Daddy get the shotgun...

Magnolia regaled Chris yesterday with the story about a man who came to her school to do repair work of some sort on the outside of the building. Apparently he had to stand on a ladder to do it, so the kids got a real good look at him. And Magnolia seemed to like what she saw. "Daddy, he was so handsome!" she told Chris when he picked her up from school. She and her little friend Claire giggled together about how they were going to kiss him when they grew up. Too funny, but good grief, she's only five! Luckily, the thought of kissing him now is not an issue, as she still thinks people kissing eachother is "icky" (or so she told us this morning as C bussed me goodbye).

Magnolia, the Liberated Pre-Schooler

For quite a while Magnolia would profess that when she grew up she was going to marry her daddy (not sure where I was in this scenario- best not to think about that...). Then for few months she said (at least once a day or so), that she would be marrying her brother, David. Once I broached the subject of this not being quite the done thing, but soon gave that up as defining incest to a four-year-old was a bit beyond me that day.
This past weekend she wondered aloud about what her mama & daddy's wedding looked like. So I popped in the video and she, Chris & I sat down to watch it. She kept wanting to know when the "kissing part" was coming. And informed us that she was never going to be married. When asked why, she replied "because it's redikilas". Why is marraige rediculous, you may ask? "Because of the kissing and dancing", she said. "I'm only going to dance by myself".

Why boys develop more slowly- a hypothesis.

I'm now fully convinced that the vast majority of toddler boys must walk around with a permanent mild concussion. D spends a large amount of his waking moments running hither and yon as fast as he can, and then either falling and bumping his head or running into an object harder than himself and bumping his head. He's already had his first laceration last month (wandered right off the dock onto a lower level of dock and bit into his lower lip- I had a good 10 minute conversation with myself (and the unfortunate souls in my direct periphery) about whether it was worth it to stitch it up- in the end I opted for letting it heal on its own to avoid the trauma of local anesthesia, and luckily it's healed quite nicely, can't even tell it happened). First laceration at age one; M hasn't had anything deeper than a scrape and she's almost 5! This traumatic event was a couple weeks after he pushed a toy dump-truck and then himself right off the dock into the water. He hardly seemed phased after I jumped in after him a second after hearing the splash. Just coughed a bit and then let me hold him for a few minutes, then off he toddled to play with the dump-truck again. So apparently he has no fear of heights or water. Which will be a good thing later, I suppose, but for now it means I'll be buying him a lighter life-jacket (as the one we have for him is great, but a bit on the heavy side as he can't wear it and get back up on his own if he happens to fall down on his bottom, so I hadn't been putting it on him while he was out of the water and had opted for the constant-surveillance method, but that obviously isn't working so great for me).

So perhaps this permanent-concussion state explains why boys have a tendency to develop more slowly than girls. It's the constant stress to their noggins that they inflict upon themselves.

Tooth fairy

Magnolia lost her first tooth tonight! Lower right central incisor. She is so excited. Yes, she was still awake wiggling away at it until it just now fell out- at 10pm on a school night...
Anyone know the going rate for the tooth fairy???

Happy Birthday to Me

This past Sunday was my birthday.
I think I'm now officially middle-aged.
It was a lovely, lovely day. It started out with me moling in a bit (sleeping late), and then being thoroughly spoiled by Chris bringing me coffee & the paper to read in bed. He also brought a beautiful birthday card that he & Nolia made. So sweet. Then we made pancakes for breakfast. Nolia & I mixed up the batter and then Chris cooked them (they have a tendency to come out black if I'm responsible for the cooking part). Then David went down for a nap and the rest of us bumped around the house & yard. That afternoon was Nolia's ballet recital. SO CUTE! I got all teary watching her & her little ballet-mates. Adorable. Now she is thrilled because she can play dress-up in her costume (it was off-limits until after the recital). She's also wanting to wear "real" makeup all the time now (she wore it for the recital, and LOVED IT!).
That evening Chris threw me a little potluck supper birthday party. I had set up the blow-up pool on the back deck earlier in the day, and all the kiddies frolicked in it during the party. Luckily no one had the idea of jumping off of the swing into the pool. I was a little concerned that might occur to someone. Chris grilled chicken and folks brought lots of other yummy things. Joy brought the birthday cake- chocolate ganache cake from Fresh Market- heaven in a pastry box. Later there was a jam session. Nolia, Zach & Ella took turns playing the kid-size guitar while the fellas picked a few. David was completely enthralled by all the people, and didn't get sleepy until rather late (luckily he'd had a really late second nap).
Lovely, lovely day. I'm very blessed with a wonderful family and fabulous friends!

uh-oh

David has learned a new word, "uh-oh". He was playing with a rubber ball the Easter Bunny had left in his basket on Saturday, bouncing it all over the living room. One time it ended up on the back part of a chair cushion, where he couldn't get to it. He looked at me, eyebrows raised, and said very clearly "uh-oh!". Since then he's been using the expression quite frequently. V. cute.
Nolie is getting pretty good with her letter sounds, and is practicing rhyming. She still has trouble remembering that it's the end of the word that has to sound alike, not the beginning. And gets rather frustrated at times.
We attended a birthday party at the park on Sunday morning. Water balloons and water guns, a pinata, and a Hello Kitty cake. The kids had a blast. As we were getting ready to leave the ice-cream truck drove up playing its music rather loudly. Nolie kept asking what it was. After several failed attempts to redirect her attention, I finally blurted out "It's just a truck that plays music". "Why does it play music?", she reasonably wanted to know. "I guess the driver wants to entertain everybody", I said. Lame, I know. But somehow it worked and we made it to the car without the true nature of the truck dawning on her.
She is very interested in her next birthday party. And is dismayed that it is taking such a long time to get here. She wants a "pink pony, princess, pirate party". I am at a complete loss as to what to do to pull this one off. Rent a pony with its mane braided with pink ribbon, have the girls dress up as princesses, and the boys run around in pirate garb??? Pink pony pinata? How do you get all of that translated as cake decorations??? Oh, dear. I was hoping for a messy-art party, or an old-fashioned-children's-games type party. No such luck.
I find myself still struggling with the whole balancing-work-and-family-life issue. I've made no progress, and seem to be more and more tired. I want to do both things well, and worry that I am lacking on all fronts (I'm definitely lacking in the keeping-the-house-straight category). *sigh* I know you can never truly know all the details, but I see so many women (friends, relatives, acquaintances) seemingly balancing everything so well, and being really present, and I'm amazed b/c I so do not feel like I'm all that. Mama sure set the bar high. Okay, enough.

Contagious cars

My conversation with Magnolia earlier today in the car:

Magnolia: I don't feel very well. I got a virus from the car.
Me: Honey, you don't catch viruses from a car. You catch viruses from other people, and sometimes animals. (and then silence as I try to figure out how to explain this further)
Magnolia: Well, my throat hurts. Hey! You're kind of like a doctor. You make me all better! (this followed by a fetching grin)
And since then, no more talk of sore throats. Go figure...

And he's off...

This evening Joy & Zach came over. We all played on the front lawn for a bit before I went inside to start supper. David was having fun climbing up the stairs and down the stairs, up the stairs and down the stairs when J & Z first arrived. He caught sight of Joy walking across the lawn and took off walking towards her- and didn't stop until he reached her, about a distance of 10 feet! Until now he's just taken a few steps before plunking himself down on his bottom. Here we go...

On our way home from the park today, Nolia noticed a man standing outside without his shirt on. She was quite interested in this and had many questions. So when we arrived home she wanted to play outside without her shirt on. Our yard is secluded and she's four- why not? Of course, when Zach arrived and saw Nolia shirtless, he immediately took his off, too. Then while Joy, baby & I were inside somehow they decided to take their shorts off, too. We made them put them back on, but once they were inside playing off the shorts went once again. And Zach's underpants. At which point Joy had to point out that this was not a nudist colony and made him get dressed again. I guess as long as they're not doing this when they are 16... we're good. Do all pre-schoolers love to get nekkid? (Goodness knows my kids' daddy sure still does; although he will mostly confine his urges to night-time skinny dipping at the lake. Mostly.)

Chris returned home from his workshop in Central Florida just in time for supper. Afterwards we had a dessert picnic outside beneath the hogplum cherry tree which right now is a cloud of tiny white flowers. I love this time of year, when all the spring trees and shrubs are blooming. Makes me itch to get to a nursery and buy azaleas for the yard... a dogwood tree or two... perhaps another redbud tree...

Spinning fun

Nolia asked me to swing her on the swivel tire swing for a while this evening. She wanted to go "really fast around". So I spun her and spun her. As she went round and round, eyes glowing and with a big grin on her face, she called out, "My stomach's thinking!". "What's it thinking?" I asked her. "It's thinking he's spinning!".
So on & on we went, she asking to go faster and faster. Then she leaned forward to look down inside the tire swing, raising the dizziness factor up a notch. "Oh!", she yelled. "Stomach, stop thinking!".

otitis-induced clinginess

D has been on antibiotics since last Monday for bilateral ear infections. Since he's been sick with them, he's been very clingy, but mostly only with me. Chris can pick him up and put him down, his teachers at school could do the same- not me. I put him down, he screamed. Until today! He was a little fussy this morning before we took M to preschool. But he was great in the grocery store, then came home and took a nap. Then I fed him lunch and we went on a very nice, long walk in the stroller (during which I drowned my cell phone- both cell phone and water bottle were in the bottom of the stroller, the water bottle leaked creating a little puddle- just enough water to drown said cell phone. oh, well, I've been intending to get a new one anyways, this will just hasten my timeline...). When we returned home from the walk, I put him down in the kitchen (nary a peep!) and he toddled/crawled over to the bookcase- and played with M's match-em-up cards for ages (putting them into a box, taking them out of a box, putting them in his push-cart, taking them out of his push-cart). I was able to eat lunch and check email. Yea!

His first birthday was this past Saturday. I attempted yet another cake- this one with much better results than C's birthday cake. Joy made the carousel top for me and Mama & M helped decorate it. I think it turned out rather cute.

It's supposed to be a carousel for D's semi-circus-themed birthday party. There was rather a paucity of circus-themed decorations in the local party stores, so I made do with monkey/giraffe/lion cake candles, Barnum-and-Bailey boxed animal crackers, and lots of primary-colored balloons.
And here's the birthday boy with his birthday-pancakes that morning. He hadn't been eating much sick he's been sick, but boy did he put away some pancakes...



He didn't care too much for the birthday hat.

I still can't believe he's already a year old. I've been having mild coniptions about this for some time. Now that it's official, I'm still a bit amazed. Where did the time go? He's not walking a lot yet, just a couple steps here and there, and this probably keeps him more of a baby boy for me. I know he's going to take off any day now, and that will be lots of fun, but I'm cherishing every 'baby' day that I have left.

I got home early (just after 3am) last night from my night shift and heard baby crying as I walked through the door. So I went into his room to get him back to sleep, but his crying had woken up Magnolia. So then I went into her room to cuddle with her. Her pillows smelled like the strawberry body butter I'd brought home to her as a treat earlier the day before ('gift' from The Body Shop when I made impulse buy of Morroccan Rose body butter for me- heavenly!). I figured she's slathered some on before going to bed. Then I noticed there were hard lumpy things underneath the pillow on which I was lying. She giggled and told me she'd brought the strawberry body butter into bed with her, and had put in on her barbies- all of which were beneath the pillow next to her (and now under me). Oh, well. At least her room smells nice.

The Two Step

Chris called me at work early this evening (okay so it was officially yesterday evening as it's now just past midnight) to report that David took two steps! I wish I'd been home to see it, but was glad Chris was able to witness it. Hopefully he'll give a repeat performance tomorrow. Yesterday he started being able to stand for moments at a time, rather that the split-second-and-then-fall-on-his-bottom that he had been doing. He's growing so fast. In just under 3 weeks my baby won't be an infant anymore!

Silly Mama

Today I took Nolia with me to buy a birthday present for her cousin. As we exited the store she exclaimed, "It's not cold outside!" We'd been having quite the cold snap.
"No, it's not" I responded. "I wonder where all that cold weather went?"
"It's at Memere & Pepere's house. Silly Mama," she told me.
Funny. And smart!

Standing up!

I took baby boy over to my friends Heidi & Taylor's house earlier today for a visit. David was playing on the floor next to me, and proceeded to stand up all on his own- and managed to stay up for a few seconds! He's let go while already standing for a second or two before, but never managed to get himself up without holding onto something else first.
He now has 6 teeth, too. His upper right lateral incisor started coming in December 26th and the upper left lateral incisor made its appearance on January 4th.
Growing boy!
On that subject, I got the mother-of-the-year award last week when David's nursery school had to ask me to bring in more food for him. I thought I was bringing in enough, but apparently not! I was bringing the same amount I always packed for him when he was in the baby room, but he's graduated to the young toddler room now and I guess all the extra activity (it's a bigger room & they go play outside now) has made him hungrier (or he's in the middle of a growth spurt). I felt absolutely horrible.
*sigh*

C's birthday cake

So I had this fabulous idea of making a cake small in diameter, but rather tall. I baked 3 6-inch diameter cake layers, and cut each in half to make 6 layers total. I've seen cakes like this in restaurants, how hard can it be? (insert maniacal laughter here).
I didn't have much else on my to-do list yesterday, and figured it wouldn't be too difficult. I was sadly mistaken.
Below is a picture of the "good side" of the cake.

Even the good side isn't so good.
Unfortunately, once the layers were piled high and frosted, the side of the cake sort of... slipped.
I ended up with a Dr. Suess cake on acid- "the cake was small, the cake was tall; the cake couldn't stand straight at all!"

Note the look of sheer disbelief (albeit amused disbelief) that this was his birthday cake:

Chris, ever loyal, proclaimed that it looked "fine" and that "no one else would have a cake just like it!" Um, yeah.

Even if it was funny-looking, it must have tasted pretty good...

Later that evening, Kristi came over to babysit. Baby was already asleep and Nolia was very excited to have Kristi all to herself. She rushed us out the door, "Mama, Daddy- go!" I thought, how nice that she loves Kristi so much that she feels no sadness in our leaving for a few hours. Ha! We'd gotten two blocks away from the house when Kristi calls my cell phone. Magnolia is asking to watch Mama Mia and tells Kristi that we've said it's okay. This (rightly) sounds rather suspicious to Kristi (as it was already 8pm at night), so she called to verify. The little rat wanted us out of the house so she could get a quick start on her movie extravaganza.

So Chris & I splurge on a supper out, then meet up with Christine & John at The Top, where they've been celebrating John's birthday. From there we go to Durty Nelly's for a bit. I think this was the first bar-hopping I've done in about a decade. It's probably a bit sad that a lot of the conversation centered around how we were among the oldest groups in the bar. Apparently this is not the case for 30-somethings in Atlanta, but in a university town... well, once the table of 3 50-something men left the building, let's just say the age range suddenly shrank, leaving us in the upper portion.

Oh, well.

It was still lovely to stand around chatting for a good long time, drinking beer (everyone else) and hard cider (me). Even if I did have to immediately take a shower once home to rinse the stink of cigarettes from my hair.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is C's birthday.
I have the whole day planned.
Tomorrow morning I'll make pancakes for breakfast (well, I mix up the batter, then C cooks them 'cause I have a tendency to burn them).
I'll keep Magnolia home from pre-school and we'll bake C a birthday cake ("chocolate" she insisted, when I told her of my plans while tucking her in bed tonight). I plan to let her go a bit wild with sprinkles. It'll be interesting to see the state of my kitchen once we are through baking.
After David has napped, I'll drop him off at the baby nursery and take Nolia to see a movie. I've been meaning for us to do this for a while, and tomorrow seems like a good day.
Once C is home from work, we'll feed the kiddies supper, sing happy birthday and eat cake & ice cream.
Then Kristi is coming over at 8pm to babysit, and C and I will go out for a late supper on our own.
I can't wait!

Nolia's Sleepover

Nolia's little friend Claire is spending the night. The girls have had a grand time with the Dance Cam, playing with her teaset and with their Ariel polly-pocket type dolls. They've had their teeth brushed, their princess nightgowns put on, a story read, prayers said, and have been tucked into bed since 8:30pm.

It's now 10:50pm. I just had to confiscate a flashlight, their toothbrushes, and Nolia's hair detangler from the bed. They were trying to brush their Ariels' teeth and comb their hair. I can't believe they are still awake. Bleary-eyed, but still chit-chatting away in there.

Night-time conversation with Joy

9:30 pm Saturday night 1/3/08

Magnolia, what are you doing out of bed?
My legs are scared.
Why are your legs scared?
They're hungry. They're hungry 'cause I'm hungry.