Well, Allie's been excluded. Kids in her class have just this year begun having big birthday parties where classmates are invited. Allie went to her first big party in January, which included getting her hair and nails done at a local beauty school, followed by a pizza party. There are 9 girls in her class and 12 girls attended that party, so it was obviously inclusive.
This week, one of her classmates handed out birthday party invitations to, according to Allie, all of the girls in the class except her. The invitations were distributed right in front of her.
Allie said she asked the birthday girl if there was an invitation for her and she was told that she'd bring one the next day. That hasn't happened and obviously, I don't care if she goes or not. But Allie does.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
It should be round like a sausage and come out in an S-shape
We've been watching a lot of episodes lately of two shows from BBC America, "You Are What You Eat," and "How Clean Is Your House?"
The "How Clean" show is pretty straightforward, two lady cleaners who wear pearls and feathers on their rubber gloves find the most disgusting homes across England and clean them. We're talking seriously gross, including one woman who had a ton of slug trails under her living room couch and another who let her 11 pet birds fly loose in the lounge (living room), crapping and urinating on every surface. Most of the participants seem like borderline hoarders, or out and out hoarders. They remind me of Dan's stories about his neighbor, Eric.
The "You Are What" show features a woman named Gillian who's a nutritionist. She tackles individuals and families who are overweight and who eat unhealthily and tries to convert them, over six weeks, into people who love natural and organic foods and love their veg. People in the U.K. seem unable to produce the entire word, "vegetables."
Both shows seem to have an unnatural fascination with poop. They both call it "poo," which is so cutesy as to be silly. The cleaning ladies love to describe in detail how feces are coating every inch of people's bathrooms and the nutritionist said the quote in my title. She added, "It should still be attached to your bottom when it hits the water in the loo." In every show, she has people take a crap into a plastic container so she can open it later in front of them and comment on how she can tell they eat nothing but fatty and sugary foods from the look and the smell of their poop. She goes on at great length about how stinky things are.
I think I'll leave my comments at that.
The "How Clean" show is pretty straightforward, two lady cleaners who wear pearls and feathers on their rubber gloves find the most disgusting homes across England and clean them. We're talking seriously gross, including one woman who had a ton of slug trails under her living room couch and another who let her 11 pet birds fly loose in the lounge (living room), crapping and urinating on every surface. Most of the participants seem like borderline hoarders, or out and out hoarders. They remind me of Dan's stories about his neighbor, Eric.
The "You Are What" show features a woman named Gillian who's a nutritionist. She tackles individuals and families who are overweight and who eat unhealthily and tries to convert them, over six weeks, into people who love natural and organic foods and love their veg. People in the U.K. seem unable to produce the entire word, "vegetables."
Both shows seem to have an unnatural fascination with poop. They both call it "poo," which is so cutesy as to be silly. The cleaning ladies love to describe in detail how feces are coating every inch of people's bathrooms and the nutritionist said the quote in my title. She added, "It should still be attached to your bottom when it hits the water in the loo." In every show, she has people take a crap into a plastic container so she can open it later in front of them and comment on how she can tell they eat nothing but fatty and sugary foods from the look and the smell of their poop. She goes on at great length about how stinky things are.
I think I'll leave my comments at that.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Signs of the times
You know that it's been a long winter when your kids don't even want to go out and play in the snow any more.
Julia will go outside if we make her, and within a few minutes, she says her mittens are wet, her hands are cold and she wants to come in and watch a movie. Julia relishes when Allie's busy or away, because it means she normally gets control of what's on TV.
Not to say that my kids watch a lot of TV. Of course not, I'm so offended that you think that! Regardless, there's a clear distinction in our house between "Allie's shows" and "Julia's shows." Julia sees snow play days as her opportunity to watch DragonTales or Sesame Street.
And since Allie is a lot tougher than Julia, Allie will stay outside and play in the snow. We know that Allie is snow tough after this winter. She doesn't even blink when she has to walk home on the edge of the street because the sidewalks aren't negotiable (yes, she's been carefully trained).
Our newspaper has taken to spouting that there's less than 30 days to wait until spring. It was -6 degrees yesterday. The tulips had better stay in hiding!
Julia will go outside if we make her, and within a few minutes, she says her mittens are wet, her hands are cold and she wants to come in and watch a movie. Julia relishes when Allie's busy or away, because it means she normally gets control of what's on TV.
Not to say that my kids watch a lot of TV. Of course not, I'm so offended that you think that! Regardless, there's a clear distinction in our house between "Allie's shows" and "Julia's shows." Julia sees snow play days as her opportunity to watch DragonTales or Sesame Street.
And since Allie is a lot tougher than Julia, Allie will stay outside and play in the snow. We know that Allie is snow tough after this winter. She doesn't even blink when she has to walk home on the edge of the street because the sidewalks aren't negotiable (yes, she's been carefully trained).
Our newspaper has taken to spouting that there's less than 30 days to wait until spring. It was -6 degrees yesterday. The tulips had better stay in hiding!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Julia and Jaden, June 2029
On Friday night, we were driving home from having a belated Valentine's Day dinner in town. I asked Allie if she has a boyfriend these days and she said yes. I asked if she got a valentine from him and she said yes. Then Julia spoke up and said that she had a boyfriend. Julia has a pretty limited social circle when it comes to boyfriend candidates. There's the kids at our family daycare. There's the kids she sees at preschool one morning a week (four boys, based on the valentine list we processed). And there's the kids she sees at tumbling class (three boys).
Not surprisingly, Julia said that her boyfriend was Jaden, our daycare provider's son. Julia and Jaden have been raised together since 10 weeks after Julia was born, so there's a bit of an incestuous whiff about their relationship, but anyway. Julia said that she and Jaden were going to live together in his house, that his mom was going to cook food for them, and when they needed money, Jaden was going to drive his (electric-powered kid-size) four wheeler down to the drivethru at the bank. Julia said she was going to get two suckers each time they visited and Jaden would get one.
Greg and I have firm opinions about marriage. We don't think either of our girls should jump into anything until they're at least age 25. Unfortunately, Julia wants the wedding. Thank goodness, all area reception halls are booked for the next 21 years, because she's ready.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Public service announcement
Yesterday morning, a friend of ours called to say she had a strong smell of natural gas in her house. She was waiting for the gas company to arrive.
Turns out, the problem was that her gas meter was completely buried by snow. That meant a regulator with some kind of exhaust valve couldn't work properly, so natural gas built up under her siding and entered her house.
We know about making sure our furnace pipes aren't clogged by snow (nowadays they come out the side of the house instead of the chimney), but I'd never heard this one.
In other public service news, we have now broken the record for snowfall in one winter. They've been tracking this stuff for 138 years and we have now had more snow than any other winter, over 79 inches. It's snowing right now. It's supposed to snow again on Thursday. I give up.
Turns out, the problem was that her gas meter was completely buried by snow. That meant a regulator with some kind of exhaust valve couldn't work properly, so natural gas built up under her siding and entered her house.
We know about making sure our furnace pipes aren't clogged by snow (nowadays they come out the side of the house instead of the chimney), but I'd never heard this one.
In other public service news, we have now broken the record for snowfall in one winter. They've been tracking this stuff for 138 years and we have now had more snow than any other winter, over 79 inches. It's snowing right now. It's supposed to snow again on Thursday. I give up.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Julia's New Swimsuit
Because we always buy her new swimsuits when it gets -10 degrees below.
She wore this around the house all morning, by the way.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Julia's ready, Mom - not so much
This week, before the storm of the so-far-at-least century, we registered Julia for kindergarten. I swear that she was just born about three years ago, so this was quite a development.
Ok, ok, so she's four and a half. She'll be 5 in July, so that means we can send her to school in September. I don't think I'm going to handle this particularly well. It was one thing to send Allie to school, since I had another little one at home, and I knew I wasn't done with that stage of having little ones. But now we're facing Julia being in school too. It's a whole different world.
She's excited. She wants to go to Allie's school and needless to say, Allie is practically panting to show her the ropes, to tell her how everything works, and to show off her school world. This morning, Julia disappeared upstairs and came back down dressed in summer clothing (sitting out still because of our Disney trip) and wearing her Tinkerbell backpack from her last birthday.
She marched around the house singing a song about summer and I had to smile. She looked so grown up. My little girl is going to be a kindergartener. I have less than 7 months to adjust to this idea. I think it's going to take longer than that.
Ok, ok, so she's four and a half. She'll be 5 in July, so that means we can send her to school in September. I don't think I'm going to handle this particularly well. It was one thing to send Allie to school, since I had another little one at home, and I knew I wasn't done with that stage of having little ones. But now we're facing Julia being in school too. It's a whole different world.
She's excited. She wants to go to Allie's school and needless to say, Allie is practically panting to show her the ropes, to tell her how everything works, and to show off her school world. This morning, Julia disappeared upstairs and came back down dressed in summer clothing (sitting out still because of our Disney trip) and wearing her Tinkerbell backpack from her last birthday.
She marched around the house singing a song about summer and I had to smile. She looked so grown up. My little girl is going to be a kindergartener. I have less than 7 months to adjust to this idea. I think it's going to take longer than that.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
No school again!
Allie didn't have school yesterday because of the enormous snowstorm that came through our area. Madison, north of us, got 13.3 inches. Orfordville, south of us, got 21. So we got somewhere in between, probably about 16 inches.
So school is closed again today. When I was a kid, we seemed to get many bigger storms than nowadays, but I don't ever remember having school cancelled two days in a row.
Hey, that's nothing. Several semi trucks had trouble negotiating a hill east of our town and they blocked the interstate. They blocked the interstate for several hours. How many? Oh, about 12 hours. People ran out of gas, and rescuers on snowmobiles checked to make sure people were OK. The governor sent the National Guard, who came in Humvees and 5-ton trucks and passed out water and military rations. 500 cars, 19 miles of backup.
And they said in the paper this morning, well, we couldn't stop more people from getting onto the interstate. We didn't have enough officers to block every on ramp and exit. You know what, park a city vehicle there! What stupidity.
I am so thankful that Greg didn't go to work yesterday. Allie and Julia went to daycare and I went to work, and barely made it the three miles back across town home.
We survived the storm of '08. And it's supposed to snow tomorrow!
So school is closed again today. When I was a kid, we seemed to get many bigger storms than nowadays, but I don't ever remember having school cancelled two days in a row.
Hey, that's nothing. Several semi trucks had trouble negotiating a hill east of our town and they blocked the interstate. They blocked the interstate for several hours. How many? Oh, about 12 hours. People ran out of gas, and rescuers on snowmobiles checked to make sure people were OK. The governor sent the National Guard, who came in Humvees and 5-ton trucks and passed out water and military rations. 500 cars, 19 miles of backup.
And they said in the paper this morning, well, we couldn't stop more people from getting onto the interstate. We didn't have enough officers to block every on ramp and exit. You know what, park a city vehicle there! What stupidity.
I am so thankful that Greg didn't go to work yesterday. Allie and Julia went to daycare and I went to work, and barely made it the three miles back across town home.
We survived the storm of '08. And it's supposed to snow tomorrow!
Monday, February 04, 2008
Tripping to Disney - long version
So we took the girls to Disney World. Considering that Greg has been wanting to take them there since Allie was 4, I think holding out until her 8th birthday was pretty good. Honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to take Julia any earlier than age 4 1/2. She had so much walking to do and Greg ended up carrying her so much--thank goodness she's 40 inches tall now, so she could go on almost any ride, and she did!
When we left Wisconsin, it was -6 degrees. We ran in our light jackets from the parking garage into the airport and it HURT! I told the girls they wouldn't have to face cold like that again until we came home and after 20 minutes or so, we warmed up. The girls were both very excited about going up in an airplane.
Our flight to Atlanta was smooth, we didn't have any transition trouble, and then we landed in Orlando. Since we stayed on Disney property, we were coddled from that point forward (as long as you consider bus travel coddling). Our resort was almost exactly as we expected, except since Pop Century has over 2000 rooms, it was even more spread out than I thought. Three heated outdoor pools, and believe me, even when the evening temperature dipped into the low 50s, there were people in the pools. That first evening, we went to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks show, Wishes. Even though it was kind of a late night by the time we got a bus back, it was definitely a "magic" start to our holiday.
Our first full day was spent at Hollywood Studios. We went on or saw: Star Tours (a Star Wars simulation); Muppet Vision 3-D; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set; Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show; met the Power Rangers; Hollywood Studios Backlot Tour; the Great Movie Ride; Voyage of the Little Mermaid; the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (me and Allie); dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant; and Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carey. Greg really wanted to go on the Aerosmith Rock n Roller Coaster, but he would have had to go alone.
The Tower of Terror was amazing and Allie was so brave. It's basically a falling-elevator ride (from 13 stories), but they actually pull you downwards faster than gravity and you drop and rise several times, according to a random computer selection. Allie said it was cool, but that was after she relaxed the expression of terror that was her face. We completely rose off our seats for what seemed like long periods of time, held only by our seatbelts.
The second day we went to Animal Kingdom. We went on or saw: Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends (a nature/singing show with real animals); Festival of the Lion King (a show with amazing floats and up to 28 singers/dancers/acrobats performing at one time); met Minnie Mouse, Mickey, Lilo, Stitch, and Goofy; DINOSAUR; Finding Nemo - the Musical; Expedition Everest (Greg only); Maharajah Jungle Trek; Kilamanjaro Safaris (our longest wait, about an hour); It's Tough to be a Bug; and Rainforest Cafe (for dinner). Julia and Allie both closed their eyes for most of DINOSAUR, a very rough ride in a jeep thing with dinosaurs popping out everywhere. They were both really good.
The third exhausting day was spent at the Magic Kingdom. We went on or saw: The Magic Carpets of Aladdin; the Jungle Cruise (which was hilarious, thanks to David, our guide); Pirates of the Caribbean; met Peter Pan and Wendy; Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which Julia proclaimed, "Cool!"); the Haunted Mansion; It's a Small World (what a surprise, one of Julia's favorites); Peter Pan's Flight; Mickey's PhilharMagic 3-D Spectacular; Cinderella's Golden Carousel; Mad Tea Party; Tomorrowland Indy Speedway; Space Mountain; Dumbo the Flying Elephant (another of Julia's favorites); Stitch's Great Escape; Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor; Tomorrowland Transit Authority (the only thing we went on twice); Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (weirdly fascinating); Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin; and dinner in Cinderella's castle, at the Royal Table, while fireworks exploded outside the arched stained glass windows and the Fairy Godmother sang Happy Birthday to Allie (and lots of other people).
I was surprised by how small the Magic Kingdom was, but it obviously enabled us to cover a lot of ground and see a lot of things. Splash Mountain was closed, but the weather during our trip was sometimes cool (relatively speaking), so we didn't mind. It rained a little when we were at Hollywood Studios but we were mostly inside. It was cold in the morning at Animal Kingdom, but it warmed up nicely in the afternoon and was sunny. The Magic Kingdom day was nice too, probably low 70s and sunny.
Our last big day was Epcot. We knew it was going to be the warmest day, mid 70s, so we decided to make it a short day, return to the resort, and have the girls go swimming. At the park, we went on or saw: Spaceship Earth; Test Track (cars that go 65 miles per hour--Julia was so brave!); Maelstrom; Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (met Cinderella again, Aurora [Sleeping Beauty], Jasmine, and Ariel); Mission SPACE (Greg and Allie); Gran Fiesta Tour (me and Julia); Living with the Land; The Seas with Nemo and Friends; and Turtle Talk with Crush. It would have been nice to visit the United Kingdom pavilion to see if they carried Coleman's mustard, but it was just too far to walk with crabby Julia, who didn't get birthday presents like Allie and who just couldn't narrow down her own gift selection to one item.
We left Epcot at 4 and the time the girls spent swimming and splashing at the pool was one of the most relaxing periods we had. We ate dinner, the girls had baths, and we packed to go home. If you did make it all the way through, I appreciate your reading all of the stuff about the attractions we saw. I wrote it to remember what we did, and maybe to spark a favorite memory of something you saw once upon a time.
Our trip back was smooth, except that in order to get seats all together, we were in the last row of the plane, without windows. Allie got airsick and threw up in my hands and Julia was kind of naughty and it was -2 degrees when we arrived in Milwaukee. Allie threw up again as we drove home, and we all had to smile at Greg emptying her puke bucket by the side of the road and "rinsing" it with snow. We were so glad to be home and the cats were very glad to see us.
One anecdote: we were tiredly walking through the parking lot on our last night when we saw a VW bug with North Carolina plates and a carseat in the back. I commented, wow, those people drove all the way from North Carolina with a baby in the back seat. Julia spoke up and said, Is it dead?
You hadda be there. We had the best laugh of the trip.
Now we're basically all back in our normal routines and the weather is certainly back to how it's been this winter. We're supposed to get somewhere between 3 and 9 inches of new snow tomorrow. But we can dream and remember, green plants and flowering trees, chlorine and waiting in line, princesses and a birthday to remember. Happy birthday, Allie!
When we left Wisconsin, it was -6 degrees. We ran in our light jackets from the parking garage into the airport and it HURT! I told the girls they wouldn't have to face cold like that again until we came home and after 20 minutes or so, we warmed up. The girls were both very excited about going up in an airplane.
Our flight to Atlanta was smooth, we didn't have any transition trouble, and then we landed in Orlando. Since we stayed on Disney property, we were coddled from that point forward (as long as you consider bus travel coddling). Our resort was almost exactly as we expected, except since Pop Century has over 2000 rooms, it was even more spread out than I thought. Three heated outdoor pools, and believe me, even when the evening temperature dipped into the low 50s, there were people in the pools. That first evening, we went to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks show, Wishes. Even though it was kind of a late night by the time we got a bus back, it was definitely a "magic" start to our holiday.
Our first full day was spent at Hollywood Studios. We went on or saw: Star Tours (a Star Wars simulation); Muppet Vision 3-D; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set; Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show; met the Power Rangers; Hollywood Studios Backlot Tour; the Great Movie Ride; Voyage of the Little Mermaid; the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (me and Allie); dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant; and Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carey. Greg really wanted to go on the Aerosmith Rock n Roller Coaster, but he would have had to go alone.
The Tower of Terror was amazing and Allie was so brave. It's basically a falling-elevator ride (from 13 stories), but they actually pull you downwards faster than gravity and you drop and rise several times, according to a random computer selection. Allie said it was cool, but that was after she relaxed the expression of terror that was her face. We completely rose off our seats for what seemed like long periods of time, held only by our seatbelts.
The second day we went to Animal Kingdom. We went on or saw: Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends (a nature/singing show with real animals); Festival of the Lion King (a show with amazing floats and up to 28 singers/dancers/acrobats performing at one time); met Minnie Mouse, Mickey, Lilo, Stitch, and Goofy; DINOSAUR; Finding Nemo - the Musical; Expedition Everest (Greg only); Maharajah Jungle Trek; Kilamanjaro Safaris (our longest wait, about an hour); It's Tough to be a Bug; and Rainforest Cafe (for dinner). Julia and Allie both closed their eyes for most of DINOSAUR, a very rough ride in a jeep thing with dinosaurs popping out everywhere. They were both really good.
The third exhausting day was spent at the Magic Kingdom. We went on or saw: The Magic Carpets of Aladdin; the Jungle Cruise (which was hilarious, thanks to David, our guide); Pirates of the Caribbean; met Peter Pan and Wendy; Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which Julia proclaimed, "Cool!"); the Haunted Mansion; It's a Small World (what a surprise, one of Julia's favorites); Peter Pan's Flight; Mickey's PhilharMagic 3-D Spectacular; Cinderella's Golden Carousel; Mad Tea Party; Tomorrowland Indy Speedway; Space Mountain; Dumbo the Flying Elephant (another of Julia's favorites); Stitch's Great Escape; Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor; Tomorrowland Transit Authority (the only thing we went on twice); Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (weirdly fascinating); Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin; and dinner in Cinderella's castle, at the Royal Table, while fireworks exploded outside the arched stained glass windows and the Fairy Godmother sang Happy Birthday to Allie (and lots of other people).
I was surprised by how small the Magic Kingdom was, but it obviously enabled us to cover a lot of ground and see a lot of things. Splash Mountain was closed, but the weather during our trip was sometimes cool (relatively speaking), so we didn't mind. It rained a little when we were at Hollywood Studios but we were mostly inside. It was cold in the morning at Animal Kingdom, but it warmed up nicely in the afternoon and was sunny. The Magic Kingdom day was nice too, probably low 70s and sunny.
Our last big day was Epcot. We knew it was going to be the warmest day, mid 70s, so we decided to make it a short day, return to the resort, and have the girls go swimming. At the park, we went on or saw: Spaceship Earth; Test Track (cars that go 65 miles per hour--Julia was so brave!); Maelstrom; Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (met Cinderella again, Aurora [Sleeping Beauty], Jasmine, and Ariel); Mission SPACE (Greg and Allie); Gran Fiesta Tour (me and Julia); Living with the Land; The Seas with Nemo and Friends; and Turtle Talk with Crush. It would have been nice to visit the United Kingdom pavilion to see if they carried Coleman's mustard, but it was just too far to walk with crabby Julia, who didn't get birthday presents like Allie and who just couldn't narrow down her own gift selection to one item.
We left Epcot at 4 and the time the girls spent swimming and splashing at the pool was one of the most relaxing periods we had. We ate dinner, the girls had baths, and we packed to go home. If you did make it all the way through, I appreciate your reading all of the stuff about the attractions we saw. I wrote it to remember what we did, and maybe to spark a favorite memory of something you saw once upon a time.
Our trip back was smooth, except that in order to get seats all together, we were in the last row of the plane, without windows. Allie got airsick and threw up in my hands and Julia was kind of naughty and it was -2 degrees when we arrived in Milwaukee. Allie threw up again as we drove home, and we all had to smile at Greg emptying her puke bucket by the side of the road and "rinsing" it with snow. We were so glad to be home and the cats were very glad to see us.
One anecdote: we were tiredly walking through the parking lot on our last night when we saw a VW bug with North Carolina plates and a carseat in the back. I commented, wow, those people drove all the way from North Carolina with a baby in the back seat. Julia spoke up and said, Is it dead?
You hadda be there. We had the best laugh of the trip.
Now we're basically all back in our normal routines and the weather is certainly back to how it's been this winter. We're supposed to get somewhere between 3 and 9 inches of new snow tomorrow. But we can dream and remember, green plants and flowering trees, chlorine and waiting in line, princesses and a birthday to remember. Happy birthday, Allie!
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