Dress up day

I slaved over my sewing machine last night to make sure that Alaina could be Cinderella today for daycare. I'm just sure that the costume will come home in shreds and I'll have to start from scratch for tomorrow. *sigh*

All night long and this morning as well she said things like,

"I'm going to be so beautiful. I'l be soo pretty."
"Tabby will want to wear my dress!"
"Everyone is going to sing happy birthday to me."

Hopefully she isn't too crushed to realize that she won't be the center of attention all day.

I did persuade her to stand for a picture this morning.

I recycled a costume I previously made for my sister, and if I feel up to it, I'll take a picture.

But I wanted to share with you the view that greeted me and I arrived at work.

This is HR and yes 'Fred' did dye his hair for this. He told me he tried a wig and it made him look like Doris Day.

They actually chased down the owner of the mystery machine and asked to borrow it just for this.

I love Halloween!

Food Glorious Food!

Today is the day!

Kayla went to daycare with a diaper bag stocked with yummy mashed bananas and pureed squash. But for some reason even though I bring my own food, I'm still signed up for the food program? I feel like I should ask for an itemized list of what I pay for so that I can argue the point.

But the BEST news is that Kayla didn't have any 'fussies' since the cheese incident on Sunday! I've decided to truly test the theory and in honor of the fact that I forgot to brew my coffee this morning, didn't wash my daily oatmeal mug from work, and ran out of poptarts and granola bars, I headed to McDs for a truly milky meal with a bacon egg and cheese buttermilk biscuit and cream in my coffee!

Woo Hoo!

Now we'll just have to wait and see how Kayla handles it so I know if I need to take baby steps toward milk and soy or if I can take the plunge and stuff myself full of chocolate, pizza, cream, yogurt, lattes, and cream cheese fruit dip.

TGIM

I don't know that I've ever felt this way before but I just have to say . . . .

Thank Goodness its Monday.

I feel like I just came back from vacation at family drama island, I didn't know that Jeff's family was as crazy as . . .well . . .mine.

It was just a weekend of snipping and pouting . . . most if it probably by me. But we had a few take-away lessons.

- The visiting cousins will stay with us next time because we are ridiculously happy to have them and since they have a kid, the mommies can stay up and talk to each other if everyone else goes out.

- Ground rules will have to be set for Alaina and everyone must know about them.
#1 - All treats must be approved by mommy first
#2 - Incoming toys must be approved by mommy, because I have to explain why the visiting toys aren't here to stay
#3 - Please, please NEVER ask her if she wants to do something before running it past mommy. She has a schedule I try to stick to and while I am flexible, it becomes even more important to try to maintain it when we won't have Sunday to recover.
#4 - No chasing/racing while anyone is sleeping. (Although I'd prefer no chasing at all . . . I know I've already lost that war.)

- Food rules
#1 - Have LOTS of coffee on hand and a warm pot on at all times.
#2 - Buy a bottle of red wine because what I call wine is the equivalent of apple juice to the rest of the world.
#3 - Fix meals for me and mine when we are hungry. Waiting for the family to debate what we will do is insane.
#4 - Don't fix anything that contains food not on my diet because I will screw up and eat it.

Are you getting the picture of how things went? We all about expired from hunger before we ever ate, I had to run to HyVee at midnight for coffee the first night, Alaina was very cranky that she wasn't allowed to leave after she was invited on a trip to the farm, the visiting family packed all their stuff and shifted where they were staying because of family pouting matches EVERY NIGHT, and the babies didn't get near enough sleep.

All in all a fun weekend.

Belated Wednesday

I'll take common knowledge for $300 Alex.

What happened to common knowledge? Does it still exist? I know what everyone thinks they know - politics, Hollywood, technology. But what about what we used to know?

Think of all those test you took in school on psychology, geometry, and social studies. Sometimes little things that I remember surprise me. Homeostasis, the Pythagorean theorem, how to calculate the weight of the protons of an element, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But then I can't believe the things I've forgotten. One of which hit me last night . . . .

I can't remember the capitals of all the states anymore. I was sooooo unbelievable proud to know them all when I was in high school, but somewhere between now and then I've forgotten quite a few. Granted I still know all the states, but when I tried to mentally add their capitals, I blanked on more than one or two.

This isn't really a big deal, except when I add in the fact that I can still remember the lyrics to all of the Disney movies I watched growing up and all of the New Kids on the Block songs, A.K.A. useless knowledge.

When did our society's priorities shift in such a different direction for what is important to remember? Why is it not important to know what country your family originated from, and the roots of our nation?

I can't even list the first 10 presidents anymore, let alone tell you when the last 5 were in office.

But I can play six degrees to Kevin Bacon and hold my own!

I would say I can play six degrees with the best of them, but I've tried that and failed miserably. They were two guys from college and they pulled out names like directors who appear in one movie as a walk on role.

P.S. Here's a small Wordless Wednesday pic for you Mel.

The big white dress.

Saturday found my family waking to a light dusting of snow on the yard. It was enough to send me in a panic about . . .

Holiday shopping! The weather made it feel like I needed to run to the crowded mall and search high and low for a perfect gift. To remedy this, Jeff and I sat down to talk "money." This is a huge thing for us, because for most of our relationship, I never had any $, Jeff had plenty of $, so when it came to finances, Jeff ran the show. I finally got tired of conversation that started with "Don't spend any money until (insert date)," "We can't afford that right now," and "What did you buy?"

Things have been a little tight for the last few months because of hospital bills that seem to just keep coming (seriously, why can't there just be one bill?) but not uncomfortable by any means. I'm looking forward to that magical time next year called tax returns when someone pays us because we have two beautiful children and because we have the heart to donate. Sometime mid next year, we should be able to redo the baby room.

Any who,
Saturday afternoon found us at the State Capital Building for a wedding. It was pretty cold, and we didn't know that the wedding would be outside in one of the courtyards. It was a beautiful place for a wedding and the bride was stunning.

Enter our new wedding expert, Alaina.

As we were treking out the door to go to the wedding, Alaina stopped and in a shocked voice stated,
Wait! I wanted to wear the big white dress!

Oh hunny, the bride wears the big white dress.

But I want to wear it!

hunny, only the girl getting married wears the big white dress.

Okay, I'll marry daddy.

Hunny, you have to be all grown up like mommy and daddy to get married.

Ohhhhh -kaaay

Then at the courthouse, she announced that Mommy and daddy needed to dance with her.

And where did she become the wedding expert all of a sudden?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was on last week and I let her watch the wedding scene, Then when she started to connect the dots, I showed her our wedding album, Aunt Angie and Uncle Brett's wedding pictures, and even pulled out my wedding dress. (which by the way, still needs to be dry cleaned, oops.)

I did promise her that if she wants too, she can wear mommy's big white dress when she gets married.

Potty Mouth

Well, it happened.

I was sitting on the couch nursing Kayla, and Jeff was flipping channels. He stopped on "My name is Earl" and then got up to use the restroom.

Alaina was running around playing, but she stopped to watch the tv for a bit. I've never seen the show so I wasn't quite sure what it contains, but I should have been smart and changed it.

Two minutes after Jeff left the room, Earl learned a shocking fact and to express this he uttered one phrase before the commercial break.

Alaina parroted it right back to the tv twice for good measure.

"Son of a B*tch."

"Alaina, he said a bad word. Mommy doesn't say that word. Daddy doesn't say that word (yeah right) and if you say it at daycare you will get in really big trouble. So lets not say bad words."

"Okay Mommy."

We'll see if that lesson sticks.

Kayla the Tiny

Happy 4 months! Kayla turned 16 weeks yesterday and she is tinier than ever!

I can't believe I have a child with an 18 percentile head size. . .granted that's only 1 1/2 inches smaller than Alaina's at the same time, but sheesh! Grow already! Shots went well and we are headed back to see Jeff's parents this weekend.

Here's to hoping they fix something I can eat.

In four weeks I get to try adding a little soy to my diet . . .we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of eating, Kayla has been enjoying squash, against the recommendations of our pediatrician. (Wait until six months to start feeding MSPI babies, they say) She's starving and desperate to taste everything, so why not try some food? Its been over a week and she's still doing fine.

Well that's about it, sorry for the disjointed thoughts. Much sadness today, but trying to feel joy for him getting to be at peace. (If you don't know, I'm not going to be the one to break the news, cousins. Call your mother.)