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Well, on one hand it’s nice to know that I did not food poison my little girl by giving her unopened soy milk that had been left out over night, and had tasted fine. Nor did we make her ill by ingestion of an improperly washed carrot that caused Morella to spent most of Saturday night “spitting” and “throating”. Another theory that we had was that she had gotten a tummy bug from our little visit to the Children’s Museum on Friday. Anyway, Morella was fine by Saturday morning. She has definitely eaten a lot less than normal since then, but she hasn’t thrown up again.

Last night Neeners was up a lot, wanting to nurse and then be placed back into her crib for a tuck in. I was up at least 7 times. I was super tired this morning and cranky. I got the girls dressed, and then went to get myself dressed. I came back not three minutes later to find Morella and Neeners having a “snow party”. Morella said “I’m a Snow Queen!” and then sprinkled some finely crumbed sytrofoam (the packaging from a child’s card table set we got yesterday and we had yet to throw it away) on her head. There was “snow” everywhere! I took it all in, reached for the camera and took a few pictures and even went as far as to video tape some of the dancing that went along with it before telling them I had to clean it up. “Why?” asked Morella (a dozen times). “Because the cats or dog might eat it and get very sick.” I replied…a dozen times back.

It was somewhere along cleaning that mess up, brushing it out of the girls hairs and clothes, vacuuming the every inch of the floor with two very uncooperative girls that I started to get irritated. After that mess we went over for a playdate in which we were now 30 minutes late. The playdate was … ugh. To put it politely, children were not behaving and had to (in front of everyone) reprimand a child from hitting/pushing Neeners. The kid took it well and stopped, but I felt terrible about having to do it. Then I got a headache. The girls started to cry and wanted to go home, and I was getting shakey from needing to eat so we went home. I made some grilled cheese and blueberries. Morella ate the berries and some of her sandwich and Neeners ate nothing. Then Neeners wanted to take her nap — so I put her down. Afterward I was able to get Morella to take a nap..

oh heck. Long story short. Neeners barfed. She has had three episodes over the course of the night. She went to bed without nursing. Just wanted the crib.

Poor dear. Her first real barf. She only ever spit up a few times when she was a teeny baby. Oh I heard some crying….I should go and make sure there isn’t a baby and bed to change.

Also, apparently we we are in the middle of a blizzard. Woo!

We had breakfast for dinner – ham, scrambled eggs and Krusteaz Buttermilk pancakes (mix). It was delish. We have enough leftover for lunch tomorrow so it was okay to do a one shot dinner on this Sunday Night. Afterwards, we set up the new kids pinch free card table and two of the chairs so that the girls could water paint. It’s great because I can sit on the couch comfortably with them at the table and we can all work together.

We did water color painting for our first project. Seriously, why do I bother? I mean, when it’s both girls “painting” it always devolves to finger painting. I finally just took away the brushes and water paints and replaced it with finger paints and some cut up pieces of brown paper bag. They don’t care about pictures. They only care about the texture of it.

Following that, my little raccoons took a bath and washed all the paint off their face, hair, arms and hands. Morella is now wearing a pair of pink panties and a little yellow tutu and Athena is decked out in a pink dress up skirt — barely hanging on her hips and the famous family crack is showing. They are both on their fourth helping of “Be Our Guest” (Beauty and Beast) song — dancing around like nuts. It is late, but they both had super long naps that lasted until six, so the earliest we can attempt bed is 9:00.

Morella was up all last night barfing, thankfully in a bowl except for one miss. Tim and I think it was either a very short lived bug, or she had milk poisoning from her milk. I admit. The carton had been left out over night, but it wasn’t opened yet so I figured it would be fine. I tasted it and it tasted fine, but maybe she has a super sensitive tummy to that sort of thing. We ended up dumping out the two cartons and just got more.

Oh, I want in on the next song (Be our Guest again).

My stepdad used to always say that to me when I would tell Mom that I was bored. I never saw the point in that particular advice, but maybe I do now.

This morning I got the kids dressed in matching…I’ll include a blurry camera phone so you get the idea…outfits. Pink skirts, white floral patterned tights and a red shirts to go to the Children’s Museum. It’s useful when they are dressed alike so I can find them when they run off. I was also quite proud of myself for packing our own lunch. I brought along some sandwiches, string cheese, bugles and fruit snacks, as well as juice and a diet soda for myself. Part of it is that the food at the Children’s Museum is atrociously overpriced and not that good and because they have a cafeteria where you are free to bring your own food.

Morella and Neeners were having a so so time until Leo and his Mom showed up. Then it was instant fun. Morella and Leo were as thick as thieves running around, exploring and laughing, leaving that stick in the mud Neeners behind. Poor Neeners. When I called Emily to see what they were up to this morning and invite her to the museum with us, she said that Leo was very excited about the prospect. “Morella? and Laura! And Falkor?!”

“Yes,” replied Emily. “And don’t forget Neeners.”
“No Neeners!” he yelled.

I told Emily that we have all felt that way more often than naught the last couple of weeks. To give Neeners a little credit, I did give her some tylenol before we left so she seemed to do okay. Sort of wander around like she was in a fog, but at least no big tantrums. I had to carry her a lot too.

We got back around 1 and the girls immediately went down for naps. I have spent the last few hours looking at the internet and luxuriating in the peace and quiet. Tim is working late tonight so I have a second day of single parenting ahead of me and needed them to nap. This afternoon I am thinking of putting them in snow gear and heading to Olbrich Gardens for a snow walk among the paths.

Uh oh. Morella just got up and told me her shirt is wet. That she got it wet at the museum playing in the water. I know that isn’t true. She peed her be….whew! False alarm. It was just sweaty.

Now she is demanding “WHY? That is my cue to go.

Oh and trivia. Last night I went out and played Team Trivia with a friend of mine over at Dexter’s. Generally I don’t like ‘Answering Questions’ but decided I needed to give it another shot. Who knows, maybe in my new age bracket, I can do it. Turns out that my skills are about the same as they were before, and the enjoyment level is definitely the same. I had three beers to help pass the time. I get that it would be fun to do with friends though. I would totally go and be a trivia team member if a bunch of my friends were doing it. I realized that this is why I don’t like doing crossword puzzle — it’s just glorified trivia. However, I am proud of myself for doing something out of my comfort zone. The second half of my life shall be one filled with new things and fulfilling passions, or trying to.

Got a great idea in the mail today. My friend’s daughter sent Morella a bunch of different scrap book paper, with some paper doll cut outs. I never thought of using fancy paper to make dresses, it’s brilliant! I can’t wait until Morella really gets it. Right now she was very pleased to have received so many different kinds of pretty paper in the mail and went to put them in her cupboard. A little useless nook with a door in the kitchen has now been appropriated.

Man. Morella is up again. She isn’t eating dinner and is instead relying on copious amounts of milk at bedtime. I am trying to break this habit again. Only water now and if she is hungry she had to eat…but I want her to eat her dinner! I don’t want to give her anything else because I am sick of her not eating dinner. You know? It’s tough because I don’t think 3 is exactly “reasoning” age yet either.

…There. I gave her a peanut butter sandwich. That is what she always gets if she doesn’t like her dinner. Protein. She ate about 1/4 of it before declaring that she only wanted water. (I wouldn’t let her tell me a million stories thus delaying her bedtime even more)….

Face painting at the Children’s Museum for a birthday party.

The cupcakes were made by Bean Sprouts. The best part of the cupcake was the frosted donut hole on a stick lollipop. The rest of it tasted…healthy…if you know what I mean.

Neeners loves to put on glasses and strut around the house, like a very important toddler. I hope it isn’t a sign of the future.

Morella shows Neener a thing or two about shaving. It was Neeners first time. They grow so quickly!

I think they did a pretty good job. Not a chin hair to be seen.

Neeners likes to put on shoes. She has some big shoes to fill here.

I threw all the stuffies into Neener’s crib. I caught this little gem when they were taking a break. Awww!

Reading during Neeners naptime.

Birthday brunch ladies.

The cake of many sprinkles

Grocery shopping outfits. I won’t lie, I felt under dressed.

Today’s ensemble by Morella. She has quite the knack for it don’t you think? Her most favorite thing in the world right now are those pink dollar bin slippers selling at Target right now. She won’t take them off, and when she does – she clutches them close to her heart, waiting for the next opportunity to adorn her little feet.

In other news, we played outside for almost two hours this afternoon. The weather was perfect. I managed to shoveled the 2 inches off of the entire driveway and side walk while the girls played. It was sunny by the time we were out there, so it was quite pleasant. Morella didn’t want to come in, but Neeners needed a nap.

I think she is teething. Today had at least four out of control tantrums and then this evening, I gave her some tylenol after I noticed her sucking on her hand.

We are all apparently crabby today. I got angry at several Facebook status updates this morning and even wrote something regarding a one of those “statement … blah blah blah did this, post this if you think we should be equal assholes!” sort of statements. But then after a few minutes I deleted my comment. I don’t want to get dragged into a debate. I mean if that person was stupid enough to even post it then what on earth would my words do? Besides, you need to look at the context of the person to — all they ever do is post those blanket status updates. Case in point – they have no original thought.

Athena then threw a 15 minute tantrum after I had changed her diaper and wet pajamas from playing in the bathroom sink (she was supposed to be washing the syrup off her hands). She just started bawling as soon as I was done and then followed me around for the next few minutes screaming. When I picked her up she would hit at my face so I wouldn’t look at her, and the only thing that calmed down the beast was nursing for 20 minutes.

Morella was a little angel until half way through Angelina Ballerina, she got up and yanked the little people princess out of Athena’s hands (who FINALLY got down to play with some toys on her own). I told her to give it back and she yelled “No!” and threw the princess — which hit the TV. I said “Time out.” She picked up the princess and threw towards Neeners. I repeated “Time out. We do not throw things at the TV.” And .. .well she got a time out. After her time out, Athena brought the princess to her and gave it to her while laying on her bed with her. Morella took the princess and said “I want to be alone.”

So, here we are. Athena just wanted me to put a Alice in Wonderland dress on her, so she looks like a little waddling tank. It’s so funny. Morella is lying in her bed tongue sucking. I have grubby glasses on, yesterday’s shirt and pajamas and am looking for some kind of motivation to get dressed and the kids in gear to go to the grocery store. It’s lightly snowing outside. I sort of wish it would snow big, just for something different.

Oh I hear whining coming from Morella’s room. I should really at least put my contacts in. That usually helps me get going. I need an hour, or at least 30 minutes though because my phone battery died and it needs some juice. Oh I should use this time to pay the mortgage!

Attend to yourself first, is the rule of thumb on an airline when an Emergency happens. I think of that line when I have a few free moments on the computer, and I am about to spend that time looking at other people’s blogs. I should attend to my own blog first before going on to read others. After all, it’s only giving back, right?

Yesterday was my birthday. I am officially middle aged. You can now describe me “The middle aged woman with brown hair and two young, grubby children was seen at the grocery store again. The eldest of the children was wearing mismatched princess gear in varying shades of pink, and the youngest had something smeared across her face as she toddle sprinted down the aisle.”

The day started off great with Morella bounding into my room and sing songing “Happy Birthday Momma!” and Neeners remained asleep in her crib. Then Tim found a red present on the front stoop, which he gave to Morella to bring to me. She brought it to me and promptly announced that she got me a birthday present. Then she opened it and admired all of her clever handiwork. (Thanks Laima! I had a cup of mexican hot chocolate already — not spicey at all!, and the pot holders were used to take my cake out of the oven).

Tim left for work and I got up. We got ready and met my friends Sigrid and Lowen at the Original Pancake House for a birthday brunch. Ahh, I love breakfast food, in a nearly empty restaurant with waitstaff that don’t mind two restless kids. When I picked up Lowen she gave me a great tupperware container filled with thumbprint/jam cookies. They were little, so it’s justified that I ate 5 in one sitting, right?

After a delicious breakfast, we bid farewell to Sigrid and headed over to Wallyworld to find Don’t Break the Ice. Target didn’t have it anymore, and we were looking for a game that Morella could play that didn’t require luck. Morella and Athena have both played numerous games of smashing in the ice as fast as possible, but only one actual game has been played properly. It was amazing..it was a super wallyworld and the aisles were so big in the toy section, and it wasn’t crowded like Target, so we all got lost in looking at toys for far too long. It wasn’t until the edges of Neens that started to melt did I realize our perilous situation. All it took was a trike in which Athena couldn’t even reach the floor and a small scuffle between Morella to unleash the beast that kept us grounded Sunday for a proper buffet brunch. Neeners howled like a banshee all the way through the store and into the express check out line, garnering me stares and glances from all around. I just pretended I had no idea what these people were looking at. I think maybe that is one big benefit to being an ex-goth. You get really good at ignoring everyone. Eventually, I did manage to quiet her up by finding a pack of fruit snacks. Thank goodness! I need more emergency goodies in my back, it was far too empty. It was either that or a piece of gum…which would have still worked I am sure.

Sadly, Neeners took at short nap on the car ride home and felt it was sufficient for the rest of the day. No dual long after noon nap for this birthday middle ager! It was okay because we had a fabulous package from Sarah to open! Morella did all the opening, with a little Neener assistance and I made sure to ooh and ahh over everything…and sample fancy chocolate between mouthfuls of cookie. I swear, yesterday felt like a ghost feast to get me through the second half of my life. All that food! Now, I think I can use this box to send back MY presents that have been waiting around here collecting dust. I’m glad they were wrapped in red…I think I’ll be more of a valentines thing now. Yeah…good idea!

Later on, she did crash at dinner time. Tim brought home two pot roast suppers from Culvers and we split it up. Then Morella and Tim made me a marble cake with pink frosting and covered with a thousand different kinds of sprinkles. We turned off the lights, lit some candles and we all sang Happy Birthday. Morella and Neeners were excellent candle blowers. They stayed up late until 9:00 before bedtime. Tim tried putting them in Morella’s bed to sleep, but Neeners started crying after about two minutes because Morella was touching her.

The rest of the night was spent writing and watching Bones. On Facebook I had an idea to ask people to share a memory they had of me, instead of just writing Happy Birthday. I had a few skeptics as to whether or not it would work, and I am proud to say that my gambit paid off! I had a TON of responses with shared memories. I decided to hand write every single one in my journal, so that I could appreciate and savor each one. I was up until 12:30 last night writing before I threw in the towel and vowed to finish today.

Oh and I had two letters to read — one from my Mom and another from an old friend. To be able to sit and read two hand written letters was a real treat. All in all, it was a very good birthday.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I realized yesterday that this is probably why I wait until the end of the month to really settle on resolutions. It’s because it’s my birthday and a new year of life is marked, and what better catalyst for change than that?

I spent a good portion of today working hard. I cleaned the kitchen, washed dishes, and am now running dishwasher, did breakfast, snack and lunch for the kids, bathed them, fixed their hair, got everyone dressed, replied thanks to most of the responses, wrote my Mom a letter, called my brother Shane, sorted through some junk mail, played, danced, changed a couple poopy diapers, made coffee, opened drapes…etc. We have HoChunk language today and I have yet to prepare for that.

I think I am going to try something radical. I feel like I want to do something radical actually for this year. Maybe enter something I have never done before like a bike race. Or decide to ride bike to Milwaukee or someplace far. Or to hike. I want to do something physically challenging, and outside of my comfort zone (which at this moment is the couch). But I also want to take charge of my time. To really make use of the time I have to get the things done that matter to me most, instead of muddling through each day with occasional break throughs. Maybe if I really try and apply myself for one year, it will all become habit and I will be a far more productive, happy person.

That said, Morella and Tim are at the Vet with Migo for a well pet visit. Athena is sleeping and I am tired…maybe I could rest my eyes for a little bit, until Tim and Morella get back and then I’ll do something … productive.

As a reward and incentive to get my butt to the grocery store last night to get the ingredients for some dinners, cookies and new Mom paper bag (filled with granola bars, smoothies, chocolate, trail mix, cherries, etc) I was going to watch Inception when I got back. Well, I was later than I wanted to be because I ran into an old college friend Nate. I had mentioned to him that I had just thought of him last night because I declined an event invitation of his. I said I thought it was a chili cookoff, but he clarified and said it was more like a chili party, and it was on Sunday. Well that changed everything! I agreed to go, and heck maybe I will even find a babysitter so Tim can go too. It’s from 5-8 so it’s not like it would be that late.

When I got back I didn’t feel like cooking and it was almost 11:00 … so I started the movie anyway. I have been wanting to see this movie for ages! I don’t get it though…I heard that it was supposed to be some kind of thrilling twist ending sort of thing and I didn’t feel that way at all. Which of course, makes me suspicious. Did I miss something vitally important? Am I so obtuse to have not noticed something major that has everyone shaking their heads in wonder? Did I not get that we are *in* in the matrix??? Ha ha.

Moral of this story is that I was up until the mind boggling hour of 1:40 AM. Ugh. I went to bed, got up again because I forgot to take my contacts out, then had to nurse Neeners before I finally dropped off around 2:15 or so. Tim had laughed at me and said “You forgot to take out your contacts?”

“Sure” I said. “It happens.” But you know it hasn’t happened in awhile. It’s the reason I always look at the clock before I go to sleep. If I can see the red digital numbers then I know something in amiss, versus seeing just a fuzzy red light.

Tim slept in this morning, and I am now on my third cup of coffee..wait, about to get it. I fed the kids Mickey’s cinnamon rolls this morning. They ate only the frosting. I also got them chocolate milk in their own little cartons as a special treat, at least they enjoyed that. My second sheet of cookies is almost done and I have one left before I start making the chocolate chip cookie dough. I am only going to make one sheet of those cookies and wrap the rest to be used “as needed” for Mark and Erica. Morella is very excited about seeing baby Gus Gus today.

“It’s a dirty free for all…..take it off….take it off….” sang my sweet little 3 year old to her sister last night while I got them ready for bed. I stopped in my tracks and dropped the pull up I was going to put on Morella.

“What did you just sing?” I asked her.

“It’s a dirty baby … take it off … ” she began serenading Neeners.

I immediately called Tim and related to him the lyrical event. We both agreed that from now when questionable songs come on (aka Ke$ha, Lady Gaga – in some cases, Kate Perry) that the station gets switched. I would listen to Charlie, but most of the music there is from the 80’s and old people music – boring, and the heavy metal alternative station is full of music that is scary sounding (ironically, most of the time it isn’t offensive though). I guess I could start bringing more CD’s to the car and just listening to those, but Tim is a stickler for not leaving any CD’s in the car lest a burglar be enticed, which means it’s just another thing I’ll forget. You can’t forget to bring the radio.

—–

Wednesday night I went out on my own. I had asked a few adventurous folks if they would be interested in ice skating or sledding, but I got nothing but regrets. So, I helped Tim put the kids to bed, watched a little TV and then headed out for the 9:15 showing of The Chronicles of Narnia: Dawn Treader. Last week I saw Black Swan and the theater room was moderately populated, about 30 viewers. However, on Wednesday I was the only person. In fact, when I bought the ticket, the clerk mumbled “One for Narnia” into her collar. I considered buying some very expensive soda but decided that my pocketful of candy hearts would suffice. Indeed I was the only one in the theater. It was a showing just for me. It was very awesome.

The movie was good too. I feel inspired to browse through the remaining books to refresh my memory on what happens. I also want to check up on Lucy to see if she is more attractive the older she has gotten. (cuter…but that’s expected). Also, I noticed by the end a distinct resemblance between Eustace and the older sister Susan. One could believe that they were blood related (you know, for the movie, not in real life). Bonus, there was a brief viewing of the brother Peter, who … is a very handsome young man and beckons to my inner teenager.

Yesterday was rather pleasant. I got a shower in, got the kids dressed…well almost everyone. Morella ended up just wearing her angle hoop dress up dress over her jammies and I went with it. My friend Lowen, who is due in April came over and provided Morella with a enough boring adult conversation (with me) that Morella went to sleep. I of course, did not think the conversation was boring at all. After she left and the girls were up at 3:30 we got ready to go over for our evening playdate with Stephanie — who I haven’t spent one on one time with in almost a year. I get over there and discover that she is 5 or 6 months pregnant and it’s a another boy! Well, I’ll be. Everyone is having babies, actually everyone is having BOY babies.

Well, I gotta get to Target today to get some eye juice, a present and all that other cra…er treasures that will find their way into my cart. I also need to figure out what I am making for Mark and Erica, get those ingredients and put it together, bake some cookies, have lunch. It’s super duper cold out today so I will need to warm up the car before transporting kids and bundle them up. Last night when I was coming back from Stephanie’s I stopped at Walgreens to pick up some pictures (mobile pictures, I got them all printed) and the brief time between taking the girls in and out made my fingers burn. Such a small amount of time in the elements, but that wind was brutal.

Alright, see if I took the time that I usually allot to write my Mom in the morning to post, you would have a post everyday. Maybe I could try to do both every day. Why not? It just means a post might be more like a small post.

It has been awhile since I’ve done tidbits. Really I sort of need to fall back on it because I don’t feel like I have cohesive post in me right now. To be honest, I am in that hinterland where I wait to be motivated.

I get motivated a little every morning after some coffee and because I am force marched into doing drudgery (awesome, lovable chores…but sometimes it feels a little … uh … drudgeish). I try to get excited about maybe putting something away, or organizing something, or writing down a thought into my journal, or looking at the internet.

–Ho-chunk language was cancelled today. It’s okay because a lot of the stuff thrown at us last week feels like a lot. Oh man, just look at that sentence! Ha ha, no seriously, I haven’t yet found my groove yet in incorporating study into every day. You know, it is so easy to get into a rut after the frenetic activity from December for not doing anything. Anyway, gotta figure out a way to work that in. Just do it…right?

–Speaking of doing thing, I also need to get some exercise in, and try to stop the urge to eat eat eat.

–Finished Morella’s Snow Queen Christmas stocking, and have started Neeners.

–Watched Dexter Season 5 – and … meh.

–Did two painting sessions with the girls in the kitchen and let the girls “help” me wash the dishes, which I scrubbed a very dirty, disgusting floor. Neeners is into throwing food at us and the dog, the cats … whatever she wants. Sadly, Falkor is apparently a picky dog.

–We found the perfect tacos — Fuzzy’s Taco Shop over by Hilldale. I am fantasizing about them now. Amazing fish tacos….amazing. I wish I had three right now.

–My birthday loot is awesome so far. Okay, I don’t expect much more, but you know normally I don’t really get/do much anyway. We went to Hilldale on Sunday and I got to browse in Anthropologie and got myself a clearance winter hat, clearance milk soap and … not clearance, big bottle of very, very awesome perfume. Oh it smells exotic, and it’s not floral or citrus … I love it.

–Tonight we got something that I have wanted, but never dared to actually think about until we had kids…but then once we did I just made do with the little 2 minute 20 second video capability of my awesome turning 30 camera….a camcorder! Or video recorder, or whatever, you know what I mean. Wow, …. I will be one of those people that can look back at home videos and remember. Because you know, actual moving pictures capture so much more than just photos. I am very excited to start recording….

–We have a new nephew as of yesterday! Morella was super excited to hear about Gus Gus and was telling us all about how she was going to hold him and be really careful because she was older now. Earlier she was telling me about how she was older, bigger and stronger. Then she held up one of her little hands and stared at them intensely and said “My hands are bigger.” I nearly bit my tongue in half holding in the laughter. I asked her “Whoa, can you hold your hands up again so I can see?” And she did, with a slightly amazed look in her eyes.

–Tonight at dinner I told Morellla we were going to see Gus Gus (August Jonathan) in Milwaukee but that we were going to Milwaukee again next month to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum to check out the frogs and stuff. Then I looked it up and saw that the frog exhibit is ending on the 31st. So then we played up the butterfly exhibit angle. Morella’s eyes were as wide as saucers, soaking up all the glorious things we were telling her about this place. She told us all the stuff she was going to do, how the butterflies were going to land on her hands and she was going to dance and …etc etc. Sure I could tell you about Neeners reaction but do you really want to know who she threw her piece of ground hamburger at? It’s so much fun to have Morella be at an age to get excited about this stuff. Just think, next year for Valentine’s…she and Neeners will talk about the trip and how excited they are together….

–Yeah, i think we are going to make this a yearly, Valentines day weekend event.

–I was thinking of an doing a birthday brunch at Hyvee…totally lame or what? I thought of it because it’s cheap, it’s good, all you can eat, spacious, VERY kid friendly … I mean what more do you need?

I have been typing this post for two hours now. Time to go to bed. I have a busy busy Wednesday ahead of me. No plans, and it is bitter cold now for the next few days.

It was brought to my attention yesterday evening, that most people have their car key attached on the same keyring as the rest of their keys. As in all of their keys are in one place. I had no idea that people did this, but I think I am going to start doing it now too. For one, it might eliminate the problem I keep getting myself into — getting locked out of the house. Which, is how the conversation came up.

Yesterday was fun and of course, stressful. But a fun stressful, right? I packaged up the kids and took them to the Sun Prairie Library for a play date with one of the the Mom’s in the playgroup and her two boys. There was a lot of fighting over toys…just like at home! I only stayed for an hour before a sudden headache and hunger overtook me. On the way home the gas light went on, and I managed to hit every single stop light on the way to the gas station by our house. I forgot to mention that I had forgotten my phone at home earlier. Really, I guess I am out of practice for leaving the house with everything I need.

Thankfully I made it to the gas station in time, then got home to get some lunch into the kids before trying 4 or 5 times to get the kids to take a freaking nap. Athena slept for a few minutes in the car so she was under the impression that was all she needed.

Sigrid came by unexpectedly around 5 with beef and barley stew! She visited for awhile, with one very grumpy Neeners (who had just gotten up from a short 1/2 hour nap) and tired Morella. Tim was doing something afterwork and wouldn’t be home for dinner so I made the brilliant decision to take the kids out in the snow to a fish fry over at a golf course. Our wait was long, a sippy of soy milk had emptied into the diaper bag – requiring a full clean out in the bathroom. Man that was disgusting. Anyway, when we finally did get seated the service was slow and a family with one perfect kid was seated closely behind us. They made sure to give us lots and lots of unapproving glances and self congratulations to each other on what awesome parents they were while Neeners refused to sit in her baby seat and proceeded to stick her fist in the tarter sauce and lick it off. Morella meanwhile experienced embarrassment for the first time (she told she couldn’t do the same as Neeners, by someone she really likes) and started to bawl and want to go home. She did the next best thing and slinked down to lay under the table for about 10 minutes until she felt better.

Then the kids finished off the meal by running around the table while I quickly tried to clean up and pay the bill, and get their snow clothes on. Uff. Anyway. I don’t think I will be going back there anytime soon. Definitely not child friendly….unless you have a perfect kid, who was probably perfect because he had my girls to watch the whole time. You know how kids are…they love to watch each other.

We got home, in the more than light snow, and I realized that I locked myself out. So I called the neighbor and we hung out at their house while I waited for Tim to come home. At least I remember my phone then! The girls were in heaven, delayed bedtime and they were at their favorite adults house.

Later, I went to DeJope with my friends Matt and Sigrid (also who I went to the fish fry with) and broke even, saw a Beatles cover band, drank lots of free soda and breathed in the second hand smoke. Ahhh a real Friday out! ,.c\x