Cold weather projects

Finley

You know how they say to wait until your kids are at least five to get a dog?

"They" are geniuses.

She destroys something every. single. day.  Some days it's just a random toy I can sneak into the garbage.  Other days it's a priceless book Kate and I made together when she was four or a favorite toy that I have to run out and replace.  Today it was one of the blessing bags for the homeless.

She also likes to steal things off the counters.  Usually we catch her right away, but some days it's more confusing.  I bought two limes to go with Dave's birthday meal, but only found one.  I thought I was losing my mind, but I wasn't.  Finley must be under the impression round shaped fruit are balls to be hidden with her toys, because I found the missing lime hidden under the TV stand...along with a clementine.

Underwear

We threw away our last worn out, but never wetted Pull-up today.  We are now officially out of all forms of diapers, day and night.  Just in time for the twins turning 3 1/2 tomorrow.

As I was getting Ally into her pajamas tonight, I was making a big deal out of how she would be sleeping in underwear for the first time.  I would ask if she was wearing Pull-ups, and she would say no, she was wearing underwear.

After I brushed her teeth, Dave got home.  I said, "Ally, go tell Daddy what you have on your bottom!"

She excitedly ran up to Dave.  "Daddy, Daddy," she exclaimed, "I have a 'gina!"

Luke's ship, building snowman, and other incidents of naughty parenting

Sometimes after years of parenting young kids, you find things funny that you might not have when you were a new parent, determined to do everything perfectly.

There are several songs from the Frozen soundtrack that my girls have been singing nearly constantly since Kate saw the movie (and we bought the soundtrack) over six weeks ago.  It has begun to make me more than a little crazy.  One of the songs is, "Do you want to build a snowman."  I have heard the song, without exaggeration, several hundred times.

Even Luke is sick of the songs.  Yesterday he said, "Ally, sing in your head.  Sing.  In.  Your.  Head!  It 'noys me when you sing in my head."  I get it.  I've had three girls "singing in my head" for a month and a half.

My friend forwarded me a video the other day.  It was called "Frozen - The Unnecessarily Censored Version."  They had bleeped out certain words from the songs in the movie, implying they were dirty.  So, for instance, it said, "Do you want to **** a snowman."  In the blank, your mind could put in the correct word "build," or your mind could put in... anything else.  I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes.

My friend said, "I thought it was funny, too, but my husband thought it was terrible."  I showed Dave, he said, "Well, it is pretty terrible."

Okay, but, people, you have to understand this is about survival!  Yes, it's probably not right to pretend a little cartoon girl is singing about doing that to a snowman, but if it gets you through your day... If you can smile the 394th time you hear the song instead of gritting your teeth, it's all worth it.

The reason my friend's husband and my own husband think it's terrible, is because they have the luxury of thinking it's terrible.  They haven't heard the song 350 out of the 400 times we have heard it.  If you've only heard it 50 times, you might still be thinking clearly enough to think the video is terrible.  Yes, it is kind of terrible.  It's definitely wrong.  But!  But, it's hilarious.

Anyway, along these lines is a situation Dave and I have with Luke's toy ship.  Luke is constantly trying to carry his large, awkwardly shaped ship everywhere, wanting us to carry it for him (while we're doing five other things), and he is constantly whining about his ship.  So, when he says, "I can't find my ship," Dave and I will say something like, "Yeah, you're always losing your 'ship'," and we giggle a little bit.  When one of the kids comments, "I just tripped over Luke's ship," Dave or I will say something to the effect of, "Yeah, I feel like I'm always tripping over everyones' 'ship'," and, again, we find this very funny.

I probably wouldn't have done something like this with Kate.  I wouldn't have implied swear words when my first born was three and I still had that ideal image of what a perfect mom is.  But, I've been parenting long enough now to understand that a parent, even a great parent, is, above all else, human.  And humans need to laugh, especially when the alternative is going crazy.

And laugh is exactly what we did the other day when Luke declared, "My 'ship' don't 'sink'."



For those of you who are interested, here's the terrible video.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We all know Finley enjoyed Dave's birthday, but it ended up being fun for the humans, too.

Dave thoroughly enjoyed his birthday meal, since it had been exactly a year since the last time I made him a meal centering around meat.  

Here are the leftovers he'll freeze for when he's deep in withdrawal.

Look at the balloons that Kate made and put on the fridge for the occasion.
They did all the decorating themselves.  I was impressed.

There were great presents from all the kids.  Luke, who loves to make maps to everywhere we go, made Dave his very own map-making kit.

Dave loved his present.  Just look at this picture.  I know, right?

I have no idea what Luke said, but this picture makes me laugh!

Anna wrapped up a bunch of Rainbow Loom bracelets she made.  I love the wrap.

Kate gave Dave an original copy of her short story Snowlady.

But the biggest hit of the night was the cake.  Yes, it had a big chunk out of the back, but the girls had planned this cake for weeks.

The girls like to tease Dave about his best friend Kevin, because Dave texts him a lot.  They call Kevin his "boyfriend."

When they had been planning the party, I listened as they were discussing what to put on his cake.

Maybe a baseball.

No, they always do a baseball.

What else does he like?

Then Kate joked, "Uncle Kevin?" and they both cracked up.

Then Anna said, "Yes, yes, Uncle Kevin!"

Kate added, "We'll put a speech bubble and have it say, 'Happy Birthday, my love!'"

The giggled and giggled.

But, then Kate decided they couldn't tease Daddy on his birthday, but Anna argued they certainly could.

Kate finally conceded to the picture and, eventually, even the speech bubble, but she wasn't okay with the "my love" line.  It was too much.  They decided on "Happy Birthday, Baby!" instead.  (Like that's better??)

This picture makes me laugh every single time I see it.
Look at Dave's expression, and Anna's absolute joy at the joke!

When we were eating the cake, Anna turned to Dave and said, "This will teach you not to text someone too much.  I think you've learned your lesson."  Then she looked at him for a moment and said, "Yep, you learned your lesson!"

Helping Opa

Ally is fascinated by how things work.  She was excited to help Opa fix this lamp last week.

You know she's concentrating.  The tongue is back out.

Un-[expletive]-believable!

The girls wanted to have a little surprise birthday party for Dave today when he got home from work.  Kate had a play date coming over this morning, so we quickly made three pans of cake (for a three-layer cake) before she arrived.  We let it cool on the counter until I could cover it in plastic wrap, because we weren't going to frost it until this afternoon after Kate's friend left.

I had Finley in her kennel while we made the cake.  Right after Kate's friend arrived, I let Finley out of her kennel to go outside.  But Finley took a detour into the kitchen and grabbed one of the pans of cake.

Although there were two untouched pans of cake, the girls didn't find a two-layer cake acceptable.  I made another batch of cake, which made another three pans.  I thought I might make a five-layer cake, but after I thought about it, I realized five layers were probably too much.  I announced to the girls that they would get cake for a snack this afternoon.  While they played I made the four-layer cake, which turned out to be a layer too many.

I used some leftover frosting and frosted the extra layer for them.  I ran down to start a load of laundry and told Kate and Sophia they could come up for cake.  Anna, worn out from sledding, was sleeping on the floor.  I ran up ahead of them to cut the cake, and I found it was already nearly gone.  I yelled so loud it woke Anna up.

Okay, this is no longer a question of "When will the dog learn?" but rather, when will I learn?

And, now three girls were now really disappointed by my promise.  So...  I chopped them each a piece of cake.

Well?  It looked crappy anyway.

The face of concentration

She gets her interest in building things from her Opa.  She gets the tongue thing from me.

Boat Show behavior

We went to the Boat Show yesterday.  As we walked in, Dave laid down the rules for the kids.  "We need you all to be good.  That means use nice, calm voices.  No whining or complaining.  Stay by mom and me.  Be patient.  And use manners."

Anna, to whom these reminders where mostly directed, said, "You make me feel like I'm entering a palace!"

Anna, I suppose, believes the only time you need to be on your best behavior is the presence of royalty.

The kids were all really good.  Although Luke was disappointed.  As I was carrying him out at the end, he disappointedly put his head on my shoulder and said, "But I wanted to buy a ship!"

The $943,000 yacht (ship) that Luke liked best

At the JCC

On Friday, I took the kids and I joined the Jewish Community Center.  It's great place, friendly people, great programs, and a great gym!

Saturday, I talked Dave into going swimming with the kids and me.  Dave was hesitant to go.  He felt uncomfortable about it.  When we were figuring out the new place, we were both feeling a bit nervous, because it was a new situation, and Dave, in particular, was worried about offending one of the Jewish members while we learned the ropes.

For some reason, Luke chose this time to become social.  This kid who never talks to strangers, and looks away when they talk to him, became suddenly gregarious in the locker room.  He walked up to a naked, older (Jewish) man and says, of all things, a nice, loud, "Merry Christmas!"

Three-year-old girls

Notice the two three-year-old girls in this picture (far left and far right).

New Year's cinnamon rolls

 And we now begin three hundred sixty FOUR more days of healthy eating this year!