One of the things you don't really understand when you become a parent, is how much time kids spend PUSHING their limits, and yours. Somedays I imagine the kids scheming, "Just how far can I push the limit of what I am allowed. Just how far can push Mommy." I also imagine the two kids conspiring: who gets to be the holy terror this week.
We have spent most of Micci's life teaching him to eat new foods. He's as picky as me (my mom gleefully calls this Karma). We have a three bite rule in our house (three bites will tell you if you like a new food. You are also expected to eat foods we know you like.) and it's just been recently that this rule isn't accompanied by tears and yelling.
Lorelei has always been my good eater. We don't have to get after her to eat, she'll try a new food with relish and take her three bites without arguing. She is my relief.
Just when I think mealtimes will be tear free. Lorelei has to up her game.
Monday, she refused to eat food she normally likes. And to give Karma HER due, Lorelei inherited from me: stubbornness. Unlike Micci who would eventually before bedtime eat his food, Lorelei refused. Well, there is only ONE Stubborn Queen in this house and that's ME! So, Lorelei had to eat her Monday dinner, for Tuesday breakfast, Lunch or Dinner....she had to eat it as her next meal. Well, she snuck cereal Tuesday for breakfast. So she had enough to sustain her through breakfast and lunch.
"I will not eat that yucky food! I hate potatoes!" said the girl who loves potatoes more than anything.
Tuesday night and she takes Monday's Dinner out of the 'fridge, asks me to heat it up and she eats exactly HALF!
We get to continue this fun game into Wednesday, YAY! We sent her to bed straight after dinner.
Wednesday, I am smart and she gets no cereal...so her stubborness only lasts till late afternoon, when she finally spends the next two hours finishing off her diced roasted potatoes.
This week has completely exhausted me. But ya know what? I WON!!!
I had the best weekend. So great it's taken me a day or two to actually get around to blogging about it.
One of my good friends turned 30 on Sunday. MAJOR freakout. Which is to be expected its a big milestone. It took me an ENTIRE year to wrap my head around the fact that I was 30. Now I am approaching 32 and I am feeling the dread: I am NEARLY at my mid-30s. I am hoping I do or don't do anything embarrassing when I go to Dallas this weekend to see U2. Weeeeell, we all went out to a fancy restaurant Saturday to celebrate. Fancy enough that I didn't take pictures like I wanted to...because DUDE we had beautiful men in beautiful gaucho pants bringing us MEAT ON SWORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was Chauma Gaucha (it's a restaurant review, I don't think they have a website). Much wine was consumed (by others--don't like the stuff) and much fun was had. The meat was amazing. What you do is when you are ready for the meat (they have an awesome salad bar, that's TOTALLY not like Soup or Salad, it has cheeses and steamed beggies, a ROUND of parm!!!) you turn over a card and MEN DESCEND UPON YOU bearing swords full of MEAT. Perfectly cooked, succulent pieces of flesh...dude I was in HEAVEN. I told Jamey to save up for my birthday, THIS is where I want to go!!! I was able to have some raw steak which, I totally prefer over anything else. I have always been scared of asking for raw, but since they cut it for you right off the sword and you can SEE it and you get a slice at a time...it's not as scary. So good. I was in heaven. Meat Heaven.
We had so much fun the time kinda ran away from us (and some problems with the check) and we missed part two of my friend's special evening: ghost hunting downtown! And yes it would have been JUST like Ghost Hunters on SyFy. But we all promised we would try to do this later on this month.
So we went to a bar/grill called The Flying Saucer for beers and to count down to midnight.
I had planned on going home, but my friend was shell shocked by turning 30. (Strangely enough she didn't remember any of this. She asked me when she woke up in the morning why I was still there and no one else was. LOL) During the early morning it rained and rained and then the sky decided to upend its self and it POURED. God knows San Antonio needs the rain, but damn it was loud! And the storm knocked out a transformer...so we were without power for 6 hours.
Okay so where were my kids?
Anne was with us, celebrating out friend's birthday and we asked her husband to watch the kids (the dinner festivities started before J. got off work). And HE said hey why I don't watch the overnight as well. (Famous last words) Well it didn't go so well and my kids (along with Anne's grandson) turned into shit throwing monkeys. My two are now on restriction this week. Yay!! I guess because they got their arses chewed off, they have been angels since. Sort of...well as much as my two criminal geniuses can be. I found this on my wall last night:
Micci wanted to save their hair for posterity. And yes, it is Kittenhead's fur, Micci and Lorelei's hair, and Gina's fur. (And yes my wall looked like that BEFORE)
Sigh.
Despite the rain, the local soccer fields were dry, so Mic was able to have his soccer game last night. Not only did his team "win" (they don't keep score officially but you better believe the kids keep track!), but Micci was the goalie for the first time and for the first quarter. He did an awesome job and played hard. And passed out when we got home that evening.
I promised more blogging right? And I meant it. But then came ILLNESS and PLAGUE and PANDEMIC!!
I don't know if it was a cold, seasonal flu, swine flu, goose flu or just plain kick you on your ass so the kids can run amok around your feverish coughing body flu--but 75% of the humans in the house had THAT. It first began with Lori, then Micci, then they got better (no more moaning in bed, feverish), and of course then I got sick. Because I am the Mommy and don't actually get to lay in bed moaning feverishly, I took a bit longer to get better.
It all started Tuesday and I was able to get out of bed, upright and clothed mid-afternoon Monday.
I was too exhausted and sick to knit for the entire weekend--I know amazing! Thank heaven I had a laptop because the internet provided some relief from the boredom of being in bed. By Sunday I was tired of being sick already and texted Jamey to bring home medicine for me. Cough and cold and flu and what ever he could get--I had to get out of bed. Because, every time I got out of bed to get water or toast-the house was in more of a shambles.
So yesterday I was able to pull myself out of bed for a shower. Dude, I had to take a NAP after the shower. It was exhausting standing for that long. But the hot water helped clear my lungs and head.
Now today, TODAY is hobbit day. And Lorelei's FIFTH birthday. WHOA. Where has the time gone? My wee little baby is FIVE today. Crazy!
It was a very rainy, cool day today (wonderful way to start Autumn). I made pink cupcakes before we left on Lorelei's special day. We went to lunch at a place of her choosing (McDonald's), then to Target for presents (more about that in a bit), and then to Hobby Lobby--because SHE WANTED YARN FOR HER BIRTHDAY!!!! I am so proud.
In between Lorelei recovering and me getting sick (there was about a day)-she wanted me to teach her to knit. She is such a willing and patient student. I must say A LOT easier to teach than her brother. So from then on--she's been wanting to go to the yarn store to get her own yarn. (Yeah we are going to let her think Hobby Lobby is her yarn store for now. No need to get the girl hooked on high end fibers just now.)
So Target: she wandered the girlie toy aisles looking at all the toys. She stopped briefly at the Polly Pocket display and pointed to a largish box, "Mommy, Can I not get that?" Say What? Do you want that? "No." Then why.... By that time she wandered off, leaving me in my daze. She also selected a few stuffed animals that she wanted for her next birthday. But what do you want for THIS birthday. Eventually she selected a few Little Petshop thingys. Cute, cool, and she's not introducing new toys into the mix. Yay!! (We like to keep their toy categories to about 3 or 4.)
It was all about Lorelei today, but I gotta share a Micci story. At this point I see that Micci will either be a politician or a scam artist (I know whats the difference?). Phisto often tells me that my kids are criminal geniuses. And my main worry as a parent is to somehow guide all these smarts in to positive, GOOD, moral outlets. One thing Micci does to his sister is convince her over the months and weeks preceding her birthday or Christmas, that the toy she most wants, is actually a toy MICCI wants. So Jamey and I are left, trying to undo his brotherly brainwashing to deduce what in actuality SHE wants.
Micci's been losing teeth left and right this summer. And in our house the tooth fairy is generous (with both money and fairy dust) and so Mic wakes up with a dollar under his pillow.
Now, Micci's been saving up for some more cards for his Dinosaur King trading card game. They are about 4 dollars a pack, maybe 5 total with tax. Well, we went out to Cici's the other day for dinner. It's a pizza/salad/pasta buffet that the kids love...it also has a small game room. It has a crane game that dispenses candy (kids love this one). And of course arcade games...which they usually can't play because we're not going to give them quarters to pretty much throw away.
With his wallet "full" of money to buy some new cards, he entered the game room and went a little nuts and spent all his 5 dollars. Next was a hard lesson in economics and budgeting. He, of course, realised he no longer had the money to buy his cards and WE, as his parents, weren't going to give him money to buy the cards.
He knows that the only way he can earn money is by doing chores around the house, so promptly he asked us what he could do this week to earn the money back that the spent.
Mic also no longer wants to go to Cici's. "I go crazy there and spend all my money!"
This post was written under the influence of The Killers.
Happy July, y'all! It's been a hectic few days. I had planned on blogging yesterday but hubster took my camera to work...I needed pictures from it AND needed to take pictures for the blog. Oh well, so it goes.
Speaking of that! A few days after we got back from vacation our washer broke. Not good when I am still trying to wash vacation dirtiness. SIGH. It is seven years old and it was a cheap washer BUT STILL. NOT a good time for it to decide to spew water all over my garage. We're hoping we can fix it ourselves...I doubt it would be worth repairing (not to mention the Herculean task of cleaning the garage so a repair man could come in and if we DO need a new washer we still need to clean the garage). Yes there is a theme...we need to get the garage cleaned up regardless (Mom, I can hear you nodding/yelling, stop it!)
Jamey's sunburned knee started peeling the other night. Oh bliss. (Yes, I am a weird monkey that enjoys skin picking and various other weird things). I was able to pull the skin off in ONE 4 inch sheet. It was so cool. So cool in fact, that naturally, I took pictures.
Ya gotta admit that IS cool.
Poor Micci is turning into a toothless wonder...ah the joys of childhood. I think he looks adorable. (Him, well he isn't the happiest, but he's enjoy the tooth fairies dollars)
He's got one more loose tooth on the other side of his two middle bottom teeth (those are perms). I am looking at his wee mouth and those big teeth and I am HOPING that orthodontics aren't in his future. Grow Micci GROW!!
I have been ruminating on a new blog redesign. I still want to stick with the Girl With A Pearl Earring--it's been the theme of my website for over ten years now. But I am missing my old graphics software I used last time I did a major redesign. I am not 100% sure what I am going to do...but it'll be different? Eh. I am also kinda feeling un-inspired. Which is terrible since most of my job/work is creative. It's making me feel quite deflated.
Saturday was a blur--kinda felt like I was in a fog all day. By the end of it, I was suprised it was over and even more surprised that it was in fact Saturday.
I took a few pictures of my odd day.
Micci's roly poly city. He loves these wee crustaceans. I even bought him a mini habitat. However, we've had so many in our front porch this year, his habitat wasn't big enough--so he improvised.
This just goes to show my daughter can ROCK anything: even a terrible hair cut. Even though I DREAD her teenage years, she is going to be an awesome woman. She has the attitude and charisma to go FAR in her life...and the smarts, dude, watch out!
Me personally I am vacillating between terror and joy, waiting on pins and needles.
While elsewhere, namely in D.C where my Mom is, it's snowing (well at least when I took this picture it was). To all those who are still freezing their arses off: please enjoy this!
I can accept 80s and 90s in March. I welcome the Blue Bonnets (although this year we are in a massive drought--and I am not sure we will have any. Poot.), because March IS proper time for Spring in S. Texas--just not in February. Grin.
We went out to the park on Tuesday. Lorelei got the first sunburn of the season. I totally forgot to put sun block on her. Oops. :( It was a wonderful breezy day! I had the new U2 album playing on my iPod (it's totally danceable). We bought a bucket of fried chicken from KFC and had a wonderful picnic.
Note: The red markers on her back are a design Micci made on her back with red marker on Sunday morning. It's a dinosaur (among other things).
I do love seeing the world wake up from it's winter sleep (in the case of us Southern parts, a light nap)... I hope to take more pictures of the wild flowers as they start to bloom this month and the next (if the drought hasn't killed them, that is).
Yesterday was a bit crazy, so I cleaned to work out the stress (it really didn't help as I tossed and turned all night--really people, I just don't get them!). But I did manage to edit and upload Micci's Birthday party pics.
This is Mic and his Spider man cake. He's been pining for this cake for over a year (last year he had a Dinocake and dino themed party but planned for the Spiderman theme for his 7th birthday even before he celebrated his 6th birthday). The Spiderman spun around the building and Mic had loads of fun playing with his cake. The top portion was white cake and the bottom was chocolate. Yum!
These are his balloons. Jamey asked for a small bunch (over the phone) and the floral department at his HEB went a bit overboard. Grin. It was quite windy that Saturday and it was a sight to watch me try to carry the big cake and HUGE bunch of balloons to the car. As it was one poor balloon didn't make it...
They played a fun bean bag pizza game--Mic of course rocked it.
Lori showing us all she's 4 going on 13. Woot! Not. I think I took this pic before she totally stained her front, but I could be wrong.
The kids that came to the party. They all had loads of fun.
And the adults that brought the kids. Grin. All that is missing is my Dad's wife, she popped out for more food. Waaaay in the back you can see the wee baby I practically gobbled up. And I am not exactly sure what story my husband is telling but I think it involves tentacles.
Lorelei's hair is getting long (compared to what we had to do last summer) and I can braid it!!!
I had to bribe her to finish the braids (she didn't like the hair pulling) and take pictures by giving her a special Tinker Bell manicure. She however did not want pictures of her new nails.
Long time readers of my blog know how excited I am about my daughters hair. I was devastated when she began cutting it last fall, especially since it was long enough to start really doing fun stuff with it). She didn't want to keep the braids at first, but she hasn't taken them out yet! And hopefully if I do her hair up every few days, she will grow accustomed to the hairstyling AND it'll keep her from wanting to cut chunks out of her hair.
I couldn't find my new camera for pictures. Very aggravating!!!! But I did find my old camera--it does the work I need. To show and Tell my enthusiasm for Lorelei's growing hair!! Woot!
Still hot AND I have been super busy. AND it's been a little over a week since the kids doctor appointments and guess what: we are all getting sick! Right_on_schedule!!!!! I have been up since 6 am because of a horrible sore throat. Grrr. I didn't even know the sun was up that early. Grin. So, I got some floor moppin' done (with my handy dandy homemade swiffer cloths).
In this week of all busy weeks, Mic lost his first tooth. Jamey says he looks like a punk--I think he looks adorable...and so grown up! He was very brave and didn't cry. Heck, I didn't even have to hold him down...just a few twists with a face cloth and out it came. Although he was a bit alarmed at all the blood.
Ahhh, I remember this tooth--it was his first--my nipples remember it well. Youch!
And the tooth fairy came and was a bit over the top when it came to dispensing of the fairy dust--I think she had too many beans for dinner.
She was very generous in the gifting department and left Mic a very sparkly dollar bill. Mic was a tad disappointed--he was expecting a quarter (like in all his cartoons). I told him that the tooth fairy gives more for the first tooth.
Mic was also confused at first with the fairy dust. "What IS this stuff Mom???"
We are still finding fairy dust all over the place. Oops.
My sister Kim is here. It's been really nice spending sisterly time with her. She's 12 years younger than I so our relationship has always been a mother/daughter one. Now that we are both adults I am trying for a sister/sister relationship. So far it's great. She's giving me great help...and no mom I am not treating her like a servant/slave...and I really appreciate her being here.
We had big family drama today. Last night after Jamey and i had a rare date night (thank you Kim!), Mic told me his leg hurt. I saw two spider bites that were really inflamed and hard. I gave him some benedryl...and put him to bed. It was bothering him some more today...but now it was HOT, hard and twice as big as before. Shit. We gave him more benedryl, a double dose and we went off to Anne's house to house sit for a few hours. Well, when she got back we had a "convocation" of Mommies and we all decided it was time to take Mic to the doctor. Poor kid has an infection and on top of that he was over due for some shots so I decided since he was already in pain--might as well get it over with. Poor kid was on the couch all evening moaning about the pain in his leg and in his arm. To be fair to me--he refused all offers of ibuprofen.
Otherwise I have been busy with knitterly stuff (and not really blogging about that either--yes yes bad blogger). I've been stuck in a mire of unfinished projects that seem frozen in time. It's an illusion I know but still--it's the perception. I also have been trying to make some knitting tutorial videos. And Mom amazingly, the house is staying somewhat clean.
I'll leave you with an entertaining video.
Yesterday, we all went swimming with Anne and Seth. And this is Jamey playing toss the boy with Seth.
Once again I have forgotten all about my dark heart. Sorry about that.
Jamey recently bought me a new camera--it's loverly.
I've been playing with it a bit. I missed some great photo opportunities when Phisto and I hit the town Tuesday (Jamey borrowed it and I HATE that I got no pics of Phisto--she's looking great!)--but we've been getting fun pics of the kids. (it' may take me a day or two to get them all up--Phil was here for Memorial Day weekend and I snapped a few of him).
But, I got some pics of Lori pretending to be a kitty.
And of her being, well, three.
Life has been busy. And pretty boring. BUT, Kim (my sister) is coming in a week--and she is most likely moving down here. That will provide enormous amounts of blog fodder. Grin.
Recently Mic has stopped calling me Mommy and Jamey Daddy. It's all Mom and Dad now. He's just too cool now.
I've been neglecting this blog shockingly. I have tons of pics to share. Just haven't gotten around to it. Bad bad Birdwell!
The kids gave me cards--each signed their name. Mic was reluctant because he thinks cards are boring--but cheered up when Jamey brought in the gifts. He later hid his card.
I got a beautiful Cally Lilly and a new crock pot--I've been dropping not so subtle hints that I wanted the new three in one crock pot. Grin. Also got the requisite candy and wine (it's kosher mom!!).
Video!!
Mic is on the far left---my camera won't zoom for video. This was last weeks game. I need to post what I took of yesterday's game.
And I survived HELL week! Sorry it took so long to post again. I've been feeling blah and blech. I am blaming the dreary weather and PMS (although the pms diagnosis isn't confirmed yet--but I can still blame the hormones right??)
Happy Be-Lated April Fools!
This week has been quiet. Lori did lose a fight with gravity, but in her words, "I'm OKAY!!" She got a nice goose egg on her forehead for her trouble. That girl is a trooper. Last week she got run down by a bike...even sported a nice red tire track. Did that stop her?? NO! This girl is amazing!
She'll have fun in soccer next year. Tonight I gotta take a snap shot of her with her pink soccer ball.
I am not dead. Just trying to keep my sanity and clean the house.
If you didn't hear the screaming from Texas: here's what happened:
WAAAAAAAAAH!!! Lorelei CUT her hair!! SOB! It was finally long enough to pull back into a pony tail and she CUTS it. Now it's too short to even put into pig tails.
In other news: I do have pictures of Lorelei's birthday party. I need to finish editing them for the web. Then I'll post some and put the rest onto Flickr. ALSO: Craig is here for a two week visit. He came over last night and the kids were wildly happy that he was here.
Thank you all for your support (I love getting comments!! Keep 'em comin'!)--I've just been overwhelmed with housework and non-listening 5 year olds.
A parting picture of Lorelei's hair...I knowit will gorw back, but still... I have hair issues.
Perhaps I should post more pictures of the crazy things my kids get into--I broke my comments record. Perhaps introduce a "Mess of the Week" picture. Heck I should post a picture of the kids rooms--tornado alley indeed. Thank you to ALL that commented--I feel loved.
The very next day Lorelei got into my lipstick and smeared it all over her face, chest and bathroom counter. Another bath--grin--even that second bath didn't quite get the remnants of the green dye off...but I think finally today--she's green free.
Since y'all seem to like messy Lorelei pics--here's another one--from the first time she really got into my lipstick. She is standing in front of the one foot square smear of lipstick that now permanently graces my bathroom wall.
This weekend was fun--I went to my knitting group at the library and I finished my SOCKS!!!! Okay just one sock...but the sock that never ends is DONE! Knitty vanity--from multiple angles.
Sock stats:
Needles: size 0 DPNS-first Bates 7 inches then Brittany 6 inches.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard's Sock-one hank in Somerset.
Pattern: My own using the Universal Toe Up pattern from Knitty with Judy's Magic Cast On. The lace pattern is Little Arrowhead from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury AND my own adaptation. I used the very stretchy bind off. Basically the main sock was a multiple of 4, I increased two stitches for the lace and increased two more stitches once I got to the k2, p2 ribbing.
Love my knee socks-I was a very good knitter and cast on for the next sock the very next day (I had finished at 12.30 am on Saturday).
I also have yet another secret project in the works--soon to be unveiled. I am really excited and also very very nervous, "Will any one care??". Stay tuned for details and a launch.
Today I am in a bit of a mood--sigh. The world outside my door seems a very very violent and uncontrollable place right now and add into that my messy house that refuses to stay clean and you got a FEP mood. I intend to knit myself through this mood. Pfft.
This post was written under the influence of 
