November 24, 2009

Tuesday is my day off from work, which I usually really enjoy with the girls. I opted to be bad Mommy, or lazy Mommy, today, and take the girls to school. I had a gazillion errands and little catch up things that I needed to do, and thought that I could actually get done if I didn't have "help." Interestingly, the girls didn't notice the difference at all, just another school day for them.



On the way to school Teresa pipes up in an extremely exasperated voice, "Mommy! How. Long. Is. It. Going. To. Take. Me. To. Grow. Up? It's taking too long!" I asked her what she was so anxious to grow up for? "I want a baby of my own since you won't give me one. I'm going to live in my own house with my baby. And my baby daddy." She actually used the phrase baby daddy! It may have been baby's daddy."

I got tons of stuff done, finding a lot more to do along the way. On the way home from school I informed the girls that they were going to get to hang out with Daddy tomorrow afternoon, since school's closing at 2:00. "Yeah! Daddy's home," was Addison's immediate response. Teresa let out a gasp, "Mommy, maybe if we're all good we can make cookies tomorrow! We can make cookies for Grandma and Papa to eat, and if there are any left over maybe we can have some!" I told her that I wasn't quite sure if Daddy knew how to make cookies, and then I said, "I'll have to see if I have my recipe to leave for him." "It's okay. I know it, I'll help him." Should be interesting what I come home to tomorrow.

The girls had mail, a lot of mail waiting for them when they got home. They love getting mail and packages, so I used them all night as a carrot for good behavior..."We can open them after your bath, pajamas, teeth brushing..." Very handy.

Aunt Kathy sent Thanksgiving cards, and gifts to enjoy the Christmas season coming. They loved their cards; Teresa's card has a connect the dots in it, and Addison's card was full of stickers.

The stickers were quickly put into action.

They also got an advent calendar and a Christmas candle. They get to burn the candle to the next number every day and then at the end it reaches gifts. They're going to have so much fun with them.

November 23, 2009

I have the mornings down to a very tight schedule and we usually get out the door pretty easily. This is all assuming that I have them woken up by 7:15 (which gets us out the door by 7:45). I woke them up this morning and asked Addison if she wanted her milk. "In bed. Teresa." You want to drink your milk with Teresa? "Yeah!" So, Teresa, who was on her way out of bed quickly got back into bed. "Mom, I'm going to snuggle with her." I thought it was very cute and called Ken in to look at them. He came back with a little bit of a look on his face, "They're spooning, I don't know how I feel about that." I went back in to their room and just started laughing. I couldn't wait to tell Ken that now, not only were they spooning, but Teresa was chewing on Addison's ear, making Addison giggle hysterically.

November 22, 2009

We all woke up with lovely colds this morning. This is perfect timing, since Grandma Chris and Papa Tony are coming this week. The girls haven't been sick for at least a couple of months, but of course, as soon as we are planning on having company they get sick. Last time Grandma and Papa visited we sent them home with their own flu. Hopefully this will pass quickly.

Tonight I was trying to fold the laundry. This is not something that I usually do when the girls are awake, but I was trying to bribe them into sedentary activity by putting a movie in. Of course, Addison immediately claimed the laundry basket as her boat. At least she brought a snack with her for the ride.

Teresa determined that "it's mismatch day at school tomorrow," and started getting dressed. First she dressed up her pull-up with a pair of my underwear. She then started with the socks. "Look at my outfit, Mommy." Can't wait until this picture comes out when she starts dating."

November 21, 2009

Our girls woke up at 6 am today! For reasons that I'm not entirely sure, they were both just raring to go on a morning that Ken and I actually decided to sleep in. Sigh, I suppose that's just how it's bound to work. If I'd gotten up at 4:30 like I usually do I'm sure they would have slept until 8.

Ken was scheduled to help one of our neighbors do some electrical work on their house, so I actually took the girls to My Gym this morning. 2 classes in one week, quite a record for us. Addison has a new fixation with one of the teachers, Ms. Kelly. Both of the girls have always liked Ms. Kelly, but Addison has taken it to new heights this week. "Kelly, watch this. Kelly follow me." At one point I asked her if I could help her with something. "No. Kelly. Kelly, watch this." The girls do really seem to love My Gym, it's good to get them back into it.

















On Saturdays there is a 1 hour gap between the girls class times, so I decided to fill it with a quick trip to Lowe's. They had a little children's workshop this morning, Build a wooden snowman, which seemed like fun to me. Cute little concept. We got there and they gave each girl an apron and a name tag, a snowman kit, and a hammer. Oh dear. Addison was thrilled to have that hammer in her hand!

They had a blast, though there were several times that I did have to go chasing Addison down the aisle because she lost interest while I was helping Teresa. Teresa really got into hammering and picking out which pieces went next on the snowman.

Just as we were finishing up the snowmen Addison found one of those huge carts and thought she should take control of it. Barefoot. I don't think I've ever met a child who wants her shoes off more than Addison. As we were leaving Teresa started asking me when we were going to be able to build real snowmen. This is as we were walking out into the 60 degree day. I told her that I didn't think it would be any time soon. "But Mommy, I want some. Can you get me some? Or can we just go somewhere with snow?" I think she has at least some of our Northern genes.

We then headed back to My Gym for Teresa's class. Addison and I sat and colored while Teresa was playing. I was trying to get a picture of Teresa on the bars (which didn't work out), and Addison started saying, "Mommy, cheese me. Cheese me." How could I resist?

I had a crushing Mommy moment this afternoon. I'd just put Addison down for her nap and Teresa was finishing up her lunch as I was cleaning the kitchen. "Mommy, I want Daddy to start picking me up from school from now on." I asked her why. "I just want him to." I explained that Daddy's work is pretty far from her school and that Daddy really can't pick her up conveniently. I then asked again why she wanted him to pick her up. Very casually and nonchalantly she says, "I just like him better." I know that there will be times, likely many of them when my child will tell me that she doesn't like me, but I didn't really think it would start now! And she clearly likes me, there was no malice in her statement....which I think is what hurt my feelings so much. Now, she does tell me, not infrequently, "You're the best Mommy in the whole world Mommy!" I'm going to focus on that!

November 20, 2009

I was just getting ready to hop in the shower this morning when I heard, "Mommy! Mommy! Milk!" So, odd, both girls were awake just before 6 am. Very unusual. Sometimes I think that things happen just to make sure that we are appreciative for the way that things are. I am appreciative for good sleepers. So, I went into the bedroom to try to grab Addison before Teresa woke up. Too late. "Mommy, I told Addison that it was still sleeping time, but she's not being a good listener. I'm not tired anymore. Ken was still sleeping, I hadn't showered after my workout yet...clearly not ready to go to work yet. So, I did what all good parents do, "Do you want to watch a movie?" We rarely watch tv, I think this may be the 2nd or 3rd time I've put an actual movie in. The girls jumped at it.

Addison quickly lost interest. "I feed Al." She then went and grabbed one of the cat food bowls and started chasing Al all over the house. Seems that she was absolutely convinced that Al was hungry.

When Al finally did pause to eat, Addison was so happy! I did manage to get showered and we all got to work and to school, and it was actually a

pretty pleasant morning.

November 18, 2009

Teresa and Addison love climbing on our backs to "be a monkey." They climb and "oh and ah" and make all the little monkey noises.


Teresa was getting ready for bed tonight and I suggested that she go potty before getting in bed. "But Mom, I'm a monkey." I informed her that even monkeys have to go potty. "Mommy, monkeys go potty like people, but in the trees." True. "What if someone is below the monkey?" Not sure if she's thinking of others, or if she just wants to make sure that she's not the one below.

November 18, 2009

I think that we may have discovered Teresa's inspiration for her portraits.

Ken has officially been instructed to smile more.

November 17, 2009

We spent the day "catching up," on life. Ken actually took the day off work to spend with us and let me go to a couple of appointments. Lovely boring check ups that are much easier without little helpers. I got home from my eye appointment and Teresa had been drawing family portraits. "This is my pictures of Daddy when he's working hard on something." I like how Ken's hair surrounds his entire head. And, I think he actually had furrowed eyebrows here!

She drew a picture of me later, I have a much smaller head and curly hair just on the top of my head.

November 16, 2009

Teresa wouldn't let me take her family collage to school today, "I still have things to decorate with it, I need to do more." So, the collage sits.

A cold front came in today, which I'm thrilled about. It actually feels sort of like fall, like maybe it may be Thanksgiving next week, very exciting! We got to turn on the fireplace tonight and opted to read our books in front of it. Both girls decided that they needed to put warm fuzzy socks on for the event. All of my sock slippers seem to continue to disappear into little hands (and feet!) They love pulling the knees all the way up to their knees.






Addison saw how cozy Ken and Teresa were and hauled of into our bedroom to grab Ken's pillow off the bed to bring to us to make us all comfortable.

Addison didn't last long, she kept trying to get over to explore the fire. Teresa really likes reading on the floor.

November 15, 2009

We had such a nice lazy Sunday. Well, I had a nice lazy Sunday. Ken took the girls this morning (a lovely outing to Home Depot), leaving me at home to sew (my idea of a nice little vacation). This was after making us pancakes for breakfast. I think I may have to have more Sundays like this.

After naps (for all of us, that never happens!), we worked on Teresa's family collage for school. This is desparately overdue, I'm not even sure what the original due date was. Teresa dove into this feet first, as it was an art project. I had collected some pictures of Teresa with all of her extended family. Of course, I should have realized that I would not be able to participate much in this project. Teresa wanted to cut the pictures up herself. I ended up helping with glue and placement, and that was about it. She decided that she wanted to put glitter on the letters that spelled out her name, and then she asked for buttons to decorate it further. She worked on it until dinner, and then after dinner, and then asked if she could trade her bedtime books for collage time. I think she would have just kept going and going if we hadn't forced her to go to bed.

Addison was such a fun little girl today. She's really starting to talk more and more, and it's so fun to hear her. She's got this sweet little lilting voice that makes all of her commands just funny. "Daddy. Get up. Get up, follow me." "Hello Mommy." It's just fun. She came flying out of the bathtub tonight. "Addison froggy, ribbit, ribbit."

November 14, 2009

We caught a ride with a friend back to Glen Rose, TX this morning to fetch our car. Ken opted to catch up on some rental work today, so this was a great chance to pick up our car and to go see Fossil Rim that we promised the girls last week. Teresa talked the whole way to the car dealership (a mere 2 hours), Addison sang the ABC's for the majority of the ride.


We got the car picked up, got the front tire aired up, left with the car, drove the car back to the dealership, established that it was not the dealership's fault that our front bumper is now falling off (thank you tow truck), and then drove on to Fossil Rim. Finally!


I love Fossil Rim, I love seeing all the animals and feeding them. The girls also love Fossil Rim, but I think a lot of their love is because they are allowed to be in the car without being in their car seats.





We skipped by the aggressive ostriches to find some nice friendly deer.

The zebras were next, and Teresa's actually gotten brave enough to feed some of the animals by hand now. She does not like it though when the entire animal head is in the car with us.

Addison spent the majority of the ride on my lap. She was so happy to be there, and loved throwing food out the window to the animals.

At one point Addison decided that she wanted to check out Teresa's seat, just to see what it felt like.

But then she was in our floor boards.

Nothing like playing hide and seek while we wait for the cars ahead of us to move.

We then came upon zebra land. Zebras everywhere. Zebras in our car! "Mommy, they're too close!!!" We actually had to roll up our windows against the zebras for a while.

When we got through the zebras we moved on to the giraffes. There were so many cars in the park today! I didn't think that there was any way the giraffes would still be hungry by the time that we got to them. Thankfully, I was wrong. All seven giraffes were standing by the side of the road waiting to eat. The girls were excited to get to the giraffes, but then they wouldn't feed them when we got there. So, initially, I got to have all the fun.

Teresa finally asked to feed the giraffes when a baby came over to visit.

At the halfway point we got out to eat lunch and go to the petting zoo. No animal is safe with the girls with a a brush.

We had to sidestep all the little goat "deposits," all over the yard. "Mommy, those look like blueberries, but you can't eat them. They're poopie." I encouraged Teresa not to call them blueberries, as that is one of Addison's favorite fruits. That would not be good.

We capped out the day with a climb on the rocks. It was a gorgeous day, we had so much fun!

November 11, 2009

I expected Teresa to wake up this morning excited to go to school to show everyone her new earrings. Instead I got, "I don't want to go to school, I want to stay home with you." Shows what I get for taking them to do fun stuff. However, once we got in the car Teresa talked non stop about how she was going to show everyone her ears when she got to school. In true Teresa fashion, we got to school and she wouldn't say a word. I asked her when we walked into her classroom if she wanted to tell Ms. Tiffany anything. "No Mommy, no I don't. Don't talk." Okay then.





Addison was thrilled to find her teacher, Ms. Ashley was back today. Ashley had been out for the last week on a deer hunting trip. Addison has gotten very authoritative in the last few days. "Follow me, Watch this, and No, no, no Mommy," have become some of her favorite phrases. I asked Ashley if she ever heard any of this. Of course not, perfect angel at school. I'm informed that she's always just full of smiles and fun at school. This is true for the most part. Tonight we were finishing up dinner, and Addison was always done. She shot out of the kitchen and then popped back into the doorway. "5 minutes o'tay Mommy? 5 min." I often say, "You have 5 minutes to play while I....." Seems that it's sinking in.

When I picked the girls up from school I asked Teresa again about her earrings and if anyone noticed. "Yes, almost everyone noticed, just not Kambry. Rachel noticed first during nap time. I didn't want to tell anyone about getting earrings because I wanted to see who was observant today."

Teresa was playing tonight after dinner and got out her little doctor kit. Ken said, "Oh are you a doctor?" Teresa was quick to answer, "No, I'm a Mommy. I fix people and I plan things that we are going to do tomorrow."

November 10, 2009

The workings of the 3 year old brain often serve to confuse and baffle me, all the while bringing me great amusement. She came out of her room around 10 pm last night, "Mommy, does the moonlight melt snow, or just the sunlight? "Cause the moon gives light too, especially if it's a full moon." It's been in the 70s here, I have no idea why she's even thinking about snow. And the wheels just keep turning.


Teresa woke this morning and came wandering into the kitchen. "Mommy, is it a school day or can we sleep as long as we want to?" I reassured her that we were staying home today. "I'm all done sleeping." Not sure what the confirmation was needed for. "I think that Addison still wants to sleep. She's awake but she rolled over to put her bottom in the air," (Addison's classic sleeping pose). At which point I heard from Addison, "Mommy....MILK!" So, we got up and got ready for our first My Gym class in forever. As Teresa was putting on her shoes she looked up at me, "Mommy, when am I going to be old enough to pierce my ears? I really want earrings." We've been round and round on this issue. I explained, for the gazillionith time, that to get earrings she'd have to get a "shot" in each ear. She reiterated, not for the first time, "I was very brave for my flu shot, I can be brave to get my ears pierced. Please Mommy......"


So, after we got home from My Gym I told Teresa to think really hard about it during her nap, and if she still wanted to go get her ears pierced after her nap that we could go and do it. She woke up giddy, "Mommy, is it time to go and get my earrings?" Guess that answers that question.

We got to Claire's at the mall and Teresa went up to the sales lady herself (most unusual for her to be so brave with a stranger), "I would like some earrings please." The lady told her to go and pick out some earrings, but first she had to call Ken. "I'm at the store to get my ears pierced Daddy!"



She went then to go look at the earrings. I told her she could pick out whichever stud she liked. She immediately chooses the largest, a 6mm CZ stud. I told her that it was much too big and tried to steer her towards a gold stud. She declined that, and her birthstone, aquamarine. "I want purple, lavender actually." She then picked a nice little tanzanite stud. "This is going to be so fun," she chortled.

She was very patient, and immobile while the lady drew on her ears.

She had a brief moment of concern pass over her face and the lady came at her with the piercing gun.

But that was about it. She never moved, she never flinched, didn't even think about crying. I was absolutely amazed.

Addison was a little concerned about what was going on with her sister, but sat and patiently waited.

"Can I see!" She was so excited to check out her new ears.

Talk about one happy little girl! And she was right, she could be brave like she was with her flu shot.

Of course, Teresa had to immediately call Ken, "I have new earrings in my ears Daddy." She kept talking about proud Ken was going to be when he saw her ears. "I think that he will be very surprised too."

We headed over to the play area for a little while, both so Addison could get out of the stroller, and so we had something to do while we were waiting for the train to start running again.

Both girls really enjoyed the train, and I think would have ridden it for several hours if they had been allowed.

Teresa looks older to me, crazy little earrings. I was almost as shocked that Addison didn't insist on getting earrings for herself, but she seemed to have no interest. I have no expectations that Addison would leave earrings alone if she had them. Teresa can't wait to get to school tomorrow, she wants to show everyone!

November 9, 2009

Teresa's been asking me pretty often to get her ears pierced. I'd been kind of stepping around the request whenever I heard it, but it's coming at me more frequently. Funny, before I was a parent I would have never thought that it might be a good idea to take a 3 year old to take her to get her ears pierced. Now she's on a kick about, "Mommy, I will be as brave as I was getting my flu shot when I go to get my ears pierced, can I do it, pleassssse?" I think she has a valid point, and I think that she's determined enough that she just might do it. Tonight I was emphasizing that she would need to sit very still while they put a needle in each ear. "Why do I need to sit still?" I joked, "if you move the earring may end up in your nose!" Her eyes lit up, "I want a nose ring!" Ken and I both laughed and said, "noooo!" And she burst into tears! Turns out, her teacher, Ms. Christie, has a nose ring. Teresa was thinking, "I'll be like my cool, fun teacher if I get a nose ring," and then I totally hurt her feelings by laughing at her! She had to go to her room so that she could continue to cry. Then she came out of her room and was as good as new.


When Addison saw that Teresa was crying she ran right over to give her hugs and to try to cheer her up (it didn't work). So then Teresa went to her room and Addison ran to the play room. She then ran back to the kitchen, where Ken and I were finishing up and said, "Five minutes Mom," meaning "can I have 5 minutes to play?" This is the first "time" request she ever made. She's turning into such a little girl, right before our eyes!

November 8, 2009

Some days you should just go back to bed and start over. We woke up excited and ready for a fun family day. We'd convinced Ken to take the day off to play and go to Fossil Rim, the wild animal park about 90 miles south of us. We had a nice trip down with a brief stop at Einstein Bagel's for breakfast. That was a bad move. Well, really only a bad move if you wanted to actually move. We had the misfortune to enter the bagel store just as a running club showed up to refuel after their morning run. Wow, what a wait! We finally re-entered the car with our pumpkin bagels, and continued on our way.


We made it the almost 2 hours to Fossil Rim, with 2 content girls. Teresa played with her tag reader the whole way. Addison played with the singing caterpillar and Lulu the ABC spider. Peaceful drive...in a noisy, toddler sort of way.


We were so excited to get to the animal park. The girls were especially excited to be allowed to get out of their car seats while the car was moving. Teresa quickly stated, "This is my favorite part, hanging out the window!"

We skipped by the ostriches, who've been known to be pretty aggressive with us, and moved on to the blackbucks, who have cool curly horns.

We had just gotten past the blackbucks when our engine light came on that the car was overheating. Not good, especially when you're in the middle of a bunch of wild animals and can't get out of your car. And all your food for your picnic lunch is in your trunk. And you have kids who feel strongly about eating. Sigh. So, we illegally backed up all the way to the entrance of the park and pulled back into the parking lot. Nobody was excited about being back in the parking lot. I did convince Addison to walk over with me to look at the buffaloes.

After the buffaloes we headed back to the car. Seems that it's still excited to be in a car as long as you're not bound by a car seat.

We sat and waited, and waited, and waited for the car to cool down. We ate our picnic lunch. We listened to Ken call every mechanic, auto service store in a 30 mile radius. No one's open on Sunday. We finally were able to drive the car about 4 miles to get to Dairy Queen, sort of lessening the disappointing blow that we would not be going to feed any animals today. We were finally able to link up with a tow truck that came to tow our car to the nearest Chrysler dealership. The girls were less excited than I thought about seeing a tow truck up close. Teresa just kept saying, "I wish our car didn't need to be towed." If only she could realize how much we realized that we felt strongly that way also.

So, we hung out at Dairy Queen for almost 3 hours waiting for our ride to come pick us up. We certainly owe our neighbor, Ms. Angie for this one! Thankfully, Dairy Queen had a little play area, which kept the girls pretty well occupied the whole time we were there.

The girls did finally get tired, several hours past their nap time, and eventually came over to rest on Ken.

They got caught up in a hug and tickle fest, so silly when they both really get going giggling.

Not at all the day I'd planned. I guess our silver lining, our car's still in Glen Rose, TX. So, perhaps when we got down to get it we'll be able to go through Fossil Rim then.

November 7, 2009

I had to work clinic this morning, so Ken was in charge of the girls this morning. When I was leaving he was putting the easel in the garage and giving the girls paint, hoping that they'd entertain themselves while he cleaned the garage out. He must have been moderately successful, as the garage was partially cleared out when I got home. He had ended up putting Addison down for a nap mid morning, as she was asking for it. This resulted in no further naps for the day, which usually doesn't go very well for us.


When I got home from work, and realized that naps were futile, I herded the girls outside. Distraction by fresh air and sunlight. Teresa's finally gotten quite good on her hot wheel and will finally pedal it. I'd venture to say that she might be ready to graduate to a real bicycle soon.




Of course, Addison must follow behind with everything that Teresa is doing.

Addison is always just pleased to be outside.

The girls also went "butterfly catching." We have some little paper butterflies, that they chased around all over.

The butterfly nets stayed around for the rest of the night, and the girls looked as if they were plotting for an armed robbery.

November 6, 2009

The girls are officially vaccinated against H1N1....now that it seems that the majority of the virus has moved out of North Texas. I picked the girls up after school and informed them that we were heading back over to my office for the shots. Teresa immediately piped up, "I want to get mine first Mommy, can I?" I figured that Teresa, not known for her bravery, would change her mind as soon as we got there. I was wrong. I offered to go first, which reduced Teresa to near tears, "No, no, no Mommy, I want to go first!" She pulled down her tights, showed nurse Amy exactly where she thought that the shot should go in her leg (appropriate positioning actually), and then watched it (quietly) go in. "Do I get that glitter band aid?" And that was it. Absolutely amazing. "I want to stay and help Addison be brave and not cry." I was not expecting much reaction from Addison, as she can plow head on into a wall and bounce off without much ado. She happily pulled down her tights, stating, "my turn, my turn," but then actually got the shot. "No, oweee." She perked up to pick a toy out of the treasure chest and I thought that all was well. We got into the car and Addison spent the next 25 minutes crying and pointing to her leg, "band aid hurts. Leg hurts. Ow. Mommy......no, no, no," and more water works. And then Teresa, "Addison, the band aid doesn't hurt, the shot hurt, but only a little and now it's done. STOP crying!" Addison stayed fussy for the rest of the night, but is now sleeping happily.


Addison recovered briefly during the evening to go play with Teresa and build houses.

After Addison went to bed Teresa entered her questioning mode, where it was just "why" to everything. I finally gave up, I can't even remember the final question as I put her in bed, but I told her I'd tell her the answer in the morning. "No Mommy, I want to know now." I told her to think about it herself. "No, my brain's broken, I can't think about it!"

November 4, 2009

I picked the girls up from school today and hustled them outside. Addison informed me several times, "dark outside." We get into the car, and Teresa immediately says, "Mommy, WHEN am I going to grow up?! It's taking SOOOO long!" I was trying to formulate an answer to this, when she fired another question at me. "Mommy, when are you going to get a baby in your belly?" I told her that I didn't know if there was ever going to be a baby in my belly. "But why? I want a baby brother too. I need two babies. I'm going to ask Daddy for one."

So, Teresa, who clearly has some maternal tendencies, decided to help Addison prepare for some sort of blizzard that only she knows about. Addison was most cooperative with getting dressed.

It did not seem to bother Addison in the least that she was only accessorized, and not at all dressed.

November 3, 2009

I thought about taking the girls to Fossil Rim today (the wild animal park in Glen Rose, TX), but Ken thinks that he may be able to go this weekend with us, so we put it on hold. I opted instead for an outdoor day, it's just too nice outside right now! We have a great nature preserve not too far from us that we like to go to, but we wanted a park that Ken could conveniently meet us at for lunch. I got online and looked for a park in Richardson, pretty close to Ken's work. According to the online info, it had walking trails, play area, picnic area and several acres of woods. Perfect to spend the day and have a picnic.

So we pack up and head out. I pull up to the park to find a detour to another entrance, because I've picked the one park in the area that's having extensive construction work done. On a good note, the girls got to watch some bulldozers move the dirt around on the playground. Unfortunately, it took Addison quite a while to get over her fear of truck noise (I was shocked by that), and the playground was pretty much shut down.


So, we skipped the playground and headed out. RELEASED! The girls took off running across the open field like they'd been trapped indoors for days.

It's funny, give adults a chance to run uninhibited, and most of them would view it as work and exercise. Kids, it's just fun to go. Parents, it's fun to watch them go and know that they're not going to run into anything breakable.

We were on a bit of a hunt for nature items, as I was planning on teaching them how to do crayon tracings today. Seems like this translated into, "Pick every dandelion you see."

We walked/ran across a huge field, picked up lots of dandelions, avoided several fire ant piles, and yelled. We got to where the "woods" were supposed to be to find a golf course there. Interesting. Well, this looked like even better grass to run across to the girls, and they just headed on to the green. Luckily the men playing were entertained rather than enraged. So, I taught the girls how to jump fences (meant to keep people in), and we kept walking. We then came upon the recycling area of Richardson. Wow, the draw of the big trucks. We plopped ourselves down and watched the truck crusher pick up all the appliances, crush them, and put them in the truck.

When the girls finally got tired of watching the truck (actually when the truck went to go dump somewhere out of sight), we moved on. We managed to make it back to sidewalk and pulled up a piece to sit down and do some crayon rubbings of our "treasures." You put the leaf under a piece of paper and then take your crayon to rub over the paper, giving you an impression on the paper. Fun to see how they turn out.

The girls then announced that they were "starving," a full hour before lunch time. So, we packed back up and headed across a soccer field towards the picnic area. We called Ken to tell him to come and visit us.

As we got to the sideline Terese proclaimed, "I need a little rest, just for a minute." Of course, Addison had to join her.

The soccer lines proved to be a good opportunity to practice balancing on the line.

When we got to the picnic area the construction workers were on lunch break (...perhaps from 10-2 or so?), so we got to play on the two pieces of equipment that didn't have huge piles of dirt shoved under them. The swings were sort of fun, but the "bus" proved to be the true excitement. We spent quite a while driving to and from school.

Pretty soon after lunch we headed home. I figured the girls would be tired after all that running around. Addison climbed up on our bed to drink her milk, (which is odd, as she never really spends any time in our bed). I figured out where she was, content and drinking milk I left her to go and get Teresa ready for her nap. I came back a couple of minutes later, to find a totally cashed out Addison.

I thought about moving her into her crib, but she seemed too content. Mistake. She woke up, disoriented and confused as to where she was and what was going on. She could not figure out why she was in our bed. She got herself so worked up that she couldn't go back to sleep, even though she had only slept about an hour. Made for an interesting afternoon.

November 2, 2009

Parenting tip #1, Don't give you kids markers without giving them any paper. I won't say who did it, just that it really slowed down our morning routine a bit, and required a clothing chance this morning. I walked in to the playroom to check in on things, and Addison said, "Markers EVERYWHERE!" And she wasn't kidding.

We were driving home today and I got a taste of Ken's lessons that he gave Teresa while she was "working" with him yesterday. "Mommy, that car in front of us is driving like a tutz." One of Ken's commonly used words is "putz." It's a universal word meaning idiot. I wondered how he'd explained it to Teresa and asked what "tutz" meant. "It means that someone who drives like they're being silly, but they're not meaning to be silly." Better than expanding her vocabulary with other words that he occasionally uses.

We got in today and the girls didn't even pause in the kitchen. They raced right back to the playroom to resume marker play. I think we're going to have to re-establish some rules for marker use!