Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A Night Out...

I certainly don't make it to every PTA meeting, or every event that they sponsor at our school, but when I do go, it is with the sole intention of skipping out on the bedtime routine. There, I said it. I'm not into the fundraising, I don't want an update from the Box Top Label committee, I just want a night off from bath, stories, and whining about going to bed. Tonight, though, it appears I missed out on quite an evening here at home. Let me tell you what I missed...



Imagine little Claire, ripping her diaper off for probably the 10th time today, wandering around the kitchen while Tim scurries to put away the dinner dishes and leftovers. She is without pants and diaper 90% of her day lately, clothes are just not her thing. Tim notices her naked bottom half and sends her to the potty. She wanders in there and is doing her thing for awhile until Tim goes in to check on her. He steps in a giant pile of smooshy poop, it oozes in between his toes. I can only imagine his face when he looked down at his foot. It went downhill from there... he kicked the potty chair, probably in a haste to get that nasty sock off! And Claire began crying and rushed over to rescue her little potty chair. Apparently God thought this was a good time to test Tim to his limit because somehow the pipes came unhooked from underneath the sink and water started spraying out from the sides of the faucet. Somehow this kind of thing NEVER happens when I'm around...

Everything eventually calmed down, was repaired, and cleaned, but suffice to say they were NOT all asleep when I got home from PTA.


Friday, March 27, 2009

Free Cookies!

Do you know how to get free cookies at Subway? Well, I do! Send your baby over to the counter to dance. The lady will be so delighted, she will give her a cookie and blow kisses to her! I must warn you that this will hardly discourage your baby from her obnoxious behavior in public. It will probably ruin the chances of her eating the remainder of her sub, and when you take the cookie away, everyone in the restaurant will get an earful of screaming!


Saturday, March 21, 2009

Clueless

Our bathroom faucets are labeled with H and C, probably standard for many sinks. However, our H and C are written in a very fancy lettering so that apparently neither one is recognizable as an H or a C.

So when I told Ryan to wash, no scrub, his filthy hands with hot soapy water after picking up a nasty penny at the grocery store, he came out of the bathroom immediately asking for help reading the french writing on the sink to find which side was hot!

One minute I think he is just as smart as they come, and then something like this happens! Sometimes common sense isn't so common.... Let me try to figure out which side of the family blessed him with this trait.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Cross this one off my life list...

We had company for the weekend- Tim's parents came and we wanted to do something fun, but not just our usual trip downtown to the musuems we always visit. We didn't have enough time to go to Baltimore due to an afternoon meeting for Ryan and we were slow moving in the morning so we found ourselves in a very small window of opportunity. We ended up downtown at The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.

To think we almost passed it by... but it was starting to sprinkle and we wanted to duck inside to warm up and wait out the rain. We walked into the building and down a long hallway with some portraits of people we'd never heard of. Then we walked through several rooms filled with statues and photographs of people we'd never heard of. Then we wandered through a few more rooms with paintings of fruit, THEN we saw a couple of photographs of people being hanged... and quickly pulled the kids through the first available doorway (whew) which happened to be a very interesting room. Imagine total silence when Ryan suddenly announced, "Wow, Mommy, all the ladies in here are NAKED!" Ok, well it was a step up from the hangings but really? I couldn't just click my heels together and be back at home again?




"Look, that naked kid wants to get his ball back, but that lady won't let him have it! Oh, she's naked too! Why is everyone naked!?"

On a positive note, we did get to see a bunch of portraits of all the presidents so that was nice for Ryan, and we did walk through Chinatown and eat a ton of food at a very yummy restaurant. We also went in Ford's Theater where we got to see where Abraham Lincoln was shot and across the street at the Peterson house we got to see where he died. Kind of a downer of a day!

The moral of the story: The Air and Space Museum for the 100th time might not be such a bad idea!



Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Happy Birthday Kiki and Panda

Kiki and Panda's birthday used to roll around every other week or so, one of the kids' favorite activities was party planning! Making invitations, making name tags for all the other stuffed animals and setting them all out for the party, wrapping gifts and making pretend cakes and all the other details that go into an imaginary birthday party! But ever since last year when we took them to Chuck E Cheese for their birthday and they posed for a picture with Chuck E. and had the date stamped on their photo, we finally had the date set! So a few months ago when Katie came across that picture in her room, she noticed that Kiki and Panda's birthday was coming up again.


We talked about it and decided that an ice cream party would be the perfect way to celebrate this year. The kids made birthday crowns and we marked on the calendar for March 10, party at Maggie Moos! What a fun special treat for all of us!





Monday, March 9, 2009

The Great Butter Heist

Claire, Claire, Claire... sweet little Claire... do you not get enough attention? Why are you looking for trouble around every corner? Today was most certainly a day that trouble was calling out to this baby. She pulled out a box of spaghetti and ripped it open... strands of spaghetti poured out and piled up like a giant game of pick up sticks.

She moved a chair over to the counter, climbed up, and dipped her hand in the peanut butter jar. I looked over and there she was sitting on the island, licking her gooey, sticky hand. She had the softest smoothest hands, all oily from the creamy peanut butter lather we worked up at the sink.

And of course, the stick of butter that was sitting out on the counter softening up for a recipe, was smooshed and nearly devoured. I can't even imagine that tasted good at all, plain butter? But there she was chowing it down. I should have reached for my camera, but I was so grossed out, that all I could think of was lunging at her and grabbing what was left of it and scraping it off her tongue. No cholesterol testing for her this week!

She also likes to review the bills every afternoon when we pick up the mail. Often without pants... what a fun secretary she will be one day!




Saturday, March 7, 2009

Mount Vermin

President's Day is the perfect day to visit Mount Vernon. Perfectly priced, that is: FREE! How could we resist? It's a very nice place, and we enjoyed spending the day there. If the weather was warmer it would have been wonderful... I suppose we could just buck up the $45 and go in May or June... hmmm? And it would be great if we were able to bring our own food and sit beside the Potomac and enjoy the beautiful view and picnic. There was a wreath laying ceremony at George Washington's tomb, and then fife and drum corps marched up to the front of the house where we were welcomed and greeted by George Washington himself which surprised the kids since we had just seen his grave, hmmmm...

We saw the soldiers marching into a battle, and during the battle, every time the shots were fired, Claire jumped and then laughed hysterically! Santa is terrifying, but apparently being shot at doesn't phase her.

We waited in line forever to take the tour through the house. As it happened, our spot in the line was the perfect place to see the world's smallest hometown parade (as it is appropriately named because if we'd have blinked, it would have been over). A couple of horses and a family all dressed in costumes of the pioneer times walked by, then a goat, and one more song by the fifes and drums. Right after the parade, it was our turn to walk through the house. Ryan was a little repulsed and did NOT want to see the room where George Washington had died. He thought we were a little nuts for wanting to see that, and I can understand why he thought so. It was fascinating to see everything from that time on display and learn about George Washington and everything he dabbled in (he was quite the busybody and seemed to have his hand in everything from architecture, design and painting, and of course war, politics and the job of building the beginnings of our country).


We met up with some friends while we were there, and after lunch and running around on the lawn together, we walked through the museum which I thought would be a breezy 5 minutes but we could have stayed for hours. Ryan was so interested in everything, I'm predicting he's going to be a history teacher one day.

It was a great day and the kids were excited to share with their teachers the next day their adventures at Mount Vermin.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Birthday Wishes


Happy Birthday to You,
You are 62,
Happy Birthday Dear Grampa,
Happy Birthday to You!!


That's the sweet song Ryan made up to sing to Grampa on the phone this morning.
Isn't he thoughtful?



Someone else who's thoughtful.... my dad's brother Rick. He planned quite a surprise for my dad. Apparently they've been having some birthday wars, trying to outdo each other with the most rediculous birthday greeting. I think my uncle now has the advantage. Imagine my dad's face when he opened the door to pick up the morning newspaper...



and found a flock of tacky pink flamingos perched all over the front lawn! They live at the end of a cul-de-sac and all day people were driving by waving and staring. All he needs is a rocking chair on the front porch to wave back!




Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Short and Sweet

Ready for Spring... and all the new adventures it will bring!