Say "Monkey"!

     Remember when you were a kid, and your parents huddled you and your siblings together, pointed the camera at you and demanded everyone to "Say 'Cheese'!" 


     I'm not sure where the "cheese" part came in...Of course wikipedia had some thoughts about this...

"Say cheese" is an instruction used by photographers who want their subject to smile. By saying "cheese", most people form their mouths into what appears to be a smile-like shape. Additionally, the absurdity of saying "cheese" for no apparent reason can incite glee in some people.^{[citation needed]}

As this practice became ingrained into modern western culture, it has taken on the simple role of a final warning before a photograph is taken. Often subjects will simply use the phrase "say cheese" as a cue to enter their final pose and to smile, neglecting to actually say "cheese".   (www.wikipedia.com)

     Go ahead, try it. ....say "cheese"...Did you mouth form a "smile like shape" (as wikipedia says). 

     For the record, someone told us several years ago that saying "monkey" prompts a more natural smile for children.

     Now try "monkey"...a little bit better, isn't it?! 

     Cheese or monkeys aside, I know that I usually obliged, said "cheese" and offered a smile for my picture taking parents. 

     Guess who doesn't do that in our house?

     Guess who likes to make faces? Turn their head or put their hands in front of their eyes so that I can't see them? 

     Guess who likes to rebel against saying "cheese" or "monkey"?

     Guess who could care less whether her mother would like to capture a few moments that say 'I was a sweet child once in a while...really I was." 

      How about the morning when she was sitting ever so sweetly at the kitchen counter, eating her breakfast, in a dress, with a very cute headband that she had donned herself...I grabbed my camera, before the mood changed or she noticed and tried to capture a "candid." Too late on the not noticing part....

"Aw, c'mon Ella. How about a nicer face?" I plead...

I get this...

Or how about on Easter when the girls were nicely dressed and my hubby looked pretty handsome...think I could get a nice picture then? 

For the record...that is not her not being ready for the picture, it is her turning her head ON PURPOSE!!!

Maybe on her birthday? Think she'd smile for a picture on her birthday?

There are many more pieces of evidence to prove that the child has a secret ploy to foil any nice pictures of her childhood...

There are also some sweet ones...like this...

And the ones from earlier this year when I would ask her to smile and she wasn't sure what that meant yet...We would get something like this...LOL! 

If one thing is for certain it is that her lack of smiles makes me smile...when I look BACK on it of course (never in the moment when I'm imploring her to cooperate!). 

Maybe I can save all of these and give them to her future husband...to remind him that when she is being crabby and uncooperative that it's not just him! 

I think my poor husband might need a few of those reminders this week as well, but that's another story entirely! 

How to Make Your Children Laugh...Read Them Strange Books and Talk About Arm Pits

(In full disclosure, this photo has little to do with my post...except...as you'll find out later in the post..the woman has her arms above her head. And, if you must know, I look like her in a sports bra in my workout dreams)

It's been far too long...I know... since I've posted about my day-to-day shenanigans!

The biggest reason...the monkey's aren't napping anymore!!!

This means that I don't have the little pocket of free time in the middle of the day in which I used to write and read and, well, breathe!

"Well, aren't they going to bed earlier?" one might ask, "Offering you all sorts of new found free time after they go to bed?"

Haha.

Yes. Sometimes they go to bed a little bit earlier. But no, it's not a very productive bit of time. The honest answer... I'm so tired from chasing them around all day (and pulling them off of the chandeliers) that I just crash on the couch and stare at either the t.v., my husband (whom I have no words for because my brain has shut down), or a really fluffy magazine.

So my apologies! The funny stories are still in full swing...the writing of them has merely come to a halt!

That said, my sister in law, who is having a really tough week, told me she misses the funny stories...so, for her, to cheer her up, I'm going to share a funny moment from the week...


Mommy Moment of the Week: Mommy Has Become a Spectacle


     So, we're sitting on the couch the other day, all nicely snuggled beneath warm blankets with a stack of library books at our side. I'm feeling like super mom because I've put all the cleaning, and folding and house tasks aside to invest in my girls and have a nice, intimate moment with them.

     The girls picked out several books about Christmas, for whatever reason. One about Santa Claus and one about the three wise men.

    The Santa one was a pretty easy read.

     The three wise men one, the one I was looking forward to because it was about the spiritual components of Christmas was just o.k., and, well, the pictures were a little...odd.

    "Mom, why are the wise men wearing make-up"

    "Oh, honey, I don't know...I think because the story took place around Egypt and so the artist was getting creative because a lot of Egyptians wore eyeliner." (I don't even know if this is true...I was kind of making things up on the fly!)

    We read a few more pages.

     "Mom...Look. Everyone is wearing make-up, even Mary!"

     "Uh-huh." I try to brush over the comment and move on.

      Finally...

      "MOM!!!! Jesus is wearing make-up!!! Why is Jesus wearing make-up?!"

      Oh my word.

      "Oh honey...I don't know."

      I really didn't know what to say. Mr. Tommie DePaola, author and illustrator of HUNDREDS of children's books, with numerous awards to his name, Why is Jesus wearing make-up? 

        "Well, I don't think Jesus really wore make-up."

       "No, Ava. I'm pretty sure you're right about that." 

    The conversation went downhill from there...

     Now completely distracted and no longer interested in the book Ava says, "Mom, can you lift your arms?"

      "No! Why?! Why do you want me to lift your arms?!!"

      "Do you have hair under your arms (meaning my arm pits, of course!!)?"

      "Oh Ava!"

       "Let me see!"

       I finally lift my arms. If I had any sense of decency left I should have left them down.

        "Ewwwwww!"

        Great. Now my children are laughing at my arm pits. She pulls Ella into the fray.

        "Mom," Ella says, "Lift your arm!"

        "No. No. NO! I'm not lifting my arm!"

          She tries to pry it up.

         "Mommy has hair under her arm!" Ella recants.

           For the record here...there wasn't really hair under my arms....I had just shaved the day prior before I went to the gym...it was more the darkish stubble that seems to become more permanent the older one gets (I'm so sorry...about arm pit talk and stubble here...it's all of got these days!).

        "Girls! That's what happens when you get older. You get hair under your arms! Why are we even having this conversation?!!!"

           They laugh at me...I distracted them with another book, "Dora's Christmas", in May mind you!

         The arm pit conversation died down....for the day anyways. At least once, every day since Wednesday, someone has needed to point out that mommies have hair under the arms.

         Good grief!

          I won't tell you about all of the other crazy things they ask me at the most inappropriate times....like what the purpose is of the silver disposal containers on the inside of women's public rest room walls! When I tell them I don't know they loudly start guessing on their own. Not sure which is worse, telling them the truth, or listening to what they come up with!

      Lin...hope that gave you a chuckle today (at the expense of TMI!)

Boyfriends...Already?!

Oh my...my daughter has a "boyfriend"...her 3rd of the school year, actually.

The first was Cooper...actually, Cooper is still in the picture...He's a sweet little boy who is undoubtably ALL boy. He is crazy and silly and wears super hero t-shirts and drives his mother up a wall (she's a friend so I can say that!). He says silly things upon greeting Ava at school, like this morning for example, as we were walking to class with him and his mom and he stepped away and declared, "My eye is falling out!"

Silly. Funny. Boy stuff. 

Ava just stares at him like he's nuts. And then later she'll tell me with a smile that Cooper is silly and makes her laugh. 

We went out to lunch with Cooper about a month ago. He was as silly and crazy as you can imagine any 4 year old boy would be out to lunch at a quiet restaurant with three women (his mom, Ava and her mom!). I won't tell you about all of this antics (I fear his mom might be mortified, though we completely understand his intentions), but he was a crazy,  nutty, "eye falling out" kind of stuff boy. 

Apparently his mom had a little talk with him in the car on the way home. Know what he said...

"I was trying to make Ava laugh"

Oh the things boys do to try to make us laugh. I mean how can you be mad at a little boy, no matter how crazy he was, when he says something like that. 

His mom told him he didn't need to try quite so hard. 

Then there was Charlie. Charlie was short lived on the radar screen. Ava never said anything about him, I'm not sure she actually knew. But one day, while we were standing in line to pick the kids up his mom looked at me with a grin and said, "Charlie LOVES Ava. He talks about her all the time."

Ironically, I went to high-school with Charlie's aunt, so at least I know he comes from a good family. You know, if he ever surfaces on the radar again. 

And then...now...it's Caden. 

Caden registered for school late this year. He was the new boy in late January. Apparently Ava is the friendly smiley one in class who welcomes newcomers. Particularly, sweet, blond haired blue eyed new comers who wear cowboy boots. 

Ironically, one of the first times he met Ava he went home and told his mom about her boots! 

They have been the topic of much discussion this year...Cooper likes them too. They are dinnertime conversation in Cooper's and Caden's houses, according to both of their moms! 

No more pink cow girl boots for Ava! 

So, this new little guy...Caden...guess what he told Ava...

On valentines day, Ava came out of class...shyly walked up to me, blushed and whispered...

"Mom, guess what Caden told me?"

Uh oh.

"What babe."

"That he loves me."

Oh my. 

"Mom. Guess what else?"

There's more?

"What else?"

"That he wants to marry me."

"Oh Ava. Don't tell Dad that!" 

"Mom, when did you meet dad."

Oh dear.

"When I was OLD. In my 20's!" 

"Oh...so you don't meet the person you're going to marry until you're 20." 

"At least 20! Maybe even 30 or 40!" I told her. 

She asked me about it several more times that day.

And THEN!

And then, I bought her these adorable stick on earrings last week. She was so excited to wear a pair to school. We put them on in the morning, she admired her ears in the bathroom mirror and then she asked me a question that almost made me take those sweet earrings right off her ear lobes. 

"Mom, do you think Caden will see my earrings?"

Ack!!! 

I tried to underplay it..."Hmmm...maybe...I dunno." 

When we showed up to school I was standing in the door saying good morning to her teacher with my hand on Ava's shoulder when all of a sudden...

A little boy with Toy Story cowboy boots, tousled blonde hair, and the sweetest grin, comes walking up, crosses his right leg over his left with his toe pointing to the ground, and with both hands in his pockets gave the most awkward little shrug, titled his head and said...

"Good morning Ava."

Oh. My. Dear. Goodness.Gracious. We. Are. In. TROUBLE.

"Excuse us," I said as I looked her teacher in the eye, "While we head out to the ALL GIRLS catholic school up the road for the rest of the year!!!!" 

Just kidding. 

I didn't really say that. 

But if this keeps up... 

 I'm thinking that little Mr. Gap ad boy DID notice her earrings after all...D'ya think?! 

Couldn't God have given her my genes; short, brunette with slightly crooked lower teeth. The combination doesn't cause quite as much trouble as the TALL BLONDE BLUE-EYED pixie that I somehow gave birth to, inherited from Scott's sister...tall, blonde, thin, pretty girl that she is! 

What's a momma to do? 

Pray a LOT! And keep telling her boys are crazy, and a pain in the behind, and that some women "never, ever, ever get married!" 

I did tell her that last little bit in the car on the way home that afternoon when she was asking about marriage. 

I'm hoping it stalls her...at least for a few years. 

Give Me...Coffee!

When I was growing up there was ALWAYS a pot of coffee on in the house...morning, noon and night (well, after dinner anyways).


It kind of bugged me, actually. I thought my parents were weird people who needed to get a grip, and a life that was manageable WITHOUT coffee.


It wasn't the casual cup I was opposed to, it was the grizzly faced, grouchy growl I was greeted with upon entering the kitchen on an early school morning if the pre-set coffee pot timer had not gone off.


How is it that we end up becoming our parents in more ways than we'd like to ever admit (or have anyone point out to us!).


How is that I also ended up marrying a man with just a much a coffee addiction (maybe even more so!),  and a love for the Blues,  as my own father?


Enter life post high-school...Early morning college courses...Where's the coffee?


Late night studying for college courses...Coffeehouse anyone?


A semester of mornings as a student teacher...before facing the hoodlums...Where is the coffee? I don't care how cheap it is, or what kind of pot it's been brewed in. I'm NOT going in there until I've had my coffee! 


My first full-time job?


Haha...let me tell you about that...


I started as a full time temp at a large publishing company in Boston. It was a place I eventually hoped (and did) land a job, but those temp jobs...Oi! It would be tedious for me to explain some of the tasks that I spent Eight.Hours.A.Day. doing.


We'll just summarize by saying they sometimes required scissors and tape. As in taping figures and diagrams from an almost out of date edition of a College Math textbook into the manuscript pages of the new text. For HOURS at a time. Many DAYS in a row. Days that accumulated into WEEKS and weeks without end.


And this was just one of the MANY tedious temp jobs I did in those seven months before securing a position.


I suppose I was fortunate that I didn't get stuck in the reference division (aka...working on dictionaries...I love words, but my love has a limit).

Fortunately there was a very busy Starbucks right across the street from the front of our building. Thank GOD! Literally, thank you Lord for the blessing of that Starbucks! Many days, alright, most days....alright, EVERY day...when I needed a break I would get up and walk to Starbucks. I would return to my desk having breathed in fresh air and the aroma of coffee and sitting with a latte next to me.


Then I would begin cutting and taping again...except somehow it was just a little bit better because I had my coffee.


You can see how it has infiltrated it's way into my life as a daily necessity...


So, sorry Dad, for all the times, at 6:30 in the morning when you were awake and grumbling that the timer on the coffee pot had not gone off the night before, and lamenting how you could not begin your day with coffee and you irritated that it was not RIGHT there for you to start your day RIGHT then, and I was irritated that you were irritated about, of all things, COFFEE!


I'll admit, I thought you were crazy.


Now, either I'm crazy too, or one of the blessings of life is that as we become parents and reality presses us to learn things like how important coffee is, we develop great grace for our parents and ask for silent bouts of forgiveness for judging them in the ways that we did before we understood...


So...that is why I wrote this post...and why I stood  laughing at the Keurig machine the other day as I looked down and considered the words on the front of the mug that had just been filled with my second cup of coffee...

Here's to coffee helping us through parenthood! And to our parents who we misunderstood, and misjudged because we had NO idea! 

All in a Days...Work

Remember how I alluded to the fact that I don't have a whole lot of time to do things like...well...blog anymore because the girls don't nap any longer...well, here are a few more reasons I don't have a whole lot of time for a whole lot things these days...(I probably should be cleaning the house instead of writing this post, quite frankly, but I feel so much better about it all when I can laugh at myself and share with you!). 


Please feel free to pass these photos around to all of those endearing and well meaning older women who tell you they miss they baby and/or toddler stage...I'm sure I will feel that way someday...


These photos...they're all from my house TODAY...that's right. This isn't chaos spanned over several days, weeks or months...it is all in ONE days life as a mom...


For your viewing pleasure...A day in the life...




The photographic journal of January 24th, 2012




I went to bed at 10:15 last night, intending to get up at 5:45 to do this...

Every once in a while I like to sneak in an early workout to get it out of the way...That's all fine and good until your 2 year old wakes up crying for 25 minutes at 10:55...and then your husband finally comes to bed at 12:30 a.m. and then your 4 1/2 year old crawls into your bed at 5:10 a.m. because she had a bad dream and wants to know if all of our doors our locked to that the alligators can't get in...

I still got up at 5:45 and made it to the gym by 6:15...At that point I figure I'd be tired later anyways, so why not!

When I returned at 7:20, Ava was coming downstairs...She spotted the two new plastic coloring tables and paint I had picked up for her at the craft store last night...She wanted to paint...right then and there...

Why not? I asked myself...

And so we did...

Here are our A.M. masterpieces...

The paint is still sitting on the floor in the kitchen...it will probably be there the next time you visit!

Then Ella got up...Apparently, shortly after I left the house for the gym Scott heard something downstairs. Ella had gotten up and was standing on a chair in the kitchen all by herself at 6:05 in the morning...She never gets up that early...He put her back to bed kicking and screaming...As you can imagine he's tired today too...Don't let anyone ever let you think sleep deprivation ends at the baby stage...Nope...it goes on and on and on and on...

For the record..This is what Ella slept in last night...

Yup...it's Ava's Christmas dress from last year. Ella found it in her closet...I was not home (was out running errands, like buying paint!) when she went to bed. When I went in to kiss her head at 9:30 I found her in bed in this...

She wore it to school today too...

Wanna take a shower? Sure. You just have to practice your long jump over the toys on the floor, which is what I did this morning...At least they were not IN the bathtub this time, as they usually are when I am all ready to jump in the shower...

Just before I got in the shower I looked down on the floor and thought "What in the world?" ...My post-it tabs were lying in the middle of the bathroom floor...Hmmm...strange...

They had also been used to decorate the wall...

And the sink....

And where the post-it labels were not enough band-aids were used...several of them...

I'm just going to pause briefly...I'm thinking you're wondering where in the world I am when all of this chaos is going on around the house...Friends, readers...These girls...particularly the little one...does this stuff at stealth speed. She is quiet and sneaky and creative...It make for some interesting findings! 

I did discover this morning that if you want your kids to stay away from your food (every time I make something I have two little ones asking, "Mom...can I have some? Can I have some?") Make a spinach smoothie...I couldn't get one person in the house to take even a sip of this this morning! 

By the time I dropped the girls off at preschool and went to Starbucks to get some editorial/writing work done that I need to finish I looked like this....

This is the timer I set at lunchtime...Ella is the S-L-O-W-E-S-T eater on the face of the planet. It drives me C-R-A-Z-Y. Seriously, it takes her .10 seconds to eat a lollipop, but stick her lunch in front of her and you better have a good hour...She picks and pecks at her plate. She pokes at her sister. She sings songs. She asks for water. She does ANYTHING but eat. I finally set a timer for both of them (Ava was puttering around too and spilling soup on the floor!) and told them there were no treats after lunch if they didn't finish before the time went off.

I've never seen them eat so fast. 

I did have to set the timer a second time for Ella...I felt a little sad...I actually think she cannot chew very fast for some reason...

The timer helped...

After lunch while I was cleaning up and about ready to pull my hair out I ran to the downstairs bathroom to take a quick potty break...

Here is a picture of the locked bathroom door. 

Yup. 

"Who locked the door?!!!!" I screamed.

"Me," Ava said ever so nonchalantly.

"AVA! YOu CANNOT lock the door from the inside and then close it!"

"You can't?"

Oh my heavens someone please, please help me.

"No honey."

She got all teary eyed...."Are we EVER going to be able to open it again." 

"Of course..." I assured her.

An hour and a half later when Scott came home and I came downstairs from a quick snooze, I saw that he had unlocked the bathroom...

Guess what else I saw...

Yup...that would be a fleece blanket covering the toilet and the wicker ottoman from our living room...

And another fleece blanket on the floor, a duck suitcase, two stools and a stack of library books on the counter...Apparently the girls were creating a reading nook before they locked the door...All while I was preparing their lunch...

A few points of other random chaos from the day...

One of the many single shoes I find in any given place on any given day...

some strange pillow blanket concoction discovered in the living room...

My husband tied a string around my prescription bottle...in the middle of the lunch chaos I called him to tell him that my lexapro was missing...it had been for two days (yes, I'm taking a small dose of an antidepressant for my anxiety...that's a whole other story...). 

I finally called the pharmacy to ask them for a refill because mine was missing...

In the meantime I found it at the bottom of the jar where we keep our k-cups for our keuring machine...I have NO idea how it got there. Scott thought it would be funny to tie a string around it...the only string he could find was one attached to a yo-yo...he thought that was pretty ironically funny...

Found this after my catnap too...

This is the fish that the bagger forgot to put in my bag at the grocery store earlier...it was the only reason I had gone to the store...Poor Scott had to make an extra trip to pick it up..

This is my scary fridge, which kind of epitomizes how our lives feel right now...

This is the kind of stuff I find randomly around the house that cracks me up and that I WILL actually miss someday...

All of these photos were taken before 3:00 p.m. this afternoon...Let's see what the evening has to offer! 

Nothing like a little monkey business all in a days work...

For the record, the only reason I had time to write this is because I did it in lieu of cleaning on the one day the girls actually DID take a nap...well, I suppose they didn't have a choice today...Mommy laid down the law that EVERYONE would be sleeping this afternoon...I'll be paying for it at 10 p.m. tonight...

God Bless You...

I woke up this morning, at 6:30, before the girls, with full intentions of sneaking downstairs to write a heartfelt post about marriage.


The husband and I, we love each other very much and know that that love, through God, is the foundation of a marriage that will endure. 


That said...we've kind of been at each other lately...Anyone else ever have those days? Weeks? Seasons? 


Anyhow...Scott was up because he was getting ready to leave for church at 7:15 a.m... I quietly snuck out of bed, pulled my slippers onto my feet and tip toed out into the hallway. I was just about to sneak down the stairs when I decided to take a quick sneak peak into Ella's room. 


Her blanket was completely over her head...


Blogger mommy thought, She'll be fine, really she will. Just leave it there...you know what a light sleeper she is.


Real mommy thought, You better go in there and make sure she can breathe. 


I snuck in slowly. No movement from her...I'm safe. I made it to the bed and peeked in...sure enough, the blanket was not just beside her head but pulled up and completely covering it. 


Slowly, I admired her sleeping face and began to pull the blanket down. So sweet. So quiet. 


When suddenly...POP! Eyes open. Staring widely at me. "Hi Mommy!!!!" 


Now, I'm not sure if I woke her up, or more than likely, if you know Ella, she had heard me tip toe into her room and played "sleep" until just the right moment to pack the most impact at which point she popped up to say  "Hi Mommy!" in her most chipper, I've been awake for hours, non-sleepy voice. 


"Ella! You're awake?!"


"Yup!"


"Hi"


"Hi Momma."


I reached out to carry her downstairs. 


"Where's my suitcase?" she demanded.

She's been carrying around this purple, metal suitcase filled with lip gloss, since Christmas. It was one of those afterthought gifts. I was done Christmas shopping, saw Dora + lip gloss...and immediately thought "Ella"! 


She hasn't put the thing down since. 


She takes it to bed with her. 


If it's not next to her when she wakes up, she asks for it immediately. 


"Oh honey, it's right here." I had taken it from next to her side, and placed it near her feet while she was sleeping so she wouldn't roll over onto it....and...well...wake herself too early! 


Once she had her dog in one hand, doll in another, and suitcase tucked in, I was allowed to carry her downstairs. 


"Ella!" Scott said, "You're up?" He said in just as surprised a tone as we came down the stairs. 


"Yup!" she enthusiastically declared.


I told Scott the story of the blanket. He nodded a knowing and sympathetic nod. 


So here I sit, blogging about Ella and not marriage...which is o.k. I'll save the marriage post for later in the week. Ella is sitting next to me on the couch watching Dora (of course) and eating dry, chocolate Rice Krispies from a plastic Applebees kid cup. Judge as you will...we're all happy here (see photo above!).


About five minutes ago she let out a big sneeze. 


"Bless you Ella." 


She looked at me as if I had just said,  "I'm glad you sneezed...you deserved that." 


"MOM! Your a-suppose  (there is always an "a" in front of supposed when she says this...)  to say "GOD bless you." 


"I just did."


"NO you DIDN'T" 


"What did I say?" (I knew what I said...I wanted to see what she would say).


"You said..."Bless you."


"Oh...sorry Ella. GOD bless you." 


"Thank you," she says as seriously and matter of factly as you can imagine.  


Eyes straight back to Dora once she has been blessed correctly. Not another word about it.


Oh Ella...you certainly make my life much more interesting. 


I'll let you know when those thoughts on marriage finally make it up...Ironically, our biggest issue is probably exactly the reason for my writing this post this morning and not one about marriage...we have kids....marriage is tricky when little kids are on the scene...plain and simple. 


Happy Sunday and, in all sincerity...God bless you too! 


If you can't make it to church today our services stream live here at The Chapel's website...either go, or watch...you will be blessed, I promise 

All Sorts of Miscellaneous Monkey Business

It's been one of those days. So busy, always moving and peppered with non-stop kid requests and intermittent fighting.

You know those days.

Ava woke up crabby. She doesn't take naps anymore and didn't go to bed until 10 p.m. last night. So, even though she slept until 8 a.m. this morning, the crabbies awoke with her.

So, let's see, here are some of the highlights, you know the moments that make you say "O Lordy, I'm never going to make it out of this with my sanity!" from the day.

Ava got a kid-friendly, Pinkalicious Scrabble game for Christmas...Ella, while Ava was nicely playing and I was cleaning up breakfast, took it upon herself to pull the game board out and proceeded to rip the entire bottom right hand corner off of the game board...Ava was quite upset and started screaming at Ella...I sent Ella to her room and promised Ava we could tape the gameboard back together (the feeble attempt at the right is actually her tape job!)...Somehow by the time Ella came down the stairs Ava had renewed her compassion for Ella and said, "Oh sister...I see what you were doing...you thought this was a ripping game. It's o.k. mommy will fix it." She was completely and earnestly serious...I was completely and earnestly confused...Ava NEVER has this kind of compassion for her sister over these things...she was fuming angry just 7 minutes prior...

...Women!

Then...I decided to hard boil some eggs because I just saw this holistic health care lady yesterday and she did a bit of a reconstruct on my current diet...of course, as I was pulling them out (we only had four left in the house) Ava spotted them and wanted one...and then Ella heard Ava and wanted one...so by the time I was done (and had eaten one myself) my organized pre-prepping (what the Dr. had suggested since I have kids) seemed a little fruitless...and Ella, whom for some strange reason I had given permission to eat her eggs in a plastic bowl in the living room (while watching t.v.), somehow scattered white and yellow egg bits all over our rug...I tried to wipe them up with a cloth. Do you know what happens when you try to wipe the yellow part of an egg with a wet cloth on a cream rug...paste....yellow paste all over the rug (to add to the bazillion spots that make me crazy already!).

--In the process of my trying to prep soup this morning Ava decided to try to paint her toenails and got polish all over the kitchen floor at which point I took all of the polish away from her and she started screaming that I was mean and that she was NEVER, EVER painting her toes again and that she HATED toes (I think she wanted to say she hated me, but she knows very well that we never, ever, ever use the word hate in regards to people...toes, maybe...people, big trouble!).

--All the while Ella was pulling even more clothes out of her closet...to add to the pile that was already on the floor.

--I finally finished the soup, cleaned up the kitchen and was ready to go to the gym until I looked over and realized everyone was still in their pajamas at 10:50...which is fine...unless you want to quickly get to the gym because the childcare worker is only there until 12. I had asked the girls to get dressed countless times...they apparently found other things more interesting to do (like rip game boards, and paint toe nails and spread eggs on the rug).

-- We did make it to the gym...I did get on the elliptical and made it through 27 minutes of my 30 minute preset workout...at which point I was called to the kids room to take Ella to the bathroom...She told me she needed to poop...She wasn't lying...I was in there with her for 10 minutes.

--Let's see...I finished at the gym, we ran to the grocery store, dropped off food for the friend, came home, ate lunch and then Ava apparently kicked her sister...I gathered the story by the fact that Ella came down the stairs sobbing and Ava was following quickly behind her saying "sorry, sorry, sorry..." meaning...'I really wanted to hit you, but didn't think you would cry and now I don't want to get in trouble...maybe if I walk behind you down the stairs and say sorry I won't get in trouble.'

I sent her to her room...for a while....

I finally got to close my eyes for 22 minutes....

Neither Ella nor Ava naps anymore...so I put them in their rooms for 1/2 and hour and close my eyes...it's the only way I make it through the day.

And then we start all over again...or just keep going...depending on how you want to look at it.

Ava wanted a bath, Ella wanted stickers, Ava wanted me to dry her hair, Ella wanted me to change her baby's clothes, Ava needed help with stickers, Ella wanted to read...

..And so it goes...

All in a days work...

And really, it's hard to stay mad at these two faces!

One of my favorite parts of the day just might have been after Ava's gymnastics class tonight...

"Mommy can I get candy from the machine?"

"No."

"Mommy can we buy a new leotard?"

"No."

"Mommy did you bring your wallet?"

"Ava! No."

"Mom, why do you always say no."

"Because I'm the big, mean, boogey say no monster."

"Mooommmyy! No you're not."

We both just laughed...

"Don't worry honey...someday when you're a mommy you'll get to say no a lot too..."

"Ok."

The End.


P.S. If you'd like some more serious reading I did manage to write a short post on prayer on my Little Writer Momma page earlier this week.