infinity

lav yooou mama! progressively louder... laaav yooouuu maaamaaa! this is what i hear from you Phoebe. about a dozen or more times an hour, yes, i mean it, an hour. sometimes it is from across the room. sometimes it is flung at me along with your cute little frame, hugging my legs. sometimes it is even smeared across the kitchen as i drag you along on one leg while trying to get food ready. this is a very nice thing to hear and i will never tire of it. what more could one ask for but to have someone follow them around declaring their love. and Phoebe, i LOVE YOU, infinity.

may i borrow the car?

today i made a small error in judgement. i first began a debate with V on the merritts of pants over a skirt when it comes to looking pretty. (mistake, yes, not the error in judgement however)apparently only the missing princess shoes will complete pants when it comes to making a 4 yr old look beautiful. and we won't go into the fact that if V would just put the shoes back where they belong when she takes them off they would not be missing. so while i have this debate the other girls are out waiting patiently in the car, right? well, i actually buckled in Phoebe before i realized there was a missing daughter so she was waiting patiently. B, you are another story...always the exception. apparently you were not buckling up since once you do so, you can't move about the car. silly mama. you were just pretending to buckle up. instead you were roaming the car, finding the car keys, putting them in the ignition and starting it up. i went on a tirade the entire car ride to take papa lunch while my heart took its time slowing down to a normal rate. and your excuse? i wanted to be like mama.

so what did we learn here? no one is allowed in the front seat until they are taller than me. no one is allowed in the car unless an adult is present. and i will never leave the car open or even the keys within child's reach ever again.

and this will be why you may not be able to drive when you are 16, in case you were wondering. (i've been scarred for life.) and we also learned that if kids are going to imitate mama, i really need to be making better decisions. and i'll start by not entering into any debates on fashion with a 4yr old.

and the answer for today is NO, you may not borrow the car!

once upon a time

the other night at dinner i was getting just a little fed up with you B. you had been whinning quite a bit and did not really want to stay at the table. in your wiggles you ended up banging your leg. i said something like "come on, shake it off" and you said "i can't" in a horribly whiny tone. and i said something like "sure you can, just laugh, ha ha ha" you then replied "no, i can't, it's not in my story" so i was now no longer annoyed with you. you can be terribly disarming when you want to be. then i suggested that we rewrite the story. so you began "once upon a time....Beatrice banged her leg and then began to laugh, ha, ha, ha" now i have a secret weapon that i will use repeatedly. anytime you are not happy or behaving well i am going to suggest a rewrite. i am the mama and that makes me the supreme editor. i will work until we get to the part that says, "and they lived happily ever after"

Phoebe, you are quite the smarty. you no longer just repeat what we say but reply in your own words. i love the way you seem to alway hold my face and say "mama, i la lou" and i love that you call Viv, "Wivwene" and somehow Beatrice is always "Teatou" (still trying to figure that one out but that explains a little how Aunt Shirley became Doodie to Nanah)...teatou reminds of a french word but i can't remember what it means. some day i'll look it up. and girls....mama loves you.

mother's day special

i find the greatest bargains at Will's store...this was not one of them. but if you ever wondered what kind of wonderful things can come in a small package-- this would be one excellent mom's day gift!!!

a successful day with papa

letting go

today i went through lots and lots of baby things. one of papa's co-workers is having a baby and seeing that we are not, i decided they should benefit from all our generous donors (they are young and have none). most of the things we get are second hand and we are so fortunate to have such a well-spring of hand-me-downs. and once all the hand-me-downs mingle together i swear they create more hand-me-downs because i was a bit overwhelmed looking at the boxes and boxes of things. i hope i didn't scare them too much.
i decided to just let them go through the boxes and choose what they liked since i didn't really feel like walking down memory lane. hope i didn't pass along anything too sentimental....you girls have not been on best behavior the last couple of days with all the rain and waiting for repairmen. i should just consign myself to taking you straight to the laundry and therefore just let you play in the mud. but sometimes i'm just not in the mood for that much dirt. i will have to get used to it since i've promised to try a garden patch with you this year. it could be very small but i could at least try to grow salad. luckily we are not in full growing swing so i have a bit of time on this one. the topsoil gets delivered next week.
there has been quite a bit of competition between V and B lately. not sure what to do about it. i talked with our wise neighbor Ms Alida (mom of 4 and retired school teacher) about it and she laughed, essentially saying "good luck". i know you girls love each other and we will figure it all out. i am really hoping that you learn to anticipate how your actions will make others feel. V, you are so sensitive that i hope that you will "get it" quickly and i know you all have it in you.
we had quite the nice day on saturday. you spent the better part of an hour helping big John clean out his compost. sifting, filling bags for later use, putting worms back into the compost pile. hope you are this helpful with the garden.
just wanted to make a comment about the saturday before last....we stayed at V's dance class. it was her last and we got to watch what they have been up to. V is not much of a dancer yet. she gets distracted and doesn't seem to have her heart into. she does have a good time. then we went to the Maple festival and the girls road the rides. V loved the whirly one, B did not. Sophie's dad was a good sport and road on all the rides with B. didn't see that one coming. i do think B likes to be in control of her daredevilness. she doesn't seem to like true "out of control" much. hope that stays with her in her teens. Phoebe slept during the rides but certainly LOVED the maple creamee. (it was a pity since i was planing on eating her leftovers)

recovering from cake overdose

last week we had to celebrate Bs birthday no.3 and also Easter. it is such a festive time what with the painting and hiding eggs. the frilly clothes and loads of chocolate. then you add in a birthday cake from costco and find yourself whimpering in the corner wondering how in the world you could have thought the cake looked so small when you picked it up. it started well. how could you go wrong with real buttercream on chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse filling? B, our resident sugar fiend was elated. i need look no further for a birthday present than this. good thing she is also an non-stop action hero. she burns up sugar like our mini van burns gas. days later after shooing her away from the fridge again and then finding new finger prints in the icing again, i had to make the painful decision to throw the cake away. i'm sorry Beatrice, to tell you this, but the cake just about did us all in. you were sugar obsessed and i was... well, sick of sugar. you may understand this when you get to my age. we'll see. i'm sure i could have eaten an entire coca cola cake when i was you're age. for all i know, your Nanah threw away my cake when i turned 3. (knowing your Nanah, i doubt this) but you see, i don't know what happened when i turned 3 and i'm just fine with my childhood. we took advantage of such a large cake by singing "happy birthday" at playgroup with the neighborhood kids and then again on your real birthday with your friend Sophie. you had a great 3rd birthday! of course all three of you love to celebrate, but you, B, are a true party girl. happy to eat cake any ol' time. apparently now that you are 3 you also want to be like V and simply must wear dresses. fortunately for me, i can still talk you wearing appropriate clothes for the weather.
we also decorated eggs for easter on your birthday. B and V did a great job dipping and then when we got out the painting dye and PO had to get in on the act. you all did a pretty good job considering the mess you made.
we decided to hide eggs inside since it was sure to be cold in the morning. i did it at night after you went to sleep. your papa loves to watch Moses every year and mock it... the movie, not Moses. so we watched Moses and hid eggs. i decided i did not like the idea of NOT finding the eggs you decorated so i filled plastic eggs with chocolate and loose pocket change which i made you take turns hunting. the pocket change was a big hit and it saved us from too much chocolate. (i can throw out cake...chocolate, dark chocolate is out of the question.) Phoebe cleaned up with the change. then i went off to work and you all played "easter bunny" which comprised of hiding eggs for each other while hopping about. somehow the real eggs got mixed in with the plastic ones and i'm still not sure we found them all. B you found one under the t.v. cabinet just the other day. i won't let anyone eat it.
today we are back to what seems like winter weather. a very gray day with a chill in the air. i tried to let you play outside as much as possible but i could no longer stand the cold so i made you stay in after lunch. V and B play a good game of princesses who go to school. quite the get-ups i have to say...and you made me put your hair in pig tails which was not easy considering you have little hair. good thing P was asleep, i never would have gotten pig tails on her and she wants to do everything the big girls do.
as i type you watch the highlights of The Sound of Music with papa and sing and dance along. it is so precious and entertaining. i do hate to call out bedtime....my fair princesses.