? They all have to wear a blonde toupe and yell "You're FIRED" when they cross the finish line. Ha ha, I slay me.
No, really...it was full of drama. For the uninitiated: Canada is hosting the Olympics, and they've never had a gold medal on their own turf. So it looked really good for the women's Moguls, they were one competitor away and their Canadian lady had done really well, when along came the last one to ski, an American, and knocked it out of the ballpark. Everyone was really dissapointed. But then the men's Moguls came along and a Canadian won over some Australian jockstrap, the favorite to win, who was...get this...ACTUALLY CANDADIAN but defected to the Australian team when they wouldn't let him run his INTERNET SPAM BUSINESS on the side of, like, training for the Olympics. I was pretty gratified. Chalk one up for Karma, eh?
Anyway...I got to thinking the other day...they should TOTALLY have the Housewife Olympics. And the event that I would medal in would be: putting the sleeping baby down on the bed. Awesome. It would go something like this:
First Sportscaster: (whispering): And she gets in position for the first element, lowering the infant. Could be a little early, here....
Second Sportscaster: Yes, timing is everything in this sport. If it's not completely asleep....aannnd there she goes! A little early, but she nails it. This housewife in particular has terrific instincts, and seems to be able to get away with doing things on her own timetable.
Second: The baby is down. Note the terrific control in the seamless descent from arms to bed.
First: Doss is particularly known for the stomach lay, which we saw her execute several times during the practice runs. It's where she keeps the core temperature of the baby stable by maintaing stomach contact, essentially laying on the baby, as she withdraws her hands from under it, the difficult second element. Very hard to execute, especially with the weight that Doss is carrying.
Second: Yes, but she seems to have a real feel for it.
First:
Second:
First: I would like to point out at this juncture that "luge" is one of the few words that rhymes with "booje".
Second:
First: Just saying.
Second: (whispering even lower): As you can see, the baby is moving a little. Ah, it's still......
First: No, I saw a hand.
Second: Oh! A gutsy move by Doss! She attempts the Right handed withdrawl WHILE THE BABY IS MOVING. This is one tough competitor!
First: No doubt about that. And here we see the genius of the stomach lay....both hands have been withdrawn and the baby still thinks that the mother is there, because she still feels the warmth...and Doss slowly stands up....
Second: This is the tricky bit...if you do it too early all is lost......................................wait for it............
Second: She nails it! The child is motionless! She wraps it up with the last element, the blanket cover, and out of the room she goes.....careful not to click the room's door too loud.....ANNNDDD SHE'S OUT! A SPECTACULAR RUN BY DOSS! This is a gold-winning performance for sure!
(Crowd goes wild, waking the baby)
Right? Can I get an amen from all mothers everywhere who have learned the exact way to put their baby down? It's a delicate science. Not just anyone can do it.
Anyway, you should really watch the Olympics. Not only is is a culturally enriching experience, but it's even got some extra-curricular stuff that's pretty....titillating. When Mr. Canada won the Men's Moguls, after a TV interview was done, the camera caught him turning around, face into some blonde bombshell, who proceeded to STICK HER TONGUE DOWN HIS THROAT without even so much as a how'dy do. It was like, Blah blah blah, turn, BAM! PORNO! Phew!
Happy Valentines Day, eh.
No, really...it was full of drama. For the uninitiated: Canada is hosting the Olympics, and they've never had a gold medal on their own turf. So it looked really good for the women's Moguls, they were one competitor away and their Canadian lady had done really well, when along came the last one to ski, an American, and knocked it out of the ballpark. Everyone was really dissapointed. But then the men's Moguls came along and a Canadian won over some Australian jockstrap, the favorite to win, who was...get this...ACTUALLY CANDADIAN but defected to the Australian team when they wouldn't let him run his INTERNET SPAM BUSINESS on the side of, like, training for the Olympics. I was pretty gratified. Chalk one up for Karma, eh?
Anyway...I got to thinking the other day...they should TOTALLY have the Housewife Olympics. And the event that I would medal in would be: putting the sleeping baby down on the bed. Awesome. It would go something like this:
First Sportscaster: (whispering): And she gets in position for the first element, lowering the infant. Could be a little early, here....
Second Sportscaster: Yes, timing is everything in this sport. If it's not completely asleep....aannnd there she goes! A little early, but she nails it. This housewife in particular has terrific instincts, and seems to be able to get away with doing things on her own timetable.
Second: The baby is down. Note the terrific control in the seamless descent from arms to bed.
First: Doss is particularly known for the stomach lay, which we saw her execute several times during the practice runs. It's where she keeps the core temperature of the baby stable by maintaing stomach contact, essentially laying on the baby, as she withdraws her hands from under it, the difficult second element. Very hard to execute, especially with the weight that Doss is carrying.
Second: Yes, but she seems to have a real feel for it.
First:
Second:
First: I would like to point out at this juncture that "luge" is one of the few words that rhymes with "booje".
Second:
First: Just saying.
Second: (whispering even lower): As you can see, the baby is moving a little. Ah, it's still......
First: No, I saw a hand.
Second: Oh! A gutsy move by Doss! She attempts the Right handed withdrawl WHILE THE BABY IS MOVING. This is one tough competitor!
First: No doubt about that. And here we see the genius of the stomach lay....both hands have been withdrawn and the baby still thinks that the mother is there, because she still feels the warmth...and Doss slowly stands up....
Second: This is the tricky bit...if you do it too early all is lost......................................wait for it............
Second: She nails it! The child is motionless! She wraps it up with the last element, the blanket cover, and out of the room she goes.....careful not to click the room's door too loud.....ANNNDDD SHE'S OUT! A SPECTACULAR RUN BY DOSS! This is a gold-winning performance for sure!
(Crowd goes wild, waking the baby)
Right? Can I get an amen from all mothers everywhere who have learned the exact way to put their baby down? It's a delicate science. Not just anyone can do it.
Anyway, you should really watch the Olympics. Not only is is a culturally enriching experience, but it's even got some extra-curricular stuff that's pretty....titillating. When Mr. Canada won the Men's Moguls, after a TV interview was done, the camera caught him turning around, face into some blonde bombshell, who proceeded to STICK HER TONGUE DOWN HIS THROAT without even so much as a how'dy do. It was like, Blah blah blah, turn, BAM! PORNO! Phew!
Happy Valentines Day, eh.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A long catch up post
So Happy New Year! It's 2010! Quite frankly, I'm surprised I lived to see this year...this year seems "sci-fi-ish"...I feel that we should all be getting places by personal rocket pack jets strapped to our butts or commuting to work via some transporter which emails your molecules to Tokyo and back in a nano-second, or something. At LEAST we should all have zero body fat (because we take the magic zero-body-fat-pill every day, of course) and should be wearing maroon onesies as the new business-casual, a-la Startrek. Sigh.
(By the way, I think somebody forgot to inform Jennifer "Cameltoe" Lopez that onesies are still only acceptable fashion for babies, if you know what I mean. She showed up in some VERY strange gear for her performance at the ball-drop in NY city over the New Year.
Klassy, with a capital K.)
Anyhoo, here we are, back to the future, looking and feeling exactly the same as ever, give or take the 30+ pounds we gained over the holidays. And when I say we, I mean I. It's VERY bad. We are at orange on the terrorist-holiday-weight-gain-o-meter, and may possibly be travelling very soon into the red zone, depending on the availablity of funds for glazed Starbucks' donuts this weekend. I'll keep you posted.
So my Christmas, in a nutshell:
Christmas Eve I posted about the snow, and then Bikki arrived for Christmas! Yay! We jawed for hours and then went to sleep....ha ha ha. Nikki went to sleep and I proceeded to stay up ALL NIGHT LONG. Why? Because Jeff, in a fit of genius, decided to volunteer for all night duty on Christmas Eve so that he could have it guaranteed that next Christmas he will be off-duty. It's a work-one-year, get-next-year-off sort of deal with holidays at his new company.
The reason this kept me up all night is because we have sort of unusual sleeping arrangements at our house...every living being in it sleeps on the same King-sized bed. Jeff acts as a sort of human barrier against the onslaughts of Dillon in the night, so that he doesn't squash Zoe accidentally. It sounds prehistoric and uncivilized, but it really works quite well, usually. Except when YOUR HUSBAND DECIDES TO BE GONE ALL NIGHT CHRISTMAS EVE LIKE SANTA AND THEN YOU'RE STUCK FENDING OFF THE TODDLER AS HE LUNGES AT YOU, IN INTERVALS, ALL NIGHT LONG. Whew! Got that out of my system. Excuse me.
Oh but seriously, I really was up all night. Dilly has this fixation for....I was going to say cuddling, but it's really a whole new world BEYOND cuddling....more like smooshing. He has to be smooshed up against a parent at all times or his interal 'smooshing' alarm goes off and he wakes up. So I ended up checking on Jeff at about 3 hour intervals all night long, to ensure he was ok...he was worried about being able to keep it together on the job all night long. He did great, and we got through Christmas day ok too...Jeff took a little nap and I ran on vast amounts of coffee and sugar all day long. We had Richard and Sunny over for the dinner as well, which was nice...it's always more festive when you have guests.
Then, on the 26th, hot on the heels of Nikka, Paula (MIL) came with Jeff's nephew Bradley to spend about 2 weeks! FUN! We packed a lot into those 2 weeks, it seems...I think it was because it was the first real 'vacation' we've had since Jeff lost his job, and although we went places together as a family while he was unemployed, and had fun doing it, it was tres stressful, and we really couldn't relax or "vacay" the way you want to. Stressing over how much money you spend is not relaxing. So Jeff got all this time off (the first time since we've been married that he's been able to take time off at this time of year...thank you Atmos Energy!) and we went to all sorts of places with Paula & Bradley: a science museum, which was TERRIFIC for kids, every room just filled with interactive play & learning stuff for young children. We were very impressed and will surely take the kids back there. It's funny...it's a terrific place for young kids, but if you're older and are going there to actually learn about science, it's really not so informative. Example: there's this super-high end room full of displays of these life-sized dwellings from hundreds of years ago, people that lived in the Waco area. Wax figures, you name it. And you go up to this neato full-sized grass hut they built, and the sign under it says something like: "Women traditionally built these huts while the men went out hunting." Aha. Women. Which women? English women? American Indian? Martian, perhaps? There is no indication at all. They spent all this money on the displays and not very much on the explanations. Ha.
He's begun saying and doing some seriously cute things, but this is the only one I can think of right now: We often listen to christian music, specifically this one song that starts:
"We fall down, we lay our crowns,
At the feet of Jesus".
Well, this song is somewhat of a favorite with the boys, and they both have sung it in their own special ways. Noah once sang it:
"We fall down, we lay around.....
At the feet of Jesus."
And Dilly recently sang only the first line over and over in his little falsetto, thusly:
"We fall down,
We lay we's self"
Zoe:
She, obviously, isn't talking yet, but is getting very fat and adorkable. She enjoys growling and sometimes does it for minutes at a time, entertaining her little self. Like a little bear or something. Also, she's a big finger sucker and will, when she's nursing, bring her little hand up to her face, and the fingers creep up to her mouth, and then she proceeds to stealthily insert a finger in with the booje, and see if she can suck both at the same time. Then, of course, the boob falls out of her mouth, and she looks at it with surprise and dismay. So I put it back in and she starts all over again. Nobel prize, here we come!
Have a great day, folks. This is a great day for us...old and painful things are passed and over, and we can get on with our lives.
Bless.
(By the way, I think somebody forgot to inform Jennifer "Cameltoe" Lopez that onesies are still only acceptable fashion for babies, if you know what I mean. She showed up in some VERY strange gear for her performance at the ball-drop in NY city over the New Year.
Klassy, with a capital K.)
Anyhoo, here we are, back to the future, looking and feeling exactly the same as ever, give or take the 30+ pounds we gained over the holidays. And when I say we, I mean I. It's VERY bad. We are at orange on the terrorist-holiday-weight-gain-o-meter, and may possibly be travelling very soon into the red zone, depending on the availablity of funds for glazed Starbucks' donuts this weekend. I'll keep you posted.
So my Christmas, in a nutshell:
Christmas Eve I posted about the snow, and then Bikki arrived for Christmas! Yay! We jawed for hours and then went to sleep....ha ha ha. Nikki went to sleep and I proceeded to stay up ALL NIGHT LONG. Why? Because Jeff, in a fit of genius, decided to volunteer for all night duty on Christmas Eve so that he could have it guaranteed that next Christmas he will be off-duty. It's a work-one-year, get-next-year-off sort of deal with holidays at his new company.
The reason this kept me up all night is because we have sort of unusual sleeping arrangements at our house...every living being in it sleeps on the same King-sized bed. Jeff acts as a sort of human barrier against the onslaughts of Dillon in the night, so that he doesn't squash Zoe accidentally. It sounds prehistoric and uncivilized, but it really works quite well, usually. Except when YOUR HUSBAND DECIDES TO BE GONE ALL NIGHT CHRISTMAS EVE LIKE SANTA AND THEN YOU'RE STUCK FENDING OFF THE TODDLER AS HE LUNGES AT YOU, IN INTERVALS, ALL NIGHT LONG. Whew! Got that out of my system. Excuse me.
Oh but seriously, I really was up all night. Dilly has this fixation for....I was going to say cuddling, but it's really a whole new world BEYOND cuddling....more like smooshing. He has to be smooshed up against a parent at all times or his interal 'smooshing' alarm goes off and he wakes up. So I ended up checking on Jeff at about 3 hour intervals all night long, to ensure he was ok...he was worried about being able to keep it together on the job all night long. He did great, and we got through Christmas day ok too...Jeff took a little nap and I ran on vast amounts of coffee and sugar all day long. We had Richard and Sunny over for the dinner as well, which was nice...it's always more festive when you have guests.
Then, on the 26th, hot on the heels of Nikka, Paula (MIL) came with Jeff's nephew Bradley to spend about 2 weeks! FUN! We packed a lot into those 2 weeks, it seems...I think it was because it was the first real 'vacation' we've had since Jeff lost his job, and although we went places together as a family while he was unemployed, and had fun doing it, it was tres stressful, and we really couldn't relax or "vacay" the way you want to. Stressing over how much money you spend is not relaxing. So Jeff got all this time off (the first time since we've been married that he's been able to take time off at this time of year...thank you Atmos Energy!) and we went to all sorts of places with Paula & Bradley: a science museum, which was TERRIFIC for kids, every room just filled with interactive play & learning stuff for young children. We were very impressed and will surely take the kids back there. It's funny...it's a terrific place for young kids, but if you're older and are going there to actually learn about science, it's really not so informative. Example: there's this super-high end room full of displays of these life-sized dwellings from hundreds of years ago, people that lived in the Waco area. Wax figures, you name it. And you go up to this neato full-sized grass hut they built, and the sign under it says something like: "Women traditionally built these huts while the men went out hunting." Aha. Women. Which women? English women? American Indian? Martian, perhaps? There is no indication at all. They spent all this money on the displays and not very much on the explanations. Ha.
Funny story: at the very end of the museum displays, there's this one that shows (people) dummies dressed in all sorts of different gear for different jobs, like fireman, police man, nurse, etc, and the display is showing how people do these jobs. Well Bradley (5) looks at these and exclaims with horror: "Look, they killed these people and dressed them up & put them here!" He thought because some of the animals in the other displays were stuffed, that they had done the same to the people.
What else? Jeff and I got to go out together (thanks, Paula!) to dinner and a movie on New Year's Eve. We saw Avatar, which was awesome...totally worth it, and a must-see on the big screen, in my opinion. We ate at this little Mexican place and I had...wait for it...a MARGARITA! Stop laughing, Adrianne. While YOU may drink alcohol with a dinner out without batting a false eyelash, I haven't been able to do it for years....I've been pregnant or nursing for over 4 years now. Like a moo-cow. Just call me Bessie.
But back to my story...we ended up just having a wonderful time with Paula, doing some shopping, eating out, going to parks with the kids, etc. And on the last day she was here we celebrated Dillon's 2nd birthday 2 days early, but who's counting when you're that young, right? We went to Chuck E Cheese, of course, and had the place all to ourselves cuz it was a week day. Then we went home and set things up while Dilly napped and when he woke up we did cake & presents... said presents mostly of the ball game variety, as Dilly is very into balls. He got a small plastic basket ball set, a kid's soccer goal & ball, and a few other sundries from his parents, and Grandma got him his first tricycle! A good haul. He's growing up so fast.
So thanks for visiting Paula & Becca, we loved seeing you! Next on the visiting roster: Christopher & Sarah! Horray! Will update when they come.
Wow, this is a long post. You have to understand that I've been writing this post for over a week, because I had a lot to say and NO BLOODY TIME for anything anymore. That's what happens when your baby is 5 months old and not sleeping as much anymore, and everyone wants a piece of you every minute of the day. And yet, it's funny, I find myself increasingly content with my lot right now, with the realisation that it won't last forever and I may miss this time when they're cute and cuddly and sweet...probably in about 10 years when they're teens. I love my little family so much, and I've been thinking recently that many of my childhood dreams have come true for me already in my life. And if that doesn't make me lucky, I don't know what does.
I will leave you now with entertainment from the little people:
Noah:
Recently he found this thing...it's a part of one of their toys, I can't really describe it, just a long plastic thing. He holds it up like the statue of liberty and says, VERY SERIOUSLY and with much gravitas:
"The fortunes are stachiels* and the ones that show proudly, and wisely, like a king. Also prancing. " And he proceeded to prance around still holding up his plastic thingie. Proudly and wisely, like a king.
*statues
He's begun saying and doing some seriously cute things, but this is the only one I can think of right now: We often listen to christian music, specifically this one song that starts:
"We fall down, we lay our crowns,
At the feet of Jesus".
Well, this song is somewhat of a favorite with the boys, and they both have sung it in their own special ways. Noah once sang it:
"We fall down, we lay around.....
At the feet of Jesus."
And Dilly recently sang only the first line over and over in his little falsetto, thusly:
"We fall down,
We lay we's self"
Zoe:
She, obviously, isn't talking yet, but is getting very fat and adorkable. She enjoys growling and sometimes does it for minutes at a time, entertaining her little self. Like a little bear or something. Also, she's a big finger sucker and will, when she's nursing, bring her little hand up to her face, and the fingers creep up to her mouth, and then she proceeds to stealthily insert a finger in with the booje, and see if she can suck both at the same time. Then, of course, the boob falls out of her mouth, and she looks at it with surprise and dismay. So I put it back in and she starts all over again. Nobel prize, here we come!
Have a great day, folks. This is a great day for us...old and painful things are passed and over, and we can get on with our lives.
Bless.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
So it's Christmas Eve and guess what? IT SNOWED! It actually snowed for like, 3 seconds. Well, about 1/2 an hour. Of course we didn't have a winter wonderland transformation, but it was so completely unexpected to be watching "Franklin" (an animated show about a turtle) one minute (wherein it was snowing) and to look out our window and see that it ACTUALLY WAS SNOWING! My joy is complete. I think this is even more unexpected because yesterday the high was 76 degrees (24.5 celsius) and then we look outside today & it's snowing! Weird and wonderful. I went outside and basked in the Christmassy-ness of it all, and thanked God for this special gift. It really felt like a gift from Mr. Claus Himself.
On to bigger and better things: magic. We will entitle this portion of the post "Magic and Lies". "Magic" because Jeff has convinced Noah that he has the power to turn on the Christmas tree by himself via his own personal & powerful magic, by casting a spell, and "Lies" because he does so by turning it on via the remote control tree-turner-on-er-thingie. Noah is convinced beyond all doubt that Jeff is possessed of deep arcane powers because he recites the following:
"Magical, magical, hobble dee dee
Turn on the Christmas tree so we can SEE"
And then, with a wave of his mighty arm, the tree lights up. So Noah tries it, and Jeff obligingly makes the magic happen for him too. Big mistake. It's snowballed into amateur Harry Potter night, 24-7. Noah champs at the bit to make up his own funny rhymes, spells, to turn on the Christmas tree. Finally, in an attempt to stop the madness (madness because we have to physically be there for hours at a time, surreptitiously clicking the little clicker so the thing can turn off and on), Jeff showed Noah the remote control. Made no difference. He still firmly believes in the magic. When he tries to "cast his spell" and no one is around to click the remote, he asks quite seriously if Daddy (who is possessed of superior magic, apparently) has put a strong spell on the tree so that no one else can turn it on or off. On the plus side, it's been some pretty good entertainment for the kids. Dillon gets in on the act too. It's so cute.
News flash: a couple hours later, it's still snowing and there's some visible snow on the ground!! This is HUGE. I'm so excited!
2 minutes later: Hmmm. It seems to be turning into freezing slush. I still retain hope, however. Nikki is driving here now. Hopefully she'll arrive without incident.
Jeff is working all night tonight, like Santa. This is so that he can have time off when his Mom comes here on the 26th. So he's sleeping right now, napping. He napped with Dillon and the baby slept too, so Noah and I decorated about 2oo Christmas butter cookies that I made. It was fun.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.
On to bigger and better things: magic. We will entitle this portion of the post "Magic and Lies". "Magic" because Jeff has convinced Noah that he has the power to turn on the Christmas tree by himself via his own personal & powerful magic, by casting a spell, and "Lies" because he does so by turning it on via the remote control tree-turner-on-er-thingie. Noah is convinced beyond all doubt that Jeff is possessed of deep arcane powers because he recites the following:
"Magical, magical, hobble dee dee
Turn on the Christmas tree so we can SEE"
And then, with a wave of his mighty arm, the tree lights up. So Noah tries it, and Jeff obligingly makes the magic happen for him too. Big mistake. It's snowballed into amateur Harry Potter night, 24-7. Noah champs at the bit to make up his own funny rhymes, spells, to turn on the Christmas tree. Finally, in an attempt to stop the madness (madness because we have to physically be there for hours at a time, surreptitiously clicking the little clicker so the thing can turn off and on), Jeff showed Noah the remote control. Made no difference. He still firmly believes in the magic. When he tries to "cast his spell" and no one is around to click the remote, he asks quite seriously if Daddy (who is possessed of superior magic, apparently) has put a strong spell on the tree so that no one else can turn it on or off. On the plus side, it's been some pretty good entertainment for the kids. Dillon gets in on the act too. It's so cute.
News flash: a couple hours later, it's still snowing and there's some visible snow on the ground!! This is HUGE. I'm so excited!
2 minutes later: Hmmm. It seems to be turning into freezing slush. I still retain hope, however. Nikki is driving here now. Hopefully she'll arrive without incident.
Jeff is working all night tonight, like Santa. This is so that he can have time off when his Mom comes here on the 26th. So he's sleeping right now, napping. He napped with Dillon and the baby slept too, so Noah and I decorated about 2oo Christmas butter cookies that I made. It was fun.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.
Monday, December 21, 2009
A belated Birthday post:
This is a belated Nikki-Becca post, for her birthday. You notice I feel the need to hyphenate your name, Nik. This is because the consequences of changing your name so long ago continue to haunt you, my dear...as the old pastor said, "You can blow out a match, but you can't blow out the forest fire that one name-change can start." Or something.
Anyway, it WAS your birthday...and I'm sorry I didn't post. But I wanted to ensure you know how much I love you and value you as a sister and friend. I think that you're doing GREAT and I'm so proud of how you're evolving and building a new life for yourself. I think you're making some really good decisions in the work you're doing, and just the life you're choosing for yourself in general. If this all sounds patronizing I apologize, but this is all true. Good for you! You're well on your way and I'm so proud to have you as a sister.
And apropos of nothing, I would like to share a favorite Nikki story from our childhood:
We siblings used to get presents from our Grandparents who lived across the seas in the form of care packages, or boxes, that were filled with clothes and toys. It was like Christmas whenever they came, and I still to this day carry a torch for Sears because my Grandma used to order stuff for us from them. Mom would get their catalogue and go through it, ordering things for us, and we also would get ahold of it and drool for endless hours over the things hoped for, but never seen. It's ok, the wanting was better than the getting in this case.
Anyway, one year we three oldest girls got these BEAUTIFUL teal blue dresses. They were true flyout dresses (yes, those are italics, you must say it in italics), and to complete our happiness, they possessed a matching satin ribbon, sort of ruched, all around the bottom of them. I may own many dresses, but I think few are going to compare to the beauty I felt these dresses possessed. So we have a picture of us four girls posing together in these dresses, a sort of glamour shot. To go back to something I mentioned earlier, we three oldest girls got these dresses. What was Nikki wearing then, you ask? She was wearing OVERALLS! TEAL OVERALLS! You must understand, Nikki was the child that would rather have died the death than wear pants. She used to throw screaming fits, per Mom, if she couldn't wear a dress at the age of 2. So in this picture we three oldest are smiling, secure in the possession of our teal-dress fabulousness, and Nikki is wearing this grin that indicates that, although she is smiling, she is inwardly as a ravening wolf. We are told by Mom that she threw a huge fit over wearing those overalls that day. And that is a favorite Nikki moment. Why? Because I rejoice in her overall wearing, as a true sadistic older sister should. And also because it shows her innate fashion sense at a tender age. And her inward self-knowledge...she is opinonated, and always was, and always will be. It's a good trait, to know your own mind.
So Happy Birthday, haney! Buy yourself a dress. Maybe I will if I can find a teal one with a flyout skirt and a ribbon around the bottom.
Anyway, it WAS your birthday...and I'm sorry I didn't post. But I wanted to ensure you know how much I love you and value you as a sister and friend. I think that you're doing GREAT and I'm so proud of how you're evolving and building a new life for yourself. I think you're making some really good decisions in the work you're doing, and just the life you're choosing for yourself in general. If this all sounds patronizing I apologize, but this is all true. Good for you! You're well on your way and I'm so proud to have you as a sister.
And apropos of nothing, I would like to share a favorite Nikki story from our childhood:
We siblings used to get presents from our Grandparents who lived across the seas in the form of care packages, or boxes, that were filled with clothes and toys. It was like Christmas whenever they came, and I still to this day carry a torch for Sears because my Grandma used to order stuff for us from them. Mom would get their catalogue and go through it, ordering things for us, and we also would get ahold of it and drool for endless hours over the things hoped for, but never seen. It's ok, the wanting was better than the getting in this case.
Anyway, one year we three oldest girls got these BEAUTIFUL teal blue dresses. They were true flyout dresses (yes, those are italics, you must say it in italics), and to complete our happiness, they possessed a matching satin ribbon, sort of ruched, all around the bottom of them. I may own many dresses, but I think few are going to compare to the beauty I felt these dresses possessed. So we have a picture of us four girls posing together in these dresses, a sort of glamour shot. To go back to something I mentioned earlier, we three oldest girls got these dresses. What was Nikki wearing then, you ask? She was wearing OVERALLS! TEAL OVERALLS! You must understand, Nikki was the child that would rather have died the death than wear pants. She used to throw screaming fits, per Mom, if she couldn't wear a dress at the age of 2. So in this picture we three oldest are smiling, secure in the possession of our teal-dress fabulousness, and Nikki is wearing this grin that indicates that, although she is smiling, she is inwardly as a ravening wolf. We are told by Mom that she threw a huge fit over wearing those overalls that day. And that is a favorite Nikki moment. Why? Because I rejoice in her overall wearing, as a true sadistic older sister should. And also because it shows her innate fashion sense at a tender age. And her inward self-knowledge...she is opinonated, and always was, and always will be. It's a good trait, to know your own mind.
So Happy Birthday, haney! Buy yourself a dress. Maybe I will if I can find a teal one with a flyout skirt and a ribbon around the bottom.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Mi Casa es Suzy Casa
So Jeff finally downloaded these pics I took of our new place, and I'm posting them now. I actually took these a couple weeks ago, and they've been sitting on our camera, and I've been bugging Jeff to download them for ages, because God forbid I should learn how to work our digital camera and just do it myself. Ha ha ha, I slay me.
Anyway, enjoy. As per usual, this blog picture upload works in mysterious ways, and the last shall be first. So the pics of the house are at the end.
First, I must brag on my husband for a minute. This is a picture of a bath he prepared for me after he came home from work. I had had a spectacularly bad day & was completely worn out mentally and physically. He just came swooping in & made a terrific dinner and prepared this bath for me...I hadn't asked him to do it or hinted or anything. How do you like them apples? I'll tell you, when you have 3 kids under the age of 4, moments like this are few and far between, and when one partner can work up the energy to take care of the other, you DOCUMENT it, baby.
A 'poser'
Aaand....moments' done.
The finished product, which was consumed minutes after. (This is a gingerbread house, for those uninitiated.)
Noah and Daddy actually made it together when Dillon was sleeping. Good call.
Open wide!
Under construction.
Dillon, displaying his candy-tongue.
A rare moment...I actually didn't plan this, I put Zoe on the couch alone & the other 2 came & sat there also. Dilly obligingly smiled.
Missus Turtle
The long toes. Ain't they cute?
Please note that the book is upside down. He reads almost all his books this way, seems to prefer it.
And at last, here is the living room of our place. We bought that area rug cuz' the floors are all cement...a little hard and cold in the winter, especially.
Living room from another angle.
Kitchen
Kitchen as seen from the bar...how artsy fartsy of me.
Dining room
This is the hallway that leads to 2 bedrooms, one on either side. The open door you see is the 2nd bathroom, and the white door there is a closet.
The entry way. Nice crown moulding, huh?Wednesday, December 2, 2009
A side order of donkey with your cheese?
So I have a few "funnies" that I have been hoarding up in my mind against just such a time as this, when the kids are occupied ALL AT THE SAME TIME for more than 3o seconds and I can write. We'll see how long it lasts.
First, Dilly. He's talking a lot now & can pretty much say anything he wants to, but it often comes out pretty garbled. The funny thing (and different than Noah) is that he will copy verbatim almost anything Noah says, or anything that Jeff or I say. He's like a little parrot. Anyway, this thing he does....I just think it's the cutest thing. Instead of saying "my this" or "my that", it's "mine". For example, "Doan touch the stove goan born mine handies". Or, being interpreted: "Don't touch the stove, it's going to burn my hands". Everything is "mine". And when he says it, I have this urge to snap my heels together and say, "Ya, mein fuhror" in the best German tradition.
And then just today he says something else that got me: we're having a snack and Noah got turkey and cheese. Dillon didn't want that, but after he's done with what he has, he decides he wants more, and is asking me for what sounds like, "donkey and cheese". I was completely nonplussed for a minute, and just sort of stared at him trying to figure it out, when DUH!! it hit me: donkey=turkey. He just got the animal wrong. It even sounds a lot a like, when you think about it. Donkey and cheese, please.
And then there's Noah, who is lately developing quite a mature sense of humor. He laughs at all the right places on the kiddie movies he sees, and can get almost any kind of low-brow joke. I can take responsibility for the advanced way his mind works, but the preference for toilet humor he has goes strictly to Jeff. I often find myself laughing along with him, just delighted in my big son's belly laugh to something that an adult would laugh at...when just 4 short years ago he was a baby. Tempus fugit.
So anyway, here's something that the Kiddy Viddie watchers of old will love: we're watching a Kiddy Viddie, the one with "He's got the Whole World in His Hands" on it. That song comes on & we're watching & kinda singing along, especially Noah. He's really getting into it, and then the 2nd verse comes on: "He's got the big, big fish...in his hands" etc. And if you know your Kiddy Viddie, a series of pictures come on to illustrate this, one of them being Eskimos posing near their igloo with a polar bear nearby. Noah is watching and suddenly bursts out, with not a little exasperation in his voice: "He's got the big big POLAR BEAR, you freaks!"
And lastly: he sometimes makes up words. The most recent one is "crooming". What does it mean? I asked him, and he said, "like when you take care of things, or put them in rows". Hmmm. Perhaps a mix of "groom" and "caring"? Who the heck knows? I thought it was funny.
First, Dilly. He's talking a lot now & can pretty much say anything he wants to, but it often comes out pretty garbled. The funny thing (and different than Noah) is that he will copy verbatim almost anything Noah says, or anything that Jeff or I say. He's like a little parrot. Anyway, this thing he does....I just think it's the cutest thing. Instead of saying "my this" or "my that", it's "mine". For example, "Doan touch the stove goan born mine handies". Or, being interpreted: "Don't touch the stove, it's going to burn my hands". Everything is "mine". And when he says it, I have this urge to snap my heels together and say, "Ya, mein fuhror" in the best German tradition.
And then just today he says something else that got me: we're having a snack and Noah got turkey and cheese. Dillon didn't want that, but after he's done with what he has, he decides he wants more, and is asking me for what sounds like, "donkey and cheese". I was completely nonplussed for a minute, and just sort of stared at him trying to figure it out, when DUH!! it hit me: donkey=turkey. He just got the animal wrong. It even sounds a lot a like, when you think about it. Donkey and cheese, please.
And then there's Noah, who is lately developing quite a mature sense of humor. He laughs at all the right places on the kiddie movies he sees, and can get almost any kind of low-brow joke. I can take responsibility for the advanced way his mind works, but the preference for toilet humor he has goes strictly to Jeff. I often find myself laughing along with him, just delighted in my big son's belly laugh to something that an adult would laugh at...when just 4 short years ago he was a baby. Tempus fugit.
So anyway, here's something that the Kiddy Viddie watchers of old will love: we're watching a Kiddy Viddie, the one with "He's got the Whole World in His Hands" on it. That song comes on & we're watching & kinda singing along, especially Noah. He's really getting into it, and then the 2nd verse comes on: "He's got the big, big fish...in his hands" etc. And if you know your Kiddy Viddie, a series of pictures come on to illustrate this, one of them being Eskimos posing near their igloo with a polar bear nearby. Noah is watching and suddenly bursts out, with not a little exasperation in his voice: "He's got the big big POLAR BEAR, you freaks!"
And lastly: he sometimes makes up words. The most recent one is "crooming". What does it mean? I asked him, and he said, "like when you take care of things, or put them in rows". Hmmm. Perhaps a mix of "groom" and "caring"? Who the heck knows? I thought it was funny.
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