Too much of a good thing

After communion the other day I was trying to get Beanie to be quiet so I could pray and told her to talk to Jesus who was inside her heart. I went on to tell her she was a daughter of God and she looked up at me in all seriousness and said, "I not a daughter of God, I a BIG girl!"

Things you think I would already know....

**Always bring snacks and drinks with you to a dr.'s visit...b/c you never know when a 30 minute appointment will morph into a 2 hour ordeal complete with labs, pharmacy, and breathing treatments!!

**Children will behave perfectly well until it is time for you to actually speak with the dr. and then they will decide to fight over seats, toys, and/or lack of snacks and drinks.

**You know you've hit an all time low when you say to your child, in FRONT of the doctor, that you don't care about justice you just want silence.

At least I am thankful the dr., who already has 7 kids, liked the line. I told him it was from Bill Cosby- am I right??

Things I don't get about the South

1) Monograms on the back of your car- this seems to cross all class and race lines.

2)"In memory of......" Tributes to deceased loved ones with the dates of their life and death and often a photo on the back of one's car.

3) Fried food- except maybe mozzarella sticks, but that's only because I am pregnant!

4) The confederate flag- get over it people!! You are citizens of the United States of America, like it or not. No wonder race relations still aren't that great!

Random thoughts

So, its a cold, cold, wet day and I treat the kids to hot cocoa in the drivethru Starbucks. I was good and only got a decaf coffee. : )

Anyway, Biki starts asking how it is that I talk to the guy when I order- "So how does it work mom? Is it a phone? Are you skyping? Is it like you are dating?" That last one sort of threw me off. I just wonder how she got to think dating has anything to do with drive thrus. We don't go to Starbucks that much!!! ; ) This is also coming from the child who has her heart set on being a Starbucks worker when she grows up because she's NOT getting married. I guess there could be numerary Starbucks baristas!!

Other randomness:
Beanie has been paying more attention in daily mass, particularly on those days when its just the 2 of us. So we're out eating french fries the other night and I see her with the little paper cup of ketchup standing up in the booth with it raised over her head with both hands. All I can hear is something about Jesus Christ.....I tried to get more details out of her, but she sort of clammed up when I started asking her about it. I am guessing she was doing a little reenactment since she's been obsessed with "Jesus' blood" recently!

?

Why is it that my 2 year old insists on opening a four part Melissa and Doug jigsaw puzzle repeatedly to use the pieces as food in her kitchen when she's got a whole stove full of play food? Just curious. What would the Montessorians think?

Manamana

We got the first season of the Muppet Show on DVD and watched the first two episodes. Beanie was infatuated with this dancing, caveman sort of puppet who sings manamana in the first episode and rings a bell in the second episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7XOFfjiL-U
(sorry bsafe users, the filter won't let you watch this.....I had to turn mine off to get the clip!)

If you watch the clip you'll get why the following is hilarious. So it is bedtime and I think she's asleep and she looks up at me, opens her eyes and says "Manamana" in her best gravelly Muppet voice. It was hilarious.

Cousin Frenzy!

The kids love being the big cousins! They had a blast with their cousins yesterday and today. They rarely get to see their own big cousins, so this was a chance for them to really get into it. Poor cousin C got bossed around a lot but seemed agreeable to the whole scene.

After they left the Conqueror was really emotional the rest of the day. He cried that they left and kept saying things reminded him of them. At dinner he started crying again pointing to places around the kitchen when he remembered his cousin playing and me sitting around talking to his Aunt and Uncle. The poor kid!! Yesterday after mass he kept saying that he saw dad in the rain. Fleshing the point out, it turns out that rain reminds him of going to Dr.'s appointments at Walter Reed when we would get to go see Dad at work. I just keep assuring him that it is ok to miss dad, but I think he keeps bottling it up and then has these intermittent explosions. Poor kid, I don't know where he gets it from! ; ) (It is not the pregnant me, I just explode all the time!)

On a lighter note, this visit gave the Bean the realization about what my name is, my name besides Mommy. I kept hearing her saying it this afternoon but let it go. Then, she got in trouble for ripping up oatmeal packets and eating them in the pantry and I forced her to apologize. I said, "Tell Mommy you're sorry!" She quickly replied, "Sorry, Meggie!" Now I am trying to nip it in the bud, since she realized that I was amused and kept calling me Meg another ten times. Cheeky one!

Beanieisms

"I love you SO much mom" as I put on Cinderella for the second day in a row. I know, what happened...I used to have standards. She keeps saying how much she loves me....I think it is because I have been sick. It is so cute.

"I flying!" as she runs around the house in fairy wings from room to room.

"I want my daddy time!" She is constantly asking about daddy. When will he be back, when is he coming home, how long, when will he see her. There is no danger of her forgetting him....it is cute but almost exhausting to answer her constant inquiries about it. She tells everyone she meets, or doesn't even meet for that matter- she just has to see them in a store and make eye contact, "My dad's in Iraq and I want him back!" She parrots the line from the book we have on the subject.

Solid?

I have always loved the song "Solid as a rock" for some reason. Well, just in time for Obamamania to begin it is officially being redone with a whole new set of lyrics around the theme "Solid as Barack." I don't know how I feel about this. "Solid" is going to have a whole new meaning culturally. I will no longer be able to say "that's a solid priest, or a solid church" etc..... These are really the things keeping me up lately (OK, I am up but not b/c of this).

What I have learned from being on the couch for a day and a half...

the kids can play really well together for hours at a time with few fights! The problem? They totally trash the house in the meantime and hours of fun equals tons of mess. This is overwhelming for all involved! Oh well.....tomorrow is another day, hopefully a healthy one.

I forgot about this one....

We at Grandma's talking about chess and how Uncle Joe used to play on a chess team. The conqueror was listening intently. Joe was describing how there aren't a lot of people to play with at school. He remarked that there was one kid who was ok. At that point, the Conqueror broke in and said, "Uncle Joe, you should play with me. I play with my dad and I'm really smart and...." And I don't think he finished because I sort of gasped and laughed at the same time and told him that yes, he is really smart, but it isn't polite to point it out to others!!! Ahh, the healthy self-esteem of the eldest child!

My worst nightmare

Beanie to her new found friends the ants as she held the ant farm in her chubby little hands:

"I let you out!"

In her defense I had gotten the farm down to show her their daily progress. Still, I think I am going to have to hide it now.

Girls vs. Boys

I much prefer a sick son to a sick daughter. Sick son complains minimally and spends the whole day in bed sleeping off sickness. Son is compliant in all matters of medicine and temperature taking. Sick daughters whine, moan, complain and need to be held all day. They refuse to take medicine or have temperature checked.

I suppose there are some similarities in the way mom and dad get sick- although I would like to think I offer it up a bit!!

Wanted

Maternity jeans that are
a) not skin tight
b)do not fall down and/or
c)sag to make me look like a penguin

I am willing to pay hundreds of dollars!! (Sorry babe.)

I used to think that 100% cotton maternity clothes were not my friends. I like a teeny bit of spandex to keep things from getting tentlike. Jeans are a different story- the maternity stretch jean is evil!

Do unto others....

One thing the kids learned in Montessori school was how to think of others. Conqueror's teacher reports he's a super friend to all in the classroom, always willing to lend a hand, help others etc. I see the same thing in all of the kids in their sibling interactions. The conqueror was home sick today, very ill in bed, and the Bean kept worrying about him, talking about the fact he's sick, and going up to "look at him". She'd prop her head on her hands at the edge of the bed just sort of looking at him. And she'd try to get him to smile when he would pass in and out of consciousness. Then when we were picking up Biki the Conqueror wanted to know how her classroom interactions went. Turns out there's a "mean girl" who says that she'll only play with kids who bring in PB sandwiches. So, he was concerned that Biki would be ostracized on the playground for bringing in her salami sandwich. It was cute to her them talk about it. The Bik was also trying very hard to make her brother feel better- cracking jokes, smiling, chatting with him while he lied around. Next time they all start pummeling and screaming at each other I will try to remember that they often get along well and play together for hours!

Every day in December a different child got to put on a new piece on the advent calendar. Beanie got St. Joseph, the baby Jesus, the levitating cow, and the prominently placed sheep. I guess theologically its not that off.....the lamb is an important theological theme!

I find this funny.

Probably because I am now part of a huntin' family.

Overheard while watching Bambi

As Bambi goes looking for his mom after she's been shot by the hunter....

Biki- "Where's Bambi's mom?"

The Conqueror- "Getting roasted."

The ebb and flow of toddler independence

We're having a lazy morning and I command the older ones to get dressed and tell the Bean in passing that she too needs to get dressed soon, thinking we'd do it together. Well, about 10 minutes later she comes down in a fully coordinated outfit asking for help buttoning her sweater. I ask Biki if she got her dressed and she tells me Bean did it all by herself.

I praise Bean profusely and congratulate myself that I have a two year old who can dress herself perfectly. Man, these Montessorians must be onto something! A few minutes later I am cleaning out the sink in the bathroom upstairs and hear "Mommy, poopy!" I run downstairs thinking she needs a change, as I round the corner I see, in her room, her sack and her diaper and realize what I am about to encounter. Yes, a #1 and #2 done in her pants, sans diaper, in the sun room. Oh joy.

GastroIntestinal Delights and Horrors

I loved visiting NOVA and eating at all of my old favorite haunts....Tex/Mex, Chinese, Thai, Pizza, and Trader Joes. It was delicious!!

Then we traveled south and I discovered there's a reason you only see Cracker Barrels south of Richmond. After seeing the 100th one on our drive down advertising breakfast all day the kids got it in their head that they really needed to try it out. So, after hour 8 I gave in and we stopped at one for dinner. BIG MISTAKE. I knew I had visions of hating Cracker Barrell as a 15 year old traveling to HHI with my grandparents but it was all sort of blurry. I should have never given in. The menu is disgusting. There is nothing fresh- it is all fried this, fried that- all the vegetables look like they came out of a can. UGH. The only fresh looking thing on our whole table was the lettuce and tomato for my BLT. Everything else was a nasty shade of brown- not just our table but on everyone else's too! Plus, it was loud, dirty and slow. ARGH. But hey, the kids loved it. I hate to sound mean, but there's a reason people in the south are heavier- I mean if you eat like that it is bound to happen.

Sorry, but I had to get that off my chest.