A Thursday Funny

Bubby received a toy bear from (Great) Aunt Carol for his birthday.  When you press the bear's hand it sings "Anchors Aweigh," and Ford immediately starts be-bopping (he'll even be-bop if you start singing it a cappella, or, heck, if you sing any song at all; pretty much anything and everything makes him be-bop).

Now the term 'be-bop' sounds awkward, because I've typed it too many times.

Anyway, this bear is a big hit in our house.  Lorelei had the song stuck in her head earlier this week, specifically when we were wheeling around Target.  She would constantly (loudly) break out with, "Anchors aweigh, my boys; an-CHORS a-WEIGH!"  It was extremely motivating.

Those are the only words of the song that Lorelei is sure of.  Sydney, on the other hand, has retained more of the lyrics, and my favorite part is when she sings, "Through our last night ashore, drink to the FOAM!"  She has no idea what she's singing about.

Below is the version of the song that our bear sings (there is more than one version):

Anchors Aweigh, my boys,
Anchors Aweigh.
Farewell to college joys,
We sail at break of day-ay-ay-ay.
Through our last night ashore,
Drink to the foam,
All 'round the world it's U.S. Navy forever strong.
U.S. Navy forever strong!

I think the lesson learned here is that you should break out in song whenever the urge strikes you; even when you aren't sure of or don't understand the lyrics.  Why not?

(By the way, even though the bear sings this song throughout the day at our house, this is not the song currently stuck in my head.  The song currently stuck in my head is the theme song from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" which is extremely catchy.)

Is there a song you can't get out of your head today?

When Motherhood Prepares You to Rule the World...

...or to at least direct the 87th Academy Awards, or something equally as complicated and requiring just as much managing and lightening-fast thinking on your feet.

The day started off innocently enough.  Sydney hitched a ride to school with our next-door-neighbor, and Lorelei, Ford, and I prepared for a pretty intense grocery shopping trip to the commissary.  (The reason it was intense is because we had little to eat in the house.  I tried to make the girls share the last turkey hot dog yesterday morning as the protein part of their breakfast, but they politely declined, even after I offered them a piece of chocolate in exchange for eating said hot dog.  Which meant that I had the pleasure of eating the last turkey hot dog for breakfast.  And that was yesterday morning, not this morning.  I can't even remember what any of us ate for breakfast this morning.)

By the way, my last trip to the grocery store was last Sunday, not six months ago.  WHO KEEPS EATING ALL THE FOOD?!?!

Anyway, we went to the grocery store, Ford fell asleep on the way home, and I let him stay in the warm car snoozing (keep in mind it's 30-ish degrees outside here, that's why the car was warm) while Lorelei and I began to unload the groceries.

On my first trip from the car to the front door I was carrying my diaper bag and two grocery bags, which included Sydney's sushi (for lunch), eggs, and some chips.  We made it into the front door...and I dropped the eggs.

The carton was still inside of the plastic grocery bag, but I knew as soon as I heard them hit the ground that it wasn't good.  Sure enough, nine of twelve eggs were cracked.

What do you do with eight cracked eggs (one was a lost cause)?  I'll tell you (isn't that why you're reading this blog in the first place?)!

But before you do anything with the eggs, you finish carrying the groceries from the car to the house, quickly put away the cold items, shove the non-perishable items into the corner so that you can put them away later, try to make room on the limited counter space of your 5' x 5' kitchen (yes, you read that right) which still held this morning's dirty breakfast dishes (proof that we actually consumed breakfast this morning!), and retrieve Ford from the car.  Thankfully, Ford seems happy to crawl around the house while you direct your attention to dealing with the eggs, and Lorelei is who knows where doing lawd only knows...

Bad lighting, but tell me it doesn't look like a bomb went off in there.

You scramble the four most broken eggs, and serve them to Lorelei for lunch, along with a bowl of Trix that she talked you into buying at the commissary.  Since Lorelei cannot eat four scrambled eggs, you heat up last night's leftover spaghetti noodles and toss the rest of the scrambled eggs on top for your own lunch.  (Why are you even concerned with eating lunch yourself right now?  Because you are starving, and might start yelling at unsuspecting children if you don't elevate your blood sugar levels quickly.)  As you scarf down your own lunch, you make frequent trips into the dining room to tend to the needs of Queen Lorelei (help me get the last bite of eggs! I need a spoon! more cereal, please!), and then help her clean her hands and mouth once she's finished.

Amidst all this, you have managed to use another egg to make a batch of blueberry muffins that you will serve for breakfast tomorrow (not from scratch, of course, from a box -- just add milk and one egg!).  You smell something suspicious, realize that Ford is looking quite satisfied, and pick him up so that he doesn't end up with a leaky diaper and in need of a clothing change.  You hear Lorelei shout, "I'm finished!" from the upstairs bathroom (I swear, children love making "poop" pacts), and prepare to head upstairs to help her and to change Ford's diaper.  But, wait!  There are only two minutes left until the muffins are done, so it would be silly to head upstairs yet!  You holler at Lorelei that you'll "be right up!" and watch the timer count down to zero.  You remove the muffins from the oven, sprint upstairs with Ford under one arm, strap him to the changing table and put a bottle of milk in his hands to prevent screaming and escaping, head to the bathroom to help Lorelei complete her own business, and then return to Ford's room to change stinky man's diaper.

Before this, and while the blueberry muffins were cooking, you were able to use another egg to make a (boxed) batch of corn muffins, which you will serve for dinner tonight with...something.  Canned chili?  As soon as you took the blueberry muffins out of the oven, you put the corn muffins in to start baking, dealt with the poop pact, then headed back downstairs to feed Ford a quick lunch before heading out to pick Sydney and the neighbor up from school.

During this time you decide to use the last two cracked eggs to make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough (this time from scratch!).  I (I'm switching back to personal pronouns now) looked at my go-to recipe...and realized I had no brown sugar.  So I Googled, "substitute for brown sugar."  Excellent!  You can use the same amount of white sugar, but add two tablespoons of molasses per substituted cup.  But, wait...I had no molasses either.  Google's answer to "substitute for molasses" was using equal parts honey, dark corn syrup, or maple syrup (maple syrup it is!), but warned that it wouldn't have the same "robust flavor as molasses."  Fine by me, seeing as I only needed molasses because I didn't have any brown sugar on hand.  I love Google.

By this time it was 12:10, and I needed to clean up Ford and get everyone into jackets and out the door so that we could pick up Sydney at 12:30.  So I waited to start making the cookie dough until we were home from school.  Right now, as I type, the cookie dough is complete (no baked cookies yet), Lorelei and Ford are napping, and Sydney is next door playing.  The kitchen still looks like a bomb went off (I decided to write this blog post rather than clean and stow non-perishable groceries), but since the egg incident, the day has settled back into its normal groove.

Well, that's all I have, I suppose.  Apparently, according to the title of this blog post, dropping a carton of eggs on the floor and dealing with the aftermath qualifies you to run for President.  If you  made it this far -- thanks for reading!

Speaking of reading, this morning I finished a novel called Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead, about the world or professional ballet.  It was excellent -- I highly recommend it.

Happy Tuesday!

Fashion

It's been a while since I've done a "fashion" post, so let's do it!

I often say that I think both Sydney and Lorelei have fashion knowledge and foresight that I do not possess.  However, they've both been pushing the envelope lately.

Lorelei's never met a pattern she doesn't love and doesn't insist on pairing with several other patterns:

Her love for dance and gymnastics clothing outweighs her love of patterns though:

Apparently she's into makeup now too:

Sydney, on the other hand, is in a monochromatic stage with clothing these days:

ALL pink.  Too bad I didn't snap a picture of her on Sunday, when she wore ALL brown to a birthday party (she was calling herself "brownie").

She's gone from owning zero to three Elsa/"Frozen" dresses in the last four weeks.  The one below she bought with her own Christmas money in Orlando at our hotel's gift shop (more on that later).  The pink "Frozen" dress in the above picture, and another dress (not yet pictured -- I'll snap one ASAP) are from Grammy for Christmas/birthday, and are super snazzy.

Don't let the fact that she's wearing Chet's combat boots be lost on you.

Syd and Bubby were both wearing plum purple the other day, which was festive:

But sometimes she gets it just right (in my own, non-fashion-forward, and possibly boring, opinion):

And Bubby obviously wears whatever I put him in:

Is there nothing cuter than a baby in a puffer vest?!

Salmon-colored sweatshirt and blue cords:

 One-pieced outfits are my very favorite, especially if they are sweater material, like this one:

A little hard to see, but this is an old-school-looking turtleneck.  It accentuated his red, dry-from-the-winter-weather cheeks all day long:

And then, of course, he wears things like birthday bows on his head, courtesy of two big sisters:

Happy Thursday!

Sydney is FIVE!

Yesterday our first baby turned five-years old -- happy birthday, Sydney Jo!

On one hand it's hard to believe, but on the other, it's completely believable that five years have already passed.  I won't say that Sydney is "exactly like me," because she's not, she's her own person, but she and I are definitely cut from the same cloth.  It makes our mother-daughter relationship both a breeze and a wee bit frustrating.  A breeze in that I feel like I really know her and where's she's coming from, and a wee bit frustrating in that...well, you know how it can be in the company of someone who is exactly like you (picture proverbial head butting).  I told my mom (who is in town visiting -- more on that later) that absolutely nothing that Sydney does or says surprises me, but sometimes I look at Lorelei (who is NOT exactly like me) and I think, "Who are you?! What's going on in that little head of yours?"

Anyway.

Sydney is five, and she is a terrific little girl.  Smart, funny, helpful, silly, precise, and with a memory like a steel trap.  Some of her favorite things include:
1. Performing hand motions to songs in the children's church choir
2. Picking up her brother and sister
3. Diapering and dressing her dolls and stuffed animals
4. Drawing pictures for and writing notes to who anyone who may cross her mind
5. Mastering the remote control

She goes to preschool (Pre-K, technically) four mornings a week, Monday through Thursday.  She used to take gymnastics, and loves and misses it.  She goes to ballet class on Friday afternoons, and especially loves learning the routine the class will perform at the May recital.  She doesn't nap very often anymore (since she has proven she can control her tiredness by not having meltdowns at the end of the day), but I usually make her nap on Thursday afternoons.  I tell her it's because she needs to rest up for ballet the next day, ha.

It's impossible to tell you all about Sydney in a single blog post, so we'll end things here.  Chet and I can now say our children are 5, 3, and 1, which is sort of fun and a lot more streamlined than "4 1/2, just turned 3, and 9 months."  Sydney is the best first born and oldest sibling for our family (duh!  God doesn't make mistakes!), and we love her more each day!

'Tis the Season...

...for the sickies. And I really don't even like that non-word (just like I don't like the words "snuggle" or "preggo"--which is actually another non-word), but "the sickies" have invaded our home this past weekend, and I'm not yet convinced they're gone.

I'll spare you the details, but I'll just say that four of us have experienced GI issues in one way or another starting with Ford in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday. He was pretty much over it by late morning on Saturday (a 6-hour bug!), but then Sydney and I were sick all day Monday (I laid in bed 90% of the day, and by late afternoon my body was ACHING from inactivity). Thankfully Chet was off work Monday, and kept the household humming while I let my muscles atrophy in bed. I'm sure he was looking forward to getting the heck out of here and back to work, but the sickness ("sickies") hit him early this morning, and he's been out of it all day (he even stayed home from work--RARE!). Sydney and I were both fine by this morning, so I was able to take over running things. So far Lorelei has been spared, but Chet and I have a $1,000,000 bet going that she starts puking any minute (I think she will, Chet things she won't--I hope he's right!).

Since no post is complete without pictures, here is the hopefully-not-sick little girl helping me fold clothes just a little while ago:

Hmm, she doesn't look sick...

Check out that pile she folded a little more closely:

Anyway, I suppose this post was to let you know we're still alive and (semi) well. My friend Casey called me out for not posting, and since I love to e-stalk as much as she does, I though I'd write something that will hopefully entertain you for at least five minutes.

Happy...Tuesday? I have no idea what day it is...

2015 Reading Challenge

Happy Friday!

I'm joining Modern Mrs. Darcy for her 2015 Reading Challenge.  I love this challenge because it's so flexible, and I'm looking forward to finding books that fit into each category!

Right now I'm reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  This book fits into several categories for me (hence the flexibility of the challenge), but I'm going to file it under "Books I've Been Meaning to Read."  I actually own a hard copy of the book and have started reading it several times, but have never gotten very far.  I'm not sure why...

Do you have any suggestions/recommendations for any of the categories?  I need to ask my mom for a short list of some of her favorite books... ;-)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday!

Well, hello there!

Obviously, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, but first I'm going to say happy (belated) first birthday to our baby boy! I can't believe he turned a year old yesterday--time really does fly.

We think Ford is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can't imagine our family without him, and I feel like I've known him my whole life (I felt the same way the day he was born).

Happy 1st birthday, Bubby!

I will do my best to catch you up on our Christmas break, but I may grant myself the grace to move forward without posting perfectly crafted blog posts, because life just doesn't slow down.

I will say I'm tired of all the bleeding though. By that I mean, as you can probably see in the picture above, Ford has a war wound over his right eye, which he acquired mere hours before we had to catch a train to Florida. The ER folks glued him back together. While in West Palm Beach, I incurred a puncture wound when I dropped a pair of kitchen shears on my ankle. I bled like a stuck pig for about a minute, then it stopped, only to reveal the tiniest puncture wound you ever did (or didn't) see. I was sore the next day, but, thankfully, no glue or stitches. Yesterday Sydney bit her lip in a sliding accident (we're still trying to get the full story) that had her bleeding quite profusely too. Chet thinks one of her top teeth might be loose, but the jury's still out on that one. No glue or stitches for her either.

School started back yesterday, but we're all staying home today due to this:

Happy snow day! Chaos ensues here--gotta go!