Snippets of Summertime

The girls were trying to agree on a movie to watch. The Boogie showed Peabody video after video until Peabody finally saw one she liked.
"That one!" she shouted. "I wanna watch Seven Dalmations!"
"No, Peabody," the Boogie corrected her, "it isn't called Seven Dalmations, it's called Ten Thousand Dalmations."

Peabody was describing something she saw. "It was so funny! I just can't believe my eyes!" she declared, then added, "They are sparkly blue."

Peabody told me about her dream. "It was a bad dream. Dere was a big dog. A scary dog. A skeleton dog."
"A skeleton dog?" I repeated, surprised. "Where did you hear about that?"
"Oh, it was from Nerk City," she said matter-of-factly. That didn't answer my question regarding the skeleton dogs, but Nerk City has been on her mind a lot lately. She mentions it often. She's never been there, and I guess if she thinks scary skeleton dogs come from there she never will want to visit.

The Boogie woke early yesterday morning with a sore throat. And when I say early, I mean 4 a.m. When she woke again later she still complained of a sore throat but otherwise seemed all right, so when I told her we were going for a walk and she said, "But I'm sick!" I replied, "It's just a cold, you'll be fine." She had to walk most of the way since she's just too heavy for me to push in the stroller. Needless to say, I felt pretty bad later when she started running a fever. Anyway, that was to preface this: in the mid-afternoon she started asking when Daddy would be home. "In a couple of hours," was my response. A few minutes later she asked again. "Not for a couple of hours, remember?" I said.
"But Honey," she protested, "you said in a couple of minutes."
"No, I really said a couple of hours. Why do you need him?"
"Well, I don't really need him," she said, starting to get weepy, "I just really want him to come home." She continued to ask periodically how much longer it would be till he came home, if he would be home soon, and was he in the car coming home yet. I honestly don't remember that ever happening before. I hate that she isn't feeling well but it warmed my heart that she just wanted her daddy. When he came home he sat on the couch with her until she went to bed, which seemed to make her feel a little better. Well ... that, and the 1966 movie Batman, which has inexplicably become a favorite of both girls to watch when they aren't feeling well.

At some point in the movie, Peabody informed me that "I just don't like the criminals." I sincerely hope that the Joker and the Penguin adequately deter Peabody from embarking on a life of crime. I also hope that if she decides to fight crime she will avoid any superhero costumes that include tights.

We drove past a park that had a couple of large tents set up. The Boogie asked what it was for. I didn't know. "Maybe the boss of that park is having a birthday," she suggested, "and they're having a party."

Toy Story is still a huge obsession. They really don't watch any of the movies that often, but they have lots of toys and books that they play with daily. We found some wall decals and every now and then Eric puts some more up on the playroom walls after the girls are asleep. Lowe's has free children's workshops every now and then -- today we went so we could build Pizza Planet trucks. The girls didn't know we were going. They were totally surprised and had a blast!

 

We bought a large inflatable pool. It's a lot bigger than I anticipated. It takes a long time to fill with even a few inches of water, and boy is it hard to empty! Today was the first time we were really able to use it -- I'd filled it once but the weather just hadn't been good enough. We all fit in nicely with plenty of room to spare, and didn't mind the few little showers that came through.

The other day we met Eric at Chick-fil-a for dinner before grocery shopping. On our way there the Boogie tried to guess where we were going. I tried to give her some hints.
"What time is it?" I asked. She didn't know.
"Okay, well, if we were at home, Daddy would just be getting home. Where am I, usually, when Daddy gets home?"
"At home," she guessed.
"Well, yes, I'm home, but where at home?"
"In the kitchen."
"Right! And what am I doing in the kitchen?" I was going for "making dinner."
"You're working," she said.
"Okay, yes, I'm working. But what kind of work?"
"Um ... cooking." Okay, we're getting closer.
"Yes, I'm cooking. Cooking what?"
"Oh!" Now she was excited. "Food!" Argh.
"What kind of food?" I pressed on.
"Um ... " long pause, "I don't know."
"I mean, why am I making food? What is it for?"
"Ohhhhh, you're making food for dinner!" Finally! Good grief!
"Yes! I'd be making dinner! So, if I'd be making dinner right now at home, what time is it?"
"Dinnertime!"
Whew. And that is an example of what most of our conversations with her are like.

Tonight we met some friends at our favorite ice cream place. When it got dark enough we went outside and watched fireworks in the distance. It was the perfect end to a really fun day!

The Adventures of Mama Dog: Our Fearless Defender

A few weeks ago I heard Mama Dog going ballistic in the back yard. I checked on her to find this:

This went on for some time. She was willing to try to scare the evil balloon to death by barking at it, but no way was she going near it, man.

She finally ventured closer when I went with her. (This one is a couple of minutes long, I don't know how to edit it.) She got close enough to sniff at it at the end. You can hear her funny whistle that she does when she's nervous.

What a chicken!

Some of This and That

Last week I had a third ultrasound. The first one, four weeks ago, didn't show much of anything, and it was too soon to see the baby. As the ultrasound tech said, there was a condo and a kitchen but no occupant visible yet. Ha!

The second one was two weeks ago and was just to look for a heartbeat. That was pretty much all we saw! A little blob with a flicker that was the heart beating. Still, it was pretty cool to be able to see even that.

But yesterday ... I could see baby's head, and body, and even tiny little arm and leg buds. Yep, technology is amazing, but even more amazing is how quickly this tiny person is developing.

I'm still feeling remarkably well. I've hardly had any queasiness. I do get pretty tired and have to lay down and rest a couple of times a day. We've been discussing names already -- we've had a boy name for a long time, but girl names are hard! Don't get your hopes up, though, because we won't be sharing a name until baby is born. AND ... it looks like we are not going to find out the gender. I've always thought it would be fun to be surprised and I think I've talked Eric into it! However, the gender-reveal ultrasound is still many weeks away and it is a pregnant woman's prerogative to change her mind ... so we'll see how that goes.

We've been enjoying our summer. We had a couple of weeks with a lot of rain and thunderstorms. Lately it's been really hot and humid. That's July in New Jersey! I love all of the green: grass, trees, plants. I never get tired of looking at it. Cold gray and brown winter makes me appreciative of warm green summertime. One downside to the current weather, though, is less exercise. I just don't have it in me to walk early in the day, pushing a stroller in the heat and humidity, plus I worry about giving Mama Dog heatstroke or something. So I wait until after dinner when Eric is home ... but with all the afternoon/evening storms we've had, walking just hasn't happened much lately. Maybe this week will be better.

The girls have been spending a bit of time with their cousins. One stayed over last night and this morning I overheard him say, "Let's pretend we're stranded on an island, stranded on an island watching a movie."

We spent the Fourth of July with friends and family, attending a small-town parade then descending on someone's house for pizza and fun in the sprinkler.The sprinkler was for the kids, of course, but after all the moms got tired of sitting outside in the heat we went inside and very sweetly (haha) asked the dads to take their turn -- moms then played Pictionary while dads took kids to a nearby creek where they all happily built a dam and got completely covered in mud. It was a fun day! Our family headed home around dinnertime and ended the holiday in our traditional way -- showers for everyone, then watching fireworks in the mosquito-free comfort of our air-conditioned living room. We heard rumors of more fireworks somewhere local this weekend, so we'll probably take the girls to see them. It's about time that they experience fireworks first-hand.

I've hardly taken any pictures lately. I do have a couple of videos of Peabody. One of her cousins showed her how to turn a somersault:


I was impressed as the Boogie still can't turn one.

A couple of Fridays ago Eric decided that if the girls wanted more dinner or dessert they would have to say "bird is the word." Peabody was game but the Boogie was loathe to be so silly. She finally did say it. Then Eric decided that the next Friday the magic words would be "who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop." THEN of course we had to find that song on YouTube. We listened to it a couple of times and that was it ... well, several days later the girls were still singing it. Peabody especially finds it very catchy though she only remembers a couple of lines:


Eric and I have discovered the fun addictiveness that is GeoGuessr. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You have to check it out ... then you'll see why we've wasted loads of time playing it. We justify it by telling ourselves that it's educational! We're learning about geography! Even the Boogie loves it. She doesn't play but she hangs over our shoulders to watch.

We got to see our friends the R family last week as they passed through NJ on their way to their new duty station. It was fun to spend some time with them. Knowing Eric's love of wacky t-shirts, they brought him this one from Germany:

Nope ... I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to ask the all-knowing Google.

At the end of the month we are going to have more company. This time it will be the girls of the Specktacular family! I'm looking forward to that. Our girls are close in age and always get along great. Mrs. S and I will have fun catching up. We'll do some day trips, and spend some time at home letting kids play in the pool and run through the sprinkler. It will be the perfect way to finish up the month of July.

Then just as they leave, we'll be starting our VBS. As soon as I heard the announcement about it, I immediately volunteered to do crafts (so I don't have to teach. Shhhh.) It's shaping up to be a nice summer.

Peabody Dialogue

Me: "You have a freckle on your face!"
Peabody: "Yeah, I get dat in Sunday 'chool."
Me: "Really? In Sunday school?"
P: "Yeah."
Me: "Who is your teacher in Sunday school?"
P, jabbing me with her finger: "You are! You are my teacher."
Me: "That's right!"
P: "An' you teach me to roll over, and 'peak."
Hmmm. Sunday school, obedience school ... girl, dog ... tomayto, tomahto.

Peabody preparing to feed her baby doll: "I gi' her a bean burrito wis no onions. Babies don' like onions."

"I tan't wait for Daddy to come home! He is nice. And 'mart, like me."

I was exasperated one day.
"Honey, are you mad?" Peabody asked, squinting up at me quizzically.
"No," I sighed.
"Are you air-a-tated?" she persisted.

The girls were playing outside in their wading pool and sprinkler. After a while a soaking wet Peabody came over to me: "Honey, can I sit on your lap?"
"No," I replied.
"But I like to," she pleaded, "you are my favorite mommy."

She is fascinated with the concept of a baby in my stomach. "Is the baby going to be born?" she asks daily. We look at drawings on a pregnancy website sometimes. "I wanna see the picture of the baby," she asks several times a day. "I wanna see the picture of the baby in the 'tomach." She says she wants a baby brother named Woody Baby (Toy Story is never far from her mind.)

"I all done!" she declared upon finishing her dinner.
"Good eating, Peabody," her daddy told her.
"You're welcome," she replied.

"Honey, on Tuesday, and Monday, ants and spiders are crawling everywhere. And termites!" At least they are limited to only two days a week.

She fits perfectly in a dress that my Mamaw made for me when I was this age! Ah, the mid 1980s return.