It's Fall!...or is it winter?

38 Degrees? Let's go to the Apple Orchard!

The good witch and her puppy:

Quiet kids are never good kids:

sleepover secrets:

e: (from the bathroom while sleepover/neighbor friend Montana is in family room) Mom, could you come here a moment please? (usually goes like this--MOM!!!! I NEED YOU TO WIPE MY TUSHIE!!!!! NOW PLEASE, I'M DONE!!!!!! MOM!!!!!)
m: What do you need?
e: Whispering: can you wipe my tush? but don't tell montana, she thinks I can wipe my own butt.
m: Oh, yeah, sure....it's our secret.

stinky baby:

e: mom, I have none angel kisses like buddy.
m: What do you mean, honey?
e: on his tummy, his angel kiss, I have none of those. (tiny birthmark near his button)
When I came out of your tummy, I was too stinky so the angels wouldn't kiss me.
m: oh, I see.
e: yeah, buddy was smelling good and the doctors cleaned him, so he got kissed from the angel.
m: oh, yes....but you got the cool scar.
e: yeah, that is cool too.

What, Me? Sick? No. Those aren't boogers all over my face, nope. And I don't have pink eye--not at all---you think my eyes are red??, no....it must be your eyes that are sick....I'm fine, totally fine--just hangin' here with my mom on a tuesday afternoon... chillin' with my bunny ears.

the world is not fair:

g: there's the sun, mama!, where the moon go, mama?
m: the moon is sleeping.
it's on the other side of the earth so that all the people on that side can go to sleep while we have daylight.
e: uhhhh [in whine tone], darn it! They get to stay up later than us?!

Home Alone: Days Three & Four

Day three: had pizza & wine with erica and allisun. did girlie stuff, nails, bridal magazines, talked politics and shopping. Slept. All by myself.

Day four: went to Ikea w/mom, organized closets, did dishes, vacuumed, updated picture frames, watched grey's, went to neighbor's b-day bash.....babies came home @ 10pm. Grant was sick, haven't slept at all since, not to mention, haven't slept by myself since.

I do love my babies, but had a lovely girl time.

Home Alone: Day Two

7:00am: wake up, only have to get self ready to leave...total breeze!
5:30pm: meet bf-jules at mall. have 2 glasses of wine, get ears pierced, try on 10 pairs of jeans-buy one pair, buy super cute red heels, get locked in macy's, contemplated stealing $100 pair of jeans, decided not to, finally was able to leave.
9:30pm: go home, feed dogs, ebay, sleep. all by myself.

Home Alone: Day One

8:00: family leaves
8:15-9:30: took a bath while watching grey's on the laptop propped up on the side of the tub
9:30-10:45: im'd friends I could have just as easily called on the telephone
10:45-6:30am: slept. all by myself.

Bill?

m: Grant, did you have a good day at bockie's (g'mas)?
g: yep.
r: what did you do?
g: play outside.
m: did you have a nap?
g: yep.
m: did you have lunch?
g: yep.
m: did you go pick ella up from school?
g: yep.
m: did you have a fun time with bockie annie?
g: yep.
r: is your name bill?
g: um...nope.

It's a beautiful day!

School Spirit!

(note: watch grant, he is SO the weird little brother)

Dearest Ella & Grant,
You ARE NOT infants. It is no longer okay for you to wake at 2, 3 and 4 am every night. Really, this is getting ridiculous. Daddy and I are tired. Ok, I know I'm the sucker who lets you come into our bed, but really, I'm only doing it so I don't have to hear "mama? mama? mama! mama, open da doooor, mama-I seep in mama's bed! I cos eyes! mama, I niiiice....mama?!" at 2, 3 and 4 am. When I do give in and you do snuggle-up in bed, just one of you, it's fine, it's cozy- I really do love it. But, when it's both of you and the two dogs, you leave me and daddy all of 3-1/2 inches of space to try and muster up a little REM. You are not thirsty. You have 4 nah-nahs in your crib. There are no monsters, remember, we have monster spray. You both have lovely bedrooms. I urge you to reconsider this plot against your parents.

With love,
Your v-e-r-y sleepy mama

Worth a thought:

"Pain is inevitable, Misery is optional, Joy is a choice."
- Pastor John Ross, Wayzata Community Church, Sunday October 5th

Emptying dishwasher CAN be quite risky....
one must ensure they wear the appropriate head gear:

dog eat dog (or cat eat mouse) world:

m: tom & jerry are awfully mean to each other, aren't they?
e: well, tom's the mean one.
he tries to get jerry all the time so jerry has to be mean back.

m: go twins!
e: where are they going?

(apparently no where)

stealth napper:

What's better than a nap on a sunday afternoon on a cool, crisp fall day?
1:00pm: Went to church, ate a lovely breakfast at McD's, finished HSM2, daddy's gone at the Twin's game....it's time for naps. Grant agrees, Ella does not. I take grant up, do the nap routine, read a book, rock, sing the song of his choice (today it was baby beluga), lay him down...sweet nappies!
Next, Ella.
m: ella, it's time to lay down for a while
e: I'm not tired, can I play polly pocket quietly in my room?
m: yes, but I'm going to take a nap and you cannot wake me up. You cannot come barging in for me to fix barbie's hair or snap on polly's tiny shoes. Do you understand?
e: k.
1:30pm: I'm out.
2:30pm:
e: mom! mom! wake up! Can I go outside?
m: no, not until I'm finished w/my nap. I told you not to wake me up.
e: but why can't I go outside.
m: because I'm sleeping. why don't you lay down, or go find a book to read, you must be tired...
e: I'm NOT TIRED!!!
m: okay, well go out of here, you're being disrespectful of my nap.
3:30pm:
Mama wakes up to absolute silence. I look over in the bed thinking ella might have laid down beside me, nope. Get up, check her room. nope, not there either. Go downstairs, check the couch, nope not there. Beginning to panic just a bit, I check the doors, they're still locked so she must be in the house somewhere. Check her room again, including under the bed and in the closet, nope. Worrying more now. Finally, head into our bathroom/closet hallway to find this:Ta-dah! (Disregard the state of the closet, it has seasonal transition disorder) Silly girl. I'm anxious for her to wake up to hear the story as to why she choose this particular nook for today's siesta....stay tuned.

an oldie but goodie:

A conversation in the car between Ryan and Ella, September 2006:
[background: I had a miscarriage 3 months before I got pregnant w/Ella. The first baby was due in January, Ella was born in May-She knows nothing of the miscarriage, we've never mentioned a word about it]

Ella: Daddy where did you get that ring?
Ryan: I got it from my Boppy (grandpa), he's in heaven now.
--silence for a bit--
Ella: Daddy, I was going to come to you and Mommy, but then I got sick and Jesus had to take me to Heaven, so I came to you in the spring instead.

She went on to tell about heaven... she said there were lots of snacks and gummi bears there.

Pretty impressive, huh? She's out of that innocent undisturbed stage now and has no recollection of this adventure with Jesus, but we're relieved to know our lost, then found, baby...whatever our religious beliefs may be.

secret #2's:

m: grant, where are you?
g: I hiding! I hiding my poopoos.

pick your friends, not your nose:

e: dad, I stopped picking my nose you know. I don't do it anymore.

The dreaded day:

below is an excerpt stolen from a fellow blogger notesfromthetrenches, and how I got thinking about the day our cribby goes to heaven (or craigslist)... and can also be found on mommy!'s blog:

Long gone are the diapers, the bottles, the sippy cups.

There are no outlet covers, cabinet locks, or stairways blocked by gates.

No more high chairs dragged around the room during meal times. No more infant car seats and baby carriers blocking the back door.

When I say time to go, people run to the car on their own volition. Sometimes they even carry my stuff for me.

Stuff that does not include a huge diaper bag, two changes of clothing, bibs, blankets and enough Cheerios to feed a daycare.

No more spit-up stained shirts or leaking milky breasts. (I was going to clarify that I just got rid of the milk, not the breasts, but as I look down at my chest I realize that no, I did actually get rid of the breasts.)

No more pacifiers worn on my finger like a ring.

Fare thee well little cribby.

After 14 years the last remnant of babyhood is gone.

---

I really can't imagine a day where I don't lay a sweet angel in the crib, count the hanging stars, sing somewhere over the rainbow and say traume etwas suss meine liebe. I will never be able to entirely part with nursery. It's all so precious, the smell, the nightlights, the tidyness. Our lovely cribby, the one imported from italy that we (by we, I mean g'ma) spent way too much on, is starting to fail us. After only 2 children, the functioning side barely works and the drawer sticks. But for now, and hopefully for a little while longer, I'll continue to fight with the slider mechanism every night and whisper kiss, kiss to my sweet baby.

all grown up:

(thanks al, for the cute dress!)

avian-entomologist:

(while mommy & ella are laying down, just after turning off the light)
m: ella, please settle down. be quiet and listen to the crickets.
e: those aren't crickets, they're chermites
m: you mean termites?
e: no, ch-ch-ch-chermites, they're a type of chirping bird
m: oh, cool, listen to those then.

Mama Confession #4:

I'm starting to like and let my kids watch Tom & Jerry. I used to be adamant that T&J never make their way to our television, I thought it was way too violent for my innocent little humans, I even went as far as hiding the DVD in the kitchen cupboard and telling Ella that it was lost (she found it when she was looking for fish food). So why have I turned? Because there is no dialogue! Just nice jazz music or violins with the occasional BOINGGG! or SPAT!!!...sure, Tom spends his days trying to kill little Jerry, but I don't have to listen to it. No, "Can we fix it BOB?" or "Meeska-Mooska!" or that annoying little bilingual brunette and her talking backpack. So, for now, when mama is Playhouse Disney'd out...bring on the anvils!

Momentous Tuesday!

Ella wore jeans AND get this--a ponytail on tuesday!!! For those of you that know Miss Ella know that she hasn't worn a pair of jeans since she was about 18 months old and has forbade me from putting a ponytail in her hair as she thinks she looks like a boy. Yeah for kindergarten and peer pressure! My guess is most of the friends wear jeans and ponytails and Ella is starting to realize that it really is the all-american style.

speechless:

Future Vegetarian:

(in regard to the 15 pounds of pork shoulder I bought at Costco)
e: mom, what is that?
m: it's pork
e: like, from a pig?
m: yes, it's from a pig
e: well, what happened to the pig after they took that out?
m: the pig died.
e: (starts crying) you mean when they take those out the pigs die?? (bawling now)
m: yes, honey.
e: but why do they have to die? (major tears and sniffling)
m: because that is what God decided. God decided that we would eat pigs and that they would die. That's called the food chain.
e: so why didn't joie and jake die when they took that out of them?
m: took what? you mean when they took out their parts to make puppies?
e: yes. why didn't they die?
m: (thinking that this is really getting deep) oh, 'cause that was just a little surgery, they didn't take that stuff out to eat.
e: oh. (still crying)

6:35 am:

g: mama! dance!!
m: what? dance?
g: yep! mama, dance, peese!

Super Sweet Sister:

Wednesday was Library day. Well, now they call it Media Room or something lame. Anyhow, Ella is allowed to "rent" as she says, two books each week. Yesterday as I took the books out of her backpack she said, "Mom, I got one for me and one for Buddy!!!....I thought he'd like the garbage truck book!" Sure enough, she "rented" a book for her little brother and at bedtime when I asked her if she wanted me to read it to her she said, "No, I got that one for Grant, not me."