Birthday Season

Tonight we celebrated W and M's birthdays with the family!

They may share a birthday but they refuse to share cakes!!

This year it was Belle. Don't look too close. It's not my best work but M was thrilled (and apparently Ev was ready to sing opera!) and that's all that matters!

Could they be any more excited to eat cake???

Happy early Birthday to my boy and my oldest girl. I love them!

Portrait of a Contract Therapist

I carry three big, overloaded bags around to my sites.

The bags spill all over my trunk so there are always toys, cards and coloring books rolling around.

I'm always looking for good cards in the dollar bins that I can turn into speech tools.

I raid my girls' toys and coloring books and anything I can wash down and return to them later.

I travel to a daycare in my police man brother's side of town....

I eat lunch at the Sonic that gives previously mentioned brother the "creeps". The Sonic gives my police man brother the creeps? Then he explains that there was a shooting during a drug deal there last week. Okay, glad it's noon and not dark!

I lock all my belongings and anything that looks tempting from the windows in the trunk.

I sit on the carpet that I watch them mop, yes, mop the carpet, each afternoon.

I break out my worn, fraying Webber Artic Drill book that I'm so glad I took home that one day when Park Nicollet was throwing it out. It has saved me a ton of money!

I listen to the provider tell me that my kiddo is doing better-she sang along to "Shake the Devil off" last week-whatever happened to twinkle twinkle little star?

I get my next kiddo as her classmates yell out, "[kiddo], yo mama's here!"

I listen as the classroom next to ours starts blaring Michael Jackson because it's forty degrees, way too cold for Arkansans to have recess outside!

I watch as my kiddo breaks into dance yelling "bee-ya! bee-ya nie!" as "Thriller" comes on in the next room.

And I love my job....at least one of them!

the best cupboard in the house!

is the soap cupboard!!

At least at Grandma's house it is!

Do you have a soap cupboard? You should! It's where you keep your small hotel sample soaps. Don't think it can fill an entire cupboard?

Oh yes it can!

...and if you're seventeen months old and it's at your eye level, it is the best! You can mess up Grandma's pretty piles, unwrap them, move them all over the bathroom while your Mom is showering....

sounds like fun, eh?

LG thinks so :)

LG shakes her thang!

We tried to upload this a month ago but our internets are too slow. Here's to hoping it works better on Mom's speedy computer!

This is our infamous snowman that makes my girls want to dance like it's 1999!

piggies

See that little piggie?

And it's cute little curl?

See both of them? The teeny piggies in the back?

Aren't they so cute?

Don't you just want to eat her??

Froggy Diaper Bag

A friend from church asked me to make her a diaper bag. She is having a boy. I fell in love with this fabric. So I hope she does too!

And just to toot my own horn a bit, I lined the inside over the quilted batting I always use so that I could add pockets!! I love it and it's much more functional that way for all the "stuff" that moms carry!

Drama

Here's what I love about this picture.

The boys are having fun.

They're wearing earrings and bracelets and fully embracing the fact that the point of the game is to get dolled up and move your sleeping beauty marker around the board until you're the prettiest princess, I mean, pirate.

And then there's my girl.

See her? The one on the right? The one who is obviously winning but still whining and crying?

yeah

My sister in law told me she heard a talk on Oprah or something about raising the dramatic child. I was mildly insulted at first. Not that I didn't know she was a drama queen, but that I hadn't fully embraced it as more than embarrassing to be raising a drama queen, but, well, embraceable.

Here are a few things I've learned in almost four years of parenting this dramatic child.

1. Pressure doesn't work.

It didn't work with potty training and "riding bikes" at the park ended in two grumpy parents and one whiny girl sitting on her bike begging for us to take off her helmet!

2. Enjoy the quirks, I mean perks!

It is totally okay to leave the house in one silver shoe and one black. In fact, be proud if one is a left shoe and one is a right. (but still ignore if they're on the wrong feet, that will come later!)

Also, the more layers (skirts) the merrier!

3. It IS worth crying over a movie, sucker, chocolate, temping princess, barbie or dress!

I might as well accept it and move on that we will break down and lose it over toys and treats. And that I will NEVER be fair. Oh well. She told me today that at her birthday party I should dress up as the stepmother. Well, that's me!

4. It is okay to lie to your child.

If you're telling your child that yes, all the other cousins are going home now when you have to go to bed. No, there is no more ice cream or chocolate in the house. Yes, Mommy and Daddy are going right to bed after you do.

It's just easier.

5. Always remember to ask what her imaginary husband wants to watch during quiet time.

I've tried telling her he doesn't exist. But he does in her world. So I've backed off to only jumping in when she tells me "he's kissing me too much" and talking about what's appropriate. I'm so doomed when she's a teenager!!

I'm sure I have many more lessons to learn. When I figure out how to be patient with her and help her to not lose it over, well everything, I'll let you know!