A Real Moment

I saw OMSH had joined the Real Mom 'movement' and decided to start my own flickr set celebrating moments of what? Insanity? Ineptitude? Survival?

More times than I'd care to admit, Arwyn enjoys her lunch in front of the computer or the tv. It keeps her busy and quiet for a few minutes so I can enjoy my own meal without the constant stream of "Sit down. Get back in your chair. Don't do that with your fork. Eat your lunch." etc, etc. This works as long as it is a game she can do by herself and I don't have to rescue her.


Today's Real Moment was brought to you by the letter P and the number 2.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Dreaming of what the weather was like last week (was it only last week?) when Arwyn and I spent the morning at the zoo with friends. I saw our first daffodil is finally blooming this morning, so I am holding out some hope for Spring's return.


I finally got my cookie fix. I know you all were worried. Crisis averted.


Arwyn modeling her tiara and earrings (thanks, iMollie!) and trying out her new jump rope. They're never too young for multi-tasking.

Outdoor Cooking

This morning I spent $13.73 (including tax) on a little thing I like to call MY SANITY.


Thank the Good Lord it has been warm the past few days. If I have to watch one more episode of Dora the Explorer I'm going to vomit. Then Dora will scream at me from the tv, "Vamanos! Help Arwyn's mommy clean up the vomit!" I'm all about the cultural diversity and introducing Spanish to the youngsters, but why does she have to yell all the time?

While out running errands we stopped by the thrifty consignment shop to drop off a few things and this lovely plastic kitchen happened to be sitting outside. I've thought about getting her one for a long time, but had no idea where to put it. Inspiration smacked me upside the head this morning and I thought, "Well, duh. We'll put it outside." The pots and pans were brought outside as well, and then we made soup for an hour and a half. And the only person yelling was me, which I don't particularly like to hear either, but we seem to be going through a "willful stage" otherwise known as age 2.75.


Combine that with the potty training and it makes for some interesting days. I'm not sure if she just isn't used to what all this feels like yet or what, but while we were outside she had to come in 12 times to go potty. Of those 12 trips inside, she only actually peed three times. And she would walk. as. slow. as. humanly. possible. inside. to. the. bathroom. Mama needs to grow some patience. Do they make a plant for that?

Milestones

I'm blaming my absence this week on the potty training going on at our house.


It's been a little difficult to get much of anything else done. Such is life, I s'pose. It beats buying diapers!

Love Boat

Arwyn ran a fever for a couple of days earlier in the week. As a consequence, we stayed home for two entire days and nights, finally escaping to Grandma's house last night for a reprieve. Two days of entertainment is about all I can sanely handle. Then the Cruise Director turns into the Dictator.

In between bouts of cleaning and laundry, Arwyn needed to play with "Mommy's markers". Apparently, my markers are the three highlighters kept in the middle drawer of the computer desk. Who knew.


Her masterpiece:


I snapped the pic before I was instructed to "draw a face with a bunny hat" and write the word "draw" over and over. She also entertained herself with an empty daily pill dispenser most of the day, asking me what each of the letters stood for repeatedly. I did not know I would be teaching the days of the week to a 2 year old who has no concept of time except for nap, it's not time for nap and it's not time for night-night.

Fun on the Farm

This weekend Arwyn and I took a little trip to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins. They live on a small farm and they had 10 calves, but we only got to see one and it was kind of far away. Arwyn didn't really mind. She was just so very excited to be on the farm and see the cows. She wanted to get in the pasture and run around with them.


It was so fun to take her to a place that I loved as a child. The truly wonderful thing was, it hasn't changed one bit. It seems like so many times when you grow up everything is different than the way you remember it. My aunt and uncle's house is just the same. The only noticeable difference I could detect was the living room furniture. And it's not as if the house is falling down or anything, it was all just so wonderfully the same. Even the upstairs carpet is the same as I remember. I'm not against change, I just find it hard sometimes, especially with things that pertain to getting older. It was almost a relief to drive down that winding country road and see their house and barn sitting off to the side and feel like I was going to a very happy, peaceful place.


My cousin is a year older than me and we were very close when we were growing up. I got the most awesome hand-me-downs from her and would get SO extremely excited when they came for a visit. She usually got me in trouble of one sort or another, but I didn't care. It was fun.

In the summers she would come and stay with our grandma for a week and I would go to their house for a week. These were some of the best weeks of my childhood. I have fantastic memories of the time spent there. My aunt's big, comfy kitchen overflowing with her collection of cookbooks. My uncle telling long, involved and funny stories. My cousins running around, fighting with each other, and just being kids. Rollerskating in their garage. Riding my cousin's awesome purple bike with the banana seat. Climbing on huge, round hay bales. The smell of honeysuckle always in the air.


I hope I get to take my little rock star city girl back for many more visits.

TTFN

This is Arwyn's house. Those are Arwyn's blocks. Don't even think about touching them, unless you are specifically instructed to do so. And even then you will probably do it wrong and be informed of this great travesty in a very loud and vocal manner. Repeatedly.


Did I mention she's a tad independent? And bossy? And changes her mind every 2.5 seconds? But also sweet and funny and goofy. Yesterday she told me that Big Bird is her cousin. I had no idea that giant yellow talking birds were in the family tree. Who knew?


Tomorrow morning we are traveling a few hours to visit my cousin (hi, cuz and cuz-in-law!) and their new baby boy. Good lookin' out, dawg.

Happy Hearts Day

I managed to get Arwyn's shirts done in time to wear out and about this week for Valentine's Day, although today we are out of shirts. But we haven't gone anywhere except the backyard anyway.


This is the whale shirt, and it did turn out nicely. Arwyn doesn't really seem to see the need to dress appropriately for the weather and doesn't really dig sweatshirts too much. But she will wear the whale sweatshirt with the heart. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the heart is silver. Actually, it is Pearl White, which I discovered when I bought another bottle of Pearl White, thinking I had silver at home. Three trips to Michael's in one week (I have to return the paint!) might be a personal record for me.


Arwyn enjoyed her Valentine's party at story time yesterday a lot. It might have just been the copious amounts of candy consumed, but I like to think it was the camaraderie and togetherness of friends. Right. That and lying on the floor inhaling chocolate by the fistful.


Have a wonderful sweetheart's day.

Your Butt Feels Like Pancake Mix*

I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that I think we are finally out of the woods. Phew.

Seeing as Arwyn barely touched anything edible for five days, I pretty much fixed her whatever she wanted. One day she wanted pancakes at 10:15 am, so that is what we had.


Then twelve hours later I had the leftovers for a late night snack with some peanut butter and syrup. Mmmmm.


Anytime I had a chance this weekend I was running to a craft store. I made one trip to JoAnn's and two trips to Michael's over the past two days. I am going to be crafting it UP! Let's hope what I've been working on tonight doesn't fall into the Nothing I've Done Today Has Gone Right category. First I was trying to hang up some lights and stapled right through the wire. And I was so proud of myself for loading and using my staple gun all by myself. Then I was printing out some pictures and somehow they all came out about 1 inch tall. THEN I forgot dinner was under the broiler and burned the first batch of sandwiches. Um, no pictures of the black subs.


*The title is a reference to something Bubby's niece once told him when she was about six or seven years old.

Puke in a Bowl

Arwyn caught some sort of 30-hour stomach bug and I spent the better part of the day doing laundry and flinching every time she coughed. She made a miraculous recovery just in time for Daddy to get home from work. Amazing how that works. I'm so glad she's feeling better, it is just very convenient how I get puked on all day, then Daddy arrives and ta-da! She's running laps in the living room. Grumble, grumble.


I did steal a few minutes away from the recliner to finish up her Valentine's shirts. I still have a sweatshirt in the works for her, then I think I might work on something for myself (non-Valentine related). These are long sleeved t-shirts that I bought on clearance and then worked some freezer paper magic.


What I am typing isn't even making sense to me anymore, so I think I should head to bed.

Edited to add: Yeah, um, NOT a 30-hour bug. Last night was some sort of freak brief respite. Still upchucking. Lots of fun at our house.

Extended Playdate

We went to a friend's house this morning for a crafty playdate, which turned into a lunch playdate. Everyone got along well, played together, the moms got to chat and we ordered pizza. It was the holy grail of playdates. This was not something that I expected when I decided to stay home, that I would begin to rate my days based on the quality and length of playdates experienced. If we had only thrown a drink in there, we might have made the news.


Thanks, girls, for a lovely morning. Thanks to Andrea for the great photos. I have serious camera envy.

Cranberry Cold

It has been quite chilly here the past few days, though I was excited to see snow flurries yesterday. I'll take snow over rain any day. We are tired of rain. Boo, hiss on you, rain.


However, we did get some new rain boots to help make the continuous rainy weather a bit more fun.


Anyone else craving soup and chocolate? This recipe has neither, but it certainly is yummy. Think Rice Krispie Treats with Cheerios toasted oat cereal in place of the Rice Krispies. And throw in some cranberries.


I added a bit too many marshmallows. Oh, darn! Gooey, yummy goodness. And it's good for you, it says "Whole Grain" right on the cereal box! And fruit! TOTALLY wholesome, I swear.


This much gooeyness deserves the first five fruits of the year!

A Do(ug)h in Dos Partes

I went all crazy with the oatmeal cookies the other day. They started out as Chewy Oatmeal Cookies (recipe from the Crisco container, sooooo healthy) and I ended up throwing so many things in that I'm calling them Kitchen Sink Cookies.


I can't really do the "healthy" sweets, somehow cookies made with carob and flax just aren't the same (although I'm pretty sure that's the point). So I'm thinking lots and lots of good things and moderation in the bad things.


Four out of five fruits.
A very different type of dough: Play Doh. It is the bane of my existence, but she loves it so what are you gonna do? Pick up itty bitty pieces of it off the rug until she turns 12 and eschews all things "uncool".


Or donate it all to her school?

Got Da Funk

Anyone seen that Honda commercial? That's where it all started ...