Just About Right

I read this excerpt from Catherine Newman's column over at Wondertime:

"How much would it take?" Ben wants to know now. "If you were pouring lemonade into a pond? How much until the pond looked yellow?" "I don't know," I say. "I kind of think it would never look yellow." "Yes," Ben says agreeably. "But how much lemonade until it did?" I can't think of an answer to this, but Birdy walks right over to Ben and puts her face very close to his face, even though her chewing mouth is full of yogurt and oats. "I know Ben!" she says, spattering him a little bit with her enthusiasm and breakfast. "I know what you mean! A lot of lemonade, right? A lot, Ben." I hope that they feel about each other the way I felt about Michael last week in the supermarket when he said, "I just don't get tilapia. I mean everyone's so crazy about it, but to me it just tastes like fish and dirt." Michael and I — we're getting the same memo. "I know!" I said. "I know exactly what you mean.

And I was touched by this great picture of a great relationship. Michael is her husband, (at least I believe they are married, while she is careful not to call him such she did one time, and so I chose to think of them as married rather than just living together raising these two kids).

There are days when I want to have my husband just be quiet and do what I say, or just not be there because he is driving me crazy. Don't get me wrong, I love him, but the only person who can make me more angry is my mom, and I am stuck with her. I am stuck with him too, and usually I like that. Moments like the one descibed up there, for instance. We get the same memo.

She's Growing Up

These pictures were taken just a couple days after Jo came home from the hospital, she was born 6 weeks early, 3lbs 8 oz and 13 days in the NICU. She was so perfectly proportioned and very tiny. She has always stayed tiny. The NICU tracks their development for the first year and she stayed well under the growth chart, growing steadily, following the curve appropriately, just way smaller than her peers, even adjusted for prematurity. No one has worried over this, (except maybe me), she has always been healthy, thriving, growing, eating and developing. She hit every major developmental milestone well within the normal age range, even if you didn't adjust for prematurity. Except for teeth. Usually kids get their first teeth by age one, and have them all by age two. She was at least 15 months before she got teeth but she did have them all by two, I think.

I have always noted her small size, when buying clothes, or just passing on Je's, she is way behind her sister. At one she was still wearing six month, at 2 she was getting into 12 months to 18 month. At three she could still wear 18 month to 24 month/2T. Some of those were even big. She is getting so big now, at least for Jo. She is NEEDING, 3T to fit. If I want it to fit for a while, I am buying or getting out the 4T. Anyone who has every dressed a child, (or even yourself) knows their is a big range in clothing sizes. Some of her 2T still fits, but her big sister still fits into her 4T stuff too.

I have been cleaning out the closets, drawers, and every other nook and crany that is full of stuff we don't need, and in doing this I have been hit with the realization: my baby isn't a baby anymore. I will write more about the massive clean out another day but the growth spurt Jo is on is amazing. I told my mom, Jo went from an 18 month to a 3T in about two weeks. It might have been more gradual, but I suddenly looked up and the teeny girl is now only tiny.

the Best Idea for a Blog

I just followed a link from Minnesota Mom and found Margaret's other blog, Come for Coffee. It is a collection of recipes as entries. Wouldn't that be a great way to share your favorites with your friends and family around the country? It would also be a neat way to have my favorite recipes accessable when I am away from home. Like when visiting my mother-in-law. I used to go online out there a try searching for recipes that were close but usually had bad luck since they have dial up and it takes forever. This way, I would know the exact address to go to and it would have the exact recipe I wanted. I may have to try this idea and add a new blog to my life. As if I didn't already have enough blogs in my day. Thanks for the great idea, Margaret.

Old Made New

Last year, Shan rescued an old toy box from a garage sale for $1. It was one the woman's father had made for her and her brother twenty plus years ago. Now, I don't think I would sell something like that. I would get rid of a lot of clutter before I got rid of something my father made me. That is me though. My dad died almost 10 years ago, so I might be a little attached.


We we brought it home, I wondered why. It was ugly. They had a plywood box that had been decorated with spray painted effects and very dated artwork. It was also filthy, and part of the wood had been split off.


Shan filled in the low spots and sanded it down. He gave it two coats of bright white paint. It is clean and pretty. I bought stencils and three sets of paint. This week I painted butterflies and flowers on the lid, in pastel colors. I painted bright butterflies on the front and jewel toned flowers and butterflies on the ends. Yesterday, I trimmed the edges in a deep purple color that I had left from the chair rail in the family room. Today, I finished my project by making name stencils using my ellison die press machine, and painted the girls names on the front back. So now, something dirty and looking ready for the trash, is pretty, functional. Shan wanted to make something the girls could use for a long time. Maybe it will become one of those things they want to keep even after their toys have long since passed from usefulness.

Introducing

I am always really excited when I learn how to do something new. I get equally excited when I just learn. I am a learner. My father always said if you aren't learning something you aren't living. I didn't always realize I was learning something but as I look back it is a thing to note. My grandfather would ask me what I learned at school that day every time I saw him. Ususally I was unaware that I had learned something. Now I am more aware. This leads me to my new skill, adding buttons to the sidebar. You can scroll down and take note of the Moms for Modesty button. It links back to a movement dedicated to getting helping our children dress appropriately. This is especially relevant for moms of little girls, since clothing makers design clothes to push the envelope. I do think it is important for moms of boys to support this movement as well, since how girls dress affects the boys surrounding them as well. Women are not responsible for the behavior or thoughts of men around them but we can show a respect for them by dressing appropriately and acknowledge that our choices can add to a problem. The button will stay in my sidebar, take a minute, click through and read the post. Then scroll down and sign the comments portion to show your support, and hopefully influence the clothing designers.

Okay, I admit it. I am a pop culture watcher. I have E online entertainment news on my yahoo page, I read Whitney's Pop Candy, and I like celebrity gossip. I have two websites bookmarked to look up facts about my favorite celebrities and tv shows and movies. I am sick. I have read most of the articles about Tom Cruise and the melodrama surrounding his life for the last couple years. Now, I didn't go buy any of the magazines with articles about him or his girlfriend Katie Holmes or the baby. I didn't waste any money on TomKat. Isn't is sad that I know that is their handle. I also keep up on Bragelina. Sick Sick Sick. I have had a thing for Cruise since , and I am dating myself here, Top Gun. Isn't he gorgeous! I wasn't allowed to see it in the theater, it was rated R. I did see it when NBC cleaned it up and put it on TV. We taped it on the brand new VCR purchased so that when we had to be gone we could tape cool stuff, like movies on Sunday nights when we at church. I remember in college this guy I dated a couple times taking me to see A Few Good Men. He'd already seen it, but since that was the only movie I really wanted to see he went along. It was a first date. Other than the movie, the night wasn't a rousing success. For our first valentine's day, Shan bought me the tape of A Few Good Men. He really over did it that year on the present scale. I was thinking of breaking up with him, and he was overcompensating. He even called my mom. Somehow we made it through that, I don't really remember what happened, its been so long ago. He convinced me to stay, I guess. We'd only been dating about 6 months so not really invested yet, of course, after that rocky month, we were committed. We've now been married almost 10 years.
On our honeymoon, we went to see yet another Tom Cruise movie, Jerry Maguire. Now I am dismayed at my interest. Tom has criticized so much important things, his religion is screwy and he seems nuts. Today, reading about his wedding to come was the last straw. Now I know this isn't his fault, they reported that he spent $315 on fancy boxer shorts, and Katie spent 3000 on lingerie presumably for the wedding night according to the article. How low can the media go. This was a mid line outlet, not one of the biggies but not a fringe outlet. Do they think I, a very typical not obsessed but close, fan, want to know about his underwear!? To be clear, I do not!!!!

Drum Roll Please!

A momentous occasion for the girls in our house...NEW BEDS! Finally Jo is out of the toddler bed and into a bed befitting her three-year old sense of dignity. She told me that her bed was too little and she couldn't sleep in it. We had always planned to get a full size bed for Je when Jo was ready for the twin since Je bedroom set has a full size headboard and footboard. I had hoped to do it around birthday time but procrastinated. My big plan was to go over to Sam's and buy one of their bargain deluxe mattress sets. They had them for a long time nice quality thick mattresses for great prices. We bought a queen set for the spare room for 300 dollars. Alas, they have raised prices. It would have been nearly double. I delayed, debated, dithered. I began researching other stores. Then I looked in the paper and lo and behold an almost new set was available. We snapped it up, brought it home and voila! NEW BEDS. Both girls are thrilled with their better accommodations. Je is looking forward to having a slumber party with her cousin Jo in her new big bed and our Jo is way excited that she can climb up on the very tall big bed. Coincidental maybe, but she hasn't mentioned sleep problems since. That was a very handy excuse for not napping or at bed time, she just didn't know how to sleep or her bed was too small. Now she will have to come up with something else! As for me, I now have a redecorating project to get going on, notice Jo has already begun to help strip the Noah's Ark border. I repaired in when Je started doing it. (This is the nursery and Je moved to a new room when we brought Jo home from the hospital)I don't have enough leftover border to replace the several places she destroyed. Oh well, it lasted six years, we put it up as soon as we moved in this house, almost a year before Je was born.