Interview About Mom: Allie age 5 (almost 6)

1. What is something Mom always says to you?
To Be Nice

2. What makes Mom happy?
When I'm Good

3. What makes Mom sad?
When I'm rude.

4 How does Mom make you laugh?
When she tickles me.

5. What did Mom like to do when she was a child?
Play with her friends

6. How old is Mom?
She is 30? Are you 31?

7. How tall is Mom?
10 inches

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
American Idol

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Singing

11. What is Mom really good at?
Asking questions

12. What is Mom not very good at?
Brushing my hair (cause it hurts)

13. What does Mom do for her job?
an artist (wth??)

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Chicken

15. What makes you proud of Mom?
When she does a cartwheel

16. If Mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Dora's Mom (wow...such an important role...lol)

17. What do you and Mom do together?
Play board games

18. How are you and Mom the same?
We're both girls

19. How are you and Mom different?
We have different colors of hair

20. How do you know Mom loves you?
Cause she's really nice.

What Happens When You Share A Room With Your Twilight-Obsessed Sister

Allie (5) to Aidan (2): "Aidan, if you could live forever, what would you live for?"

Yep, she's read the posters.

Manic Monday: Bird

The bird outside our backdoor.

I can't say I'm thrilled about the mess that is to come, but we haven't brought ourselves to take down the nest. Our trees aren't big enough yet, so they found somewhere else to nest.

A few years ago, we actually had some swallows nest in our dryer vent tube, so this definitely wins out in our minds. However, we're probably going to get it down soon so that she can nest (and lay eggs) elsewhere. We would like to avoid dive-bombing birds when we head out to play on the slide.

Allie Finished Her Book

Hooray!
Other than her complaint that Junie B doesn't "talk right...and she's in Kindergarten, she should know already", she enjoyed the book and we're on to the next.

One chapter book down....thousands more on the way!

Deal With The Devil...Accomplished

I read my last post and thought that this needed to be revisited, mainly for this reason...

"What do I gain...nothing really"

That statement alone warrants a new post because it was entirely incorrect. While the party itself wasn't the best I've been to, as we spent most of the time waiting in line, we made our own fun. Since Aimee had just read the book that day, we quizzed each other with fill-in-the-blank quotes and comparisons between the book and movie. We actually got a lot of discussion questions out of the way that it really feels impossible to find the time for on a normal day.

The only part that I was really dreading was the drive home, which was totally fine.

So, I gained the movie, which we watched the next day with our friend. But more importantly, I got one-on-one, uninterrupted time with my daughter, which, sadly enough, doesn't happen as often as I'd like.

Great girl time, fun wait.

Deal With The Devil

Devil...aka...daughter.

What do I gain...nothing really.

Honestly, I really don't want to go hang out at Hot Topic all night for the release party--Twilight on DVD in case you live in the normal world, rather than the Twilight-fan world. Mostly because of the drive home afterward. If it were 20 minutes away, I would be much more enthusiastic.
Well, thinking that I clearly had the upper hand in this deal, I told Aimee we'd go if she finished the book tonight before the party. This was truly a sound bargain. I would never have dreamed of bargaining with book reading with Alex, as he read Eragon in 9 hours when he was in 5th grade, but Aimee is not as book determined. While she WAS immediately taken by Twilight**, she still is Aimee. She's distracted easily and simply cannot keep her body still enough to read a book in one sitting. My deal was golden!

**Aimee didn't think Twilight sounded that great. But once she saw previews for the film, she picked up the book. She still didn't read it super fast, and actually read some smaller, quicker books in between. But, since she wanted to read the book before watching the movie, and wanted to watch the movie the opening weekend, she picked it back up. (Naturally, I thought that would happen again.) She finished the book, loved it. Watch the movie, loved it. Bought a Twilight shirt, Twilight posters, bracelets, and a "Complete Illustrated Movie Companion" with her babysitting money.
Aimee also read New Moon for a book report, but gave up on Eclipse, because it "wasn't as fun as the other books." Totally cool with me, since I hoped she'd wait a couple more years before continuing the series.
Still, she wants the DVD at midnight and wants to have a Twilight Party to watch it with her friends.**

Yeah, I'm gonna have to sneak it away because since those words left my mouth, her eyes have been glued. She had a hot pocket for lunch because she "could make it without looking away from the book." She is leaving the room whenever anything slightly distracting occurs, and she is gobbling the words more excitedly than she did the first time through.

So, today, I have been listening to her read aloud all the "foreshadowing" and funny quotes that she is apparently enjoying more the second time through.
"It's not like anyone was going to bite me."
"It was ridiculous, and egotistical, to think that I could affect anyone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn’t stop worrying that it was true."
"If I was being honest with myself, I knew I was eager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen. And that was very, very stupid."
"I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly." Although, she did remember that this was in the wrong place in the movie version. :)
"He looks at you like you're something to eat."

She has really been wanting to watch Harry Potter 3 lately, but since mom and dad keep insisting it is inappropriate for Allie, she hasn't been able to turn it on. Right now, Allie is at her friends house, and I'm tempted to turn on The Prisoner of Azkaban. It all depends on how much I think I want to listen to Hot Topic music for 2+ hours tonight.

At her current rate of reading, according to Alex's calculations, she will be finished an hour before she needs to be.

Friday Fabulous Five

My last two Fridays must have been so great that I couldn't even pause to blog about it.

1. Our neighbor called last night to ask one of the kids to babysit this morning--from the time her husband needed to leave for work and the time that she would get home from her night shift. She only works one or two nights a week to keep up her license and skills and sometimes has a grown friend come over to stay with the kids during that gap. The friend is on vacation, which my kids LOVE! They argued about who would get to wake up (at 6:20 on Spring Break) and head over to babysit. Granted, they did want the money, but more importantly, they wanted the experience and the networking. Enthusiasm like that is just Friday worthy!

2. My muscles are sore today. I actually like sore muscles.

3. The basket of magazines under my coffee table is now cleaned out. (This is usually my kids' dumping ground when I ask them to tidy up in the LR.)

4. Spring Break has been lots of fun this week. I'm actually a little sad to see Friday this week, because that means that Spring Break is over. :(

5. It's a beautiful spring day...fresh and clean. Slightly overcast to keep off the glare, but warm and perfect. Today's weather is the perfect kind of day for me.

Happy Friday! Enjoy!

Happy St Patrick's Day

Thanks to a fun blue button on our tape recorder, part of the song is missing. That's little tiny Allie's voice saying "I just pushed the blue thing..." :) Obviously, Alex is giving a 14 year old's version of jolly Irish dancing, Aimee and Allie were totally into it, while Aidan only joined us when he wasn't checking up on his bug in his bug box. Haha. Enjoy!

Happy St Patrick's Day! Enjoy your corned beef!

Bananas According To Allie

"Fruit is juicy. No other fruit is like a banana. I don't know why bananas are fruit. They should just be called a snack."

A Peep Hole

There are moments that I'm so swirled up in the chaos of home, family, children, activities, and life, that I forget to savor the moments. For some reason, the moments decided to scream at me today and demand my notice.

A brief glimpse at my children's minds:

Aidan:
Aidan is into independence. His every actions hints that his mind is set. This week, it is all about the car seat. He has only refused to buckle up once, but gone are the days of mom and dad helping him into his seat. He insists on climbing in all by himself. He heaves himself up into the car (remember we have an SUV) and then around the seat, uses the diaper bag as a step, to make it into the car seat. Heaven forbid anyone try to help. "No help. Ayh-an seat." In a hurry one afternoon, I decided that I WAS going to put him in to make it "quick." After his screaming and fighting and twice as much time as it would have taken to let him do it on his own, I gave up the fight, since I really couldn't hold him in and buckle him at the same time. I let him down out of the car and he climbed in by himself.
(DISCLAIMER: Don't judge me too harshly...remember this is a glimpse into a sweet little 2 year old mind, not a glimpse a the parenting skills...)

Allie:
While riding to pick up their older siblings from school, Allie and Aidan were enjoying a "new" episode of "The Backyardigans..." (again, I must refer you to the previous DISCLAIMER). The episode was entitled, "The Journey To The Center Of The Earth," and was, in fact, a journey to retrieve a lost penny. Allie thought it was a little silly that they would go that far for just a penny. "It's only one cent, mom. I don't think they can even buy anything with that."

Aimee:
Aimee was making some changes to her ipod playlist and wanted help getting new songs from a few Cd's onto it. One of the Cd's was a mix of a few different genres that Dustin or I had made a few years ago. As we listened to the intro of each song, and I asked her if she wanted this one on her ipod, she replied yes, yes, yes, to each of them.
Song number 12 was "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman. "Yes," she wanted it on her new playlist. I thought I'd make it clear that Tracy Chapman was, in fact, a woman. "You know this singer is a girl, right?"
"Nuh, Uh." Brief Pause. "It can't be." Longer pause. "Mom, don't tell me things like that, or I might believe you and sound dumb when my friends tell me that's wrong."
"No, Aimee...Tracy Chapman...really is a girl. Her voice is nice, though, right. Just very low."
She only believed me after we found a video on youtube.
The following song, track 13, was "Hands" by Jewel.
Immediately following a couple measures of piano intro, as soon as Jewel's voice came in "If I could tell the world just one thing..." Aimee put on her sarcasm voice and said, "Oh, mom, let me guess, this is a guy, right...nice falsetto."

Alex:
Alex really hates that his school requires the boys to all wear long pants. Even in Washington, in freezing weather and snow, he would wear shorts. Directly after school, he makes a bee-line to his room to ditch the claustrophobia-inducing *gasp*pants! The shorts don't' come off until bed, despite any evening activities...at which point, they are traded for basketball shorts. He doesn't mind his fellow scouts razzing him for wearing shorts even when their activity is held outside. "Nobody should need pants for an hour outside when it's 50 degrees."
Tonight, it was 40 degrees. Mother insisted that he wear jeans to scouts. After a non-stop stream of "I should be able to wear what I want" "It's not cold" "They don't care what we wear, as long as we have our shirt and book" "Shorts are fine..." I informed him that I wasn't driving him there until he changed. I listened to more, "I was ready and I'd be there on time, and you're making me late..." from his bedroom as he changed.
A few minutes later, I called back to him, "I really hope you didn't just put jeans on over the top of your shorts and plan to take them off if the moment presents itself."
"Mom, why didn't you tell me that before I had my shoes back on..."
So, we waited a few more minutes before leaving to correct the shorts/pants issue.

I love it all! I just thought that today, each of these moments was sort of a peep hole view into the complexities of their little minds!

While Mom Cleaned

I tried to be proactive. I gave him his own cleaning cloth, a paper towel with Windex, and put his toys away in front of him, in hopes that he would either join me in cleaning, or mess up his toys.

No such luck.

While mom cleaned toothpaste out of the drawer (from what I think was a the-tube-got-caught-in-the-drawer-and-squeezed-out-in-it), Aidan went outside and played in the water. The pants were soaked, and it really became too hot for that outfit anyway.We took a break to swing and slide. While he climbed the playhouse, mom watered the tree. While mom watered the tree, he came down from the playhouse to splash in the mud.

After cleaning off his hands, mom wiped the mud from the counter. Aidan blew out the candle. (Or in his words, "Happy Birthday to you!" which actually sounds more like "Ha Da Day a YOU!")While mom dusted the entertainment center, he found himself a pirate telescope/bugle.While mom cleaned up the paper towels, he dumped out the Bob Books.While mom cleaned up the Bob Books, Aidan found a sword.While mom massaged orange oil into the front door, he hid...in my paint drop box, but at least he's still for the moment.While mom dusted the bookshelf, Aidan turned off the music. Hmmm...the end of the music means pretty much the end of mom's cleaning.

It was just one of those days.

Manic Monday: Waffles Revisited

After reading all the Manic Monday posts on waffles today, I decided that was our dinner. I'm not a "big breakfast" kind of gal. I prefer cereal. So, if we have pancakes, waffles, french toast, sausage, bacon, frittatas, etc... it is for dinner, not breakfast. Since Dustin is working tonight, it was a good breakfast for him to wake up to.
As a side note, we didn't actually have whipping cream on them for dinner...just for the picture...although Allie did use that whipping cream for dipping.

Manic Monday: Waffle

The Waffle Stompers I never had.

When I look back on my pictures from High School, Jr High, and even elementary school, it is impossible not to laugh at some of the ridiculous outfits that I thought were totally cool. There's something to be said for a timeless and classic look. If you choose that route, you will not usually look like the outrageously dated one in photos. Of course, it was school. We all looked the same. Peg-legged pants, jeans belted at the waist, shoulder pads...and then not, flourescents, thick and baggy, thin and tight, flat hair, puffy hair, we weathered them all.

There were some fashions that I always wished to wear, but never did. I was a floater in school usually. I kept friends from every random group and never really belonged to any of them. Sometimes I felt like dressing grungy (yes, this was an actual "fashion"), sometimes preppy, sometimes dressy, sometimes sporty. I usually had something in my closet that I could change up and make into the look I was going for, but the one look that I never could manage to "throw" together was the goth thing going on at the time. I didn't own any clothes that could have fit that genre, and since I wasn't "goth" I couldn't justify spending money on them. So, I just sat back and admired my friends' waffle stomper black combat boots, long coat, and black lipstick. Granted, it isn't really a look that you can wear one day and pretend that it's just another regular day. But still...I always thought it would be a fun look to sport.
I think Hot Topic is definitely getting my business this year for Halloween.

(For more interpretations on the word of the week, Waffle, check out Mo's Manic Monday meme.)