Pete's Birthday Breakfast Poem

Little Miss Monkey*
Sat on her bumky**
Eating her Cheerios.
Along came her sister
Who sat down and kissed her
And beeped her on the nose.


*Lulu
**bumbum

Pete Says:

In a deep, put-on voice, Pete said, "If Daddy writes the music, you and me will sing it. Right Mom?" Pete's mom said, "Where did that come from?" Pete said, in that voice again, "I'm talkin' hip-hop, dude."

Defective TV

There's something wrong with the TV at our house. Whenever I turn it off, it seems to come back on almost right away. Well, it's not every time, not during the day during the week. But in the evenings and on the weekends, really when everyone is home with me, it does. I'll turn it off and go to another room and when I come back, it's back on. Or in the mornings I just won't turn it on, but as soon as everyone starts rustling around and it's not just me awake, it will come on. It's weird!

Where's My Baby?!!

You know Pete is almost 6, right? So not really a baby, right? But when she's more than a hour late getting home from school, she's my baby and that's that.

Pete's been getting home a little later than we thought she would when we signed her up for the bus at the beginning of the year because they added another whole route to her bus in the afternoon. I was okay with that. I'd prefer she get home at the time she was supposed to, sure, but it's okay. But then on Friday, the later time came and went with no sign of Pete or the bus. No big deal, things happen and buses get 15 minutes behind sometimes, right? But then 15 minutes went by with no sign of her. And then 15 more. I called Husbandguy to see where he was in case she was at the school and needed to be picked up for some reason, and I started cooking dinner. She'll be here any minute I kept telling myself. And the little Mom voice in the back of my heart kept saying not to think about the fact that every mother who's lost a kid has told herself that very same thing. After 15 more minutes, I called the school; surely someone there would know why she wasn't home. But there was no answer. After 10 rings the fax machine picked up. I waited a couple more minutes and called Rhymes-with-Tennis's mom, because RWT rides Pete's bus too. Her line was busy. So I hung up and turned off the stove and stood in the window and wondered what to do next. Then the phone rang. It was RWT's mom. She was a step behind me, calling the school while I was calling her. We looked up the number for the transportation center and both called. The message at the beginning said that if you were calling about a late bus you should call the school. Since I'd already done that, I waited and when they picked up, I said, "I already called the school and no one answered. My daughter is usually home an hour ago and she's not here yet. Can you help me?" and the lady said, "Is it [Pete's school]?" and I said, "Yes!" and she said, "There's a delay. Hang on," and put me on hold. She came back on after a couple of minutes and asked what our stop was and put me on hold again when I told her. When she came back again she said, "They're 5 minutes away." I was so relieved I didn't even think to ask what had happened until I'd hung up, but I knew Pete would know (another bus broke down and they had to help with that). Then RWT's mom called back and when DH was talking to her, the bus came so we could tell her that RWT would be home soon because RWT's stop is next, I think. And when Pete came in, I smooshed her in a great big hug, and she looked all grown up to be getting home after her daddy. And WHEW! That sucked! I reminded Pete that she doesn't have to take the bus, but she still wants to...

Month-Long Annual Reviews

Remember. Annual reviews are birthdays. And Pete's and mine are both this month. Because Pete opted to have a all-girl tea party this year with her friends, we decided to invite the grandparents to a separate celebration, which was today. Thus began the month-long review. On Pete's actual birthday, Wednesday, we're taking her to Chuck E Cheese because we've been telling her we would go forever and it seemed like a good time to follow through with that. Then the tea party is next week. So far, one person has RSVP-ed yes and Pete said she got one no at school the other day. Then, since the Grandpa and Meme can't be here this weekend or next, we're going to see them the following weekend, at which time Pete will (reluctantly, I'm sure) pass the Birthday Baton to me because my birthday is that next Tuesday. And since we're not sure how or where the whole Grandpa&Meme thing is going to happen, I think we're going to celebrate my birthday with Moomie the following weekend, which is the last weekend in January. Thus: Month-Long Annual Reviews! Whee!!

Also, Happy Birthday today Kiddoo!

LL Says:

LL says: <cough, cough> "Oh goodness!"

Peaceful Is

Post hard-poop morning

After shopping, pleasant lunch

Sound sleep in the car

LL Says:

This morning when I dropped Lulu off at school, her little friend Ashlyn started to help her out of her coat like she always does, but Lulu turned around and looked her in the eye and said, "Oshen," (nod, nod) "oshen." She was sharing her vacation! Awww! She's so neat. I'm glad I sent a picture of the beach in her bag today for her to share at circle. She'll like that, I think.

Seriously! She's only 19 months old!

Wod Dibd Joo Seh?

After a restless night that involved a lot of itching, I woke up this morning with gigantic lips. I'm not kidding. They were at least three times the size they usually are. And they weren't lip-shaped. Husbandguy and Moomie both commented that people pay money for their lips to look like that, but since I haven't had any collagen injections that I'm aware of, I called the nurse instead. And now I'm waiting to hear back from the doctor. In the meantime though, both of my girls spent their morning staring at me. Pete asked me to leave the breakfast table because my lips were so distracting. Lulu kept saying, "Puff!" at me while I was getting her dressed. She wouldn't clarify what she meant, though, so I'm not certain that she was talking about my lips. The itching has moved from my hands and feet to my lips and chin now, and my lips aren't nearly as big as they were and are lip-shaped again. I wish the doctor's office would call...

The only new things I've had/done/been around recently that I might be allergic to are Tic Tacs, a piece of chocolate from Husbandguy's stocking (shh!), and our present from Nana and PopPop (yes, they did finally give us something), and Husbandguy is pretty sure it's not the present. I guess we'll see...

It Wasn't All Bad

There were some nice parts of vacation, too. So you know.

We saw pelicans.
The view from our room (on the 21st floor) looked like this.

Except for the last morning when it looked like this.
And I got coffee here. It was the only real cup of coffee I had on vacation. It was pretty good. Husbandguy doesn't drink coffee but couldn't pass up the hot chocolate.

Lulu loved the beach. She remembers it even now. She'll tell you it was cold, and the other day, when Husbandguy got her into her jacket and shoes to go shopping or something, she yelled, "Oshen!" all excited and looked genuinely disappointed when Husbandguy said we weren't going there. Pete played mini golf with me and she won. That was Super Fun. And I ordered a dinner I wouldn't normally order because it had asparagus and it was really good and Lulu didn't throw up that time. That was the only time, though. And I took a TON of really great pictures of my family on the beach. There's this super cute one of the girls in their heavy coats standing right at the edge of the water. And I saw a dolphin that surfaced again one more time so I could show Pete.

And also, Lulu is feeling better now. She hasn't thrown up in several days and her cough is way better. We held off on the doctor because she was a lot better yesterday.

Everyone goes back to school/work/etc. tomorrow. I enjoyed (most of) our vacation. I'm looking forward to our Real Life now.