friday night rambling

I'm convinced that jumbled, random, nonsensical bits of information is how I do my very best writing. I know this stuff isn't what's going to win me any Pulitzer Prize nominations (is that what you get for good writing? who knows.) but I like it. I have a hard time stringing together more than a few coherent thoughts anyway. I don't have the attention span or the time for that kind of thing.

Sometimes stuff happens and I just want to remember the bits and pieces of our daily lives. So here goes.

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Cate wanted me to take a picture of her freshly painted purple nails a few nights ago. I obliged. She was wiggling around so I told her to stand still like a statue. That's the picture I got. I sure love that kid. She just makes me laugh. Sometimes she makes me want to cry (like almost every day around 5:00 because she doesn't nap anymore and by that time of the day it's very apparent that she still needs to nap) but most of the time she is just delightful. And quite funny.

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Earlier that day I took her to the doctor. She has had a cough for over a month. Lately she hasn't been sleeping well because of it. She was so good for the doctor. He prescribed medicine and then left. We waited for the nurse to come back in because she was going to give Cate her flu s-h-o-t. When I asked the doctor if that was for sure on the agenda for that visit I even spelled f-l-u. He must have thought I was a big weirdo. It's ok. I am. Plus, I was really worried about how Cate would react to the s-h-o-t so I was a bit flustered. I feel like such a crappy parent when my kids get shots. Horrible. Like I'm being cunning and evil. She was good and didn't even cry. Best part, she still loves me even though I let the mean nurse give her a s-h-o-t so she won't get the f-l-u.

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Danny was running around in circles in the kitchen the other day. I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was running errands.

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Cate was busy playing tea party this afternoon while I baked (these, except this time I added mini chocolate chips). She was singing and talking to herself, just like she always does. Then she pushed her shopping cart over to the kitchen and the conversation went like this.

Guess what, Mom.

What?

I miss Grama Bama.

Me too.

(It's true. I do. She's been gone for a week and it's been one of the longest weeks in the history of ever. No kidding.)

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Dan was wrestling with Danny last night before bath time. I don't know what was going on since I try to stay away from that kind of nonsense. I do know that Danny seemed pretty happy when he appeared in the kitchen and announced, "I beat up Daddy like a mustard sandwich!" Alrighty then.

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Know what's nice? Kids who can't tell time. More than that, kids who can't tell time in the winter. The sun goes down at 5:00 and for all they know it might as well be 10:00. They were both in their bedrooms at 7:00 last night. Lights were off. Maybe they weren't actually asleep but who cares. 7:00, people! To those of you who do that nightly, my hat's off to you. You are parenting geniuses.

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We made these snowman ornaments this week. That was an adventure. It's a little bit of a challenge to get wiggly kids to hold still long enough to hold an ornament so as to not smear the paint and ruin the cute little snowman form. My favorites are the snowmen with no bodies. There were more than a few of those.

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Our tree is really making me happy this year. It's the best one we've had yet. I need to water it more often but it's holding up quite nicely. No ornaments have been broken so far. Cate is my little plugger inner. She shimmies under there and plugs in the lights every morning. It's her special job. That's what I make her think because I can easily reach the plug but I hate getting the needles in my hair and poking my arm when I do. She likes being special so it's her job.

You know how lots of people set up their trees in front of a window? Not us. It'll block the tv if we do that. We can't have anything blocking the tv now can we? When Danny was a brand new one-year-old I put the tree in that tiled area by the front door. Then I moved the big chair and ottoman and whatever other furniture I needed to in front of it so he couldn't pull stuff off or worse yet, pull it over on top of himself. I was a freak show back then. I realize that now. I barricaded the Christmas tree. What's the fun in that? Not much. Good thing he was young enough that he won't remember my shenanigans.

Not related to the tree but still in that picture, the top of that bookshelf is "decorated" with cowboy hats. It's true.

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I'm taking Danny to the elementary school for a speech evaluation next week. He's got some stuff going on that I'm not sure will correct itself with age and/or maturity. I taught special ed for 5 years way back when. It's kind of strange being on the other side now. He might not even qualify for services but at least I'll know I tried. Or chied as he would say it. He also says chiet (quiet) and chop it (stop it). When he's yelling at Cate to stop crying it sounds like this: Chiet! Chop chying!

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Danny was very excited to go buy Kris a birthday present this week. He made me bring along his piggy bank (which is actually a bear) to Target with us so he could use his own money to buy it. What a sweet kid. He had about $9 in change so of course I let him. He was not happy when we actually got to Target and I left the bear bank in the car. I tried to explain the concept of me paying for it with paper money and then he could pay me back with his own money. I explained it a few times but I'm pretty sure he never really grasped it.

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Have I mentioned lately that we miss Grama Bama (and Grandpa too of course)? We do.

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I took the kids to the dino museum this morning because we needed something to do and it's cold outside. We lasted about 20 minutes. I don't have a clue why. It's ok though because I left my phone in the car and I was bored out of my mind just sitting there while they did the digging for bones stuff. They wanted to go see the animals instead. It was cold but sunny so I agreed. We were the only people there. Figures. Other mothers have more sense than to let their kids run around in the cold looking at farm animals. Cate thought these turkeys had mean eyes. I think she's right.

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Cate said the blessing on the food a few nights ago for dinner. Here's part that I remembered to write down when she was done.

Please bless the food so we can be happy and go potty by ourselves.

And to that I say a big fat AMEN!