Evening Fun

Here's one for the books...

Tonight I left DaGirl in her room while I put DaBoy down. When I left the room she found her bathing suit on the floor and was chatting about it. I was out of her room for all of five minutes. I heard her moving around but since she was relatively quiet I figured all was OK.

When I got back to her room she was sitting in her bed with her bathing suit on her legs and shaking water out of her sippy cup onto her blue flannel sheet exclaiming "POOL! I swimming in my pool!"

g

Someone's in a Hurry Here

After dinner DaMom started the bath water when she was getting ready to leave for quilting class. Like a good mommy she closed the door behind her when she went upstairs as the filled the tub. Meanwhile DaKids and I were feeding the dog and cat. When we finished with the project of the pet food (and believe me it is a project) DaGirl wanted to play in the living room and watch TV.

DaGoof: "DaGirl", why don't go into the bathroom and get ready for a bath?
DaGirl: Oh, OK (and she scurries out of the kitchen)

DaBoy, who had been behind me, runs past to follow his big sister. I hear the bathroom door open as I'm filling the Dog's water dish. The sound I hear next emanating from the bathroom disturbs me.

DaGirl: No! "DaBoy" No! Don't get into da baf tub wif your clothes on!
DaBoy: Hehehehehe

I drop the water dish on the floor and run around the corner to find....

....DaBoy in the tub, fully dressed.

This marks his first successful attempt at entering the tub on his own. yippie?

g

Mr. Mom Day - Part 1

First let me say that many people in the know about this day of mine can't wait for whatever happens to be posted in this blog. Sooooo, who am I to disappoint?
~~~~~~~~~~
DaMom's birthday was back in October and her sister (Aunty K.) and mother (Memere) got her a special gift. A day without DaKids and a trip to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes in NYC. This means it's the first day in history DaKids won't have their mommy to push around love and cherish for an entire day.

5:30am - DaMom gets up and prepares for her adventure. I sleep.
7:00am -DaGirl wanders into our room and climbs into bed with me. She has an annoying  a precious little habit of rubbing your belly when she's tired or your sleeping. She does this to me on my right while I try to fake sleep to keep the dog on my left from washing my face.
7:15am - DaBoy has been chanting MOMMMM for the last few minutes and I send DaGirl into his room to "talk" with him. She scurries out to his room and discusses the placement of his stuffed animals on his floor with him. I try to sleep more.
7:30am - DaGirl has been in and out of all three bedrooms so many times I can't count and since she's now attacking the jewlery box in our room I figure it must be time to get the day going.

I get dressed and bring them all downstairs. After the obligatory diaper changing and potty going, I ask DaGirl "What do you want for breakfast?" She replies with "Waffles and sausages".

OK. I know we have some frozen waffles left over from a batch we made a couple of weeks ago but I'm not sure about the sausages. After a brief hunt in both freezers for breakfast sausages I can't find any. During my search DaGirl has been chanting "Waffles and Sausages" and getting DaBoy fired up for them too. Uh Oh....

DaGoof: Uh sorry guys we don't have any sausages.
DaGirl: EEKKK!
DaBoy: NA!!
DaGoof: What else would you guys like?
DaGirl: Waffles and Sasuages!
DaBoy: Emphatic head nod

They both are looking up at me with puppy dog eyes.

DaGoof: Do you want to go get some. (yes I'm a pushover)
DaGirl & DaBoy: YEAH!
DaGoof: OK, but you have get dressed first.
DaGirl: OK
DaGoof: Go pick out some clothes. "DaBoy" come with me.

I get DaBoy dressed while DaGirl retrieves her own outfit and proceeds to get dressed (including shoes) all on her own.

8:15am - We arrive at the grocery store and they jump into one of those carriages with a fire truck attached. We speed shop and leave in minutes with our sausages, bananas, and orange juice (DaGirl sounds like a vetran smoker this morning so I figure I'd better use any means possible to get her full of fluids).

8:30am - We eat breakfast.

9:00am - I have to cancel a potential play date due to her oncoming cold. DaGirl wants to watch a video. I say "Do you want to go to the library instead?" OK and we're off again.
9:34am - We roll up at the library when it dawns on me "I hope they're open this early?" Sure enough they open at 9:30. Whew.
We turn in DaMoms books and a Sesame Street video. Then find a new S.S. video and a couple of board books.

10:00am - Back at the house. We watch the new video and bonus features.
11:15am - I have to potty. I tell DaKids not to break anything or kill each other for five minutes. I'm in the bathroom for about 4 minutes when DaGirl barges in with the announcement "(DaBoy)'s made a mess in the kitchen". Ug, no peace. When I get to the kitchen DaBoy is standing on a chair filling and dumping a cup with water from the dispenser on the fridge. The floor is one big puddle and he's soaked. I soak the mess up and dry him off.
11:30am - Lunch time. They request a PB&J sandwich with a side of apple bomb. (Apple bomb - apple cut in half cored with a melon baller and filled with peanut butter.) And yes, we have no peanut alergies in this family.
12:00pm - Clean up and head 'em up for nap time. I sit with DaBoy for a spell, while he fights sleep and then head over to DaGirl's room to usher her off to sleep. I read her the story about germs we got from the library, cuddled with her for a few minutes, put her in bed, and by the time I finished a chapter in Harry Potter 5 she was out.
1:00pm - Dishes, laundry, and write this literary epic.

To be continued...

g

Mr. Mom Day - Part 2

So maybe a 3 and 1/2 hour nap might be a little long for them, I want them to stay healthy!

12:30pm - 4:00pm - They slept. DaMom is going to PO'd at that one since yesterday DaGirl napped for all of 30 minutes. But don't worry, it all comes around.

4:00pm - Snack time I put together a concoction of O's, raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and vanilla chips. Hey, it was mostly healthy, plus they liked it! (wonder why?)

4:15pm - We play for a bit in the living room then they discover the "accessory set" for the easel somewhere and announce they want to paint. DaGirl is holding the paint containers up at me while DaBoy is marching around in circles holding a paintbrush like a baton.
I set them up at the table with art supplies. They both craft paper taped down in front of them however DaBoy only gets crayons while DaGirl gets the watercolor paints. After about 20 minutes of them being creative making a mess, I drag them off to be cleaned up. Yes, DaBoy grew weary of the crayons and just had to play with the paints, which subsequently initiated the cleanup process when all he wanted to do was pick up and drop the brush water.

5:00pm - The dog is driving me nuts. Since 2:00 he's been stuck to my side and won't leave me alone. I've let him out at least once an hour but he still wants a walk. The rain appears to have subsided for now so I bundle the kids up and usher them out for a quick walk with the dog.

5:45pm - Play some more with the kids (Can't say what we did exactly, they've both got attention spans like gnats and my memory for that stuff is gone. Suffice it to say we did a bit 'o everything.)

6:15pm - Dinner. I reheat leftover chicken, potatoes, corn, apple sauce, and STOVE TOP! I'm great with a microwave.

6:45pm - Neither child is too thrilled with the idea of bath time so I make the executive decision to skip it. They get it in the morning after breakfast before Aunty N's Birthday Brunch. Makes sense right? Let them get all filthy during breakfast and hose them off before the party. It's justified in my mind anyway.
We play blocks for a while and when DaBoy starts falling down randomly I know he's ready for bed, so I set DaGirl in front of the electronic babysitter with an S.S. DVD and get him changed for bed.

He watches the show for a bit but when he gets antsy I bring him up to bed.

7:45pm - The show is over but she wants to see more of the bonus songs on the DVD. I oblige her one at a time but after the third song we're done

8:00pm - I bring her up to bed.
She doesn't want to be in her room yet.
I coerce her with a story. We read the germ book again.
When finished I ask her if she has to go potty. "No." The standard answer.
I take her to potty anyway. Remember the comment in the other post about the fluids? Yeah, she needed to go.
Back into her room for some cuddles.
I put her in bed. She starts bouncing off the walls.
She runs to the bathroom shouting "Have ta poop." She doesn't and I usher her to bed again.
I sit in her room, in the dark, to keep her in bed.

9:00pm - I give up and come down stairs. 5 minutes later head back up stairs to fish her out of the bathroom once again. This time she's trying to play in the sink.

9:15pm - I start the dishwasher and can no longer hear what she's doing upstairs. And I'm OK with that. She might be in her bed she could be in ours we'll see when I get up there.

10:00pm - DaMom returns home and fills me in on her excitements of the day.
~~~~~~~~~~~
So there you have it. No insanity pleas. No ER visits. No temper tantrums (on my part anyway). No Gulliver's Travels re-enactments in the living room.

g

The Art of the Bus Chase - Part 1

Since the time change my bike commuting mileage has declined drastically. I'm still riding pretty much everyday but been a slave to the bus. It's too cold in the morning to ride the whole way and too dark at night to ride over the notch. Gone are the weeks where I could click off 131 miles. I'm down to about 60 miles per week.

The funny thing is I'm more sore now at the lower mileage than the high mileage. I've never been one to ride slow, typically I ride the 13.1 mile ride home in 52 minutes. That's an average speed of 15.1 mph and I have a big hill ("The Notch") that drops my speed to 6 mph for five minutes or so. Yes, typically my speedo reads high teens and low twenties.

My morning commute is all of 4.1 miles when riding the bus everyday. I need to be out of the house by 7:15 in the morning to catch it at the college and I get off at the center of town. I don't pace myself too hard to get into work, it is work after all.

At night I need to get out of work right at 5:00 or I run the risk of missing the bus at a college just before the Notch. Here's where I push it a bit, I cover the 7.9 miles in 25 minutes or less (18.9mph avg). The bus leaves @5:30 so I need to be on my game and get moving to ensure I get to the stop in time.

It's not unlike some bizarre art form. Blasting through busy college and downtown areas, passing scores of buses and slowly moving cars only to catch and/or race bus because it's too dark for one section of road.

{backposted}

g

Like Trying to Get Blood from a Stone

Today was DaGirl's third day of preschool. She did not want to go this morning and put up quite a fight. Once she was there all was well and had a good day.

DaMom had to wake DaGirl from her nap so we would get her to bed tonight. Who knew preschool was so tough?

After her nap DaGirl ran off with DaMom's keys while she was doing some dishes before dinner.

After dinner, when DaMom was about to leave for quilting class she asked DaGirl where her keys were. DaGirl's response "On the hook!"
Nope not there.
We scour the living room searching blindly for the keys to no avail.

DaGoof: Where are mommy's keys?
DaGirl: On the couch.
DaGoof: No they are not there. Where are mommy's keys?
DaGirl: On the couch.
DaGoof: No they are not there. Where are mommy's keys?
DaGirl: On the couch.
DaGoof: No they are not there. Where are mommy's keys?
DaGirl: Come wif me
DaGirl heads to the living room, I follow. She gets down on all fours and looks under the futon.
DaGirl: Keys aren't here? Where are mommy's keys? Take wif her?
DaGoof: No (shaking head)

Meanwhile DaBoy is heading up the stairs and I give chase.
DaGoof: Where are you going little buddy?
DaBoy: Mommy (and points up the stairs)
DaGoof: Mommy's not here.
DaBoy: kassss
DaGoof: Huh?
DaBoy runs to DaGirl's door and points inside and says "mommy" very enthusiastically.

I figure maybe he knows where the treasure is hidden so I search her room with no luck.

Back downstairs we go and search some more.
With kids in tow I search the living room again, the dining room, and the kitchen. When I open the cabinet door to the garbage DaGirl says "No daddy that's for garbage."

I give up and put DaKids to bed....and search some more....with no luck.

Was this DaGirl's ultimate attempt at getting out of school tomorrow or did DaBoy get a hold of them and relocate them to parts unknown?

Stay tuned until next time...

g

*EDIT*
It turns out DaBoy was right, the keys were in DaGirl's room. Tucked in between the seat cushions of her chair.

When we asked DaGirl this morning who put the keys there she replied with a shrug of the shoulders and "DaBoy".

When we asked DaBoy this morning if he put the keys there he replied with an emphatic head nod , "yes".

So it appears I should have followed the 16 month old more closely and saved an evening of searching.