This girl has got quite the style

She's my own little Rachel Zoe.


I die.

mg

Iowa 2010, fin

After a sleepless Friday night, Saturday night both of the girls went down (relatively) easy. AND they stayed asleep!

Sunday morning we were looking at a five hour road trip ahead of us so after a super yummy breakfast we packed up the car to head home.

But not before getting some group shots of the kiddos.

Do you know how hard it is to get a "good" photo of three kids three and under?

I know Q is a cutie, but look over here girls!

Madeline? Madeline? Madeline?

Well I guess that works.

It's kinda like trying to organize a bunch of squirrels.

Lydia practiced her walking.

So a HUGE thank you to Aaron and Jenny! They were the most wonderful hosts (for the second year in a row) and had a fantastic weekend! I am sorry Madeline got sick in your bathroom... although I am not sorry I cleaned it for you! You are welcome at our house at any time and we can't wait to meet your number 2!

mg

Iowa 2010, Part II

And by tomorrow I mean two days later of course.

In order to move on to Saturday of our trip I must first address Friday night. Friday night was eventful. Madeline didn't want to go to bed. She was so wound up from being in a new place, with new people, and a new bed that she wouldn't calm down. To add to the crazy Lydia was equally crazy. She didn't want to sleep in the pack n play. So after three hours of crazy Madeline finally settled down and fell asleep. Lydia was shortly there after. That was until an hour later...

Madeline slept through, but Lydia cried every time we tried to set her in bed. For the rest of the evening she slept in 45 minute shots whilst being held by Kevin or I. None of us woke up rested.

Lydia had no interest in napping in the pack n play either. She konked out in the sling instead.


So we made guacamole.


Her neck isn't nearly as strained as it looks in this photo. Promise.

Madeline and Quentin got along famously. They played together all morning and kept each other entertained for most of the football game.

Did I mention the football game? The whole reason we headed up to IA was for a barbeque with Kevin's friends from his Iowa State days. The Iowa State vs. Iowa rivalry game.


This is Lydia watching some other game.

So now for the story you've all been waiting for.

During the game the big kiddos were playing outside in the sand box. Somehow Madeline got sand in her eyes. In order to clean them out as quickly as I could I used saline solution to wash her eyes out.

I have to stop here and interject a bit of commentary. Madeline hates getting water in her eyes. Bath time leads to a huge melt down if water even comes close to her eyes. So me spraying saline into her eyes was probably her personal idea of hell.

By the time I had washed all the sand out of her eyes she was really upset. So upset in fact that we had a repeat of the infamous crying induced vomiting episode. That's right. She puked all over Aaron and Jenny's bathroom, the floor, the shower curtain, herself and me. I had to launder my clothes, Maddy's and the bath mat. I washed the shower curtain separate (because that is what the instructions told me to do) and I cleaned their bathroom.

I couldn't have felt worse. Now I know that it wasn't on purpose. I also know that they felt bad because of the sand getting into her eyes in the first place, but I don't know that I have ever done two loads of laundry and cleaned a bathroom with so much apologizing afterward!



After that was behind us, Madeline recovered quickly. There were cupcakes involved. I truly believe cupcakes cure all.


mg

Iowa 2010, Part I

Two weeks ago (because I am about that far behind on everything in my life including laundry and dishes (just kidding (sort of))) we hopped* in the car and headed north to Iowa.

It was a very eventful weekend. The weekend started with a 5 hour car ride with two small children. That is not fun. Period. I know there are a million websites that will tell you that traveling with kids is great if you have the right stuff to keep them entertained, but that is just a bunch of crap. You know what I need? A never ending supply of DVD's for my three year old and a intergalactic transporter a la 'beam me up Scotty" for my 10 month old. Just kidding of course. They don't let children that young transport alone.

So after a short nap for Lydia and about an hour of mild fussing by both the girls we stopped for lunch at a park. I was navigating and as we got off the highway the road I directed Kevin onto turned into a gravel road only 100 yards off the highway exit. He was more than skeptical.

But I didn't lead him astray and we found a park with picnic tables and a play ground for the girl to burn off some energy.


Did I mention it was freezing? It was freezing.

Eventually we got the girls to go back into the car. It was like we were torturing them or something. Hell in a Nissan. We are so flippin' mean.

Eventually we made it to Iowa to hang out with Quentin and his parents.

Madeline promptly found a even smaller spot to hang out in. See! She loved torture by Nissan.

They didn't spend all weekend in a bucket.

The train table was pretty cool too.

Tomorrow's installment: How Aaron and Jenny got me to clean their entire bathroom, do two loads of laundry AND apologize for it! Stay tuned!
__________
* and by hopped I mean we spent hours packing to leave the house for only three days and two nights.


mg

Doing my part to "green" my daughters

Do you read a million blogs like me? Do you need one more?

One of the newer blogs I read is Greening Sam and Avery. I love her blog because she focuses on simple activities and crafts to do with her children (who are about the same age as mine) that focus on getting out into nature and caring for our earth. She is a very passionate naturalist and is sharing her ideas for all of us who may not be like minded. I mean I try to live by reduce, reuse, recycle. Try.

Each month Abbie presents a challenge for her readers. In August it was camping. That wasn't going to happen. This month she as asked her readers to make something new out of something from your recycle bin. Although I have a larger project for some glass jars I rescued from the recycling bin, but who knows if I'll get to that in time to meet the deadline. So today, when an idea for a VERY simple craft and reuse hit me I thought of the Greening Challenge.


I emptied this small plastic spice jar today.

So I had Madeline clean it out and we dried it really well. See that part with the holes on the right? I threw that back in the recycle bin.

Then Madeline filled it up with dried pinto beans.

See?

We only filled it a third of the way because:



The shake is just so much more satisfying in person. Promise. Lydia loves anything that makes noise. She shook that can for ever and carried it around under my feet as I cooked dinner.

It is a tiny little project I know. It took all of 10 minutes. That is my kind of project.

So go check out Greening Sam and Avery and let's hope there is more time in my life for her wonderful activities!

mg

Too much

random Lydia photo to please the masses (or the 4 of you)

I have too much going on.

I need a second set of arms.

No, you know what I need? I wife.

Many moons ago, when I was paying my way through school and working 35+ hours a week as a nanny the mom once referred to me as "her wife." I thought that was very fitting. I cooked, I cleaned, I did all of the laundry and I cared for the children. I was, for all intents and totally gender stereotypical purposes, her wife.

There is a new TV show staring on TLC called Sister Wives. THAT IS TOTALLY NOT WHAT i AM TALKING ABOUT HERE!!!! Although I haven't seen the show, and I have no desire to really, I am talking about someone in the house to do all the stuff I am not so good at.

Case(s) in point:

1. The last load of laundry is in the drier. It has been there for over 24 hours.

2. My dishwasher is full of dishes. They are dirty. I probably won't go back downstairs to run it tonight. Which means that after breakfast tomorrow I will have a dishwasher full of dirty dishes AND a sink full of dirty dishes.

3. We went out of town last weekend and although we've been home for 4 days, I still haven't unpacked my suit case.

4. There is very little visible counter space in the upstairs bathroom. Most of the junk is mine.

5. Our floors are kinda gross. By kinda I mean really.

So who wants to come be my wife? Anybody? I'll pay you in banana bread, Madeline hugs and Lydia kisses. Anybody?

mg

My First...

Day of preschool!

Ok technically today was the second day of preschool but wouldn't know know it a bug kept her home for the "first" day. So today was HER first day.

She couldn't be more ready to go to school.

She busted out in a first day of school dance.

I gave her a perfect 10.

I always give her a perfect 10.

Her new back pack is from here. She picked it out herself. It is the junior size and it still looks like it might swallow her up whole. I guess sometimes she's still my little Loula Belle.


She'll always be my little girl.

Go get 'em bits.

mg

This photo about sums it up

The look on her face is how I feel on the inside lately.

Madeline came down with a stomach bug on Saturday night. Of course it was after she spent the entire day at my brother's house with my month old niece. After her one bought, she slept through to morning. She woke up and ate and ate and ate. Girl was hungry. She was fine and didn't have any symptoms of her previous night.

She did, however, have a cold. So did her sister. So I've been dealing with two stuffy, crabby, slimy girlies since Sunday morning. This is the head cold that just won't leave. Today both girlies have developed the most devastating cough. Each time Lydia coughs it breaks my heart a little bit.

Then to add to the crazy, Madeline woke up with about 4 dozen little welts on her legs that I thought was bug bites or a rash. Upon further inspection it was dozens of splinters. We had dinner on my parents deck last night and at one point she was sitting on the stairs. I can only assume that is where the splinters came from. I spent a hour this morning picking tiny splinters out of her legs (and one out of her hand) with tweezers, a straight pin, Follow That Bird and M&Ms. Don't worry, I sanitized them before hand. (The tweezers and pin, not the movie and candy...)

These are all things I can handle. Illness and crabbiness and splinters and stress is what mothering two small children is all about. So why do I feel like Lydia in the photo above? My weekend was NOTHING like I thought it would be. My week has not started out the way I thought it would. My life is not what I thought it should be in the last 4 days. That's hard for me. I like to know what is going to happen in my world. I like plans. I like clear expectations. This weekend did not fulfill my expectations. That kinda stinks.

Exacerbated because my brother and one month old niece have come down with something and I can only assume it is the same thing that my girl(ies) have. Although I have no control over that and I had NO idea Madeline and Lydia were ill when we saw them on Saturday (because the LAST think I would have done was expose her to an illness) I feel bad. Real bad.

AND

Because today was Madeline's first full day of preschool and I was scheduled as the parent helper and she missed it. I had to call in sick on her very first day of preschool. I know it isn't that big a deal, but it still makes me a little sad. As a child I missed my first week of kindergarten due to a major illness. Of course I didn't even remember this until my mother reminded me yesterday. Will Madeline remember her missed day? No. Did she even realize she had missed a day of school today? No. Thursday it is. (be assured there will be photos!)

I will survive. Thanks to my husband I did get a couple of errands run today. Because of those errands I was able to cross to major projects off my to do list. Then tonight the girls and I ran out to Target and scored a major deal on some sheets for a twin bed. I was thrilled! the combination of those things make a huge difference in my day. If I feel like I got something accomplished I am a much happier person. Even if my sink is still full of dirty dishes!

mg

A perfect STL day

I hate heat. I hate humidity. Honestly I do and I know that I live in the wrong part of the country, but this summer where was the right part? I digress... Because of this hatred we haven't spent too much time outside. We would spend some time at the park in the mornings, but only until I couldn't stand it any longer. And when you wake up at 8am and it is already 85 degrees day after day, you don't stand much of a chance.

A few weeks ago, after the summer heat wave (of 95 degrees or higher days) broke, we ventured out doors.

First stop, the St. Louis Zoo.

No trip is complete, for Madeline, without a ride on the conservation carousel. Most of the time Kevin is her riding companion. That day I got the pleasure AND we were the only two people on the entire ride. Although she looks like she might marf, I promise Madeline had a good time.

Lydia watched us pass with amazement and waved frantically. Totally adorable.


Too cool for zool... or something like that.


By the time we rode the train Madeline was worn out and it was past Lydia's nap time. The managed to muster up the strength for a couple of not-screaming-crying-or-whining- photographs.

Second stop, Gus' pretzels.


We told Madeline there was a surprise in the center. Her face tells it all!

mg

September 2010

When exactly did they get so big?

New month, new masthead.

mg