Spilled Milk

Today was off to a brilliant start! I forgot the parent teacher conference at Bella's school, but she just turned 3 so really what could she be doing. The clincher was that meant she was out of school and there was no one to watch her..... but me. I thought I would be taking a couple of hours off, but it turned into 8. Instead of thinking about my mounting work we decided to make muffins and chili for a friend who was having a day much stinkier than my own.I turned my back just to hear Bella shout - I'm sorry! She dumped half of the gallon of milk all over the counter and down to the floor. She grabbed some rags to help clean up. The moral of the story - Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk. I'll keep that in mind for when I open my Outlook on Monday.

Let it Snow

The bus was MIA, so the kids had a great time in the snow!

Batman is a Superhero

Although the contents of this weblog are typically reserved for the crazy and cute little antics of our tiny children, I nevertheless feel it is important to preserve, for the public record, an issue of contention between my wife and I. You may believe this issue is irrelevant, unimportant, and perhaps even ridiculous, but for those of you who are familiar with me there can be no mistaking the gravity of my wife's error.

Krisytn says that Batman is not a true super hero because he wasn't bitten by a bat.

When I demand an explanation for her woefully mistaken assertion, she says that Spider-man is a super hero because he was bitten by a spider. But since Batman was not bitten by a radioactive bat, conveying to him superhuman powers, he, therefore, is not a super hero.

I point out to her that Batman is a master of the martial arts, possesses the deductive mind of Sherlock Holmes, and carries out his mission with an indomitable will, she dismisses my rebuttal as useless.

At that moment, I realized Kristyn's suggestion to watch Batman Begins isn't because she's curious to watch Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, or to enjoy Christopher Nolan's remix of the otherwise tired action franchise. She wants to give me the chance to watch a "guy" movie on our little movie night.

Thanks, hon. But Batman is, most certainly, a super hero.

Ahhh 5-year old humor

Happy Monday!

Wall-E

Grandmom bought our dear son the Wall-E robot for X-Mas. He loves it, but it scares poor Bella to death even when it is not on. We have tried to teach her that it's just a toy and it runs on batteries and now this has become the most popular discussion in the house:
Big Person: Tell me about Wall-E
Bella - He's just a toy (holding her hands out palms up shrugging her shoulders)
Bella - He wuns on bawteries (this is phonetically speaking)
Bella - He's not weal (aka real)
You have to ask her about Wall-E when you see her next to hear the true essence of the pronunciation.

We are also potty training her and occasionally she gets all of the orders she is told crossed - for example - We were walking into a crowded mall and we say "Don't run away" and then we ask her "What don't you do?" and she proudly yells in front of the innocent bystanders "DON'T PEE ON THE FLOOR!!!"

Forgotten

I asked Bella a few months back what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said "Ride Ponies"!!! We all know that ponies are what make her world go round at this stage in her life. Our house is overflowing with ponies. Unfortunately, this was not an easy task given her birthday is in January! So, I started my search for an indoor arena with heating within an hour of the house. I thought this would be doable with a little research, but I had to call about 15 places to find out that there was only 1 that would do a pony party for children under 7 due to insurance. At least I found one - right! It all seemed fine until.....

There was NO ONE at the barn - not a soul.... not the person that was hosting the party..... No One, but a darn goat that kept jumping in the van every time I opened the doors!!! Goats are mean - just in case one ever jumps in your van - watch out! Back to No One there - I was totally panicked - I mean 8 little girls arriving for pony rides to find out that there were NO PONIES. Oh, we also drove over an hour to get there.

Luckily, I ran into a nice lady who was boarding a horse at the barn and she saved the day! She saddled up 2 ponies and her daughter and her daughter's friend took the kids for pony rides. Bella had a blast and she got closer than she ever dreamed to a real pony! She'll never remember her Mother's panic, but trust me, I will remind her of this many times over the upcoming years.As with anything, the kids were off to find something else to do after many trips around the barn on the ponies. I was totally unprepared since our host was nowhere to be found - what can we do to pass the time until cake???? Then we found the TURKEY! Oh joy - the kids had a blast mocking the poor bird... gobble gobble gobble followed my deep belly laughs!

Little did I know that there were other things to ride at the farm. Look there was a fallback if the whole pony thing did not work out.There was also the swing on the old barnyard gate game.It all worked out in the end! Happy Birthday Bell!

Bella's B-day Take One

We had our fist birthday party for Bella on Friday night for family and friends. Mommy made the fatal mistake of asking "What kind of cake do you want?" I was thinking Chocolate or Vanilla and she responds gleefully "Mermaid!!!" So much for an easy cake!She was very excited to finally enjoy all of the birthday festivities and we had lots of people to share the excitement. This was the first year she could blow out the candles - with just a touch of help. Really I was just trying to limit the amount of spit on the cake !There were lots of fun girly gifts and none of them required a Master's degree in transforming objects from cars to robots to whatever. Finally, Barbies and horses - I can relate to these gifts.

In keeping true to all of our parties - the kids finally took over. I was waiting for my nephew to pull a Downward Dog on my yoga mat.

Part II - coming - The Excitement of the Pony Party!

Letter

I'm back from TN and KY - very happy to be back from KY!

I read the letter Obama wrote to his 2 girls over lunch today and was happy I took the time. Here's an excerpt that I thought was particularly true regardless of your political affiliation...

"I hope both of you will take up that work, righting the wrongs that you see and working to give others the chances you've had. Not just because you have an obligation to give something back to this country that has given our family so much-although you do have that obligation. But because you have an obligation to yourself. Because it is only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential."

If you have a minute take a look - http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/news/2009/01/barack-obama-letter-to-my-daughters.html

I'll be posting pics from Bella's B-day party tonight - stay tuned!

Happy Belated New Years!

We spent the evening at my bother and sister-in-law's house. The adults played cards and the kids ran all over the place until midnight.

We did take a break to watch some cartoons.This is what a 5-year old looks like the next day after he stays up watching the ball drop.

Come out - Come out - Where ever you are!

I have been totally absent over here in the blog world - Perhaps when I emerge Bella will be potty trained (thank God for our mini steam cleaner) and I will be caught up with everything that has somehow piled up around me!

My hubby sent me this interesting essay and it made me reconsider my New Year's resolution - I think this year I'm going to try to rely less on electronic communication and set more time aside for actually seeing my friends (be prepared for a phone call)! http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0%2C2845%2C2337704%2C00.asp