Pete Says:

"Pete Says:" is late this week. I'm sorry. Pretend it's Tuesday.

Pete and Pete's mom were talking about why Christmas is an important holiday for Christians and why Christians go to church on Christmas even though it's not Sunday. And Pete said, "But I don't go because I'm not a Jesist." Then Pete said, "Oops. I mean a Christian."

Momlemma

Being a mom, when the school called and said, "Your kid is sick," my first instinct was to jump in the car and go get her. Being a reasonable person, and a mom twice, I recognized that by the time I got Lulu up from her nap and convinced her it was for the best and she really shouldn't yell at me and got her into the car and drove all the way to the school, Pete could be home on the bus. So I asked them to put her on the bus. Now I feel bad. Like I should have gone for her. But she's on her way and it's too late and Lulu got to finish her nap in her own time, which will be better for everyone later.

Worrier and Worrier (update: 4:10)
Rhymes-With-Tennis's mom just called. RWT rides the bus home with Pete but usually gets dropped off after Pete. RWT is already home with a tale: new bus driver - doesn't know where Pete lives - may be going back to school. AAAAUUUUGGH! My momuiltiness is getting worse. Poor kid!!

Ah Dahn (update 4:20)
She's home. She's laying on the couch looking miserable. Feel better, Pete!

Sleeping and Walking

I think I mentioned before that Pete has a problem with sleep walking sometimes. This week, she has done it three nights in a row! We don't know why. The first two nights, she came out to where Husbandguy and I were watching TV and just climbed onto the couch with us. All I had to do was suggest she go back to bed and she went (we tucked her in again both times). But last night she got up and went into her sister's room. !! That made me uncomfortable. I'm not sure why, though. She wouldn't hurt her sister. Except she was asleep and that's really the unknown, isn't it? Husbandguy was right behind her and took her back to bed. She really was asleep. It would be hard for her to fake. She holds her fingers a certain way sometimes, and awake she doesn't know about that. When I asked her this morning, she didn't remember getting up and she didn't remember having a dream about her sister or her sister's room or anything. It's weird. Poor kid! What's the deal?!

The Prisoner

The Grandpa, correct me if my reference is off.

The other day I turned around in the kitchen and saw this and was creepily reminded of that TV show "The Prisoner." Remember? The big ball (balls?) that followed him everywhere?

Nothing

Sorry. I'm blank today...

Although it did occur to me that a disadvantage of losing my piano student (in addition to just missing teaching her) is that I don't have someone coming over once a week to motivate me to clean the house. Husbandguy complained last night...

Search Terms Used to Find TIBM Are In Bold

You know Mommy's Nintendo? She swears while writing on her itsy bitsy monkey blog one day, she felt an urge to have an itsy bitsy cupcake. So she stepped away from her itsy bitsy monkey blogspot and went in search of one. During her search, it occurred to her that, if her life had a soundtrack, fuge in classic style myaskovsky (spelled correctly, of course) would be appropriate right then. When she turned the corner into the living room, MN came across the strangest thing, a monkey vacuuming! The monkey looked up when MN came into the room and asked how to tell you boss a coworker is late. Apparently, he was supposed to be working that day with a monkey with a deathray. Or at the very least, a sailor monkey. MN didn’t have an answer, as she was wondering herself, “how do i know my baby is smart?” or in other words, "how smart is my baby"? Instead she asked the monkey, who really was an itsy bitsy monkey, if he knew where she might find a cupcake. He did know where to find an itsy bitsy monkey coconut cupcake, but told her to watch out for the space death robots, who were known to have roseola crankiness and were guarding it. The itsy bitsy monkey asked MN if she knew the coconut pete lyrics, as that was the only thing that would soothe the robots’ crankiness. MN said, “You mean the itsy bitsy monkey mommy kiss his knee song?” That was the one so MN headed off to where the monkey said the cupcake and robots could be found. When she got there, the most frightening thing occurred. The robots spotted MN before she could begin to sing and charged at her yelling, “We are the robots from outer…”

But that’s where the story ends because MN doesn’t remember anything after that.

Petemas

This past weekend, Pete helped Meme decorate TheGrandpaandMeme's house for Christmas. Meme goes All Out. She has dozens of boxes of decorations. It's cool. And Pete loved every minute of it. She even passed up pie because she wanted to help set up the Christmas village, and Pete never misses dessert. Husbandguy has been charged with bringing out our Christmas stuff from storage because the Christmas Bee is now living in Pete's bonnet. I'll probably have to help, I suppose, because her one complaint about decorating with Meme was that I just watched. I had a good time just watching, though, and it's not like I took a nap or something instead...

And also, our new favorite euphemism is, "I stepped on a frog."

LL Says: x2

The Grandpa: Got your nose!
Lulu: Boogers.

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Lulu, with a look of sudden recognition on her face, pointed at The Grandpa, who has a white beard, etc., and exclaimed, "Claus! Ha Claus!" Then she looked at me, still pointing at The Grandpa, and said, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" as if to say, "Did you know? We're having lunch with Santa Claus!"

LL Says:

Lulu's new word is "asinine." I'm not 100% sure she knows what it means. But now Pete does...

Also, Lulu says thank you. And she uses it right. In fact, just a minute ago she thanked me when I told her I'd give her a few more minutes to play before I washed her hair.

Cracker of Nuts and Mashed Cauliflower

Last night, Moomie took Pete and me to see the Columbia City Ballet perform "The Nutcracker" at Moomie's local high school. That doesn't sound right exactly, does it? The Columbia City Ballet? In a high school auditorium? But for real that's what happened. And it was beautiful. I'm not 100% sure I haven't seen The Nutcracker performed before, but I don't remember it if I did. But now I will. And Pete and I have tickets to see the NC Dance Theatre's performance of it next month. I suspect that the Columbia dancers are better, but we'll see.

There were two complaints about last night, though, and I'm going to post them just because. Pete's was that she couldn't see. High school auditoriums aren't really designed to provide the best viewing if you're five, but it didn't turn her off to the ballet, just the auditorium. She wants to go again, but at a real theater.

My complaint is all the clapping! Good grief! Is it just me? I had this problem with the Beauty and the Beast performance we saw in October, too. People clap at the littlest thing! Oooo. He lifted her above his head! Oooo! She's dancing on her toes! Oooo! The music got louder! Except that there were actually five more minutes of dancing before that particular scene was over and then we they had to clap again at the right time. I get that you want to show the dancers that you appreciate what they're doing. But wait until they're done! I don't mean you should only clap when the show is over or even just when an act ends. Just not constantly! They may do something even more interesting next. If you clap for every little thing, you'll be clapping the whole time. And also maybe this really is just me, but a huge part of going to the ballet is listening to the music. If you're clapping, you can't hear it. Neither can the person next to you who's actually waiting to clap until the time is right. (Quick note: I didn't mind the clapping in the middle for the local children who did a really good job with their parts; I am a mom after all.)

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Now, about the cauliflower. I didn't think I liked cauliflower, but Moomie and Moomie's Hubby make mashed cauliflower with bacon and cheese in it and it's delicious! Of course it is! It has bacon and cheese in it. But even the cauliflower part was good. Pete liked it, too. I might make it at home. Husbandguy is wary about trying it, but I think he'll like it.

Wanna Hear Something Gross?

Yesterday, while we were waiting for Pete's bus, Lulu was wandering around the yard and picked something up and brought it to me saying, "Haycon! Haycon!" It looked like a tiny acorn so I asked to see it and she handed it to me.

But it wasn't an acorn...

It was a rabbit poop.

One More Thing

Why can't you just buy a couple of stalks of celery? I bought celery to make stuffing for Thursday, and I had to buy JUMBO celery. It was on special, but I would have bought more expensive little celery if I'd had the option. Nobody needs JUMBO celery, even if your family does eat it with gunk in the middle, which mine won't. Maybe we should get a guinea pig. Although, what would we do with it (the gp) when the celery runs out...

Monday Whatevers

Paying It Forward

At the grocery store a few minutes ago, I was charging out the door with my cart full of too many groceries in my save-the-world canvas bags, and some lady smiled at me like she was really happy to see me. I felt like I almost ran her over, but she didn't seem to mind. I apologized, of course, but I don't think that was why she smiled at me. I think she was just nice, and it made me smile all the way home. So here, this is for you:

Pay it forward.

Along Those Same Lines

There is a woman at Pete's school, one of the other PTA moms; we'll call her Renee (because that's her name). As long as I've been going to functions where Renee is, she has always hugged me when she sees me. Even last year when neither of us was entirely sure who the other was. I like it. I think that I would be a hugger if I was more assertive. I like hugging.

More About Poo

If any of you who have toddlers who, like mine, aren't quite a year-and-a-half are concerned because your children don't even know what poopoo is to have it in the potty, don't be. There is a big difference between knowing that when you sit on the potty, you should make poopoo and knowing that when you need to make poopoo, you should sit on the potty.

Then There Was this Train

On the way home from the store, I decided to take the short-cut across the railroad tracks, but as soon as I turned the corner to go over the tracks, the red lights started flashing and the gates went down, and since I was already around the corner, I couldn't change my mind and go the long way so I had to wait for the train. But it was a little short train, an Amtrak with an engine and four cars, and it flew through the crossing with its whistle WHOO-WHOO-ing. It was really cool, a little exciting, like when a fire engine goes speeding past with its siren ROO-ROO-ing. That stuff always gets me!

Now you thank me for sharing. I'm going to brush my teeth and make sure we have frozen cherries.

PooPoo in the Potty!

Nuh-huh! She did! For real!! She was gassing. Lulu, you know. And she said,"Poopoo," and I said, "That's just gas. Do you need to make poopoo? Do you want to make poopoo in the potty?" And she said that she did need to make poopoo but that she didn't want to sit on the potty. And then she gassed again and said, "Poopoo," and so I asked her again about the potty and she said, "Nuh-uh." But then third time's the charm apparently because the next time I asked her, she said, "Kay," and waddled off toward the girls' bathroom. When we got there, we took off her diaper and she sat down and started squeezing out more gas. Then she picked up a book...

It's too late to make a long story short, but in the end she said, "Ah dahn," and stood up and there were two little brown grape-sized things in her little potty. Her first poopoo! In the potty!!

LL Says:

Lulu says, "ehbahdee," which means the same thing as, "All y'all." She says, "Cummon, ehbahdee!" and really seems to mean that everyone should follow her.

The Best Daddy in the World

Right now, Husbandguy is wishing that I was where he is. His second choice would be that we were there together. But being that I am beside myself (see post below) today and that Pete has school tomorrow, I think he gets it that really the only choice is for him to be driving Lulu to the ER for her annual steroid shot for Super Croup. Yes. Annual. It's a tradition now apparently. Although last year the ambulance drove her to the ER and I rode along. It was raining on the way home then, and it sounds like it might be raining on their way home tonight too.

So here's what happened. This morning, Lulu woke up with the croup, you know, that barking seal-like cough that stresses DH out real bad. She was fine all day, as far as I know (she was at school for part of it) until after her nap when she started barking again. Poor kid. It hurts! She doesn't want to cough. We tried warm juice, which always worked for Pete, and we spent a bunch of time in the bathroom with the door closed and the hot water running in spite of the water shortage. Nothing helped so we called the nurse who asked a bunch of questions and then said she (LL) needed to be seen and to be careful and not to speed and to which ER will we be going?

DH didn't want to be the one to do this. He prefers that I handle stuff like this. He adores his girls and would drive them to the moon if they needed it, but he would soooo rather I go along to answer all the questions. And ask them too. But he can handle it, and he will, and he'll maybe be a little more confident next time, and there's no way I'm sleeping until they pull back into our driveway so if he needs me to talk to the doctor at the ER, all he has to do is call. He knows that. And he knows that he's the best daddy in the world. I tell him whenever I think of it. I'm going to tell him tomorrow for sure.

I'm Beside Myself

For real. Today I am beside myself. Here's Me -->X-O<-- and there's Myself. Remember when I told you the five things that are positive about the steroids I take monthly? Well, one of the bad things is that two days after I take them, I'm out-of-body for about 24 hours. It's hard to describe, sort of a disconnection. It's annoying. Husbandguy usually ends up driving everywhere. At least it doesn't last too long...

The Lost World

This weekend we went to visit Nana and Poppop.

While we were there, we went to the park, where Pete discovered a dinosaur!

Right there in Smalltown, NC! The Peteosaurus?

Thanks to Poppop for the pictures. I would have taken them myself but our camera was in the suitcase back at the house. Hey, at least we took it with us!

Genetics

You know Pete? You know how she's been taking swimming lessons and doing really well? Well, at her last lesson, they evaluated her, and guess what! She's moved up another level, and since there aren't anymore beginner classes higher than the one she just finished, she's not a beginner anymore. She's ADVANCED! Know what that means? That means that she is a better swimmer than I am because I would definitely be in the beginner class if I signed up for lessons. But Husbandguy is soooo NOT a beginner, and so apparently swimming is genetic and she got the gene from him.

I already knew that music is genetic because of the way she's really taken to the piano. Her teacher even said at her last lesson that Pete is better at the note drills than some of her more long-time students.

So she got swimming from DH and piano from me. And she got her looks from her dad (who would have been a beautiful little girl, apparently, if he had Moomie's eyes) and her love of reading from me. And her sense of humor? Well that came from both sides, but those of you from the Grandpa's family will be pleased to know that there is definitely more than a hint of the S Sense of Humor there. Appropriate considering who she's named after...

Looking Out for the Little Guy

My Lulu. She's always looking out for her friends. Her teachers really appreciate it too. Like on Wednesday? When Lulu, looking appropriately grossed out, told them that little Seth had boogers. Yes, she did use the b-word. My toddler is such a giver!

LL Says:

Apparently Lulu is a UO fan. You know, the ducks? She and Husbandguy were watching some football last Saturday, and DH called to me to come there and hurry. And when I got to where they were sitting, watching UO play, Lulu had her little hands above her head, like the UO fans except her little arms are too short to actually make an "O" above her head, and she was droning, "Ooooooooh..." Just like on the TV. Awww! It was really cute. But that's not all, though. Last night, while I was in the kitchen making tacos and DH wasn't even home yet and there wasn't the slightest hint of football or Oregon to be found anywhere in our home, Lulu waddled into the kitchen with her little fingertips touching together over her head droning, "Oooooooh..." I don't know anything about UO except that their tiny fans sure are cute!

Very Rewarding Things

Sorry I'm late again. I was at Pete's school doing a Very Rewarding Thing. It was cool.

Also, I got a BUNCH of responses to the PTA survey I sent out, kind of unexpected. Now I have to figure out what to do with them. I think I'll start with a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are cool. After that? Dunno. I'm going to try to implement ONE THING I found out from this survey.

Pete Says:

Recently, Pete's mom was teasing Pete and telling Pete something was true that wasn't. Pete at first said, "Really?" with a lot of scepticism in Pete's voice. And when Pete's dad told Pete that Pete's mom was teasing, Pete said, "You can't trick me. I am five-and-a-half, you know."

Pete's playing both angles, apparently.

What You Can Get Mommy's Nintendo for MN's Birthday

My birthday is still almost 3 months away, but I'm giving you notice because I'm pretty sure you'll need to raise some funds. I want a Mazda CX-9, with 3rd row seat, DVD, CD changer, leather... If you need more details, let me know. Also, we can talk about trading/selling my car if you want, even though I love that car. And you can put the money toward my birthday present. Just thought I'd give you a head start...

The Drop-Off Line - duhn, duhn, duuuhnnn

I tried it today. Lulu didn't want to wait any longer to go to school because she hadn't been since last Wednesday (she was fevery Thursday and Friday - teeth, I think), but I was under the impression that if we went earlier than we usually go we would have to go through drop-off. So we went, and I got in the line with all the other cars, and then I noticed all the cars parked across the street, people walking their children inside, at the drop-off time, not later like they're supposed to. The good thing about this is that now I know we don't have to wait until 10 after to walk in, and also now I know I'm not the only parent who walks their kid into school (it didn't matter that I was, it was just weird), I'm just the only parent who follows the rules (although, not anymore). The bad thing was that being in the drop-off line is like being in the drive-thru at Taco Bell: there's no way out except forward! So I had to let them take her out of the car. She did okay. The director of the school, and so someone familiar, came and got her. She looked confused and a little sad, but she didn't cry. I actually think she would be okay with it if we did it enough. But here's the thing: I didn't get to KISS HER GOODBYE! So all morning I've been thinking about her sad little face and counting the minutes until I can kiss her hello. And I'm not going to do that again anytime soon. But never say never...

Friday Five - Five Reasons Monthly Steroids Aren't So Bad

(In no particular order...)

1. I have way more energy than usual, which leads to...
2. I will be able to stay up late enough to watch "The Daily Show" for about 2 weeks.
3. If I have to take a Xanax to help me sleep, the next morning is always filled with bird songs and mellow happiness.
4. I get to take off my invisible prickly stockings for a few days.
5. I have an excuse for constantly eating.

I'm Ditching the Meeting

I lied. To the PTA. I told them Husbandguy had to work late and I didn't have a sitter and wouldn't be able to go to the meeting tonight because it wasn't an option to bring my kids. But also, too, I made sure that the things I needed to do to make the meeting successful were done or will be covered by someone else. I could've just left them high and dry with no join-the-pta table or membership forms. So for about 15 minutes around 6:00, I'm going to be feeling guilty and my stomach will get all squeezy, as Pete would say, but that will pass, I'm sure. And also? DH isn't allowed to answer the phone before 7:30, which he'll like.