Sunday, August 30, 2009

Blip


Me: Odessa, you get to be reverent child tomorrow in church. (stands up front and shows everyone how to fold your arms and be quiet.)
Odessa: (thinking for a minute) Yah, but I'll still be Odessa.

ps- the best part of her standing at the front was Ada waving frantically at her and Odessa's occasional waves back at her as if to say "don't interrupt me, this is serious!"

Saturday, August 29, 2009

More of the same

Sorry, but these skirts really inspire the make-believe I guess.
We've got some down time while our house guests attend a wedding. The girls finished this big puzzle and immediately Odessa hopped up on it like a stage.

Odessa: (talking into her reflection in the glass of the TV) Ladies and Gentlemen, we seem to be having some problems, please be PATIENT. (then she left for "back stage").

I asked her where she learned that?! From the ABC Richard Scarry video from the library.

So then they proceeded to act out bits and pieces of the sing along video.

Both of them stood together on the "stage".

Odessa: We are opposites, I like one . . .
Ada: . . . . and I wike the other.

Odessa: My room is clean . . . .
Ada: . . . . and my woom is messy!

Ada: (singing) Up and down, up and down. (bobbing like an Umpa-Lumpa).
Odessa: Over and under, over and under, watch how we go over and under!

Every time Stephen asks me where Odessa learned something, I usually roll my eyes and say- PBS of course!

Two nights ago I asked Odessa what 1 plus 1 was.
Odessa: 2??
Me: Yes! (surprised) What's 2 plus 1?
Odessa: 3??
and so it went, all the way till ten. Last night we were determining whether she really understood the concept of adding or just figured out the pattern.
Uncle Chad: What's 3 plus 1?
Odessa: 20??

Maybe she needs a little more TV time. ha ha

Monday, August 24, 2009

All things Princess



Ada and Odessa just got these cute skirts in the mail. They have tubing in the bottom. They are inspiring all things princess play.

Odessa: You are the Prince and I am Cinderella. (they dance. Odessa runs away) Oh! Oh! My slipper!
Ada: Wait! I dun eben know yer name! Cose (close) those gates! Cose those gates! (running after her).

Now Odessa is The Queen and Ada is Snow White

Odessa: (hissing into the magic mirror) Tell me who she is! (Quoting the mirror in a deep voice) Skin as white as snow, lips red, (mumble mumble) as ebony!! Snow white!! Huntsman! Take Snow White into the woods and kill her!
(yah, we have to work on the violent stories)

Now they are doing some modernized version of Cinderella

Odessa: (dragging Ada back and forth from living room to bedroom) Hurry Cinderella! We missed our bus!

Nothing much

there's a new picasa web album under our photos, and that is the only thing to report today. it's boring even. thankfully this coming weekend will be fun- Chad and Julie (Stephen's brother and his wife) will be coming and the next weekend we are off to Victoria! Can someone remind me 10 times a day to get excited for that? I hate planning a trip so long ago that you forget all about getting excited about it!

Friday, August 21, 2009

A little bit after the fact, but last weekend we went to the Skagit Valley County Fair. We decided to hit a couple smaller fairs rather than deal with the Puyallup traffic for the Western Washington Fair. We'll see. We're huge suckers for fairs, so we may end up going to the WWF as well. Seeing as how we had saved our money and calories for this big day, we hit (almost) every fried food available. Fried cheese, mini-donuts, corn dogs, curly fries. The "main dish" was a hamburger with fried onions. Of course we had room for some ice cream cones and kettle corn. We washed it all down with a half gallon of lemonade. Ughhhh, I was too sick of fried food to get one of my favorites: an elephant ear! Oh well, we'll have to make at least one more trip to a fair and get an elephant ear : ).
We spend most of our waking hours protecting our children from strange people and preventable injuries. Then we pay 3$, tell them to go with a scary carnival worker and put them in these rickety old rides!Here they are, going up, up, up!

Capturing the spirit of a county fair- a kids tractor pull

Petting zoo

They loved the birds of all types. I have never used so much hand sanitizer in my life.

Although we didn't get pictures of ourselves stuffing our faces with fried foods, here is what Stephen and I felt like later that night. Cuddly piggies.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

I forgive you


Odessa learned about forgiveness today in her Primary class. Ever since Ada woke up from her nap, Odessa has been telling her: "I forgive you". I asked Odessa "for what?" She can't come up with anything that Ada did wrong. Anytime Ada says or does ANYTHING, Odessa says "I forgive you." As I type this, she is chasing Ada down the hall yelling at her "I forgive you, I FORGIVE YOU!". She seems very exasperated that Ada doesn't thank her for her forgiveness.

Having kids makes you realize a lot of things about yourself- a lot of what you don't do right on a daily basis. But now that my kids are older, I am finding it nice to explain to them why we are doing something for someone else. They always come with me when we take a meal to a new mom or make a plate of something we baked for someone, and they ask a lot of questions. Odessa thinks all new parents have no food in their house- like having a baby just makes you food poor somehow.
Today I was putting granola bars I made into a box for the homeless dinner we help out with. Odessa asked me why I was doing that, and I reminded her about the homeless people who don't have anywhere to stay or food to eat.
Odessa: They don't have any homes?
Me: No.
Odessa: We-l-l . . . . . they could come stay at our house, we have a home.
Me: Where would they sleep? (wondering if she was going to offer her bunk bed or Ada's or our bed)
Odessa: We-l-l . . . . they could sleep on the couch. We have lots of pillows! And they could have my blankie and my Honey Bear.
Me: That's nice of you Odessa.
Odessa: Yeah. (running off to tell Ada she forgave her for something else.)

It's a grand start, all this little learning taking root. I can't wait to see what blooms someday!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Songs

Most of you lucky people missed our family's performance of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" at the ward campout.
This morning Ada walked into the living room after getting up.
Ada: Where's Daddy?
Me: He's at work.
Ada: On the wailroad?Later, the girls were jumping and dancing around.
Odessa (singing): You've got to jump and rock, all day long! To get yer body healthy and strong!
Thank you Clifford for the inspiration for this original song and dance.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Who's coming to Thanksgiving this year?

This has another 25" leaf, so we can fit you all!
Comparison: For the last 5 years, we have sat at this little round table on padded and unpadded folding chairs (give or take a few months on borrowed furniture)The seller on Craiglist measured the width wrong and we didn't realize until we set it up at home that it's 6 inches WIDER than we were looking for (note the narrow dining area!) But we are keeping it and can't believe the difference a real table makes. (ps- "truck" passed it's first test with flying colors. This table and the 7 chairs all fit in it with nothing strapped on top. What a relief not to have to borrow someone's vehicle.)

In other news, this was the week of injuries. Monday, Odessa split her lip at the playground. About ten minutes later Aiden (who I was watching) fell off the monkey bars and we found out later his "hurt" wrist was actually a broken arm! Horrible, no good day. Later that night Odessa burned her finger badly. During the week I got a sore on the bottom of my foot from a piece of wood, then I cut my thumb wide open on a can I was cleaning out and yesterday I burnt my arm to match the recent scar on the other arm. It's ironic that both burns were made when I was baking for someone else. I am going to look into Mederma, any yays or nays out there?

Thursday, August 6, 2009

to remember

I have to jot a few of these things down for journal's sake.
Tonight at dinner Odessa announced she wanted to go put on her new nightgown (and avoid eating more of her dinner).
Me: Are you so excited to have a nightgown? Maybe I should get a nightgown.
Odessa: We can go shopping and get you a nightgown Mom.
Ada: Yay! (or the 2 yr old equivalent).
Odessa: Jesus really likes shopping.

Well, as far as I know, there is no biblical evidence that would prove otherwise (besides the general lack of interest for anything worldly and say, food) but you never know . . . .

We had a kind of Mediterranean sampler for dinner that was inspired by needing to use up some Feta cheese- but Stephen doesn't like the stuff and I didn't even bother giving the girls any. Ada wandered back to the table and reached into the Feta container, pulled out a hunk and ate it. And liked it. So I sat her up (smugly since Stephen was "blehhing") and gave her a mug of it with a spoon. She ate it all and was trying to get the last crumbs out of the bottom by "drinking" out of the mug. She then took her spoon and plopped it into the butter (we had corn on the cob) and looked at me slyly until I noticed her. I took her spoon out of the butter and made her eat it.
Ada: Mmmmmmmm
Stephen: What is it?
Ada: Dessert!
Me: No, what is it?
Ada: Peanut butter.
Odessa: Silly Ada. Peanut butter and jam!

I keep getting asked if I love my car. The answer is No- not really, not yet, it's impossible. I am not letting myself get attached. I realized that my sister's observation that I maybe had an unhealthy relationship with the Buick is true. Because now I am treating this car like I don't want to get too attached in case it goes bad and dies on me (like the Buick).
It still a bit stinky, making it easy to keep at an arms length (we're getting the interior detailed this weekend by a guy named Homer who talks excitedly about 9 different treatments, ending with his Ozone machine that takes 24 hrs and kills all bacteria that ever even thought of living in the upholstery. Wow.)
I also have Buick mentality. When I drive it around, I don't feel any cooler about my ride than I used to. But today the windows were down and I was playing some radio station that had a cool song (I keep forgetting to get the kiddie songs CDs transferred to the new car- subconscious? maybe) and I felt a remote pang of coolness. So we'll see.
When we took Odessa and Ada for their first ride, they loved it. Their car seats were so low in the Buick, they could never see anything. This was especially frustrating because they have a Dad that points out all kinds of stuff.
Stephen: Odessa, look! An old blue car!
Odessa (twisting out of her straps): Where? Where?
Ok, so maybe that's a dramatization, but it went about like that. Now they are so much higher in this car.

Odessa (squealing): It's so amazing, I can see EVERYTHING!! (as we went over Ballard bridge- you look down and there are dozens of fishing boats docked on either side).

Now that they can see so much, they are pretty content to just gaze out the window. Who needs kiddie song CDs anyway?