Monday, January 22, 2007

Memories

Since we've started talking about going to Oceanside Thing 2 has popped up with a memory from last year. Which is odd, considering she would have been 2.5 years old... it's kind of amazing she remembers much at all. Anyway, she talks about how Papa fell asleep outside on the chair. Apparently he was eating dry cereal, and he had some in his hand. Thing 2 remembers taking the cereal out of his limp hand and eating it, without waking him up. Which sounds completely plausible. When I asked her about this to demonstrate her amazing memory to Jeff, she added some richness and detail to the story that she hadn't before. All of which seemed to just verify the truth of it.


Both girls are so excited about going. They don't understand the concept of "we'll be going in a couple of weeks," they're ready to leave tomorrow. In fact several times they've suggested we leave later in the current day. When I picked Thing 2 up from school on Friday her teacher said goodbye a little more warmly than usual, then I guess saw me watching curiously so she explained that Thing 2 told her we were leaving for the beach. I had to explain to her that it will be two or three weeks before we go.

I've been on a vacuuming kick. Since I bought the Dyson I'm not just waiting to vacuum every month or so... I'm vacuuming several times a week. It's amazing... In fact I saw some stuff on the rug and I'd like to vacuum now... One of my problems is the girls usually have a mess all over the floor. This occurs even in their bedroom, despite the fact that almost all of the toys have been moved to the playroom now. So it means I vacuum upstairs one day, and downstairs the other. I probably vacuum each floor about every third day... downstairs, then upstairs and I sometimes even drag the Dyson up there, then I skip a day or two then start over. If I compare my PreDyson behavior with my Post Dyson behavior it is a truly dramatic change. Since I've been weighing the dirt I get out of the rug, I've been convinced that it is working. Either the thing isn't picking up as well or I am actually decreasing the amount of dirt in our house. I'm choosing to believe there's less dirt.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

My life as a ticking bomb...

I am too tense.

I was on the phone with my folks, cleaning up the house so I could vacuum before the kids make so much of a mess I can no longer vacuum.
Suddenly they appear before me with a set of scrapbook paper doll things I must have got from Current a while back. Time to hang up the phone. I REALLY don’t want to do this paper doll thing, I want to vacuum and then start the laundry, and then get the kids dressed because I have to take them to the store and buy stuff to make for the cooking group tonight.
But that’s not going to happen. Suddenly we are going to have a scrapbook paperdoll making party. Did I say the girls are still in their pajamas? It’s 11:30…
My idea was that they could decorate a page and put a photo on it. So I’m trying to control what paper doll things get punched out, and find some photos to put on the pages, and about this time all HELL broke loose. Paper doll parts were being punched out with gay abandon whenever my back was turned, the photos that I laboriously found on the camera were printing in 45 inch format instead of 4 x 6, Thing 2 came in and wanted to play Nemo on the computer while I was trying to control the damage from the photo and the paper doll thing, and suddenly the printer is printing off a back log of pictures that Thing 2 apparently queued up last time she played Putt Putt. They can send dozens of pictures to the printer and we've talked about this before. I got upset and made both girls cry... and had to do an overly dramatic worshipful “I’m SO SORRY” thing to get them to calm down.
Trying to contain my tension, we finished the paper doll scrapbook page with NO PHOTOS, just the little paper dolls. Thing 1’s really does look darling, but she’s currently drawing all over the back of it right now. I just need to go rescue it before she starts coloring on the paper dolled part on the front…
Thing 2 is standing next to me begging to play on the computer. Just a minute honey…
She says “I want to play Putt Putt..”
I say “I know, honey,”
She roars “I’m not FINISHED!” and starts howling at jumping up and down crying. She had wanted to say "Putt Putt... Saves the Zoo" or "Putt Putt... Travels Through Time" or something, but I didn't realize this and interrupted her. This is a common problem… it takes her about ten minutes to formulate a sentence, usually it’s the same one she’s been chanting at me for the past ten minutes… but while she’s saying it this time, I have to sit quietly and not do anything but listen or she’ll get absolutely pissed off and yell at me, which happens about ten times every hour.

I feel about ready to pop sometimes…

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Living up to a legend

We had a marvelous Christmas…

There are a couple of things I’ve been wanting to write since then… including one I wrote down and emailed myself that I may have to put in here later.
But right now…
I was playing Wii with Thing 1, and Thing 2 was on the computer playing putt-putt or something. Then I hear her going to the bathroom, which usually means she’s going to call me to come wipe her. But she doesn’t. Thing 2 comes in and announces proudly something about she only used a little paper, and she didn’t leave it on the floor. What does that mean? I do not know. She comes in and sits down to play with us. Sure honey, I hand her the contoller, and I go to do something (and find out what she means about the bathroom). She has pulled the toilet paper in a long streamer across the toilet, out the door, through the hall, and into the office.
I call her to find out what’s going on. When she come in she gets kind of vague. I ask her to help roll it back on the roll, since it’s all one big strip, and when she’s doing that I ask her again what happened, why she rolled out all that toilet paper. She starts talking about the time Thing 1 was a baby - crawling - and unrolled the toilet paper while I was in the shower, and when I got out of the shower and found toilet paper all over the bathroom and how I thought it was funny (and took a picture). We had been looking in one of our photo books and saw a picture of the bathroom after Baby Thing 1 had shredded a ton of toilet paper and spread it all over the bathroom.

She wanted to be just like Thing 1, I guess.