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.