Happy Birthdays to My First Girls

First and foremost, I would like to wish my Mumsey a very Happy Birthday.  This past year has not been an easy one, definitely not one of her Top 5 I wouldn’t imagine.  But through everything that has come at her, she has handled it with grace and even a certain gratitude.  Not pushing things under the rug and never one to sugar coat anything, but not being a complete Debbie Downer either (no offense to any Debbie-named readers out there).  She has been calm and real and reassuring.  Life is tough, this past year has been rough, but I have been amazed by watching her pull up her big girl pants and march right through it all.  I hope your day was lovely Mama.  I hope you felt the love that beats with every thump of my heart.  I hope you felt safe and happy for today even though things going on at home have not been particularly happy and healthy lately.  I hope the sun was out and you got something sweet to eat.  And just in case I forget to tell you when I call you later – I hide your birthday present in the guest room closet when we were there at Christmas.  It’s not exactly hidden, more like propped up in plain sight right in the middle of the floor.  It’s going to the rectangular object wrapped in bird covered paper.  I love you and wish you a magical year ahead.

And now on to my birthday girl, from last week, because I have another girl who is having another birthday just a few short hours from now.  What do you do for that little girl who is still a little girl, but only for a minute.  She definitely isn’t a teen yet, but she is in that awkward phase of not really knowing what or who she is.  Thankfully, it seems that this recent discovery of sports has diverted some of the awkwardness and rather than be torn between her dolls or make-up, she is instead vacillating between whether she loves basketball or soccer more.  Anyway, back to my dilemma of how to make her day special. The girls are having a joint birthday party, I may have mentioned in here a few times, but that wouldn’t be until later and I wanted to do something for her on her actual day.

An idea occurred to me a few weeks ago as Mattie was climbing up my kitchen counters and digging in the cabinet where we keep the “hot beverages” looking for some decaf tea amongst the various other forms of caffeine that we keep up there.  She wanted to try some tea and was really hoping that we had some sugar cubes lying around so that she could put those in her tea with some real cream.  Sadly, we don’t just keep boxes of sugar cubes on hand (my Grandma Reese used to though and my brother and I could easily eat a whole box in one afternoon….so good! And best when eaten while hiding in a cedar closet surrounded by fur coats.  Its what I picture and taste every time Mattie has me read Narnia too her.)  And rather than cream, I am more of a hazelnut creamer kind of girl.  But watching my eldest make a huge mess of my tea collection while perched precariously on my stove top, I decided right then and there that I was going to take her to a proper “Afternoon Tea”.

It would be a first for me as well.

Where to start.  Fancy hotels have tea time, right?  And the Peabody downtown in pretty darn fancy.  It’s where I would go to do fancy things if I were a fancy person.  So I called to see about a Tea Time during Christmas break.  Apparently a lot of people want to go be fancy people and do fancy things during the holiday season.  They were booked through all of December and the first of January.  And that’s where the wheels really started turning……Mattie Belle has been fascinated with getting a “Going Somewhere”Dress.  What kind of dress is that, you might be wondering?  This is her exact description: “Mama, I want a dress that you would wear and people would say when they saw you, “She’s goin’ somewhere!” and they would want to go there, too…..where ever it was you were goin’.” Turns out, this is also a dress that would be typical for a middle school dance or maybe those once a year formal family photos.  It definitely has to have some tulle to it, 3 rows of ruffles were required and much to my chagrin, there had to be sequins.  I am not a big lover of sequins.  Mattie was gifted this frock at Christmas time, not to be confused with her crazy elaborate Cinderella dress.  That was something else entirely and she seems to have a whole other plan for it.

So we had the location and the dress and the occasion was just a no brainer after that.  I made reservations and plans with the dad to drop off kid #3 and he would pick up kid #2 from school.  I arrived at school about 30 minutes early and had her ensemble stashed in the restroom.  Not the most elegant dressing room, but hey, it was better then the back seat of Daddy’s Accord.  I pulled her out of class and she was completely confused.  The science teacher standing just outside the door with a tray full of hissing cock roaches, waiting to take them in and show her class, but completely surprising her on her way out – didn’t really seem to help the situation.  When I finally had her dressed, her hair somewhat styled and we were walking out to the car, she was still asking what the bugs had to do with everything.  Absolutely nothing Mattie Belle, just a disgusting coincidence we should just forget about.

As we drove downtown, just the two of us, me feeling especially like a cab driver because it was just the two of us and she was in the back – she seemed to get more and more excited, but also a little shy.  I could tell that she was pulling through all her memories, her favorite books and movies, trying to piece together what to expect with this whole thing.  To tell you the truth, I was just as anxious.  Parking downtown makes me a little cranky and irritable, but I know how to do it.  For this particular adventure, I had been told to use the hotel valet service by the lovely woman on the phone when I made our reservations.  Not only was I feeling a little self conscious about the huge Rubbermaid bin that I had in the back seat, just sitting there pretty much empty, not appearing to have any purpose except to cause suspicion….and no, it wasn’t the huge stain on the floor board on the drivers side that looked like maybe Brandon had kicked something to death and then stepped in it while wearing socks.  The pile of stone pavers that were just tossed in the back were questionable, as well.  But I was really concerned with where exactly was the valet parking entrance?  I have been to this fancy hotel several times, but I have always walked to it from somewhere else.  Not being an actual guest at the hotel, it wasn’t particularly important for me to be parked at it.  There are several one way streets downtown and I was trying really hard to be punctual and was just starting to panic a little.  We found it though……and it was very dark and dreary in the underground area that I pulled up to so I am hoping that helped to kind of shadow the weird things in Brandon’s car.  Probably not, but one can hope.  I really considered telling that valet very casually as I handed over the keys, “Don’t judge me. It keeps us humble.”

We walked through the doors of this elegant hotel lobby (which is perfectly perfect and just the way it has been since I was Mattie’s age) and she took my hand and squeezed.  I do not have big hands, but I love that her hands still fill little in mine. We checked out one of the stores first, since we were early and I had it in my head that places you have to make reservations for don’t want to seat you 15 minutes early.  I could be completely wrong though, not having much experience with reservation requiring establishments or being punctual.  After poking through the store and reading a few picture books about ducks, we decided to just stroll.

Then because she just looked so precious, I thought it necessary to take her picture on the marble staircase:

She didn’t seem to mind.

And then we were whisked into Chez Phillipe where we were the only guests.  For a minute, I think Mattie thought that by my saying I made reservations, that I had actually reserved the whole place just for us.  You are important Mattie Belle, but not that important that you have to take you tea alone.  It just so happens that on the eve of a great history making winter storm, on a random Thursday afternoon in January, not many Memphians are feeling the need for tea.

She loved peeking into things and wanted to know what everything was and how it looked, smelled and tasted.

She read her menu of teas……but still had me order for her.  Caramel apple for the girl and peach ginger for the mama.

Our first course, our savory.  Don’t tell the girl, but she ate veal.  And do tell the girl, reminding her often, that she also ate salmon and really liked it so she should give it a shot once in a while when it is served for dinner.

Turns out, Mattie likes her tea with 2 lumps, not cubes, but lumps of sugar.

Cranberry scones, which are very hard to eat daintily.

And our dessert course, which by this point, we were so full from eating our scones so slowly and drinking so much tea because it was so fun to pour it out of our little pots and watch the leaves gather in the little strainer and plop sugar lumps……that most of the little treats we had boxed up and took home.

It seemed to early to go home, and our server had let us know that if we hung out about 25 minutes longer, we could see the famous Peabody Ducks get out of the fountain and march on their red carpet to the elevator.  Well, who wants to miss that?! Not us!!!! So we decided to peruse around a bit more.

We played with old timey phones, and by old timey I mean phones with cords and handsets and that didn’t have internet access.

We sat in big chairs and looked down at the people in the lobby:

And we “snuck” into the ballrooms and twirled.  I use the term “snuck” very loosely because we just opened the door and walked right in.  There really wasn’t any sneaking involved at all, but the girl felt like there was and that’s all that matters.  Mama was bending the rules and being a risk taker and that made the day even better. And her dress twirled fabulously!

We made a quick stop in the restroom where she took a complimentary duck emblazoned travel size lotion.  I don’t want to encourage stealing, and the huge basketful of tiny lotions hardly looked like they were there just for decoration, but she seemed REALLY excited about swiping that itsy bottle and shoving it in my bag.  It was a little too much of a thrill and I think we might have to talk about that later.

We watched the ducks, this particular team making their very first march, journey out of the fountain, down the red carpet and into the elevator.  Since it was their first time, they weren’t quite as good at it as say a more experienced team would be.  This was great because they kind of wove in and out, on and off of their red carpet and got very friendly with the crowd.  Its not every day that a lady duck tries to give you a birthday peck on the knee.

We topped off our afternoon on the top of the Peabody.  Mainly, because Mattie wanted to see the Duck Palace where they keep the mallards at night, but also because it sounds so cool to tell the man pushing the buttons in the elevator that you want to go all the way to the top.  It is freezing cold on top of a large hotel on the eve of a winter storm.  I wouldn’t encourage it to anyone.  But she loved getting to see landmarks around the city and for just a minute, she looked like Batman wearing her cap.

I felt a lot like Cinderella when the valet returned our faithful, but gross old car.  But much happier I would imagine.  My little princess was in the middle of a sentence when she just trailed off…..what was that Mims? I turned around and she was sound asleep, her duck lotion in her hand.

I do not remember turning 11, but I will always remember when Mattie did.

 

 

Demanding

I didn’t get to spend any time here sharing about Mattie’s birthday tea experience last week.  And this is why:

These two were very demanding last night and this morning.  I am sending them both out to some form of daycare tomorrow if this same behavior continues.

Frosted In

We have had such an exciting weekend, having the great “Blizzard” and all.  I am using that word extremely loosely…..sarcastically more like it.  I think that our advanced preparation is what kept the storm at bay.  Had Memphis not taken the warning so seriously (cleaning out the entire dairy section), I think that our situation would have been completely different.  Definitely one of those Murphy’s Law sorts of things.  But snow or not, our weekend was full.  School for Friday was cancelled early Thursday evening……in preparation for our treacherous road conditions.  And when we woke up Friday morning, my children were…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………very confused.  Why was school cancelled for snow if there really wasn’t any?  Mattie had this whole list of activities that she wanted to do with our “snow” from her extensive research on blizzards in the midwest (Thank you Little House on the Prairie).  I believe I was actually greeted Friday morning by her gently shaking me and asking where we keep our sorghum.  I have said before that she is a very smart girl, but she just couldn’t quite understand that scraping the millimeter of heavy frost off of the deck wasn’t really going to work for making snow ice cream or snow candy and that her father and I weren’t hiding the icicles.

Ever the optimist, Lila excused herself after breakfast to go upstairs and get dressed.  She came back down in a very special outfit and requested to go outside:

Even after singing a very inspiring rendition of “Let it Go” in an attempt to conjure up the Spirit of Winter, we were still left with only a spattering of the cold stuff.  And then it just got cold so she decided to come back inside.

These two tried really hard to play in the “snow”:

But eventually, they also got frustrated.

I wish that I could say that they came inside and we ended up doing all these incredible activities and it was the most awesome experience.  They did come inside, but only to start the great cleaning storm of 2016.  It’s possible that the toilets in my house haven’t been cleaned since last year.  That’s really gross and I’m pretty sure that it isn’t true……but it is possible.

Saturday morning, when we are usually bustling around to be less late for church, was spent very lazily…….because church had been cancelled…..I guess in anticipation of the storm doing a U-turn and coming back to Memphis.  By this time, there was absolutely nothing left outside and the roads were completely dry, but better to be safe than sorry, right?  We had a delicious brunch of waffles …..who am I kidding, it was completely lunch time.  There wasn’t any br about it.

Reese spent some quality time reading his Birthday books:

We watched an incredible church service on Youtube and followed that with a very inspirational fashion show.  Because you haven’t officially been to church unless there was a fashion show, right?

Reese wasn’t paying any attention to his sisters’ show, but seemed to be entertained nonetheless.  I wonder about my boy sometimes and the things that are going through his head that the rest of us aren’t privy to.

For dinner, we decided to play a little game called “Freezer Mystery”.  This was mainly Brandon just pulling out random things that have been living in our freezer for a little too long.  This adventure was prompted by an earlier afternoon scavenger hunt for just what was causing that horrible smell in the fridge.  We’ve been searching for it for about two weeks now.  It hadn’t been quite a “Oh that’s awful! What is that?” sort of smell, but more of a “That’s not really pleasant” scent.  I think the worst part is that it lingered.  You would open the fridge, just even a crack, and the odor would escape.  Sometimes you wouldn’t even notice it right away, but then a few minutes later, there it was and it had completely settled in.  We thought we had it figured out about a week ago….the box of vegetable stock that had been hanging out (without a lid) since maybe Thanksgiving.  It didn’t smell like rotting flesh, but it didn’t exactly smell like something I would want eat either so out it went.  Problem solved…….so we thought.

A few days later, Brandon found a baggie of unpasteurized turkey slices that hadn’t been sealed and had also been there probably a bit too long.  This time, we were both completely convinced that we had found it.  But the next morning, when I went to get my creamer, the strangling stench told me otherwise. Enough! This ended now!!!!! Unless this smell was going to start paying rent, it was leaving immediately.

I am sad to say that we lost one of our favorite tupperware (real tupperware, not the Gladware stuff) bowls this past Saturday.  I’m sure it could have been washed, but that would have involved taking the lid off and releasing what I am quite positive would have been toxic fumes, of the now starting to liquify, cauliflower.

But it no longer smells like we are hiding a body when you go to get the milk, so I think it’s a fair trade.  Obviously I haven’t missed that tupperware container for the past 3 months or so considering how long it had stayed hidden in our crisper drawer.  So tossing it out really didn’t hurt that much.

Our Sunday was filled as a Sunday should be – with basketball practice and two championship football games.  We feel really good about the week ahead of us, taking the missed snow storm, as well as Tom Brady and the Patriots loss to be a good omen. Here’s hoping your weekend was peaceful and cozy, snow or no snow.

 

Snow and Sap

They are predicting snow here in the Mid-South.  It is to be a sort of snowpocalypse of sorts.  I had to go to the grocery store yesterday to pick up a few things and it appears that East Memphis in particular is taking this threat very seriously.  And the one item that everyone seems to have on their mind, their blizzard food of choice is vanilla yogurt.  We don’t know how long we are going to be held captive by Mother Nature, stuck in our homes with no hope of escape – so we better make sure that our digestive health is in check.  My boy enjoys a fruit and yogurt parfait now and again, but other than the greek vanilla yogurt, the place is whipped out.  I guess even in desperate times, no one is willing to shell out the $6.99 for the tub of the greek stuff.  So good luck Memphis, God Speed during this time of weather uncertainty and lets hope the yogurt we have all hoarded is enough to last.

In much more interesting news, I thought I would share a little Throw Back Thursday.  It’s been a while since we took a trip back in time to peek in one what was going on this day many years ago.  So without further ado, on this day 11 years ago, this is what was going on in my world:

Happy Birthday my Girl.  You are everything and nothing like I was expecting.  And motherhood is exactly what I thought and completely different all at the same time.  I am pretty sure that several of those promises I made you during those long walks we used to take (while you were in utero) have gone out the window.  For the good and the bad, this adventure that we have been on has been nothing like I would have ever thought, but I wouldn’t change a thing…..well, maybe a few things here and there, but for the most part…..You challenge me in a way that boggles my mind and keeps me up at night.  I second guess myself all the time and worry that I am damaging you forever.  But then you do these things, you say these things or I watch you and I see that for the most part, you are weeding through all my mistakes and good intentions and finding the good.  You are a kind person with a big heart.  You are gentle and a force of nature all at the same time.  You are small, but you are mighty.  And you are smart!  Mattie girl, you are so much smarter than I will ever be.  You don’t know it yet, and for now I have the upper hand – but one day little one, things are going to really click and you are going to soar.  You have an imagination that will keep you forever entertained.  I have been so excited to see this little athlete burst forth out of you this year.  Its definitely not something I relate to, but I am proud as can be just the same.  That’s one of the beauties of parenting, I think.  Sitting back and marveling at this little person who is made up of parts of you, doing things that you have never been capable of doing.  Taking the cells and genes that were all you had to give and just running with them.  I wasn’t prepared for you when you entered my world Mattie Belle, and honestly, I don’t think a day will ever come when I feel like I have things figured out.  But you have been a joy.  You are a living, breathing testimony to me of the love that my Heavenly Father has for me.  I see you, live with you, parent you and it is a tiny glimpse of the love that He must feel for me.  I have been able to see the love that my parents have for me from a different view.  Today is your birthday, and I hope you live it up – but it’s also my birthday.  My life has been forever changed because of you.  I know we are entering some new and uncertain territory, this whole preteen thing.  I think we have some real battles ahead of us.  Probably a few mountains and oceans to cross as well.  I am going to make mistakes and you are, too.  But I’m excited.  And I promise to do my best, just like I promised you back in the olden days.  Happy Birthday Mattison Belle, may your day be all that you hoped for and may you always know, on the good days and the bad, how loved and treasured you are.

Love,

Mama

Crossing Things Off With My Sharpie

So here’s an interesting story…….

I guess a woman, who happens to be a teacher here in the state of TN, got arrested for having 9 children in her car…….three of those children were in the trunk.  Now, I have threatened to make one of my children ride on the roof of the car (tied up), but I think we all knew that was a pretty empty threat.  I get all sorts of paranoid when anyone unbuckles in a moving car for any kind of reason.  Brandon likes to take his seat belt off as we enter our neighborhood, like somehow crossing the railroad tracks makes us safer than we were at any other part of our drive.  Anyway, I’m rambling…….upon hearing about this lady, I quickly scanned the article to see which part of Memphis she was from.  Lo and behold, this winner was from Nashville!  It’s still terrible that she was driving 10 year olds around with her spare tire, but I have to say, it felt awfully nice to read that this craziness happened in an city that usually behaves itself a bit classier.  Oh I think Memphis is fabulous…….but we all know that our fine city doesn’t get the respect that is deserves…and usually its because of nuts like this.  But for once, not our monkey not our circus.

I have been elbow deep in Mermaid party planning and I’ll tell you friends, I’m about ready to just hand the girls the money and say “here go have yourselves a destination birthday party”.  I spent the better part of Sunday with my circle punch thingy making ombre colored circles to create scales on the invitation…….that will probably go out the day after the party at the rate that I am going.  I think I have most of the food figured out, but some of it will actually require some preparation and a little touch of creativity, that part I am a little concerned about.  I’m also trying to come up with activities for the kids to do that won’t create a disaster in my house.  These winter birthdays really make things difficult, not like Reese’s summer party when we just get a bounce house and keep the kids outside all afternoon.  Last year, our activities took a dark turn and there was one point when we had the kids lined up throwing raw eggs at a chalk drawn chicken on my privacy fence outside.  The seemed to love it, but I really felt like we had lost control a bit at that point.  There was a point where you just saw the expressions on their faces morph as they went from civilized little humans to complete savages.  I’ve been sitting down to come up with my lists of foods to buy and decorations (which also, there are a LOT of scandalous looking mermaids out there these days!) and all I can think about is how much I would love to watch that old Tom Hanks movie Splash about the little boy that falls overboard and is rescued by the mermaid then they meet at again as adults.  I think it would be awesome!  Its probably a terribly idea and that is probably an awful movie, but from what I remember from my childhood it would be perfect.  Maybe Lila and I will watch Splash tomorrow for party “research”.

***********************************************************************

So today I had a list of fun things today.  By fun, I mean easy – quick and easy little errands that didn’t require any thought, but would make me feel all sorts of productive. The first item on my list was to go by the vet and get my canine child’s heart worm preventative.

Easy

In and out.

Except the vet assistant had a question when we arrived.  How much does Cybill weigh now? And by any chance had I brought her with me.  This made me laugh out loud because Cybill isn’t exactly a small purse dog and if I had her with me, EVERYONE in the store would have been very aware of it.  Neither is she the type of dog that enjoys a good car ride.  Those tend to be viewed more as torture for her.  So no, Cybill was not in our company at the moment and I really had no idea how much she weighed.  The next question was would it be completely terrible to go back home and get her so that they could give me the appropriate dose.  Sure, what’s an extra 20 minutes, right?

I think it ended up taking 20 minutes alone to get Cybil into the back of the car.

She did not want to get in the back and refused to put even her nose on the bumper.  She did seem pretty keen on the idea of riding up next to Lila, which Lila was not in favor of at all.  I finally got her front half in the car and then had to do some heavy knee-lifting to get the rest of her dogness aboard.  If it is possible to be both completely limp and also rigid at the same time, that is exactly what she was doing.  Birthing my children was probably easier than putting that dog (and having her stay) in the back of my car.

She whined the whole way there.

And then it was time to get her out, which pleased her greatly.  She was so very excited that as soon as the lift gate was up, she too was ready to jump.  Luckily, I had her leash tied around these little metal toggle things in the back (which I think are there for just this type of situation.  They will forever be referred to as the “Dog Hitches”.  So as I was trying to untie Cybill’s leash from the hitch, she was trying her darndest to make a break for it.  At first this involved some intense pulling and then her front paws wrapped around my neck.  This make things difficult, but I felt like I was still in charge of the situation.  At some point, and I don’t even know how it happened, she got her back legs wrapped around me as well.  Let me just say, it is not impossible but it is very, very difficult to untie a leash while you are holding your retriever on your hip like a toddler.  And that is exactly what was happening and I would have loved to have seen it rather than been a part of it.

She was finally free and we were headed in.  I should have been 4 more items deep on my easy to-do list by this point, but instead I was being pulled across a parking lot hoping for dear life that I wouldn’t fall and yelling as loud as I could for Lila to just “Run to the glass door, Birdie, RUN! Don’t reach for mommy and don’t look back!” Part of me was completely mortified but more of me was terrified that if I fell and was knocked unconscious, then dragged into the Costco parking lot next door – would the Petsmart people take care of Lila.  Would they notice the sirens, come outside and put the abandoned child and the dragging victim together? But we finally made it inside – where the real carnage started.  We knocked over a few displays, Cybill tried to get in another family’s shopping cart and Lila was almost beheaded but we finally made it to our destination. And when we arrived, the vet tech was crying. Laughing so hard that real tears were rolling down her cheeks and we had to stand there, waiting for her to compose herself again.  It was hilarious, but I was so ashamed! My crazy, crazy dog has shamed me.  She has also grown.  Granted, its been a minute since she was at the vet – after she stopped being deathly ill and had her fancy surgeries, we really hadn’t been around as much.  She was 39 pounds when we were in last time.

She was 75 pounds today.

She is only 6 months old.

It seems as though she might be some sort of mutant Labrador with some kind of genetic growth situation going on.  She might actually be the real-life Clifford the big red dog….only a blonde.

When I regained my composure again and got us all out of the store, it was the same story all over again trying to put my horse back into the car.  There was more climbing, more holding, more straining, a little bit of praying and then one mighty slam of the lift gate. I always enjoy getting to cross something off my to-do list, but I felt like that particular item should have received some sort of fanfare when I took my sharpie to it.   Streamers should have dropped out of my car interior, maybe a few angels could sing a note or two.  I think a cupcake appearing out of thin air wouldn’t have been the least bit out of the question.  My prize ended up just having to get her out again when we got home.  Not quite what I was expecting and I really think I deserve more.  She could have offered to get me out of the car, seeing as we weigh about the same now.

***********************************************************************And as a parting note, Reese made this in school the other day.

He even has muscles, just like Samson and Clay Matthews

“Who is this Reesie?”

“It’s supposed to be Samson……..but I think now that we aren’t at school, he looks more like Clay Matthews.”

Its nice to know that even though he goes to a private, Christian school -that ESPN early education program has really had a lasting affect

Dancin’ Shoes

So far, week one with the braces has been uneventful.  Mattie seems to be adapting nicely to tearing her peanut butter and jelly into little pieces (because that’s what mama packs for lunch and mama isn’t switching things up just because someone’s teeth might not be compatible).  She has only had one dose of Tylenol and that probably wasn’t really even necessary.  She has received many compliments but people who’s opinion she seems to value far more than her mothers and we think that the braces really add that extra zest to the attitude of preteen angst that she was sporting.  She really looks the part now and it’s obvious that the orthodontia was exactly what was missing.  Her up-the-stair-stomping is far more effective now that she has her braces.

Lila also enjoyed a week of testing out all of the dance classes offered to the preschool cats at the JCC.  Tuesday was Tap class.  Ms. Jenni had informed me that Lila could just wear her “Sabbath Shoes” (turns out the Jewish folk refer to their fancier attire as Sabbath clothes, too) while we tried out the class, that it wasn’t necessary to invest in a pair of shoes for one trial lesson.  Lila was all pumped for class and then just about went through the roof when Ms. Jenni approached her carrying a shiny pair of black patent dance shoes.  Would she like to try them on and then maybe wear them for class?  It wasn’t even a question, who wouldn’t want to spend 40 minutes clickety-clacking around in a brand new pair of tap shoes.  No one in this family would want to pass that up!

I don’t know that I would say that Lila excelled at Tap, she didn’t so much show potential, just that she could stomp with purpose and a touch of rhythm.  It’s possible that she followed the directions a bit better than in her previous dance class, but only because she wanted to be every possible decibel of sound out of those tap shoes.  Tap class was definitely a hit and Lila was not happy about having to return Ms. Jenni’s fabulously loud shoes back to her.

Posing

Prancing with a purpose

Wednesday we suited (or leotarded) back up for our regular pre ballet class.  But this session I had added a little something – it’s not part of the “uniform” of pink pink pink, but I thought I would give it a try anyway.

The little lady complains about being cold before and after class, yet wants to wear her dance clothes and doesn’t want to change after class when we have to hang out for basketball.  It seemed like our only option was leg warmers and Friends, just look at these little legs sporting their cable knit coziness!

Not only did Ms. Jenni let them stay, but I’m pretty sure that they will become mandatory for all the little 3-4 year olds because they are just too cute!  Those leg warmers are reason enough to put your kiddo in ballet.  I also had her to some really fast, in-place running while Ms Jenni and I sang “What a Feelin'”.  Her hair isn’t quite right and her outfit was a little too classy, but it was so wonderfully Flashdance for this 80’s lady.

Thursday was supposed to be our Dance Fusion trial.  Dance fusion is more of a modern/ interpretive dance type class which really makes me laugh because isn’t that primarily what life as a 3 year old is anyway?  Everything Bird does is to the beat of her own little internal drum, with her own little flair and sass, wearing her own spin on normal clothing.  I really didn’t see a point of trying this class out because I feel like we live this class.  Its a good thing we weren’t very invested in it.  About an hour before we were to pick up the big kids, Lila and I got ready to run a few errands.  I have a bag that I keep all of our extra curricular stuff in so that I’m not scrambling around every day.  I usually pack it at the beginning of the week so that its ready ahead of time.  This week with all the extra dance stuff though, I wasn’t quite as prepared and on Thursday right before our errands I went upstairs to get the mandatory t-shirt and leggings for her 3:30 lesson.  Sesame street t-shirt and black stretchy pants all laid out and ready to go……except there was one problem.  The girl had decided to lock her bedroom door and then shut it on her way out of the house….just in case someone might get in and decided to rob her room.

We don’t have keys to the bedroom doors, mainly because we have Mattie who is a little Houdini with a bobby pin, but I have no skill with hair pins and we didn’t have time for me to really even try.  The clothes were left in the locked room and a call was placed letting the powers that be know that Lila would not be auditing Dance Fusion class…..because her comfy clothes were being held hostage and she was wearing skinny jeans.

Turns out that even if Lila had signed up for it, there weren’t enough kiddos to keep Dance Fusion alive this semester.  Next time maybe……

Friday morning we were sitting around being unproductive.  Lila has been toying with a runny nose and I was nursing my second cup of coffee, both of us settling into another episode of Parenthood on Netflix.  Obviously we had no real plans for our day except for Lila to take a mid morning nap and I was going to see how long I could wear my pajamas before having to change and go get the big kids from school.  We got a phone call from Auntie Christal though that put a much needed wrench in our plans.  Apparently she and her little lady were in the neighborhood and starving – would Bird and I like to go have breakfast.  I was completely on board, even though it was going to require that I change out of my pj’s far earlier than I had hoped.  Birdie Beth, on the other hand, was all sorts of opposed.  Forget that she was going to get to have a little dining date with her bestie, she suddenly got all out of sorts because she would’t be eating her normal strawberry oatmeal.  I have no idea what kind of reasoning goes on in the little brain of hers.

Fine, you want the packet of instant oatmeal with dehydrated strawberry bits, Little Girl? We’ll just take it with us.

And that we did.

We were those people who bring their own food to the restaurant.  But notice what the mug says,

Since you can’t really see, the mug says “Her Ladyship”

I feel like that pretty much answers any questions anybody might have had about the kind of person that they would be dealing with.  I also may have walked in carrying my own mug of my own brewed at home coffee.  This was completely by accident, the mug was in my hand when I was buckling the Little in and then it just stayed there.  I really didn’t notice it until I got settled in and started to look at the menu and realized I hadn’t ordered coffee, but was still drinking it.  It was completely on accident, but I’m kind glad it worked out that way because there is some fabulous coffee that gets brewed at my house thanks to a crazy, science experiment-looking coffee maker that has settled onto my counter top.  It looks a lot like we are making meth when we are just trying to get our caffeine quota for the day.  This was a lovely Christmas gift given by someone who loves us and hated the idea of us drinking ordinary drip coffee for one minute longer.  That was way off of my subject of Lila and I’s brunch date, but I felt like it might give a little more understanding for why I couldn’t bear to part with my mug that morning.  Maybe you need to just visit me and then you, too would understand.

And today has been the Sabbath and we have rested.  Well, as rested as one is when they are trying to get 5 people out the door for church.  And then as rested as one is when they have company over for lunch and just let the kids have a free for all upstairs so they can have grown up conversation and eat brownies(every pair of shoes, every piece of dress up clothing and every single bead out of a jar the size of my head of plastic pop beads all over the little girls room).

My week has been busy, funny, frazzled and busy.  It has ended with some gross Poppy news that as per usual, I don’t want to talk about – but here in the last few hours of it, my heart is happy.  God has kept my hands busy and my thoughts focused on things that weren’t exactly pressing and important, but still needed immediate attention.  And then on the day that would end up being one of the hardest, I have been surround from start to finish, by people who have covered my like a cozy blanket.  Like Lila’s cable knit leg warmers.  They didn’t know it was a hard day, they were just here.  My little parting thought for you this evening is this, sometimes God distracts you from your hurts and sometimes God uses you to distract one of His other children from their own hurts.  Never pass up an opportunity to spend time with you special people because you have no idea what you might be helping them get through.  And once again, because I can’t say it enough – Preschool Dance classes are right up there as natural anti depressants and a great alternative to therapy when you don’t feel like talking.

Have a great week!

Cha Cha Cha Changes

In retrospect, I may have been a little dramatic when I said that the events that were on the schedule for today would be life changing.  There has definitely been an alteration of sorts, but it probably won’t be nearly as monumental to you readers, as it has been to the members of our household – one little girl in particular.

Mattie took a pacifier until she was about two and a halfish.  We were very laid back about her “sosa” usage.  It made her happy, it made us happy and we had the promise of a trusted dentist friend that as long as it was gone by the time she was 3, there shouldn’t be any problems.  We used to joke about how we knew that braces would be in our future. College we were uncertain about, but definitely braces.  Her baby teeth were precious and perfect, these tiny little pearls all right were they were supposed to be.  For a few years, a few very naive years, I thought that maybe we had dodged a bullet.  Maybe our child was never going to go through any awkward stages and her precious little chompers were as straight as little mouth soldiers.  My teeth hadn’t been terrible, though I did have braces, and Brandon never had them at all.  We were starting to feel just a little bit cocky.

I don’t know the exact date, but I do know that I have it written down somewhere because with my first child I kept track of these kinds of things – but it was probably around 2011 that she lost her first front tooth.  I was sad to see it go, but that gappy grin she was sporting was pretty darling.  No worries, we were breezing through adolescence.  And then the Captain Permanente moved in………sideways.  And all her other permanent teeth seem to have followed in the same chaotic manner.  The older she has grown, things have straightened out quite a bit.  Her growing face giving those teeth a little more room to spread out, but still – I would be lying if I said I had never once told my girl child, “Maybe for this picture Mattie Belle, just smile with your eyes.”

She has been looking forward to getting braces.  I have REALLY been looking forward to the braces and today was the day!  But in typical Kaylee fashion, when it came time to actually send her back for her mouth of metal, I had a little tug at my heart.  It is not a pretty little smile that has graced my girl’s face for about the past 4 years, but it is her smile.  Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder in this situation, but love is also blind.  I made her come back and smile for me one last time, knowing that I won’t ever see that exact little face again.  And of course, because I am who I am and can make a perfectly normal situation into a sappy mess, my started to fill up a little and for just a second I couldn’t breath very well.  I do not adjust to change well.  Even when its not only a change that I have been anxiously awaiting for YEARS, but also willing to shell out a ridiculous amount of money to accomplish said change.

And with one last hug and one last picture – Queen Schnaggle Tooth made her exit.  She will probably be glad to get rid of that little nickname, too.

She was so proud afterwards, and has carried her little plastic bag with her special tooth brush, “christmas tree brush” and wax with her everywhere.  She is taking her teeth augmentation very seriously….at least for today.  I just peeked in on her and her little plastic box of wax is resting right on the edge of her desk, perfectly placed should she need it in the night.

So life changing, probably not for you, but definitely for Matilda Belle…….and her mama.  I loved that toothless little mouth and felt a little robbed when that first bit of enamel started to peek through.  It was a clear sign that she was definitely growing and changing and needed me a little less.  She wasn’t exactly tearing through meat or anything with that first little tooth, but still……And then when she started losing them, those sweet little baby teeth that we had all struggled to cut……Sure it was her little mouth, but anyone who has lived with a teething child knows that it is a group activity, affecting everyone.  My babies tend to fall apart when getting new teeth. Playing Tooth Fairy has always been a bittersweet parenting task for me.  And now these braces…….I’m trying to just have fun with the moment, to get caught up in her excitement about all the fun color possibilities and how she gets to brush with a miniature bottle brush.  But the reality is, they don’t put braces on a mouth full of baby teeth that are just going to fall out anyway.  These braces are on permanent teeth, in the mouth of a girl who isn’t a baby anymore – and for that to really soak in, I just need a minute or two.  I suppose I will be writing a similar post when she gets these braces taken off, lamenting how straight teeth only belong to the mature and how my child can in no way be ready to leave this phase behind her.

We walked quietly back to the car, me with my mind all over the place thinking ridiculous thoughts about her moving away and replaying the day I gave her the first of many sink baths….and her, she could barely walk in a straight line because she was too busy trying to touch her teeth with her hands and tongue.  I took her to get a smoothie and french fries for lunch and then we headed back to school.  For an hour now, I was struggling with just what was going on today.  I really wanted to be happy and excited and also, really…..braces aren’t exactly a life or death situation.  This is not a big deal! She’s not moving out or anything.  And then we pulled into the school parking lot.

She was taking a bit to get out of the car, in typical Mattie fashion so I got out the hustle her along.  She was just sitting on the floor of the car when I arrived on her side, and before I had a chance to ask her what in the world she was doing she quickly asked me if I could pull her lose tooth.  She was too scared to do it because it was a molar (and probably because she has never pulled any of her others).  She was sitting on the floor of the car because she didn’t want to get out and to risk anyone seeing her should she start to cry.  And in that quick second, as I pulled my girlie’s first molar in the parking lot of her elementary school, I realized that she was still very much a little girl.  I also realized that even if she wasn’t a “little girl” anymore, she was still going to need me to hunch down in the back seat and help her out with tons of problems for the rest of her life. I’m pretty certain my mom and I found ourselves in a similar position only a few weeks ago, and I have had all my grown up teeth for quite some time now, braces off for 20+ years and even have my wisdom teeth out.

So big day for us!  And tomorrow? Tomorrow Lila tries out a tap class.  Stay tuned and have a wonderful week!

Back To The Grind

Last Sunday night, I suggested that my family help me take the ornaments off of our tree so that we could remove the tree from our play room and it could go out with Mondays trash.  That seems such a barbaric way to say good-bye to something that has pretty much been our festivity anchor over the past few weeks.  It had also been the main source of light for that side of the house.  You stood there in the corner, first thing I saw when I unsteadily started my day each morning – a little reminder that it was Christmas time and that there was magic and miracles in the air.  Oh Christmas Tree, my kids slept under you and watered you (once).  It is very hard to fuss at my children while they are supposed to be practicing their piano lessons, when there is a twinkling tree all festooned with ornaments and memories.

And like that, without batting an eye, I thought nothing of stripping it and then tossing said tree next to the recyclables to be hauled off first thing Monday morning. Bedtimes were met, uniforms laid out and the alarm went off sharply at 6:20 like it had been itching to wake me up for the two weeks that it had been silenced.

Back to the grind.

I didn’t realize that our Christmas Break had been so taxing.  I thought that we had actually had a pretty low key 2 weeks compared to some years.  There have been years in the past when we have tried to cram 2 trips and far too many expectations into those 14 short days.  But this year, we only went to Mumsey and Poppy’s and there wasn’t exactly a whole lot of heavy lifting going on there.  I don’t think my kids wore real clothes for even 5 of the days they were out of school.  But last Monday morning, after I got Lila settled with her breakfast (my 2nd one to fix for the day) she asked me to sit down on the couch and watch her show with her while she ate.  * When you are the 3rd child, you get to eat breakfast while watching tv because mama has started to let her standards slide at this point in child rearing* I decided that a little tv watching never hurt anyone and plopped right down with my freshly poured cup of coffee.  I woke up 2 hours and 4 episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood later, coffee still in my hand – thankfully it was also wedged in between my leg and the arm of the couch because I wasn’t exactly holding on for dear life.

I have no idea how that happened and I think I scared Lila when I woke up with such a start – she had been talking to me, telling me she was ready to be done and could I turn on the bathroom light for her.  As weirded out by my narcoleptic episode as I was, I’m sure it was all equally or more so traumatic for her.  “Mom doesn’t usually pass out for hours as a time on the couch, should I be concerned?”

Whatever the reason for all that, it seemed to set things off in a rather bizarre way for the rest of the week.  Our week was busy, all of those activities and duties that took a break for the Christmas holiday were back. Practices and bills and after school activities – plus we had some friends come back home (they left in May) for residency interviews and they stayed here at the Baughman Hotel.  Two birthday parties and one late night Cybill accident in her kennel……it’s like there never even was a two week break.

But I am glad things are back in their chaotic swing, and I’m glad its January.  Reese told me the other day that January is birthday month – which is particularly funny coming from a person who doesn’t have their birthday in January.  But I can definitely see where he gets this idea – Poppy’s birthday was last Sunday, we had two birthday parties this past week and I think we take the rest of this week off.  But then next week, things get going again with Mattie and there is just about someone celebrating every day after her.  Birthday parties are a fun way to break of to monotony that can come in winter, that and work out clothes go on sale everywhere.  Not that I’m planning to wear my new active wear to necessarily be active, but it can be motivating.  And after that motivational feeling fades, its nice to have new comfy, stretchy pants to fold the laundry in and feel like you would look really cute should you decide to be active.  Rugs and home furnishings tend to go on sale this time of year as well, I’m just sayin’………

The girls are having their birthday party together this year and it is supposed to be mermaid themed.  That sounded super fun and fairly easy back when it was proposed to me in November, but now it is sounding like more and more work that even with new active wear, still might be too much.  Mattie has expressed a desire for the dining room to look like “underwater but not the the nautical way that you like, mom” I don’t really even know what that means.  But apparently it means that I won’t like it whatever it is.  I have also been instructed that it can’t be “dorky, toy pretend mermaid but more real-life mermaid elegant with pearls and turquoise and gold”.  Again, that feels very specific and also very vague all at the same time.  I feel like it gives me ample opportunities to disappoint. Tomorrow, I shall spend my day searching the internet on how to plan an elegant, real-life mermaid party featuring turquoise and gold.  She also wants us to play games, but the things that she has suggested to me I don’t really feel are going to be a big hit with most of her guests – seeing as most of them will be boys.  Something tells me none of them will want to design their own mermaid tail or make a mermaid mosaic out of shell pieces and buttons.  Mattie and Lila have also started telling Reese, on separate occasions, that he isn’t invited to one of the girls birthday party.  Currently, he is still invited to Mattie’s but is not supposed to attend Lila’s.  Again, this is really fun because it is the same party.

I’m starting to think that for next year, the theme will be birthday and the activity will be eating cake and ice cream and just running around outside no matter what the weather.

Well, I think that is all for tonight.  Tomorrow I will have a really exciting story.  I don’t want to give any of it away, but I’m pretty sure it will be incredible and there will be pictures and theatrics.  Somebody’s life is going to change forever and you do not want to miss it!

Scars

Remember this?

So we were starting to get used to our 3 year old looking like she had a few whiskers.  They didn’t seem to be bothering her and if Lila’s not complaining about something, we tend to just leave it alone.  But then Tuesday found us at our pediatrician’s office getting flu shots.  That hadn’t been on my schedule at all, but seeing as pretty much nothing that I have done lately has been penned onto my agenda…….had I known we were going to be going there, I may have asked if I could also schedule a stitch removal.  Instead, ever since Lila was embroidered, it has been our plan to pay a visit to Dr. John (one of my close friend’s hubby who makes his living tending to the care and upkeep of hearts.  I figure that if he can repair holes in a vital organ that also happens to be pretty small, he is probably competent enough to take out the two stitches in my preschoolers lip.)

Anyway, when we went to get out shots, which by the way, Lila showed up with her own doctor kit prepared to give the nurse a shot as well.  Do unto others, right?  Thankfully, we have a wonderful nurse who played along and Lila marched out of that office feeling very satisfied having made her first house call.  Or would it be her first internship?  I will have to confirm with her in a bit, but I’m pretty sure that Lila is under the impression that she has just started a peds fellowship with Dr. Catherine.  Upon seeing Lila’s cross stitched face, our nurse asked if she could pop those stitches out, to which Lila responded with “No Way” and marched out of the room.  Truly, there was straight up marching, pausing only to gather her kit and bribery lollipop.  My children are not what I would call flexible.  They can be easy going and laid back, but the key is to never EVER tell them something is going to be a certain way and then change it.  No, surprisingly they tend to respond better to, “I have no idea how this is going to go down, your guess is as good as mine and who knows how all this is going to end.” But to tell them that situation A is going to happen and then have to switch it out with situation B – suddenly they question everything I have ever told them and then they tend to just shut down.  So if we had planned for Dr. John to take the needlework out, then there was NO WAY it was going down here in the pediatrician’s office, which would have made way more sense.

So we left, vaccinated, but still with whiskers poking from the bottom lip of the 3 year old.  And a warning from my nurse that the stitches needed to come out soon because the skin was starting to grow up and over them a little.  Also, maybe we needed to get out of there soon because just as we had arrived, so had a pack of vomiting children.

We got out the car where my negotiations began.

If we had to get these stitches out and Lila wasn’t going to allow the reasonable choice as an option, what would she go for.  I racked my brain to think of my list of friends that possessed the type of training and scissors that I thought this task would require.  Dr. John ended up being a bit busy, doing that whole cardiologist thing.

Who else?

Turns out I have two ob/Gyn friends, a neonatologist friend and a great dentist buddy – we went with the dentist because A) being familiar with the face (even if it is teeth) seems like a better fit and 2) she was available and I wouldn’t have to go back home and fetch my suture kit – yeah, I have my own now, they let me take the tools home after they patched up Birdie.  I guess a suture kit contains all sorts of devices that can come in very handy at home, and they said that I had paid for it so I may as well take it with me.

Lila agreed that Auntie Christal would be a wonderful choice to remove her strings and we headed that way.  I have decided that if I am ever deserted on an island and right before, I have been given the option of which three items I want to have with me for survival – I will definitely take Christal Hall D.D.S as one of my items.  That lady has handled more than her fair share of my predicaments, and really, I don’t I even considered her for stitch removal because she was a doctor.  More so, just because she’s my go-to person. She is my Olivia Pope, though I don’t really bring her very sensational scandals.  So off to Wolfchase Family Dentistry!

She did fantastic.  And by she, I mean both Lila and Christal.

Lila’s stitches are now just a fun little memory, though I wouldn’t say her lip is good as new.  You can definitely tell that there was some sort of a trauma that occurred there, though I am sure it will still continue to fade.  All of these pictures of her lip though have really brought to Brandon and I’s attention this wonderful little scar of her chin that neither one of us can recall at all how it got there.  We can both recall a cut/ scratch on her chin but what caused it, that is completely lost.  I hate that we don’t have an awesome story to share with her about how she obtained that battle wound, that mark of honor and courage.  Frankly, if we can’t figure it out soon, we are considering from this point on telling her that it happened the same time as this injury.

Not to get all philosophical or anything, but as I have been typing this, it has kind of occurred to me that some of the greatest moments of our lives, the good and the bad, leave us with scars of some sort.  Some are clearly visible to the world around us and some are on the inside, where only we know about them.  Not that I prance around naked ever, but should my body find itself on display it would be obvious from the marks on me that I am a mommy.  And though I wouldn’t call it a scar, my ring finger on my left hand has a smoothness all the way around and a little indentation that would clearly show that there has been a ring living on that finger for all of my adult life.  There is a jagged scar on the underside of my right wrist.  Few see that one, but it tells a great story and I love getting to tell people that my thumb is held on by a Philips head screw. And I have a tattoo on my right hip, the word Patience.  It is a scar purposefully placed there, because I wanted something on the outside to reflect the scar that is on my heart from the lose of my brother.  All of these “scars” tell stories.  And the stories are usually a mix of happiness and tears – just like most of everything is.

I look at that little scar on that little face, those marks that weren’t there when she arrived.  I have allowed her to get banged up, and for that I am not exactly proud, but she has survived and she now has some war stories of her own.  She will not get out of this life unscathed, but hopefully, she will look back at her scars as mementos of a life well lived.  Adventures, tears, being scared to death and broken-hearted, but coming out okay, better than okay.

But no more trips to the e.r. again for a while little lady, or any body else in this house for that matter.