Circus

Today we took the kids to the circus. We had amazing seats and the show was outstanding. Jason and the kids absolutely loved it. They performed a lot of pretty unbelievable magic tricks and there were tons of performing clowns. I managed to sit through the entire show without being freaked out by the clowns and annoyed by the magic :) Had a mime shown up, I think I would have broken out in hives. Thankfully the kids are like Jason and loved every minute of it!
Bella loved the acrobatics. She was a little leery of the tigers and was relieved to see they were behind the chain link fence. Amelia loved the elephants and was super excited when one of the circus performers waived right at her. Will "barked" while the dancing dogs performed. He had so much fun that he fell asleep at intermission.

Princess Jasmine

Jason returned from his recent trip and brought these beautiful scarves home for the girls . Bella told him before he left she wanted a scarf like Princess Jasmine. They would only put them on long enough for me to take a couple of pictures. Of course they were "too itchy" and immediately came off. Jason had dinner at the palace while he was gone and Bella wanted to know all about the Prince and Princess. I think she thinks it actually like a Disney movie.

early bird gets the worm

I was up at 4AM today for preschool registration. Absolutely ridiculous. There are a lot of things I would willingly wake up at 4 AM - Kegs & Eggs, Black Friday shopping back in the day, work, concert tickets, even a trip to the gym. Preschool registration is definitely not something I looked forward to. It is insane. Parents camp out in the parking lot all night so they can be first in line to sign up for registration. I was so nervous about sleeping through my alarms I woke up several times last night to check what time it was.

Today I pulled in at 4:50 and see three other cars just sitting there. Several other cars continue to pull in and still we just sit there. No one wanted to get out of their cars and people continued to pull in. I was definitely not going to be up at 4 AM to end up 25th in line when you were finally allowed to sign in. Even more insane. I got out of the car and went and stood by the door. Of course every other single person in the parking lot decided to exit as soon as I did. A line of 15 or so people formed immediately and cars continued to pull in the parking lot. One of the Dad's was super grouchy about being up so early and told me he was the first one there. And he was signing in first. He also knew who was second and third and they were going in front of me too. Total Oscar the Grouch. I smiled politely and said "Absolutely. When your wife is first to register this morning you can thank me for getting out of my car and forming an actual line while you were still waiting in your car." The pre-school director came at 5:45, I signed in and went home to wait for the actual registration at 9AM.

I did get both girls registered and it only took 15 minutes. I even got all the days I wanted for both of them. Waiting in line early this morning was worth it. Totally insane but worth it. There were at least 45 people waiting when I left. I know they were all waiting longer than an hour. Maybe next year I'll have to be there at 4AM. Or maybe I'll just ask Jason to go.

weekend trip

This past weekend I went to Nashville to visit some of my friends from high school. It was so nice to get a break from the kids for the day! Jenny and Sara are also pregnant and due about 6 weeks before me. It was nice to talk and compare pregnancy stories and visit with everyone. We met the boys downtown in the afternoon and had a great time.

Gloria

Tonight Bella was in the bathroom with me while I was getting ready for bed. Not unusual because I rarely do anything at home without company. Bella was chatting away. I didn't think she was paying that much attention to what I was doing when I put my pajamas on.

All of a sudden I hear, "Mommy, you look just like Gloria!"

I have absolutely no idea who this Gloria person actually is. I'm wondering if looking like her is a good or bad thing? I know my four year old and she says exactly what she thinks. Even though Bella was extrememly excited about my resemblence to "Gloria", I'm a little scared for the visual image.

Bella is totally serious when she says, "Mommy, you look just like Gloria. You know, the Hippo from Madagascar 2. We watched it yesterday while you were gone."

Of course. Gloria. The HIPPO from Madagascar. Even more flattering than I imagined. I couldn't even hold back my laughter. What pregnant woman doesn't want to be told she looks like this?

old school

Jason and I have recently been discussing our "life plan". Currently we are trying to figure out where Jason will attend grad school and our next station after grad school is completed. As of now our hope is to move home while Jason attends OSU. We are currently discussing the timeline and trying to figure out where we would be able to find a nice house to rent. I'm a little leery but I know with some work and research, it can be accomplished. Jason is very thorough with all phases of planning and usually has several spreadsheets with all his current research on every option listed. Grad school has been no exception. He has already started looking at real estate to get an idea of what the market is like.

The other day Jason was on the computer and told me he was looking at houses for rent. He had found several large houses with 5,6 even 8 bedrooms. All were newly remodeled. Wow. I was impressed and interested to see what he had come up with. I decided to take a look. I see several large, fully brick older homes. There's something distinctly familiar about these houses. I asked him for the addresses and he rattles off 12th, 13th, 14th Avenues, Chittenden and Indianola. All were off-campus houses for OSU. I looked at him and asked if he's serious. His reply, "What's the matter with off-campus housing? It's close to campus and would be really accessible." I couldn't even hold back my laughter.

I'm pretty sure at 30, with four small children, off campus housing isn't the place for us. I know the keg parties, bar hopping and "after hours" are pretty hard to pass up. (Especially for someone that never experienced them the first time around:) It was a lot of fun in my early 20s but I don't think I'm really ready to be known as the "old neighbors". I think I'm going to have to put my foot down and insist on a more suitable family neighborhood. Definitely one that does not have "off campus housing" mentioned in the advertisement.

Valentine's Weekend

We had an enjoyable, busy Valentine's weekend. Bella had a party at school on Friday and exchanged Valentine's with all her friends. She brought home a handmade heart bag filled with lots of goodies.

Friday night Jason and I had to attend a "Hail and Farewell" party. Our wonderful neighbors Susan and Troy came over to watch the little ones. The girls played "beauty shop" with Miss Susan and Amelia couldn't have enough ponytails. They also had a "pink party" complete with pink milk, pink ice cream and my all-time favorite, Lofthouse cookies with the pink frosting. Delicious. Truth be told, I might have skipped the night out if I knew the cookies were going to make an appearance. Will is now addicted to pink milk and stands at the refrigerator door screeching for more.


On Saturday we went to Build A Bear for Valentine's Day. Bella also wanted to jump on the giant trampoline in the mall. Amelia was all harnessed and ready to go and then decided at the last minute she would rather watch. Maybe one day. Speaking of Amelia, she has recently become interested in identifying body parts. I'm not talking the basics: ears, nose, mouth, etc. She's had those down for quite some time. She's more interested the specific male and female parts and telling me if someone is a girl or boy. Lately her favorite is "boobies" (she's definitely not a stickler for proper terminology) and she's more than happy to point yours out. Consider this a warning. I can hardly wait until she reaches the "big" and "small" identifying phase like Bella. I think I'm going to be hoping for that giant hole to swallow me again.

just call me Grace

It is no secret that I am not the most coordinated person in the world. I am a huge klutz. I have fallen more times than I care to remember and have had more bruises and cuts than I can count. Down stairs, up stairs, out of my own shoes, off of a curb. I am the type of person that can just be walking a long and trip over absolutely nothing. My biggest fear at my wedding was tripping as I walked up the aisle..a good possibility in the heels and huge dress. My lack of grace was the original reason I was enrolled in dance class all those years ago.

I was hoping the klutziness would stop with just me and was pleasantly surprised to see how coordinated Bella was. From a young age she could run without tripping over her own two feet and rarely has bumps or bruises. Maybe there is hope after all.

Amelia on the other hand is a different story. She unfortunately inherited her coordination from her mother. She also runs everywhere and trips on her own two feet in fast motion. She has had bruises, black eyes, scraped knees and a pretty fierce scar on her cheek that she received when she fell off the side of our completely still treadmill. She has fallen off the kitchen chairs numerous times. It's a now you see her now you don't kind of thing. While it really isn't funny I have to try really hard not to laugh whenever she does it. I can't help it. I have flashbacks to a good friend of mine falling out of a bar stool on two different occasions. Both times she reached down for her purse and hit the floor instead. The first time I was in complete shock and couldn't even move. The second, I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. This is the gracefulness I see in Amelia's future.

Yesterday we were cleaning up the toyroom when she tripped over the carpet. Yes, carpet. She wasn't exactly walking on an uneven surface with debris in her way. She tripped on the carpet and fell into one of the pillars. Amelia has a lovely purple bump and left a good sized dent and crack in the pillar. (I should point out this is the second pillar she has put a hole in with her head.) I'm beginning to wonder if they make those sumo-wrestling suits in children's sizes or if I should stick with good old fashioned bubble wrap and a helmet.

are you kidding me.

I failed to mention in yesterday's post about our weekend events, that the kids ONCE again have picked up a virus. Quite frankly, I was too furious to even type the words "sick" or "virus". Are you freaking kidding me?!? They have been sick all winter!! We brought this lovely virus home with us from the pediatrician's office. A place that I honestly dread going. I love our pediatrician but very few doctors in this area have "sick" and "well" rooms. We are all forced into one main room and I know it is a melting pot of viruses and germs.

I also feel that for the majority most parents check their common sense at the door upon entering. If you're sitting in the office you too are obviously sick and who cares if my kid coughs, sneezes or licks their snot in front of you. (the last of course has me close to losing it.) This is one of my biggest pet peeves ever. If your kids are sick, please keep them away from mine. I would think it would be obvious I don't want whatever you are at the doctor trying to get rid of. I always take separate books and games for the kids to play with and we sit huddled in a corner anxiously waiting to get back to a sterile environment. They know when we walk into the office they are absolutely not allowed to play with the community toys and it is the one place they do not have to share.

Monday we sat in said corner for a well visit, when Chatty Cathy and her three sick kids came into the office. Chatty Cathy's are my absolute worst nightmare in a pediatrician's office. They talk your ear off listing all the reasons for the visit and let their kids take over the entire waiting room while they pretend not to see them. (Again, in my opinion a pediatrician's office is not a place to make friends.) I don't think Chatty Cathy came up for air until her youngest child tried to climb in the stroller with Will, coughing and sneezing all over him. Then she actually stopped talking and said "I bet you don't want us to share our germs with you." Seriously. If she was in close proximity like her child, it would have been difficult for me not to slap her. In the few minutes we were stuck in the waiting room, Chatty Cathy told me said children had fevers of 100 for two days, had really runny noses and a horrible cough. She thought they had a stomach virus. She is also going through a divorce, has 6 children and is having trouble potty training the 5, 4 and 2year old. Now, I'm no pediatrician but I'm pretty sure snot/cough does not equal stomach virus. And I'm also pretty sure that viruses can't be treated with antibiotics. Again, I'm not an MD. I do like to think I graduated from the school of common sense and a mere 48 hours is not going to get you the antibiotic you came for. Thank you for sharing your germs with the rest of us. I personally can't wait for my kids to be sick. Again.

Needless to say we went to the pediatrician's office finally healthy and 72 hours later developed 102 degree fevers, snotty noses and horrible coughs. Bella did not go to school on Friday and will be missing dance tomorrow which irritates me beyond belief. I'm not a perfect parent but I do try to make a conscious effort not to expose other children to our germs when we are sick. My only hope is that someday other parents, especially those in the pediatrician waiting rooms, feel the same.