A Good Day

I really want to be blogging regularly and regaling you all with my fantastical tales of motherhood, wifehood, and just the general hilarity of being me, but it is nice outside, and I can't justify spending beautiful days inside in front of a computer when there are ants to be found, sunshine to be soaked, picnics to be eaten, bubbles to be blown, bikes to be ridden, wagons to be pulled, hops to be scotched, swings to be pushed, walks to be taken, and little hands to be held.

Spanglish

There are so many phases in the early years of parenthood. Knowing what each cry means, deciphering words that a little man says with his mouth completely closed, the list goes on and on.

In the beginning, the babies don't say anything and they can't understand, so pretty much Dan and I could say whatever, and it mattered very little. Natalie started speaking quite articulately very early on, so our candid conversations ended and we began using bigger words that we thought would confuse her and of course, the ever popular, spelling of words.

But now Natalie can spell, so Dan and I have had to find new methods of communicating things that we don't really want her to understand. Naturally, that lead us to Spanish. Last night, at dinner, when Dan had some suggestion how I could improve my home cooked meal that no one suggested or gave me any hints as to what they would like to eat for dinner, or any other night for that matter, he decided to switch over to our "second language." And he informed me that el proximo vez, el pollo necesita estar mas pequeno"

This did not go above Natalie's head. She turned to me and said, "Mommy, what does mas mean?" Of course I told her-- it means more.

"More small," she says.

As with the discovery that she quite consciously writes her name backwards and upside down, I was impressed.

But now Dan and I need to learn another language...I suggested Sanskrit. I figured it would be a while before she catches on to that.

In the Closet

When the bro isn't hanging out in the closets, he is adorning himself with shiny purple beads and rhinestone studded tiaras.

I'm not judging, simply observing.

Let Them Eat Cake

Oh the things I do to make myself feel good. Late last week, early this week an email circulated from our current class mother asking if anyone was willing to volunteer to make a cake, buy a cake, steal a cake, whatever, for Natalie's teacher who will be celebrating her birthday on Friday. I am pretty sure my response to the email was, "Of course, you know I will volunteer to make a cake." That's what I do. It makes me feel like I am flying with the supermoms.

Natalie and I talked about a cake, what we thought Mrs. Anderson would like, and we decided Natalie would ask her what her favorite cake is, and we would go from there. Well, in true Early Education fashion, Mrs. Anderson told Natalie that she would like to be surprised. I hit the cookbooks, because I wanted to make this cake 100% from scratch. The classic birthday cake recipe calls for two sticks of butter, TWO STICKS, that is 1/2 a pound of butter and that grossed me out. TWO STICKS! Like two sticks of KitKats are one thing, but butter - groda.

I found a sponge cake, that used only two tablespoons of butter, and it was titled "Foolproof Sponge Cake." Foolproof? Perhaps, but not time proof. The cake took two hours to make, and when I was done with this lemon filled foolproof sponge cake, a test cake at that to see if I could even make the thing, I decided that Mrs. Anderson would be receiving some very delicious cupcakes with a little help from Betty Crocker herself. Because while I am for flying with the supermoms, I just don't have another two hours to give to a cake.

Mother's Day

I slept until 9:00 this morning. 9:00. It was amazing. I honestly don't know the last time I slept that late other than being sick and not being able to really get out of bed. But this morning, when the bro woke up at 7:00am, Dan woke up with him, not me. And when I did finally roll out of bed, mostly because I could hear them all together, and I was jealous of their time together, I woke up to find a platter of delicious cheeses and a bowl of pre-balled melon. I mean really, what is better than cheese for breakfast?

When Dan asked what it was that I really wanted to do today, the truth was, I wanted to clean the house. I wanted him to take the kids and get out so I could move furniture and vacuum every little corner, and dust, and Windex, and Clorox wipe the bathroom floor. Literally, I was on my knees with Clorox wipes, because the steam mop just wasn't doing the job. I took the knobs off the front of the stove, which I had to remove a second time to prove to Dan that I actually did clean them. Then when I was done cleaning the house, vacuuming the air conditioning vents, and wiping the bathroom floors. I went to the gym and I exercised. For a full hour and ten minutes. And no one bothered me. Dan changed two poopy diapers all by himself and let me have my time. It was a great day. And it wasn't that I didn't want to spend the whole day with my family, but the truth is, I spend every day with them, and today I had the opportunity and the go ahead to do whatever I wanted, and I liked it. But tomorrow it's back to work, and with bosses like this -

I don't mind that I only get one day off.

Little Pieces of Papa Joe

"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world"

xxoo

Picture People

I have been wanting a proper portrait of my babies for quite some time now. I thought my brother's wedding would be a great opportunity because they would both be dressed up and a professional photographer was at the ready, but the hour was not conducive to the bro being smiley for the camera.

Then I had a new vision. Literally. I saw the two of them sitting on a backdrop of pure white. Natalie in a cute little white with yellow polka dots sun dress, the bro in some plaid linen shorts and a bright green or yellow polo. They were smiling and happy and it was to forever be commemorated in photos.

What I didn't visualize was that a week before the photo session, Natalie would be bitten or stung by something and look like this:

Here's hoping that her face goes back to normal by Friday, both for the sake of the picture and my (Dan's) wallet. Because when you look this pathetic, Mommy says yes to just about anything.