Some days are better than others

This was me by 6pm yesterday.

The day was going really well, nothing exceptional, just a normal day, up until about 4pm. Then, essentially, all hell broke loose. I was working on a project for my sister in law (can't elaborate - Mother's Day is coming up and both our mothers read this blog), which involved a lot of uploading and such on the computer. It was rather stressful, making sure everything was done right, and when I hit the final "confirm" button, the next screen I got was Explorer's error screen, so I didn't even know if everything I had done had gone through. I went downstairs to call Emily and let her know that maybe everything was ready, and just as she answered I came upon Ellie, sitting in a very large puddle in the middle of the floor. I should mention that Ellie has been going through a bit of a regression this week, and finding her in the midst of a puddle is not surprising. However, this was not your ordinary puddle. So, hoping against hope that it was just water, although there were no cups or water bottles nearby, I asked her (with Emily on the other end of the phone, mind you) what she was sitting in.

"A puddle."
"Ummm...a puddle of what, Ellie?"
"Pee pee!"

I have no idea how long she'd been in said puddle, but she was certainly having a good time. Emily, meanwhile, was howling with laughter as I, in a huge state of panic, told her I'd call her back. I dragged Ellie upstairs and threw her in the bathtub ("In my clothes?") and then undressed her. Meanwhile, Vicki and Lexi , being somewhat responsible, had headed upstairs to do their daily jobs (clean up the bedroom and playroom - they alternate days), but just couldn't seem to remember which room they were on, so rather than check the calendar that I made to counter such convenient forgetfulness, they decided to first shout at me to tell them, and then argue amongst themselves. They both thought they were on the bedroom, which, of course, was the cleaner of the two rooms. During all this screaming (I had no idea which room they were on but was a little too preoccupied to check for them), I was mopping up the floor and trying unsuccessfully to avoid getting my socks wet. Plus, darting into the bathroom periodically to make sure Ellie wasn't drowning or flooding the bathroom. I finished cleaning up the floor, found the calendar and told the girls which room they were on, checked on Ellie again, and called Emily back. She was, of course, still laughing (just wait, Em!) As soon as we got a conversation going a new fight broke out between Vicki and Lexi, this time (as far as I could tell) having something to do with the fact that Lexi wanted to put something away in the bedroom and Vicki not letting her in. Screams and total anarchy immediately broke out. I checked on Ellie again and started my 5th load of laundry for the day. Sensing that the older girls were on the verge of tearing each others' hair out, I said goodbye to Emily, sent them to separate rooms, and announced that they were grounded for the rest of the evening because I was tired of the rudeness. This, of course, did nothing to stop the screaming, it just changed the target of the screams. Then I went back into the bathroom to check on Ellie, who had been alone for no more than two minutes, and found her squeezing the last of the shampoo into a tub already filled with most of the conditioner. Great. Empty the tub, rinse the kid, refill the tub, desperately squeeze one more drop of shampoo so I can wash her hair, get out, get dressed, dodge the screams, make dinner.

Then Ellie said, "Oh, no, I'm peeing!" while standing on the chair, not a normal kitchen chair, but the one with her booster seat, which means three layers to go through before it hits the freshly mopped floor. Which means three layers to take apart and sanitize. Chris came home about this time, took one look at me on the floor, surrounded by Clorox wipes, garbage bags, and pieces of the booster seat, plus a half-made dinner on the stove, and turned around and went to Panda Express. What a guy.

The upside to all this is that Ellie, who had had no nap, fell asleep halfway through her hot dog, which I made because I knew she wouldn't make it until Chris got back, and Vicki and Lexi finished their jobs and ate peanut butter sandwiches in their room and were then in bed reading. So Chris and I were alone in the quiet by 7pm to enjoy our Chinese takeout and the banana splits that he stopped and got the stuff for on his way home from Panda Express. Yep, what a guy.

The downside to being responsible...

Today after school Vicki asked if she could walk her friend's dog. This dog is a big black lab, and she's still just a puppy, so she's pretty excitable, but Vicki has held her leash before, so nobody thought anything of it. Except for the dog, who apparently figured out that someone different and less experienced had ahold of her, and took off running. Poor Vicki was afraid to let go of the leash because she didn't want the dog to run away, so she was dragged across the blacktop several yards before we finally caught up to her. She came away with two very skinned knees (she picked a great day to wear shorts, huh?), as well as scrapes, scratches, and bruises all over her legs and hands. She was so brave, though, hardly crying, even though she was shaking like a leaf. As much as I wanted to tell her she should just have let go of the leash to save herself the pain, I had to praise her for being so responsible when she was looking after someone else's pet. And now she has some great battle wounds to show off to everyone tomorrow at school! Isn't that half the fun of being a kid?

I can add this to the list of things I never thought I'd hear myself say

"Honestly, I can't leave you two alone for 10 minutes without you stripping naked and painting yourselves pink!"

Here's what Ellie and her friend Katie did in the 10 minutes it took me to do those last two posts:

I have no idea where they found the highlighter. Last time it was an ink pad, which took considerably more time to remove. Last time they didn't strip naked, though, so this is new. I would love to post a backside shot, but since this is the internet (and one of them is not my child), I'm not going to. But they were well painted. So pretty.

Note to self (again): do NOT leave 2-year-olds alone! (of course, as I write this, because I had to, they're downstairs supposedly watching Dora and having a snack. I better go check on the, you think?)

Magic tricks and ramen

Vicki got a book of magic tricks from the library and has been working hard on impressing us with her card trick skills. Lexi has been working on some magic tricks, too. Here’s a basic rundown of her version of a card trick:

“Mommy, pick a card.” So I try to pick one from the middle of the deck (of about six cards, mind you). “No, pick THIS one,” she says, pointing to the top card. So, trying not to laugh, I pick that one. “Now, look at it, but don’t tell me what it is. This is very important. DON’T TELL ME WHAT IT IS.” While I’m examining my card, she puts the deck behind her and “shuffles” it in an exaggerated way, so I’m sure to notice what she’s doing. “Okay, now put it back in the deck.” I try to slide it into the middle of the deck, but she says, “No, how about here?” and lifts the top card so I can slide it right underneath. Then she turns around for a second, and then turns back and says triumphantly, “Is THIS your card?” And of course it is! Imagine that!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

On Sundays I usually make a big Sunday dinner, which we eat at around 2:00, carrying on a tradition from Chris's family. Yesterday, still recovering from all the running around I did on Saturday and trying hard to shake off what is threatening to be a really nasty cold, I decided I didn't feel like cooking. Thankfully, Chris fully supported me in this decision. So we had wraps and fruit salad (which means I opened a can of pineapple and a can of mandarin oranges, dumped them together in a bowl, and called it fruit salad) at our usual Sunday dinner time. After getting over the initial shock of not having "mashies" and gravy, everyone was fine with this. So around 6:00 I decided that, since what we ate for "dinner" should really just be considered "lunch", we should probably have some actual dinner. So I cooked up a big pot of ramen noodles and everyone was perfectly happy to eat them. Ellie asked for seconds, and then started running around, so I asked her to sit down and finish her dinner. She looked at me, in all seriousness, and this is what she said:

"It's not dinner, Mommy. It's just ramen."

Daddy-daughter dates

Friday night was the annual Girl Scouts Me and My Guy dance. The theme was "Off to the Tropics", so I found everyone some tropical-looking clothes and Chris and the two older girls danced the night away. When they got home Vicki and Lexi had leis wrapped around every body part imaginable - apparently the people putting the dance together overestimated the number they'd need, so the girls were happy to take up the slack!

Sometimes the sun shines in Oregon

And we make the most of it!

Saturday was a gorgeous day, the nicest day of the year so far. So we took full advantage. We’ve rented a garden plot at our local Community Garden, so we spent the morning pulling weeds and planting a few more things. So far we have planted peas, radishes, lettuce, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, parsley, turnips (because Lexi wanted them), onions, and probably something else I’m forgetting. Here’s a shot of the garden, not from the best angle, but you can see how big it is (the plan is that the fence in the frontish will eventually be covered in peas). We were expecting something no bigger than 4’ x 6’, sort of like the garden plots at the University Village, and wound up with a 20 square foot garden!

Vicki spent the morning planting the little plot we’ve given her. She planted carrots, broccoli (good girl!) and sunflowers.
Lexi and Ellie mostly played in the rocks, but they had a good time and think it’s really fun going to the garden, so that’s all that matters.
Surprisingly, despite the beautiful weather, we were the only people there all morning long. In a way that’s nice, but we’re kind of hoping to meet a few of our fellow gardeners, especially the ones with the plot that looks like they’ve been cultivating it for years! We need some tips!

In the afternoon we decided to run over to the high school and shoot off the rockets the girls gave Chris for Christmas. We invited our friends the Humphreys to come with us, and the kids had a great time. We managed to only lose one of the four rockets we shot off, the smallest one, whose fluorescent green color stood out great in the snow at Christmastime, but didn’t work so well in the green grass of the football field. We found the motor, but the rocket is apparently gone forever. Vicki shot off her rocket that Uncle Blaine gave her…

…and Chris shot off the two that he painted himself (the colors in the kits are pretty cheesy, especially for a design-minded person). We call this one The Black Widow.
Everyone had a great time, and we’re really glad we spent most of the day outside, since by Sunday night it was raining and cold again. However, the good news is that after living here for nearly three years, we know that the sun will come out again!

Here are some more random pictures from the day:

Lexi posing for the camera (this is what comes naturally for her whenever there’s a camera around. What am I going to do with her?)
Ellie peeking through the fence. I know she looks like a jailbird, but it’s a cute picture!
Ellie and her very best friend Anna. I finally got a shot of them hugging!
By the way, if the pictures all look a little blue, it's because the light setting on the camera was somehow set for incandescent light, which, not surprisingly, doesn't work so well outside in full sunshine. So I fixed them on Photoshop the best I could, but I know they still don't look quite right.

Peg your pants and break out the Aqua Net

New Kids on the Block are back together.

Apparently this is kind of old news, but I'm a bit behind the times here, so it's new to me.

They even have a website.

Now, as awesome as I think it is that they're getting back together (I will admit that I spent that last 10 minutes unashamedly drooling over pictures of Joey McIntyre, who is still definitely the hottest member of the band), my biggest question is this: will they have childcare at the concerts? Because all their fans are 30-something women, most of them probably mothers of small children.

Just something for them to think about.