It's like Christmas

This morning when I loaded the girls up in the car to take them to school, I put Heidi in her carseat. Like always, the first thing Heidi does is fish around in her carseat to see if she can find any tasty morsels to snack on during the car ride. I closed the door, walked around the car and as I was getting in heard a very loud squeal of delight. I looked back and apparently Heidi had found half a cookie! She was holding it up like a world champ holding a trophy and had the biggest grin on her face. Every time I looked at her in the rear view mirror she had cookie crumbs and a look of pure satisfaction on her face. Oh, to be so easily fulfilled!

Little Miss Manipulation

Sunday night Yaya came down with the barfies. Monday she laid around all day, so by Tuesday she was getting super antsy. Yaya really wanted to go play with a friend, but she could definitely see some advantages to being sick, such as eating in the living room, a usual "no-no". Now, Yaya is nobody's fool. She was trying to get the best of both worlds, which ended up in this interchange.

Me-"Yaya, can you bring your plate to the sink please?"
Y-"I'm too sick."
Me-"Ok, then lie back down on the couch."
Y-"I feel better."
Me-"It's one way or the other. Take your plate to the sink or lay down."
(She laid down. I cleared her plate. Two minutes later...)
Y-"Can I play at Ellie's house?"
Me-"You're too sick."
Y-"No I'm not."
Me-"You just told me you were. If you're too sick to pick up a plate, you're too sick to play at a friend's house."
(Yaya disappeared for a few minutes and reappeared with a picture she just drew)
Y-"Do you like this picture?"
Me-"Yes."
Y-"Do you want this picture?"
Me-"Sure"
Y-"Then you have to say that I'm not sick anymore."

I'm sorry. Did we just meet? That was pretty crafty for a four year old, but I'm not an idiot either!

A very chocolaty thank you

We were sitting at the table eating Leah's birthday cake. I made an ice cream cake with my mom's hot fudge recipe (yum!). Heidi was eating with her hands, so they were of course covered in chocolate. When she finished her little piece, Daddy shared a bit of his cake with her. She turned to him, said "Dae Do" and signed "thank you". The way to sign this is to put your hand up to your chin and bring it out in front of you. But the way Heidi signs thank you is to put her whole hand over her whole face. The result was a very chocolaty baby! We all started laughing and I started taping after this to try to recreate the moment. Of course it didn't work, but you can see the aftermath!

Wanna make a bet?

The other night I was trying to get Yaya tucked into bed, but she was just pitching a fit and wouldn't do anything I asked or told her to do. After many protests, she finally looked at me and said, "You're not the boss of me." "Actually, I am." I answered her. "No you're not." She countered. "Well then who is?" I asked. Yaya stuck out her chest, set her jaw and pointed to herself, "I am." "OK," I said, "Then tell yourself to stop crying and get into bed." As soon as I phrased it that way, she did! What a stubborn little stinker.

Happy Birthday Sweet Leah

Leah with a few of her friends and her birthday cake. Chocolate with mint chocolate ice cream and homemade hot fudge....it was good.
Eating banana splits with the whole family.
Mom and Leah eating grapes on our family picnic at the park.
Leah opening her keyboard. It wasn't a cell phone, or an ipod, or a Nintendo DS...but she seemed to be pleased with it anyway. :)

March Madness

Leah on her bike that she bought with her "very own money"

Heidi outside on a freezing cold day. No one else wanted to be out there with her, but she was perfectly content to stand outside alone!

Naomi's viral pink eye in the tissue around her eye socket.


This month has been simply mad! It has nothing to do with basketball...or football, or whatever the heck "March Madness" is even about. My days have just been crammed with random things that end up taking up all my time. I'm not going to pretend that I don't spend a generous amount of time avoiding my own house and hanging out with my friends. (Some things I'm just not willing to give up...even if I'm 30.)

Lars just finished his winter school term and gigantic 70 page paper that he's been working on and stressing over for the last two months. He's finally emerged from the back bedroom and rejoined to world of the living. He's still a little shell shocked, but thankfully he's got a week of spring break to recover. Now we're down to his LAST semester of school!!!

All of us had pink eye...twice, croup and the run of the mill winter cold. But it ran it's course and we all seem to be healthy and able to enjoy this AMAZING weather! It has been sunny and warm and we've been outside soaking it up. Leah and Naomi are both flying around on their bikes and Yaya demands a bike of her own at least once a day, and probably every waking hour. Heidi is just happy to get outside. I really have to be careful because if she can get her fingers in the crack and open the door, she will just take off. Seriously, she's like a cat. Any time the door opens Heidi will just drop whatever she is doing and make a run for it. Is it legal to keep a kid on a leash? I'm serious.

"You Can't Make Me"

I have a mental disorder. It's called, "You Can't Make Me." OK, so maybe I'm actually the only person that has this issue (and maybe I made up the name too), but here's the problem. I love to come up with ideas. I love to invent and create and I love to execute my ideas once...maybe twice. After that, even though I may love doing something, as soon as I feel like I HAVE to do it, I don't want to do it ever again.

Case Study 1: A couple years ago I took some cards that I made into a shop downtown and arranged to have them sold there. I was thrilled! Then after about a month, I started getting annoyed and resenting that I HAD to make cards. I LOVE making cards.

Case Study 2: Piano lessons. I have been giving piano lessons for about six months now. I have five students that I love and I really enjoy teaching them. I teach all my lessons on Wednesdays. But every Tuesday I find myself dreading Wednesdays. As soon as the lessons start, I have a great time and I'm really excited about the progress my students are making. I love teaching piano. So why do I dread it?

Maybe I'm stuck at age 4 in the "You can't make me" stage of life. Fortunately I can overcome it enough to keep doing things even though I have anxieties about it, but I would really like to be able to enjoy what I actually enjoy doing!

A couple random comments

Usually when I take the girls to the store I give them "the speech" before we go in. You know the, "I'm only buying what's on my list, so you can look with your eyes at anything you want, but don't touch and don't bother asking for something because I'm going to say no." (Please tell me I'm not the only mean mom who gives that speech.) Anyway, so today I asked Yaya if she wanted to go to the store with me. She answered, "I want to go to the store, but I don't want you to bring a list. I'll just tell you what I want and you can get it."

At the dinner table tonight, out of nowhere, Leah asked, "When I turn 11 can you get me a flat screen TV? Oh, and make it a big one." I'll get right on that.

Yaya's prayer tonight. "Please bless that Mom won't wake up and we'll wake up Dad instead if the house is on fire." What a thoughtful child.