Peter Pan is sad!

I pulled out my work laptop tonight to review some work stuff and now I'm just blogging while sitting with my feet up in the living room. My husband would use this opportunity to proclaim the superiority of wireless networks . . .

"Forrest Gump" is on TBS and I'm half watching it. I don't know why, I've seen it a bunch of times, plus we own the movie and I could go downstairs and get the tape and I wouldn't have to put up with commercials.

Right now, Jenny is teaching Forrest how to dance.

I'm definitely not watching to the end. I always, always cry when Jenny dies, or at least I tear up.

I'm a sucker for sad moments in movies. The king of all examples of that, however, is from back when I was pregnant with Allie. Greg and I were in the living room and he was flipping through the channels. He decided to pause on a retelling of "Peter Pan."

We literally watched it for about a minute and a half, and they showed a montage of Peter coming to the window of Wendy's room to visit her over the years, each time with Peter the same and Wendy growing older.

And I started to cry. Greg looked over in astonishment at my brimming eyes and said, "What!?"

And all I could blubber back was, "Wendy got old!"

Hormones, I swear!

Car Counting

We visited the in-laws in Illinois this past weekend, for the first time in a disgustingly long while. It was a very nice visit, though too short. Greg and Dave opened the pool, and by the next time we visit, the girls will be able to go swimming.

It was a lot of work, and all I did was watch. When we left in the morning to visit Greg's Grandma Gertie, the cover was still on and it was covered with incredibly nasty green, slimy water. By midafternoon, the lovely blue water of the pool beneath was visible, with just an occasional dead baby mole or shrew or something floating here or there. And worms, lots of dead worms.

Really, it looked lovely! You just had to pretend not to see the floaters (or the stuff on the bottom) and think about how wonderful it will be to slip into it in another month or so. After it's dosed with lots and lots of chemicals. Nice, cleaning, purifying chemicals. I like chemicals. At least in this context, I do.

The girls had a wonderful time on the visit, except for the nine hours or so strapped in their carseats to get there and back. While we were driving back on Sunday afternoon, we played games that I played with my sisters on car rides as a kid. One involves everyone picking a color of car and then seeing who gets to 20 cars of that color first.

It was a lot easier 30 years ago on a two-lane highway. Allie liked it, but she had to rely on me and Greg to tell her what some of the car colors were across the interstate. Fortunately, central and north central Illinois is flatter than a pancake and boring as hell to drive, so I didn't endanger us all too much.

I'm glad we weren't playing "Punch Bug."

Castles and ships and trucks

It was warm today. Really warm. Sunny, breezy, and about 85 degrees at the end of the afternoon. Completely unseasonable for mid-April, but fun. Kind of like a visit from summer for the day--see you soon, ta tah.

We went out to eat dinner in a neighboring town and then to their enormous park and big playground for kids. You know the type--all wood chips and wooden walkways and ramps for kids in wheelchairs. There's the aforementioned castles, a ship, several trucks, a spaceship, a barn, loads of swings, a sandbox with a digger machine, rubber mat bridges to jump on, towers galore, a creaky wooden bridge, a bunch of slides, parallel bars and rings--you get the picture.

The girls had a glorious time. Greg stayed in the car (reading his favorite, an Onion newspaper) and I chased Julia hither and yon for almost an hour while Allie ran wild.

It's funny how different the girls are. It's not like I expected them to turn out the same person, but I think we're basically raising them the same and yet Julia is so different.

She's 33 months old and she's already just as brave, if not braver, than her 6 year old sister. Julia is not afraid of the dark and she will walk up a dark staircase and walk through our darkened bedroom looking for me in the master bathroom. Allie still has to turn on all the lights to get something from upstairs in the evening, if you can get her to go at all.

Julia never met a playground slide she wasn't willing to try immediately (sometimes at her peril). Tonight, she flew down one slide before I could get to the bottom to catch her and she fell off the end onto one leg and her butt, at least a 20 or so inch drop. I got there in time to help her brush off her muddy butt and check her leg, then she was off.

If Allie had taken the same fall even last year, there probably would have been tears and much subsequent fear on every other slide that it might happen again. On the other hand, Julia is at that terrified-of-bugs stage, and Allie thinks they're cool, as long as they're not actually on her.

I wonder if this all means that Julia will turn out to be some kind of sports fiend while Allie will get excellent grades and be part of the chess club. Isn't it wonderful to wonder?

Umm, still trying to think of something clever

The Lee family traveled this weekend to the frozen north. Not really, but we did see, pardon my french, a shitload of snow on the way.

I am not happy about seeing snow at this juncture of the year. There are crocuses blooming in our neighbor's yard and my tulips are about to send up buds, so snow is now supposed to be a thing of the past, except for maybe some very occasional flakes floating picturesquely and then immediately melting as they hit the ground.

At my parents' house (our destination), there was no snow, but the wind was biting cold and yet another reminder of why it's nice to live even a little south of them (where it's warmer!).

We had a lovely early Easter weekend, relaxing for all those involved, since one of my sisters had a recent health scare that turned out well this past Wednesday. We shared a stack of recent portraits of the girls, taken at a great place at the mall a little while back. New pictures all around!

And tomorrow it's back to the salt mines. Easter, however, is still on it's way (hippity, hoppity). There's a bunch of bunny poop in our yard, so the Easter Bunny should be able to find his way back. No more candy for the girls, however. Auntie Pam had her second annual, amazing, Easter egg hunt and they each have a pile of chocolate as big as they are.

We're taking donations now for future dental care.

Now I have to think of clever titles

We had a very quiet weekend. Very quiet, which means we stayed home for the entire time.

We had a better excuse than usual, too. Our usual excuse is that we're being lazy. Our excuse this weekend was that Allie has been sick. She's had a low-grade fever for four days now. Never higher than 101.

No real other symptoms--maybe a little stuffy nose, that's it. And this dang persistent fever.

She's been a good sport. She's eating normally and sleeping a little more than usual. Allie gave up afternoon naps last summer, but until today, she'd napped for at least an hour each of the last three days.

She hasn't complained too much about being bored, and Julia hasn't gotten it. I think, if Julia was going to, that she'd have it by now.

Do you think it's a spring fever?

Titles! I Have Titles!

My husband, Greg is the most wonderful man on the face of the planet. The fact that he is sexy, remarkably powerful (both physically and intellectually), talented and often well groomed should be enough to set him apart from most other men. But there's more. So much more that I swoon at the mere thought of the man.

I'm dizzy just writing about him.

I am truly a fortunate woman.