The Jersey Mama

Thankfulness Month: Day 11

2012-02-11T18:46:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-a lazy morning
-the perfect snow -- big fat flakes that melt when they land
-freezer cookie dough
-lunch with my friend Reenie!
-flowers

What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day 10

2012-02-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-the sound of birds outside
-my husband who works hard to provide for us
-Netflix
-the camera on my cell phone which has often come in very handy -- for example, yesterday when I came into the living room and saw this I was able to pull my phone out of my pocket and capture the moment.

This is NOT to say that I like this new development. Peabody realized yesterday that she could get up onto the chairs, and this soon followed. The "safe" place of the table, where we could put anything we didn't want her to get, has now been compromised. *sigh*

To look on the positive side, I'm thankful that Pheeboo is healthy and has the physical ability to climb, whether I like her doing it or not!

What are you thankful for today?

Thankfulness Month: Day Nine

2012-02-09T15:26:00.001-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-melted snow
-good fellowship with a lovely friend
-a phone call from my BFF Mrs. Cowboy
-Facebook
-my chair

The doctor gave me this chair when I was pregnant with the Pheebs. I love it so much. It fits me just right. It rocks so nicely. It's where I sit for my devotions, and where we go in the middle of the night when someone small needs some mama time. It's my happy place.

What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day Eight

2012-02-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-outside playtime yesterday
-a profitable day off
-cold medicine
-a good nap for the Pheebs
-my crock pot

What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day Seven

2012-02-07T09:10:00.000-05:00

Hey, whaddaya know, I've posted every day for a week.

Today I'm thankful for:
-a forecast of 50 degrees. I'll take it, and thank You Lord.
-very, very, very little snow so far this winter
-my washer & dryer
-liquid fabric softener
-toddler bodies! Soft baby skin, a little round belly, the sturdy legs, those chubby hands and cheeks, knuckles that still dimple and little wrists that still crease, toddler feet. I love baby and toddler feet. When I'm dressing the Pheebs fresh out of a bath I just want to eat her up!

What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day Six

2012-02-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-answered prayers, even the teeny tiny important-only-to-me ones
-God's faithfulness
-good friends
-Pandora
-Peabody's hair being long enough for her to have bedhead!

What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day Five

2012-02-05T20:35:00.000-05:00

I almost forgot to post today!

Today I'm thankful for:
-our church
-my Sunday school class
-a nap
-leftovers for lunch
-a restful afternoon

What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day Four

2012-02-04T09:44:00.001-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-old movies on Netflix
-take-out tiramisu from a local diner
-the courage to do something hard
-gift cards
-and last but definitely not least, my Pops (who is the reason why I love old movies, especially ones that make me laugh.)

Happy birthday to a really swell fellow! Wish you were here watching Calamity Jane and drinking coffee with me.

What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day Three

2012-02-03T12:57:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-safety on the road when other drivers are being idiots
-sunshine
-a washable slipcover for our very used couch
-sidewalks to use when walking around our block
-seeing (and hearing) my girls interact.

The Boogie likes to tell knock-knock jokes. She doesn't know any real ones, so she just makes them up. Of course they aren't even remotely funny, although she thinks they are, and laughs hysterically over every "punch line" she delivers. The Pheebs has picked up on this and likes to tell her own knock-knock joke. Yes, there's only one. It goes like this:
P: "Kno'-kno'."
Us: "Who's there?"
P: "'anana."
Us: "Banana who?
P: "'anana you! Hahahahaha!"

She performed it repeatedly in the car on the way to church last night. The Boogie began getting frustrated.
"Ugh!" she exclaimed, "Peabody is telling the same joke over and over!"
"That's because she doesn't know any other ones," I said. "You should teach her a new one."
"Peabody," we heard her say, "you don't have to say banana every time. You could say grape, or strawberry!"

"Why don't you teach her the one about the orange?" I said. "Like this: 'knock-knock.'"
"Who's there?" asked the Boogie.
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"

She was delighted with that and tried it herself. "Peabody! Knock-knock!"
P: "Who deeer?"
"Orange."
"Oh-jee who?"
"Orange ... um ... orange I'm glad you didn't say banana!" Eric and I thought that was funny.

I sure love those girls. What are you thankful for?

Thankfulness Month: Day Two

2012-02-02T14:11:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thankful for:
-a working (though ancient!) furnace
-pancakes for breakfast
-cell phones
-my in-laws
-cousins who are also friends, and who can come over to play almost anytime!

We never lived near any of my cousins when I was growing up. I am so glad that my kids get to see their cousins (at least some of them) all the time!

What are you thankful for today?

Thankfulness Month: Day One

2012-02-01T08:59:00.000-05:00

A while ago a blogger friend would list five things she was thankful for in every blog entry she would post. I was so impressed by that that I started listing things I was thankful for during my devotions, and I'm still doing it. It's so easy to take things for granted, especially the little things. This forces me to think about those things and acknowledge them. Sometimes I see a lot of repeats in my lists, like my family, or our jobs, or our home, or *ahem* morning coffee. Usually I'm thankful for good things, but when I'm going through a trying time I am reminded "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

On Sunday night we had what our pastor calls "popcorn preaching" where several men preach for just a few minutes each. This time he had several teens taking their turn. One of them said, "What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you were thankful for today?" I've heard that before and as always it really struck me. That's one thing I'm thankful for, that I do have more than just the things I thanked God for yesterday!

So, in a combined effort to be thankful and to get back in the habit of blogging more, I am having a self-proclaimed Thankfulness Month here. I may not write every day ... well, okay, to be realistic, I probably won't post every day ... but I'm going to try to write several times a week.

Today I'm thankful for:
-the opportunity to sleep in after a restless night
-a full pantry and fridge
-health insurance
-a healthy family
-Eric's job

What are you thankful for?

The End of January?

2012-01-31T16:30:00.001-05:00

Goodness, this month has flown by.

Last January we were slammed with snow storm after snow storm. This month has been relatively mild. We had a couple inches of snow two weekends ago (I think.) We've had some rain too, but for the most part the weather has been really nice. Right now it is sunny and 62 degrees; tomorrow calls for rain but a high of 63 degrees! No complaints from me, I'll take it.

Peabody is so much fun these days. She is saying more and more recognizable words and phrases. She cannot bear to be congested or snotty. "Boba, ri' deeeer," she says, pointing to her nose (booger, right there!)

She calls me Honey now. It is awfully cute with her little voice.

Socks are "yosh" and are removed whenever possible.
Shoes are still "plah-plops" and shown to everyone she meets.
Barney is Bobby.
Church is "chitch."
The Boogie is Deedah.
My brother is Unnah Woo-ey. Ha! That's my favorite.
Her blankie is "lolly."
"Ah wa'" is "I wanna." "Ah wa' eat. Ah wa' Bobby. Ah wa' lolly. Ah wa' beebee [baby.] Ah wa' milmy [milkies.] Ah wa' moowee [movie.] Ah wa' Ma'y Poppy! Honey! Honey! Ma'y Poppeeee!" Mary Poppins is popular with all of the small people in this house.

She sings a lot. She likes to sing "Ring Around the Rosy" and the "Twinkle Twinkle/ABC" song. Her own version of the Barney "I Love You" song is, "I luh me, you luh me." The other day while singing it she saw a picture of my mom and sang, "I luh me, I luh Lela."

She's recently decided that she likes yogurt, and stands by the fridge banging on the door and yelling, "Huuunneeee, lola [yogurt] ri' deeeeer!" If she thinks something is yummy she says, "Mmmmm, mnom, mnom, mnom."

If she is hurt she says "ah-chee, ah-chee! [ouchie, ouchie] A boo-boooooo." I have my suspicions that sometimes she is just itchy.

She hasn't had a hives outbreak in quite a while. I can't remember when the last one was. Maybe she's outgrowing it ... or maybe it's environmental/seasonal and is dormant for now. And now that I've actually written about it she will probably pop some out tomorrow.

Her hair is finally, finally long enough for a teeny tiny ponytail!

The Boogie has been really sweet lately. "Honey," she's been telling me, "I'll never stop loving you."

Since Papaw died she talks about heaven a lot. "Honey, I will be happy when I go to heaven ... but I will miss you."

Once she told me, "I love you the most!"
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Because you're my mom and you're sweet," she answered.

She loves to play games and do workbooks and sticker books. She pretend plays a lot with Peabody. They pretend they are animals or veterinarians or mothers with babies. We have a couple of older LeapPads that they have been playing with a lot, reading books. We let the Boogie play games on pbskids.org (she calls it "PBS kids dot ord dot com") and I must say, she learns a lot on there!

She makes her own bed every morning, gets herself dressed, and folds her pjs and puts them away. She still requires some specific direction while doing it but can clean up the entire playroom by herself. I try to help some because I know she didn't make the entire mess -- and in fact probably didn't make much of the mess at all -- but sometimes I just can't help and she can do it all herself.

Although it doesn't happen much anymore, she still says some things incorrectly and cracks us up. The other day she was singing a song that she learned in church: "Tony Chestnut knows God loves him." For each syllable of Tony Chestnut the child points to somewhere on their body, toe, knee, chest, nut (forehead.) Except the Boogie was singing "Tony Chestbutt knows God loves him." She really thought that was how it went and focused intently on pointing to the correct body part. When she said "butt" she did point to her forehead so she had that part of the song right. When we got home from church I immediately got the camera out to record her singing it ... and she sang "Tony ChestNUT." That just figured.

She and Eric watched all of the "How It's Made" episodes on Netflix. She would ask to watch it during dinner: "Can we watch 'Halits Made'?"

She went through another phase of crying at night. I would go to her as soon as I heard her, but she would quickly escalate to all-out wailing before I could get there, which was different -- normally it sounds like a coughing, almost fake crying. I thought it was night-terrors and read that you aren't supposed to wake the child during them, but she so quickly got louder and louder that she was waking everyone else. We had to take her into another room each time and turn on the light and talk to her. We'd ask her questions and she would mumble unintelligible responses. Her eyes would be glazed over and unfocused, and if we stopped talking she would immediately close them and seemingly fall back to sleep, only to begin wailing again. If we didn't let her close her eyes after a few minutes she would rouse enough to snap out of the crying and would be totally fine and completely happy! The next morning I would try to unobtrusively quiz her about the night before -- she never remembered anything. It started 2-3 weeks ago, but the last few nights she hasn't been doing it at all. It's very strange and I can't put my finger on what is causing it, unless she is going through a growth spurt or something.

Time for a walk! It's a lovely day.

Calling All Homskoolurz

2012-01-28T16:17:00.000-05:00

Although I would like to pretend that the Boogie will be 4 (again) on her next birthday, the actual fact of the matter is that she will be 5 in April. Boo-hoo! How can this be happening???

We are planning to start homeschooling in the fall. I have been looking at kindergarten curriculum and I am completely overwhelmed! Things certainly have changed in 25 years since I started kindergarten. My mom had a classroom curriculum -- I remember her big binders of daily lessons with lots of things crossed out or adapted because they were for a full classroom. Now there are seemingly unending options and resources for teaching at home and I'm having a hard time knowing where to start, despite some very helpful talks with other homeschooling parents.

Here's what I know I want/don't want:
~I definitely want a Bible-based curriculum. I'm sure there are some great secular options out there into which I could add my own Bible studies, but I am looking for something that incorporates Scripture and Biblical teachings into the other subjects as well.
~I prefer the King James version so would welcome suggestions of curriculum that use it.
~I prefer to purchase a whole curriculum and not have to piece together subjects myself (I'm sure I'll end up doing that down the road but want to make things as simple as possible for our first year.)
~I am not interested in enrolling in a satellite or correspondence-type school at this time.
~I am not interested in video/DVD or internet classes at this time.

Homeschooling parents, what do you recommend? What have you used and liked, or used and disliked? I am particularly interested in those of you who have taught kindergarten fairly recently, although I welcome all input. I am hoping to attend the Pennsylvania homeschool convention in May, so I'd like to have a pretty good idea by then in order to look through books while there, and hopefully make a decision in order to purchase everything soon afterward. I want plenty of time to familiarize myself with it before the end of the summer so that I'm not rushing to get organized at the last minute!

Impromptu Roadtrip

2012-01-26T22:52:00.000-05:00

Around Christmas time we realized we would be making a road trip to Kentucky very soon. We made a few little plans ahead of time, though most things couldn't be done until we were almost ready to leave.

We rented a car for the drive. Both of our little cars get great mpg; however, they are on the small side and not too comfy for long rides. We got a Nissan Altima again (we had an Altima when we went to Washington) which was just right.

On Thursday 1.5.2011 Eric left work early and met me at Hertz to pick up the rental. We came home and loaded up the car and got on the road around 3 p.m. We stopped right outside of Baltimore, MD, to eat dinner and walk around a mall to let the little ones stretch their legs. Hindsight being what it is we stayed far too long there -- we should have grabbed something quickly and kept driving. Eric drove for a while longer, then I took the wheel for the last 150 miles into Charleston, WV. We arrived around 1:30 a.m. I was so sleepy for the last 50 miles. It was very strange: I felt wide awake inside my head but it was physically difficult to keep my eyes open. I prayed a lot! I stopped at a rest area to walk around in the cold and wake up, and to get something with caffeine. Eric woke up and offered to drive but he'd been awake far longer than I had that day and it made me more nervous to think of him driving. We made it safely, praise the Lord.

We stayed in a Best Western in Charleston and while our room was fairly clean, the bathroom needed some attention. By the time I realized it, the girls were both in bed and we were exhausted so we didn't ask for a different room. The breakfast was good and when I checked out in the morning I mentioned the un-clean bathroom. The girl at the desk apologized and thanked me for letting her know. All well and good. Then she went on to say that the lighting in the bathrooms wasn't very good and made them appear dingy. Really? That just annoyed me. There is a difference between dingy, and actual dirt and hair on the floor and mold in the shower.

Because of our late arrival the night before, we got on the road a little later on Friday morning, and took our time driving the rest of the way to Louisville. We checked into another Best Western (bigger, cleaner, nicer than the one in WV), quickly changed our clothes and freshened up, and went to the funeral home late Friday afternoon for the viewing.

It was bittersweet to be there. On one hand it was so good to see my parents and Washington family; to see my Mamaw and have her meet Peabody and see the Boogie; to see so many other family members whom I haven't seen in years. But my Papaw ... he didn't look like himself, at all. All of my life he had a neatly trimmed beard and mustache, but the staff in the nursing home shaved his beard. He was so, so thin. I thought that once I saw him I would have some closure and feel that he really was gone, but it still felt unreal because he didn't look like the man I remember.

Lots of people came and went at the viewing. That part was nice. There were flowers everywhere, and some folks brought food. I even got to see my friend Kristi and meet her husband -- her family lived next door to Mamaw and Papaw for years, and I've known Kristi for longer than I can even remember. I saw aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins and third cousins once removed or however that works. The Boogie met a new cousin (actually the daughter of one of my cousins), Little B, who is five years old. They became instant BFFs and played constantly whenever they were together. We stayed until the end of the viewing time, then picked up White Castle and went to Mamaw's apartment to spend time with my folks for just a little longer.

The funeral was Saturday 1.7.2011 at noon. The weather was beautiful, a mild sunny day. I don't know how many people came to the funeral but I would guess 60-70? Vee and I sang "Be Thou My Vision" before anyone got up to talk about Papaw. It's a good thing we went first because if we had waited I think I would have been crying too much to sing. My brother Ben told some funny stories about Papaw. I want to write this one down because it just personified the Papaw we knew.

We kids got to visit Mamaw and Papaw a lot when we were young. For a while we lived in Columbus, OH which was within driving distance, but even after we moved away we would fly back to visit. Ben said that when Papaw would pick him up from the airport they would drive back to the house and after riding in the car for a little bit and chatting, Papaw would look at Ben and ask in his Kentucky accent, "Ben, are you a bozo?"
"No, Papaw," Ben would answer, "I'm not a bozo."
They'd drive a little more and talk a little more and then Papaw would turn to Ben and ask again, "Are you a bozo?"
"No, Papaw," Ben would answer again, "I'm not a bozo."
They would continue on to Papaw's house and pull into the garage and unload the luggage. As they would head toward the door into the house Papaw would ask Ben one last time, "Ben, are you sure you're not a bozo?"
"No, Papaw!" Ben would assure him, "I'm not a bozo."
"Good," Papaw would reply, gesturing to a sticker on the window of the outside door, "because there's no bozos allowed."

I can't remember exactly what that sticker looked like, but I think it was a lot like this.

My mom's brother, the one we called and whom I still always think of as Uncle Bubby, talked quite a bit about his dad, and Pops told a story as well. Pops officiated during the service, and after giving everyone opportunity to speak he gave Papaw's testimony of salvation and presented the gospel as well. I had brought a bag of books to keep the girls occupied but forgot it in the car; they did really well, considering. Even the Pheebs was minimally antsy and mostly quiet.

The hardest part of the service, for me, was at the end when just the family gathered around while the lid to the casket was closed. We drove to the cemetery where Pops said a few more words, and one of the funeral home directors pulled roses out of the arrangement and handed them around to the family. Then we drove over to a church for the reception. Ours was one of the last cars to leave and as we drove away I could see the little excavator driving toward the gravesite to fill in the hole. That made me feel very strange ...

Many people stayed for the reception and there was SO much food! It was nice to see friends and family.

Mom with her brother and sister

Me with my auntie

Me with my uncle

The Boogie and Peabody and Little B played and played.

After the reception we went back to our hotel to change our clothes, then headed back to Mamaw's apartment again. Poor Mamaw and Mom and Pops -- they were surely exhausted but they graciously put up with us! The girls just loved seeing grandparents and aunts and uncles. One wall in Mamaw's hallway is covered with pictures. I love to look at them. Can you guess who this is?

The larger picture on the left is my mom, and the smaller one to the right is her sister. I think Peabody looks a lot like my mother.

The next morning we went to Mamaw's church for Sunday morning service, then back to Mamaw's for lunch. B&D had a series of unfortunate events and weren't able to make it to church; they thought we were leaving immediately after services. Meanwhile we went back to Mamaw's for lunch and more time with family before hitting the road around 4 p.m. We never did get to say goodbye to B&D but were able to spend a little more time with Mom's sister, 4 of her kids, and Little B.

Mamaw's nesting dolls were fun for little fingers

Peabody could not get enough of her Pops. She was constantly climbing up to sit with him.

Mom drew a skeleton for the Boogie

The Boogie with Papaw's Dodger bear

It was fun to play with Auntie Vee!

Peabody climbed into Pops' lap and passed out!

Mamaw & the Boogie

Cousins!

We drove back to Charleston on Sunday night and did NOT stay in the same Best Western, but rather in the Fairfield Inn right next door where we paid more money for a smaller room with smaller beds. That hotel had the tiniest elevators I have ever seen! There were 3 of them side by side, and we could barely squeeze ourselves and the luggage cart into one. It's a hotel, people have luggage! Wouldn't it make more sense to have two larger elevators? But at least it was clean and the breakfast was pretty good.

On Monday we drove the rest of the way home, stopping plenty of times for small people to stretch their legs. That was probably the hardest day for the girls. They had spent so much time in the car already, and it was a good 8 hours of driving on Monday, plus the time for stops. They did so well, though. Peabody insisted on removing shoes and socks and would play with her toes endlessly. Such a strange child. I am beyond grateful for our portable DVD player! We had to make an emergency Walmart stop to buy some velcro for it, but I was able to strap it to the back of my headrest and both girls could see it. They watched hours and hours of Curious George, Dora the Explorer, Backyardigans, and Mary Poppins.

I'm really thankful for all of the electronics that made our trip easy: the GPS, Eric's iPhone, my Nook, the DVD player. When I was a kid my mom sewed these sort of aprons that fit over the back of the front seats in the car. They were covered with pouches which were filled with books, coloring books, crayons, toys, travel games. The glove compartment was full of paper maps. Now we take multiple electronics. I'm not sure if it's an improvement but it certainly makes things nice for the adults ...

It wasn't an easy trip in many ways, but it was worth every mile driven and every dollar spent on gas and every fast food burger to be able to see my family.

December Revisited

2012-01-17T08:28:00.000-05:00

Christmas was on the last Sunday of the year and I guess because of that I felt like I had more time to prepare for it. My holiday stress level was at an all-time low which was really nice, although I'll admit that it made me often wonder what important things I was forgetting to do ...

Eric's company Christmas dinner was on Friday December 9th at a local caterer. For the first time we went to the cocktail hour before dinner. Hey, we don't drink, so why go to the cocktail hour, you know? But it worked out for Eric to pick me up from work early and we got to the dinner early. My, what we have been missing all of these years. I knew that there would be appetizers. I just didn't realize the extent of the appetizers. There were tables set up along the exterior of the room with some food. Eric declared that he was going to save himself for dinner, so I got a small plate with a little bit of pasta, and we found a place to stand along a wall. We soon realized that we were right outside the kitchen door. Every four or five minutes a server would come out with a plate of something delicious. "Spring roll?" they would ask, proffering their platter. "Stuffed mushroom? Crab cake? Shrimp? Lamb chop? Chicken cheese steak? Dumpling?" There was no end of amazing food coming out of that kitchen. Eric soon forgot his resolve to wait for the meal. Then we went in to dinner itself which was nothing spectacular. It is pretty much the same every year: soup, salad, roll, main course, dessert. It is served in courses and takes about 2.5-3 hours to get through it because there are so many people to serve. I told Eric that next year we should go for the appetizers and leave before the dinner!

The next evening was my work's Christmas dinner which is always at Maggiano's. We look forward to that all year: good food along with good company make for a really enjoyable evening. As always the food was incredible and there was an abundance of it. I could have made a meal out of the appetizers alone. By the time dessert was served I was stuffed but of course I had to try that too! We ate too much but enjoyed every bite of it.

On Christmas Eve Eric's immediate family met at 52 for our traditional gift exchange. Normally we have it after the evening service, but because everyone had the day off we were able to schedule it for the afternoon which was really nice -- all of the kids were wide awake and happy!

On Christmas morning the four of us opened our gifts before church. The Boogie was so excited. As each thing emerged from wrapping paper she would exclaim, "It's just what I wanted!" Ah, appreciation. When Peabody would open a gift she would chant "Rip rip rip" as she tore the paper off, and then exclaim "A box! Yay!" After the morning service BIL/SIL1 and their crew came over for a nice relaxed dinner. The kids played with new toys and the grown-ups played several rounds of Snap! which was hilarious as always.

This is only a sampling of all of the fun things the girls received. They play with their new toys daily! Peabody got a new baby doll; play food, bottles, and dishes for the baby; a high chair, stroller, and bed for the baby; an adorable old-fashioned doll pram! among lots of other great gifts. Some of the Boogie's favorite gifts are her shopping baskets with "healthy" play food; her doctor dress-up outfit and doctor's kit; the toy nativity; the many workbooks and sticker books (her "homework.") Honestly they got so many things I can't remember them all, and they really do play with almost everything every single day. I blitzed through the play room afterward and pulled out a bunch of their old toys -- some went to the church nursery, some worn out things got thrown away, and several things went up to the attic to be "forgotten" for a few months.

However, don't you know that a couple of days after Christmas I came into the living room to find this:

Some things are the same for every kid: boxes are more fun than toys!

Normally we have a family party with MIL's side of the family before Christmas. Because Christmas was on a weekend we pushed that gathering to the 31st. In recent years the Delaware family has done the driving to New Jersey, but one of Eric's cousins had just had knee surgery, so this year the New Jersey families made the trek to Delaware. MIL's brother and his wife hosted in their beautiful home; there was lots of yummy food; and we all enjoyed visiting and exchanging gifts. It was a really lovely time. (Sadly I have no pictures. I'm not sure how that happened -- I know I took the camera! And I'm almost positive I can remember taking pictures with it ... hmmm ...)

The final family get-together is usually with FIL's side of the family on New Year's Day, but again because of when the holidays fell we pushed that one back as well, to January 7. Our family missed it because we were in Kentucky for Papaw's funeral. I think that's the first holiday gathering that we have missed since Eric and I got married (well, so far we haven't been able to spend any holidays with my side of the family. Every year we say "maybe this year!")

Despite my Papaw being ill it was a good month. We are so blessed to have wonderful family, nearby and far away.

Still Here

2012-01-03T22:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't been swallowed by Rubbermaid bins of Christmas decorations, or frostbitten my fingers while caroling, or made myself ill by eating scads of Christmas cookies and other delicious things (although I HAVE been eating scads of Christmas cookies and other delicious things.)

We had a nice Christmas. I will write about it soon. I have a few little things that I want to remember, things that the girls did and said.

It's been a more difficult Christmas for our family because my Papaw, my mom's dad, has been so sick. He was in and out of the hospital from around Thanksgiving. A few days before Christmas we all learned that he was in the hospital for the last time. It was a time of waiting and praying and waiting some more.

He went Home yesterday.

While I am sad, so sad, that I will never see him again in this life, that my Mamaw had to say goodbye to her husband, that my mom had to say goodbye to her father, that my children will never have memories of him, it is bittersweet because at the same time I am so relieved for him. No more pain. No more suffering. No more sickness. Just being with Jesus. Just being with Him.

Christmas Boogie-Woogie

2011-12-23T09:12:00.000-05:00

It's Beginning To Look A Teeny Tiny Bit Like Christmas

2011-12-22T22:42:00.000-05:00

I finally hauled the Christmas decoration stuff down from the attic the other day and put some things out.

Everything has to be placed above the 3-foot (read: reaching grasping toddler hands) level so it's not exactly a balanced look.

I do like decorating the top of the piano! Maybe by next year the phone won't have to sit there, too. Or the *ahem* multiple remotes ...

The Boogie thinks that the nativity is called the "actibity" and when we correct her still has trouble with it.
"I love the actibity!" she'll exclaim.
"Nah-tivity," we correct her.
"Nah ... actibity," she tries again.

She helped me decorate but I added the lights after she had gone to bed. "Look, stars around baby Jesus!" she said in the morning.

That afternoon we met Eric for dinner at Chick-fil-a. The Boogie loves to eat there but is always apprehensive about going because she is deathly afraid of the cow (and anyone else in a giant costume.) When she found out where we were going she asked, "Will the cow be there?"
"I don't know," I answered.
"Well, what day is it?" she asked.
"It's Tuesday," I said.
"Is the cow there on Tuesdays?" she persisted.
"I don't know, honey," I said, "I don't remember if I've ever seen him there on a Tuesday." That satisfied her. And then of course the cow was there, dressed in a Santa costume, walking around and waving at children and having his picture taken with them. As soon as the Boogie saw him she lost her appetite. She couldn't eat because she was watching to make sure he didn't come near us, and when he did walk past she plastered herself to my side. The Pheebs, on the other hand, is totally unfazed by people dressed in giant cow costumes, and waved and "high-five"ed this one every time he came by.

After Chick-fil-a we went to pick out a Christmas tree. On our way there Eric asked the Boogie if she brought any money. When she said no he said, "Oh, no! How will we pay for the tree? Maybe they'll take a trade and we can leave you there and take the tree home with us." She has been very gullible lately, and has a hard time telling when we're kidding. It's as if she knows that really, truly, we can't be serious but just the same maybe we are serious ... So she protested on the verge of tears at being left at Lowe's in exchange for a Christmas tree and even after we assured her that we were just kidding she didn't seem too sure that it was really only a joke.

By the time we got home and got the tree in the stand and Eric figured out what was wrong with the strings of lights it was way past bedtime so we promised the Boogie that we would decorate the tree the next night, and we did. Peabody thought it was loads of fun to shove plastic ornaments into the branches and then pull them out again. The next day when I had to constantly chase her away from the tree I realized it was probably a mistake to let her help decorate. Both girls had fun, though!

The last thing was to put the penguin on top, the doing of which I am positive I took pictures of but somehow are not on the camera memory card.

And that's about as decorated as this household gets. Maybe next year we'll put some lights outside.

Goodbye, Dog

2011-12-13T09:58:00.000-05:00

Sophie was sweet, friendly, obedient, well-behaved, and just about anything you would want in a dog. The only thing was, this mama couldn't handle having a dog in the house. I thought I could, I really did. I didn't know it would make me so anxious and stressed and overwhelmed. Eric and the Boogie were disappointed -- Eric especially was, but he could see how much it was affecting me and agreed to take Sophie back to the shelter. She will make someone a fantastic pet, and I regret that it didn't work out for us to keep her. I feel guilty for not being able to handle it ... and at the same time I feel sooooo relieved that we don't have her any more. We'll try again someday, probably when the small persons are all bigger.

Despite how overwhelmed I was and how it ended up, I'm thankful that we got to have her for a little bit. We've just about got the Boogie convinced that it was a "vacation" for Sophie, and that's how I want to remember it. She is a real sweetheart and I'm praying that she ends up with a fantastic family who will love her to pieces.

Dog

2011-12-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

We got one!

She's an 18-month-old Bassett mix that we found at our local animal shelter. We had been looking for many weeks, checking shelter websites and stalking Craigslist, and praying that if God wanted us to have a dog He would make it very clear. She caught my eye at the shelter and when I saw that her information said that she was good with children and babies I thought we should meet her. A few days later we got a phone call that our application had been approved, and Eric picked her up after work!

Her name was Sookie and she was a surrender. She's such a sweetheart it makes me wonder what her previous owner's circumstances were that they had to get rid of her. Since we're not really into the whole vampire thing we changed her name to Sophie.

She loves Eric and thinks she is his lap dog.

Sometimes they take naps together.

She is really good with the girls. She even slept with the Boogie one night. I went in to check on them around 4:30 in the morning and poor Boogie was curled up in one corner -- she'd kicked the covers off and Sophie was laying on them. A coworker had a crate that was the perfect size so now she gets to sleep in there.

Peabody thought it was soooo fun to play in the crate. She also will go up to the dog, offer her hand to be licked, and then say, "ewwwww."

Sophie is a good dog, and smart too. Even after just several days she has picked up on a few commands and knows some of the things she is allowed and not allowed to do. She was very anxious when left alone at first -- we had to gate her in the kitchen at night and when we left. The first night she paced and cried all night and we ended up sleeping on the couch with her for a few nights after that. I'm very thankful for that crate -- it was very nice to be able to sleep in my own bed all last night! She still barks and cries when we leave but we don't have to hear that since we aren't around, and I'm not concerned about her getting into anything anymore.

I've had a bit of a difficult time adjusting to dog ownership. For whatever reason it has really stressed me out and made me very anxious. Every day I'm a little bit better but I never expected to feel this way when we finally got the dog that we've talked for years about getting! I'm very glad we didn't go the puppy route this time. I didn't think I'd be up for all of the work that goes with a puppy, and now I know for sure that I can't handle that right now. Maybe some day when the kids are bigger and can help. Anyway, with God's help we are working through the initial adjustment period, and it truly seems that He has blessed us with the makings of a wonderful family pet.

Christmas Baby

2011-11-30T08:14:00.001-05:00

She isn't really a baby anymore ... but she's my baby. I call her that all the time. She probably thinks it's her name along with Pheebs, Peabody, and P-Biz (Eric's latest nickname for her.)

Isn't she cute?

Here are some comparison pics of the Boogie at the same size.

Peabody has peed in the toilet or potty four more times over the past week. She never tells me she needs to go, but if I sit her on there from time to time she occasionally produces something, and it's always immediate so I know she has some ability to control it. I have to say, I'm impressed every time. We shall see what happens ... I'm not holding my breath that she will magically potty train herself at a super-young age.

Oh, Boogie

2011-11-27T21:30:00.001-05:00

Tonight at church someone told me that he and some other folks had been discussing some Boogie-isms, like this one: once while song leading during a church service, BIL2 asked if anyone had any praises or testimonies. The Boogie's hand shot up before we could stop her. "Yes?" said BIL2, "Do you have a praise?"
"Well, I think so," the Boogie shrugged, "I guess."

And this one: one day months ago she told FIL, "I know everyone that I know ... but I don't know strangers."

On the way home from church tonight she asked me the meaning of several words. One was "bidet." Bidet? Really? Honestly I think she made it up not realizing it was a real word. I didn't care to explain that one, knowing that she would be fascinated and just pass it on to her cousins, so I asked, "What do you think it means?"
"Well, it just means when you're angry and you're mad and you're angry. That's just what it means." Right. "Okay, Honey, let's think of some other words we can talk about."

A few minutes later she asked, "Honey, how do you spell 'tea'? Tea is a drink, and it's also a letter, but I'm talking about the drink."

At bedtime the Pheebs climbed into her sister's bed. We tucked them both in together and said good night. "Noooo!" protested the Boogie, "I want Peabody to sleep in her own bed!"
"Why can't she sleep in your bed?" we asked.
"Because my bed is very special to me and I just want to sleep in it by myself."

On the morning after Thanksgiving the first words out of her mouth were, "It's after Thanksgiving, now can I watch Charlie Brown Christmas?"

Tonight she wanted to watch the show about that red-nosed reindeer whose name she thinks is Ludolph.

Several days ago she asked Eric if she could watch "Lou's Clues."
"Oh, you mean Blue's Clues?" he asked.
"Okay," she shrugged, "if that's what you want to call it."

Yesterday morning she said, "What are we going to do today, Honey? I wanna go somewhere fun."
"Where do you want to go?" I asked.
"I wanna go to Chickfila for lunch and Friday's for dinner."
"Who's going to pay for THAT?" asked Eric.
"You are!" she said, poking him in the chest.

Today I mentioned to Eric, "Wouldn't it be fun if all of my family could meet us in, say, Florida one Christmas? All of us together, no gifts, just a really fun trip!"
The Boogie's ears perked up. "I wanna go to Florida! Would Pops and Lela be there?"
"Yes," I said, "Pops and Lela and your cousins from Washington. Wouldn't that be a fun trip? Maybe we can do that someday."
"I wanna go for Christmas!" She was very excited.
"Well, maybe one year we can go for Christmas, but it would mean no presents. Would that be okay with you, to not have any presents, just a fun trip?"
"Well, maybe we could just bring some presents," she raised her eyebrows quizzically, "some very small presents, like this big," she measured a few inches across with her hands. What a negotiator.

Quiet Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T11:57:00.000-05:00

We always spend Thanksgiving day with Eric's parents, but they are out of town this year so we decided to have a quiet day at home with a very non-traditional meal of salmon and rice. It's a good thing we didn't make any other plans because the Boogie woke up with an upset tummy. She has spent the morning on the couch watching the Macy's parade. Hopefully she will recover quickly like she usually does, and the rest of us can avoid it, since Eric has four whole days off work and I know he would rather not spend them sick at home!

I am so thankful for:
-my husband
-our healthy children
-our wonderful extended family
-our home
-our jobs
-a loving, forgiving, caring, merciful, gracious heavenly Father

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

1 Chronicles 16:34

Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.

Psalm 75:1

18 Months Old

2011-11-23T22:02:00.000-05:00

Eighteen months old already!

At 18 months the Pheebs is wearing size 18-24 month and 2T clothes. She is wearing size 4 diapers and size 5 in shoes.

Her blonde hair is finally starting to grow in nicely. It's long enough on the top to comb to one side or the other, and curls up in the back when damp. I'm pretty sure that we will enter mullet territory sometime in the next six months.

She had her 18 month check up last week. She was
24 lbs 5 oz.
32 inches
and in the fiftieth percentile ... I think. I asked someone to write it down for me but she forgot and then so did I. We go back in a couple of weeks so I'll ask for it then. Poor little girlie had been running a high fever all of the day prior to her appointment and while the fever broke early that morning, I wasn't comfortable with her getting shots right away, so we'll go back for that. (The Boogie got her flu shot and did great! No tears at all. What a big girl she's getting to be.)

The Pheebs is just so much fun to have around. I LOVE this age. She is like a little sponge. She repeats anything and everything we say. She follows simple instructions like "Go get a diaper" or "Throw this in the trash." She says "thank you" all the time and usually adds "bye!" at the end. So we'll hand her a diaper to throw away and she'll say "Dain doo, bye!"

She tips her head to one side and asks, "why?" Sometimes she pauses then adds, "you do dat?"

The Boogie builds towers out of nesting/stacking blocks, and Peabody counts "One, doo, tree!" and knocks down the tower.

Action shot of Peabody bouncing a block off of the Boogie's head.

When she sees letters she begins to sing the alphabet song.

When she sees a rainbow she sings a song about it that she learned from "The Cat in the Hat" on PBS.

We have a travel-size Doodle Pro. It looks a lot like this.


amazon.com

Peabody loves that thing. Sometimes I hide it from her because she drives me crazy with it. She brings it to me and pushes it into my hands pleading "Mama Mama Mama" and I have to draw something for her. Then she says "Dain doo, bye!" and sits down with it and scribbles all over what I drew and then erases it and then wants me to draw something again. Sometimes I draw shapes and name them -- last night I drew a triangle and she named it before I could! Impressive. I also draw faces: happy, sad, angry, surprised. She can identify those too. Sometimes we do corresponding voices which is hilarious. "'appy!" she says in a bright voice; "saaaaad" she says in a sad voice, then reaches out to pat my shoulder, "it's mmm-may [okay]"; when I say, "show me surprised face" she raises her eyebrows and shrieks; angry is a deep growl along with a grin -- she can't keep a straight face.

She loves music and dances around when we are listening to something upbeat. We listen to Pandora a lot and while I prefer Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, sometimes I will turn on the toddler station and the Pheebs will sing along and dance all over the place to "The Wheels on the Bus" and her favorite "If You're Happy and You Know It."

The big purple dinosaur is still the only guaranteed soother for the overwrought toddler, but lately Blue's Clues has also become very popular around here. It is very repetitive which is comforting to small persons. Peabody chants along to the phrases and does the hand motions accompanying them.

She is hitting the Boogie much less than before. She is generous with kisses (sometimes.) She really loves her sister. At bedtime we pray together and then she immediately kisses the Boogie goodnight. Then she tries to tuck the Boogie in, and she goes to the drawer to get the Boogie a "beepee." Sometimes she wants her own burpie to sleep with, because the Boogie has one. Cute little copycat.

She is fascinated when the Boogie goes potty. We use the word "potty" but for some reason she always repeats "poo poo." I guess the fascination with that word begins very early! Shortly after she woke up from a nap the other day, she frowned at me and said "poo poo?" "Oh, you need to go potty?" I asked her. She ran into the bathroom and pounded on the toilet lid saying "open!" Why not? I thought, and took off her diaper and held her on the seat ... and she peed! Into the toilet! We all lavished praise upon her but she was very matter-of-fact about it. Despite trying that again a few times there hasn't been a repeat performance, but I gotta say I'm pretty impressed that it happened at all.

Both girls like my Nook. I have downloaded several interactive stories for them, and some coloring/drawing apps and games for the Boogie to play. Peabody pleads for "a tewey" when she sees it.
"No story," I say.
"A tewey!" she repeats, grinning impishly.
"No story."
"A tewey!"
"No story!"
"Mmm-may [okay]," she concedes.

Despite what the majority of these pictures imply, my children do not spend their days dressed in pajamas. They do, of course, sleep in pajamas. I slip in to check on them before I go to bed. Sometimes I have to take pictures. I am always surprised that the flash doesn't wake them.

Things I'm Thankful For

2011-11-17T19:35:00.001-05:00

I often take things for granted, especially the things I use on a daily basis. For example, running water. I just push up a handle and cold or hot water comes out of the faucet. What a convenience, you know? But I'm so used to it I never think about it. And a water heater, too. Imagine having to pump and haul and heat water just to wash dishes, or to cook, or clean, or bathe. I gotta say, I surely am thankful for running water and a water heater.

I'm very grateful for the appliances I use all.the.time. A dishwasher. A washing machine, and a dryer. A vacuum. A microwave. A toaster oven (we use ours all the time!) A coffee maker. An electric range. A steam mop! If you are reading this, I'll bet you have one or more of these things in your house too. Do you take them for granted? I know I tend to. I get so used to using them, I forget to be thankful for how easy they make my life.

Last month I mentioned in an email to Mrs. Specktacular that I would love for the Boogie to take piano lessons some day, but first we'd need a piano. Don't you know that within a week, MIL mentioned in passing that she was planning on get rid of hers. Soon after that Eric and his brother and their dad wrestled the piano into a truck and drove over here and wrestled the piano out of the truck and into my living room. It is old and kind of worn and beautiful.

I am just dying for my sister to come over and play some Bach for me. (Heh heh heh, just kidding Vee. :p But of course you know I would LOVE for you to come and dash off some Mozart or Chopin or Rachmaninov or Grieg or Fliszt.)

Also last month I noticed some plastic cracking and breaking off of the harness in Peabody's carseat. The seat was an Evenflo Triumph that we purchased 3.5 years ago for the Boogie, and it has been in constant use ever since. Concerned about the safety of the harness, I called the company to order a replacement. Because of how the seat is assembled there is no replacement harness available (the harness goes over the shoulder into a sliding mechanism in the seat; it is adjusted by sliding it up and down rather than removing the seat from the car and re-threading the harness through different slots -- it was one of the main reasons we chose that seat and it's been so convenient on the many occasions when we've had other children riding in our car.)

The rep asked why I needed it and when I explained she said, "Oh, that is a safety issue. I can issue you a new seat. All you will need to do is send the old seat back so we can inspect it." A new seat? You mean, a FREE, brand-new, FREE seat? Yes, she assured me, a brand-new, free seat. "The only thing," she stressed several times, "is that it won't be the same color as your seat, so if you want to keep your old cover it will fit on the new seat." Keep the old cover? Are you kidding me? The cover that the sun has oddly faded from gray to purple, that has gone through multiple diaper leaks and blow-outs, that has been thrown up on, that has had juice and milk and lemonade and tea and milkshakes spilled on it? The cover that is spotted and stained and has crumbs firmly cemented into every crevice no matter how many times I wash it? Keep THAT cover? I will happily take a brand-new cover with the brand-new seat, thankyouverymuch.

I was so pleased with Evenflo customer service. Each person I dealt with was so pleasant and helpful. And I never dreamed they would replace the entire seat -- I truly thought I could just order a new harness!

Hello, November

2011-11-07T22:19:00.000-05:00

October certainly flew by. Now we get to write 11 at the beginning and end of each date. How can 2011 be almost over?

I finally added pictures to and published the entry I wrote a month ago about our visit from the Specktaculars. Procrastinator, much? I blogged so infrequently last month that my friend from California emailed me to see if we were okay.

Peabody is learning new words every day. She is starting to say more phrases. She answers questions like this:
Us: "How are you?" or "How was your sleep?"
P, nodding: "Gooooo' [good]."
Us: "Do you want ______?" or "Are you okay?"
P: "Mo [no]."
Us: "Where is ______?"
P, holding hands up: "Mahna mo! [I don't know]"

She says her own little version of "here it is!" and sing-songs "where are you?" If we ask her "Where is Lela?" she says "Mahna mo! Leeee-la, whey ah yew?" and then finds a picture of Lela. If we ask her where Pops is she runs into my bedroom and points at the pictures of him as a little boy that I have stuck on my mirror.

All footwear is now "plap plop." She brings me her slippers. "Plap plop?" she asks sweetly, pushing them into my hands and flopping onto the floor. I had to pack away all of her summer sandals because she would bring them to us and then get mad when we wouldn't put them on her.

She has started saying "I want." Last week she told me "I wanna 'nack" after hearing the Boogie ask for a snack, and at Chick-fil-a said "I wanna play."

A few days ago she came up to me, asked "Ha yew?" and reached up for my hand with a limp fist. She didn't grasp my hand, but when I took hers in mine she shook it up and down. Then she said, "bye!" and walked away. Now she does it all the time. "Ha yew?" How're you? Ha!

She has started shaking one finger at us and saying "No no no!"

She calls her blankies "lally" which is so cute. All of her blankies have silky edges; while we were in Washington my mom put silky edges on a couple of Peabody burpies so that we could stop taking big blankies everywhere with us. The Boogie still sleeps with burpies but Peabody knows the difference between hers and her sister's. When she finds a Boogie burpie she exclaims "beepee!" excitedly, but calls her own burpies lallies.

She loves orange Tic-Tacs (I never, ever, ever would have given the Boogie Tic-Tacs at this age.)

We signed up for Netflix which has a wide selection of Barney episodes. "Mama mama mama," Peabody says, banging on the tv, "blah blah blah Bee!" She quivers with excitement when we start an episode. She sings the songs. She does all of the hand motions. She babbles the dialogue with the right inflection.

She likes to buckle things -- as soon as I get her down from her chair she has to buckle the straps.

She loves baby dolls and carries them around patting them on their backs and kissing them. She puts them in the doll stroller and pushes it all over the house.

I often tell her, "You are so cute! I just want to eat your face." Then I nibble all over her cheeks and neck. She pretends to nibble on me. "Nom nom nom," she says. Eric taught her that and it makes me laugh every time she does it.

I have to hide my Nook from her because when she sees it she immediately starts begging "a tew-ey, a tew-ey, a tew-ey!" She has figured out how to turn it on and frustrates her sister during story-reading because she jabs her finger repeatedly at the screen, disrupting the narration.

Peabody hits her sister a lot. She is reprimanded and instructed to say "sorry" and hug or kiss the Boogie. Sometimes she apologizes immediately on her own: whack then "wahwry" and a smooch. One day Peabody hit me. "No hitting," I told her sternly, "say 'sorry, Mama'." "Wahwry," she said, then walked over to her sister and kissed her. Ha!

She says "thank you" with no reminder. The other day in a store I asked an employee a question, thanked her, and turned to walk away. "Day doo!" Peabody called over my shoulder. "Please" is a work in progress although she will always repeat it when prompted.

There is no consideration of possessions. If she wants something there is much shrieking of "MINE! Mine mine miiiiiiiine!" If she doesn't get her way she pitches a fit while rapidly stamping both fat little feet. Sometimes she throws herself on the floor and kicks her legs. Every now and then if really enraged she will attempt to bite. So charming. Life is so hard when you don't get your way all the time.

On the flip side, she can be very snuggly. She strokes our cheeks and snuggles her head on our shoulders and will come up at random times and kiss us.

I found a pack of party-favor glasses on clearance. The Pheebs likes to wear them and can put them on by herself. One day we went for a walk and she wore them for the whole time. If she saw something interesting she would take them off to look at it more closely, then put them back on when we started walking again.

The Boogie has been playing with her cousin DR a lot. The rest of the NJ cousins go to school every day. Last year DR and the Boogie were practically sworn enemies; now they are best buds! Usually they will play nicely for hours, although when they've been together a lot over the course of several days I can tell that they are entering into sibling squabble territory. Overall they get along great, though.

The Boogie likes to talk about God. She is very interested in the concept of Him being everywhere all the time. While putting together a puzzle, "Honey, God is with me. Me and God are gonna play with this puzzle." She found a list that I had misplaced: "Praise the Lord!" she exclaimed, "Praise the Lord, God found this list."

She talks a lot about being five and going to "pembergarden." I just realized the other day that when she turns five in April she is going to think that she'll start kindergarten right away, so I've started telling her "first it will be your birthday, then it will be Peabody's birthday, then it will be my birthday, and THEN we'll start kindergarten." She goes back and forth between informing people that we are going to have a home school, and telling me that she doesn't want to go to school at home, she just wants to "go to that school where you have to ride the bus."

A couple of weeks ago the Boogie's little friend T stayed overnight so his parents could have a mini-getaway. The kids had the best time together! I wasn't sure how T would do at bedtime -- he'd never stayed at our house before and I feared that there might be a few tears shed -- but he did great. He slept in the same room as the girls and much talking and laughing ensued after the lights went out. The Boogie was the first to succumb to sleep, and then after a while T did too. I could hear Peabody chattering away long after the other two went silent.

T is very cute and very polite. I tossed some of his clothes in with a load of laundry I was washing -- he saw me take his socks and asked what I was going to do with them. "I'm going to wash them," I said. "Oh, thanks!" he said.
A while later he asked, "Are my dirty socks clean yet?"
"Yes, they're clean," I told him, "but they're not dry yet. Next they'll go into the dryer."
"Oh, thanks!" he said.
Later he saw me carry the basket of clean clothes to my room to fold everything. "Are my clothes in there? Are they clean?" he asked. I said they were, and that I would fold them and put them in his bag. "Oh, thanks!" he exclaimed. Such good manners. We all enjoyed his visit and the Boogie especially was very sad to see him go at the end of the second day.

Both girls like to draw on the magna-doodle thingy (what are those things called?) The Pheebs brings it to me and pushes it into my hands. "Mama mama mama!" she exclaims. I draw some shapes and name them. She takes it from me, scribbles all over my drawing, erases it, then pushes into my hands again. And repeat. The Boogie had it tonight. She drew an irregular circle, filled it with dots, and said, "Look, Honey, it's a germ! It's a germ that will make you sick." Where does she come UP with this stuff?

She sits with us in the service on Sunday nights. I looked over at her last night and saw this:

They are so much fun, these girls!

Words

2011-10-13T22:21:00.000-04:00

The Boogie was being silly in the car. "You are so goofy," I told her.
"Sometimes," she replied, "I think I'm just a genie-us."

The other day she went to library storytime with her auntie and cousin. "Will you miss me?" I asked.
"No," she said, "I never miss anyone when I'm with Auntie J and DR."

Peabody babbles sentences and ends them with a word that we can understand. Blah blah blah Daddy, blah blah cracker, blah blah blah cup. Something she's been saying for a week or two sounds like "dooooey." Blah blah blah dooooey. I thought she was saying "What are you doooing?" because I say that to her sometimes. But I figured out the other day that she is saying story. I like it so much that I instruct her several times a day to "say 'story'." She will try to say almost anything we tell her to.

Her answer to almost any question we ask her is "no" with an m.
Me: "Are you sleepy?"
P: slight hesitation, quick headshake, "mo," sticks her thumb in her mouth.
Me: "Do you wanna play with toys?"
P: slight hesitation, quick headshake, "mo," snatches a toy from my hand.
Me: "Do you need your blanky?"
P: slight hesitation, quick headshake, "mo," runs over to pick up her blanky.
Unless it's related to consuming anything.
Me: "Do you want a cup?"
P: "Cup! Cup! Cup!"

We went for a walk while the Boogie was gone. Peabody noticed some American flags stuck in someone's fence. "Flag," I said. "Laig!" she repeated. We continued around the block. An old black dog ran alongside us inside his fenced yard, barking. Peabody slowed down, fascinated. Finally she stopped, turned toward the dog, and "barked" ferociously back at him. At this age the Boogie would have burst into tears if a dog barked at her. Peabody has some spunk. After dinner we went on another walk with the Boogie. Peabody found a leaf and waved it over her head. "Laig! Laig!" she shouted. The Boogie and I laughed. "No, silly girl," we told her, "that's not a flag, it's a leaf. Leaf!"
"Laig!" she shouted, waving her leaf.

Tonight she brought a pair of her sandals to us and babbled something ending in "plap plop." I looked at Eric and frowned. He looked at me and frowned. Then it dawned on him: "Flip-flop!" he exclaimed. Ha! I think I like that one better than "dooooey."
"Pheebs, say 'flip-flop'."
"Plap plop."
Okay, I am easily amused.When it was time for church I said, "Let's put on your socks and shoes," and she looked at me in consternation, pointed at her feet and said, "Blah blah blah plap plop!" So, she wore sandals to church.

Another new one today is Dora: "Doowah."

Man, I love that kid.

A Specktacular Visit ... And Other Things

2011-10-04T09:15:00.192-04:00

We had a really great time with our friends from Warshington. They arrived early early on Saturday morning the 24th and went to a motel and then we picked them up around noon. We didn't do much the first couple of days, except visit and eat. Their almost-4-year-old informed me that she wanted her nickname to be Ace, so that's who she'll be here. Ace Specktacular. It sounds like a comic book superhero!

The two-year-old is called Tootie by her mother so I'm going to call her that, too. It makes me think of the Margaret O'Brien character in Meet Me In St. Louis. Tootie is adorable and has an amazing vocabulary for her age, a combination, I think, of being a girl and having an older chatty sister. I certainly hope that Peabody follows in those footsteps.

Tootie Specktacular!

Ace was intrigued that the Boogie calls me Honey, and throughout the week asked her mom on a regular basis if she could call her Honey, too.

I worked Monday afternoon as usual, and switched shifts with a coworker to work Wednesday and Friday mornings instead of afternoons, so that I could be home when Eric got home and we could maybe all do something together.

On Tuesday Eric left work early and we all drove out to Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island. After walking on the jetty and watching some fishermen and boats, we drove to a beach and watched the waves and some surfers and let the girls play in the sand for a little bit. Peabody was totally enthralled by the ocean!

The girls were intrigued by people fishing

Peabody didn't want to ride in the stroller

I love their little flip-flop feet

Then we drove kind of south on the island and ate at a little diner called The Chicken or the Egg. One of Eric's coworkers had told him about it. It was decent diner food but I didn't think it was anything amazing. The kids did fairly well, considering that they were in and out of the car a lot, ate dinner late, and were getting pretty tired.

On Wednesday I worked in the morning but Mr. Specktacular hadn't been feeling too well for a couple of days, and Peabody had thrown up right before I left for work, so we just hung out at home for the rest of the day.

Thursday was Eric's birthday but he had to work. The rest of us went to the zoo in the morning. The forecast was predicting rain, and as we drove over the bridge into Philly the sky looked very foreboding. Soon we drove into torrential rain but just as quickly passed through it and when we got to the zoo the sky was clear and blue! Praise the Lord. The zoo was damp and the mosquitoes were awful! I think the rain kept people away, though, because it really wasn't crowded there at all which was nice.

On our way home we stopped at Costco for the enormous birthday cake, which I took to 52 in order for MIL/FIL to sneak it to church for me. Eric had no idea! It was fun to surprise him after the service. The girls made him cards, too.

Friday morning MIL came to our house and stayed with the four girls for the morning while I worked and Eric took Mr. and Mrs. Specktacular to NYC. The weather all week had been muggy and rainy and just really not that great, but Friday was gorgeous and perfect for walking around the city. The little girls played very nicely all day which was a blessing for me! I remembered to pull out my camera for some pictures of them before bed.

These two little girls became BEST friends

Tootie was full of hilarity

Peabody was scowly, per her usual

We really did have a nice week. I hope it was the right combination for them of going places and doing stuff and also staying here and relaxing. I think Mr. Specktacular was a bit bored -- he mowed our grass one day for something to do! Every day Ace and the Boogie played together from the minute they woke up in the morning until they went to bed at night. Tootie played with the big girls sometimes, and sometimes entertained herself. Peabody did her own thing and was a fairly constant nuisance to the older kids.

On Saturday we went out for lunch and stopped by 52 afterward so the Specktaculars could say good-bye to MIL/FIL. Then we drove them up to Newark and dropped them off at the airport.

Good-bye, Specktacular family! We surely enjoyed your visit!

There is an Ikea near the airport so we went there and walked around for a bit after dropping them off. The Boogie wanted to play in the ballroom which, though it sounds like it should be something like this

http://mantoos.com/entertainment/ballroom-dancing

is actually a play area filled with brightly colored plastic balls. After she played we bought a few hotdogs for the road, loaded up in the cars, and started home. As soon as we got on the turnpike the Boogie said, "Honey, my tummy hurts," and immediately threw up. Praise the Lord we had both cars which meant we had spare car seats so were able to stop at a rest area, clean her up as much as possible, and switch out car seats and put the offensive one in the trunk. Praise the Lord she was wearing a completely zipped-up jacket which we could take off since I didn't have any spare clothes for her. Praise the Lord we also had lots of old towels in my car which we covered her with to hopefully catch any more "incidents." Praise the Lord she was fine for the rest of the way home. And praise the Lord she did NOT throw up in the ballroom although I do have some guilt about the other kids in there who were probably exposed to her germs. Oh well, what can you do? She was acting fine and I had no idea that she wasn't feeling well. Thankfully she quickly recovered.

We've enjoyed our company this summer. I'm so thankful that we have the extra room for folks to stay with us. Even though our house is tiny we were able to absorb the extra bodies fairly easily! And having our own washer/dryer is incredible. After having them for ten months I still don't take them for granted, and they have seen quite a bit of use over the last 3 months. I must admit, though, that while having the borrowed futon from 52 has been a great blessing and I really do like having it in the playroom, I am just about ready to send it home so that the computer desk and ALL of the toys can go back to their natural habitat.

This fall I must, must, MUST do some decorating in the living room. The most I've done is set some pictures on the bookshelves. There is nothing on the walls at all. The trim and back door in the laundry room needs some fresh paint, and I think I know what my first sewing project will be (after I *ahem* take my sewing machine out of its box and figure out how to use it): curtains for the laundry room windows. I figure no one will really see them so if I mess them up it won't be too noticeable, right? Then I want to make a valance for the kitchen window. I'm thinking fabric with a coffee theme would be perfect for in there.

Saturday PSA

2011-10-01T22:15:00.000-04:00

PSA (piece of sound advice) from the Boogie in the car tonight:

"Well, Honey, when you are sick or hurt or dead, it's very important and terrible. So, you just call the hospital care when you're sick, and you call the firefighters when you're hurt or when there's a fire, and you call the police when you're dead."

I am so glad she told me that. I'm sure it wouldn't occur to me to call the police when I'm dead.

The Little White House: One Year

2011-09-30T20:46:00.000-04:00

One year and one day ago our realtor called us and said, "Are you ready to buy a house? Because you're closing tomorrow!" It had been such a long road, with closing put off month after month. We were so excited!

We signed all of the paperwork and got the keys. It was a Thursday night so we drove straight to church afterward. After church we went to our house -- our house -- with Eric's parents and went inside and prayed together that God would bless our little home. And He has, time and time again!

That weekend Eric and his dad and his brothers and our friends and our neighbors started ripping things out. We soon realized that we had bitten off a little more than we could chew! There were many late nights when Eric was exhausted from working all day at his job and then putting in many more hours on the house. Almost every single day we felt so very overwhelmed by all that needed to be done. God provided many helping and generous hands, however, and six weeks later we were able to move in.

I can't believe it's been a year already. It has been such a wonderful year in our little house, and we are looking forward to many more!

My Fella

2011-09-29T22:41:00.000-04:00

... celebrated his golden birthday today: 29 years old on the twenty-ninth. It wasn't a really special day. He had to work while the rest of us went to the zoo. But I got up with him and made him breakfast, and I managed (with help!) to surprise him at church with a great big cake after the service!

(It was from Costco, it was enormous, it was delicious, and it was cheap.)

I accidentally cut his head off but look at those eager little faces behind him!

Happy birthday, Eric. We are so happy we got to help you celebrate your golden birthday. :)

In-Between

2011-09-25T21:53:00.001-04:00

It's not hot. It's not cold. It's still humid enough that you want to turn on the A/C, so you turn it on and then it gets really cold so you turn it off and then it gets muggy again so you turn it back on ...

Of course, that could be because our main wall unit air conditioner appears to be as old as I am and is either on or off with no happy medium.

I think Eric would be happy to leave it running 24/7 and cool the house down to about 60 degrees.

I miss central air. But that, my friends, is the only thing I miss about our old apartment. No wait! I miss a separate eating area with a hard floor under the table. And ... and ... and ... yeah, that's all I miss.

In a weird aside, the other night I had a dream that we were living back in that apartment, only it wasn't the same apartment, and we were actually sharing it with the people who lived downstairs from us. We weren't friends in my dream, we were still strangers to each other but living in the same apartment. So weird. And sort of nightmarish.

Anyway!

I appreciate the responses and diagnosis for the Boogie. It seems that if I can sort of rouse her a little bit before the crying starts, she doesn't do it. So it must be something to do with transitioning during her sleep cycle.

Also yesterday she had a little rash on her cheeks. I thought it was a reaction to something that touched her face but it was worse this morning, and spreading to her chest and arms. I think it's Fifths Disease. Turns out it's been going around. I kept feeling her forehead for a fever, and she would say, "Why are you feeling my brain, Honey? Is my brain hot?" Then she would go to Eric and ask him if he wanted to feel her brain. hahahaha

So, maybe the virus was causing some sleep problems too, though she didn't have any other symptoms that I was aware of.

The Specktacular family arrived yesterday! All of the little girls are having a great time together. A-girl is almost four and she and the Boogie immediately became BFFs. Little T is two and is mostly content to do her own thing. Peabody has been her normal toddler self, ruining elaborate Little People set-ups and wanting any and every toy that is in the possession of someone else. I haven't taken any pictures yet but I will! I'm still kicking myself for not getting any of H-man and Koto while they were here -- I'm not repeating that mistake.

What's Up With The Boogie?

2011-09-21T23:42:00.000-04:00

I hear the Boogie crying in her room. I go in and she is sitting up in bed. She stops crying as soon as I walk in. I ask her what is wrong and sometimes she mumbles something unintelligible then lays down, and sometimes she just lays down. Tonight I noticed that she seemed shaky. She goes right back to sleep and doesn't remember anything in the morning.

This is something that has occurred before from time to time, but has been happening every night for the past 4 or 5 nights (maybe more.) Up until tonight it was happening somewhere between 11:00-11:45 p.m., but tonight it was around 10:30. She always cries until I go in -- she never wakes herself with her crying.

I mentioned it to a coworker today who asked if the Boogie might be overtired. I think she gets the sleep she needs. Her bedtime has always been around 9 p.m. Last week we moved it up to 8:30, although I don't know when she actually falls asleep. I never wake her in the morning, but rather let her sleep until she wakes up on her own. She gets 10-11 hours of sleep at night. She rarely naps anymore -- even if I think she needs one and make her rest in the afternoon she usually does not fall asleep.

I don't think it's a bad dream because from time to time she will have a dream that scares her. When she does it wakes her up. She is coherent and will come into my room to tell me, or if she cries she has to be comforted, and she remembers them the next day.

She doesn't sleepwalk, and she doesn't wet the bed.

What do you think is causing this? It is very strange. Give me your diagnosis!

Tuesday: The Toddler

2011-09-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

I started writing this in yesterday's post but it kept getting longer and longer and I decided it needed its own day.

Peabody is very entertaining these days. She is one smart cookie. Get this: she can COUNT. How smart is that? Okay, well, she doesn't actually get the concept of counting. And I have to get her started by saying "one" ... but then she says "tewwww, dreeeee!"

She is into everything. EVERYTHING. Until recently her favorite place was the shoe rack in the front closet. I would see her from the across the room and cry, "No! No shoes!" and run toward her to intercept while she would grab a shoe and dart away as fast as she could. She got into trouble enough times that she finally (mostly) stopped. If we forget to put the gate across the bathroom doorway she goes in there and pulls things out of the trash and grabs the toilet brush and bangs on the toilet lid (thankfully she hasn't figured out how to open it yet) and gets under the sink. If we don't put the gate across the kitchen doorway she goes in there and bangs pot lids and pulls all of the plastic bowls out of the drawers and goes into the laundry room where the pantry food is and empties boxes of tea bags onto the floor and brings boxes of crackers out to us so we'll give her some. She gets under the tv stand and pulls out all of the dvds. She pulls the cds out of the holder. She empties the toy bins. She empties the drawers of play food and dishes. If the Boogie leaves her clothes drawer open, Peabody yanks everything out. She pulls all of the books off of the shelves.

She loves to be read to. Her favorite is a Crayola board book about colors. That is always the first one she pulls out. Her second favorite is called Baby Cakes, which was also the Boogie's favorite at this age. We all have it memorized.

She will bring a book to me and push it into my hands saying "MamaMamaMamaMama" which is universal for "read this/open this/pick me up/give me crackers."

She is still in love with Barney and playing a Barney DVD is the only guaranteed crabby-toddler-soother. It also will completely keep her attention for 45 minutes if there is something I must do uninterrupted. She sings the "I Love You" song. If I sing it to her she must hold my hand, and she hugs and kisses me at the right times. Sometimes I sing it to her just so she will give me a kiss, since she will willingly kiss her sister and Daddy at any given time, but mostly refuses me when I ask for one.

She sings the ABC/Twinkle Twinkle song, and another ABC song from Sunday school, and the happy birthday song: "ha dirday oo yewwww."

She just cut two more teeth on the top, and I think she is working on two on the bottom. Once those last two pop through she will have all of her teeth except for the 2-year molars.

She signs more, please, and all done. She says lots and lots of words. I have completely lost count. She'll try to say almost anything we tell her to. The ones she says consistently are mostly identifying words like ball, book, baby, cup, cracker, Daddy, snack, teeth, shoe. She can point to and say eye, ear, nose, mouth, teeth, head, belly, toes. She also says hi, hello, bye, more, mine, uh-oh, and has started saying no but with an "m" which gets confusing since it sounds just like the way she says more.

Me: "Do you want more crackers? More?"

Pheebs, shaking her head no and signing "more": "Mo!"

I pour a handful of crackers on her tray.

"Mo!" she yells, violently swatting crackers off the tray and bursting into tears.

"Are you all done?" I ask. She signs "all done" while weeping. I unbuckle her from her seat and put her down where she stops crying and crawls around on the floor hiccuping and eating the crackers that only moments ago were so repugnant to her.

Do they make Midol for toddlers?

We sometimes have conversations.

Peabody picks up a toy phone and holds it to her ear: "Hello?"

Me: "Hello?"

P: "Hi!"

Me: "How are you?"

P: "Gooooo' [good]"

Me: "I love you!"

P: "Bye-eee."

If I miss my cues she says her part anyway.

When she sees her blankie she sing-songs "Whey ah yooou?" and ends with a little gasp of delight.

She calls "Daddyyyyy" with an upward inflection at the end. When he responds she babbles a long string of gibberish that sounds like she is explaining something to him.

On Sunday Chief was doing the rounds at church counting everyone, and opened up the door to the temporary nursery. Peabody adores him. He knelt to her level to give her a high five but she wanted a hug and rested her head on his shoulder ... for a looooong time. She was very still and the longer she stayed there the more we adults laughed. Then she decided that was enough and straightened up and pushed the door closed in his face.

She is very scowly. It started with a little game where she and I would scowl at each other and say "heyyyyy" in a deep voice and then burst out laughing. Now she just frowns at us all the time. Such a lovely child.

She is beginning to understand and follow instructions. She will go get a diaper when we tell her to, and also come lay on the floor in front of us for a diaper change. After she is changed she gathers up the wet diaper and the box of wipes and drops them over the gate onto the kitchen floor. Sometimes for variation she drops them over the other gate into the bathroom. I have no idea why she does that.

She is just too cute and I love this age a lot.

Monday Thought Dump

2011-09-19T23:31:00.000-04:00

-The other day I was chatting with a friend and fellow blogger who commented that "blogging just takes so long." For the record, she posts a lot more regularly than I do. But I agree that writing up a blog post is extremely time-consuming. If I try to write in the morning, the productivity of my morning quickly becomes a big fat zero. The same goes for the afternoon. If I try to write after the girls go to bed, I don't finish until long after everyone else is asleep. Maybe if I did it more often, I wouldn't feel like I need to squeeze so much into each post.

-The Boogie is crying right now because she doesn't want to watch the episode of "SuperWhy" that is on. This is not an auspicious start to my day.

-aus·pi·cious [aw-spish-uhs] adjective 1. promising success; propitious; opportune; favorable: an auspicious occasion.

-Peabody is sucking her thumb while clutching her shirt in that hand, while rubbing her bare tummy with the other hand. Toddlers are so weird and entertaining.

-Last week started out warm and humid, and ended with chilly nights and cool days. That's it, folks. Fall is here.

-I am very sad that summer is over.

-I am stubbornly wearing sandals and flip-flops for as long as I can.

-I just looked up the forecast for this week and we are supposed to have highs in the mid-seventies, and a chance of thunderstorms later in the week. I feel better now.

-I recently tried to convince my husband that we should move further south to where there are long hot summers but he refused. We need to stay in this house for a while before selling, so I have a few years to wear him down.

-The only good thing about cooler weather is that once we get a good frost the mosquitoes will be gone.

-I am really enjoying my Nook. I've received several Barnes & Noble gift cards and have purchased a few e-books, but Barnes & Noble has many freebies so I've been working my way through those. :) Also Eric helped me figure out how to borrow e-books from our library system which is so cool! In addition to reading I like to surf the web, play Mahjongg, listen to music, and make lists on my list-making app.

-I love lists.

-We moved the girls' bedtime up by thirty minutes so that Eric can get to bed earlier and get more sleep. One week down and with the exception of church nights, so far so good.

-I have been trying to get up earlier in the morning. Each night I set the alarm on my phone. Each morning I hit snooze a couple of times. Each morning I end up getting up at my regular time anyway. I think I need to start putting my phone on the other side of the room instead of on the nightstand within reach.

-In the early days of Eric's job with an early start time, I would get up with him every morning and pack his lunch and we'd pray together and I would go down to his car with him to say good-bye, and after he left I would start my day. I did that for a long time, until his start time got moved up another hour. That was just too early for me, so I would get up with him and pack his lunch and we'd pray together and I'd go down to his car with him to say good-bye, and then after he left I'd go back to bed for just a little more snoozing. I did that for a long time, too. Now he gets up, gets dressed, sits next to my side of the bed and I usually kind of wake up (but sometimes I don't) and he prays with me and kisses me good-bye, and I go back to sleep and he packs his own lunch. I sometimes think about how productive my morning would be if I would get up when he does, but I simply cannot survive on that amount of sleep. After a couple of days I am just plain crabby, and after several days I get sick. I don't know how Eric does it. It must be God's grace!

-Why is it that on trash days when I hurry to get the cans to the curb first thing in the morning, the garbage truck doesn't come until mid-afternoon, but on the days that I don't get the trash out right away the garbage truck comes while I am still in my pjs?

-We are having an infestation of fruit flies. It isn't as bad as the house fly plague we had early in the summer, but it's still gross and creepy. I did some googling this morning and put out a little bowl with vinegar and dish soap in it. The flies seem to like it enough to hover over it and land on the edge of the bowl, but so far they are avoiding the liquid itself. The trash can is tightly covered, we don't leave dirty dishes or food out, and I keep all the fruit in the fridge. Except for the bananas. You can't keep bananas in the fridge. Or can you? I guess once we've eaten them I won't buy anymore until the flies are gone. Blasted flies.

-Peabody is throwing a fit at my feet. She has entered full-on toddler temper tantrum days. If her sister has something that she wants, she tries to take it from her. If the Boogie won't let her have it, Peabody yells "Miiiiiiine! Mine! Mine! Mine!" and hits the Boogie and collapses onto the floor sobbing. If I ignore her she gets up and comes over to me and collapses again sobbing and writhing in anger at my feet. Fun times.

-The Specktacular family will be arriving in a few days for a week-long visit! We are looking forward to that. Their little girls are 2 years old and almost 4. As much as my girls enjoyed H-man and Koto's visit, I'm sure they will love having other little girls around even more. I am anticipating that the play kitchen, doll house, and dress-up clothes will get a lot of use. Also we are hoping that the weather is nice so we can make some trips to the shore and zoo, and Eric will be taking the grown-up Specktaculars to NYC one day.

-Speaking of H-man and Koto, the R family arrived back in NJ the Tuesday after Labor Day, and immediately caught a flight back to Germany that same day. So, we didn't get to have any more time with them which was a bummer, but it was good that they all got to go home together.

-And that is all I am thinking about "on my mind" to quote the Boogie.

Crafty Boogie

2011-09-13T09:08:00.001-04:00

One day last week the Boogie was going about business as usual, which means that she narrates everything she does and interjects "Honey, look" into every other sentence. I was going about my own business as usual, which means that I respond "oh that's nice" "oh wow" "good job honey" absentmindedly while doing my chores. So when she told me that she wanted to make a stethoscope I didn't think anything of it.

She made her way into the laundry room and found a paper cup. "Honey, can I have this?"
"Oh, sure, yes that's fine, go ahead," I said from the sink where I was washing dishes.
"Well," she said, "I just need two more."
"Okay, that's fine," I replied.

She was quiet for another minute or two then popped out of the laundry room with a pipe cleaner from the VBS craft stash that I hadn't managed to put away yet. "Honey, can I have this pipe cleaner?" I glanced over my shoulder and nodded and went back to the dishes. "Well, can I have two?" she persisted.
"Sure, you can have two," I answered, not even turning around. I barely noticed when she carried everything to the dining room table.
"Honey," she called, "I need some star stickers. And markers. Can I please have some stars and markers?"
I dried my hands and found them for her.

She occupied herself decorating the outside of the cups with stars. She write her initial on the bottom of each cup. After several minutes she called me again, "Well, Honey, I just need some help. Can you help me please?" I dried my hands again and went over to her. "I just need to poke a hole here," she pointed to the bottom of a cup. I got a pencil and jabbed a hole where she was pointing. "Now this one," she slid another cup over to me.
"Now I can do this!" and she pushed one end of a pipe cleaner into one of the cups. I twisted the end so it wouldn't slide back out and did the same thing with the other cup and another pipe cleaner.

I need to state that at this point I still had no idea what she was trying to do. Clueless, much? I got distracted by something and a couple of minutes later she called me back to look. She had poked a hole in the bottom of the third cup and pushed the other ends of the two pipe cleaners into that cup. A light bulb went on over my head. "Oh a stethoscope!" I exclaimed. I twisted the ends so they wouldn't slide out. The Boogie's grin was from ear to ear. "Yes! A stethoscope!" She picked it up and held two cups to her ears. Her face fell. "It doesn't work," she said sadly, "I need another hand." I cut a small slit in each cup and slid the ends of a headband into them and it worked!

I was so impressed that she thought of this all by herself and figured out how to do it without any input from me. What a smart kid!

Butterfly Girl

2011-09-05T22:47:00.000-04:00

We went to the zoo again today. Two visits and our membership has paid for itself. :)We didn't get there until after 2:00, which actually was perfect. A lot of people were leaving as we arrived, and it wasn't crowded at all.

As soon as we walked through the gate the Boogie exclaimed, "I want to get my face painted!" She waited patiently while 3 other children in front of us had their faces done (the tiny pirate boy was especially cute) and when it was her turn told the artist that she wanted a pink butterfly.

It ended up being more purple than pink but she was thrilled with it! I took this picture with my phone and she kept asking to see it. She was very sad when we had to wash it off in the shower. I guess I'll have to learn how to paint butterflies.

She had to have her picture taken on a hippo ...

... and then on a baby hippo, too.

On our way home from the zoo we stopped for ice cream instead of dinner. Sometimes it's fun to break the rules.

We had a nice weekend. It was so lovely that we both had three whole days off. On Saturday night we drove to PA to help celebrate Reenie's birthday. Bless her heart, she ALWAYS comes to visit us, so we figured it was well past being our turn to make the drive. It was nice to meet her friends, although we were the only ones there with children. The Pheebs attached herself to the first man who walked through the door, and all of the adults present graciously helped entertain her as well as steer her away from trash cans, kitchen cabinets, stairs, breakables, and toddler-level appetizer trays. We ate yummy food and played classic party games. It was fun! Reenie and I compared NOOKs and made plans to get together again soon.

On Sunday afternoon we put Peabody down for a nap; put the Boogie down for a nap; cleaned the kitchen; straightened the living room; finally climbed into bed for our own naps ... and the Pheebs woke up. Argh. I brought her into our bed in hopes that she might, maybe, possible go back to sleep. She rolled around for a bit, talked to her daddy, and finally laid down with her thumb in her mouth. Oh good, I thought, maybe this will work! And then the phone started to ring. I could barely hear it over the A/C in our room, but I knew that Peabody heard it too because she stopped sucking her thumb. After four rings she suddenly sat straight up, put her hand to her ear and exclaimed "Hello?" So much for naptime.

Back to work tomorrow! The R family is also on their way back. They should fly home to Germany one day this week, but they will stay with us until they leave so we'll have a little more time with them.

While I was sending the zoo pictures from my phone to the computer, I came across a few more:

I am vigilant about keeping pens, markers, crayons, etc., away from Peabody, but one slipped into the house unobserved by me and I didn't find it until after she did. Thankfully her face seemed to be the only thing she drew on.

A Nutella sandwich tastes good, and spreads well on the face, too.

Some friends introduced the board game Blokus to me and Eric. The classic version is for four players (which is more fun) but we found a smaller travel version for only two players. The Boogie was dying to play it and since the rules are very simple she was able to play against me. And ... she beat me.

During VBS the Phebis spent each evening with her favorite Uncle. A busy week meant fewer naptimes, however, and one night she just couldn't stay awake. There really wasn't anywhere to put her so she had a little catnap in her Poppop's office chair.

And one day while some cousins were over, I came across this:

Betcha didn't know that Schwinn manufactures back braces for baby dolls.

Quote of the Day

2011-09-02T09:21:00.000-04:00

Recently on Facebook I read something that I thought was so profound I just had to post it here on my blog. It was accredited to my friend Jamee who has 3 children and one on the way. (I hope that if I am quoting it incorrectly Jamee will let me know!) I know all of you moms out there will appreciate this:

"Cleaning a house with children present is like brushing your teeth while eating an Oreo."

Vacation Bible School and Hurricane Irene

2011-08-31T12:01:00.000-04:00

As soon as my birthday weekend was over we jumped right into VBS. The theme this year was Treasure Quest. I did crafts each night and Eric was a pirate who sneaked into the opening service each evening and "stole" something from the pastor. Only the children were supposed to see him, and there were some other pirates running around during the remainder of each evening, visible only to the kids, and the kids LOVED it. On the final day Eric appeared to the pastor and confessed his wrong-doing and promised not to do it anymore. I wish I had a picture of him -- he wore a bandana around his head, and a patch (the location of which he changed up every night, so sometimes over an eye, or maybe on his chin, or up on his forehead), and wore a snazzy mustache that I cut out of black foam, and carried around a stuffed parrot.

We anticipated the Boogie being afraid of the puppets during the puppet show each night. What we did not anticipate was that at her first glimpse of the scary pirate-daddy, she would burst into tears and cling to the nearest adult. For the rest of the first night she cried off and on, especially when she was around me for craft time, pleading to stay with me instead of go back to the classroom or to have me go with her. I think what made it worse was that all of the adults participating had been instructed to ignore the pirates and act like we didn't see them, so to her 4-year-old mind we were denying the existence of the very thing that was terrifying her. Eric and I were unsure of how to help her deal with it -- obviously neither of us could follow her around each evening, and she couldn't stay with us. I tried telling her that she could choose whether or not to be scared. Her answer to that was, "I can't choose." On the third day while we were discussing it once again she said something about "Daddy being the pirate." Aha! So she knew it was just him. That evening she happened to see him in costume before the opening service, so he came over and talked to her and snuggled her for a minute, and then she was fine! Of course then we had to reiterate over and over that she was NOT to tell any of the other children that the pirate was really only Daddy. She did really well keeping the secret; so well, in fact, that when we were writing an email to Lela I encouraged her to tell about Daddy being a pirate, to which she replied with a concerned look, "No, I can't, I'm not supposed to tell anyone!"

The upside to pirate fear was that she wasn't afraid of the puppets this year!

For my own record-keeping, the crafts I put together were:
-Binoculars -- paper cups with the bottoms cut out, stapled together, and decorated with foam letters and stickers
-Hot-air balloon -- paper plates stapled together with scraps of brightly-colored tissue paper glued on, and a dixie cup "basket" attached with yarn
-Treasure map -- I brewed some strong tea and put it in a spray bottle, then spread out legal-sized paper all over the floor of the garage and sprayed each sheet liberally with tea. When it dried it was splotchy and discolored, like old paper! The kids tore the edges, drew a map on it, crumpled it up then smoothed it out, then rolled it up and slid it into a paper towel tube that we covered with construction paper
-Treasure chest -- I copied the template from this website onto brightly-colored cardstock. I cut out and assembled the chests for the youngest group, and cut out the chests for the middle group but had them glue their own, and had the oldest group do the cutting and gluing themselves. Then they decorated them with stick-on jewels. The craft turned out super-cute but was soooooo time-consuming for me! I spent hours cutting out and gluing together ...
-Necklaces -- craft time on the final day was abbreviated so I just had the kids string beads to make a necklace as "treasure" to put in their paper chests. I printed out Matthew 6:19-21 onto cardstock and cut it out and punched a hole so it could hang like a pendant from their necklaces

We changed things up a little this year and did VBS Tuesday-Friday evenings, and then finished up with a fun day on Saturday. After lunch on Saturday the kids played games and I tried some face-painting. I do not have an artistic hand. I can draw a decent stick person but that's about as far as that goes. But after a little practice I was able to paint 5 or 6 little images that somewhat resembled what they were supposed to be, and it was actually really fun! I did all the little kids first. I was stationed outside of the room they were playing games in, and as I finished up with each one and sent them back I would hear the Boogie say, "I don't want to have my face painted." EK was the last one and she requested a ladybug; when she went back in the room the Boogie exclaimed, "I want a ladybug!" So the Boogie FINALLY agreed to have her face painted! What's more, she told us that the next time we go to the zoo she will have her face painted there. We shall see ...

Meanwhile as the week progressed we started hearing more and more about Hurricane Irene working her way up the coast toward us. Between work and VBS we hardly had any time to prepare. By the time the kids left church on Saturday it was starting to rain and get windy. Eric brought the girls home and put all of our outside stuff into the garage and managed to get his car in as well. I helped clean up at church then came home and we did laundry and washed dishes and vacuumed and scrubbed the tub to fill with water and tried to do all we could to prepare for losing power.

The storm was really crazy Saturday night. I have never seen rain like that, and the wind was pretty strong as well. We didn't lose power at all so we were able to watch the news. The scariest part was the tornado warnings for our area. But we made it through the night just fine and by Sunday morning the rain had stopped although the wind seemed worse. By the afternoon it seemed to be settling down some and we thought, wow! We made it through without losing electricity! And then the power went out. It was out from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon. We were very thankful that it wasn't any longer than that. We lost some refrigerated stuff, although FIL took our freezer food over to the church. However we made out a whole lot better than a lot of people who weathered that storm.

Once the storm passed the weather has been beautiful, warm sunny days and cool nights. It is more comfortable than the humidity of summer ... but it means fall is coming. I'm not ready for fall! I would happily take another month of heat, including humidity! if it meant that fall's arrival would be pushed back just a bit.

And so I don't forget these recent Boogie gems:

While in the car eating french fries she explained the process to make them: "First you take a tomato and you cut it up, and then you put french fry salt on it, then you put it in the box, then you give it to the people in the car, and then they eat it!" It took me a few minutes to realize that she meant a potato, not a tomato.

Yesterday at the store I let her choose some body wash for herself and Peabody. She picked out this Suave berry-scented one (which, not surprisingly, is the exact same kind that H-man and Koto use.)

But I never actually said anything about it being berry-scented, and of course she can't read yet. So I don't know why it surprised me when last night, while being bathed, she asked excitedly, "Do you think it will make me smell like a penguin?"

Birthday Weekend

2011-08-22T07:37:00.003-04:00

Friday was my birthday. It was a regular day. I had to go to work and all that. I picked up take-out and a movie on my way home. It was crazily windy and stormy and dark and cool out and it felt like fall which I hate. By the time I opened my gifts and we ate dinner and got the girls in bed Eric was falling asleep on the couch, so no movie.

But Saturday was pretty! We went to the zoo (along with 13,529 other people who had the same idea.) We've been planning to go all summer. We bought a membership so we can keep going all year and take friends with us. It was pretty nice all day. It didn't get too warm until close to the time that we were going to leave. The girls were getting all sweaty and the Pheebs had a faux-hawk which I unfortunately did NOT get a picture of.

We asked the Boogie repeatedly if she wanted to have her face painted but she refused. She did, however, ask to brush the goats so that was something.

On our way there we saw some signs for a puppet show they are doing, Xtinkshun (or something like that.)

As you know, the Boogie does NOT like puppets. She'd seen commercials for these and when she realized we were going to the zoo she wavered between excitement and fear. I assured her that the puppets were part of a show in one place -- "It will be just like a movie!" -- and that they would not be everywhere.

Guess what? The puppets were everywhere. There were small stages set up throughout the zoo and we would walk around a corner and there would be a stage with a little puppet show going on! Oops. She actually did pretty well. We only stopped and watched one show and while she clung to my leg the whole time she didn't cry or insist that we leave, and when we talked about it afterward she said she wasn't scared.

(This week is VBS and there will be a puppet show every night. We haven't told her yet. Ack.)

Anyway! Saturday was a nice day and I think we all had an enjoyable time. I'm sure Peabody would have enjoyed herself more if we would have let her out of the stroller more but overall she did really well. We even went to the bird "moobie." It was very pleasant to sit quietly in air conditioning for fifteen minutes.

When we got home there was a package in the mailbox. I thought maybe Eric had another surprise gift for me, but he didn't know what it was. It was from a seller on Etsy.com and was a beautiful handmade bag! There was no message indicating the giver. It took me a couple of hours of pondering to realize that it was just the sort of thing Mrs. Cowboy would pick out for me ... and sure enough, it was from her! It is so lovely. Thank you, Mrs. Cowboy. You know me well. :)

After the Sunday morning service we all went to 52 for pizza and birthday cake. Eric had another mysterious gift with a card. I had no idea what it could be and honestly didn't even try to figure it out. He had me open it with everyone gathered around ... and it was a NOOKcolor!

I was completely and totally surprised! What a cool electronic toy. I can read books, surf the web, send email, listen to music, play games, watch movies, and who knows what else. All of our siblings went in on it. What really fun and awesome gift -- I'm already half-way through my first book! The first thing we downloaded was a Bible (so I could use it at church last night, of course) and a couple of children's books. I know it will bring me many hours of enjoyment. THANK YOU to everyone who chipped in!

So, overall, it was a great birthday. Even though I didn't want to turn thirty, I can't complain about the way I turned thirty. Eric did a great job of making it a special weekend. He put a lot of thought into it and that means so much to me. What a wonderful husband God has given me. :) What a wonderful family I have, too! Sweet girlies and -- on both sides -- fantastic parents and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews ... I am so blessed.

Thirty

2011-08-19T23:19:00.000-04:00

Isn't it funny how you can dread something coming, but then when it arrives it isn't really quite as bad as you were afraid it would be?

That's how I've been feeling about this new age.

I don't like it. But I'm in it now and there's nothing I can do about that.

Well, except lie.

But mostly I feel sort of ... resigned to it, I guess.

I wasn't sure how I would handle today. Like, I seriously wondered if I might cry all day. But it was just a normal day, with birthday wishes from family and friends and cyber-friends. I'll confess that I welled up a little, here and there. But no outright weeping for my lost youth. Ha!

Mrs. Chief walked over with a card and a little gift, and she visited with me for a while. I got some phone calls, and I went to work, and when I got home Eric and I ate sushi and he and the girls gave me cards and flowers and my gift (a sewing machine!) and the gift and funny card from my parents, and after the girls went to bed we ate some very rich and quite delectable little cakes.Tomorrow we'll go do something fun. I'm not sure yet what we'll do but I get to pick because it's my birthday.

So far thirty isn't all that bad.

But ... I think ... I still might say that I'm 24. I still feel like I'm right in the middle of being 24, you know? Or maybe I'll quote Gracie Allen from that movie (what was that movie, Pops?): "Oh, I'm waaay past twenty. Goodness, yes, weeks and weeks!"

August Here Already ... and Halfway Over!

2011-08-17T11:14:00.104-04:00

How can August be halfway over already? A flock of geese just flew over the house. I'm so not ready for fall. Not not not ready. Next week is vacation Bible school, and the week after that real school begins for HJ and EK and HE. The beginning of school always feels like the end of summer to me, even though I haven't been in school myself for *ahem* years.

This is our last year of NO school as the Boogie will be in kindergarten next fall. This year I will do some workbooks with her on a regular basis, to get her used to sitting and working for periods of time. I will also be doing some research into Christian homeschool curriculum. You homeschooling moms who read this, I will be hitting you up soon for recommendations!

My birthday is in two days and I'm going to be ... I'm going to be ... oh, I can't even type it. As much as I'm not ready for summer to be over, I am one hundred times more not ready to be ... that age.

The R family has come and gone and we really enjoyed their visit. The kids got along pretty well for the most part. After a few days I figured out why: the Boogie wants H-man to play with her. She likes to play "house" and would tell him, "I'll be the mom and you be the dad." Most of the time H-man couldn't care less about playing with her and mostly does his own thing, but if he is in the same room she thinks that he is doing what she wants, and everyone is happy ... as long as she doesn't refer to him with terms of endearment, like this conversation I overheard one day:
Boogie: "Honey! Hon, I ate that whole turtle." [I have no idea why she was eating a turtle.]
H-man: "I'm not your honey."
Boogie: "Well, I'm just pretending you are my hon."
H-man: "I'm not your hon!"
Boogie: "Well, I just like to pretend you are."
H-man: "I'm not."

I worked my regular hours while they were here, and the girls went to 52 while I worked, which I think turned out very nicely. HR had the house to herself for a few afternoons, and all the kids got a little break from each other. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say. In any case I believe we had the minimum of expected meltdowns and sharing traumas.

One afternoon MIL came over during nap time and she and HR and I did some creating with beads which was really fun! I've hardly done any beading at all over the past year or so and I've missed it.

Yesterday afternoon the parents went to pick up their rental car and do some final shopping, and the boys stayed here. Peabody and H-man's little brother Koto napped. H-man and the Boogie played nicely together ALL afternoon. Like, literally, for hours. I think that was the longest stretch ever of nicely playing together. And when I say ever, I mean EVER, even considering when they lived here in Jersey.

They left early this morning and will be back in about 3 weeks. I think they'll stay with us for a few days while they try to catch a flight back to Germany. They were here for almost 2 weeks and I took no pictures whatsoever. That's terrible! I'll have to make sure to get some when they come back. I think Peabody was just a bit overwhelmed with all the maleness in the house. She did, however, learn one prime new word from 2-year-old Koto: "Mine!" And repeated it with much vehemence.

One Sunday after her nap the Boogie climbed onto the couch next to her daddy and told him, "I taked a nap: check." She held up one finger.
"Then I goed potty: check." Another finger
"Then I eated a snack: check." A third finger.
"Then H-man woke up from his nap: check." A fourth finger.
"Then H-man goed potty: check." The last finger. "And that's all the checks!" She held up the other hand. "But, these aren't any checks."

Last week we went with my office to our annual Camden Riversharks game. We didn't tell the Boogie where we were going. She was very excited to be going anywhere, until we arrived at the stadium and she realized where we were. She is terrified of anyone in costume and she knew that the mascot would be there. She was very apprehensive as we went in. Of course we stopped first for a picture.

Once we got inside she clung to Eric's hand and searched everywhere for the shark. We found our seats and when she was safely sitting between Eric and her Uncle B she relaxed and chatted Uncle B's ear off the whole evening. At one point the doctor took all of the kids into the team store so they could pick out a toy. While they were in there we saw the shark go in! Uh-oh. I was sure there would be tears or hysteria (since the last time she saw the Chick-fil-a cow she had to be held by Eric's brother and cried so hard she fell asleep. And this was recently, too.) But when they came back to our seats there were no signs of tears. The doctor told me that when she saw the shark she glued herself to the doctor's leg, and asked to leave right away "out that door" pointing to the one as far away from the shark as possible. But no tears! Maybe we are making progress with our repetition of "it's only a person in a costume."

Peabody thoroughly enjoyed herself at the game. Whenever there was applause she shrieked loudly and clapped her hands. She wandered up and down in front of everyone's seats, and stuffed her face with popcorn. Right before we left she caught a cameraman's attention and was on the "big" screen in the outfield!

Before we left Eric took the Boogie for a ride on the "mega-ro-round." The Pheebs and I just watched. It's hard to get a picture of that with a cell phone! She had a blast.

It was a fun evening and the weather was beautiful, a perfect night for a ball game.

Next week is vacation Bible school and once again Eric is sort of involved with skits, while I am craft lady this year. The theme is Treasure Quest so we will be making things like treasure maps, etc. I have all but one craft figured out. Now I need to gather supplies and make prototypes. It's a little last minute, but I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do -- hopefully it will come together smoothly.

And, next month we will have more company when the Specktacular family comes to visit! This will be their third trip to see us. We are looking forward to that -- it's always nice to spend time with friends.

Phebis

2011-08-03T23:35:00.000-04:00

Eric has been calling the Pheebs Peabody. While we were in Washington my parents picked up on it and we all started calling her that. That child surely does have a lot of nicknames: Phebis, Pheeboo, Phoobee, Wo Phat, Pheebs, Peabody. For a while the Boogie called her Phahbis (it doesn't look right when I write it -- say it out loud.) But I love Peabody the most lately.

Tonight at bedtime Eric asked her, "Are you ready to go sleepies?" and she immediately collapsed onto the bed and started SNORING.

Man, I love that kid. She is hilarious.

Summertime Heat

2011-07-30T21:42:00.000-04:00

I'm not complaining. I refuse to complain about heat. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would rather have heat and humidity than cold and snow. I'd rather have to cool my house down than heat it up! It's been nice and warm around here lately. That means we get some cool thunderstorms. We got a couple of good ones last night, the kind where you hear the thunder from a long way away, the kind that rumbles almost continuously while the storm gets closer and closer and then is right over the top of you and then rolls away.

I can't believe we've been home for almost two weeks already. Goodness, that has gone by quickly. The Boogie tells me daily that she misses Pops and Lela, and says often that she wants to go back to Washington. The Pheebs points to pictures of Pops and yells "Pah!"

The R family finally arrived late Monday night. They are not staying with us yet but we expect that they will move in sometime soon. SILJ and HR and all the kids came over to play on Thursday. The Boogie had not seen them yet and in fact we hadn't even told her that they were here. When she saw H-man she stopped dead in her tracks and said, "I was looking for you!" She was very excited to see him but he couldn't have cared less about seeing her. She didn't notice that, however, and I think they all had fun playing.

Phebis is saying lots of things now. She signs and says "more" and "all done" and signs "milk." She has started saying "thank you" when we give her something, or when she gives us something, which is awfully cute. She points to and says "head" "eye" "ear" "mouth" and "nose." She will grab her stomach when you ask her where her belly is. If you ask her what a doggy says she says "woof woof." If you ask her what anything else says she says "woof woof." But then she will repeat whatever noises we make. She has started puckering up sometimes for kisses instead of coming at us open-mouthed. Baby puckers are the cutest thing ever! I will get a picture when she starts doing that more consistently. She will come up to me and say, "Mama?" and then babble a string of gibberish, like she has something she just has to tell me. She says something that sounds a lot like "dadoo" or "daddy" for blankie, and will sing-song "Da-doo, whey ah oooo?" which is interchangeably "Daddy/blankie, where are you?" She loves pattycake and will chant along and clap and rub her belly at the right times. She will go look for things when we tell her to; she is in love with baby dolls and will toddle right off to find one if we tell her "go find your baby." She "sings" the ABC song and the happy birthday song a lot. She still frowns and babbles when we tell her it's time to pray, finishing with "mmm-MEN."

Phebis calls me Mama although the Boogie still says Honey with the occasional Mama thrown in there, and Eric always refers to me as Honey when he talks to either girl. I am in the habit of referring to myself as Mama. And then of course most other people, when talking to the girls, will refer to me as Mommy. Poor confused kids. It will be interesting to see if the Pheebs starts calling me Honey or if the Boogie reverts back to Mama.

The Boogie still says funny things from time to time, but not as often anymore. Recently she came up to me all excited: "Honey, guess what? You're not going to believe it!" She leaned in really close and whispered, "I'm cuuuuute." We finally took her to Olive Garden -- she's been asking for months to go -- and she was delighted. When we left Olive Garden we had to drive past Red Lobster and she said, "next time we need to go to Lobster." She still calls restaurants "rench-raunches" and tries to convince us to go to Taco Bell every time we leave church.

They are good girls and we're so blessed to have them.

Boogie Check-up

2011-07-23T13:09:00.000-04:00

The Boogie had her 4-year-wellcheck the other day. For some reason we did last year's appointment really late, so this one was late too.

She was so excited! She had to read a chart to check her eyes, and go into another room for a hearing test. Then the assistant told her to pee in a cup, put the cup in a pass-through box in the wall between the bathroom and a small lab room (only she called the pass-through a "magic box,") wash her hands, then look in the "magic box" again and the cup would be gone. The Boogie was beside herself when she opened that box the second time and the cup had disappeared!

She had to put on a little gown.

We saw a different doctor today and really liked her. The Boogie was very chatty with her and did great while she had her check up.

And then ... and then ... and then ... she had to have five booster shots. She knew she was going to have some though I didn't know how many until we got there. She did pretty well, considering, but she did cry and cry after they were finished, big sad "that hurts" kind of tears. I hated that the appointment had to end on that note, since it had gone so well up to that point and she had been so excited!

The promise of lunch with Daddy cheered her up and she was just fine after that. And aside from yearly flu shots, she won't need any more boosters until she is 11.

She is 36 lbs, and just shy of 40 inches tall, still staying right on track with her growth curve.

That's my big girl.

WA to NJ: Going Home

2011-07-20T12:00:00.049-04:00

After a wonderful vacation it was time to go home. I had my doubts as to whether or not we could get everything packed, but we did! (Except for the box of videos that had to be shipped. I am reeeeally looking forward to getting those and watching some classic musicals with my girls, and introducing some more classic comedies to my fella.) When I'm packing to go somewhere I always forget to leave room for bringing extra things back. It worked out though, and our heaviest suitcase even was a few pounds shy of the limit.

Pops and Furry took us to the airport. Mount Rainier was out! So pretty.

We were sad to leave ... but at the same time looked forward to being home again.

And of course the Boogie was excited to fly on a plane again.

Our journey home was uneventful with the exception of an exploded marker in the Boogie's backpack, and three orders of fries spilled all over the floor in the St. Louis airport. It felt very quick compared to our adventure on the way out.

We arrived in Philly around midnight and all of our luggage made it, too! Praise the Lord. FIL was there to pick us up. It is taking a while for us to adjust back to East Coast time -- I've always found that it's harder to adjust to coming east than going west.

The friends who were supposed to stay in our house while we were away still haven't arrived! They are still trying to get on a military flight. Hopefully they'll be able to get here next week. So, everything in our house was just how we had left it, including clean sheets and towels. Now that's the way to get home from a trip ...

I am so thankful that we were able to go. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with my family. There were a few friends we didn't get to see which was disappointing, but there's always next time! Hopefully it won't be another three years before we get to go back. And hopefully some of you Washington people can come see us in the meantime.

Washington: Second Weekend

2011-07-19T23:41:00.161-04:00

Our second Saturday was spent in Seattle. We joined B & D and their kids, as well as Auntie Vee, for a trip to the Bite of Seattle food festival near the Space Needle. The morning was gray and drizzly which actually worked to our advantage -- there weren't as many people there when we first arrived. It was really fun! We tried fried gator on a stick, crab cakes, blackened salmon sliders, young coconut milk (juice?), deep-fried green beans, elephant ears, lemonade slushies, chocolate-covered strawberry kabobs, deep-fried macaroni and cheese, and I can't remember what else. There was some live music and PLENTY of great people-watching. All of the kids did really great and we didn't lose a single one of them, even when it started getting really crowded. Only once did the Boogie get separated from us for a moment or two, just long enough for a couple of ladies to stop and ask her if she was okay! Praise the Lord I realized she wasn't with our group and caught sight of her when I did.

After making the rounds a few times we went back to the cars and traded children: the Boogie went with her cousins for a sleepover, and JL came with us to do a little more sightseeing. I should have thought that through better. If I had I would have realized that he wouldn't be too comfortable coming with me and Eric, since he barely knows us. But Vee came with us which was good and JL seemed to be okay with his Auntie Vee around.

Eric and I wanted to go up in the Space Needle but what we didn't consider was that it was a Saturday and everyone and their brother also wanted to go up in the Space Needle. The line was unbelievably long and we knew that it would be too much to expect JL and the Phebis to be patient while we waited in it. So, we made our way through the hordes of people back to the cars and drove to Pike Place.

We made a stop at Cost Plus World Market. What a cool place! Sadly there are none in the northeast. I could have spent a long time in there. We walked around Pike Place for a little bit. Actually we fought our way around Pike Place for a while. It was insanely crowded!

We watched some fish throwing; bought some smoked salmon; sampled jams, jellies, honey, and candy; looked at jewelry; checked out some chocolate pasta (but didn't buy any -- now I wish we had!); and listened to street musicians. It was crazy but fun. While we were inside it rained a bit but cleared up by the time we were ready to leave.

We passed a Tully's coffee on our way back to the car so of course we had to stop. We let the kids roam for a few minutes. JL was fascinated by the dog statues.

Pheebs was slightly interested in them

but kept going back to the drink cooler which was apparently way more interesting than giant dogs.

Both kids passed out in the car on the drive home. Vee took her own car and JL rode with us -- I was kind of worried that he would cry for his mom, but he only whimpered a bit before going to sleep. He was a sober little guy. The only time I got him to crack a smile was when I told him we were going to Pops and Lela's house.

Vee followed us back and that night we played a card game. Pops, Lela, Eric, Furry and I had played it several times during the week, but this was the first time we played with Vee. She was very tired and especially goofy. Watching her play was more fun than actually playing the game, which is really fun in itself.

We frequently had to suspend the game while she laughed! Furry especially was cracking her up. At one point Vee insisted that a word be looked up in the dictionary, to which Furry responded, "Oh, we have to book-Google it?"

The Boogie had a fantastic time with her cousins during their sleepover. They played games, watched movies, dressed up, and ate fun snacks. She was so worn out that she slept through the entire evening service on Sunday.

On Sunday morning we all attended church together! That was pretty cool.

After the morning service we took some family photos.
Everyone all together!

Just the girls.

Vee and I were photobombed a couple of times before we managed to get a good self-portrait.

Then we got Mom in on it too!

We went back to Pops and Lela's for pizza and then taught the card game to B & D while the kids played doctor or hospital or something.

A few more pictures before B & D and their clan had to leave.
Just the boys!

The married children.

Furry, Ben, me and Vee.

Mom and Pops with us four kids.

All the grandkids together. :) Cuties :)

And the marry-ins ... they are good sports to put up with all of us!

It was a great day! I love my family.

Washington: Between the Weekends

2011-07-16T10:25:00.192-04:00

A whole week in Washington plus weekends! Almost too good to be true ...

On Tuesday we spent the afternoon with our friends the Specktacular family. They have a little girl just 6 months younger than the Boogie (almost to the day!) and another 2-year-old daughter whom we hadn't met yet. The girls played in a wading pool for a bit despite the sixty-something degree weather, and then happily entertained each other for the rest of our visit. The adults supervised while we chatted, and Mr. Specktacular grilled some delicious steaks to go along with the yummy food his wifey prepared for us. We had a nice time and although I'm pretty sure I did take my camera, I don't have a single picture. They are talking about coming to visit us again this fall which should be fun! On our way home from their house we stopped at WinCo Foods for some groceries. That was a cool store. The bulk section was especially fascinating to us. My favorite thing was this, though:

I didn't lift the lid ... but I wanted to.

By Wednesday the Phebis had had it with being in her car seat, so we didn't go anywhere except to visit another church that evening in order to see some more friends. Poor Pheebs. She only just tolerates the car seat now and to be trapped in it day after day was too much for her. One day she fell asleep and when we got home I laid her on the floor like this

where she stayed asleep for quite a while right in the middle of the family room.

Thursday was chilly and rainy and we just took it easy all day. Eric and I did make a shopping trip to Camano Island Coffee Roasters to buy some gifts to take home. We bought several pounds of coffee and put it in our room -- every time we open the door we catch a huge whiff of coffee. That afternoon Pops smoked some chickens for dinner. Amazing! They were sooooo delicious.

On Friday Mom had to work so we stopped by to see her and meet some of her coworkers, and to do some shopping. Then we met some friends for a late lunch. After lunch we headed to B & D's place for more good food and cousin playtime.

It was really nice just to spend some time with my brother and his wife, talking about this and that. I wish we lived closer to each other. Oh! On Tuesday B found out he had been promoted to a position he had applied for but didn't think he would get. That's the second time he's been promoted during one of our visits to Washington. I'm thinking we can use that to our advantage the next time he wants to move up the corporate ladder: job application plus plane tickets from Philly to Seattle? Sounds like a winner to me!

The rest of the week we just enjoyed being with Pops and Lela and Auntie Vee and Uncle Furry, playing games, going for walks, wrestling, watching old movies and tv shows ...

Pops teaches every grandchild how to play checkers. This time he had an audience.

Uncle Furry was a good sport and played more with her later.

This high chair was my mom's and her siblings ... and then we kids used it ... and now grandkids use it!

Pops couldn't teach this one how to play checkers but he could work her over a little bit which she loved, of course.

Pops and Uncle Furry took the girls on some "rides" one day in the laundry basket.

Auntie Vee came over on Thursday but she wasn't feeling too well. She drank some hot tea and hung out on the couch for a while.

Isn't my mom pretty? And she's pretty swell, too.

So's my Pops. He's a pretty swell guy.

We drove past something, um, interesting every time we went somewhere. Finally we had to stop and get a picture.

Eric really wanted to buy the big one for our yard but he couldn't talk me into it. But maybe we should go back and get one for Pops and Lela's yard ...

Last, but not least, it (almost) goes without saying that we have been drinking LOTS and LOTS of coffee. Pops has been having to make 2 pots first thing every morning, one right after another. We've been drinking drip, iced, hot, mochas, macchiatos ...

Mmmmm coffeeeeee ...

Washington: A Day at the Zoo

2011-07-13T08:39:00.003-04:00

On Monday morning Furry took Eric to pick up our rental car, and then we made our way via caravan to the Woodland Park Zoo. Everyone had the day off so the whole family was able to go! It was chilly but not raining and while we were there we even ran into one of my former bank coworkers.

Petting zoo

So many of my pictures were of the backs of people.

But I managed to get a few cute ones.

SL and HL were very excited to get their faces painted ... but the Boogie absolutely refused to have hers done. Everyone took a turn trying to talk her into it but she was unwavering. The only reason Eric could get out of her was that "people might look at me and not like me." She is still terrified of people in costume so I guess she thought she would look scary? She wasn't at all afraid of her cousins after their faces were painted; however, there was no convincing her to have her own done. SL and HL looked cute with their swans, though.

There is a dinosaur exhibit which, of course, freaked the Boogie out. All of the dinos made some kind of movement, and the first two intermittently sprayed water. Cousins thought that was hilarious and positioned themselves right in the line of fire; the Boogie thought it was terrifying and clung to our hands through the rest of the exhibit, asking at every new dinosaur "Does this one spray water?"

HL did her best to convince her that it was just pretend:

She was relieved to be finished with that part of the zoo and for the rest of the afternoon asked at regular intervals, "We aren't going back to the dinosaurs, are we?"

She was a good sport for pictures, though!

HL made the best "being eaten by a dino" face but I didn't get a picture so I stole this one from my mom:

The award goes to Lela, though!

We can't take her anywhere ...

We stayed until it started to drizzle and the zoo was closing soon anyway. It got very overcast and chilly. When your camera starts using the flash automatically, it's too dark!

We went to Five Guys Burgers & Fries for dinner where Mom said we found the burgers, the fries, and the five guys: Pops, Eric, B, Furry, and JL. I was holding a sleeping Phebis the whole time we were there so I didn't get a single picture.

It was a fun day and I'm really glad the whole family got to be there!

Washington: First Weekend

2011-07-12T07:58:00.006-04:00

We arrived on Friday afternoon and Pops and Uncle Furry picked us up from the airport. When we caught sight of my dad I pointed him out to the Boogie: "Look, there's Pops!"
"Pops!" she exclaimed, and started running toward him, arms outstretched. I thought she was going to throw herself into his arms but she stopped about two feet from him and said, "Where's Lela?" He says it's the story of his life, and that if he rose from the dead we kids would look at him and say, "Hi Pops! Where's Mom?"

Mom had to work so she couldn't come to the airport. We made it home around the same time though and she had dinner for us. My brother and his family had planned to come see us Friday night but due to our delayed arrival they decided to let us get settled and to come visit on Saturday. Vee came on Friday, though!

Saturday was beautiful, just beautiful. Both girls woke early, because of the time difference, but thankfully the Pheebs went back to sleep. She was exhausted from not having slept much while we traveled, so that helped her to make the adjustment. The Boogie was easily convinced to stay in her bed and watch a DVD on our laptop so I could doze just a little longer.

In the late morning some very special persons arrived: my bestest friend Mrs. Cowboy and her family!
(These pictures are from right before they left that evening; the Little Cowgirl did not wear pajamas all day!)

Bless their hearts, they drove 10 hours from Montana to spend one day with us, then drove the 10 hours back on Sunday. We hadn't seen each other since my wedding, before they even got married, and we hadn't seen each other's kids. It was so great to be together. It felt like we had just seen each other last week. It's always been that way for us, over the past 17 years of friendship.

Can you believe that, Mrs. Cowboy? We've been friends for 17 years.

The Little Cowgirl was as pretty as a picture. She wasn't too sure of all the people around. It was a lot of new faces to take in. But she did really well!

She and the Pheebs are just 4 months apart. They were too cute together.

And it was the first time Mr. Cowboy had met anyone in my family aside from myself and my brother B, so that was really nice too.

A little bit later B & D and their clan arrived. The little girls were SO excited to see each other! Sadly I did not have my camera handy to get pictures of their meeting. They instantly hit it off. SL is 5, HL is 4 (just a few days younger than the Boogie) and they played and played and played hard all day long, running around the yard, playing with toys, going for walks.

JL is just 2 and was a little wary of all the new faces. He is the spitting image of his daddy B -- I had seen pictures of course but there's nothing like seeing it in person! He is the cutest little guy.

It was the first time anyone had seen Phebis, with the exception of Vee who came to visit when Pheeboo was tiny. The Pheebs was a little uncertain of everyone at first -- when Pops and my brothers held her for the first times she kept her arms elevated so she wouldn't have to touch them! -- but warmed up fairly quickly.

It was sunny and pleasant all day, so we stayed outside for most of it and visited while the kids played.

It was a perfect first day of our visit!

On Sunday morning we attended church, where the Phebis went to her first Sunday school class. She even got a take-home paper ... awwww ... After the service she made the rounds of all the men in the church, hugging this guy's legs, leaning on that man's knee, reaching up to be held by some other fellow. Needless to say they were all pretty tickled by that.

Eric and Furry spent the afternoon at a car show, and Mom and Pops and the girls and I went back to their house because we were expecting a visitor:

Yep, our friend Reenie from Philadelphia! She had sent me a text on Thursday as we were on our way to the Philly airport, saying that she had flown out to Washington (she has family there as well) and was wondering if she could visit my parents on Sunday. She didn't know we were going, so we just kept it a big secret. When she arrived at their house on Sunday afternoon I sent the Boogie to answer the door. Boy, was Reenie surprised to see us! We had a lovely visit as always and she came to church with us that evening.

It was a full and fun weekend and a great way to kick off our visit.

NJ to WA: The Adventure

2011-07-11T17:14:00.012-04:00

The long-awaited time has come, and we've arrived safely in Washington. The trip out did not go quite as planned ...

The Fourth of July weekend was spent getting our house ready for guests, as we had made arrangements for our friends the R family to stay there during our trip. I worked on Tuesday and Wednesday, then spent Thursday morning packing and doing last-minute things. MIL picked us up and off we went! Ah, it felt so good to be finished with all of the preparations, and to finally be on our way.

We were scheduled to leave the Philadelphia airport at 4:50 p.m. on Thursday, July 7. We arrived at the airport, immediately checked our bags, sailed through security, and made it to our gate in plenty of time. The Boogie was plenty excited and Pheeboo was in a good mood. We didn't have to wait too long to board, found seats together, everything went great. The Boogie was SO excited to fly on a plane!

We taxied out to the runway where the pilot informed us that due to thunderstorm activity over Pennsylvania, our flight had to be re-routed and they were waiting for that information. So we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For two hours.

Every now and then everyone would be asked to take our seats so that the plane could be moved somewhere else. Every time the plane would start rolling the Boogie would get very excited and squirm around in her seat exclaiming, "Are we take-offing?" At one point a thunderstorm came through which provided temporary distraction. Both girls did pretty well, considering. There was a family across the aisle from us with 2 little girls and a baby girl and those children were amazingly well-behaved. We never heard a peep out of any of them. A few rows up was a toddler who was very unhappy to be where he was. He would SCREAM and SCREAM and SCREAM for about 15 or 20 minutes. Then he would calm down for a bit. Then he would scream for another 10-15 minutes. Then he would calm down. Then he would start up again. I thought for sure his yowling would set off the Phebis but I think she only melted down once while we were waiting.

Every now and then the pilot would update us with the information that he had no information. After about 2 hours he said that we would wait just a bit more but if we didn't get clearance soon we would go back to the gate. Thankfully soon after that we were cleared for take-off.

We missed our connecting flight in Chicago by an hour. Of course plenty of other passengers had missed their connections as well so we waited in line for about 45 minutes for customer service. By that time it was after 9 p.m. and there were no other flights to Seattle, nor were there any available flights that would connect us to a Seattle flight somewhere else. We opted for a 7 a.m. flight out and then had to decide what to do for the rest of the night.

By that time I was in tears. I was worn out from the preparations and just so disappointed that we were going to make it to Seattle until so much later than planned.

The airline had some cots set up in a concourse and we considered staying there, but it soon became obvious that with two small children it was not going to be a good option for us. Eric called a local hotel who sent a shuttle over for us and before too long we were in a nice cozy room at a Hampton Inn. Praise the Lord for nice hotels! They provided us with breakfast bags since we would have to leave before their continental breakfast was served in the morning, and even charged us less for the room than what they quoted. Plus we had a neat view of Chicago in the early morning. We got a few hours of sleep, slept through our alarm, and barely caught the shuttle back to the airport!

We flew from Chicago to Los Angeles. We changed planes there and flew to Oakland, CA where thankfully we did not have to get off the plane, and were even able to move up closer to the front for the last leg of our journey to Seattle. That was one neat thing about it -- Eric had never actually been to the west coast, so he was able to see the Pacific from the plane, as well as the San Francisco Bay.

We finally made it to Seattle on Friday afternoon, almost a whole day later than planned. It was disappointing to be so delayed but God had a reason for it happening, though we may not ever learn what that reason was. And the girls did so great, even the Pheebs who was not as easily entertained as the Boogie. And, all of our luggage arrived safely as well!

It has been fantastic to be here with family, and to see friends. We are so grateful that God allowed us to come!

July Already?

2011-07-05T09:59:00.001-04:00

And it's the fifth? That means yesterday was the Fourth. Oh, right, we watched some fireworks last night. On TV. Our poor kids. Next year FOR SURE we will go somewhere to watch fireworks. And we'll take our poor deprived children to a parade.

Five years ago today was my very first day at the office. One year ago today I returned to work after maternity leave. And five years ago today someone sweet was born. Happy 5th birthday to EK!

Our departure for Washington is coming up very soon. Some friends will be staying at our house while we're away so we've been doing some things that needed to be taken care of. You know, the kind of thing you can live with yourself but don't particular want your guests to have to live with? Like, putting up a door on the room they will be occupying ...

So yesterday was spent doing little things around the house. We didn't celebrate the holiday at all, except for watching some fireworks. Phebis enjoyed the marches and spun around and around. She kept falling down and getting back up! I guess that's how she dances.

This morning the Boogie patted Pheebs on the head and said, "This is my sonny boy." "Sonny boy!" I exclaimed. "No, she's a girl. She's a girly girl."
"Oh, right," the Boogie nodded, "she's my girly girl. Daddy is my ... boy-ly boy!" I'm pretty sure she didn't mean boily ...

Phebis has started responding "Hi!" when we say it to her. Yesterday I asked her if she wanted something and she shook her head and said "uh-uh." But she doesn't say "no" ... yet. When she nods her head she bounces her whole body up and down.

We had our second yard sale at 52 on Saturday. We didn't do as well as the first week, but we still got rid of quite a bit more which was the main goal. I must admit, it was a little weird to see some things go. A lot of what I sold had been packed away for a while, wedding gifts we never really used and things like that. But there were a few items that did get used quite a bit, like some candle holders that sat on my dresser for years, or a ride-on toy that the girls played with, and it was almost unsettling to see strangers walk away with that stuff. I know, I know, I'm weird! I have no excuse. It's how I'm wired, I guess.

I Love Lists

2011-06-28T23:43:00.001-04:00

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!"

Super Boogie

2011-06-17T19:49:00.000-04:00

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

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-15T08:43:00.000-04:00

She's Walking!

2011-06-14T09:10:00.000-04:00

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!

Temper, Temper

2011-06-08T22:34:00.000-04:00

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!

Praying Baby

2011-06-06T22:09:00.000-04:00

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!

A Friday Off

2011-06-03T13:36:00.000-04:00

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 ...

Ceiling Fans

2011-05-30T13:50:00.000-04:00

After a very cool and rainy spring (I kinda felt like we had been transported to the Pacific Northwest) it is suddenly hot and summery. There was no time for acclimating.

In our apartment we had central air. At 52 there were lots of window units for cooling. The little white house came with one wall unit, in the living room. It is old and kind of dirty and while it seems to work fairly well I am sure it is not energy efficient at all. We have a couple of standing fans, and a little desktop one for the girls' room (that one is for white noise as well as moving air around.) So Eric went to Lowe's last week and came home with two ceiling fans. One was small and white with a light fixture, for the kitchen.

I love having a ceiling fan in the kitchen. Boy, is that nice!

The other fan was for the living room ... but Eric wasn't sure if there was power run to where it would have to be installed. So he put it in our bedroom.

Boy, is THAT nice!

He will install one in the living room soon. Meanwhile I open the windows in the morning to let in the cooler morning air, then close them when the sun starts coming around to the front of the house. Our new energy efficient curtains in the living room do a decent job of blocking quite a bit of the heat, and we turn on the fans. I think I still want to do some kind of blinds in the windows but for now the curtains are a vast improvement over sheets and blankets hung up there.

Soon we will need to do something about the front door. It is painted red on the outside and while I like red, it does absorb a lot of heat and since the front of the house faces south it means direct sunshine all afternoon. Also there is a little window in the door. So we will either need to replace the door altogether, or paint it a lighter color and cover up that window.

Once it is really hot and muggy every day we will run the a/c. For now it is bearable. If I get too sticky I can always go lay on my bed ... under the fan ... ahhhhhh ...

Still Here

2011-05-29T22:43:00.000-04:00

I miss posting. It seems that there are so many other things to do and then before I know it the day is over and it's bedtime again. I feel like I'm missing out on recording all of the cute things the girls are doing. The Boogie still says funny things daily, and Phebis cracks us up a lot, too.

The other night the Boogie got down on the floor, pulled her shirt up to show her belly, and said sadly, "I hope I have a liver."

I asked her where her cup was and she said, "I don't know. IDK! D-K means 'don't know'." She can speak texting lingo before she can type ... or dial a phone for that matter (gotta work on the phone-dialing skills.)

On a recent walk around the block we came up to a sign that said "Don't Be a Litterbug." Every time we go past it she asks what it says, so this time I said, "Don't be a ..." and paused to let her finish it. "Sinner?" she asked.

She acquired a seashell from somewhere and showed it to Eric tonight. "Isn't it divine?" she asked him.

Yesterday was beautiful and after dinner we went on a long walk. "Just think," I said, "maybe this time next year we will be walking a dog."
"Next week?" the Boogie got all excited.
"No, no, not next week. Maybe next year, when you are five and Pheeboo is two."
"Oh, when I will be five and Pheeboo will be two," she nodded, "and Daddy will be six, and you will be ... thirteen!"
I'm sure there is some hidden meaning in there somewhere ...

Pheeboo's interest in walking is decidedly low. She goes everywhere on her knees now, despite the fact that it's much slower than actually crawling. She is getting callouses on the tops of her feet and toes! Here is a not-too-clear cell phone video demonstrating the knee walk.

She also loves to "talk" on the phone ... or anything that she can pretend is a phone. She says "Hello? Hello? Hello!" She says several words now, and this week we've recognized a couple of tunes that she hums. So far we can make out the first lines of "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Happy Birthday to You," and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (which she also does the hand motions to.) Of course as soon as we pull out a camera or our phones to try to capture any of that, she immediately stops what she's doing and makes a beeline for us chanting "Chee'! Chee'! Chee'!" What a ham.

Here they are during the annual Kentucky Derby watching.

They are a joy to us, these girls.

A Year Of The Phebis

2011-05-28T23:49:00.000-04:00

Brand new

One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

Seven months

Eight months

Nine months

Ten months

Eleven months

Twelve months

*I must give credit where credit is due -- the GOOD photos are courtesy of my lovely SIL Joy who has a nice camera and a great eye! And a few others are from grandparents who are always at the ready with their iPhones.

Pheeboo Turns One

2011-05-24T22:38:00.000-04:00

Our sweet Phebis has had her first birthday. The day itself was mostly unheralded except for singing the "Happy Birthday" song a few times, and a couple of gifts to her (and the Boogie and me!) from a coworker.

On the following Saturday we planned a cookout with lots of family and a few friends. The weather was supposed to be iffy; however, we prayed for clear skies, and borrowed a grill and some tables and chairs. It did end up raining some but we crammed people into the house and banished the kids to the garage to eat! We had a wonderful time and Phebis loved being the center of attention.

*most of the following photos are courtesy of grandparents and great-grandparents, as my own camera-wielding was sadly neglected, and the ones I did get were oddly out of focus*

I supervised the grilling (okay, not really.)

Pheeboo played with electronics ...

... had some quality great-grandparent time ...

... showed off her "I *heart* sprinkles and icing" birthday dress ...

... petted a ginormous rabbit ...

... and was generally content to be held while observing everyone around her.

We had birthday cake for everyone to eat ...

... and a cupcake for the birthday girl to have all to herself.

Everyone surrounded her with cameras and cell phones waiting for her to tear into it, but she mostly just picked the sprinkles off one by one and ate them!

Why is everyone singing?

What am I supposed to do with this?

My motto: "When in doubt, put it in my mouth."

Oh people are laughing! I'll laugh too!

Wow, this is pretty good.

Ugh, sugar overload

It was so funny to see her blinking in anticipation of flashes as everyone crowded around her.

She wasn't too interested in opening gifts so I did that for her. She liked to play with her new toys and also the packaging that they came in!

She thought it was really great to squeal and laugh and make everyone else laugh, too! What a ham.

The Boogie had a wonderful day, too.

It's always fun to have cousins over.

It was just an all-around, really fun afternoon. We're so glad everyone could come help celebrate our girl's first birthday.

And MORE Hives

2011-05-04T21:37:00.000-04:00

This time I think it is a virus, since her spots have been accompanied by a fever. Or perhaps they are totally unrelated. Who knows?

I must confess that when she first started to break out in them this time, they didn't look like they usually do at the beginning of a hives episode. Combine the spots with the fever and I started to panic that she had chicken pox! I feel so silly about that ...

She has several words now:
-uh-oh
-Mama
-Dada
-Mommom ("Mummuuuuuum")
-Poppop ("Puhpuh")
-cheese ... which I learned she could say when I pointed the camera at her to take this picture

-nana (banana)
-amen

We're working on "Pops" and "Lela" because we bought our tickets to visit Warshington! We are soooooo excited! It's been three years since we've visited. I can't wait to hug my family and friends, and sit on my parents' deck and look at their fabulous view and lovely yard while drinking coffee with my dad, and get a REAL mocha from my favorite espresso stand. Ah, Locals Espresso, I will be seeing you soon and indulging in an iced mocha breve, single shot please. Or maybe a mocha chill. Or maybe a chai tea smoothie. Decisions, decisions ...

Hives

2011-04-27T22:13:00.000-04:00

The Phebis had hives again this past week. This was the third or fourth time ... hmm, I can't remember. For sure she's had them three times: the first time in January; then again right after I had the flu in February; and I thought another time but I can't remember when that was. Anyway this was the worst of all but she didn't seem like she was itchy and she was generally pretty happy, so I kept an eye on her and gave her benadryl when she seemed uncomfortable. I cannot for the life of me pinpoint the cause. Since she breaks out all over her body I'm sure it's something she is eating or perhaps breathing? But I haven't been using anything new (detergent, fabric softener, cleaning products, soap) or feeding her anything new (at least I don't think I have) so I just don't know.

Yesterday morning after several days I finally called the pediatrician to ask how long I could continue to give her benadryl. I had put it off because I knew they were going to want to see her ... and sure enough, they wanted to me to bring her in. I didn't want to pay my thirty dollar copay to have a doctor look at her and say, "Yep, it's hives." But they seemed concerned over the phone and wanted to see her, so I took her in, paid thirty dollars, and the doctor looked at her and said, "Yep, it's hives."

And of course by this morning they were completely gone. Figures.

While we were at the doctor's office waiting in an examination room, the Boogie asked, "Where is the doctor? When is he coming?"
I said, "Pretty soon. I don't know if it will be a man doctor or a lady doctor. There are men and women doctors here. Would you like to be a doctor when you grow up?"
"No," she answered right away. I was surprised, considering her ongoing infatuation with all things medical! "Well then, what would you like to be when you grow up?"
"A mom," she said, "like you! And I will go to a hospital and get a baby."

I take that as a great compliment!

Of course, when we had a similar conversation the other day it went a little differently. She heard a song on PBS Kids that said something about "you can be whatever you want to be." Her face lit up.
"I can be whatever I want to be?" she asked excitedly.
"Sure," I said, thinking she would say she wanted to be a firefighter or a teacher or something, "what would you like to be?"
"An elephant!" she exclaimed.

Sometimes I forget how literally preschoolers take things!

The Boogie Turns Four

2011-04-22T22:38:00.000-04:00

Because the Boogie's birthday falls on a holiday weekend this year, we had her party last Sunday after the morning service.

She had a pretty new dress from her Pops and Lela to wear.

We had dinner with immediate grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. There was good food to eat, party hats to wear, and cake, of course!

There were lots of great gifts to open, too: chalk, bubbles, and a sprinkler for outside fun; lots of workbooks and coloring books; cute new clothes!

She had a whole week of birthday celebrating, receiving cards and packages in the mail every day.

And today for her birthday she got, among other things, a new bike from Honey and Daddy!

She got a dollhouse, too, which I somehow did not manage to get a picture of. It needs to be assembled so I'll take some when it's completed! I'm very excited about a dollhouse. I remember wanting one for years when I was a little girl. I can live vicariously through my daughters now. :)

I think she had fun today. I think she's had a fun week!

And of course, as always, I must not neglect to remember the other reason that makes this day special: five years of happily-ever-after! Five years -- in some ways it doesn't seem that it could possibly have been so long already.

Happy 4th birthday to my sweet Boogie, and happy 5th anniversary to my love.

Hair!

2011-04-15T11:05:00.000-04:00

Can you see it?

When she woke up from her nap yesterday she had a tiny little curl right at the back.

I think she is destined for a mullet.

She's Coming ...

2011-04-13T23:18:00.000-04:00

... an even more mobile Phebis.

Apparently she did this several times today, for grandparents and then for her daddy. She wasn't too keen on demonstrating for me, however. Maybe she'll be more willing tomorrow.

11 Months Old

2011-04-11T23:16:00.000-04:00

*sniff, sniff* The last monthly "birthday" post for Pheeboo. Next month will be the One Year Old post and then I guess I will do every three months or something ... or forget altogether as is my wont.

Yesterday the girls wore matching dresses that MIL found for them. So cute! We tried to get some pictures when we got home from church but even with overcast skies it was too bright for little blue eyes.

Psalm 139

2011-04-08T08:05:00.000-04:00

O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
²Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
³Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
⁴For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
⁵Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
⁷Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
⁸If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
⁹If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
¹⁰Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
¹¹If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
¹²Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
¹³For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
¹⁴I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
¹⁵My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
¹⁶Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
¹⁷How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
¹⁸If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
¹⁹Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
²⁰For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
²¹Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
²²I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
²³Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
²⁴And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Blankie Addict

2011-04-07T16:12:00.000-04:00

I think this child needs a 12-step program.

And not to exclude her sister: