Thursday, February 24, 2011

A Kindred Spirit

My friend Bryan sent me this link:



I think he's mocking me slightly because I (oh here goes, another uncomfortable confession...) like to keep my DVDs in order by color. Not many people noticed it, but from time to time someone would walk in the front door, see our bookshelf in the hallway there and start laughing at my little rainbow of movies. My younger brother Peter, as a very wise Kindergartner, dubbed that system as 'rainbowtical order.' And mock me if you must, but that's just the way I like it. At the moment our DVDs have been shoved out of the way (and out of order! Ack!) into a drawer under the television, and it's driving me crazy. Oh only, if only, I could order all the bookshelves in the house by color too I'd be a happy lady. Compulsive, yes. Obsessive, yes. And happy. In the meantime I'm just going to keep watching this video.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Talking Tom Strikes Back

Those of you out there with smart phones may be familiar with a silly little application by the name of Talking Tom.  It's this little game where you get to play with a kitty on your screen.  You can stroke it and make it purr.  You can poke it in the eye, foot or tummy to make it produce comical groaning sounds.  You can pour it a glass of milk. But best of all, you can talk to it.  Tom will listen to you and then repeat whatever you said back to you in a high squeaky voice.  It's pretty hilarious.  And my daughter Bundle is totally mesmerized by old Tom.  If she sees anyone she knows has the application on their phone she gravitates to them immediately and demands "My Cat."  She then proceeds to beat the crap out of Tom, giggling hysterically as she does so.  That is, until Tom struck back.

On Friday night I was lucky enough to take Bitty to a UofU Women's Gymnastics meet (completely fun - will blog later). Troy had met up with a friend to help him out and Stomper was at a birthday party.  Bundle was left at my house with her Uncle Peter and did very well all night long, until about the last 5 minutes when she got very sad.  I returned home, Peter put my crying child into my arms and he and his family left.  (His wife and daughter were at the meet with me.)  With Bundle still feeling very sad, I had to find something to occupy her while I had a quick bathroom break.  As I was rushing through the kitchen I grabbed Troy's iphone and set her up at the table with Talking Tom and scurried off to the bathroom.  I mention the bathroom at all simply so you'll know why I did not run to my daughter's assistance immediately over the next few minutes - for once, the sight of her beloved kitty did not interest or distract her at all.  She started crying again.  Loudly.  Talking Tom heard her, and in a high squeaky voice, repeated her cries back to her.  This terrified Bundle, who started crying louder and harder.  So did Tom.  Emma started wailing.  So did Tom.  Emma curled into a ball and screamed and Tom screamed right back at her.  Is it wrong that as I was conducting my brief business in the bathroom that I was laughing really really hard?  I mean, as soon as I possibly could, I ran to my poor traumatized daughter and rescued her from the Cat gone Crazy, but I was laughing.  Tom really got his revenge.

As a side note, Tom has taken his toll on our other daughter as well - Bitty's hair is getting quite long and she really loves having long hair.  That is, until it comes time to brush it.  Then she does her best to hold still while she lets loose with many cries and moans. She sounds just like Talking Tom when you poke him on his foot.  So when Bitty's moaning, we all (including Bundle) moan back at her in Tom's voice.  Luckily this makes her laugh and eases the brushing nightmare.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

An Unfortunate Talent


All my life I’ve had this funny inability to recall information correctly.  I hear something and my brain does its best to remember it, but somehow files the information under a similar but completely wrong name.  Example.  When I was a little kid, I met someone by the name of Chase.  My brain knew his name started with a “C” and that it was a verb.  So I called him “Catch.”  “Hey mom, when are we going to Catch’s house again?”  Another example.  My husband gets a new mountain bike with some really cool shifters on it which are called Rapid Fire.  I get a new bike and ask if my bike will also have sharp shooters.  Ha.  That made my husband laugh at me really hard.  He still teases me.Well this week my unintentional word association struck again.  Bitty has a student teacher in her class by the name off Miss Brisk.  I had to send out a letter to the parents about our Teacher Appreciation Week and I asked everyone to help us support “Miss Swift.”  Doi.  I guess as long as they’re both fast, who cares what her name is?  Hi, other parents, I’m an idiot.

An Actual Outing


Poor poor Bundle. She’s so neglected.  When Stomper was her age I didn’t have quite the task list I have these days and we did a little more going out than I do now.  In fact, I was the master of my city; I took that kid everywhere.  We had outings almost every single day.  We hit the zoo, the children’s museum, parks and libraries, story times and puppet shows; we did it all.  And now my poor little baby Bundle hangs out with me all day long while I try to keep up with everything else.  Lucky for her, my friend Krista decided to get us out.  She called me up and we headed down to Thanksgiving Point Farm for some fresh (albeit kinda stinky) air and animal watching.  We’re having some lovely lovely warm weather (thank you, dear February, for that – you’re bringing me out of the January Blues!) and we thought we’d enjoy it out in the open. Of course, we ended up being so cold we could barely stand it, but oh well – at least we were out.  And Bundle just ate it up.  Turns out she likes going out and doing fun stuff!  Who knew!   Even the farm sign, which had a picture of a rooster on it, captured her heart.  Bundle wouldn’t leave the sign to go inside.  Then she really went nuts. Okay, the pony ride took a little warming up to, but after a round or two she got very into it and spent the rest of the day saying, “Neigh neigh! Roun’ and roun’!”  Sadly, our trip was cut short (Krista was going to take me for my first ever trip to Chick-Fil-A for lunch) by a phone call from Stomper’s teacher who declared him to be “absolutely green.”  But despite that, I was so glad to get Bundle out and about.  I’ll have to do it more often – my task list will get neglected and probably even lengthen in the meantime, but who cares.  (Okay, me.  But still.) Somehow I imagine that more outings will do us nothing but good.






 After a few tears she was really very excited to ride...
This Alpaca seriously cracked me up - it really needed a barrette or something - it even kept flipping its hair out of its eyes to see us!

Fry Run


 I took my girls out for a little treat the other day.  We were running errands, and I of course didn’t realize how long those errands were going to take me.  The gals were getting hungry so we hit the Wendy’s drive through and grabbed some food for them. (Please don't judge me today.) Pretty soon we were home and I set the girls up at the table to finish it off.  I walked out of the room and when I came back I found that both girls had made a delighted discovery.  Bitty was so thrilled to tell me. “Look at this, Mom!  I’m dipping my fries in my frosty and it’s so delicious!”   Oh honey, if you only knew.  How many times, all those years ago, did my sister and I suddenly glance at each other with a sparkle in our eye and then sing out together, “Fry Run!”  We’d do a frantic search for a few quarters, hop into Margaret’s little yellow bug (which I’d often have to push while she’d compression start it – try doing that uphill when you’re 16 years old) and we’d zoom off to Wendy’s for a few fries and a frosty.  Yes, Bitty dear, I know exactly how delicious frosty-coated fries can be.





Star of the Week

Bitty has been waiting and waiting for her turn to be the "Star of the Week" in her Kindergarten class.  She’s been watching as almost each kid in her class has been the super star, and when I told her on Sunday night that it was finally her turn she just about flipped out.  Of course, I told her this information on Sunday night because that was also when I remembered that her special week was nearly upon us.  I was panicking a little due to the fact that I was supposed to have a photo-filled poster ready for her in the morning.  Uh, I don’t think I’ve printed up a picture of Bitty for years.  (Not doing a ton of scrapbooking these days….) So yes, our star of the week preparations included a run to Walgreens at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night and an up-until-midnight poster making session, but it was all worth it. Oh yeah, and from midnight until 1:00 I was finishing her leg warmers.  You heard me, people.  Leg warmers.  Somehow Bitty heard about leg warmers and decided she really wanted a pair.  Luckily I had a pattern for them in a magazine and had been knitting them up for a week or so.  Monday being Valentine’s Day plus the start of her star week, I knew that the chance to wear her leg warmers would be the cherry on top of the cake.  So knit them I did.  She was already almost incoherent with joy at the very thought of being the star, and when she got up in the morning and saw her electric pink poster (Walgreens didn’t have a huge selection of poster board) AND her new legwarmers I thought she was going to go into orbit.  It makes a late night and a very bleary next day all worth the effort.



Saturday, February 12, 2011

Time ALONE Together?

Weirdest thing ever.  Troy and I had a date.  I know, I know!  Hard to believe.  We actually had some time alone together.  I am lucky enough to have a kid-free morning every Thursday as my friend Krista and I do a weekly trade.  This week I had made a plan to drive down into enemy territory (you know,....PROVO....) to the art museum to see the traveling art show of the paintings of Carl Bloch, famous painter from Denmark.  He has done many many works of art that our church has either purchased or uses regularly.  I didn't know that so many of his works were ones I have been so familiar with.  Anyway, Troy decided to take the morning off and join me.  We had such a good time driving down, talking, finding our way around, making fun of coeds....

The exhibit was not especially huge but was quite stunning in its impact.  There were several large altar pieces that had traveled here from churches across norther Europe.  This one below was my favorite.  We also enjoyed renting ipads that were stocked with lots of information, interviews and panoramic views of the paintings' original locations.  It was a real treat.

We really had a nice morning together.  And, the fact that we stopped in for a quick bite and In-n-Out Burger on the way home didn't hurt much either. 

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Happiness.

Some very happy things. 

First, bowls from Anthropologie.  I'm sorry, Whitley, I'm sorry!  Whitley is my wonderful and much loved and extremely stylish sis-in-law, and once, long ago, as a very generous thank you gift, she gave me the cutest little bowl all filled with candy.  I loved the bowl, and used it as my own personal mommy-bowl (like unto Mamma Bear of Goldilocks fame) whenever I could.  Then I went to Whit's house and saw that she had a huge stack of them, all in different colors.  I instantly began to covet them.  I hate to be a copy cat, and I think Whitley hates it too....but too bad.  I asked for a few bowls for my birthday, and have been enjoying those.  But when the daughter of a friend (I won't tell who...) was at our house, took a look at my beautiful green bowl, picked it up, looked at me with a little smile on her face, then dropped it on the floor (smash!) I thought it was a good opportunity to not only replace the grass green one but add a few more colors as well.  And looking at my morning grapefruit in my lovely minty green bowl just made me happy.



Another very happy thing is that it appears that Bundle is starting to like her father.  I mean, she's always enjoyed playing with him from time to time and she'll usually let him hold her, but lately, she's really been seeking him out.  She's been thrilling him with happy shouts of "Daddy!" everytime she sees him.  And best of all, the other night when she woke up and got out of bed she came running into the living room and ran straight into her daddy's arms.  Did you hear me?  Do you know what this means for me?  I can smell the merest wisp of freedom in the air.  Bundle started out as my best sleeper ever and then one day suddenly became the very worst.  That girl.  Oh well, I don't care if she wakes up if she'll let daddy take care of her.  That means that I can leave every once in a while.  Yippeeeee! I shouldn't sound so excited, but I'm not going to lie.  I am.