I've been very, very slack.

I haven't blogged much since 2009 began, and not at all since early March. I have plenty of excuses, of course, but the general reason is: life got busy. I'm sure that happens to everyone. I try to make time to read the blogs I enjoy on a regular basis, but I never have enough time to do everything.

Since my last post, I've had a birthday, and Two is now Three. And when I say Three, I mean acting Three, stubborn Three, I-can-do-it-myself Three, funny Three, practical joking Three. I don't think he's a changeling, but he has changed markedly since becoming officially Three.

My Big Girl continues to amaze me with her intelligence and sensitivity. She's getting ready for a ballerina party to celebrate her birthday, and she's been telling anyone and everyone who will listen about her upcoming fifth birthday. I'm in disbelief, but she really will start kindergarten in the fall, and she is excited! I think that going to a new school and making new friends will be wonderfully beneficial for her - the preschool that she and her brother attend has many benefits, but it's small and private. I know she'll learn much from the greater diversity in classmates, teachers, and experiences next year.

I've been plagued by a mystery illness/condition for over six weeks now. Doctors initially thought my pain was due to a kidney stone, since I've had them in the past, but now are unsure and are testing for other possibilities. This has slowed me down, and put me in a truly foul mood at times, but I'm trying to remain upbeat. The opportunity to rest and spend time with the kids this week, while they are on spring break, has been a delightful break for me as well.

I'm going to do some reading on small-scale gardening now - I'll come back and share what I find, in case you're interested too.

Thoughts, in no particular order

1. Kids sure are germy. I really didn't need to catch this bug from Big Girl. I've been miserably congested, snotty, coughing, bleh for days...

2. Two is now attempting to exploit his drippy nose, even though he's mostly better, as an excuse to skip school. The kid's only two. He told me he needed to stay home today because he was too sick to go to school. He really just wanted to watch Bob the Builder and eat fruit snacks.

3. Why, exactly, is Big Girl such a whiner about getting water in her eyes while bathing? Not soap - just water! It annoys me a little, although I'm trying my best to be patient and help her work through it.

4. Two LOVES baths, and showers, but only the playing in the water part. He doesn't actually want to be soaped up and cleaned. And he whines when it's over and he has to get out.

5. I got a lot of stuff at the Walmart this morning, stuff we needed. And yet there's still no food in the house. Well, nothing quick and easy. If I wanted to soak some dried beans and make a soup from scratch, we'd be set...

6. Hubs' car is paid off! Yay! We're making some progress, although at times it seems more like treading water.

7. Some days I fear that my children have inherited some of my worst qualities. But then they do sweet things and surprise me, and I don't worry so much.

8. Tissue manufacturers have a pretty good racket on their hands. We're going through lots o' boxes around here. Even with the tissue boxes placed out of kid reach, so they can't be as wasteful and playful with them as they wish...

9. When they were younger, both Big Girl and Two had more adventurous palates. I miss that. I bet they would both shun Indian food now, whereas Big Girl ate everything we got her from the buffet at our favorite restaurant back in NC.

10. I'm really slack sometimes. I still haven't mailed a gift to a friend that I meant to mail over a month ago. It's boxed up by the front door and has been sitting there for over a week.

Being sick?

Stinks. Particularly when you're the adult who's supposed to be taking care of two sick, whining, miserable kids, and yet you don't feel up to taking care of anyone.

If only it were feasible for us to run through all of the germs now, knowing that we won't get sick again later. Wish it worked that way.

I do have to say, however, that my sinus surgery worked nicely. I have a lot of congestion, but it seems to be moving right along, as opposed to setting up a blockade in my sinuses and developing into a nasty painful infection. I know I would be in a lot more pain from my sinuses now, if not for that surgery. I'm pretty uncomfortable, but not as bad as it could be...

My poor kids both have very dry lips which are cracking open. A consequence, I think, of their high fevers of last week and weekend, which led their lips to peel, plus the cold weather. Usually they like it when I swipe their lips with chapstick and lip treatments, but they're complaining now due to the cracked lips.

We all stayed home from school today, although I had no choice but to go to work this evening. Someone's got to teach the college kids about the fantastic world of poetry.

A series of quick thoughts:

I wish I had the space, setting, and mental energy to grow a garden. Not going to happen this year, but I can dream.

I have too much crap in my house. Every day I find more and more, and I don't need so much of it.

People who don't turn on their headlights when it starts to get dark - particularly the ones who drive dark cars - scare me. I get really unnerved when I realize there's a car there and I can barely see it.

In a related note, I'm sometimes one of those annoying people who will flash her headlights on and off to try to tell approaching cars that they need to turn on their headlights.

My dogs are wrestling on the back deck again. Do they do this all the time, or do they wait until it's quiet enough for me to hear them out there making a racket?

I also wish I had a good spot for a large chest deep freezer, in which I could keep the produce from my imagined garden, along with smaller portions of soups and stews to heat and eat for weeknight meals.

Green/red/yellow bell peppers are over-used in prepared foods, particularly the frozen stuff like skillet meals. They don't taste that good, just strong, plus they make me sick to my stomach. And I hate having to study the ingredients list to see if they're in a product before I buy it. I've learned not to rely upon the picture of the meal on the packaging.

Hubs and I bought a Dyson early in our marriage, and it continues to serve us well (knock on wood). It's parked in this room at present. It's not the special pet-fur model but it still did a decent job with dog fur back when we had indoor dogs.

This colder weather is making me get really dry, itchy skin. Yuck.

My daughter's recent decision not to eat tater tots, french fries, and the like puzzles me. I wondered where she got it from. She used to eat these delicious potato products and love them. Almost as much as her brother, who would subsist on Sonic tater tots and fruit juice alone if permitted.

Hubs got me a label maker for Valentine's Day and I love it. I mentioned this at work today and got some weird looks, but I think it's one of the best gifts he's given me in years.

I wonder what I should start calling Two on this blog after he turns three in April... I could still call him Two, since he's the second in birth order, but would that be confusing?

Speaking of birth order - I've read several studies and articles discussing the impact of birth order on a child's development, and I think it's really interesting. I watch for signs of the influence of birth order in my own kids, and I can definitely see some of it at work in Hubs' family. Alas, I am an only child, but that has its influence as well.

A Most Excellent Day

Hubs got it this year. No boxes of assorted chocolates, which I've never liked that much. A sweet, thoughtful card. A new hand mixer (!) to replace the one that died a couple of months ago. And a label maker. I think the label maker is my favorite. Have I mentioned my love of office supplies? Now I can label my stuff. And the kids' stuff. I'm excited! He did very well this year.

I hope he liked his presents. I made him an appointment for a massage, which he said he really enjoyed, and I got a rolling laundry hamper for our room. And a couple of movies on DVD that he will hopefully enjoy.

Today has been a very low-key day. My sweet Big Girl is still sick, coughing and dripping and miserable, and she has a bad raw area around her nose from a bit of rough treatment with the tissues. I got her the soft ones, but she's a little too fervent in her nose-wiping sometimes. I'm trying to teach her to pay and blow, not wipe so hard, but her little nose is pitiful and raw.

Two may be getting it too. He has coughed a few times - no nose issues yet, knock on wood. The way the two of them play together and love on each other (when not wrestling), they tend to share all of their germs freely. Fortunately they're out of school next week, so there's plenty of time for them to rest and recover.

I made monte cristo sandwiches for dinner, at Hubs' request. They were good. I even used Wonder Bread for him - he purchased a loaf for that purpose, although I would never buy the stuff. I like good, hearty wheat breads. But the results were good, despite the questionable "bread" he required. We also ate well earlier with Hubs' special French toast, so that this day was a steady progression of unhealthy and tasty foods. The kids ate too many tractor snacks and were briefly wild and energized. They're addicted to them, and are also really stocked about the new Wonder Pets snacks, too (have I mentioned that Two can sing the entire Wonder Pets theme song? in addition to childhood classics like Twinkle, Twinkle).

What a week!

This week has been so busy with all kinds of pre-holiday activities, health issues, and more. Two and Big Girl both missed a day of school while Two had a short-lived stomach bug (didn't want to chance sending in Big Girl in case she had it too). They both enjoyed class parties on Wednesday, and tomorrow they'll both be singing in the preschool Christmas musical performance. I'm really looking forward to seeing that - this will be Two's first time singing for an audience, and I'm interested to see how he reacts.

This morning I had a kidney stone. Could have done without that early Christmas gift. Fortunately it moved along at a quick pace, so I'm feeling much better.

And then tonight, Hubs and I get to enjoy a holiday party! The kids will stay with their grandparents while we go. It's been so long since we've had any adult time, gone anywhere without the kids, and it will be nice to enjoy conversation without the interruptions to "stop hitting your sister" and "leave your brother alone."

I just saw a preview for an episode of Rachel Ray in which couples go to a hypnotist to see if the hypnotist can fix an annoying habit that drives the spouse crazy. They showed a man who left dirty laundry piled all over the house, and the wife who hated picking up after him. I wonder if a hypnotist would be a useful approach to get Hubs to clean the house while I sit on the sofa and read? Without any complaints or grumbling from Hubs while he works, of course. Yeah, it wouldn't be nice or fair of me, but it's still a strangely appealing idea...

Watch out for pumas!

Today the kids and I visited at my parents' house after Big Girl got out of preschool. Two had been there for a few hours during the morning while I worked in my office. Apparently he went shopping with my mom at Tuesday Morning (love that store), where he put on a performance as "charming grandson" for some of her friends who were also there shopping. For his efforts, he won a toy, but he doesn't get it until Christmas - fortunately he was distracted by the time they got back to the house and didn't ask about it.

So while the kids and my mom read books in the living room and watched us out the big front picture window, my dad and I put out lights on the bushes in the front yard. The kids kept knocking on the window and yelling at us, but I couldn't really understand what they were saying. Big Girl came to the front door and opened it and stood there trying to interrupt my conversation with my dad, and - annoying mother that I am - I told her to close the door and not interrupt.

When we finally came inside, the kids raced up to us, and Two grabbed my leg and kept saying "pumas bite!" repeatedly. Big Girl was chattering about pumas too. My mother explained: they wanted to warn us to watch out for pumas hiding in the grass. Because, you know, there might be a puma hiding there (in the front yard of a house, in the middle of town, in Georgia during December) and it might go for our legs. It would be a shame to be surprised and suffer a puma bite, particularly this close to Christmas.

I know two highly imaginative kids who love to watch Go, Diego, Go!

image from National Geographic

Thwarted

Two is at an absolutely adorable age. But he doesn't photograph well. He and his sister wore some very cute coordinating outfits to church today, and then after church I attempted to photograph the two of them so I could make photo Christmas cards. But no. Two would have none of that. He told me he was a puma and roared at me at first, but then quickly lost all good humor and stuck out his lip. And whined - a magnificent whine that I'm sure was heard all over the neighborhood. Big Girl sat there looking cute and shivering, since I was being a bad mommy and had them take off their coats so I could see the sweaters underneath. I didn't get my picture. Two got a nap, and after a bite of lunch, Big Girl took one too. I'll have to come up with more tricks and try again another day. Maybe I'll be forced to pick a card design that accommodates multiple images, and then get a decent shot of him without his sister (since she inevitably looks away when I get his attention focused on the camera).

Two

This shirt would be perfect for him - too bad he would need a larger size. ;)

Big Boy News!

Two had his first real barber shop haircut today. Previously I've cut his hair at home with clippers, but today my dad and I took him to see A.J. He's been my dad's barber for years - at least my entire life and then some. The barber shop is... unique. Lots of taxidermy. Some of the heads also sport trucker hats with punny sayings on them. A big display case full of vintage model cars.

Two was hesitant at first, but with his grandfather holding his hand and A.J. telling him it would be okay, he decided to relax after a few minutes. The display case with the cars in it also had a tractor inside, and that was, of course, most interesting to Two. A good distraction.

Now my boy has a real little boy haircut. He looks super-cute, and not so much like his mom cuts his hair for him at home. It's a true haircut, not just an allover short buzz job. He doesn't look as much like a baby with his new 'do, although he still has the cute chubby baby cheeks. I hope he keeps those for a long time. I'm in no hurry for my baby boy to grow up.

My robe

My robe, or rather the sash for my robe, is under constant attack. Two keeps attempting to steal it so he can play with it. He calls it his "rescue rope" and, I believe, plans to use it to rescue animals like his television hero Diego. Many of these animals apparently need to be rescued from his sister's room and taken to his room.

I love for him to play animal rescuer - it's a favorite game that he and Big Girl often play together - but I can't get him to choose an alternate rescue rope. He keeps coming back to the robe, which I would like to wear closed so I stay warm.

A "teaching moment"

The phrase "Bad Driver" is heard frequently from the middle seat of my van. I've taken to saying that when someone annoys me on the road, because I don't mind my kids saying it in front of the minister as much as I would other things they could hear in the car. But tonight, Big Girl and Two learned another new concept: the squirrelly driver. I was behind really poky junker which kept slowing down and speeding up. The kids and I were so close to home - in our neighborhood, even - but it was taking forever. So finally I yelled at the guy, who couldn't hear me, "Don't drive like a squirrel!" And Big Girl did hear me, so I had to explain the concept. Without pointing out that it sometimes involved squirrels being indecisive and meeting their doom beneath the wheels of cars. I don't think she would take that well, tender little soul that she is. I'm sure that squirrels will now make regular appearances on our drives.

Naturally, Big Girl was the first to embrace the "bad driver" label, and she applies it liberally. Her brother started using the term because he admires just about everything his sister does and says. So now when she mentions a bad driver, I usually hear a little echo. This echo also can be heard after I take a phone call; like her grandfather, Big Girl is curious - a snoop, even, at times - so when I get off the phone, she immediately asks, "What was that person's name?" and then launches into additional questions to find out the caller's name, the topic of conversation, and even, occasionally, their opinions on alligators.

Am I the only one?

Am I the only mother who gets emotionally wrapped up in packing away outgrown clothes? I'm sorting through clothes that don't fit Big Girl and Two anymore, so I can resell and donate, and I get a little bit soft and fuzzy, even a little weepy, looking at some of these outfits. I remember how small and cute they were - they're still cute, but not so small - and what they could do when they wore those outfits. I have major "stuff" issues with my emotional attachment to objects, and the clothes thing is a big one for me. I have a hard time parting with things. My house is bursting, with way too many things, and actually Hubs is even worse about hanging on to things that a lot of people would consider junk. We watched some of the clean-out-your-house shows several months ago and we think some of those hosts and home organization "experts" are cruel, heartless people. Yeah, we know we have more than we need, and more than we can really store efficiently, but our emotional baggage often takes physical form around here.

I'm not keeping many outfits, just the most special ones. We may have another child at some point, but we just don't have anywhere to keep these things. And I'm sure my relatives will happily provide an ample wardrobe for any future progeny. They're good like that. I could get away with never buying clothes or shoes for my kids, if only I could resist the temptation to pick out cute outfits myself.

So that's today's naptime project: sorting through little people clothes of days gone by, and getting all mushy about how fast they're growing up. Surely I'm not the only sap who reacts this way.

Sibling violence

I guess I never noticed sibling violence as much growing up, since I was an only child. And now I see it everywhere. Last night I watched some kids during a speaking event hosted at our church, and I had a couple of brothers, ages 5 and 3, who enjoyed tackling and sacking each other. Big football fans, that family.

And my own sweet pair have been providing non-stop wrestling action in our den the last few weeks. I've had to scold Two on numerous occasions about pulling Big Girl's hair, and remind Big Girl not to be too rough when she pins her brother and sits on him. They're pretty evenly matched. He's shorter but the same weight, pretty much, and he's good at getting her off balance and dragging her down. She's a little more agile and can dance around him with increased coordination. He has figured out how to use her long hair and her dresses to his advantage, while she knows just how to pin and tickle him, because he is incredibly ticklish.

I stay out of it unless they get too rough or threaten to break or damage anything, and if they accidentally hurt each other, they're both quick to hug and kiss the other and apologize. It's really cute when they hug. I need to get a video of this so I can embarrass them with the footage in front of their prom dates some day.

And on a much smaller scale...

I found a treasure in the hallway. A small unpopped kernel of popcorn, covered in snot, freshly expelled from the nose of a certain young man. His sister had revealed his transgression, sticking said kernel up his nose, a few minutes earlier. Two gleefully told me "nose!" and "stuck!" and I began freaking out. I tried to get him to blow his nose and he just laughed at me. Hubs said we should wait a while to see if it would come out before going to the emergency room, since Two wasn't in significant discomfort. I spent a while inspecting his nose in the bathroom, with Two perched on the counter so I could get a good view. Then he wandered off toward the den and at some point, in transit, shot it out. He wouldn't blow his nose for me when I asked and held a tissue for him, but he knows how to blow air out of his nose when it's on his terms. And now, his nose is "clean!" and the offending kernel is in the trash.

I get by with a little help from my friends...

Big Girl and Two are both super-keen to be helpers whenever I start doing housework. Considering how much I hate to clean house, this is a tremendous delight, because I can't complain quite so much when someone small is helping me carry laundry to the washing machine. Big Girl is getting very good at sorting lights and darks for me, too. And if his sister is doing it, well, that means Two must participate.

So this afternoon they've been helping me with laundry, standing nearby and discussing things while I do dishes (because I'm not quite ready for help with that task), and generally following me around the house. Except for Big Girl's brief lesson with her dad: I came upon him teaching Big Girl to say the first words of the Gettysburg Address. Not sure what inspired it, but she's pretty good! I think this is his way of getting her to work on pronouncing words correctly. ;)

Great tees on sale at Threadless

Threadless is having a back-to-school sale and has lots of great tees marked down to $9 and $12. I found some fun designs and picked up a couple for Two, since I like to dress him stylishly. He'll soon be sporting The Embroidaries and Homework Evidence (the latter cracks me up). Always a snappy dresser, my boy.

I was tempted to get a few others but restrained myself. My kids have lots of clothes. It's a weakness on my part.

Dental Hygeine Lad strikes again

Now he collects his sister's toothbrush while he's getting his own. He strolls out into the den, waving around her purple Dora toothbrush while brushing with his, until she freaks out and squeals, "He's got my toothbrush," at which point she dissolves into a woeful meltdown puddle while I collect the toothbrush, wash it off, put it back in the toothbrush holder, and tell him not to mess with other people's toothbrushes. At least he just carries it around. Could be worse.

He really is a bit obsessed. He brushes his teeth at least five or six times a day. Plus he washes his hands regularly, since that's an excellent opportunity for him to splash water all over the bathroom counter...

Kid-Friendly Music That Adults Can Stand

I have discovered something miraculous: music that my kids *and* my husband enjoy. Hubs is extremely picky, and professes strong dislike for many of the kids' CDs that I actually enjoy (and I'm rather selective myself). But after I dragged him with us to a wonderful concert at our church last weekend, he actually requested one of these CDs to play on his laptop while he was hanging out with the kids (I was enjoying a lovely bit of solitary reading time while this happened).

Roger Day came to perform at our church, and since I was Roger's contact at the church, I dragged Hubs along and persuaded him to pitch in with set-up and break-down for the event. So Hubs chatted with Roger before and after, and he was there to see how much our kids and all of the others who attended loved the show. And Hubs will now listen, willingly and without complaints, to Roger Day CDs.

One of the things I like best about this music is the silly-factor. The lyrics aren't preachy or pedantic; they just encourage kids to move around and sing along and act silly. Two of my favorites are "It's a No-No to Kiss a Rhino!" from Ready to Fly and "Roly Poly" from Dream Big! You can hear samples from all three of his CDs on his website, and he also has the lyrics posted there as PDF files.

Roger also wrote some of the music for the Vacation Bible School curriculum that we used last summer, and those songs translate the fun quality into a more Christian-focused message (he has written songs for a number of the Cokesbury curricula in recent years, so if your kids have been to a VBS that used Cokesbury materials, they may have heard some of his songs - Big Girl is still singing some of the Beach Party songs from this summer). These VBS songs are great, but I really think his genius shines in his own CDs.

Dental Hygeine Lad

Two is obsessed with his toothbrush. He carries it around the house and brushes on his teeth. At present, he's bouncing on the ride-on zebra toy while brushing. He also clutches the toddler toothpaste tube in his hand and pretends to squeeze more toothpaste onto the brush periodically. Fortunately he can't get the top off the tube. The dentist is going to love him...