One Singular Sensation

In the pre-DVD, pre-cable, pre-video-game, rural, Snowy State of my youth, a major winter after-school activity for Auntie BSU and I was to turn on a record (yes, a round thing that goes round and round) and sing and dance. We'd perform the same record several times an afternoon for weeks or months on end, until another one caught our attention. Musicals were the best. Of course, there were fights about who got to "play" which part. I think I usually won. I always had some good lawyer-in-training reason. Auntie BSU was a better sport than I gave her credit for.

Of all the records over all the months of all the winters, my favorite was always Chorus Line. Well into my 20s, when asked what my lifelong goal was, I would say "If I could do anything I wanted, I would play Val in Chorus Line on Broadway, but I'll have to be the first female Supreme Court Chief Justice instead because I have a much better chance at that job."

I've never seen it on stage. I will on Sunday night.

THANK YOU, DADDY!!!!

Bouncing with a Princess

Cinderella visited the Rainy State yesterday. We met her at a place with bouncy houses. Moolah was VERY excited. A princess and an hour of bouncing all together. Then there was pizza. Moolah has been opposed to pizza for a few months now. Cinderella turned that all around.

Rumor among the Moms present was that our Cinderella used to play the part at Disneyland. She was very good. She brought her own books to read. She also had answers ready to all the girls' questions.

"I don't like the mean stepmother!"

"Yes, well, she's trying very hard to be nicer these days."

"I like you, but Ariel is my favorite princess."

"Ariel is one of my best friends. She and Prince Eric came to a ball at the palace last night."

To a girl crawling under her dress

"Are you looking for my glass slippers? They are on display at the palace."

Miss A. joined us. She's in the orange dress with the white & pink cowboy boots. Moolah also wore her boots and a princess shirt. She initially insisted that boots, panties and a shirt were all she would wear. I almost had to call Cinderella to convince her that she needed to wear something over her panties. Miss A's Mama. had a similar issue.

Thanks to Mama Miss A. for the pictures. The first one is a video. Click on the triangle to play.

Weekend Pics: Highland Games & Miss A's Birthday Party

Highland Games:

Ace enjoying the spectacle

Winner of the Women's Kilted Mile (whose name is Moolah)

Moolah in a few years?

Caber toss

Happy 4th Birthday to Miss A: Hello Kitty Mermaid Swim Party

Ace enjoyed his cupcake.

Meet Halle, the swim instructor Miss A's (very smart) parents hired to come to the swim party! She got Moolah to put her chin in the water and blow bubbles. Then, Moolah was "showing" me her trick and accidentally bounced all the way under. She went to Halle for comfort, and Halle asked her whether she saw Ariel, Nemo, Dori & Flounder. Halle is brilliant!

Mmmm. Goldfish.

Weekend Pics: Highland Games & Miss A

Highland Games

Speaking of Daddy's creative outlet... he's pretty proud of this one

It's a little too small on the computer to see the fabulous detail.

First Job

In the morning, Strider and I go for a walk/run. When I get back, I get him water and Moolah feeds him. She can go under the house, turn on the light, get the food, bring it to him, put the cup back, turn off the light, and close the door.

This morning, Strider and I came in through the garage (halfway down the stairs for those who haven't seen Strider's House in person). I heard Moolah in the living room and asked (from the stairs) whether she wanted to come feed Strider. I heard her voice, but not her answer. I went upstairs. She wasn't on the couch. She wasn't in the chair. She wasn't at the table.

"Where are you?"

"Right here."

'Right here' was close, I could tell by the sound, but I couldn't tell where. She wasn't in the hall. Double check the table.

"Where?"

"Right here."

"I don't see you."

"giggle"

Dr. Visit

Ace had his "one year" appointment yesterday. He was 22 lbs and 30 inches. Last month they weighed him at 26 lbs on a grown-up scale. That must have been wrong.

He got 3 shots and a red lolipop (his first as far as I know).

He came home and ate dinner. I was doing dishes. Suddenly I noticed that things were very quiet.

First "Word"

Ace signed "more" on Wednesday. He was so pleased with himself. He's still working on the concept. If I ask him if he wants "more", he'll sign back to me even when he's "all done" -- which he then signs by pushing the spoon away and ducking his head into his shoulder.

No More Excuses!

I need to get up and work out in the morning. No more excuses. Invalid excuses include:

• I don't wanna
• I'll just hit "snooze" once
• The kids were up last night at ___ o' clock and ___ o'clock
• I don't wanna
• Bed is so comfortable!
• I'm going to Boot Camp tonight anyway
• I don't wanna
• I haven't gotten my "official" workout from Danielle yet
• It'll be too cold
• It'll be too hot
• I don't wanna

11th Chomper

Lower right pre-molar.

Ace's First Art

And, for those of you wondering "Why have we gotten 3 posts from Mama in the middle of a workday?" Moolah has a pretty high fever, although otherwise seems fine.

More from Moolah's Mind

We were watching "Finding Nemo" and at the part where Nemo and Dory are swallowed by the whale, and then spouted out into the air in Sydney Harbor.

"That's fun. When I was a fish, I did that."
"When were you a fish?"
"Tuesday."
"And you got swallowed by a whale and got to ride out on his spout."
"Yup. It was fun."

Krista Rocks!

Last month I decided to spend money on what I thought was the most frivolous service I had ever craved. I hired Krista Colvin of Organize in Style to assess my house and help me out with "hot spots". (I did think to myself, "I'm saying "hot spots" to an organizing consultant... what kind of silliness is that!?")

My top priority was a "mission control center" ... a place to put mail, charge cell phones, deal with the massive amounts of kid artwork that pass through our doors every day, etc. Anyone who has visited Strider's House can attest to the fact that these things took over every available horizontal surface: kitchen table, the top of the play kitchen, the kitchen counters, the shelves of the CD rack, the top of the DVD player... usually all at once.

Well, it took two "places", and a month, but here are the before and after photos... do you think I could make Sunset a second time?

Toy closet trasformed to Mission Control

(mail, filing, recycling, shred, trash, mail station, & "go downstairs" bin):

Secretary Catch all transformed to

Charging station, artwork storage

(and the kids can do it themselves!)

Oh, and I didn't even have to clean them up to take the pictures. They really looked like this after a week that I worked 6 days in a row. Now, the kitchen, on the other hand, is still a complete disaster!

Sharing

Moolah learned the song "Stay on the Sunny Side" from her Daytime Family. She likes it a lot. One day she requested the Sunshine Song. I learned from a loud and clear communication (NO! NO! NO!) that the Sunshine Song is not the Sunny Side Song. She couldn't sing the Sunshine Song for me, so I told her I had my own Sunshine Song, and that it had been my favorite song when I was a girl about her age.

Now our nightly bedtime song is "Sunshine on my Shoulders", and I enjoy sharing that with her a lot.

We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all families are entitled to pancakes, parades, and things that go BOOM

Ace grabbed a hamburger patty off the table and chowed it down with glee that made Daddy proud.

Playing with Matches

Moolah had heard Daddy make a request, so she checked on my assignment.

"Mama, did you get matches at Safeway?"

"Yes"

"Can I play with them?"

"No. Matches are not for playing with. They are very dangerous. You can never play with matches."

"But I have play matches in my room. Can I play with those?"

"Sweetheart, matches are very very dangerous. Please don't even pretend to play with matches."

~concerned look~

"But, I have matches in my room for playing with. They are shapes."

Shapes? Well, she was pretending to pick strawberries that fit in Ace's shape sorter the other day, so it must be a shapes week."

"You can't play with matches no matter what shape they are."

She went to her room and brought back a set of dominoes with shapes that she likes to match up.

"OH! Yes. You can play with those matches. They are safe for you. I got a different kind of matches at Safeway, the kind that make fire."

"Silly Mama, you made a mistake!"

Stairs

The gate is gone from our stairs. Ace is safe going up and down, and he likes it a lot.

Knock Knock

Moolah surprised Daddy and I at dinner by spontaneously delivering her first (to us) Knock Knock joke, followed by her second, third, and eventually approximatley 17th before we cut it off. Always the same set up, varying punchlines. She was very proud of it, although it needs a little work. It was something like:

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Mr. Potato Head.
Mr Potato Head who?
Mr. Potato Head I ate a shoe.

I searched the internet for a Mr. Potato Head joke to try to find the original punchline, but no luck. If you've got any good ones, put them in the comments. I'll be needing some soon!

Potential disaster averted by a toddler-sized window, F&C Blue No. 1 ,and a shot glass

I was in the park before 6 am to work out with a Boot Camp instructor who recently moved to the neighborhood. It was already hot & humid. I went to work and spent all day on a difficult and tedious piece of legal writing while it was getting hotter and more humid. Daddy went to a soccer game with Mama's Lawyer. I was looking for a low-tot-supervision kind of evening. Secondarily, I didn't want to go anywhere near the holiday traffic.

I had heard about a new kid-friendly restaurant that was supposed to be fabulous. Moms are raving about it. I thought maybe I'd read a chapter or two of my book while they played happily. I sold Moolah. It would be new and really fun. We drove across town through Blues Festival traffic. Moolah kept her spirits up the whole way, looking for boats, watching for lights to turn green.

We found our destination. Hooray! It had cold white chairs and stainless steel tables. A couple of orange beanbags. No kids. No people for that matter, except the guy fixing a curtain. No toys. This was not the tot-enticing wonderland that I was looking for. Moolah said "This is not the new restaurant. I thought we were going to the new restaurant." This was not a time for social graces. I thanked the guy fixing the curtain and we left.

I put on my happy face and said "We tried something new, and we learned something. So, what else would be fun?" But, she wanted to go waaaaay across town to the last very kid-friendly-fun-with-a-wonderful-playroom restaurant we visited. Ace was melting down. Traffic was terrible. There was no way. She thought. And thought. She said "I'm still thinking.... I know, how about another new restaurant with lots of fun toys?" I wished.

We were only a few blocks from my office. Maybe I got the name of the place wrong. Maybe there is actually a new fun restaurant with lots of toys. I took the kids to my office and got on the computer. They played with the toys in the waiting room. No luck, though.

"What if we went to a restaurant with no toys but we got ice cream afterward?" Yes, that would do. I grabbed my purse, chased Ace and a school bus down the hall, and told Moolah to shut the inner door behind her --- one second before I remembered that my keys were on my desk. At 6:30 on the day before a holiday, there was no one with keys within miles of the office. There is a reception window. I might be able to fit through.... but, Moolah fit through easily. She had to be coaxed into it, but she made it down off the desk and into the mail bucket (she would want me to include that detail because it was the best part for her). I knocked on the door so that she could find it and open it. Relief... we were free! But, we still didn't have a destination.

I asked what she wanted to eat. We decided on spaghetti. I could do that. I headed towards a mall surrounded by several restaurants, including an "Old Spaghetti Factory" and two other chain restaurants that Moolah has liked in the past. I gave her a choice. The one with the red bird and freckled lemonade. The one with blue juice. The new spaghetti place. Blue juice won (no wonder she didn't choose another new place). She and Ace ate Mac & Cheese. She drank blue juice. She danced. Things were looking up.

To seal the deal, I told her we could go get ice cream, or we could have dessert in Moolah-sized glasses. That was intriguing. We ordered the new shot-glass desserts. I even sprang for the combo of 3. She chose chocolate brownie and caramel apple. I added strawberry cheesecake. She thought that was really fun. Ace wanted more, more, more.

All was well. All kids were also asleep not long after our return home.

Conbrasation with Moolah

Driving home from Boot Camp:

"Why did you close the roof window [sunroof], Mama?"
"Because we're getting on the freeway. It's too noisy to have the roof window open on the freeway."
"Where is the freeway."
"It's right here. We're on it now."
"I think lasterday they took it down."
"They took what down?"
"The freeway, Silly Goose."
"You think they took the freeway down?"
"Yes. Lasterday."
"Why did they take the freeway down."
"I don't know. I guess they wanted to."