About a month ago, all Chloe could do was complain about “Dylan.” She would get off the bus and complain that “Dylan is SO loud! Dylan gets on my nerves! I hate Dylan! Blah, blah, blah.

About two weeks after that, she stepped off the bus, looked up at me with a crooked-teeth smile and asked, “Mom, can I have a play date with Dylan?”

“I thought you didn’t like Dylan?” I said.

“ILoveHimNowAndHe’sMyBoyfriend.”

My brain thought, “Oh shit, here we go.”

So, I told her that I didn’t have a phone number for Dylan (a small white lie, I suppose I could have looked it up in the directory). A week later she was home with a phone number. So, I guess I have to set up a time to hang out with Dylan.

Under strict parental supervision.

Her teacher even said that she can see that they’ve been very buddy-buddy. It’s quite cute. He’s cute. She’s cute.

It’s a big ol’ bucket of cute.

And hopefully not a glimpse into the future I’m gonna have to deal with.

Thursday started as a regular (but warm) day.  I threw the kids on the bus and headed home to do some work.  About a half an hour later, I got a call from my friend.  He had to drop something off to the school that his daughter had forgotten.  He said that the school smelled like gas, and there were fire trucks and ambulances.  He said he was taking his daughter home.  Well, I wrestled back and forth with the decision, and finally decided to just yank mine out of school, too.  I didn’t want them sitting and getting nauseous, and if they ended up with an early dismissal, I figured I would beat the rush.

Well, long story short, I got my kids, all my neighbors got their kids, and they moved all the other children over to the middle school to just kill time all day.  Me?  I took the kids to the zoo a day early.  It was 65 degrees, sunny, and we decided to have fun with our curve ball.

We had a great day.  There was hardly anybody at the zoo, and we got to watch the animals for as long as we wanted.  The kids were in a great mood, and there was absolutely no complaining or whining. (Well, there was the occasional, “Are we there yet???”  But I don’t even really hear those anymore).

Usually I make sure that I leave the zoo in plenty of time to beat the traffic.  But that day?  It just didn’t matter.  Traffic, schmaffic.  As we headed home, we talked about getting close to home and stopping for ice cream.  I drove home through Lawrenceville and the Strip, and I followed through on something I had been meaning to do…Stop at Klavons Ice Cream.  I’ve driven past it a bunch of times, but never actually stopped.  The kids enjoyed sitting at the counter, and they got to pick out some classic candy.  I even got some of those little jaw breakers in a box.  Love those.  I remember paying 10 cents at a basketball game for them.  Well, they’re a quarter now…which is perfect…because I got to say “Hey, when I was little these were only ten cents.”

If I have to get old, I wanna do all the old people stuff I can.

I’ve really been trying to live in the moment, and enjoy every single day.  It wasn’t hard that day.  So I figure, next time I’m having a hard time enjoying my day, I’ll just close my eyes and think about our trip to the zoo.

Santa, however, didn’t get the best gift. I saved that for Mom and Dad. We got them each their own Nintendo DSi’s. But they got lots of other stuff that was a big hit, too. They got Bop It, which they have played with a bunch. Yahtzee, to take me back to my childhood. A game called Pictureka, which was fun. There’s an easy bake oven, moon dough, a crayon maker, Orbeez…the list goes on.

I’m looking forward to this week of just hanging out and playing some family games. We’re headed to see The Chronicles of Narnia in 3D at the theater today. They really enjoyed the first two (we watched them last week). I have a feeling, though, that as soon as I get them to start sleeping in, we’ll have to head back to school…

Hope everybody enjoyed their holidays!!!!!

Now, we can’t start selling yet, but I’ll scream it out to the world on January 7th. We have a lot of cookies to sell, especially because there are TWO girls I need to sell for.

Nothing beats frozen thin mints.

Nothing.

Just sayin’

Although today is December 1st, I’m not finished with the Christmas shopping.  HOWEVER, I did get done shopping for the kids, and some of the other gifts.  I’m completely happy with my progress so far.  I bought a huge bag of Hershey kisses, just waiting for some store bought peanut butter cookie dough (yeah, close enough for me).  On Saturday, the girls and I cuddled and watched A Christmas Story.  The girls picked it, and that made me happy  Let me share this with you:

Anyway, we had a great time.

Yesterday, we went to Build-A-Bear. I had promised to take them a couple of weeks ago, if they were good. Well, they weren’t exactly stellar, which explains the two weeks between “saying” and “going.” They were totally stoked about getting Rudolph and Clarice. Here’s a picture of them waiting for Santa:

Then, I took one of them on their own. There is one of Chloe by herself, and then there’s this:

I took the picture, looked at it, and literally LOL-ed.

They weren’t exactly dressed to get for the official Santa picture, but they did want to go and see the big guy.  So, we waited in line a bit and it was their turn.  Chloe wasn’t sure what she was going to ask for.  Becca knew exactly what she was asking for…a DSi.  I asked Chloe if SHE wanted a DSi, and explained that if Becca got one, she surely would want to play with one, too.  She said “no.”  Well, tough shit for her…she’s getting one.

So, they get on the lap and start chatting.  Becca very politely said that she would like “A DSi and a couple of games, please.”  Chloe just froze.  She changed the subject, explaining all the stockings that we hung to Santa (one for the dog, one for the fish).  He asked her what she wanted, and she said “a ball.”

Classic.

She then added that she would just like some surprises, too.  Had to write about it, because I NEVER want to forget that evening.  Never.

In previous years, I was a bit more original.  One year they insisted on being Woody and Buzz.  I got them some very nice costumes from the Disney Store.  My favorite?  When we all dressed up as Mystery, Inc.  Chloe was Scooby, Becca was Shaggy, I was Velma and Tony was Fred.

Last week we were at Wal-Mart, just checking out the Halloween stuff.  Becca and Chloe BEGGED me to let them pick out their costumes.  I caved.  The thing I’m not too happy about?  They will be wearing $12 costumes from Wal-Mart with those hard plastic masks.

The thing that I’m actually sorta proud about?  Their anti-girly choices.  Becca is going to be an alien and Chloe is going to be Darth Vader (I have a thing for Darth Vader).  And at least their choices are done, and I can relax a bit.  I’m going to enjoy this October.  But the other question?

What to hand out for trick-or-treat.  I’ll get there.  It just needs to be something that I won’t eat an entire bag of.

I’ll start by saying that it could have been worse.  I actually didn’t notice for a few hours.  (And I’m gonna apologize right now for not having any pictures) Here’s how it went down:

Our niece came over to visit with her two sons (the new one is just nine weeks old, super cute, and slept the whole visit).  Anyway, the girls were playing with their cousin, and they started to play school.  Outside.  Well, fine.  I saw Chloe walk by with a pair of safety scissors in her hand.  My magic mom sense told me that I should definitely question that.  So, I asked her just what exactly she was going to do with those scissors.  She told me that she was going to cut some paper.  Then, just following my gut (or maybe putting an idea in her head), I asked, “You’re not going to cut your hair with those scissors, are you?”  I just had a feeling.  She told me, “no.”  I made her promise, and she did.

They were playing school, we were chatting.  It was pretty hot outside that day, and the girls dug out the (extremely overpriced) spray fan that we got at Disney World.  They were spraying their faces and head to keep cool.

Fast forward to a couple of hours later.  I went out on the deck, and sat down in our little love seat.  As I look at the cushion next to me, I see a tuft of hair, at just about “Chloe-head” level.  So, I yell to Chloe.  She stands in front of me and I ask her, “Chloe, did you cut your hair?”

{{{{crickets chirping}}}}}

“Chloe, did you cut your hair?!?!?!?!”

First, about five seconds of  ”deer in headlights.”

Then, screaming, crying, and “I’m sorry, mom!”

I grabbed the brush and started checking out exactly how bad it was.  She cut the sides, which WAS over her ears.  Not any more.  I laid a guilt trip on her, told her that Jess (our hairdresser) was going to be very disappointed, and that her head looked wacky.  Through the tears, she said to me, “I **sniff, sniff** didn’t know **sniff, sniff* that it wouldn’t **sniff, sniff** LOOK PRETTY!!!!!”

HA!  I had to chuckle a little.  So, she went to school the next day with everything tucked behind her ears.  We took her to Jess (at Hot Heads Hair Design) today, and I think I like the way she fixed it better than the original haircut.

Let’s just call that one a joint effort

Have a great rest of your weekend!!!

How about that!?!?!?!?  Peaceful AND productive?  I haven’t had a peaceful OR productive day in about seven years!  I mean, REALLY, REALLY productive.  It was awesome.  I had some alone time, I cleaned, I did work for the restaurant, I worked on school.  It. Was. Awesome.

Would you like to know what else has happened?  I don’t yell at the kids like I used to.  We are now at the point where we MISS each other.  We are really enjoying the time that we have together.  Don’t get me wrong…there are still homework struggles and sisterly arguments.  I’m not really all that sure that Becca and Chloe miss EACH OTHER, but at least we’re headed in the right direction.  And when those homework struggles an sisterly arguments happen, I’m much more ready to deal in a calm and orderly fashion.

You know what I’m gonna do?  I’m crossing something off my bucket list.  Number 39?  You’re done.  (Hopefully I don’t have to put that back on the bucket list when summer comes along.)  I’m experiencing parenting Zen.  Aaaaahhhhhhh. I hope you’re having a good weekend, and I’ll have to figure out something out to bitch about on here.

Like this stupid English 102 class.  More of that next time.

Jeff came walking onto the deck in his uniform.  Chloe casually walked up to me, looking VERY concerned.  She put her hand up to her mouth to tell me a secret.  In a very concerned voice, she asked me, “Mom, Why is Jeffrey bald?”

LOL!  I explained about Army haircuts, and asked if she liked it.  No, she wasn’t a big fan.  Jeff’s hair was much longer and curly before he went away.  However, she did like giving his new hair cut a little rub before she went to bed.  Hey, she learned something new.

She lost it until September 6th.

The television was the prize in a battle of wills between the two of us.  A battle of wills?  Guess what.  I’m gonna win every. single. time.  There was screaming, there was crying.  In the middle of all of this she told me (in a very high pitched, loud voice) that she was going to call my mom and tell her how mean I was being to her.

So I dialed the number for her.

Grandma told her that maybe she should take a rest.

Score one for Mom (and Grandma).

She hated me for about an hour, but all is good now.  The hate came back for a bit right before bed,  but she’s decided not to move out.

God, I can’t WAIT until she’s a teenager.

(as I’m writing this…I just broke up a fight…and yelled for her to not stomp up the steps)

Anyway, I have a full week to myself, and it’s getting filled.  Work tomorrow, get my hair done on Tuesday, take the dog to the vet on Wednesday.  I’m thinking that Thursday might be a day to stay in my jammies extra long and read a book.  Or watch a rated R movie.  At 11:00 in the morning.  Imagine that.

But it just hit me that, after that first week, I have to start school.  It’s only two classes, and I’ll definitely have the time to do it.  It’s all online.  One of the classes is a programming class, which I’m looking forward to.  It won’t really be like ‘work’ because I actually enjoy that kind of stuff.  But the other class?  English Comp 2.  Blech.  It’s the last class I need for my Associates Degree (it’s an associates degree in, well, general-I-couldn’t-make-up-my-mind-what-to-be-when-I-grow-up stuff).  Now, I don’t really mind writing.  But I like writing here…in that conversational tone.  Official papers with footnotes and references?  Papers in which I need to force an opinion on somebody.  Ewwww, HATE IT!  So guess what?  I’m gonna come here to complain.

Consider that your fair warning