The Text Generation

 

"Okay, mom, don't be mad. I know I'm supposed to be doing
 homework, but you will not believe the text I just got..."

 

"I just found out that Jack told Cason that Gentry likes me...me!"

"Wait, what?"

"OMGosh, he is going to ask me to the prom!"

"Yes, yes, tell him of course I'll go if he asks!"

"I better text Amelia to see if she has a dress I can borrow..."

"This is the best day of my whole life, my whole entire life."

Savannisms

This little 3-year-old friend of mine has had a lot of funny things to say lately. I don't think she's trying, but she is a crack-up and a half. Here are a few little gems that I want to remember.

1. Vanna: "Nobody likes my curly hair."
    Me: "Everybody likes your curly hair."
    Vanna: "Bad guys don't like my curly hair, monsters don't like my curly hair..."

2. (Talking to her aunt who was apparently going too slow...)

    "Giddy-up, jingle horse, pick up your feet!"

3. Vanna: "Can I take a short nap today?"
    Me: "As long as you aren't cranky."
    Vanna: "Okay, I promise I won't crank."

4. (After inheriting a princess lunch bag from my friend Holly)
    "I love Holly. She's my best Holly. I love her really much."

5. "I have lots of slippery boogers. I need to pick them."

6. "Julia, will you please stop? That's annoying, It's annoying-noying-noying." (Pause.) "Daddy, what's annoying?"

7. "I do like rice. But I don't like sharks. Only whales and dolphins and scrabbled eggs."

I love my little funnykins. And her curly hair.

From the Archives...

Apparently, these were some of the only pictures taken in January of last year. I'm not sure how I missed putting them on here (except that I think I was pretty much doing nothing but nesting at the time) but I figure it's important for posterity, and that Savanna will thank me some day. (If you notice the hand prints on the walls and the fingerprints on the mirrors, you will probably conclude, like me, that I didn't do a great job of nesting. No worries, though. We have since painted and cleaned the mirror.) (Oh, and Savanna usually wears clothes these days.)

The Tooth Fairy Debunked

Julia lost tooth # 4 yesterday afternoon. We forgot to put something under her pillow last night before we went to bed, so Craig did it early this morning. Julia had her quarters when she came downstairs, and I thought all was well until this conversation happened...

Savanna: Mommy, Daddy tricked Julia!
Me: Oh yeah?
Julia: There was no tooth fairy. I saw Daddy. Tooth fairies are supposed to glow blue and have a wand.

Whoops.

I didn't say anything more until she brought it up again on the way into school. She was holding her little bag of quarters because she had forgotten to leave them in the car.

Julia: These aren't from the tooth fairy. They're from Daddy. I saw him.
Me: Maybe he was just giving you a kiss.
Julia: No. I saw him lift my pillow and put this underneath.

I didn't try to explain. Mostly because I don't know what to say. I remember figuring it out at a pretty young age, and not really minding. She seems a little scandalized by the whole thing, though.

I'm not really sure what we will end up saying, or how this one will turn out. I'm sure it will all be fine. One thing I do know, though:  I do not want to be around when she figures out the truth about Santa...

Rats

And vacuuming was the one thing I could do with her around...

Why It's Okay to Feel Overwhelmed

"Life...is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle. It calls for gigantic courage and strength." ~Virginia Woolf

Lately, in my spare time, when I haven't been making a meal or cleaning the house or wiping a bottom or taking someone to school or giving a bath or doing homework or sleeping, I've been thinking a lot. Not surprisingly, I've been thinking about being overwhelmed. (Didn't see that coming, did you?)

Admittedly, feeling overwhelmed is a generally unpleasant feeling, marked by anxiety, stress, fatigue, and a plethora of other yucky sentiments. And, with a million things going on at any given moment on any given day, it's not too hard imagine why one would begin to feel that way.

It seems, as women, we don't like admitting that we have arrived at a state of overwhelmed-ness. (Not a word, but I choose not to be overwhelmed by that fact.) We like giving people the good news when they ask how we are: "I'm doing pretty good," "I'm hanging in there," "We're getting by," etc. etc. etc. Not wanting to overwhelm other people (or ourselves) with the facts of our lives, sometimes we layer the good over the bad, even though we might be struggling.

Now, this is not a call for all women everywhere to wear their hearts on their sleeves, and share every intimate deal or difficulty of their lives (although, I say, do it if you feel like it). Just a little reminder that sometimes life is stinky, and it's okay to feel overwhelmed by it all. Here's why:

~A lot is asked of us...to comfort, to help, to spend time, to wake up early (my personal nemesis), to perform on some level or other.

~Sometimes we don't feel well. Our bodies have limitations and that is not always an easy thing to swallow. Our mood (and desire to conquer the world) can be really easily effected by how we feel physically.

~We have to live with disappointments. Plans change, people fail us, and sometimes our lives feel like they are going in the wrong direction altogether, and not because of anything we have done to warrant it.

~The to-do list is never ending. Basically, it will never be complete. Or, if it is, we have to start a new one over the next day anyway.

~The ratio of hours in the day to things that need to get done is abysmally insignificant.

(I hope I haven't overwhelmed anyone who was not already feeling overwhelmed...uh, you guys can just scroll down to the next post.)

Yep. Life is hard. Go ahead and feel overwhelmed by it all. Go ahead and say, "Oh, my holy Hannah, I don't think I can do this right now." And then go ahead and do it anyway. Because you are courageous and strong. And being overwhelmed doesn't mean that you can't still kick trash.

Heavens to Lexy, Guess Who's One?

One year ago, this was going on...

And then, POOF! This cute baby appeared:

Feeling quite unsure of how this tiny newborn turned into a full-blown one-year-old, I visited the computer archives for evidence. Sure enough, she did it little by little by little. (Too bad I didn't realize until now that someone has been pressing the fast forward button on my life.) Here it is, proof positive that babies grow up way too fast.

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

Lex's first birthday, February 1, 2011

Only a few short month's remain in Lexa's squishy babyhood, during which time I will hold her and squeeze her and love her as much as she will let me. 

Happy Birthday, babykins, try to slow it down a little, will ya?

The Case of the Missing Coupons (a.k.a "I Must be Losing My Mind")

Yesterday, in a very rare moment, I found approximately one extra minute of time in the mad rush to get J ready for school and out the door. So, in the interest of efficiency, I thought I would do a tiny bit of planning ahead and set aside the coupons I would need for my morning trip to Target. I went to grab my coupon file out of my purse and, lo and behold, it wasn't there. I looked around for a bit and it was no where to be found...not in my purse, not in the car, not in the hall closet where I hang my purse up.

By now, the one minute (along with a few others) is long gone and we're suddenly behind schedule, so I commence barking orders at the girls to get us going as soon as possible. I will admit, I threw a mini-tantrum in frustration over the missing coupons. As I'm yelling at the girls to get their shoes on and get in the car, what's really going through my head is "Why on earth can I not keep track of my stuff" or (even worse) "Why, oh why can't other people leave my stuff alone?"

I didn't find the coupons, we were late getting to school, and it was raining so I decided not to go to Target anyway. Grrrr.

Today, still no sign of them, and I am running out of places to look. I figure any of the following scenarios are possible:

-I left them at a store.

-I took them out of my purse to add a coupon, and forgot to put them back.

-The girls got them out and were playing with them.

-Craig saw them laying around somewhere and put them in a "safe" place for me.

-On my way to putting them away, I set them down in some random place which I can neither remember nor locate at this time.

Sadly, none of these scenarios is unlikely, which makes it all the more difficult to narrow them down to one or two possibilities.

After today's trip to Target (in which, couponless, I spent about $6 more than I should have had to) I re-started the search. In exasperation, I said out loud, "where are those coupons?"

Then Savanna gave me a nibble. "Julia put them in her bed." Seriously? "She had them in your room?" I asked. "Yes, she had them in her bed. Then she put them under my bed." I was a little skeptical, but what the heck. "If you help me find them," I told her, "I'll give you a dollar." A thorough search revealed that the coupons were not in Julia's bed, nor under Savanna's bed, nor anywhere in their room. By the time Savanna started suggesting that Alexa hid them, or a monster had taken them, I started figuring out that, cute and helpful though she is, she is not a reliable witness. "Do I get my dollar now?" Uh, negatory.

Just like the blanket saga, as much as I wish this story had a happy ending, the coupons remain at large. I figure by the time I get around to buying a new file and get stocked up on coupons again, they will show up somewhere like the garage freezer or under the bathroom sink (as of now, two of the only places that I haven't looked).

And for those of you out there in blog-land, if you happen to know where my coupons are, I'll give you a dollar for their safe return. Either that or your choice of 3 coupons totaling no more than $1.50. The choice is yours.