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.