You're Stalling.....

I remember my mother using that phrase all the time when we were kids; and tonight it came back to haunt me.

As I was getting Michael ready for bed, he kept pushing the clean diaper away and was telling me, "go pa-tee, go pa-tee". I hesitated, as he has never done anything on the potty, and really, I just wanted to get everyone in pj's and in bed, and be done for the night. But....you never know when they might actually go. So I let him down; he looked up at me and said, "Ma-chel jump" as he hopped around the room. I reminded him that he was down to use the potty, and he ran over to it and sat down. He took a quick look down, said "psssssssss" then looked up at me and said "all done, yay ma-chel!" He hopped up, looked proudly in the potty and began clapping for himself. Sophie looked at me and said "Mom, that is one crazy kid!" I told her that might be so, but we should at least applaud his effort. So we did. He beamed, very proud of himself.

Who knows, maybe one day soon he will actually produce....at least he knows what it is supposed to sound like!

My turkeys

We had a lovely Thanksgiving in Peachtree City. Pam outdid herself with dinner, and I have been happily enjoying the leftovers. (Tonight I used the last of them in a Turkey Tettrazini for tomorrow night...thinking of you Joe O!) Here's Sophie "helping" Grandma with the potatoes.....

Pam and Gerry have a dog named Dave, and while he is well behaved, he is no match for two toddlers. He seemed fine in his cage, and Michael and Emily really enjoyed that view of him. Don't feel too sorry for him; I think he may have eaten his weight in goldfish crackers. Here they are with Great Grandma Yoko, taking a peek.

Terry and Emily relaxing on the couch post-dinner.

Emily wondering if anyone would notice if she had just a bit more pie....

The Trash Bag Pill-drums

Who knew a trash bag had so many uses?? When we arrived for the Thanksgiving Feast at Kindergarten this morning, up paraded Sophie's class, decked out in their finest Hefties. It was really cute, and very clever. Mom and I both commented on how long it must have taken the teachers to get all 17 of them dressed! Here's Sophie and her friend Cary. (Interesting multiple note: Cary has a twin sister Eliza in another Kindergarten class, so her father ate with her, and her mother with Eliza. Another classmate of Sophie's is a triplet, so he had his grandfather eating with him, his parents were split between his two brothers. And another of her classmates has triplet brothers in the 2nd grade....I'm not the only crazy one!!)

Reciting the Thanksgiving poem. The young man all the way to the left is Matthew, and Sophie has informed me that maybe she would like to marry him instead of Noah. I had to sit down for that news. However, that was a few months ago, and I haven't heard anymore about it. The last time I did Centers in their room, I checked him out, and he is a very sweet kid. Sigh, only time will tell......


We did eat our feast in the Cafeteria, but I wasn't able to take pictures of that. I had Michael on my lap, Terry had Emily on his, and Dottie was busy chatting up the parent next to her. I hadn't met him before today, but now we are BFF...thanks Mom!

Sick Day #2

I took Michael in to the pediatrician this morning because he was on day #2 of a fever, and his cough and congestion were no better. When the she listened to his chest, she was concerned she heard the "crackle" sound of pneumonia. She ordered a blood test, and a breathing treatment in the office to see if that would help. Poor guy, the breathing treatment wasn't painful, but who wants to have a plastic mask held over your face for 10 minutes? Then once that was over, the finger stick. The breathing treatment improved his chest sounds, but the white blood count was slightly high, so we were sent across the street to CHOA for a chest X ray. He did really well during it; again, it was painless, but what 2 year old wants to be held down to lie still for a minute or so? He kept looking up at me saying in his hoarse voice, "all done mama?" I got the results back tonight at about 5:30, no pneumonia, but he will have to use an inhaler 4-5 times a day for the next few days.

A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for agreeing to take Emily for "an hour or so" this morning. It would have been a nightmare if she had been along with us. Her visit turned into all day, as I didn't get back there to pick her up till 4:30. Luckily they have a pack and play, and she was able to nap. From what I heard, Grandpa took his nap when she did!

Sick Day

Michael and Sophie were both home sick today. Both have colds, cough and a low grade fever. Nothing horrible, but enough to take a day at home to rest. Emily seems to be impervious to all of it, she is usually the last one to succumb. She still went to preschool, Sophie and Michael waited in the car while I walked her in. We had a nice morning at home, read a lot of books, and watched a bit of TV as well. Here they both are, in the TV trance.....

Sophie and I took a nap when the twins did, which was lovely, I have to admit. Michael's cough has kept both me and him up the past few nights, so it felt good to catch up on my sleep. By the afternoon, I had given up on my chore list for the day anyway, what better way to spend it than napping?

Terry came over after work and they all went down to the basement while I made dinner. Sophie really wanted to play pool, so here they all are. It was funny watching Michael "help".

And here's Sophie giving Emily some sisterly love.

Family Dinner?

It's common knowledge that the family dinner is becoming a thing of the past, with so many families eating on the run. All the parenting "experts" tell us how important this is, and I do remember lots of lively conversations from my own family growing up. My kids are still small, so we don't have soccer or Scouts to keep us from eating together...we just have two 2 year olds and one tired 6 year old to contend with. Now that Michael and Emily are in chairs at the table, they are better at staying seated, and I even find they eat more. Sophie really does provide an example for them. So this is our new routine: all three children eat together around 5:30. I sit with them to referee and lead the scintillating conversation..ha, ha. Then after they are in bed, I enjoy a peaceful dinner with the newspaper. Here are some scenes from last night's dinner, I think it was a lovely cheese omelet, toast and fruit.



Sophie again wanted to do the dishes, so I showed her how to load the dishwasher, and put away everything before she actually got in the sink. And not even a mention of me paying her. Here she is in action:

Double Digits

Michael and Emily had their 2 year well visit yesterday, and they are now in double digits for both height and weight. At 18 ms, they were in the 5th (M) and 8th (E) percentile for weight. Yesterday Michael weighed in at 26 lbs, and Emily at 25, both in the 25th percentile. Their heights were good too, Michael is in the 49th percentile and Emily the 40th. The curious thing is that they each gained 5 lbs in the past 6 months, which doesn't seem huge to me. I guess by comparison it is. Our pediatrician was pleased, and asked if I had finally decided to start feeding them, ha, ha.

Everything else checked out well, and the only shot they needed was for the flu. Emily was pretty funny about that, when it was over and she was done crying, she looked up at the tech and said, "Mien, boo boo, no!" which I translated to mean, "That %^&*^* man gave me a boo boo and I do NOT like it!" She repeated that phrase several times yesterday, and even today.

Funny incident of the day: I had placed an unopened box of tissues in their room on the bookcase, I had thought it was out of their reach. I left them for a few moments, and when I came back in, they were sitting on the floor, surrounded by tissues. Emily was having a fine time pulling them out, and Michael would hold them up to his nose, say "a choo" then throw them to the floor. As I approached the room, Michael saw me and the look on my face, and ran and hid behind the rocker. Emily gave me a glance, and went right on pulling them out of the box. Then she held one out to me and said "ti-shoe mommy?" Yeah, I'm in for it with her.

And so it begins....

Today Sophie and I made a run to our new Target, just 5 minutes away, and chock full of brand new "stuff". We had some things to return, and were hoping to get her more pants for school and new pj's. Getting the right size for her is proving to be a challenge, so I decided to bite the bullet and have her try things on, something we rarely have to do. As you can imagine, this can be quite painful.

While I was looking through the pants for her size, she wandered over to look at the dresses. She came running back to me, excited about a dress she wanted for Christmas. We had unsuccessfully tried on 3 that morning that I had picked up at Kohls. They were variations on black velvet/blackwatch plaid, very cute, very traditional, and would match the hand me down of Sophie's that Emily will wear this year. Here is the dress she loved, just had to get, can I try it on and if it fits, can I PUULLLLEASE get it Mom? A bit different from what I had in mind....kind of Santa-ish, kind of Christmas-tacky-ish.....not even taffeta or velvet, for goodness sake....but (gasp) polyester!

Once in the dressing room, it was the first thing she tried on, and she loved it. It fits, it's SOOOO comfortable, can I wear it to PSR tomorrow? This is the first time she has been that excited about an article of clothing, and a dress no less. Envisioning the lack of arguments on Christmas Eve and Day, and seeing the look on her face, I agreed that we should get it. But no, we won't be wearing it to Mass tomorrow, I think it's a bit early for that.

Guess my little girl is coming into her own....no more Talbot's-style plaid for her, give her a fake fur collar and cuffs, and she is all set. Big sigh......

Halloweinies

Halloween was a lot of fun. I worked in Sophie's classroom in the morning and lucked out with getting the Cookie Decorating/Bingo Center. I lost count of how many times I had to remind them not to lick their spreaders and put them back in the icing container. The Bingo game was a hit as well, who knew 5 and 6 year olds were so competitive? I continue to be impressed with her teacher; she weaved the holiday into all their lessons, getting around the "no Halloween during school" mandate.

Later that afternoon, Terry and Sophie carved the pumpkins while Michael and Emily and I had a nap. They did a great job.



Michael has become obsessed with the pumpkin, and once it had a candle in it, it was even more of a draw. He kept saying, "punkin, hot, ooooohh".

Sophie's costume was Cinderella, and she could have used a white shirt underneath it to keep the sleeves up, but she only wanted to wear an undershirt. I think she looked a little bit like a Cinderella barmaid, as the sleeves kept falling down. Luckily it cooled off, and we stopped by the house for a sweater after about 20 minutes. Michael and Emily enjoyed their stroller ride and visiting with the neighbors. One of our neighbors does a great job transforming his front yard into a graveyard. Tombstones, hanging skeletons, blue lights, tiki torches and a smoke machine all set the mood. Here's Sophie braving the ghosts to get her candy, and Michael and Emily's reaction to it all.


We made it to more houses this year than ever before, and after coming home to peruse the loot, Sophie was ready for bed. She was asleep by 8:15, and Things 1 and 2 followed soon after. By 9 the steady stream of trick or treaters had stopped.