Conversing to compromise

I ventured out and bought some clothes for Alaina and Kayla, forgetting how one size can vary depending upon the store.

Alaina now has a bunch of huge pants and shirts to save for next year, but I found a belt on a 2T outfit I bought two years ago that I'm trying to use to prevent a second, smaller size shopping trip.

But Alaina thinks that belts are toys. I have one good belt that frequently surfaces in the toy box after Alaina has used it as either a leash for an animal, a rope, or a band aide to wrap someone up like a Gothic mummy.

Jeff gets really disturbed seeing Alaina dragging around an animal wearing the belt. (They end up looking like they are trussed up for an S and M session. Creepy!)

Anyway . . .
Trying to get Alaina to wear the belt end up with us having logical little conversations like this:

Alaina, if you are going to wear your belt today, you can't take it off and play with it, it isn't a toy.

OK.

If you take it off, Miss N will have to put it in your cubby.

Except for Nap Time.

What?

I don't have to wear my belt for nap time because it will poke me in the tummy and hurt me.

Okay, you can have Miss N put it in your cubby for nap time.

I can just put it under my cot with my shoes and then put it back on after nap time.

Oh, ummm. . . fair enough. you can do that.

Yes I can.

And I can't decide if I hallucinated it or if she really did use the word 'except.'
Way to go Alaina!

Now if I can just find a school that teaches grammar skills I'll have a great politician in training!

The end is here!

The diet has ended! Pending any screaming/fussing I have begun to fully embrace dairy and soy again.

I've celebrated by eating these items:
A cheese runza
An apple struesel bagel with chocolate chipcream cheese
A reese's peanut butter cup
A snickers bar
Adding parmasan cheese to my spaghetti sauce
A shortbread cookie
Broccoli Cheese soup from Panera
Frosted (not just iced) Animal crackers
A bacon cheese burger

And finally, by adding so much cream to my coffee that it is officially a cafe au lait.

There are only a few things left I haven't eaten in my feeding frenzy . .
Pizza Hut Pizza
Yogurt
Ice Cream
Juice Stop

After that, the feast will be complete!

So good bye MSPI!

How many days until Thanksgiving?

Fall fun

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