Best friends

 Luke and Ally still fight a lot, but they're also so obviously best friends.

Luke was eating a half of apple in his highchair when Ally woke up this morning.  When I brought her in and put her in her high chair next to him, Luke handed her his apple.  Ally smiled at him as she took it.  Luke looked first pleased, then, when Ally happily began eating it, he got a little stressed.  I said, "It's okay, Lukey; I'll get you another one."

As he watched me peel the other half for him, he must have decided to give Ally the rest of her half.  He took the chewed up pieces from his mouth and set them on the corner of her tray.

Writing backwards

I love getting a peek at a preschooler's brain at work.  Anna recently learned to write her name and has been writing "ANNA" on any piece of paper she encounters.  Today the girls and I were talking about drawing a Thanksgiving picture on the window, and I explained we'd have to write "Happy Thanksgiving" backwards for it to look right from the outside.  Anna happily declared, "I can write my name backwards.  I'd put one N then two A's, then one N."  Interesting.

Pilgrims

 I knew I'd been saving those toilet paper rolls for something.

Look at Anna's poor black eye that was still healing.

That's probably true

A friend today commented today how Anna probably doesn't hear any yelling at home.  I agreed that, although I do often get grumpy, I, thankfully, yell very rarely.

Yet just a few minutes ago, mere hours after I agreed that I don't yell, I stood at the top of a stool unscrewing a lightbulb and full force yelled, "Anna!  GO.  TO.  BED!"

Why?

Well, Kate to bed over-tired, sobbing, screaming.  While listening to her, I had to deal with Anna, who took it as an opportunity to try to get more of my attention.  While dealing with Anna, I found Ally, who I'd just gotten into clean pajamas, soaking wet in the shower, and her bear in the toilet.  Then, while trying to get Luke ready for bed, I found Ally's mouth all full of blood... for a reason I still don't know.  The hall light didn't work, so I was trying to do much of this in the dark.

Once I finally got the kids in bed, I decided to change the lightbulb before I started cleaning the rest of the house, which was a complete disaster.  Anna had come out of her room a couple times, each time sending Kate back into her sobbing hysterics.  The third time she appeared, I yelled at her.

Anna looked at me, her eyes narrow, and told me, "You don't have to yell."

One we didn't use

Here's one of our Christmas card picture rejects.  I can't pin down why I didn't chose it... Luke crying?  Ally rebelling?  Maybe it was Kate's nipple!

(I'll be altering the dress before Christmas parties.)

Fairy Houses

Last week the girls and I carved "Fairy Houses" out of our old pumpkins.  After we put them out, I had an interesting idea. I'd say it was a "great idea," but it wasn't something I'd normally do.  I thought about sprinkling glitter in the pumpkins and letting the girls think it was fairy dust, that fairies were inhabiting the houses.

When it comes to fantasy, Dave often criticizes me for being no fun.  I don't think that's really the case.  I love to pretend with the kids, and I love to encourage their imagination... as long as they know it's fantasy.  I have huge misgivings about what I consider "The Big Santa Claus Lie" and the like.  When Kate or Anna ask me things about Santa, I generally reply, "Hmmm... I'm not sure.  You should ask Daddy."  When we go to our friends' house for St. Patrick's day where she says she spots leprechauns seeing if they're being good and then the leprechauns bring them treats, I tell the girls, "We're going to pretend Aunt Jamie sees leprechauns because that's so fun!"

But, I went ahead with my glitter plan.  When we found the "fairy dust," Kate didn't say a whole lot.  She thought about it.  After a while, I prompted, "Wow, girls!  Can you believe the fairies came to live in the pumpkins and sprinkled fairy dust in them?"  Anna said, "Ooorrr... maybe somebody else put glitter in them."

Crack.  Me.  Up!

The three of us talked about it.  I explained I sprinkled the glitter because I wanted to pretend fairies lived there.  And, even though we all know it's fantasy, we're having a great time talking about what the fairies do in their houses.

Thanksgiving cards

The Christmas cards I ordered arrived in the mail a few days ago.

Before you get really impressed and think, "Wow!  She's got four kids, including twin toddlers, and she had her Christmas cards done in early November," I should explain a couple things.  First, I inadvertently bought a Groupon that required I order my cards by November 15th.  So, it wasn't organization or even ambition that got my cards ordered, it was good, old fashioned cheapness.  I couldn't waste the money.

And, secondly, it's not a great picture on those cards.  I now understand I need to buy Photoshop if I ever hope to have all four kids looking good in a picture in the next five years.  In the picture on the card, Anna looks like nun after a bong hit.  It may be a rare expression, but it's not a good one, and it's not one you want to send out to 120 of your closest friends, relatives, and many people you haven't seen in nearly a decade but still send Christmas cards.

Okay, on second thought, I won't explain any of that.  Just be impressed that I got my Christmas cards done so early.  I haven't been that impressive lately; I could use a little glory to bask in.  My biggest accomplishments some days is managing to change into clean underwear.

But, I digress... I think I even managed to digress from my digression.  Hey, now that's kind of impressive.

But, anyway, the Christmas cards.  So, when they arrived, I showed them to Anna.  She wanted to play with a couple, and, figuring I have at least 20 extra (I probably only have 100 close friends, relatives, and people I haven't seen in nearly a decade but still send Christmas cards.) I let her.  She began to show them to our contractor, Scott, who's so nice he told Anna how much he liked them.

When Anna returned she said she wanted to give him one, but I told her, "We'll send him one in the mail for Christmas; it's not even Thanksgiving yet."  So, she ran back over to him and told him we were going to send him one on Thanksgiving.

When she came back, I explained things more clearly:  we are actually going to send them out for Christmas; I just meant we didn't need to worry about it at all until after Thanksgiving.  After I explained, she just shook her head and looked at me with a look of disappointment that clearly expressed I ruin everything and have no social skills.  She said, "He thinks he's getting one for Thanksgiving."

Darn pretzel bread!

I made a delicious batch of pretzel bread last week, two amazing loafs.  They weren't much to look at, if I'm honest, but they looked all right, and they tasted fabulous, the perfect combination of chewy and soft with a nice hint of salt on the outside... delicious.  I figured they weren't picture perfect because I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose, so I wanted to try a batch with all purpose flour, just for fun.

So, Tuesday Anna and I whipped up a batch of pretzel bread with all purpose flour.  Right from the start, things didn't seem quite right.  It was a little runny.  I double checked the ingredients, and concluded I just wasn't used to making bread with all purpose flour.  To make a long, frustrating story short, that batch didn't work and neither did the second batch I tried.

At one point, I commented, confused and frustrated, "I just don't know what went wrong."  Anna, helping me find the obvious answer, offered, "Maybe you maked it wrong."

This just in...

In a shockingly uncharacteristic parenting move, Kristal Melbye reportedly gave her her 15-month-old twins each a sucker to momentarily stop them from screaming as she prepared dinner.  Melbye was unavailable for comment, but there is speculation that the suckers were likely organic. An unnamed source reported the twins soon rejected these suckers and screamed and began screaming for an apple they'd spotted.

Alison

Anna asked me to read her "that story about Alison."  I couldn't figure out which story she was talking about until she told me her last name, too:  Alison Wonderland.

How to take a compliment

After surviving three long weeks getting our floors redone and waiting a couple months for the mudroom, I'll take compliments on my house however I can get them, even from a five-year-old boy.

Kate had a friend over for a play date this afternoon.  After he walked around a moment, he said to Kate, "Your house is awesome!"  Of course, there's a chance he'd spotted all the toys in the playroom, but he was more likely referring to the beautifully refinished floors and my superb decorating.

There's no such thing

I have been a mom for going on six years.  I do realize that, just as there's no such thing as a free lunch, there's no such thing as a quiet, occupied toddler... unless he's doing something he shouldn't be doing.  I seem, however, to have forgotten that this morning.  So, the kitchen is in good shape, but Luke is not.

Post Script, November 11 - I won't describe the diaper I changed this morning, although, as you can see, I couldn't resist mentioning it.  Suffice it to say Luke sucked on that marker more than I'd realized.

Of course

We went to walk at the audubon today.  Before we left Anna asked me to get her hat, but I forgot it while trying to remember a dozen other things.  When we arrived I let Anna out and unloaded the stroller.  Anna peaked in the trunk and commented, "Of course you forgot my blue hat."

Cup holders

Luke and Ally think the cup holders on their tray are waste receptacles.  Whenever they don't want to eat something, they put it in their cup holder, leaving the food they do like on the main part of the tray.  It's actually a pretty good system; their arms are just the right length for them to help themselves to their twins' rejects.

You say granola, I say...

Anna loves granola.  She's always asking, "Can I have kranola, please?"

A while ago we were playing a game with different animal cards.  Referring to the koala, she said, "I think it's the kranola."

Funny little monkeys

My kids each cracked me up today.

Luke sneezed when I was changing his diaper.  Unsure of what to make of it, he commented, "Uh oh."

Whenever I build block towerwith Ally and Luke, Luke knocks them down.  Today, uncharacteristically, Ally knocked one down.  I was surprised, but not as surprised as Ally.  She stood stunned for a couple seconds before exclaiming, "Woh."

This morning Anna ran up to me and reported, "When Ally put her head down on her arms, I said, 'Ally, you're a tweasure.'"

I love to use strange, often dated, expressions with Kate, just to see her reaction.  This afternoon when we came in the house after school I said, "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" "Whatever," she replied rolling her eyes.  I continued, "Seriously..."  Without missing a beat, she retorted, "Well, you're a vegetarian."