They Watch & Learn

Today Kevin & I went to go see one of our past professors over at ARC. Dr. Joan has always been one of my favorite teachers - the kind where once you have your full course load determined, you check which of their classes you haven't taken and throw that one in "just for fun"... granted, my "just for fun" has always been science, but that's neither here nor there.

We were supposed to meet up with her at 2; however, my husband gets ready for work at 3 which meant I had to take the girls with me. I talked to them about how important it was to me that they behave while we were there - that Dr. Joan was Mommy's favorite teacher - she had taught Mommy lots & lots about nature - and I wanted her to see what good, smart, WELL-BEHAVED girls I had. They nodded solemnly and off we went.

"Are we smart because we can read?"

"Yes."

"Are we smart because we can write?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Are we smart because we know about nature?"

"Definitely."

We arrived at the college, found Dr. Joan's office & I set them at a small desk with their "errand bags" (crayons, pen, paper, 1st reader books, etc). They kept talking to Dr. Joan & trying to show off a bit... can't say I did much to stop them - I'm very proud of how well they're doing in school. While Dr. Joan, Kevin & I chatted, Alessa decided to show off her writing a bit. She wrote the names of things she saw in the room - bons (bones) fethrs (feathers) spidrs (spiders) & so on. Then came the random one.

I was talking to Dr. Joan when Alessa says, "Excuse me Mommy?"

"What Baby?"

"See what I wrote?"

There on the page in big bold letters was the following...

OXE

CLEN

Kevin & Dr. Joan just about died laughing.

:::sigh:::

I guess that confirms it - my days of birding & hiking & field study classes have been put on hold for laundry for a while :)

Holy SMoM Party Batman!

Last weekend was our annual Mothers of Multiples Halloween party. Alessa decided that she wanted to be Wonder Woman again. Though the costume was a little short (she wore it 2 years ago), we supplemented it with some patriotic shorts. Caleigh wanted to wear her Batgirl costume.

The story with the Batgirl is as follows: 2 years ago, on the girls' "3 year old Halloween", we decided we'd bite the bullet and buy each of the girls whatever costume they wanted for the first Halloween they they actually seemed to "get it". Much to their father's delight, they both firmly insisted on being superheroes (each $40 costumes). When Halloween actually rolled around, Alessa was still thrilled to be Wonder Woman - albeit, the costume was a bit big for her (super cute though).

Caleigh, however, absolutely REFUSED to wear her Batgirl costume - she INSISTED on wearing the Ren Faire garb I threw together for them earlier in the month for Folsom Faire. The garb was my first real sewing attempt. I suppose I should feel flattered by the fact that she loved it, but all I could think about was the $40 we had wasted on the Batgirl costume. Eventually I relented and she wore her Ren Faire dress with a few little accents to spruce it up - though I still grumbled occasionally about the wasted money.

This year, however, was quite different. Mid-August she started grilling me about where her Batgirl costume was & was quite persistent about finding it. We located both costumes & hung them in the closet for safekeeping.

Flash-forward to last Saturday night. Caleigh has donned both the costume & the persona of Batgirl and spends the first part of the evening whoooshing from person to person. Suddenly she screeches & clutches her face. As a mother, this is quite concerning to me. However, she peers through her fingers, glances swiftly about the yard and dramatically exclaims, "DON'T LOOK AT ME!!! I'VE LOST MY SECRET IDENTITY!!!"

:::sigh::: The strap on her mask had broken. Rik has made sure they take their superheroes VERY seriously.

Mad Ducats

Today the girls received their Halloween cards in the mail from Grandma & Papa Watsie. They were absolutely vibrating with the shear excitement of unexpected mail, but when money fell out... they were tipped over the edge of the cliff.

"Money!?!?" Alessa all but shouted. "Why is there money!?!?"

"Well, let's sit down & read the card," I offered. I read the cards, letting them pick out the sight words they'd been working on & sounding a few words out.

"Wow," breathed Caleigh reverently, "a whole dollar."

"A dollar? Check the number on it again," I challenged.

"Five dollars!?!?" Alessa exclaimed.

"Five dollars!" Caleigh echoed, "we can buy ANYTHING!!!"

Happy Birthday!

Today was my grandfather's 91st birthday so we all went to my parents' house for dinner & to celebrate. The evening was winding down & I asked my girls to go give everyone hugs & kisses goodbye. Alessa & Caleigh skipped around the room giving everyone hugs before Caleigh gave a final twirl and wave before darting off to put her shoes on. However, my little Alessa, heaven help the poor girl who received her mother's coordination, did not have such a graceful ending.

Alessa proceeded to give her last hug to my sister, trip over her feet & fall. Her hands darted out and grabbed the closest object to try & prevent the inevitable impact. The closest object was my skirt... my elastic-waited skirt.

Happy birthday Poppy! I'm sure you wanted to see your grand-daughter with her skirt around her ankles on your 91st birthday :(

Fon

Alessa was practicing her writing this morning.

"Mommy has a fon.

Daddy has a ipod.

Robrt has a fon.

Dood has a phone. (:::blink blink::: Dude?)

Alessa dusint hav a fon.

Caleigh dusint hav a fon."

At this point, after much praise from Mommy & Daddy, she hands it to Rik & says, "Now YOU write something! Like, 'Alessa will get a phone soon'... or whatever."

AAAAHHHHH!!!!

Dear Parents of My Students,

I have come to the decision that even though you may wish to allow your child to take their very favorite doll to school to nap with, sometimes it might be better to encourage them to choose a different creature.
For those of you who have been inquiring, my panic attack was short lived and I have an appointment with my sister next week to cover up the instantaneous gray hairs that appeared - thank you for your concern.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Taylor

Hmmm...

Last weekend, one of the birthday parties the girls attended was at a place called Bouncetown. Bouncetown is one of those inflatable jumpy house places that - in all honesty - is a pretty well run one around our area. Inevitably, Caleigh had to use the bathroom within about 5 minutes of our arrival. She likes to check out new bathrooms & report on soap and sink color to her sister.

I brought her in, she did her business & started washing her hands. As I waited for her to finish singing "Happy Birthday"/scrubbing her hands with soap, I looked around at the border at the top of the bathroom wall. It was a long border of those interlocking foam squares with letters in them. One wall said "FUN", 2 walls said "BOUNCETOWN" and this is what struck me from the 4th wall...