The Whining Post

Sophia is totally healthy and Fiona has a trace of a cough left, but I feel like I've been knocked on my ass. I have that headache you get right behind your eyeballs, my whole body aches, my throat hurts, I have that knarly cough that sounds like horrible things reside within your lungs, I feel totally weak and to top it all off, my monthly affliction has arrived.

Oh, and the driveway is solid ice and there is no school today. Doug got down the driveway and safely off to work, but the car doesn't go back up the driveway.

Thankfully, Sobo is here. Otherwise I think I would leave the TV on all day and throw candy down the stairs.

The End.

35

My youngest sister was trying to figure out how old I am today. She said, "Okay, you're thiiiiirty....OMG!!!1111"

OMG! indeed. Actually, I had a good laugh at this. So today me and my old lady self will get down with some raspberry mousse cake, some lovely little gifties from Doug and the girls, and maybe I'll have a bath later.

I mean, hey, if I can remember drinking soda in glass bottles and playing vinyl records (you know, we just called them records back then), I guess I must be pretty old.

Then the planning for the fairy bash is on. Fiona and I spent the night last night coughing, so hopefully that will stop soon.

I Like to Move It

Yes, the song by Reel 2 Real. I cringed typing that in. Okay, I know. It's not a great song. It couldn't be more silly. But it is a great song to work out to. It's one of my songs on my workout list on the iPod for the stationary bike.

Why am I telling you this? After volunteering in Fiona's class yesterday, I was helping Sophia get her coat and boots on. Fiona and her classmates were getting their backpacks, and snowpants, and boots on, and while they were doing this, several of them started singing "I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT! I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT! I LIKE TO MOOOOOVE IT!".

I died a little inside (Damn, I should listen to fucking Mozart when I work out!). They may not have gotten it from Fiona, but it wouldn't be the first time she's taught her friends a new song.

I'm in good company, though, because this makes me remember that her friend Ellie taught her "We Will Rock You" back in the preschool days. I thought it was so cool she would sing that in the car on the way home.

Feverish Ramblings

So while my children's brains are melting under the fevers and the constant Sesame Street, I found myself taking a shower. This sounds so simple, but a shower makes a big difference in how I feel during the day. Maybe it's the feeling of clean, maybe it's all those negative ions. Whatever (I can hear you rolling your eyes and thinking get a life, you know.) I'm in the downstairs bathroom, which only has a sample bottle of Happy Hippy shower gel from LUSH (grapefruit, very nice) and an ancient, nearly empty bottle of "Feelin' Really GRAPE" Suave conditioner for kids. Every time I open this bottle, it totally reminds me of the glass bottles of soda at my dad's work we would get when I got to visit. The grape one, of course. Yes, you read that right. Glass bottles.

Oh, so anyway, I'm reading the back of this grape shampoo and even the kids' shampoos now have this deal on the ingredients where they do this: Water (Aqua), Fragrance (Parfum). Everything else is some chemical (er, not that the "fragrance/parfum" isn't) and isn't translated. Nothing else is on the bottle. (So thank goodness they've translated "fragrance" and "water", and not say, "conditioner" and "hair"). Why is this the latest fad? To make it sound better? It's not like the rest of the bottle has anything else but English (sometimes questionable English, at that). So aqua is Latin and I guess parfum is...French? I can't figure this out.

Since the phrase "screen time" is obviously going to be something to embrace today and not, as is normally the case, whispered with a guilty hang of the head, as in: "She has already had one hour of screen time today; she can't possibly use the computer now. Maybe tomorrow if we don't watch any show.", I am sure we will be going here. Thanks to Unmitigated Bliss for the link. Doug looked at me last night and said, exasperated, now we will have four people fighting for the computer. Sophia is a wiz with the letters and, really, I just had to help her with the mouse. I think what makes this more exciting than usual is that it is something that usually only her sister can do. Ah, the milestones of today.

I Never Feel Like I Get Enough Bacon

Thanks to Triana for sharing what may possibly be a combination of the two most perfect foods ever. Bacon and Chocolate.


picture by Triana.

I can not be at peace until I have some.

The girls are home with fevers today. They are flushed...their cheeks are bright pink (actually, that was Sophia yesterday; she seems better today, but still a bit off). They both have a lack of appetite but still have plenty of energy. Hopefully, we'll be all better by next weekend!

BFF

So there is a new best buddy in town (I waited a few days to make sure before posting). We'll call him "J". Fiona and J are always coming out of the school together and she is always talking about him. We HAD to invite him to the party (he barely made the list in time!) I volunteer in her class on Thursdays and she just couldn't stay away from him. He doesn't seem to mind. Her teacher raised an eyebrow at me at one point and said, "this relationship sure seems to be blossoming". Apparently what happened was that her teacher switched everyone's place in the circle and Fiona found herself next to J. She hadn't really interacted much with him before this.

He came up to me at lunch and asked if Fiona had told me his phone number. No. So he told it to me (and I am very impressed he knows his phone number; I wish Fiona did).

Fiona tells me they are going to be best friends forever.

Oh, and I couldn't sit next to her at lunch! She wanted me to sit on the other side of the table.

Many Thanks To

...my sister Alexandra who made the new banner. Is it not awesome? I'm so excited!

So all the birthday invitations are mailed and Doug did most of the work there. They were really cool. We made flowers out of card stock and glassine paper (it was supposed to be vellum, but we couldn't find that and we don't know what the hell vellum is, anyway) and when you open the card, a little fairy pops up in the invitation. The cards were see through so you could see the flower. I even got flower stamps.

Now to figure out what to do at a 2 hour party for 9 five and six year olds and 2 three year olds. I assume everyone is coming. The card said RSVP, but, cynic that I am, I doubt I will get much feedback on that. I'll hear from a couple of people, definitely. I know there will be 2 unicorn chocolate cakes. That's all I've got.

I think Fiona is coming down with a cold, so hopefully that will be all gone by next weekend. She must have something because she actually thinks it's cold outside. Despite this, she still will not wear her coat from the car to the building for gym class. Maybe it's because she is so tired of carrying a bunch of crap to school every morning. She has to carry her snow pants (won't wear them to school, but must have for recess and gym), her lunch, her backpack, and on some days like today, the snack for her class (peanut butter and jelly muffins and carrots). It doesn't sound like a lot, but she is still little and she looks like she's going on a major voyage. The backpack is small so she can't put her lunchbox in. She'll need a bigger backpack next year, I'll wager. She doesn't need the back pack for much. I could be wrong. I see her classmates with these HUGE backpacks. What is in them? I have no idea. They don't even bring their lunch. They are so big and so full. It's very mysterious. They look very heavy. It looks like the center of gravy is totally off when they wear them and if it is very windy, they will fall backwards.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

So the house next to us has been for sale for what seems like ages. Someone bought it a couple of weeks ago and I finally met one of them today. Fiona asked to play outside, which thrilled me, so out we went. It was the kind of snow that adheres to itself really well so we (I) made a snowman. Our neighbor came out and shoveled the driveway and Sophia looked over and said "HIIIII!". So we have now met Dave, who went to NECI, and whose wife is an accountant. He seems very nice and the girls really wanted to spend the entire afternoon chatting at him. They have a dog named Misha, who seems nice enough so far. They moved from a different town and they seemed to like how quiet it was on our street. This sounds promising. He left for a bit in his car after chatting with us (no, I don't think we scared him away).

We finally went inside so the girls could relax after watching me build a snowman and so I could get accessories for said snowman. I decided to take pictures of the snowman. I also put my arm around him and posed for more pictures. Right at this exact moment, our neighbor drives back up (the snowman is pretty much right next to their driveway, but up on a hill...so you can really see us). Priceless: buying the house next door to the crazy lady who poses with snowmen.



Go ahead and mock the snowman. I've never really made one before. He's really lumpy. How does one get them all smooth and 3-ball like?

Cruel Winter

This winter I have accepted the fact that I have SAD (well, and a doctor confirmed it). I also have PMDD (Premenstrual dysphoric disorder), which I guess is super PMS. It didn't really show up until fairly recently...now that I am neither pregnant or breastfeeding as I have been for about 5 years. December sent me to the doctor in desperation and I have joined the ranks of mothers on anti-depressants (Lexapro, if you're wondering. And I say "ranks" because it seems to be eerily common among mothers--but maybe that is because that is who I mostly talk to. And it's not just mothers in the dark North). I do not know if I will only need this in the winter, or if I'll need it year long. I guess I'll know in a couple of weeks how it affects the PMDD. I'm not wild about taking medication if I don't have to, but this really felt like, at the least, a bridge on the way to normal. I now also have a full spectrum lamp and an exercise bike. I know for a fact light and exercise help. I would love to eventually wean off the medication, if possible.

On cheerier notes, the girls love sledding and there is a fabulous sledding hill at Fiona's school. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago. The snow right now is hard and icy and not great for doing anything with except melting.




Also, I am happy to report that our grocery store had cherries yesterday that were acceptable, but not stellar, at only 2.99 a pound. Funny.

Brought to You by the Color Distraction Yellow

So in three weeks, Fiona will be 6. Six. I think this is the start of the big kid years, no? Of course, when Fiona was a baby, 5 seemed just as remote as 15. We'll have a birthday party for her, and it looks like it will be at our house again. I think we'll actually have to come up with some sort of activity this year and I am totally at a loss. I can't even decide what to buy for her birthday present. All we know for sure is that she wants a chocolate cake. So as long as we have that, how bad can her birthday be? That's right, it will be just perfect.

Another food related oddity of Sophia's is that she will answer the question, "What would you like to eat?" very creatively (And this is what happens when I do not offer choices right away, so it serves me right). Sometimes she just announces what she would like to eat out of the blue. "I want some cherries", she will announce. We have no cherries. It's the dead of winter and if cherries appeared, they would be $8 a pound and look like grey red rubber balls. "CHERRIES!" she says. Still no cherries. "I'm sorry", I say. "How about some clementines?" "I want cherries", she says. "We don't have cherries", I say. "Yes, we do!", she says. "Oh?", I say. "Where are they?" "I don't know", she says. "Neither do I", I say. "I want cherries", she says. "Me too", I say. She makes her little "awwww" noise, sticks her thumb in her mouth for a minute (she really, really likes that thumb), then takes it out and smiles at me and asks to watch show. Then we have a similar conversation about how we aren't watching show right now. Favorite cabin fever activity is definitely trying to beat previous times for how fast we can make mommy's eyelid twitch.

I have paid for this post with Play dough. Neon yellow Play dough is scattered all over the kitchen in itty bitty bits. I don't have any idea how or why and I do not really care. It has served its purpose. It is ground into our too-nice-for-us chairs and our wood floor--which means it has melded with various bits of god knows what on the floor. Play dough, now with oats and macaroni. No one needed help with it, no one screamed at me that it wasn't wooooooooooooooorking and it's such a stupid poopy butt I hate it I hate it so much!!111 I will vacuum it up later with a smile on my face.

A Dainty Dinner

Last night Doug made cod poached in hard cider and dried porcini mushrooms. Side dishes of brown rice and green beans.

Sophia ate ALL of the porcini mushrooms (I keep expecting anyone under the age of 20 to spit out mushrooms) and 2/3 of the green beans.

I think she is really a fairy sometimes.

Bacon is the Fairy Dust of the Food Community