This and That

Some random things from the last couple of weeks....

-Groundhog Day was all the rage around here. The Friday prior, Jillian got in the car after school and casually took a poll, "So guys, who's excited about Groundhog Day!?" A holiday is a holiday, people. After all the hype and the bad news that darn rodent gave us, Adrienne couldn't let it go...and couldn't quite get all the details. right. For about 5 days following the big day, she'd ask "Mom, did the warthog see his shadow?" When I replied that yes, the "warthog" saw his shadow she was forlorn--"Oh no. Six more DAYS of winter?!?!" Oh how I wish, little one. Oh, how I wish.

-I'm afraid I've created a habit with Adrienne in that every time we are at the store (I'd say she and I have about 3 errand opportunities together each week), she manages to get me to purchase her a kid's hot chocolate. This is of course because I am ordering my flat white or latte (depending on our locale). I made the mistake of getting her the hot chocolate just one time, and now the little prima donna pipes right up with her order after mine. Every single time. And she knows where all the coffee shops are in town, so even if we are in a store that (heaven forbid) doesn't contain one, she'll tell me where we need to go to make the purchase. The lure of a free cookie at Hy-Vee or Target never ever trumps the hot chocolate. Ever.

-Jillian is celebrating her 100th day of school this week. I'm not sure why this is worthy of a celebration, but it's important apparently, and is worthy of a collection. The kids are supposed to bring in a collection of 100 somethings, and Jillian smartly chose crayons (we have plenty of those for sure). I had her double check her counting before she put it in her bag yesterday and I was trying to explain that she should group things into tens to make this an easier (and faster) feat. "Oh Mom, you mean skip count by tens, right? We do that at school all the time. I need ten of these piles to make 100".  Props to the kindergarten curriculum for one-upping me on the math lesson.

-Alert the press: Adrienne is tired! She is "tired" ALL THE BLESSED TIME. Ask her to do something and you will get (in a pathetic little whine, mind you): "I'm tired". Adrienne, please go potty. Answer: "I'm tired". Adrienne please go up and brush your teeth for bed. "I'm tired". Adrienne, please take your clothes off BEFORE you get in the bathtub (true story). "I'm tired". 12 hours of sleep just isn't enough, I guess.

-Jillian has suddenly started reading like gangbusters. I mean really reading. She can read most all of her easy readers and now has started to discover books we have around the house that are not specifically for new readers that she can read. This is big stuff. She also has discovered that she loves Dr. Seuss (after checking out a couple lengthy library selections) and thinks he's hilarious, but she just does NOT understand the made up words he uses to rhyme. She can't fathom why anyone would need to make words up. And in that same light, I had to hide the Aesop's Fables book because it is maddening to try and explain the morals of those stories to someone in such a literal state of cognitive development. Give it a try when you want to drive yourself mad.

-Adrienne has a few little word blunders that we all find hilarious. Matt asked her one day what kind of animal Pascal is (Pascal is Rapunzel's pet lizard in case you live under a princess-loving rock). "He's a slither". Each day I tell Adrienne to get in the tub (after I've warmed the water correctly and put the drain stopper down). She always tells me the same thing: "I'm gonna wait til it's blowed up a little bit first" (pretty sure she means filled up...) And my favorite, while explaining some snack time issues at preschool: "Emily's allergic to cow milk so we have to drink soil milk".  Personally I would agree that SOY milk tastes like soil. 

-Adrienne (despite being chronically "tired") has developed a love of puzzles. There are puzzles everywhere in the living room, and she likes to leave them all out on the floor after she's done. So we now have puzzles for flooring. She will do this for hours these days. It is really, really nice.


-Last Saturday morning the girls came and got in bed with me (Matt was at the RAC working out) and we laid there for over 2 hours watching video clips of them as babies on the blogs. It was one of the most enjoyable mornings ever. They are so big. It was hard for them to understand why some of the videos made me teary. Time flies, kids.

-Jillian and I did our first service project together last week. Our church packs backpacks for the Food for Friends program (these go to kids in the town north of us). I thought this would be a great easy and relevant project for our school girl. We packed 60 backpacks with two older ladies full of non-perishable goods that would be sent home for the weekend with kids who needed some extra food. Jillian was all over it. She read the instructions for each basket of items (how many food items from each category to put in each backpack) and went down the assembly line packing each backpack independently. I guess I was following too closely behind her at one point because she reminded me, "Mom, I can do this myself." And she did. When we were done, we lined the backpacks up by the door and then held hands with the sweet ladies while they prayed over the backpacks and for the kids who would receive them. The evening definitely made an impact on Jillian and we will be doing this regularly.

-Matt took the girls to the Father Daughter Dance at the RAC on Saturday night. It was a surprise for the girls, and when he came home at noon (after a workout and eye appt), he arrived bearing valentines (stuffed animals, chocolates, and silk roses) and surprised these little princesses by inviting them to the ball with him. They were beyond delighted. He took them out to dinner beforehand, and as they were running down a list of ideas for their meal he suggested that perhaps they choose somewhere that I didn't like. They all thought and thought (and I thought they had aptly decided on McDonald's) and then Matt had a light bulb moment and told them about a little place called "Taco Bell Pizza Hut" and they were enthralled at the idea of getting tacos AND pizza in one spot. (Gag). They thought it was great fun, and Matt said that as they were eating Jillian just kept commenting, "I can't believe Mom doesn't like this place". Ha!

A lucky man with two lovely dates.