This could get ugly.

Or messy.  Or both.

Today, we had a stay at home day planned.  Then I remembered 6 errands I needed to run, so we've started our day.  Because the original plan for today involved NOTHING, I had Nugget all hyped up to wear big boy underwear all.day.long.  And now that we are going out and about, he's decided he wants to wear "queen pants," today (and that would be MCqueen, not girlie undies).

The first stop is the fabric store, which coincidentally is the first place Strip went diaper-free.  She was very successful her first trip out, so we'll see how Nugget does.  I have back up clothes packed, but it's also raining cats and dogs, so if we do have an oops, maybe people will thing he sat in a puddle?

Potty training is the best!

Ballet Drama

Strip has ballet one night a week.  I've been lucky that Hubs has been getting home early on those nights, so I don't have to take Nugget with me.  There is a large window where you can look in a watch the class, but I don't like to stand there where she can see me because I want her concentrating on the class.  So, I convinced myself to have a little "me" time and go to B&N to do a little reading.  I wandered down to the book store, found a book and a comfy chair, then have this overwhelming feeling that Strip was going to get kidnapped.  It's a dance studio, not a hospital or school, so really, anyone could just walk in and grab her.  

After trying to read for about 20 minutes (unsuccessfully), I went back to the studio and peeked in the window.  Strip is pretty easy to spot because she's one of 3 blondies in her class, but I didn't see her.  I peeked down to see if she was sitting on the wall putting on her tap shoes, but nope.  The door was cracked, so I peeked my head in the room to see if she was sitting in a blind spot.  Nope.  Scanned the room again, and nothing.  That's when I almost wet my pants.  I didn't want to run in the room screaming like an idiot so I glanced around the moms group.  The two I recognized are fluent in Russian, so that was a no-go.  I power walked up to the front desk to ask the volunteer where my baby was, but she was talking to a new mom out prices and class times, so I sprinted to the bathroom, where she was, happily washing her hands with the teacher's aid.

UGH!  I will now be visiting the library before ballet and never letting her out of my sight!

The five words no mother wants to hear from her 2 y.o.

"Mommy, look!  I up high!"

Yes, Nugget has a bunk bed.  It's a twin over full, and he sleeps in the full, bottom part.  The ladder is tucked away under the bed, so he's not tempted to climb to the top bunk and flip off of it.  He really had not shown much interest in the top bunk, but when he would ask, "I go up dear?"  I would just tell him no and that he had to be 5 to sleep up there.   "Oh.  I two."  Yup.

Until yesterday.  I was organizing their closets (again) and had gone into Strip's room to put away some things for next season when I hear the 5 above mentioned words.  Sure enough, I walk into his room and he is on the top bunk, no ladder needed.  I foresee a trip to the er and a cast in our future.  At least swimming season is over...

Hating me when she's older is inevitable, right?

So dressing her thematically will just give her something else to talk about in therapy?

Oh good. Because I am.

I posted earlier and apparently lied when I said I probably would not make Strip a dress for our big movie date. I just couldn't help myself. I had a couple of kid free hours on Tuesday, so I took myself to browse fabric. I found some cute gingham and some red sparkly fabric, and some solid red to make the straps and lining. And a few hours later, I had this:

In the words of Strip, "AH TAH!"

These dresses are crazy-easy to whip out and it's almost silly NOT to make the reversible. So after gathering my supplies for the Dorothy-ish dress, I wandered around waiting to be inspired. It had to be something that would go with the red, and it just felt too early to make Christmas outfits. Then I stumbled upon some adorably retro apple and pear fabric, and wouldn't you know, Strip is going to pick apples tomorrow for school, so the flip side is...


Woo hoo! Happy apple picking in your apple-dorable dress!

And yeah, I think I've mastered this pattern and need to branch out to something else. Otherwise, she's going to have 18 versions of the same dress.

I'm so excited!!

And for some reason, I can't even say those words without thinking about THIS saved by the bell.

Anyway, it appears I'm behind the curve in a preschool rite of passage; going to a movie.  Some people take 2 year-olds to movies.  Honestly, the only way I would take my 2 year-old to a movie would be if my 4 year-old were DYING to see something.  Even then, I think I'd find a sitter.  So here Strip is, almost 4 1/2 having never seen a movie.  And because I've waited so long, I feel like it needs to be something awesome that she will always remember (yes, I'm probably over thinking it).  My other challenge is that she watches movies with a running dialogue.  "Mommy, did you see that?  Why did she do that?  What happened to her shoes?  She had earrings on in the cartoon, but now that she's a real person, she doesn't have earrings.  What happened to her earrings?  Who is that? Are they in love?  Are they going to get married?  Did you see that?  I have to go to the bathroom, can you pause it?"

Needless to say, I've been waiting for the opportunity to arise.  A few weeks ago, Hubs and I went to see Harry Potter at the IMAX theatre (yes, I'm a dork.  A 3d IMAX dork), and there was a preview for the ONE NIGHT ONLY RE-RELEASE OF THE WIZARD OF OZ!!!!!!! Perfect!!!  She's seen and loves the movie, she knows what's going to happen, so she won't be scared and it's a perfect, classic "first movie!"  I bought our tickets tonight, so we are on for a girls night!  I'm so excited, I'm tempted to whip up a Dorothy costume for her to wear... but I won't.  Because I can hear your voice, Ma.  "Don't sew another stitch until you make Nugget that matching outfit I sent you fabric for!"

And I say "another" because this weekend, I slapped together this reversible dress (great buddy who lives in Alaska (read limited shopping) is taking her kids to see Lion King next weekend and wanted something animal print for her 3 year-old that didn't look trashy, so I did a 2-for-1 Halloween and Lion King outfit....and I monogrammed it in hot pink, so she HAS to go get the hot pink fake uggs from Target to match.  You are welcome :-)  )

I can't wait!!  

Report card time

Not really, but we did survive our first week of preschool.

Strip seems to love her class.  I get the run down of everything they do, so I feel like I'm there.  She is, however, quite accident prone.  My kids are experts at dusting it off, but because it's a new school year, and maybe some parents are drama llama's, they write up little incident reports.  I think I will bring a pack of paper in so we're not wasting the school supplies.  Day one was ok, but day two, she got pinched by a wiggly toilet seat and had to sit on an ice pack during lunch.  Day three, she was selected to be line leader, but after leading the line over to a fence, she leaned against it and scraped against a random screw, resulting in a back boo boo.  If it's not broken or bleeding, I'm sure she'll survive.  But it's nice to know the teachers are pro-active!

Nugget is only there one day a week, and happens to go one day that Strip is there.  The first day was great.  Aside from trying to kill himself by climbing and jumping off everything on the playground (and also giving three random teachers a heart attack), he did really well.  His teacher said he transitioned really well from each activity and was the first one to sit down and finish his craft.  He does have a screamer in his room.  She was screaming when I dropped him off and she was still screaming at pick-up time.  Apparently, he got to sit next to her at lunch.  He looked at her and said, "Why you crying?!"  then leaned over and gave her a little hug.  Sweet boy!  He was excited to see me when I picked him up, but was way more excited to see Strip and show her, "I make!" which was his craft.

To celebrate, we hit a delicious little shop that I have never been in, but now will never be able to drag myself away from.  They have the most delectable (safe for me) chocolate which makes beautiful mochas.  They also have little kid sized slushees.  I had seen pictures of a friend's kid drinking a BRIGHT BLUE one and just made a mental note to grab some OxyClean on the way home, but I was happy to see they had lemonade ones, too (read light yellow so drips almost clear).  The best part?  The slushees are about $.88 each.  Woo to the hooo!

The hardest part about the week was day two when Strip got to go to school and Nugget didn't.  He seemed to do ok when we dropped her off, and after our long night we just went home and watched Cars.  The bad part came when we went to pick her up.  He suddenly realized that he did not go to school that day and started screaming, "I'M A DUCK!  I'M A DUCK!!!"about as loud and dramatic as "Soylent Green is people!"  It was really ugly and to make matters worse, Strip's class seemed to be the last to let out, so the entire preschool got to share the joy.

Over all, it was a good week.  Next week is Strip's first field trip and I've been asked to drive.  When I was telling her who would be in our car, she said, "Oh, we have GOT to get some more car seats."  I told her it wouldn't be a problem and that all the other moms would bring and install the kids' car seats that morning.  She sat for a few seconds and said, "Do you think you could get me a new pair of shoes and that pink booster seat by then?  This one is just brown and boring and I do NOT want my friends to see it."  

Sorry, kiddo.  Safety first.

Beauty: It's in the eye of the beholder

What makes someone beautiful?  

Nugget, Strip and I had to run some errands during our super busy day Tuesday, and one stop was to the cell phone store.  Both kids were EXHAUSTED and AT&T wireless was not on their list of fun activities for the day.  We just had to exchange something for Hubs, so we had a nice pep talk in the car about how we weren't going to touch anything and we'd be in and out and eating cake balls in no time.

We walk in, and the lovely greeter girl greets us at the door.  I tell her what we need and she gets a guy to find the screen protectors Hubs needs for his new phone.  I get the kids settled on a bench, but Nugget is having way too much fun trying to flip off the back of it.  Dude finally finds what I (think I) need, but there is a difference in pay, and they owe me, but they can't give me cash, yadda, yadda, yadda, and I'm running back and forth between the bench with my cirque du soleil  offspring and dude with the screen protectors.  Greeter gal tells me, "they are fine!  Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them!" so I finish my business and gather the monkeys.   Greeter Gal lovingly tells the kiddos bye and we are walking out of the door.

Strip:  She was lovely, wasn't she?

Me:   Yes, she seemed very nice.

Strip:  I bet she makes lots of good choices and NEVER picks her nose.

Me:  Umm yeah.  You are probably right!

What's your special job?

Another long day in this long week, and shocker, everything was the end of the world for Strip.  I was exhausted myself as Nugget woke up at 2 am screaming that there was a rocket in his room (the cd player hubs put in his room when he stole the Bose one is a horrible one with an alarm; you can set it to wake up to "soothing ocean sounds."  However, to a 2 year-old at 2 am, soothing ocean sounds are closer to a rocket ship lifting off.  And to top it all off, when he woke up screaming hysterically an hour later, I think I broke a toe.  LONG. NIGHT.), so a screaming hysterical Strip was not high on my list of wants and needs.

After 3 chapters of Fantastic Mr. Fox and two prayers, I was trying to get her smiling before she fell asleep, so I started asking about school.

Me:  So are there special jobs at school?

Strip:  Yeah (sniff sniff)

Me:  Is there a line leader?

Strip:  Yessss

Me:  Is there a snack helper?

Strip:  Yeeessss

Me:  Is there a weather person?

Strip: yeeeesssss

Me: (trying to get her to laugh) Is there a nose picker?!

Strip:  No, but there is a kid who always puts his hands down his pants!

I thought I was going to fall off the bed laughing.  I hope they don't rotate that position!  I said that was kinda gross, and she (thankfully) agreed. She asked what I would do if I were her and some kid stuck his hand down his pants, and I told her, I'd probably tell him that wasn't a nice thing to do in school and he needs to go wash his hands.  She said, "That's JUST what my teacher said!!!!"  Glad I had the right answer!

Thank YOU, HomeGoods.

When PaPa and Ma were here, the girls (and Nugget) made a run to my favorite place, HomeGoods.  After browsing (and for Nugget, eating) around the store, Ma was checking out with a cutie new cupcake server that doubles as a votive holder that looks like a spider web.  The kind lady behind the counter asked if we wanted to donate a dollar to help beat cancer.  Ma handed Strip a dollar, Strip handed the dollar to the lady and the lady handed Strip a yellow and red donation house so she could write her name on the line.

The problem with this is that my child is an elephant and never forgets, so when the nice lady said, "And we're gonna hang this up and you can see it next time you're in here!" I knew we were in trouble.  Sure enough, last weekend, we were shoe shopping and ended up at HomeGoods (I know they don't sell shoes, but like I said, I love it there!).  As we were on our way out, Strip noticed a large poster behind the counter with the little house papers on it.

"Oh Mommy!  Let's look for my name!" 

2 issues.  #1, they gave her the tiniest point pen to write her name on the line (why did they not have a bright pink sharpie?!) and #2, this is what the posters looked like:

but front and back.  Times 8.  We finally found her name on the very last poster as we were walking out the door.  So much for a quick trip into HomeGoods!

It's Fall, Y'all!

I knew it was coming because a couple of weeks ago, when I got home, our patriotic American flag had been replaced with our SEC house divided flag.  Because we live a few states away from our almae matres (that's plural for alma mater--I know, I looked it up), we have the problem of not being able to watch the games on our local stations.  We also have the problem of not feeling like we are at the game unless we are watching football at a tailgate.  Solution?  Read on.

Step one was to order the game package.  That was the easy part.  We love our neighbors and hang out with them most nights/weekends.  So a few weeks ago, we were discussing how awesome it would be to be able to broadcast the games on a big screen.  Then the boys went crazy.  The next thing neighbor chick and I know, we are the proud owners of an HD projector.  Great.  After collecting a few things from around both houses (cable, cable box, bose radio, and a step ladder), Hubs and neighbor hubs were ready to test their new toy.  We shot the projector on our inside wall and it looked great.  As I was leaving for work, the boys were discussing how the needed a tarp or something (Hubs was already looking into ordering a white tarp or screen to shoot it on, but they needed to test it out NOW).  I stupidly reminded him that our king sheets were white, and the spare set was in our closet.  Big.  Mistake.

I come home to find our king sized flat sheet NAILED (with 36 holes) to the side of the neighbor's screened in porch.   As I approach my taut linens, I look at Hubs and neighbor hubs (who look as proud as the day their first borns arrived), and say, "Seriously?!  Nails?!"  To which Hubs replied, "I know, but we wanted it to look good, and I told neighbor hubs if it was messed up, I could fill in the holes, no problem!"  No, my dear, I was not worried about the neighbor's porch.  I was kinda more concerned with our now perforated sheet.  

It does look pretty fantastic, though.  Here's a pic of Strip showing it off:

But that just wouldn't do.  I mean, it's big, but it could be bigger, right??  Of course right.

So we projected it on the side of our house.  It's like we are there.  As the two hubs' were taking in the beauty of our giant screen, the wives were getting ready to run to get milk and other necessities from the store.  So I come home from work to find my sheet nailed to the side of the house, and as we are leaving, I hear, "Well, it would be perfect if it weren't for that tree limb..." followed by, "Oh, that little guy?  I could cut that down no problem.  Go grab your clippers!"

I'm surprised they didn't just rip the cedar siding off the side of the house.  I'm sure they considered it, but instead, sometime this week, UPS will be delivering a 15 x 10 foot white tarp and the boys will be constructing  our new screen.  We are all pumped and enjoyed watching Saturday football on the side of the house.  The only problem is seeing food commercials that big.  Wow!

My only other issue with the big screen project (I mean aside from ruining a perfectly good sheet and changing the landscaping to accommodate) is the fact that my corner kitchen spinning cabinet:

is messed up and takes the force of a bull to actually spin around.  This little project has been moved to the bottom of the honey do list for the past 7 months.  But operation turn the side of the house into a movie theatre?  Mission accomplished in less than a week.  Gotta love men.

Side note, it is pretty awesome.  I'm not sure what was more fun, watching the game, or watching all the extra cars come through the neighborhood to looky-loo at us!  And we've already made big plans for joint family movie nights, halloween movie parties, slumber parties with the big screen, Super Bowl, the possibilities are endless!

It was an honor to be nominated

Our revolving door of guests just keeps spinning, and this week, it's PaPa and Ma!  And they couldn't visit without a Ford full of surcees, so both kiddos got some loot.  As Ma was going through the goods with Strip, she pulled out a Care Bear and a Care Bear movie.  Strip said, "Fanks for the Care Bear, Ma, but you already gave me this movie!"  Strip was totally right.  So Ma said we would go to Target and let her pick out a new movie.

Strip decide she really wanted Princess Protection Program.  Earlier in the week, she was really wanting to Redbox it, so I asked her what it was about.  She replied, "It's a story about a princess from a small kingdom and a girl from a small town.  When live brings them together, they learn what friendship really means!"  Way to memorize the trailer!  I need to turn the tv off.  So we headed to Target today to get it.  Care Bears -- $5.99.  Princess Protection Program; BFF Extended Edition -- $19.99.  That's what I call an upgrade, Strip.

Anyway, the PPP BFF EE (did you get all that) looks like this:

Yup, that's a BFF necklace that's FREE with purchase!  I told Strip what it was and that you gave one half to your BFF and the other, you keep.  So when we got home, I opened the dvd and handed her the necklace.  She gave ME one half!  Woo hoo!  About 20 min. later, I had to run to work for a meeting, and when I came back, the movie was just finishing.  I leaned down to give her a hug and she noticed my necklace.

Strip:  Did everyone think your necklace was beautiful?

Me:  Oh, yes!  They did!

Strip: giving me a hug - Your my best friend forever...until someone else comes over that I like!

Well thanks, sweetie!  At least she likes me now :-)