Peder: "We're going to a restaurant, so everyone put on your good behavior pants."
Felix: "I'm not going to put them on."

Despite Felix's lack of metaphorical pants, they all behaved beautifully and ate everything. A small miracle.

Fix it Felix!

I'm watching Wreck-it Ralph with the kids. Felix was opposed, until the first 30 seconds when Felix gets to go on top of the building and fix things. Now he's 100% on board.

steak tables

Relia asked if we had steaks at our wedding. We replied that we had a buffet breakfast at our wedding and that we didn't remember any steak being served.

"But I remember there were steak tables."
"Honey, you weren't there."
"But I saw steak tables, when we went to take the pictures."

...

OH! Steak Tables = grills

Overheard

I'm sitting on the couch, nursing Leo and reading "The Monster at the End of This Book" to Felix: 

Relia: Hey Felix, let's play in the office.
Felix: No, I wanna play in the book.

Tourists

The Baby Museum
Seriously, Relia leads tours 3 times daily. 

Once we brought Leo home, we realized how little experience Felix has with actual babies. He loves to play with dolls, but they are a lot tougher than our newborn. Felix will sometimes say "baby on!" when Leo makes a noise, wiggles, or opens his eyes. So, we had to put Leo behind velvet ropes. on occasion.

Swinging' with Grampa


Leo has an adorable dimple on his left cheek. I hope he keeps it.


Felix has really been making progress learning what he can and cannot do with the baby, yesterday we let him hold Leo.

I am always angry at the periodic table

Lileks has me LOLing again about the MMPI. Apparently someone has posted a way to cheat on it.

It's no small thing -- the test brings the U a million bucks a year in royalties, even though it's 70 years old. At least that explains questions like, "Do you dream of God with FDR's face and your father's clothes?" That one threw me. Because, like, wow, HOW DID YOU KNOW?

You're left alone. You read: "Sometimes I feel sad." Well, that's easy. I'm gonna ace this thing. Next question: Something like, "On cloudy days I feel like sawing badgers in half: never / sometimes / often " and you're alarmed. This has nothing to do with my problems at all. Now, sawing raccoons, that's a whole different story, but badgers? That's sick.
You read on:
• I am physically attracted to barley
• I am never angry at the periodic table
• Sometimes I worry that sloughed-off skin cells and hair are forming a separate self, and he will get dates instead of me
• I frequently have thoughts about fondling bannisters
• Sometimes I have trouble figuring out the meaning of a sentence that toothpick syrup boffin-droppings
If you're not paranoid when you start the test, you are after 50 questions.

Phone car

Back when FP & Relia traveled to visit Hans & Rachel in October, Relia experienced their car's ability to make phone calls. She was amazed. She hoped that someday we could get a "phone car".

A phone you can use in your car?  No biggie.
A phone you can watch videos on? Eh.
A phone with a car built into it? WOW!

Our car, the one we bought way back in October, happens to have "bluetooth capability". I kept meaning to figure out how to use it, but never had enough kid-free non-driving time in the car. It is pretty cool to be able to just tell the car who to call. Relia wants to call everybody, all the time.

You may be getting a call from us sometime soon.

Finally feeling better. Started out rough this morning, but around 12:00 I realized that I was starving. Once I ate I felt so much better.

Unfortunately nothing else is going on in my life.

Except on the internet. I'm watching a thread on a group for ladies who are due in April. We are sharing all the things they don't tell you about right after the baby comes. The first time moms are responding too:

Yeah, there is probably a reason they don't tell you all this stuff.

Pregnancy brain + DST

I am now firmly anti-DST. It is a stupid thing to continue in our global economy (much like the US standard system of measurement, but I digress).

Last night, I set Relia's "Good Night Light" to the correct time before she went to bed, but at about 1 am, I realized that I sprang ahead, instead of falling back. I could not have her thinking it was time to get up at 4, when she should be up no earlier than 6. So I snuck in, climbed up on her bed, and adjusted the time. In the process I woke her up. Ugh. FP told me she woke up 2 more times after that.

We had a great morning. Donna reminded us that Edinborough Park has a pool with open time. We went this morning and Relia swam (with floaties) for about an hour straight. She is loving her independence in the water. Felix was nervous at first, but I think watching Relia helped him get more excited about and comfortable with the water.

I then got to take some time to have lunch with my mom. Just the two of us. I see my parents at least twice a week, but there are always children to be watched, and it is hard to have a deep conversation. A couple of hours alone is like gold. After we ate, we headed down the street to a maternity consignment shop (BEST idea ever). There, we found me a couple pairs of motherhood jeans and 5 gap shirts for $70! Sometimes I think my pregnant wardrobe is so much better than my regular wardrobe, because I allow myself to indulge as compensation for my body frustration. (Not the size, I'm cool with that. It's the lack of breathing room, energy, etc that make me feel crappy about myself).

Then, it was dinner time. Or, I thought it was dinner time. I made the kids supper, and they were having a grand time doing anything but eating. I went to wake FP from his nap, so he would have some time before he had to get up to work. He informed me that it was really 4:00, not 5:00. Geez, no wonder they weren't that hungry.

LMAO!

At Catalog Living blog
Captions for decorating catalog photos. You have to check this out.





Thanks for: Funny people & reminders about how ridiculous decorating can be

Now, I could rock this one:


Thanks for: Photoshop

A new cat has joined our home.

This morning as Relia and I were playing/working outside, she informed me that Periwinkle had joined us and she was kindly telling Periwinkle where to go and narrating her actions. After several rounds of Ring-around-the-rosy, Periwinkle followed us into the house. She disappeared for a while, but then showed up again at bath time to share in the fun.

Soon, Periwinkle needed more toys, her own purple towel, and to have her teeth brushed. (Yes, I brushed the teeth of an imaginary cat, but she kept running away when I tried to wrap her in a towel.) Eventually, she wound up in bed with us for story time. I had to leave room for the cat to curl up between us.

The nice thing about having Periwinkle around is that she is a little more obedient than Relia, so I can remind Periwinkle how she is supposed to behave and Relia seems willing to take her cues from her more well-behaved friend.

I don't know how long she will be here, but I'm enjoying her stay so far.

(I do know that Periwinkle on Blue's Clues is a boy, but ours is apparently a girl)

If only I could be this cool...

Yeah, it's a Toyota ad, but it's fun.

Things you never have to think about with only one child

Relia didn't get a nap today and fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the car this evening. I immediately started planning my attack for getting her and Felix inside without waking her up.

Cue "Theme From Mission Impossible"

I grabbed Felix in his car seat and ran through the rain to put him on the porch. I opened the door and turned off the alarm. I dashed back to the car, took off Relia's shoes, carefully unbuckled her, put up her hood and carried her back to the house. Picked up Felix on my way in, set him by the door and carried Relia up to her bed. As I put her down, she told me to take her coat off and then conked out again as Felix began to cry.

Success!

Impossible

to maintain grumpiness while eating ice cream in the sun with my two best girls (mom & Relia), and then watching my daughter squeeze in with three other girls on a tire swing to spin, spin, spin, for a full minute.

Overheard

As I sit here "working" on the computer, my daughter is playing in her office (AKA playroom). I can't resist recording her conversation.

Baby, do you want to watch me sweep the floor?
I'm going to get the stuff out of your mouth
There's a baby toy, do you want to play with it?
What is you gonna do?
SIT ON THE GROUND!
Okay.
I'll have all of them
So were not gonna do and play and play.
Your baby blanket is here.
Here's some milk.
Do you want some milk in your cradle?
I like this.
Wanna have it? (plastic key ring) there's so many.

Relia Vignettes II

We met my parents at a sports bar for lunch. Whenever a commercial came on, they switched to music -and Relia would start dancing. she could not resist the rhythm. She got off her chair and danced. While eating, she wiggled in her chair. Relia, never lose your willingness to dance in public whenever the mood strikes you.

Only 14 more years-
Relia's been getting frustrated by our stops at red lights. We tell her we can't go until it is green.
Today, when we took off from a stoplight Relia said "Go green! I love green!"

Don't break my car-
Do you know the song "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Foundations? (click on the link to see the lyrics and hear an instrumental version) The last line of the chorus is "Don't break my heart" Relia sings "don't break my car" which I might enjoy more. Also featured: her version of the ABC song.

I would have paid THEM

To let me shoot this wedding

It's like a musical. I've watched it six times and I have cried every time. I sooooo hope there is a professional version of this video out there somewhere

Why is six afraid of seven?

Because ...

07/08/09

Posted at 5:06