The Reality Post

This week was lazy.  We did stuff, sure, but I didn’t take my camera out.  There was opportunity to do more, and I declined.  I took some baths, played games on my phone, and watched TV.  I found myself wishing Sof would play on her iTouch, oh say, an hour longer, so as not to interrupt my time engaging in me.  And you know what?  I don’t even feel guilty about it.  ‘Cause most the time I frickin’ rock this mom thing. 

We changed Sof’s earrings!  She was super excited to have her Dora one’s in, but the backs aren’t as tight as the one’s they put in at the store.  So, somewhere between a visit to a friends house, her bed, and our bed, one is lost.  I noticed it while I was cleaning her up from her second round of puke at 4:00am this morning.  Of course I wasn’t going to risk the hole closing up, so I got out the other earrings and forced it through her ear.  Girlfriend was miserable anyway, so what the hell.  She’ll thank me someday.  Or maybe not, pretty sure I’m not in the running for Mother of the Year anyway.  Bottom line is by this morning she was up and running, and she still has 2 pierced ears.  All’s well that ends well:) 

   

Touchy feely moment…Lexi brought Sof down to our room and announced Sof had puked all over her bed.  Then Lexi said, “I told her, let’s go get Mommy so she can make it all better”.  Can’t help but think how natural that is for a biological child.  Of course Mommy will make it better.  Poor Sof had vomit to learn that lesson.  Now she knows it, and will never forget it. 

Before all that hot mess, Lexi and I went to her Girl Scout SWAP night.  Swaps are little pins that the girls make and trade with other troops in our area. 

This is actually one of my sweet kindergarten students.  She was SOOOO excited to see me there, and even more excited to swap with Lexi.  It will be great fun for her and I to tell the class on Monday. 

 

 

At the end all the girls hold hands and sing the friendship song.  There is nothing as sweet as 200 girls singing and swaying together.

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

While I’m admitting nurturing failures, I might as well throw in Sponge Bob.  I don’t know if Chia pets are really white elephant gifts, or I just can’t grow grass, but we are failures.  If this was the Chia head with the plush green afro on the commercials,  ours would be more like Daddy Warbucks.  We managed to grow a few sparse sprouts and a lot of mold.  Gross.  We have more seeds and we’re Culley’s, which means we’ll probably give it another try.  We don’t accept failure at this house.  We will wash, dry, replant, and re-water that bad boy until he’s so green you can’t tell what he is.  I’m not sure, but I suspect there will be some Miracle Grow involved.

   

Here’s hoping no one tosses their cookies tonight, but just in case, no one is drinking cranberry juice.  It’s still red when it comes back up, and it doesn’t clean out of the carpet well.

Chopsticks, Fortune Cookies, and Airports

We had a perfect plan for Saturday.  The usual suspects were supposed to convene at my house.  We were to eat, drink and be merry.  Then, at the appropriate time, Uncle Rick would head to the airport to retrieve our missing peeps.  Unfortunately, he left his door unlocked and the flu done walked right in.  Flu said, “No sir, you will not go anywhere.  Neither will your wife.”  Plan B.

No problem, Em and I are masters at making happy(adj.-marked by joy or pleasure) out of happenstance(noun-an event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental).  I quickly decided I wasn’t cooking, so off to Pei Wei it was with our 4 littlest blessings.  When you have a table of 6 with only 2 adults and 2 in highchairs, you get a few looks.  When you start taking pictures, striking poses, and giggling you get people checking the menu to see if they serve alcohol.  They don’t, and we were only intoxicated from drinking in silly kids.  Do you know how many uses chopsticks have?  They are great for jabbing, poking, prodding, drumming, and oh yeah, eating.      

Livy was determined to get every last noodle in her mouth without a western utensil.

 

What are you eating Sof?

Oh, I see, edamame.  Mmmmm, looks good.

 

There was lots of feeding going on. 

 

Then it just got ridiculous.  Strike a pose…

 

 

Pei Wei has help yourself fortune cookies.  We were excessive, admittedly.  They are so little though, and who is to say that 2(or 3 or 4) fortunes aren’t meant to come to us?  We know those little tidbits of wisdom have been written just for us.  The proof?  Undeniable, Em’s “word” was weather!  Steve is a weatherman!  That is not coincidence people!

 

 

What you can learn at Pei Wei on a Saturday night with 4 kids:

1.  Life is full of little decisions, like white or brown rice.

2.  Treasure what you have.

3.  To be mature is to accept imperfections.

4.  The simplest answer is to act.

We left enlightened, and will go off into the world enacting change in the name of fortune cookies.

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

Adrienne had to be picked up from dance, and then we had time to kill before the airport run.  What to do?  Dance of course!

          

Then finally it was time for me to collect my people from the airport.  There is something electric about the airport.  The excitement of trips to be had, experiences to be made.  On the flip side there are reunions with loved ones that have been away.  I had a flood of Russia memories come back driving up to the arrivals.  The stress of getting there, cancelled fights, delays, and so on.  Then the joy of bringing our daughter home to a crowd of friends and family waiting anxiously in the hallway of arrivals.  If the airport walls could talk they would tell amazing stories of joy and sorrow.

   

   

Welcome home.  Take your coat off and stay awhile:)

Looks Like We Made It

Tomorrow Lexi and Daddy will be flying home.  Yeehaw!  We’re excited to have them back, but there’s been good things about our week.  Our nights were calmer without Lexi’s activities to juggle with Adrienne’s.  We ate what we wanted, when we wanted, without any pressure to sit down for a meal.  Once the girls were in bed the night was mine.  Mark and I don’t have compatible internal clocks.  He loves to go to bed, and I get my second wind around 10.  I’m a night owl.  I love those quiet nighttime hours with no time constraint.  This week I’ve enjoyed laying in bed with the lights and TV on, and my computer on my lap late into the night.  Yes, I have a new lover.  It’s thin, sleek, and black, and I love pushing it’s buttons.  There were good things to come out of this week. 

Lexi spent some important time with Mark’s Aunts and their hubbies.  They’ve gone all out this week to make her feel special.  There was also time with Mimi Lee and Papa  Harv.  I love seeing positive role models in my kids lives, some related, some not.  Doesn’t matter ‘cause Lord knows you can never have enough people who love you.  The special time with Daddy and Papa Curt was an added bonus.

            

         

       

Back at home we've been juggling toddler bedtimes with teen sister’s activities.  Of course Anne and Rick were there to pick up the slack.  They picked Adrienne up from dance, watched Sof one night, took Adrienne to her school activity, and even sewed a hole in Sof’s blanket.  Can’t really ask for more(although I would if needed them:)  Anne said last week, “Use us like a doormat while Mark’s gone.  We’ll do whatever.”  Okay, I did.

Adrienne had two different performances.  One was a school lip syncing act.  Some of the students were painfully uncomfortable on stage.  Adrienne’s group totally got into to character and went all out.  I love that she has that confidence.  Middle school can be brutal without it.

              

She ended up on that same stage again tonight performing for her school’s spaghetti dinner.

  

Sof was making me crazy right up until the dancing started.  Then she sat glued to the show, only moving to point out where her sis was. 

Yes, there were good things to come out of this week.

                 

I admit I was starting to enjoy our calmer evenings.  The house stayed so much cleaner.  I loved my nights doing just what I wanted. 

Today hubby and I were texting.  In the middle of it he texted: I miss you.  With those words he gave me a flutter of longing like when we were first dating.  So, tonight I’m savoring my time with my part time lover Mr. Computer, but tomorrow I will be happy to welcome a warmer body back to my bed.  I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder.