A story about Emma

Because I am feeling adventurous, or maybe because I don't want to pack, I am going to attempt to write 2 blog entries today. OOO AAHH.

I finally decided, that if I am a remotely good mother, I needed to take Emma to the doctor today. She has been eating poorly, falling down a lot, and been extremely fussy and whiney for about 2 months. The signs of an ear infection. For the last 2 months I have been thinking, it might be teeth, so lets just wait. And then all of her teeth came in and I had no excuses left. So off we went to the doctor. They ask how long she has been acting like this, and I feel a little nervous to tell them, I mean, what kind of mother allows their kids to act sick for 2 months and not take them to the doctor. Guess what. She got a clean bill of health. Why does she keep falling down, congestion you say? And what that also explains her bloody nose? That coupled with the genes given to her by her mother that has broken her toes 4 times by kicking things and tripping. MY DAUGHTER falling down for no good reason? Yep, makes sense.

And just because we are on the topic of Emma. She has learned a new word, "pony." For those of you who know and love her rendition of "puppy." ( for those of you who don't it sounds like someone hyperventilating but instead of heavy breaths it is the word puppy repeated over and over and over.) She now has issued a sequel. "pony" it sounds exactly like she is saying "pooey" repeatedly. So hopefully this one stays in the confines of our house.

And just for fun here is Emma's quote of the week. Keep in mind she is only 17 months old.

" I wanna doughnut"

Harry Potter Party... Part 2

I am a full blown Potterhead. I own more Harry Potter collectables than people would think possible of a grownup. In fact, I have 2 shelves of my bookshelf with wands, a lego burrow, Chocolate Frogs, Fudge Flies, Droobles, A notebook with a quill, all of the movies, a wax seal thing that sets as Ministry of Magic, A butterbeer glass, a Hogs Head Mug, and a Ministry coffee cup. I also own 2 sets of the books. One for the girls and one that came in a special box set, it looks like Harry's Hogwarts trunk. Oh and I have 3 shirts and a hoodie. It seems a little obsessive now that I write it all down.

In November we hosted our first Harry Potter Party to coincide with the release of the Dealthy Hallows Part 1. Yesterday, we hosted our second Harry Potter Party. I spent over 5 hours this week baking cakes, making snitch pops, creating challenges, and collecting prizes. I even created an all new type of cake. I call it Pumpkin pie cake. It was fantastic. I used a white cake mix, added in half a can of pumpkin filling, and used 1/3 of a cinnamon candy cane mixed into the batter. I also spent over 6 hours cleaning my house to get it ready for company.

We ate a meal, drank butterbeer, had a scavenger hunt that ended in Brianna having to drink half a pitcher of tea to get to her item, a hot potato trivia game, wii wizards chess, a polyjuice potion making (who can make the worst tasting soda) competition, and we ended the night by attending the last movie.

The party was a success aside from the fact that as the night came to a close, I nearly fell asleep during the Harry Potter movie and my throat was burning. I barely made it 10 min. after our company left, until I fell asleep on the couch. But I did get raving reviews of my cakes, and that is almost as important as the movie itself.

What can I do in one day?

I have been riddled with this question for years now. I always feel like everyone is much more productive than myself. It could be that I am just self critical. I mean, I am almost entirely sure that I am self critical, but I have been feeling like I am always full of excuses to myself. Why is my house not clean? Response: Because the girls haven't been sleeping well and I am tired. Then I think, the girls are never sleeping well and I am always tired. What is your excuse now? Well Emma is cutting teeth and wants me to hold her all day. Response: Emma has wanted you to hold her all day since the day she was born. NEXT...

And so goes my circle of self criticism until I end up eating four Lindt chocolates that I was given for my birthday. Don't think I had that much self control. This is only the 4th day I have been in the presence of those Lindt chocolates.

And so I decided to think back on what I had done today, and wonder why I can't get anything done. Here it is, my day:

Wake up

Get dressed

Make Coffee

Do the dishes

Wake up the kids

Get ready for a movie

Take the kids to a movie

Come home

Make lunch

Administer Lunch

Clean up after lunch

Watch the kids put on a show while eating my own lunch

Start nap time

Start a load in the washing machine

Go on a playdate

Make dinner

Order Harry Potter Tickets

Go to publix

Put the older kids to bed

Emma stays up

Make popcorn

Eat lindt chocolates instead of dinner

Drink a mountain dew

Get Emma to sleep

Watch storage wars

Blog

Now Sleep.

If you could have any Mutant power what would you want?

In memory of the amazing date night RJ and I had last weekend, where we went to see X-Men First Class. Which was super great by the way. I let the girls watch the first X-Men movie the other day. They LOVED it! You know we are nerds, as evident by my last post.

Izzy was an especially huge fan of X-Men. We used to play super-powers where we would get into a huge family battle. Gwiny has always had force field power. Izzy, Purple cats that scratch you. Me, Ice. Papa, fire. So yesterday I posed the question: If you could have any mutant power what would you want?

Gwiny: Force field.

Izzy: A packet full of unicorns.

Me: A packet full of unicorns is not a superpower.

Then curiosity got the best of me.

What would you do with them? Are they shrink wrapped and come out of your packet super-sized? How do unicorns help you save the planet?

Izzy: They come out baby unicorn size and they poke people with their horns.

Of course. A unicorn packet. Now, who do I see about getting these made as a form of anti-rape protection? Cause the way I see it, lets fight rape with unicorn horn pokes.

Geek Central A.K.A. My laundry room

Two days ago I made the girls clean their room, the result, 3 loads of laundry. Add that to the 3 or 4 loads of clean laundry to the floor of my tiny little laundry room and I was in trouble. I spent over 4 hours folding laundry!

As part of my "you're growing up and you have to start pitching in around here" initiative. I require the older girls to put their own clothes in their dressers after I fold them. Sure enough, they dropped or pushed their clothes into their drawers so far they are no longer folded. New INITIATIVE.

I am not just seperating the girls clothes, sticking them in one of those 3 drawer plastic containers, and making them take their clothes into their bedroom every night. We will see how it goes. I think it is going to revolutionize my laundry folding.

But the whole point of this blog is to talk about the type of clothes I folded. There was a good amount of regular clothes but here is what I found:

* Note: I let all of my girls pick out their own clothes when we go clothes shopping

Gwin's shirts - "Why ask for Prince Charming when you could have Edward?"

Another Vampire shirt, I don't remember what it said.

A Hannah Montana shirt

Izzy's shirts- A pink skull and crossbones with a tiara.

Pink and Black tights with a black dress.

A gray shirt with a big pocket in the front that looks like a purse.

Emma's shirts - About 4 shirts with monkeys on it.

My shirts - A hufflepuff house shirt

A Forks High School shirt

A shirt that says " I love diet coke"

Papa's shirts- Like 4 Star Wars Shirts

A shirt from Professor Leighton and the Unwound Future

For some reason, this shocked me. I have seen us all wearing them multiple times, in addition to all the other ones that were not currently located in the laundry room. But it was a real, wow, we are a nerdy family. Until I look at Izzy's clothes again. What?! How is my 4 year old cooler than the rest of us?

Cue Sesame Street Song: One of these things just doesn't belong here, One of these things just isn't the same.

The best someone else's date night ever

Last Friday one of our favorite families had a special occasion. It was Josh's Birthday and I got a special Linker present. Ava and Izzy! It was one of those weeks where everything seemed to be coming at me so fast I couldn't keep up. (Not that those weeks are abnormal, it just so happened this was one of them). The house was somewhat clean, the dishes were washed, the laundry was overflowing out of the laundry room, the baby had a morning round of 15 month shots, and we anxiously awaited our friends. " How long until they get here?" " 2 hours" " How long now?" " An hour and 45 minutes." And so it went on 15 minute increments until AT LAST! THEY ARE HERE!!

First, we made pizza from scratch. By from scratch I mean I cooked frozen sausage, pulled out a store bought crust, a jar of spagetti sauce, and shredded 3 different kinds of cheeses. I like to shred my own cheese because block cheese is cheaper and has more variety, also Cabot carries 3 types of cheddar cheese that are lactose free, so my Izzy can eat it without consequence.

I laid out 5 napkins each with the 3 types of cheese and some sausage. Everyone tried the cheeses and then decided which ones they would use on their slices. In a style unlike anything I have ever seen, each child took turns decorating their two slices, and no one fought or complained about who got to go first, next, or last. Seeing as Israel doesn't eat pizza, he had no problem going last.

The pizza cooked, they played, the pizza cooled, they played, the pizza was done, they ate.

We set up a big floor full of blankets, pillows and more blankets on the living room floor. There were 7 blankets, 5 pillows, and 5 zoobles. We read stories and then we watched Despicable Me. Which everyone loved. Although I think RJ and I laughed harder than any of the kids, and we have seen it 5 times!

We had one little disagreement, when Gwin said Ava hurt her feelings because she didn't want to lay next to her. But Ava quickly said she was sorry when we pointed it out, she still wouldn't let Gwin lay next to her, but she said she was sorry, and then once the popcorn was brought out Ava didn't care who sat next to her, so it was easily smoothed over.

And right as the credits were about to end the Linker Mama came and collected her little ones. As I said, the best someone else's date night ever.

I don't want to be a mommy because...

I spent part of today in the doctors office waiting to see our family doctor because of yet another ear infection. I always talk a little funny before it has been treated because the side of my face feels like it is swollen. I told the girls this morning I wasn't feeling well as I am sure they don't notice the subtile difference in the way I talk.

I let Izzy and Emma watch much more T.V. then usual. I also yelped in pain when eating. All of these things Gwiny missed while at school. But then, while sitting outside with friends, I hopped up off the ground to answer the call from the doctor. I then heard a pop and a sting of pain from my hip. Now I can't chew, I can't walk, and I sound funny when I talk. So after homework, I turned on Tangled and sat on the couch, something rather unusual for me.

While sitting there, Gwin turned to me and said. " I don't want to be a mommy because..." and in my mind I was thinking, 'cause mommy's are old with bad hips and have to work while sick?' but she finishes the sentence " I don't want to have to spend all of my money."

You don't want to have to spend all of your money. I find that as good of reason as the other. Especially from my little frugal mini-me. But it surprises me that a 6 year old would even think about something so few grown ups consider.

Not only has Gwiny proclaimed her 6 year old version of why she doesn't want to be a mom, a few moths ago, Izzy did the same same in her own 4 year old way. " What do you want to be when you grow up? " Izzy: " I want to be a superstar." Do you want to be a mommy like me too?" "No, I never want to be a mommy."

And I bet you first started reading you thought I was going to complain about why I didn't want to be a mommy. GOTCHA!