Here's the haps for today

(for those who don't speak Gilmorian, haps are "happenings")

Sweetie had a few minor episodes last night. Not enough to really be a problem but enough to save us a penny. She tried throwing a fit about wanting DADDY to come straighten her sheet across the bed so it touches each side and hangs down nicely with NO wrinkles but I just told her he was gone to hockey & wasn't available & left her in her room. She cried for awhile but seemed to realize that she wasn't getting anywhere with that one because the next thing I knew I could hear her running down the hall screaming & saying she had to pee. She'd gone just a few minutes before so I didn't really believe her but sent her to the bathroom just to eliminate that complaint. She managed to produce a little bit and then screamed her way back to bed & I went back downstairs. Murray had a hard time with her Thursday night but stayed firm & didn't fall into any of her traps and since then her litany of complaints have gotten shorter & the fussing has decreased greatly. Do you think we've broken her???? Nah, she's just gearing up for something more spectacular we figure.

Murray had a late game last night (they won & didn't get eliminated) so I knew he probably didn't crash til late. The kids didn't actually venture out of their rooms til almost 7:30 anyway so I decided to get up with them. Sweetie slept a little longer but joined us without a scene & they all had breakfast. Eventually they couldn't stay away any more & burst into our bedroom around 10:30 when I wasn't looking and Murray was rudely awakened but couldn't really complain!

Several weeks ago, I was putting the TV on for the kids & noticed an old rerun of Wonder Woman and had to have a peek since I loooooooooved that show when I was little. I had a hard time tearing myself away & the kids watched more of it than was probably good for them. Although, a 70's TV show is pretty tame on violence, language & wardrobe compared to what's on today! They were in awe of her & thought her 'bathing suit' was BEAUTIFUL. Since then they've asked for it regularly which I think is pretty funny. I mean, it was great back in the day, but what appeal could it have for them??

Well, today, Honey decided she wanted to be SuperWoman & put on a sparkly red Christmas dress. I remembered some footwear I'd picked up at one of our used clothing sales that I thought would complete her outfit & she immediately fell in love with them. She wore them all day, except for when we had to fight with her to take them off to go outside for a walk.

After lunch was when we started getting ready for the walk. Murray had totally taken care of lunch by himself because I was deeply engrossed in "Everyone Worth Knowing" (some high class chick lit!) and couldn't tear myself away to feed the family! Getting ready was a bit of a disaster as we fought through wardrobe issues and eventually made our way outside. We headed across the street to go to the woods but Lovey's icicle broke and she was furious and insistent that one of us run back to the house & get her a new one. We wanted to keep going & had to alternate between dragging & carrying her as we went. She kept up her tirade most of the way until we got out on the main path & I discovered some rabbit tracks in the snow. Sweetie & Honey ran along, making sure not to fall into any of the traps we'd punched through last week. Honey seemed to enjoy the outing the most & did quite a bit of trailblazing & wasn't anywhere near ready to turn back when the other two got tired out. She & I got home quite awhile before Murray managed to shepherd her sisters back here. I wanted to get a chicken in the oven before it got much later in the afternoon so I didn't hang around waiting for the pokey kids. When we got back to the house, Honey still didn't want to come in so I told her she could play on the deck so I could see her from the kitchen window. She was happy with that & stayed right where I'd asked her to. When Murray & the other 2 got back, Sweetie wanted in but Lovey just needed to pee & she was right back out there. Those 3 were out for almost three hours this afternoon.

Fashion Alert! The natural look is back!

Ah yes! The spring line is in & apparently the natural look is all the rage again. Luckily, the girls have Grammie's trusty and haute couture, pink, plastic, heartshaped, makeup kit to give them the look they're going for.

With years of experience in makeup application, Grammie is very proficient at the subtle blending of shades required to pull this off successfully. Honey felt very transformed by the process and was heard to exclaim "makeup is WONDERFUL".

Honey & Sweetie were both quite sure their newfound glamour would make them virtually unrecognizable. "Mumma probably won't even know who WE ARE!!!" and Sweetie commented that I would still be able to pick out Honey since she had purple eyeshadow. Sure enough, it was this telltale sign alone that allowed me to distinguish their true identities!




Lovey wasted no time in getting herself made up and was able to blend in with her sisters easily. She wasn't quite sure that Grammie had gotten it quite right though & had to take matters in to her own hands!

How to get your child to settle for bedtime...

Murray likes to have some quiet, winding down time with the girls right before bed. He gets them to put their pj's on & then each pick out a story & they read a few books, cozy & tranquil like, on the couch while I run around & tidy the kitchen or whatever I need to do. Then once things are just about settled and bedtime is nearing tonight, he gets into a crazy wrestling match! He used to be able to take them, no problem, but as they get older, bigger, wiser & stronger, it's not so simple anymore. With them ganging up on him, it was no easy task to disentangle himself this time! The squeals & giggles could be heard all over the house and I figure that's not a bad way to end the day!
Sweet sweet Fridays also bring to mind those two favourite little words of mine.... Grammie got here after lunch & Lovey & I got ready to go out to her eye appointment. Early Intervention thought she might have a bit of a turned eye problem so I decided to get it checked out thoroughly even though the pre-screening for school came out ok.

Lovey was totally cooperative and patient as we were at the office for an hour. We had to wait a bit for our turn and then she had to do all sorts of tests & stare into lights & strange machines and answer lots of questions from strangers. She might be having some trouble with depth perception & the doctor wonders if her near sight is struggling. She can make out objects & see things up close but her eyes might be working really hard to do so. Her far sight was great and she was able to identify just about everything she was asked to on the "thirty" line (as in 30/20 or something maybe?).

Anyway, we have to go back for some more checking, this time with dilated pupils. I get the pleasure of administering the stinging eye drops at home before bringing her in. Should be fun!

What's Your Pleasure?

Ever wonder what a 3½ year old considers to be of great value? Well, probably not, but I'm going to tell you anyway. They are constantly gathering up "jewels", "money" and other miscellaneous items they consider to be treasure and what they like to call their "pleasure". They're big on rhyming stuff lately & somehow decided to call their bags of goodies "pleasure" instead. It sounds weird but you get used to it after awhile. So tonight I took a picture of one of these bags of random junk that they hold dear & will fight to the death for! Check it out:

Nanny Dearest!

Monday's arrival of Nanny & Auntie KK warmed my heart as two little words came to mind... "free babysitting" ; ))) Murray & I wasted no time & headed out for dinner & a movie that same night. We tried an Indian restaurant we'd never been to & enjoyed that. I talked Murray into one of my bizarre "kid with superpowers" favourite type of movie. Since he set his expectations at absolute rock bottom, he was pleasantly surprised when the movie turned out to be decent. I overindulged on popcorn at the movie (I can't resist the lure of that crunchy buttery smell). Unfortunately it didn't sit well & I didn't get to keep it : ( Other than that we had a great night to ourselves which is very very rare so we greatly appreciated getting some quality time in.

The girls had a great day with our company and received cute little Easter buckets with some goodies. They particularly enjoyed the super shrill whistles painted like ducks and ran around blowing those for awhile. Nanny & KK got a kick out of me being able to have a conversation on the phone with that racket in the background. I'm so used to tuning out their loudness, that I didn't even notice!

Eventually we got the girls to go outside to play & we climbed the icy mountains (snowbanks) in the yard & gathered many swords or pencils (aka icicles) depending on their usage at any given moment.

Sweetie enjoyed having Nanny for company & having someone to cuddle with at night but she was in fine form and kept Nanny awake til 3am or so with her litany of complaints/issues. Nanny was concerned that there might be some sort of physical/medical issue that is causing these episodes and googled some of the symptoms (bad breath, itchy back, sneezing, cough etc) and discovered these can be due to sinusitis. We suspected it was more misbehaviour than anything but decided "better safe than sorry" so I took her in to see Dr. H. Auntie KK came along and we got to hang out in the waiting area for awhile. Dr H examined her, checking her breathing, listening to her heart & lungs, had a good look in her ears & up her nose, looked at the itchy little bumps on her back and diagnosed her as having a bit of a cold and a lot of attitude! Since the complaints keep changing and nothing appears wrong with her, Dr H figures she's just looking for attention & trying to get more cuddling etc at night time. I was a little sheepish at having booked an appointment for nothing more than naughtiness but she kindly told me I'm not alone & many other parents have done the same thing. It was good to have ruled out that anything might actually be wrong with her.

Nanny & KK headed home on Wednesday morning & we set off for playgroup.

We were a little worried about how Wednesday night would go after 2 nights of having someone sleep in Sweetie's bed with her but other than some bedtime shenanigans, she left us alone the rest of the night.

Beware the Trap!

After managing to tear ourselves away from scrap paradise, Joni drove us back home & dropped me off. I was supposed to have a sleigh ride that afternoon but it had been cancelled due to trail conditionsMurray had had quite a morning at home so we forced the girls outside with Sweetie battling it all the way. (she's recently developed an aversion to the IDEA of going outside. once there, she's all smiles but man, what a journey)


With all the ice/rain/hail over the weekend, the snow is solid & we can pretty much walk right across the surface the whole way. However, occasionally Murray's or my foot would punch through, leaving behind a "trap" for the girls to avoid.

They had a blast with this 'game'. Once, Murray fell in a trap of his own making as he punched through up to his waist in one low lying spot. Hard to believe just how much snow is down until you see something like that!

our little purple lover had some interesting faces going on that day... not sure what was up with that!

After the walk, the girls & I went to visit Grammie & Grandad on our own to give Murray a break after all his hard work that weekend. GG was already up there visiting & caught a ride back to town with us since we actually had room for a passenger for a change!

The walk in the woods must have taken a toll on them, they were all asleep before we got home!

Scrap-a-lama-ding-dong

Oh what a glorious, wonderful, fun, relaxing, enjoyable, entertaining & scrapfilled weekend I had! I got to go away for TWO whole nights and do nothing but scrapbook, hang out with my best scrapping buddies, chat, giggle & eat! No laundry. No whining (well Alisa a little but Joni & I set her straight real quick), no fighting, no potty duty (amazing what a perk it is to hang out with people who can wipe their own butts), no scattered toys to step on and BEST of all, NO INTERRUPTED SLEEP! It was like scrapheaven as far as I could tell. Not to mention that Alisa is just about as well outfitted as any scrapbookstore & we wanted for NOTHING. *sigh*

Joni picked me up Friday night after work & we packed up & hit the road. The kids seemed ok with me going & Murray was content that he'd get to make spaghetti for supper while I was away. We got to Alisa's & set up camp in her scrapbook lair and settled in to get some pages underway. We scrapped the night away & crashed around midnight. Then I slept STRAIGHT through the night and woke up with the thrill of knowing that nothing but scrapbooking was expected of me ALL DAY! We made a run to the scrapbook store to splurge on goodies and then got back to work. The entire day flew by of course & we were verrrrrrrry bitter that THIS HAD to be the weekend of the time change & we were getting ripped off a whole hour but that was our only complaint. Alisa treated us so well! Her husband tolerated our invasion and was mildly amused/confused as to how we could spend a whole weekend at this but his is not to wonder why right?

I can't think of a more enjoyable getaway for me on my own (as opposed to a romantic getaway that Murray would sweep me away for of course). I can't wait to do it again although I'm not sure how often I can get away with this sort of escape!