June 28, 2011

I Love Lists

So here is one for you. There is no rhyme or reason.

-1. Most days I make lists of things to do. Then as I complete things I cross them off. If I do something extra I add it to the list ... so I can cross it off. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something in life.

-2. When packing for a trip I wait until almost the last minute because if I pack something too early I will inevitably need to use it, then will put it away where it belongs instead of re-packing it. So I make lists of things to pack and do it all at once.

-3. Today I entered a giveaway for a Nook. I hope I win it. It surely would be nice for our trip. There were, like, over thirty thousand entries though, so I guess my chances are pretty slim.

-4. The other day the Boogie asked me, "Honey, what lives on Tortuga?" Tortuga? Where in the world did she hear that? "I don't know," I said hesitantly, "um, pirates?" Wrong. She insisted that I guess again and again until I finally gave up and asked her to please tell me what in the world lives on Tortuga other than pirates. "Tortuguys," she informed me. Well, duh. Of course Tortuguys live on Tortuga. I totally thought she made it up but apparently she picked it up from the Wild Kratts show on PBS Kids.

-5. Last week I found the Pheebs with an open tube of bright pink chapstick. I didn't know she knew how to open chapstick. I thought I took it right away from her but a couple of days later I discovered bright pink chapstick on the back of the leaf quilt my mom made for us when we got married. I treated the stains and washed the quilt but forgot to take it out of the washer until the next day and the red leaves had bled into the white background. And none of the pink chapstick had come out. So I cried. Of all things for Pheebs to get chapstick on, you know? It couldn't have been on the old hand-me-down couch or the boring cheap brown rug in the living room. No, it had to be on the quilt my mom made. I put some Oxiclean on the red stains and let it sit for a few minutes then washed it again and not only did the red come out, but most of the pink did too! Thank you Lord for Oxiclean.

-6. I love Oxiclean. I use it almost every single day. I don't even buy the real thing. I buy the big tub of the Target version. It works just as well and is cheaper. More cheap. More ... cheaper ...

-7. Is it bedtime yet?

-8. I then hunted down and threw away a tube of bright pink chapstick and hid all the other tubes I could find.

-9. Several months ago my friend Abby blogged about making her own laundry soap. Since I think Abby is super mom and I want to be her when I grow up, I decided that I needed to try it too. I did it tonight for the first time so we'll see how it looks in the morning. I even bought some lavender and orange essential oils in case I decide I want to get fancy, but the soap itself smells really good. I had to grate a whole bar of Fels Naptha soap so if you come over for Mexican food and your grated cheese tastes a little soapy, that's why.
It even kind of looks like cheese ...

-10. I ordered a responsibility chart for the Boogie and it came today.
She was very excited and thought it was a game. "How do you play it?" she kept asking. We picked out some responsibilities for her to fulfill this week. I know she needs to have more chores to do so hopefully this will motivate me to motivate her.

-11. Last Saturday MIL and I had a yard sale at our house. It was beautiful weather and 3 other houses on our street had sales, too. As I unpacked boxes when we moved into this house, I turned right around and filled a bunch of boxes with yard sale stuff. Over the last few weeks I have been going through all of it and pricing it. I made signs and posted a listing on Craigslist. I thought we did fairly well. I sold a lot of household stuff and Eric donated a bunch of model cars and some baseball cards to the cause. I didn't care as much about making money as I did about getting rid of things! This weekend we will do it again at 52 and whatever I don't sell I will donate. I just want it gone gone gone. It's amazing how much STUFF you can accumulate in five years, even with a couple of moves thrown in. I am totally in purging mode and am constantly perusing the house for things to eliminate.

-12. After the yard sale on Saturday we went to Eric's work picnic. The info we got said it would go until 6 p.m. and we didn't get there until after 3:00. We took our time eating, and let the Boogie play with her cousin HE for a while. When HE needed to leave it was about 4:45 so we distracted the Boogie by telling her she could jump in the bounce house. But when we got to the bounce house the guy running it said he was shutting it down in ten minutes. So the Boogie jumped for a bit and then she said she wanted to go in the paddle boats on the lake. As soon as she and Eric set foot on the dock, the lifeguards said they weren't letting anyone else go out because it was time to close up. I was so disappointed for her because she was really excited to go out in the boats. I told her she could take her sandals off and wade for a few minutes, but as soon as she stepped into the water the lifeguards started yelling from the dock for her to get out. Really? She can't wade for five minutes? More disappointment. She had mentioned before that she wanted ice cream so I thought that might distract her and told her we would go get some ... but nope, they had put it all away. The whole place shut down at 5 p.m. I was really annoyed. Had our info been correct we would have made more of an effort to get there earlier, or at least get around to do more stuff before 5:00. I hate when my kid is let down when she's looking forward to something. That's one of the reasons we don't tell her anything ahead of time! She handled it really well, though -- I think I was more disappointed for her than she actually was. We stopped at Wawa on our way home for her ice cream sandwich and she was a happy girl.

-13. My daisies are blooming. I don't have a picture but they are pretty. They all lean in one direction which is funny. And my petunias are getting big. My friend Chrissy reminded me to use MiracleGro so I did that last week and I can tell a difference.

-14. Phebis is walking everywhere and sometimes seems on the verge of running. She is very steady and even does really well with shoes on, which impresses me. If she falls she usually crawls over to something to steady herself while she stands up, but in the last couple of days she's been standing up on her own, by balancing on all fours with her bottom sticking straight up, and then standing.

-15. She has cut her fourth molar with no sign of hives. There goes that theory.

-16. She says "cuh-cuh" for cup and cracker. Yesterday at 52 she opened a cabinet, pulled out a bag of Goldfish crackers, said "cuh-cuh", and took it right to MIL to open for her.

-17. She signs "more" and "milk" and something I made up for "all done."

-18. Today she said "book" and shook her head for "no" and nodded it for "yes."

-19. She has mad love for a big purple dinosaur. I won't be a bit surprised when her next word is "Barney."

-Tenteen. If she gets her hands on a hairbrush she goes straight for the Boogie and whacks her on the head with it. She is just trying to brush the Boogie's hair (girl has to live vicariously, you know) but has reduced her big sister to tears several times. She can pack quite the wallop.

-Eleventeen. We have had an influx of flies and I can't figure out where they are coming from. At first I thought it was through a window screen that had a hole in it, but we've been keeping that window shut lately. A few days last week were really awful. One day I'm pretty sure I killed at least twenty flies. They have reduced some in number but it's still creepy and nasty. Grosses me out, man. And of course we can't find flypaper anywhere. I need to get one of those light zapper thingies for the laundry room.

-Twelveteen. I spent a lot of time rearranging furniture today and I don't like any of what I did. But I don't want to spend any more time on it now. I've got other things to do. Like go to bed.

-Thirteenteen. "Cheeeeeee!"

June 17, 2011

Super Boogie

Today the Boogie came out of the bathroom with the handtowel around her shoulders and said in a deep voice, "I have super powers!" She was running around with her fist up in the air like she was flying. I went into the kitchen to make a sandwich and she stood at the doorway (it's blocked off so Pheebs can't get in) and said in her super-hero voice, "Honey, are you hurt?" I said no. Then she said, "Well, are you stuck?" I said no. Then she said, "Well, what are you then?" I said, "I'm just hungry." She dropped the super-hero voice and said in a regular voice, "Oh, I have super-sandwiches in my trunk."

Super-Sandwiches: The Food of Super Heroes

June 14, 2011

She's Walking!

Finally!

Every day she gets a little better. When I got home from work last night she was more steady than she was in the morning!

June 8, 2011

Temper, Temper

The Pheebs had her 12-month well-check yesterday. It was quite timely since she had busted out the hives welts that morning. Her pediatrician does not seem concerned at all about the hives, and said that very often they never can be traced to any specific thing. I would like to note, however, that Phebis is cutting another molar so that makes the third hives breakout that is in conjunction with a new tooth. It's suspiciously coincidental to me ...

Anway, her stats are as follows:
Weight: 22 lbs. 15 oz. -- 75th percentile
Height: 30 inches -- 75th percentile
Head circumference: I can't find the piece of paper it's written on so I don't know the measurement, but I do know that her head is in the 97th percentile. The child has a big noggin!

Also I would like to note that the child is developing quite the temper. Maybe I've blocked it out, but I don't remember the Boogie being quite so, um, volatile at this age. It's nothing unusual, just takes me by surprise sometimes!

She is finally, finally, FINALLY showing some interest in walking. So many people have said to me, "Don't wish for her to walk! You'll be sorry! Then she'll be into everything!" But she's already into everything, so what's the difference? At least if she walks there she won't have calloused knees!

June 6, 2011

Praying Baby

Every night at bedtime we all sit in the girls' room and I pray. For a while Pheeboo has been saying "'mmMEN!" after I say "amen", and lately when we say it's time to pray, she puts her head down and babbles something ending with "'mmMEN!" Tonight I managed to get a video of her doing it.



(Then she says "cheee'" and makes the cheese face which is invariably a frown.)

After praying she goes around giving kisses. She is choosy about kissing. Sometimes she will freely kiss all of us multiple times. Sometimes we each get one kiss. Sometimes she will kiss her sister but not the parents. Sometimes she will kiss the Boogie and Eric, but not me. Sometimes hugs accompany the kisses. Only one thing is for certain: her kisses are open-mouthed and very wet! 

June 3, 2011

A Friday Off

Normally I work every Friday afternoon, so at this time (1:00) I am running around, scrambling to gather the diaper bag and blankie, get shoes on everyone, and get out the door. Today, however, we spent the morning with some friends at the park and at their house eating lunch, and we just got home a little bit ago. Phebis fell asleep in the car and thankfully transferred nicely to her crib. After high temperatures accompanied by humidity earlier this week, yesterday and today have been cooler and windy. It was the perfect morning to go to the playground, although the pollen count is high and wreaking havoc on those with allergies!

Now I'm anticipating a nice afternoon at home, doing a few chores, maybe some beadwork, maybe even sit and read for a bit! And my teeny tiny garden could use some weeding, too.


But before I start on any of the things I need and want to do, and before you move on from reading blogs to whatever you need or want to do, these pictures require some viewing:




Sometimes I think she looks like me ... and sometimes I think she looks like my brother ... and sometimes I think she looks like my mom. But she NEVER reminds me of her daddy!

And this girl is getting quite the sprinkling of freckles on her nose. Please ignore the dirt and peanut butter.






And lastly, to toot my own horn, look what I did the other day!
 I have another one just like it on the other side of the front door. Finally, some flowers on my porch! I hope I don't kill them ...