Music in the Car

Very rarely in my girl's lives have I indulged them with "kid's music" in the car. I like the girls to enjoy the music that I enjoy, so we can all be happy with what's playing while we travel. Sure, we went through a phase when we all enjoyed The Wiggles, but I think I was tricked into that one. I listen to a variety of music, from The Dixie Chicks to Amy Winehouse to Fergie and pretty much everything in between. My girls love theDixie Chicks. They are requested most often, and I am always happy to oblige. Now, I have loved them for years, but have to admit, they became even more dear to me when they stirred up all of that controversy regarding the President. I am so glad that after many years of grief, people finally understand that the chicks were right, and that they got to take their music in a new direction because of the lack of support from country radio stations. They are incredible musicians who say what they think, and have turned what seemed like a career killer into their biggest success. We are big fans around here. Back to the car. All three of the girls sit in the way back of our van. They all discuss what song they would like to hear, request it and then proceed to sing all of the words, nearly perfectly...even Maya. This impresses me and actually makes me tear up during one song in particular. There is a song called, 'I Hope' which they love and I really like hearing them sing it. The best part is,
"But our children are watching us
They put their trust in us
They're gonna be like us
It's okay for us to disagree
We can work it out lovingly
I hope, for more love, more joy and laughter
I hope, we'll have more than we'll ever need
I hope, we'll have more happy ever after
I hope, we can all live more fearlessly
And we can lose all the pain and misery
I hope, I hope"

I hope all of these things for my girls, and I also hope they keep singing and listening to great strong musicians, and strong women , and become happy, strong women themselves.

An All the Time Friend

Maya has started tucking her monkey friend, Aht, into her shirt and going about her daily activities. She forgets he is there sometimes and goes to look for him. I guess her shirt is as good a place as any to keep him, at least I know where he is.

Crocs

Sweet rubbery feet.

Sweet Oddities of Speech

I love the strange, odd, sweet ways in which very young children say things. I am always sure that I will remember all of them, but in reality I don't. These are some of my very favorites.

Maya: Instead of saying I'm or I, she says "my". As in "my Maya" or "my do" for I'm Maya and I do.
Popsicle is Pock-a-lil.
Banana is Banama
Fish is Fif
Ryleigh was Wywee, now Rywee
Orange is Oschren
Smarties(the candy) is Fwmawties


Lilly: (when she was little ) used to say Yiddee which progressed to Yilly which finally went to Lilly. She couldn't say L, tricky name for someone who has trouble with L.

Allie: Couldn't say "th" until very recently. Mother was mudder, another was anudder.

I love the funny ways they say things, and always get a tiny bit sad when they learn the sound the right way.

Too Funny

Maya was coloring a few minutes ago. She finished, walked up to me with her drawing and said, "I make a petey budda an jelly samwich, here ya go sir... for you."
Where does she come up with this stuff?

Uneventful...almost

This weekend was almost uneventful. We were supposed to have a sleep over with the girl's friends, Ali and Addie. They came over Saturday afternoon and played, had dinner and went out for ice cream. We came back home and all snuggled down to watch a movie. As I was sitting next to Addie, she felt pretty warm all of a sudden. She had been fine, playing and acting relatively normally. I checked her temperature...102.4. Yep, I'd say she was a bit warm. I called her mom and dad, who incidentally hadn't even gotten to leave their house for their night out yet, and told them they needed to come pick up their sizzling daughter. They felt so badly that she had gotten sick, and I felt badly that they didn't get their night out. we'll try again soon, hopefully with better results.

Our Cat

This is our cat Maddie, and these are her "kittens". She is always snuggling up around little stuffed animals like that. She's a bit odd, but I guess so are the rest of us. She fits in well here.

They are Climbing the Walls

Literally.

Lollipops

I was blog hunting this morning, and came across this fantastic cooking idea. It is free form lollipops, and I found it here http://littlemommaandcompany.blogspot.com/2008/04/rain-less-rainbow.html . I was fairly sure I had all the ingredients, and was positive I had willing tasters, so I thought we'd give it a try. I got the candy mixture on the stove when I realized I had no candy thermometer. I called my sister in law, who seems to know how to remedy everything kitchen related, to ask her what do do. She read me instructions on how to tell what the candy should look like when it's ready to pour. I thanked her and continued on. We poured multiple colors on each pop and waited semi-patiently for them to harden. They came out beautifully, like stained glass. The recipe was super simple, and the only substitution I made was that I used lemon extract instead of orange. The site I made the discovery on is great, I am sure I will visit often.

We will definitely be trying this again, it was a lot of fun.

Commercials Really Do Work

Lilly: "my eye hurts"
Mommy: "I'm sorry your eye hurts. How does it hurt?"
Lilly: "It hurts right here, in the corner, it's sorta sore"
Allie: " Eye drops get the red out. Maybe you need eye drops"
Lilly: " Mommy, do I need eyedrops?"
Mommy: "I think you'll be okay without eye drops."
Allie: "But eye drops get the red out"

Eerily, Visene commercial begins to play in the background

Allie: "See, eye drops get the red out, they moose tureize"
Lilly: "No, they roosterize"
Allie: " They moose tureize"
Mommy: " They moisturize"
Allie: "See, you need to get some."

Mommy tries not to collapse in fits of laughter.

The Game has Changed

Lilly and Allie are playing "basket ball". By "basket ball", I mean one is throwing the ball into a hoop made by the other's outstretched arms. The game has been going on for quite some time. Lilly storms into my room. "Mommy, Maya keeps taking our ball and we are playing basket ball and she took it again and she still has it so now it's only basket!"
They are so funny.

The Benefit of Having a Messy Sister

At the farmer's market this morning, all of the girls were sitting in the wagon eating blueberry muffins topped with sugar. Allie took one look at Maya's face (which was covered with sugary crumbs) turned to her and said, "Maya, can I lick your face?" Maya considered her request for a moment and replied, "Yah." nodding her head. That is not something I ever expected to hear as a mother, but I found it quite entertaining.

The Sprinkler

Maya: "Mommy can we go in the fwink-el-lel?"
Mommy : " you want to go in the sprinkler?"
Maya: "yah, I hot I want to go. In. The. Fwink-el-lel."
Mommy: "yes, we can go in this afternoon."
Maya: "Ank shu, Mommy"

5 Miles

I ran five miles without stopping for the first time on Sunday. It was hard. I didn't think I could do it. It was awful until mile four. Then it became different. I won't say that it was easy, but it became do-able. I ran with my Dad who is a great source of encouragement. It's not so much what he says, but that he is there with me. I am so proud that I can do this now and that it is getting better. Only a few more weeks until my race. I am nervous and excited. I think it is going to be a blast.

An Egg

Maya drew a big oval on the Magnadoodle today. She walked over to me and said, "Mommy, I have a surprise for you...I draw a egg." I couldn't believe it. It looked like a giant egg, and she recognized that. She is a smart little person who is incredibly proud. I guess that makes up for all the fits she's been having lately.

Bananas

Allie goes through banana phases. (In this picture she looks like she is bananas.) Sometimes she refuses to eat them, and sometimes she can't get enough. Tonight she ate three. Whole bananas. All herself. Then she asked for more. I told her that I thought three bananas was plenty. She disagreed, but accepted my answer. I think that's a lot of bananas for one little person, but she has done this before with no ill effects, so I usually let her, but cut her off at three. I guess she just uses up all her like for bananas all at once then needs a break. Oh, and this all occurred ten minutes after dinner. Go figure.

The Farmer's Market

We have the greatest Farmer's Market near our house. Every Saturday morning the local farmers set up in a local park and sell their wares. We usually forget until about 10 am, but this weekend, we remembered Friday night so we planned to leave the house about 8. The girls wanted to bring the wagon and the dog with us, so we were quite a sight walking down the street. The girls always want to go for the Raspberries, Strawberries and muffins. We did all of our shopping and then they sat in the wagon finishing off all of the berries we purchased, so we had to get more. I have to admit, they were pretty cute sitting there with juice dripping down their chins and arms (note the pink spots all over Allie's shirt). We also purchased flowers and some mint for Mojitos later on. Seriously the best summer drink ever. I got some great pictures of our morning, hopefully we will make it just as early next weekend.

It's Starting Already

Lilly, Allie and their friend Brandon, who is Lilly's age and who Allie loves, were watching a movie with Will. It is superhero day at our house, so they were watching Spiderman. There was a part in the movie with kissing (oh, the horror) and Brandon said, "Ewwwwwwwwwww, gross". Lilly said, "my Mommy and Daddy kiss a lot, it's not gross." Allie then agreed with her sister, being the fairytale fan that she is. Brandon continued to elaborate how disgusting kissing is, so Allie turned to him and said, "Brandon, you can say what you want, it only makes me love you more." Here we go, it's starting already.

Maya's New Canvas

Maya has discovered markers. More specifically that markers work not only on paper, but walls, molding, people, and curtains. I put the markers away, but her sisters who are budding artists, keep taking them out again. Thanks guys, I needed some new art in the house.

A New Photograph I Love

The Lake

We have discovered "the lake" as the girls call it. We have always known the lake was there, but we always go to the ocean because it it closer. I grew up going to the ocean, and in my ignorance, thought the ocean was inferior. Let me just say, I was wrong. The lake is awesome. The water is warm, and the kids stay in all day. Seriously, all day. I have to pull them out to have lunch, and that is the only time all day they get a chance to de-raisin. They now beg every morning when they wake up to go to the lake. The only problem is that the lake is 60 miles round trip. Once a week fine, twice maybe, but gas is a bit pricey so we'll have to limit our trips for now. We have had so much fun in the water and the girls are getting really comfortable in there now, which makes me happy. They love to hang out in those inner tubes and float around. Maya loved the water until she walked out a bit too deep and dunked under accidentally. I was just a step away and hauled her out quickly, but she was suddenly less impressed with the water. I made her stay in for a while, though so she wouldn't be scared. She is okay with it now. I definitely have to look into swimming lessons fro all three of the girls. We are having a fantastic summer, and I do not want it to end. Why do they have to put the back to school stuff out already?

Aaht has a New Friend

Maya has fallen in love with a new Beanie Baby. He is a rooster and she calls him
c o c k a looooo. She told me tonight, "Mommy, I have my Aaht and my C o c k a looo... I go in my room." I love the little things they say at this age.

Fourth of July Photos

We had lots of fun today and are eagerly awaiting darkness so we can do giant sparklers and go see the fireworks. The girls were wonderful subjects for me today and I got a few great shots, finally. Hopefully the fireworks will be amazing, as this will be the girls' first year going. I can't wait to see their faaces when the sky lights up.

Seven Years

Yesterday was our seven year anniversary. We got married in Tennessee when Will was in the ARMY. We were planning a big wedding when he got orders to Korea, so we got married at the courthouse, just us and a justice of the peace named Joe Creek. He was a sweet older man who said some wonderful words for us. We had no one there with us because we were positive that we would have an actual wedding with everyone we love shortly thereafter. We had to get married before he left for ARMY paperwork purposes and how long it takes for processing. We kept planning for a big party and I guess what would have been fake vows, but life sort of sped ahead and we never did the big party. Looking back, I am glad we didn't do the big traditional wedding thing, but still wish that I had thought to at least plan a little ceremony or something with our family and friends, but I was so certain that we would do a traditional something that I didn't think too much about it. When all is said and done, though it is true...it's not about the wedding, it's about the marriage. I have had the most fun I have ever had in my life, and I never knew I could laugh so hard until I met my husband. I have also been through some of the worst times when Will was away when Lilly was born, and through the death of his mother. He is my best friend, the one who keeps me sane and the one who nearly drives me to insanity at times. Thank you my sweet boy for giving me the three greatest girls in the world, and for giving us so much love and laughter.