Halloween

Oh my, what a time was had by all!

Lindsey and Marissa both had Halloween parties at their school today and came home with bags of goodies. We ate dinner (or at least three of the four of us did, Marissa was too excited to), and then the costumes came back on again and the girls went out trick or treating.

This year Wayne took them around and I stayed home and handed out candy. Last year the temperature was 36 degrees and Marissa stayed home. She was a bit too little for trick or treating anyways back then, at just slightly over age 1. But now she was really getting into it and even said "trick or treat" at all the homes! She also says "Happy Halloween." What a smart kid!

Even Wayne donned his pirate gear, and I stayed in my "award winning" costume (we had a tie at our costume contest at work, I tied with Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite.) A few of the neighbors knew that I was Amy Winehouse, others were a bit confused. But it was fun all the same.

By 7:30 the girls were back home from trick or treating, a neighbor stopped by for a little bit and the fun was already done.

Marissa and her Baby Doll

I finally figured out how to upload video from our camcorder onto our computer! Unfortunately we only have a 32MB memory stick (top of the line 4 years ago when we bought the camcorder!) which can only record 60 seconds of video in the roughest possible format. So here's a little ditty from Marissa and Lindsey tonight, sorry that the video is so choppy but hopefully you'll get the idea.

I think we need to invest in a 256MB memory for our camcorder now. Or are they even bigger than THAT now?!

Horror Movies

It's that time of year again, when all the old horror movies make their rounds on the cable stations.

As a teenager I used to LOVE horror movies. I would rent them from the local video store (remember VHS??) and curl up under a blanket which also served as a blind through which you would watch the scariest parts. I got to the point when I could tell when someone was going to be surprised, could tell what was going to happen next, who the next victim would be, because I watched the genre so often.

As I've gotten older I've lost my taste for horror. I thought for a while that perhaps it was because I'm older and thus a little more conservative than I used to be. Or, now as a parent, I want to protect my children from such awful things, so why support them by watching?

But this weekend, as I read the newspaper with the world happenings, I came upon a new reason why I dislike horror movies now: because if someone can think of a new way to debase another human being, that means that somewhere in the world it is happening to real people.

The depravities that occur in Africa, with young children being recruited and drugged to carry out a military regime's hate crimes, has to be some of the saddest events within human history. And I realized as I read of some of the descriptions of the torture that they are eerily similar to the carryings-on's of some of the horror movies, which came decades before these armies were put together.

So when I see new movies like "Saw" and now "Saw IV" inventing new ways to torture and humiliate humans, it makes me sad because I know that somewhere someone will see this and give it a try.

Ready for Colder Weather

While I don't love winter and I truly love the warm weather here in Minnesota, there is something about the first chill in the air in autumn that is refreshing.

Our trees have been turned for some time now; some leaves are on the ground, some are still in their brilliance on the trees. This past week I wore my first sweater to work. There is something so comforting about opening up your sweater drawer from last year and finding it full of old friends. (Some older than others!)

Our diet expands in the fall, moreso it seems than in the summer, when we can start making all those lovely comfort foods that heat up the kitchen, the ones we didn't make all summer because it was so hot.

On Sunday I made stuffed pork chops for dinner and tonight we had beef roast that cooked in the crock pot all day while we were at work. It was wonderful walking into the house tonight after work and smelling the warmed spices in the kitchen. Aahhh!

And it's also not so cold out yet that we're cooped up -- we'll be spending time this weekend at a Halloween Parade at the "Halloween Capital" of Minnesota, Anoka. I plan on having my hands around a cup of HOT coffee.

Yes, I have to admit, I do enjoy autumn.

A New Fall Arrival

I was just going back through older posts and came across the one from Sept 22nd when Lindsey got excited about it being fall, because that means our neighbor Jenna is going to have her baby!

Well, our neighbor Jenna DID have her baby. It was 3 weeks and three days AFTER Lindsey predicted it, but a whole 10 days before her due date.

She had a little boy they named McTaggart Thomas. (He'll be called Mac for short.) He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz, and was 20 1/2 inches long at birth. Pretty good for being 10 days early! Jenna had an easy labor and looks like a champ already.

Now we've got a newborn right next door to us! I hope they don't mind if I start stopping by uninvited to just get some tiny baby cuddle time in. It goes so quickly!

So in case you all forget, here are a few photos of my little ones, when they actually WERE little ones. Can you guess who's who?

4-year-old Shenanigans

This past weekend was a rough one for Lindsey. I think that getting off of a week of staying home due to illness made it difficult all around. It started with her refusal to go to KinderCare on Friday. It culminated in Saturday's scream fest, in which she 1) bit Marissa 2) cried at the slightest parental rebuke (i.e. "Lindsey, don't bite your sister!") and 3) refused to do anything requested of her. We started her bedtime routine at 7 pm. because she was such a little shit we didn't want to deal with her anymore. But she didn't get to sleep until 10 pm because of the screaming and crying she had to do for the next 3 hours. Busy busy!

On Sunday, Wayne and I both awoke before the girls and thought, "OK, it's a new day, let's go do something fun as a family. Pretend yesterday never happened." So we decided to go to the Mall of America. While Marissa doesn't like the rides she has a good time taking in the sights, and the rides are Lindsey's absolute favorite.

We get there around 10:40 am, about 20 minutes before most of the stores and the amusement park opens. There's one store nearby that's open: Sports Authority. Wayne needed a new pair of athletic shoes so it was the perfect time to get that shopping out of the way until the rest of the mall opened.

We barely walked in the store when Lindsey ran off. She ran off so quickly Wayne didn't even know that she wasn't with me. He hit the shoe department and Marissa and I start casually walking the store, looking for Lindsey.

I figured Lindsey would be too scared and shy to leave the store, so I didn't panic. There were very few people in it besides ourselves and the employees, so I also wasn't concerned about someone grabbing her. And, after the previous day's behavior, I wasn't so sure I wanted to find her anyway.

After about 10 minutes of looking, I go back to where Wayne is still trying on shoes and ask if he's seen her. That's when I find out that he thought she was with me the entire time. (And I thought he was being as calm as I!) So he quickly makes a selection and we all set off through the store, looking for her.

Wayne finds her 5 minutes later trailing behind two employees who were leading the way, trying to help her find her parents. She was visibly upset and the minute she saw Wayne she clung to his neck, crying.

We settled with her and didn't scold her -- clearly she was upset by the situation and didn't need scolding. However, we did tell her that she was not going on any rides because she ran off. We almost left the MoA right then, but poor Marissa was being so good and having so much fun, and has so little clothing that we had to pick up some pants and long-sleeved tops for her. The girl can't wear shorts and halter tops all fall and winter! So we hit a couple more stores, with Lindsey the entire time trying to convince us to let her on some rides.

We even had lunch IN the amusement park right next to the rides, which Lindsey could see but couldn't ride on. We made it home without giving in to any of her requests.

Monday morning was more of the same -- we ended up depositing Lindsey kicking, screaming and in an all-out temper tantrum into her room because I wouldn't let her wear her sandals to KinderCare. (It IS only 50 degrees out, not exactly sandal wearing weather.) The center director ended up removing her from the classroom until she could calm down.

By Monday evening when we picked the girls up everyone seemed back to normal. We had leftovers for dinner, which left lots of time for hide-n-seek and doggie-doggie-where's-my-bone. Marissa's not very good at hide-n-seek yet (she comes out at the same time that the person counting finishes) and just likes having the blankie put on her for the doggie game without ever looking for the bone, but it was all good family time.

Even better, both girls were asleep on time and appear to be back in a routine now. Thank heavens!

Woman's Human Nature

Here's a question for you that many of my female friends will relate to:

Why is it that when women go to the bathroom, we don't want to sit on a toilet that was just occupied?

When I use the bathroom at work, if I see a co-worker leaving the bathroom and I happen to pick the stall that she just vacated (which you can tell by the still swishing water), I'll make a point of going to a different stall. Why is that? What's the difference if someone's butt was on the toilet two seconds ago or two hours ago? Do we think that the germs die in the two hours between when someone last used it and we sit on it?

I got into a discussion with some women at work about our work bathroom habits which was rather amusing (at least to us it was). It came to light that some of us go to a different floor if we have to "make stinkies," while others wait until they get home and try not to go at all while at work.

In the meantime, a couple of guys in our office can be seen on their way to the bathroom, sports section in hand, ready for a nice long sit.

The difference between men and women when it comes to bathroom habits is rather amusing.

Marissa's Vocabulary

This may be more interesting to me than to others, but I always find it fascinating how our children's language changes so subtly over time that you don't realize all the cute little ways they used to say things are gone, replaced by more mature language.

So I thought I'd write down here some of the funny little things Marissa says, because some day they will be replaced by the appropriate words and we'll say, "What did Marissa used to call...??"

Pinky: This refers to her "pink blankie," which everyone else calls "pink blankie" but she has shortened to "Pinky." It goes with her EVERYWHERE, it hasn't been washed in two weeks and looks like it.

Sassa: I've said this one before, it's her name for herself. Pronounced "SAH-ssa."

Nuggle: Snuggle.

B'ana: Banana. (Not much different from how Lindsey said it.)

Poppy: The potty.

Fah fah: Flowers. Used in a sentence: "Oooo! Pretty fah fah."

Geen: Green

So now you know if you come to our house and she runs up to you with her pink blankie in hand saying "Sassa pinky nuggle" you'll know what she wants.

Martha Stewart I'm Not...

...But I did hear a great laundry tip the other day that I have to share.

One of my co-workers was trying to figure out how to salvage her husband's jeans that had been soaked through with gasoline (by accident, of course, he was not re-creating the gasoline fight scene from Zoolander). She read online to try using a cup of white vinegar in the wash, after airing out the jeans as much as possible.

Not only did it save the jeans, but she also began putting it in every load of laundry with her regular detergent.

Genius!

So I tried it tonight and maybe it's just a placebo effect, but I have to say that my laundry appears whiter. The pee stains on Marissa's mattress pad are no longer visible and the acidic vomit smell is almost out of her pillow. Now I can't wait for Dax to poop on something so I can try it out on that, too!

Brief Rant

Scientists believe they have found the purpose of the appendix, though its use is primarily unnecessary in modern times.

Within a CNN article published October 5th they stated that 300 to 400 Americans die EVERY YEAR of appendicitis, a perfectly preventable end.

In contrast, each year 36 children die by being left in vehicles by their forgetful parents. Yet each time that tragedy happens, it's the headline on the evening news.

In contrast, 61 people die every year from e. coli bacterial infection. Yet every time there is a food recall, or a high e. coli test that results in a public pool being closed, it makes the news. (Okay, so maybe the fact that e. coli is only found in POOP has a reason why we're so fascinated and disgusted by this.)

Where are the charities raising money to battle appendicitis? Where are the testimonials of family members, mourning the loss of their family to an unnecessary illness? Where are the millions of dollars in research, patient outreach centers, armies of scientists trying to find a cure?

Oh yeah, because all it takes to prevent those 300 to 400 deaths is for someone to go to a COMPETENT DOCTOR. Gotcha.

Sickeningly Sweet

Today there is finally an autumn chill in the air, after a hot and humid weekend. So this evening after everyone was home from work/daycare and fed, we decided to start a fire in our fireplace.

We had recycled most of the papers yesterday so all we were left with were the comics that Lindsey had set aside (and had read and reread several times). So I balled up the comics and we started the fire with them. I hadn't known that Lindsey was going to be so traumatized by watching the comics go up in flames. After the fire was established and roaring, she came over to me trying to hold back her tears. It took me a while to figure out what she was upset about.

So I sat in the wingback chair next to the fire, holding and rocking Lindsey as she mourned the loss of her comics. Marissa saw us and immediately grabbed her blankie and ran up to Wayne. "Up! Up! Snuggle!" she said. So he promptly sat down as well, cuddling Marissa who needed some one-on-one time too.

As we sat holding our two adorable girls, you will not believe this, I know, but the song "Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong came on the radio.

It was silent for a while as I took in the moment, finally broken by Marissa looking around and all of us and saying, "This our home."

Now I know you all know how sappy I am, but I have to say I couldn't help but tear up at this moment. It was pretty damn sweet.

a bedtime story

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed...
One fell off and bumped her head...

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Or as Marissa said, "Sassa faw dow."

Projectile Vomiting: Warning: may assault your senses like it did mine

I have to say that I have never seen anyone projectile vomit. That is, until last night.

Marissa clearly got a 24-hour virus, something that's been going around daycare. She began throwing up at 10 pm, first covering her ENTIRE down comforter in the largest chunks of curdled milk I've ever seen. She managed to spray the wall, the entire footboard, the hamper at the end of her bed and, of course, the floors.

So while I cleaned up this mess, Wayne held her and comforted her. As soon as it was clean, she immediately did it again, this time while sitting on his lap. It made a distinct, almost comical "SPLAT" sound as it hit the floor, his legs, her blankie and sheep, the seat cushion of the rocker, etc and so forth.

So once again, bring out the mop, strip everything down, etc. etc. I think I cleaned nonstop for two hours while she kept puking. We could never tell when she was going to do it until it suddenly came out of her, thus the reason why she covered nearly her whole room and the hallway floor before she finally stopped.

The icing on the cake had to be when I let Dax out during this entire ordeal, during one of my many trips to the basement to get a mop and rags. I came back through the area to let him inside, only to see that the cushion I had set outside to dry from my scrubbing it had some "new" water on it. Yep, he had marked his territory well on that cushion.

Remember earlier when I said I need to take up kick boxing? Well, I couldn't kick the dog, I couldn't assault the child, so today I have to call my neighbors and apologize for the obscenities that were screamed into the air around 10:30 at night as I stood outside, chunky comforter in one hand and peed-on cushion in the other, letting out my frustration.

Some day this will be funny. That day has not quite arrived.

A Joke from KQRS

A priest walks into a bar and asks the bartender to pour him a stiff drink. The bartender can see the priest is troubled and says, "Father, what could possibly be weighing on you, a man of the cloth?"

The priest says, "Well, I can't really talk about it, you see the church frowns on it, but...well," and finally he blurts out, "I just had a fight with my boyfriend!"

The bartender, hiding his surprise, says, "I'm sorry to hear that, father. Why don't you tell me about it."

The priest says, "Well, my boyfriend called me a scoundrel and a pedophile."

The bartender says, "That's too bad. What did you tell him?"

The priest replies, "I said, 'Those are awfully big words for a 10-year-old.'"

She is Unbelievable

Our time with our children is precious, both in importance and in brevity. So every minute that we spend with them we want to truly enjoy. And then we have evenings like this one.

We had enough leftovers from prior meals that we didn't have to make a dinner, just reheat some plates and eat. So we were done eating surprisingly early, giving us more time together for fun. Wayne decided to pull out the Hungry Hungry Hippos game, which all four of us could play.

So we played together for about 3 minutes, until Marissa came over and sat on my lap. She did this in order for me to smell her and understand that she had a poop and needed to be changed. So I took her upstairs to change her.

Now for most people that's a 3 minute ordeal. But not with Marissa.

While I hear Wayne and Lindsey downstairs, playing away with just the two of them, she and I head upstairs. She brings with her some tennis shoes she'd worn over the weekend. As we get up to her room, she dumps out the approximately 2 pounds of sand that was in them, all over her floor. Great.

So I grind sand into her wood floor as I change her diaper, and then put her in front of the bathroom sink to wash her hands while I vacuum up the sand. Then as I'm putting away the vacuum, I see the water on its way out of the bathroom, into the hallway. Yes, she has dumped water all over the bathroom, so much so that it is escaping down the hallway.

What comes to my mind is, "Frickin' frackin' diddly whoppin' why do I get to spend all my effin' time cleaning up after this little twit, I'd rather be playing with her than picking up after every bleepin' mess she makes..."

[Note: Due to the high moral standards of some family members who I know read this, I have censored the above thought process. Hi Millie, hi Mom.]

Instead what I say is, "No no Marissa! Now help Mommy clean this up."

Some day I am going to explode. We parents cannot possibly hold in all of the frustration that we withhold from our childrens' ears without someday letting it all out.

I think I need to take up kick boxing.

A final footnote, by the time I made it back downstairs from cleaning up Lindsey had lost interest in Hungry Hungry Hippos and it was almost time to start a bath for the two peanuts anyway. Another evening shot to hell. Sigh...

The Changing of the Seasons

Lindsey is becoming more aware of the change of seasons, something Marissa is still oblivious to. She'll want to do certain things that only happen at Halloween, Christmas, etc, and we'll tell her, "When it gets colder" or "When the leaves start turning."

Our next door neighbor is expecting her first child -- her due date is late October. So during her pregnancy we would see her out and about and Lindsey would ask, "When's Jenna going to have her baby?" Our answer was, "This fall, when the leaves start turning and falling down."

Last weekend our neighbor's black walnut tree began shedding some yellow leaves, just barely turned. A gust of wind came by and the leaves swirled around us as we stood in our front yard. Lindsey looked at all the leaves, considered them for a moment, and then started jumping up and down.

"Mommy! Mommy! The leaves are falling! That means Jenna's going to have her baby!" She was holding her face "Home Alone" style, jumping up and down with excitement.

I think she thought that Jenna was going to have her baby right then and there. I said, "Yes, Lindsey, she's getting close to having her baby, but probably not today."

I just love Lindsey's sense of time. Something that happened in the morning is sometimes described as "a long time ago" or she'll say, "Remember yesterday when we..." and go on to describe an event that happened last winter. Apparently autumn is a single day. Whoosh! The leaves turn colors, are gone, and Jenna has her baby, all at once.

I'm sure Jenna wishes that were the case!

Minnehaha Falls

Marissa's "portrait" while at Minnehaha Falls. (She always decides she doesn't want her photo taken when I pull out the camera.)

And then there's Lindsey -- her eyes just pop in this photo.

One of our neighbors comments to us that we manage to spend an awful lot of time with our girls, despite working our two full time jobs. And I have to say, we do fit a lot in, which I'm thankful for.

For example, this weekend we spent hours on Saturday at the Fulton Festival, a little festival cooked up to help fund our neighborhood committee, which publishes a newsletter, does all kinds of neighborhood activities, and so forth. The festival was at the park we always go to, about 1 1/2 blocks from our house.

This year is was incredibly well attended and had LOTs of great music! The woman who organized the music is a casting director, so who better to be well connected and be able to get talent in for cheap? (Read "free.") Marissa and Lindsey spent lots of time in a bounce house, then Marissa got fussy and went home for a long nap. I took Lindsey back then and we closed the place down. Lots of freezies, roasted corn, face painting, animal balloons and dancing were in our plans! We finally shuffled back up the big hill to our house and made it home around 3:30, about the time Marissa awoke from her nap.

Then today we finally made it to Minnehaha Park. I've been wanting to go there all summer but was getting overruled by others. We went and it was worthwhile. The park has 167 acres of you name it, they got it. We drove into the park quite a ways and finally parked, thinking we would scope it out. Lucky us, we happened to park near Minnehaha Falls, which was a source of great amazement for Marissa. "Wawa! Wawa!" she would say, pointing. This was followed by a great game of hide and seek in all the large oak trees near the falls, which resulted in hungry tummies, so a picnic soon followed. After that, we managed to find a playground with a slide and monkey bars, the old fashioned metal kind that you can really hurt yourself on. The slide was made of metal, so you could really SLIDE down, Clark Griswald speed.

Hopefully we'll make it back there one more time this fall as the leaves are turning. It was gorgeous!

Teaching at Home

While our girls are in daycare all day, getting the quality, structured activities and learning that centers offer (cough cough, ahem), I always feel a tinge of guilt that I don't reinforce the learning at home. I get to see the girls for 3 hours every evening, two days on the weekends, assuming that I don't have to run errands or have other things going on weekends. So bottom line, when I see them I just want to enjoy my time with them, not drill them on ABCs, etc.

It wasn't until my mother-in-law and other family members were visiting that I realized how much I actually taught my girls...without trying to teach them.

I was making dinner and Lindsey was drawing with markers. She would draw a part of an object with one color, then pick another color and draw the next part, etc, often overlapping the colors. She started talking about how blue and red make purple (her favorite color), red and white make pink (her other favorite color) blue and yellow make green, etc. Millie asked if she learned that at daycare, and I realized that she had learned it with me, in working with fingerpaints and blending them together to see what colors they made.

Then at bathtime we pulled out the old bath letters that we had put away some time ago, and Lindsey had to pick out which letter went with which phonic sound. I would say, "Show me the letter that goes "va va va" and she would pick out the "V." Sure enough, that teaches, too!

Marissa can count to three, because at the end of three is usually some activity -- jumping, being tossed into the air or thrown onto the bed. I guess that's a good thing, too.

And, as expected, "toot" and "poop" are currently Marissa's favorite words.

Thank Daddy for that one!

Lindsey's Question this morning

This morning I was getting ready for work and Lindsey was sitting on our bed, chattering away. She says to me, "Mommy, I want to ask you a question."

"Yes, Lindsey?" I say.

"When mommies have babies in their tummies, can they eat?" she asks.

Wow, what a great question, out of the utter blue.

"Yes, Lindsey, mommies can eat when they have babies in their tummies. And when they eat, the baby eats too, and the baby grows bigger and bigger," I say.

"Oh! That's really neat," she says.

Yes, that is.

Visit to Wisconsin

We spent Labor Day weekend visiting the fam in Wisconsin. Now, I know Minnesota is right next door to Wisconsin, but I have the distinct honor of being from a town on the very Eastern side of the state, right next to Lake Michigan. While it's a nice place to grow up and a beautiful place to come home to visit, it's a helluva drive with two little ones in tow.

Luckily our drive over went amazingly well - 6 1/2 hours total, only one meltdown. We arrived just in time for some sidewalk chalk drawing, and for Grandma "Loud" (as Lindsey says my mom and stepdad's last name) to bring out toy after toy. Finally at one point, after all the new toys had been dragged out, Lindsey says, "Grandma, may I have another toy?" At least she's polite in her greed.
Saturday we went to the South Shore Festival, or whatever it was called, right on Lake Michigan. Big surprise, the rides were the biggest hit with Lindsey. But Kristi and I had quite a laugh, too, riding the Tilt a'Whirl until we were almost sick. (It only took one ride.) We were spinning quite fast and laughing so hard that I nearly peed. The ride operator was chuckling at us as we got off. We also rode "The Scrambler" -- remember that thing?? I felt like I was in a big mixing bowl.

We got the biggest kick out of the warning sign on "The Scrambler". Check out the frownie face on the guy who stood up during the ride! Bummer for him.



Kristi said something to me about always looking at the people in the crowd, wondering if she'll recognize some old classmates. Then she realized that she was looking at all the high school kids before she realized she should be looking at the middle-aged people with the families! Ain't that the truth! I'm just a FEW years out of high school, right? Still look like I could pass for a senior, eh? Ummm....yeah, not so much.

That evening we had a visit with my friend Chuck, his wife Kerri and their little baby, Claire, all of 9 months old. She is about the happiest giggliest baby I've ever seen, who justly earns the nickname "Porkchop" with her rolls of fat on her legs and arms. What a cutie!


Sunday morning Michelle, Steve and nephew Paul came to visit for a few hours, as did Grandma Janet. You would think that with Marissa and Paulie being a few weeks apart in age that they would play together more. But I think the sister/girl thing was a bigger draw for Marissa, and Paul was just too enamored with his cars! It's just amazing how different boys and girls play! They finally all had some together time in the sandbox in the back yard.



Sunday evening we enjoyed a dinner out with Kristi and Ned, at a restaurant on the lakefront with outdoor seating. It was so beautiful out, and the breeze was just perfect. It was a fabulous break from kid-dom.

The one scourge of our weekend was, as it seems to always be when we travel, getting the girls to sleep. Lindsey only napped one day, and every day she went to bed well past her normal bedtime, usually around 10 or 11. One night it was nearly midnight before she finally passed out, while in mid-sentence saying, "Can I just have one more......" I almost wanted to wake her to ask what she wanted one more of, but thought better of it.

You would think for all that tiredness that we would have a quiet drive back home with two sleeping girls catching up on some shut eye. But alas, they were both up for most of the drive, though we did get a good hour-long respite when they both finally konked out at the same time. The drive home took us about 8 hours due to unscheduled stops, crabbiness and general chaos. Traffic was great, kids were not.

We got home at about 8:30 Monday night -- both kids were sleeping by 9:30. Aaahhh! Sleep, oh wonderful sleep! I got 9 hours of it myself that night...in a row.