The Amazing Lexi

We're so talented at our house. I have no idea what prompted her to try this, but she thought she was pretty cool. And since I think she's pretty cool, too, I just had to share.

Recent conversations at our house

Ellie and Chris reading Ellie's ABC book

Chris: Ellie, what letter is this? (points to W is for wolf)
Ellie: W, for wolf
C: And what letter is this? (points to X is in fox)
E: K, for orange wolf!


Ellie and Mom
E: Let's play duck goose!
M: Okay! (I sit down, expecting a two-man version of "duck, duck, goose")
E: You're the goose and I'm the duck.
M: Okay.
E: stares expectantly at me
M: Um...hi duck.
E: Hi goosey! (clearly pleased that Mom finally got it)


A phone call yesterday
Falsely cheerful woman: Hello! Is Vicki there?
Me: Um, no, she's at school...may I take a message?
FCW: Well, this is Susan from (whatever photography studio), and I'm just returning her call about wedding portrait packages.
M: Who did you say you were calling?
FCW: Vicki.
M: She's 7. I think you have the wrong number.
FCW, not so cheerful anymore: long pause...Um, yes, you're probably right.

You call that snow?

The girls got up on time this morning (no small accomplishment for a Monday), got dressed and ate breakfast, got their homework in their backpacks and were ready to go by 8:00, even though school doesn't start until 8:40. And then we all loaded into the car, drove to school, and learned that school had, in fact, been delayed by two hours. This is why:


I guess we need to get over the Utah mindset that it takes feet of snow, rather than millimeters, to disrupt normal activity. Having school delayed wasn't even any fun because there wasn't anywhere near enough snow to play in and we didn't find out about it until we were already at school (although apparently neither did any of the staff, bummer for them), so we didn't get to sleep in, either. Instead we went to the grocery store, since I decided I wasn't going to let it disrupt my day any more than it already had.

Crazy Oregonians, can't function if a single snowflake falls from the sky :)

You'd think we'd have learned by now...

Today was a typical lazy Sunday afternoon. Ellie asked to have a bath, so I put her in and then, figuring she'd be fine if I just checked on her every couple of minutes, I went into the playroom to work on the computer. I checked on her a couple of times and then became engrossed in what I was doing. Here's what I discovered the next time I checked:


No, the bubbles were not there when I left her. That red bottle floating next to her? Shampoo. Now empty. When she saw me, Ellie announced excitedly, "Look, Mama, I got bubbles!" All I could do was laugh (and take a picture).

So after I washed all the shampoo off of her and got her dried off and dressed, I asked Chris if he would fix her a sandwich so I could finish up what I was doing on the computer. 15 minutes later she wandered into the playroom and said, "Look, Mama, I'm painting!"


Chris fixed her the sandwich, but then he came back upstairs, leaving her downstairs all alone, except for Lexi's watercolors, which were conveniently left out on the table right next to Ellie's place.

The moral of the story: never leave a 2-year-old alone.
The REAL moral of the story: it takes your third 2-year-old to teach you this.

Tonight's score: Mom & Dad: 0, Ellie: 2

It's a bird! It's a plane!

Today I feel like Supermom. I don’t know why, really – I didn’t do anything all that exceptional. I think it’s more the fact that I realized today that this whole Mom thing actually does come naturally. After over 7 years of being a mom, you’d think I’d have figured that out, but I guess today was sort of an epiphany.

It happened while I was driving to school to pick Vicki up. The secretary called and said she had a fever and needed to come home. Normally this would not be a big deal, but Thursdays are the day that I have both of the girls I babysit, so in addition to Ellie I had 2-year-old Katie and 6-month-old Violet. And a car that seats three children. It was just after 2:00, so it crossed my mind to ask Vicki to stay until school was out, and then my friend would bring her home as planned, but I didn’t think they’d let her stay there for another hour if she was sick. So I bundled up Katie, woke up Ellie and Violet and bundled them up and got them all into the car, which involved removing two carseats and installing two more. I figured Vicki would probably be okay in the front seat since we live only a half mile from school. Once we were on our way several things occurred to me. I could have asked the lady down the street to come sit with the little ones (or at least the ones who were asleep) while I ran to the school, since it would have taken all of 10 minutes, or I could have called the friend who was going to pick the girls up after school and asked her to run over and get Vicki for me (which she pointed out when I called to tell her that it was just going to be Lexi after school). But I also realized that having my entire afternoon thrown completely off course by one phone call didn’t freak me out at all. So what if I had a houseful of kids? So what if I had no easy or, ahem, legal way to transport everybody I needed to? One of my own needed me, so I was going to do what had to be done.

Yes, I am Supermom. But then, I guess I always have been. Aren't we all? :)

(Oh, and the kicker? Vicki’s temp. when I got her home was 94. What's up with that?)

Start the car!!!

I've never seen this on TV, but then I don't watch much TV. However, being the IKEA nut that I am, I found it especially hilarious.





(I have never posted YouTube directly on here before, I have no idea if it worked. If not, try this link. Well worth it!)

Storytime

Today after dinner Chris decided to lay down for a little while. When Ellie noticed this, she said, "You sleep, Daddy, and I will read you a story." She found her farm book, perched herself in what she clearly saw as the best seat in the house, and "read" Daddy a bedtime story.