Macy's Big Fan

When Macy fell off the swing at the park and landed head first into the wood chips, it was her big sister, Carly, who brought her to me. (Myles helped get all the splinters out, thank you).

The next day, we were running late for church, but I couldn't help but wait when I heard Carly say, "Oh, Macy, you look so cute. I need to get the camera and take a picture of you."

When we got home from church, Macy said sadly, "Nobody noticed my jacket or my flower I picked out. They just kept asking me about my head."

There are only 2 months left of just Macy and Carly getting to play together in the mornings. (Then, it will be summer break, and then Carly will be gone all day). This morning, they were having Easter egg hunts with each other, after doing their trolls' hair. I'm glad they have each other.

March Madness, Craziness, and Everything in Between

Macy: Mom, for my Birthday, I want you to go to the pet store and buy me a new pet like a baby kitty or a baby puppy...You can wrap it up, so it's a surprise!

Carly, as Myles is sewing a hole in her tights right before church: Dad, are you a famous sewer?

Macy: What if a girl married a girl.
Me: That's not the way it's supposed to be.
Macy: In some states, they think that's how it goes.

Carly: I wanna be a famous artist when I grow up.
Macy: You can already be one. You don't have to wait to grow up.

Macy, really early in the AM: Mom, Robyn's already awake reading sweetly on the couch.

Carly: Dad, do you ever go on PBS.Kids at work?
Myles: No.
Carly: Just to check something out?

Carly: I could eat (Brazilian) beans and rice every day. I liked them so much, I could've had fourths, but my tummy said I was full. I try to listen to my tummy, not my tongue. Could I have beans and rice on my birthday? (Her B-day isn't 'til Dec.)

Carly: What if our house was made of candy?

Macy: What if we put Jell-O in all the Easter eggs?

Robyn: What if you were in the Safari and a lion was chasing after you? What would you do? A. freeze B. run away C. hide under a giraffe?
Myles: D. pray
Carly: E. hold your magic pebble and wish you were a rock!

Macy's phrase of the month: really bad (I really bad need candy. I really bad want to help you).

Macy: Oh-lay! That's Spanish for OK.

Macy: Dad is a super great guy! He blowed up my balloon SO big!

Carly: This IS spicy! My tongue is more sensible (sensitive) than your taste bugs!

Robyn: That's from my friend. She moved.
Me: Really? Why?
Robyn: Well, the way they tell the story is that her parents went to jail, so she moved to her uncle's...We didn't even get to say goodbye.

Robyn: What's suicide?
Me: When someone chooses to kill himself. Why?
Robyn: That's the word all the kids are talking about.

Robyn: What does ex mean before a word?
Me: Former. Like, an ex-president means someone who used to be the president.
Robyn: So, ex-wife means someone who used to be your wife?
Me: Yeah.

Macy's commentary on Utah in the spring when she steps out the door: Why does the world keep changing his mind?!

Carly, remembering the Talent Show: Macy really stole the show! I wondered why people were laughing, but then I looked over at Macy, and then I knew why.

Sometimes, it's a good thing to Procrastinate

It can give your children more resources to work with.

Meet Macy, the Recycled Robot! She begged us to keep the pieces for Halloween.

She's Really Getting a Kick out of this

and her coachs' accents. (They're brothers from England). This is her first time to be on a real team, and she's lovin' it! She brings her ball with her to school so she can play at recess, and wants to practice any minute she can.

She was SO excited before her first game that she was literally bouncing off the walls, doing jumping jacks and jumping up and down. I told her she better go to the bathroom. She very seriously said, "No, Mom. If I have to go, I'll be nervous, and will run even faster." By half time, she was pretty tired. Before her second game, we reminded her (again) to save her energy a bit.

Myles and I know one of her team-mate's dads from where we lived when we were dating, and she went to preschool with another one of her team-mates. It's fun when paths cross again like that.

The Salon is Open!

Believe it or not, these sponge curlers were mine when I was a girl! We have had to retire a few of the little orange ones that are beginning to disintegrate, but the pink ones are still good! I used to hate sleeping in those things.

These remind me of my cousin, Lucy, who was my personal hair assistant whenever we got together. My favorites were her outie french braid and fish braid.

Robyn's Secret Recipe

Robyn was SUPER excited to make us green eggs and ham for our St. Patrick's breakfast. She wanted to make sure it was a surprise.

Center Stage

For the girl who says she doesn't take dance because she doesn't want to go on the stage, she sure sang her heart out for this one--a song that Myles' uncle wrote. "Daddy, can we keep him? Mama says it's up to you..."

Macy got a kick out of entertaining the crowd with her battery-operated dog, Fisher. (Thanks, Mom).

Carly and company had fun with "The Fishy Song" from Miss Amber's classes.

Thanks to my friends who took the fun pics!

Rewards

Carly gets a sticker for bringing back a paper to school. Robyn gets a candy for bringing back something to school. Then, Carly's getting two stickers for something, and then, and then, and then.

What if kids bring back their papers because that's what they're supposed to do? What happens when kids don't care about one or two or three stickers anymore?

What happens when these kids become teenagers, or even parents?

Here's a newspaper article I came across the same day I was pondering the consequences of always offering rewards:

Census Campaign Targets Tech-savy Hispanic Youth

Los Angeles (AP)--Groups pushing for robust Hispanic participation in the 2010 census have announced a campaign to reach that hard-to-count demographic through its smart-phone-toting youngsters.

The "Be Counted, Represent" campaign was announced Wednesday at a press conference in Los Angeles.

It offers music downloads and a chance at concert tickets to cell phone users who share their e-mail addresses and phone numbers with organizers and forward information about the census to their friends.

Organizers hope the pro-census messages will zip throughout the social networks of youngsters who can persuade their parents to fill out and return their census forms.


Wow! Outright bribery. I guess stickers just aren't cutting it anymore, are they? Who's paying for these music downloads and concert tickets, anyway? What if I'd like some? Too bad. I'm not Hispanic, I don't own a cell phone, and I was planning on answering the big 10 questions, anyway. Oh, well.

Fun with Grandparents

Fairy Land

Some of us are destined to be "The Cleaning Fairy,"

while others are lucky enough to be real fairies.

Book Bound

Before Myles and I could read, our story had begun. In fact, our prologue was being written before we were even born. We were smiling down on our mothers who were taking notes in their elementary education lectures in college. I guess it wasn't time for the two of them to meet...yet.

Myles' parents bought the house he lived in as a boy with the satisfaction that they could read chapter books from the hallway to all of their kids tucked in bed at the same time. So, while his mother was reading Little Britches in Washington, mine was reading Little House on the Prairie to me in Illinois.

I had two goals as a girl: to become an Olympic gymnast and a published author. I started tumbling at the YMCA, and my first real story was The Pet I Want, written behind a big desk in first grade. My fourth grade teacher nicknamed me Ravenous Reader, and I got to meet a real, live author in junior high. After years of flip flopping and somersaulting, I eventually got too tall and too scared for the balance beams, but I never outgrew my love to write.

I was writing letters home to my family from the same university where our moms didn't meet when Myles and I did. He'd just come home from Brazil as a missionary, wondering about www's and dot coms. We started e-mailing each other for fun, beginning our first chapter.

(I am interrupted by Macy, who doesn't realize she doesn't make an appearance for several more chapters, asking me if she can please read just two more books, and then she'll go to sleep).

We are friends. We date. We break up. After a few chapters of Choose Your Own Adventure, we decide to begin Our Own Adventure together again, this time for the rest of our lives.

My mom meets Myles, lugging boxes of my journals from home "Since you'll have your own place now." (Little did she know, we'd be renting a studio apartment and would have to store them in someone else's basement).

We didn't choose certain colors for our wedding, but our moms are still on the same page; they both show up in forest green dresses. We dance. We watch Grandma and Grandpa dance...for the last time. Myles plays his guitar, singing a love story to me.

We travel, and then I write for a newspaper for free so I can graduate. His granddad tells me his stories, mostly hunting stories, and I finish his book for him and his family before he dies, sometime when Robyn is a baby.

I would find her asleep in her crib with a board book as her pillow...asleep in her bed with a book on top of her face. Once she was into chapter books, I finally figured out why it was so important to her that we replace the batteries in our flashlight. It was the day I was changing her sheets.

Since reading Yellow Star, a true story of a child who survived the Holocaust, she is thankful for things like sheets in her prayers. She is growing with her books. I find her on the couch in the mornings, either reading one or writing one.

While reading Yellow Star with her, I was reading The Hunger Games on my own, questioning how people could be so cruel in reality past as well as in a fictional future. I think people should have learned by now. People should be getting better, not worse. I open the newspaper to find a headline about Nigerian bloodbaths shouting at me.

Myles brings the paper home from campus for me everyday, where he writes his dissertation so he can be a professor some place, some day where two future fathers will be taking notes.

Richard Peck then and now

As a seventh grader, I got to meet author Richard Peck at a young writers' workshop.

Twenty years later, I got to introduce him to my daughter.

His talk was as entertaining as his books. If you haven't already read his latest two, you should check out A Long Way from Chicago, and its sequel, A Year Down Yonder.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

There were a lot of funny surprises in this play. We liked how they made the set extra big to make the adult actors look more like a six-year-old boy and a mouse.

Dr. Seuss Week

Hop on Pop was the first book I could read by myself.

My church youth leaders armed me with Oh The Places You'll Go as I headed off to college.

I remember Myles reciting Horton Hatches an Egg to keep my mind off my back pain while I was "hatching" Robyn.

Now, my girls see how many new Dr. Seuss books they can find when we go to the library. They sure had fun dressing up, having crazy hair day and wearing their PJs to school for Dr. Seuss week.

D, d, d, what begins with D?

Delicious Donuts to Die for, D, d, d!

(That was in honor of Dr. Seuss' B-day week).

Myles grew up with these as a special treat. When our girls requested them for our Family Home Evening treat, Grammy whipped them up in no time. She also made maple bars, Granddad's favorite.

Feb. Favorites

Carly: Why do they always have to end the chapter when it's so interesting?! (About The Secret Garden).

Myles (While we were reading the scriptures): What does it mean to be anxiously engaged in a good cause?
Carly: to be almost married.

Macy's phrase of the month: By the way.
By the way, Mom, I love you. By the way, I'm hungry. By the way...

Macy, singing away: Why am I in this fam-il-y? You are so good to me!

The day I found out that Emily's Grandpa had died, I called her during Macy's nap to see how she was doing. As soon as Macy woke up, she immediately declared: I need to call Emily!

Macy: Daddy, I love you 65 gallons of grapes.

Macy (telling me a Strawberry Shortcake hunting story): Then, they got the bear, brought it home, and put a little butter on it with some jam.

Macy (bringing me a very tall stack of books very early in the morning into my bed): Oh, it's so hard to choose! There's just so many good ones!

Carly: I wanna marry someone 'zactly like Dad!

Macy to me: I love you more than 65 oranges.
Carly: I love Robyn more than all the oranges in the world and more than all the diamonds, rubies, and sack of gold at the end of the rainbow!

Myles was having a hard day, and I talked to him on the phone during Macy's nap. As soon as she woke up, she announced: I need to call Dad!
Me: Why?
Macy: to tell him, 'I love you!'

(Macy and Carly playing restaurant) Macy: Come to my res-ter-not.
Carly: Why?
Macy: to color
Carly: I'm a grown-up. Grown-ups don't color.

Baby Burritos

Macy and Carly have come up with a fun, new way to carry your baby. Just wrap the blanket around you and your baby and tuck in behind, in the back. They did have a little trouble de-burrito-ing themselves when I was in the shower!

Sweet Home, Alabama?!

Some children have imaginary friends. Some have imaginary places, I guess. What started out as something funny soon became a bit annoying, and then downright eerie. This is just a small sampling from throughout the entire month of February of Macy's requests about a place I don't know how she's even heard about...

Macy: When are we going to S-O-S-O-S-O-S-O?
Me: I don't know. Where is it?
Macy: In Alabama where there's lots of pink flowers and the band is always playing.

Macy: When are we going to go to Alabama?
Me: I don't know. I don't know anyone who lives there. What do you want to see there?
Macy: All the sunshine.

Macy: I had a bad dream.
Me: Really? What did you dream about?
Macy: I dreamt that I wanted to go to Alabama and we didn't get to go.

Macy: Mom, when are we going to go to All-ah-bama?
Me: I don't know.
Macy: I asked you that like six weeks ago!
Me: It's very far away, and we don't know anyone who lives there. What are we going to do when we get there?
Macy: Feel the sun on our back on the bench.

Macy: Mom, why is it called Allie-bama?
Me: I don't know. We could probably find out.
Macy: Do you it was a girl named Allie and a boy named Bama?

Macy: When are we going to go to Alabama? I've asked you that like 65 times in my life!!

Macy: When are we gonna move to Alabama?!

At this point, Myles and I are beginning to think if he's supposed to look for a job there, or something. The next day, we hear about the AL professor who shot 6 other professors, killing 3.

Macy: Mom, after we go to All-a-bama, my dream will come true!

Macy: Mom, when are you going to take me to Alabama?

Macy: Maybe one day when I grow up, maybe my husband will get a job there (in AL, of course).

Macy: I saw Grammy drivin' down the street in her car, and she was going to Alabama, so I hopped in, and when we were there we got lots of lotions, lots and lots of lotions, some really big ones, too.

Macy: Someday my dream will come true...someday.

Super Citrus!

Check out the size of that thing! I've never seen such a big lemon in my life! Myles' parents brought back lemons, grapefruits, organges, blood oranges, and tangerines they picked in AZ. The lemon was a big hit for show-n-tell.

In just about every article I've read about staging your house, it says to put something like lemons out as a centerpiece. This beautiful bowl of citrus has a calming effect, and smells oh so good!

We've enjoyed a lemon meringue pie for lunch. We love lemon bars, and are planning on lemon poppy seed muffins. Any other lemon delights you'd suggest?