The Mother of Geese

So I can never really figure out why either my camera runs out of battery so quickly or I run out of memory. I believe I'm starting to figure it out...

I LAAAH-ove chocolate cake with sprinkles on it. Maybe its because its like a giant cupcake, but whenever Brad makes cake-I throw some sprinkles on my piece. I gave Amelia the sprinkle bottle and let her go wild with it. It was very amusing.

So I was perusing the internet this morning and came across an interesting article I thought one of the steps to be especially disturbing... "Avoid hospitals in July like the plague." If you can, stay out of the hospital during the summer, especially July. That's the month when medical students become interns, interns become residents, and residents become fellows and full-fledged doctors. In other words, a good portion of the staff at any given teaching hospital is new on the job. Summer hospital horror stories aren't just medical lore: The adjusted mortality rate rises 4% in July and August for the average major teaching hospital, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. That means eight to 14 more deaths occur at major teaching hospitals than would normally without the turnover. Another scheduling tip: Try to book surgeries first thing in the morning and preferably early in the week, when doctors are at their best and before schedules get backed up, S...

Dear Aunt Granny, Thanks for keeping my mom occupado on the telefono while I had some wet wipin' fun. I have ALWAYS wanted to do that. Let's do it again real soon! Yours Affectionately, Meli PS. Her toilet doesn't really flush very well anymore. Do you think the size 3 diapers would fit her?

Grandpa: So simple even a child can operate...

In the Home Depot tiling manual, it considers tiling to be "medium difficulty". My girls are totally advanced and brilliant, aren't they? BTW yes, this is the same tile job that Brad nearly became a divorcee on. I had HAD it with his many angles and very tough standards. I needed to remind him that I did not go to Professional Tiling School and mainly to GETOUTOFMYTILINGBUSINESS!!! All is well again and I will happily grout this evening.

So this morning as usual I was checking email and Abbie starts with her big song and dance about how much Amelia stinks and so on and so forth. I get a whiff and sure enough. WOW it was bad. I'm thinking I'm going to have to give her a bath and change her clothes because it was so bad. Like Old Man Trucker Fried food Bad. Like Gas mask Bad. I brace myself while I take the diaper off, I'm armed with several wipes and..... I See This..... Talk about packing a punch. And no she didn't poop the pencil and the kitty. I just wanted to show you the scale.

So the ladies (and gentleman) met at our house at 12:30 with their carseats. It was quite the scene watching the kids and parents get organized and settled in the cars but before long we were off to Thanksgiving Point. The weather all weekend was marvelous so when we woke up to snow I was a little annoyed. I figured animals have fur, and we wear coats so the party was still on! As we walked to the party room the kids were so excited to get a glimpse of some of the animals. The room was all set up and there was someone in charge (Connie) and ready to entertain the folks so we could just sit back and relax. They played a game of musical haystacks, then the pony pinata, then a relay race with blow up ponies that you needed to use a fly swatter to move around with. After that the kids came back to the table to sing Happy Birthday and open presents. While the presents were being opened the cake and ice cream was placed on their spots so no one had to wait for anything. While the kids wer...

Sista Harp-ah said she was very mellow and are is she always so good. The answer of course...SURE You Betcha!!!!

Here are some before and during shots of the girl's day at the beauty salon (or supercuts..)

5 years ago today Ms. Abigail Maude was born making me the proudest and happiest new mom on the planet. We have much fun planned for today because as she puts it "I'm a whole hand now!" but I thought I would pause and write a little bit of lesser known facts about Abbily Dabbily Doo. #1. She eats just about anything and has always been a really good eater BUT she prefers "non-kid" food i.e. she doesn't love PB&J, hotdogs, hamburgers, and only recently started liking grilled cheese and mac n cheese. Her snack of choice? cottage cheese and mandarin oranges. #2. She learned how to ride a 2 wheeler in the summer because daddy ran over her training wheels forcing her to learn on a big bike. #3. When she feels insecure she starts acting like an animal. Puma, cat, small puppy. #4. She LOVES to clean the toilet and tubs. #5. Her due date was 2/7/02 but we tried to induce her on 02/02/02. She did not cooperate. #6. When she finally came she weighed a whopping 9.5...

I love Valentines! I think it is fabulous. The colors. The chocolate. The hearts. The mushy stuff. Being somewhat girly I buy into it all. This year I had BIG plans. They included making the girls pillowcases with little pockets so I could put their Valentines in while they were sleeping. Heart shaped red pancakes. Out to lunch. Dinner and a movie with Brad. Big plans. Unfortunately, it went something like this. Wake up. Make my oral donation to the porcelin God. Pour the girls cherrios. More donations. Get the girls all dressed. Decide I should really clean the toilets and surrounding areas. Donation. Clean offending area. Grandma came over for a visit. Let Brad chose out to lunch place because let's face it-it probably won't stay anyway, and its probably all the selflessness I can muster today. Donation. 2 Hour nap. Lots of moaning and deciding whether or not I should take a pill. Abbie is in all of her Valentine glory. Cancel babysitter. Donation. Change out of darling Val...

Stay tuned for the girls in their Valentine outfits. Pink pants didn't make it out of the dryer in time....

From Amelia: Roses are Red Violets are Blue Suckers are sticky So Grandma, THANK YOU.... From Abbie: Roses are Red Violets are Blue Double Bubble Gum Makes my dreams come True

One thing that Abbie does that kind of annoys me is announce when Amelia has a poopie diaper. I suppose it annoys me because #1. I have a nose. #2 She usually says it likes this EWWWW AMELIA STINKS! STINKY BA-BAY!!! Today while I was checking email she went and grabbed the "Pretty Pretty Princess accessories and dressed Amelia up. Then she made up a little song that went like this: (to the tune of London Bridges) "Melia is the Queen of poop, Queen of Poop, Queen of Poop, Melia is the Queen of poop. So, so stink-ay" It was kind of a catchy tune that is unfortunately in my head now. (sorry so dark, but I didn't have time to flash it this morning)

Ok, so I know I have mentioned it before but in case you were unaware. Some little girls are the WORST!!! Today was a nice sunny day and Abbie wanted to go get on her bike and go find some friends. I was in my room looking out the window and I saw her find 2 girls (E and E) in the next cul-del-sac. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could tell by Abbie's body language it was not going well. (We're talking 2 minutes here people) Abbie gets on her bike and starts to ride around the circle when E gets on her bike and runs Abbie down. Abbie falls. Words I can't hear. E and E go running in another direction laughing leaving Abbie getting back to her feet. I come downstairs and watch out the back door and tell Brad what's going on. E and E start poking Abbie with umbrellas. Abbie in tears. Brad heads out to go get Abbie. She is not ready to come home but wants to go to J's house because J is always nice. Apparently they were saying she was not going to be ...

By the way, the bruise on her forehead comes courtesy of Abbie's bed.

Abbie can stand on one foot for 57 seconds. Here's a little factoid for you. On May 25th 1997 Arulanantham Suresh Joachim of Sri Lanka broke the record for the longest time balanced on one foot. Arulanantham Suresh Joachim had been at the Uihara Maha Devi Park Open Air Stadium, balanced on one foot for an teetering 76 hours and 40 minutes. During this time, Suresh did not rest on any object and was not even allowed to rest one leg against the other! Suresh is totally going to kiss that record goodbye with my girl practicing like she is...

Dear Rob, This one is for you baby! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wxHeWaXa_I

#1. She's a party girl. She has been working on the invitations for her birthday party for a week. Instead of just delivering them like most of us would, she wants to get into the farm character complete with cowboy hat, hot pink boots, and trusty strap on horse. #2 She's all about creative play She was pretending that her baby was an angel and was floating beautifully over the lamp. Said baby got all Icarus and I could smell something "not quite right" all the way downstairs. She burnt the baby's bottom. Still think that is so funny. The remains are still glued to the princess lamp. Lesson learned. Don't fly naked over lamps.

So with Brad out of town I got a babysitter and grabbed my mom and granny (Grandma Janie)and went to the movie. We saw marvelous Helen Mirren. I promise you, she could read the ingredients on denture cream and I would think she was brilliant. I loved the movie because it brought back some strange memories. The day it was reported that Diana had passed was my last Sunday in Bariloche Argentina. I remember that a member came up to me in tears with the news. My first welcome into the country was filled with NOTHING but news reports about the happenings at the palace and the reaction throughout the world. So strange to have your first cultural actual news experience be the frenzy surrounding her death. Great movie overall. I am on a streak of good movies (which sadly was nearly broken by the travesty that is "Lady in the Water")

I am pleased that the girls are a little more like their dad when it comes to trips in the car. Notice the smiles . They were in the car for several hours on Saturday doing family fun things and did pretty well overall. Mom stayed home and drank tea while watching Mrs. Palefry at the Claremont (a darling film that I do recommend.) This picture reminds me of the greatest roadtip song ever! Can you name the movie? Movin' right along in search of good times and good news, With good friends, you can't lose, This could become a habit. Opportunity knocked once, let's reach out and grab it, Together we'll nab it. We'll hitch-hike, bus, or yellow cab it. Movin' right along, foot-loose and fancy free. Gettin' there is half the fun; come share it with me. Movin' right along (doog-a-doon, doog-a-doon) We'll learn to share the load. We don't need a map to keep this show on the road.