Running and stuff

This morning I got up to go running before anyone else was up. I was sitting on the floor, tying up my running shoes, when Rachel stumbled out of her bedroom and asked me to hold her. She climbed onto my lap and I held her close.

Something smelled fishy. Or, to be more precise, like vomit.

I gave her head a good sniff.

"Rachel! You smell like throw up!" I exclaimed.

"That's funny," she said, "Because I didn't throw up."

"That's funny because you have chunks of throw up in your hair!"

"I do?"

"You do! Did you throw up last night?"

"No!"

2th

We were driving in the car today and came to a four-way stop. Even though we were the only car at the intersection, Andrew dutifully came to a complete stop.

"I was first!" he announced.

"And last," I pointed out, "So who knows if you can really go or not?"

"I was also third," he said, "So I can go now."

"But you were also forth."

"And seventh."

"And sixteenth."

Sensing a pattern, Rachel joined in.

"You were also twoth, Daddy!" she said gleefully.

Andrew and I started laughing and instead of getting offended Rachel started giggling, as well.

"What did I say that was funny?" she asked.

"Well, it isn't twoth," I told her. "It's second."

Circles!

This morning the girls were colouring together and Miriam inadvertently drew a complete circle. Rachel immediately flew into a tizzy.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Miriam drew a circle! She didn't just scribble, Mom! She drew a circle! Look! Here's her circle! Look at it, Mom, look! It's a circle! Look at Miriam's circle! See? A circle! She drew a circle! A circle, a circle, a circle! Look!"

"Wow, that's so nice," I said.

"Circle!" said Miriam importantly.

Because of this little incident I've been looking at circles all day long. Miriam has been scribbling on every piece of scrap paper in the house and then thrusting the paper in my face so I can adore her circles, which most of the time aren't even circles.



Since she can say circle we're now trying to teach her what it actually means. It's a little over her head but eventually she'll get it.

On a side note, if they ever have auditions for Dora: The Musical, I think I'll have Rachel try-out. She'd be perfect because she can't say anything—it must be yelled.

Life is good when you're growing up

When I was growing up we had the Care Bears Movie II at our house so whenever I think of Care Bears I think of that movie. There's a song in that movie—besides the Care Bear Cheer—that comes to mind a lot. It's about growing up. I really can't believe that I can still sing it after all these years; after all, the movie came out when I was Miriam's age. Perhaps that's testimony of how many times I watched it when I was a child.

Growing up, it's something you can measure

Growing up, it happens every day

Being young is something you can treasure
But life is good when you're growing up!

"It is only the gay and innocent and heartless who can fly."

This evening before bedtime we read a few books about birds—we'll be learning about birds in a couple of weeks for cub scouts so this week we checked out some books from the library to study. Rachel asked if she could get a pet bird and, being the mean parent that I am, I said no. Instead she morphed into a bird and showed me how she could fly.

Bravo, Rachel, bravo!

She flew into the bathroom to retrieve the dirty feathers she took off before she got in the birdbath and instead of tucking her into bed I opened the door to her cage and put her in. She tweeted goodnight and I've hardly heard a peep from her since, though Miriam is still chirping away in her crib.

Dandelions

We went for a walk yesterday afternoon; it seems the fifties are here to stay (at least for a while). Rachel found and picked a bright yellow dandelion.

"What is this?" she asked me.

"It's a dandelion," I told her.

Apparently she missed the yellow blossom stage this summer and only experienced the white fluffy stage because she got really excited and started trying to blow the dandelion apart. After letting her get winded and a little light-headed I informed her that the dandelion was not ready to blow on quite yet. She drooped a little bit and dejectedly held the flower out to me.

"This is for you," she sighed.

"Oh, thanks!" I said, "It's as yellow and beautiful as the sunshine!"

"Yeah!" she said, perking up, "It's as yellow as the fire hydrant, too!"

She is as romantic as her father.

Miriam has turned into little Miss Monkey-See-Monkey-Do lately and had been watching her sister with verifiable interest. She walked over to a pile of decaying leaves that had likely been sitting in the gutter since October and picked up a handful. She puffed up her cheeks with air and then blew into her hand, scattering leaves and splattering muck everywhere.

Now she thinks that picking things off the ground and blowing on them is the newest spring fashion.

Make Believe

This morning while Rachel was at school, Miriam baked a whole plateful of cookies and ate them all without sharing a single bite.

This afternoon when Rachel came home from school she got all dolled-up and attended a fancy ball.

The end.

Feature Pancakes

Not only is it March 1st. It's also IHOP's National Pancake Day, and since in the past IHOP held their National Pancake day on Shrove Tuesday we wrongly assumed that today was Shrove Tuesday. But it's not. IHOP decided to "host its free pancake event one week earlier...to build buzz and excitement prior to Shrove Tuesday." Well, they succeeded because we were certainly buzzing with excitement at our house (especially after ingesting all that syrup). 

Rachel is excited for St. Patrick's Day. She said she wants to paint her nails green (so we're on the lookout for green nail polish) and I don't even know why she knows so much about St. Patrick's Day since it's the first day of March and she really shouldn't remember anything from previous years. Anyway, I decided to make green pancakes in honour of St. Patrick but then I thought that Rachel, though excited for St. Patrick's Day, might not be thrilled with green pancakes so I reserved some of the batter and dyed it pink.

I made some pink pancakes and then I made some green pancakes. Then I poured some green batter on the griddle and let it sit for a minute before pouring pink batter on top. It worked beautifully and we came out with pancakes that were pink on one side and green on the other. Then I started drawing with the batter—I made a pink pancake with a green R on it for Rachel and a green pancake with a pink M on it for Miriam.

Runoff

March has already lulled me into a false sense of spring-security. I'm so ready for it to be spring and today was beautiful, but I'm well aware of the saying "in like a lion, out like a lamb" and I'm sure things will change before we get to the end of March. Last year it was still snowing in May, so I'm told. Still, today was beautiful and we're supposed to be in the fifties for the rest of the week. 

Today Andrew had to shoot some scenes for a training movie he's making for his human resources class. His group shot most of it on campus but there were a few shots that they couldn't film there so I was volunteered to help finish the filming. I'll have to post it when it's finished—Andrew wears a kleenex beard in the later scenes so it's kind of a must-see flick.

We went to the park to finish filming. I let the girls run off to the playground while we set up our equipment around a model pioneer home. The playground was quite a ways away from where we were but I could see the girls and hear the girls, though it didn't seem like they could hear me.

The beginning of the end

I started reading Peter Pan last night. It's a charming story; it makes me feel nostalgic for my own childhood because I really did jump around my bedroom as a youngster, convinced that at some point I would stick to the sky instead of plummeting to the ground. But then I learned about gravity and stopped trying.

Andrew seems to have solved the problem of our nightly visitor—Rachel—who wears out her welcome rather quickly with all her kicking, squirming, talking, and wiggling. We have a magnet board for her and when she does something good she gets to move a magnet up to the top of the board. When all the magnets are at the top then she gets to choose a prize. She can watch a movie, go to Macey's for an ice cream cone with Daddy, have Mommy do her nails, or earn a toy or book.

She's been rather motivated by this. Do the dishes? Sure. Put the dirty diaper in the pail? Sure. Clean up my toys? Sure. Ask for things politely at the dinner table? Yes, ma'am. Share with my sister? You bet.

Yesterday afternoon when I asked her to get a fresh diaper out for Miriam she said, "Sure! And when it's time to go to bed can I get a nighttime diaper ready for her, too?"

I realize she was only after another magnet but it's nice to have her offering to do things instead of me having to force her to do everything. And eventually the external motivation will turn into internal motivation, right?

Anyway, a couple of nights ago Andrew told her that staying in her own bed was a good thing to do and that she could earn a magnet by staying in her own bed. At 2:00 AM I woke up to Rachel scrambling over me and into the middle of the bed. Apparently she simply didn't think one magnet was worth the stress of ignoring all the monsters that come out at night because the next night Andrew upped the ante. He offered her three magnets for staying in bed.