Apr 12, 2018 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
AB had her 4 year old appointment this morning. She passed the vision test with flying colors and serenaded the nurse with her newest song.
Bum bum bum
Do WAAA.
Bump de bum.
Do do we. ©
It will be topping the charts any day now.
She’s had some residual stomach pain since the quarter incident and the doctor said she lost a little weight but other than that she’s fit as a fiddle. When he was listening to her lungs she looked up from her planet book and commented that she “didn’t think he was doing it right.” So there’s nothing wrong with her sass. He had to give five shots which seemed excessive to me but I’m not here to open the can of worms that is the vaccine debate. She did fine for the first two shots then all hell broke loose. It was full out screaming and kicking. She’s always been very calm during shots so this was new territory for us. To be fair, I would make my opinions heard if I got five shots. We went to Dunkin Donuts for munchkins and coffee to calm our nerves. As she told someone, “Nothing is better than a good trip to Dunkin Donuts.” I’ve never been more proud.
We visited a new playground after the doctor. Annabelle was limping around like she was recovering from double knee surgery instead of a polio vaccine. I knew the playground would make her forget her worries and I was right. She bounced around with her new friend Jack Henry who insisted on calling her Ella. Unlike the doctor, she did not correct him. The playground is at a local church which thought up a brilliant method to bring in the community. They have a combination indoor/outdoor play AND a small restaurant and coffee. The kids get their energy out, the moms drink cafe and no one can leave the enclosed area. It’s the perfect set up. We had lunch there then headed to our next activity.
I met a girl at church who moved here with her Marine husband a few weeks after we did. I feel the new girls should stick together so I invited her to the pottery painting studio with us. I was concerned she’d be an accomplished artist and make me regret the invitation but she had just as much trouble picking colors and painting a straight line as I did. The owners let their very large labradoodle puppy, Oscar, have free range around the place. He wasn’t aggressive but he was a handful. He pulled Annabelle’s bow right off her head and chewed it up, jumped on my shoulders which made me smudge my vase, then he jumped on the table and charged at us. He was a bull in a china shop. Annabelle was only slightly better. She finished her statue before Amy and I had chosen our colors. She was overtired and overly dramatic about the five bandaids on her legs. She kept laying down on the floor and scooting herself along because the aforementioned shots made her legs sore. Then she’d bounce up and yell, “I’M DA SUPERHERO HERE TO SAVE DA DAY!” I don’t think Amy will ever hang out with us again.
Actual footage of Annabelle in the middle of the studio.
Mar 8, 2018 | North loving, southern living, What's going on |
We started the week as we always do by going to church. I dropped Annabelle off in her classroom and asked if she needed to use the potty before I left. She said no. The nice lady in charge of the children’s programs told Annabelle she could tell her if she needed the potty and she’d be happy to take her. AB nodded her head and said ok. Out of nowhere, a second lady in the room turned to Annabelle and demanded, “Say ‘yes, ma’am.'” I stared at her so hard I’m surprised I didn’t burn a hole through her. I’m fine with friends and family correcting Annabelle if need be, but I don’t know that woman. Annabelle didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not like she hit someone! That would have been a reasonable reason to correct my child. I told Christopher about it and he did not share in my huffiness.
Later that evening, Christopher went out back to talk to the neighbor. Said neighbor told him that if the grass isn’t kept short enough, we’ll be dealing with rattlesnakes and cooper heads in the warmer weather. POISONOUS SNAKES IN MY YARD. Mike Peedro the ex-convict neighbor told me about the rattlesnakes when we moved in but he doesn’t always tell the truth. A reliable neighbor passed on the information this time, so I believe him and have vowed to never walk in my yard again. Our grass is almost a foot long so there’s probably a hold herd (flock? group? huddle?) of snakes out there. Christopher did share my negative views about this situation.
As if snakes in the yard and frogs in/on my house isn’t enough, on Monday the landlord and her father came over to inspect a hole by the house. Richard stared at the hole for .6 seconds and announced, “Well. Looks like you have an armadillo under there.”
At this point I shouldn’t be surprised by anything. If someone tells me a lion lives across the street I’ll just smile and nod. Richard said to put a board over the hole. Seems to me that will present a new problem. What if the armadillo gets trapped and dies under there? What then, Richard? I hope you have a plan for that scenario.
No sooner had Richard left then Nine Fingered Larry showed up. The bathroom floor has water seeping through it which obviously is a problem. Larry came over a few weeks ago to fix an electrical problem. When he came that time he said he wasn’t an electrician but he knew a few things about electricity. I know a few things too. For example, if not handled properly bad things can happen. Maybe that’s why he’s missing a finger. He didn’t fix anything that time so I didn’t expect it to be any different when he was in my home this week. He said he wasn’t a plumber but he was going to look at the bathroom anyway. I showed him to the bathroom where he gave me a brief lesson in pipe location and other things I didn’t fully understand thanks to his accent. He talks so slow and makes comments I don’t understand. He finally diagnosed the problem. The toilet paper holder had fallen off the wall because of drywall issues. Christopher patched the hole but had yet to reattach the holder. According to Larry, when Christopher screwed the holder back in he hit a pipe which lead to leaking in the floor. Except Christopher had not screwed anything into the wall, which I pointed out to Nine Fingered Larry. That really took the wind out of his sails. He sauntered out, promising that the real plumbers would be by soon.
The plumbers did indeed come by and leave this lovely souvenir in our wall.
It really fits the aesthetic I’m going for in this house. Between that, the snake repellant and the peppermint oil/water mixure I use on the frogs it’s becoming a real Southern Living home around here.
Feb 9, 2018 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
Enjoying: trips to the Walmart grocery store. Normally when I grocery shop I try to get in and out as efficiently as possible. I don’t hate doing it but it doesn’t have a history of being something I look forward to. Well. Let me tell you about my new grocery shopping experience. I have never in my life shopped anywhere with so many friendly employees. Everyone smiles and comments on the weather or my blue rain boots. They help me find things. They ask about my day. Between my three years in Tennessee and my three weeks in Georgia I haven’t experienced the stereotypical southern friendliness. I guess I’ve been looking of the friendliness in all the wrong places. It’s in aisle 7 near the chips.
It’s sad that I get so much enjoyment out of Walmart. How my life has changed. Nineteen year old Sarah would be horrified.
Supervising: play dates between AB and our neighbor Olivia. She just turned 12 so to Annabelle she’s a big girl and can do no wrong. I was going to talk to Olivia’s mother about paying for her to entertain AB while I get things done around the house. Before I had the chance, Olivia came knocking on the door and asking to play. Annabelle is entertained and I don’t have to pay. It’s worked out well for all of us.
Olivia and Annabelle have a little bit of an accent barrier. Olivia has a very Georgia accent and AB has a northern mother, southern father, lived in New York (don’t even try to tell me all northern accents are the same) and she watches British cartoons. She has a very odd jumble of accents. Their conversations have a lot of “what? What did you say?” Annabelle had a deep conversation with Christopher about how she was confused that Olivia called her shopping cart a “buggy.” I’m pleased to report I have finally ingrained into her head that the candy on a stick is called a lollipop so she was confused when Olivia offered to bring her a sucker.
Not understanding: most of the people around here. The nice man stocking the milk shelf at Walmart had a very animated conversation with me about the weather. The only word I understood was “sun” but I smiled and nodded.
Being rescued from: large bugs. We have several lady bugs in the house and I can handle those. What I can’t handle is a HUGE cockroach crawling up my kitchen wall. It honestly was the same size as Annabelle’s hand. I could have dealt with the cockroach myself but Olivia said she doesn’t mind bug and would squash it for me. A while later she left to go home then running back in yelling, “Miss Sarah! Miss Sarah! There’s a bird on the wood pile and I’m scared of it!” I knew it was my moment to shine. I marched out to the woodpile ready to defend our new friend (Olivia, not the bird). It was an odd shaped piece of wood, not a bird.
Not visiting: neighbor Mike Peedro’s home tattoo parlor. The day we met he said he sometimes does tattoos at home because he doesn’t want to rent a spot at a real shop. My personal belief is he has a ban restricting him from travel thanks to parole and/or house arrest. At any rate, I heard from Olivia that Patty was over getting a tattoo. I was kind of hoping she’d invite us over to see the spectacle but she did not.
Attempting: potty training. Again. Apparently, I enjoy self-torture. I take back everything I ever said about preferring to potty train over teach a child to ride a bike. I hate them both. I’ve been telling Annabelle everyone I can think of who wears big girl bottoms. It probably isn’t the best manners to tell her Olivia wears big girl undies during Olivia’s first visit but desperate times, desperate (possibly rude) measures.
Holding back: tears of joy when Sesame finally peed on the potty. I think it was more a coincidence of timing (being told for the 48th time that day to sit on the potty) than her feeling the urge to go BUT A VICTORY IS A VICTORY.
Holding back: tears of sorrow that she probably won’t do it again for the next 12 days.
Jan 10, 2018 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
On Thursday the great snow bomb hit Massachusetts and I for one could not have been more delighted. Sure, it was -5 and I spent almost two hours shoveling in the blistering cold with snow slapping my face, but when I was inside watching it was lovely. The next day we went out to play. Annabelle may have been born in Tennessee but she loves snow like a good northern girl.
The snowbanks on either side of the driveway were over her head but she climbed to the top and demanded I help her build a snow castle “better than Elsa’s.” The thing about Elsa is she says the word and snow castles are built. I had to drag large “snow rocks” from one side of the driveway to the other. Half the time the snow blew back into my face. It was much less beautiful than Disney makes it seem.
That night we slept at Ivy’s house. The girls took a bath together and AB asked me to “hold Baby Ivy down” so she could wash her hair. Ivy was skeptical about The Sesame Salon.
Then she realized that it’s pretty nice to relax while someone takes care of your every need.
It reminded me of this picture I found the other day. Elizabeth was NOT into my efforts to beautify her. “Oh ma gawsh, Mom. Who put this puffy thing on me? Rescue meeeeee.”
Speaking of Elizabeth, she and I started a new exercise regimen last night. It was a beginners video and I sailed through the first 15 minutes with no difficulty. Elizabeth was struggling but we both finished strong. I didn’t realize the workout had affected my arms until I tried to take a picture of Elizabeth at the end and my arms and hand was shaking so much I couldn’t get a clear picture.
You might think I was shaking because we were lifting heavy weights. You would be wrong. We didn’t have real weights so I lifted mayonnaise and oil while she did the salt and Adobo. The words you’re looking for are fitness professionals. Look for our line of weights coming to a Dick’s Sporting Goods near you.
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| Think of all the good dips we could have made with the mayonnaise in the time we were exercising! |
Annabelle didn’t want us to forget she was in the room too. How could we when she was constantly asking what we were doing and why we were laying down?
Grandma’s 90th birthday party is this weekend which is perfect since Annabelle has plenty of party practice. For more than a year she’s hosted a birthday party almost every day. The guest of honor at yesterdays party was Tiny Tim the turtle. Tiny Tim started as an imaginary friend who joined our family last week. Erika was getting rid of a little wooden turtle so I took it and told AB that Tim had come to life. Her little mind has never been more blown. All party guests were required to bring for TT and I brought a Hershey’s kiss. I should have given away the mayonnaise and olive oil instead.
She looked at the candy the same way I do. So much love and affection!
Dec 21, 2017 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
* Last night Michelle texted me this story. I was laughing so hard no sound was coming out. Stop reading this and go read that. It reminded me of a few weeks ago when we stopped by the grocery store after church. We divided to conquer the store and AB was assigned to me. We picked some flowers for Mrs. Jim’s birthday and I had to talk her out of giving her a get well soon balloon. Mrs. Jim is getting old but she’s still in fine health. We settled on a Frozen balloon instead. (When we brought it over, Mr. Jim looked at Elsa and said, “Well, isn’t she a good looking gal.”) We wandered the store looking for Christopher and Annabelle tried putting the box of cheerios in the cart of five other people. She kept walking up to random people and dropping the box on their food because she thought it was ours. I have never apologized more times during a grocery trip. When we walked up to Christopher’s car I was surprised to hear music playing from inside. I knew the keys weren’t in it so the radio couldn’t be on. I opened the door for Annabelle and her car seat was gone. I saw weird trash in the door. I looked in the driver seat and saw a strange man. It wasn’t our car. ABORT ABORT. FLEE THE SCENE. Slam the door and run. The guy didn’t notice me when I confidently opened the door but I’m sure he heard the slam and saw the lady in high heels dragging a child away from his car.
* It so seldom happens, but occasionally I get tired. Kidding. I’m tired almost every day. I was saying “I’m pooped” but Annabelle is too much of a parrot and she walked around saying it. I’d rather not rush to the potty talk days. Several weeks ago I was rocking AB before bed and ‘I’m pooped’ almost slipped out. I have NO clue why this phrase came out instead but I said, “I’m snoop dogged.” WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN. I couldn’t tell you one thing about Snoop Dogg but now his name comes out of my mouth several times a week. It’s become the new family phrase for when we’re tired.
* Last Christmas we lost the baby Jesus from our Little People nativity. I found another set at the consignment shop and as these things go we immediately found the missing Jesus under the couch. There may be no room for him in the inn but there’s always room under my couch for more toys. Now we have double everything. The two Marys and two Josephs are being run over by all the wise men and huge herd of camels. The two Jesuses are vying for the prime stop under the angel. As if two Jesuses wasn’t enough, AB changed the name of her Bitty Baby from Violet to Jesus. When she was supposed to be napping she called down for me to find baby Jesus and bring him to her. I guess the more Jesus we have around the better.
* I have one million and eight things to do between now and when we leave on Saturday. Instead of packing I spent some quality time painting penguins on Annabelle’s handprint. Procrastinator 4 lyfe.
I try to do a hand/footprint craft for every holiday or season. Look at her little mistletoes from her first Christmas. She likes to tell me how she’s almost four but I plug my ears and LA LA LA NOT LISTENING.
* I don’t care that the snow is as high as the ordering box. I will still get my medium iced coffee!
* Time for bed. I’m very snoop dogged.
Dec 19, 2017 | Holidays, Uncategorized, What's going on |
I’ve been too busy packing, organizing, list making, crying and house hunting to blog much lately. Not to mention that my phone, computer and car all died within a 24 hour time period. I’ve been busy doing adult things which is much less enjoyable than I anticipated when I was 12. I have seventy Christmas things I want to do before we leave and I’m determined to do it all. It’s very important to me that we have as normal a Christmas as possible, even with all the crazy.
We went to a Christmas party at the library and saw our fourth Santa of the year. Sesame is normally very observant but she hasn’t noticed they all look different and that two of them were less than stellar. She told me she brought her sled and reindeer but she had to leave them in the car “to charge.” There was craft making, cookie eating and face painting. Annabelle loves any event with face painting so she was thrilled to become a mini Rudolph.
For the last three years we’ve visited the Christmas Cottage. It’s so charming I want to live there all December.
We went with our Christmas jammies this year, partly because they’re cute and partly because they didn’t require ironing. She told him she wants a marble track and cars. She previously told me she wants luggage so evidently she has multiple lists.
I didn’t think we’d get to do our North Pole breakfast but we squeezed it in. I used my fancy dollar store china plates and found some fuzzy decorations to use as snowballs. We had bacon and pancakes in the shape of snowflakes, gingerbread men and stockings. When AB first saw it she said, “Wow, Mommy! It’s perfect!” A few minutes later she walked through and said, “It doesn’t really look like the North Pole in here.” Such a temperamental audience.
The weather cooperated nicely.
After breakfast we went to Seneca Falls, the inspiration for the town of Bedford Falls from It’s a Wonderful Life which is only my favorite Christmas movie of all time. Had I been born several decades earlier I would have had a poster of Jimmy Stewart up on my wall and dreamed of marrying him. Although to be honest I don’t see why I can’t have a poster him on my current bedroom wall. Surely Christopher wouldn’t mind.
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| “George Bailey, I’ll love you til the day I die.” |
By sheer coincidence, earlier in the week we saw the actress who plays Zuzu in the movie at a children’s museum. I drilled it into AB’s head that she played the little girl in the Christmas movie I watch every year. I assumed it was falling on deaf ears but when we were in the Bedford Falls museum she yelled out, “That lady is from your favorite show, Mama!” My job here is done. I have raised her well.
God smiled upon us and sent us multiple feet of snow. The females of the family could not be more thrilled. The male of the family is not as enthusiastic.
The very short trip from the top of the hill to the bottom gives her the thrill of a lifetime.
