Vamanos!

This probably isn't going to be nearly as funny to anyone who didn't witness it - which, I guess, is everyone but me... but I'm going to share anyway. :) It cracked me up all the way to daycare this morning.

We were ready to head out the door today when I realized that I was naked - and by that I mean that I forgot to put any jewelry on. So I scooted back into the house to grab a bracelet, which lives in a little drawer in a little stand in the bathroom. I was kind of kneeling / squatting in the bathroom with my back to the door trying unsuccessfully to get the bracelet fastened when I hear the flip flop of tiny sandals approaching me. Then there's a chubby little hand on my shoulder, and I turn to look at Jos and she leans in real close-like with her little head cocked to one side and says in the sweetest little condescending voice, "Betty's house, Mommy" then turns and walks back thru the kitchen and out the door.

Roughly translated - "Get your butt in gear and your act together, Mommy! I've got my raincoat on and am ready to go!"

A real person

Eve turned 9 months old a couple of days ago. I was looking at her this morning while she was sitting on the floor playing, and I can't even believe she's not so much of a baby anymore... but is turning into a little... girl. Imagine that! You think this wouldn't surprise me since I've been through it once before... but it happens so darn fast.

She's starting to pull herself up on furniture and still doesn't really crawl - but manages to get herself around using a combo of rolling, scooting and pulling techniques. If there's a toy in her sights that she wants, she's going to find a way to get it. She's using those 8 teeth and has started to eat some "real" food in addition to her baby food, like mashed up pieces of fruit, mashed potatoes, fruit puffs and little chunks of bread. Josie's having a hard time dealing with the mess that Eve makes when she's eating... so that will be an adjustment we'll have to work on, because it's only going to get worse once she's feeding herself exclusively. "Oh, no, Evie... Mess!!" :) Eve isn't entirely convinced that sleeping through the night is for her, even thought I've sat down and had some very serious talks with her. Some nights she does great, and then some... not so much. One thing that I'd forgotten from when Josie was this age was the pure joy and happiness to see you that is all over her face when we go in to pick her up from her crib in the morning. Eve is so excited to see us, she can hardly contain herself. Sure makes the morning a little easier. :) She's babbling away all the time, and "dadadadada" is her favorite phrase right now. She's our vocal, determined, funny, chubby, happy little girl!

Moving Forward

Finally... Mom and Erwin just found out that he will be able to be part of a study group at the Mayo Clinic and treatments will begin next week, continuing through late May. It's been a lot of waiting, so what a relief to finally know something. Please send some positive vibes their way!

---------------------------------------------

On another note - the blog world is a crazy world. It's so fun to have more and more sites to check up on and to feel part of the lives of friends and family that you may not get to see or talk to as often as you'd like. But one of the dangers is getting caught up in checking out the links on everyone's blogs, then checking out their links, and adding to the list of sites that you'd like to keep up on! Well, I stumbled on this Nitty.Gritty. site a while ago - and have been hooked ever since. Jody is truly inspirational. Whenever I'm feeling bogged down and sorry for myself, I go check out her site. It never fails that she says something that exactly rings true to something I've been feeling or thinking about. (Meg... I hope you're astounded by a couple of her comments today, as I was - especially in light of our recent convo!) She's been through a lot, and has come out with an amazing, positive attitude. Be sure to read the link to the story about her tragedy and loss of daughter, Teagan, located on the left-hand side of the page. And for my scrapbooking friends and family - she's really into that, too. The reason I'm passing on her site today is because of a link to a Washington Post story she provided in one of her latest posts. The article about our perceptions of beauty is really cool and has made me stop and think a lot today, and I just wanted to share. I hope you enjoy her blog, and the article, too.

A Poo of Many Colors

We came home from work one night last week to discover that Brewster had decided, for some unknown reason, to eat some of Josie's crayons. He's never shown any interest in them before, but whatever. I've stopped trying to figure that dog out. So after 15 minutes of Josie walking around the house saying, in a very dramatic tone, "OH NO, BREWSTER!" we finally convinced her that everything was going to be okay. (Even though, technically, it wasn't - because we came home on Saturday to discover that his affinity for aforementioned crayons didn't go away. I had thrown the bits and pieces of crayons in the bathroom garbage, and he discovered them and tore the garbage apart. And he's never gone after the bathroom garbage before. *sigh*)

Anyway - maybe he was just trying to make Pat's job of picking up doggie-do a little more thrilling, because there was some very colorful poo in the yard over the weekend. I'll bet you're all wishing you had such exciting lives, huh??

And in other potty-related news, Josie decided on Friday during a playdate at Lucy's house, that she needed to go pee-pee in the potty, all morning long. I swear, between the two of them, they must have gone about 15 times. And the trend continued all weekend at home, as well, though she wasn't quite as enthusiastic without her Potty Partner-in-Crime. :)

Funnies

Here are a couple of stories that I haven't blogged about yet, but have been meaning to get down in writing.
---------------------------------------

Picture it:
I was strolling to the car after work a couple of weeks ago. I had just walked the diagonal sidewalk through Mears Park and was about to cross the street at 5th and Wacouta when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a man, standing outside of an older model, small, red pickup parked at a meter. He appeared to be looking at some papers, trying to find an address or building. I didn't pay him any more attention, and started to cross when my light turned green. As I stepped into the street, I couldn't help but notice that the small red pickup appeared to be pulling away from the curb. I offhandedly thought that he must have gotten dropped off, and now his driver was leaving.

Except that there was no driver.

All of the sudden, the man started running along beside his pickup, trying to grab on to it and slow it down. He looked around frantically - and wasn't it just my luck, I was the only pedestrian around at that exact moment in time.

And even more lucky for me - we made eye contact.

"Ma'am! Ma'am!" he began, as he was able to get around the front of the vehicle and brace himself against it. The pickup was now at a stop diagonally across 5th street. "I left it in gear!Can you come hold my pickup while I get in??!"

I stopped in my tracks, with a dumbfounded look on my face. "Uh... why don't YOU hold your pickup - and I'LL put it in park??!" I replied, thinking that putting myself, or at least my foot and arm, INSIDE the truck long enough to put on the brake and put it in park, instead putting myself in FRONT of the truck, was the more desirable option.

"Okay... " he started to reply, "but you'll have to go over to the passenger side, the driver door doesn't open, and climb over, and..." as he's rambling, I take a moment to get a better look - and can see that the small pickup is chock. full. of. STUFF. And I mean FULL. And not so much stuff, as CRAP. Garbage, really - empty fast food containers, papers, cans... you name it, it was probably inside that vehicle.

Yikes. So now I'm thinking that putting myself in front of this moving vehicle may just be the better option. Actually I'm wondering how I can get myself out of the situation entirely, but I've already committed to it, and feel like I have to help the guy.

Keep in mind that all of this happened within seconds, really, but it was long enough for traffic to start building up behind him since he's blocking pretty much 2 of the lanes, and for more pedestrians to have ambled by and given some long stares at this interesting scene. Given long stares, but not offered to help, mind you.

So I did it. I braced myself at the front of the pickup wearing my red coat and heels, while he climbed over the mountain of crap in the cab to get himself behind the wheel and back it up to the curb once again. And as he said "Thanks!" out the window, and I dusted myself off and resumed my walk to the car - a guy who had planted himself on the corner to take in the scene yelled to me, "Girl, you ate you Wheaties today!" How's that for an act of kindness?? Or maybe an act of complete stupidity, you take your pick. :)

-----------------------------------------

We were in Chatfield over Easter weekend, and needed to run to the local grocery store, Skippy's, on Saturday to pick up a couple of ingredients for the green bean casserole I was requested to bring for Easter dinner on Sunday. Eve was with my sister, so Pat, Josie and I went to the store. Actually, we had gotten ourselves fancied up and were intending to go to church, until we realized that the service had been moved to 8:00 pm instead of 5:00 pm for the Easter vigil service. So we went to the grocery store instead. Talk about confusing for a 2 year old! I hope she doesn't now think that going to church involves produce and checkout lanes. Anyway, we get in the store, and they have the kid size carts, which of course, she desperately needed one of. So she's on a mission to push that cart around the store, while wearing her Easter dress and little white sweater and carrying her new pink purse. We try to find our items while making sure she doesn't maim any old people with her cart or topple any displays of Parmesan cheese. While we were wandering around the store, I spotted my friend Tricia's sister, who also recently had a baby boy. I walked over to chat with her about the new addition to her family, while Josie and Pat meandered off with her cart. We talked for a couple of minutes, and pretty soon I heard my family behind me. Rinnea started laughing as Josie approached with her cart, still in serious shopping mode. I looked in her cart, and there was a box of Ex-Lax, and a bottle of Mylanta alongside our cheese and french fried onions. Nice. Just the impression I want to make on my hometown. :)

And after we were finally able to distract Jo long enough to return the unwanted items back to the shelves, pay for the rest of our stuff and get back to the Coe residence, Josie walked up the sidewalk to the house and says "Church... shhh, quiet!"

----------------------------------------

We were driving to my mom and Erwin's house for dinner on Sunday and approached an intersection. There were "rumble strips" on the road before the stop sign. After we drove over them, Josie looked up and said "Whoa, Mommmmy!" as if she thought that I had farted. This, of course, was followed by her customary sniff, and declaration that I was "stinky."

----------------------------------------

After Easter dinner on Sunday and Josie's egg-hunt outside, we were just hanging out, visiting in the house. I think we may have been getting ready for the much needed Round 2 of meals, and Josie was walking from the kitchen towards the table where we all were sitting. As she was walking, my mom turned from the kitchen and was heading in the same direction, and bumped right into Josie. She didn't fall down or anything, it wasn't even that big of a bump, but Josie goes "WHOA," and gave her grandma (she won't say Grandma Sue... she only will say either Grandma, or Sue, which comes out without the 'S') the dirtiest look I've seen her give anyone. She was very traumatized, but none of us could stop laughing... especially Mean Grandma. :)

More cows

"More cows! More cows!" Imagine this phrase being uttered (ha! No pun was intended) about 798 times by an overly-tired, overly-sugared 2 year old between Newburg and Rochester. That's approximately 1 hour of trying to come up with different responses such as "yes, Josie, let's look for more cows," or "No, I don't see any more cows yet, do you?" I was ready to jab a pen into my eye.

There are a lot of cows to see between my mom's house and Rochester. And we had to look for all of them. And if we didn't see any, she'd make some up. Josie was so tired yesterday afternoon that she clung to the words "more cows" like a life vest in her attempt to stay awake on the ride home. And when we would go through a town or a dry spell in the cow sightings, she'd cry and kick and wail "mooooorrre cowwwwwwws!" She finally gave up the fight by the time we reached the north side of Rochester. Thank goodness. I don't think either Pat or I could take much more. She's as sweet as sweet can be, but the next 1 hour of silence was absolute bliss. :)

Peas in a pod

I was late for work today.

Why?

Because when Pat was grabbing a buy-one-get-one Caribou coffee coupon before we walked out the door, Josie desperately needed a coupon, too. So we had to find a coupon for her to tear out and take to daycare with her.

Lord help me.

Happy Girls = Happy Days

I suppose it's about time to throw you a bone. A little sumthin' sumthin'. A tidbit. A morsel.

Things are going smoothly. The ginormous lumps on Eve's head are finally making their disappearance. Thankfully, she didn't sprout horns, as I was fearing she might. She is sleeping (mostly) through the night. And in her crib. Albeit with a crazy system I devised so that she's slightly elevated. She is using a cup from time to time. She is on her hands and knees rocking, rocking, rocking, oh so close to lunging forward and crawling away. She has a mouthful of big, shiny teeth. All the better to chew on you with. She is snuggly. She is happy.

Josie is... just Josie. She lights up our home. Which is good - it's a little on the dark side. Not THE "Dark Side," like in Star Wars, just a bit drab since we face the north and don't get good sunlight. Anyway, Josie is talking. A lot. Kind of non-stop, actually. She's trying to learn her colors. And numbers. She helps dress and undress herself. She's not overly interested in the business of potty, unless it's on her terms. And that's okay with me. She's mesmerized by the carousel at Maplewood Mall. And we indulge her. I think she may be spoiled, but that's okay with me, too. At least she knows how to say "please," "thank you" and "excuse me." She gives lovely pucker kisses and big wrap-around-your-neck hugs. She helps us around the house. She is generous. Her enthusiasm for everything in life is contagious. I just may be a bit in love with my girls. If you couldn't tell.

Everything with me and Patrick is hunky dory, too. He passed his licensing exams for work. I'm wrapping up the assignment I'm currently on at the end of April. I think. I guess that door isn't officially closed, quite yet, I should find out soon. We're gearing up for a busy summer. Baseball games. Softball games. Family get-togethers. Weekend get-aways with friends. Busy, but fun. Even though the next few days are looking more like winter than spring, I've got spring fever. Bad. I'm even looking forward to a bit of yard work. Not the actual "yard" so much, but at least planting some veggies and flowers.

Goodness. It's time for work. Happy... Tuesday? Is it Tuesday - oh yes, indeed it is. Anyway - have a good one, whichever one it is. :)

More pictures than you can shake a stick at.

These are all wily-nily-out-of-order. I'd do captions, but it's a pain. So I won't. The one of Eve sitting on the floor in the pink outfit dated 3/21 is post-head-bump. You can *kind of* see the bruising on her forehead, and the scrape on her nose. And the one of Josie dated 3/10 in the pink jacket is when she fell off the sled and scraped her face. The next one of Pat is the same day. Who do you think felt worse? :) And also are some from Josie's first haircut trauma. And the last one is Lu and Jo having some puddle fun at Como Zoo.

Speaking of head injuries...

Ed isn't the only one who is going to suffer a head injury before the age of 2. Thanks to her parents doing exactly what we're all warned NOT to do via safety disclaimers, Eve almost (sidenote - Jo says "almost" all the time now. Except when she says it, it's "almosht!") suffered a head injury on Sunday night. Well, I guess she actually did, just not a serious one. Here's the story.

Eve was chillin' in her carseat Sunday night. Not strapped in. I know - stupid. I was putzing around, picking up toys and whatnot, Pat was on the loveseat reading the paper. Eve's seat was sitting on a low coffee table in the living room. I know - stupid. It says right on it not to place it on an elevated surface. But come on, tell me you haven't done the same thing yourselves. Please - tell me that you have, I'll feel a lot better. :) Anyway, while neither Pat or I actually saw it happen, I think that Eve must have leaned forward and shifted in the seat enough to tip it forward. And thanks to gravity, she toppled to the floor, with the carseat on top of her. She screamed. I ran to the living room. Pat picked her up. She had a heckuva red mark on her forehead, and a scrape on the end of her nose and just below her nose. I thought I was going to throw up. We called the nurse line right away. From what we described, they thought she was going to be okay - but said they thought it best that we take her in, just to be safe. So Pat did. We're getting a little too familiar with Children's Hospital. The main reason I was worried was because when I was holding and comforting her, she was dozing off. Granted it was 9:00 at night, but how could we know if it was just because she was tired, or if there was something more going on? But she checked out fine, and didn't even need any scans or anything. I did stay home with her Monday, just to watch her and make sure she acted normal. Aside from a pretty purple bruise on her forehead, and a sore little nose, she's fine. Not so sure her parents can say that, yet. Ugh. Needless to say, we're attempting to phase the carseat out of our lives. She's almosht too big for it, anyway... but is awfully attached to the stupid thing.

Let's see - what other drama do we have in our lives. Oh - Josie got a hair cut. Her first. Darn it all... everything I have to post about would be a lot better with pictures. I'll see what I can do about that. It's awfully hard to find time. Or make time. Whatever. Pat and I took her to Kids Hair last Friday. She was fine, until I put her in the chair and stepped away and the hair chick put the giant bib on her. Big, fat tears, and she wouldn't sit up straight in the chair. The hair chick was really trying. I gave Jo a lollipop, and that helped. Then she calmed down enough to look around at the other kids getting their hair cut, and that also seemed to help. Her hair is super cute. Just a simple little bob, but it makes her look so much older. Again, pictures would be nice, huh?

After watching Josie play for the past couple of weeks, and seeing that she was pretending to make pancakes by sticking a plate in her little barn toy... I decided it was time to get the girl a proper kitchen. And I did. And she loves it. Now we get french fries, hot chocolate and pancakes all the time.

We took a weekend road trip to my Mom and Erwin's house. There's nothing like corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. Yum. And even better... Grandma J's homemade rhubarb custard pie. Double yum. The kids did great - except that before we left, we made a stop at the store and Pat ran in. While he was gone, Josie said something to me, so I turned to look at her. Then she started saying "Look, look!" and then "NO - Mommy." After getting increasingly annoyed with me, I finally I figured it out - she was telling me to stop looking at her. Hmph. How do you like that?! She's more and more of a ham lately, I can't even do her justice. Do you know the song "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive? Here's the chorus - you'd know if for sure if you heard it:

You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round

That's Jo's favorite song at the moment. She calls it "Round," and we have to sing it to her while she walks / dances around the loveseat. Except that we only know the chorus and a couple of other lines. So that's what we sing over and over again. Gotta work on memorizing the rest of the song. :)

Pictures, soon. I'll try. Really.

And the AACTie goes to...

Steven W. Gwilt!!!

That's right... my brother won the award for Best Actor at the American Association for Community Theater festival for the Southeastern theater region earlier this month. The production he's part of, ESCANABA in da MOONLIGHT, by Jeff Daniels, and directed by Dave Johnson, also took Best Overall Production, Best Director and the Award for Technical Excellence. Now they're off to Charlotte, NC, in June to compete in the AACT National Conference. Way to go, and GOOD LUCK!!

Check out some other fun stuff the Drama Center Backstage in Cookeville, TN, has been up to.

Another one bites the dust...

or snow, as the case may be. Josie experienced her first "injury accident" over the weekend. She and Pat were sledding at his parents' house on Saturday morning. They wiped out. The snow had a nice, crusty layer. Josie's right cheek got a heckuva snow burn. Pictures to follow. All weekend she was a sad puppy saying "fall," and "down," then pointing to her cheek. It was all very traumatic. :)

Her vocabulary is skyrocketing. She's becoming a parrot, trying to repeat everything she hears us say. And she's *trying* to tell me about things that happen when I'm not with her - like when Pat took the girls for a walk while I did some cleaning and laundry, and they got stuck with the stroller a couple of times. And they lost one of her mittens, and stopped at the park and went for a swing. They came home and she came running into the house and told me "mitts! mitts!" Then "stuck!" Then "swww-wing!" It still takes a little deciphering, but I can get the gist of her stories. She still sticks to mostly one or two word phrases, but is starting to string some words together. The change in her just in the past couple of weeks is amazing.

I think we might have a hockey player on our hands. It was boys high school tournament time - so the hockey around our house was plentiful. Now she's walking around saying "Yeeeaaa, hockey! Yeeeeaaa, hockey!" and she actually sat with me while Pat was gone to the games on Friday and we watched some of the coverage. I'm sure she'll be able to catch on and follow what's going on much faster than me!

Eve now has 6 teeth. And I suspect that today or tomorrow we'll see number 7, and I also suspect that some of her back teeth are well on their way. Mind you - she's not even 8 months old yet. Yikes. We'll be feeding her steak and chork pops in no time! She's also about ready to start creeping. She'll get on all 4's, but does not realize what she can do with that, yet, so she drops back down and pushes herself backwards. She's pushing up on her arms and turning herself every-which-way, and still log rolls all over the room. Eve keeps the daycare kids busy watching where she'll end up, then they'll ask Betty if it's okay that she's under the chair or trying to chew on the coffee table!

So mad I could spit.

I've been sitting here stewing for the last hour - maybe if I write it down, it will help.

Pat and I ate lunch today in the food court here in the downtown skyway . We were sitting, eating, talking, people-watching, and there was a line just beside us at the St. Paul Cookie Company. A couple was at the register, paying for their order, and there were miscellaneous people in line behind them, including a couple of middle-aged women. They (the middle-aged women) appeared to be your average, everyday, downtown St. Paul office workers.

I saw the couple that was paying start to move forward, away from the cookie company, and the women in line behind them stepped up to the register... and as that process was happening, I saw money float to the ground. It was a $10 bill. My immediate reaction was to get up, and if I would have made it to the bill, my gut instinct would have been to hand it to the gentleman who was in the process of walking away, even though I didn't positively see it fall from his hand or wallet, it just seemed as though he dropped it. But before I could get up... one of the women moving to the register reached down and snatched up the bill. I thought - "oh, good, she's going to hand it to him..." but she didn't. So then I second guessed myself, and though - "oh, I was wrong, that was her money in the first place..." but it wasn't. I should have immediately gotten up and said something, and that's what I'm kicking myself about now. Instead I hemmed and hawed about it, because I didn't know for sure. So by this time, the couple had moved over to a food stand on the other side of the food court, but still within our view. And the evil women had skedaddled out of food court, never to be seen again.

So at this time, I still really didn't know that the money wasn't the woman's. But my gut told me it wasn't. So I watched the couple order their food at the BBQ stand, wait for their food at the BBQ stand, then go to pay for their food at the BBQ stand. Now is when I really start to feel bad. Sure enough, the man starts to feel his pockets, check the ground and look around back at the cookie stand. CRUD. He says something to the woman he was with, and she walks back over, retracing their steps, and asks the clerk at the cookie place if he gave them the wrong change... ugh. I know it was just $10, and I didn't know for sure in time to do anything about it, but I'm still feeling bad. I should have said something to the woman as soon as she picked it up. We didn't end up saying anything to the couple before we left because I figured that they weren't going to get their money back at that point, and then as we were walking away, Pat told me he heard the clerk at the cookie stand tell the man that he thought he saw a woman walk away with some money she picked up.

She HAD to have known that the money belonged to the guy in front of her, didn't she? That's why she picked it up so fast and walked away. She could have at least asked. Hopefully what comes around goes around - or goes around, comes around...? whichever way that works, and she has some bad karma come her way. But I guess by this same logic, I've got some bad karma coming my way, because I really should have said something. Shouldn't I? What would you have done?

So, hey - guy in the food court... I'm sorry. And evil woman - grrr.

I may be new to this Catholic stuff, but...

(I know it's Wednesday. I'm a bit late this week!)

I know enough to be able to tell that when we get to church and pretty soon everyone is kneeling and I look up front and sure enough... it's time for communion - hmm, yeah - we're probably late. Let's back up a bit.

Josie decided to get up at 5:50 AM on Sunday morning. When you're up that early, it's easy to make it to early church. Which we've never made it to before. We can catch the 10:30 service MUCH easier. So Pat thought the early service was at 9:00 am. I thought it was 8:45 am. We were both wrong. It's at 8:30 am. Oops. So imagine what a tool I felt like when our circus goes rolling into St. Jerome's at 9:02 am, now a half-hour late for mass. I'm sure the oldies think we're horrible just rolling in for communion. Oh, well. :) Josie seemed awfully excited to get to leave again so soon. If only she knew this isn't how it always is going to be.

-----------------------------------------------------------

BABY NEWS!!! Congrats to Tricia and Kevin Mathews on the birth of baby BOY, William David. He was born on Friday, March 2nd at 2:41 am. AND he was a whopping 9 lbs, 8 oz. We love you guys to pieces and are soooo happy for you! And he truly is an absolutely stunning baby. And we're not just saying that. :) I'd give you a handy link to their family blog... but they don't have one. Nope. No blog. Hmm... wonder what they could do to remedy that...

------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone in the Daly house is doing fine. We're still handing the same cold back and forth, but we're holding strong for some spring weather, some outside fresh air and better spirits all-around.

News with The-Man-Formerly-Known-As-Uncle (that's my mom's husband, Erwin, for those of you not familiar:) The large-cell diffused lymphoma he's battled twice before has returned. It's concentrated in the knee area, and they will determine a plan of attack today. His doctor is hoping to get him into a study group which is trying out a new pill. He'd take it once a day, and would only have to go into the Clinic once a month. Sounds too good to be true! Keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer, whatever you want, just send some good tidings his way, please!

NO WAY.

My work just announced over the intercom that they are officially closing down at 3:30 this afternoon. That's like, only the 3rd time in 20 years. Wow. Color me HAPPY!!

Braced

I set the alarm clock to go off a little earlier (5:05 am. YIKES!) this morning in anticipation of bad roads and a longer trek to work. Actually, I planned to have to shake Pat awake for 10 minutes so he could go shovel a bit before we left. But granted, since we're only 5 minutes away from daycare and 10 minutes away from work and take side streets the whole way, weather really usually doesn't play a factor into our commute. Which is such a blessing. Anyhoo - our whole morning went off without a hitch. Pat shoveled. We remembered to set the recycling out. Josie was in a delightful mood. Eve was up early and was rarin' to go. I had a chance to pick up the house a bit before we left. And we were about 7 minutes early to daycare, where we had a happy drop-off. Pat commented as we climbed in to the van after saying goodbye to the girls that he felt a bit "off" having everything go so well! Moments like that make me stop and realize how fast-paced our mornings and days usually are. What a treat to have a second to relax and enjoy a "happy" morning! We'll have to strive to have more of those in the days ahead.

While most around here are anxious and dreading the storm that's a-brewin' (actually, it's already brewed - and here in full force,) I have to admit that I kind of enjoy the chaos that ensues when we start to get some snowfall. There's something exciting about throwing everyone into a tailspin. Maybe I'm just weird that way. And I guess since I have chauffeur service for drop-off and pick-up at work, that helps, too. :) I'd probably be whistling a different tune if I was the one who had to brush off the snow and scrape away the ice this afternoon. OH. Which reminds me... I wonder if Pat checked to see if we have a snow brush in the van... Hmm. Can you believe we live in Minnesota and have to even ask that question?

Here's some of the fun stuff Josie has been up to lately, in no particular order:

• Getting herself *mostly* undressed and sometimes, dressed, by herself.
• Constantly asking Daddy for piggy-back rides.
• Loves to brush her teeth. I think she just likes the rinsing and spitting part. Ask her sometime what a camel does. Then take a step back. :)
• Washing her hands. Anything to do with water, she loves.
• One of her favorite games is to lay down a dish towel on the table, set some various sized glasses and cups on the towel and put a bit of water in them, then pour the water from one into the others. Oh - I guess I should clarify - she isn't the one to lay down the dish towel. We finally learned that trick after a few times of playing this game.
• If you ask her where something is, instead of just saying "ummm," she'll also throw out an answer. Usually she starts with "Kitchen?"
• Asking for ketchup and mustard at supper. No matter what we're eating. Did you know mustard is tasty on fish?
• Helping put away dishes from the dishwasher. She's particularly good at the silverware.
• Says "love you" without prompt. I especially like that one. :)
• Learned to play "cut the pickle.. tickle, tickle!" from Lucy. Not sure if the cut-er or cut-ee is supposed to be the one doing the tickling, but she does it both ways.
• Knows most of her body parts now. Especially is fond of armpits. And elbows. Except she seems to think that elbows are on your belly.
• Loves to name colors of objects. Granted, she's usually wrong, but you gotta love the enthusiasm she puts into it.
• I mentioned before how she likes to "sniff" when Daddy toots, and scold him. Well, now that game applies to anyone. So watch out if you're around her anytime soon. You may get told you're stinky, even if you're not guilty of the crime. :)

And Eve. My Doodle is growing up so fast! She cut another tooth - but it's not the other front tooth. It's on the other side of the front tooth she already has. Far be it from her to do things in the order you're supposed to! I'm sensing this may be a trend with my youngest. Guess time will tell. But she's been a much happier little girl since this tooth came in. She loves to sit in the highchair and have an array of toys laid out on the table in front of her, then she grabs each one and tosses it. This usually brings a frustrated exclamation of "Ee-eevvvie!" from her sister. But Josie will always pick them up for her and hand them back. Over and over again. They were adorable together last night - they were playing this game, and Josie had her hand on the highchair and Eve grabbed her fingers. Josie laughed and laughed, then did it again. And Eve laughed and laughed at Josie laughing. They went back and forth this way for a while, and I never wanted it to stop. That's one of those memories that will be forever etched in my mind. So sweet. I'll have to remember that one in the future when they're pulling each other's hair. :)

Sweetness

Ahhhh.

We just had a very... satisfying... weekend. The house is *somewhat* clean. Kenny was washing the dishes when we left this morning. Laundry is done and put away. Eve has been sleeping soundly through the night for the past few nights. A few inches of snow trapped us at home, but that was okay. We played and played and played with the girls, and I think it was just what we all needed. The girls and I had wonderful playdate at the Gronaus on Friday. Jo and Lucy play together so well - they cook, (and thanks, Meg for the tasty pancakes, I think you have definitely assured that Josie will love you forever!) they play ring-around-the-rosy, they run around and they giggle and giggle, and it's awesome. Then I got to have a wonderful playdate with my friends on Friday night. We don't run around much, but we do cook and giggle and giggle!

Josie is still occasionally using the potty chair. She asked to go potty this morning, and she did sit down and tinkle. But then we struggled with getting her convinced that it was time to get dressed and go to daycare. She preferred to just sit naked on the potty and finish snacking on her dry cereal. She has just been so fun. I can't even describe all the things she's doing now - it's mind-boggling. OH - I don't even know if this is appropriate, but I need to get it down so we don't forget... so now when Pat um, toots... Josie runs over to *sniff*, so that she can say in a disgusted tone, "Da-aad-ddy." It's so inappropriate. And so hilarious. :)

Eve is figuring out how to sit on her own, unsupported. She's doing pretty well, with a flop on her face or side once in a while. I don't know when she's going to get interested in crawling - she's pretty efficient at getting where she wants to go by rolling. She was all over the place last night, even under the couch! She's eating a ton, smiling a ton and changing so fast. I just love her to pieces and can't get enough of her chubby cheeks.

So there's your kid update for Monday morning. Have a good one!

Snaggle Tooth

Here you can *kind of* see her poor, lonely, one little toofer on top. Still waiting for the other one!

More than meets the eye.

Do. Something.

These are the words that have been knocking around in my head like tumbleweeds on a windy day. I've been in a "funk" lately, to use a phrase frequently uttered by my bookclub friends. We seem to spend a lot of our time figuring out the complexities of "funk-ness." What causes it? What fixes it?

Sometimes, the answers to both questions are the same. The weather - dreariness can cause a funk while a sunny day can fix it. Family duties- the drudgery of daily tasks can cause a funk while caring for and supporting those we love can fix it. Career decisions - feeling "stuck" in your current role can cause a funk while doing what's necessary for the betterment of yourself and your family can fix it.

In my ponderings, I consulted Merriam-Webster. Here's what (s)he had to say:

Main Entry: 1funk
Pronunciation: 'f&[ng]k
Etymology: probably ultimately from French dialect (Picard) funquer
1. to give off smoke or a strong offensive smell.

Well - that's not quite the "funk" I was thinking of. This one's better:

Main Entry: 3 funk
Etymology: perhaps from obsolete Dutch dialect (Flanders) fonck
1 a : a state of paralyzing fear b : a depressed state of mind
2 : one that funks : COWARD
3 : SLUMP 1

While I've not been paralyzed with fear, and I don't really think that a "depressed" state of mind quite fits... and I really don't like to think of myself as a coward - although maybe that one will take some more thought... perhaps "slump" is a more fitting description for what I feel on occasion. That would accurately indicate the highs and lows, the ups and downs, the rollercoaster of emotions that comes from being a mother and a wife, of a coworker and a friend and all that these roles entail and the ways they intertwine.

Back to the "Do. Something." part of the post. So I've made a conscious decision to not sit around in my funkiness any longer. And I document it here today to hold myself accountable for it. I get so sick of myself sometimes that I can hardly stand it. Perhaps Webster's first definition is accurate and I am giving off an offensive smell - and the only way I'm going to change it is to shower it away, shake it off, change directions so the funk is downwind. And the most effective way of changing anything is to first change my attitude. I try, but I too easily allow myself to fail. So I'm going to try harder. To be a mother and wife my family will be proud of, a coworker and friend that others will be happy to have touch their lives, to be a positive person that I will want to be around. Choices, choices - it's all about choices. And I have to do a better job of remembering that.

My friend Michelle recently posted about how she is not an open book and that there are many things in her life and in her family's life that she doesn't write about - and I feel the same way about myself. Looking back on my entries, it all seems somewhat superficial. I give you a quick peek, a summary of our days and updates on my kids with some recent pictures - and that's about it. And a lot of the time, that is enough for me. But sometimes, there is more going on, and pouring it out here is exactly what I need.

So there. With that said, I wash my hands of this current slump. Onward and upward.

French Fries and Doggie-do

Children are always listening. Of course, everyone knows this, but we tend to forget. We are reminded frequently, like when we go through the drive-thru at Wendy's on Saturday, place our order, and pull up to the window to get our food. The lady leans out and recites the order back to us, and all of the sudden, Josie is yelling "French Fries! French Fries!! Yea!" And when Pat was going to bundle up the girls and take them outside for a little while and I told him to watch out for the dog puke on the sidewalk and for all the dog crap in the yard (can you tell that perhaps I thought going outside wasn't that great of an idea?) and then Josie is walking around saying "dog crap, Mommy." Oops.

(Changing the subject.) I did something yesterday that I have never done before. I honestly didn't think that I ever would do it, or if I did, that I would enjoy it so much. I'd heard others talking about it, and I was a little puzzled that they seemed to like it. But now that I've tried it, I'm hooked, and I want more. I went to a movie... by MYSELF. And it was fabulous. Not even the movie so much, (I saw the cheesy chick-flick "Music and Lyrics" with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore - which was cute and enjoyable and the perfect mix of everything that I needed and wanted from a movie yesterday) but the experience as a whole. The freedom of walking out of the house, alone, with only my wallet and keys, the luxury of a small popcorn and pop all for myself, and the satisfaction of 2 hours of doing... absolutely. nothing. productive. It was heaven. Don't get me wrong, I love going to movies with friends or Pat... and I would relish the opportunity to accompany someone again, someday, but I think for now, I've found my new guilty pleasure. :)