Indigo Girl

Twitter: September through December

 C is 6! Well, she turned 6 yesterday. Party today. http://twitpic.com/ddclfr 

Tonight I said, "I'd like to hear less farting at the dinner table, please."

L told me about dissecting owl pellets at school. "And we didn't even wear GLOVES!" Me: "Did you wash your hands?" Her: "TEN TIMES."

Parent-teacher conference reveals that E has her nose in a book every chance she gets, L is focused & likes rules. #NoSurprises

Is your cat aggressive toward the guinea pigs? you might wonder. LOL, I reply. http://twitpic.com/dg217r 

I try not to be impressed, but C can burp on command and, honestly, I find that impressive.

E pours C's drink. C says, "It's nice to have a sister that helps me." They hug. SERIOUSLY WHERE IS THE HIDDEN CAMERA?

Hugged C goodbye today and she suction cupped her mouth to my neck and gave me a hickey before I could stop her. WTF, kid?

The dog is barking in her sleep.

C is helping A write. http://twitpic.com/dhokmw 

C wrote a story that included the sentence, "The boys were wearing shoes of sunbeams." Um. She's way more creative than me.

We got home from the movie. A tried to pee first. I shoved him out of the way, yelled, "I've had three babies!" and sprinted past him.

Me to C: "You didn't sit on my lap during the movie. Are you too big for that now?" Her, casually: "Yeah. Sorry." MAH BAY-BEE.

4th grade teacher says L's name is on her substitute instructions as "Ask this kid. She will know the answer and help." #unsurprised

E is making lists in a notebook "just like Anastasia Krupnik!" Btw, that book totally holds up. Well worth the re-read.

C tried to give me a tootsie roll while I was in the shower. A for generosity, C for timing.

Remember when I was charmed because C was square: 48 inches tall, 48 lbs? She grew 1 inch & gained 1 pound. Keep up the good work! 

E: "It's a good thing kids come with food storage areas!" Me: "You mean your stomach?" Her: "Yeah."

I just used my spit and some leaves to wash dog poop off C's hand. Thank God for Twitter so I can tell someone.

The children hid their candy from us. We looked for it to make sure the dog couldn't get it & couldn't find C's. Sneaky kid!

Looking at potential houses, A just told me a house wasn't "funky enough looking" and it kind of blew my mind. He's not a "funky" guy.

We're in such a sweet spot of parenting. Six and nine years old is perfect. How do I freeze time?

C got scared in the night, so she woke up E who hugged her & let her sleep in her bed. What a great big sister!

C and L are arguing. L: "C. You are CLEARLY MISTAKEN."

There is nothing to make for dinner ever. We will all starve.

Me to C: "Can you change into your pjs?" Her: "Oh. I can. But I don't want to."

Rapunzel is reading me Ivy and Bean as I make dinner. http://twitpic.com/dl1i4a 

E has been telling me about the Warrior series books for the last 20 minutes. Non stop. I'm not even feigning interest anymore.

C told me today that, besides presents, her favorite part of Christmas is the bacon we have Christmas morning.

I taught L to pump the gas yesterday and she thought that was the coolest thing ever.

E can't sleep because of the storm and came into our room to ask, "What's inside a black hole?" I turned her over to A.

C got into bed with us last night and woke me up this morning by laughing in her sleep. SHE LAUGHS IN HER SLEEP, THE BALL OF SUNSHINE.

L sleeps so deeply that she slept through a cat hacking up 2 huge hairballs on her pillow, presumably next to her face.

Teacher emailed to say E provided an excellent definition of the word resistance by referencing She-Ra. Hee.

Visiting first grade pet http://twitpic.com/dmb3d6 

C: "How many minutes till dinner?" Me: "About five." Her: "So . . . 300 seconds?"

My kids are going to reminisce, "Remember when we got lice in 2013 and mom checked our heads obsessively for YEARS after?"

Listening to The Sound of Music soundtrack with L. Me: Don't ever date someone like Rolf. Her, horrified: NO! He thinks he knows BETTER!

It's my 37th birthday today. Cookies warm from the oven, 3 snuggly girls, pjs, The Music Man, @JuliusGoat bringing home pizza. Nice.

I told L about when I was 15 & watched The Music Man every day all summer long. Her: "Was it awesome?" Me: "Yeah."

Old cats + kids who love to read is a great combination. http://twitpic.com/dn0ra5 

SNOW! when we got our tree today. Also: sledding, hot chocolate, a fire w/ marshmallow roasting, & wagon rides. http://twitpic.com/dn1aam 

A is defining an encyclopedia for C. #BornIn2007

Now that E and L's teacher knows how much I love laminating, she saves her laminating for when I volunteer.

I roasted a turkey yesterday. C was shocked. "You can make Thanksgiving dinner WHEN IT'S NOT THANKSGIVING?!"

I heave an exhausted sigh. C, unsympathetically, "Life is tough."

Me: "C, wake up. Time to get ready for school." Her, sleepily: "At least we have food for our jar of worms!"

We're re-reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe now that C is old enough to remember. It seems like it's the perfect season.

C chose her own clothes for the play we're seeing this afternoon. http://twitpic.com/dotwv4 

Andrew put C to bed with a thermometer. When I checked on her she was repeatedly checking her temperature: "96.7! 97.3! 97.1!"

I dropped the girls off at a sleepover & gave them the standard lecture:"You can call us anytime you need us & you'll never be in trouble."

Scenarios necessitating parental involvement were suggested until I was explaining why to never go with an abductor to a 2nd location.

Good Lord. I just went through the whole drug/alcohol/molestation/stranger danger talk in one 10 minute car ride. Beer me.

C is a serious Go Fish player. "COUGH. UP. YOUR. TWOS."

C can watch pretty much any "scary" movie scene, but covers her eyes at the Grinch's evil grin. "It's like he's lost his mind!"

A friend sent a Christmas card from "The Lastname's" and E spotted the incorrect apostrophe immediately. YES.

Best sous chef ever. I made the bacon, but she made the blueberry pancakes & cinnamon balls. http://twitpic.com/dpz8dq 

I got a "cows" board for for a present - a game we played on the mission station. http://twitpic.com/dpzeyk 

Oh nothing. Just addressing Christmas cards on Dec 26. And you know what? I don't really care. No guilt. Just doing what I can.

I hear, "HA-OOOOOO! HA-OOOOOO!" Me: "Who is howling?" C: "Man. I thought you'd think that was a real werewolf."

We're 15 minutes into Nat'l Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: "Don't say shit, don't say ass, don't give the middle finger."

CREEPIEST SNOWMAN EVER. http://twitpic.com/dq7j3v 

It may have been a while since I cleaned this particular cabinet. http://twitpic.com/dqbgl1 

Paint

I had Friday off from work, so I spent most of the day prepping the girls' bedroom for painting and beginning to paint. We got it all painted by Saturday afternoon and rewarded ourselves with sushi and wine. When we moved into our house, it was a deep plum. We repainted it a lighter purple in 2006. I say we, but it was really A. I had everything prepped and started painting and then suddenly this happened. Great timing, third child! Way to make your father paint a purple ceiling (twice!) all by himself!

The girls were eager to help paint, so I bought small rollers and they painted the long wall in their bedroom. Here are before and after pictures. C lost interest within ten minutes, but E and L were troopers and helped paint our bedroom the next day. It's nice that "helping" has become actual helping. I'm not a fan of plain white walls, but I agree with our realtor that it makes the room look brighter and cleaner. And if I'm a prospective buyer, I would think, "Oh, white is easy to paint over!" instead of seeing at least two layers of paint and a lot of work in my future.

Saturday A and I walked to an open house a few streets over. It was for a classic brick bungalow, a style that peppers our neighborhood. On paper it had everything we want/need: four bedrooms, backyard, maintenance free exterior. It had a few extras, too, like a screened-in porch, tons of storage, and a huge finished basement. It wasn't right for us, though, and neither of us fell in love with it. The kitchen was weird and the dining room was so tiny. There's no way our table would fit. I've been looking at homes online for months, so it's good to finally start seeing them in person.

We took C with us to the open house (she immediately wanted to buy the house so she could play with the My Little Ponies in one of the bedrooms. I had to remind her that the current owners would take their stuff) and left E and L home alone. We were gone for about 45 minutes and available by phone the whole time, but still. It's a whole new world opening up! The Y has a Safe On My Own class I think I'll have them take in the spring and they're the kind of kids that enjoy running over "What would you do?" scenarios, so we do that a lot. I wonder how much they'd remember in an actual emergency, though. 

(This is one of the huge pluses of having twins: I get to leave them TOGETHER. Safety in numbers!)

Sunday we put their room back together and started painting our bedroom. We got about 75% done before quitting last night. I'll finish it today, I hope. The girls have been sleeping in the basement while the paint dries so last night A and I slept in their room. It was reminiscent of our college years when I would visit him (we went to college in different states) and we would sleep in a single bed together. It sounds all cozy and intimate, but OMG, it was uncomfortable. Do not recommend. I'm looking forward to having our room finished and our queen bed back.

5K

E and I ran a 5K yesterday and she did a million times better than I thought she would. I am SO proud of her. We went in planning to walk/run, but we ran all the way to the first mile marker and she exclaimed, "Already?!" I think that motivated her to run more than walk and we only took a few short walk breaks as we neared the end of the race. Several times I said, "Okay, let's start running at [upcoming landmark]" and she would reply, "Let's start running NOW!" so we would. And whenever we spotted the mile markers she wanted to sprint until we reached it.

We finished in 41:15, a good 4-5 minutes faster than her Girls on the Run time. She takes after her father in that she loved running the race, but hated training. The training was boring, she said, but the race - especially since people are dressed in costumes - was fun. We had this exchange about it:

Me: "Doesn't it feel good to work hard and succeed?"

Her: "It feels HARD."

She said the last two miles got harder and harder and asked me, "Are they making the miles longer?" 

That afternoon, we went to our annual Halloween party and Karen took a picture of us in our costumes:

A dad at the party told me, "You guys are way cooler parents than we are." I'm sure that's not true, but a pat on the back from another parent is always appreciated.

We carved our pumpkins that night and then this morning A left for Dallas until Wednesday. The girls are off school this week, so we've got a few fun plans like seeing their friend in a community play and lying around watching movies. 

Pre-Halloween

L read a fact book that claimed 90% of parents have stolen candy from their kid's Halloween stash. I laughed and said, "In this house, it's 100%!" She and E were shocked and scandalized and have now planned to inventory their candy this year in order to prevent thievery.

Ninjas again for Halloween. They're doing their homework here.

A and I are dressing as ninjas, too, because they asked and when are they going to want to dress as a family theme again? 

FitBit

My birthday isn't until next month, but A gave me my present early: a fitbit. I love fitness gadgets - I've been using my heart rate monitor for years - and the fitbit is just as fun AND I can wear it all the time! There are statistics and graphs and goals! Yay! 

This is my graph from yesterday. It was a normal day - 10 hour shift, pick my kids up, home, eat dinner, go to bed. It wasn't even a particularly busy day at work, but I walk from the parking lot instead of taking the shuttle, take the stairs even when I'm mocked by my coworkers, etc. Five miles is about 10,000 steps, so that's my goal. It's easy to achieve on a day that I run, but more challenging when it's a slow day at work.

 

This is my graph from today. I was more active - I took a 45 minute step aerobics class this morning and then E and I ran a practice 5k in preparation for our neighborhood race next week. You can see the green lines on the graph. Those show where I was more active. 

I can log specific activities, too, and see more details. This is my log from my step class this morning.

I can wear the fitbit on my wrist and it tracks my sleep, too. This part is a bit more iffy to me. Really? It can track my sleep? I am giving it a skeptical side-eye. Here's the article explaining how it works. Regardless, it's more data and you know how I feel about that. (WOO!) Last night, I WAS awake at 1:30 because A was closing our window and turning on the fan to drown out the sounds of an enthusiastic house party where the goal seemed to be to shout at the top of your lungs. 

Feel free to judge my 9:40 going to bed time. I get up between 5:15-6 every day, so bedtime comes early for me. For the record, I feel SO GOOD now that I'm going to bed/getting up at the same time every day. I know that I could sleep in on my days off, but then I feel crappy the next time I have to wake up early. It works out well for my mind and body to keep a consistent sleep/wake schedule. All those health articles were right! Who knew?

The fitbit site also syncs to My Fitness Pal, so if you track your food through that site, it's super convenient. The sites talk to each other and MFP adjusts my daily calories if I'm more active than they thought I'd be.

It's wireless and will upload to your idevice/android device automatically. I don't have any of those, but I put a dongle (dirty!) in my computer and it automatically uploads when I'm within 20 feet.

Thumbs up, you guys. Add it to your Christmas wish list!

Differences

I picked the girls up from my in-laws' house yesterday and found L curled up on the couch with her grandparents. She looked flushed and glazed-eyed. I took her temperature when we got home: 101.1. 

E: "I'm sorry you got sick on the weekend, L. That stinks."

L: "I'm SO GLAD that I got sick on the weekend!"

Me: "Because you don't want to miss school?"

L: "YES."

Lice

Sigh. We had lice. Specifically, E and L had lice, generously donated from a school friend. Also, I am relieved to use the word HAD.

I know all the facts about lice - they prefer clean hair to dirty, lots of people have had encounters, you're not dirty/a bad parent if your kid gets lice - but most of my lice experience has been with patients who were living in squalor before coming to the hospital, so I've always felt a little . . . smug, like "That'll never happen to ME." I remember a friend saying casually, years ago, "Well, you know they'll get it one day, right?" and me being HORRIFIED. Pride before the fall, right? I'm much more humble now.

I'm telling you because life has taught me that honesty about struggles in the best policy. This is in context, of course. I cringe as much as you do at oversharing. (OMG, my fbook friend who shared about crapping in a port-a-potty! Really?) But when I tell people that yes, my twins are from IVF, I meet other people who struggled with infertility. When I tell people that yes, I struggle with food and exercise, I bond with other people who have those issues. So I'm telling you that my kids had lice, I survived, and I bet some of you did, too. I've already met some, like my lovely neighbor who loaned us her special lice comb and E and L's teacher who said both her kids have had lice.

I got the "There is lice in our class!" note home from school last week and did a quick head check, but didn't find anything. Later that week their teacher emailed to say E was scratching her head a lot and maybe I should recheck? I did and oh look! There are nits in my kid's hair! Honestly, you guys, I've done a lot of gross things in my job, but this was one of the grossest PERSONAL things I've had to do. I told L that picking nits out of her hair was the second grossest thing I've ever done for her - first place goes to childbirth, of course.

 Last weekend was a beautiful weekend, but I spent eight hours on Saturday and another eight hours on Sunday going through E and L's hair, inch by inch, in a variety of directions because sometimes a nit is only visible when the hair falls in a particular way. It was painful. My back killed. We watched at least five movies. A washed everything that could be washed, bagged up everything that couldn't be washed, and vacuumed the bejesus out of the house and furniture.

I'm doing nightly headchecks and we're still throwing all the bedclothes/towels in the dryer daily (heat kills nits) but they're lice-free as far as my incredibly detailed headchecks are concerned. The rest of us never got them, but I treated us all and have been checking our heads, too.

This is one of those experiences where I've always thought, "OH GOD I'LL NEVER LIVE THROUGH THAT!" and yet here I am, I've lived through it, I've learned a few things, and I'm much less judgmental when it comes to lice. I'm also completely traumatized. I don't know when I'll let my kids wear their hair down at school again and I can't casually run my hand over their head without obsessively checking for nits. 

Different

E was tired and crabby when we got home last night. She did the chores she need to - unpacked her backpack, fed the cats - and then collapsed on the couch. A few minutes later, I heard her say, "Stop it, L!" then a few seconds later, she shrieked angrily, "STOP IT, L!" 

I called L into the kitchen and said, "I heard E ask you nicely to stop doing whatever you were doing. Why did you keep going so she got angry and frustrated?"

L protested, all wide-eyed innocence, "But I was doing something different each time!"

She won't know until she's an adult how hard of a time I had keeping a straight face. Apparently, the first "Stop it!" was for smacking a butt, the second was for tickling.

That's Mr. Manager

Our kids use our office and our recycling to create a lot of mess and I try to remember that the mess is CREATIVE mess and soon they'll be out of the house and I'll be sad and then dead.

Right now the office is a store (I think it's selling doll outfits made from paper) and L sits in a chair with "MANAGER" on the back. I laughed at all three kids yesterday because we were out on errands and they were all wearing their homemade name tags identifying them as employees of their store.

When the store is closed, the office door is shut and there is a big "CLOSED" sign on it. But on the stove is my special pass allowing me entrance to our office even when the business is closed.

Twitter: August

My kids are dancing around our lawn singing, "RED! THE BLOOD OF ANGRY MEN!" You're welcome, neighbors!

I reminded E to pack for a grandparent overnight and she burst into tears. I'm not going to survive the teenage years.

C: "What's 100 plus 15?" Me: "115." Her: "WOAH."

Off they go! One 1st grader and two 4th graders. http://twitpic.com/d6zkz2 

A is showing the girls Monty Python and there's a lot of laughing and "That's funny! Can we watch that again?"

C lost a tooth without noticing. Now she has a gap and we have no idea where the tooth is. Silly kid.

C found a penny. "WOW! This was made in NINETEEN NINETY-THREE! That was so long ago!" *sigh*

C wanders into the room. She is nekkid. Me: "Where are your clothes, C?" She looks down, confused. "Oh!" and scampers off.

I made E's towel into a turban after her shower. She looked in the mirror and gasped, "I could be a MODEL!" Then she made a towel into a toga and announced, "I AM ROMAN!"

Me, affectionately, "E, what am I going to do with you?" Her: "Well, you'd better enjoy this age while you have it! When I'm 16 you'll say to yourself, 'I wish she was nine.'"

Of their own accord, my kids have all stripped naked and are screaming "NAKED TIME!" and playing tag, running through the house.

4th grade L will be in the adv 5th grade math group doing 6th grade work. And yet this morning she couldn't eat breakfast without getting huge blueberry stains over her shirt AND shorts. Kids: so smart and yet so dumb.

I had an excellent Come to Jesus talk with L yesterday. A says it will be the opening scene in the movie about her life.

I just put a bunch of Selena Gomez/Taylor Swift songs on E's mp3 player. Now she's using my phone to call a friend from school. WHAT.

We're heading to a fair to watch Juanito race his van in a demolition derby. We helped paint it!

I forgot to tell you that we saw security at the fair yesterday & L hissed in my ear, "The police! ACT NATURAL."

E won't stop talking about how much she loves Taylor Swift.

Due to her questioning attitude, L now knows what a hangover is.

I had to add more Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus to E's mp3 player today. Don't worry - I snuck in some R.E.M.

A let C wear this dress to church today (I was called into work). He said she got lots of indulgent smiles. http://twitpic.com/d7ot16 

Walking into the Y together. So freaking sweet. #sisters #twins http://twitpic.com/daej1a 

I can't believe how much I just spent so C's My Little Pony collection can include Shining Armor. It's for her birthday, but still.

E: "My favorite names are Keesha and Heather."

Me: "C, your tooth is hanging on by a thread!" Her, touching her tooth: "You see a THREAD?"

Toothless Student of the Month! She was so geeked. http://twitpic.com/db2ymx 

The girls packed their own suitcase for our trip and L said she was too old to need a stuffed animal.

A just sang Bohemian Rhapsody (ENTHUSIASTICALLY) for our kids. He's mine, ladies. STEP BACK.

Biking around Mackinac Island today! Way more fun than I expected. http://twitpic.com/dbgg3g 

Love is listening to C painstakingly recount multiple Spongbob episodes and feigning interest the whole time.

A let a neighbor into the house while I was peeing with the door open.

Picked the girls up from school for a dentist appt. E: "Caleb swallowed paper today."

Volunteered at school and was assigned laminating. BEST PARENT JOB EVER. I could laminate everything I own. Shirts! Shopping list! Children!

These girls are wearing sparkly hats and dancing around singing Taylor Swift. #tweens http://twitpic.com/dc9jzx 

We went to a work party on the lake. E rode a jet ski for almost the entire time. I ate way too many delicious smoked ribs.

We finished The Hobbit. Starting on Island of the Blue Dolphins.

It's okay. I've washed, dried, and put away ALL THE LAUNDRY IN THE WORLD. Yours is done, too.