Tutu Cute

Last night Zoe insisted on wearing her Angelina Ballerina jammies.  They're not really Angelina jammies, but they do have ballet dancers and ballet shoes all over it.  Plus it's pink.

To make the outfit more authentic, she insisted on adding an actual tutu with it while she brushed her teeth.

I'm Now The Child

Last night I was getting Zoe ready for bed.  Typically we put on an overnight diaper, some jammies and then brush our teeth. 

Last night was different.  After Zoe got all ready and before she brushed her teeth, she said, "mommy, I need to change your diaper."

Really?  Why?

Because you're poopy. 

I had no idea.  I think I'm good.

No, you're poopy.  I need to change you.  I'll be right back.

What are you getting?

A diaper, some wipies and some aquafor.

I really think I'm okay sweetie.

Just lay down mommy!

She proceeded to change me by lifting up my shirt, pretending to clean it and put some aquafor on it and then laid the Easy Up on my tummy.

I think this diaper is too little.

We're Like The Village People, But With Girls

For Christmas Grammie and Grandpa bought D & E gym bags.  Our plan has always been to join the new YMCA-YWCA facility as a family.  In an effort to get the older girls set for this, they equipped them with gym bags, workout clothes and water bottles.  Since Christmas the girls have been itching to use them.

Saturday came their chance.  We bought them new swimsuits and got them ready to go.  D insisted that she bring along a couple good books because she may get tired of swimming and just want to read. 

The YMCA isn't a Beaches Resort in Turks and Caicos, so the books were out.  She just needed clothes to change into and a towel.

All our girls are fish.  The love to splash, swim, jump, dive, practice handstands and not come out of the water until the absolute last second.  To say they had a good time wouldn't do the day justice.  It was the best Saturday afternoon E.V.E.R! 

D & E each found a friend to play with too.  While they went and played, N and I took turns between watching Zoe and sitting in the hot tub.

That was until Zoe wanted me to take her swimming and she started shouting "mommy" so it echoed in the gigantic gym.

I Hope She Doesn't Know The Real Meaning of Lucifer

So Zoe and I were watching Cinderella last night. It's our favorite movie.  We both sing all the songs and cover our eyes when Gus is carrying the key up to Cinderella's room and Lucifer the cat stops him.  It's one of my favorite movies of all time and I'm thrilled to share it with Zoe. 

One of the things we do when we're playing is ask each other who they'll be in the story or movie in this case.  I asked Zoe, "who are you?"

Cinderella!

Who is mommy?

Lucifer.

Someone told me last week that the independent stage is a preview of the hormonal teen years.  I sincerely hope this is the only time I'll be referred to as Lucifer.

N Spells Love

I'm the extrovert, social butterfly of my marriage.  N is the homebody who will be social when I make him.  Don't read that as he can't be social, he's very charming, but it's not his comfort zone.  He likes being home.  Being around his stuff, not having to put on fancy clothes or put on his game face. 

I like being out.  Home is good, but not all the time.  I like having a full calendar, I like being around people and being involved in a variety of activities. 

N and I balance each other out. 

Sometimes that balance gets out of whack and it's usually a result of my expectations not being realistic.  I can tend to put social demands on N.  He's gone from the house 18.5 hours a day Monday thru Thursday.  On the weekends he just wants to hole up at home, put on some sweat pants and be. 

I'm ready to do things as a family.  We need to go swimming, take Zoe to the preschool carnival and go go go.  He just wants to be home.

We had a little tiff this weekend because of my expectations and his needs.  Zoe and I went off to the carnival, while N stayed home.  I was sad that he would miss out on our time together. 

When I got home, he had my Valentine's day present.  He had spent the entire morning cleaning our house.  We're not talking just picking up, we're talking spring cleaning.  Everything was dusted and shiny.  The house smelled clean.  Papers had been sorted and dealt with.  The house looked new. 

I felt horrible.  My present was a clean house so I could relax the rest of the weekend and my present to him was a guilt trip.

I'm not entirely sure how I deserve the love of a man who just loves me because I'm me.  Someone who is willing to do amazing things for me, even though I don't allow him to be him.  It's a love that I cannot comprehend, yet am so grateful for. 

Thank you N for being my Valentine, my partner and my teacher.  I learn more and more from you each day.  I thank God that He gave me you to traverse this life with.  Heaps and hords my love.

Sending a Shout Out

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hope your day is as fabulous as those glasses.

The List

I live in routine.  It's my friend, my warm blanket that wraps itself around me and makes me feel in control.  When the routine is disturbed, so am I.  Okay, moreso than usual.

Thursdays after work I have my routine of going to the grocery store without Zoe, going home and getting about 30 minutes of alone time.  My mom graciously doesn't bring Zoe home until 6:00 or 6:30 so I can have some time.  I usually eat a dinner of cereal, watch some Food Network and then maybe I'll vacuum.  Zoe is still terrified of the vacuum, so it's my time during the week to take care of all the carpet.

Last night I sat down to write out my shopping list.  Since we are on a budget, I like to plan my meals for the upcoming week, make a detailed list and stick to it.  I save over $100 a month doing this.  Plus we tend to eat better because, hello, homemade!

I got out my shopping list pad and went over to the dining room table.  Zoe comes over and asks to make a list too.  She has some grocery store needs that I tend to forget to put on the list.  As she was making smiley faces on her list, she rattled off to me what she absolutely needs:

broom
socks
bananas
apples
blueberries
cake (I confirmed she wanted a whole thing, not just a slice)
light bulbs (which we actually needed)
yellow cheese
crayons
markers
lotion for her face
lotsa books
toilet paper
a puppy

I'm so glad that last one isn't at the grocery store.  I do think her daddy put her up to it.

Just Keep Swimming

In December the construction on a new YMCA-YWCA facility was completed near our home.  To say we were excited doesn't quite cover it.  All the girls want to take swimming lessons, gymnastics classes and really do anything at the new Y.  They've already packed their gym bags in anticipation of going.

This week our prior gym membership was done and we joined the new Y.

We took a tour and the first place they showed us was the swimming area.  It contains a lap pool, a swimming area for the kids with a gradual entry area for the young ones and a lazy river.  As soon as Zoe saw all the fun, she wanted her swimming suit on NOW.  She was ready.  Much to her disappointment, we didn't have our swimming suits and we weren't going swimming.

I tried negotiating with a 3 year old and gave her a list of things that had to happen before we could go swimming:  take a rest (sleep), go to Grandma's house, Mommy gets home from work and THEN swimming.  I repeated that list Monday night no less than 20 times.

Yesterday was the day.  Things were getting checked off her list.  We got our swimming suit on after Mommy got home and off we went. 

She played, splashed, kicked, jumped and got splashed.  We did songs and games from her prior swimming classes.  She had a blast.

I think she was even dreaming of swimming because when I put her blanket on her last night she started kicking.

She's a fish just like her mom.

I'm Not Sure I Have The Skillz

One of N's favorite hobbies is video games.  He's a total gamer.  The top thing on his wishlist is a laptop designed for gaming.  You can ask him anything about any video game and he can rattle off stats.  It's like telling you the RBI's and batting average of every player on your favorite baseball team.  It's a little eerie too.

About three months ago some friends of ours came over.  They are both young, sweet and newlyweds.  They sometimes play World of Warcraft together.  Angela, the young wife, went on and on about how much fun it is.  Since that dinner N has kept mentioning how much fun it would be if I were to just give World of Warcraft a try.

I hate this game.  N can spend days playing this game.  Days.  Only come up for air when he's hungry.  I don't like video games that much, let alone a game that can suck days out of you.

I will say N's been much better about limiting his time on the game, so the issues I have with the game are from past experience not current.  However, I'm not too keen on combat games.

In an effort to bond with N, I decided I would try.  I told him he could have 15 minutes of my time to teach me all about the world.  After 15 minutes, I would be done.  I may never play it again, but he needs to stop saying, "Angela plays it." 

I created a character, played for my 15 minutes and actually liked it.

Don't tell N. 

12 Adults + 15 Kids = Super

Yesterday our small group decided to put our study aside and enjoy some good fellowship.  Our hosts had the perfect house for a group our size.  The kids were either in their kids's bedrooms playing or down in the basement playing.  The men were in the family room watching the Super Bowl together.  The women were in the dining room chatting about life.

I think, between the 6 ladies, we asked "now who's playing again?" only maybe 6 times.  I have to say that's pretty good considering we were trying to track down kids, hold down conversations, eat as much yummy food as we could, convince the kiddos they needed to eat something and plan a Valentine party for next week.

I missed every single play, every single commercial and had the best time ever.

Thank you Steve and Jorene for opening your home.  It was super.

I Think I Blinked

I have no idea where the last couple years went.  We've lost some teeth, gotten some new ones.  We've cut off some hair and grown some new. 

How blessed we are.

Footloose and Fancy Three

On Saturday we celebrated Zoe's 3rd birthday with her friends and their families.  When you're making invitations for the party you begin to come to the realization that your child is more popular than you.

At age 3, she had 27 kids on her invite list.  If you add their parents and my family, you've got about 60 people on the list.  Sixty people for a 3 year old's party.  I don't even think there would be 60 people on the list for my birthday!

The theme was music, so we spend a good portion of the afternoon sweating to the oldies.  At this point I would like to thank Richard Simmons for teaching me how throw a killer dance/workout party.  I would also like to thank The Wiggles for making approximately 6,012 songs that played throughout the party non-stop.  If it weren't for these two things, the 16 children that came wouldn't have been half as entertained as they were.

We played a little freeze dancing, musical islands (like musical chairs, but with poster board taped to the floor instead of chairs), more freeze dancing, some Ring Around the Rosey, London Bridges and more freeze dancing.

Then we made some kazoos out of empty toilet paper rolls, construction paper, stickers and wax paper.

We realized we still had 45 minutes of time to fill.  Those 3 year olds need a new activity every 10 minutes.  Just like in the 90's, all that sweating to the oldies really knocks it out of a girl.

We did a parade around the building with our new kazoos.  If you've never seen a kazoo band of 3 year olds, I highly recommend it.  If you've never heard a kazoo band of 3 year olds, I don't recommend it. 

I'm not sure if it was a combination of sweating and deafness, but we decided to take a small break to eat cake.  I have to spend a moment on the cake.  It was absolutely to die for.  Diana at Happy Cake Co. made it for me.  All I told her was it was a music party and we're doing pink, black and white.  This is what she came up with:

I had a really hard time cutting into it.  I can tell you it tasted as awesome as it looked. 

One equation all the sweating and deafness made me forget is sugar + toddlers = hyper!

Fortunately it was around nap time, so we sent all the kiddos home with their kazoos and sugar rushes.

It was a great party with great people.  They all made Zoe feel special and loved.  What more could you ask of your child's friends? 

We Need To Set An Alarm Next Year

So I mentioned that I'm an overachiever mom who likes to make a big deal out of birthdays.  I've been waiting for Zoe's birthday for the entire month just to see if our card made the Sunny Side-Up show on Sprout.  Unfortunately you have no way of knowing if your card made it beforehand.

At 6:30 I got online to see if her card was out there and if there was any mention of making the show.  The card was on-line, along with 25 other cards.  Our chances of making it on the show were slim.  There were some amazing cards for some other overachiever parents. 

At 7:15 last Tuesday morning I got a call from my mom.  Her voice was high pitched and I think I could understand that my card made the show.  Apparently the host even gave some kuddos to the card.  I couldn't wait to get home that night and watch the re-cap of the morning show.  Zoe doesn't wake up until 9:30-10:00 in the morning, so I knew we'd be seeing it in the evening.

We went to dinner, went to see N at his work, had an impromptu party with daddy and then rushed home.  Zoe fell asleep on the way home, but I wasn't going to let her sleep.  We were moments away from her card being on the television.  Along with the Sprout folks wishing her a happy birthday.

That's when we discovered that the morning birthdays are different that the night ones. 

Her card made the show, my mom saw it, but Zoe has absolutely no idea that she was on television. 

It was a sad day for this mommy. 

At least Zoe had "the best birthday ever!"