Future cartographer

Allie and I were watching "Little People, Big World" tonight, which is about a family where the mom and dad are little people or dwarves. They have four children, one of whom is also a little person. We were talking about the family living in Oregon and I told Allie that Oregon is pretty far away. She somehow had the idea that they lived in Wisconsin too. The daughter in the family was talking about all of the places in the world that she wanted to visit some day while looking at maps and I told Allie that I love maps too.

Afterwards, I ran to the grocery store to get milk and apple juice (gotta have apple juice) and there by the magazines was a display of atlases for kids. Well, that was just too perfect. Of course I bought one.

Allie was still up when I got home because she took a short nap at daycare today, so I threw the perishables in the fridge and we sat down to take a look at her new book. She was very excited. It has maps of each state with another map showing the state's position in the U.S. There are all kinds of games and activities and writing exercises. She really likes it.

And if she's a good girl, I might stop looking at it myself and let her read it.

Latest ever

I don't have much space to garden at our home. There's a little bit of a soil along our front walkway. I planted hostas along it the first spring after we moved in, and 9 years later, they completely fill in the space. That's wonderful, because it means I don't have to weed or plant flowers in the spaces between the plants, like I used to have to do.

About 5 years ago, Greg made me a small garden in the backyard that's surrounded by landscape timbers. I've always grown tomatoes, and I've tried peppers and basil. For the last two years, I've worked late most weeknights, so I haven't kept up well on my weeding. This year, I still haven't gotten any plants in my garden. Earlier today, I finally planted something in the pots on either side of the driveway.

I may get the garden worked up later tonight or tomorrow, after it cools off outside, but this is definitely the latest ever that I've gotten my planting done. I tell myself it'll just mean that after everyone else's tomatoes are all finished, we'll still be getting gorgeous homegrown beauties. Pure rationalization, yes, thank you.

In commemoration

Allie had a friend over for her very first sleepover (with Allie as a hostess). We picked up her friend Hannah last night about 5:30, went to Tony Roma's for dinner, then headed to an amazing playground (I've written about it before). We came home, the girls started to watch a movie and eat popcorn, then they decided instead to play on Allie's computer and torture our cats.

They had the requisite pillow fight and settled down to sleep about 10:30. This morning, we made Belgian waffles and bacon (Hannah really, really likes bacon) and then the girls played for awhile in Allie's Daddy's new hammock. I still haven't gotten to sit in the hammock, by the way, but I'm not bitter. Not at all. Then they played in two different sprinklers in the front yard and shot each other with water guns. They came in and played in Allie's room again, tortured the cats some more, then watched some TV.

After lunch, we made plastic bead animals (hard to describe, except that after you assemble them on a board, you iron them to make them into one piece). Hannah's mom came to pick her up at 2, and their playdate was over. Allie loved it and Hannah was very nice. I have a feeling this little event will be repeated many, many times over the next few years of her life. And that's a very cool thing.

Trees

I like trees. They're cool, and standing under one can cool you off. I don't like the sun too much, so trees come in handy for shade. They're pretty. They tell you if it's windy or if a really big storm could be coming. They provide homes for lots of animals and bugs and stuff. They make oxygen, and oxygen has a tendency to come in handy for humans. They do lots of other good environmental things, that I'm sure of, but I can't list any additional ones. I like to watch how they get bigger over time, especially in my yard. They add value to homes and they make places look nice. You can build homes in trees and out of trees and you can even eat trees (and their baby nuts too). They're handy for comparing against the growth of children.

On the other hand, they can be messy. They fall down sometimes and wreck things and hurt people. Some people say that trees actually hurt global warming (but I don't remember how, I just read that somewhere). Sometimes people drive off roads and when they hit trees, the people die (and the trees too, for that matter). I guess the people could die by hitting something else, but maybe if the tree wasn't there, they'd just stop naturally and end up safe. Trees get in the way when people try to do other things in rural areas, like farm. And they get in the way when you're trying to see long distances.

Overall, though, trees seem to win out as good things instead of bad things.

See what happens when you can't think of anything to blog about?

Leap year

Simon the cat has found a new way to give me a heart attack. A few nights ago, I was sitting in the chair in the corner of our bedroom, which has a view right down the length of the hallway upstairs.

Simon was participating in his normal ritual of nighttime craziness, which involves much running up and down the hall and tearing up and down the stairs. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, until he disappeared.

The cat ran down the hall way, made a very sharp turn left, and jumped across three feet of open stairwell onto the plant shelf that's opposite. This is in our front entryway, which is two stories high. The plant shelf, which is on top of the front hall closet, is about 8 1/2 to 9 feet from the ground. It has a large basket on it with a fake plant in it.

He jumped across three feet of open stairwell, landed on the shelf, pushing the basket over slightly. He walked once around the basket, then positioned himself to jump back. This jump back, by the way, is through the railing of the upstairs landing. The spindles are 4 1/2 inches apart (I just measured), the width that's specified by building code so little kids can't get their heads stuck in the banister.

Four and one half inches. Did I mention that Simon the cat is about 4 1/2 inches wide? Yes, he is (he's supposed to be on a diet since he steals most of his brother's food, but that's another subject). So he's looking at jumping three feet across, to a level that's equal to the level he's on (so he doesn't have the advantage of being able to jump downwards), through a railing and between spindles that are the same width apart as his body, while at least eight feet in the air.

We haven't had a kitty funeral, so he made it. I'm just hoping that my heart holds out in the future.

Laura picked up a stick

Julia picked up one of my Laura Ingalls Wilder books (Little House in the Big Woods) and she's pretending to read it out loud:

"Laura picked up a stick and she went up to the castle. She said something important. Laura played with her sister, laughing all the way. She played catch. She did something important. They had a party and ten minutes because Laura's birthday and no, her big sister, and Laura's birthday. Laura did something important that she could do. She picked up another stick and went to Laura's birthday party. (Julia turned the page) Laura went to somebody's birthday cake and she eat it all gone because she went to school and Mom and Dad picked up her sister and Mom and Dad and Laura. (Julia asked me what Laura's daddy's name was.) Charles ate the birthday cake all gone because he didn't have any rules in school. He had something important but that was a good deal. (Julia turned the page) She found a great dolly in jail. She wanted a dolly just like her sister. It looked just like her but she didn't have anything. But she had the dolly and it looked just like her. But she had hair and a beautiful dress. She went, the little sister went to daddy, he was making something with a feather and doing something else. (Julia turned the page) A bear made footprints in the snow. The bear walked and made footprints all over the snow. He wanted to eat the snow but he can't eat the snow. The bear has something important to eat, but he can eat fish, right? He can do anything like he can do, so he did something important but he didn't want to go to jail. Uh uh."

There, now you don't have to buy the book.

Oww

As I sit here typing in the corner of our bedroom, my calves are killing me. Not my calf muscles, the skin on the back of my calves. That skin got completely cooked today when we took the girls to Noah's Ark Waterpark (the largest in North America, doncha know).

I had slathered myself everywhere with sunscreen to protect my notoriously sensitive skin. I dumped handfuls of the stuff on my children. And I thought that the only place I got burned was at the very top of my shoulders, in two little stripes around my swimsuit straps. Not too shabby, I thought.

Then I bathed the girls tonight, and found that Allie got burned on the tops of her thighs and a little on her shoulder. She was in water more than I or Julia was, so she washed her sunscreen off more quickly and she got burned slightly.

Julia didn't get burned at all, which makes sense because she was a lot more leery about getting wet than her sister. So I thought I was just that little bit burned until I was stretching and bending to clean the girls and I thought, hmm, why do my calves hurt. Eek. I'm cooked.

I put sunscreen on the tops of my thighs because I've gotten painfully burned there before. I didn't keep going down my legs, foolish Deb. Somehow I didn't burn the top of my feet, unlike my husband, who is in real pain tonight because he once again managed to cook the area between his sandal (mandal) straps.

I'm not even going to talk about his burnt face, stomach, lower back, legs, and upper arms. Let's just say that my husband is not a wise man. Two of his sisters have already had skin cancer and yet he has to be a tough guy when it comes to sunscreen. He did his face and let me do his shoulders, and so he paid the price today and will probably again within the next five years.

I'm going to start putting sunscreen in his bath soap and bath towel, as well as his shirts and sheets. I don't like lobster. And I know I don't want holes in his epidermis.

The water park was a blast, by the way.

Inescapable

Is it possible to go anywhere these days without being bombarded with Shrek merchandising? It's insane. Restaurants, bookstores, discount stores, department stores, TV, online. Those marketing people certainly know what they're doing.

We've resisted so far, but I expect that we'll be going to see Shrek III this weekend. Like thousands of other weary parents.

Official junior bookworm

When Allie brought the last of her things home from school today, after an awesome last day of school field trip, her teacher included all of the reading logs we've completed for her during the school year. Yep, for the past nine months, I've written down (and had Allie rate using a smiley face, a neutral face, or a frowny face) almost every book she's read or had read to her. We don't usually read an entire book to her anymore, which is a big indicator of how her reading skills have improved this year. She's very eager to read to us.

She went to the school library at least three times each week, and I think it's a cool indicator of who she is as a kid that she only rated one book in the entire time period with a frowny face. One book, you say. Out of how many, Deb?

Well, actually. One out of 243. Yes, 243. That's how many books Allie has read in their entirety over the last few months. She's read at least parts of some additional books, but they didn't get written down unless she finished them (with one exception--I included "Where the Sidewalk Ends" because it's so long and she's read almost all of the poems).

I think that's awesomely cool.

Oh, she also did well on her report card and she's made some excellent strides after initially struggling with math, but hey, my kid is a bigtime reader. (Just like me, that's one of the awesome parts.)

Allie came in the room just now (she's staying up late since she doesn't have school tomorrow--yay, summer!) and she asked if I would read my post to her and if she could say something.

Allie says--I get to stay home with my Nana and Papa tomorrow. If we find my fishing pole, we could probably go fishing. The Weather Channel says it's going to be a nice day. Umm, what else should I put. My Nana will let us walk to the store. My friend, Hannah, is coming over June 15th. And we will watch a movie together. Hannah said, when the teacher asked us something that we would do over summer, she said, watch a movie with my friend. And then she looked at me and smiled.

See, my kid also has her own blog entries. Isn't she neat?

Gradua . . . huh?

Allie's last day of first grade is tomorrow, though she's going to spend it on a field trip to the zoo. We were on our way to school the other morning when I asked her if she remembered her last day of kindergarten last year at this time. She said, yes, I was sad. But I remember that Mrs. Grady made us feel special at our graduation. I wonder what Mrs. Mace is going to do for graduation.

It was distressing to have to tell her that for completing first grade, she gets nada. Nothing. She gets to come back next year and the year after that and so on for 7 more years until she gets a little graduation ceremony again.

She took it well.

Misadventure

Last night, the kitties went exploring. Yep, exploring into the wide, wonderful world. Yep, outside. Or as it's otherwise known, the FORBIDDEN ZONE.

Our cats do not go outside. It's safer for them and they live long, cosseted lives, vicariously viewing the world through windows with great windowsills.

Greg and I had spent a good part of the day cleaning, since my in-laws are coming to visit us today. The last time I saw the cats, they were throwing themselves at the top of the screen door that allows access onto the deck, trying fruitlessly to get at the bugs outside that were attracted by our lights.

We finished cleaning and sat on the couch to watch a little TV and talk. Greg went upstairs to take a shower before bed and I started turning out the lights and locking up. That's when I found out that the screen door to the deck was open a good three inches, or right about kitty width.

The screen door wasn't locked, so I figure they either developed paw strength enough to open the door without a handle or, they managed to jump up enough to jostle the door in the frame until it opened enough for them to squeeze through.

At 10:20 last night, I walked all over our yard calling their names. We've had them for 4 months now, so I was hopeful that was enough time that they'd actually know their names, which we changed when we got them. There were no squished kitties in the busy street that runs on the side of our house, so that was a good sign. Almost immediately, I saw the outline of a cat's head and ears looking at me from near our neighbor's driveway. Something didn't look right, though.

I called to the cat and walked a little closer, then bent down and made a noise with my fingers. The cat came over and I picked it up. He immediately started meowing as I brought him towards the light and I confirmed that he wasn't one of our cats. Brown/black body, white paws. Nope, not one of ours.

I let him go and kept calling. Walked a circle around the entire house calling. Then I saw Simon cowering on the deck. I went up and opened the door to the house for him, then came around behind him and he bolted into the house.

Greg came outside and we walked around some more, calling. He brought their food container--smart move. Greg saw Rabies hiding under the deck (in mud, since it had been raining off and on all day). Rabies came out to be petted eventually and Greg grabbed him, getting hissed at and getting muddy for his heroic rescue.

The adventure was over. I figure they were out there for probably an hour. We're going to start locking the screen door. Now, we are.

Oompa Loompa Love

We're watching the end of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The old, good one, with Gene Wilder. I like this movie a lot. I've seen the new version, but I don't even remember anything about it, except that they changed the ending. This one is a classic and I'll stop and watch it whenever I chance upon it.

I don't remember whether I saw the movie or read the book first when I was a kid, but I know that I read the book more than once, plus the sequel. You mean you didn't know there's a sequel book? It's called "Charlie and the Glass Elevator" and it's a fantastic adventure in it's own right, involving outer space and aliens.

Right now, the scene at the very end is on, where they break out the roof of the candy factory and fly over Charlie's town. It looks beautiful, full of red clay roofs and winding streets. I wonder where it was filmed. Well, now I have to end this post and go look up the answer to that.

Thank god for the internet, or I'd wonder forever.

Home disparagement

Greg and I, like millions of other Americans, are fans of the latest crop of home improvement shows, which focus mostly on flipping. Flipping, if you don't know, is the process of buying a rundown house, renovating it very quickly, and then selling it for an immense profit. That is, immense profit, if the people doing the flipping aren't idiots.

We like Property Ladder, which features a host named Kirsten who's an expert on flipping. She visits properties at the beginning of projects, offers practical advice that the flippers almost always ignore completely, and then she visits for a post-mortem at the end. The flippers all, and I mean all, go over their timelines for completing their projects. They also all, and I mean all, go over their budgets.

Other mistakes are: becoming emotionally attached to the houses and thus putting in too much of their own (expensive or weird) taste; trying to do too much of the work themselves or with friends and family members instead of recognizing that they are over their heads and calling in contractors; making bad decisions on really important things (like not replacing broken air conditioning in a city where the temperature can rise to 110 degrees in the summer, or by deciding that closets aren't important in a master bedroom); and by going the cheap route in areas where people are looking for something better.

Greg and I are getting really good at yelling at the people on the TV (OK, mostly me). We just saw an episode where the couple started out committed to putting "environmentally friendly" elements into their flip, including solar panels. Then they hired the guy's brother as a contractor, and he screwed up a bunch of items. Then they thought washing the walls with a bleach solution would clear up a mold problem, ignoring the fact that mold growing on one side of a wall usually means it's growing on the other side of the wall too. And, to top it all off, they decided to try to sell the house themselves instead of going with a realtor.

I actually hate the idea of giving any money to a realtor. I think they get an absolutely ridiculous amount of money for doing what sometimes amounts to very little work. However, if you're flipping and time is a very important factor (and it always is for these people), then you're probably stupid not to get that realtor advantage.

In this most recent example, 26 weeks went by with the flip unsold. The couple's profit went from $104,000 to $43,000. Some people would say, hey! They made $43,000 in 9 months, so good for them. I know, I know. Actually, my sister and her husband flip houses and then do a rent-to-own arrangement for buyers and they're doing very well with it. That's not the point. For talking back to your TV and feeling superior, "flip TV" is hard to beat.

Coming soon to a summer near you

Well, it's June 1 and Allie has all of four school days left as a first grader. I swear that it seems like about three months ago that she was starting kindergarten. Now she's doing spelling tests, reads or tries to read most everything, adds two-digit numbers to other two-digit numbers, works on fractions, and is learning the rules of basketball. Amazing stuff, really.

Julia is very much looking forward to having Allie with her all day at daycare this summer. I figure that's going to last about a week, then she's going to be tired of being bossed around. One big disadvantage to Allie being at least two years older than all of the other kids is that she directs most of what they do. We're very lucky that our daycare provider thinks she's going to be able to take the kids on field trips in her van this summer. That'll be a nice adventure for all of them.

So Allie has her school picnic (parents invited) on Tuesday, and her last field trip to the zoo on Thursday. Then she's done, and on to second grade.

Our local high school graduation is tonight. The way things are going, it'll seem like Allie has reached that milestone in about four years.

It takes a village

I ate lunch yesterday in a local cemetery (hey, it's quiet, shady, and has a view--plus I don't get out of the car or leave garbage or anything). I was driving back to work afterwards down a pretty busy secondary street when I saw something, about two blocks ahead. It looked like a toddler crossing the street.

I squinted, sure it couldn't have actually been a toddler crossing the street, or if it was, surely its parent was within two or three steps. There weren't any other cars going in the direction I was, but a big SUV slowed down to let the little boy (as it turned out) pass, as did two cars that were coming behind him.

I couldn't believe my eyes. No parent anywhere in sight. The other cars passed by and I pulled to the side of the street, still looking for someone who was watching this kid. By the time I got out of the car, the toddler was in an open garage across the street, touching the tailpipe of a motorcycle that was parked there. Thank god, no one had ridden it recently, so the pipes weren't hot.

I kept looking around and walked towards the little boy. He looked like he was between 18 months and two years old--not talking yet, as it turned out. I said Hi to him, then asked if this was his house. He tried to climb onto the seat of the motorcycle. I asked if we could go to his mommy, and he made a noise and pointed to the red tailight on the bike and a red shovel that was leaning against the wall.

I asked again if we could go to his mommy, holding out my hand, but he turned away to keep trying to climb on the bike. I figured if I tried to pick him up, he'd probably scream. So I went back across the street to the nearest house and rang the doorbell. Probably four minutes or so had passed.

I kept an eye on the boy until a man came to the door. I said, do you have a child? He said yes. I said, he's across the street! He said, I didn't even know he was out, as he started barefoot down the steps. I said, he's not in the house, he's in the garage. He headed into the garage and I watched to be sure that the little boy would go with him.

He picked him up and started back across the street towards the house, and I got back in my car and went back to work. There were cars parked on the sides of the street, and if the boy had stepped out from behind one of them into traffic, he could have been killed.

My good deed for the day!

Howdy

Last Monday, I spent hours in a hearing with attorneys. Tuesday, I spent hours in a deposition with attorneys. Wednesday, I spent hours preparing for a deposition with attorneys. Thursday, I spent hours in depositions with attorneys.

I'm glad that part of last week is over.

Last Friday, the family traveled to the in-laws in Illinois for part of the long weekend. We had a wonderful visit. Then we got back on the road and drove four hours back home (not including time we were stopped eating dinner). One of the attorneys from last week had lunch with me on Thursday. She has four children and said that she can't fathom that anyone with children would choose to travel without a portable DVD player.

She couldn't figure out what we do in a compact car with our girls for four hours. I told her that we talk, we sing, and we play car games. I didn't talk about it, but the girls also fight over toys, we yell at them, they both sing to themselves, Allie tells stories to herself, Julia (and sometimes Allie) usually dozes off for a little bit, and when we get close to Nana and Papa's house, we play "Is that their house?"

It was a pretty standard trip and we were glad to see our home again. Not as happy as the cats were to see us, however. There was rampant love going on all over the house.

I like holiday weekends. I'm just trying not to think about going back to work tomorrow.

My kids are lucky

Allie had another field trip today, to the local library. We don't actually visit the local library that much because Allie gets new books almost every day from her school library. This is a significant difference from me as a kid. I was a bookworm and we owned very few books. In fact, I don't know that I owned any books until I was older, maybe 12 or 13. So though I got some books from the school library, my sisters and me (mostly me) went to the local library on our bikes pretty much every weekend.

Going to the local library was a scary trip for a, say, 9 year old. There was a busy street at the end of the trip, with a left turn that was challenging, followed immediately by a bridge that had a open grid deck, followed by railroad tracks. Despite my nervousness, I'd trek up there all the time, stuffing the basket on the front of my bike with as many books as would fit.

I remember checking out too many books more than once. The library's return book slot was right next to the bike rack, so I'd fill my basket with the books I really, really wanted to read, then go through the rest, prioritizing until I determined which books to put in the return slot.

Allie and Julia own hundreds of books, some from Greg's childhood, some from their cousin Emily (thanks Em and Michelle), many they've gotten as gifts from other people, and many, many that we've bought them.

We say all the time that our girls are spoiled, but you know what, they really, truly are. They have thousands of words waiting, to take them away to adventures that they can't even imagine right now.

I got a new book from the girls and Greg for Mother's Day that I've started but not finished, but you know what--I'm thinking of heading off for the local library myself. Why should my kids have all the fun!

The Day After

Do you remember this movie from 1983? I'm watching it right now and almost 25 years after it first came out, it's still shocking. The missles just exploded over Kansas and the rest of the U.S., over 300 missles according to the military that's shown talking, right before they all die.

I remember seeing parts of this movie back then, but I couldn't stand to watch the entire thing. I still can't. I was graduating from high school then, ready to head off to college and on my own for the first time. I don't think I thought much about if I'd have children someday at the time, but now that I do have kids, the scenes of children dying disturb me.

As well they should. The world is still a troubled place, but at least this type of lunacy seems to have been abated. I hope we never end up in that place again.

Pink is contagious, who knew

Julia and I are definitely having battles these days about her clothing. It's very difficult to get her to wear anything that isn't pink, and now that we've had some warmer days, it's difficult to get her to wear anything that isn't a pink sundress.

She wanted to wear a sundress to the baseball game on Saturday. Telling her that it was only 63 degrees out didn't dent her resolve. She said she'd wear tights.

Once again, I must fall prey to every parent's lament about how much easier it was to dress Allie. Even now, Allie will generally wear whatever is selected for her or she picks her own acceptable clothing based on what I tell her the weather is going to be.

Julia became contaminated with this "pink is the only acceptable color" thing from somewhere and, as a result, has way too many clothes that she refuses to wear.

Yesterday, it was very warm here, close to 90. Today it's going to be in the high 60s. I'm anticipating a battle in about 15 minutes. No, she's not wearing tights today.

The Prince and Me, etc.

Have you seen this movie? It stars Julia Stiles and some Luke guy. He's the prince of Denmark (incognito) and she's a farm girl from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, both studying pre-med at the University of Wisconsin.

I've never seen the whole movie, but I've caught the last hour or so two or three times. Julia's character takes the prince home for Thanksgiving, which for some mysterious reason looks more like late summer in California (trust me, I know what November looks like in Manitowoc, since that's the county of my hometown, and this wasn't it). The dialogue references Rocky Rococo's Pizza, a Wisconsin chain, (which majorly sucks, by the way) and a facsimile of the Manitowoc County Fairgrounds is the setting for a climactic scene where the prince wins over Julia's character's family by winning a lawnmower race.

It's kind of charming and the Czech republic stands in for Denmark at the end of the movie. It must have done reasonably well since they made a sequel last year. Since I again caught part of the original today (which Allie loved, since it was about a royal family), I started wondering about the second movie and I got online to read what the plot was.

Ooooo. People really, really hate the sequel. I read numerous postings to the IMDB message board and almost everyone said that they shouldn't have made the sequel unless the original actors returned. Apparently the only actor who returned was the guy who played the prince and he looked like he was bored. How frequently does that happen--that everyone who made the original movie returns for the next (discounting all of this summer's sequels, which all had much bigger budgets). I'm thinking not too frequently. Just get over it, people.

On another note, Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother-in-law, and all the other moms I know in my life. Hope you all had a wonderful day. Thanks to my amazing husband and my beautiful children, I did! Thank you!