TMI Tuesday #3 - Laundry Edition

Everything in italics I wrote on Tuesday. I took off early last Tuesday for Halloween and yesterday I had the day off for election day. Anya decided to be a monster last night and I had no time to finish. Oh well.

I've got to start working on Tuesdays. My gosh, it's hard to find time to do these things at home! 

I hate matching socks. Now, I know everyone hates matching socks, but I really hate it! It's the absolute worst part of doing laundry. So I don't do it. When I moved out to go to college, I threw away every last sock I owned. Every single one. Oh, wait, I think I might have given some to my mother. She matches up socks. Every time she does laundry, she drags out the matchless socks in a mis-guided hope that one of those missing socks will find its way home. What a waste of time. No offense, Mom. So there I am with no socks. I went to Wal-mart (where else? evil little store...) and bought new ones. They all match. I have 2 different styles. Some are ankle socks and some are a little taller. They are all Hanes and they all have pink stripes on the toe. Then I bought some black ones. They all match too. Now, When I get a hole in a sock, I throw it away. I don't have to replace the whole pair, because it's not a pair. It's just a sock. I have had to add to the sock collection over the years, but the same theory is in effect. I hate matching socks.

Book MeMe

Hey, I actually got tagged by Erin for a meme. I've done some on my own before, but no one has ever tagged me. Wow. I'm like famous or something. So, of course, I rushed right off to do it. Especially because it's on one of my favorite topics - books. I even added a bonus question (you know, every time I type anything that ends in "tion" I end up typing "tino" instead. My fingers just can't get together on that conglomeration (there I go again) of letters.)

One book that changed your life: I don't know if any book ever changed my life. If one ever did, I suppose it would be Atlas Shrugged. The philosophy it discloses is fascinating. There are many lessons to be learned. One quote: "Never get angry at a man for stating the truth"

One book that you’d read more than once: Just about every one that I've ever liked. Books get better with age. I can't even think of one that stands out. Everything on my bookshelf at home gets read repeatedly. Instead, I'll list some authors. Stephen king, Carl Hiassen, Robert Heinlein among others

One book you’d want on a deserted island: Atlas Shrugged. Maybe if I had it on a deserted island I could actually make myself read that 56 page speech by John Galt.

One book that made you laugh: Anything by Carl Hiassen. Especially Lucky You. Very funny guy. Think Dave Barry but funnier. Also, duh, Douglas Adams. I especially love the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy trilogy.

One book that made you cry: Nicholas Sparks' Message in a Bottle made me cry. very much. I cried in the middle and then got hold of myself and cried some more and then got to the end and had myself a good sob. Then my roommate came home and asked me why I had been crying and I cried again telling her all about it. The movie ruined it for me though.

One book you wish you’d written: The Outsiders. Wonderful - 'nuff said.

One book you wish had never been written: Love You Forever - Oh my god this one is creepy. The mom drives across town and climbs a ladder! into her son's room at night while he's sleeping! and the illustration shows her slithering across him into his room and... Ok now I'm just creeped out. No more talking about that one. What? It had to be an adult book?

One book you’re currently reading: Lisey's Story by Stephen King - I just have to have any new Stephen King. I've been in love with his stories since The Shining. Even though some of his stuff sucks big hairy donkey balls (The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon), I'm an optimist and assume that this one won't. We'll see

One book you’ve been meaning to read: Crime and Punishment. Oh. My. God. that book is boring. I bought it knowing that it was one of "the classics" and that I should expand my horizons a little. I can't do it. I tried. I left it in my car for about 6 months. Everytime I went somewhere I'd pick it up and try again; doctor's offices, long trips, etc. I just can't do it. I am not a "classical literature" kind of person, I guess.

Bonus Question:
One book I'm ashamed to say I loved: This cheesy romance novel by Judith McNaught called Paradise. It wasn't one of those dime a dozen cheapy romance books. It was well-written and um, yeah... But, I liked it.

Now, I tag weirdgirl and sunShine and anyone else who wants to do this. If you don't have a blog, you could always answer in the comments. I like getting to know you.

coordination

Anya is starting to wave occasionally. She sometimes does "so big" and has looked like she's trying to clap once or twice. But she Can. Not. manage the pincher grasp yet. Oh, it frustrates and confuses her. She tries to pick up food. She gets it in her palm. Success! Then when she puts it in her mouth somehow it always tastes just like thumb. She looks at her hand, and tries again. More thumb.

We gave Anya lots of neat stuff this weekend. When Ally was little we were so worried. "She doesn't have teeth. We have to be very careful what she eats. We don't need to rush her" HA. We've seen where that got us. Anya is interested in our food. She tries to pull our plates into her lap to inspect. So we give her food. She had a couple different types of pasta noodles this weekend. And some crackers. And a little piece of chicken that Rob gave her. And some banana. She hasn't even eaten a whole lot of baby food yet. There just isn't that much time to try it all out when you don't get home til 5 and she goes to bed at 7:30 or 8. But, the day care takes care of a lot of that.

She gets so excited and steals the spoon from me. Once she got so excited and lunged at me so quick that I stabbed her in the head with a bite of sweet potatoes. Yeah, yeah, it was one of those plastic spoons. She looked very funny with a dot of food on her forehead. But then she smeared it and it got all over and I had to throw her in the sink when we were done.

Oh and I almost forgot. Twice this weekend, she grabbed my eye and my cheek and pulled me close and slobbered all over my nose. My first Anya kisses! God, I love babies at this age.

from the mouths of babes (or, more potty talk)

Our little choo-choo train:
Ally walked across the room the other day and let out a couple farts. She stopped when she noticed Rob and I were looking at her. She smiled real big and said, "Toot, toot" I don't think she took us seriously when we told her it wasn't polite. Or maybe she just didn't hear us over our laughing.

The pee-pee alarm part 1:
I've been setting a timer and asking Ally if she needs to pee every 25 minutes. They do 20 at day care, and I think it's time to get serious about it at home too. We were sitting at my Dad's (small) restaurant Saturday when a timer went off in the kitchen. Ally heard it and said, "Oh, it's the pee-pee alarm"

The pee-pee alarm part 2:
At lunch the next day, my timer went off. I told Ally, "That's the pee-pee alarm, do you need to go potty?" Her reply? "Nope, that's the toot alarm." Then she proceeded to fart and giggle.

Warning: This post is about poop

(Ally is eating lunch at the table)
A: My poops!
Me: Don't let them out. Let's go sit on the potty. Hurry!
...
(Ally stands up and looks in the pot)
A: There's 2 of them. A Ally and a Anya!
(??? I look. There are indeed 2 of them. They are small)
Me: Do you have any more Ally? Let all your poops in the potty.
A: The Daddy and Grandma are still in my butt. They're still working.
(???)
Me: well, okay. Finish lunch then
...
A: My poops!
Me: Sit on the potty.
A: I have 2 more poops
Me: well, let them out then.
(Ally stands up and looks in the pot)
A: huh... A baby Emma.
Me: Emma?
A: Marie's (a former teacher of hers) baby Emma

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to go away and laugh at her. She eventually did poop out the whole family. I think I liked the crocodiles better.

pictures
Ok, got them uploaded. Click on Flickr up there ^ for the recent ones or over there -> for all my pictures. Also, I got Anya's 6 month pictures back. She smiled so well for these. I can't wait until November pictures! I have to do Christmas for both of them, Ally's birthday, Anya's 7 months, and some of them together. Fun, fun

Halloween rehash

The haul:
M&Ms - 4 fun size, 2 reg size, 2 fun size minis
Peanut M&Ms - 7 fun size, 2 reg size
4 Reeses cups
3 Reeses peices
4 Milky Way
4 KitKat
3 100 grand
2 Crunch
1 3 Musketeers
6 Snickers
1 Nutrageous
2 Twix
3 Skittles
3 Hershey's bars
8 Smarties
3 Laffy Taffy
1 Kissables
1 Lifesaver Gummies
2 caramels1 toffee
2 Hershey's Kisses
1 Junior Caramels
3 SweetTarts
2 pixy sticks
2 candy sticks*
1 Almond Joy
11 suckers
1 Heath bar
1 nerds
1 milk duds
3 fruit snacks
3 bags Chips Ahoy**
2 Teddy Grahams
1 bad Pretzles
20 Tootsie Rolls of various sizes
1 McDonalds Happy Meal Barbie Princess***

Yummy!!

I left work early to go to the daycare Halloween parade. We watched all the kids wander about all dressed up while the teachers tried to direct them into some sort of a line. The babies all got strapped into a 6 seater stroller and pushed in a circle around the room for all the mothers (myself included) to take loads of pictures. Then I took them both back to work with me. We trick or treated at my office and filled Ally's little pumpkin basket**** enough that she asked Grandma to carry it for her. Anya was tired, so we didn't put her back in her costume (She got pissed off after the parade so we took it off her. Plus, I'm not sure she could have fit in the car seat with it on). She fell asleep about half-way through my building.

We went home for lunch and Anya woke up to sit at the table with us. I hate her high chair, so I have strapped a booster to one of our chairs instead. She loves it. She's actually sitting at the table with us. She tried really hard to eat some french fries, but most of the time, she couldn't manage to get them in her mouth. She reach out and sweep one into her hand, then stick her thumb in her mouth. She hasn't quite got the pincher-grasp thing worked out yet. So I gave her really long ones that stuck out past her thumb. She gummed a couple to death, and may have even swallowed a little bit.

They both took a nap, and I got one too. 2 whole hours of quiet where their naps overlapped. Nice.

When Rob got home from work, we got ready to go out (funny how that is only 12 words, but it was frantic activity for 20 minutes) and lit the jack-o-lanterns on the front step. It was kinda chilly, but not too bad. Anya stayed out with us a little while, and when she started to get cold, Grandma took her home. When Ally's bag got too heavy again and she started to get cold, we went back and had supper. It was a wonderful night! I'm putting pictures out on Flickr soon (like later today). Ally was very polite and didn't even freak out and try to eat too much candy. She even tried 3 bites of Lasagne for supper! Under extreme duress, but still...!!

*candy sticks are what they have to call what used to be candy cigarettes. Not PC anymore, you know?

**My friend Chris gave her those. He knows I like them. He hit the vending machine before we got there. yum

***My friend Nancy saved that one for her. Nancy babysits for us sometimes. She's wonderful. Ally gave her basket to Grandma to hold, but she wouldn't give up that princess. She carried it til we got home to open it.

***Rob took Ally to the store the other day to get trash bags. He came home with 2 of those little collasible baskets that look like jack-o-lanterns. We already have about 20 baskets she could have used, but Santa Daddy ("They were only a dollar") strikes again.

TMI Tuesday #2

Ok, it's late, but I didn't forget. Halloween interfered, but more about that tomorrow. This time may actually be Too Much Information, but hey, that's the name of the game...

I'm covered in moles. They're everywhere. I used to have a mole on my leg. By mole I mean skin tag and by on my leg I mean um... in my crotch. Way up high on the inside of my thigh. It grew a little when I was pregnant with Ally and so I mentioned it to my Dr. He said he's just snip it off when I delivered Ally. Since it ended up being a c-section, he wasn't in that area, and it didn't get done.  When I was pregnant with Anya, I mentioned it again, and he took it off in the office. I've had it all my life, and had kind of gotten used to it. I miss it.

There. That's enough all-about-me today. But it brought up a question. Ally never had any moles and I always wondered if she'd get them. Just a couple months ago once sprouted on her belly. Do your kids have moles? When did they show up?

oh, and by the way
I'm pretty sure I'm getting my chairs this week. THey were able to get special permission from the liquidators to ship them to my store, So I'll have a full set of matching kitchen chairs. Not that they match the table or anything, but first things first. Yay

braaiinns...

I feel like a zombie. A hungry zombie. This weekend involved way too little sleep and many quick, one-handed suppers. You know that (not quite) ear infection from a couple weeks ago? The one where she was taking antibiotics and just got off them on Wednesday right before her 6-month checkup where the doctor said her ears were fine? Eh, he's wrong now. Saturday we had to go back to the dr for more antibiotic. This sucks. why couldn't my kids have inherited my ears? boo (and not in the happy halloween way)

Anya wouldn't let go of me for 5 minutes most of the weekend. The few times that she actually did let go though, she decided to learn to crawl. Yes, she's crawling now. See? She also spent the time pulling up on Ally's little fold-out couch and standing up. Um... and yelling. That part wasn't near as much fun.

Anyway, I'm hungry and sleepy, which poses a question? Should I eat lunch or take a nap? Tough decisions.

This is just cool

more food

I think we're making a breakthrough here. Ally tried Spaghettios Monday and took 4 bites of hot dog last night. She didn't appear to like either one, but she did taste them. We'll try again. Tonight is dance, so it's a McDonalds night. I know she'll eat that.

 

TMI Tuesday #1 - Inaugural Edition (updated)

Lately, I tried to write a profile of myself for the sidebar over there. It was very difficult. I realized that I don't spend much time looking at myself as a person, rather than someone's mom/wife. So, I've decided to devote one post per week to me. Maybe someday I'll figure out just who I am after all. I will warn you that it may be more than you ever wanted to know about me. (especially you, Mom)

hmm... I've started writing about 5 different times but can't settle on a topic. It seems that all the major events in my life were kinda depressing. Or else very complicated requiring a long and boring backstory. Or else um... my Mom doesn't know about it. shhh don't tell on me (What am I 12? Do we ever get over hiding our indiscretions from our parents?). Or else I really don't remember the details. Or else boring.

So for now, I can ease into this slowly and go with my favorite books from childhood. I was a bookworm. I loved to read. I used to hide books from my mom so that when I got sent to my room to clean or something, I could climb up into the top of my closet to hide and read. (Yes, I used to hide in my closet sometimes.)

We had that whole Pizza Hut Book It thing at our school, but we didn't go to Pizza Hut very often, so I didn't usually keep track of what I read. We even went to Six Flags one time as a class trip. You could only go if you read like 5 books a month or something - I don't remember. I read 5 books a week if not more. I got bored with keeping track for it, so I almost didn't get to go. My mom had to talk to my teacher and intercede for me.

In sixth grade, my teacher took a lot of books away from me throughout the year. On the last day of school he gave them back. I was so excited. I had books that I had forgotten I had lost. I think I needed an extra backpack that day to get them all home.

I've blocked out a lot of my childhood, but some books were my best friends. I think I ran out of books in the school library at one point. How could I forget them? So without further ado...

The Bridge to Terebithia. This book made me cry. So sad. Oh my god I loved this book. It was so well written. It was such a simple story, but I knew those kids. They were my friends. I could feel the little boy's pain. It felt like MY best friend died. I haven't read it in years. I have re-read a lot of my favorite childhood books, but didn't want to ruin the memory of this one. It's just different when you're older.

The Outsiders. OMG! This book was so beautiful. And again with the crying. Really though, I liked all of S. E. Hinton's stuff. Her characters were so real. I couldn't get enough. I wished she had written more. Still do in fact. And I'm absolutely sure I still have a copy of this one on my shelf.

The Westing Game. We read this one a chapter at a time in my fourth grade (I think) class. I read ahead. I had to sneak an extra book off the shelf and take it home, because the teacher collected the books at the end of class.

The Bobsey Twins. My mom had a bunch of these. When she and Dad divorced, she forgot to take them with her. She was kind of mad that he wouldn't ever let her have them, so I seem to remember something about Mom wanting me to bring them home from Dad's so they could be in our house again. Whatever. They were entertaining.

Encyclopedia Brown. I read all these I could find. The bad thing was that the answers were so easy to find. I'm a lazy person. I thought about the solutions to the mysteries, but was to impatient and lazy to figure them out myself most of the time. I cheated and peeked.

The Dark Is Rising series. This was 5 or 6 books about the fight between good and evil. Loved them all. I gave them to my mom to let my nieces read recently. I hope they like them. I don't want to know if they don't.

The Black Cauldron series. Another good vs evil series. I think I started reading this one on the recommendation of one of my teachers in summer school. (No, I didn't fail my classes. I liked school so much that I went to summer classes too)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This was one of the few books that my Grandma was able to get for me. See, she had a bookstore. When I was old enough to realize what that meant, I thought "Goldmine" But, it was a Christian bookstore and she couldn't order anything that wasn't Christian materials. This qualified though, so I still ahve a very nice hardback boxed set of this series. (Um... good vs evil? I think there might have been a trend in my books that I hadn't really noticed before.)

How to Eat Fried Worms. Enough said.

Superfudge, Ramona Quimby, basically anything by Judy Blume. Feel good books. I liked them.

The Sweet Valley Twins. Yes, they were fluff books. Yes, I loved them. They were what I believed normal should be. They were sitcoms in print. I had almost the whole collection for the time I was reading them. I can't even imagine how many there eventually ended up being, but I would try to buy them as soon as I knew they came out at the time. I'm still kinda bummed that I didn't quite have the whole collection. I sold it at a garage sale in high school. When you need gas money, nostaglia is over-ruled.

I liked to read series books obviously. I couldn't get enough of the characters for just one book. Like I said, many many books kept me company growing up. These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head - the ones I read over and over again - the ones that might still be on my shelf even through 15 thousand moves. I can't wait until I can read them with my daughter and see how they affect her.

So how about you? What books still hold a place in your heart? What book can you not wait to read to your kid?

Oh, and also... Ask me some questions or give me an idea for next week. This is hard.

**update: Oh my God! How could I have forgotten to add A Wrinkle In Time? I was thinking of it while writing this post, but it seems I never actually wrote it down. Loved the series. They added a couple later in my life that I read when older, just to finish the series. Many Waters just didn't do it for me though. (shrug)

Banned!

Anya has been kicked out of the circle. voted off the island. Excluded. Ok, so maybe it's not as bad as that. The day care has a padded circle on the floor in her room. It can fit a couple-3 infants sitting up and keeps them from getting hurt when they fall over. It is about a foot tall on the sides and padded on the bottom. It works great. That is, until someone decides to try to crawl over the edge and land on her nose. Yep. That's my daughter. She won't be confined. They let it go once, but the next day when she did it again, they banned her from the circle. She has to play on the floor until she can manage to crawl in herself. They figure that way she'll be big enough to not hurt herself (much) when she then decides to crawl back out.

When Ally was in the infant room, there was a little boy who did the same thing. JJ was fearless. I was in awe. Now that's my kid. 6 months old (tomorrow) and already trying to run around.

Friday she got banned. Yesterday, when I picked her up, her teacher told me she was not giving in so easily. it seems that she leaned and scootched her way over to the outside of the circle, grabbed hold of the side and stood herself up. My baby pulled up to standing! The teachers were amazed. They said Anya was amazed too and did it again about 12 times. Jamie (a new teacher that I really like. What's up with calling them teachers anyway. It seems convenient to me, but is that okay? I mean should I be calling them care-givers or something?) said she stood over Anya half the time waiting to catch her but she didn't fall except on her (very padded) bottom, so all was good.

Last night, we had to get the graden out of storage and clean it up after bedtime. It's this big plastic thing that has a door and some plastic veggies to chew on and a mailbox with plastic letters. Ally loved it. I think Anya will too. Have I mentioned I love this stage?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (but not in that order)

Ok, this weekend simultaneously sucked and rocked. Friday after work, we had to stop at the evil Walmart for a couple things, and we picked up pumpkins (4 of them in sizes relative to our family members) and carving kits. Darra came up on Friday night after the kids had gone to bed. I tried to wait up for her. Really I did. But I was on the newly cleaned off laundry couch and just couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm so pathetic that I couldn't stay awake until... like 10:30. Instead, I just about shit myself when Rob threw the remote on my legs to wake me up when she got there. I was in the middle of some DEEP sleep. Then we stayed up talking until around 12:30... 12:30 AM. What the hell was I thinking? Of course, I had to get up and feed Anya about an hour after going to bed, which made me very tired on Saturday.

My original plan was to go to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and meet my Mom. It was supposed to be a fun and games type place that we would spend some time in and let Ally run. Then, Saturday morning, I called Mom and she was sick. I asked her for directions to the place, but she really didn't know where she was going either. Plus, the weather channel said it was going to rain. So we decided to just go to a place a lot closer to us called the Apple Barn. It's a little orchard type place with pumpkins and apples and local vendor stuff like apple butter and salsa etc. Very quaint. it didn't rain and Ally had a lot of fun looking around and helping Grandma Darra pick out a pumpkin for herself. I'm very glad we got our pumpkins at the evil Walmart the night bfore though, because Darra's was $7. Mine was $2.98.

Then I wanted to go look at chairs. You see, our kitchen chairs are very nasty. They are this ugly old green color that is stained with various different things over the years. They have crossbars across the back that aren't very comfortable and are quite difficult to clean peanut butter off of. And that's also why those bars are all raggety and scratchy. The dog or should I say puppy (Yay, I won), chewed them all to hell. Plus, we only have 3. Now that Anya is eating some solids, it would be nice to be able to have another chair. I hate our highchair and would like to use a booster seat, but don't have enough chairs for everybody in the house, much less anyone who visits us.

So anyway...chairs. We looked a couple places and saw people (insane people. or very very poor to need money enough to be out in the cold like that) standing out in the very cold wind holding up signs saying that K's Merchandise was going out of business. I love K's. It's the only place that we've been able to find cheap furniture that wasn't actually cheaply made over the years. Our couches, entertainment center, curio cabinet, cd shelves, and car seats came from K's. I've looked for chairs there before but couldn't find what I was looking for. I want a padded seat on a wooden chair that isn't uncomfortable. They actually had some I liked! :) But only 2. :( So they checked the computer and said there weren't any near by at other stores, but I was free to call stores farther away. So I called one and they told me they had 3. Dilema... Do I buy the 2 and go drive an hour and a half to get more? Do I drive and then come back and get these 2 just in case they someone else buys the 3 before I get there? Do I give up and look for something else? What if I drive over and get the 3 and come back and the 2 are gone?

So I bought 2 chairs and off we went. The other store didn't have any. None! They didn't sell them Saturday or anything: the computer was just wrong. I specifically asked on the phone twice for them to look for me and they told me they had them. They didn't look, just trusted the computer. Bastards. So now it looks as if they don't exist. And I have 2 chairs that I can't match. And I'm out $86. GRR!

So I talked to a couple managers and stuff. I finally found out that it's possible that there are a bunch in a warehouse in Fort Wayne, In. I'm not driving to Fort Wayne. No way. So I got the number for the corporate office and they are going to see if I can get special permission to have them shipped to the local store. I need special permission because of the whole store going out of business thing. Giant pain in the ass. And a giant waste of the ertire afternoon/evening. Ally napped in the car and not long enough, so she wasn't the paragon of obedience, and Anya was cranky because she didn't get a lot of time down on the floor. I was upset because I actually liked the chair and spent all day on it and still do not have chairs for my kitchen.

To make a long story short (Too late!) Saturday morning = good. Saturday afternoon/evening = bad

I was determined not to think about it Sunday at all lest I get pissed off again. So after we all got breakfast, we cleared out the kitchen and plastic-ed the floor. We figured it was easier to sit on the floor to carve pumpkins than to try and clean up the table and floor afterward, so with the plastic, all we had to do was roll it up and throw it away. We made a huge mess and had much fun. Ally wouldn't even consider touching the insides. No sir. Wouldn't want to get all slimy or anything. She had a great time watching all of us and coloring "faces" on her and Anya's pumpkins though. She wandered about carrying tools back and forth between all of us. The best part of that was I didn't even have to clean her up when we were done.

Anya, however was a completely different story. She sat up on her knees holding onto a pumpkin for the longest time. She was having a ball with all the pumpkins. She played with a little bitty one that we got Ally for a long time too. She was all over the floor. Then we let her play in the goo. And oh how she played. She had a great time. She leaned over and smacked it and squished it between her fingers and picked up handfuls and accidentally flung them around when she flailed her arms around. She kept picking up big handfuls and sucking her thumb trying to taste them. She barely got any of it in her mouth - mostly she just ended up with a handful of goo running out of her hand and down her chin. It was so much fun.  She went straight to the bath (in the kitchen sink) where she proceeded to splash everything within 3 feet of us. Her first Halloween has been a raging success, even before Halloween gets here.

Then when it got dark, we lit them all up and they were just gorgeous. So much fun! And Ally loved that part.

Of course we took a lot of pictures, and I'm working on getting them organized. Check the little updates below the kids' age tickers up there at the top to see when I've got new pictures uploaded. I've got some videos already on youTube, but haven't finished renaming and downloading everything, but should have more soon.

Flicker
I'm running out of disk space to store my pictures using tripod again. I'm probably going to delete the candid shots album soon. I signed up at Flicker and can put them there instead. Besides, I don't use that album as often as I should anyway. So, check it out over there on the right. I put some new pictures out. Cause a girl can't have too many places to store pictures of her kids...

She gets around
Anya has discovered that she doesn't really need to crawl. She sits herself up so well now that she has found a new method of getting around. She sits. She spies something that she must have. She leans toward it, falls to her hands and knees, swings her butt around closer, and sits up again. lather. rinse. repeat. until she is close enough to get her toy/book/shoe/sister/dirty laundry or falls over. Is very entertaining (note: your opinion may vary).

OY!

a couple days ago...

Ally: a b c d e f g h i g k elminino p q
Me: Ally it's "l m n o"
Ally: Oh. is O a word too?
Me: Yes.
Ally: Oh, it's a letter and a word?
Me: Yes.
Ally: oh.   a b c d e f g h i g k elminino p q r s t ....

Wednesday afternoon in the car...

Me: Ally don't take your shoes off
Ally: But I need to
Me: wait til we get home
Ally: I HAVE to take them off.
Me: Why?
Ally: Did you say why?
Me: Yes.
Ally: Is Y a letter and a word?
Me: Yes
Ally: Oh.
Me: Ally why did you take your shoes off?
Ally: Hey, there's abc's on my socks! (That's what she calls all writing. The shoes had no skid words on the bottom)

 

Dinner conversation
We cooked spaghetti for supper tonight. I fed Anya some carrots while the noodles were cooking, and Ally tasted them. She said she wanted some, so we added carrots to the menu. We always have garlic cheese bread with spaghetti, but we told her she couldn't have any until she had 2 bites of carrots and 2 bites of spaghetti. This child would live on carbs if we let her. Dinnertime went something like this (I should have given the kids different initials. When Anya starts talking, there will be a lot more typing for me):

A: I need a fork.
Me: You have a fork.
A: I need a green fork
M: Honey, we don't have any green forks. You the one on your plate
A: (whiney voice) I need a GREEN fork.
Rob: Ally. Stop whining
A: But I need a clean fork.
M: Oh, a clean fork? just lick that one off. It's just spaghetti sauce (I cut up her spaghetti with it)
A; ehhh. wahhh... but I want a clean fork.
M: (picks fork up and licks it) There.
A: Thank you.
A: Are these carrots?
R: Yes. You should taste one.
A: Can I cut it?
M: with your fork
A: this one?
M: I don't care which one
A: into 4 triangles?
R: Ally just put a bite in your mouth
A: this one?
R & M: Ally! put a bite in your mouth
A: I cut it!
A: (cuts a tiny little 1/4 of a carrot)
A: can I have another one?
R: yes.
A: Are you eating your carrots?
R: No, Ally I already ate mine. Because I'm eating instead of talking.
A: oh. (puts her fork in her toes) And I'm talking?
R: Get your fork up here where we can see it
K: Yes. take another bite
A: this one?
M: We don't care which one you eat. Just put one in your mouth.
(Ally proceeds to eat a couple more. Anya falls over in the living room. Ally turns around to see what's going on, and once again forgets that she's supposed to be eating. This goes on for some time)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A: I ate all my carrots. Now I can have cheesy bread!
R: No, you need to eat some spaghetti.
A: Oh. Is yours all gone?
R: Yes.
A: but Mommy's isn't
M: But I'm eating it. Take a bite
(Ally tries to get one piece of spaghetti on her fork and fails.)
R: Ally, you have to scoop it.
M: Let me show you how. (I get her 2 little pieces on her fork. She eats them)
A: I got another one (1 little piece)
R: That wasn't a bite. That was just one piece. You need to take 2 bigger bites.
A: Oh. That wasn't a big one? Is this a big one?
K: Yes. If you eat that one, you only have to take 1 bite. But I think it might be too big.
A: Oh (dumps it off her fork)
R: Get another bite.
A: Is this one too big?
R: No, that one is great. Put it in your mouth.
R: Ally put it in your mouth.
R: Less talking and more eating
A: (working on her second bite) After I eat this I can have Cheesy bread
R: (to me) I'm going to choke her
A: It will choke me? (lets the bite slide off the fork)
K: I'll get you a good bite.

Finally, Ally ate a full serving of carrots. 2 bites of spaghetti and a piece of garlic cheese bread. It only took an hour

There might be cake

There is this comedian, Greg Behrendt,  I saw on Comedy Central. Part of his routine is a bit about how much he likes cake. He says you can get him to go anywhere if you say 4 little words - There MIGHT be cake. It doesn't even have to be a sure thing. Just the possibility of cake.  Yeah. That's me. I love cake.

We had a early retirement thing go on at work one year, and people were retiring left and right. I was in heaven. They kept having parties with cake everywhere. I would ask around until I found someone that I knew who knew the person that was retiring and then I'd go with him/her to the retiree's party to get some cake. Shameless. Then people got tired of all the cake and switched to cookies. Cookies are my second favorite. Someone I know is retiring next week. I hope he has cake.

The best kind of cake is the classic. White cake with buttercreme icing. I don't know what is up with the whole whipped icing thing! It's not cake without real icing. (Although I will still eat it. ummm... cake) Walmart (evil bastards) makes good cakes. I bought one to bring with me the day I returned to work after maternity leave. I had them decorate it with the words "Because Katie likes cake". I hadn't had cake in 2 months because I hadn't been at work. You can't just eat cake at home all the time. Your kids will want some too, and you can't allow that. It's not good for them.

We have a sign-in sheet at work now. I've worked in this area for 2 years, and we never had to sign in and out. I forget all the time. My boss comes by and reminds me when I forget. The other day he said "Maybe I should leave some cake by the sign-in sheet. Then you won't forget" He knows me too well. (Maybe I can keep "forgetting" and he'll try it. Oohh. That's a good idea)

I went to a wedding shower the other week. I can't remember the last wedding shower I went to. I know baby showers always have cake, so I was hoping wedding showers would too. I was disappointed. But it was a brunch with lots of good food and the wedding was the next week, so I got over it and just stuffed myself on the other food. The next week, we went to the wedding. The cake was made by a donut place. It even tasted a little like donuts. My husband doesn't think so. But we agreed that it kinda tasted like Dunkin Sticks (which he doesn't believe qualify as donuts and I'm willing to take his word on it, because he really likes donuts) My step-MIL was having trouble getting hold of the people to make the cake when she was planning the wedding, so she asked us for the number of the lady that made our wedding cake. (ummm... our wedding cake... the best part of getting married... *wipes drool from the keyboard*) I got all excited, but it wasn't to be.

Our wedding cake was the best cake I've ever tasted. We picked out a pretty design which make oodles more cake than we actually needed, but was really pretty, so we didn't care. Then we tasted it. I was so glad we got extra. We cut it up and froze it in ziplocs. If you took it out of the freezer when you started cooking supper, it was nice and soft for dessert. We had cake for a long time after the wedding. I even had the same lady make Rob a cake for his A.S. graduation party. 

To sum up: I went to a wedding where I thought I was going to get cake from the lady that made my wedding cake. Different cake was had. Was good, but not the same. Someone is retiring. I may get cake.

Also, weirdgirl went to a baby shower last week and talked about the food there. Got me thinking about cake.  Last Friday was my anti-versary. Bad things happen to Rob and I on Friday October 13th. I know that we've broken up on at least 2 Fri the 13th's (although not October). Got me thinking about being married - thus, cake. The universe is conspiring to make me hungry.  In honor of all the cake talk and our anti-versary, I thought I'd post some pictures of my wedding. beautiful cake, no?