The Negotiator

"Here's the deal Mom. Either you can help me eat my dinner, or you can read me a story or you can get me ready for bed. Those are your choices, Mom, I'm sorry."

Beauty and the Beast

Avril and I were singing the opening song of Beauty and the Beast this morning. We're both looking kind of ratty, I'm in my robe, major bedhead, no shower, my glasses, no makeup.

In the middle of the song Avril, "Mommy, you look kind of like the Beast!"

Quips

"Mommy, now I'm a child of God!"

Yes, because a blanket on your head is the qualifying factor.

"Because I wanted a little house for myself."

"The puppies want some spaghetti."
(Actually, they didn't.)

"When Santa Clauses give people presents, they get to have mermaids."

I don't know either.

Quips Continued

Avril with her little Ariel doll: "Mommy, Mommy, Ariel's running to you!"

Me: "Oh no! Is she scared or is she excited?"

Avril: "She's, um, she's scared."

Me: "What is she scared of?"

Avril: "She's scared of a thing that's scary!"

Quips... or Something

Avril's latest interesting thoughts:

1) For Christmas, her preschool sent home a gift bag full of samplers from different companies advertising their party supplies and other things. It also included about 6 toothbrushes. Upon seeing the toothbrushes, Avril gleefully approached me with them and excitedly said, "Look Mommy! Toothbrushes! Now you can learn to control your temper!"


2) I was sitting in the kitchen feeding Xandri when Avril came in saying, "Mommy, I need to kill something!"

Ok. Alarming? Yes, this freaks me out. Allow her to continue:

"Mommy, I need a sword! I need to poke something. I need to poke a spiderweb! I need to poke a spider!"

So now what? What do I say to that? Am I a bad mom for just laughing?

Breaking News!!

Xandri officially started walking today! She took her first faltering steps a few weeks ago, but today is the day we're marking. She's walking from one side of the room to the other... She's so cute and small, I love it!

A Glimpse Into The Three-Year Old Psyche

Since I've copious amounts of updating to do on my blog (ahem. A month plus worth. So keep an eye out down the page since I'll be post-dating my posts.), I've decided to throw you people a bone. Here are some of the amazing things that lend us entertainment day in and day out.

To start us off, please begin by examining the following photograph:

This photograph was taken yesterday morning. The circumstances surrounding this event are as follows:

I was in the midst of my morning routine, not fully aware of what Avril was up to, but vaguely conscious of her buzzing about doing whatever it is she does. I heard her mention her plans to go shopping, but didn't stop to take in the scene that would welcome me until she asked me to fix her hair. Indeed, I was halfway done with her ponytail when I finally glanced down and saw what she was wearing. Apparently, she really was prepared to go shopping.

Further anecdotal evidence of my three-year old's charming personality will be providing in several accounts describing conversations we've had or overheard with Avril.

Exhibit A:

While eating dinner, she declared, "I've got to eat lots and lots of dinner, food and lunch and applesauce and then I'll grow up big and strong and tall to be a Daddy!"

Exhibit B:

Watching Derek study, she asked him the prevailing question that is ever on her lips, "Why?"
His response was, "Because I want to be a doctor."
To which she eagerly responded, "I want to be a doctor, too! I'm going to study!"

Exhibit C:

Derek (wearing a brown shirt and taking his lead from the preceding conversations): "Do you want to be a Daddy or a doctor or a mom?"
Avril: "A Daddy! I want to wear a brown shirt!"

Exhibit D:

Also during dinner. I think I came into the conversation she was having with herself a little too late, but this is what I heard, "And if someone's standing on my head they could fall off down to the floor or the carpet or the ground or the world or the schoolbus or the truck!" Her voice rose in pitch as each possibility was listed.

Exhibit E:

This morning we came downstairs to find Derek's half-full bag of licorice now empty and Avril with two in hand. When Derek asked her what happened to his licorice, she replied, "Ummm... they were bones and I was a puppy!"

Exhibit F:

This one I'm not sure really counts as evidence of her personality, but I'll list it here anyway since I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with something so effective. Today anyway.

Since Avril is so hung up on growing big and tall like Mommy and Daddy, I've convinced her the way we grew this big was by eating our vegetables. So now I call all the bites I want her to eat "growing bites". It works like a charm. She ate all her "growing bites" for the first time today I think...

Xandri's First Birthday

My ikkle baby turned 1 yesterday! We kept it pretty low key, we didn't do a big party or anything... honestly, I think a party would have freaked her out. As it was, we just decided to make her first birthday special in other ways.

I picked out what I figured were her favorite foods for her meals: honeycomb cereal for breakfast, swirl coffee cake for lunch (amazing), and anything with noodles for dinner (we did spaghetti). I also made some chocolate cupcakes for her dessert.

I went shopping earlier that day with Avril for her gifts and got them out to wrap. I went to get the wrapping paper, and when I got back I saw that Avril had caught onto the idea- she had gotten all of the presents out of the shopping bags and was handing them to Xandri. So I decided to forgo the wrapping. She had also received two packages earlier in the day: one from Grandpa Jackson (my dad) and one from Grandma Zan (Derek's mom). So once we had all of her gifts open, we cracked open the packages.


Grandma Zan had sent matching outfits for the girls- which Avril noticed immediately and insisted they don right then and there as she stripped down in preparation for the switch.


So after changing their clothes, we opened Grandpa Jackson's package. He sent two books and a See 'n Say (makes animal sounds), and 4 ziploc bags stuffed full of animal crackers and teddy grahams. Xandri went straight for the bags. She seized all four in her little hands and proceeded to crawl around with them, flinging them around and protecting them from the very interested puppies.


Avril was very interested in all the other things, especially the See 'n Say.

Finally, after the day was over, it wound up really being too late for cupcakes. So this morning, I sat Xandri on the counter (a usual occurrence in our house- she's a very careful baby) and turned to make some bread. When I turned back, I found her covered in crumbs from her cupcake.


She had opened the ziploc bag on her own and took matters into her own hands. Just look at that face.

My baby's one.

Halloween: A Choose Your Own Adventure Tale

Option 1:

Halloween dawned bright and crisp. The perfect fall morning began early at our house-- but not too early.
Avril and I got up and I dressed her in her darling, hand-stitched princess costume I had completed weeks in advance. Her hair fell in perfect ringlets on her shoulders and was complimented by a gleaming tiara. Since it was chilly out, I insisted that she also wear her little fur shawl and muff- my little princess couldn't be cold at school, now could she?!


While Avril was at school, Xandri and I had an adventurous morning- we baked the morning away, making dozens of Halloween sugar cookies: witches, ghosts, skulls, goblins. Then we decorated them with delicious homemade frosting, all colored remarkably well. Of course, it wouldn't be a true holiday without the sprinkles, so while Xandri licked the frosting off her fingers and dipped her little fingers back for more, I smiled lovingly and gently wiped her clean.

We dressed up the puppies in their sweet little homemade costumes, Kitty was- you guessed it- a kitty, and The Corporal also dressed as himself in dress blues. We took them to a dog Halloween party in which they tied for first place in the costume contest. When Avril got home, we all went trunk-or-treating (Derek was able to come as well since school was canceled for Halloween), holding hands and skipping from car to car singing Halloween songs.


That evening, to the Halloween soundtrack I had spent the past month assembling, Avril helped me in the kitchen as we prepared a delectable Halloween feast, complete with spider pizza, ghoulish salad, bloody beverages, and snake bites for dessert. In between helping me, Avril would alternately help Derek as he carved out magnificent jack-o-lanterns to sit on our porch. After dinner was over, we had plenty of time to play tidy up the kitchen, clean the girls and puppies, put all of our costumes back on (Derek was an Army general and I was the spitting image of Lara Croft) and head out the door for a night full of trick-or-treating. The girls and puppies all behaved perfectly as neighbor after neighbor answered their doors with oohs and ahs. We finally arrived home exhausted, but full of candy and contentment as we tucked in our darling, tired little girls to sleep at 8:30pm, just in time for Derek and I to settle in for a romantic, but scary movie.



Option 2:

Ok, I don't even know where the morning went. Avril made it to school, dressed and with her hair in a ponytail. I still wasn't sure what to do about a costume, I had a couple ideas that hadn't exactly panned out and I was out of time. Somehow, though, the morning disappeared with none of my frantically laid plans actually coming to fruition. I wound up sticking her in a little dress that was much to small (pictured on Xandri in the beginning pictures) and some borrowed wings to be a fairy for the trunk-or-treat.

And Xandri wore Avril's ladybug costume-- yeah, Avril's costume, which she wore at 4 months of age, also fit my Xandri-- at just shy of 1 year of age.


However, I did manage to make some sugar cookies: all skulls and ghosts, since I knew how to make those without cookie cutters (don't ask me why HyVee didn't have any decent cookie cutters). They wound up being frosting-less since I didn't have any cream cheese and I refuse to make any other kind of frosting. Sadly, most of them turned out extra-crispy since I'm still getting used to how hot my oven cooks.


I also did manage to make a spider pizza and some delicious desserts called snake bites-- a layered dessert with creamy, yogurt-y layers with strawberry Jell-O layers. However, in order to have the time to do this (since I started late and didn't plan it out well), we missed trick-or-treating. For our kids at least. Everyone else in the neighborhood and everywhere else in town managed to knock on our door-- about every 20 seconds, or at least as long as it took me to get back in the kitchen to get my hands back in the dough yet again.


While I was cooking, though, Derek was, at the direction of Avril, carving emotional pumpkins-- an angry one, a happy one and a grumpy one (pictured in that order, left to right). It required pretty much all of Derek's creative juices to figure out how to differentiate angry and grumpy in a jack-o-lantern. In my opinion, it was a smashing success.

And the soundtrack that I'd planned on making? Yeah, I just downloaded 2 or 3 songs and we listened to them over and over until Derek made me turn them off.

The dog-costume contest I didn't know about until after OTHER people posted pictures of their winning pooches...

Anyway, even though we didn't go trick-or-treating (which Avril figured out was the keyword to getting candy from us), I still consider our Halloween a success. So we didn't go quite according to plan... We still had a blast and Avril and Xandri loved it.


And I picked up Avril's new costumes from Wal-Mart after Halloween. Who can beat 75% off? Like she knew the difference, anyway. She LOVES her new costumes (she also has a witch costume, not pictured. That's reserved for next year). (Oh, and confession... all the costume pictures of the girls were not taken on Halloween. No, they were taken over Thanksgiving break...)

Oh, and the scary, romantic movie? Yeah, actually it was The Invisible, which was more like an unintentional comedy. It wasn't that scary, it was ridiculously romantic and overall, we were laughing AT it, not with it in the end.

Also, the following pictures were taken the Friday before Halloween, when Derek and I attended something like a frat party for Halloween. All the med students (unmarried, that is) were there and it was my (naive, yes, I know) first experience at such a party. It was pretty much just like the movies. All my party education comes from the movies... how sad is that? No longer!

This picture I had to put up because in the other one I'm making a really weird face... like I'm trying to be tough but came out looking sick.

Scorpion--- the Next Generation

Avril suddenly started crying a minute ago. I asked what was wrong and she said she hurt her foot. While she was trying to do scorpion.

Xandri's First Steps

Well, well, well, my little bug is growing up. She actually stood on her own for the first time a couple of days ago and took a couple of steps yesterday (several times). I think she's had the strength and ability for a while, but she's such a cautious little girl, she doesn't want to do it until she's completely ready. (For example, I can, without fear of her falling- or even moving really, leave her sitting on my kitchen counter while I walk across the room to the garbage can and back.)

Also, she'll only do it with sufficient motivation-- e.g. in order to get to Mommy from Daddy (warms my heart, it does...) I still can't believe it. She's such a big girl! And yet, she's still so tiny!

Xandri's First Word

Ok, I've put off deciding this, because it sounds like we're just the overeager parents saying, "Oh, wow, she said her first word!" over a word that could honestly be her just making sounds. But I really do think her first word is, "Hi." It's so cute when she says it, and I'm convinced that she says it largely in response to one of us saying "hi" first. She also says "yeah", but that one I'm not sure she really knows what she's saying. And finally, if "hi" isn't her first word, then "down" is.

Why "down"? Well, she hears it an awful lot-- the puppies are constantly jumping up to her highchair (what? They know it's a no-fail way to get delicious people food.), so we're constantly admonishing them, "Down!" The other day they were jumping up and I wasn't paying close attention, but suddenly Derek realized what she was saying: "Down! Down!" each time they jumped up.

How do I feel about this? My emotions are manifold. First, excited, like any mother would be to hear her little darling achieving this milestone. Secondly, proud- that seems like a pretty impressive first word to me-- no "dada", "mama", "ba-ba" or whatever. No, she's telling those puppies what to do-- decisively! Thirdly, a little surprised-- she's my baby! That's where she's going to stay. She's not a growing girl, she's the baby and she'll always be the baby! And finally, ... well, there is no fourth feeling, I just said manifold so it seemed like there should be at least four. We'll go with scared on this one, I guess. Yeah, that fits. Scared--- back to she's my baby!

A Discussion on Poop

Ah, the joys of motherhood. Who knew that I would ever be one to include a post about poop on my blog? As it stands, this is the conversation Avril and I had this morning when we were getting ready for church:

"I have green poop, Mom."
"Really?"
"Yeah, in the toilet downstairs, in the family room bathroom. I didn't flush."
"I know."
"I don't have green poop now. I have different shaped poop. I have snake poop! I like snakes. Snakes are fun. Snakes are good to me. I like spiders, too. Look, Mom, I have snake poop and different-shaped poop! I have kaysuh-i-diya (how she says quesadilla) poop! I don't like quesa-i-dilla poop. We don't like quesa-i-dilla poop, do we Mom?"

One of the Many Uses of the Kitchen Sink

And this is what we did this afternoon...

I gave Xandri some delicious Cafe Rio rice and black beans, which she loved and had ALL over her little body and highchair (which Kitty loves eating off of). When she finally finished, I took her out, stripped her down and stuck her in the sink while I cleaned up. Avril couldn't bear to be left out of the fun, so she stripped and I stuck her in, too. Then the puppies and I got to work.
Meaning I put Xandri's tray and all the dirty plates on the floor and saved rinsing time and water. That's right, if there's nothing else these puppies are good for, they're great at consuming all the food we don't eat, spill or smear anywhere and everywhere. And if any of us have food left on our faces, well with a big, sloppy puppy kiss, that's no longer a problem!

Anyway, keep reading! I've done about a billion updates today and doctored up the dates so that it looks like I post more frequently, so I don't want you to miss out on all the fun! And I love getting comments, so by all means, tell me what you think!

The Cuteness

Way too many cute things are running around our house lately. Here is some photo documentation of the level of cuteness I find myself up against. Notice a common theme?

A Good Place to Hang Out

Our neighbors have been redoing the siding on their house and re-roofing as well. I didn't stop to think about what this might look like to Avril until one evening we were all outside playing with the puppies and she told us she wanted to get on the roof. Derek and I looked at each other like, "the roof?!"

So, naturally, we put her on the roof.Derek helped her up onto the roof of our shed out back and she eagerly climbed all the way up to the peak and gleefully looked back at us."I'm on the roof, Mommy and Daddy!"
"You sure are! You're pretty big!"
"Yeah!"

After a few more minutes of jabbering, she realized how high up she really was. And that she would have to get down. That's when the terror set in. It took us fully ten minutes to coax her down far enough that Derek could get her (don't worry, we have a ladder, she would have been fine. We just wanted her to do it on her own if she would). Derek kept trying to get her to walk down, but she was seriously crying, absolutely terrified. I told her to sit down and scoot forward. Then the ordeal started all over when she got to the edge and had to jump down into Daddy's arms. We finally convinced her to do it and when she got down, she just hugged her Daddy while he sat there grinning over the whole thing.

Avril's First Day of School- September 4th

Ok, it was really the second. I didn't take pictures on the first day. But don't tell anyone, it's our little secret.

She was so cute, but definitely a little nervous. The night before she told me, "Mommy, the kids will be naughty to me."
-"Naughty to you? No, I don't think they will..."
-"Yes, they'll be naughty to me and the teachers will be naughty."
-"No, I think they'll be nice. I think the teachers will help all the kids be nice to you, too. Do you want to ride on your little school bus?"
-"Yeah! And it's a little tiny school bus, and you can't get on it, cause you're too big, Mommy."
-"Are you going to study at school?"
-"Yeah! I'm gonna study and the other kids will bother me while I'm studying." (throwback from Daddy's studying habits...?)
-"Well, you just tell them not to bother you while you're studying."

Next morning, we got up early and got all dressed and ready. She didn't want to eat her breakfast and insisted that she would have breakfast at school (I wasn't sure, but I knew they'd have snacks/lunch at some point). So I let her skip. I was debating whether or not to take her to school or just put her on the bus and wanting more and more to just take her. But the bus showed up and they whisked her onto it and she was off to get buckled into their crazy harness system. Her last words before they left were, "See you later, Mommy. Don't worry, I'll be back in a little while." What a sweetheart.

Roadtrippin'

So over the break before fifth quarter started (that's right-- fifth quarter-- Derek is officially a second year med school student), Derek and Avril flew out to Boise to see his family and bring this sweet little ride back. Now, naturally, Avril loved flying on the big airplane with Daddy. She felt so important. Up until now, in her memory, she's only experienced other people coming and going on airplanes--- Grandmas, cousins, Mommy's friends, aunts, uncles... Now, she can number herself in the ranks of those who ride in airplanes. Just getting ready for her trip, she felt pretty important. She packed her little purple backpack full of all the most important things she was sure to need on her trip-- pen lids, nail clippers, doll shoes, paperclips, about three miniature stuffed animals, Candyland movement pieces (you know, the little Gingerbread men. She calls them "manager guys". At least I think that's what she's saying.). When she was finally ready, we put all her stuff together and got ready to leave in the semi-darkness of the pre-dawn-- yes. We left K-ville at 3:30am. Ew.

Anyway, the week was naturally spent (for Derek) immersed in the world of Magic the Gathering, dueling and battling with his fellow wizards, his brothers. They also discovered a marvelous new version of Dungeons and Dragons--- D&D Miniatures! You get actual pieces premade and do battle with them on the table. Yes, they loved it. My nerdy husband and his brothers have found meaning in life. In fact, I was told that I would be provided with my own starter set of Miniatures, but I have yet to see evidence of this. So far it has been just a lot of fast talk and empty promises.

For Avril, the week was spent being inundated into the world of Spoiling Grandma without the balancing (aka "naughty") influence of The Mom. This translates into movies (she learned all about the Little Mermaid and her "naughty" daddy) galore, candy, any kind of yummy sugary cereal she wanted, toys, dolls, clothes, books, swimming, etc. And she got to spend time with her cute little cousin, Izabel. Apparently, they had a great time, and I have photographic evidence, but it's not available digitally. So... too bad for you.

The horrible drive back also allowed for a well-stocked fun trip for her. Grandma bought her a roadtrip care package: new Disney Princess dolls, books, stickers, coloring book, My Pretty Ponies, candy, goldfish and treats. I think she was in heaven. Derek and Weston, however, pretty much wanted to die. A twenty-four hour straight-shot drive across the country always drains the will to live. Especially when there's no A/C and no cruise control. And especially when you run out of gas 15 miles outside Laramie, Wyoming and no tow trucks are willing to come at 1am. Fortunately, highway patrol came along and gave them a ride back to Laramie and they wound up delayed a mere 45 minutes. Not too bad, all things considered.
They rolled into town Sunday (the 2nd) afternoon, just in time for Weston to get rested up for another horrible day of traveling all day Monday, this time by plane. Read: sick layovers. Thanks for the awesome scheduling, Kirksville Regional Airport. (Does the sarcasm come through? Do I need to add something else to convey it better?)

Chug it!

K, this just cracked me up, I had to post. Katherine came over today to hang out, the girls played with the puppies while we talked. Plus, domestic goddess that she is, she brought some delicious blackberry freezer jam. That's where the funny story comes in.
We finished up dinner and Avril spies the jam on the counter. It's in a small cup-looking container and it's full of some delicious-looking juice-colored substance. What better thing to do with such a cup than drink it? I came in just as she tipped it back and started (trying) to chug. I reprimanded her, "Avril! Don't drink the jam!" Unfortunately, hearing myself say that, I couldn't keep a straight face. Neither could Derek.

Her Baby...

Yes, that's right. She seems to think the puppies are her baby dolls...