Not a peep from all 6 kids last night.
In fact, they got up this morning and starting serving themselves breakfast. After a little while, the door to my room opened and there was Parker. He said, "Can you pour me some milk?" I felt bad as Michael had left for work and Amy was in the back house.
So I got up and went out to the kitchen where all three 3-year olds were eating cereal. With milk. When I asked who poured the milk, they all said, "We did!"
The kids new favorite books are the Piggie and Elephant series. They are these very cute, very easy to read books about a pig and his friend Gerald the elephant. They do have some educational themes about being friends which are annoying, but in general, they are just plain fun and have some adult bits in them (piggie is pretty sarcastic and moody). The pig and elephant have these great expressions on their faces on most pages which the kids love. The best thing is that Parker can read them to the girls. Lately, he has been reading one of the characters and either me or Miranda have been reading the other character. I suggested we do a "play" of one of them since they were reading them so well. The "play" didn't turn out as good as the readings, but still somewhat cute if you can get through it all. No offense taken if you can not.
After months and months of resisting ponytails, Miranda has decided that she needs one everyday. And not just a regular ponytail, but a high, tight, mommy pony tail. She gets very distressed when Mommy isn't available and Daddy does it since "he doesn't do it so good". She also gets distressed when it gets loose and flops about.
Elizabeth on the other hand doesn't like ponytails at all. She would rather have her ratty and now quite long hair all over the place. On occasion when I do make her wear a pony tail (like to swim class or gymnastics class) she always asked, "Is it a mommy ponytail?" I answer, "No, it is an Elizabeth ponytail...did you want a Mommy one?" to which she answers, "NO!"
Michael has been working damn hard lately. Yesterday, a Saturday in case you are reading this real time, he worked from 7am to 11:30am and then from 7pm to midnight. More than a regular workday! Today, he couldn't work in the morning since I was too busy running around Oakland. He took the kids to cheer me on, which was great. But after I woke up from my post race nap, he took off again to do more work. On a Sunday. Hopefully I'll be awake when he returns tonight.
Next weekend will be more of the same especially since he is heading up to Reno on Thursday for his neice's wedding. He'll have to do his normal weekend work plus catch up from being away.
Poor, poor Michael.
Just when I began to think that Parker would be the only talented swimmer in the family, the girls surprised me.
We all went to the YMCA for open swim. The girls get to wear floaty vests and just love swimming around the pool on their own. They float on their backs, kick across the pool, jump in, and generally have a good time.
When we took the vests on (at their request), Elizabeth started jumping in, going underneath for a good 2-3 seconds and then popping up. At first it was scary to watch, but Michael was with her and her facial expression was so hilarious it cracked me up every time. She would puff out her cheeks while smiling and clenching her fists and then go under, popping up a few seconds later with a giant grin. After doing this over and over and over, I told her to swim to the wall after popping up. And she did. It was crazy.
Miranda, who was also happier with her vest off, preferred to swim from me to the wall. And on her own, she started putting her face in every time. She would go under, come back up and grab the wall. She kept telling me, "step back, mommy" so it could be more challenging for her. It was quite impressive.
The whole thing was very fun. Of course, meanwhile, Parker is swimming under our legs, doing back stroke across the entire pool and goofing off. We pretty much don't have to watch him anymore. That kid can swim.
I've tried a new approach lately when I need to remind the kids of some important things or house rules. We have family meetings. We all get together and then I tell them the issue at hand and then Michael adds on to it and then all the kids get to talk. After the first one (about dinner time), Elizabeth kept asking to have family meetings. She didn't have anything to actually talk about, but she liked calling them.
We had one tonight (about staying in bed at night and being quiet in the morning) and once again, they all enjoyed it. Parker picked the order of who talked when and added "I never get up at night". When Miranda's turn came up she told some story about piggy bank. Then Elizabeth had her turn and she had to tell some tale about her baby and some nightmare. None of it made any sense.
This morning I was so tired and unmotivated, I put Dora on and took a nap for about an hour. My laziness is only barely acceptable after hearing everything that I did before and after.
Before:
Hour and half of working out at the Y starting at 5am.
After:
Took the kids to pottery place to make daddy's secret birthday presents. Shhhh. Don't tell him.
Picnic in the park. A park we had never been to before. With a giant curvy slide and crazy climbing things.
Then swimming at the Y. Where Elizabeth swam fairly decently without a floaty vest.
All in a day's work.
I put on Dora dvd today before I started my shower. It's one where the Diego character is introduced.
All the dora's start the same way with the opening sequence, but in this one, Deigo pops up. Parker said, "Look! This must be one with Diego in it, because look there he is!"
My mind immediately jumped back to Batman. Now granted, we didn't watch a ton of TV when I was a kid, but I have memories of watching the old Batman series. I was always so excited when Batgirl showed up in the opening credits because I knew it would be one with her. And for some reason, that was super cool.
Thanks to Grammy and Ginny, Easter came early for the Long kids. You really can't beat chocolate, jelly bellies, toys, bubbles and cute tins. The kids were obvious thrilled.
She worked on the 2nd one for 45 minutes at school one day. She even skipped circle time to keep working on it.
After getting a stroller from the garage that the girls were asking for, Miranda said, "Gracias!"
Miranda asked to take a shower today. Alone. No Mommy. No Elizabeth. Just her. A first on many levels.
So I sat outside the shower and let her do it. She kept saying, "I don't need anyone in the bathroom," as I sat there. At first, I didn't get what she was saying, but then I understood it to mean, "Get the hell out of here."
Obviously I didn't leave her alone, explaining that since it was the first time, I would stick around in case she needed me.
She would have stayed in there for hours she was having so much fun. She even gave me the duckys, because those are a "bath" toy.
Too cute.
We took the kids to the dentist today. They all did exceptionally well considering the wait time once Elizabeth was in the chair. No crying. No whining. No problems. They even did xrays. Everyone checks out as having great teeth. And she confirmed that Parker's adult teeth were on track to be here in about a year to year and a half. I told him that and he said, "I'll be ok when I lose a tooth." (His friend recently lost a tooth during a playdate and freaked out. Parker found the tooth of the floor, but the kid was still pretty upset about the whole thing.)
Since the girls were 2 years old, we have been drinking 1% milk. At first it was whole milk, then we moved to 2% and then 1%. So for the last year and a half, it's been 1%. This is a very difficult concept for Michael apparently who has come home with 2%, whole milk and even lactose free recently when he does the evening "ooops we are out of milk" run to Safeway.
It's not really a big deal really but I do like to give him a hard time about it. I actually enjoy the whole milk mistakes. It makes the morning cereal so delicious!
I'm not usually home in the morning when the kids get up. I generally get home about anywhere from 10-40 minutes after they wake up. But today (and yesterday for that matter) I slept in. I think the time change is making getting up at 4:30am a bit harder than normal.
So this morning as Michael and I try to stay warm and cozy and asleep in the bed, we hear giggling and laughing by all three for what seems like a long time. I kept waiting for the inevitable sound of someone getting hurt because something that sounded that fun could only be dangerous. But it never came and at 7am, they all came tromping downstairs to tell us it was time for breakfast.
When I asked them what they were laughing at, they said "ZEKE!" Apparently, Miranda and Zeke were rolling around together and this was hilarious.
Parker decided to put a not so temporary, temporary tatoo on his forehead today. Not a big deal except picture day is Thursday. He looks like he belongs in a gang.
Good times.
Parker is reading me this BOB (small, easy to read very limited pictures like stick men and women) book tonight called the Big Hat.
You know...
Tex is a big man.
Tex has a big hat.
Max is a big cat.
Max is in the hat.
Rex is a big dog. etc etc etc
So Parker reads all this fine and then says, "Rex is a dog." (Missing the word big.)
I say, "What kind of dog?"
He says, without missing a beat, "Dalmation?"
Ran 10 miles this morning with my pals from the Y. It was more hilly than I would have liked, but the view from the top of Tilden was pretty spectactular. The massive amounts of cow poop along the trail was also pretty amazing. (I've never been so close to an unsecured cow in my life!) One more long training run next weekend and then the race.
Michael and I had a date night on Saturday. We went to Red Lobster. In Vallejo. Seriously. I had been wanting to go there for years. I knew it would be disgusting, but I still had to go. We got there at 5:15 expecting a quick dinner before a 7pm movie. But no. There was a line. At 5:15. At Red Lobster. In Vallejo. What the fuck? Anyway, we waited and then ate and it was in fact, not nearly as disgusting as one would think. It was very buttery and salty and we probably consumed 8000 calories worth of shrimp and lobster and crab legs, but it was edible.
But, since there was a line we missed our movie and just went to the video store, making a quick stop at REI for a bike pump attachment (long story). In the line waiting to check out with more LOST and a movie for me, we were eyeing the candy. We were both debating what to get or not get and then I said I might get something. I told Michael to guess what it was. He said, "Please. So easy. Mike and Ikes" Considering there was a giant shelf full of tons of candy, I was impressed. Since there were 5 kinds of Mike and Ikes, I told him to guess what flavor. He quickly said, "Original". Which was right.
We've given up telling the kids not to climb or jump on the couch. We gave it a good college try, but in the end, there was really no way to enforce it all the time and it was just pissing me off daily. I'm still slightly pissed and figure it's just a matter of time before we end up in the emergency room due to a couch jumping incident.
This morning they were playing some game that involved snorkeling, fishing, a moose, and a river.
Elizabeth: Parker, I'm eating Chex cereal just like you!
Parker: Yes, Snizabeth. I know that. Don't tell me things I already know.
Another example...
Miranda: Mom said to go get dressed, Parker.
Parker: I know that Snanda.
Apparently the use of SN before the name is to indicate that they said something he already knows.
I crack up each time.
(Elizabeth) "Mommmy!"
"Mommy!"
(me) WHAT?!?!?!
"Mommy, do you want to watch me go fishing?"
My current friends don't really believe I used to have a real job. They do seem to think it's reasonable that I used to work at an animal shelter, wearing jeans and scooping poop, but suits, panty hose, fake nails and brushed hair? Not likely.
I agree it does even seem strange to me at times. Much of my past life, save my good friend Shari, has vanished. With one exception. For some strange reason, I have kept one skirt suit. It's a very blue short skirt and fitted matched blazer. I don't know why I kept that one. I have no where to wear it and it doesn't even fit me. Or so I thought. Yesterday, while having some mommy quiet time in the back house, I saw it hanging there...all alone and thought...what the heck. I tried it on. It fit. Amazing. I haven't worn it since my days at the the Federal Reserve Bank. Which is 15 years. Maybe I'll wear it for my mom friends one day and freak them out. Since I don't want any of them to fall over dead, I won't do my nails or wear heels.
For reasons having to do with various applications of alphabetization, Parker has decided that he needs to have a name starting with the letter E. In discussing his options yesterday, he was drawn to Ernest, and avoided all subsequent attempts to sell him on Elliot, Elroy, or Ebeneezer. So Ernest it is.
This morning he and Elizabeth were playing together, and it was only a matter of time before the game turned alphabetical, and shortly thereafter Elizabeth needed a new name, too. I don't understand the logic, but she needed an M name, and we landed pretty quickly on Maxine. She actually requested Max, and Parker said that was a boy's name, but I corrected him, and there we were.
Now that they have new names, we needed to update the bathroom chart showing who gets to stand on the white stool during teeth-brushing on which nights (don't ask), and, of course, Ernest was just the man for the job.
On the bottom of the chart he helpfully included the four necessary steps for creating this very chart, which will probably be necessary in a few days when they all have new names again.
Parker was teaching the girls the song Surrender this morning. ("No, Elizabeth, it goes, Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright, they just seem a little WEEEEIIIIIRRRRRDDDDD. SURRRENDERRRRRRRRRRR! You see?")
So I put it on and they all started dancing. Elizabeth was done by the time I remembered to get it on video.
The quality of these videos isn't very good. Which is strange because they look ok just viewing them on the computer....
Parker is learning flip turns in swim class. He did his first one today on his own. Amazing.
This morning the girls had breakfast with their baby dolls stuffed up their shirts, which is fairly common. This led to reminders about how when they're adults and they become mommies, they're going to have babies in their bellies.
Which led Parker to comment: "When I am a daddy, I will need to find a nice lady with a really big belly."
I like that Elizabeth is so self sufficient and can do/get anything she wants all by herself.
I don't like that Elizabeth can do/get anything she wants which includes climbing up to the top shelf in the kitchen to help herself to lolly pops when Daddy and Mommy were talking to Miranda and then hiding them in a toy for several hours before being caught with 7 of them.
I like that Parker can tell time and is a very honest kid.
I don't like that when you say, "In a minute, Parker" he starts counting backwards from 60.
I like that the girls can get dressed on their own (socks and all on most days) with no prodding.
I don't like that the girls get dressed over and over and over leaving clothes all over the room every day.
I like that Miranda is inquisitive and creative and very aware of what is going on.
I don't like when she asks me questions like, "What you say mommy? What?! WHAT?!!!" when I'm not even talking to her.
I like that Parker isn't into traditional boy things like star wars, guns, bad guys, etc.
I don't like that he really, really, REALLY likes Dora.
I like that the kids now get up every day around 6 and play in their room fairly quietly until 6:30 when they come down stairs to play.
I don't like the complete disaster zone their room turns into after said play.
I like that Parker is really good at the drums and has been playing them for long periods of time every day.
I don't like that Parker has been playing the drums for long periods of time every day.
This morning while helping Miranda with her socks...
Miranda: "Granny and Ginny gave me this shirt! I love this shirt!"
me: "Yes they did."
Miranda: "When we went on our Trip, I was scared that Granny and Ginny would eat me up."
me: "Why did you think they would eat you up?"
Miranda: "I dunno."
