Birthday Manicure

For Ellie's third birthday we decided to start a cute little tradition of going for mommy and me manicures. She has had her nails painted by me before but has never gone to the salon. The place where I go offers "princess manicures", polish and a flower for a child under 10. She was so excited all day and kept talking about wanting to pick blue for her color. I had told her that I would get the same color she picked out so that we would match. I was a little worried about the blue, until I saw the first color she picked out when we got there. NEON pink. Oh boy. Thankfully we had to wait a little and Ellie was wiggly enough that she kept going back and picking out different colors. She settled on a bright, but not neon, pink. Wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was her birthday. She was so excited, but managed to sit really still while her nails were painted. She loved having to put her hands in front of the fan and then the nail dryer. She didn't smudge them at all and the little rhinestone they put on her flower lasted through diner before she picked it off. It was a huge success and we are both looking forward to our little birthday tradition! Anyone have any ideas for a Daddy and me birthday tradition for Tony and Matthew?

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Me : Thank you, Ellie.

Ellie : You're welcome. Or...Am I the welcome? No, you're the welcome. No, I'm the welcome. Right?

Wait for me, guys!

If Matthew had a few more words, I think all we'd be hearing is "wait for me guys!", "can I play too?", "hey, wait up!"...he desperately wants to play with the big kids, use their toys, and do what they do. He watches his big sister play dress up (and ends up as model), he up climbs on anything he can find, and he imitates everyone and everything he sees (see beer pictures...don't worry it's not open). It had been fun to watch Ellie and Matthew start playing together. Ellie likes having playmate to do what she says, and Matthew dotingly follows her around. It'll only get better as they get older!

Cookie Crumbs

Ellie and I made cookies yesterday. Butterscotch Blondies. This is the first time I would say that she really successfully helped. Usually she stands on a chair, eats the chocolate chips and I let her stir once while she just flings flour out of the bowl. This time she was a really good stirrer! Later that afternoon I gave both kids cookies and they were eating while I was working in the kitchen. Matthew doesn't have very many words yet, but all I could hear coming from the living room was "mmmm, mmmm, mmmm". I was thinking to myself, wow, I much have done a really good job with those cookies! I was really proud of myself. You would imagine my surprise when I find both cookies, massacred...every single butterscotch chip delicately picked out the cookies and eaten. All actual "cookie" was left behind in a pile of crumbs. Guess Nestle Tollhouse is the good cook, not me.

What are we missing?

I read this story the other day....

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work . After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

...and today while I was at the mall with the kids, we saw a high school choir singing Christmas music. I almost walked by, but then remembered this story and sat down with Ellie and Matthew to listen. I also watch the other people around me, feeling proud of those who stopped to listen, or even sat down to stay. I was particularly proud of a father, alone with his two young boys, who stopped and stayed quite a while after his two year old son asked if they could listen. Many other people rushed by without even noticing the choir, but we had a really nice Christmas moment, the three of us, listening to Christmas songs sung by kids in red sparkly red Santa hats.

Seeing the glass half full

We have these awful, loud, dirty, annoying birds around here called grackles. They kind of look like black birds. They sit in the trees, your roof, the power lines and they poop on everything. They are so loud that I can hear them in the background, through the phone, when I am taking to one of my friends. And these are not song birds. Their name, "grackle" should give you an idea of what they sound like. I think that's what Julie Roberts Daddy was trying to shoot out of the trees before her wedding in Steel Magnolias. Well, I took Ellie to the grocery store today and when we got out of the car there were several of these birds in the parking lot, eating trash. I barely even noticed them, but Ellie, sweet little wide-eyed, three year old, says, "Oh mommy look at those birdies! They are sooooo beautiful! I love them. Aren't they soooo pretty." Kind of melts your heart...

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Me : Ellie, are you ok? You look a little bit sad.

Ellie: I'm not a little bit sad. And I'm not a big bit sad either!

We were at Sam's club last week and when I saw a huge bin of sheepskin rugs I thought that Matthew might like to hold on to one while we shopped around the store. He loves anything soft. We always had them around when I was a kid, and even slept on them as babies. Well, Ellie and Matthew were in the side by side seat at Sam's, so I plopped one in when them and they both immediately latched on, and put their heads down on it, Matthew with the thumb in. I really had had no intention of buying one, and had just thought it would be a good diversion while we were shopping. Well, then end of the trip came along and had to pry it out of thier fingers to put it back. The whole way home Ellie kept asking what that "big, white, fluffy thing" was, and when we could get another one. It was nap time at home, but as we thought about how much they loved it, we couldn't resist going out and getting them each one. I went out while they were asleep and we had them laying out on the couch when they got up from their naps. These are pictures of pure childhood bliss. And as I write this they are each asleep in their beds on a cloud of "big, white, fluffy thing".

Attack of the green icing

We went to one of Ellie's friend's birthday party last week at a bounce house. The kids had a great time! There was even a zip line that Ellie held her own on. Matthew was a little wary of the big blown up contraptions that you have to climb into to bounce, but by then end of the party he was happily jumping away. Well, it was really more like, stand up, one step fall, stand up, one step, fall. He got his reward at the end though, for sticking with it. Green icing!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Surrounded by toys at Toys R Us yesterday, Ellie is taking it all in. I am expecting, "Mommy can I have..." to come out any second. It does, only it goes like this..."Mommy do you think I could have a present with a big red bow on it?" I could have melted into a puddle right there in the middle of the store. You know I am going out to buy red bows right now.

Christmas pictures

So...Christmas pictures. Always seems like a good idea at the time. Ellie was a doll, except that she was driving the woman crazy saying "cheese" and making an awful picture face. Matthew was a blubbering mess throughout the entire section. Crying, crying, crying. What is it about pictures? I was seriously considering letting them take his picture in our black and blue graffiti print stroller. The head shots of him here were finally taken while I was draped in the entire black velvet background, holding him, leaning back as far I could to get myself out of the picture. Some of the pictures are so miserable they are actually cute.

Ellie's Words

One of the hazards of having a Daddy who is the director of a school, and a stay-at-home Mommy who used to be a first grade teacher, is that the they are just not going to be able to resist teaching you. We have been working with Ellie for several months now, in little bits here and there, and she is just loving it! She comes running in asking to do reading, and is now finding words in her books and on signs when we are in the car. "Mommy, I see a 'the'!!!" is a common exclamation heard from her these days. She also enjoys being the teacher and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear, "No, I do it!" Matthew get's his little lessons each day too, but his is focused on calling me Mama instead of "this". Dada rolled off his little tongue months ago, but Mama? No such luck. I just get called "this".

Welcome to blogging!

I am officially switching our web presence from our baby website, to this brand new blog. What brought me to this? Well, our "baby" is fourteen months old, neither one of my kids fit in the clothes in the baby sections in stores anymore, we've all been sleeping through the night for over ten months, and bottles are a long forgotten item in our house. It's time to let go of the baby website and graduate to this much more "modern" form of communication. That, and well...perhaps some day we'll have some news that isn't just child related (hmm, doubtful, but possible). And thank you, Lisa, for getting your blog going. You inspired me to finally make the change. So, while this website is for our whole family, just a warning, be prepared for a slew of cute pictures and funny sayings. Please be patient with me while I figure out how to make this shell of a blog into something as cute as the rest of my friends have. I'm new to this blogging thing, so I have to learn all the tricks!