To preserve journalistic integrity I am sharing the following e-mailed description as a counterpoint to my Lazy Sunday post. Beware the Ides of May! Some names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Several weeks ago Monkey woke up in the middle of the night, walked to the middle of her room, pulled down her panties, and peed on the floor. I know because I had heard her wake up and had gone to investigate. Caught her with her pants down, you could say. Why??!! This happened approximately 3 days before her fifth birthday.
A day or two after her birthday I found 2 million colored beads (gift-- I would never provide her with that kind of ammunition) and recent clippings of her baby doll's curls strewn around the room. I instructed her to clean it up -- hah! -- I ended up vacuuming the greater part of it, but left the handful of beads not spilled everywhere in a bag on her dresser. A few hours later returned to find said beads all over her bedroom floor. Why??!
Saturday afternoon a guilty looking Monkey came in to me (I was sick in bed) wrapped up in a beach towel. I asked why she was wet and she confessed she'd been playing in the water. I asked where, and she told me the bathroom. So I let it go. But what actually happened was that both girls had dumped glasses of water on the playroom carpet until it was soaked enough to squish their toes in. Why?! "To cool off." Of course I did not discover the new pond in the playroom until Sunday morning. The soaking apparently brought all past carpet sins to the surface and filled the house with eau de putrescence. We closed off the room and left floor and ceiling fans running day and night. Before John left for a trip on Monday we had agreed the carpeting needed replacing.
On Tuesday while I was researching carpet replacement options (just that room? the stairs and hall, too? what kind/color/blah blah blah) and eventually deciding the budget couldn't take it this summer, Monkey aka Master Disaster decided to give herself a haircut to go along with the fine work she did on her baby doll. (See why someone will NOT be getting an American Girl doll like the one belonging to her older-and-shoulda-known-better partner in crime?)
In an effort to stay the appearance of Crazy Mom, I called in an SOS to our friendly neighborhood Needs family. Rich and his boys cut out a large section of the playroom carpet and the thoroughly soaked pad, hauled it down to the side of the garage, and threw in a flood story of their own for good measure. Hooray for heroes! A few days of fans and some Arm&Hammer spray on the carpet and the smell was gone.
Last week I got three large beach mats on sale at World Market and slid them into the space where the carpeting used to be. I think they'll be a good object lesson until we redo the carpet -- maybe next year!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Lazy Sunday (Cliff style)
This morning Anna hopped out of the car at church in flip flops. Aaaaiiiieeee! She had been wearing shoes and sox but had managed to fly that change under the radar. I sent her back with her Dad to change...
After church John decided to make pasta alla carbonara. To the unitiated, the bacon and eggs involved can sound like a horrifying breakfasty perversion, but to quote a friend, "oh, my yum!"
After seeking out the comics page, Katie spent some of the afternoon rolling around on her skates in of John's tee shirts. (The girls got into the habit of changing into sleep clothes when we had late church and although we are done before noon this year, they usually go from dresses to jammies when we get home.) I told her that her days of wearing Dad's tee shirts are numbered unless she quits growing and got the expected grin in response.
Katie gave a talk today in Primary. The theme was how the restoration of the gospel helps her have faith in Christ. Her dad worked on it with her yesterday while I was gone helping my friend Sue with a cookie project. I was surprised and pleased to find that her talk was how work is a principle of the restoration that helps her faith in Christ grow. I am trying to make work a regular part of the girls' life and to impress upon them the concept of work before play, and work 'til the job is done. Katie talked about how Joseph Smith learned to work as a boy and helped his family. She shared part of a story from the New Era about learning to like doing dishes and said she is learning to work when she does the dishes, folds laundry, and weeds the back yard. She said that it is important to believe in Christ, but you also need to work to keep the commandments and make good choices.
Also this morning, Katie lost another of her baby teeth. She is becoming such a nice young lady that I sometimes forget she is still a little girl. She looked very grown up today with her cute swing bob and white crinkle skirt and blouse with embroidered green butterflies. We found the skirt on clearance at Kohl's on Friday -- plus a darling kimono style shirt in pretty blues, some capri jeans, two silky puff sleeve shirts for church, and a pink dress with a handkerchief hem. It was fun to watch the girl who rarely has an opinion about clothes smile and admire herself in the dressing room mirror, and politely tell me one skirt I suggested was not "her style."
But back to today: following a lovely, restorative nap snuggled next to her Mom, Anna pined away for the television. She was not interested in her Sunday viewing options. She patiently explained to us that she wanted to watch things like Clifford, Cyberchase, and Caillou. I asked if we had Clifford on DVD and she informed me that, no, those shows were "PBS Kids on KERA" -- and with the precise quote she unwittingly validated my decision to cut down viewing options by carrying only local channels. We made the change a few years ago and I don't think they realize what they are missing!
Anyway, left to her own devices, Anna decided the best way to while away her time was in tidying up the playroom -- joy! -- and so it was that as I sat downstairs finishing the Willa Cather novel I've been nibbling on for the past week the shout came from above, "Mom! I found my purple flip flops!" and a bobbed-hair girl in red baseball cap zoomed out of the playroom, shoes triumphantly in hand.
While I finish this, the girls have been snuggling with their Dad in our room. I just sent them in to brush teeth and then its time to get them to bed. Anna has celebrated the start of summer break by sleeping in the trundle in Katie's room these past two nights and they have headed in there together again.
The smell of yummy pasta lingers in the air, my girls are headed to bed, and all is well in the world.
After church John decided to make pasta alla carbonara. To the unitiated, the bacon and eggs involved can sound like a horrifying breakfasty perversion, but to quote a friend, "oh, my yum!"
After seeking out the comics page, Katie spent some of the afternoon rolling around on her skates in of John's tee shirts. (The girls got into the habit of changing into sleep clothes when we had late church and although we are done before noon this year, they usually go from dresses to jammies when we get home.) I told her that her days of wearing Dad's tee shirts are numbered unless she quits growing and got the expected grin in response.
Katie gave a talk today in Primary. The theme was how the restoration of the gospel helps her have faith in Christ. Her dad worked on it with her yesterday while I was gone helping my friend Sue with a cookie project. I was surprised and pleased to find that her talk was how work is a principle of the restoration that helps her faith in Christ grow. I am trying to make work a regular part of the girls' life and to impress upon them the concept of work before play, and work 'til the job is done. Katie talked about how Joseph Smith learned to work as a boy and helped his family. She shared part of a story from the New Era about learning to like doing dishes and said she is learning to work when she does the dishes, folds laundry, and weeds the back yard. She said that it is important to believe in Christ, but you also need to work to keep the commandments and make good choices.
Also this morning, Katie lost another of her baby teeth. She is becoming such a nice young lady that I sometimes forget she is still a little girl. She looked very grown up today with her cute swing bob and white crinkle skirt and blouse with embroidered green butterflies. We found the skirt on clearance at Kohl's on Friday -- plus a darling kimono style shirt in pretty blues, some capri jeans, two silky puff sleeve shirts for church, and a pink dress with a handkerchief hem. It was fun to watch the girl who rarely has an opinion about clothes smile and admire herself in the dressing room mirror, and politely tell me one skirt I suggested was not "her style."
But back to today: following a lovely, restorative nap snuggled next to her Mom, Anna pined away for the television. She was not interested in her Sunday viewing options. She patiently explained to us that she wanted to watch things like Clifford, Cyberchase, and Caillou. I asked if we had Clifford on DVD and she informed me that, no, those shows were "PBS Kids on KERA" -- and with the precise quote she unwittingly validated my decision to cut down viewing options by carrying only local channels. We made the change a few years ago and I don't think they realize what they are missing!
Anyway, left to her own devices, Anna decided the best way to while away her time was in tidying up the playroom -- joy! -- and so it was that as I sat downstairs finishing the Willa Cather novel I've been nibbling on for the past week the shout came from above, "Mom! I found my purple flip flops!" and a bobbed-hair girl in red baseball cap zoomed out of the playroom, shoes triumphantly in hand.
While I finish this, the girls have been snuggling with their Dad in our room. I just sent them in to brush teeth and then its time to get them to bed. Anna has celebrated the start of summer break by sleeping in the trundle in Katie's room these past two nights and they have headed in there together again.
The smell of yummy pasta lingers in the air, my girls are headed to bed, and all is well in the world.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself... Again
So we took the girls to see Shrek the Third at the movie theater on Saturday. I have to say that I agree with the paper's review that it is a typical third movie (read, not so great). The girls were amused, as were John and I when our sweet Katie told us her favorite part was when Snow White abruptly dropped her lilting woodland-creature-filled song to belt out some Led Zeppelin. Of course Katie doesn't know it was Led Zeppelin, but she did a pitch perfect rendition of those first few bars anyway.
Earlier this evening I heard Anna doing her own Robert Plant impression as she puttered around upstairs. But since it had been a while, I went to check on her -- silence is usually scary when it comes to Anna -- and she had put herself to bed (8:30pm Sunday night). Is there any better gift for a Mom?! She is so yummy when she sleeps... I often tiptoe in and give her kisses. I actually don't have to tiptoe since all the OTHER members of this household sleep like logs, but I told Anna that once and she so enjoyed the thought of it that she often asks me if, in fact, I tiptoed in to give her kisses while she slept.
I am off to turn out Katie's light and tuck her in and tiptoe into Anna's room...
Earlier this evening I heard Anna doing her own Robert Plant impression as she puttered around upstairs. But since it had been a while, I went to check on her -- silence is usually scary when it comes to Anna -- and she had put herself to bed (8:30pm Sunday night). Is there any better gift for a Mom?! She is so yummy when she sleeps... I often tiptoe in and give her kisses. I actually don't have to tiptoe since all the OTHER members of this household sleep like logs, but I told Anna that once and she so enjoyed the thought of it that she often asks me if, in fact, I tiptoed in to give her kisses while she slept.
I am off to turn out Katie's light and tuck her in and tiptoe into Anna's room...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)