These are a few of my favorite things

Today we painted rocks. Tia Lila gave MajPaj & Khubz a bath. There was lots of play with some wild animal toys we brought to Gramma's house. There were only two time outs today. Khubz was great with the "please"s and "thank you"s. I had a shower.

It really was a fine day. Better than fine. Really good day actually. I feel sort of unsatisfied or sad with the day and can't figure out why. I think I need to get out of my head. Lists are good for that aren't they?

Khubz has recently discovered Julie Andrews. In particular, she likes "A few of my favorite things" and we listen to it on repeat from our house to Grammas every day (it plays approximately 4.7 times, depending on how many red lights we hit.) I'm trying to broaden her musical horizons so its not all "C is for Cookie." So she also likes "Cecilia" and "Pay Me My Money Down." What else does she like?

Puddles. We got her rain boots--I think they're really ugly. They have cows on them. She LOVES them. She also got an umbrella. Watch out. She will take your eye out with it. We go searching for puddles each day and as I pulled her out of the carseat today she said, "no puddles today?" None today. But it is Springtime in Iowa. There will be more puddles.

Pears. Grampa is the giver of pears and she quickly becomes offended if he doesn't offer her a bite of his pear when he's eating one. She was not a fan of the kumquats, by the way. I'll try giving her one again after she's read some Christina Rossetti.

Play time. "Isnot naptime??" Khubz demands reassurance every time we wash hands or settle in to her room for a story or anything else that seems suspicious. No, habibeti, it is play time. "Ohhhh. Playtime!"

The letter W. Please DO NOT take that as a political statement. She goes looking for Ws everywhere. Sometimes I doubt her when she says she's found one but there it is. And sometimes it is an "M" and I don't have the heart to tell her that's a different letter. She is so happy when she spots a W. Other letters? "G" for our Goddess Guadalupe. "C" truly is for cookie. She's beginning to take a liking to O as well.

The number 2. And 3. And 7. And 10. She likes making these numbers on her hands. Especially 10. She will resist naptime by trying to make me smile (this works.) "Where's deiz, Mommy?" where? "Right here!" She throws up her ten fingers. Smart, cute girl. Now go to sleep.

Two Mommies. "I gots two mommies. I gotta mama--thats a mommy. and I gotta mommy. I gots TWO." and she'll flash you the number two. This makes me unendingly happy. It helps counteract some of the "where's my daddy?" that she took on after hanging out with MajPaj and his daddy so much.

Frog. "Frog" makes everything funny. Want to make a joke out of "row, row, row your boat?" Just sing: "row, row, row your frog!" Then gasp loudly and say, "Frooooggg???!" Hysterical laughter. Now repeat. When that gets old, try this one. "A, B, C, D, E, F, FROOOOG" And you think that's funny? How about "ring around the rosy, pockets full of poesy, ashes, ashes we all fall froooog!" You get the idea.

And what about little thumper? He is also developing some likes and dislikes.

Thumbs up to: Amoxicillin. Yes, he has another ear infection.

Thumbs down to: Audiologists. He passed his hearing screening in one ear and failed it in the other. She thinks this is due to the ear infection and the huge gob of wax on his eardrum. It took an hour and half because his ear canals are so small they didn't have an instrument small enough and we had to keep starting over.

Thumbs up to: His sister! He loves to watch her. Even though she thumped him on the head today he still smiled at her and all her "frog" renditions.

Thumbs down to: Carseats. What's with the prettied up language anyway. Call them what they are. Child restraints!

Thumbs up to: Sleeping with the mommies. He seems to enjoy it when his sister joins in the fun as well. That's fine for him. He's not the one who goes on yellow alert.

The thumbs up really do outnumber the thumbs down. Thumbs up to: ceiling fans, gramma, taking baths, tylenol, being adored, farting at will, smiling, pacifiers, tummy time and the evening (when Khubz is asleep and its an endless milky buffet).

I guess that's a pretty good summation for today.

The thumbs up do indeed outnumber the thumbs down.

Sometimes chiggers are worth it

Yes, this is easy to say when you're not the one scratching. But, really, an entire day divided up between two parks? Totally worth it. Even to the the itchy toddler. So Khubz has some chigger bites. Poor girl. Was she complaining about the park time? Nooooo. . .

Especially since the full day devoted to parks included two of her best friends, Sunkist and Root Beer. And what could make a glorious day in the park surrounded by friends even better for the mommy? An exhausted Khubz (who boycotted naptime) and then slept for 14 hours straight. I love my children and I really, really, really love them when they are asleep.

Thumper (or Smiles as I often call him) for his part enjoyed the first park with us from the comfort of the sling. The second park (where I suspect the chiggers lay in wait) he declined and spent the afternoon sprawled out on Scully.

We had such a good time! It meant that the mommies (BOTH of us!) got to watch an entire made-for-grown-ups movie with our friends. By the way, go rent Rachel Getting Married. But put in a stick of gum or something because it is gut wrenching and I had a headache from clenching my jaw the whole time. Really, really good. Honestly, I never pay attention to movies and this was riveting!

It was such a nice weekend. We grilled out. We frolicked. We relaxed. We laughed. The weekend was entirely wonderful--just like these friends.

pic review

Fruit, Basket

Tina, revised

Thumper--all feet and smiles

Los Ninos

So yes, smiles all around. I should admit that today I asked Thumper if he would like to be an only child. Because I was about to murder his sister. She would not take a nap and in the face of her willfulness I threw a massive two-year-old fit. Luckily, we all wound up in the park for a two hour frolic. Scully met us there after work and Khubz promptly fell asleep in the car.

This would normally spell trouble but we decided it meant we could turn off Khubz's music and have a moment of peace in the car together instead. And we got sodas. Just for the two of us. We are bitches.

There have been some accomplishments lately:

Thumper has discovered his sister. And she makes him all smiley.

Scully took Khubz on the bus. To the delight of all the other passengers there was a "wheels on the bus" sing along from one end of the town to the other.

The new coop has opened today. I almost cried when I went through it. It felt like home.

I learned a new technique to enhance kumquat enjoyment. Expect the video shortly. And probably the erotica.

fruit of the femme

What does fruit of the loom have in common with fruit of the femme?

No strawberries.

Khubz, it seems, is allergic to strawberries. We'd often notice a stain on her cheek when she would eat strawberries. Must have gotten some juice on her face, we'd dismiss. No, actually, it is an allergic reaction. And it has gotten worse.

We had strawberries for snack over at a friends house and her cheeks became blotchy and purple and hot.

No strawberries.

Poor girl!

Overheard at casa de basket

Hello kind friends.

I am feeling better in general. I think I'm hovering at around 70%. Not bad. We got to go home last weekend and see friends and that was wonderful. We stayed in a hotel with our infant and our toddler and that was not wonderful. We essentially squatted at our friends houses during the day and that was totally, unbelievably wonderful.

On that quick note, have you checked out the news at the Pairs? Welcome Snoodle! Awesome! I cannot wait to meet that little man.

So since I'm feeling better I thought I'd share a few quick gems heard round the basket lately.

"H-Oh!! Umm. No. Just gas" We are potty training again and it is working much, much better. Thank you, Maj Paj (cousin the same age who has it almost totally down) and Gramma (our dealer/supplier of M&Ms as rewards for going on the potty.) Tonight Scully, the kids and I all headed to the store and had to make an emergency stop at McD. Turns out, just gas. That's okay! I'd rather she err that way.

"Tinytiny penis???" Khubz is interested. Though she was unimpressed with the size of her brother's junk she quite interested in the equipment. This coupled with the potty training also has her practicing "Ulwa?" "No, sweetie. Vulva." "Ooooh. Vulwa."

(yes, I am super excited to see how many blog hits I get just for that one story)

"You do not play baseball in Gramma's basement!!" All the kids were out of school today so it was a bit overwhelming at Gramma's house. At some point there seemed to be a lot of fun being had in the basement so I was elected to ruin the good time. Turns out the kids decided freezing cold rain need not stop them. Just do baseball in the basement.

"It was a good day. Because nobody went to jail." This is the new lingo Scully and I are using to evaluate our days. It is pretty cute because I occasionally get a text message from her alerting me that she may, in fact, be going to jail. I let her know that we're on one income and cannot afford bail. Choose wisely!

"Did you poop today? Because if you pooped then you weren't really busy, were you?!" I said this on day when it really did feel like someone was pulling on my clothes, asking to climb up for "Mommyholdyou??" or actually sucking/suckling the life out of me every minute of my day. I was super glad when Scully got home.

"Mommy, where do rocks come from? From the sky?" It was actually MajPaj who said this one to his mom but I was dazzled by it, by the way these kiddos are making me rethink my world and just had to write it down.

"Mommy eating Stinky?" Khubz is still figuring out the nursing thing. I always promptly correct her, "no, Mommy is feeding Stinky." "Ooooh." She takes holds her shirt up and nurses her baby doll at the same time. It makes me smile.

So, stinky (though he is just as stinky) does not seem to be the best name for the boy. He has charmed me too much and Stinky seems to be a bit edgy for such an unbelievably sweet little man. So Scully thinks Thumper would suit him. Really, go back and look at the picture of his feet. Thumper it is.

And with that it is time for Mommy to go eat, er, feed Thumper.

Here Comes the Son

Doin better.

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's all right Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say it's all right Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say it's all right Sun, sun, sun, here it comes... Sun, sun, sun, here it comes... Sun, sun, sun, here it comes... Sun, sun, sun, here it comes... Sun, sun, sun, here it comes... Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's all right It's all right

Stay tuned.


ps thanks dawn, for the pic! we totally love you!