More Tales

Today in church, the nursery worker commented that Kate was wearing a pretty skirt. Kate claimed, "My mom sewed it", a total falsity, since it was store-bought. Furthermore, Kate promised that she and Jenna would sew a skirt for the nursery worker, in brown fabric with pink flowers.

Telling Tales

Kate emerges from her room, all forlorn.

"Mummy", she complains, "My sleeping and my woke up. The children bugged me."

I know immediately that this is not true because all the other children in the house have been in the living room with me. But I want to see where this leads.

Me: Which children, Katie?
Kate: Emily and Jenna.
M: How did they bug you?
K: They sprinkled and put [unintelligible thing] on my face.
M: They put what on your face?
K: Sprinkles and dough!
M: Who put dough on your face?
K: Emily and Jenna. And squirt glue on my face.
M: My goodness. What happened next?
K: My came out and showed Mummy.
M: And what did Mummy say?
K: (pulling my ear close to her mouth so she can whisper) Wash it off!

Barely two, and already planning her first book.

Feels like Singapore

I've never seen butter do this in this country before.
Our van thermometer registered 101 F (38C) today
and our air-conditioning wasn't working till this
afternoon when the furnace-AC man came to work on it.

Tomorrow- thunderstorms. Hurrah.

Amen

Jenna, praying as we began our sporadic morning worship session in the basement (involving every single percussion instrument in the house), "Dear Jesus, thank you for letting us sing songs to you. The End. I mean, Amen."

Another Day At The Zoo

85 degrees today so of course we went to the zoo. We crammed all our errands in yesterday between dropping Emily off at school and picking her up, so we could have a full day of gallivanting today.

Today's highlight was the in-zoo farm. The girls have always enjoyed farm animals and the last time we were there, we were tired, cranky and didn't bring with us the right change to buy animal food. This time we corrected all our previous mistakes and wore better walking shoes, brought our own picnic lunch, put ice in everything drinkable, packed lots of quarters and actually read the map.

Once the girls (particularly Jenna) were convinced that goats did not bite children with their teeth, they were very enthusiastic about feeding them. In particular, Jenna and Kate were ageist and only wanted to feed the tiniest of the kids. We eventually developed a strategy in which I distracted the bigger goats who were competition for the littlier kids. And then Jenna and Kate happily held out food to the babies. Jenna, after succeeding for the first time, pumped her first into the air and said, her eyes aglow, "I fed the goat all by myself!"

We also got to watch cows being machine-milked. And visit the chicken barn to behold the different breeds of chickens, some of which were the inspiration for our own home-made egg-laying chickens Tilly, Edwina and Snowball.

Then we took a break at the farm cafe for ice cream. Looking around us, it suddenly occurred to me that there were very few other families there with only one daft, seriously outnumbered adult. Looking around our table at the three small messy smiling mouths, I decided I'd rather daftly take the kids everywhere on my own and fill our summer days with all manner of insanity than be sensible and not. I've never been sane in my life, after all- why start now?

Of course there is a price to pay. My brain, for instance, melted out through my ears and onto the floor in a small puddle, it was so hot. But I'm not complaining. It will freeze right back into my head come November.

Rat Family

Thought I'd introduce y'all to Emily's rat family, that she is bringing to school for Show and Tell. Many of you are already familiar with Filthy Rat, the mother. But you've probably not met the little rat children Dirty, Snowy and Cloudy. Their last name is Rat, in case you were wondering.

Bellybutton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During our daily tickling session this afternoon, I poked Katie in her middle and asked her what that delightful little knotty circle in her tummy was. Usually she laughs and gives the right answer.

Today, she said "Bellybutton."

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

What horrible TV shows has she been watching? Which misinformed neighbors has she been hanging out with? What evil books has she been sneaking out of the library?

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

All these years of parenting wasted! This blog is now obsolete!

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Off to load the dishwasher now. Life must somehow go on, even though it has fallen apart at the seams. Sniff.

Field Trip To The Supermarket

Quick post tonight to report that we all went to the local supermarket on a field trip with Emily's class today. We all = Jenna, Kate and me. This is their last field trip for the year, probably, and siblings were allowed, so we went and Dave didn't have to take time off work to watch the two smalls like he usually does when Emily has field trips.

We got to go into the storage rooms, freezers, fridges and lurk behind the milk and egg displays, watching customers walk by on the outside. We were hoping someone would reach in for a milk jug but no one did! We watched the forklifts and WAV machines (one-man operated thing that elevates a person to high shelves) work, which the kids were thrilled to see. We talked about the different sections of the supermarket (dairy, produce, meat, bakery etc) and walked into a delivery truck from the loading dock. We got to meet the lone staff who handles all the non-food items (paper towels, laundry detergent, personal items etc) and learn about safety precautions taken in the operation of a place like this.

Jenna and Kate behaved much better there than fabric stores. Although being around all that food made Jenna kept asking for a snack. Whereas she never asks to buy fabric when we are in Joann's.

Light Dawns

Jenna: Mom, I know why bathroom floors are dirty.

Me: Why?

Jenna: Because sometimes people miss.

Fueling the mania

Made Kate a Strawberry Shortcake dress this weekend,
as an incentive to get out of her Strawberry Shortcake
PJs. Not the little short-haired, bonnet-wearing
Strawberry Shortcake I grew up with, but this
modern, teenage version: More pictures here.

Kate is 2 years old

And has been, for more than a month already.

We had three parties, so she could celebrate
with as many people as possible -

one in Singapore (March)

Auntie Laura made these!


one in our home (actual day), that also included
a visit to the zoo to see the "ammals"


and gifts like these

and one in Moorhead (April)
that she shared with her much-older
cousin Alex (in black and white stripes).

Happy birthday, little Kate! You have outgrown the
terrible twos (they came a year early for you)! You
are still zany, but we can finally now reason with you.
You try to comply, although you have a very short
memory for rules. You love Strawberry Shortcake, and
drag your SS pillow, your SS quilt, your plastic SS doll
and your lone SS book wherever you go, dressed in
your SS PJs (all day if we would only let you). You think
pink is the only color worth wearing, and favor your
pink dress-up suit, complete with pink doll stroller
and pink doll, over any other kind of outfit. You love
nursery rhymes and can say so many of them,
including Winky Winky (who runs through the
town in his nightgown). You are fiercely independent,
and will pooh pooh help, saying, "Shoo, shoo, Go 'way.
My do it!" just so you can put your pants on all by
yourself. You hate to be left out of anything, even
taking the trashcans out to the roadside. You will ask,
"Me come, too?", "Jenna play me?"
"My have blueberries just like Emily?"

Hide and seek is still your favorite game, and you think
everything misplaced must be sought out with a
vengeance. You say, "Where 'mote control go? My
looked everywhere. My can't find it aaaanywhere!"

And because you have forever given up naptime, you
come to us at the end of the day and say, "My tired.
Get PJs on?" and cuddle on the rocking chair, with
Normal Wowee (as opposed to Big Wowee and Puppies)
and say, "Luff you, mum. My love my sisters." And
just to hear you say their names, we will ask, "And
who are your sisters?" And you will say, "Emily, Jenna,
and Dad." And we will chuckle and ask, "And who are
you?" And you will point violently to your chest and
pronounce proudly, "My Tatie!"

And then, miracle of miracles, we will lay you down in
your crib and hear you sing, "My God is so BIG! So strong
and so MIGHTY!" and leave the room and you will
fall asleep. All. By. Yourself.

And the next morning, we get to do this
with you all over again. Whoo!