Rudy

We got Rudy's one year pictures back on Friday. I feel like I've accomplished something now that she's a year.

Baba has been super funny about pictures lately. He does not want his pictures taken. Period. End of story. But, before we left for Rudy's one year pictures, he said he wanted to be in the pictures. I didn't believe him, but let him pick out some nice clothes to wear in Rudy's picture.

When we got to the picture place, I figured he'd change his mind about being in the pictures. I told the picture taker person that he didn't really like getting his picture taken, but I wasn't opposed to having him in the picture. He wanted to be in every pictures.

Later that week, we were at Wal-Mart. He saw the Wal-Mart picture taker place and said, "Mom, we need to take pictures of me today." I said, "We just took pictures of you." Then he said, "I counted on the wall, Mom, and we don't have enough pictures of me."

The Balloon

The kids got a balloon yesterday from the party store. The balloon has been played with almost nonstop since we got home with it.

Even the cat joined the fun.

Zippy and Gaft Girl save the environment!

In an effort to do our part to save the environment, reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, and prevent global warming, we have been using compact florescent bulbs. Which can't be tossed in the trash when they burn out, they have to be recycled. Zippy has been putting the burned out bulbs back into the box to bring to a recycling facility at a later date. Later date has yet to occur and every time I look at the box I think we still have 4 light bulbs left. (side note: aren't these ridiculously overpriced light bulbs supposed to last 5 years? Because ours have lasted less than 2 years)

Although there were 4 light bulbs in the box when our second of two vanity lights burned out, there were no WORKING replacement bulbs in the house. Big difference. Being the McGuyver that I am, I borrowed Zippy's work light from the garage.

Its kind of like pee-ing while being interrogated. The boy thinks its great.

Naptime

There is nothing like taking a nap on the cat to cure what ails you.

Rudy was taking her afternoon nap on my lap as I was vainly hoping to join her in the nap. She rolled over and snuggled into Wili for her pillow. I asked Baba to get the camera off the hutch. He grabbed it and held it up in triumph. Held it up upside down, of course. The camera obeyed the law of gravity.

He picked it up and said, "I'm okay, Mom!" He ran over and sort of tossed it in my generally direction. The camera met the floor again. But, luckily, it wasn't damaged. At least not that I'm aware of.

The Jedi at our house is a stinker

Baba has an imaginary friend who is a Jedi Knight. Baba was jumping around the living room, he stopped, and said, "Mom, my pretend friend is a little stinker."

I thought he was going to blame his pretend friend on the current "explosion in a toy factory" decorating scheme. I said, "why is your friend a stinker?"

Baba said, "Because I keep trying to give him a hug and he keeps jumping away."

He then resumed jumped around the living room, hugging himself, saying, "get back here, you little stinker."

Dancing Fool

What can I say, the girl's a dancin' fool!

This morning with the boy

Baba said to me this morning, "I was thinking, Mom. When we get our new house we should have 3 dogs."

I said, "3 dogs?"

Baba said, "Yes. I was thinking about 4, but then I thought that might be too many. So I need a little black dog named 'Toto' and a dog to be a friend for Toto. And dad needs a hunting dog. So we need 3 dogs."

"Talk to your father," I replied.

After the dog discussion, Baba was climbing over to my lap to finish my cereal. He had only eaten one bowl of cereal and one jelly sandwich, so I could see how he was still hungry. He bumped his knee and said, "Oh! I hurt my patella. I need you to read the Star Wars cookbook to me, that will make me feel better."

Dude, you are getting a Dell!

My yearning for a new computer has been upgraded from a want to a need. I was just going to get another laptop for portability reasons (I like to drive 14 hours for a weekend of playing the Sims in peace), but there is a HUGE problem in that plan.

Sims 3 comes out June 2 and Diablo III comes out sometime in the near future (no release date that I can find has been set). Both will be slow to play on a laptop. Neither game is really built for a laptop.

Now, I just can't decide what to get.

Excuses, excuses

As of today, it has been 2 weeks since Zippy's children started getting sick (they are my children when they are healthy, well-behaved, and cute). Since then, I have been to the doctor's office 5 times, filled 4 prescriptions, and 1 child got a shot of some sort of penicillin. The kids have had strep throat, an ear infection, stomach flu, diarrhea, and Rudy has almost been hospitalized (twice!) for dehydration. As in the doctor saying, "She should probably be in the hospital, but if you'd rather keep her home, I'm okay with waiting another 12 hours to see if she improves."


During this time, I also costumed 33 characters (most with at least one costume change, 2 with seven costumes changes) and planned a Star Wars birthday party extravaganza for a very happy 4 year old. Last week, I had over 20 hours of rehearsal. This week, thankfully, we only had 5 hours. We open tomorrow night.

I have been pooped on, puked on, and watched Care Bears until I thought I was going to personally maul those freakin' bears! Baba's record tempature was 102, Rudy has a very low body temp due to dehydration (her extremities are like ice cubes and are a brilliant shade of purple). I am half tempted to take a picture of her for prosperity, but she just looks too pathetic.

But, for whatever reason, neither Zippy or I have gotten whatever it is these little germ factories are producing. I've done at least 3 loads of pukey/poopy laundry a day for the past 2 weeks (you do the math) and my hands are cracked from washing them every ten minutes.

I need a stiff drink and a nap.

I think the little people are getting better. Baba has been a trouper through all the trips to the doctor (for him and his sister), but now they are to the stage where they don't feel well enough to play like they usually do, but don't feel sick enough to lay on the couch all day. All we need now is for Rudy to slow down on the current defecating schedule so she can rehydrate and stay out of the hospital. At least her doctor is on call this weekend and Rudy's doc gave me her cell phone number in case I need anything. I think she felt sorry for me.

As well she should. I feel sorry for me. :-)

One less thing to worry about....

We were watching the scene in Attach of the Clones (or Re-tach of the Cones, depending on who you are talking to) where Anakin returns after killing the Tusken Raiders and is talking to Padme.

Baba says, "Mom! Is Anakin so angry that he can't eat his breakfast."

I say, "I guess so."

In the million times I have seen that movie, I have NEVER noticed Anakin misses a meal.

Baba says, "I could never be a dark jedi. I could never be angry enough to miss breakfast."

Good to know.

When Baba was little, I bought a tunnel for him to play in. I thought it was to crawl through. Apparently, I was wrong.

Apparently, its to wear.

What are they so afraid of?

At Target, I overheard a dad telling his son he couldn't go down the doll aisle because that was just for "girls." I've heard dad's tell their sons that they can't have a kitchen set, a baby doll, or a play vacuum because they are just for "girls."

I let Baba play with my Barbies. I read him American Girl books. He loves to cook with me. I don't really see this as a problem. Growing up, I loved playing with my actions figures as much as I liked my Barbies. I loved building with my legos more than I liked baking with my easy bake oven. I always wanted to be a boy scout, not a girl scout. I played with what I was interested in, not what I was "supposed" to play with.

So why do I get the "I can't believe you are letting your son play with Barbies" and/or "I can't believe you are reading him American Girl books" when I mention these things? I am trying to let him explore all his interests, not just the ones that are "acceptable" for his gender. He pranced around preschool one day wearing a pink party dress while playing dress up with some girls. Not only did I not care that he was wearing a dress, I encouraged it because it was making the other mom's around uncomfortable.

I often get asked how my husband feels about all of this. I usually asked, "All of what?" I don't believe that letting my son play with dolls and/or dresses is going to make him any more or any less gay then he may or may not be. I truly believe that he cannot choose or control his sexuality. All I care is he ends up with a nice person (be it man or woman) and provides me with grandkids because that is the ONLY reason why I had these kids in the first place - to be a grandma.

I never cease to be amazed at how closed minded people can be. You can judge me all you want, but please don't ruin something my son loves because you feel that its not "gender" appropriate. There is so little time to explore interests with uninfluenced passion, please don't ruin that for him.

'Tar Wars 'Tuff

We brought home one blue plastic storage bin (3 more remain at my parents house) of my Star Wars stuff because Baba is SO into 'Tar Wars right now. We watch at least 2 'Tar Wars movies a day. He's seen them all except Revenge of the Sith. Zippy and I think he needs to be a little older because its the darkest of all of them (and Anakin becomes Darth Vader) but Baba keeps trying to to "trick" us into watching it.

Baba wanted to play 'tar Wars. Zippy got the plastic storage bin down and asked me if there was anything in there that Baba couldn't play with. I said that everything in there was okay, thinking that Zippy would pull out the Star Wars stamp markers and my Millenium Falcon scissors. My mistake. Never assume.

Baba played happily for a long time until I noticed he was quiet. Too quiet.

At least he only wrote on his hands.

Mom! My socks are stuck!

My baby's in Trouble!

I was in the bathroom brushing my hair this morning when I heard Baba yell, "Mom!!! My baby's in trouble!"

Since I didn't hear Rudy crying and my house is perfectly child proofed (and adult proofed - the locks on my hutch are a bizatch to get into), I wasn't too worried. But, being the good Mom I am, I went down the hall to Baba's room to investigate.

Me: What's wrong, Baba?

Baba: She's 'tanding!

I look and see that Rudy is 'tanding in the middle of the boy's room. Not quite sure how she got into a 'tanding position because there was nothing to pull up any where around her.....

Me: That's okay. She's practising standing.

Baba: I don't like it. She could fall and get hurt.

What is he going to do when "his" baby is ready for school?

On the coldest day in 5 years....

Generally, it is an up hill battle to get Baba out of his pajamas. He is just not interested in getting his pajama's off because pj's are so comfy, cozy, and other things among his 9,574 other excuses for not getting dressed.

I was eating my Kix and Reece's Puffs mix for breakfast this morning (I highly recommend mixing cereal. Yum!) and I turned around. The boy was darn near naked. I laughed so hard cereal almost came out of nose.

I said, "Why are you naked?"
Baba said, "I'm not naked. I have my undies and socks on."

I said, "Why are you in your undies and socks."
Baba said, "Because my pj's came off!"


Its the coldest day of the year and my child is running around in his under-roos. He says he's not cold because he is a polar bear, but he did mention the chair was cold when he stole my cereal and sat down to eat it.

PS I brought down clothes for him to wear and have been nagging him to get dressed for the past 30 minutes or so. Now his clothes are missing and he isn't sure where they went. I can only conclude his clothes have a mind of their own.

Sinner!

Yesterday afternoon my phone rang with an unknown number. I usually don't pick up if I don't recognize the number, but it was a local area code and River City Theater has about 14 different phone numbers they call me from, so I answered thinking that our rehearsal location/date/production had been changed. Again.

It wasn't River City Theater.

It was our pastor. My first that was, "Oh crap! He's going to ask why we haven't been in church since Christmas Eve. Really!? I can't miss a few Sundays without the pastor giving me a call!? What's up with that? I'm sorry we ever started going to that church."

He was actually calling to remind me that registration for Grandma's Marathon opens today. We spoke for a few minutes with no comment on our spotty church attendance, just a pleasant conversation on the joys of training for a marathon. He said he was filling out his registration and thought of me and how busy you are with little kids and thought I might have forgotten that registration opened today. I thanked him for thinking of me. All in all, it was a pleasant conversation. Although, I think he muttered, "sinner" under his breath when he hung up.

5 pieces of bread

There were 5 pieces of bread consumed at my house this morning. I had none, the girl had 1, and the boy had 4. Yes, 4. Two toasted with jelly, two without toasted but with jelly.

So, to the dude at the food store with his snide comment of "Like bread, do you?" upon seeing the 6 loaves of bread in my cart. No, I don't really like bread, but my kids do. And as an FYI the 2 gallons of milk I bought, sir, will last about a week.

Baba Babysits

Rudy is obsessed with the steps and is a quick little bugger so you have to watch her constantly. You turn your back for 2 seconds and she's halfway up. Baba is obsessed with "watching" his baby and loves volunteering to "watch" her so I can go to the bathroom, start supper, make a snack, etc.

Baba wanted a snack this afternoon and volunteered to watch his sister while I fixed his 87th snack of the day. I said okay, but to let me know if she started on the steps. He agreed.

I fixed his snack and came around the corner. "Where's your sister?" I asked.

"On the 'teps!" Baba yelled.

I said, "I thought you were watching her."

He said, "I was. But I needed a break."

He had been "watching" her for about 30 seconds.

I rescued Rudy from the steps and they happily went back to playing with the cat toy (which I got on clearance at Target for 29 cents. Next year, Santa is bringing boxes, cat toys, and more boxes).

Grocery Store Math

Now I remember what I was really going to blog about.....

I was at the grocery store today and came across this math problem:

128 ounces of OJ for 2.99

OR

64 ounces of OJ on sale for 2 for $6

Do I need to slow down? Should I repeat the question? It was a tough choice. I had to call my dad.