How Melbye is spelled

At conferences, I noticed Anna was writing her name on her worksheets as "Anna MelbyeAS."  When I asked her teacher, she had no idea why.

When we got home, I asked Anna about it, she told me that was how "Melbye" was spelled.  I told her it was just M-e-l-b-y-e.  Then she explained that Me-l-b-y-e-A-S was how they wrote her last name on her computer sheet.

We realized it was her computer login, standing for Melbye, Annemarie Sarah.

Anna, she definitely does things her own way.

More locker room fun

As you know I get a little self conscious about my kids in the locker room when we swim.  Well, today there were a couple women pretty near by, so when Luke began to play with his penis as I got him dressed, I quietly said, "Lukey don't touch that right now; let's get dressed."

Luke loudly explained, "Oh, Mommy, no.  I'm just touching my penis."

Twin Speak

I love listening to Luke and Ally converse.  I snuck away from lunch to go to the bathroom.  From the bathroom, I heard a car pull up and Luke and Ally have the following conversation:

Luke:  Daddy's home!

Ally:  No him's not.

Luke:  Yes, look!  Him's car.

Ally:  That's not Daddy's car.

Luke:  Yes it is.

Ally:  No.  Look.  It's not Daddy.  It's a person.

Luke:  Daddy's a person.

Ally:  But, that person has a pony tail in him's hair.  Oh, the person is getting out and him's walking.

I went to answer the door.

Bathroom time

What Ally did in the bathroom is so gross that he has to plug his nose.  Heaven forbid, he not join her in the bathroom.

Luke's aversion to my cooking

I finally understand why Luke doesn't eat most of the dinners I cook.  Tonight he explained, "Oh, Mommy, I just don't love yucky food."

Good thing someone loves him!  ;)

Tough morning

Yesterday was a tough morning.  Luke was vomiting all morning, and I was too distracted to realize Ally hadn't peed since the night before.  By noon, Luke had stopped throwing up, but Ally was in extreme pain.  She was crying hysterically, screaming that her "gina" hurt, and her legs were shaking in pain.  I was about to take her to the ER, but Dave, to his credit, diagnosed it over the phone as bladder spasms.  While talking to Dave, balancing the phone on my shoulder, I set her in the the bathtub of warm water.  She finally peed, and felt immediate relief.  That's when I realized Luke had been yelling for me.

I ran to the stairs and yelled down, "Are you throwing up?"

"No," he answered.

"What do you need?" I asked, completely stressed out.

"I want you to come here 'immeeditly'!"

He was fine, just being demanding.  And for some reason, his use of "immediately" just cracked me up.

Clever

Anna was having some friends over, and I was concerned about any of them having food allergies.  As we were discussing this, Anna said, "I have a food allergy, too.  I'm allergic to horse food!  That's why my nose runs and my eyes water when I'm around hay.... Gotcha!"

Dog kennel

I spent a couple weeks purging ourself of toys.  (More about this to come.) Then I reorganized everything.  And just as I was feeling good that we had a place for everything and everything in its place, Kate asks, "Mom, is it okay if I empty off those shelves to make them dog cages."

I audibly groaned.

And, because she's Kate, she said, "Nevermind.  No, Mom; it's okay."

But my mind flashed to the time they took every book in the house downstairs to make a library.  I hated the disorder, but it was so worth it.  They sorted all the books by topic, labeling the sections; they had activity tables, and the big girls read to the twins.  

This was the entrance to the "Kid's Library"

So, I helped them empty off the shelves, and then I let them get to work.  Here's what they made:

I'm so glad I let them make the mess.

Compliments

Over the last seven years, since Kate's hair began to grow in, I've been stopped at least once every time I'm out in public with the kids so people could comment about the color of my kids' hair.  It doesn't necessarily bother me, because I know everyone means well, but if I'm honest, I'd really prefer not to have it happen.

Kate always shyly thanks people, and I think she has come to secretly like it.  I have never been able to tell what Ally thought of it until today.  I'd noticed in the last couple months that she has gotten really good at saying "Thank you" when someone tells her they like her hair.  I recently noticed that she didn't even require prompting anymore.

We usually get a comment or two every time we're shopping or at the library, but we get a lot more at the JCC.  The older women in the locker room just can't get over her.  Last week some ladies told her that she was golden.  Today, as the twins and I were changing into our swimsuits the locker room at the JCC, we met a middle aged woman who was something else.

Shaking her head and assessing Ally's hair, this women commented, "Well, as she get's older, she is either going to really like her hair, or she is absolutely going to hate it!"  I understood her sentiment, but I thought she must have assumed Ally was younger than she was or she wouldn't have said it in front of her.  I soon realized my assumption was wrong.  As I was helping Ally take her shirt off, the women told Ally that she shouldn't need me to help her; she should be able to dress herself since she was a big girl.

(This woman also asked Luke how old he was.  When he answered that he was three and a half she laughed and told him... wait for it... that he wasn't three and a half, because his big sister was only that old.  I told her that they were twins and she asked, "Reeeeeeally?"  I didn't think she really expected an answer, but she evidently did.  So, finally I said, "Yep."  And she said, "Well, how did that happen?"  Not knowing how in the hell to answer that, I said, "I'm just lucky, I guess."  So, she stood there assessing them for a while and commented, "He sure is a lot smaller than her.  She's so much bigger than him.  Wow, he is really a lot littler."  I said nothing, and she asked, "Was he a preemie?"  Again, I didn't know what she wanted me to say.  Like, was she asking if he was a preemie and she wasn't?  So I said, "Well, they were both a month early."  Oh my goodness!)

We swam, and the twins were getting tired.  I showered them and helped them get dressed.  As we were packing up, two sweet older women came in pointing at Ally and chattering in Yiddish.  Ally eyed them suspiciously out of the corner of her eye, refusing to turn her head to look at them.

Then one of the ladies said, "You are beautiful."

Ally turned her head and glared at this lady with a death glare the likes of which I have never seen, even out of Ally.

"Ally,"  I said, "she said you're beautiful.  That's a really nice compliment..."

Nothing.

"Tell her thank you."

"No!"  Ally yelled, "I don't want to say thank you.  I don't want a nice compliment.  I just want them to go away!"

The women walked away.  I was stunned.  Finally, I quietly said, "Ally, that wasn't nice.  We can't can't swim here if you are going to act that way."

Ally stood frozen, her face scowling, for another full minute.  Then she quietly said into the air, "Thank you."

It really broke my heart.  I mean, I totally get it.  It's not really fair that, just because of a physical feature, Ally has to constantly have strangers come up and comment about her, sometimes even touch ing her head.  We're not all naturally really social.  After the somewhat traumatic event in the locker room earlier, she was probably trying to build up a defensive wall against all the invasions of her privacy.  But, on the other hand, she can't act that way.  I felt really trapped about how to respond to her.  I can only imagine how trapped she must feel sometimes.

Birthday present

This conversation is just so "Anna."

Anna:  Mom, I can't remember if it was Gwen or Monica, but someone told me they are going to give me an American Girl doll for my birthday.

Me:  Oh, no, Honey.  They won't be able to do that.  American Girl dolls are really expensive.

Anna:  But, they said.

Me:  I believe you, Honey, and I bet they would like to, but their mom won't let them, because those dolls are really, really expensive.

Anna:  I know, Mom, but don't get your hopes down.  I'll cross my fingers.


I looooove "Don't get your hopes down."  I suppose... I was thinking of telling her not to get her hopes up, so why not?

J

Anna is so blessed to have a friend like J.

Last night, we were making sock puppets after snack.  Before Anna had even got started, she set her sock in a spot on the table where there was peanut butter and got her sock covered in peanut butter.  She started to cry.  J said, "Let's trade.  I don't mind if there's peanut butter on my sock puppet."

Later, we were playing our own version of olympic games, and Anna began to cry because didn't get a medal in one event (since she had cheated).  I heard J whispering to her how she'd win next time.  And when that didn't calm her, he went and found her a favorite toy and brought it back to her.

They just get each other.  He comforts her when she needs it, but mostly they just have fun together.

Everyone needs a J in their life.

Ally loves me

Yesterday's lunch at Costco took no less than an hour and fifteen minutes.  Four dollars of food, two toddlers, 75 minutes.

They each had a half of piece of cheese pizza and a half of frozen yogurt, but every time I would ask if they were ready to go, they'd begin to eat their food.  I could have just called the meal done, but we didn't really have anything we had to do, so we hung out.  And hung out.  And hung out.  Did I mention it was an hour and fifteen minutes!

Anyway, at one point, I asked Ally if I could have a bite of her frozen yogurt.  She vehemently shook her head no.  I laughed.

Luke scooped up a big spoonful of his and offered it to me.  I took it, thanked him, and teased Ally, "Well, I guess Lukey loves me."

She grudgingly dipped her spoon into her dish and offered me this minuscule bite.

It actually looks like more than it even was,
because she hadn't licked her spoon well before.

 Ally loves me... a little bit.

Luke has learned to play the "boy card"

Luke loves to watch the "trucks" at Costco.  He could watch the forklifts put boxes on shelves for hours.

Yesterday, when we were continuing our shopping after watching the forklifts, I asked him, "Do you think, when you're bigger, you might want to work here?  You could run the forklifts and make money for college."

"Would you work here, too?" he asked.

"No," I said, smiling, " I'd stay home, but you could work here.  Wouldn't it be fun?"

He shook his head, and in case I still had any ideas, he added, in his sweetest voice, "But then you wouldn't have a boy at the house."

Life with puppies

Finley keeps life interesting.  Yesterday was a good example of this.  She's definitely had days when she has destroyed more stuff, but yesterday she chose an especially eclectic collection, including a birthday invitation, a permission slip, two hardboiled eggs (one of which was peeled), a car repair bill, and Queen Elsa's legs.

I think it's par for the course when you have a puppy in a home with young children.  Here's what recently happened to Dave's sister Jen and her puppy Emma, who is Finley's sister.

Jen found Emma with her nose in the laundry hamper.  Emma ran away, and Jen could see she had my niece's sock hanging out of her mouth.  Before Jen could grab the sock, Emma swallowed it.

Jen knew this could be dangerous, so Jen's husband kept a close eye on Emma all day, while Jen ran out and bought a hamper with a cover.

Emma still hadn't vomited up the sock by the time they were going to bed, so Jen's husband slept next to her that night.  At five in the morning, Emma began heaving and vomited up the sock... and three more!  Four of my niece's socks lay in a heap of vomit.  They had to laugh, relieved that the incident was over.

Since Emma was fine, they went to work that day.  Their neighbor came over to let Emma out at lunch time.  When Jen came home that night, there was a note on the table that said, "I left Emma's poop by the side of the garbage can so you could see it.  I think there's a sock in it."

Emma and Finley

Ally's ready for middle school

Ally remembered she had one of those giant candy canes filled with Hershey kisses leftover from Christmas hidden a cupboard.  It was 5:30 at night, and I desperately wanted to avoid a tantrum.  Picking my battles, I decided to let her have one.

Me: Okay, Ally, you can have one piece of candy.

Ally: Is you said I can have two pieces of candy?

If you not say I can have two pieces, then I not your friend anymore.

See, she'll do great as a mean girl in middle school.

Me (Since I've already survived middle school and it was 5:30 at night, my worst time of day):  Okay, I'll look for another friend.

Here's what happened
when Anna tried to help her knead the pizza dough.
Something tells me Anna isn't her friend anymore.

She can also be super sweet.

Oh, Anna

I used to regularly post "Oh, Anna" moments, but I started to feel a little guilty that I was giving Anna a reputation as a space case.

Last week I was telling Dave about something, and he told me to be careful because Anna might catch on.  I said, "Oh, come on!  Anna?"  And he said, "Anna is a lot more perceptive than you give her credit for."  I felt a little guilty.  "Okay," I said.

The next day, the kids were home from school for one of those days that where the windchill was 30 something below zero.  I was running errands.  The twins were napping, the big girls were playing in the playroom, and Dave was going to ride the exercise bike.  He changed into his shorts and t-shirt and went to tell the girls that he'd be downstairs.  When Anna saw what he was wearing, she asked, "Are you going to go mow the lawn?"

Dave texted me the story and said, "I take back what I said yesterday."