Whoops, here I am...

Oh right! I'm supposed to be blogging, aren't I?

Well, in the interest of having a long overdue entry on this, the last day of August, and not having the energy to blog about anything of substance after using up all my juice captioning my August 2009 Facebook album, I will just briefly give you this.

David, singing his version of the famous toddler clean-up song, while puttering around tonight:

"Clean Up, Clean Up,
Daddy's doing every one's share!
Clean Up, Clean Up,
Because the girls don't really care."

Poor boy!

My True Love is a Space Goat...

Last night, in honor of our wedding anniversary, David and I went on a date. It was pretty fancy for a Tuesday.

Naturally I took a lot of pictures.

We met at a local park...

We haven't been on a date for so long that I was a little shy at first...

But soon we began dancing to music that only the two of us could hear...

I slipped into something a little more comfortable...

Eventually we decided to get out of there...

And went skinny dipping!

Why? Where did YOU think we were going?

It was a bit of a drop...

But the water was very refreshing...

Swimming made us hungry so we continued our evening with a romantic picnic...

The view from the top of a mushroom is particularly lovely...

Next we flew to one of Nagrand's floating islands to continue our picnic with a change of view....

The night sky was beautiful...

Refreshed and full, we spent some time chatting, while fishing off the Stormwind Pier. We may or may not have discussed the children...

It was a wonderful date...

And shockingly cheap!

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What?

8 years together, and yet I still have a question...

8 years ago today, on a Saturday morning, David and I were married. I'm phenomenally lucky that it has been 99.9% fantastic, and that .01% is minor stuff. David is a wonderful husband and a much loved awesome daddy.

Traditionally we take a photo on the day of our anniversary and add it to a book that my mother gave us for our wedding. Each year has space for an update on where we are and what has happened in the past year, and so far we haven't missed a photo. Of course 8 years, isn't that much, come back in 25, but it still is nothing to sneeze at.

This year, we'll call it "Self-Portrait Year", I'm not sure which photo direction to go. We ended up with a lot of photo choices. So, which one would you pick?

Very Tan Husband?


Devilish Husband?

Kissy-Face Husband?

Putting on a Show for the Camera Husband?

Silly Husband?

Tender Husband?

Which one of these guys deserves to be in my book for the next 70 years or so?

This day has come too soon...

While today was the big Back to School Day for my county, it was a milestone of a different kind for my Lilli.

Before:
(Yes, I'm aware that you're not supposed to use a mobile after 5 months, no toddlers were harmed by it staying put)


After:

*sigh*

I officially, for the first time in almost 4 years, do not have a child small enough and cooperative enough to be in a crib.

I happily kept Elizabeth in her crib until she was almost 3, she never climbed out, and I liked knowing she was staying put. I only switched her over to a toddler bed because (as I suspected) the crib was inhibiting her potty training.

Lilli is a lot different.

The crib did not impede her using the potty one bit, so I planned to keep her in there indefinitely. She had other ideas. For the last week or two things have been mysteriously appearing in her crib overnight. I could explain the things away as someone other than me putting something in her bed that had been under blankets so I didn't see it when tucking her in. And we knew that she could reach her lamp cord through the crib bars, since she no longer has a functioning lamp in her room due to that ability. So, I didn't wonder much.

But last night, after Lilli should have been asleep, I heard her talking to two of her dolls that had NOT been in her bed when I left her room. I went to check on her and found her in her crib, not only with those two dolls, but with the rest of the dolls they had shared a basket with, the basket, and 5 or 6 books that had also not previously been in her bed with her. The basket of dolls had been on a bookshelf at floor level, way too low for her to have reached through the bars and somehow levered them up, and the books had been on the side of the shelf farthest away from the crib. She said that she had gotten out of her crib to get them and climbed back in again, but she refused to show me how. I was horrified but groggy.

Today my dad called me, very distressed, because he'd caught Lilli in the act of climbing out of bed. Not such a big deal if she does it successfully every time, or if we had carpet, but later this afternoon she tried it again and it didn't go so well, and we have tile throughout our house.

So now she has a toddler bed.

And my heart is a little bit broken.

This was too sudden and I did not have time to mentally prepare. I thought I had my crib baby for almost another year. I will miss the way she still loved her mobile and would use it as a night light to "read" in bed by. I will miss the way that she would want me to roll her blanket up into a bolster and curve it up into a "C" shape so she could curl up in it and then have me cover her feet with her pillow. I will miss the way she would move her pillow sideways to lie horizontally across her crib and stick her feet through the bars to rest them on the wall and then sing herself to sleep.

I'm sure that I'll have new mental pictures of her all cozied up in her Big Girl bed soon, but I resent that I need to create them. I will remember this first night though. She was very excited to get the bed, and get in the bed, but when I kissed her good night and headed for the door, she call me back in a tiny and very hesitant voice. I could tell she was a little nervous.

Until, that is, I rolled her blanket up into a "C" shape, snuggled her up in the curve, and covered her feet with her pillow.

It's nice to know that some things don't change.

Eventually I can probably make one of those posters...

Happy

Displeased

Silly

Pretend Sad

Sad for Real

Concerned

Pleased

Surprised

Mad

Smug

Spin Cycle: Pastime of choice

For the second week in a row I'm having a problem with the Spin Cycle topic.

Why? Because I can't narrow down the topic! It's books/reading, and of course any spin we want to put on the topic. But we're talking about one of my most favorite things and I can't seem to pick an angle. So I'm approaching this from the list perspective: 15 semi-interesting facts about books, or me, or the two of us together.

1. I taught myself to read at age four with the book "Whose Mouse Are You?"

2. I am delighted by the fact that Elizabeth also loves this story and has it memorized. That was the first step to reading for me.

3. I have read a lot of books. That is the understatement of the century, but I can't even begin to guess at the number. It has to be in the thousands.

4. This is quite a bit due to the fact that I'm an only child and had plenty of time when I was younger for this activity.

5. And didn't have TV until I was 10.

6. Even with two children, a husband, and a full time job I read almost as much as I used to.

7. Because I frequently choose books over sleep.

8. I read quickly, which has benefited me quite a lot in my life, especially on tests, in English class and when signing contracts.

9. I read quickly enough that I am frequently accused that I must not be reading every word.

10. That is not the case.

11. My favorite author is Robin McKinley. She writes for "youth", but she's wonderful. Her book "Beauty" has been my favorite since I first read it at 14.

12. I've loved plenty of other books and authors though, from a wide variety of genres. Some of my other favorite authors are: Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Andrew Greeley, Stephenie Meyers, Tess Gerritsen, Lynn Kurland, James Patterson, Meg Cabot, Dick Francis, Tamora Pierce, Madeline L'Engle, Iris Johansen, and Julia Quinn.

13. There are more.

14. The best day ever? I would wake up and lay in bed reading for an hour or so, eat some breakfast, get back in bed for another hour or so and read some more, go take a hot bath, book in hand (I have actually showered while reading. Yes, it's possible, the book stays a lot more dry than you would think. Yes, I know that I'm a freak, I'm comfortable with that), read through lunch, get back in bed and read some more, take an afternoon nap, read through dinner, go see a movie (gotta let the eyes look at something farther away for a while), and then read before bed. Of course I would miss the girls on a day like this, but I would be wiling to make that sacrifice once a year or so.

15. I'm grateful every day that my daughters appear to love books as much as I do. I hope it stays that way.

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Now go do some reading of your own! Head on over to Sprite's Keeper and check out the other Spins on books.

Today I've decided to be a little opinionated...

You know, I haven't had much of an opinion when it comes to the health care debate.

I, like a lot of people who don't have a lot of pennies to pinch at the moment, have had a hard time imagining how I'm going to come up with the funds if the new health care plan creates or increases my payments on something. But at the same time, I'm a devoted mama, and I don't want my children or anyone else's, or any adults for that matter, to have to go without a doctor's care because of a lack of insurance. So like a lot of people I've been waffling. But since I'm fortunate enough to be provided good coverage by my job, it's not something I stay up at night pondering.

But then I read the latest post from a blog I've been following for a while, from a mama who has good reason to feel the way she does about things, and I made up my mind. I can't say I really care any more if I have to dig around in the couch cushions for change to pay my part of whatever tax bill comes out of this.

I try not to be overly opinionated in my posts, at least when it comes to matters of politics or religion or any of the topics that aren't considered good manners to discuss the first time you meet someone. It's the internet, anybody can wander by (and does, I see my stats- Brussels? Zimbabwe?), and since I pretty much just want a platform to talk about my girls, I'm not out to dabble in controversy. So I don't often point at another site (again, the link is above) and say "yeah, read that, see?" But I am this time. Maybe you already have an opinion and will find it quite heart-wrenchingly validated, maybe you'll form one, or maybe it won't change a thing for you, but I thought she made her point.

See what you think.