Giving A Little Bit Of Myself

I love this picture.  I made all of us matching Christmas pajamas this year.  I have always wanted to.  Partly because of this of my Dad, grandparents and aunts - (our pajamas aren't quite as epic.)

In part I also wanted to make pajamas because my mom and both grandmothers sewed a lot in the past and there seems to be something about making clothes for someone that includes a little piece of your heart.  I'm a serious sentimentalist and I love the idea of putting a little piece of myself into our Christmas traditions this year.  I could have bought cheaper pajamas and they definitely would have been more perfectly made but I'm pretty proud of myself for making time to check this small item off my bucket list this year.  I know it won't mean as much to my kids and husband as it does to me but hopefully they feel the little bit of extra love.

Tonight when the girls were getting ready for bed, Red Fish was drawing at her new desk.  She set up a spot for New Fish and was even sharing all of her new art supplies.  She was very excited when she told me "This desk is just perfect. It's just big enough for [New Fish] to have half!" It melted my heart that "perfect" means big enough to share with her little sister. The best gifts we can give are the ones that share a little bit of ourselves. Watching these two sweet girls be sisters is one of the greatest joys of my life.

Worms In A Princess Bucket

For some odd reason I never thought being a mother of two girls would mean that I would have to deal with worms on a regular basis.  They spent the day in fluffy dresses, running through the rain, splashing in puddles and gathering worms into a princess bucket.  I guess that pretty much describes their personalities right there.  The worms are more Red Fish's thing but there are mud splatters all over New Fish's outfit.  I guess my girls are more of a combination of the sugar spice and the snails and puppy dog tails.

Walking To School With Friends

Red Fish has been walking to school with her friends most days.  It is so funny to walk to school with a group of kindergarteners.  It is quite a walk and we have to leave an extra half hour early to give them time to stop and look at garter snakes and bugs and put bandaids on skinned knees.  Today they showed up to school with pockets full of rolly pollies.  There will probably be dead insects in the laundry.

Important and Unimportant Thoughts

Today was a crazy day.  Our whole state is on fire and our neighborhood was next in line for evacuation for a brief period of time.  We've had friends and family evacuated all over the state who had to leave in a big hurry so I decided to evaluate what in our home was irreplaceable and could be put together in case we needed to make a quick getaway.  Obviously my family, photo albums and journals (especially those from our pre-digital days), important papers, our computers, family keepsakes, my violin and my Christmas ornaments.  Most of the massive pile of things inside my home, we could live without.  It definitely gets you thinking about what's important.  It also gets me thinking about unimportant things.

I have a huge event to attend next week and a whole lot of nothing to wear.  Exactly when was it that my wardrobe turned so drastically boring and mom like?  Please note- I love being a Mom- I don't necesarily want to look the part.  When I told Two Fish I needed an outfit to wear to my work sponsored party that didn't look like a Mom, Red Fish heard me.  She said: "Why you don't want to look like a Mom?  Don't you love being a mom?"  I assured her I do. 

Once upon a time I was sassy and dressed the part.  Now I am tired and covered in sticky fingerprints.  I'm too old for the really fun clothes and too young (at least in my mind) for the boring clothes.  Red Fish rode the carousel at the mall while I tried to find an outfit worthy of my party.  I'm not totally satisfied with the results but I did buy some fantastic shoes.  Too bad I've forgotten how to walk in heels.  Hopefully I won't break my ankle.

Some Things Never Change

February 12th, 2010

February 8th, 2012

I still find them together in the crib pretending to sleep.  I love that they are holding hands.  Also- New Fish sure sleeps with a lot of stuff now.  She is never getting out of this crib.  I plan to leave her in there for as long as possible.  She started jumping a few months ago but then stopped after a few times.  With her sleep record, I'm thinking four might be a good age to move her to a bed.  :)

I Need A Bigger Car

Randoms

"Let's play house.  I'll be the honey and you be the Mommy." - Red Fish

"I was thinking about all of the musical instruments in the symphony and it just made me exhausted."- Red Fish


The girls and I did an exercise video together.  Imagine two balls of pure energy bouncing along beside me.  "Come on Mommy! You can do it Mommy! Is it killing you Mommy? Are you feeling it Mommy? Are you jumping higher Mommy? Use your weights better Mommy."- Both Girls

"Your daughter is not be nice me."- New Fish "Oh she's so starting it." - Red Fish


"You be nice me or I call police!"- New Fish (Seriously?  What two year old says stuff like that?)


I was changing New Fish's diaper and she was struggling.  "I NEVER SURRENDER! I NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP!"  - New Fish (Yes, I am aware of this fact.)

I gave a small cup of caffeine free Coke to New Fish to help with her tummy troubles today (yes, I believe Coke cures many ailments) and she said: "Wow. Now that is some good juicy."

Red Fish's reaction to a fruit and veggie smoothie :"well its trying to be yummy. "

New Fish was reading a Fancy Nancy book to herself. It sounds like this: "Oh la la Fancy Fance. You so fancy- fancy fance. Oh la la la."

 Imagination has been running rampant around here.   I often have trouble is having trouble keeping track of which character Red Fish is. She could be: a rainbow dolphin with a giraffe neck, go Diego, a small frog with wings, Captain fix it, etc. If I call her by the wrong name she gets very upset. I have to make sure I use the correct gender when calling him/her as well.  She has been known to commit to a character for 1-2 weeks. 

Dear Little Red Curls

I love you.

Funnies from Red Fish

"I think I just turned four!  Can you check?  I'm pretty sure I just felt it!"

"My [New Fish] fell in the potty, but we DID NOT flush her down." (New Fish was sitting on the potty and she did accidentally fall in.)

"I hit my baby with the broom, but I didn't get her dead.  She just crying."

"Daddy movies are called baseball." (All sporting events are baseball in her eyes.  I find especially funny because Two Fish hates baseball.)

"I taking a good nap mommy so you go eat your cheese and crackers and wait for me."

I told the dog to be quiet and Red Fish said: "Why aren't you screaming mommy?  You need be mean at him like usual!  You say: 'Shush up puppy!  Come here!"  Gee....thanks!

Clean House

 The little cardboard house the girls got for Easter has been well loved. Hours of entertainment have been had with it.  The house has been played with, colored with markers, crayons and oil pastels and nearly loved to death so I let the girls paint it next.  It was a long project for them.  It's the biggest thing they've ever painted and they loved every minute of it.  The house now lives outside and keeps falling over.  I'm pretty sure it will need to be sneaked out to the bin soon but maybe I will just get them a big box to play in next.

Most of the time, I feel like my real house looks just like this.  Covered in sticky handprints, dirt and paint.  I complain a lot that my house can never be all clean.  As soon as I clean something, another room gets destroyed beyond repair.  So for mother's day my husband gave me a totally clean house.  Best present ever.  It lasted a full thirty seconds and then New Fish came inside and threw a plate of food on the floor- I so could have called that.  It was a glorious thirty seconds.  Now I want to send them all outside and go on defense.  Or maybe we can just camp in the backyard all spring and summer. When the cubscouts arrived this evening I eyed them with suspicion.  Nobody touch my clean house!

The Blue Incident

I got home last night at 1:30am after a long drive and a very long couple of days of work. On the way home, I helped my brother M study for his music listening test for over four hours.  I'm glad I don't have to take the test.  I felt half delirious this morning.  The girls were so excited to see me but New Fish was pretty mad because we've cut her off on the bottles and I think she was pretty convinced I would give her one when I got home.

I put New Fish down for an early nap this morning and Red Fish fell asleep watching an episode of some show about puppies.  I was feeling pretty pleased that they were both asleep and I was sitting downstairs basking in the silence.  After awhile I heard giggling so I went upstairs to investigate.  I found the girls sitting in New Fish's room reading some books together.  This would have been very cute except they were both naked and covered in blue paint from head to toe.  New Fish was supposed to be in her crib and there were blue fingerprints footprints all over.  I didn't even know what to say.

I looked back down the hall at the blue banister and then followed the trail into my room where I found that my alarm clock was now blue and there was a blue body print in the middle of the sheets on my bed.  Then I saw the bathroom.  I was pretty much paralyzed.  I didn't even know where to start.  How is it possible that Red Fish helped New Fish out of her crib and managed to cause this much damage in complete silence?  I snapped a few pictures while I demanded they scrub the tub and each other. The rest you will just have to imagine.  It's a good thing those two little girls are so darn cute!  It preserves their lives sometimes.

Dirty Looks

New Fish is awesome in the dirty looks department.

What Do You Want To Be?

Tonight while playing "blanket baseball" - a game of catch with Red Fish's blanket- I asked Red Fish some questions.
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A Mommy and drive a train. A purple train.
Q: What should Adalyn do when she grows up?
A: Maybe drive a train like me!
Q: What do you think Mommy does for work?
A: I think she drives train and plays baseball.
Q:What does Daddy do?
A: He drive car and sometimes he takes me and baby.

Then she sang me Rock a bye baby.

Rock rock bye bye baby in treetop. Wind blows and you fall and baby wants daddy. Big wolf comes and huffs and puffs and Blows baby down. Help says my baby and [Red Fish] comes save her.

Hmmm... not quite the words I remember.

Sweet and Annoying

Lately every morning Red Fish zips into see New Fish before we can stop her. I keep trying to tell Red Fish to stop waking her little sister up in the morning and she keeps telling me: "I need my baby up. I miss her too much." That's sweet... but I need the baby to sleep! New Fish is getting cranky! Good thing they love each other so much.

It's Starting Again

Today I went to the bathroom (for seriously less than a minute) and the entire time I could hear tiny feet running across the wood floor as fast as they can go. I called out for New Fish but no answer. When I came out I found an incredible mess. While I was distracted, New Fish managed to open the fridge, get herself some yogurt, open the yogurt, climb on top of the kitch table and finger paint the whole table and herself. She also had a glue stick. She was happily sucking the yogurt off her fingers and looked mighty pleased with herself. Heaven help me! Was Red Fish this little when the monkey business started?

Baby Delicious

This little wild woman is always up to something.

Sometimes she makes us dinner. A nice pot of cute baby. Extra delicious.

Hi, Bye bye, uh-oh, dog, mama, dada, "gaga" for grandma, puppy, baby (she calls herself baby and I love it), "baba" for bottle, NO!!!, STOP! (with hand held up), up, dog and she makes other sounds that aren't really words like haha for funny, lala for singing etc. It is SO FUN. She is such a little peanut it seems ridiculous for her to be running, climbing and talking like she is. She is giving the cutest little kisses and hugs that just melt my heart.

Red Fish is starting to learn how to use pronouns and add in words like "is, the, am, a" etc. She is getting much better at her "s and "f" sounds and has started using a lot of words with consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel combinations and her mean length of utterance (number of words used in a sentence) is growing. Exciting stuff!

We took her to an occupational therapist this week to help with some of the sensory issues she has been having but I think we are going to try some of the activities at home and have my sil M.E. do massage work (one of the recommended treatments) on her for awhile rather than jump into another weekly appointment. Hopefully getting some of these sensory issues that affect her oral motor control will help her keep progressing as well as she has been. Now if I can just get a doctor to say I need regular massages...

Between New Fish's newfound vocabulary and Red Fish huge progress in speech lately, our house is even noisier than usual. I'm pretty sure that anybody who calls must think I live in a combination daycare/dog kennel/insane asylum!

Done

I swore I would make these curtains this year and I just barely made it. Horray!

Also - just because it's funny. Tonight Red Fish didn't want to go to bed because she knew Two Fish was going outside to shovel snow and she wanted to help. After she had a long tantrum, I got in bed with her and we had a tearful little conversation. I was trying to comfort her and told her she could go in the snow tomorrow and this is what she told me. "But I need help my Daddy! He need me because he will fall in snow and there be snow in his eyes! His eyes dirty! He need [Red Fish] clean his eyeballs! I need help him!" This was very serious. She was very worried about her Daddy and his eyeballs. She cracks me up.

The Invisibles

Our house seems to be under attack from invisible people. Yesterday, Red Fish couldn't go in her room to get her shoes because "a scary guy" was in there and he had her shoes. I had to yell at "scary guy" several times and tell him to "Get out!" before Red Fish could go in her room. Then today a "bad kid" was messing with the toys Red Fish was playing with and after she tattled on him several times, I had to get after "bad kid." Mysterious things are happening around here...

Random Bits Of Life

The other day we made puppets with friends. Rather Red Fish made a puppet and I made one for New Fish.

Little did I know that they were killer death puppets that eat faces and fingers.

Two Fish and I were under attack for days.

Red Fish gave New Fish lessons on how to properly twirl in a flippy skirt. New Fish was having trouble keeping her balance but she enjoyed the tutorial.

This is Red Fish's favorite skirt right now.

Red Fish wanted to put Blue Fish to bed the other night. She did an excellent job rocking her and reading her a story. I love that New Fish looks almost as big as her sister when she is sitting on her lap.

And a picture Two FIsh took of us girls watching a movie.

I swear, everyday life is just cuter with these two girls around.

Helpful

Today New Fish was hollering to be let out of her highchair.

Red Fish: "Mommy baby need help."

One Fish: "I know, I will help her in just a second."

Red Fish: Running and screaming. "BABY I COMING! I HELP YOU! I BRING YOU COOKIE!!!"

Apparently it was a cookie emergency.