Happy To You!

For the last week or so, Amanda has been singing "Happy to you", kind of like she's singing Happy Birthday except she's leaving out an important word, birthday.  Every time she did it I would sing the first line of Happy Birthday, trying to teach her to get it right.  Then I stopped.  Isn't it better to say "Happy to you" rather than "Happy Birthday to you"?  You only have a birthday once a year, and like the Mad Hatter says, you have so many more un-birthdays than birthdays anyway.

"Happy to you" fits in so many more situations than "Happy Birthday to you" does.  For example, on Thursday when she said it, she could have been saying "Happy Thanksgiving".  The "to you" part just means she saying it to you and nobody else.

Who cares if she doesn't sing it right, her way is more of a half-full kind of way anyway.

Kid Quote of the Day

Andy:  What are they doing over there?

Sarah:  They're going to paint it black and then put fur on the bottom.

Andy:  How do you know?

Sarah:  Well, I'm just assuming it will look like the other one.

Me:  Fur?

Andy:  Carpet.

Kid Quote of the Day

Me:  What's your name?

Amanda:  A me da.

Close, very close.

Picture of the Day

Every once in a while they actually place nicely together.

Surprise Art

Sometimes we all get a little wrapped up in what we are doing.  That's a nice way of saying we're not always paying attention to Amanda.  Most of the time she stays busy with Sarah or in the play room with her toys.  However, there are other times when her siblings leave things out that she is really too young to be playing with and we're all too busy to notice that she is getting into them.

Today is a perfect example.  Look at her feet.  How is it possible for a two-yr-old, a smart two-yr-old but still, to make perfect circles on her feet?

Does it make a little more sense now?

I didn't even realize she had colored on her feet.  There was marker on her shoe and I took it off to clean it and only then realized that she had colored through the holes onto her feet.

This is why we have very few markers in our house that are not washable, and those that we do have are kept high in a cabinet and have not ever been taken out of their package.  On the positive side she didn't color on the wall or the floor or the table cloth.

At least it will come off her feet.  Assuming, of course, that we actually give her a bath.  Baby steps.

Kid Quote of the Day

Back story, we've been watching Blues Clues in the van for the last two weeks and Andy, understandably, is getting tired of it.

Andy:  Can we go back to the way we used to do things, where we take turns picking what we watch?  Can I pick next?

Me:  What are you going to pick?

Andy:  Something with action and adventure and possibly a little romance.

Baby Doll

This is Amanda's doll, accurately but unoriginally named "Baby Doll".  Baby Doll never wears clothes, and when in the house is usually found lying on the kitchen floor in some unbelievable uncomfortable position.  However, when Baby Doll has the opportunity to come out of the house and ride with us in the car, she rides in style.  She never rides in Amanda's lap, but instead gets strapped into one of the older kids' booster seats.  On this particular day it was Sarah's, but Amanda usually favors Andy's.  Imagine Andy's surprise and horror to find a naked doll sitting in his seat when we go to pick him up from school.  He is not amused.

Kid Quote of the Day

Sarah:  Amanda, what color paper do you want?

Amanda:  Elmo.

Sarah:  We don't have anymore of that color.

Me:  What color does she think Elmo is?  Red?

Sarah:  Purple.

Picture of the Day

Sarah and Amanda got out their capes and light sabers this afternoon.

Picture of the Day

I cannot believe I forgot to upload this picture.  I take pictures all the time that never make it to the site, but this one I definitely meant to put up.  This was taken on Halloween.  It was Sarah's first day back to school after her surgery so she only went in for a half day.  Amanda and I picked her up, we went to lunch and then went to get both girls long overdue haircuts.  When she was done cutting it the stylist asked Sarah if she wanted it curly or straight.  Of course Sarah chose straight.  The stylist blew it dry and then flat ironed it.  It must have taken her at least 30 minutes.  Cute, but nothing I will ever have the time or patience to do.  Of course Sarah loved it, so who knows what this means in the years to come.

Taylor Swift

I'm not sure if I've ever told you about the love/hate relationship I have with Sarah's hair.  I love it, because it is absolutely gorgeous and exactly what I wanted growing up but didn't have, but I hate taking care of it.  Yes, at her age, I take care of it.  We fight constantly about washing it and brushing it and how she's going to wear it, and I've threatened so many times to cut it off that she has to know I'm not serious because I do it every time I get exasperated with it which is daily.  At some point along the way I started comparing her hair to Taylor Swift's and told her stories about how Taylor has always had it long and left it curly and never used a hair dryer and lets it air dry.

I mostly tell her this because she really likes Taylor Swift and I want her to see that curly hair can be beautiful, and I don't know a lot of other people with curly hair, but it's also because I think Taylor is an amazing role model for girls of any age.  I like her music, and I like that my kids can listen to her music without me having to mute any of it.

So, when Taylor started her Speak Now tour I decided I was going to take Sarah.  I know she's a little young for a concert, but I thought this would be the perfect first one.  Unfortunately, the weekend that the tour was coming to Dallas was the weekend that Charlie and I were going to San Diego for the Celebrity Golf event.  I wanted to take her to the concert, but not enough to miss Celebrity Golf.  Luckily, I have a friend who reminded me of the benefits of flight privileges, we could go to any city on the tour.

I checked the rest of the tour dates and found that she would be in Miami on November 13.  Perfect.  Charlie's mom lives in Miami so we wouldn't have to pay for a hotel, and the flights were taken care of.  We flew in on Saturday evening, hung out with Grandma Sunday during the day, and then Charlie and I and the two older kids went to the concert last night.  Andy was a little embarrassed to be going at first, until he told his flag football team he was going and one of the boys told him Taylor Swift was hot.  Then his whole mentality changed.

You can totally understand why Taylor Swift just won Entertainer of the Year.  Her concert was amazing and was quite a production.  In some ways I am so glad that it was Sarah's first concert, but in others I think it may leave his disappointed by concerts in the future.  Taylor is a fabulous performer, puts on a great show, and is so nice and thankful to her fans.  As I said before, a wonderful role model for girls of all ages.  I was concerned that because it was so late Sarah would fall asleep at the concert, but she stuck it out to the end, dancing and singing whether she knew the words or not.

All in all a great evening.

Kid Quote of the Day

"No Amanda!  You're job is to be cute.  That's all you have to do."

-Andy, after Amanda was trying to get into his stuff.

Third Grade Boys

Last night Andy asked me if I could come to school and have lunch with him today.  He doesn't ask me to do this very often, so I try to comply when he asks.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go because I had plans, so I told him we'd have to do it another day.  When my plans got cancelled this morning, I decided I would go and surprise him.

Amanda and I stopped by Chick-fil-A before we went.  That's really the main reason kids like their parents to come for lunch, they bring fast food with them.  We got there a little early because I didn't want Andy to buy lunch before we got there, so I picked some seats at the end of the table and got out all the food.

When the class arrived in the lunchroom (aka cafetorium - that's a cafeteria and auditorium combined into one room) several of the boys b-lined it to where Amanda and I were sitting.  Andy seemed to be the only one who didn't see us.  So, I sent his best buddy, Mark, to get him and let him know we were at the table.  He was so excited to see us, which always makes me smile.  

One boy came up to me and told me Andy's food was in his spot.  He sits there everyday.  Um, okay, sorry, so I pushed Andy's food to the other side of the table.  As soon as everyone got settled, they all started talking to me at once.  Five 8-9 year old boys talking about Angry Birds and Transformers and whatever else.

In the short 30 minutes I ate with them, they informed me that Megan Fox was the "hottest" woman on the planet (they might be right) and that an Angry Birds movie was coming out (not so sure about that one).  Towards the end of the meal Andy told me that he normally sits at the other end of the table.  Apparently I inadvertently messed us the seating arrangements of the entire class.  I just assumed they sat anywhere, but I guess they have their normal spots, give or take a few seats, and since we sat in a different place the kids that normally sat there had to find a different place and so on.  Except, of course, the kid who made me move Andy's food so he could have his seat.  He wasn't going to sit by and quietly watch someone sit in his seat.

By the end of the meal I was totally overwhelmed and overstimulated.  Too many kids talking to me at the same time in a very noisy, crowded cafetorium.  However, I really need to do it more.  It gives me a chance to meet some of the kids that Andy talks about and be with them at a time when they actually feel comfortable talking to me.  Plus, Andy really loves to have me there and he isn't going to feel that way forever.

Kid Quote of the Day

Amanda and Sarah were watching a Blue's Clues DVD in the car today.  It was "Get to Know Joe" from when Joe first joined the show.

Kids on DVD:  Hi Joe!

Joe:  You know my name!  What's your name?

Sarah:  Sarah

Amanda:  Me

She still can't say her name, but it isn't stopping her.

Picture of the Day

Today while we were at Hobby Lobby Andy asked if he could get this mailbox.  With his own money.  I asked him why he needed it and he said so Charlie and I could send him letters.  I promised him there would be no letters from us, but he could not be deterred and said we could put his mail in it.  You know, since he gets so much.  He was only going to put his name on it, but I told him that a mailbox always has the name of both occupants in the room.  I didn't think he was really listening to me, because he was adamant that it was just for him, but after he set it out next to his door I noticed that he did indeed add Sarah's name.

I wonder if he's going to make her pay for half?

Family Turkey Project

On Monday Andy brought home an assignment for the entire family.  It was called the Family Turkey Project.  It was a white, photocopied turkey that he had to be cut out and decorate for school.  With the entire family.  Ugh.  I don't mean to be nasty, but I don't really want to do homework with my kids.  I'll sit with them while they do their own homework, but I don't want to do their homework.  I did homework for years.  Now it's their turn.  However, since he's only in third grade, the teacher thought it would be a fun, no stress project for the kids to do with their families.  His teacher doesn't know our family very well.

The kids were supposed to color the turkey and then decorate it with whatever they wanted.  Feathers, pom poms, cereal, pasta, whatever.  I didn't think it would be an issue, we have tons of crafting items in our cabinets.  Or so I thought.  It turns out we have several different kinds of crafting sticks, bags and bags of foamy sticky letters and about 4,000 crayons and markers.  Not a lot of embellishments.

So, I packed up the kids and took them to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies for our turkey.  Yay.  Andy wanted the turkey to have a worm in it's mouth, so we had to get some Model Magic.  If you've never used it before, it's awesome.  It's like Play-Doh and clay, but it's super soft and light and fluffy and doesn't break off into tiny pieces like Play-Doh and isn't all greasy like clay.  Plus it still dries out if you don't cover it.  We also picked up feathers, glittery pom poms, glittery pipe cleaners and little jingle bells.

I was a little wary before we started the project, but then the kids really got into it and so did I.  I was mostly excited because I got to use my glue gun for the first time.  That is a whole lot of fun.  We used everything we bought and even some of the craft sticks we already had.  The kids say he is more of a Christmas Turkey and just wants to skip over Thanksgiving.  I think they are forgetting that we eat turkey for Christmas too.

Overall, I give the project two thumbs up.  I also was able to prove my theory that if you have super low expectations for something it will probably turn out okay.

Unexpected Visit

On Friday we flew to Denver to visit our friends, Jeff and Molly.  We haven't seen them in a long time so it was fun to catch up and see their son, Gabe, who is only a few months younger than Amanda.  It was also fun to expose the kids to their Jack Russell Terrier, that Amanda sort of warmed up to about 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave.

The part that was not fun?  Visiting the Emergency Room on Friday night.  Let me back up.  The flight to Denver went pretty well, quick and not to painful.  We got our bags and got onto the rental car bus and that's when I noticed something.  Sarah was sitting across from me on the bus.  I happened to look at her feet and see that her ankle bones, not her entire foot or ankle, were swollen.  Really swollen.  They looked like she had super balls on the sides of her feet.

This was not right.  My feet have swollen on fights before, but nothing like this.  Immediately I thought of Deep Vein Thrombosis.  I told Charlie we had to go to the Emergency Room, it could not wait until morning.  We called the on-call neurologist, which her surgeon told us to call if anything weird happened, and he said it had nothing to do with her surgery, but it would be a good idea for someone to look at it.  Wanting a second opinion, we also called the off hours pediatrician line and talked to a nurse practitioner.  Did I mention it was about 11 p.m. in Denver so midnight in Dallas?

The end result was, she needed to get checked out sooner than later.  So, Charlie dropped Sarah and me off at the closest children's hospital, which thankfully turned out to be fabulous, and then dropped Andy and Amanda off at Jeff and Molly's before returning to get us.  I talked to the doctor, told her Sarah's medical history, and she looked her over.  No infection, no fever, no idea whatsoever.  Not her fault and not for trying, it was just bizarre.  The weird part was that it was symmetrical, both ankles.

They sent her off to have sonograms on her legs to look for blood clots and found nothing.  In the end, we left the hospital with no idea what was wrong with her, but knew that it wasn't anything life threatening.  We did leave with a cute little stuffed bear, that they gave her when they brought her back to her exam room.  I think it's name is officially Cubby, but I like to call it the $300 bear.  I don't know exactly how much that trip to the ER is going to cost us because we didn't have to pay a dime at the time, but we'll see how close I am.

I'm so glad that Sarah is okay and I truly don't care how much it cost to make sure that was the case, but I do feel so bad for her.  At one point she asked, "Why do things always happen to me?" and I didn't have an answer.  Lately it seems like that truly is the case.  Everything happens to her.  Luckily our experience was painless and positive or she would still be talking about how wronged she was.  The rest of the weekend went on without incident and she acted perfectly fine, except for a lack of sleep.

Next week is her follow up with her neurosurgeon.  Four weeks since her surgery.  Hopefully the swelling will be completely gone by then, but if not it would be nice if he could give us some answers.  All I want is for my little girl to be happy, is that too much to ask?

Picture of the Day

April from New Jersey and I are having an unspoken competition (okay, maybe it's just a personal competition in my head) as to who's two-yr-old has more Elmo stuff.  I'm pretty sure in the clothing department we are winning.  I found these socks in the $1 spot at Target.  I bought four pairs in her current size and three pairs in the next size, thinking it would save me a lot of arguments and wash to have multiples.  In the end, even four pairs were not enough.  She asks to wear them everyday, and watch out when all four pairs are dirty.

Kid Quote of the Day

Andy:  Wow, look at all those crows.

Me:  Mmm hmm.

Andy:  Is it telephone pole season yet?

Me:  Telephone pole season?!?

Andy:  Migration season. [When there is an excess of birds in the area and they sit in mass quantities on the telephone wires].

Quite Contrary

The other day Amanda's buddy, Max, came over to play.  His mom needed to work and didn't have anybody to watch him and I was more than happy to have him keep Amanda company.  Amanda and Max LOVE each other.  If you can have a BFF at the age of two, then this is it.  Any time they are near our house Max asks his mom if they can go to "Manda's house" and he gets so excited to see her when we pick the kids up from school.  Amanda is just as excited to see Max and give him big hugs.

They have never had an issue playing with each other, so I assumed the couple of hours he was going to be at our house would be a breeze.  Boy, was I wrong.  I think they were both a little off, or just both feeling especially two, because they fought the entire time.

At points it was almost comical.  It was MINE this and MINE that, coming from both of them.  At one point they were rolling on the floor hitting each other fighting over a Little People train.  It was unbelievable.  I finally put on Sesame Street, thinking they would both just veg in front of the tv and calm down.  Wrong again.

When Elmo came on the screen Amanda said, "My Elmo."  Not to be outdone Max retorted with, "No, my Elmo."  It went back and forth.  I told them that he was both of theirs, that Elmo was for everyone, but they didn't really care what I had to say.

Then Max came over to sit next to me on the couch and Amanda said, "My Mommy."  Of course Max responded with, "No, my Mommy."  At that point, I gave up.  I decided to leave the room and let them figure it out.  I couldn't stand it anymore.

I know all two-year-olds go through this and it doesn't really bug me, it was just kind of crazy.  I was really surprised to see them behave this way since they are around each other all the time and have never had an issue.  I will say when Max's mom, Larisa, came to pick him up for some reason it got a little better.  It might have been because she told him if he didn't behave she was going to take him home.  Maybe she just has a calming presence.

Whatever the reason, I'm just glad it ended on a happy note.  Since their brothers are best friends and their sisters are best friends, they are going to be around each other for many years to come.

Picture of the Day

She's just so stinkin' cute!

Oh, How Times Change

I was reading April from New Jersey's post about her un-Halloween, and it reminded me of when Andy was Amanda and Riza's age.  When he was two, we didn't take him trick-or-treating.  We took him to Charlie's office for their Halloween festivities (a couple of departments have amazing decorations and every year it is so fun to see what they have come up with), more to show him off to Charlie's co-workers than to let him get candy.  The candy he did get we didn't let him eat, we ate it ourselves or Charlie just took it back to work.  We never would have let him eat that junk, haha.

Six years later we do things a little differently.  I use candy as a daily bribe to get Amanda to do the things I want.  She, in return, willingly offers to do things to get candy.  Just the other day she said (well, in her own way that only Sarah and I can really understand), "Mommy, I want to go pee-pee for a piece of candy."  Smart kid.  Did I give her a piece of candy for going to the bathroom even though it wasn't even 8:00 a.m.?  You bet I did!

So last night all the kids went out to trick-or-treat.  Amanda picked it up very quickly and loved all of it.  For the first year we even stopped along the way for a candy break.  We usually make then wait until they get home and then let them have maybe one piece, but this year all the rules flew out the window.  I'm sure she's still a little confused about what happened, but she's going with the flow.

One thing I did stick with is our rule about how much candy the kids are allowed to keep.  We let them each pick out 20 pieces and they have to give the rest to us.  In return I give them each a small present.  Andy is starting to rebuff the idea, but his other option is the give us his candy and not get a present.  He's a smart boy, I'm sure you know which choice he made.  The problem is, Charlie and I (more likely just I) end up eating the candy they had to turn in.  Not so good.  Luckily this year Andy's school is collecting left over candy to send to a local charity, so I'll probably send it there and save my waistline.

Do I wish my youngest daughter wasn't such a candy monger?  Of course I do.  But wouldn't I change anything about last night, ever.  I can deal with her eating a little bit of candy to remember that happy little smile as she joined the big kids in their quest for the sweet stuff.