Altered Reality

I spent the first of the week at camp. It's funny that 25 years later, I still love it. I love the sounds of camp - the kids screaming in the creek, the sound of the radio blasting in the gym, the sounds of the falls (or this year, lack of), singing at meal time. Some things have changed though. As a former song leader, I'm shocked that most of the songs now sung with Chicos are about vomit and killing little frogs. Seriously... smushing up a bumble bee and eating it? The death of a frog by a red truck? Yogi's enemy Ranger Ralph - sung to the sound of vomiting in the background.

Before I went, John told me that I am 30 years old, a mother of two and I needed to stop being childish and come back to reality - he didn't want me to go. After a couple of days of terse words, I decided to dig deep and figure out why I needed to head out to Winnataska. I still haven't figured it out, but after my three days there - I'll be back next year. Reality or not.

I came back to the world to a full day at work and a screaming 3 1/2 year old who did not want to go to bed. I still haven't cooked a meal, but I also came back on Weight Watchers, so reality exists.

Anyway, the cats are peeing again on the furniture. Last time we went through this, it was diagnosed as a behavioral problem. We're trying to find them a family... anyone need two cats that occassionaly act out? We leave for the Bay tomorrow.

I haven't been great about taking pictures of the girls lately. I'm just running so much that stopping to photograph it isn't on my to do list. I'll try to do better.

Going to the A-B-C-D

We spell. We spell a lot of things. We're not the best spellers but we spell anyway. And why do we spell? We spell because we have a 3 1/2 year old. Today at dinner John looked at me and asked, "do you want to put them in the s-t-r-o-l-l-e-r and go for a w-a-l-k to the s-t-o-r-e?" To which I replied, "y-e-s". To which Ellabee responded, "I want to go." To which John asked, "where do you want to go?" and she said, "the a-b-c-d."



They started bathing together tonight. Anne Bailey has grown out of her tub and there they are, in the tub together. Ellabee things it's hysterical - Anne Bailey really hasn't commented on her thoughts. She does, though have this funny thing right now with her tongue. She's figured out that it's there:

I've also started Weight Watchers again. And I'm hungry and irritable. Not that there's much difference from how I was before, but I have an excuse now. I will say though that I want to lose all my weight by March 2008. Don't ask my how I picked that date, but I figure it's 9 months away and that's plenty of time - if I can grow a child in 9 months, I can lose 100 pounds, right?

Mall Moms, Weight Watchers and 2 1/2 hour naps

Gone are the days of leisurely strolls down the aisles of Parisians - for that matter, gone are the days of Parisian! Gone are the days of a quiet lunch with friends where we talk about our husbands and the best place to go for a beer. Gone are the days where we catch up on each others lives... now, we're IN each others lives. Here are the days of cramming three strollers (two of which are double) in an elevator. Stopping ten times on the way to Parisians to tell the children NOT to scream in the mall. Getting into the store and having to look from afar to see if anything catches your eye because your stroller can't get through the little store aisles. Here are the days of having a 3 year old melt down in the middle of the mall, carrying her out by her wrist and just pleasantly smiling to the onlookers as you pass by. I don't miss those days, but I do realize how I took them for granted.

Anne Bailey has just taken a 2 1/2 hour nap... I found myself standing outside her door 30 minutes ago just to see if she was stirring. Meanwhile, I've decided that I am truly addicted to food. I started Weight Watchers, AGAIN, yesterday. I'm starving and I'm thinking of things in my pantry that I could probably cram down my throat in vast quantities right now. This is the hard part - trying to get past the HUNGER or the habit really of eating when bored. John doesn't have this problem... is it a woman thing? I think it's a Dobson thing.

Anne Bailey is six months. WOW. Six months ago we had her and it seems like we've never been without our girls. Here are some pics from the girls.

Anne Bailey at 6 months

Some Changes to the Blog... and Harry Potter

Well, in truth, there's only one change to the blog - I figured out how to add comment options to the end of each entry - so comment away. I guess people are looking at this. I may be diappointed in the long run.

On that note, after uploading the latest pics of the girls last night, I stumbled over to some friend's blogs. I must say, they were much deeper and insightful than mine and I had the feeling of inferiority as I read. Yikes. Am I really that insecure? So then John and I had a long conversation (well, long for our life - about 15 minutes) about why I'm not deep and how others are and how I can get deeper. He said it's because others are reading CS Lewis and Henri Nouwen and I'm reading Harry Potter in preparation for the book and movie release. So I started to think about that. And I would argue that I find Harry Potter to have many deep parts. It's underlying theme is the baisc core of humanity - good v evil. And it's just so darn creative. I mean, this lady created her own world - her own language... how wild is that. and here I am again feeling inferior. I want to be deep. bear with me as I try. Meanwhile, I've just finished Order of the Pheonix (book 5) for probably the 10th time and will be starting Half Blood Prince (book 6) tonight. Henri and Lewis will have to wait on Rowling.

A day in the Life of a working quasi stay-at-home Mom!

Here's my day - get up, feed baby, get spit up on. convince Ellabee that Dora is not on yet, she convinces me that Dora is "Tivoed" (yes, my child knows what TIVO is) we start Dora. We converse about cheese crackers (Cheezits) vs. a real breakfast... sometimes she wins - most of the times I do. Bathe Anne Bailey, get spit up on. Anne Bailey sleeps, Mommy works, wake Anne Bailey up and feed her, get spit up on. Change a poopy diaper from Ellabee (nope, not potty trained yet). we go somewhere to play or run errands, etc. Lunch time... Ellabee reinstates the cheese cracker argument. She doesn't win. Anne Bailey eats prunes, or peaches, or squash, or sweet potatoes, or something. Ellabee goes down for nap - not willingly, but it happens. Feed Anne Bailey, get spit up on (but it's ok, I'm still in my pajamas). Anne Bailey does down for nap. I work. Ellabee wakes up and finally gets her cheese crackers. Anne Bailey wakes up and eats and I get spit up on. I fix dinner, console Ellabee because Fennigan has eaten the cheese crackers. Daddy comes home. We eat, feed Anne Bailey, feed Ellabee and then the girls go to bed. John sleeps in the chair in the den and I recover from the day.

But at the end of the day, these faces tell the story - it's ALL worth it. Even the cheese cracker part!

Not a fan of the Water, but SUCH a fan of the Bay!

We couldn't head South for Memorial Day because mommy came down with a horrible dreadful and just plain nasty case of the Strep Throat. The only good thing about having it is the ability to now have empathy for my girls if they get it.

So, Daddy couldn't go the next weekend but the Stone girls sure could. Off to the Bay we headed, swimsuits and sunscreen ready! We spent most of the weekend on the boat AND at the ballpark - go Chancellor and Garrison (allow me to be the bragging aunt, but Chancellor plays in the little league championship tomorrow AND he has just made all-stars - YEA!!!!!).

While not a fan of the water, Ellabee LOVED the boat. Especially the fact that she can sit on the back swim deck and let her feet dangle in the water. We're working our way into loving the water - right now, it's a love hate relationship - when I forced her in, she proceeded to about rip my bathing suit off to get out, but when she got out she proclaimed, "I went swimming... It was fun!" Go figure. Anne Bailey, on the other hand, is going to be our boat lover. While under cover most of the time for sun protection - she really seemed to love the boat! Even in the nasty rough Bay on the way home from Lulu's.

Pure JOY!

I see an arm, but is there a baby under there?

Here she is!