with a side of compost...

It is a weird thing of mine, I never order anything on the menu that comes with a "compote." The first thing that leaps to mind is "compost" and all I can think about is some filthy steaming pile of manure sitting on my plate and I wouldn't be able to enjoy the meal. There have been some dishes that sound heavenly, until they're ruined by the "warm blueberry compote" or whatever.

The other night I was waffling between 3 dishes, one with a roasted pineapple compote, one with a corn and black bean compote, and the third, which is what I ended up eating, which had no compost whatsoever. We were at Carrol's Creek Cafe, right on the docks of Annapolis, my new absolute favorite place. I should have taken a picture of my meal when it was brought out to me. Now I love to blog and keep documentation of everything cute my kids do or say, but I am not yet at the point where I can whip out my camera and take a picture of a plate of food in a crowded restaurant. But it was a delicious layer of sundried tomato risotto, topped with a macadamia encrusted mahi mahi, with creamed spinach on top. Looked a little Christmassy come to think of it with the reds and greens. It was melt-in-your-mouth amazement. Tim had a steak, the best steak of his entire life. He is still talking about this steak, days later. And we had crab cakes for an appetizer and Tim doesn't even like crab cakes but was raving about this one!

The best part was that we had to take a water taxi to get to this place, how cool is that?! And we watched the sunset right behind our table. And Tim had flowers delivered to the restaurant, they were waiting on our table as everyone around us wondered who's getting the special treatment. And then commenting on how we both look far, far too young to be celebrating our 12th anniversary.

We can't wait to go back to Annapolis! Tim wants to bring the kids and our parents, but I want to save it just for us. There is an overnight sailboat package with breakfast that I'm all over for the next time.

The Trouble with Potty Training

Potty training is so much fun. You get to learn where all the public bathrooms are. And having a potty training toddler on your hands can save you lots of money because you're afraid to take any shopping trips lest you find out the hard way that all the bathrooms are too far away. Or too dirty. Or both.

The most fun you can possibly have while potty training happened to me today. We had to go to the store. Restocking the fridge and pantry. We were out of everything, even syrup. And we buy like 3 gallons of Costco syrup so it's very rare to run out of it.

So we're walking into the store talking about how we're going to stop at the bathroom on the way in to try to go pee pee so we can stay dry like a big girl. I plop Claire on the potty, and she immediately puts her hands on her thighs proudly pointing out how she's not touching anything, as her training has been adament on this point. She squints, indicating how hard she's trying to squeeze out something... but... alas, nothing this time.

About 10 minutes later, we'd gotten through the food line and were sitting down for a quick lunch before we tended to the list. Two bites into her chicken tenders she leans over to me and whispers, "I have to go potty." Oh, you have got to be kidding me right now. I think I may have said that out loud.

Have you ever seen a crazy lady bringing a tray full of food into the bathroom?
Well, that was probably me.

Food

Does your son ever come home from school and eat 2 corndogs for an afterschool snack and then have a huge chicken cesar salad and 2 slices of pepperoni pizza for dinner a few hours later?

Someone is GROWING!!

Either that, or maybe he has a tapeworm, we'll have wait and see.

Look, he's almost as tall as Granny!

Sassy Mouth

Combine being the baby of the family with some super cute bouncy blonde curls framing an adorably pouty mouth and dimpled cheeks and you really can go far in life! Let's just say Claire is used to getting things her way.

But we've been putting up some resistance lately. Maybe it's a little late for that, but we're trying.

She wanted a piece of cheese. Actually, she pulled her wrap apart to pick the cheese slices out of it and toss the rest off the side of her plate. Tim stopped her and reassembled her wrap and told her what we always tell her when she tries to eat nothing but cheese for every meal... too much cheese isn't good for you. And Claire came back in his face yelling, "It's yummy and healthy, what's the deal with you?!"

***********

Sometimes Claire likes to play by herself. She will be upstairs quietly playing with her dolls or changing her clothes or rearranging her stuffed animals or flossing, or who knows what else. When I call to her, I just want her to acknowledge that she hears me, a little reassurance that she hasn't left the house, since those childproofing doorknobs are soooooo effective.

So one day I was calling and calling and calling her name, starting to get worried that she wasn't answering me. I opened the door to the basement and hollered down there just in case she had slipped down there, and called up to the loft, and checked the pantry where she can sometimes be found sneaking granola bars or chocolate chips. She suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs with a really annoyed look on her face like it was soooo inconvenient to answer me. "I'm playing up here, what's the problem?" She asked, in a tone that matched the look on her face.

Oh we're in trouble with this one.

Something I learned

I learned something new today. Or last night. Whenever.
Here is what it was. Cleaning vomit off the top bunk is very hard and gross.
That is all.

Sibling Rivalry

We had a little bug ripping through the family. Ryan was very sick all night and a couple days later Katie started up with the vomiting. After several trips to the bathroom, I warned her that after Ryan had thrown up all day he then had a pretty bad bout of diarrea and she should be on the lookout for that to start up. Just in case. Well, Claire popped in from around the corner saying, "I want diarrea too!" Not a clue what diarrea is, but if her brother and sister are getting it, she better not be left out!

Waffle Glasses

When Ryan was one, he bent the frames of Tim's glasses, and they have sat crookedly on his face ever since. Very cute. At one point duct tape has held the frame intact. Most recently a piece of scotch tape held a lens in place.

Maybe Tim should have gotten a new pair of glasses in the last 7 years... but he hates to wear glasses! He only wears them on the rare occasion that he would lose a contact and not have a spare.

Last summer on our family cruise Katie asked him why he brought his waffle glasses on vacation... was he planning on making some waffles? It was then that I realized the only time she had ever seen Tim wearing glasses was on Saturday mornings when he made waffles for breakfast.

We bid a sad farewell to Tim's waffle glasses.
The did not survive the camping trip.

Camping

THIS... is why we should never go camping EVER AGAIN!!!

This is clothing and gear for a one night camping experience. Not including the tent, cooler, and 2 huge sleeping bags. What in the world were we thinking? It was August hot during the day and down to the 40s at night so we had to bring winter and summer stuff. It's still not all completely unpacked. And notice the potty seat... was I really expecting to work on potty training at the campsite? Really?

Beside our tent was a huge bristly bush. Wrestling around between the branches was either a serial killer, or it may have been a bunny. Either way, it totally freaked me out. Between that and the 50 million little cactuses the kids kept stepping on, we were not very comfortable in our surroundings. We did manage to grill a delicious meal, and I'd packed some random leftover paper plates to use up on the trip. As I served Claire her dinner she announced, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!!" when she saw her green shamrock plate. We roasted an entire bag of marshmallows and made countless s'mores. The optimum roasting time for Claire's marshmallows is approximately 4 seconds. She out-ate all of us.
Shhhh. Don't tell her she's not actually blowing up the tent. She wanted to be soooo helpful!

We had a fun time. Kind of. The problem was that we went to the same campsite last year for a night and had such a great time we thought we could replicate the same experience. We should have known that wouldn't work out very well. We found a different campground that we're going to try next year. Yes, we're such gluttons for punishment it's not even funny.

Napping

Claire has never been a very good napper. For her entire life we've had a weird pick up/drop off school schedule for Ryan and Katie and never a solid chunk of time at home in the afternoons for a good quality nap. So she has always just caught a few moments of rest in the car here and there, when I didn't have any errands to run. She also doesn't want to miss out on anything exciting exciting that the older kids might be doing. So she fights sleep at night too, clutching tightly to my shirt or hair or bra strap (we went from nursing to groping). I lay in her bed for an hour or more each night trying to get her to relax and let sleep take her. And although she's the last one to fall asleep at night, of course she's the first one awake in the morning. She just doesn't seem to need as much sleep as the other kids. Or me.

So it was very odd that she just told that she was feeling tired and wanted to lay down. What? It's 2:00 in the afternoon and she's admitting that she is tired. Finally! I finally wore her out!

Ok, so I just realized I have no pictures of Claire sleeping in her sweet little big girl bed. Seems I've been too busy trying to get her to fall asleep and stay asleep in the bed and haven't had a chance to document the event. Maybe that's because she hasn't actually stayed in her bed for a full night yet. But here she is getting some big brother cuddle time, which is just as sweet as can be!

SnowKids

We had a snow day *again* today, and are anticipating a ton of snow this weekend (various accumulation totals between 8 and 36" of snow depending on who you talk to). I love snow as much as the next mom of a toddler, but by then I will be too annoyed that our weekend is being ruined to take any fun lovin pictures.

Katie has 3 birthday parties to go to this weekend, and we wanted to have a Superbowl party with some of the kids' friends. These would be the plans that are most likely going to be ruined with this storm that's coming.

Every other time we've gone out to play this winter Claire has had to be dragged back inside with frozen fingers. She doesn't seem to mind the impending frostbite, she just doesn't want to miss out on anything fun Ryan and Katie might be doing. This time we were smart. We dressed her in 2 pair of mittens, layered with a plastic baggie tightened and taped around her sleeves. Our own little ghetto version of waterproof gloves. But they worked! Her hands were nice and toasty even after an hour of playing outside.

Poor, poor little Ryan. Snowmen are a very touchy subject for him. Stories, songs and poems he's learned at school all have a less than happy ending for the little frosty guys. He doesn't necessarily think that rebuilding another snowman the next time it snows is a good compromise. So imagine his horror when we pulled up from a shopping trip later in the afternoon and saw his snowman's head laying beside its body. It was a fast melting snow today, and I just prayed he wouldn't notice as we slid into the garage and sneaked that door shut. No way I was going to be that lucky. He saw it, and burst into tears at the sight of it. Poor kid will probably never make another snowman in his life!

Haiku Moo-Koo

That's what Claire has been talking about today. A lot. Every time I turn around she's saying it. I repeat it over and over in my head and compare it to other words I know. Actual words. In English. And I suddenly get it... High School Musical. She wants to watch High School Musical! Yay, translation successful!

Bop to the Top!!

A wintery thought for you...

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things,

but just look what they can do when they all stick together!

No, this is not my front yard! I do love snowmen, but I sincerely hope to God that we never have this much snow! Although... think of the snowdays we would have... This snowman was built in a town in Maine, where they seriously know what to do with a ton of snow!

Happy Old Year!!

We've been talking with the kids about resolutions and what we can each promise to ourselves to try to make us better people and live better lives.

Katie is going to try to eat more vegetables. Scratch that. Katie is going to try to eat a vegetable. I remember one meal last year where she ate one kernel of corn and we all did a celebratory victory dance. She knows all the good things that veggies can provide- the muscles, the healthy heart, blah blah. She always makes her dolls and barbies eat veggies, and hopefully will apply it to real life this year!

Ryan is going to set his bed every day because he's so practical.

If Claire were able to articulate this, I'm quite sure she would resolve to only eat healthy snacks. I am going to assist her in this effort by moving the snack box, which I should have done years ago!

I have to lose my Halloween candy/Thanksgiving dinner/Christmas cookie weight before bathing suit season. I will decide when it gets closer if it's going to be either 9 or 19 pounds- we'll just have to see how things are going come mid-May.

And I'm having issues with a very addictive game on Facebook...Bejeweled Blitz... buh-bye! I need to get my life back. I just don't have it in me to resist your pull anymore so I'm cold turkeying it. Deleting it from my facebook page and my life. Forever.

Tim has yet to weigh in on his enduring struggle for the year to come. More than likely it will be to reduce is intake of caffeine. And by February he will renounce that horrible plan because without Coke we are left with a very crabby, undesirable version of Tim. And life is too short to waste time with crabby. So he will give it up for Lent instead because we can survive 40 days of crabby, but not 365.

I am in shock that we're ending another whole decade. Remember 10 years ago when everyone was in a panic about Y2K and the world coming to an end? Doesn't seem like it was that long ago! Tim and I were at a Millenium Party with a ton of people playing Beer Pong in the basement. And now we have 3 kids, a house, and a dog with retirement plans and everything! Where does the time go?

Ryan will not permit me to say Happy New Year until tomorrow so until then... Happy Old Year!!!

Once Upon a Zumba Class

A sweet friend of mine recently told me that she takes her little girl with her to Zumba class sometimes and I suddenly got a very funny vision in my head of Katie attempting to Zumba. I thought this is something we must try.

Our first attempt was a dismal nightmare because the instructor canceled class at the last minute and Katie had a throwback to 3 years ago and screamed and demanded to do Zumba class anyway. So I started jumping around the family room with her and she rolled her eyes and scoffed at me that I couldn't possibly have been doing it right. Which gave me a flashback to the reason I had to stop going to Zumba class a few years ago.

Because I may look Latino, and I took 2 years of high school spanish so I can ask you where the bathroom is and tell you your cat is fat, but I can NOT dance. I have no rhythm, no coordination, and no sense of direction. If the crowd is moving left, I go right and watch everyone leap out of my way. Most importantly, I have no bootylicious shakeability. Which is a requirement for Zumba.

I also always have such a dumb look on my face when I'm exercising. I'm trying to remember the steps, counting the moves and trying to remember when I'm supposed to turn, or flip to the side, or switch feet, or wave my arms in the air -which I always seem to do precisely when everyone else has just finished. And in Zumba, I cannot keep up with the rapid succession of changes and dance steps.

So my friend didn't tell me that she was an expert in the art of sexy latin dancing... for one song, the instructor moved her up to the front row as a shining example for us to watch. Catcalls and everything, she was really rockin the sports pavillion!

I had to laugh when we got there because I'd assured Ryan that he wasn't missing out on anything and this was a girlie thing. He will get his big day to partake in a class at the pavillion sometime, but this just wasn't going to be it. So when we got in the room and secured our spot safely in the back row, I noticed an old man in the front corner. I whispered to Katie if that little old man can dance, we definitely can handle it. Little did I know that he choreographs some of the songs and could out-zumba everyone in the room except the teacher. While singing along to the music. Of course I knew she'd rat me out to Ryan and let him know that boys can do it too.

Katie did great. She loved it and was bouncing around happily the whole time. There was only one collision where she was still moving forward when everyone else was on the way back already. She did every step wrong, but she's too young to notice or care. She can't wait to go back.

The Sears Angel

Waiting for the repair man... why are they allowed to give a service window of 8-5? I think I'd like a job that I can show up anytime between the hours of 8 and 5. I hope he has the part he needs to fix the washing machine. I really don't want to do this again in a week when the part comes in. Ryan has already pointed out numerous times that he only has one pair of socks left. And they are shinguards! If he can't fix the machine today I might have to go to a laundromat. Do laundromats still exist? Actually it doesn't matter, I'll just buy a package of socks.

As soon as Tim and I slip out to get a quick lunch, the guy calls. He's 1o minutes away. Bummer. There goes lunch!

The problem with the washer? A 4 inch screw in Tim's pocket that must have fallen out and somehow got inside wedged under the drum. Probably several hundred dollars to fix, but this repairman signed off on it as a warranty problem and didn't charge us anything. We were warned when we bought the washer that little things like screws or safety pins could fall out of pockets and really mess with the motor and that kind of "user error" was not covered by the warranty. Our Sears Angel felt bad charging us for such a common mistake. He also showed Tim how to drain this little filter area that we didn't know we were supposed to be draining. He even cleaned out the dryer hoses and tweaked the dryer to make it run more quietly. I didn't even realize it was loud until now that it doesn't make any noise at all. . I thought we were going to have to return some of the kids' Christmas gifts to pay for this repair!

Now I'm wondering why Tim was walking around with a 4 inch screw in his pocket! That's pretty risky if you ask me.

Birthdays

Birthdays have certainly changed over the years! This year my birthday included a lukewarm bath prepared by Katie with bubbles and candles and Claire hanging over the side of the tub asking every 10 seconds, "You like you bath?"

I could hear Tim setting up the bed, as he had just washed the sheets. I love the smell of freshly washed sheets! So after shivering in the tub for about 15 minutes as if I were dying of fever, I'd had enough and decided to snuggle into my nice warm bed to really relax. Hmmm, nice job on the sheets TIM, they're still damp! Brrrr! What a night!

Truthfully, I wouldn't have it any other way. Listening to the kids argue with Tim over where to place things on the breakfast tray, and fighting over who gets to help carry it upstairs, watching their little faces try to hold back the excitement and surprise over my gifts, staying inconspicuously out of their way while they bake me a cake, knowing how much Tim has struggled to find time to sneak down to the basement with the kids to make super secret birthday cards for me, all of it makes me feel so loved and special. Happiest of birthdays to me.

Him Not See

The kids have a little Christmas tree that they decorate. It is filled with little plastic ornaments of all the Disney characters from my tree when I was little. Antiques, if you will. It was nice when they were little because they could feel involved with the tree trimming without breaking any of our nice ornaments. Their ornaments are constantly being rotated around the tree. Last year little silver strands of tinsel were added for a lovely effect.

Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs are all represented on their tree. Until this year (when the snow white movie was released from the vault) none of the kids knew who those characters were and took no interest in them whatsoever. But Claire's favorite princess is "So White" and she has loved the Hi-Ho's ever since she watched the movie.

So tonight, an hour after she was tucked into bed, she crept downstairs to take the Hi-Ho's off the tree. She proceeded to peel off all of their eyeball stickers. She brought them over to me announcing, "Him not see!" Those poor dwarfs never stood a chance... And yes, we do have our Christmas decorations up already... I know you're jealous! Christmas just lasts longer at our house!

Things I learned at Disney World

• It really is a small world after all... I bumped into an old friend from high school, right beside Cinderella's castle!
• Everyone should use credit cards... and not just any credit card, but one that has a decent perk program. Three of our airline tickets were paid using miles earned from our visa, and we had so many disney reward points from our other visa, we were able to eat at the park free for 2 days.
• Going to a bonfire on the first night will result in smelling like a bonfire each night thereafter.
• Katie changes her underwear A LOT during the day. For our 6 day trip, I packed her 14 pairs of underwear and she used them all. By the 4th day.
• A flight planned during Claire's naptime doesn't mean that Claire will take a nap!
• I really shouldn't try to keep tally of all the money we spend on a vacation. It's just too depressing.
• Disneyworld buses are trained to only turn right. It took 45 minutes on the convenient disney bus to drive us 2 miles down the road because we took backroads all around Orlando so we wouldn't have to make a very dangerous left turn!
• A "travel" sized tube of toothpaste lasts for 4 days. Not long enough.
• All Claire really needs to have fun is a beach ball and some water!
  
• Sometimes a "Lazy River" is just too lazy! We were barely even moving!
• I should not be in charge of packing... 15 pairs of flipflops, and not one single pair ended up in my suitcase! I had to buy shoes as soon as we got there!
• Walmart in Orlando is a lot nicer than Walmart at home! But still, who wants to go to Walmart on their vacation!? Oh, yes... people who don't pack shoes or diapers.
• The "Midieval Times" restaurant has a very low overhead. They don't even have silverware! As Katie said when they plopped a chicken on her plate, "Seriously, how am I supposed to eat this?!"
• Breakfast in the Cape May restaurant... $100. Breakfast in our room... priceless! We got to relax in our jammies for an extra 20 minutes!
  
• Balloon animals are useless. And when they pop it becomes a very bad day for everyone.
• Don't take a picture of Tinkerbell as she flies down from the castle. Resist all temptation to capture that magical moment.

• Do take lots and lots of pictures of your little girl meeting the princesses they love! These are the moments dreams are made of!

• 300 tvs to watch the Redskins game from every angle at the ESPN zone... and they still stink!
  

ADHD

I think I might have ADHD. Maybe I've always had it, but it was never diagnosed. My distractability and inability to focus on any one task has never been as noticeable as it is now. My brain is jumping all over the place~ Here's where my head's at right now:

• Geez, is it Thursday already? Another week done, another week that I still haven't gotten my Daisy leader training finished. Or started.
• I gotta make sure I stop by the bank to open the account for our troop, at least I will have done something leaderish before the next meeting.
• Ok the next meeting is tomorrow, I better iron on those patches to Katie's uniform... are we troop 1718 or 1817?
• Why on earth do I need to send in more money for Ryan's lunch account already? All he buys is milk, there's no way he's out of money yet!
• I hope that book order comes in before we leave on our trip so the kids can have some new books to read on the plane.
• Why did I buy that 5 pound bag of broccoli? No one's going to eat that much broccoli... I guess I can make some broccoli cheese soup... a lot of soup.
• I still have 12 apples left, what else can I make with apples?
• Is there an apple/broccoli dish I'm totally overlooking?
• We have to get our Disney Rewards points certificate before our trip... after saving them for 2 years, we better get a lot of free stuff when we're at Disney!
• Do we want to do Odyssey of the Mind again this year? It was fun I guess, and worthwhile. Can we fit it into our schedule? Maybe, but only if the kids are on the same team. And I can't help out too much with coaching.
• I need to figure out lesson plans for preschool next week... pumpkins...hmmm and then monsters... maybe we'll become Germ Busters and do a lesson in handwashing and flu prevention...
• What questions do I need to ask Ryan's teacher at his conference? Hmmm, how to walk the line between advocating for your child and becoming a pushy know-it-all?
• Why did I agree to be room mom? How am I going to get this fall party planned while on vacation? Am I going to get online and check email at all when we're there? I better get something out before we leave.
• Why havent' we gotten Halloween costumes yet! Shopping the week before, everything is going to be sooooo picked over!

ok, my head hurts. But for every answered question or thought process, there are 5 new questions or tangents... my mind is in a whirlwind. Boy do I need this vacation coming up!

Rock the Red

A holiday weekend, an extra day to procrastinate all the things that are piling up on my list. I am gearing up to really tackle my to-do list that has been catching up with me. Tim is in the middle of tiling the fireplace. Ryan has just started a big homework project that's due tomorrow. Katie is knee deep in Barbie clothes and some big party for one of her Webkinz pets. And Claire is naked. Yes, she's wandering around the house naked. But somehow the next thing I know, we're all in the van heading downtown.

We got a call. It's my friend, who shall remain nameless lest she get busted at work for giving out client tickets to her friends, offering us 4 tickets to the Capitals game. Tonight. In 2 hours.

Of course we'll go, how can we pass this up?

We're 8 rows from the ice, right behind the Caps goal. We're sitting with the rich people! Now THIS is a hockey game! We're close enough to see the players' facial expressions, and Ovechkin's missing tooth. Close enough for Pop Pop to see us on tv, thanks in part to Ryan having an end seat and dancing in the aisle flapping his little wings the entire time. What can I say, the kid loves hockey.

We all are swept up in the excitement, and surrounded by red jerseys, so we detoured to buy shirts for everyone. Plus we figured what we saved on tickets we could spend on shirts and food right?

Hmmm, is that Katie I see wearing a RED shirt? What? Has the earth imploded? Is that the same girl that doesn't admit that the color red even exists? Who draws rainbows with pink instead of red? I cannot believe my eyes!

By the way, with her missing her front teeth, I was cracking up all night listening to her shout at the top of her lungs, "Let'th Go Capth!" It was like sitting with Daffy Duck.

For Claire we bought a large foamy finger. Which turned out to be a huge mistake, as anyone else would have had the foresight to realize. Claire needed a 10 foot radius to swing that thing freely. But like I said, we were swept away with excitement and everyone around us received many bonks to the head. We also found out that Claire is good for 2 periods of hockey. Honkey, actually. During the third period she announced, "I all done honkey," and started to climb all over the 4 of us in an attempt to tunnel her way back to the car. She was asleep as soon as we clicked her carseat.

And speaking of sleeping... going to bed at 11 on a school night was probably not the smartest thing to do! Waking this boy up for school in the morning is going to be a nightmare!! Especially since I will be waking him up a little early to finish that Fall project.