No really...we're still among the living!!!

Hi everyone! (This is actually JT)

This past month has been the most ill in our lives yet. Shortly after Halloween, I started feeling under the weather. 3 weeks later, that continued and eventually turned into bronchitis. Pretty much as soon as I started feeling better Lilia got sick.

Our first indication that she was sick happened in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Tiffaney has started working Monday's now (in addition to Saturday's) and our girls had spent that Monday with their friends Zaylee & Thomas Basker. It had been two weeks since they had last been with the Basker's because the week before they had pink eye. Anyway, by Wednesday Lilia had snot pouring our of her nose and was clearly ill, but more than that, she had eye goop literally flowing from her tear ducts!! We couldn't keep up with the vast amounts of goop she was producing! I mean, I think that she seriously must have lost weight making that much goop!!

Our first thought was naturally that somehow, even though the Baskers had already gotten over their sickness before the girls went over there, Lilia must have gotten pink eye. The only problem with this theory was that Lilia's eyes weren't pink...jut goopy. We took her to the doctor the day after Thanksgiving to find out that it wasn't actually pink eye; the goop coming out of her tear ducts was actually SNOT!! Who knew that you could clog your sinuses so much that the pressure would push snot out of your tear ducts?! EWWWW!!!!

At least we were able to go to the doctor's and figure out what was going on. Her doctor prescribed Amoxicillin for a severe sinus infection and we were supposed to be good! Au contraire!!! Five days later, Lilia's whole body gets puffy and she has a rash over her whole body - she looks like a wee human strawberry. Once again, Tiffaney treks out to visit Dr. Loomis to learn that Lilia is actually allergic to penicillin and she has to stop taking her medicine for the sinus infection immediately. Thankfully, even though Lilia was supposed to take the medication for 10 days Dr. Loomis said that she had had enough to fight the infection - she just needs Benedryl for the foreseeable future to help her until the Amoxicillin works itself out of her body.

To continue the saga, after that all happened, about Thursday Tiffaney (who had been feeling unwell for most of the week) finally reached a crisis point and by that evening was feeling so bad that she also decided to go to have a doctor check it out. She went to our regular doctor's office first, but it was so full that she decided to go to the local Wal-Mart instead and have the Quick Care doctors check her out instead. It turns out that Tiffaney has strep throat, abscessed tonsils, an ear infection, and a fever from her body trying to fight all of that off.

Friday brought even more sickness when Carolyn (whose been coughing to try and get sympathy & attention from us for a while) woke up with pink eyes and goop flowing from them. Her eyes are very tender and (now that we're experts in eye goop) we can tell that it has a much different consistency than Lilia's. Her eyes look pink, but we're not sure if that's from her rubbing them or, if it's an actual sign of illness. We know that her eyes do tend to react poorly to Nelson (her adopted stray pet cat) and lately she has taken to rubbing her FACE in the cat's fur every chance she gets!!

We tried just giving Carolyn Benedryl Friday and Saturday, and it seems to have helped, though not as much as we would have liked. When we had taken Lilia in, her doctor gave us a prescription for pink eye medication "just in case." We filled it last night (again, just in case), but we're thinking (hoping) that it won't be necessary.

Now to top everything off, my eyes are feeling tender, scratchy, and keep on producing sleepies! Though I admit that my condition may very well be psycho-somatic.

Halloween

Damsel in Distress

Okay, so my current goal is to get my house in GREAT! shape. As you probably know, if you know me, this is always my goal. Right now, however, it is especially important to me to get my house really clean because I'm going to potty train Carolyn in earnest...again. Alright, if you know me, you know that I've tried to potty train Carolyn before too. This is not a new goal of mine either. But she has to be potty trained some time (hopefully in the near future) and I'm thinking that time is now. A few things in my favor? Carolyn is very aware of when she has to go potty. For example, we'll be doing something and she'll pause and say, "Mom, I'm peeing.....right now." Another thing to my advantage is the fun that we've added to our bathroom. Check out that toilet. If that isn't fun, what is? Carolyn decorated her potty chair herself, and it took a painstaking 1/2 hour for her to do it (she was very particular and true to her vision) while I struggled in vain to keep Lilia from getting into the stickers. And the last thing in my favor? Carolyn wants to be big. She likes to do things herself and she's tired of having my change her diaper. Me too. But back to the cleaning....Carolyn and Lilia are not making it easy for me. That picture of Lilia kissing the mirror was taken mere seconds after I had just cleaned it. I wasn't even finished wiping the streaks off of it before Carolyn and Lilia were at the mirror, like sharks scenting blood, frantically marking and re-marking it (thoroughly, might I add). And that is a pretty much how things work here. I sort of get something clean and they're right there to undo what I've done. But I'm not going to let it get me down, depressed or discouraged. Because I really do want a clean house, and if I'm going to potty train Carolyn (okay, I'm totally going to potty train Carolyn, no "if"s about it) I just can't handle the mess that comes with potty training on top of a messy house. By the way, sorry that video is sideways. I hope that no one got a kink in their neck trying to watch it. We were playing a game this morning, where Carolyn gives me a poison apple (pretend of course) for me to bite and then I "die" until someone, usually Carolyn, gives me a kiss. I thought it would be fun for Carolyn to play the part of the hapless princess and bite the apple. Apparently not.... It was so funny though, that I got the camera and filmed it for your enjoyment. I feel a little bit guilty posting this because you can see that she's obviously upset and offended that I would try to poison her, (it's okay if I take the fatal bite??), but luckily she's way too savvy to fall for that. My baby's no damsel in distress.

Nelson

So, you may or may not know this but we're thinking about expanding our little family, and adopting a cat. When we first moved into our house, we would hear strange sounds, like someone was moving around in our basement...only we don't have a basement. We do, however, have a crawl space, and it is inhabited by our downstairs neighbors, feral cats. You can see where the previous owners have tried to bar the cats from the cat-sized openings to the crawl space by hammering wire mesh over them. You can also see that the wire mesh has been efficiently peeled back, by determined cats. I happen to really enjoy cats and I have passed on that love to JT (or maybe, to be fair, perhaps it was Katie, The Best Cat Who Ever Lived who gave JT a love of cats, or at least a fond tolerance for them) and so we have a live and let live policy for the cats. We like to watch them hunt in our backyard or laze around in the sun. Sometimes one will take a nap in the flower bed/barrel that we never plant flowers in. They're pretty fun to have around, and in exchange for room and board, the cats make sure that we never have rodent problems, which after the mice problems in our last house (which developed after the departure of Katie, The Best Cat Who Ever Lived) is a HUGE boon to us. Thus far, we have left it to the cats to take care of themselves. We don't feed them, house them (other than letting them live in the crawl space), groom them or take them to the vet. I might have been tempted to try to take care of them, but they get a really wild look in their eyes and dash away into a hiding place when you get too close to them. Until now. We've seen a gray cat hanging around our house, but because of our past experience with our wild, furry, mangy friends, we didn't try to approach him. Yesterday Carolyn got really close to the gray cat and instead of acting anti-social, he butted his head against our (cautiously) outstretched hands and purred. Carolyn asked me what his name was, and I told her she could name him. While I was thinking of names like Smoky, Ghost, or Coal, she decided firmly on "Nelson". Nelson?? Yes, Nelson. Poor Nelson, he's such a nice cat and he is so skinny and malnourished looking. And it's bad luck for Nelson that he's coming into my life now, instead of when I was single and lavished my love, money and attention on my cat(s). Yes, I used to be a Cat Lady, and deep down, I probably still am. I used to buy "only the best" cat food for my cats ($25-$30+ a bag) and take them to the vet if they got even a tiny sniffle. I was so attached to my cats that when I had to put one to sleep because she had FIP, I was so distraught that the vet's office sent me flowers the next day. Quick side note--I feel the need to defend myself. Just so you know, I never owned more than 2 cats at a time, I NEVER decorated with cats in anyway (not even a cat calendar) and I never took their picture. I was a Cat Lady, yes, but I was a Cat Lady with clear boundaries. Just so you know. Anyway, I'm not ready to commit to Nelson in that way. We're going to take it slow, feed him once a day, maybe spend some time outside with Nelson and get to know him a little better. Sort of see if this is a good fit for all of us. With that in mind the girls and I bought Nelson some food this morning. Carolyn wanted to buy him some canned food, but instead we bought him a 3.5 lb bag for $2. Carolyn and I have agreed that it's her job to feed Nelson. Carolyn is extremely ecstatic about this. She keeps proclaiming that Nelson is "gorgeous!" and wants to go outside and be his constant companion and feed him again and again until he pops. I must admit that Nelson is a very tolerant cat, especially for a "wild" one. Carolyn keeps petting his fur backward, so that it stands up, and although you can tell he doesn't enjoy it, he is very stoic. Katie, The Best Cat Who Ever Lived would have swiped, claws out, at such an insult, or at the very least, ran away. Nelson, desperate for attention and love, just sits there, and accepts his lot in life. He could be our kind of cat. We'll see how this goes. Oh, by the way, those other pictures are random pictures of the girls, so that you can see how much they've grown in the last 2 months, since I have been remiss in updating this blog.

p.s. if you want a groovy tune, check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZUfsmwaNoA . We have been listening to this constantly in the car.

And...I'm Back!!! (with the shortest post EVAR!!)

Okay, I uploaded these pictures and at the first of this month, and I am just now writing this post!! Shameful. But anyway, these are some pictures that I took when the girls and I went to the zoo with my sister-in-law, Melody, and my niece, Kimmee. Right in front of the tiger exhibit, there is a life-size metal tiger (and also a sign that says not to climb on it, but everyone always ignores the sign, and they climb the tiger anyway) and there is a small, baby tiger with a convenient seat for your baby sized child to sit on. The baby tiger, as you can see, actually looks like a tiny, striped donkey. It is however, very hot property in the zoo. Kids are constantly either fighting over it, or whining to their parents about how some other child is sitting on "their" tiger. We were lucky to be able to monopolize the tiger long enough to get pictures of everyone. Look at Lilia's expression. She's totally impressed.

Berries For Grandmother

One of the side effects of watering your lawn on a regular basis, is that it actually grows. Strange, I know, yet true. As I have mentioned before, we didn't really water our lawn last year (let's be fair, or the year before) and so we didn't have to mow our lawn as often as we have had to this summer. I've lucked out so far because JT has been mowing the lawn on Saturdays while I'm at work. Unfortunately, JT hasn't been able to mow the lawn for the last couple of weeks and it was looking very, very over grown and raggedy, and because our neighbors both keep very immaculate and well cared for lawns, it really stood out like a sore thumb. Yesterday I decided to take matters in my own hands and as soon as Lilia was down for her nap, Carolyn and I went out do some yard work. This was the first time that I've taken Carolyn outside with me while I mow the lawn. Before I was very nervous that she would somehow get maimed in a freak lawn mowing accident if I let her come with me, but she promised that she would stay free and clear of the mower. True to word, Carolyn played far, far away from where I was working. I had worried that she would dart in and out and around the lawn mower like she does the vacuum when I'm vacuuming, but apparently (thankfully) she has a lot more respect for the mower. I decided I would work in the front yard first, before it got too hot (the back yard has lots of shade) but unfortunately, we had watered earlier that morning, and the grass was wet and sodden and very difficult to mow through. The lawn mower would cough pitifully and then quit. I had to restart it several times, but I was committed, so I kept going. It took a while, and my arm was aching from having to restart it so many times, but I finally finished the front yard and then it was onto the back yard. I have to confess that we very rarely play in our own yard, and if we do, we play in the front, so the back yard was a mystery for Carolyn to investigate explore. The good news is that it's big enough for Carolyn to easily avoid the lawn mower. I was getting into my zone (I tend to zone out when I vacuum and when I mow the lawn) and I was congratulating myself on providing an outdoor experience for Carolyn and getting the lawn mowed at the same time while Carolyn was occupying herself in the left corner. I was having such a great time, I even cross hatched (which I never do). When I finished, I realized that Carolyn was still playing in the left corner and I began to be concerned. What was so fascinating that it could occupy her for so long? Turns out we have some kind of "berry" bush hidden in that corner, with berries that are no doubt toxic. With that in mind, the first thing I did was examine Carolyn's face and mouth. Luckily they were both berry stain free. (Carolyn denied eating them, but just to be sure...) Her hands and clothes on the other hand....NOT stain free. By the way, would you be surprised to know that her shirt was brand new and that this was the first time that she'd worn it? If so, you really shouldn't be, because Carolyn believes in breaking in her clothes the moment she gets them and then moving onto the next new item. But more about that in just a bit.... When I asked her what she was doing, she beamed at me and said,"I'm picking berries for Grandmother! Grandmother loves berries! I'm going to take them to her house right now!" (Quick side note: Grandmother, you are very, very loved by Carolyn. Whenever she really likes something, say a blanket, toy or clothes, she's always quick to say that her Grandmother gave it to her. It could be something that she and I had bought together, but later on, she'll remember that her Grandma gave it her. She talks about going to her Grandma's house all the time and when we tell her that her Grandma lives in Virginia and that we'd need to take an airplane to go there, she'll cheerfully say that she likes to fly in airplanes.) I had a very hard time convincing her that we had to leave the berries outside and not pick them anymore, even though Grandmother loves berries. Taking pictures helped her get over that though. Ah, the magic of a camera...

Okay, so onto the new clothes...Twice a year The Children's Place does what they call a "Monster Sale" and they will deeply discount their inventory just before they have a new season's line come out. This is when I like to shop because I can get a pair of jeans that used to sell for $16.50 for $4.29 and cute shirts for under $3. A lot of Carolyn's (and therefore Lilia's) clothes have been given to us by family and friends, but I still need to supplement and these sales are great for doing that and also for planning ahead too. So anyway, the sale came and I had a coupon for an addition 15% off on top of the sale price (score!) and shipping was a flat $5 (cheaper than a trip to and from Boise, how can I lose??) so I ordered a few things and waited for them to come. And waited. Waited some more. And waited little longer. Three weeks went by and my package wasn't here and UPS hadn't left any sticky notes for me. I finally went to the website to check on it and discovered that it had been left on my side doorstep over a week ago. Over a week ago! I know! Obviously I need to be more aware of what goes on at Chez Harris. In my defense, JT hadn't noticed a box sitting by our side door for over a week either. In his defense, the air conditioner sort of hides anything placed there. Anyway, I beat a fast path to the side door and lo and behold! there it was, safely wrapped in a plastic sack to protect it from the elements (thanks, UPS). I was brimming with excitement to dig into my purchase, but that excitement quickly turned to dismay, because as I lifted the box TONS maybe even thousands, maybe even more than thousands of rollie-pollies scurried for cover. (Apparently they thought it was safe to build their not so little community under the shelter of my box since it had been there for over a week.) Now out of all the bugs out there, pill bugs probably bother me the least. When I was little I used to love playing with them and watch them roll into protective little balls. (smart bugs) But this was Fear Factor icky. I have never seen so many rollie-pollies in such a variety of sizes (there were some big ones!) and in such great number. I didn't realize they had so many legs. They way they moved, it was like they were some sort of crustacean creature of the deep, only they were on my side porch! I nimbly jumped out of their way, and barely kept my girly scream to myself...but just barely. Just typing about it is making my skin itch. It was that gross. Amazingly enough, none of the creepy crawly critters (nice alliteration, yes?) were stuck to the protective bag surrounding the box. Oh, and you know that shirt that Carolyn got the berry juice on? It didn't come out. Good thing the shirt is camouflage.

Happy Helper

As you can see, the pictures really tell the story, no narration needed. But I'll tell you anyway. I had just made lunch for us and I went into the living room to answer the phone. When I came back...Carolyn said, with great pride and high volume, "Mom, I'm HELPING!! I'm helping Leelah! I'm feeding her and SHE LIKES IT!!!" as she was happily shoveling heaping spoonfuls of cereal toward Lilia, who gobbled as much as she could with cheerful greed. Lilia did indeed seem to be having a great time and 'liking it'. It's amazing to me how far 1/4 cup of baby cereal can go. Lilia's shirt was coated with a covering of food so thick that it fell off and into her lap in globs. Carolyn had thoughtfully left the bowl of cereal in Lilia's reach so even as Carolyn was feeding her, Lilia was raking the cereal with her fists and bringing it to her mouth, and of course smearing it all over her tray and chair as well as rubbing it into her hair and tired eyes. Naturally I ran to get...the camera. (You didn't really think I would try to immediately tackle this mess did you? No, no this was going to take some serious psyching myself up before I would do that.) I would have made a video recording of it, but my camera didn't have enough juice. By the way, do you see how proud Carolyn is? I have a hard time convincing Carolyn that I can feed Lilia without help now. "I can help you," she'll desperately plead with me, as though she knows that I desperately, desperately need her help. Anyway, after taking pictures until the camera's battery gave out, I knew it was time to face the music. Yes, I had to get Lilia out of that chair and into the tub. The question was, could I do it without becoming as messy as she was. The answer was, no. But I needed have worried because between the Master Splasher (Lilia) and my good helper, Carolyn, (who poured water down my hands and arms, saturating my clothes in the process) all traces of baby cereal were washed away and I changed my shirt anyway.

Carolyn really is my devoted helper. Whenever I'm doing dishes, she's there to help. When I get the mop out (especially when I get the mop out) Carolyn is there to lend a hand. When Lilia wakes up from her nap, Carolyn is there to try to help Lilia out of the crib. Actually, I think that Carolyn might often times help Lilia wake up from her naps as well. She loves to help me give Lilia a bath. If there is something that needs to be taken away from Lilia, Carolyn is only to happy to be the one to do it. For me, the trick is to let her help me in a way that doesn't make more work for me, but is still fun for Carolyn. (I hear tale that children don't always want to help as they get older, so you have to train them when they're young...or so I hear) I have to confess that I'm just not good at it yet. Especially with dishes. I've tried to give her the task of wiping down the table as I wash dishes, but she isn't having any of it. I must make it look really fun, dipping my hands in the deceptively clean, frothy looking bubbles (I think dishwater is absolutely disgusting) and scouring and scrubbing dishes. She'll wipe the table down for all of 5 seconds and then she's scooting her chair next to me and demanding equal rights. I've pretty much resigned myself to just letting her do her thing and "help" me all the while reminding myself that children are washable and so are clothes, and counters, and floors, and chairs and it really doesn't matter if she gets saturated with the nasty dish water. I actually will roll my shoulders, reminding myself that it's like 'water off a duck's back' to me and that I need to be easy going and loosen up a bit. Yesterday, as were working together at the sink, Carolyn smiled at me and cheered, "We're having so much fun, Mama. It's a good time! I love you so much." And I didn't even care about the water sloshing it's way along the counter and floors because we were having a good time. And I had already unplugged all appliances on the counter. Safety first.

Oh dear, where to begin? Today has been that kind of a day where I feel like I'm constantly busy, but by the end of the day, I'm not really sure what I've done all day. (Okay, that's pretty much everyday, but anyway.....) It started when Carolyn came into our bedroom this morning wearing a scowl. I tried cajoling her into smiling by doing the whole, "I can see your smile,"thing, but Carolyn remained firm. She gave the barest of shake of her head, no I really couldn't see her smile, because it wasn't there to see. I pressed on anyway and eventually she lightened up. I spent all morning refereeing between Carolyn and Lilia, especially when it came to the children's piano. I believe I have mentioned before how they both love to play with that toy, especially if the other one is playing with it first. However, all in all, things were going fairly smoothly and I decided that I could run to the bathroom, all by myself. (Quick side note, off the subject a bit--before I had the girls I would take at least an hour to get ready and now I can take a shower, get dressed, do my hair and my makeup in 20 minutes. Of course I looked a lot nicer when I used the whole hour.......) I knew that if I left Lilia on the floor she'd probably find something to choke on or she'd try to chew on the power strip by the TV (she likes to keep my on my toes by doing both constantly, all day long) and it might be a tad inconvenient to save her from disaster, and so I was proactive and put her in her swing, turned on our current favorite kid show "Peep and the Big Wide World" and told Carolyn and Lilia to be nice to each other, and then hurried to the bathroom (naturally the door was left open). Just as I was entering the bathroom, I heard Lilia scream and raced back out to the living room. I found Lilia howling with pain and Carolyn huddled on the floor, hiding her face. (Another quick side note--when Carolyn does something bad and trying to be sneaky about it, she'll hide. When she was smaller, I'd walk by a room and see Carolyn hiding under a blanket, and it would be a very big clue to me that something bad was going down. Now that she's older and wiser, she has abandoned the blanket as being too obvious and will either try to find a good hiding spot, like behind furniture or she'll try to blend in with her environment and perhaps hide in the curtains. The picture of her hiding in the curtain was taken when she was trying to avoid bedtime.) That side note wasn't very quick, but anyway, I knew that something very awful had just happened. At first Carolyn said that Lilia was crying "for no reason" but it eventually came out that Carolyn had bitten her foot. Biting is wrong, and not tolerated in our house (maybe it is in yours?), but in Carolyn's defense, I think she was play "chomping" with Lilia (we used to do this with Carolyn, only it truly was play chomping, and we've stopped the practice of this game a long time ago because Carolyn doesn't seem to know how to pretend to bite someone) and she obviously used too much pressure because I could see little, but deep, teeth marks on Lilia's tiny foot. I had Carolyn sit on the Naughty Chair while I consoled Lilia and checked out the damage. Then I had Carolyn go to her room while I got my zen back and continued to console Lilia. You'll be happy to know that the skin wasn't broken and there is no bruising and that Carolyn felt true remorse, so much so that the first thing she told JT when he walked through the door tonight was how she got in trouble for biting and how it wasn't nice to bite people. After we had all calmed down from the dental drama, we had lunch and headed out to the used book store. The used book store is another favorite haunt of ours because we have a lot of credit there (I would tell you how much we have, but that would be oh so tacky) and so it's like buying books for free (they also take back anything you buy there so it's sort of like a library--until you run out of credit) and they have a nicely stocked kid's section, complete with toys (Carolyn's favorite is the Barbie and the doll stroller) and to top it all off, they have a couple of cats who live there as well. If Carolyn isn't playing with the toys, she's hunting the cats and running them to ground. Okay, actually she's just trying to find them and perhaps pet them, but it sort of looks like the former.....Also, the people who run the book store love Carolyn and Lilia and they lavish them with compliments and attention. All in all, it's a pretty good time there, and today was no exception. It was even better than usual because Carolyn pal'd around with another little girl and I was able to peruse the store at my leisure. After the book store we headed to the Dollar Tree, which is only the BEST DOLLAR STORE EVER! and if you have one close to you, I highly recommend you go there. The Dollar Tree is a little bit more dangerous than the book store because they don't take trade, but hey, everything in there is a dollar so you know what you're getting into. Except you don't really, because they always have something really cool and different from what they had the last time you were there. This time they had relaxing cds (I could use those for my massage) writing pads (the really cool kind with 3 lines that I could use to teach Carolyn writing) slender sippy cups (Lilia could hold these easier than the "fancy" ones they sell in other stores) and so much more. Carolyn's favorite thing to look at was the wall of fake flowers. She thought they were so pretty. Lilia was happy as long as we were moving most of the time (she graciously allowed us to stop and look from time to time). We spent almost an hour walking around and looking at the varied merchandise (you have to take your fun where you can find it) before we decided to make our purchase (only 2 things, thank you very much) and go home. We were on a shopping high as we left the store, until I lifted Lilia from the cart and saw that her diaper and exploded. And it was a poopie diaper. Of course this cut our errands short, as you can imagine. We hurried home and I immediately gave Lilia (and her car seat cover) a bath and then took her picture because she was that cute, and so happy from her bath. And that wasn't even the end of our day! I haven't gotten to the part where Carolyn smeared chocolate pudding all over the kitchen chair and then stamped pudding, using her face, all up our hallway walls on her way to the bathroom to wash it off (live and learn, Tiffaney, and next time wash her in the kitchen) or the double diaper changing marathon, but it's getting very late and this post is already very long, so........

Playtime

Here are a couple of videos of the girls playing together. Well, the first one is just of Lilia, playing the piano, and sadly, it looks like it didn't record properly, so it's like a silent film (don't you feel more cultured now, watching a silent film?) but even though you can't hear her making beautiful music, at least you can see how much she's enjoying playing the piano. The piano has become one of Lilia's favorite toys. Sometimes, Lilia will be having so much fun playing the piano that Carolyn will get jealous and try to take it away. If I catch her doing this, I'll put a stop to it, and more often than not, as soon as my back is turned Carolyn will turn the piano off so that even though it's Lilia's turn, she won't want to play with it. But I am onto her and her devious ways, and it goes back on. (To be fair, the piano is technically Carolyn's, but I still don't like her taking it away from Lilia--or clotheslining Lilia away from the piano, which has happened--) Actually, Carolyn will take just about everything away from Lilia. I think she's mothering when she does it. She'll chuckle indulgently and say something like, "No, Leelah. No, no, no. You can't have that," in the most condescending manner imaginable and then pluck it out of Lilia's grasp. I'm sure that in Carolyn's mind, a big sister's work is never done. In the second video, Carolyn is teaching Lilia all about the difference between fast and slow, much to their mutual enjoyment. When they play together, it's so cute. When they don't, it's not much fun, and there is nothing cute about it. In fact, it's exhausting. To be fair, they're playing well together, more and more, the older Lilia gets, but I feel like I'm constantly saying things like, "don't sit on Lilia" , "don't roll on Lilia", "don't trap Lilia under the blanket", "we don't put things around other peoples necks" (eeek!) "don't cover Lilia's mouth", "don't feed Lilia crayons" and on and on it goes. Sometimes, I'll tell Carolyn, "I love you so much. I love you when you're good, I love you when you're bad, I'll love you always and forever, you are special to me." Earlier in the week, Carolyn came up to me with soft eyes full of love and gently stroked my arm with feather-light touches and said, "I love you when you're mad.........."(awkward silence)".......you're special to me, I love you forever." It was very sweet. It made my heart melt and yet...there was nothing to counter balance the "mad". It got me thinking, does Carolyn see me as an angry mom? Am I an angry mom? I don't want to be one. For the rest of the day, I found myself second guessing all of my reactions and maybe adding a healthy helping of syrupy sweetness to all of the admonitions that I doled out. I really don't think it made a difference. I just felt fake. Whether I say it with enough sugar to give cavities to everyone within hearing range or just say it like it is, it seems to have the same effect. Amazingly enough, Carolyn doesn't like having her behavior curtailed or even monitored most of the time. Too bad. Oh well, at least I have a recording of them enjoying one another's company and I can always watch it when I'm feeling discouraged.

A funny story that JT wanted me to add.....

Carolyn loves this show called "Super Why" (I'll have to blog about how Carolyn and Lilia, yes Lilia too, watch way too much t.v. in another post) where Whyatt (that would be the "Super Why" of the show) and his friends, the Super Readers, go into a story book and rewrite the story so that the storybook characters have a happy ending. (i.e. instead of leaving the ball because Cinderella's dress turns into rags, she stays at the ball, parties with the prince, makes her stepsisters green with envy and has a great time because her story is now rewritten to make it end that way.) Well, anyway, lately Carolyn has a hard time keeping her pants on. I think that if she had her way, she'd just run around in a diaper...or less. We have been working with her though, and we're making progress (please ignore the fact that she's not wearing pants in the video above) . Or so I thought... but apparently while I was at work yesterday, Carolyn strolled into the livingroom pants-less. When JT reprimanded her, Carolyn said, "I can't wear pants. It's in my story. 'Carolyn doesn't wear pants'. " JT couldn't keep a straight face, and so another lesson was learned/reinforced....when you're cute, you can get away with a lot.

Water is Wet, It's True

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What I really should call this post is "Technical Difficulties" because I have been trying for days, my friends, to upload videos but I have been unsuccessful. Today Blogger seems to be in a better mood and I've been able to upload at least one video and I'm moving on. So..................

After the debacle Doctor's visit, this week has been pretty fun. On Tuesday we celebrated Carolyn's birthday at the park and it was so much fun. On Wednesday I took Carolyn to Portrait Innovations to get her official 3 year old portrait done and it was also a lot of fun. Do you have a Portrait Innovations near you? If you do, you should go there. Right now. You won't be disappointed, especially if you like to get portraits done on the cheap (I do). Speaking of cheap portraits, I got another "official" 3 year old portrait done at Kiddie Kandids on Friday. They let me down. But's that's okay because I only got my free 8 x 10 sheet, we had a lot of fun shopping,we got to bring JT a treat (Carolyn absolutely loves visiting him at his office) and now I have Portrait Innovations. Did I mention how much I like them? A lot. Anyway, the real highlight of my week was Thursday. The girls and I walked to the park near our church, by way of stroller (yay me! for actually using the stroller at least once a week as planned) and met Shane and his family there. Shane and Melody bought a KFC smorgasbord and the adults relaxed and chatted while the kids all played. We were there for about 2 1/2 hours and if Lilia hadn't needed to eat (shame on me for not bringing her food with us) we could have stayed even longer. Carolyn was having so much fun that I had to use a bribe to get her to happily come home with me. The bribe that I used was the froggie swimming pool that I bought about a week ago. I was so excited to get this pool. I had visions of Carolyn and Lilia swimming like little fish, shrieking with laughter and having a great time while I sat in a lawn chair, under an umbrella, sipping a delicious slurpie of some kind and reading a book. As if I would run the risk of my children drowning while I read a book as my children played in a pool. As if I had a lawn chair. As if I had an umbrella for shade. As if I could be sipping a slurpie without either sharing it or giving it to Carolyn and Lilia. I do have the book though. So my little fantasy was pretty much that, pure fantasy, but I was sure that we'd still have a good time with the pool. I have to admit that when I blew it up, I was a little disappointed. It's a very small pool. We're talking rinky-dink small. But it was still cute and even if we just used it this summer, I would still get my $15 worth out of it. I hauled it outside (yes it's so small that it will fit easily out of my front door, even when it's completely inflated, open froggie mouth and all) and filled it up. Carolyn was dancing around the house in excitement, her eyes were sparkling, and she was giddy with joy. I helped her get into her swim suit, grabbed a blanket for Lilia to play on (I was a little leery about plopping her into the pool without heating the water up a little bit and too tired from my trek to and from the park and lazying around in the sun and all--you know how exhausting that is--to heat the water) and we headed out to our new swimming pool. Carolyn and I swirled our arms into the sparkling, crystal depths of the pool (okay, not that much depth there, but it was shiny) and I waited for Carolyn to splash into the water. I certainly wanted to climb into that pool. The water felt so good on my arms, not too cold at all, and if the pool was slightly bigger, (oh, say the size of my bath tub, maybe?) I would have gotten in with her. The only thing is that the pool is very small and I am not and I would look like an idiot. A great big idiot in a little itty-bitty pool. So I restrained myself. But Carolyn wouldn't get in it either! Oh, she would splash around with her hands a little bit, and she'd play with the ball and tell the ball that it liked the pool, but she wouldn't venture in. She was having a good time with the sprayer though, at least until she got her swimming suit wet with it. Then she started crying that her swimming suit was wet and that it needed to come off. I tried to explain that the purposes of the suit was to get wet, but she wasn't buying it. I thought, foolishly, that if she'd just get in the pool she'd see that it was fun and that it was okay to get wet and so I picked her up and placed her in the pool. She stood up and scrambled out of that pool as quick as a scalded cat and yelled, "It wants to eat me!!!!" her voice squeaky with real fear. "It's a nice froggie, sweetie. It's a fun froggie swimming pool," I tried to coax. Her response? "It wants to CHOMP ME, mama!" I have to confess that I didn't see this coming. When I saw this pool, I thought that it was cute and soft and summer fun. I thought this was a big step toward to us spending time outside and actually liking it. She looked at the pool and no doubt thought, "Oh my gosh, my mom expects me to swim in this 'froggie's' --let's call it was it is, a monster's giagantor mouth. My mom's not too bright, but that's why she has me to look after her. What will she think of next? Playing Candyland on the railroad tracks?" When JT got home, Carolyn had rewritten the incident and told him all about how she and Lilia had played and swam in the froggie swimming pool and how much fun they had had, and how she can't wait to swim again, only the water is "too wet".

Birthday Bash

Here are pictures from Carolyn's birthday party yesterday. We had so much fun! Check out the blue frosting on Carolyn's mouth. It totally matches her shirt!

Feel The Pain (and this post is really long, so you will)

Okay, these pictures have nothing to do with the contents of this post. These are videos and pictures that I took when we were playing at the park last Thursday with my sister-in-law Melody and my nieces Haven and Kimmee. (By the way, we had a blast! and plan on picnicking there Thursday.) I would post pictures about today's adventure, but it no one wants to see the shocking horror that is........

Me taking the girls to the doctor's for check ups and vaccines. Both girls at the same time. For some reason, I thought I was being very clever and efficient by making their appointments for the same day. I thought I was making it easy on myself. Ha! Not so. And never again. It actually didn't start out too badly. In fact, both girls were being so good that I was congratulating myself on being so smart because I was shooting two birds with one stone. Carolyn was playing in the castle with a couple of kids and I was holding Lilia. And then Lilia wanted down and I realized that I forgot to bring a play blanket to come between her and the very, very grimy and stained floor that I would never let a baby of mine come into contact with. So I held onto her while she strained against my arms and lunged for freedom. My back was starting to hurt, but all in all it was just par for the course. (so funny that I use that term since I know absolutely nothing about the game of golf) After an eternal 20 minutes we were ushered back to the examining room where we spend another 20 minutes waiting for the doctor. (This is nothing compared to the hour and a half we had to wait last time, for which I am very grateful.) In the examining room it was much of the same with Lilia trying to dash herself to pieces on the hard floor with the addition of trying to stop Carolyn from getting into the many drawers of medical supplies and equipment. By the way, quick side note, why don't they child proof the drawers and cupboards in a pediatrician's examining room? Do they think children aren't curious? Do they not care that children could be handling "sterile" supplies? Is mine the only one who likes to get into stuff? But I digress...Once Dr. Loomis came in and began the exam, things got better because it was Carolyn's turn first and she didn't have to have any shots. Carolyn loves Dr. Loomis and as long as Dr. Loomis was giving Carolyn her undivided attention, things were going smoothly. Carolyn was preening and showing off. Dr. Loomis made the comment that Carolyn was very smart (she probably makes that comment about all of the children she sees, but I have to admit that I enjoyed the comment none the less) and Carolyn started rhyming at her. Dr. Loomis wanted to look into Carolyn's eyes, Carolyn batted her lashes. And on and on it went. Then it was Lilia's turn and Carolyn wasn't ready to give up the spotlight. She wanted me to hold up her so that she could see everything that was going on with Lilia, but I have to confess that I was enjoying a moment of bliss. My tired, aching arms were empty, I was rolling my shoulders, getting the kinks out of my back and savoring the sensation of sweet freedom while someone else made sure that Lilia didn't fall to her doom, or at least to her serious injury. I really didn't feel like holding an even heavier child and I denied her "request". So she pitched a fit. It got to the point where Dr. Loomis offered to let Carolyn sit next to Lilia on the examining table, on the condition that she not whine. (Good luck with that, Dr. Loomis) Carolyn gamely agreed and hopped back on the table. The rest of the exam was spent with Dr. Loomis looking over Lilia and dispensing sage advice like, "lower the crib mattress as much as you can so that Lilia doesn't fall out" and "Lilia can now have yogurt" while Carolyn tried to talk over her, block my view of Lilia and replace it with her own sunny visage, and topple Lilia over with hugs and loves. I was getting a massive tension headache trying to listen to the doctor, pacify Carolyn and keep Lilia safe (from Carolyn). Because I am a mild hypochondriac (let's be fair, I'm a major hypochondriac), in the past I've had a lot of questions to ask at the end of our visits, but the last two times, I really just want to leave already. So Dr. Loomis hurried out to her next appointment and a friendly nurse with a tray of syringes came in. I kept comforting myself that at least only one of them was getting shots today (I'm sure Carolyn was doing the same--poor unsuspecting Lilia.....) and that a couple of shots (try three!) was much better than Polio or Diphtheria or whatever, but I knew that it wasn't going to be fun. The nurse had me hold Lilia's arms down (do they have to make me a party to her misery??) and Carolyn watched from the steps at the end of the table and I turned my head to the side because I hate watching the carnage. Poor Lilia. She's so small and the needles were so big. She started screaming with shock and pain and betrayal (it made my heart ache) and then Carolyn started crying herself and yelling at the nurse to stop it. "You're hurting her, you're hurting my Leelah!" The nurse and I tried to explain that the shots would help Lilia to not get sick, but Carolyn wasn't having any of it. Finally it was over and I could comfort them both. Lilia might have disagreed, but Carolyn seemed to need comforting as much as she did. Eventually the girls calmed down and all was right, or at least no one was getting stabbed with needles, and I gathered up the papers I had been given on vaccines, feeding tips (wished they actually worked), safety check sheets, blah, blah, blah and Carolyn's stickers (Dr. Loomis gave her 6 stickers that were either glittery or scratch and sniff, all the size of my palm) and we headed to the door. Only I forgot something. I forgot that Carolyn has to be the first one out the door and the first one in the door. She will mow you down if you get in her way, and heaven help you (or me, as it were) if you're holding 8 bags of groceries. Anyway she darted in front of me and grappled for control of the door, insisting, "I do it all myself!" and the door opened over her foot, bending her big toe nail back so far that it has a white crease across the center and it broke the skin. Poor Carolyn was howling with pain and crying so hard that tears splashed onto the floor. I lifted Carolyn back onto the table so that I could get a better look at her foot. I didn't have anywhere that I could set Lilia down, so I attempted to clean the blood off her toe (she didn't actually let me touch her foot until we got home) with Lilia on my hip. No one peeked in to see what was wrong or if they could help. Maybe they thought that if I needed help I would come out of the room and ask for it. At any rate, we finally made our way out of the room (both Carolyn and I were much more cautious with our exodus) and down the hall to check out, Carolyn limping pitifully and Lilia sniffling miserably, both with tear swollen eyes. I'm don't even want to know what I looked like at this point. Carolyn was so sad that the receptionist offered her a lollipop, which was quickly accepted. (Carolyn always makes out like a bandit at the doctor's office.) I felt so weary by the time I got the girls safely bucked into the car, that I decided we all needed a drink, so it was off to Target! but that's another story........

You're on Candid Camera!

Quick little back story for this video......Carolyn was very frustrated because she couldn't zip up her white sweater. She was getting so upset that her face was cherry red and her eyes were spilling fat tears. And of course, she was shrieking. I offered to help her, but that just fueled her rage to greater heights. You'd think I'd know better by now, because no matter how frustrated she gets when she's doing something all by herself (which is everything lately) it only makes her more upset when I offer my assistance. Actually, I'm very proud of her for wanting to do things by herself and for asserting her independence. I have a hard time not stepping in and fixing things for her. It's almost painful to watch her struggle with something that I could easily do for her, but I'm trying, because it's important that she knows that she can do things all by herself and I'm hoping that she'll learn to deal with frustration. But back to the video....after working herself up, she went to the piano and started to play it. And I thought it was a good opportunity to experiment with uploading a video onto this blog. I thought that even if it wasn't a cute video, it would at least be entertaining. (I'll try to get something cute next time) After I did the video, Carolyn immediately wanted to watch it. She watched it over and over and over again and I don't even know how many times she watched it before she very softly patted my leg and apologized for not being very nice. It was like she was thinking to herself, "Is that what I really looked like?" I wonder what I would think about my behavior if I was presented with a candid recording of it. Would I like what I saw? Would I ask myself if that was really what I looked like? I have a feeling that's what judgement day will be like. Whoa, this is way too deep for this blog, way too deep. :D (anything deeper than a soap dish is pushing it) On a lighter note, I might use the camera another time Carolyn is pitching a fit and see if it has the same effect. She'll probably think it's cool. (By the way, when I ask her if she's playing beautiful music, her reply is, "No! I'm playing MY music!!!" --since I was holding the camera close to me, you can hear what I'm saying, but what she says isn't as clear.)

Even MORE Loot!!!

So we went to the library again yesterday to turn in our second set of reading logs and choose a couple of new books. And, *gasp* , we even walked there, using our new stroller. I know, I know. Shocking. It was very hard to get going and I kept thinking about how much more quickly we could get there by car and how it wouldn't cut into my day as much if we drove there, but even though we didn't get out of the house until 2:00, I thought it was very important that we make it a point to walk where we can, for health and fiscal reasons. It was the right choice. We had so much fun! As soon as I got the girls into the stroller they were grinning and vibrating with excitement. At the beginning of our trip we walked by a huge, beautiful, pink rosebush. Naturally Carolyn wanted to pick a rose. (Who wouldn't?) I explained to Carolyn that those roses belonged to someone and that they didn't belong to us. They weren't ours and we couldn't pick them. This set the tone for the rest of our outing. Every time I would point something out, whether it was a tree, the sky, flowers, squirrels...you name it, Carolyn would say, "That's not OURS. We can't take it. It's not ours, Mama." Good to know she was listening.

When we were in line at the library, waiting to turn in our reading logs, I was listening to someone else get the spiel about all the freebies sponsors were giving to the library this year and I realized that we were gypped free pizza and passes to the Discovery Center. When I brought this up to the librarian she was so apologetic and insisted on giving us 2 extra freebie packs. So now I have 4 of everything but the free pizza and Discovery Center passes. I thought it was greedy to accept so much freebie goodness, but the librarian pointed out that if she broke up the packs, someone else might not get all of the freebies. I thought she was very nice. Of course, if I had been dealing the HCL (Head Children's Librarian--who incedently gave us the partial freebie packs) I don't think this would have happened. I think we just would have been out of luck. The HCL doesn't really like children and is often awkward around them, but I think she wants to like children, so I guess she's in the right place....When we were strolling around, Lilia would rest, but no so Carolyn. Literally, as soon as we got home, Carolyn crashed on the floor and slept for an hour. (much like I wanted to do--WOW I've got to get into better shape!!!)

Even as I'm writing this blog, Carolyn is smothering Lilia with love and probably making Lilia a tougher child than she might otherwise have been. Carolyn has no bubble of personal space and so it never bothers her with you get in very close. Lilia does have a bubble though, and after a while she'll lose her patience with Carolyn. I've actually seen Lilia try to roll away from Carolyn. The only problem with this is that Carolyn will match Lilia, roll for roll, and suddenly it's a new game. Lilia has also been trying really hard to improve on her crawling skills, especially yesterday and today. Keeping Carolyn from whomping on Lilia (even when it's done with the best intentions) is exhausting me, because it requires constant vigilance. I turn my back for a minute and Carolyn has a pair of my nylons (where did she get them, when I can't even find them?? I've been going to church with bare legs for the past 3 weeks) and she's using them on Lilia like you would a bit for a horse. Sadly, this really happened and it's not a pretend example of what can happen. It is aggravating to say the least. I find that I'm starting to be quicker to snap and that I play the NC (Naughty Chair) card much more frequently. Oh well. Soon Lilia will be bigger and then it will be a fair fight. I'm pretty sure that constant vigilance will still be needed.

Library Loot

Those who know me, know that I love the library. One of the best things about library (other than encouraging a love for reading, of course) is that it's absolutely free. In the summer, it's even better than free. Yes, that's right, it's Summer Reading Program time. That time of year when you get a brand new, free book for every 40 books you read to your child(ren). This year is especially sweet because we get free books for reading to Lilia too. And, it gets even better because you can read to them at the same time and it counts for both of their reading logs. So I've been plopping Lilia down with me when I read to Carolyn. Sometimes Lilia is a willing participant, sometimes not so willing. But always a participant. Because you see, it's all about the FREE stuff, more than the love of reading for me. Shameful? Yes. But I think the love of reading will come anyway. It's not everyday that you can get free books. By the way, we got our first reading logs on Wednesday and turned them in, completed, by Friday at 11:00am. JT calls me the Reading Nazi. To be fair, I am a little militant about the whole thing, but I wouldn't call myself a Nazi for heaven's sake. But it all paid off because we walked out of the library with $22 worth of books, coupons for 4 free kids' meals, free ice skating passes, tickets to the county fair, tickets to the rodeo and a bouncy ball. (Not as many freebies from sponsors as they had last year, but the books seem to be nicer, so it's all good.) Carolyn's book is a Cinderella book with magnetized pages and magnets that go with the story and Lilia got a beautiful butterfly book that talks about colors. We have a bit of reading to do today and tomorrow, but I am very confident that we'll be walking out of the library with 2 more free books. Just see if we don't.

p.s. here are some pictures of Library Fun of the (not so distant) past. Lilia is being held by my lovely sister-in-law Melody.

Rhyming Time

My girls are fun to take shopping because they love, love, love to shop. Most of our shopping is actually window shopping, but it's still a good time. In fact shopping is often the highlight of our day. Today, however, after our shopping trip, I felt like I'd been run over by a mac truck. It took us forever to get out the door, but that was alright. It gave me a chance to make sure both of the girls were fed, dressed and coiffed. Quick side note--I'm experimenting with different hair styles for Carolyn because her birthday pictures are coming up and I want to make sure she looks as cute as she can possibly look. Right now I'm leaning toward doing her hair in pigtail loops. JT laughs at me because I'll be planning outfits and hair styles months in advance. Can I help it if I'm a planner? No, I can't. Anyway....back shopping.......once we finally got out the door and buckled in the car, we went to Walmart to do the bulk of our grocery shopping. When we go to the grocery store, Carolyn always wants to walk instead of riding in the shopping cart. This could be because Lilia gets the front, and dare I say more comfortable, seat and if Carolyn rides in the cart, she has to sit in the basket. In Albertson's it's not a problem for her to walk by me because it's a lot smaller and a whole heck of a lot slower than it is at Walmart. Walmart's a zoo of mish-mash harried, impatient people. I barely avoid getting side-swiped and bumped by other carts. Carolyn is much harder to see and there are a lot of near misses. She also gets tired or distracted or both and tends to lag behind. Today she found a Little Mermaid umbrella that she had to have. She begged and begged for me to buy it for her (something she very rarely does) and while I denied her plea to purchase it, I did let her look at it as we strolled through the store. Yes, I'm weak. Anything to make the squeaky wheel less squeaky as we shop. And yes, I knew even at the time that I was just putting off a melt down, and possibly intensifying the melt down that was coming. Anyway, back to the umbrella. It was such a distraction to Carolyn that I was actually giving myself a headache, trying to have eyes in the back of my head to make sure Carolyn was safe and still watch where I was going. I finally took the umbrella away and put in on top of some cinnamon rolls (sorry Walmart Worker who had to put it back wherever it really goes). This made Carolyn very, very sad (so sad that she was telling JT about it when he got home and begging him to go out and get it for her). So sad in fact, that she didn't want to walk anymore and rode in the back of the shopping cart, a sad, pouty little waif. Alas. In every life some rain must fall. By this time, my head was absolutely pounding and in fact, it's been 5 hours since we've come home and my head is still pounding. To top it all off, Lilia gagged herself with her fingers as we were in the checkout lane and spit up prunes from her lunch all down her face, arm and cute outfit. It was so gross. At least it was just spit up and not vomit. See, I can look at the silver lining......Speaking of Lilia, as I was changing her diaper and getting her ready for bed, she rolled away from me (she's wicked good at rolling now) and peed the carpet and then rolled back to me. My right eye started twitching like mad and I thought my head was going to burst. It's funny because as soon as the girls went down for the night, my headache mysteriously lightened up to a dull, tired ache instead of the sharp misery that it's been ever since our shopping trip. Coincidence? One last thing, I have to brag about Carolyn. We've been working on rhyming and she's a rhyming foo' . She'll say a couple of words like "nose, pose" and in a way too perky, spastic voice I'll say, "they sound alike THEY RHYME!!!" This game never gets old for Carolyn. I will admit that it does get tiring for me. I can only be so enthusiastic about rhyming for finite amounts of time. That said, I am very proud of her and the funniest was this morning when she was rhyming and she said "eyebrows!........" and then started laughing because she couldn't think of anything that rhymed with that word.

Water Show

This is how the trip home from Rachelle's house started, but it's not how it ended.....Apparently my girls love road trips as long as they're under 1 hour (sort of like their mom, if we're being honest). By the time we were 2 hours into 6 hour the trip, they were both howling. You know how when one wolf starts howling, the rest of the pack joins in? You don't know how close I was.....

Both Carolyn and Lilia are doing new things lately. While Lilia's new bag of tricks tend to be cute things (it's her age, I think) Carolyn's new bag of tricks seems to be getting old very fast (it's her age, I think). When I feed Lilia, I'll sing to her and when I finish, she'll sing back to me, looking very earnest and trying so hard. When her song is done, she'll beam at me, so proud. It's very cute. Carolyn is exploring the limits of what she can get away with and what she can't get away with. I've had to play the NC card (naughty chair) way too many times lately. It will be sad when it doesn't work anymore. With how quickly she's growing, I should probably be thinking of a new threat to use later on. I'm pretty sure that I'll need it! Actually, she's a very good girl. I think a lot of the bad and obnoxious behavior is due to boredom and an excess of energy (oh that I had some!--even if it wasn't excessive--I speak of the energy of course and not the boredom). Maybe the walks I intend on taking the girls on will help? Especially the ones to the park. A lot of times she'll run up and down the hall, laughing with a joie de vivre and I can't even get after her, even though running in the house probably shouldn't be encouraged, but it's probably the only exercise she's getting! I'm also thinking of getting a cheapie kiddie pool for the back yard for her to frolic about in. We actually paid for our water irrigation this year, so we've been able to use the sprinkler system and we should have soft, green grass instead of the brown, burned, sharp grass that we've become accustomed to each summer. Of course, we have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit before we do any of this stuff. The weather is so wacky this year! We went from 40 degrees to just under 100 degrees in one week! And now we're back down to 50 degrees and it's not warming up any time soon. Um, hello? I live in Idaho, not Alaska. What's up with the cold, windy weather this late into the summer??? By the way, you know how I mentioned that our sprinklers are now working? Well, over the last 2 years, we've accidentally mowed over many a sprinkler head and now that the water is turned on, we're treated to several water shows daily. It's like the Bellagio at my house. By the way, here are a few pictures of the water show for your enjoyment. Keep in mind that there are at least 10 more. There is one that shoots up at least 15 feet in the air (we call it the Geyser) and would probably go higher, except that tree branches break it's accent. It's actually a little bit embarrassing. Luckily we have the sprinklers set to come on at 4:30am-8:00am and hopefully my neighbors have better things to do than be up and around and watching the show (although it is entertaining). Of course, most of my neighbors are elderly, so that is not the case. Oh well, at least it keeps the weeds green.

My Own Fine, Young Canabal

Earlier this week I was holding Lilia, and Carolyn came over and brushed her mouth against Lilia's head. "Oh", I said, "you're giving Lilia kisses! What a good sister you are! You love her so much."

"No, I'm chewing her." Surely not.

"What did you say? You're kissing her?" I asked. She couldn't possibly have said that she was chewing on her sweet, innocent, baby sister.

"No Mommy, I'm chewing Lilia," Carolyn carefully enounciated.

"Carolyn, we don't chew on people. It's not nice. We're not canabals," I explained. In response Carolyn gave a casual shrug and said, "I'm a canabal." We argued for a few minutes about whether or not she was a canabal, but she maintained that she was indeed a canabal. Just so you know, I didn't actually explain to Carolyn what a canabal actually is. I didn't want to give her ideas.

Okay, I've been struggling with this post for almost 2 weeks now. Between internet troubles, being out of town and my children being as uncooperative as possible, I don't think it's going to get done. If I don't post it now, it will never happen. So, I'm just going to post this one as it and do a better one next time since I have a lot to write. I think this post is jinxed or something. Really.