i'm no american idol, but she loves me anyway...

This is a wee shout out to my niece, Rachel, who turned thirteen today! But I do believe her favorite birthday wish came from a Mr. David Cook at the concert she attended with some friends yesterday...



She and her friends were holding up a poster announcing her birthday and with a few words, he absolutely made her year. How cool is that? On a related note, this concert was at Valpo University and David Cook basically donated his time to put on this concert just because that's where his siblings attended and he wanted to help the school. That's a good guy right there.

Just in case you checked the blog earlier today...you are not imagining things. Yes, there was a VeggieTales video here and, yes, I put it there, but it was a test I was trying out. I thought I deleted it, but it was left up a little longer than I thought. I do think VeggieTales are funny and belly buttons are cute, but the video really served no purpose but to test something and confuse you. For some, it appeared to have worked.

she can say her name...

Yesterday, Julia was MIA (missing in action). She was there, then she wasn't. It was quiet, which we all know is not always the best sign. After an initial look around, I didn't see her, so I called out her name. No answer, but I heard a slight movement. Still unable to grasp her location, I called her name again.

Quite clearly (and loudly), I got a response: "No! No tay Ju-i-a!!!"

That clearly gave up her hiding spot and I promptly found her hiding behind a chair with a yellow marker and a severely jaundiced arm. Before swiping the marker to prevent further damage, I plopped her in the chair to take a couple pictures of the artwork (duh.).
Since, we have been able to get her to repeat her name a couple times. It's pretty cute. Oh, and in case anyone wondered, last week we got a 100% all clear from the ear doctor. She is (amazingly) free of fluid and is back to full hearing. Good news.

On another cute note, you'll see that she is wearing something her Dad might be seen in from time to time. When I put it on her in the morning, she looked down, pointed at her shirt, smiled and kept repeating, "See? Da-ey" (that's "Daddy" without any "d's" in the middle).

tooth incident update...

Just a little update to the incident mentioned in the previous post. We found the tooth. Thankfully, we did not find it in a diaper. Apparently, unlike sand, snow, silica, lip gloss, bath water, and various other items...Julia does not find teeth to be one of her culinary delights. whew!

Do you remember that old Army slogan, "We do more before 9am than most people do all day."? I think most mornings, moms have one up on the Army.

cupid got us...

There was a lot to love about this Valentine weekend. Here's a few things on my list:

• Hangin' out with friends.
• Going to see a movie. (note: I did not say I liked the movie...see list below)
• Pajama-clad kids eating candy for breakfast.
• The breakfast Jeff made for me.
• Julia saying "I love you".
• Lauren being more excited about Jeff and I's gifts to each other than her own.
  
• My new bottle o' perfume.
• Julia sneeking a box of (4) chocolates off the counter and eating them all before we noticed.
• Sarah accidentally popping Lauren in the mouth with her foot...and (finally) knocking out a loose tooth.
  

In the interest of fair and balanced reporting on the weekend...these are things I did not love this weekend:

• Another snow dump.
• The International - the worst movie in years...
• The chocolate on the carpet and on Julia's sweater after the chocolate gorge (see above).
  
• The sugar crash that got the eldest child in a major mope, yelling "This is a bad day...the worst ever!!!" at about 7pm on Valentines.
• (warning: this one ain't perty) It appears that Julia found Lauren's tooth laying around and now it is nowhere to be found (we will be checking diapers)...not to mention she may have washed it down by eating toothpaste...yes, we do feed her plenty!!!
  

solving world problems one at a time {a quote story}...

This morning while eating toaster waffles in her jammies, Sarah watched a little Curious George. We all know that George can get himself in some trouble when unsupervised. Well, when the show was nearing the end, Sarah says (as if the man in the yellow hat were a clueless gentleman)..."Mom, if I had a monkey like George...I would not let him outside at all." There. Problem solved.

I chose not to remind her that George manages to find trouble inside too.p.s. Jeff thinks I posted this story just to bury the whiny one below. He might be right. (read my comment posted under story below)

well, i think they're cool...

There are certain things I debate about putting on the blog and this one is questionable as I wouldn't want to offend. However, when mama bear comes out in me, I get ridiculous.

Today was 100 day at school. In principle, this day could be pretty fun. I can think of all kinds of things kids could do that would commemorate the day sufficiently. But for now, I just do what I'm told and today I sent Lauren to school with 100 items of her choosing to share with her classmates.
She had been thinking about it she said. And...she chose Q-tips.

Now, last year I learned the hard way...you don't send your kid to school with anything creative, like 100 acorns from the summer cottage beach (and, yes, I was mad then too). I thought Q-tips might be trouble, but who am I to interject with a kid's imagination? She counted out 100 of those things and packed 'em in her backpack to share with everyone (beaming...I might add).

This afternoon, she came home with a load of candy, a pencil, eraser, paper clip, and....
...100 Q-tips in a baggie.

I asked why she still had them and she said, "Everyone laughed at me when I stood on my chair to show them...I didn't have to hand them out then." Zinger. I proceeded to stick Q-tips in my nose, in my mouth and out my ears to prove to her that the kids clearly did not know how cool Q-tips are. (Note: if you want to scare an 18 month old baby and get her to run in other direction...please do the above)

I'm sorry, am I really supposed to go spend mucho dinero on 100 pieces of candy so that my kid can be cool and not get laughed at? C'mon...really? Did we not just wrap up Halloween and Christmas sugar fests and now have the prospect of Valentine candy looming on the horizon? Really? Can we not find something constructive to do with the number 100 that does not include putting kids in the position of getting ridiculed or coming home with loads of candy they don't need?

So...there you have it. My thoughts on 100 Day. Don't even get me started on how I feel about Twin Day.

a glimpse of spring {photoshoot}...

It was in the 50's here yesterday and perfect timing would have it that I was lucky enough to get out for a photo shoot with a senior. Check out more pics from the session over at the photoblog.