baby, it's cold inside!

You know how when the alarm goes off and you think to myself "I don't want to leave my warm bed. It's nice and toasty in here and cold up and about." Well, this morning, this was especially true seeing at it was 61-freaking-degrees in the house! So, I'm working from home while awaiting the heating repair guy.

I'll be using this opportunity to find out some riveting facts about my house...namely whether we have gas or electric heat. Seriously, I have absolutely no idea since we have electricity (duh) AND a gas stove. But, I'm pretty sure telling the repair dispatcher that I didn't know just added eleventy-thousand dollars to the bill.

In other news, E has started to rebel against the daycare's uniform policy. She has to wear a polo shirt with the school's logo on it Monday through Thursday, and she can wear whatever she wants on Fridays. Every morning she asks, "Is it uniform day or something-else day?" Well, the past few days she has been saying she wants to wear something else even though it's uniform day. We compromised yesterday by wearing a cardigan on top, and today by wearing a short-sleeved uniform top with a fun long-sleeved shirt underneath. But, I'm sensing that things are going to be more and more of a struggle from here on out.

Truth be told, I don't like the uniform policy...so I'm more than willing to bend the rules a bit. Case in point...here's a picture of E going to school in her uniform back in the fall.And no, she does not go to the Punky Brewster School for the Gifted.

the little things

This morning, I was in the kitchen when I heard A stirring. By the time I got up to greet her, she was standing in her crib with Taggie in one hand and the blanket she sleeps under in the other. For the past week or two, she's been gathering her things up when we come to get her. The funny thing is, E gathers her stuff up, too. She'll come into our room in the morning with Silky, her Dora blanket and pillow, Baby, and whatever else she deemed necessary to be surrounding her when she went to bed the night before.

It's the little things like this that I'm terrified I'm going to forget. Years from now, it's not going to matter when they got their teeth in (except for when they are moms themselves and ask me as a bell weather from what to expect). But, I want to capture what they were like...their little quirks that make me smile.

E puts all of her dolls to sleep face down since she is a stomach sleeper. When A sees Taggie or another soft blanket on the floor she immediately dives down and snuggles her face in it. E loves to have you lightly trace over her face with your fingers when she's going to sleep. A will say "Ah Done" as soon as E gets up from dinner because she wants to get up and play with her.

Trying to get this down so I can hold onto it forever...this is the reason why I blog.

double your pleasure

Neither of my girls took pacifiers as babies. Well, E never took a pacifier...and since I never got used to offering one when A was crying or fussy, she didn't have much of a choice. But both girls have a security blanket or lovey.

E has Silky.I bought Silky at some fantastic sale at The Right Start, not knowing that this would turn into her most prized possession. If I had known this, I would have picked up two since that particular color and pattern was being discontinued...making Silky irreplacable. We've lived in constant fear of Silky being lost, so he is pretty much not allowed out of the house unless we are going somewhere overnight. We even made E bring a faux Silky to school with her, rather than risk her losing it or it disintegrate because of the increased washings.

When A came along, Grandmom and Grandad bought her Taggie.Being so much smarter about this kind of thing, I immediately bought a second (identical) Taggie when she started to show attachment to it. Right now, we take one to daycare and leave the other at home.

Occasionally, A will come into possession of both Taggies at once. A *loves* it when this happens. She runs around with one in each hand (or both hanging out of her mouth). She's as happy as can be. I'm happy because I don't think I have to keep up a charade of there being one true Taggie and hide from her the stand-in versions, as I know some moms do.

The only down-side of Taggie is that other kids have Taggies. And A doesn't realize that every pink Taggie isn't hers. When E's friend, Madelyn, was over, she brought her Taggie. A kept grabbing at it and was visibly agitated. As soon as I retreived hers, she was fine...but it was touch and go there for a while.

change of scenery

So, they did some reshuffling of offices at work on Friday. I was one of the people moved because I was in a prime cube location (by the window) and in the totem pole of employees, I'm not prime cube material. Who knew a part-time, telecommuting contractor could be considered less important than a full-time employee who's been with the company for years.

Anyway, my new cube location sucks. It's by the copy machine. And, because it's a cube the only logical place for my computer is completely visible by anyone walking by. So my extraneous Web surfing will be curtailed Tuesdays through Thursdays during regular business hours. Bummer.

On the bright side, I will get to do my best Rob Schneider impression anytime anyone goes to use the copy machine.

It's Bill....making copies. The Bill-meister, Bill-inator, Bill-o-rama, the Bill-ster, Bill-arino, Bill-van Washeimer, Mr. Bill...making some copies!

How long till that gets old?

a monday morning giggle

My friend, Steel Magnolia, just spent some time in the ER with her younger boys. Luckily, the Slackers have only had to do the ER thing once in our 3+ years of parenting. And, while Steel Magnolia came away from her trip with an amazing perspective on parenthood...well, we came a way with a funny (and totally tasteless) story. So, here it goes.

Two years ago, when E was about 16 months old, we were playing outside and blowing bubbles on the front steps. E sat down facing the house, lost her balance, and proceeded to tumble backwards off the brick porch, down two steps to the cement walkway. Though she seemed fine, I called the ped's office to see what I should do. They told me to monitor her and if she vomits more than three times, to call back.

For the rest of the day, E was fine. Happy as a clam, no ill effects. But at dinner, she threw up. We chalked it up to maybe her food going down the wrong pipe. Then she threw up two more times. By the time the on-call ped called back, it was 9 pm and E was snuggled safely in her bed...but they wanted us to take her to the ER just in case. So we scooped her up in her feety pajamas and headed out.

The ER itself was great. They had a separate pediatric unit and we were seen fairly quickly. However, E was not so keen on this whole thing. Pretty much every thing they tried to do to her -- take her temperature, get her blood pressure, check her heart -- was meet with screams, wails and full-on thrashing. Somehow they got through the initial check and detmermined that, just to be safe, they would have to give her a CAT scan. But because you had to be totally still in the CAT Scan, they would give her some medicine to make her drowsy.

The medicine they wanted to give her was a suppository.

So, now it was me, John and the nurse all struggling with E to try and get this suppository in. I had the arms, John had the legs and the nurse was trying to...uh...administer the thing. As soon as the nurse would start to get the suppository in, E would push it out.

"Wow, she's got a really strong sphincter," the nurse remarked.

In all the commotion going on, John misheard the nurse and thought she said something to the effect of "Wow, she's really strong." So, he replied,

"Yeah, you should see her mother."

Luckily, the nurse was able to get the medicine in and quickly left, E fell asleep and was able to get the CAT scan done (she was fine) and John remained happily oblivious to what he had really implied with his statement (until I told him on the way home). And, I...well...let's just say I'm glad that we haven't had to go back to that ER since.

free to a good home

One blue-eyed, curly haired, 16-month-old snuggle bunny. Loves milk, pasta and yogurt. Favorite activities include Peek-a-boo, Ring-around-the-rosie, knocking over towers of blocks, watching Dora and Diego and playing "Ah-dide".

Owners love her dearly, but she was up for two hours last night screaming her head off...until Mommy drove to The Teets in pajamas, bought Motrin (since the Slacker house was devoid of any pain killers) and gave her some. They will gladly take her back once all of her teeth have come in.

Absolutely adorable wardrobe included. First come, first served.

dear bruce pearl,

I know that, as the coach of the UT basketball team, it's your job and all to win. I get that. Everyone wants to do well at their job. But...could you scale it back a bit?

You see, I've resigned myself to being a
football widow, and that John would spend many a weekend heading to Knoxville for games. I took comfort in the fact though, that I would have a husband during the winter, spring and summer. Sure he might watch all of the UT basketball games on TV...but let's face it...UT wasn't very good, so not many games were nationally televised or even on Game Plan.

But then you had to go and turn the program around. UT's in the top 5 or something (I think...I just nod and smile when John starts droning on and on and on talking about the team). There's talk of a #1 seed in the tournament. Apparently, you are good and John's pretty psyched about it. And off he's headed to Knoxville this weekend for the Tennessee vs. Georgia game.

I fear that if you keep up your winning ways, I might lose my winter husband, too. So, if you could throw in a couple of losses, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Slacker Mama

what a difference a few years makes

Yesterday, my (younger, unmarried, childless) co-worker/friend stopped by my cube to ask a question. My purse was sitting right by him...he happened to glance in. All of the sudden he had this strange look on his face. He reached in and pulled out...some Mardi Gras beads.

It took quite a bit of convincing that they were, in fact, part of one of E's ensembles rather than a little something I...ahem...earned while out and about over the weekend.

And, maybe, last decade he might of been right. But seeing as my weekends are considered "wild and crazy" if I make it up past 11:30...not so much.

who's the big sister now?

One of the hardest aspects of disciplining E is that she often will do things that A is doing. So if we are at church (hey...it happens) and A starts babbling, E will take it as okay for her to whisper, too. Meals can be a pain because E will eat more with her fingers than utensils because that's how A does it. I forsee "If so-and-so jumped off the bridge, would you do it too?" type comments coming out of my mouth in the future.

Last night, I was sitting with girls while they ate dinner. And my conversation with E went something like this.

"E, please use a fork when you are eating."
"But, Mama, A's not using a fork right now either."
"Actually, E, she's trying to use her fork when she eats. But right now, she's using a napkin to wipe her face and hands because she's trying to be a big girl with table manners." [Side note: A really does try to use a fork and then she does tidy herself up with a napkin; it's incredibly cute and much needed.]
"Well...she still talks like a baby and I talk very much like a big girl...so there!"

partners in crime

So the girls and I had off for MLK Day. We had lined up a playdate in the morning with my friend Liz, but one of her sons had a stomach bug, so it pretty much fell through. We were forced to do something productive, so we bundled up and headed out to Harris Teeter to get groceries that we were too lazy to get Sunday for the week.

In the afternoon, my friend Heidi brought over her two daughters, Madelyn (3 yo) and Eleanor (13 mos). E has always loved Madelyn...and despite E's over-exuberance in showing her affections toward Madelyn (think: hugs that end up being tackles), Madelyn loves E as well.

The girls get along famously except for the fact that they have a tendency to misbehave a bit more than they would alone. Nothing major, mind you, just jumping on the couches and running off at the playground. But, we've always joked that the girls will no longer allowed to be friends after age 12 when the real trouble will begin.

So, as Heidi and I sat in the family room with Ellie and A, Madelyn and E were up in her room playing with her dress up clothes and stuffed animals...or so we thought. We decided to check in on the girls, and made it up the stairs just in time to see the girls in their undies sitting on the bathroom sink as it began to overflow onto the bathroom floor. They had pulled the stopper in the sink, turned on the faucets and were splashing around.

We might have to cut off ties by kindergarten.

In other news, it was so cute to see A in this type of social situation. She loved Ellie and even hugged her at one point. She also really wants to be part of the older crowd. At one point she joined in on a few rounds of Ring-around-the-Rosie. She just beamed the entire time...it was adorable.

Minor plumbing catastrophes aside...it was a great way to spend a Monday.

tgif

Man, am I ever happy for it to be Friday...and the beginning of a 3-day weekend to boot. Work this week was a killer, but I've got my bottle glass of wine, so I'm not going to dwell on the bad stuff.

We've got a full weekend in the Slacker house. Tomorrow night is John's company party, which they have moved from December to January. It's nice to have something in the dead of winter and not to have another thing to stress about during the holidays. It's up in Baltimore, so we're spending the night while the girls head to Nonna and Pop-pop's house.

Sunday will be the usual -- football, laundry and grocery shopping. Good times!
Monday, the girls and I have off. We're going to catch up my friend, Liz and her sons in the morning, and my friend Heidi and her girls in the afternoon. Very excited to see them all.

Hope you all have good weekends!

one-on-one

So last night, we each had a little one-on-one time with a girl. John picked E up from school, stopped by home to get changed and off they went to The Orange Birginiya to watch the UVA vs. Virginia Tech basketball game. At one point, John was waffling on whether or not he wanted to go (it being a school/work night, etc.), but when E overheard him mentioning that to me on the phone, she started screaming "No Daddy! I wanna go to The Orange Birginiya!"

They had a great time. Ate popcorn in the first half and a hotdog in the second half. They stayed through till overtime (UVA lost), and got home at 11. E stayed up the entire time. Around Warrenton, she told John that she was going to be a ballerina when she grew up. Good times were had by all.

I picked A up from school a few minutes after John and E left. We got home and had a little dinner -- fruit cup, soup and goldfish. Then we spent the time before bed just playing. We played chase...we read books...we did airplanes...we had tickle fights. It's so great to have her feeling better and being in such good spirits again.

I think that date nights should become a weekly thing. We'd switch kids weekly, but I think they would both benefit and love some one on one time.

an optimistic thought

I don't know how exciting your Friday night was, but mine involved a few glasses of wine (of course) and vegging on the couch with John watching a bit of TV. In between the random basketball games that we were watching (I mean, seriously...that kid would watch community college basketball if it were televised), we watched a bit of 20/20. The episode was all about happiness -- what makes people happy and why. One of the things they touched upon was that happy people just have a better outlook on life.

This has struck a chord with me. I definitely think of myself as a glass-is-half-empty kind of gal. So this week, I've been trying to really look on the bright side of things. My 45-minute commute yesterday? Hey, at least it wasn't an hour! Another stupid conference call? More time to catch up on what Britney's up to!

But I was put to the test last night, when after running downstairs to get something, I found that my charge for bedtime, a freshly bathed and completely nekkid A, had pooped on the bathroom floor. As John and I scrambled to clean up the aftermath, I put on my best smile, turned to John and said,

"At least this didn't happen on Sunday when she had her tummy virus."

Just call me Susie Sunshine.

dear lady in the stall two doors down...

You are in a public restroom. Going to the bathroom is an appropriate activity. Talking on the cell phone while going to the bathroom is not an appropriate activity. Ever. Not even in an emergency (and I highly doubt updating "Nan" on the status of your kitchen redo could be considered an emergency).

One should not have to wonder if flushing would be rude since it would interrupt your conversation or possibly alert the person on the other end that you are talking to them WHILE GOING TO THE BATHROOM.

Ew.

Sincerely,
Slacker Mama

a shout out to kiki

So the other night, I was cooking pasta and peas for the girls. Pasta and peas is a Slacker go-to meal, but we usually use tortellini or ravioli from the fresh section. Friday night, however, I broke out the box of Barilla.

"What's for dinner, mama?" E asked.
"Pasta." I replied.
"Mac and cheese?" E asked.
"Nope. Gemelli.*"
"Let me see!" E said.
So I showed her the pasta.

"It's curly pasta!" E exclaimed. "Just like Kiki's hair!"

It just maks me so happy that, even though Kiki doesn't live close, she's still in the forefront of E's mind!

* Nerd alert: Gemelli is Italian for "twin" as well. So another way it all goes back to Kiki.

with daughters like these...

...maybe I should fire the cleaning lady?

hero's welcome

So A is hanging at home for one more day (if I haven't mentioned this before NONNA ROCKS!), but E went to school. It was quite humorous, E was begging to stay home and A was standing at the door with her lunchbox saying "Ah-dide!"

When E walked into her classroom, about 8 of her classmates came running over. "E's here!" they were yelling as they gave her huge hugs. Then one shouted "E, I love you!" and the little lemmings all followed suit with a chorus of "I love you, too, E!" It's so cute to see that she has little friends.

Weekend here was pretty boring. Watched football. Changed some diapers. Watched basketball. Changed some diapers. Watched football. Caught E giving her and A's toothbrushes a bath in her Dora potty. Changed some diapers.

I also did LOTS of laundry. Over the holidays, we ended up getting a new washer and dryer. And while I loved it prior to this weekend, the presence of a sanitary cycle made me love it more.

on the upswing

A woke up from her nap this afternoon just as E and Pop-pop were heading outside to play some soccer and get the mail. When A saw them open the door, she started to cry. I asked her if she wanted to go outside, and she nodded her said and said "Ah-dide!" So, we bundled her up and Nonna took her out.

She's still not 100% but it's definitely a start!

slave driver!

I'm working today since I've been fairly unproductive this week and have a few things that need to be done. Nonna, rock star that she is, is back over here watching the girls. After my conference call, I went in to check on how things are going. E pops her head out the tent they have set up in the living room.

"Are you done with your work, mama?"
"No, E."
"Well then, get back to work!"

poor baby a

Last night was a little rough for A. She woke up several times and wanted to eat or drink. We gave her some Pedialyte at 1 am, which she promptly puked all over me. At 3 am, she joined us in our bed where she alternately dozed and drank a sip or two of water.

She's held down crackers and water since this morning, which is good. She has also been sleeping on and off for most of the day. The rational mama in me says "Great! Sleep is what she needs!" The irrational mama in me worries, "Dude, is she going to be awake all night long!?!?" Daycare called and said one of her classmates had been diagnosed with Rotovirus, so I'm assuming that's what A has, especially since she's had a bit of the Big D and a slight fever.

The big winner in all of this is E. Not only did she get a fantastic night out with John last night, my mom came over to watch the girls while I worked. Well, since A's been sleeping a lot today, she's basically had Nonna all to herself. She even suckered Nonna into a few games of Chutes and Ladders!

the awesomeness continues

I hate it when I'm right. This afternoon and evening was a nightmare. Having a 15-month-old with a stomach virus is no fun at all. She was hungry and thirsty. She was yelling/screaming/crying/pleading with me to give her more than a sip of Pedialyte at a time. She climbed into her booster seat and refused to budge. She tried to scale the counters to get to her sippycup stash. And, since she is only 15-months-old, no amount of explanation would make her understand that it wasn't that I didn't want to give her more...that she shouldn't have more.

Thankfully, she took two naps this afternoon and did not throw up any more after the second one. So I hope she's on the mend. And the rest of us don't get it.

On the bright side, John and E went out for a little date tonight. They went and got their hair cut, got burgers and fries at Five Guys and then hit up a little Coldstone. The both had fun, and have cute new 'dos to boot!

Actually, this reminds me of when E was 18-months or so and got some sort of similar virus. And, towards the end of afternoon, she was the same as A, just begging for more to drink or eat. She was signing "eat", "more" and "milk" furiously and crying, and my mom and I were just plain crying because it was so pathetic. In a desperate attempt to get E to forget about food and drink, we turned on Sesame Street and tried to distract her with Elmo's World. And what were Elmo and Dorothy thinking about that day? Water. As the montage of kids drinking water from cups and water fountains, playing in the sprinkler and dancing in the rain played, my mom and I scrambled to turn the damn TV off. Parenting is a blast some days.

you know what's awesome?

Getting a phone call from daycare telling you to come pick up A, as she puked 3 times this morning.

You know what's even more awesome? Puke #4 being down your back as you carry A out the door of daycare.

She's sleeping now, but I imagine it's going to be a long afternoon here.

fashion plates they aren't

When left to her own devices, this is what E would wear.

That would be her peasant skirt, a new shirt from Christmas, her rainboots, her Hershey Kiss Halloween costume (on backwards!), her "Groovy" necklace and Silky (of course!).

And this is what A looked like when I picked her up from school today. Those were not the pants she wore to school...but this is what happens when striped pants are your "backup" pair and you let your teachers do your hair. (By the way, drop off was decent today...she was a bit teary, but quickly distracted with a banana and Nutrigrain bar. Yep, food trumps Mommy every time.)

better late than never

Slacker Mama is quickly becoming a technological goddess. (She is also enjoying referring to herself in the third person, but that's not important right now.) After learning some new skills in Photoshop (hence the new header graphic, and those of some of my blogger friends), I have now joined the world of YouTube. And that means you get to experience the joy that was Christmas morning.

just "chute" me

E received the Dora Chutes and Ladders game for Christmas from Kiki and Uncle Steve. (For the record, we also have Dora Memory and Dora Candyland as well. I think at this point it's safe to assume that if it's a board game with Dora on it, we have it.) Anyway, this weekend we finally ran out of excuses opened up the game to play it.

In a nutshell, John decided he would rather change A's poopy diaper than subject himself to another game of Chutes and Ladders with E. First reason, for the first 50 or so rounds that we played with her, she didn't fully grasp the concept that Slide = Bad. Therefore, games would last forever. Second reason, E cheats ... a lot. She spins and spins until she gets a number that she likes (often one that would allow her to go down a slide, see Reason 1). Then she "forgets" about your turn. Then she decides that she wants to be Backpack and you should be Dora...now she wants to be Dora and you be Backpack again. The constant chaos and lack of rule-following is enough to send this OCD mama over the edge. I found myself cheating right back...letting her skip entire rows and telling her she had rolled enough to get up a ladder just to get the game to end.

Luckily, the weather was nice so we actually got to use the real-life chute and ladder in our back yard. A, like her big sister, is fearless. She can now climb up the ladder and go down the slide pretty much by herself. She also loves the swing and tried to pull the cover off the sandbox to get in. Today, we ended up at a neighbor's backyard with all of the other kids and she was quite perturbed that she couldn't figure out their rock-climbing wall. She just stood there hanging onto the holds, screeching and staring at me like, "Lady! Get me up this wall thing!"

Tomorrow, it's supposed to close to 70 round these parts. I'm hoping that the good weather will change A's tune about the Toddler class, since they go outside onto the playground (they didn't in the infants room). On a happier note, she was pretty good when I dropped her off on Friday. She more or less yelled in protest than cried, which was nice. I'll keep you posted how it goes tomorrow.

dear pizzeria uno

I know you are trying to emphasize that you use fresh ingredients and what not by decorating your restaurant with boxes of food, cans of tomatoes and bottles of wine. I get that. What I do not get is why a marginally decent pizza chain an Italian restaurant would need to display ginormous baskets of apples and oranges. Wine and pasta? Sure. Go for it. But, apples and oranges? What's so Italian/pizza-y about that?

But, if you are going to continue to display said baskets of fruit, you might not want to sit the Slacker family directly beside them in the near future. My ears (and those or our nearby diners, I'm sure) are still ringing from the shrieking and crying Sweet Baby A did in her effort to convince us to give her one. And, you might want to do a quick check of the apples when you get a chance. I think one of them might have a E-sized bite in it from when I had my back turned.

Oh, one more thing. If you are going to take for-freaking-ever to get us our food on a Thursday night when your restaurant is pretty much empty, you're going to have to give me a bigger glass of wine. The thimble-sized glass that you poured for me just isn't enough to take the edge off.

Thanks,
Slacker Mama

drink more, work less

So, it's New Year's resolution time! Usually, this means that I tell myself that I'm going to eat better, exercise more and lose weight. Like so many others, I've completely blown it by January 18th.

But...this year is different. As you can tell by the post title, I have lofty goals:

Drink more, work less.

I know what you are thinking. "Uh...Slacker Mama...that doesn't seem like something to aspire to." But you'd be wrong.

When I came back to work in July, it was supposedly for 32 hours/week. However, due to the workload that I have (and the culture of the company that I work for) it really hasn't worked out that way, and I usually end up putting a full 40 (if not more). Since I'm a hourly contractor, this has worked out nicely for the Slacker family coffers, but has left me feeling like my work-life balance is totally out of whack. And since this has increased my already guilt-ridden conscience about not spending time with the girls, I pretty much spend every second of my free time with them. Which means that the time I spend doing things for myself (or even by myself) has been reduced to pretty much nothing.

That's where my resolution comes in. I'm going to really focus on limiting the amount of time that I devote to work, by working more efficiently (she says as she blogs during work hours...loving the conference calls!) and by setting limits on when I work (developing and sticking to a schedule). In addition, I'm going to make a concerted effort to spend a little more time doing stuff for me, be it getting up a little earlier to work out or enjoying a glass (or three) of red wine at night.

So far, I've been pretty good at doing this. I'll keep you posted as the year goes on.

people are dumb

As part of my job, I provide user support via the Help Desk. Someone contacted us saying that they couldn't log in. I send my standard response: make sure you have cookies enabled...and if you do (and still can't log in), let me know what error message you are getting to help me troubleshoot further. She replies that she *does* have cookies enabled, and that the message she receives when she tries to log in is...get this:

INVALID PASSWORD

I mean...how am I supposed to respond to that without making her look like a total moron? Sad thing is, this isn't the first time this has happened and I'm sure it won't be the last.

this cracked me up

I get those BabyCenter newsletters on what my baby should be doing for each month. When E was a baby, I would read each newsletter word-for-word as if it were the definitive guide to my child's development. Now that I'm such an expert parent (heh), I read it for entertainment. Case in point, this was in my What My 15-Month-Old is up to:

Whining and screaming: If your 15-month-old has started sounding like a hyena or worse, you're experiencing his intense desire to interact with you. Children thrive on their parents' attention, and a toddler this age will do just about anything to get yours. When he gets loud or whiny, kneel down to your child's level and tell him you're listening. If he keeps it up, calmly say, "I can't understand you when you talk like that. Please use your normal voice and I'll be happy to listen to what you're saying." Eventually, he'll get the message.

I mean...really? The "use your normal voice" doesn't work on my three-year-old...I'm pretty sure it will be useless on A.

We did put this yelling to good use tonight. We played this "game" where E and I would pretend to be asleep. A would creep up and yell "Ahhhh" to wake us up. E and I would pretend to be startled awake and yell back. Laughter would ensue. This kept the girls entertained while dinner was cooking. Good times, indeed.

back at square one

So this morning was A's first day back at school since the Friday before Christmas. It was also her first day in the Toddler's room.

It did not go well.

It started out fine. A was happy as a clam, carrying her lunchbox into school. But she was a hysterical mess as soon as we stepped foot in her room. I ended up taking her with me to E's room to drop her off...and she would barely let me put her down to unpack E's things. (By the way, E was great. Couldn't have cared less that I was leaving her.)

We went back to her room, where she held on for dear life and cried, cried, cried. It was so pathetic. The teachers were great...they all were coming over and trying to distract her. I ended up leaving her with Miss Caitlyn (who is a fave of E's) with her still crying. Hopefully, she'll be back to her old school-loving self in no time.

a's vocab list

Christmas Day was A's 15-month birthday. As E did, she really doesn't say all that many words, but understands pretty much everything you tell her. Her current vocab list is:

• Mama


• Dada


• Pat-da: Pasta


• Ah duh: All done


• Ah-dide: Outside (this sounds very much like all done...however, it can be distinguished by A frantically trying to open a door to get out)


• Dough-da: Dora

Yes, you read that right. In her limited vocabulary, Dora has made the list.

e's resolution

This morning, I was telling E about resolutions. I asked her what her resolution for 2008 would be.

"Dora."
"You mean, you want to watch more Dora?" I asked.
"No. I want to be more like Dora."
"How are you going to be more like Dora, E?" I asked.
"We should go to the store and buy lots of Dora things so I can be more like Dora, mommy."

Sad thing is...she's more likely to keep her resolution than I am.