One Day, One Productive Lady!

This morning I went to Teena's and took some family photos for her. Even though I know Teena probably better than just about anybody on this earth, I still found it a little stressful. I'm just not quick at getting my lighting right & kept having to take test shot after test shot. Things were too dark or it was too reddish or too glare-ey. She has so much confidence in me that I feel I have to live up to! : ))) I think we got a few cute ones so hopefully they'll do. If not, we'll re-do it.

Even though I've been getting out a fair amount in the evenings, it still seems like I don't get stuff done except the bare essentials like bank deposits, pet food runs, grocery shopping etc. I've needed new underwear for...I don't know... a year maybe? I have 4 pairs that are decent and often have to do laundry just so I'll have something to put on in the morning! So today I decided was the day! and I am now the proud owner of 4 more pairs. So with the ones that were still decent, plus 4 new ones, I can go a whole week without doing a load of wash! (well, in theory!) I also got a little mirror for the bathroom so the girls can see when they brush their teeth, wash their face etc. They often climb up on the counter to look in ours which always seems a little precarious to me. I also got new wooden hangers for our new front entryway closets (on sale 50% off woohoo!). (sorry, no photo of either of those...)

Although this didn't necessarily NEED doing, I browsed holiday dresses for the girls and found the MOST beautiful things I've ever seen in a store (Princess Pamela Creations obviously not included here as they're a class unto themselves !) So I hemmed and hawed over those for longer than I'll admit in print but oh my heavens! Finally I decided that if I'd spent xx number of minutes looking at them, they MUST be worth bringing home. At least I hope so! These girls could be in a wedding in these & I think they will loooooooove them and have many hours of princess fun in them. I was quite excited to get home & show them to Murray but wasn't sure what he'd think of them, he's not really into clothes much... His comment?

"What's THIS? Baby PROM??????????"

He didn't care that they were a little on the pricey side (ummm ok, well a lot on the pricey side, $40!) and thinks they'll enjoy the heck out of those dresses. So I don't have to take them back (well except for the reject & the one that doesn't fit)

(was undecided on the sleeveless one so brought home the pink so I could choose)

I also went to the hardware store, got new light fixtures, a new doorknob, checked into siding options and got some picture hanging thingies that I needed for the mirror & my bulletin board at home. Although it's very unpatriotic, I have to say I think the service at the new hardware place is soooooooooooooo much better than the other place here. I am constantly greeted and offered help, I can't get over it! Today, I had a basketful & one box under my arm and a guy saw me and said that was too much to carry & he was getting me a cart. I told him it wasn't necessary since I was finished anyway & the box was light and I continued browsing. He went to the front of the store anyway, got me a cart & brought it all the way back to me! Are you supposed to tip retail staff?????

I'd gotten groceries the night before & forgotten to get Murray's precious jumbleberries and after I got home, the store called and told me I'd left my credit card there. So when I finished at Teena's, I picked that up got the berries & started running all the other errands. I'd wanted to stop in at the fabric store & look for some material for a better background than the tablecloth I currently use for portraits but I'd already been gone for 5 hours & I thought I'd better call it quits & head home. Maybe next week!


We decided to take the girls to the Santa Claus parade & it started at 5pm so we gave them a snack and dressed them in full winter gear & loaded into the car (still in the Mazda...). The kids had a blast, dancing around on the sidewalk, taking death defying leaps off the curb and waiting for the parade to start. Things got even better once the floats started coming by. They were excited to see each new thing, amazed with the marching bands etc, they ate many many candy canes (well not Honey, she doesn't care for them) and were thrilled to see ponies, dogs, majorettes and of course, the big guy himself! Getting home from the parade was a bit of a schmozzle though, it took quite awhile for the route to clear so we could get back on the highway, then Murray had to make a pit stop because he was about to explode so we took everyone in & got them some coffee (*wink*) & doughnuts to tide them over. We picked up pizza on the way home & had a verrrrrrrry late supper & put them to bed at 9pm!
They were soooooo excited to drink "coffee" just like Grammie. They kept giggling and saying "I need some more coffee please!" "oh! I drank all my coffee!" "mmmm I like my coffee"

After they went to bed I installed their new mirror, put up my bulletin board in the kitchen, downloaded my pictures from today & updated the blog. Am I good, or am I good??????? Comment below if you're in agreement ; ))))

Toddler Chat- Lovey

I hate it when I have a funny or cute little bit about 2 of the kids & not the other. So all day I've been racking my brain, trying to think of something amusing that Lovey has come up with lately. I did think of one little thing so I now I feel a bit better!

One morning before anyone got out of bed, I heard this high, squeeky, obviously fake baby voice...

Someone (sing song-ish): I don't have a mummy... I'm allll done wif her!

Me: Lovey is that YOU?????

Lovey: no! that's Little Sarah!

Whew! I was a little concerned there for a minute! : )))

Toddler Chat II

no big story here, just a few more little gems heard around here lately!

Honey isn't crazy about a lot of the meals served around here so I try to think of ways to make things more appealing. One day I cut up apples & gave them all some yoghurt. She was eating the yoghurt but not touching the fruit. (hmmm did I tell this one already?) So I thought I'd make a suggestion.

Me: Honey, do you want to dip your apples in the yoghurt???

Honey: (without batting an eye & very matter of fact & scornful) Of COURSE not!

different day, but also food related-

Me: Honey, are you going to eat your lunch?

Honey: (short & sweet & immediate) nnnnOPE! (right. what was I thinking???)

This morning I was putting a ponytail in Sweetie's hair.

Sweetie: Mummy, I want it like a drop of water! (what the heck does THAT look like anyway?)

very last minute...

It was just about bedtime when I had an "oh crap!" moment when I realized I hadn't taken any pictures today and had NOTHING for the blog. So I grabbed my camera and got a few shots of them winding down in preparation for bedtime. We find it helpful to get them to run laps around the living room, climb the walls and swing from the chandelier! I've been out a lot in the evenings this week (to the movies, to Captivating, to choir etc) and apparently they've figured out that while Murray's gathering pj's, water cups and toothbrushes, they have FREE REIGN and he can't do a darn thing about it so for 5 minutes they go bananas. I was downstairs checking email when I heard the whooping and thumping coming from above. Lovey was running in circles and saying "did you get my picture Mumma? Let me see!"

Not that you can tell in these pictures, but they cleaned the living room twice today & put away their toys & I vacuumed. But from the looks of Honey's socks above, we are sorely needing to shampoo the carpets. Those were clean this morning! Yikes!

Today started off a little rough, Sweetie had a nightmare about a man trying to get her around 6am so Murray brought her in with us because we were totally NOT ready to get up yet. Sweetie on the other hand must have had a real adrenylin rush because she wasn't sleepy at all. She talked to Bunny, sang a bit, tried to talk to us, wiggled around, turned over, tried to snuggle in to my back, adjusted the covers and after half an hour of this she says "I'm hungry, I want breakfast!" Too bad kid, kitchen's closed til at least 7am. She ponders this for awhile then runs through her little routine again and again. I'm so tired that I'm actually able to drift along half asleep through all this but still awake enough to give her a "settle down or you're going back in your own bed" every once in awhile. Eventually she asked to go back to her own bed so I jumped at that. As I was leaving her room she said "my bed's better actually, yours is too hot". Yeah having EXTRA people in there tends to make it a little crowded and warm. hooh boy!

Around 7:30am Murray got up to get ready for work and she went with him into the kitchen so she could eat but she didn't care for the way he was doing stuff & to quote Murray "she was pissy about everything" and when he wasn't able to get her ponytail "just so" she started freaking out and asking for me & by that point Murray was not in the least discinclined to acquiesce to her request! (that's for you Papacita!) I was of course, thrilled to see her back again but she settled down after a couple of minutes, just long enough to bring me fully awake. I got up and she was snoozing away, comfy and warm (but not toooooo warm!). When I got out to the kitchen & told Murray the latest development he was incensed! "Go wake her UP!" Screw that, why on earth would I want to have breakfast with that little hellcat? So the little darling slept in til NINE O'FREAKING clock. This is the sort of behaviour that explains how she came by her nickname ; )))

Today was sooooooo cold! I thought we'd go outside and play for awhile until Mum got here (Friday, woohoo!) but I only lasted 20 minutes! It was zero degrees and with a good strong wind, brrrrrrrrr. I had to work pretty hard to get them all to the bathroom, get warm clothes on, find all the mitts so they could double up and grit my teeth through more than one freak out only to turn around & come right back in. I hate it when I spend more time getting them ready than we actually do outdoors....

I broke a filter on my camera a couple weeks ago (just a protective thing, no major damage). I phoned the camera store downtown to ask if they had the proper sized replacement. I hate calling them for anything, they always seem to be snotty... but I phoned anyway.

Store: Hello?

Me: do you have a blah blah blah

Store: oh yeah we have those in

Me: could you tell me a price for that?

Store: welll, I'd have to walk clear across the store...

Oh well then, for heaven's sake don't get up on my account! Listen asshole, I've seen your store, it's about the size of my rec room, it's not the freakin' Walmart!!!!!! Man! do I HATE poor customer service. I've NEVER talked to any client like that EVER and it really irks me when this stuff happens. (ok, rant officially over. Thanks, that felt better) and just out of spite, I'm going to buy one off Ebay which hadn't even occurred to me til he made me mad!

Shirley it's Christmas?!

Today was our last Shirley visit until the new year : ((( She's leaving next week to visit her sister & stays with her & her family until after Christmas. (too much family togetherness if you ask me!)

She brought Christmas gifts for the kids today & they were pretty excited. I asked them if they wanted to save them for later but they definitely didn't want to do that! So they ripped and tore and voila! Little People sets that they were very pleased with. They also got new ornaments for the tree but kept saying "oh those are for Mummy!" LOL I guess anything that boring couldn't possibly be for them? Maybe they'll appreciate them more later... Sweetie finished opening her presents and immediately asked for another. Tell me that wasn't embarrassing! oh boy. I'm sure there'll be worse before we're done with these kids...

A good time was had by all!

We had a pretty good day around here! The girls are playing so much more independently these days and (knock on wood) have less violent interactions. This morning Bonnie was here for Early Intervention and she had them playing Dora Dominoes, then they worked on a big floor puzzle together and then had a story. They took turns without squabbling, played their tiles without a single one being thrown, they shared the puzzle pieces and each worked on a different section until it could all be connected together... this cooperation isn't always the norm & was made possible under the direct supervision of two adults but I'll take it when I can get it!

After Bonnie left, I let them watch Cinderella while I made a banana bread & some tuna casserole for our crew working outside. Then we invited the guys in to share lunch with us. The girls were pretty fascinated with the work going on outside and kept going to the window to wave to Joel & Chris as they worked.

Once lunch was out of the way, we went for a walk, found some frozen over puddles and smashed those to bits then came home & got some dry clothes (Lovey got her mittens muddy). Then we went right back outside and played in the backyard for awhile. We came back in & they played with their animals and dress up clothes and kept themselves busy while I figured out what to do about the fact that I didn't have a can of stewed tomatoes (improvise of course!) and got supper going.

Things aren't always so smooth though, just the other morning, Murray & I woke up to this squabble flying from one room to another:

Sweetie: twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder..

Lovey: Sweetie! are you awake?

Sweetie: Lovey, is that YOU?

Lovey: Stop singing!

Sweetie: you're garbage.

Lovey: you're SPONGE BOB!!!!

Sweetie: YOU'RE Bob the BUILDER!!!!!

then they both broke into fits of giggles so it wasn't a very serious fight at all but probably the most entertaining to date!

New Day, New Stuff

We had a surprise visit from Joel & Chris today. It was a little before 10AM and I thought I heard a noise in the yard but couldn't see anything at first. Then I went & peeked out Sweetie's window & saw Joel's truck! Wooohoooo! The next thing I knew the new entryway had a roof on & shingled, window & door installed & they even wrapped it up for me! Very exciting development, especially since he said he wouldn't be back til 2008 ; )))