Vegas

Our three days in Vegas was a ball. A lot of what made it so much fun was the fabulous hotel room, with its huge sunken living room and massive bathroom. You have to understand that I live in a little 100 year old house, and it would take knocking down a couple walls in my house to get a space as wide open as this room. The kids could jump from bed, to bed, to the half wall behind the couch, to the couch, to the big stuffed coffee table, and still not be at the window at the far end. I know this from experience. Just being in the room was a new treat for them. I have quite a few pictures of them dancing around the bathroom, too.



So not only is the hotel amazing because of the room, but then there's the pool.
Any pool will do for Thing 1 and 2, they don’t care too much as long as they can get wet. This one was nice in that it was new and clean and pretty cool, but not as neat as it could have been as we walked by three nice pools with decks on either end that would have been perfect for two little girls to splash around in 1 ½ feet deep water if it hadn’t have been full of lawn chairs for people to sunbathe on. We had to go to the 3.3 foot deep pool, over Thing 2’s head and just reaching Thing 1’s neck. But they were thrilled to spend the better part of a day there. My plan was to take them there the last day of our trip while Jeff did his conference stuff, but by then we had some sunburn going on from the previous day, so I let them play in the fabulous hotel room until around 4:30. They really enjoyed even that time at the pool, as it was on a Monday, less crowded, and so we got to hang out on one of the shallow decks a little more.



We took them to a Cirque du Soleil show, Mystere, and they quite liked that. Thing 1 REALLY liked it, Thing 2 got tired at the end but enjoyed most of it. There was lots of slapstick humor to keep their interest, and lots of fancy costumes with feathers flipping around. Neat stuff.

We had a lot of fun just walking around the corridors between the Palazzo and the Venetian. The girls met the Duchess of Venice, and saw statues of the Blue Men.






Sunday night in Vegas we gave the kids the choice between the King’s jousting tournament and Dinner at the Excalibur ($65 a plate) or the Kung Fu Panda movie. They chose the panda. It all turned out for the best, probably, despite the fact that they would have really enjoyed the dinner and joust, I think, because Thing 2 fell asleep on the hike down to the movie theater, being piggybacked on my back. She woke up about 20 minutes before the movie ended.

So this is our first official day of summer, sleeping in and hanging out until noon in our pajamas. Kristin and her friend are staying with us tonight, so I’ve got to get the toyroom and TV room picked up, but I’m probably going to rather give up on the rest of the house, seeing as how I haven’t even got started on it and it’s now pushing 2 pm and we’re STILL in our pajamas. I did clean the guest bathroom, though, so that’s something. The dining room table doubles as my office space, unfortunately and I just don’t have anywhere to put some of that stuff without losing it, and it’s stuff that needs to be dealt with.
Sigh.

School's out for summer

We were in the car the other day and someone pulled up next to us with some antenna decorations on. I’ve seen plenty of foamy black balls with Mickey Mouse ears, but this one also had a white Mouse glove under that, a pair of red Mickey Mouse shorts under that, and the yellow Mickey Mouse shoes under that, all in a row on the antenna. I told Thing 1 to look out her window to see it and she said, “It’s a Mickey Mouse-ka-bob!”

She had her last day of Kindergarten yesterday, and I’m not sure she’s ready for 1st Grade.

This is Thing 1 with her Kindergarten teacher, sitting on the lap of the aide. It was a wonderful environment, I really liked both the teacher and the aide.



We made the mistake of telling her she’d be going for the full day next year, and she naturally thought that meant from breakfast until bedtime. While it’s not QUITE that long, it still seems like a long time to me and I’m really going to miss my girl. Thing 2 starts Kindergarten in the fall, and I think she’s going to love it. She already knows the teacher, and the room… and I’m really going to enjoy taking the two of them to the same school instead of traipsing up to the university on the odd days.

They had the end of year carnival at the elementary school yesterday and it was wonderful. We thought they might get rained out, but it turned out gorgeous, long sleeve weather, but still very nice. The girls had a great time, and I really enjoyed another chat with the playground moms.




This has been the nicest little group of people who stand outside Mrs. McDonald’s class after it’s over and chat. We are all planning on getting together this summer, and I would be perfectly happy to continue this but I’m afraid everyone will get busy with 1st grade stuff and we just won’t have the time to stand and chat for an hour after school like we do now. Too bad, this has been one of the highlights of my life. And I’m not sure it will be the same in Thing 2’s class. There was just the nicest group of moms in Thing 1’s classmates.

The final party for Thing 2’s preschool was today, and it was nice too, though certainly quieter than the major event that was the elementary school party. Every event, though, Thing 2 informs me was The Best Day of Her Life…

Lack of sleep

There are so many times I think of great things to write, but don’t get to the computer and I forget. The times I do seem to get to the computer sometimes are when I’m angry about something. Or sulking… I suppose no one wants to interrupt or get in the way by the time I’m this frustrated about something….

Last night it was my goal to get to bed by 10:30. I am sleep deprived, a lot of it my own fault. But the crazy thing is when I'm not keeping myself up, when I've decided I'm going to put myself to bed, that's when the world conspires against me and turns itself on at 10:00 pm. Last night Hubby called about 9:00, just as I was brushing the girls' teeth. I was running late night, I like getting them down by 8:30, so I was late anyway. I talked to him for half an hour, and one of the primary motivations for him to call was to talk to me about Vegas. He’s asked me before if I thought it would be a good idea, but I’ve spaced off looking into it. Well, he had to respond about the hotel, and needed to know if I was willing to come out and bring the girls.

So, the girls ran amok while I talked on the phone to him for half an hour, then it was close to 10:00 pm. by the time they got in bed. This means it’s 10:00 pm by the time I start my internet search to see if there’s enough stuff for the girls to do in Vegas to justify bringing them. Of course, it’s close to 11:00 by the time I’ve looked everything up, figured out which Cirque du Soleil show would work, etc. etc. etc. and called and left a message for Hubby, who took a red-eye from San Francisco to Michigan or somewhere last night, so he could respond about the hotel.

One of the options would be to leave the girls with my folks and go to Vegas ourselves. So I called my mother as I crawled into bed, right close to 11:00, to see if she could take the girls, if that would even be an option. Of course we talked for close to half an hour, forty mintues or so.

Finally I went to sleep, pushing midnight. Thing 2 woke me up at 4:30, calling from her room… I went in and she said “I want to give you a hug.” No nightmare,… No drink of water… no rolled out of bed. A hug. Couldn’t the hug wait until DAYLIGHT???? I give her a hug, go to the bathroom, and stumble back to bed.

At 6:07 she is standing next to my bed with her new teddy bear she got at a build-a-bear birthday party last night. She wants me to put his shirt on. She took it off last night so he could sleep more comfortably, and it’s ten minutes after six, the sun is hardly up, and she’s waking me up to put his shirt on. I beg her to go back to sleep. Don’t wake up Thing 1 (in the top bunk), just go back to sleep. She very quickly dissolves into tears. FINE! I sit up and grab the bear and put on its shirt to shut her up. OF course I don’t look too far into the future, to realize that

1) My sitting up and putting on the shirt in a huff causes her to completely dissolve into tears.

2) What’s she going to do once she has the bear’s shirt on but bother me?

I beg her to be quiet, she cries, this goes on for a few moments. Finally she toddles off in a huff. Of course she wakes up Thing 1.

Thing 1 comes in and cuddles with me. We try to sleep, but really just listen to Thing 2 cry for a while in the next room about how much I don’t love her anymore. Finally she stops crying and comes in wrapped in a sympathy blanket and I pull her into bed with us and cuddle her until she seems okay. She frets about her dance recital today. I try to calm her down. Then she and Thing 1 wander off. It’s about 6:40 am. I roll over and go back to sleep.

For approximately three mintues. Thing 2 comes in and asks me to get the box for her build-a-bear. I lay there for a minute thinking what can I say… It’s totally futile to try and sleep anymore, it’s just frustrating me, so finally I just get up. She runs out screaming “No! No! I just wanted you to say yes or no!!!!” As though I was coming to get her and flay her or something.

So I am up. It’s 7:30, a big day with the dance dress rehersal, the concert, and my folks coming around 4:00 to our totally messy house. I have to go pick up our first co-op food drop. I’ve had a six hours of sleep (wildly interrupted sleep) on my grand catch-up sleep period.

I feel like so tired and incompetent all the time, like I’m going through a sticky sleep haze trying to function. It’s time to clean up the kitchen, the toy room, finish the laundry, get the co-op, and get Thing 2 to her rehearsal. I want to cry. Maybe I will. Just have a good cry to myself. While I vacuum.

----

The dance recital was great, it was nice to have Grandma and Papa there for it.
Thing 2 did very well.



This is from the dress rehersal...

Thing 2 cracks me up

We went to a singing concert for Thing 1’s school at Kingsbury hall tonight. Of course the only problem was that Hubby is in New York. Thing 1 did wonderfully, from what I could tell. My view was somewhat obstructed by the narrator and a music stand, but when he sat down I could mostly see her. She didn’t sing with the enthusiasm I would have expected on the bug song that she sang, which she has been singing around the house since the first of the year, but she made up for it on another song they sang, which was just charming.

There were two other songs she sang, one about out my window, the other about my heart is home, both of which the whole school sang. I got some video of it, but you can't see her at all. The kindergarteners were standing on the floor in front of the stage, and the only ones you could see was the line of kids in the front of the pack. But the songs were really neat, inspiring to have this whole school of kids singing the song, it really choked me up. All in all it was a really nice concert. The songs were wonderful, the kids did great.

The video is pretty grainy, and I was filming it with Thing 2 squirming on my lap, and was farther back than I would have liked, but you get the idea.



We came back and made mini cinnamon rolls, and I think the girls both ate too much. Thing 2 was complaining of a tummy ache. Thing 1 went into the bathroom and seemed to be taking a while. I went to the door to ask if she was okay and she said she’d had a BM (not her words) and had been burping, and wondered if she was going to throw up. I went in to kind of help her and make sure she turned around in time…

after a couple of minutes Thing 2 knocked on the door, and without opening it (Thing 1 has developed a sense of privacy, which Thing 2 nicely respected) her little hand reached in and put something on the bathroom counter. She hollered through the door that she had left something for Thing 1. When Thing 1 seemed settled and figured she probably wasn’t going to throw up I finally got a chance to see what Thing 2 had left her. It was one of the individual Pedialyte containers. She assured Thing 1 it was really yummy medicine and would make her feel better, though I don't think Thing 2 has ever tasted it herself.

My other favorite Thing 2 story of the day happened last week. We were sitting at breakfast and Thing 2 rather spontaneously announced out of nowhere that if she were drawing a mean face she would do this, and such, and draw the eyes so, and on and on as she was drawing in the air with her imaginary pencil. At the same time she was demonstrating her mean face. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I brought Thing 1’s attention to Thing 2’s brow and how it went down in a V in the middle. Since Thing 1 is kind of my visual artist, it was a beautiful demonstration.
Not wanting Thing 2 to be left out, since Thing 1 was furrowing her brow to make a mean face too, I showed Thing 2 how it looked on Thing 1’s face. But I suppose as I really think Thing 1 might be the one to really get something out of this demonstration, I went back to pointing out Thing 2’s features to Thing 1. Besides, I think Thing 2 was really more into making the mean face. So I’m pointing this out. “Look, Thing 1, how her eyes get little, and she gets those lines on the bridge of her nose… and – Hey Thing 2, you don’t have a mean mouth! A mean mouth would be drawn down showing teeth, or a big frown, I think. And you’re smiling! You have mean eyes but a great big grin!” Thing 2 responded, and I quote, “That means I have a plan.”

Newfound allergy

Just had a major scare. I was kneeling on the floor in the girl’s room folding clothes when suddenly my head felt funny – a really strong pulse in my head. I got up to look in the mirror and sure enough my face was really red…. I didn’t know what to do, walked back into the girl’s room and the pulse is throbbing really strongly in my head… I laid down, didn’t help. I was feeling pretty darn awful, and started wondering if I’d be able to drive myself to the emergency room, or if I’d need an ambulance.

I came downstairs and fired up my computer and tried looking up “pulse in head” and, wondering if it might be related to the three brazil nuts I’d just eaten a few mintues before, typed in Allergy. I wasn’t getting much help. About this time I felt compelled to add “nausea” but before I could get much from that I went in the bathroom and threw up.  And again.

My body seems to be good at purging. I feel quite a bit better, though my face still feels terribly swollen, my nose is COMPLETELY stuffed up – Hubby told me it looks swollen too, and it’s almost hard to open my eyes in my swollen face. I think I want to go to bed. I’m just awfully glad Hubby is here. The drive to the emergency room with the girls in tow would have been really awkward.
 So apparently I'm allergic to Brazil nuts.
Hubby had the audacity to suggest I was overreacting.
He wasn't the one who thought his pulse was going to blow his brains out.

Good and bad at Church and school

It is such a shame that I don’t write things down when I’m thinking of them. The girls are always popping off with the funniest, cutest things, and I don’t remember later. Dang it.
They have been so sweet lately, lovely, loving little girls. Very few issues.

So.
There is a little girl at Thing 2’s preschool whom I do not like. It started when Thing 2 started school last year in the younger of the two preschool classes taught by a woman named Sandra. On the first day, as I watched my sweet 3 year old in her first moments of preschool through the two way mirror in the observation room, I saw this little girl (named Anna) reach forward and pinch Thing 2’s bum. Hard enough to make Thing 2 jump. Unprovoked. The naughty little tart! Thing 2 took it well, and just turned back around. But Anna earned a place on my black list.
She continued through the year playing favorites – “you’re my friend, you’re NOT my friend!” which would send all the other little girls into tailspins of despair that Anna didn’t like them. I thought this sort of crap didn't start until they were in the 2nd or 3rd grade! I looked forward to not having to worry about that the next year of preschool when I moved Thing 2 across the hall to the other preschool class, Mary’s class. I was quite unhappy to see Anna’s mother at Mary’s beginning-of-the-year-meeting the following fall.
Anna continued to be a problem, for me anyway. Thing 2 was alternately best friends, and desperately unhappy to be on the outs with Anna. I saw her doing things on the playground that I would have had serious words with my girls over – throwing a toy down the slide, then when someone walked by and picked it up extending it to her – “Here, you dropped this,” she'd come screaming down the slide at them “you give that back! That’s MINE!” One afternoon Anna was following another little girl named Lexi, who I think is a hoot, around the playground. They each had a stack of plastic bowls. Lexi gave me one as I was standing there, saying with a cute little smile that I could have my cereal in it. Anna, coming along behind, snatched it out of my hands and chastised me profoundly for playing with their toys. Lexi watched this sadly, then shrugged at me and followed Anna off.

At the first Parent teacher conference Mary asked if I minded if she started separating Thing 2 and Anna, as when they were together Thing 2 got really catty and sassy, and neither one of them behaved very well. OF COURSE you can separate them!!! Please move Anna to the other class! No? Well, keep my sweet little muffin away from that emotional rollercoaster!

Thing 2 has asked for playdates with Anna, and I have always put her off. I try to be discouraging in a vague way, but apparently at one point or another she heard me express my dislike of Anna. The next time I co-oped, sitting at their snack table Anna informed me that Thing 2 said I didn’t like her. It's kind of tough to face down anyone confronts you with that sort of remark, and I kind of stammered that I don’t like some of the things she does.

The next time I co-oped, the kids were drawing what they liked about school. Of course they’re at an age and drawing level that usually without some explanation it is impossible to tell what they’ve drawn. The great thing about Thing 2’s drawings is when she explains it, suddenly it becomes blaringly obvious. The box with eight legs becomes the wheeled whiteboard they put the daily calendar on and stuff like that. Anna was in Thing 2’s group, and had drawn a purple box on her paper. I asked her what she’d drawn. She pushed it forward so I could see it better but didn’t say anything. I said “can you tell me what it is?” she barked back “HELLLLOOOO!!!” If Thing 2 would have said that…. Sheesh. But she’s not my kid, and I have never been spoken to with such disrespect before, by anyone of any age. It caught me off guard, and I stammered out something about she needs to tell me, and she stalks off. Why I oughtta....

Luckily at some point, Thing 2 was hurt and insulted enough and maybe she overheard me relating Anna's impudence enough for her to understand that Anna was bad news, and we were better off with as little contact with her as we could get.

Thing 2 still talks about "Mean Anna," reliving slights and bad behavior.

In other arenas, Church is usually something we all endure. The girls like the big congregational meeting the best, because we sit on the back row where I feel we're not under as much scrutiny, and I let them do whatever they want as long as it's quiet. I pack more in my church bag than my husband does for a week away, nearly, but I need to be able to keep those kids quiet for 70 minutes. We live where there aren't many kids, so any noise my two make doesn't get lost in the crowd, it punctuates the medative silence.

This week Thing 1 made a fabulous paper house during the big meeting using card stock paper and tape around a framework of hymn books, and decorated it with markers. She was really proud of it and insisted on carrying the paper construction out to the car herself. On the way out we got held up by traffic in the aisle between the pews and she turned to a tall man standing behind her, and looking way up at his face announced to him “I built a house for my frog. I used the books. It has flowers under the window, and is fabulous.” He was appropriately appreciative, bless his heart.

In Thing 2's sunday school class they must have been talking about baptism. Thing 2 drew a picture of a baptism scene, with her in the water and another big person in the water… and just behind the big person in the water were pirates sailing into view. Those darn baptism-crashing pirates.

Back from Italy

Thing 1 is precious and delicate and charming. She is usually my compliant child, but she has her moments. Last night she didn't help Hubby clean up the mess in the kids' room despite his repeatedly asking for her help. The last straw was when she wouldn't relinquish the container that Thing 2 was trying to put blocks into, and Hubby barked at her that there would be no stories for her that night.

She completely dissolved. She cried. It's hard to diffuse this sort of situation without undermining the disciplining parent, and I was proud of Hubby for exerting some discipline because I think he often doesn’t want to discipline them much because they don’t see him as much as anyone would like. Her tears hit me like no other, and it's hard for me to not do anything in my power to get her to stop. But I kept out of it, and she eventually, grudgingly and angrily, went quietly to bed.
Right after we turned out the light and came downstairs, after she was too angry at either one of us to come out from under her covers to be kissed goodnight, we heard her pleading cry to us to come upstairs. She was sobbing again. I went first and gathered her up in my arms and she curled in a ball and cried into my shoulder how she was so sorry and was worried she wouldn't be able to say goodbye to daddy (we had told her he was catching the red-eye to New York) and she was thinking of how much she loved us. He was standing in the doorway and came in, I passed Thing 1 to him and he stood there holding her and she cried and clung to him, and he cried and held her tight and kissed her head, and I stood there in the moonlight watching them and cried myself.

Hubby and I just got back on Saturday from 10 days in Florence, Italy.
I need to write more about that, but first I need to write a couple of things that my mother reported that the girls said.
Once after brushing her teeth Thing 2 was looking for her cup to take a drink out of and couldn’t find it. Mom suggested she just drink out of Thing 1’s. Thing 1 is a confirmed germaphobe, especially Thing 2’s germs. Thing 2 protested “But then Thing 1 will get my germs.” Grandma assured her it would be okay, Thing 1 wouldn’t know and it’s really okay… Thing 2’s eyes got big and she said, “But I’ll get HER germs!”

They got sick just a couple of days before we got back. Mom and Dad had both been really sick Wednesday and Thursday, Dad was vomiting a lot, but they were better by Friday when they had tickets to an opera or symphony 80 miles away. So they left them with my sister, who received the full brunt of their sickness. Thing 1 seemed to be coming down with it when they left, but Kristin assured them she would be okay. Right after they left Thing 1 did get sick and started vomiting. Kristin was holding Thing 2, who seemed a little peaked and told Kristin she didn’t feel good. Kristin thought she was just milking it, as she has done sometimes in the past, until Thing 2 promptly vomited all over Kristin and the love seat they were sitting on. I found a lot of this out when I called from Italy as we were catching the cab in the morning for our flight back. Kristin said between the two of them they vomited 11 times while in her care. She told me that Thing 2 said “Will anyone know?” I thought she meant that they’ll be there suffering with no one to help them, but Kristin told me she was worried that she’d be in trouble for throwing up. Of course she assured Thing 2 repeatedly that she wasn’t in trouble, people understand when you’re sick. Dad told me later that he’d been rather firm with her about not whining and crying over nothing, and he figured she was a little afraid of him. I suspect she was worried he’d get mad at her.

In her breakfast food blessing yesterday Thing 2 prayed that Jesus would let her know in advance when she was going to be sick so she’d make it to the toilet.