A time for firsts

Today is Mia's first day of 1st Grade. On Thursday of last week, she lost her first tooth! On Saturday, she took her first trip to Tennessee. And for the first time, my camera has stopped recognizing my memory card! So I have zero pictures of any of these events. So far.........

This blogger's absense has been brought to my attention twice in the past few weeks so I guess it's about time I put it back into my daily routine. Starting tomorrow!

Until then, let me tell you - though I have no photographic proof until I steal the photos I took with my Mom's camera - Pikeville, TN is pretty darn gorgeous! And my Great-Aunt Priscilla & Great-Uncle Ed have one amazing house sitting atop a mountain with the most amazing view from their front porch! We were only there a few hours but had a blast! Thanks to my wonderful family for a great day!

Wearing them out!

Hello Blog readers! Long time no see! I've been busy and lazy lately which is a wicked combination!

Layla has recently decided that only babies nap. She turned 3 in December and therefore has decided that she is NOT a baby and will NOT nap. An issue that wouldn't bother me as a working mom but kills me when I pick her up and she's tired. Tired in a 3 year old translates to whiney and rude. And since my 6 year old has decided that stomping her feet and screaming at me is going to earn her extra play time, my afternoons are just as soothing as they can be.

So I have a new plan. I can't control the weekdays since I don't have her but the weekends - oh boy, I'm going to wear her out on the weekends! On Sat we spent 4 hours walking around the zoo. Our friend had a stroller. Did I let Layla rest a bit in the stroller? Nope. She was walking. Now, I'm no tyrant and did occasionally carry her or put her up on my shoulders but not for long. The Altanta Zoo has 2 playgrounds. We let the kids run around on both. Now it amazes me that Layla is "too tired" to walk from the otters to the pandas but show her a playground and suddenly she's Usain Bolt. (you know, that dude from the Olympics? The fast one. Right. Him) Ten minutes into the ride home and she was conked out. I dumped her on the living room couch, not risking a walk upstairs and had a peaceful hour and a half to read. It was amazing! On Sunday, the only active thing we did was go to the grocery store and she was still so worn out from Sat that she fell asleep watching cartoon at her Papa's house. Thank goodness for the family pass b/c now whenever I have a good book to read, we're going to the zoo first!

Coming soon to a blog near you....

Wow, I have been neglectful. Sorry to my few dedicated readers. It's not time, I don't think I'm any more busy, just lazier. I'm doing better here than my poor baking blog which hasn't been updated since October.

This weekend we discovered that Mia & Layla can handle Wii bowling. I have video and will post it tomorrow. Layla's form consists of a feeble attempt at "throwing" the ball and then yelling "GO BALL GO BALL GO BALL" as it rolls down the lane. It's hilarious, I promise. I also have plans to include a weekly Layla photo post but since her camera is still in the box and sans batteries, that will have to wait a bit. But when it happens, it will be awesome. What could be better than a 3 yr old's view of the world?

To keep you occupied until I get my stuff together, visit this site my sister sent to me. It is one of the greatest gifts the internet has offered since the Lolcats.
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Merry Christmas!!

Where does the time go? Lordy, I don't' know how my mom survived with a job, three toddlers and two teenagers back in the day. It's two days before Christmas and we have yet to wrap a single present OR even get our tree up!! It's so so sad. Between hospital visits, birthday parties, Christmas parties, and plays I've done very little to prepare for this wonderful holiday and it saddens me. I mean, I've only watched A Christmas Story once and haven't even touched It's a Wonderful Life! It's a crime!!

Here's what we have been doing lately:

Visiting Santa Claus!

Chuck did a painting for his dad for Christmas. It came out beautifully! Of course I forgot to take a photo of the finished product but here's the work in progress:

We celebrated Christmas a bit early with Chuck's dad since they are in Puerto Vallarta this week (lucky dogs!) Layla was actually happy that she got this Disney Princess Calendar but not that I wanted to take a picture of it.

Mia's class had a small holiday party at school. They sang Raffi's "Must Be Santa" which was awesome since when my siblings were much younger, we hear that song ad nauseum. I actually started singing along by reflex until Chuck elbowed me in the ribs. So I let the kids have the glory.

I love the snapping.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!!

I need a nap.

Hooked on Phonics worked for me!

Mia is really getting into reading and writing. It's amazing to watch your children develop, just one of many things that makes parenting worth all the trials. Watching her sound out difficult words and putting them together to read sentences, read books. It's awesome.
The girls received some early Christmas presents from her great grandparents on Chuck's side. They were in town for Thanksgiving and wanted to see them opened. One was a little Disney Princess (of course) diary. Side note - I promise to try really hard to NOT be one of those parents that reads their kids diaries but I think at age 5 it's not yet considered an invasion of privacy.

She has as of yet just written one page and then gave up because she was tired of trying to figure out how to spell things. She created a title page for her new diary and her title is this:

Printsess Slepnge Byoode

(translation: Princess Sleeping Beauty)

10 points for creativity! The kid's got the greatest imagination.

Hi, remember me?

I'm the girl with the blog. I've been busy/lazy and not updating for - jeebus - one month! Sorry to my loyal 3 readers. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I missed my VA family as I nommed on dry turkey and strange yellow gravy. It tasted right but looked off. However, yellow gravy does not top the myserious green potatoes of '89. I can eat yellow gravy, I could not find it within myself to sample Nana's potatoes.

In the time between now and my last blog. We've been busy! The girls enjoyed trick-or-treating very much!

We went to a neighborhood that goes all out for the holiday and though many houses scared the crap out of poor Layla, many were like this Hollywood home - very cool! There was a Wizard of Oz house that was handing out full tins of hot chocolate mix. It was a lot of fun. Although Layla still complains about the monsters to this day.

In other news, they are preparing for Santa's arrival by studying toy catalogues and asking for different things everyday. Chuck prepared by cashing in extra leave hours and buying a huge a$$ TV! I have to admit, it is an awesome television and we have enjoyed it immensly. Especially when LOTR came on this weekend and Aragon was in 42" of high def!

So, we are all still alive and well. I will leave you with a Mia-ism. Last night we were driving home from my father-in-law's and Mia asked, "Mommy & Daddy, can you get me & Layla some stock bonds?"

Justice

When I was 5 or 6 years old my mother made us memorize If I Had A Hammer by Peter, Paul, and Mary. No, this was not as punishment. It was to be sung by us as we marched in the annual 4th of July Parade in my Grandma's neighborhood. We had sandwich board signs with lines of the chorus written on them. To this day I can sing the whole thing and I am not proud of that but it always brings me joy as the nostalgia comes rushing in.

Today Mia asked me what "justice" means. So I explained it and she was like, "how do you use it in a sentence because we sang a song about it today?" I asked what song and could she sing it and she said, "I don't remember but it's about a hammer. I hammer justice." And OH. MY. GOD. My daughter knows If I Had A Hammer.

We proceeded to belt that MFer out and as I just mentioned. I still know all of it. It was a moment very few can appreciate (hello Megan & Steve) but is the stuff of parental legend! As my cousin Shane would say, that is some justice!

P.S. I am developing quite the lyrical crush on her music teacher. She has come home singing Yellow Submarine and the theme to Happy Days. When I was a kid, I learned Hot Cross Buns on the recorder.

Psychic Daughter: Part 3

Mia keeps displaying her amazing talents of clairvoyance. Please enjoy this conversation after a recent jewelry class she is taking at school:

Mia: I don't know why the teacher didn't get mad that I didn't do a pattern
Me: Well, you don't have to do a pattern, it's ok to do whatever you want; it's your necklace.
Mia:But she said to do the beads in a pattern but when she looked at mine, she didn't say anything.
Me:How about next week you make a pattern?
Mia: No, Layla doesn't like patterns
Me: How do you know that?
Mia: I can read her mind.

Foto Friday

A couple of weeks ago, my sister was in town. She's started a tradition of taking a photo of herself w/ my girls on each visit. They LOVE it!

I Wii, You Wii, We Wii!

We had my family over for dinner last night since my sister was in town from VA. I decided to introduce her to Rock Band and Mia insisted that she teach her auntie how to hula hoop on the Fit. We haven't played with the Fit in over a month with the girls and I had forgotten how addicting it is. At 7am this morning they were both begging to hula hoop and yoga. Mia loves the yoga and I can't figure out why since I can barely tolerate yoga and only do it because I know it's good for me and I need to improve my posture and muscle tone.

So this morning we Wii'd until it was time for school. Layla is not heavy enough to hula hoop; it doesn't read her movements. So she just mimics on the side.

Hello Everybody!

This is a clip from Mia's first concert. She was so excited about it and I was thrilled that Chuck, who perpetually works late, was able to come see it too. Especially since when she spotted me in the sea of parents, she mouthed "Daddy?" I can't tell you the relief I had in being able to point at the spot next to me where he sat holding Layla up to see (we were in the last row, I love my camera's zoom) And since I haven't posted anything in over a week, it's more than appropriate to play for you the song entitled "Hello Everybody" Enjoy and have a great weekend!

My Mentalist

In the car yesterday Mia was making a very strange face. Like she was concentrating very hard on smelling something awful. Then she explained her face and I think she may be a genius in the making:

Mia: When I make this face I am reading people's minds.
Me: Can you read my mind?
Mia: I'm doing it now.
Me: Ok, what am I thinking??
Mia makes crazy face and stares at my head
Me: Do you know?
Mia: Yes, I'm reading your mind in my mind.
Me: Can you read it out loud?
Mia: No, I can't tell you.
Me: Why not?
Mia: Because you already know what it is.

Look out David Blaine.

Foto Friday

OMG the weather has been unbelievably gorgeous this week! We went out and bought some sidewalk chalk to celebrate and Mia created her own version of hopscotch - this one goes to 12, that's even better than 11.

Layla spent her evening blowing dandelions.

'Tis the Season

In our family, the season is SOCCER! I, for one, am taking the season off and enjoying it immensely. I never knew how enjoyable sitting back and watching could be. I even read an entire chapter of a real book during Mia's practice last week. A. Whole. Chapter. But I'm just about the only one relaxing.

Sean is playing for Oglethorpe University (Go Stormy Petrels!) He made 1st team and in doing so, is given the privilege to travel with the team and that includes a game in Colorado! We're so proud of you Seany!

Mia is playing for a fantastic coach and so far, her team is undefeated. That looks bad when I am the league coordinator but since our first two seasons were disastrous, I'll take the wins when we can get them.

Yes, that is her own player on her tail. They haven't quite mastered the idea of teammates yet.

Ryan is a referee this season and while that thought quite honestly scared the crap out of me in the beginning, he is doing a pretty good job. For a noob.

Weekend Highlights

Saturday:
Dragon Con Parade kicked total ass! People dressed up all over, amazing groups marching. The GI Joes must not get much love because I actually heard someone say "there's someone who knows" after I screamed out "GO JOE!" Some woman was dressed up as Alice in Wonderland. My brother informs me that this is because of a recent video games where good characters go evil. We made the wrong choice by pointing her out to Mia who would not stop badgering us about when she would see the rest of the Disney Princesses. Where was Ariel? Where was Cinderella? Thank GAWD there was a "Young Adult Literature" group with several princesses including GISELLE!!! Who my girls yelled and yelled at until she came over and gave them candy. It made up for the scary as crap people from Netherworld, a local haunted house. Here's a little slide show of the parade. The pics aren't fantastic since I was trying to get as many people as possible and some were really booking it. But you get the idea just the same. It was pretty awesome.



We went home for a couple hours to recoup from the parade and then went out to sit in 90 degree heat to watch my brother play soccer for Olgethorpe University. The game was close so he did not get any playing time but he's just a Freshman so he has plenty of time to play in the future. I did get this little gem of a quote from my brother Ryan, "If they want us to pronounce Petrol correctly they need to add an 'e' or an 'a' or something more grammerical. Grammerical. Or however they say it!" I love you Ry-Man!

Then my daughter went psychic. We were on our way to Five Guys for some dinner and she proclaimed that she was going to pick our number that they will call out to tell us when our food is ready and we were going to be #1. I explained to her that they give us a number, we can't pick. As God is my witness, we were order #1 and I stared at the cashier dumbfounded and told him the story. He gave Mia some high fives and totally made her day. Five Guys dude, you rock!

And that's just Saturday. No one can say we took it easy this weekend. How did ya'll spend the holiday weekend?

Yes, we're still alive

Wow, it's been a whole week since I've posted. Bad blogger, bad. It's just been crazy busy. To sum up last week here are the highlights:

My friend Kim FINALLY got pregnant thanks to some fantastic advances in medicine. She is now carrying TWO healthy little fetuses. Or is it feti? At any rate, I'm just as excited for her as I was for my own pregnancies. YAY KIM!

Mia and I had our first mother/daughter salon day. She thought it was the greatest thing ever to be able to pick out her own nail color and have someone paint her nails for her. She was not so sure about Mommy getting her eyebrows waxed but got through it with sparkly glitter nails.

I went through three days of CPR/AED, First Aid training to be a trainer classes at the Red Cross. So now not only can I save your life, I can teach anyone how to do it. That's almost worth coming in on Saturday (my 3rd working Saturday in a row), I'm still debating that.

I am not mentally able to play 2K8 MLB on the Wii. My brain does not work that fast and it only pisses me off. So much so that I ended up throwing the remote across the room and storming upstairs not unlike a Mia tantrum. So I'm sticking to Rock Band and Wii Fit from now on.

So there's our week in a nutshell. Chuck and Layla were boring I guess so they don't get noted in this post. I should ask them to step it up this week to get some press.

Almost Famous

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/08/11/firstday_0812.html

This is the article featuring our journey to Mia's first day of Kindergarten. They followed her for hours and all we get is a photo giving me about 10 chins. Thanks guys. It's a great article and really highlights her personality, which was on level 11 yesterday morning.

UPDATE: Upon further investigation, I found a gallery of photos from our morning. Please ignore me and focus on the adorable girls.
http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/schools/gwinnett-back-school/

When I picked her up yesterday I told her she could go wherever she wanted and do whatever she wanted - get ice cream, go shopping. Anything. Her choice? Grandma's house so she could share her day with her friends from her old school. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way for a celebratory chocolate milk and donut with sprinkles. So the first day of Kindergarten in a new school? Success!

1st Day of School!

Mia went to Kindergarten today! And to document this occasion we had a professional photographer in our home, snapping pictures the whole way. No, I'm not that crazy. We were followed by the photog and reporter for an article in the AJC. As I walk up the stairs with the reporter I tell her that normally I have to drag Mia out of bed but seeing as she is super excited for school, she'll probably jump right up. I opened her door and she was already climbing down her bunk bed ladder! Bright-eyed & bushy tailed as my dad used to say. No whining as I fixed her hair, minimal fighting with Layla. She was on her best behavior for our guests. They stayed in the classroom after I dropped her off to document the ABC's & 123's of the day. I can't wait to see the article tomorrow.

I can say this, thanks to the AJC, my house has never been so clean!

So my baby is growing up. I got her off without any tears for either of us although there were extra good-byes at the classroom. I know she'll be great! I mean, look at her, the excitement of school has turned her into a cheerleader!

Cheetahlicious? Really?

Last night we turned on the TV to relax before bed time. It was already on the Disney Channel since the girls had been watching Jo Jo's Circus or something that morning. The Cheetah Girls 2 was on. Gag gag gag. Much to my horror, Mia jumped up and said "Cheetah Girls?! Jennifer & I used to sing all their songs at school!" Wha wha what?! NO! We're too young for this debauchery. I timidly asked her, "So you want to watch this movie?" "YES!" and then she proceeded to dance around the room. Layla looked at me and said, "I want Elmo." Me too Layla. Me too.
Yesterday my friend Katie sent her daugther off to Kindergarten and cried her eyes out. I was about to do the same. My baby is growing up and God help me that seems to involve mind numbing, bad acting, cheap looking teen comedies. After about 5 minutes of the movie when I was trying to decide if I wanted to cry or vomit, Mia asked to watch "The Goodnight Show" which is a toddler focused program. And the heavens opened up, a light shown down on us, and life was normal again. I know it's just a stay of execution but I'll take it. I need all the time I can get.

I do it for Love

A couple weeks ago we enrolled Mia in tennis camp. She insisted she did not need tennis camp because she already knew how to play tennis. During each session of camp she whined to the coach that she didn't know how to do anything. Until he tried to show her how and then she boldly told him she already knew that already! The poor poor man. I actually heard him exclaim "I don't need this aggravation!" Luckily at that point he was talking to the mother of two boys who were throwing tennis balls at each other so my little ball of crazy was safe for the moment.
Yesterday I heard her teaching Layla, "you can't swing because then the ball will go too far. You have to punch. Punch."

There were only five kids in the group but that still leaves time to wait for the other kids to take their turns. Want to know what bored kids do with tennis rackets?

Yep, they rub them on their butts while they dance. This was the most tame of their racket antics. It's all innocent to the kids but I'm looking on in shock and awe. Please stop sitting on your racket like that. It really looks bad.