Death Is Not An Option

One of the fun things about moving into a new home is decorating it to show your family's personality. Do you like fun and funky bright colors? Or do you prefer the museum feel where your guests (or should I say visitors) ooh and ahh over evey little thing but don't want to sit down anywhere for fear of putting a dent in a cushion. I perfer the come in, sit down and feel like you never have to leave vibe. When people come to my home I want them to feel comfortable, relaxed and free to be themselves. The problem is that right now the inside of my home is stick in 1976 and it is screaming to be set free.

There is only one room that wasn't wallpapered when we moved in and boy did that room get painted fast. Then we decided to try what is now the girls' room and see if we could get the wallpaper down. Well, when we got down to the fourth layer of paper there was no other choice than to call in the pros and pay a small fortune to have the paper removed. They did an awesome job but now we're back to reality and removing the rest of the paper ourselves. We started in the dining room on Monday and it hasn't been so bad. The first two layers were easy to remove but that third layer is a bitch. So, if death were not an option, which would you prefer?

Layer 1?

Layer 2?

Or layer 3?

I kind of like the toile (that would be #3). It is a nice scene and my kids like sheep and donkey's so it would make them happy. #2 is a little plain for my taste, it's kind of like the vanilla yogurt of wallpaper. Layer #1 hasn't been hard to live but it's a little too, what's the word, denimy for my taste. Not to mention that if you look at those flowery things just right they look like little girls in dresses and assorted creepy crawly things. Hopefully the walls will be finised and ready to paint by the end of next week. Then I'm on to picking the paint color and that is going to be harder than removing the wallpaper.

Did I say that?

Did I say I would start writing regularly again and not forget about this place? I think I did *blushes*. Between trying to get my walls out of the 70's, get Natalie ready for Kindergarten and Alyssa started in Preschool, my free time has been almost non-existant.

Natalie is loving K. She really likes her teachers (so do I), she's made so many new friends and is just all around a happy and fun person. I was helping her roller skate today (or, helping her not fall while wearing her skates) and all of a sudden it hit me. She is no longer my older baby. She is an honest to goodness little girl. Her face has lost all evidence that she was once a baby and the realization makes me want to cry. I'm not sure if I want to cry because I've lost something or if it's because I'm excited for all the new things that she will be experiencing in this new territory. When the little girl around the corner comes over, they like to have private time for "girl talk". I can't imagine it's anything more exciting than what she and her stuffed animals where playing that morning but the thought of it is still odd to me. The thought that she has a life separate from me is strange as well. I know all the names of her school friends but on the occasion that I see her class in the halls at school it is obvious that *I* am the outsider. When exactly does it happen? When do our lives make the shift from our children trying to be on our inside to us trying to get into theirs? I hope I don't find out for a very long time.

What??!!!

I am such a loser. A huge loser actually. I can't believe it's been almost three months since I've posted. It's been on my mind and I've been wanting to get back over here but until this very exact second at 5:04 and 36 seconds PM I haven't been able to. Do you really want to know where I've been? Well, it started like this.....

April. The month when the leaves start coming out on the trees and flowers start to bloom and....wait. It's the month when the leaves start to come out out and flowers start to bloom and what that really means is that my eyes start to itch and swell so bad that I have to go to bed at 7:00 some nights because I literally can not keep them open any longer. I have tried all kinds of allergy medicine and the only ones that work just happen to be the ones that make me want to sleep anyway. I never had this problem in my life until I was pregnant with Alyssa and I think it was some sort of pre-shadowing as to what life with her would be like. Definitley not my "easy" child but I wouldn't trade her for the world.

About the time I was regained the use of my eyes Scott and I decided to buy a new house. We had just paid $800 to have our front and side lawns ripped up and re-seeded because we hadn't been able to grow any grass since we killed it all in 2006. I put in new flower boxes and planted a pretty little herb garden. We were finally getting around to doing some of the things that we couldn't do with two very small children. Then BAM. I saw a house online of all places. It was much bigger, in the perfect neighborhood and best of all it was affordable. Turns out the woman who had lived there passed away last year and her kids were really ready to unload the house so they had it priced to sell. In less than a weeks time we were under contract and waiting to list the house we were living in. We listed that house the next week and had an offer even before the sign was in the lawn. I don't know if it's Karma of plain old dumb luck but something was sure working in our favor.

Moving....it sucks and I don't plan on doing it for a very long time if I can help it. The only thing that can make moving worse is when the head guy comes to you and says "yeah, we have no more room in the truck". Guess we have too much crap. Well at least we now have a bigger house to fit all that crap into, and get some more crap to fill the extra space.

So all my time has been taken up by all the things one does when the purchase an affordable house like painting over awful colors and trying to remove funktastic wallpaper. Once we realized there were FOUR layers in what is to be the girls room we decided to take a second mortgage so we could pay for someone to remove it for us. We didn't really have to take a second mortgage but the wallpaper remover guys are coming tomorrow.

That's my story. I hope you enjoyed it and I promise I will not leave again for such a long period of time unless there is a white jacket and a padded room involved.

Purrrrrrrrr

This is my cat, Toby, and I love him. You have no idea how much I love him. I almost consider him my firstborn. We decided to get a cat for my 29th birthday so one day after work we headed to the MSPCA. I was looking for a small, fun kitty that would jump around after little toy mice but Scott saw this little white kitten relaxing in his cage without a care in the world. There was some sort of connection between them because Scott was adamant that this little cat was the one we were supposed to adopt. He was right. We've had Toby for over seven years now (I'll save you the math, I'm 36) and he has been such an unbelieveable joy.

As a tiny little kitty he was so playful and wanting for attention. The first full day we had him he set up camp on my lap and was there to stay. If he hadn't gotten up when he did I would have peed my pants because there was no way I was making that furry little bundle of love leave my lap when he wasn't ready. Even today if one of us is graced with his presence on our lap, said person will proclaim to the other "I Win".

He is just the sweetest and most personable cat

I have ever met and most people who come into

my home say the same. If you have a hand to offer him he will be your best friend. When he sleeps he sometimes curls a paw over his nose and I am overcome with the warm fuzzies. You'll have to fogive me for gushing but if you spent a little time with him you would gush too.

Long time no see...

I know I haven't been here the last two weeks but my computer has been so freakin' slow. Like I'm about ready to pitch the damn thing out the window slow. Scott says it has something to do with the Kodak software I use for pictures from the camera and it's really pissing me off. Anyway, one day when I have eight hours to sit around and upload pictures, I will update.

In the meantime, here is a pencil sketch that my dad did from a b/w picture of my grandfather. He did an awesome job. Grandpa's been gone for 27 years but I have very good memories of him.

Snippets

Here is a peak at what could be going on at our house on any given day...

Lullaby, lullaby...

My invisible friends and I are sharing this drink...sorry, no room for you...

Giddyap horsie...


















Lined up like dead bodies, or something like that...























I know it's not my lunch and it's 8:30am but I also know that I'm hungry NOW...


















I'm catching some rays, do you mind?

You say it's your birthday....

Today is Scott's birthday. He has hit the big 3-8 and has come to the realization that in two years he'll be 40. Come back then to read about how it went. Since he slept in this morning I had the girls help me decorate and I think I have found a new quiet time activity for them. All I need to do is hand out pieces of tape and I think they could be occupied for at least an hour. Natalie decorated the hassock and dining table with streamers while Alyssa went to work on the love seat. Seriously, at two bucks a pop I could have a small supply of streamers on hand for rainy days.

Once we were done with decorating fun I made a cake and the girls helped. Again, another saver for a rainy day. What could be more fun than spreading all that gooey, sugary goodness and getting to lick it off your fingers at 8:30 in the morning? I wish we could celebrate a birthday every Sunday morning.

A Perfect Day

That was Thursday. It was one of those days where you just want to sit on the front steps and breathe it all in. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was nice and warm outside with a bit of a breeze and my girls were with me. Natalie was home from school for the third day in a row recovering from a cold, mostly because she was coughing a lot and I didn't want the teachers to think we were trying to spread the plague. Anyway, we were digging out front, making space for the flowers I hope to plant in the next few weeks. While I was removing the grass and turning the dirt we found lots of worms. Worms have really never been exciting to me. They were always kind of slimy and gross and I would never even think of picking one up. The girls, however, were facsinated by them so we made a little worm farm out of an old soda bottle, some dirt, grass and sand. It's amazing how you can get past the gross factor when it's something that someone else is really enjoying. The gardening gloves don't hurt either. I kept picking up the big fat ones and thrusting them at Natalie just so I could see her scrunch her face and run away. Alyssa on the other hand had no problem picking them up with her fingers and moving them around. Sometimes I wish I were still two. I haven't seen any of the worms in our farm since then so they are either all huddled inside away from the sun or, well, I think I'll be letting them go tomorrow. I wouldn't want to be known as the worm killer of Western Ma after all.

Disney....revisited

I keep getting emails saying "Your Disney photos are about to expire" (these are pics that are taken by photographers at Disney and you can look at them/purchase them online). Since they are going to be deleted never to be seen again come Monday I thought I should take a look at them. There are only about 15 pictures there but some of them are really cute. The girls with Minnie, Mickey and various other characters. I decided on a few to purchase, put them in my cart and go to checkout. What! *insert sound of scratching record here* It was going to cost me $13.00 for each photo I wanted? Surely that couldn't be correct so I cleaned my glasses and looked again. Sure enough 2 4x6 prints of a single shot cost $12.95. Now we had a good time at Disney World but isn't that a bit much? They weren't teriffic pictures. They were nice and Natalie was even smiling in one but that is where I draw the line. But just in case there was one picture that came out so fabulous we couldn't live without it hanging on out wall in all it's 16x20 glory it could have been ours for $149.95. I'll be having the pictures from my little digital camera printed at the local drug store for 25 cents a pop thank you very much.

The first day of the rest of my life

This may be way too much information for some but I think the rest of my life began this morning. Alyssa did *ahem* #2 on the potty by herself...twice. I don't know whether to cry or dance.

How Much is that Doggie in the...Living Room?

We actually don't have a dog. We will never have a dog. I will have another child before I have a dog. Some people prefer other peoples kids and I prefer other peoples dogs. But I digress.

We bought one of those toddler harnesses when Natalie was a toddler thinking that it would be great to be able to give her a bit of freedom while walking the mall but still have her close to us. We never used it. Then we thought it would be great for Alyssa because she is the impish one who will make a run for it the first chance she gets. We never used it. I happened upon it today and as soon as the girls saw it they knew exactly what to do with it.

C'mon little doggie, let's go for a walk.

I have to go upstairs for a minute. Stay!

Woof!

I'm back, let's go!

My "Make and Take" Dinners Review

So, most if us have heard about these new shops popping up where you can prepare multiple meals for your family, stick them in the freezer and have a meal just waiting to be cooked on any night you like. I recently went to one with a friend of mine to see what it was all about. In two hours I had 12 meals to put in my freezer and I was anxious to start using them to see if it was really quicker and easier than preparing a meal on the spot.

Chicken Parm with Garlic Bread. What's not to love about this? I was skeptical because the chicken wasn't breaded. The directions at the prep station instructed me to sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the chicken and then cover with sauce. In the end it came out great. The chicken was nice and tender and the garlic bread was delicious. This was the easiest of the meals to cook at home because it was prepared in a foil pan and went straight from the freezer to the oven.

Creamy Risotto & Chicken. This was also an easy one to cook at home. It took the same amount of time as it would to make rice on the stove top. Again, the chicken was nice and it was a great comfort food type of meal.

Steak with Garlic and Herb Butter. I was a bit disappointed with this one. While it was easy to cook I felt the cut of meat could have been better and since I had to make a side to go with it anyway it wouldn't have taken any additional time to make the garlic/herb butter at home.

Apple Glazed Pork Chops. OK, I have to be honest and say I screwed this one up. I was supposed to use the 3 serving recipe but I started using the 6 serving recipe and by the time I realized it I had already measured out half of the sauce/glaze ingredients. I also over cooked the pork chops and it was like eating an old shoe. Cooking was easy enough although I could have put the ingredients for the glaze together while the chops cooked if I were to prepare the entire meal at home. I also had to make my own side dish so no time saved there.

Beef Skewers with Peanut Dipping Sauce. The pieces of meat that were supposed to be skewered where cut so small that it would have taken me forever to do them all. After 5 skewers I decided to just toss all the meat into my pan. It was pretty good but I would have preferred bigger pieces of meat and, again, I had to make my own side dishes.

Baked Chicken Tetrazzini. I had planned on making this for dinner tonight but by the time I put water on for the pasta it was 4:40 and after reading the cooking directions realized that the whole dish wouldn't be ready until 6:00 (after pouring the chicken mixture over the pasta it still needs 50-60 minutes to bake). We had pasta with sauce for dinner instead and I made extra pasta so I can skip that step tomorrow.

I have two more dishes to try, Pork Chops with Red Pepper Aioli and Blackened Salmon with Pineapple Salsa. I'm looking forward to trying the salmon and I'll try not to turn the chops into something completely inedible.

Even with two dishes left to try, I have decided that this just wasn't worth the money for me. I still had to prepare my own sides for each meal and I didn't feel like having the main portion of the meal ready and waiting saved me much time. Most of the vegetable ingredients were frozen to begin with so it's not like I saved chopping time and all the of the herbs and spices used are things I already have in my kitchen. Maybe this would work better for a family where both parents work or for those who just don't want to worry about what they are going to make for dinner each night. I also think the concept of prepping and freezing is something that could be done at home very easily.

The other issue I have is with the use of so many plastic bags (most of the meals are stored in zip-close bags). In total my meals must have used about 40 non biodegradable bags and being that I'm trying to be more earth friendly this really irked me.

So, like I said, this just isn't for me. I'll stick to chopping and mixing everything myself while my kids are fighting each other in the next room. It just isn't dinner time if no one is yelling "Stop looking at each other!" at the top of their lungs.

My money is no good

Either that or everyone is suddenly independently wealthy. I'm looking for a landscaper to do some work on my yard. Like getting rid of the leaves that I thought about raking way back in the fall and leveling my oddly lumpy yard among other things. I feel like over the last two weeks I've called half the landscapers in the phone book and I have yet to hear from any of them.

Last year when we were having new walkways put in we had no problem getting "cement guy", as he came to be known, to call us back. We just couldn't get him to actually start the work. It got to the point that Natalie and I would take bets on our way home from school as to whether he would be at the house or not. Finally after four days of non returned calls we were about to go with someone else when we suddenly heard from him. He had taken a spur of the moment vacation to England to watch his friend compete in the Ultimate Idiocracy Fighting Championship.

I wish I had the kind of job where I could jet off to England at a moments notice (minus the guys beating the snot out of each other and lowering their already dangerously low IQ's of course). Here in the real world I'll have to settle for jaunts to Target and B&N and if I'm lucky the "good" Marshall's in the next state. These days that's my idea of foreign travel.

The Story of the Squirrels

My dad has a way of telling a story and this past week he sent me a story about his opinion of squirrels and how they mess with us. I hope you enjoy it.

We all know that squirrels are having a joke on the human race. We see them in the roads most of the year, crossing right in front of us as we are driving along the roads. This causes many people to hit their brakes or get mad at the poor little rodents ... they’re only squirrels after all.
However, you must pay attention. We all know in the very depth of our minds that they are waiting for us, testing their skills at getting across the street without being squashed! They wait by the curb, jumping back and forth with excitement, pretending they don’t know what to do. Then they rush forward at the last minute, stop halfway across the street and then madly dash the rest of the way. I know, that as these devilish creatures careen before us, cheating death, there are other squirrels on the side of the road cheering them on and giving them high fives when they reach safety. I am even of the opinion that there is always one squirrel nearby that wears a checkered vest and cocked hat who lays odds for the other squirrels and has a large bag of acorns for pay out or pay in.

The other day I was driving up the street on the way home and there was a squirrel further ahead of me in the middle of the road, coming towards me. I think he was challenging me, coming forward, stopping, coming forward again; straight down the middle of the road. It was like he was scoffing at my manliness, at all humankind manliness. I was having none of it! I would not chicken out ... my hands tightened on the wheel as my breath quickened. I did not slow and steered straight down the middle of the road. He continued forward ... was he really that tough? I could feel the perspiration on my brow, and then at the very last moment, even as I expected to feel a bump beneath my tire, he darted to the side of the road, to safety!

I was relieved, but I know that briefly out of the corner of my eye, I saw the flash of a checkered vest and two squirrels behind a shrub cheering .

Did someone say Easter?

Oh right, that was today. Since we just came home from Disney last weekend we decided to stay home for Easter. Just the four of us and our day. I made baskets for the girls with the requisite piles of candy and some things to play with outside. If they're going to eat their weight in candy today they may as well have a way to work it off, right? Sadly, after that it was just like any other day. We went to the movies to see Horton Hears a Who and I hope to actually see it one day. It was too "scary" for Natalie so we left halfway through. There was the usual amout of bickering between the little people and after Alyssa was up from her nap we had an egg hunt in the back yard. Then we had dinner, watched some TV, then bed.

It all made me a bit sad. I remember growing up and being almost as excited for Easter as for Christmas. I remember the excitement of seeing the basket waiting for me in the dining room and how special it felt to get dressed up for church. We had a lot of family nearby and many years we would go to big egg hunts or have dinner with family. A big departure from todays trip to the movies and CVS. Now our nearest family is four hours away and Easter has become a regular day.

I wonder if there is a way to make this Holiday special again. I wonder if that feeling of specialness is just one of those things we lose as we pass into adulthood. Next year I will try to make it special again.

Saturday morning

Our neighbors put together an egg hunt for this afternoon where they hide 400 eggs in the yards on our street and all of the kids in the neighborhood are welcome. Even though they are only 2 and 5, my girls really look forward to it. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to contribute something so I did one of the things I do best and made chocolate chip cookies. Oh, by the way, I make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world.

Seriously. I wish I could sell them somewhere because they are so good and I love to make them. Now this isn't a recipe I invented myself (as if). You can get it online as a matter of fact. Actually, you can get it here. One thing I never understood about recipes and cooking is that you can give two people the exact same recipe but the finished product won't necessarily be the same. My mom always used to tell me what a good baker I was and I would say "but I just followed the recipe". She would then say that not everyone can follow a recipe but seriously, these cookies are so easy even a baboon could make them (no offense to the local baboon population). Just be sure to take them out of the oven as soon as they start to turn brown at the edges. They will look under done but once they cool they will be perfect.

I do have a warning though. If you have little people living in your house be prepared to see something like this at your feet the moment they come out of the oven.

Ummm...thanks?

Today we received and Easter package from my mother in law (who I love, in case you were wondering). The girls could hardly contain themselves while I was opening it and I thought Alyssa was going to lose her hand because she kept sticking it right in front of the scissors in an effort to rip it open herself. I finally got it opened and it contained Easter candy and some books for the girls. I don't really think they noticed any of that because my mother in law used Easter grass as packing. You know, the God awful grass that sticks to everything and you continue to find strands of it right into the summer. As soon as they saw it they started throwing it all over the living room and at each other. It's a good thing I'm medicated or I would have had a stroke. It actually wasn't too bad to clean up but Alyssa had a fit when she woke from her nap and saw that it was all gone. Maybe the Easter bunny should skip the goodies on Sunday and just bring them big baskets of grass. Or maybe we'll do that next year when we're at grandma's house.

"Must have the Precious"

"We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious". I know exactly how Gollum was feeling. I have been lusting after this for months now. It is expensive (to me anyway) but it is oh so....precious. Every time the catalog comes I turn to the page and gaze at it. I occasionally pull up the website to see if the price has been reduced. I look everywhere for coupon codes but there aren't any. I scrounge for and save every little bit of cash that comes my way hoping to one day have enough to buy it. That day is today.



Yes, it's a platter. I bet you thought I was talking about something exciting like a great purse or pair of shoes. I have discovered, in my advanced age, that a great platter to hang on my kitchen wall can be as exciting as a great purse or pair of shoes. Besides, my next precious is patiently waiting for me at the Coach store...don't tell Scott.

We're Back!

As much fun as we had in Disney World it's great to be home. Our trip got off to a rocky start as our flight was delayed by 2.5 hours and we didn't arrive at our hotel until more than 2 hours past the girls' bedtime. Natalie was all but begging to go to bed when we got there and Alyssa had simply barrelled through the wall of exhaustion and was running around like a maniac. Add that to the two hours during the night when Natalie was screaming from the pain of an ear that needed to "pop" and you can imagine how we all felt Tuesday morning. I do have to give a shout out to the hotel. The Manager on duty opened the hotel shop at 4am to bring us some Tylenol to hopefully relieve some of the pain. Everyone was so willing to help and we are beyond appreciative.

Anyhoo, the first item on our agenda once everyone finally woke up and ate was to head to the Magic Kingdom. We had a 12:15 reservation to have lunch at Cinderella's castle and boy did the girls love it. They had their picture taken with Cinderella and Natalie even went back to give her a hug. At lunch the girls also met Jasmine, Snow White, Belle and Sleeping Beauty. Natalie was wearing her Sleeping Beauty gown and was just so happy to meet her.

Among other things they got to pretend to be deep sea divers...

Meet Jojo and Goliath (for all of you with preschoolers)...

Meet June from the Little Einsteins (looks kind of scary, don't you think?)...

And even get out of the stroller long enough to have a picture in front of Cinderella's Castle...

This is Minnie's house. Don't you wish your house looked as cute as this?

One thing the girls really loved was the pool. We don't have one and they love to be in the water but what made this particular pool so great was that it was between two and three feet deep and the bottom was covered in sand. It also had a "beach" that ran half the length of the pool through the middle of the pool. If we spent every day there they wouldn't have given the parks a second thought.

All in all it was a great vacation and we can't wait to take the girls back in a few years. Now Scott and I just need a vacation to recuperate from this one.

It's like the Fountain of Youth

We're leaving for Disney World tomorrow and are we excited! I'm not just excited about going away on vacation (and certainly not about the flying), I'm excited that the girls are excited. Everything about this trip will be a new experience for them. They have never been inside an airport, on a plane or seen a Palm tree and I can't wait to see their reactions to everything new. It's funny how that once you have kids, everything is suddenly more interesting. Ten years ago if I saw a caterpillar on the sidewalk I would have walked right on by. Now? Now I would have to stop and yell for the kids to come see or save it for them in one of their beloved "bug boxes" until they got home/woke up. I actually notice Robin's in the spring because I know my 5 year old is waiting for them and if I see someone walking a dog in front of the house we all have to watch from the window and comment on how cute the dog is. Somehow I think people would be happier if they all took the time to stop and really look at the things around them. I know it makes me happier.

Muffins, Mmmmmm

My kids love blueberry muffins and they love to bake so I thought I would let them help me out. They actually do a pretty good job. They gently pour ingredients into the bowl and they have learned to stir in such a way that most of the batter stays inside the bowl. They can even fill the mini muffin cups with minimal mess. But after the muffins were out of the oven my girls stood watch at the counter waiting for them to cool off like they were the Crown Jewels. In the process they managed to cough on, sneeze on and otherwise contaminate Every. Single. Muffin. I don't know what's worse, the risk of salmonella from eating uncooked batter or eating one of these cooked muffins with who knows what kind of germs now crawling all over them.

Crazy Weather

Today we were outside riding bikes and blowing bubbles in the balmy 50 degree weather. This is what we were doing just 5 days ago....crazy I say.

Question of the Day

5yo: Mommy, why do I always clog the toilet?

Me: Because you poop like a truck driver sweetie.

Really, what else is there to say?

Here she is....

If she ever enters the Miss America Pageant she'll have her talent routine ready to go. But then again, of she ever wants to enter a pageant she and I are going to have a good long talk about self esteem.

Chinese, It's What We're Speakin'

And by we I mean Natalie and Alyssa. I remember the first time Natalie saw an episode of Dora the Explorer. She drank in every word, name and happening like a true two year old. Dora has been a good friend around here and now that Alyssa is two she has also become familiar with Dora, Boots and the rest of the gang. But there is a new girl in town now and it looks like she's going to take over as Queen of the neighborhood. Enter Kai-lan. She and her animal friends go camping, build toy car, and play with whirly flowers all the while teaching a nice, neat lesson. The best thing about this show, however, is that my girls are trying to speak Chinese. Natalie already has hello (ni-hao), the numers 1-5 and slippers (tuo xie) in her newfound vocabulary and Alyssa imitates as best she can. Now, I will give Dora credit for all the "gracias" and "por favor" action that we've had for the past few years but, heck, I could do that when I was a kid too. Hearing the girls speak Chinese, however, feels very fresh and modern. Aside from the total cuteness of this show, the biggest think I've gotten out of it is a craving for dumplings.

Have It Your Way

I think every person who has a child knows that at some point their child will not eat anything they cook. Seriously, nothing. Since my oldest child is only 5 I still consider myself in the realm of "new" parents and it seems like there is something new to learn almost every day. My general rule about meals is "eat what I cook or don't eat" but occasionally I have to admit dinner really sucked and I'll make them something else. One thing I have learned, however, is that they will eat anything if it starts with the words "Make Your Own". They happily ate their "Make Your Own" turkey sandwiches the other night and "Make Your Own" sundaes are of course a no brainer. "Make Your Own" tacos or pizza are always a hit. I think next I may try "Make Your Own" pork chops or worse yet "Make Your Own" chicken breast with green beans and see how those go. For some reason I don't have high hopes.

Where has this been all my life

Or the last 5 years anyway. We were away this past weekend and my husband who is travelling this week left straight from NY instead of MA so we could stay an extra day. So here I am, home again, with a 5 year old who has no school this week and a 2 year old that I am attempting to potty train. Because of this we are house bound and when we arrived home yesterday I realized there was almost no food in the house. Because I would rather stick bamboo skewers in my ear than take the two of them grocery shopping I decided to try my local supermarkets online delivery service. I went online last night and carefully made my selections. I looked at the prices to see if they were comparable to those in the store and I made sure to order the appropriate quantities of each item (for example if you order "1" in the banana column you will receive a single banana, not one bunch). I completed my order and logged back in this morning to get my 2 hour delivery window. When I saw the truck pull up 20 minutes before the delivery window was scheduled to begin I was as excited as any parent can be when their kids are starting to gnaw at their own arms. The driver was very pleasant, brought everything into my kitchen and aside from one slightly mushy banana everything was perfect. I dare say the produce was actually fresher than what I would have purchased in the store. The only con is that my delivery came in 18 bags. Yes, 18 plastic, landfill filling bags. I will be bringing these with me on my next trip to the grocery store and throwing them in the recycle bin. While this certainly isn't something I would do every week, in a pinch this service is a winner.

I'm a lucky girl

Most women only dream about getting the four C's for Valentine's Day but I'm not most women. What? Ooooh, you're thinking those four C's. Carat? Cut? Color? Clarity? No, not in this house. These are the four C's I'm talking about....

Cake...

Cookie...

Candy (pardon the foot)...

Chocolate...

Like I said, I'm a lucky girl.

Spork, anyone?

Is it a spoon? Is it a fork? Maybe it's going through some sort of identity crisis and is stuck in the middle but I can tell you that you can't help but smile when you see a spork. The other day my 5 year old was telling me about something her classmate had brought with her lunch. "It had a spoon *and* a fork on it" she told me with amazement. I instantly got excited because as a mom I get excited when my kids learn something knew, especially when it is something as intriguing as this. Did it have a spoon on one end and a fork on the other I asked her. No, she said, they are on the same side. That's called a spork I told her with maybe a bit too much enthusiasm. Her response...."no it's not!". I spent the next few minutes trying to convince her that, yes, it *is* called a spork but I'm not sure it worked. I'll have to ask her about it in the morning. How funny that something as silly as this can spark a real debate between us (or at least as real a debate as you can have with a 5 year old). I wonder what would happen if she ever saw a Knork?

Rights of Passage

When we think of rights of passage, things like being left home alone for more than 30 minutes come to mind. Or going to the movies without your mom sitting five rows behind you or driving to the mall with your friends the day you pass your drivers test. Today, however, was a right of passage for my 36 year old self. For the first time in 5 1/2 years there is not a crib in my house. For the first time in 3 1/2 years no one is sleeping in a toddler bed. I can do away with the crib sheets, bumpers, mobiles and everything else that goes with a house that has a baby in it. My almost 3 year old is sleeping in her big girl twin bed tonight and the girls bedroom finally looks like a "girls" bedroom. It is moments like these that make me excited to imagine what the next right of passage for them and us will be.

Well this can't be good

Finding a big clump of hair under your dining room table can never be a good thing. Especially when it so obviously comes from your 5 year old daughter. I have to admit though that I didn't see the hair (or even notice that she looked different) the night she cut it off. I noticed the next morning that she had bangs which she has never had before and once I got her to admit that she had cut her hair she showed me where it was. Her story is that while she was coloring and cutting out pictures it was in her way so she just cut it off. I personally would have gone the route of a pony tail, a clip or even a twist tie but that is not the logic of a 5 year old.